DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - With a Victory Like This... | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• In his first major speech about his war, Trump said U.S. military objectives were “nearing completion” in Iran, and repeated that it would end “shortly” without offering a timeline. He said that there would be more strikes on Iran and that in the next two to three weeks, “we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages.” There were more questions than answers.• Trump repeated his call for other nations to help secure the Strait of Hormuz.• A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of the Trump administration's argument against birthright citizenship.JOIN US LIVE ON RUMBLEhttps://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowFOLLOW TED:https://rall.com/https://x.com/tedrallFOLLOW JOHN:https://www.instagram.com/realjohnkiriakouhttps://x.com/JohnKiriakouLISTEN ON SPOTIFY:https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuLISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall

Good morning. It's Thursday, April 2nd. You're watching the program with Ted Rall and John Kirooku. Good morning, John. Good morning, Ted. How you doing? Pretty good. Let's talk. So let's go over what we're talking about today. John, did you have a chance to catch the president's speech last night? I'm sorry to say that I did. It wasn't exactly, you know, I mean, look, I didn't expect much and I got less than I expected. You know, I'm trying to get a pardon. I'm trying really hard to thread this needle, right? But literally every word out of the man's mouth last night was a lie. That's all there was to it. Literally everything he said was a lie. And then saying that he's going to bomb the electrical grid, that's a war crime. You cannot bomb infrastructure.

So he's announcing in advance. that he's committing a war crime. I just don't understand it at all. You know, assuming that, yeah, assuming that this isn't just like bluster for the Iranians, I suspect strongly that, you know, he's not done,

he's not really pulling out in two or three weeks. This is all just misdirection. And I think, you know, we're going in with ground troops. Yeah, that's what it looks like. We're going to go in with ground troops. And, you know, is you going to be able to

tell people that their sons were killed for Israel and they should be okay with that? Well, so, John, this was a scripted speech where he went, one of those scripted speeches where the president then, like, had his little meandering, nobody's ever seen such, you know, nobody thought it was possible kind of diadrives. Yeah. Yeah, we've seen over and over again. John, this seemed to be like, you know, one of the presidents do or die, make it or break it moments. And it doesn't seem like it was taken very seriously, you know, in terms of the

final product is seriously lacking, right? I mean, what happens here internally in the White House? I mean, was the original speechwriter not very good? Or did they not have enough freedom of action with the president looking over their shoulder? Or is it just Trump's impossible to work for? Or is it all Trump's fault? Like, what's going on? I keep coming back to this comment that he made a few weeks ago in which a reporter asked him who his advisors were. And he said that he didn't have any advisors, that he simply went with whatever was in his gut. And I think that's exceedingly dangerous. I'm sure that it's true. I'm sure that he does just go with his gut, but that's exceedingly dangerous. And I think that he believes or wants to believe what Benjamin Netanyahu has

told him about Iran, even though it's demonstrably false. And he's just going with it. That's the bottom line. He's just going with it. And the American people are just going to have to either, you know, accept it or walk away. It's, I mean, but the thing is the American people have already made very clear that they don't accept it. I mean, the approval rating for the president himself is at a record low. The approval rating for the war is basically,

roughly less than one out of three, maybe closer to one out of four voters. A lot of Republicans don't like this war and are worried about it. It just seems to me like this is a no-win situation for the president. I don't know how it, I mean, I just don't, it just seems so poorly thought out. It seems so impulsive. It's a little bit breathtaking. Well, you know, he said something to yesterday offhand. that was so patently offensive. I can't believe people didn't jump up and down.

He said, people are going to have to get used to high gas prices. If they don't like it, tough luck. It's like, that's not what you said at the State of the Union just five weeks ago when you were bragging about the price of gas and how it had never been lower, never been lower. And I mean, this is exactly what the Republicans ran on against first Joe Biden and then Kamala Harris was the price of gas. Okay, now the price of gas is as high, almost as high as it was at any point in the Biden administration.

What are you going to do about it? Because it's not just gas prices. Gas prices lead to higher transportation costs, which lead to higher food prices and things for everything from, you know, roofing tiles to bottles of water. It's everything. Everything goes up.

Yeah, well, for sure. And the thing is it's not going to come down quickly. I mean, and that's said, though, there wasn't like a lot of reassurance to the American people, right? Like I was expecting to hear something along the line. So yes, I see you. I know that the prices have gone up. You know, I see the gas prices as I drive around Washington.

And I know it's a problem. But don't worry. It's not going to stay up for very long. The war is going to come to a conclusion. We're going to reopen the straight. Prices will come down. It might take a few months. But in the long run, we're all going to be better off.

That's the message that America. Americans would expect to hear from their president, but they didn't. It was basically like, suck it up, Buttercup. Yeah, that's it. That's what it came down to. It's really this, I mean, I published the column I was talking about yesterday, T's yesterday, about, you know, fascism. You know, if people who studied, I studied fascism under Robert O. Paxton, the author at Columbia of the anatomy of fascism, which I would encourage anyone to read. It's the most useful book ever written on the topic in the English language. Paxton always talks about how war is sort of the inevitable result culmination of fascism

because of all the hostile, hyper-masculine, aggressive rhetoric. You have to ultimately break something. But in the end, war destroys the fascist regime in the end, right? Like it certainly, you know, Hitler probably only wanted a quick invasion of Poland and just didn't expect a two-front war that was going to grind up Europe and North Africa. And, you know, but that destroyed him. It destroyed Germany. You know, it just seems like this will destroy whether Trump is fascist or not.

