Judging Freedom - Larry Johnson : Trump Negotiating Against Himself

Episode Date: June 1, 2026

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Pragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression with no complaints from the American people. Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected. What if sometimes to love your country you had to alter or abolish the government? What if Jefferson was right? What if that government is best, which governs least? What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong?

What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave? What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now? Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Free. Today is Monday, June 1st, 2006. Larry Johnson will be here with us in just a moment. Is Donald Trump negotiating against himself? But first this. Don't you just cringe when people say,

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Judge Nap.com. Larry Johnson, welcome here, my dear friend. As always, thanks for accommodating my schedule. thanks for your shirt, which always pleases the audience, dear Larry. Why is the U.S. attacking Iran during a ceasefire and during negotiations? Yeah, it's an identity crisis. You know, this is, I think what we're trying to do is provoke Iran into overreacting and then therefore giving us a further experience. excuse to expand the war. It is, you know, we've been flying combat air patrols over the Persian Gulf. We've been basically daring the Iranians to shoot. We've flown drones, both the MQ9, which is the Reaper,

and then the MQ1, which is the Predator. What does the Reaper do? What does the Predator do? So the Predator is a $4 million, $5 million drone. It can carry a hellfire missile. It costs around $4 million. The Reaper is a much more robust platform. So just the airframe alone costs $35 million. And then when you attach the different pods they can put on it,

The cost of that goes up to 60 million. So we've lost so far in the course of this 25 of the MQ9s. I don't know how many MQ1s. So, but these drones are capable both of surveillance, you know, seeing what's going on real time and then launching munitions, like with the MQ1, the Hellfire missile. Wow. And what has been the Iranian, if any, response?

Well, they, they, it's been escalated or escalating. The initial response was after the second incident. So this would have been Wednesday. They are Thursday, I guess it was. They launched a short-range ballistic missile that hit Kuwait, injured. or wounded at least for American military personnel, maybe more. So they're going after these air operations are being run out of a base in Kuwait. And then they retaliated again yesterday.

We don't have any casualty reports yet, but it's likely that there were more casualties. So this is like escalation without escalation. Each side is pretending that we're holding the ceasefire, yet we're firing at each other. You know, so we're shooting, potentially killing, and then at the same time claiming that, oh, no, no, we're still holding fire. We're not going to shoot at one another. So the ceasefire was, at least in theory, Larry, correct me, if I'm wrong, agreed to by the president himself. Right. Does the president himself need to authorize these.

violations of the ceasefire or can generals do it on their own? No, since the president's not having to give it a go for each time, so they've got blanket authority to retaliate. But remember, the other portion of the ceasefire was a ceasefire in Lebanon. And Israel has broken that completely. So far, Iran has not retaliated. Under the terms of that agreement, Iran would be justified in starting to launch again its missile strikes on targets inside Israel going after Israeli military facilities, if nothing else. It is a response to what Israel is doing and attacking Lebanese positions, both not only south of Latani River, but north, going up into Beirut.

Tell me how the drones work. I mean, and maybe I'm naive. Can you see the projectile coming? Or is it so fast like a bullet out of a gun that you can't see it? No, no, you can see it. I mean, if you're on the ground, yeah, you can see it. You can see it launch. It's not, it's not, they're not, they are basically subsonic to, you know,

maybe supersonic, but they're not hypersonic. So, you know, they're not moving. so fast that you just seen immediate streak of light. You know, it is the United States right now, if you're totaling up the numbers, we've lost close to

$2 billion worth of aircraft like this. So, you know, that's a significant cost. Now, of course, when we're dealing with a $1.5 trillion dollar defense budget, you know, it's chump change. You don't want.

When Secretary Hegseth told one of the congressional committees before which he appeared that we've spent $25 billion on the war, is that credible, Larry? Or is the number much more than that? Maybe for the day that he was talking, you know, that he was for that particular day. But the cumulative amount of heavens, no. I would suspect that we're approaching the 200 to 300 billion level. You know, we're now more than three months into this.

This war that was supposed to last three to four days we're now well over 90 days. Right. How do these 40, 50, 60 million dollar drones compared to the inexpensive ones, that Iranian civilians are making in their garages. Without Iranian, Ukrainian civilians are making in their garages.

Yeah. Yeah, no. I guess if you say size matters, they're much bigger. I mean, they approach the size of like an A-10 combat plane, so a fixed-wing aircraft. The Garan Jones,

you know, the Ukrainians are making those in their basements. But the Iran themselves, you know, would be a third the size of what these are. So, you know, these are big drones. And we even have another one, excuse me, called the Triton, that is a $250 million drone. The Iranians have shot down one of those as well. So, you know, look, what we're seeing has been an upgrade. in the Iranian air defense. Any of these that stray over Iranian territory

where the Iranians are hitting them. And then in retaliation for them being attacked, the United States is then launching these standoff munitions, which are hitting sites right now along the, you know, on Keshem Island and in and around the port of Bandur Abbas. What happens to the drones after they fire, Are they projectiles? Do they crash or do they turn around and come home? Well, the predators are supposed to turn around and come home.

