Judging Freedom - Larry Johnson: Is Trump Afraid of Netanyahu?

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

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you Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, June 16th, 2025. Larry Johnson will be here with us in just a moment. Can Bibi Netanyahu bully Donald Trump? We'll talk about it, but first this. While the markets are giving us whiplash, have you seen the price of gold? It's soaring. In the past 12 months, gold has risen to more than $3,000 an ounce.

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Larry Johnson, welcome here, my dear friend. Is there any doubt in your mind or in really in the mind of any objective observers that Donald Trump's speech last week in Saudi Arabia condemning the neocons, condemning American and Western militarism in the Middle East and promising to be a president of peace was part of a grand subterfuge intended to lull the Iranians and others into a false sense of security?

No, no, no doubt whatsoever. Um, Trump is playing a very dangerous double game and in the process of playing this game, he's completely discredited himself, you know, no, no leader in the world, especially Vladimir Putin, will trust anything that Donald Trump says going forward, particularly after this version of Pearl Harbor on Iran that took place last Friday. And I would remind the Israelis jumping around

as euphoria over that strike. Japanese celebrated December 8th, 1941 as well. Didn't turn out too well for them. And I think unfortunately for Israel, this is going to end in a disaster for Israel. Wall Street Journal is reporting, you and I just emailed each other about this, that Israel now controls the skies over Iran, and Iran is sending messages through Arab intermediaries intended to reach Prime Minister Netanyahu, asking him to back off. This can't be then how is it that Iran, as of last night, has launched 10 different waves of ballistic missiles that have hit throughout Israel, and Israel's clamping down.

They don't want to report the actual damage that's being done, but some of it is impossible to hide. So, no, that's just a lie. And what's taking place behind the scenes is Russia is now stepping up its supply of intelligence and military equipment to Iran, as well as to boost Iran's ability to retaliate against this unlawful, illegal attack. Just some breaking news. The USS Nimitz, I'm not sure what size ship that is, redeployed to the Middle East.

Aircraft carrier. Okay, so they're sending an aircraft carrier to somewhere in the Middle East. Is Trump actually going to allow Netanyahu to box him in to Americans fighting a war against a country that poses zero national security threat to the United States? Well, I don't think this is so much Netanyahu boxing Trump in his, Trump's a willing participant in this. Look, the planning for this operation,

I think Alistair Crook made the point earlier today with you, this started more than a year ago. This means CIA was directly involved in coordinating and planning with Mossad the operation to destroy the Iranian regime. This is all about regime change. So that started under Joe Biden. And when Trump gets into office, Radcliffe gets briefed on it.

Tulsi Gabbard gets briefed on it. And the United States, instead of Trump saying, hell no, we're not doing that Yeah Go ahead. Let's do it. And then you know, he played his role to lull lull the Iranians into a false sense of security Notice this exact tactic was used against Hassan Nasrallah the head of Hezbollah when Israel blew him up last year because he was meeting

in a specific location in Beirut for peace talks, for ceasefire. They had been convinced that he could have a ceasefire and negotiate with Israel. United States was helping broker that and then he got killed. It was a setup. So they keep using this tactic. I think now maybe folks will finally, after getting burned the second or third time, realize this United States is not to be trusted in this at all.

I don't think American diplomats can ever be trusted, not by Russian diplomats, not by any other country after something like this. I don't know of an American president in the modern era or even throughout history engaging in this kind of bald-faced lying and subterfuge in order to lull somebody into a false sense of security. They're about to go to a meeting to discuss peace

and they're murdered. Yeah, well, and and look at the uh, you know the words coming out of Donald Trump's mouth like particular with respect to his conversation with one of Putin Oh, yeah, put we're gonna work together on getting a peace deal with Iran and Israel. Really? Then why is it the united states today is about uh three hours ago Called the russians up and said, those bilateral talks we're supposed to have about easing tensions, we're postponing them. We'll get back to you. Does that sound like, the Russians are like said, okay, hey, we remain open to trying to have a negotiation with the

United States. But I think at some point, there's a growing realization in Russia, States, but I think at some point there's a growing realization in Russia, Trump is not to be trusted at all. There is no foundation for relations with the West. Wow. What is the extent of damage, if any, to the Iranian nuclear enrichment program, to the reactors, to the equipment nuclear enrichment program, to the reactors, to the equipment that they have a half a mile underground, according to Ray McGovern, that they use to enrich uranium.

