Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 4/20/26: Trump Threatens Iran, Trump Scared Of Being Jimmy Carter 2.0, Israel Humiliates Trump On Ceasefire

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Krystal, Ryan and Emily discuss Trump threatens Iran, Trump fearful of becoming Jimmy Carter, Israel humiliates Trump on ceasefire.    Jose Luis: https://x.com/GranadosCeja    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com   Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends.

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodam. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo.

My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat just hanging. Hang in there. Yeah, it would not be...

Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice in so-ins, correct? I doctored the test ones.

It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the... the same thing. Greg Gillespie and Michael Ranchini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police.

As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, Saga and Crystal here. Independent Media just played a truly massive role in this election, and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else. So if that is something that's important to you, please go to breakingpoints.com, become a member today, and you'll get access to our full shows, unedited, ad-free, and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at breakingpoints.com. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Breaking Points. We got a little bit of an unusual setup here.

Really unusual. Sogare is out, and apparently we needed more than one person to be able to shoulder that load. Unprecedented, I think, right? Yes, it is unprecedented. Yeah, so we've got a little bit of an unusual setup here today. We're all going to do the first block here talking about the Iran war. Then we're going to have a little Crystal and Emily time. Then we're going to bring Ryan back for the later half of the show.

Anyway, we're working out with scheduling. But I want to make sure we're all involved here for the biggest news of the day in terms of what's going on with Iran. Negotiations may be on. They may be off. U.S. suzing and Iranian ship doesn't look good in terms of the escalatory ladder. So we'll break that down. We've also got an inside look at Trump's mentality and his own doubts and concerns about whether he himself is turning into Jimmy Carter. So that's an interesting one. We've got backlash after an IDF soldier desecrates a statue of Jesus. Cash Patel apparently on thin ice and drinking extremely heavily. Zoran and Obama being really adorable with some children. We'll show you that and talk about what it means about the future.

of the Democratic Party. We've got some fake AI war supporters. That obviously is a very dystopian and disturbing trend. And Trump is threatening that Cuba is next. So we will take a look at what is going on there. Let's go ahead and start with the latest with regard to Iran. If we can put A1 up on the screen. So Trump says, Ryan, he's sending Whitkoff and Kushner to Islamabad for round two of Iran peace talks. There was a lot of J.D.E.E.D. Vance was in, he was out, he was in again. I think the final decision is he is not going. There have been a few things read into that. Obviously, J.D. Vance is seen as being somewhat more skeptical of this war. The Iranians felt a little more comfortable negotiating with him

versus Wittn-Koff and Kushner. I also saw it speculated, well, maybe they're not sending J.D. Vance and Trump said it was security concerns because Trump himself wants to potentially make an appearance of some sort of deal is struck and you wouldn't want both of them in the same place. So what do you think about those dynamics and also the Iran's? Iranians have not agreed to go forward with these talks at all. And, you know, it seems less likely now that the U.S. has seized this Iranian ship fired on this Iranian ship as well. So how do you think the Iranians are viewing things at this point? Yeah, the Iranians, they probably will end up sending somebody to this. But as of now, the reporting over the last several days was that, oh, yeah, Iranians are sending a delegation and they're going to meet and maybe even advance will be there. That was not true.

They still, and to this hour, they still have not agreed to send to even send anybody there. Is your sense that the administration was trying to manifest that, that they would go, like publicly ratcheted up the pressure? This is happening. And also, I think a little bit of obliviousness that, like, they can just call the shots that they say like hey we're having coffee at three we're going to talk and everybody just shows up like kind of this residual superpower kind of feeling that you say something mindset too right where it's like oh if I tell my underling that we're having this meaning like obviously they're going to move having to be there and we're still within the 12 14 days of the

ceasefire and both sides do want an agreement so the thing is well they'll show up but then then you have this attack on the ship. Right. And so that, you know, that has thrown a real wildcard. Some in the U.S. government feel like they, that the kind of IRGC baited them into this and that the U.S. took the bait because there's real tension inside the Iranian government. The, you know, IRGC is not a monolithic, but is now, you know, dominated by people who have a more hardline attitude.

and they think they need to extract more pain from the U.S. and Israel, that they're not done, they're not done, you know, beating us up. Whereas you've got some of the kind of civilian leadership that is saying, no, we're never going to have better leverage than we have now. So within that, you know, if they can, you know, it's a similar, you know, similar way that kind of Netanyahu approaches things to just kind of take action and, like, bomb something and just kind of start the war again. So the IRG may have manufactured this incident,

and then the U.S. takes the bait, attacks it. And your sense is that tension is real as not a good, bad cop, kind of a negotiating tax. No, I think it's very real. Because I think that it has been there under the surface for decades, but it was kept down by Comené, who was saying, no, like, we're going to take

a more moderate, pragmatic, diplomatic approach. we're not going ham on these people, and then they all got killed. Let's go ahead and talk a little bit more about that ship. We can go ahead, skip forward to A4, because this is very significant. This is Trump announcing the seizure of this Iranian-flagged ship. Today, an Iranian-flagged cargo ship named Tuska, nearly 900 feet long, weighing almost as much as an aircraft carrier, tried to get past our naval blockade, did not go well for them.

The U.S. Navy-guided missile destroyer USS Bruins intercepted the Tuska in the Gulf of Oman and gave them for fair warning to stop. The Iranian crew refused to listen, so our Navy ships stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room. Right now, U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel. The Tusk is under U.S. treasury sanctions because of their prior history of illegal activity. We have full custody of the ship and are seeing what's on board. Originally, the Iranians had put out a different narrative of what happened here, but at this point, we also have video, and we can put this up on the screen next. this VO that was posted by sentcom of the U.S. ship firing on the Iranian ship.

That's what you can see there on their screen. They've since released this more sort of like montage of the whole operation. So that's what's being put out from the U.S. And reportedly, this ship was there for like six hours and not listening to the U.S. saying you need to turn around. Also reportedly, there were other ships that were able to get through, something like seven other ships that were able to get through this U.S. blockade. So to your point about whether it was kind of like an IRGC setup,

you know, both the fact that, okay, we're going to keep transiting here and we're not going to listen to you and your blockade, and the fact that the warnings were ignored for some number of hours does sort of suggest that that may be the case. Yeah. Well, and that brings us to this drop site post. This is going to be A6, skipping to this one, A6. The blockade itself, and I'm curious given everything you just said, Ryan,

about how this tension is very real. The blockade itself was apparently a huge part of the disagreement on Friday over what had actually happened. Was this a big breakthrough in the negotiations, as Donald Trump had said? He was framing this as historic a great deal. What did you say? A great day for the people of the world, world peace, whatever he said. But in this drop site post, you all highlight reporting that says IRGC-linked Tasneem News agency added, quote, as long as Trump's announcement of a naval blockade remains in effect, there will be no negotiations.

