The Charlie Kirk Show - The Iran Off-Ramp? — LIVE Reaction to Middle East Missile Strikes

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

Zero US casualties. Zero Iranian missiles hit US bases. Zero need for the US to retaliate as of now. Charlie was just minutes into his Monday show when news broke that Iran's response to America's Saturday air strikes was imminent. He reacted live on air, joined by Mark Halperin, Alex Marlow, and Producer Blake. They discuss the missile attack as it unfolds, and Trump's opportunity to get out of the Middle East with a foreign policy masterclass. Watch every episode ad-free on members.charliekirk.com!  Get new merch at charliekirkstore.com! Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here live from the Bitcoin.com studio. Okay everybody, it is official. Iran has launched ballistic missiles at the United States, at troops throughout the region. We recap all of this as we were reporting this live. That's right, live. You're going to love our analysis as we talk about it as it happened. But right now, no U.S. troops have been killed, no casualties on this very historic day. President Trump has an opportunity to have an off ramp, declare victory, and to consider this a major win. Email us as always, freedom at CharlieKirk.com and subscribe to our podcast. That is the

Charlie Kirk Show podcast page. Become a member today, members.CharlieKirk.com. That's members.CharlieKirk.com. And again, get involved with Turning Point USA Today at tpusa.com that is tpusa.com and as always you guys can subscribe to the Charlie Kirk Show podcast page that is the Charlie Kirk Show podcast page. Buckle up everybody here we go. Charlie what you've done is incredible here. Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus. I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk's running the White House folks.

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Joining us now is Mark Halpern editor in chief of two way host of next up on the Megan Kelly network. Mark great to see you. I hope you had a restful and peaceful Saturday night. Nothing really happened this weekend. I hope you had a restful and peaceful Saturday night. Nothing really happened this weekend. Yeah, we did a special report on Two Way, had a big audience. And I think it's, you know, where I hear a lot of negative stuff about America,

American people, media. I think people are really engaged in this in a substantive way. I know you hear it when you talk to people. I know I regularly flatter you, but it's all heartfelt. I think you've been so thoughtful about this in as an analyst, but also as someone who's a player involved here

because this can be treated superficially. It can be treated as a red-blue divide. And these are serious issues and people should not be treating it like politics. They should be treating it like what's America's role gonna be in the world? And what do we think of what President Trump has done? And again, I think you've been extremely thoughtful

as an analyst and as a participant in saying, there's a way to do this that's in America's interest. And there are ways that history suggests aren't. And I think I applaud you and everyone else, including my colleagues on Two Way, who are treating this like a serious thing rather than a political thing or a frivolous thing Well, well, thank you mark that that means a lot and we've been we've been attacked by both sides

We've been called the warmonger and we've been called an isolationist and then I look around and I say well You know what the show's doing better than ever So it turns out the American people actually want a straight fact first non ideological take on this So mark, let me ask some of the harder questions. First of all, our eyes right now, we're monitoring the situation. Any moment right now, Iran could strike and hit a U.S. base. So I don't want to get too much into that

because that's speculative. But based on your reporting, Mark, was this strike in Iran successful? Did it take out Iran's nuclear capability? There's a lot of debate about that. The New York Times is trying to cast a little bit of doubt regarding that. What is your reporting showing regarding the success of this strike? Well, it was at least somewhat successful on two levels. Number one, I'd say three levels.

Number one, it certainly set back Iran's nuclear program. We don't know yet. No one knows if it eliminated it. Number two, it sent Iran and Israel both a message that the United States, as Israel is doing, is seizing this opportunity, an unprecedented opportunity where Iran is weak as it's been in quite some time, to show that the United States is going to partner with Israel. And then number three, it showed America's technological superiority over every military in the world. And that means that not just Iran, but the folks in Beijing and elsewhere can be reminded that if the United States decides to use its military power, it's going to bring it to

bear in a way with a technological and human proficiency that's unmatched by everybody else on the planet. That's an asymmetrical advantage for the United States. None of that means, though, that anybody knows, including the New York Times, including the administration, just how far back this has set the program. And I think it's going to take a lot of human intelligence and electronic surveillance to try to figure it out. There's no doubt that Iran did not go from being able to build a nuclear device and deliver it

to being unable, completely unable to deliver it. And we need to figure that out as a news story, but the policymakers need to understand because that goes to the next moves for both Israel and the United States, whose stated goal is to remove that capability, at least for the time being. Breaking news, by the way, Axios is saying, we can put this up on screen,

Israeli official says that Iran has now fired towards Qatar and Iraq. Mark, what is the significance of this? We're going to know a lot very quickly of the payload and the intent of the Iranian military. A lot of our troops are sitting ducks in the region kind of walk our audience through. We've seen this similar in 2020 with the taking out of Soleimani. So please educate our audience on this as we see this develop in real time. Well, we saw it then we also saw it when Israel and Iran fought a few months ago. I think there's a good possibility. I'm not predicting it. I'm not saying it's the only possible outcome.

But I think there's a good possibility that Iran will do something like what they've just reportedly done, tell their people it was a huge success and full retaliation, and stand down. I think that's a possibility. And I know there are people in the administration who are familiar with that possibility as well. They may also decide to activate

whatever remaining forces they have, both on their own and through proxies, to try to harm the United States and United States allies. And that'll put a lot of pressure on President Trump to decide what he wants to do. His rhetoric suggests that if Iran does that, the US will respond quite forcefully. But Israel's taking out a lot of targets now.

So I'm not sure what's left for the US to hit, but there's certainly ways to ratchet this up. So if a single American life is lost, I think the president will act quite in quite full force. If it's just property, maybe not. Yeah. And so this has been a little bit telegraphed though. We've kind of heard this for the last hour or two hours.

I'm texting with a reporter right now who's just about I'd say you're a better reporter, Mark. But he's almost he's almost at the Helprin League of Excellence. He says, quote, It sounds like based on our reporting, this was telegraphed and designed to avoid casualties. Why would Iran do that? Why would Iran telegraph and design a military attack to avoid casualties? Well, for long lines of what I said, they have to appease their people. Their whole premise of governance has been on the military front, the geopolitical front, we're going to stand up to the big Satan and the little Satan. And people in Iran know that the United States and Israel both have now attacked the Iranian assets. And I think, again, they've done this at least twice now, where they don't

want to bring the full measure of the United States force upon them. But they need to tell their people they've done something, and they can tell the Iranian people they did respond, and they can exaggerate the degree of success and the tit for tat nature of the response. And that's what many people think they'll do. And this could be a sign of that. But this is not a closed thing. It's not like they get one chance to respond. They may respond that way and then respond a different way.

