Judging Freedom - Trump Governs Without Values | Aaron Maté

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Trump Governs Without Values | Aaron MatéSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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? Well, freedom is certainly in danger in Minneapolis. We'll get to that in a few minutes. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, the 29th of January, 2006. Aaron Motei joins us now. Aaron, a pleasure, my dear friend, as always. Thank you. Before we get to Minnesota and the latest from TikTok on Zionism, we just had a very interesting conversation with a journalist with whose work you are familiar, Charmine Narwani, who told us, no support. prize of the Israelis keep taking more and more real estate. But she did opine that she didn't think they would take Damascus. Do you have a finger on what the Israelis are doing vis-a-vis the Russians and the Turks and the Kurds in Syria? Well, Israel doesn't need to take Damascus because

Damascus has already been pacified, the new Syrian government that was installed just over a year ago with U.S. and Israeli help after a decade long dirty war and crippling sanctions and the U.S. military stealing Syria's resources to further impoverish the people, make them suffer and finally cave to regime change. Plus, routine Israeli bombings. Israel bombed Syria during the dirty war hundreds of times. They've essentially bent the need to Israel. They've stopped demanding the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel stole in 1967. They just want the land that Israel's stolen since the fall of Assad. But otherwise, they're not going to raise any trouble. They've expelled Palestinian groups. They've announced further curbs on Palestinians.

So Israel doesn't need to steal Damascus from the Syrian government because it effectively has already taken it. And you have the predictable mess in Syria right now. Recently, there was a warning that the Islamic state has grown and is an increasing threat to neighboring Iraq. And that's not a surprise when you have a government who's headed by Al-Al-Hara, a.k. Muhammad al-Jalan, who's the former deputy leader of ISIS and the founding leader of al-Qaeda in Syria. And you have his government essentially abandoning negotiations with the Kurds in the north that were brokered by the U.S. and taking their territory, too, by force, because he has carte blanche to do that from the Trump administration, which typical for the U.S. is betraying the Kurds.

So Syria is a complete predictable mess. And you have now all the effects of U.S. aggression, U.S. Israeli aggression in the region spilling over everywhere. So Iraq now is under new threat from Trump because Iraq has a strong presence of parties and militias in its government who are friendly with Iran because of historic ties and because they are Shia. So what does Trump do?

done. He's just said that if Iraq re-installs a former Prime Minister, Noreal-Maliki, who is friendly with Iran, that the U.S. will cut off all support to Iraq and will make life very difficult for Iraqis. U.S. is also threatened to cut Iraq's access to its own bank reserves, which have been held in New York ever since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 and overthrew that government. And this is not the first time that the Trump administration has done that. In Trump's First term, after Iraq voted to expel U.S. forces, Mike Pompeo said, if you do that, we're going to take your money. You can't access your own wealth and your own bank.

So you have the constant mafia rule, the so-called Don-Roe doctrine, is a mafia-don doctrine, and it leads to repeated chaos and intimidation in the Middle East. The Don-Roe crowd, I realized that Pompeo was on the outs, has the same mentality as Stephen Miller. I think that's a fair comparison. Stands for nothing. They have no standards at all. They don't feel restrained by the Constitution.

They don't feel restrained by federal law. They don't feel restrained by right and wrong, by common decency, by the good. They just do whatever they want. Look at what they're doing in Minneapolis. But before we get there, do we know what's happening? In Abu Dhabi, I mean, Zelensky is making statements like we're not going to concede any real estate.

That's got to be for domestic Ukrainian political consumption, because if he really means it, why are the Russians wasting their time there? That's a great question. Zelensky also claimed recently that there's been 100% agreement that the U.S. will provide the security guarantees that he has long sought when there is no such agreement. So I think he's also saying that for a domestic audience to make it seem to Ukrainians is that this strategy is paying off when it's not. And I wonder at this point whether there's any reason to have these talks. They're not going anywhere. And it's always the same dance. Russia has its core demands.

They were willing to accept Minskakords before the invasion. They put out a draft treated to the U.S. before the invasion. Both of those were rejected effectively. after the invasion, you had the Estembol talks where there was the outline of a deal reached. Zelensky walked away from that, as we know, under U.S. and British pressure. So now Russia has its red lines.

It's not going to cross. Lelonsky's pretending as if he can get away with not only reaching a deal in which the U.S. agrees to go to war in his behalf in the event of another Russian invasion, but also he gets to keep all of this territory that Russia has now laid claim to. And I think what we're headed to is another Russian offensive this year. That's where they seems to be going because there's not being resolved at the negotiating table.

And Zelensky, meanwhile, keeps being thrown out of the bus by his own allies. The head of Germany just said that Ukraine is not ready to join the European Union. Even though Russia has said they're fine with, at least up until very recently, Russia said that they're fine with Ukraine joining the European Union. So even on that one, which is not that controversial because the European Union is not necessarily NATO, even on that one, Ukraine's own allies are pulling the rug from underneath. It's almost as if Zelensky is just delaying the inevitable, which is his loss of authority and maybe loss of life and the radical loss of Ukrainian real estate to the Russians. I think that is what he's doing.

and I think if to the extent he has any hope for himself, he's probably thinking that, well, look, Trump is surrounded in Washington by Warhocks. Trump talked about ending the war, but he hasn't been able to do that. People like Lindsey Graham are really desperate to push through this new sanctions measure, intensifying secondary sanctions on countries that trade with Russia.