This will certainly destroy politically his administration is needed. Yeah, I agree. This is going to be a serious problem. And this is another interesting thing to me, Ted, is that it seems like he genuinely doesn't give a shit about Republican prospects in the midterm election. No, he doesn't care. It's true. It's true. By the way, politically, by the way, it's a good thing that we have Achilles Larea, a friend of the show, is going to be coming on at the bottom of the hour to talk about the economic impact of the war. So that'll be, I'm looking

forward to hearing him talk about that. He's a Larea wealth management. We've had him on before. But yeah, he doesn't care. John, we have a few leftover questions from yesterday. today's Q&A show. Should we get to those? Okay. Sure thing. Manchild, thanks for the donation. Since Trump has effectively torched America's global reputation, is the damage to our alliance is now permanent, or is there actually a way back? Well, that's actually a harder question than it sounds like. So long as, so long as J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio aren't elected president, I think there's a way back. This is tough because,

because how should I vocalize this? Leaders of the NATO countries are tired of being pushed around. They're tired of being bullied. They're tired of waking up in the morning and wondering if Donald Trump is going to be nice to them that day. And I'm afraid that the next president,

whoever he had, happen to he or she happens to be, the next president is going to say, well, everything's fine now with NATO, Trump's not president anymore. And then the NATO countries say, not so fast. We're tired of being shat on like this. We're not sure we want you guys in NATO anymore. If you're threatening to withdraw from NATO, then withdraw from fucking NATO. We don't even care anymore. That's what I'm worried about. Well, could NATO? Can NATO, I guess NATO could continue without the U.S., but it would be a very different animal. The U.S. was the founder, it was the U.S.'s idea. It was, U.S. was the founding member.

It would be like the U.N. without the U.S. Yes, that's exactly right. I mean, I think there's a way, to answer that question, I do think there's a way back. But, you know, basically, it's, you know, trust is broken in a second, and it takes a long time to build it back. And at this point, you know, the, you know, the allies feel very mistreated. And it would take a new president to say, listen, it's different now. But then, of course, the problem for them is how do we know it's different for you with you now. How do we know we don't get another Donald Trump?

And the answer is you don't know that. Yeah, you don't know that. That's right. This is, thanks for the $20. Hey, John, love your show and get a lot out of it. I'm a conservative when it comes to being pro-life. Can you give me a little background about what influences your perspective on abortion, both in your faith and political values? I've struggled with this all my adult life.

I am a practicing Greek Orthodox Christian, and abortion is forbidden in the Greek Orthodox Church. With that said, the position of the church is, that while it is forbidden, it's between, you know, the woman and her conscience, really. So there are priests who would say, oh, you're going to burn in the fires of hell. There are other priests who say, all right, well, you know, you're forgiven. And then it's done.

For me personally, I've always thought abortion is a terrible thing. for me, but it's not up to me to judge other people and their decisions. I personally have always struggled with the notion that life begins at conception. I don't think it does. And everybody is free to disagree with me and condemn me and do whatever you want. But I just always felt that this was just an issue that wasn't up to me. And so, you know, I always thought if you don't, if you're against abortion, then don't get an abortion. But it shouldn't be up to you if the person next to you wants an abortion.

That's always been my personal position. Yeah, mine's a little different. But well, but the question was for you and we have a lot more questions. No, I'd like to hear it, actually. Oh, I actually do think life begins at conception. And I think that women should need and have to have the right to. murder their unborn babies. It's unfortunately, and I think I would go further and say abortion should almost be sort of culturally, if not legally, but culturally mandatory for kids. Like, you know,

you're 15, you get knocked up. You really shouldn't become a mom. You're too young. But I think that it's a horrible tragedy. It is murder. And I think it sucks, but that women have to have the ability to control their bodies for practical. reasons. And it really, for me, it just, it comes down to that. It's sort of like, you know, I mean, I could make an analogy that would sound like, you know, like I'm making light of the death of a child. I don't want to do that. But anyway, that's where I'm, that's where I'm at. Mustafa, thanks for the 499. Mr. Ted, what is your favorite Afghan dish? Are you a dumpling guy? Where does Montu rank among the world's dumplings? I love dumplings. I love dumplings. I love

dumplings too. My favorite are soup or pork dumplings. Chinese ones are my favorites. But I do. I do like Mantu a lot. But you know, give me a really good strong Shashlik. And I'm a happy now. Oh my God, yes. I went to a Turkish restaurant last night. And it was like Turkish, Turkish, where there was this gigantic billboard photograph of Istanbul on the wall. And then above the cash register was a giant framed portrait of Mustafa Kamau Aditurk. But I had dumplings. I had Manti, which is dumplings filled with ground beef and then with yogurt and tomato sauce on top of it.

Oh, my God, fantastic. It's such comfort food. Yeah. Ari and Gordy, thanks for the 1999. Good morning, John and Ted. The orange retard lies to our faces. What the fuck is new? Also, Trump says, allies need to grab the straight of homo.

Do you think this can lead to escalation? Any new thoughts on Pakistan, Afghanistan? The whole administration is as dumb as pigeon shit. Love y'all. A lot going on there. Look, Trump is basically afraid. to go into the Strait of Ormuz, he's right to be. U.S. troops would be destroyed, decimated, as we've talked about here.