Charlie, I think the biggest variable in all of this is the Iranian people and what the government feels they need to do to appease them or keep them from demanding a change in government or have a perception that they're a failed regime. And we don't know most of the reporting out of Iran, and I'm unfortunately not in a position to do much reporting there directly, but most of the reporting suggests that they're rallying around the government. They're rallying, reacting negatively to Israel in the United States And that's good for the government because that means they've got more leeway in how they respond without having to worry

About losing face with their own people. Okay, six missiles launched so far by Iran right now as we're here on air Towards Qatar. I'm told many have been intercepted There are multiple explosions over Doha and those interceptions are ongoing right now So it's conceivable that Iran kind of hey, it's common. It's common and they didn't like quite Want to kill Americans, but they wanted to show face domestically and they said hey, we did this thing It's over. And I mean, I could see it if these missiles are successfully intercepted and no US troops die. What is your reporting show mark about how President Trump

would respond? Do you think he will take an off-ramp and then kind of just put this thing considerate done if no US troops die? In the short term, I do think that's what the President would do if it's just some buildings hit. However, it's an ongoing issue, right? The president, to the extent, and again, you've taken heat, as you said, both called an isolationist and called a warmonger.

The president is committed to not letting Iran develop nuclear capability or intercontinental ballistic capability. The Israelis seem to be on this, and they continue to not only hit our targets in Iran, but with a great deal of confidence. But if there's another element of the mission, like we saw over the weekend, where the United States capability can get it done and Israel can't, they don't have the B-2s and the bunker busters, then I think the president would go back for more. But I think the goal is to say, deter Iran from striking American forces around the world,

deter them from hitting American forces in the United States, and hope that Israel can do what both the United States and Israel say they want, which is to eliminate that missile capability and that nuclear capability. We're getting some of the video now that we're going to put up. Sorry, Mark. This is all just breaking news in real time here. I'm a breaking news guy, Phil. No, I know.

So, and by the way, feel free to check your phone, Mark, if you're getting sources and you're getting information to live on air. The skies of Qatar are lighting up right now as interceptions seem to be occurring and we're going to try to load up those videos. Mark, what does this say for the MAGA doctrine, for the Trump doctrine? If there is an off ramp, President Trump has kind of created a third way. We've kind of always existed in, hey, either you're a dove or you're a hawk. President Trump has always existed kind of in between those two modalities. What does this mean for the Trump

doctrine and the Trump foreign policy worldview? Speak loudly, carry a big stick, use it when necessary and no boots on the ground. I find people who are surprised by how President Trump is handling this to be guilty of not paying attention. He's doing exactly what he said he would do. People say, well, this is a slippery slope. No, he's not going to put boots on the ground. They're not going to be American forces on the ground. There's going to be no nation-building. There's going to be no attempt to win the hearts and minds of the Iranian people. There will be a lot of rhetoric about how the Iranian people, as the president put on Truth Social yesterday, how the Iranian people should consider changing their government because their government has not performed in their best interest.

I think you will continue to see that. And I think you will continue to see overwhelming forced use to take out whatever needs to be taken out to make sure that Iran cannot be a nuclear power. Other than that, I think it's up to the Iranian government. If they kill an American, one single American, then I think you'll see massive retaliation. And the president made that clear to them. That doesn't mean boots on the ground.

We've got extraordinary air power. The Israelis have helped clear the way by making the Iranian Air Force and anti-air capacity quite limited and So I think the president as he said over the weekend that and the experts I talked to concur The mission that was carried out over the weekend is the tough one the ability of the United States to destroy government buildings political things bases the Navy that that that's a that is a

That's fish in a barrel for the US military. All right. We have some visuals. I just want to put this up on screen of some of the interceptions that are happening over Qatar. Now, remember, this is very ballsy for Iran to do because Qatar and Iran, I don't want to say they're allies, but there's definitely something that's been going on there with oil and they're closer than Saudi Arabia and Iran. So this is quite a maneuver for Iran to do.

But look at that, those interceptions happening over the skies of Qatar right now. That is real stuff. I mean, those ballistic missiles could take out hundreds of people if it hits a certain target. So you've heard me talk about Patriot Mobile for a while now. You probably already know that for years, they've split in the gap for every American that believes that freedom is worth fighting for. They are the real deal.

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to us, support faith, family and freedom to every call and text you make. Don't wait. Do it today. Go to patriotmobile.com slash Charlie or call 972-PATRIOT. Use promo code Charlie and get a free month of service. Right now, it looks like initial reports show that all missiles were intercepted so far. We need triple confirmation on that. I don't know what you're reporting is showing as well, but that could be another victory for President Trump to show the capacity for the U.S. military to intercept these missiles. There's also alarms that are ringing in Iraq and Bahrain, and the source of the interception is probably aerial interception and also Patriot missiles from the bases. Again, we need triple confirmation on that.

So Mark, really quick, what do you make of the politics of all this and kind of the response that you've seen from MAGA faithful over the last couple of days? You're very uniquely positioned as a reporter to comment on this. As we get more information about this aerial attack against US bases, what do you make of the politics of all this? Well, on the Republican side, I think the stories about, you know, MAGA meltdown are exaggerated. There's a few people like Marjorie Taylor Greene who are on principle opposed to this. I hear it on two way from MAGA folks who say this is a violation of what the president

has stood for. But most people, and I put you and Professor Bannon in this category, I think have participated in the debate in a responsible way. And most members of Republicans in Congress saying, let's make sure that this is done consistent, not with just American principles, but consistent with the principles learned over the last several decades, maybe from Vietnam onward, saying America cannot win these wars and America shouldn't get into wars that they can't win, but at the same time using air power and superiority to achieve a specific objective,

one that the president has talked about for such a long time, making sure they're not a nuclear power is a big one. I think the Democratic Party, perhaps not surprisingly, is just a mess on this. There's 17 different positions. I've yet to hear any Democrat enunciate what seems to be the obvious position, which is support our troops, demand that the Iraqi, the Iranian government not have nuclear capability or intercontinental ballistic missiles, and say that the president's obligated to work with Congress whenever he's going to put American forces in harm's way That's like the easy sensible position. That's patriotic and rational and doesn't give Donald Trump everything he wants and yet