And he's hoping, I think he's praying that that eventually will pass, and that will be the thing that puts more pressure on Russia and maybe even leads to the overthrow of Vladimir Putin because he's talked a lot about how wouldn't it be great if Putin was not only overthrown but even killed. So that to me is what Zelensky is clinging to is the prospect of Vladimir Putin's overthrow

once his friends in Washington step in. But in the meantime, Russia takes more territory, slowly but surely. And that's where this, I think, is going to keep heading. Our colleague Gilbert Docteros says two interesting things about Abu Dhabi. One, the Ukrainian negotiators are some of these bandarists who have surrounded Zelensky. I don't know if it's the very human beings, but this is the people that threaten to hang him from a tree outside his office if he ever caved the Russians.

Two, there are actually two tracks of negotiating going on. One, to resolve the special military operation, the other to begin the slow process. process of normalization between the United States and Russia. Is that your understanding as well? Certainly that's what Jared Kushner and Steve Wickhoff want to do. And I guess that's what distinguishes them from the Biden administration. Joe Biden was so proud of his efforts to collapse the Russian economy. Remember early on he talked about turning the rubble to rubble. his CIA director William Burns said that as a result of U.S. sanctions, generations of Russians will suffer. And you have in the Trump administration, you have less zeal for doing that.

You have more enthusiasm for actually pursuing economic ties with Russia, where there is a lot of resources. It's a massive country and money could be made. But, you know, again, people like Lindsey Graham are hellbent on imposing these sanctions that would actually deepen Russia's economic isolation. and they have bipartisan support for that. So you have around Trump two competing forces, who ultimately he will go with is anyone's guess

because he is a hard guy to read when it comes to the difference between his public statements and his actions. Many times, ever since his first term, he's caved to the Warhawks. And so, as Trump says, we'll see where it goes on that one. But yeah, it's not surprising to me that people like Steve Wilcoff and Jared Kushner are pushing the economic angle. That's what they really care about.

What is your view of the state of murder and the streets in Minneapolis being defended by shameless lies from the Trump administration? You know, one thing that stands out to me is just the fact that the people around Trump, who are always so gung-ho about defending the Second Amendment, are now denigrating Alex Preddy because he brought a gun to the gun to the, protest to the scene of the ice raids that he was protesting. And now you people are on Trump saying that because he did that, he somehow deserved to be killed. Now, I don't think it was wise of him to do that, but are we now going to argue that if you have a concealed carry permit that you can't carry it with you? That's certainly not what the Trump crowd argued when people in Michigan went to protest COVID lockdowns and they were armed.

So this is pitting their. defense of the second amendment against their zeal for letting ice kill people right and uh that's just a very it's a very striking contrast here's uh the president manifesting a striking contract here he a contrast here he is in 2025 and then again 2026 chris number nine question is on crime prevention would you be open to expanding the national concealed carry to apply to dc like it does in other states like texas Well, they have it in some states, and they feel shrugly about it. You know, as you know, I'm in favor of it. People have to protect themselves.

I'm a Second Amendment person, very simply. People have to be able to protect themselves. Especially like in Washington, you walk down the street, a guy comes up and slugs you, he's got a, he's got a pistol in his hand. You can be tough, you're going to be in great shape, you can be a powerful person, or you can be a guy that weighs 100 pounds with a gun in your hand. And I'll bet on the guy with a gun,

percent of the time, right? And so you need protection. So I'm a Second Amendment person all the way. Yeah, please. I don't like the fact that he was carrying a gun that was fully loaded and he had two magazines with him. And it's pretty unusual. But certainly he shouldn't have been carrying a gun. But all of, I don't like that he had a gun. I don't like that he had two fully loaded magazines. That's a lot of bad stuff. And despite that, I say that's a very unfortunate. have no standards. They're even flip-flopping on abortion. We don't need to get into that, but they do whatever they think is politically wise at the moment. But you're right. The crew around him were fierce defenders of the right to keep him bear arms. And now they're critical of this

poor guy because he had a gun. Ah, remember this, Kyle Rittenhouse? Remember this fellow in Wisconsin? with that gun he killed three people at a demonstration the jury found him not guilty and trump and company lauded him yeah and listen um you know in fairness to coleritten house i think the video did show that a gun was being drawn on him he was under threat and um in the case of alice pretty though you look at the video his gun had been uh taken from him the time he was shot there was absolutely no reason to kill him but listen i try to be consistent was it wise for for Alex Predator to bring a gun? No, it wasn't. I mean, given the context, if I knew