And I'm not curious, given what you said, is it, was there internal disagreement in Iran over the blockade itself? Was the blockade itself seen as a red line to whatever was announced Friday by one side and not the other side? Certainly there were some who wanted to at least message how it was opening up differently. Okay. Arakshi put out a post that was very kind of olive branchy to the Americans saying it's open under our conditions and under our logistics. And I think he posted before Trump, right? Right. And so it was giving Trump an opening to be magnanimous and move towards a final agreement. Now, the way that Arakschi phrased it, it was clear that it still meant the Iranians would charge a toll and that they would be kind of running it.

But it's open. Anybody who wants to go through can go through, you just have to kind of negotiate with us as you're going through. I think the IRGC would have did not like the olive branch kind of nature of it. Okay. They wanted a much harder line. No, no. We like our battlefield victories are going to be manifested by our control of the Strait of Hormuz. Though that's not how he framed it. He gave Trump the opportunity, you know, to be a peacemaker and to be a diplomat. And Trump comes out and says, aha, you know, these suckers surrender. surrendered. And, you know, if they're not, you know, and I am the one that actually is going to close the Strait of Formuz, naval blockade is on,

we're the greatest, we're the hottest country in the world. So that made Arashi look like an idiot, then the IRGC comes out, and they're like, Arachshy was wrong, it's closed, FU, it's ours. Interesting. Because then fast forward 48 hours later, and you have, as you're saying, Ryan, is it even possible that the IRC was kind of baiting the U.S.

into firing on the vessel as it just showed? You know, if they're worn for six hours or whatever, and if they really don't want any conflict with the U.S., then you'd tell the ship, all right, you know what, we're, things are tense, back off, like come back to port. We don't want to really test things here. But if you actually want the U.S. to kind of collapse the ceasefire because you think you need to keep fighting to get a better position, then you would say, you know, keep going. They're not going to mess with you. They let other ships go through, go through. Trump is using truth as his vision board, so it's also like... Yes, and Trump, by doing that and trying to humiliate them, oh, he's surrendered.

What does that do? That strengthens the case of the hardliners to see... We told you. We told you. Every single time. Yes, you have to continue fighting them. We need to go back to the war, and we can put A5B up on the screen. There's now a threat from Iran.

They said that they had launched drones toward U.S. warships following that a attack. We also can put 8-8 up on the screen. This is Professor Mirandi, who we had on the show last week, who is, he's a university of professor, but he also was at the talks in Islamabad. He also was part of the delegation during the JCPOA. And he put this out and he said, leave UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait immediately Iran will retaliate, destroying everything. These regimes are guilty partners in the genocidal Epstein Coalition and won't be forgiven. The rising temperatures in the Persian Gulf will soon make them uninhabitable. And that was a something that he talked about when he was with us on the show. He said, listen, we're talking

about summer around the corner, and the temperatures are truly uninhabitable in, you know, these Gulf Arab states. He's like, in Iran, we might be uncomfortable, but we'll be okay, but you have this vulnerable electrical grid effectively. And so, you know, if you are partnering with the U.S., there are a lot more things we can do. The other thing, obviously, is getting the Houthis, more engaged, and blocking that part, that transit point. That transit point. as well. So they, rather than, you know, when we talked on Friday during the Friday show, it was, okay, this olive branch, and it looks like there's kind of sort of a ceasefire in Lebanon. Trump is saying, okay, we're not, I'm not going to tolerate any more attacks on Lebanon from Israel,

then Trump's own rhetoric and new threats also against the Iranians have sort of destroyed all of that and strengthened the hardliners and made it much more difficult to imagine how they can then even go to these talks, given the escalatory chain that we're now facing. We don't actually even really know who's in charge of Iran. Like, seriously, because the first step of the war was to take out the top of the regime. And that's, if you're just making the case that Trump has waged this war in a, like, rational, logical sense,

I mean, obviously we know Netanyahu's been an influence on him, and Netanyahu wants abject chaos. And what we're seeing right now is clearly abject chaos just as we're trying to read, read the tea leaves from these negotiations. So the idea that Trump is on the cusp of a breakthrough is, it seems laughable. Ryan, you guys at DropSite are, obviously, like Jeremy has that great story as of, what was that last night that it dropped? Yeah.

It seems like it's not at all near the finish line. And imagine if you're the Iranians. So the U.S. trying to figure out who's running Iran. Ron's trying to figure out who runs the U.S. Like, who's in charge for that? Well, it seems like they've decided Netanyahu. runs the U.S. is what they feel like. Yeah. And then who runs Netanyahu? Like, who, like, who is it Kushner and Netanyahu? Is it Whitkoffin? Netanyahu? Netanyahu directly to Trump.

Like, yeah, is, what is Hegg Seth telling Trump? It depends on the time of day for Trump. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter, and on my podcast, 2%. I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more, to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong.

Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world, are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's T-W-O-Persent on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And Rule 2, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist.

I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves.

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lori Siegel, and I'm mostly human. I go beyond the headlines with the people building our future.

This week, an interview with one of the most influential figures in Silicon Valley, Open AI CEO, Sam Altman. I think society is going to decide that creators of AI products bear a tremendous amount of, responsibility to products we put out in the world.

From power to parenthood. Kids, teenagers, I think they won't need a lot of guardrails around AI. This is such a powerful and such a new thing. From addiction to acceleration. The world we live in is a competitive world, and I don't think that's going to stop, even if you did a lot of redistribution. We have a deep desire to excel and be competitive and gain status and be useful to others.

And it's a multiplayer game. What does the man who has extraordinary influence over our lives have to say, about the weight of that responsibility. Find out I'm mostly human. My highest order bit is to not destroy the world with AI. Listen to Mostly Human on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. The Iranians are dealing with Whitkoff and Kushner, because Vance isn't really fully back in yet, who all the reports are from the UK, from everybody else, like had no idea what they were talking about at the last round of negotiations.

And so the Iranians are left to consider, okay, was this? actual ignorance, they were just dumb. Like, they didn't understand nuclear physics. Like, I don't get it. Like, why would they understand it? But did they just forget to bring tactical experts? So this isn't going to be the moment when Ryan reveals his secret past as nuclear physicists. We joke. Right after the finance guy, then nuclear physics. We joke about it, but it really could be true. Definitely not true. I would have to bring a technical expert. So did they forget one? Was it incompetence? or were they just planning to do the war the entire time,

which means that do you trust them more or less this time around? Yeah. Because they're basically asking for the same things that Iran already agreed to in the past. So if you're Iran, how do you make sense of that? Right. And what Mirandi told us, and I don't know if this is PR, if this is their actual thinking, number one, he says, listen, in our view,

every day that this continues is advantage us. Because we can withstand more pain. You know, the ideas that the economic news, gets tighter around the U.S. and the world every day that this goes on and you don't have full flow through the Strait of Formos. And ironically, after Friday, when it looked like, oh, there's going to be, you know, it's open and there's going to be ships. Now it is actually completely closed in a way that it was not previously. So, which is why the oil markets are responding, you know, oil prices are spiking again this morning. And while you're getting blown up.