And in terms of Pakistan, Afghanistan, it grinds on and no one cares. No one cares. It's true. It's not even in the news. Like, you have to actually go out and search for news about it. Yeah, it's true. It's not, yeah, it doesn't come up in your feed. Now.

Do you want to say, any thoughts about it? Any thoughts about Strait of Ormoos? You know, the Strait of Hormuz situation should be so easy to figure out. It's not. You can't, like the president said last night, either take the oil or buy from us. It's a global market. What? It's a global market.

And it's not just about oil. As we said yesterday, 65% of the world's fertilizer comes through the Strait of Hormuz. and the so-called Ukrainian breadbasket can't feed everybody. So we're going to come to some kind of an agreement. And it's also like crazy. So the contradictions yesterday is just parenthetically. You know, we obliterated the nuclear program. There's nothing but dust there.

We don't care. But we're going to, you know, to destroy their ability to develop nuclear weapons and shoot ICBMs at us. But you said you did that, which is it? Star Lion, thanks for the $599 euros. John, you'd be better off waiting for a more honorable president. Then you can speak your mind freely. Yeah. Keep it real.

Thanks for the $4.99. Good morning. Would you guys ever have Scott Ritter or Ryan Dawson on? I would. Sure. Arian, member for a month. I just want to say thank you for the independent thoughts that MediaU3 provide. It helps so many people, including me find real news.

Love you all. all. Thank you. F.E. So, thanks for the donation. When Trump's Bay of Pizza is a massacre, odds that we could use a nuke. Not zero, but not high. You know, I'm glad you said not zero. I think it's highly unlikely, but you can't say zero. And I've said before, I'll say it again, Dr. Peter Kuznick, one of the country's foremost experts on these issues and the director of the Nuclear Studies Program at American University. says that he believes it is possible. He believes that that the use of a nuclear weapon is the final, his words, the final

taboo and that Donald Trump is willing to consider breaking that taboo so that future presidents don't feel constrained about using nuclear weapons. It's a final taboo for a reason. Santos, thanks for the donation. Any comments on the viral video on Instagram from Scott Ritter's interview where he calls this intervention the most criminally criminal war plan in history? I got to say, you know, having watched this stuff for 35 years, I've never seen something so poorly designed, so poorly thought out,

so poorly considered, ever. And so big. And so big. Yeah. Have you seen Kurt Metzger's Seinfeld-Epteen series, Lex Wexner as a Grumlin Yoda, is hilarious. I haven't seen that. I've been obsessed with the Chinese and Iranian propaganda videos.

Splest, thanks for the 1999. My son, Maxie, is in fifth grade. He donated his allowance to ask you this question on the live screen. Oh, my gosh. Should American tourists worry about it? about terrorism by Iran when traveling internationally because of the war. I probably yes. Yeah.

The Iranians, listen, I'm going to take shit from people that I'm close to for saying this. So Azita, I'm sorry. I just have to call this like it is. Do the Iranians engage in terrorism? Of course they do. And they have for decades. They don't do it all the time. they don't do it as a matter of practice.

They do it when they believe that they've been wronged. And right now they believe they've been wronged. And so does that mean that American tourists overseas are in danger? Sure, it does. I think it's unlikely, but it's possible. Yeah, I mean, you're individual. I always say, like, for example, how dangerous is a city? Well, it's basically what are your per capita chances of being attacked

or mugged or killed or whatever? And those chances as a tourist are good. You're probably not going to be. You go to Italy or whatever. Nothing's going to happen. You know, almost certainly. 99.9999% but it's not zero. And those odds are a little higher than they used to be.

F you so, which Disney princess do you think Lindsay Graham? Do you see Lindsay Graham as? Oh, my God. Did you see, have you seen the memes from Lindsey Graham? Oh, my God. funny. He said he was out shooting clays in whatever it was. Henderson County. I saw. He doesn't get any better than this, but then people

have superimposed instead of his shotgun, they have like a bubble gun and he's wearing Disney ears and Princess Rainbow's. It's classic. That Kiwi, hey guys, genuine question. Do you think that deep down Trump regrets starting the war? Big fan of the show. Much love from New Zealand. and hashtag pardon John. Thank you.

You know, I think some part of him does. Maybe not all of him, but I think, I mean, he's got to be having, he's got to be having doubts. He's got to be. I mean, I understand the arrogance. I really do. Every president is arrogant. But you've got to be thinking that damn Netanyahu duped me. Yeah.

Yeah, got to be thinking that. Lala Aviation. Iran offers EU and the U.K. Ormouz deal would Israel hit tankers? Yeah, I think so. Wow. I do. I think so. I think that all the rules of warfare have been cast off to the side.

Unlikely Utopia, thanks for the donation. So sad that this is John's last episode of Deep Program. We will be talking about that at the end of the show. But wishing you the best in your future endeavors, though, John. Thank you. Yes, that is Thank you. That's the same from me.

The show will go on without John starting tomorrow. Hopefully you guys will stick around. Jury Enjoyer, 499. Hey, fellas, I've seen reports of Chechen fighters saying they would back up Iran in case of an American ground invasion. Was wondering your thoughts on this. I don't know. I mean, Chechens are, John Keegan, the neocom historian,

described Chechens as the most ferocious war. warriors in the history of mankind. From my own experience, having captured Chechen fighters with these two hands, they are the most vicious, the most violent, and I'll use that word, the most ferocious fighters I've ever encountered. If Al Qaeda had been made up only of Chechens, we'd have lost. By the way, speaking of Al Qaeda, did you... Take note of the president's speech yesterday in which I was meaning to ask you about this.