These are not one way. These are to, you know, they take off and land. You know, I recall, you know, this is 20 years ago. Good Lord, time flies. But when I was in Balad, Iraq, you know, these drones would take off on the runway, just like a regular aircraft. And, you know, you'd hear them. And then, you know, they flew over our, the barracks area,

the barracks area where we slept. And so, yeah, they're like, they're like regular planes, except they're not jet, you know, the jet propulsion aircraft. And they don't have a pilot. Wow. What is the level of Iran's retaliation? You told me that, that they probably injured some Americans.

So forgive me for repeating that. Where do negotiations stand today? Are they actually going on so that the Americans talk to the Pakistanis, who talk to the who talk to the Iranians. Is that the way it works? Yeah, so the Pakistanis are still playing the role as a mediator, intermediary. Their position hasn't changed. A lot of the reporting is suggesting that there is some back and forth with Iran adjusting its proposal.

And then the latest was that Donald Trump made changes and sent them back. changes were, you know, dealing with issues such as the U.S. getting access to the enriched uranium that Iran still retains. And, you know, I don't see Iran's going to look at what he sent, and they're going to send back a reply that's basically saying, we haven't changed our position. This, according to, you know, as you quoted, Robert Barnes with Alistair Crook. And what Robert has heard from, because he does have contacts within the Trump administration,

that it's Trump, who's, you know, almost having a temper tantrum and then sending back, oh, no, we're not going to accept that, even though those were conditions that were negotiated. If the United States wants a pledge from Iran, that it's not going to develop a new. They would get that. But actually,

I have now heard, and I expect, trying to get confirmation of that later today, but that there was a message that the Pakistani foreign minister delivered directly to Marco Rubio on Friday. And it was basically the possibility that Iran will do a demonstration with a nuclear weapon.

Now, does that mean it is a nuclear weapon developed by Iran, or does it mean it's a nuclear weapon that was given to Iran by, say, Pakistan or North Korea? I don't know the answer to that. But that if this continues to escalate, because it is, it is escalating now, even though the U.S. military is not on its highest alert status. I noticed over the weekend, people who normally would be in working 24-7, they were on call. So right now we're in somewhat of a hiatus, but I think we'll see this week that this, I think this situation is going to heat up, and I think it's a highly likely likely,

We could be back in the full-born exchange of we're launching planes that are launching munitions like the Tomahawk and the Jasm that are attacking sites inside Iran, and Iran will be retaliating with ballistic missiles. So if Trump had not repudiated the JCPOA, Iran's enrichment would have been at 3.67%. it's now at 60%. And if Trump had not started the war, the Strait of Hormuz would have been open as it was for all those years. How has he accomplished, Larry?

Making the world a more dangerous place. You know, I would really encourage, you know, if you're watching this or if you're listening to this, I really encourage you, just go online, search for JCPOA, the contents of it. Read it. We have been

gas-lit, lied to, propagandized by, you know, Trump and others claiming, oh, that was such a terrible deal that Barack Obama, and Barack Obama did negotiate it. It was negotiated by State Department and Pentagon

officials. And it was actually, it was an outstanding agreement. You could criticize it, that it was limited in time. They had a, I think it was a 10-year limit on it, but it was very rigorous, and it was, it allowed for inspections.

And it actually, you know, you look back on it, it's surprising that China and Russia agreed to such onerous terms. Iran basically accepted a very rigorous regime, allowing IAE, inspections. And then, you know, they'd say, oh, and we gave them this money, you know, $150 billion. It was their damn money.

Right. This was money the government of Iran had already paid to U.S. military corporations to the U.S. government for weapons deliveries that were never made. And so, yeah, they're fully entitled to get that money back. It's not like we were facilitating, quote, terrorism. And yet, this mythology lingers on, and Trump still keeps talking about it today, that all this JCPOA was a terrible deal by Barack Obama. I'm not a big fan of Barack Obama, but you've got to give them credit. They actually did negotiate a deal that had an international agreement.

The Europeans were on board with it, Russia, China, as well as the United States. and it actually imposed significant restrictions on Iran. It was only when Trump tore up the agreement, walked away from it. The Iranian said, okay, we're going to start enriching a reinment, writing them up to 60% in a way to try to get the U.S. attention. Now, you can make a nuke, you can make a very clunky, cumbersome, large nuclear device with 60%. It's really not practical.

But it was assigned to the West that, look, you're now making, your actions are now making the world more dangerous. Let me take you back to what you said a few minutes ago about Iran testing. Are you talking about testing a nuke or testing something as if it were a nuke? No, testing, setting off a nuclear device. Meaning Iran has a nuclear device. That's what we're trying to clarify right now with the source. Actually, Pepe and I are both involved. We'll probably have some news on that maybe later this afternoon or later today on the East Coast time.