Futures are down. That's right. That's right as well. We can talk about that in a minute, too. So he said, you know, that's our view is the longer this goes on. And that's part of the the thinking behind going to these negotiations is it basically means like the clock is ticking for Trump. For us, okay, we're not being bombed, but that economic reality is becoming increasingly real. The other thing that he said is, you know, we don't really believe that they're serious about these negotiations. He's like, we didn't believe they were serious last time leading up to this war. We didn't believe they were serious before the 12-day war. We were right about all those things. But we wanted to go to demonstrate that we are operating in good faith and basically

put out a sort of message to the world of like, we're willing to negotiate. We don't want this war. But they suspect, again, this is according to him, they suspect that these negotiations aren't serious and that they are planning to, in P. Hexas' words, reload and go back to war. They also felt, it seems, that J.D. Vance did not have authority last time around to really negotiated. He was constantly on the phone, having to call Trump. They allege calling Netanyahu as well. I don't know if that's true or not. But they felt that that J.D. Mans did not actually even have the authority to be able to negotiate the deal. And then you add to that the fact that you've got the same morons who didn't understand the first, you know, nuclear physics offer that was on the table.

And it doesn't really seem like a recipe for success here. And then when I got from Jeremy's article too, Ryan, is that even though basically the only actual agreement between the two sides is that they would like to find some sort of a deal. But in terms of the terms of that deal, there has been really no progress towards coming to an understanding of what that would look like. And it's very easy to understand why,

because the U.S. is effectively strategically lost this war, but is not willing to accept the humiliating terms that, you know, acknowledgement of that reality would entail. Yeah. Well, it sounds like there's, on both sides, competing factions who have different ends for what that settlement should live.

look like. And Al Jazeera reporting Trump may be seeking, quote, a Gaza peace style framework agreement. So that gets us to this question of, as they're trying to determine whether the negotiations are serious. I mean, the big question is serious about what? Serious about what? Like a vibes style ceasefire? And I kind of feel like that's what, I don't know if Ryan or Crystal, you would describe what we have now in Gaza as a, I'm not trying to downplay it at all, but as like a vibe style agreement, which was the agreement is that we have an agreement. And whatever's beneath the surface, don't worry about it. If the terms are being carried out, don't worry about it.

We're going to keep pushing it. We're going to keep figuring it out as we go. But it's a vibe. The vibe is that we agree. And you can spin things different ways as they happen on the ground. So what is that actually, what are you serious about at the end of the day?

Are you just trying to get a PR win, which is what it seems like Trump wants more than anything? I mean, obviously he wants gas prices to go down. So that's why he's obsessed with the straight and should have been obsessed with the trait right before you launch the war. But yeah, it's like on the Iranian side, there are two competing factions in the U.S.

It's like there are a million competing factions about what is acceptable and a way to end the war because Trump is just waiting to see what he thinks is the right vibe. Yeah, and with the Gaza deal, the Israelis in the U.S. have refused to move to the next phase.

Right. It's supposed to be reconstruction. They haven't allowed in the amount of aid that they're supposed to allow in for it. They claim it requires disarmament of Hamas, even though it's not in there. so they lie about the terms. They don't stop the ceasing of fire.

But the media talks about it as a ceasefire. Thousands of violations of that, quote-unquote, ceasefire. And they arm these militias that they, you know, these gangs that they send in to carry out action on their behalf. But from Trump's perspective, everyone in the press is calling it a ceasefire. Right. But from the Iranian's perspective, they're like, that doesn't look like, oh, what we would agree to at this point. To state the obvious, Hamas and Iran are not equivalent actors. You know, I mean, Iran has real state.

power. Yeah, it seems obvious. It's not clear that we approach it as obvious. Yeah, I mean, Trump certainly doesn't approach it as obvious since he thought this was going to be over in four days. Right. So do you, you know, I don't think there's any possibility that Iran is going to accept some Gaza style approach to be imposed upon them. That's not, that's not reality. And, you know, I think that tension between Arachi and Golibov and some of the other sort of more moderate, hey, let's try to work something out versus the IRGC hardliners. I think that is very significant because it means when they're at the negotiating table, they're under pressure to not cave too much, to hold the line in terms of the demands

that they've been consistently asserting since the beginning of the conflict. And Lindsey Graham is mad at Trump right now, too. He's mad about that Barack Rabr-Ravid report. It's been a long time without war for Lindsay Graham. He's itching. He's ready to move on to Turkey. No, he's upset about the Barack Reveed report about Trump. $20 billion cash-for-uranium deal and saying, you know, I support President Trump's desire to

in the conflict, but any sanctions relief has to be earned by a complete and total acceptance by Iran of President Trump's reasonable demands, which are, and he goes down the list of all of the obvious points, no enrichment period, turning over the 900 pounds of highly-enrich uranium to the U.S., so good luck. And Ryan, what is your sense of, you know, what the Israelis might do? Because they certainly want to go back to war. this is an unacceptable, you know, if there was a deal reached at this point, it would be totally unacceptable to them. What sort of actions might they take to try to undermine any

potential peace deal? I think continuing to fight in Lebanon is probably the thing that works for them because they like to fight in Lebanon. They're trying to seize all of this territory, which, as we've talked about, pushes them up past the control of the gas fields off the coast of Lebanon as well. They're destroying all of the towns and villages. They're claiming that they're going to draw a yellow line similar to Gaza and that this is going to be theirs plus than a buffer zone. Then you have to move people further up to settle the buffer zone. Then you need a buffer zone above the settlement and then on and on and on. So I think they'll continue to do that. And that creates the conditions to restart the war. Though there are a lot of elements within a

Iran are fine with that. So that's not, it's not what Trump wants, but it's not clear how much it matters what Trump wants. Lastly, I've put a 14 guys up on the screen. This is something that you had flagged, Ryan, that this Rosneff's oil depot and export facility in Krosnodar, Kray, Russia, sorry for the terrible pronunciation, currently ablaze with dozens of tanks seen burning as thick black smoke pours in the sky following large-scale drone attack. Ukraine against oil infrastructure across southern Russia. Yeah, this is their Black Sea export facility. So at the same time that the U.S. once again lifted sanctions on Russian oil to try to keep

oil prices down. So the U.S. wants Russian oil on the market to keep oil prices down. At the same time, they're getting their oil infrastructure and their export capacity smashed by Ukraine, which is, you know, that's interesting because it kind of helps Iran. Like that, if the U.S. is to be believed that we want oil prices to be low and that Iran is correct, that higher oil prices, higher gas prices make it harder for us to wage the war, that this doesn't serve us. You never know when you're in August of 1914. Like, you just, you don't until you do.