He blamed the bombing of the USS coal on Iran. Now, I remember that being al-Qaeda. Yeah. Then somebody should release the al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo that we have for bombing the USS coal. Who writes these speeches? See, I think he just wings it. I really do. I really do.

So would the Chechens make a difference? I mean, geographically, the Chechens aren't in a great position. I mean, they've got a lot of Russia separating them from Iran. Yeah. I don't know what they could do, really, except for moral support. What do you think? I think that's pretty much it. That's all they could do.

I mean, where else? Where are they going to go? Thanks for the five bucks, James Kelly. Do you think that that speech was him giving up on his administration and his presidency? No, he doesn't know. He doesn't know. No way. I think he believes his own words. Yeah, I think so too. Alex Brin started up by saying that that literally everything that he said, literally every sentence was a lie. Yeah. Yeah. No. I mean, yeah, it was all crap. And none of it is going to, I mean, he's he used to be, I mean, he's just not a good communicator. That's all. He's not. He's not.

Obama gave them 1.4 billion. Green, green cash. It was cash. It was all green. It was all theirs, too. That's not, that's not oration. And it was all their money. Yeah.

Which the right never talks about. Yeah. Alex Bray. That's not oration. Sorry. Thanks for the 499 pounds. Sorry, just we, I'm aware of Achilles coming on in a few minutes. Ted, do you still do daily cartoons ever considered a daily deprogram cartoon?

Boy, that would be a lot of work. I do three cartoons a week currently. I used to do five. There was not really, because of the decline of print media, there weren't enough outlets to run them. I would definitely consider a daily cartoon, especially if there were a way for AI to animate them quickly because people like the moving ones more.

But I currently don't have any such plans. But if I felt like there was demand or someone wanted to pay for them, I would do it. John is this, hey guys, John, is this your final episode on the show? Don't go. Yes, sorry. Yes, but listen, it's my final episode as a co-host with Ted, but Ted and I are buddies, and I'll be back as a guest.

Yeah, which we're looking forward to. And basically, what we're going to do is try out, you know, we're going to find a, no one could really replace John, but we will get a new co-host who, will sit in the John chair. Hisham Sawan, thanks for the $699 Canadian dollars. So the show will continue Monday through Friday 9 a.m. Morning, guys.

John, could you please speak a little bit on Rafiq al-Hariri? Was it in the Syrians or was it the Syrians or Israelis that killed him in your opinion? I think it was the Syrians. I liked Rafiq al-Hiriri. Do you want to say to that was? He was the Prime Minister of Lebanon. You know, just as Lebanon begins to claw its way out of failed state status, the Israelis, the Syrians, the Americans, just push them right back down. It's a shame.

Achilles thinks we see you in the backstage. We'll get to you in a few minutes. Lorelei, mainly for John. That's a lovely name. What are your thoughts on Bustamante's plan to change his appearance and identity and hide in another? country. It seems very different from having an extra place in Athens. Right? So he cut his hair recently, but he cut his hair because he's hosting a show at the Discovery channel and the president of Discovery told him he looked ridiculous. So he had to cut his hair.

But this whole notion, listen, if you're going to, if you're going to change your appearance and don't tell you and take your wife and kids and run away and hide in another country, don't announce it on national television in advance. Ridiculous. Is this constant struggle to remain relevant? Boy Ali, thanks for the five pounds. International law and the organizations around it, e.g. the UN are at an all-time low,

low, true. Do you think we'll look back on Gaza as the new Manchuria moment? Yeah. Gaza is a real, it's a real trough for the international community. We did nothing. Yeah, literally nothing to help any human beings. Matrix escaped.

Hey, John, big fan, just ordered some Chinese boneless spare ribs excited. Mr. Kiracu, thanks for that, by the way. This is from I Love Superman. Thanks for the $20 Australian dollars. Huge fan of your work. This is for you, John. Praying for your pardon. I've always been curious about how we can separate freedom fighters and terrorists.

Many attacks carried out by terrorists are called heroic. went done by others. You know, I draw the line at the targeting of civilians. The targeting of civilians for political purposes. I'm engaged in kind of a friendly debate in email with one of our viewers who every time I say that I believe Hamas can be considered a terrorist group, he emails me and objects, which is perfectly fine. that's what a healthy debate is all about.

But I believe that if a group specifically targets civilians, specifically targets non-combatants, that's an act of terrorism. That's why I believe the IDF is a terrorist organization. I agree with that. Yeah. And I guess the U.S. Air Force at this point because of, you know, we target. Exactly.

Exactly. Yeah, no, I agree. And like that's like resistance organizations don't target civilians, and they're very, very sad if they kill a civilian accidentally. Meow, meow, this is crazy. Call spell eye cup. I don't know what that means. Oh, my dad. Oh, my God. When I was a little kid, my dad used to say that terrible joke. What does it mean? I see you P. Oh, brother. Okay. Soden, thanks for the 1999. John, where are you going?

Robin. Are you starting a podcast with Reza and Brennan? L-O-L-L-L-L-JK, Fair Winds and Following C's, my brother. Ted, we go this to you're the captain now. Somali boys. hilarious. Yes, I'm the captain now. We have Achilles waiting.