him, I would have advised him not to do that. Right, right. But does that justify his murder? I mean, absolutely not. And the Trump administration, having doubled down on the murder of Renee Good, having doubled down on these ice raids that are terrorizing people, they decided

to, at least some officials have, decided to demonize Alex Pruddy and basically say this was justified when it clearly was not. Well, they are going to continue to demonize him. They found a clip of him angrily kicking out the rear red light shield of an ice vehicle and tussling with an ice agent who apparently broke his rib in the process, and then the ice agent gets back in the car and they leave Alex alone. As if that is some sort

of a justification for putting nine bullets into his back when he's on all fours and blinded by pepper spray. The last thing this poor guy saw in this veil of tears was pepper spray coming at his eyes. And they continue to demonize him. Cash Patel continues to say it was carrying the gun illegally. That is absolutely not true. The Minnesota statute specifically says you can carry it in a public gathering. I never thought I'd see the day when Republicans are, you know, are cash. doubt on people and insulting them for exercising their right to carry a concealed weapon. I never thought I'd till the day, but the Trump administration continues to surprise. Did you ever think you'd see this day?

This is the president, the new president, the Larry Ellison installed president of TikTok, Chris, cut number 10. We made a change to designate the use of the term Zionist as a proxy for a protected attribute as hate speech. So if somebody were to use Zionist, of course you can you can use it in the sense of you're a proud Zionist, but if you're using it in the context of degrading somebody, calling somebody a Zionist as a dirty name, then that gets designated as hate speech to be moderated against. Over the course of 2024, we tripled the amount of accounts that we were banning for hateful activity. We also have, I think, over two dozen Jewish organizations that are constantly feeding us intelligence and information when they spot violative trends.

There is no finish line. There's no finish line to moderating hate speech, identifying hateful trends, trying to keep the platform safe. There's no such thing as an end game. Is the new TikTok now a Jewish organization? It's a Zionist organization. absolutely. Being Jewish myself, I just, I can't let people like that claim the, claim our ethnicity, even though I'm not particularly religious. But it's certainly I actually used the word Jewish rather than Zionist to mimic what he said. We all know exactly

what he's talking about. Yeah, well, it's certainly a Zionist organization. And it's more proof that Zionists ruin everything. They ruined Palestine by stealing it and ethnically cleansing it and committing genocide to preserve their ethno supremacy. They've ruined the Jewish faith by adopting it and claiming to speak in the name of the Jewish people. And now they've ruined TikTok, and that's why people are leaving TikTok. And this is why they stole TikTok. This is why they forced its sale is because as people like Anthony Blinken explained,

too many young people were seeing images of the carnage in Gaza that their tax dollars were supporting. And they were outraged about it. And so the response from the Zionists who run our society was to basically steal TikTok and now ban free speech, ban Zionism unless it's used in a positive term, which is just you could read that. And it sounds like that could be said in 1984. It's so Orwellian, but yet this is the new regime that we live under. And they're openly bragging about it. And they talks about being fed intelligence by Zionist organizations.

So you have groups that are supposed to represent the Jewish people, which is a religious ethnic group, now involved in spying on their fellow citizens, to snitch on people who are critical of Israel. And this is why they've also ruined CBS News, because the same people who now control TikTok now also control CBS News, and you continue to see the consequences there of just, you know, where even recently, one of their,

former staffers or stringers was a Palestinian cameraman in Gaza, he was killed by the Israeli military. And CBS News threw him under the bus by basically reporting the Israeli claims and he was part of a Hamas operation. When in fact, he was covering a humanitarian operation. The CBS News covered that as fact. So even under Zionism, if Israel kills you and Israel smears you, even your own employer will throw you under the bus at places like CBS News. Yeah, but what kind of a business model is this? He's going to, this guy, Adam Presser, is going to drive a lot of young people to this new platform upscrolled,

or at least he's going to drive them out of TikTok. It's not going to do what they joined it to have it to. Absolutely. It shows that not even everything in the society is about profit if it classed with the state of Israel. And Israel's interest. So this is not a business model. This is an ideological model.

Do people want to watch Zionists pundits on CBS News and, you know, even more obedience to the Trump administration? No. But if it serves an ideological agenda, the Ellison's will pay a lot of money for it. And the same thing at TikTok. They are losing people in droves who are going to new platforms like upscrolled, which is, founded by a Palestinian and will not ban you for criticizing Zionism.

But I don't think they care because this is about informing, this is about enforcing ideological conformity even at the expense of making money. Wow. Aaron, thank you very much. I recently joined upscrolled, as did you. We'll see

how well it does. Chris tells me there's some technical issues, but that's to be expected when you just start out something of this magnitude. That's the price of free speech. Yes, nicely put. It is the price of free speech. Thank you.

Thank you, Aaron. All the best to you, my dear friend. Coming up later today, at 1 o'clock Colonel Douglas McGregor, this is quite a lineup, at 2 o'clock Colonel Larry Wilkerson, at 3 o'clock Professor John Mearsheimer, at 4 o'clock, I don't know where he is, but Chris found him. Pepe Escobar, Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.