You never know, and like when you have these two hot conflicts with similar parties involved, it's in the U.S. fighting obviously a proxy war in Ukraine and in Israel via military support for both of those countries. It can pop into something much, much, much bigger at basically any time. What is your sense, Ryan, if you had to guess, are there going to be further negotiations this week? Ceasefire are going to be extended? I would say, yeah. They'll have some talks and they'll extend. I think there'll be another response from Iran related to this ship, but that the U.S., but that it'll be more of like the last year kind of thing, we're going to hit this place. Heads up, we're going to hit this because we have to respond.

Yeah. And then they'll extend it. That kind of requires the IRGC to go along with that kind of strategy, though, doesn't it? It does, but I think, you know, they're, I think the IRC has not, they're not like fully in control and, determined to go back to war. I think there, I think there's a lot of pressure in that direction, but they, but they don't necessarily totally disagree with the leadership that is saying, no, no, there is a chance for a good deal here.

Let's get it. Because then there's up the other condition of what, what if the U.S. takes Joe Kent's advice and just walks away, leave sanctions on, then what? Then they don't get, you know, they don't, then what, then what does Iran do? that point. So it's not obvious. So a lot of them would prefer a deal if it's possible. I think they just think it's not possible. Gotcha. Okay. Well, we will see what the next day is bring. Now, Emily and I are going to talk about Trump's mental state, and Ryan is going to go away for a while. It's returned when we bring the topic of Zoran and Obama back. So Ryan, we'll see you then.

2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also a lot of people who take the stairs when there is also and escalator available. I'm Michael Easter, and on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory.

We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's T-W-O-Persent on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And Rule 2, never mess with her friends either.

We always say that, trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of The Girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care, so they take matters into their own hands. said, oh, hell no, I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves.

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lori Siegel, and I'm mostly human. I go beyond the headlines with the people building our future. This week, an interview with one of the most influential figures in Silicon Valley, OpenAI, CEO, Sam Altman. I think society is going to decide that creators of AI products bear a tremendous amount of responsibility to products we put out in the world. From power to parenthood. Kids, teenagers, I think they won't need a lot of guardrails around AI. This is such a powerful and such a new thing. From addiction to acceleration.

The world we live in is a competitive world. And I don't think that's going to stop. Even if you did a lot of redistribution, you know, we have a deep desire to excel and be competitive and gain status and be useful to others. And it's a multiplayer game. What does the man who has extraordinary influence over our lives have to say about the weight of that responsibility? Find out on Mostly Human. My highest order bit is to not destroy the world with AI. Listen to Mostly Human on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

So let's turn to this very juicy piece from the Wall Street Journal about what's going on internally and what Trump's mindset is to the best that anyone can divine. We'll put this up on the screen. The headline here is behind Trump's public bravado on the war. He grapples with his own fears. The subhead here is the president's impulsive style has never before been tested during a sustained military conflict, ruminating on Jimmy Carter. I like that aspect of it.

Let me reach you a little bit of the lead here, and then I'll get some of Emily's reaction and her understanding of what's going on behind the scenes. It says, it seemed like Donald Trump's appetite for risk had run out. His fears were ramping up. It was good Friday afternoon in a nearly empty West Wing, soon after the president learned an American jet

had been shot down in Iran with two airmen missing. Trump screamed at AIDS for hours. The Europeans aren't helping, he said repeatedly. Gas prices average $4.9.9. Images of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, one of the biggest international policy failures of a presidency in recent times, had been looming large in his mind. If you look at what happened with Jimmy Carter with the helicopters and the hostages, it cost cost them the election, Trump said in March. What a mess. Trump demanded the military, go get them immediately, but the U.S. hadn't been on the ground in Iran since the government overthrew that overthrow that led to the hostage crisis. And they needed to figure out how to get into

treacherous Iranian terrain and avoid Treyron's own military. Aides kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience would not be helpful. Instead, updating him at meaningful moments, a senior administration official said. So we can just start with that. First of all, I mean, just in these opening graphs, Emily, you have him thinking about, oh my God, I'm turning into Jimmy Carter. Like, this could be a total disaster. Of course, he only cares about, like, the political ramifications of that, not like the moral ethical ramifications of what he's doing here.

It's great for you. How so? That's a Jimmy Carter fan that Trump could transmigify it into Jimmy Carter of all people. I would be very happy if Trump was doing a Jimmy Carter presidency right now. It would be vast improvement over what we've actually got. But the other piece here is the military literally having to keep him out of the room because of what a mess he is, that doesn't seem like a great sign either.

No, I mean, it's obviously not. And what's, I'm curious about when Trump won, we got all of these stories constantly about the interior and how his own aides didn't trust him. Well, he doesn't have John Kelly. It's not like he's full, because his advisors right now are potential skeptics of him or people who are just like reluctantly on board

because they think they can steer him. Like, he's surrounded by people who are true believers. True believers. Yeah, absolutely. On a daily basis, he's surrounded by the true believers. So how these stories are getting out is interesting enough. I think they were pretty, there was a pretty quiet occurrence of stories like this in the first year of Trump 2.0. It was not often that you got high-level leaks, especially high-level damaging leaks to this extent. And you can tell these leaks aren't necessarily trying to make Trump look bad. That's what's interesting. Like, they're not trying to take them out. They're just trying to explain what happened. Because at least that's how I'm reading it. Because we keep swinging back and forth wildly from A to B. It obviously makes Trump look bad. But just this weekend is the best example, as we already talked about today, of how we started where we were on Friday with everyone taking their victory lap about Trump making his big announcement.

And then to Monday, it's like night and day, as we predicted on Friday that it would be. Yeah. But I think what people are trying to just do is when reporters call them up, explain how you get from point A to P. to C to D to E to F and then all the way to Z in the span of 48 hours. And it's clearly that Trump is A, negotiating in public, and B, doesn't have an absolute strong, this is what I want to happen type of mindset at the end of the day because he's willing to just sort of make deals. Yeah.

And also, I mean, I don't think this would be surprised to anybody, but, you know, behind all the public bravado because obviously he never shows any doubts about whether his strategy is like, oh, we're going to negotiate today, or, oh, I'm going to murder your entire civilization today. He never displays any sort of, like, personal insecurity about the strategy, even when the strategy is all over the place. But clearly behind the scenes, he's not stupid enough to think this is going well for him from a political perspective. He recognizes there are perils. I read into these leaks, people who want to establish the narrative pretty clearly that this is all this guy, right? Trump is, he is driving the train. He is piloting the aircraft.