We're going to take care of. Let's do Achilles and we'll fill everyone in after that toward the end of the show. The news comes first, always. Okay, so without any further ado, joining us here to discuss the economic implications of the war in the Middle East is Achilles Larea. He's the head of Larea wealth management in New York City. Achilles, as always, thanks for joining us.

Thanks, Ted. Nice to see you, John. I hope everything's going well with you both. Thank you. Welcome back. You guys buy the same shirt. What's going on? It's a good shirt. Don't be jealous. Don't be jealous, I am jealous. I'm going to run out to the store immediately after this. Okay, so Achilles is great, great to see you. So look, obviously you've been following, you follow the markets. That's your job.

My first question is, are oil's futures traders incredibly stupid and naive to believe anything that Donald Trump has to say? I mean, he'll say, well, we're going to get out of the war. The oil prices go down. Stock market goes up. Then he's a well, then there's something that seems like it's going to be prolonged. It goes the other way. I mean, aren't these people supposed to be making decisions based on what they personally believe is likely to happen? You know, they trade on information, guys.

What you see happening right now, they saw a lot. while ago that could have happened. So you place bets on it and you place those bets in the hope that that happens. If it doesn't happen, you hedge your bet and you get yourself out of that position. But if it takes off, I mean, if you look at there was one of the hedge funds they were talking this morning in the journal up 31% just in a very short period of time. All right. And this is not unusual. This is something I see all the time, you know, with traders. There is a reason why they make so much money on a personal and on a entrepreneurial basis because you are risking capital every single day of your life. Kind of like that, live by the sword, died by the sword. I think John

could appreciate this. You know, so going back to what we're talking about, you know, it is not the, you know, oil's at 110 or so a barrel right now. It's not the now that they were focusing in on. It was back when oil was 70 plus bucks and that's when you needed to be in. You know, so people who are trying to hedge this right now, it's, you know, you're kind of a Johnny come lately. If you're an investor, you're like, hey, I'll get into oil now and, you know, let me, let me make some bucks. Yeah, you might make a little bit. You might make your two, three percent, but you're not going to make 30 percent. May I ask you about that, Achilles? Yeah, absolutely.

There are hedge funds where this is all that they do. But we're in this odd position now where gold and silver and copper, frankly, are at all-time highs or near all-time highs. crypto is flat and people don't fully trust it. We've missed the oil run up, as you just said. I totally completely agree. So then in a situation like that where you can't even trust bonds, what's the hedge? Where would hedge investors go in an odd economic, like global economic situation like this? John, I think that we're two factors short of a black swan.

event where nothing works. But I will tell you this, anything that's blue chip, you got $150 billion in capitalization gives you options. And those are the kind of companies that we're owning right now. We're going in and saying, we're not afraid to get back in the market. I've been buying the last few days for my clients, and I'm not afraid to go back in, We're not making huge bets here because that's not the way I operate. Right. But if I'm adding, say I add one and a half to 1.8% of a, you know, into another position or a position we already own, that's not a terrible thing. You know, my clients may not understand it while it's going on.

But long term, now I'm talking about 12 to 18 months. And I've said this on other media, you know, 12 to 18 months. you know, 12 to 18 months, you're not going to hurt yourself by doing that. So getting into high-quality names, blue-chip stocks, or, you know, I mean, I hear about gold and silver all the time. And do you want to have a position in them? Yeah, you know, it's kind of like. Five percent, maybe.

Less. No, so small, John. You know, let me tell you, if that really takes off and becomes the asset class, which it has at one point. But you know once the last time that happened? The oil crisis. Yeah. You remember back in the 70s?

In the 70s. Yeah, I was selling snacks and beverages on the gas lines when I was a kid. We were saying just the other day, Ted and I, my dad, remember, if you had like an even numbered plate, you could buy gas on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and an odd number plate Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. My dad used to be out there all the time. Yeah, there were exceptions. If you were a salesman, my dad was a salesman traveling around the country and he could go anywhere, any day.

He wasn't restricted. So you did have that restriction. Right. My dad used to go out and switch the license plates every day depending on which car needed. Your dad has my soul when I had a car my first year in college in New York and I got tired of alternate side of the street parking. So I stole someone else's license plates whenever I went. wanted to just park wherever I wanted to park and then kick the ticket, throw the ticket in the back seat, just ignore it.

Wouldn't work now. I feel bad. It was a very bad thing to do because someone got my ticket. Ted was a rebel. I was an asshole. Yeah, I wouldn't do that now. But, you know, older and wiser. What are the two events that could lead to this Black Swan situation?

Because I think, listen, you're the expert. I'm not the expert. But I don't see any short-term, hope right now. If even bonds can't be where you go to park your money, you know, during this time of economic uncertainty, then what's left? It just seems like there's nowhere to go. And let me add one other thing. You just said something that made me think of it. Are you looking for companies that are both blue chip and have large stocks of cash? Well, every company that we deal with will always hoard cash during these times.