But it's not clear if Iran itself has built one or if it has been given one. Larry, this is profound breaking news. We haven't heard this from any other source. Right. Will you be in a position to confirm or modify or retract or whatever later today? Yes. Yeah, I hope so. That's what we're working on.

Again, I say that if this is true and, you know, the sourcing, at least the sourcing we've got on it so far seems pretty solid and that it was it was a message directly communicated to Rubio by the Pakistani foreign minister now but again there's you know you want to go back what we're what we're doing is going back and asking and said okay does this mean that Iran has a nuke or does this mean that uh that either Pakistan or North Korea have provided one that it will be used you know it be dead if if what we're hearing is true it'll be detonated in a way to send off the message to to to to both israel the united states okay uh we're we're into a new phase so this is you know and

and you know look this is this is still a dynamic process where uh what's going on with the United States. They keep trying to go back to impose more onerous conditions on Iran. And Iran is just, they're at the position of saying, you know, we're fed up with this process. Does American Intel know about this? That I don't know. You'd hope so. But, you know, given it, I'm not sure that they've been out collecting. You know, they should know something like this. But I don't know. And if they know it, does President Trump know it? Well, let me put it this way.

If what we've been told is true, then Marco Rubio knew on Friday, and I presume that Rubio would have told Trump. Wow. Can the Israelis effectively veto any agreement Trump might enter into, with the Iranians? Sure. Well, they can, they can completely undermine it,

sabotage it. But then it would be up to Trump to say, no, you're not driving this bus, we are. But so far he hasn't done that. And we're witnessing that with what's taking place in Lebanon. You know, Israel

has become a killing machine. They are killing civilians in the thousands. and unrelenting. And they come up with it as an excuse. Oh, we've got to make ourselves safe. But in their actions, they're actually making themselves less safe.

They have punched, you know, made some encouragement across the Latani River. But they are now facing more intense rocket missile strikes by Hezbollah, drone strikes in particular. And these drones are, as we've seen, in the case with Ukraine and Russia, those drones are flying into, you know, they loiter, they can maneuver in tight, tight places, and then they hit concentrations of troops or people who think that they're safe in a particular building. And all of a sudden, here comes the drone flying through the door. So this, we have seen, I think, over the course of the last week, a significant escalation in the attacks, both by Israel and by Hezbollah.

You mentioned Robert Barnes a few minutes ago. I want to play what he told, I'm sure you know this, but I want to play what he told our mutual friend and colleague, Mario Norfolk, just the other day, about the National Defense Authorization Act, which is more than a thousand pages long, no one will read, having inserted in it language that gives Israeli military access to U.S. military top national security secrets.

Chris, cut number four. The U.S. military is subject to the authority of the Israeli military. The more neutered version of it is that it gives them access to as if they're part of the U.S. military in terms of classified access, technological access. it allows for arm shipments to be made and military technology and national security technology to be shared without any special vote or particular action of the president. And the problem of this deal is it takes it out of having to do deal by deal. And so, in fact, it legally authorizes Israel to effectively get away with it to a degree, whereas if we sold the weapons to them and it came under

certain conditions and then they subsequently shared it, we could directly take action. this is so loose and freegoing that you're going to have Israeli military personnel in the room when some of this is getting developed. Yeah. How would that work? Well, essentially what it's doing is the current procedure involves State Department.

And so it does have some measure of visibility to the public. So there is some way, some, a degree of accountability, or at least the potential for accountability. What this is doing is basically going to put it behind a Chinese curtain, that it will not be opaque. You will not see what's going on. It'll be easier to hide this kind of support. Now, let's call it the silver lining. some of the weapons systems and some of the support that we are supposed to be given under this can't be produced

because it's entirely dependent upon rare earth minerals coming out of China that China is not providing us. So, you know, we hear that the United States right now under the existing procedure is selling X amount of weapons to Israel or to whatever other country. But in terms of the actual delivery date of said weapons, that's up in the air because the United States cannot manufacture them without some of these critical rare earth minerals. So we're really in sort of a pretty bizarre situation that we're selling something we don't have.

Like, hey, you want to Brooklyn Bridge? Here you go. Right. All right, Larry. Thank you very much. If and when you and Pepe are able to confirm what you believe to be so that Iran has a nuclear weapon, either crafted at home or delivered from a foreign country. Please let us know.

We'll drop what we're doing and come right on air and hear you out about it. Yeah, we'll do. Okay. Thank you, Larry. All the best, my friend. All right. Bye-bye. Bye.

Wow. That, of course, would be it is breaking news, and it would be, dramatic if Larry's able to confirm it coming up if you're watching us live in 30 minutes at 10 o'clock on all of this Ray McGovern and at 3.30 this afternoon professor Jeffrey Sachs in the Paul tunnel for judging freedom