I'd like I said, I've heard almost no Democrat talk about it I'll be super curious to see if the president's poll numbers go up because normally that would happen Oh, I think they will just really quick. It looks like there's more ballistic missiles right now launched at Bahrain. So it looks as if they're going after multiple targets based on reporting happening real time here on the program. It looks like the Qatar missile strikes were intercepted and all six headed to Doha were neutralized, intercepted huge victory for the US military and for the Saudis and the Qataris and the British. So basically, again, it's a very layman understanding, but basically we fly a bunch of fighter jets

and we try to send out a bunch of flares and disruptors that try to make the missiles explode in air. There are sirens right now in Kuwait, so we are not out of the woods yet. Bahrain and Kuwait and Iraq are probably the next three targets right here on the program as Iran looks to retaliate from the U.S. bombing on nuclear sites. Mark Halpern is with us. Okay, alarms are ringing right now in Kuwait. They are ringing in Bahrain. So eyes are now on those two countries. Can we put up a Middle Eastern map, please? So Qatar is the juiciest of all the targets. It's the largest U.S. base. It's in a desert and it's the closest proximity. I think Bahrain actually

might be a little bit closer, but we also have Blake here who's going to help with this. So you gotta go ahead, Marcus. You gotta worry about Iraq too, because there's a history there of not through the Arab, but just human assets on the ground who have the capacity to attack American forces. Those bases, of course, over years now have been fortified and they're pretty well secured, but you never know if this is a desperate time for the Iranians when they may start to activate long-held assets who are in a position

to do harm to America. The air defenses, as Israel has shown in this part of the world, are very good. Israel should stand a very high percentage of attacks on them from all quarters. And you mentioned the list of countries for him. This is a victory. I know you didn't do it on purpose,

but just a live rattle. Israel, a big part of this as well in terms of intelligence sharing, in terms of technology. So, Mark, right now, again, reports are showing French, British and American fighter jets are all over the Persian Gulf, just kind of going nuts. I want you to remind the audience, though, when we took out Soleimani, we were able to get out with zero US troops. So this would not be unprecedented, where we do something with a lot of chutzpah, where we do something where

President Trump really acts with decisiveness, with violence, but then we're able to get out without a single US troop dead. To do that twice, Mark, would be a rather phenomenal accomplishment in the modern era. Mark, Mark Halperin. Well, it has to do with the extraordinary capabilities of the Pentagon, right? They're following the orders of the commander in chief, the secretary of defense, and the president puts a premium on that. He doesn't want a single casualty, but it also has to do with his attitude. His attitude is, again, speak loudly, carry a big stick, only use it when absolutely essential,

and he doesn't want Americans to die. This continues to be the less failure to understand Donald Trump when they call him a warmonger. He's the opposite of that. He's extremely aware of the cost, not just for American families, but for American prestige and the military's capacity for when America suffers casualties. And that's why, again, I just, people who worry about him saying, well, we're going to go in and start building firehouses and parks and schools in Iran. It's not going to happen. Final thoughts here, Mark. And Mark, by the way, you're welcome to hang with us as we

kind of do breaking news. We're just going to roll through this, but I know you have a busy schedule. It sounds as if we need to, we need to get this verified. There is explosions at the Al-Assad air base in Iraq. That does not mean that anybody necessarily died. There were explosions at these bases back in 2020. It does not mean that any U.S. troops died. Ten missiles were launched targeting U.S. bases in Qatar. I think that those U.S. bases, that was a successful interception. The Iraqi one is an open question.

As you astutely mentioned, Mark, the Iraq one is very close geographically. There's a ton of Iraqi bases. In some ways, they were kind of sitting ducks. So it sounds like there might be a successful missile launch, successful in the worst possible way to say those words, on a U.S. base in Iraq. Also sirens at U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia. This looks like they're doing a major volley here mark Yeah, and look

This is one of the many things that people worried about people who did not think that US attack on The nuclear program was a good idea for worried about just this and now there's going to be a question of how long do they? Keep it up. Do they kill any Americans and they do, what is President Trump's response? There's also a possibility, of course, of communication and to say to the Iranians, OK, you got your measure of revenge. Now let's negotiate, or we will reply in greater force. That will, I predict, be what the president does. I think he will make one more effort to get them to the table. And if they don't come promptly to the table in a realistic way, I think you will see, as he suggested over the weekend, overwhelming force.

And that's if a single American dies. And Mark, just to repeat a point that we've made over the last couple of weeks, and this is not in any way. And I told you so. This was just a cautionary element. When we get into these situations, you don't know what's going to happen. You don't. No one could die, 100 people could die. And that risk has always been the root of my caution. When you get in these situations,

there's a thousand different ways this stuff can fall apart. 100% and the rejoinder, as you know, and which you've also given voice to, is the status quo ain't great. We have a country vowing to destroy Israel, a country vowing to do harm to the United States. And this is an opportunity the president's taking.

It might not work out well. And I know full well the president went into it asking questions about and knowing full well all the things that could go wrong and still decided it was worth it. And the American people are going to continue to debate no matter what happens, whether it was the right choice or not. And that's as it should be in a democracy of robust freedom. This podcast was once just a dream. And by the way, thank you guys for supporting it.

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Sell it with Shopify, make your dreams become reality. Shopify.com slash Charlie. Blake, how you doing? Doing great, Charlie. What are we hearing and seeing? Hopefully we're doing great. Exactly. So no visual reports of missiles over Kuwait and Bahrain. So we have reports of sirens going off, scrambling,

so that is what preceded the stuff in Qatar, but we haven't seen any video of missiles coming in over there. There are reports of explosions at Al-Assad Air Base in Iraq. There's no footage of that. Al-Assad is in the western desert of Iraq. So there wouldn't be, you know, in Qatar any random person might see missiles coming in. It's not a big country. It's all right by Doha.