So that's, yeah, that's a bit, that's another thing to consider. That will give them a strategic advantage to become, you know, if you think about it, how did companies become dominators in their industry? They didn't do it by spending everything they had. You know, everybody looks at a Microsoft and says, wow, they're spending all this money on AI and do you really think that Microsoft is spending all the cash? that they have. Yeah, there's a bit of a cash burn there, but they can go and buy their next largest competitor if they wanted to. That's how big they are. Same thing with Apple. You know,

these are companies that are dominators. They're going to continue to make money. There is a cult-like or a following that is still present. But in answer to your question, John, what I would say is look at gold, you know, if that starts to become the quote-unquote acid class, that's one thing. Another thing is if oil starts, you know, Iran talked about oil going to 200, you know, they effectively control the Strait of Hormuz. You know, and that is a big black guy to us, you know, and I'm not a political person by any stretch of the imagination. But I know he who controls something gets to dictate something, you know, and we as big a country as we are, if we're not careful, how many billions are we going to be paying Iran for that control?

It's not too dissimilar than the Panama Canal. Yeah, it's a toll. It's going to be a toll. And they used the word just a couple of days ago. with this Indian flag tanker taking oil to China. The Iranians let it through because they paid a toll and they paid it in Yuan. So we need to set up a big easy pass like, you know, at the Strait of Ormuz and at the Gulf of Aden, you know, just for these tankers, just to make it easy. But, okay, so Akela, let's talk about the elephant in the room here.

Are we heading into a recession or worse? I think we're not at that point. You know, I thought about this this morning. I was listening to a couple of talking heads the last few days. And they all kind of be, they're kind of tilting that way, guys, but, you know, I'm not convinced. You know, I'm super bullish when it comes to the market. And even if a bare market were to, by the way, I'm just just seeing breaking news. Oil, the price of oil jumped.

Stocks sank in the first opening minutes of the, of the, of the, of the, you know, the market opened just about 10 minutes ago. Yeah, no surprise. Trump did not do anything last night to alleviate the situation right here. A smart man, an intelligent man, would have tried to buffer, especially a politician. A politician would have tried to buffer the language being used right now, the rhetoric. You mean like bombing them back to the stone ages was not the right, was not maybe the right word? Yeah, you might have want to temper your words a little bit,

but obviously we don't have that in Mr. Trump. So, you know, what I would say to you right now, if you're an investor, you need to be strategic. You need to be moving in areas that, you know, look at the defensive areas, look at the technology areas, because those areas are going to be, it's not that they're going to lose less money. It's just that when we come out of this nonsense,

And I believe this is firm nonsense. I think there are ulterior motives. And John, you can disagree with me, but I believe that there are, you know, ulterior motives behind this that are not being spoken of at this particular point. What do you think they are? I want to know what you think they are.

That's what I'd love to know at this point. You know, I always say follow the money. You know, who's making the money right now by oil being up? by gold being at all-time. Yeah, all the major oil producing countries. Correct. Correct. Saudis, etc.

Right. So I don't want to own those companies right now. I want to own the companies. It's a temporary, it's a temporary juice, though, right? I mean, because overall, if oil prices go too high, you tank the global economy, you end up, like, during the pandemic when no one was buying anything and then the whole, you know, it's not good. Stagflation, you know, where nothing's growing. nothing's getting done. The, you know, Congress is still in a stranglehold right now.

You know, the ruling party cannot even pass legislation right now. Yeah. You know, literally. It is one of the worst bottlenecks I've seen in this country's history. Well, the thing is that the Iranians are, so here's the thing. What Trump did was the stupidest thing that you can possibly do in conflict. He not only cornered his. adversary, something that Sun Su always said not to do, always allow a graceful exit. But on top of that,

he neglected to notice that his adversary had an ace in the hole, the Strait of Ormuz. And so now he's cornered an adversary that has to win and has to win big. And so we're offering a ceasefire, but the Iranians need and want the whole smear. They have to have, basically the U.S. has to surrender. They have to say, we will never attack you ever again. And not only that, we'll control Israel and prevent them from ever attacking you again. That's a big ask. I don't think it's going to happen. I don't think that's going to happen. I think that's what the Iranians have to have. Yeah, I think this is going to get prolonged out. But I also think that the Iranians at some point, you know, how does this all get resolved? Diplomacy. Diplomacy has stopped.

many of the wars that have ever occurred, although the fighting will continue, but there has to start being some talking. And once the talking starts, it becomes beneficial. And, you know, they'll figure out a way where, you know, Iran and the U.S. will figure out a way where, you know, it's not just to everybody's benefit to stop this, it, to figure out a way where everybody saves face, including the United States. And that is the toughest part right now because you can't see it right now. But it has to happen.

So that's my take on this. Now getting back to where we can make some more money is take a look at you. If you don't want to be in oil, you may want to be in fertilizer. There are a lot of companies, you know, fertilizer, plastics are all derivatives of oil. So you want to have your hand in that. You don't want to be in the oil bucket or barrel. You're saying the shit is the shit. The shit is the shit.

Aquila, we've got to leave it there because we have to, we have a, but we always enjoy having you on. This show will go on and we'll have you back for sure. Thanks, Achillas. It's Achilles, Elis O'Aquilla's wealth, Larea wealth management, my apologies, in New York City. And I always enjoyed his insights. Okay, so John, we have a bunch of questions. Of course, people want answers to where you're going. We're getting into all that.

And I want to just answer personally one question here, Kobe. I would like Ted to explain why his son, all caps, will never go into the military. He might. It's up to him. But other kids must to make fun, make up for his fortunate son or just no military at all, Ted. Don't you just love it when people think they know? I know. It's lovely.

