Judging Freedom - Phil Giraldi : Trump Strikes Out Again

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

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Undeclared wars are commonplace. 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? 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 Freedom. Today is Wednesday, May 6, 2006, Phil Giraldi joins us. Now, Phil, it's a pleasure, my dear friend, as always. You have a fascinating piece out called Donald Trump strikes out again, and I would say about half to two-thirds of it is based on

Trump's over-the-top vanity. How dangerous the national security is this over-the-top vanity? Well, I would say it's extremely dangerous because what he's doing, essentially, when you watch, in addition to what I cited in the article, what he winds up saying, the whole package of his failure to recognize the dignity and the seriousness of his office is a major problem. He is making decisions without decent inputs because he's worried about he's going to look either in a picture on his website or he's going to look in some other context or be referred to. One of the most astonishing statements, I cited a number of things he did over the past 10 days or so. And one of the most astonishing statements is that he claimed that he is the most powerful person ever to exist. Now, what kind of idiot comes out with a statement like that?

And what is going on in your head? And what do you actually believe to come out with that kind of statement? That means in history ever, no one has. been as powerful as Donald Trump in his opinion. And I would add that to the psychopaths who has selected and gather around him and cultivate this kind of thinking. Our friend and colleague Alster Crook calls this confabulation, meaning it's not a lie. He actually believes what he says as absurd as some of it may be. You know, for example, yesterday, he said, we're close to a deal in Iran.

Manipulate the markets. Today, he said, Bob, they don't come to the negotiating table. They'll be bombed like never before. Manipulation of the markets. Alster believes he actually believes that stuff. I don't know if he could be that dull as to believe it, or if this is some form of market manipulation, which would be prosecutable. for those who benefited from it, knowing it was coming in another Justice Department?

Well, I think it's deliberate. And whether he is smart enough to really be thinking through the aspects of market manipulation or not is, of course, debatable. But the fact is he is clearly doing it. It's well documented. And now the extent to which his family has benefited from his status in office and the things he can get away with. And there are also many business connections that particularly people like his son-in-law have in the Middle East that were essentially derived from his being the president. and his timing of the comments that he makes to affect the market. And this is outrageous.

But as I noted in my article, he's not the first American political type to do this. Nancy Pelosi became very wealthy exercising insider trading. Right. Right. Has the CIA advised Trump what Alastair Crook believes, MI6 believes, if you follow me, which is that no amount of bombing of the Iranians will change the minds of Iranian leaders on the issue of nuclear enrichment? I think this is an accurate assessment, whether they've gone so far as to actually confront him, and say this is what our assessment is,

and whether Mr. Ratcliffe is on board for that, I don't know. I'm not hearing much out of them, except that my former colleagues that I'm still in touch with, who are still in touch more so with people that are still serving, are saying how embarrassed they are by the entire situation, where they come up with a judgment. And it's almost immediately,

ignored when B.B. Netanyahu picks up the phone. Well, Ratcliffe is the director of the CIA. Is he controlled by Mossad or is he controlled by MI6? Because he's not listening to what his own agents are telling him. Well, he could be, in a manner of speaking, controlled by both of them. if they're saying or they're getting along for the ride in terms of what he has to provide them. All these things are very, even when I was still active in the agency, and we had George Tenon as director, he was a guy who was totally political.

He had no experience as an intelligence officer before he was elevated. because he was the guy who played ball with the whole business about what was going on in the Middle East and with Iraq and so on and so forth. So this happens all the time. The question is, does it become the mode of operation, or is it just something that you have to put up with every once in a while? So it seems to me it's happening more and more often that Trump is coming out with stuff that's just crazy. Yesterday, he again went after the Pope and said that the Pope is clearly interested in giving people, particularly Iran, nuclear weapons. But this is insane. Every Pope since Pius X.15 has condemned the concept of nuclear weapons. Yeah. Well, apparently the message hasn't gotten through to Donald Trump.

And whether he truly believes that nonsense or not. And I guess Rubio will be meeting with the Pope today. Isn't it supposed to be? I believe it's tomorrow. He's probably in flight now. Yeah, tomorrow. And at the same time, Trump is talking about the other side of his mouth, about negotiations again with Iran over the next 30 days.