And very civilized. So we'll be probably waiting for reports to come in. So, Mark, we have Mark Halpin with us. By the way, I want you guys to email us, freedom at Charlie Kirk dot com as we are monitoring this situation live as it is as it is unfolding in front of us. Coalition of Jets. This is breaking news. Coalition of Jets intercepting Iranian drones over Qatar, Iraq, Saudi and UAE air space. So look, can we get the map break up again? Let's get that Middle East map up. So if they're going to Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and UAE, they are just, they are flushing out in

many different directions. I want just a quick Middle Eastern geopolitical lesson for those of you that are tuning in. A lot of you are. Iran is at odds with, very much at odds with the UAE and Saudi Arabia. There's a Sunni Shia split. They just don't like each other. They haven't for quite some time, especially Saudi Arabia and Iran. Air strikes in Iraq are now being reported. And so the jets, by the way, pray for our service members right now that are in jets intercepting drones, intercepting missiles.

This seems to be a pretty serious salvo by Iran. Whether it is somewhat performative or theatrical, we will see, we know it's real, but what I mean by performative and theatrical, there has been a little bit of a windup to this. Close the airspace, you know, a little bit of a, hey, we're coming, because does Iran want to see this escalate? Blake, what are we seeing?

So there's definitely the belief, the big worry is if they hit us, are they going to actually try to cause as much damage as they can or is it they need to show that they're willing to fight much like we did. Remember this in Trump's first term where when we took out Soleimani, they shot missiles at us to sort of impress their own domestic political base, but they weren't really attempting to do as much damage as they could. They were not going to all out war over this. And we might see a similar strategy here.

On the other hand, it could also be they're testing it, probing it, seeing what might be vulnerable or just trying to deplete our stockpile of interceptor missiles. Yes. Okay. So. Okay. So breaking news, Iran says it has now launched what is called Operation Baqarat al-Fata against the US led coalition of the airbase in al-Uydeid in Qatar. The IRGC is to release a statement shortly, which means that this is probably coming to a conclusion, to an end.

So this is the question everybody. Is this a real escalation? Does Iran want to escalate this or is this kind of a domestic show of political force that they could check the box? Is it a one and done? And so initial reports right now show three reports of impact at the US base in Al Udeid. This is fog of war stuff guys. So we have to like triple confirm all of this. So there are additional attacks happening right now in Iraq. Can we show the Kuwait up? I just this Kuwait is the most Middle Eastern picture.

I'm sorry. This is the most Middle Eastern video ever. It literally shows missiles being intercepted and a bunch of yachts. No, no, no. You got to show the Kuwait when I just sent. It's literally a bunch of yachts and then a bunch of yachts on the bottom part in water and then a bunch of missiles being intercepted above and a bunch of like four season like luxury condominiums That is the most Middle Eastern video you'll ever see

Which is you just need like a guy to be like going through with like an ak-47 that's gold exactly He just like sprays in the air exactly a president Donald Trump right now is arrived in the situation room those optics right now Just show one more time. That is Kuwait. You've got missiles being intercepted up top. You got luxury condos in the middle and you've got yachts on the bottom. Welcome to Kuwait, everybody. Yeah, I think it's Kuwait. By the way, right now, US generals are meeting with President Trump in the situation room.

We are looking at all of our sources. We have the best sources. I would say outside, we're texting a lot of the stakeholders that those that are not currently in skips right now, we're texting, lot of the stakeholders that those that are not currently in skips right now We're texting we're getting information in real time Okay, so Iranian missiles are being intercepted, but it looks as if unfortunately there have been some three successful strikes in Bases in Iraq, but we don't know if those are intercepted missiles that maybe made their way through are they fragments are they direct hits? And if they hit did they hit anything with people in it?

Yes, and so by the way this why every minute matters the fact that there was almost an hour and a half or two Hour heads up means that everybody could have gotten in vehicles and drove, you know drove off base They could got they could get planes up in the air They could get into bunkers and by the way the u.s drew down their presence at a lot of these bases from 10 000 To 5 000 there's been a significant drawdown to try to limit some of the casualties and limit this response. There's no yet indication that Iran is going to close the Strait of Hormuz. That would be a serious escalation, one that would actually also hurt China. So I think that there is a that is probably unlikely that will happen.

We now have footage that we're about to put up that the base being struck. The report is this quote, it appears that there have been three direct hits on the large American base in Qatar. There are no yet reported casualties at the base as it was evacuated several days ago, but damage has been caused. Pray that remains everybody. It was just building damage and it's just equipment damage. Remember President Donald

Trump exercised restraint. Again, the president has a lot of history and drama with Iran. Do you remember when Iran, they struck down one of American drones? Yeah, they shot a robot down. Can we get that clip of Trump being like, I'm not going to strike Iran and kill a hundred Iranians because they just struck down a robot? And so, by the way, if this response is limited to a few missiles, let's put 357 up. President Donald Trump will be able to declare an unbelievable military victory. We take out a nuclear capability. No Americans die.

OK, so let me just repeat. There are reports of three direct hits on U.S. bases in Qatar. No reports of U.S. casualties, no reports of U.S. casualties. The Iranian of US casualties. The Iranian operation called the Annunciation of Victory, again, these guys are a bunch of,

they're just a bunch of talkers. They got a big mouth in Iran. Launched against US bases in Iraq, Qatar, and Iran is confirming, of course, they're doing it. We know that. So Lindsey Graham is now saying, now it's time to end this madness in Iran. He's just calling for absolute regime change.

Mr. President, please, I will call you later with this message, but please resist Lindsey Graham, please. If they do not kill an American and they just bomb a bunch of our equipment, take the W. Take the W. You will be able to say you did the most successful military operation in history taking out a nuclear program with no US troops dies. If that ends up bearing out, we do not know that is true. Blake, can you comment on that? That would be a phenomenal victory. It would be by far the biggest win for, I think, the way Trump sees his own military

stuff of us. I will act decisively, but with a clear objective, without any open ended commitment. If he's able to, even, you know, even temporarily or significantly set back the nuclear program, let alone destroy it. If he can say, I blew this 20 year threat to some submarines and all they did was they shot some bottle rockets at us and killed nobody. That is a big win for us. And we don't, we don't want to, we don't want to get that. Americans might be dying right now.