He is the guy. And, you know, we're all, it reminds me of the New York Times leaks where you had the TikTok of, you know, basically everybody in the room expressing some kind of concern about the idea of starting this war and Trump deciding to do it anyway and bringing Netanyahu into the situation room and all of that. So to me, that also serves the narrative of like, it really is on the sky so that if you're a Mark of Ruby or you're J.D. Vance and you want some sort of future in politics. Now, I don't think the strategy is going to work.

you can reserve the opportunity to later on be like, a lesson and I told him that it wasn't a great idea. And sure enough, we were vindicated. Let me go ahead and put this next quote up on the screen here to dig a little bit more into this piece. They write in the Wall Street Journal when one advisor, this is about the praise be to a la Easter Sunday tweet. By the way, people, when Crystal reads this,

you could also imagine in your mind as Crystal reads this that someone is talking about a 13-year-old. So load that into your head as Crystal goes. Very true. When one advisor later asked Trump about that tweet, he said he came up with the Allah idea himself. He said he wanted to seem as unstable and insulting as possible, believing it could bring the Iranians to the table,

senior administration officials said it was a language. He said the Iranians would understand, but he was also concerned about the fallout. How's it playing, question mark? So he, you know, I guess his idea is to behave like a lunatic. And, you know, if he is, in fact, just acting like a lunatic, he is doing a convincing job of that because many people, even within this administration are like, maybe he genuinely is a lunatic with the, you know, many truth socials that he's been putting out.

We just had another whole, like, 37 in a small period of time. And a bunch of them were repeat posts where he's just like posting the same thing over. and over and over again. So he does act like a maniac. I will give him that. Well, yeah, and I think actually to your last point, like that is the key. He is acting. And when you see people, like, he's acting for the sake of a negotiation on truth social. And is there, I mean, like, in theory, a way to do that, that in some fantasy utopian world where, you know, you have to go about these negotiations in public in one way that, yes, of course. First of all, that always happens. World leaders are always using the rhetoric as part of negotiations. But secondly,

This reminds me so much of why he did the Kim Jong-un button tweet. He thinks he's speaking the language of an actual crazy leader. And that somehow gives him the upper hand because he's the only other world leader who's willing to talk to them in their own language. But again, the whole idea of cheering for the United States, if you're a MAGA person, is that we're supposed to be better. We're not supposed to be having the civilization that chants death to Iran. We're not supposed to be the people that say death to an entire civilization. And he's just in the course of these mundane negotiations wiping that out with now Iranians who don't even need to be propagandized to say this is what the president of the United States just posted.

You don't even have to take it from state TV that's literally in his words on true social. You don't have to come up with some type of North Korean state TV fabrication. It's right there. Yeah, very hard to moralize about Iranian attacks on civilian infrastructure or even position yourself as like on the moral high ground when the president of the United States is literally threatening to kill an entire civilization. And threatens war.

And now it's just routine that he threatens overt war crimes on a daily basis. Him, Pete Hagsets, et cetera, that's just part of their approach here. And so, look, it's one thing if you're like using hardball tactics and some sort of a development deal. But the words of a president, even this president, they are consequential. Yes. You know, now you have normalized the idea of us overtly threatening genocide.

Yes. And acting like that is fine. And, you know, and insulting religion here, you know, and we have, you know, millions of Muslims who live in this country. I'm referring to the, like, praise be it to Allah tweet. And the more you frame this war as some sort of religious blood feud, the less likely you are to be able to get out of it, which is why it's so troubling,

you know, from the Israeli side, from the U.S., all of the insertion of all this religious language and use of religious imagery into, you know, what is a political dispute is, I think, a really, really troubling development in this, too. It's, I mean, it's obviously for Trump, who is not really religious, just a tool of manipulation. That's what he's trying to do in the praise be to a law tweet. And it hits everyone the wrong way. I mean, it's literally not landing with anyone, except for online MAGA, who equated it to him, like his own explanation here,

which is that he's just speaking their language. I was like, oh, wow, that must be really difficult to do. Brilliant, like, pat on the back. You're Henry Kissinger, like, well done. Yeah. It's also stupid, but it explains how on Friday, he has this victory post. And then by Monday, it's all falling apart.

we had to shut down the engines on an Iranian vessel and take it over, which could have gone so badly for us. Every second we're still in this, we could be looking at losing dozens of soldiers and something like that. I hope that isn't the case, but it could happen at any moment. And Trump seems to be, I wonder if some of this is driven by him knowing how fragile the situation is now for him. that it's much easier to start a war than get out of the war, which is what everybody was saying when it happened, but now it's reality for him, and it should have always been reality for him.

But by every minute, this could turn into a catastrophe, and especially, especially when you're posting as negotiations in these insane rhetorical flourishes that people don't know whether they're supposed to take seriously or not, which is his point. So he just takes that one step further. He wants people to take him seriously. Like you said, this is consequential rhetoric.

That's the point of the rhetoric from his perspective. So what does that mean long term? I was thinking of this morning, he's trying to write the history as he goes. So he gets this beautiful ceasefire Friday. He bullies the Iranians into, you know, they have no cards, everything's good, straight's open, they've basically capitulated. He's doing public relations for history in real time. And by doing so, let's put A12 up on the screen

because this is treat to Parsley's analysis, which I think really speaks to what Emily was just saying there. In doing so, with all of his bluster, he is actually undercutting the negotiations that he himself desperately wants to succeed. So what Dr. Parsi says here is to understand how Trump is undermining his own diplomacy by quickly declaring victory and trying to humiliate Iran whenever Tehran takes a de-escalatory step, it's instructive to remember what happened when Iran and the GCC had negotiated new guardrails for the war. that was early on when there were some strikes against the GCC. There was a moment where it appeared there was going to an agreement between GCC member states and Iran, okay, we're not going to attack each other. And then Trump undercut that and said, oh, Iran's surrendering and his triumphalist rhetoric humiliated them.

And they walked away. So what Trita goes on to say is, in short, Iran and the GCC, where in the process of agreeing to a deal that would see the end of Iranian attacks on the GCC, as long as their territory ceased being used for attacks on Iran. Tehran would first message steps in that direction, followed by GCC reciprocity. But before the GCC got a chance to respond, Trump declared victory on true social, insulted and humiliated Iran, even issued further threats of complete destruction. On top of that, U.S. Israel also attacked a water desalination plant at Keshem Island. Needless to say, this sabotage the sensitive de-escalation talks and a promising opening was destroyed.

Trump's need for the optics of victory, Trump's, what should be far more important in vansely. U.S. interests by ending this war and reaching a longer-term deal with Tehran. It appears the same phenomenon occurred in the past few days. When the Iranians, in a very vague tweet, declared the street as open as a de-escalatory step, in their terminology has never been closed, though. Tehran is only determining who can pass and who cannot while charging tolls, Trump failed to reciprocate and instead could not resist the temptation to declare victory and insults the Iranians.

What was designed to become the beginning of a mutual off-ramp was instead turned by Trump into an escalatory ladder, resulting in additional threats by him this morning to knock out every single power plant, every single bridge in Iran. Trump's lack of discipline and focus and his infantile prioritization of optics over reality are becoming significant obstacles to him achieving his own goals, exiting the war, and striking a strong deal with Tehran. This is not art of the deal. It's art of the self-sabotage. So whenever there's sort of a tentative step taken by Tehran, in the direction of, okay, let's de-escalate, let's get back to the table, or let's have some sort of step where, rather than right up the escalatory ladder, let's take a step back.