You know, it's like he says things, he does things. and it doesn't permeate to the point where you're making judgments that are based on good information. If anybody is less attached to the truth than Donald Trump, it's this person with apologies, Phil. Chris, number 13. This thing is over to the American people. I know gas prices are high and I know we're suffering right now. But you pay now, you pay later against thugs like Iran. They tried to get a nuclear weapon, and if you don't believe that, you shouldn't be allowed

to drive in your hometown. Donald Trump stopped Iran from having eight to ten nuclear weapons by bombing their enrichment facilities. God bless you, President Trump. We were weeks away from a nuclear armed Iran. No more. Everything has been obliterated. Their economy is in chatter.

Their military has been decimated. There's more to do. if we can control the straits, checkmate against Iran, Lockade Plus, armed the people, and to our allies throughout the world who depend on the Strait of Hormuz more than we do, get off your ass and help us. Where to start, Phil? Well, first of all, you start by saying everything he said was a lie. And that's a good place to start.

And then I think there hasn't been enough focus on the fact that this clown, has been in Israel every two to three weeks ever since all this fighting and everything began. He's so close to the Israeli government that you wonder why he's getting paid by the American government. The danger, as I see it, Phil, is that he plays golf with the president. It's just the two of them in the golf cart. I don't know where the Secret Service is. they're very close, maybe in another cart. I don't know exactly how it is, how big the cart is,

but he sits next to the president and gets to mouth this kind of nonsense into his ear. But one of the things that I caught was the opening line, it's over. Marco Rubio said it's over in the same week. Pete Hegseth said it's over in the same week. So this must be, Phil, the new administration mantra. We can't beat these people.

We'll just declare victory and go home. I'm not so sure that I think the over might be a way of just kind of the continuing this tease of Congress by cutting out any possible thinking on their part that they might have to, my God, approve of this behavior and of this war. I think there are more games going on here in this whole idea. of another month to be negotiating. Come on, that doesn't even make any sense. And the fact is that, you know, I think there's a lot of cons going on

in terms of how there is manipulation of what's coming out and what they're saying, but the sad part of it is they're not even smart enough to make these things sensible. They're just, they're just things shut out there. and they're things that are useful for allowing this game to continually be played, but they're not good for America, and they're not good for the American people. Would Trump go to Beijing while he's bombing Tehran? I don't know.

You know, it's just like what... I mean, would the Chinese receive him while he's bombing Tehran? Oh, yeah, well, that's a serious question, because the Chinese are, for real in terms of how they perceive the world. And God knows what Trump is was planning or is planning now as his talking points and everything like that. The Chinese and Russians have both made it pretty clear that they want this whole situation to kind of end, but end in a real way, not just a temporary pause so that the United

States and Israel can start bombing again. This is Iranian Foreign Minister Arakhi, as you know, meeting with his Chinese counterpart and with a huge Chinese and Iranian delegation at this very large conference room table. Our friend who was just on with us, Pepe Escobar, says this cannot be gainsaid because this is serious the new russia iran uh chinese uh alliance yeah i suspect it is i think they they've they've suddenly well not suddenly they've been more sensible in terms of what's been going on ever since it started and and the fact is they're realized that the the whole game the way it's being played by Donald Trump and his associates and Israel is doing serious damage to the rest of the world.

And sooner or later, it's going to hit them too. So these people are playing for real and for real stakes. Colonel McGregor has argued in a new PC published today. I'll be talking to him about it tomorrow, that wealth and power globally are shifting to the east. And Trump has accelerated that movement. Do you agree? Yeah, I think that is a reasonable way to read this. Because the traditional centers of wealth and power, mainly like Europe and the United States,

have been very much weakened in terms of their intrinsic infrastructures and things like that, that gave them the wealth and power and gave them the, ability to call the shots in terms of how economic issues were moving. And it's going the other way now. And we've kind of been seeing this coming for a while in terms of the push to get away from the U.S. dollar dominance. But now I think it's becoming a border issue, and it's going to encompass a lot more elements in the economies.