So we want to stay out with humility. This is big breaking news. The Qatari Ministry of Defense reports that Qatari air defenses intercepted a missile attack aimed at the Ayyad Air Base. And so, by the way, thank you Qatar. I know that there's been a lot of anti-Qatari language and we haven't really gotten into that.

But if it's true that Qatari air defenses intercepted a missile, then they might have saved American lives. So you have to there has to be definitely some moral clarity there. And again, there's a lot of language that OK, Qatar funds the pro Hamas crowd. That seems to also be true, but there might be a very complicated actor. The Strait of Hormuz has not been closed down. Any reports that demonstrate that really quick, Blake, I'm going to test you. Thirty seconds. What is The Strait of Hormuz has not been closed down. Any reports that demonstrate that? Really quick, Blake, I'm going to test you. Thirty seconds. What

is the Strait of Hormuz? What would it mean if they close it? Thirty seconds. Alright. The Persian Gulf is that little body of water that you can see going up to Iraq. And then past that is the Arabian Sea. That's the Indian Ocean. The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow body of water that goes through it. I believe it's named after an island that the Portuguese owned. And that is the narrowest part. So Iran could mine it. They could shoot missiles at it and ships would not want to go in there because they don't want to get hit.

They don't want to sink. And price would go way up. A huge amount of the world's oil passes through that strait on its way to global markets. Email us, freedom at Charlie Kirk dot com. I want to know what you are thinking about all this. Email us, freedom at CharlieKirk.com. I wanna know what you are thinking about all this. WhyRefi.com, privacy loan debt in America totals about $300 billion.

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You will not be calling a faceless call center. Go to yrefy.com. That is y-r-e-f-y.com. Alex Marlowe joins us, Editor-in-Chief of Breitbart News. Okay, we want to proceed with a lot of humility and caution. I do want to say, though, that I have a great deal of relief that at least the attacks on Qatar seem to have not killed any Americans. That is the most target rich of all the targets. It's the biggest base, it's geographically one of the closest, and if it's true that all those were intercepted, that would be a major, major victory. CNN said that 10 missiles were fired into Qatar, one into Iraq, and we will

now stay live here and analyze in real time. Alex Marlowe, what are we seeing? Potentially, Alex Marlowe, it looks like President Trump could walk away with one of the most remarkable U.S. foreign policy victories, if all continues as it is right now, which would be taking out the nuclear capability while also no US troops potentially being killed. Alex Marlowe, again, I put a major asterisk on that. It's really important about what's happening with Qatar because this is a point I wanted to make to you today

is that the coalitions here around the world, Trump has brought in a broader coalition on his side and on America's side. America is the alpha here. Absolutely. And I know there's some misconceptions about that, but Trump is playing this perfectly. And one of the things is Qatar was seen as adversarial a few years ago. Now they're seen as largely cooperative and they want to get closer to us. Look what's happening on the other side with Iran right now.

One of Iran's biggest backers Russia. Russia is trying everything they can not to help them. Why is this? It's because of Trump and they don't want to cause any more problems with Trump right now. And this is a big deal. So who's going to come in on Iran's behalf, on behalf of this unpopular regime?

Probably no one. Maybe the Venezuelans, which is what are they going to do there? It's seriously the Finnish coalition imaginable, which is, I think, why Trump and Israel moved the way they've moved. But the Qatar incident that you've highlighted It's so crucial because it shows you the broadening coalition in the Middle East for peace and against war that they think this is the quickest Past path to a more peaceful region as led by Trump two things number one

I'm gonna give a Gila a shout out on telegram The reporting has been actually very very good the last couple days and so thank you to a Gila on telegram You guys give them a follow. Secondly, Iran is now saying that they fired a missile for every bomb that was dropped on us. This seems very theatrical. Again, I don't wanna laugh too much. Did they really say that?

Yeah, they did. I do not want to laugh because Americans actually might be dead right now. We do not have the full casualty report, but I just wanna just take a big sigh of relief. It looks like in Qatar, the most target rich of all the targets, the one that we were worried about the most, because they fired 10 missiles at Qatar and one into Iraq. So we just want to kind of take a deep breath and say thank you Lord for protecting our US troops in Qatar because that is the biggest US base in the entire region. And so Alex, what do you make of this? And Alex, I apologize.

I might interrupt you at any moment here because there's so much breaking news here. For example, the Iranian National Security Council stated the missile strike on the American Al Udeid base in Qatar does not pose a threat to the brotherly nation of Qatar, whatever that means. Okay, so, but Alex, is it possible that Iran was just kind of doing international theater here, check the box, kind of show their domestic strength while not trying to further provoke the American military might. As I say that,

Baran has just urged all of its citizens to seek immediate shelter. But Alex Marlow comments on that. Yeah, they've taken a very aggressive rhetorical approach and they're obviously trying to fight back with whatever they can, but their missile capabilities are drastically weakened and they have almost no ability to quickly generate more

because Israel has targeted a lot of the sites from where they fire the ballistic missiles, but also no nation wants to come in on their behalf because they're in a losing proposition. Now what does the end game look like? What does the full loss look like? Is there regime change? Those are all really compelling and mysterious questions at the moment, Charlie, but overall we know Iran is losing and no one wants to come in on their behalf.

Who would want to come in contra Donald Trump from the position of strength that he is? Not to mention, Israel has been very impressive in the war in terms of their ability to take out military targets. And to come in on Iran's behalf is not going to happen. So I think they're desperately trying to get some level of momentum as fast as they can to maybe recruit some allies to their side.

But it's probably not going to work and because almost everything is getting the retaliatory strikes are just so devastating to them at every turn. Qatar has officially said no casualties and no damage from the attack. Praise the Lord. That's a big deal. That was the most that was the biggest threat of them all. But right now it's not over Bahrain is that sirens are going off in Bahrain right now and they urge all citizens to seek immediate shelter. That is happening in Bahrain right now.

Iran's top security council tells Qatar its attack poses no threat to its friendly and brotherly neighbors. So basically Iran is like, hey, Qatar, we're your friend. So we're learning a lot about Qatar in the midst of all this. So let's just kind of kind of put a little bit of a very educational. We are. Yeah. We're all quick studies now. Yeah. We're all very quick studies.