Trump has to go in and tweet something insane and threaten them more and humiliate them and declare, oh my God, see, they're surrendering, blah, blah, blah. And so, of course, they're like, okay, we'll screw you. We're going to go right back to it. And that's kind of where we find ourselves now, where I think it was looking very plausible, especially with the sort of ceasefire in Lebanon, that gave Iran enough cover their negotiators who were under a lot of pressure, by the way, from the IRGC,

to not come to some sort of deal at this point, that gave them enough cover to say basically like, look, this was our demand. They met our demand to get back to the negotiating table. And now that is all very much up in the air and very much in doubt. Right. And the point that Dr. Parsi makes about optics versus reality is so interesting to me.

And I'm not trying to armchair psychologist, Trump, and I don't think you actually have to to understand. I mean, he puts this in art of the deal. He believes that optics are, and we all know this is true, but like he looks at optics and reality as being blurred together, that what you project optically is more likely to become reality if you project it that way. But at the same time, then, he's doing the wipeout civilization tweets, right? So it's like, it's what he's putting out is a huge part of an insight into his mind. insight into his mind, but he's obviously trying to project victory. He immediately, as after the war started, said we had won. He says it constantly, he said it would be four to five weeks. Then he's

like, oh, 68 weeks. First of it was a couple days. He keeps going. And it's, I think, because he has to keep moving his own goalposts, but he's still trying to project victory because he thinks that gets him closer to it. And he thinks that it, the public relations are the substance, that you can, you can manifest the substance with your public relations. Yeah. And that only go so far. I mean, it's not ridiculous. There are obviously times that there's, there's some merit to that, but obviously not right now. Yeah. No, I think it's worked for him in most of his life. You know, I think this is the lesson he's learned from his life. One of the most revealing things that I saw reported is when Tucker Carlson was expressing concerns to him, he was like, don't worry,

it'll be fine. And Tucker was like, well, how do you know that? And Trump goes, because it always is. It always is. It always is. But you get to a point, like you can't, you know, you can't envision your way or BS your way or propagandize your way into millions more barrels of oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz. At some point, there is a hard reality. And I think the Iranians also, you know, we came in totally arrogant, did not think of it. about their perspective at all, did not plan for, okay, what will their response be, did not assume any level of strategic planning or rationality on their part, overestimated our own capabilities, underestimated the strength of their government and how resilient it would

ultimately be, how much these actions would actually strengthen the Iranian government. Meanwhile, they've been studying us closely. All you need to do is look at the, like, very culturally in-tune Lego propaganda videos to know that they understand, they understand the way the American people think, they understand the way that Trump thinks the way he operates. And so when he throws out all of these insane praise be at all, and we're going to destroy your civilization and whatever, it reads, I think, more desperate than it does actually threatening. Because at this point, we've seen the possibilities of, you know, huge destruction from the U.S. military, but also the limitations. And one of those

limitations is certainly political. We've put A-13 up on the screen, you know, new polling about the lack of support for this war. So you've got 61% of U.S. adults who oppose any further military action in Iran, including 74% of Americans under 30. Wow. 23% support considering all options, including ground forces, and 16% back air strikes only. So if you're talking about, you know, if we go back to war, you know, total war with Iran, what is very likely to happen next would be some sort of ground invasion because we've seen the limits of air strikes only that's not going to get Trump to whatever victory narrative he needs to be able to sell. And so if you're talking about support for ground forces, less than a quarter, I mean, that's smaller than the MAGA base, 23% who are open to ground forces. So the political landscape is also a huge limiting factor for him, especially as gas prices continue to be a problem. This morning, you know, oil is gone back up because of all of this mess and the fact that the straightforward form is actually now completely closed in a way that it actually wasn't before. Stock market futures are down, all of that.

So, you know, those are metrics he pays attention to and continue to put pressure on him to find some way to bring this mess to an end. Yeah, and it's so similar to, again, what was happening with the tariffs last year, where he's trying to just will reality into existence rhetorically. And for the public, now, what they've heard is so, like, it's your point about it coming across as desperate. That's actually what I felt like on Friday when he put out that aggressively victorious post that we keep referencing. It was so, it was so aggressively victorious that it seemed like something was deeply wrong. Yeah. Because it seemed like he was trying to make something better, that he was trying to, what's the thing? the right word. He was trying to

I don't know what the right word is here. He was trying to make something something really bad look really good, which he always tries to do. But in this case, it was just glaring. And I think that's what turned out to happen over the weekend, unfortunately, because obviously the Iranians went right back by the end of the day. So if you're the American public and you're watching this and you hear it's going to be over quickly. Mineral casualties, we have 13 dead Americans.

many injuries. We are in week eight, if I'm counting correctly, started February 28th. It's now April 20th, so coming up on two months. And what you've heard the president say is that we've won. You've heard him say, it's going to take a few more weeks to win. You've heard him say, we just need to keep doing this for another couple weeks. And you've heard him say... That was several weeks ago, by the way. Yeah, exactly. And so even if you were supportive of this at the beginning, your patience might be running thin. And that's even more disastrous for Trump, as gasp, prices go up here in the U.S., and then the higher gas prices start to affect the cost of everything. Everything.

We haven't even seen the worst of that, like, at all yet. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter, and on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other. other health and fitness experts, and more, to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inherently

inflammatory. We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's T-W-O-Persent on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl.

You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends, I'm Anna Sinfield and in this new season of The Girlfriends Oh my God, this is the same man A group of women discover They've all dated the same prolific con artist

I felt like I got hit by a truck I thought how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care So they take matters into their own hands I said, oh hell no I vowed I will be his last target He's going to get what he deserves Listen to the Girlfriends

Trust me babe on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lori Siegel, and I'm mostly human. I go beyond the headlines with the people building our future. This week, an interview with one of the most influential figures in Silicon Valley, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. I think society is going to decide that creators of AI products bear a tremendous amount of responsibility to products we put out in the world.

From power to parenthood. Kids, teenagers, I think they will need a lot of guardrails around AI. This is such a powerful and such a new thing. From addiction to acceleration. The world we live in is a competitive world, and I don't think that's going to stop, even if you did a lot of redistribution. We have a deep desire to excel and be competitive and gain status and be useful to others. And it's a multiplayer game. What does the man who has extraordinary influence over our lives have to say about the weight of that responsibility? Find out I'm mostly human. My highest order bit is to not destroy the world with AI.

Listen to Mostly Human on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Let's go ahead and move to what the Israelis are up to in all of this, because obviously a very important factor, for better and mostly for worse, is what the Israelis are thinking in the way that they definitely do not want the war to be over right now. So Trump last week was able to secure this sort of ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. This was one of the Iranian demands. They said we are not leaving Lebanon behind. If we're going to come back to the negotiating table, the bombing, the destruction, Lebanon has to stop. So that was one of the things that looked promising was Trump was able to secure this agreement between Israel and Lebanon. Okay, we're going to, I think the words that he originally used, they're going to be more low-key.