First of all, I can't control my son. He's a fucking grown-ass man. He's almost 22 years old. If he wants to join the military, I can't stop them. Doesn't he live off the giant trust fund that you? Yeah, exactly. The giant cash flow that is Rawl Corp. No, I mean, so look, I don't want him to join the military.

I want to be very clear. I don't want anyone to join the military. And no one else must because it's a volunteer military. So there is no must. Nobody has to join the military. Now, if there's a draft, we can have a different discussion. But that's my answer to the question. Right.

Okay. You know, my son, my son flirted with the idea of joining Air Force ROTC. And I told him, it totally up to him, I wouldn't do it only because I don't trust the country's leadership, whether it's a Democrat or Republican. Precisely. And I said, you don't, his mother does quite well. I said, you don't need the scholarship money or whatever they call it. I wouldn't do it. And then he sort of just dropped the idea.

But no, it's not so, you know, poor kids can go fight our battles for us. We'll leave the last few minutes for what you're up to in what your next steps are going to be. But let's do some questions. Nick Brand, thanks for the 499. How will Putin react to a U.S.-Iran conflict given his strong opposition to the U.S.-driven regime change? Huge fan, John. I think, I mean, Putin's, look, Putin's laughing. I mean, you know.

Sure he is, because we're bogged down. Yeah. I mean, this is good news for him. The less he says, the better, you know? Like when your enemy, you know, it wasn't Napoleon who said? Like when your enemies are just tearing each other apart, don't interfere. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.

That's right. Let him destroy each other. Or destroy themselves. Thanks for the hundred rupees. Hey, John, about India and Pakistan, you said we need to resolve Kashmir Unify. Do you think the MI6 and CIA had any hand in dividing the Punjab and cause militancy? On the contrary, I worked for a guy who was tasked by President Clinton to be the secret envoy, the secret media. between the Indians and the Pakistan's over Kashmir.

His position was, look, if we can come to an agreement on Kashmir, whether it's a division, whether it's an independent Kashmir, whatever everybody can agree on, then economically, militarily, it's going to be better for the entire region. Better for Pakistan and for India, economically, certainly. And I will say, we talked about this extensively. I will say one side just was not willing to engage in such a conversation. Okay.

Melissa, thanks for the very generous $100 donation. This is just my small token of appreciation. This podcast is part of my workday morning routine, and hopefully it will continue to be. The OG, thanks for the donation. Love y'all, watch every morning religiously. Do you think the 250th anniversary celebrations in D.C., will be dangerous. Well, there will be,

to the cage fight, cage match fighters on the White House lawn. Quite literally, cage match on the White House lawn. Classy. A K-L-A-S-S-I-E. Or targeted by our adversaries. I actually don't. We, Americans always think that like these,

you know, it's like Hollywood, right? Like, you know, oh, it's like there's going to be a big event. And no, I don't think so. Like it would be, if you're looking to attack the United States, you want to come when they don't see you coming on a clear Tuesday morning, in a nondescript day. You know what I mean? Yeah. Boy, do I. Yeah.

Thanks very much, Sir Charles, for joining the show. Subscribing. Sea boat. Thanks for the 10 bucks. Lyft driver here. One passenger said nothing. All ride. Then reported me for listening to your podcast.

podcast as anti-Semitic. What the what? How can we encourage debate when criticisms of Israel get labeled anti-Semitism? I am, first of all, I want to say I am so sorry. Yeah, I personally apologize to you for this happening. If there's anything I can do, like to write a letter, email, whatever. Wow. I will do that.

And I mean, like, there's not an anti-Semitic bone in John or my body. No way. No way. And to answer your question, I don't know. Well, the answer is that we have to all be brave enough to ignore those kinds of criticisms. Wow. Waterways. Thank you, John D. Program.

We'll miss you. Yes, it will. I pray for health and happiness for you and everyone here. Thanks for the good times. Appreciate you. Robbie, do we have any ads? Nope. Okay, no ads.

All right. So should we go? We'll continue to take your questions, but we have a few minutes left in the show. So, John, if you let us, you had told me this morning that this was going to be your last show. So I'll turn the mic over to you. Yeah. First of all, I apologize to everybody. Things have moved very, very quickly for me over the last six weeks.

You know, six weeks ago, it was just my normal life. up, you read the papers, you do the show, did my other show, you know, go through the motions, read more papers, more news sites. But then a kid, a 20-year-old kid at the University of Texas took my interview with Diary of a CEO and chopped it up into shorts and made a funny voice and made laser shoot out of my eyes and changed my life. It was all in good fun. I enjoyed it. It was fun to watch. I got a good laugh out of it. But it somehow resonated with Gen Z to the point where, you know, I'm occasionally recognized on the street. Now I can't go 20 feet without somebody stopping me and asking me for a selfie.

It happened twice on an airplane yesterday and five times in the airport as I was leaving from the gate to the exit of the airport. It's constant now. And so the president of a major premium network saw me, saw one of my videos. And his kids said, his kids are 20 and 21. They said, oh, my God, we love this guy. He's so popular with Gen Z right now. And so the network president saw that I was represented just in the last two weeks by the Creative Artist Agency, CAA, and he reached out to me.

So we had a conference call yesterday with my agent, my managers, my attorney, the network president, and the head of arguably the most important television production company on the planet. And they bought the rights to my first book. Now, this is the fourth time that I've sold the rights to the book. But they asked if we could engage in contract negotiations immediately. I mean, when we hung up the call, the contract negotiations began. I'm going to sign the contract today. They want me to go to Los Angeles imminently. We're going to start writing the script for the pilot.