But but rain, we got to keep all eyes on Bahrain right now. All eyes on Bahrain. By the way, before Blake, I want to throw to you for a second, everybody, I want to hear from you. Freedom at Charlie Kirk dot com. That is freedom at Charlie Kirk dot com. Iran has filed 10 missiles at Qatar, one in Iraq, and it looks like something is happening towards Bahrain. I'm by no means a military expert, but here's my rule when it comes to military things,

is if you as an American citizen can't understand it, then they have not done a good enough job explaining it. Because that stuff's actually not as complicated. Would you agree, Blake? Like, oh, you know, this is just for military minds. Actually, no, you're a U.S. citizen. You deserve a right to understand it. You're a stakeholder. This is your government. U.S. base in Qatar reports no casualties and minimal damage. Praise God.

And now all eyes are on the Bahrain attack. The Iranian state TV is now trying to pound the chest. They're trying to get, oh, look at us. We responded back to all these Americans. Missiles launched at Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait. Can we contrast this for a second, Blake, with what they did with Israel Israel? They actually wanted to kill Jews. That was not performative. That was real. That was aggressive with America

It looks as if it's a little bit of a different of a calculation explained Yeah, so first of all, they shot more missiles because Israel has the Iron Dome They can shoot quite a few incoming projectiles down. So a lot of them got shot down, but some got through They've hit a decent number of buildings I think the total death toll is 24 and really it could be higher except Israel is prepared so much for this They have bunkers for everybody. They're very well drilled on how to avoid them So you'd almost certainly have far more deaths if they were any less prepared There have been major strikes in Tel Aviv with really

big missiles. So that they were clearly actually going for doing some damage. Yeah, with this, if we're stuck at 11 or 12 missiles, largely intercepted, intercepted, or the ones that landed did no damage and may not even have been seriously intending to do damage. And they're already, you know, proclaim claiming victory and saying, you know, Qatar, we're still buds with you. Don't worry about it.

That that is a very positive sign. Guys, can I add something? Yeah, please, Alex, chime in really quick about it. I was saying, I was saying what you guys were talking. Yes, we got how many days have been since Trump's attack? It's been two days. This is all they got, two days and this is it. Well we don't want to overly talk.

It's not the show of force. No I know, I agree. Again we don't know. I get it. I'm just, it's an observation. Take it in a vacuum Charlie. No I agree. In Iraq reports are being made of a drone attack against American air bases.

Guys drones are much easier to shoot down than ballistic missiles. Just so we are clear. OK, drones do not. Right, Blake. I mean, drones do not move at hypersonic speeds. Now, drones should not be minimalized, but we have technology to shoot down drones. Let's just be very clear. OK, email us as always freedom at Charlie Kirk dot com.

Again, there will be a time for a victory lap. I just want to say if President Trump is able to come out of this with no U.S. troops, with a performative response, U.S. troops died, a performative response with incredible display of U.S. military might against Fordow and against Istafan, against the Tans, this could be one of the most clear military victories that we've seen in quite some time. And by the way, keeping the entire Middle East coalition together, that would be another win for the MAGA doctrine. I literally wrote the book, The MAGA Doctrine, a couple of years ago, and keeping all these

international and regional partners together. And we don't know what kind of drones these are, but it just seems right now the indication so far is that this has been somewhat of a theatrical response on behalf of Iran. I'm not saying ballistic missiles aren't real, but they kind of gave us a two to three hour heads up, which by the way, shows that President Trump is winning here and they fear America and they want America to kind of back off and everybody's kind of seeking an off ramp here.

Right now, breaking news, US aircraft takes off from the Saudi Arabia air base. So we have air bases in Saudi Arabia. We've got air bases in Qatar. We've got air bases all over the place and God bless our service members right now. What they're doing is they're flying it. What, how fast they fly 800, 900 miles an hour. I mean, they fly almost the speed of sound. That's over the speed of sound.

They can break the speed of sound 700. I can't remember the exact amount, but about seven. I mean, they're flying super fast across the Gulf trying to find these missiles, shoot disruptors, interrupters. And so far they've been doing a phenomenal job. So God bless our troops that are doing this right now. And President Donald Trump right now is in the situation room in front of him is potentially a major U.S. victory. No regime change, no boots on the ground. You took out the nuclear program, you took out the nuclear capability. I should say it's actually a big U.S. victory. No regime change, no boots on the ground. You took out the nuclear program,

you took out the nuclear capability, I should say it's actually a big difference, and you might be able to say no U.S. troops died in response. What a triumph that President Trump very well might have been able to engineer. Email us, freedom at CharlieKirk.com, subscribe to the Charlie Kirk Show podcast page.

Iran is just running their mouth. They said, we just launched a very devastating and powerful missile attack, but we should never trust anything the Iranian social media ever says again. There's a national focus on eating all the healthiest of foods, and that's great news for Balance and Nature. Their method of producing a vibrant nutritional supplement is second to none. While so many others use chemicals and additives, Balance in Nature is made solely from whole food ingredients.

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that's the whole reason for taking Balance of Nature, getting the most nutrition for the sake of your health. Use my discount code CHARLIE to get 35% off plus free shipping and their money back guarantee. You must use my discount code CHARLEE, call them at 800-2468-751 and use discount code Charlie or order online at balanceinnature.com. Use discount code Charlie to get 35% off plus free shipping. So we've got Alex Marla with us. Iran is kind of saying this was devastating and powerful. It was devastating what President Trump did to you, just for the record. I want to just ask a question here really quick, Alex. If we are able to get this to a settlement, declare victory, which is legitimate, will

this go a long way to making sure the MAGA coalition stays unified? Alex Marla. Yeah, I think the timing of it for the MAGA coalition, Charlie, it's high stakes. I know you've been hyper conscious of this and it's really wise to be this way. This is one where if this is a clear, decisive victory and it takes place in the next week or two, which I think that is exactly where we're on track, it could go wrong at any minute. You've been cautious about that. That's correct. But if this happens in the next week or two, a clear, decisive victory where you've got a situation where