Well, they had enrichment going on above ground that was monitored by the IAEA, which is now proven to be an intelligence tool of the West. And they were allowing IAEA inspectors in and Iran continued to act in accordance with the NPT. So some of those facilities have been damaged. I'm not sure destroyed is the right word but they've been significantly damaged

and there's some contamination reported at Natanz. But there are other structures that are deep underground that are still operable, as are elements of their defense industry that produce missiles, rockets. That's underground. So that's not likely to attack. And in tandem with the actual violence

that's being inflicted upon Iran by Israel, there is this massive, massive propaganda campaign information operation. And let's also note that Elon Musk Starlink played a role in this. Starlink went live on June 13th, the date that the attack started. So Starlink is being used as a communication device

to coordinate the different terrorist attacks that are taking place in Iran right now. So at some point I wouldn't be surprised to see Russia come to Iran's aid with some electronic warfare capabilities to turn Starlink off. What is the nature and extent of the damage to Israel. I do understand that the Israeli Defense Ministry, its main headquarters, its Pentagon, was attacked. Yeah, they've hit, well, the Iranians have hit an oil refinery in Haifa, which is a critical supplier of oil, both to Israel as well as some that's exported to Europe. They've hit a power plant as well and Haifa that was on fire. Significant portions of Israel were without electricity. There have been hits on the air bases. See there's a lot of information that Israel is just hiding. They're not allowing the actual truth to get out because

the attacks actually have been quite significant. And you know, they fully anticipated, they thought that they would collapse the Iranian regime. If any regime is going to collapse, I think it would be Israel before it's Iran. The euphoria that the Netanyahu regime was perpetrating on Friday morning, and of course it made its way through Western media, has now dissipated, hasn't it? Among some sectors, I'm still hearing from some, oh, Iran's gonna run run out of missiles anytime now. That's the Ukraine playbook. Remember, Russia was going to run out of missiles any day now,

starting in March, April of 2022. And they still seem to have a few. What's really been exposed is the limitations of Iron Dome and David's sling and the US-supplied THAAD theater high altitude air defense system. Several of those have been destroyed. All you have to do is just watch. You can see it on telegram channels, on some YouTube, although it's being suppressed, on BitChute, that you can see the inbound missiles and they're not being stopped. So Iran's got, they've got a variety of tactics they can use because you can saturate with some drones to draw air defense fire, then follow that up with some of your old missiles that really are not terribly effective, but they can be used as decoys. And then

follow on with the actually more modern stuff that is far more powerful and more accurate. So, you know, this tip from a tad back and forth, you know, right now Iran's hitting, their air defense systems are working, they're not perfect in Iran by any stretch, and targets are being hit, but Iran is a vast country compared to Israel. And Israel, when you look at the, they've suffered, their ability to endure suffering is far,

far limited compared to Iran. Iran's been through a terrible war with Iraq that was US backed and funded back in the 1980s. So they're, you know, they know what suffering is like. Israel's, Israel has never, never experienced anything like this since its founding and it's not to go away soon. Now the question is, is the United States going to get involved? I think the answer to that is yes. Can Israel defend itself on its own? No, no. Israel without the backing of the United States will be completely vulnerable. And the problem with the United States is we don't have unlimited resources and

vast stockpiles of weapons and air defense missiles in particular. And that's where if Iran has, I've heard that Iran has upwards of 40,000 missiles that it's built up and stored over time. Now official U.S. government estimates have always said, oh, 3,000, 4,000. I think it's a lot more than that. And Iran has had years to prepare and they've put a lot of effort into building these underground facilities to protect it.

They had some trouble, I think, getting some of the missiles out initially, because the entrances to those locations had been bombed and there was rubble to clear. But once they're out and they're on mobile launchers, then the West really has a big problem, because we saw with the Houthis, we couldn't stop the Houthis who had those mobile launchers

and they kept moving them around. Right. What do you think the American military assistance would consist of? Certainly not troops on the ground. Well, no, troops on the ground don't do anything. We're talking about air assets. You know, the reports of moving the aircraft carriers,

like the Nimitz, to the region, very, very foolish. Because unlike the Houthis, the Iranians have hypersonic anti-ship missiles. And they are quite capable of hitting and targeting a US aircraft carrier. Now, I think up to this point, despite the U.S. provocations, despite U.S. involvement in helping facilitate these attacks, Iran has confined itself to fighting Israel. It's going to, under international law, it's entirely justified according to Article

51 of the UN Charter. The Russians and Chinese all endorsed and made that point the other day in the UN Security Council. So Iran will continue to retaliate against Israel. As long as Israel continues to attack Iran, Iran will retaliate. Even if the US is assisting, I don't think Iran is going to start hitting the United States, at least not yet. But if there is an overt attack by US planes and or missiles, then it's going to move into a new phase. And we're, you know, this thing can really spin out a control judge. Oh, this is, this is so dangerous.

And, um, Donald Trump is just, uh, his head is in a cloud of delusions. Larry, what kind of pressure, uh, will be put on Trump and from what sources to get the U S fully involved? Oh, well, you got most significant number of members of Congress, with Lindsey Graham leading the charge, but he's backed with Democrats like Dick Blumenthal. So show me the member of Congress that's the voice of reason saying, hey, hey, we need to hold up here. Very, very few. nobody in leadership position.