Let me ask you about your expertise on intelligence. When Trump goes to Beijing next week, will the Chinese know in advance what his talking points are? I mean, he has as far as I know, he has no cards to play, but he'll come up with something. But my point is, is Chinese intel over the president of the United States so good or not so good? that it will advise President G what President Trump will say, or can't they do that? Well, there are two aspects to intelligence that we're talking about in a situation like this. The one aspect is technical intelligence, whereby you're listening in on everybody's phones. You figured out who the key people are, and you've managed to get their phone numbers.

You've managed to tap into them and you're managed to get what they're talking to each other and to their wives. You get all that kind of stuff. And the Chinese are very, very good at this kind of intelligence, technical intelligence. The other kind of intelligence is a human intelligence where they would be seeking to recruit an agent or a spy like the Israelis have in our government. that basically keeps them informed. Now, that's kind of a guessing game as to what they might have and might not have, but there's always that possibility. And when you have that, you get the whole game.

Well, because the point is you get the thinking behind the words. All right. So correct me if I'm wrong. The Israelis surveil the White House, do the Chinese? I would suspect they do. All right. How about the flip side of this? When Trump goes to Beijing, will the CIA have advised him in advance what President Xi will say to him? Well, again, it comes down to the same issue.

The question is, in terms of technical intelligence, the CIA and NSA are highly qualified, and they're probably getting all kinds of telephonic information, all kinds of communications that go electronically. They're probably getting a lot of that, if not really critical elements of that. They might be getting that too. The question then becomes, have they recruited anybody? I would give that a higher probability

than the Chinese getting someone in Washington. The Chinese diplomats are all over the world now because China is a major player, and this would put them in contact with intelligence officers from CIA, from MI6. And once you get people in touch with other people, then the tools you have, usually money, to recruit them and provide you with information are there. Wow. What do you think the Chinese governmental and political hierarchy thinks of Trump? Oh, I think that they have a clear perception of Trump, which is like the perception that the Europeans have now, which also the Russians certainly have, after having to negotiate with them, as it were. and the Iranians have the same percent.

Yeah, everybody has, Trump is a joke, and everyone knows it. The question they have in their minds is, well, all right, that's what he is, but we have to deal with him. Right. And what kind of advice can we kind of steer him towards? How do we do it? and what's the way to get through a guy like this who basically doesn't have normal thinking and reasoning processes? He doesn't have a Henry Kissinger type person in his entourage. All he has their sycophants.

That seems to be the case. I mean, there's nobody you can point to to say that he or she is, someone who really has a good grasp or good experience even in terms of what goes on in the world and how it works. And as a result, we've got essentially people that their easiest path to stay in the good graces of Donald Trump and not get fired is to agree with everything he says. And that means, of course, everything the Israelis say says Donald Trump is clearly controlled. by the Israelis. I can't think of a of a single thing that

Donald Trump has ever balked at that's come out of Israel. He's the same as Joe Biden. This has been a pattern. So if Mrs. Abelson and company want him to resume the bombing of Iran, he's probably saying,

let me get back from Beijing. I don't want to disrupt my trip to China. Larry Johnson, and we both know and love him, believes that the bombing will begin tonight, but that would material, unless it's just a 24-hour pinprick, that would materially disrupt his plans to go to China. And there's an enormous American entourage there already with a presidential limousine and all that stuff that travels before

the president. Yeah, but that's why I think we're suddenly hearing this one-month window for negotiations. Now, this may not turn out. be a one-month window. It'll turn out to be a 10-day window to get him through the contacts with China and try to get through that. It'll probably declare victory at the end of it. And then we're back to normal, where you know, Israel and the United States are figuring out what next to do to Iran. Wow. Bill Duraldi, thank you very much, my dear friend. Regards to you,

to you from the great Gerald Salente, and we'll look forward to seeing you again soon. All the best. Thank you. Look forward to it. Thank you. Coming up tomorrow Thursday on all of this, and Colonel McGregor has a fascinating piece out

about how the Chinese are so far ahead of us in wealth and investment, but he'll talk about it as well as, of course, the war in Iran. At one o'clock, Colonel Douglas McGreg. on these same topics at two o'clock, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, and at three o'clock on whatever he wants to talk about, the golden boy, Max Blumenthal, Judge Napolitano,

he loves that. Judge the Palatano for judging freedom.