So I think that was actually kind of the appropriate terminology because we can put B1 up on the screen almost immediately after this, quote-unquote, ceasefire. announced and Trump actually posted on true social that Israel is quote prohibited from bombing Lebanon. Israel then went ahead and launched a drone strike in South Lebanon killing someone on a motorcycle. This is the Al Jazeera posting Israeli drone strike kills one in Lebanon and Dave DeKamp who's a great you know libertarian think or anti-war thinker definitely someone who's worth a follow in any case Al Jazeera says the civil defense in southern Lebanon is told Al Jazeera that one person was killed when Israeli drone targeted motorcycle. So almost as soon as Trump says, this is prohibited,

Israel goes ahead and continues with their murder campaign in Lebanon. Let's go ahead and put B2 up on the screen. You can see some of the images of the bombardment in Lebanon. I mean, you've seen, I mean, this level of destruction is just really truly unbelievable. Just imagine. Just imagine this is your home. Imagine this is your neighborhood. You're going to tell me these are all Hezbollah targets that this was all chalkful of Hezbole? No, we know it's not. And in fact, if we can put the Barack Ravid tweet up on the screen, I think it's worth you. Look, Barack Ravid is himself, former IDF. You know, I think he's been fairly sympathetic to the Israeli perspective. And he says here, the IDF continues to destroy buildings and villages in southern Lebanon

during the ceasefire. Commanders in the Army testified in a conversation with at Yanni V. Kube, that systematic destruction of civilian buildings is being carried out in villages where the forces operate, including near the border with Israel. According to the commander, civilian contractors receive daily pay or are compensated based on the number of buildings destroyed similar to what happened in the Gaza Strip. The activity is characterized by the widespread demolition of homes, public buildings, and even educational institutions in the IDF, this policy is referred to as the money plow. And this is from the Hebrew language version of Haretz. So this is what's going on right now during the ceasefire, the quote-unquote money plow. And he really started

he started going back and forth with some people on Twitter over the vote that happened in the Senate last week to block the shipment of these armored bulldozers to Israel. This was something that was led by Bernie Sanders. Forty Democrats voted to block those bulldozers, you know, being sent to Israel. And you had Mark Dubowitz in particular who was like, oh, you're putting, you know, Israeli civilians at risk, blah, blah, blah. And Barack Ravid really went in and said, this is what these bulldozers are actually used for. And this is one perfect example of what they're doing, which is total and complete destruction and not of, you know, targeted military infrastructure. No, this is mass raising and demolition of entire villages.

And, you know, the money plow, cash for destruction. And Trump also told Barack Ravid they were on the phone yesterday. No surprise. quote, the concept of the deal is done. I think we have a very good chance to get it completed. So we're back to concepts of a plan. Like almost exactly. How that concept of a health care plan go.

Concepts of a plan can never go wrong. I mean, it's just completely, this is, I was too young during the Iraq war to be like following the daily news. It's remarkable to have the benefit of hindsight in Iraq and watch so many of the same errors play out in real time while people are calling it out in real time. And that's one of the differences with Iraq, obviously, is that the country...

There were some really brave lone voices out who were warning and presciently. You know, Barbara Lee, if you go back and look at what Barbara Lee said when she did not vote for the war. I mean, that aged really well in very specific ways. But at the time, everyone was consolidating around the Bush administration or support was consolidating around the Bush administration. This time you're watching people say in real time, this is a mistake, here's why it's a mistake.

And then within 48 hours, abundant evidence of that playing out. Yeah. I mean, it's really remarkable. Well, in Israel is like a toddler always trying to test the limits of what they can get away with, you know. And so when Trump comes out and says any sort of firing on Lebanon is prohibited, prohibited, right? So it's very clear. All caps. Not like, you can do a little bit of, you know, continue a little, there's a little bit of drone strike, a little bit of bulldozing entire villages. No, prohibited. And then Israel instantly is like, well, let me see, let me see what I can get away with. And look, Trump, like Biden before him, it's like basically you can get away with whatever, apparently. And again, very important to keep in mind, there is zero doubt that Netanyahu and the Israeli public want to go back to war. Because currently, if it ends how it is right now,

utter disaster for Israel, utter disaster for Netanyahu and his political prospects. He's again had his trial delayed because they're still at war because they're always at war because that's his only strategy for ever doing anything is one war bombing campaign away from, you know, total peace and victory, et cetera, et cetera. So they will continue to try to undermine in any way they can. And what we saw from the early decision to go to war is that Trump really believes them. He really trusts. He trusted their intel and their military assessment over our own intelligence and military assessment. So that's why it's very important to keep our eye on that. At the same time, I wanted to highlight this became a major scandal for the Israelis.

Put this image up on the screen, B3, of this statue of Jesus that is being desecrated here. You can see an IDF soldier has toppled this statue. It's on the ground. And then smashing the head of Jesus with a mallet. And then this gets posted, which shows you, Again, they, you know, they see this as this is part of what we're here for. This, you know, sparked massive backlash. Of course, this went super viral. And we got a response from the IDF. First of all, I mean, most important thing here is they verified it.

Because I will say, when I saw this, I was like, is this real or is this AI? Yeah. Because it's too much on the nose. Right. Right. So, no, they verified. This is real. This is an actual thing that happened.

This is the IDF's response. And Netanyahu put down a response himself. but in any case, they said, following the completion of an initial examination regarding a photograph published earlier today of an IDF soldier harming a Christian symbol, it was determined the photograph depicts an IDF soldier operating in southern Lebanon. The IDF views the incident with great severity and emphasizes the soldier's conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops. Oh, really, is it? The incident is being investigated by the Northern Command is currently being addressed through the chain of command. Appropriate measures will be taken against those involved

in accordance with the findings. Furthermore, the IDF is working to assist the community in restoring the statute to its place. The IDF is operating to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure established by Hezbole and southern Lebanon has no intention of harming civilian infrastructure, including religious buildings or religious symbols. Square that last part with the reporting from Heretz, you know, relayed by Barack Ravid, about the way that they are doing the money plow and destroying entire villages, not just quote-unquote military infrastructure. And then, of course, you know, throughout the campaign, bombing campaign in Gaza, genocide in Gaza, obviously they were attacking churches.

They were attacking so many mosques. And Benjamin Netanyahu had the gall to come out and say, oh, Israel respects religious freedom. And, you know, we believe in everybody's ability to worship how they want. It's just nonsense when you look at their overall behavior. It's just this one sparked a backlash that was strong enough. And because it was Christian and not Muslim, and they felt this administration might be sensitive to it.

They had to at least say something to pretend like they care. Yeah. And the Christian perspective on this, you know, what this can't undo them apologizing and investigating it. I mean, there's a lot of can't undo, but it's not going to bring back dead Christians in Lebanon after all of this is done.