Now everybody's chumped on this. Rand Paul and Thomas Massey, and then a handful of progressive Democrats, that's about it. Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's the problem. So did Netanyahu in your opinion actually asked Trump So did Netanyahu, in your opinion, actually ask Trump for permission to assassinate the Ayatollah? That's all theater.

That's all theater for public consumption. They were trying to kill the Ayatollah from day one. And let's face it, when you look at the legacy of countries that have been involved with killing leaders of other countries, United States and Israel are right there at the top of the list. You know, it's been a long stand. You go back to the days of Mossadegh,

go to Diem in Vietnam. You know, the United States tried to pretend, oh, we didn't know anything about that That's not what not much fascinating watch watching Trump go back and forth flip flip-flop on He knew everything now. He knows nothing, you know Were we all naive to rejoice in that speech? He gave in Saudi Arabia telling the neo-con so often promising no more interventionism Yes, yeah in Saudi Arabia telling the neocons so often promising no more interventionism? Yes. Yeah.

Uh, uh, Trump's a liar. You know, he's dishonest and you know, it's unfortunate that, um, you know, even you know, the Saudis, the Qataris, the Emiratatis uh, I think they're now really starting to have some significant second thoughts about What kind of madman are we dealing with? and really this He's not to be trusted. You know Trump's vision of securing a Nobel peace prize is just it's gone up in smoke and

The only question now is how deep will he get the, will he take the United States into this pit of war? And I'm afraid he's, you know, he gets so, you know, believes his own press clippings with respect to the so-called power of the United States military. Yeah, we have a powerful force, but as we saw with respect to the Houthis, we couldn't stick and endure.

Right. Good point, Larry. You mentioned Richard Blumenthal. This is a really odd pairing of Blumenthal and Graham, but whatever. They're buddy buddy on all this. Here he is yesterday on one of the talk shows, Chris Cutt, number six. You know, the defense secretary was testifying to Congress this week and he said he's moved equipment

meant to counter drones in Ukraine over to the Middle East now because of this escalation. Not only to protect U.S. personnel, but also to enable Israel to defend itself against Iran's retaliation. But I think that the president is right to try to bring the two sides together. There is a deal that's possible here

if Iran were to abandon its effort to build nuclear bombs that endanger not only Israel, but the entire regional stability, because all the other Arab nations are going to have nuclear weapons if Iran does. The people Trump's people were negotiating with were just killed. Yeah. Yeah. who we're negotiating with were just killed. Yeah, yeah. And then I don't know if you saw this interview that Dana Bash from CNN apparently had a phone call with Trump and she didn't tape it,

but she immediately went on air to recount from her memory and her notes what the president said to her. This is according to Alistair, not even worthy of responding to, but I'll ask you how you want to respond to it. Chris, cut number 12.

And then he went on to say this. Iran should have listened to me when I said, you know, I gave them, I don't know if you know this, but I gave them a 60 day warning. And today is day 61. And then he said, they meaning Iran should now come to the table to make a deal before it's too late. And then he said something really noteworthy. He said, the people I was dealing with are dead, the hardliners. To which I just wanted to underscore. So what you're saying is Israel has now killed the people who you were dealing with. And he said very sarcastically, they didn't die of the flu, they didn't die of COVID.

That's the president of the United States. Yeah, despicable. You know, yeah, I'm sad I voted for him. That'll never happen again. And I know several people that were supporters of Trump. Because the alternative with Kamala Harris was no better, but it could have even been worse. But at least with Trump's ego and his narcissism,

you could maybe appeal to get him, to maybe manipulate him, maneuver him into a path of peace. But I think that's gone now. And Iran was not building a nuke. And that's a 40-year-old story. I was on a podcast with Professor Morandi the other day. And, you know, he said 30 years, I said, Professor, you're wrong. I hate to correct you. But it started in 1984 with Netanyahu and others predicting that Iran would get the bomb within a few years. I said, you, it's not your fault. You were only 10 years old back then. And he laughed. But it's really no laughing matter that this But it's really no laughing matter that this trope has been put out there time and time and time and time again for more than 40 years. And it's all this isn't about stopping Iran from getting a new the whole uranium issue. It's a red herring. This is the same as Saddam Hussein is gonna give weapons, has weapons of mass destruction.

We gotta stop him. This is all about regime change. That's pure and simple. Professor Morandi is on with us in a couple of hours and I will give him your regards. Thank you, Larry. Thanks for your insight. Terrific as always.

We'll see you again Friday afternoon with that youngster McGovern. Yes sir. If we can dial him back and calm him down but I think that'll work. Thank you Larry, all the best my friend. And coming up later today, one o'clock this afternoon on all of this Scott Ritter and at two o'clock this afternoon from Tehran, Iran, Professor You