And this is going somewhere. So it's not just television, but life has turned so quickly that at CIA, I'm not just represented because of my speeches or because of my books. I had six agents at CIA, one for books, one for scripted television, one for unscripted television, one for speeches, one for licensing, one for something else. I'm the new spokesman for a for a vineyard in Napa Valley. I'm going to do a shoot for GQ tomorrow in New York. I have to take an early train. And yeah, it's it's just it's moved on to a plane higher than anything I've ever experienced.

before. And I'm, I'm, I'm just simply not going to have the time to do podcasts anymore. As much as it pains me and it really does, because I love Ted and Robbie. Likewise. And this is, this is fun. I mean, we're not really making any money. We're doing it mostly because we love doing it. Um, but I, but I have to move on. Yeah. Well, I mean, John, obviously this is a, I mean, it's incredibly, what an incredible reversal of fortune, right? I mean, just think about where you were 11 years ago. Yeah, walking out of a prison. Yeah, walking out of a prison.

It's, it's, it's, it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's my sister said to me the other day, you're an overnight success and it only took 18 years to get there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So my, even my new book agent, when, when, even before I was introduced to him, you're, you're,

I said, I know that guy. He's like the most famous literary agent in America. He represents Stephen King and giants. And they said, yeah, well, he's your new book agent. And I said, well, I'm working on a book of stories. I'm trying to put all my stories in one place. And they were like, yeah, that's going to be a blockbuster. So things have changed.

So, yeah, that's going to be amazing. So what kind of timeline would there be for this TV? show of yours. Well, if they greenlight it. When we were, when we were in the call yesterday, the agent asked, how quickly do you want to move on this? And he said, I want to move quickly like today. And we were like, oh, okay.

He said, yeah, call business affairs as soon as we hang up the phone. Yeah, business affairs is, of course, these are the internal in-house lawyers who negotiate Hollywood contracts. Exactly. And so, boom, it's done just like that. amazing. I mean, it's like, I knew John Black when. So don't forget us. A couple of things that shock me. And it happens about once a week is a kid. And I say, kid, usually because it's a teenager, 15, 16, 17, the last to take a picture with me. And I

always, always say, I would be delighted to take a picture with you. But one of the things that I just, it's inexplicable to me is I always put my arm around their shoulder right and we take a selfie and they're trembling and I'm like buddy I'm not worth trembling over it's just me don't worry about it a few few last comments for you uh Jimmy Dean if it's Larry Ellison's conglomerate your message will be pro zio will miss you John which network no I can't say yet CIA is going to make the announcement hazardous vibes Thanks for the 20 bucks. Love you guys.

Keep up the good work. I'm 17 and often watch you guys. I show my friends and family a lot of your videos. By the way, John, all my friends who are girls, love you and think you're attractive. Thank you. I've had three marriage proposals in the last two weeks. Hey, thanks so much. Should the Philippines cut its ties with the U.S.

and fully align itself with China politically after this war? No. No. The Filipinos are being disrespected right now. But they've got an alliance with the United States, Australia and New Zealand and Japan and South Korea by extension. They're desperately worried about the Chinese. And so if anything, they're going to be pushed more into the American camp. Two more.

Morrow. I nominate Andrew Bustamante as the new co-host. I kid, I kid. And the best thing that could happen to John, this is amazing from Hogs Candyland, $5. That's a good place to leave it. So obviously this news caught me by surprise. And so Robbie and I are going to put our heads together. We want the show to go on.

We're going to continue. We'll be back here tomorrow at 9 a.m. analyzing the news. Probably Robbie is going to co-host tomorrow, almost certainly. I don't know. We're going to put our, Robbie and I are going to put our heads together over the weekend and try to figure out what our next steps are. But in all likelihood, we'll have some kind of, we'll try,

maybe several possible co-hosts, see how it all goes. Or we might end up with a scenario where there's someone does Monday, Wednesday, Friday, someone else does Tuesday, Thursday, whatever. In response to the question I have reached out to Jarmal Thomas, hope to hear back from him today. So if anyone knows him, tell him to call me, he has my digits. Anyway, that's about it. John, I won't lie.

I'm sad. I'm sad to miss you. but don't be a stranger and call any, any time. Same here. Thanks for everything. Not just to you and Robbie and to Trent, but to everybody who has watched and listened and who has made this podcast of success. Thanks, everybody for everything.

And let me say something here real quick before we sign off from this last show. I put the links in the chat. So John now has a official TikTok channel. And you can find him. a nice little shadowed avatar there called official John Carrier, well, TikTok.com at official John Karaoku. And also

you can find him on Rumble on his official channel on Rumble. And Camio. Yeah, Alan Camio. And cameo has become an important part of my life the last month. For sure. Yeah, it's pretty wild. So you still are

able to find, you're still able to find all of his contact, Bill, to find all of his content. but he's not falling off the face of the earth. He's just outgrown us. That's a good problem to have. That's it. Exactly. That's true. That's a good way to put it.

Robbie, you're always good at that. All right, guys. We'll see you back tomorrow. Robbie and I at 9 a.m. Eastern Time Friday, April 3rd. John Kiroaku, I will see you when I see you. And stay tuned for the TMI show with me and Manila Jam.