And when you have public opinion tanking with regard to Israel in the United States, particularly on the right, you can't undo what happened in that picture in their minds. You know, you can apologize, you can investigate it, but obviously here you have a soldier in the IDF who not only yanked Christ off the cross, it appears, or maybe that was done by munitions, something to that extent, but you then have someone

taking a sledgehammer to the face of Christ. So that image won't go away. You can investigate it, you can apologize. And I'm glad, by the way, I think it actually is important that Netanyahu and the government is investigating it and that they have apologized for it. I think they apologize for it because they're very concerned about public support in the United States cratering, and they're doing everything in their power to make that problem worse by the day. And I don't even think they're intentionally trying to make it worse. I think they're actually trying to rescue it and they're going about it in all the wrong ways. So this is the worst possible image to come out. And it's not just a symbol. It's a symbol of something. It's not just a symbol of nothing.

It's a symbol of something real, which is that Christians are being killed in Lebanon and the American media barely ever talks about it. Obviously, lots of people are being killed in Lebanon, including many Muslims. So people should care about that. period. But United States is a very heavily Christian country. So Christians are now hearing from voices in the media who are anti-war about something that I don't think a lot of Christians understood was happening, especially that a Christian conservatives understood was happening in places like Iraq and in the course of the war on terror. And so this picture could not possibly have come out at a worse time. And it could not possibly be something that's more profound.

in the moral conscious of a lot of Americans who are now reevaluating our foreign policy. Yeah, I mean, Israel counts basically on Americans to be Islamophobic and for us to not pay attention to the fact that it's also Christians who are under attack and assault by Israel and having their symbols and their lives taken by Israel. We know that's part of their strategy is basically

like to spark Islamophobia and hope that that allows, you know, people, allows them to get away with the horrors and the crimes and continue the support from within the U.S. And so that's why they see this as a particular problem because they're like, oh, we don't think we can convince Americans that these like Christians and their symbols are scary and weird, you know, it will hit closer to home. And so that's why it's an issue. But, you know, in terms of their, oh, our respect for religious liberty and tolerance and our Western values, blah, blah, blah, I mean, this is the same government that was warning Christians and others in the region not to hide Shia Muslims.

I mean, they're just completely blatant about how they want to completely ethnically cleanse and eliminate any threat from any Muslims that are in this part of southern Lebanon. So meanwhile, though, let's go ahead and put B4 up on the screen. Trump going out of his way, even after Israel, you know, immediately defies the prohibition, on doing anything in Lebanon. He says, whether people like Israel or not, they have proven to be a great ally of the United States of America, Emily.

They're courageous, bold, loyal, and smart, and unlike others, they've shown their true colors in a moment of conflict and stress, Israel fights hard and knows how to win. Who wrote that for him? I mean, he doesn't need anybody to write it for him, but it almost reads like somebody trying to put Trump's voice into it.

There's a lot of suspects for who might have written this, you know, pro-Israel post within this administration. Again, he doesn't need anybody to write that for him. He's proven that he is sincerely with Netanyahu and Lindsay Graham for this cause. He's proven that over and over again. Now, he's a little bit more willing to be publicly, like, joust a little bit more. Do a little public pushback with the prohibition tweet. Yeah. Totally. Yes, the prohibition tweet in all caps. That was just about offensive operations, which you can read between lines on that as soon as it came out.

It was still, I think, kind of a landmark type of thing for U.S. President to say, but it was Trump. So, again, he's trying to say something to create a reality that's not always, like, replicated on the ground. And, yeah, it's, of course, whenever you see these aggressive Trump posts, you know something else is happening under the surface because he's trying to project a public relations image against something else. Yeah. And lastly, let's take a look at the Western values of our great ally and wonderful friend Israel that knows how to fight and how to win. This is, this reporting has been building for some time. That rolls off the tongue, by the way, Chris. What does?

America's greatest ally that knows how to fight and knows how to win. You just rattled it off. It's their new name. Yeah. That's how I feel about them. All right. So this reporting has been building for a while, but it's one of those things that's too horrible to really, like when you first hear it. You're like, I can't wrap my head around this being a real thing.

But at this point, it's fairly undeniable. You have instances, documented instances of Israelis using dogs to rape Palestinian inmates. Let's go ahead and put this up on the screen. This is from Al Jazeera. I'll read the subheads here. They say they came and took one of the other men. They beat him. After they beat him, they forced him to the ground on his belly.

They tied his hands and tied his feet. There were about eight or nine soldiers. They stripped him of his underpants. A captain came and sprayed something on his backside. There was a dog there. They unleashed the dog on him. The dog raped the young man. It raped him, literally speaking, rape.

So this is, I don't even know, it horrifies me that there's a mind that could come up with something so disgusting and depraved. But, you know, this is the reality. And it's one of those things where, you know, you literally couldn't make up this level of evil. And this was in, you know, a prison that's known for torture. this is the prison that was the scene of the right to rape protests, where there was video of IDF soldiers surrounding Palestinian and sort of shielding the video, but that Palestinian ended up with horrific injuries consistent with, you know, his account of being raped with a metal rod. And, you know, this is the type of thing that goes on here.

And because it's predominantly Muslims, it gets very little attention here in the U.S. It gets very little pushback. We haven't had Netanyahu coming out and apologizing, their idea of coming out and apologizing, even though the reporting has built to a point where it's undeniable at this point. I was going to say, I mean, I think some of it is so horrific that the average American doesn't believe it or doesn't want to believe it. Yeah, I understand that. Yeah. And I think American media is, I mean, I don't know, Chris, I'm curious what you think of this.

I think American media is hesitant to even get into it. And that's part of the way these things metastasize and happen, is that when you create this mannequin dichotomy that ostracizes everybody who disagrees with you as necessarily anti-Semitic, you're categorizing all of your critics as anti-Semitic, then this is what happens internally. It creates a really dangerous culture

because all of your critics have been labeled as bad people and bigots. And so it just, I mean, this has been a problem for a long time, but this is just one example of like, how could something in a country with these purportedly Western values that is an ally of the United States, how could something so depraved happen? You have a mountain of reporting in the year 2026, people, the mind reels. And I really think it's because it's a culture

that just has purged dissenters as anti-sense. or self-hating Jews or anything of the like. And that creates a really, really dangerous environment. They built up all these rationalizations of, oh, you know, this is propaganda. Can, you know, Israel has all these enemies and they're always looking to get them and lie about them and blood libel, et cetera. And so, you know, for people who are still trying to run cover for Israel, you just, I think they just either don't care or just assume that, oh,

it must be a lie. And then, you know, at its core, I think there's the real evil is this supremacist ideology that effectively says, because we're the good guys and they're the bad guys, anything we do, anything we do is justified in that fight. That's really the core of, you know, what is a genuinely evil ideology, which ends in horrors like this and all sorts of other horrors besides. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific. con artist. They take matters into their own hands. I vowed, I will be his last target.

He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wood. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.

It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to thanks dad on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcast. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd

was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg, a lesbian, Michael Mancini.

My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is love trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to LoveTraft podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.