Israel Netanyahu has been a fixture of public life for 30 years and his main goal has been to protect Israel from Iran. That's been a stated mission. And Iran has done numerous devastating things to America, including shooting at our Navy fighters with the Houthis, et cetera, funding all sorts of terror proxies all around the world and pursuing the destruction of America, they would love to do it. If Trump could devastate their nuclear facilities, the way he's done apparently from what we've been told,

and he can pull out of the region without American casualties, without any forever wars, without any ground troops going in. I think he could reassure the entire MAGA base that this is the way forward. This is the peace through strength approach. This is what America First is all about. There are many places where things can

get fractured along the way. But if that happens clearly and decisively, I think he's going to start restoring trust in a lot of Americans who do not trust our leadership and our government. And it could be a huge moment for the future of the country. Very quick, Blake. Just from a, looks like some of the jets are now returning. It seems as if the attack is simmering down. There could have been one impact in Iraq, al-Assad

airbase. So we want to have a caveat on this. We don't know Americans could have died. And so we don't want to have a preemptive aggressive. We're going to have a lot of air base so we want to have a caveat on this we don't know Americans could have died and so we don't want to have a preemptive celebration but what are we reading and seeing Blake

very quick I mean it's looking like now we're seeing reports that you know if anything. Stakes are going down like they're not they're not freaking We don't have we haven't had new reports of additional missiles coming in and I feel like if this was going to get worse It's it's basically early in the evening there So in theory this could be the opening wave and you could see more stuff launched over the course of the night They have many hours to do that before daylight arrives But so far it seems it might really just be one volley of missiles declare victory go home

Okay, so let me just kind of go to some of these reports here. It seems like there was a lot of talk from Iran. This seems to be largely a theatrical show. A lot of the parties, it seems like, knew the plot and the outcome in advance. This was permitted largely to allow Iranians as a way to save face. So, again, if that ends up being true and no Americans being killed, it is now an incredible victory and we shouldn't have any focus on regime change or any of that, but we can now reconfigure our intent on the American homeland, on deportations, on the border.

Again, we're looking at this right now. Israeli jets are now moving into strike Iran. Okay, that's a whole separate dynamic here. But is it possible the American chapter of this might actually be closed? Yeah, it's possible. And I think the most likely and most favorable scenario, again, there's so many caveats I can add to this, but you guys will see where I'm going with this. Israel will continue to pummel Iran for the next week or two, continue to devastate them because they do not have any aerial defense right now. And Israel is going to take advantage. America should do nothing else.

Both sides have said they want this war to end quickly. And we cannot be involved in any sort of regime change because regime change will go on and on and on. There's going to be a lot of people who are going to try to tempt us into some sort of a regime change war. That is not our fight, that's not our battle, we cannot do. We cannot engage in it because we don't know what will happen next, but what we can do, go ahead.

But Alex, I'll throw it back to you in a second. No, no problem. Let me just read here. Qatar's defense systems intercepted nine out of 10 missiles launched by Iran with one missile landing in an open area. And so it looks like all the missiles to Qatar, nine out of 10 were intercepted. This is what happens when you kind of give a little bit

of like an hour to two hour, hey, we're going to attack, we're going to attack. Alex, what does this say for the Supreme Leader? It seems that the head of Iran did not want to see an escalation with America. They did not, they truly fear President Trump as they should. So President Trump's words now have real meaning for what he did in Fordow. Could it be so that President

Trump just set an entire message for the rest of the world that you better listen when I talk? Yeah, I think Charlie, you and I called this last week on your show. We talked about this exact thing is that Trump's word matters. It always has. And he's always said that they are not going to be allowed to have nuclear capabilities. He's been saying this for a decade and a half. So obviously, if they're gonna continue to flaunt him when he's in a position of deep power, and they've been in very much weakened

by Israeli strikes over the last few weeks, of course, this was gonna be something that Trump was gonna do. He said he was gonna wait two weeks, typical unpredictable Trump fashion. He only waited a couple of days, dropped some devastating attacks, and now he's out. And the American public is on the side of aerial defense. They're not on the side of regime change. And my prediction is Trump will stick with that. Alex, stay right there.

Blake, I'm going to throw it to you for a second. We do not know the extent of the attack at Iraq. The Bahrain sirens are still going off, so there could be an attack on Bahrain. Let's get the map back up here. Bahrain has closed its airspace, so it might... We are now seeing potentially another volley towards Bahrain. Bahrain is a very small country. This map is not helpful at all, but you see Saudi Arabia there. It's super tiny. Yes, but there's two clusters.

The two clusters on the eastern part of Saudi Arabia. The southernmost one is the Qatari the northern one is Bahrain exactly it's the literally like the icons. They're using on that are like larger no in Bahrain It's a tiny island. I doubt it's that much larger even then like so I'm curious some people are emailing us saying Charlie even though They didn't kill any Americans. They want to see a huge response from America. Is that your position? Freedom at Charlie Kirk dot com. Should we now escalate this if no Americans die? I don't know if that's my position. I think President Trump could take a massive victory here, which is that we bombed them hard. No Americans died. And that's it. No regime change. No boots on the ground. By the way, this is factored

in. This was a this was a expected, you know, response. By the way, this was factored in. This was a, this was a expected, you know, response. By the way, we know that Iran probably wanted an exit ramp. Take the win. That's my position. Email us freedom at Charlie Kirk dot com. Three different media outlets are now reporting no interest in injuries, not even injury, let alone a death. Praise the Lord. Again, this is the MAGA doctrine. This is the Trump doctrine. Force, exert the force, use it, be unapologetic in the use of it. Limited, decisive, aggressive, violent, prudent action. Blake, let's kind of go through the dynamics here. Why would we not respond even though that they sent missiles towards us and no one died? Why should we take the win here? Well, because when you think about like what, what were we hope, what are we hoping to get

done here? The reason we got involved was hopefully to do as much damage to Iran's nuclear program as possible because that was what Trump's goal was. He says Iran will not get a nuclear weapon. And when we think what are the bad outcomes that could happen here, the bad outcome is we get sucked into some sort of cycle of constant strike and retaliation and strike back. It'd be a huge failure case if we end up with boots on the ground. And how do you end up in a situation with boots on the ground even if you say you don't? If you're

constantly having these strikes go back and forth, if oh we need to get back at them for something they did and if this strike did in fact have no casualties, we kind of have the perfect excuse to go, all right, they made their response and it was totally impotent. We clearly don't even need to worry about what they have to shoot at us other than their nuclear program,

which we just hit and did a bunch of damage to. It perfectly works out for us to be able to say, we win, we take our ball, we go home. No impacts at the Al Uyuddeh airbase in Qatar and so that that is from every source that we have as well Okay, everybody email us freedom at Charlie Kirk comm we are looking at this live So right now or Iran coordinated attacks on the US airbase in Qatar with Qatari officials providing advance notice to minimize casualties That is the New York Times. And so Iran has responded,

and they responded with 11 ballistic missiles in the Middle, in the Mideast. No American troops seem to have died so far, God willing. New York Times is reporting, though, that Iran coordinated the American airbase attack kind of just be theatrical and performative. Iran appears to coordinate response as to what not dragged the United States more directly into the fight. What does that mean then, Blake? be theatrical and performative. Iran appears to coordinate response as to what not drag the United States more directly into the fight. What does that mean then Blake?

I mean it almost makes the sound like pro wrestling or something. Like you know if you ever watch it they have the whole like you know throw the punch but the guy's ready for it and like pulls his head back. It's like oh we're gonna strike at you guys to show we're serious but we're gonna announce it in advance. You're going to see everything coming and it's going to be aimed really badly. And yeah, then nobody dies. If this is where we're able to get an off ramp, it is a gigantic win for the United States and I suppose a gigantic win for President Trump's judgment. Yeah.

If we are able to navigate it and if we're able to kind of go through. Big it. Big it. Yes. Ask 10 able to kind of go through. Bigger, bigger. Yes. Ask 10 people to define the word capitalism. How many different responses do you think you'll get? This is a word that comes up all the time, but does anyone know what it really means? Do you? Hillsdale College offers more than 40 free online courses.

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But honestly this is a great story to tell. Are you kidding me? That you strike Iran, there was risk involved, no U.S. troops die in response, and end of story. This is a major victory. That's the story to tell. Just to be clear though, U., US officials are now saying that Iran, that I'm trying to find this here, US officials are now saying that this was

largely symbolic. Trump has no intention of retaliation against Iran after its failed retaliation attempt. Alex Marlow, if that's true, is this not a very powerful narrative to be able to present to the American people that look, there was risk involved, but there ended up being no casualties and no death to American troops? Yeah, I think that what we've seen here is Trump basically executing a plan that is very straightforward. He's a man of his word and Iran has not shown any willingness to be cooperative

in the slightest. And I think that, you know, it's just not true. The facts are on Trump's side that he was not manipulated into this. I know there's a perception online that Israel somehow coax Trump into war. Israel was freaking out that Trump could throw them under the bus. We, of course, have a lot of sources in Israel and there's a lot of people who deeply concerned that Trump is not a fan of Netanyahu, does not want to fight wars on his behalf. But Iran went right after Trump by continuing to enrich and continuing to fund those proxies despite him pleading with them, please stop, let's be diplomatic. And they would not do it.

And this fits very clearly with Trump's narrative of taking out Baghdadi. You remember Charlie's all those beautiful dogs going through the wall, they could have gone through the door, they went through the wall, all that great stuff with him. Soleimani, the taking out the Wagner troops in Syria, pro-arming, proactively arming Ukraine, cutting out Nord Stream 2 to affect the Russians. Trump has been highly aggressive and people are not cooperative with him. And then he does a one-off move, maybe two or three moves at the most. And then he backs off.

He's a peacetime president, but he understands being unpredictable is the quickest way to peace. If he stops here where he's at now That will be the narrative and it will be a winning narrative over time. Yeah, and Alex let's just let's just kind of Reiterate this point though that hey for low low propensity voters. They don't like the foreign intervention all this Do you think the way that this is? Concluding could maybe remedy some of that Yeah, it has to him we need to be deeply cautious of every political coalition

in this country is tenuous. And it is very important that when you're in charge and you have to do stuff, there's nothing that's 100 to zero issue. So every time Trump makes a move, there's always a risk that some of the base, some of the movement is not going to understand it. It's imperative on the messengers

and on Trump himself and on his administration to make that case to the public in an effective way. And I trust these guys to do it. It's imperative on the messengers and on Trump himself and on his administration to make that case to the public in an effective way. And I trust these guys to do it. But there are a lot of people who are new to the movement who do not understand why some of us like Israel so much and understand that deep history. And they don't want to feel like Trump got manipulated into work. I know for a fact that's not why Trump did this. But that is on the people who want to see this movement to be strong to make that case to the people who are skeptical of everything. Charlie, they're skeptical of everything for good reason. After all the COVID stuff and after all the lying after 2020 election, people are skeptical

of the government and it is imperative upon us to make that case to them. Blake, do you have a comment here on kind of news that we're seeing? Well, so I mean, there's not much news right now. One of the funny things about this is just you get war has like long lulls in it and then you just have these shows where you react. For now, nothing new is happening on the strikes front. This may be the end of things. That could always change at any time. I suppose a big open question is what will happen if we get this off-ramp to get out things, but if just the war continues,

if Israel keeps bombing Iran, Iran keeps shooting missiles back at Israel, will that cause any pressure for us to get involved again at any point, or are we able to stand aside with just the role we've played so far? So there are explosions in Tehran right now, which is likely Israeli jets. And so Israel and Iran are going to keep on going back at it. But this is probably and likely a closure to the American involvement here. And by the way, don't take my word for it. Oil prices are going down. Oil prices are plummeting right now because the markets, they're like, okay, we know what this is. This was theatrical. This was performative.

This was kind of check the box and President Donald Trump is able to President Donald Trump is able to act in a decisive way. You don't have to agree with it But I'm going to ask the question though. Okay, if no US troops die, and this is the end of the chapter Has he hasn't he yet again earned your trust on this stuff? Syria Soleimani, al-Baghdadi, American troops have not died in these situations. Oil is collapsing right now, and air defenses are activated over Tehran.

That is not American jets, from our knowledge, our understanding. U.S. officials are saying that was a failed response. We don't plan a response. So it is conceivable then, Alex, that we can say that this chapter is closed. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah, I think we're, we're hovering around something really important here is that this needs to end the war needs to end needs to come to a close. We need to not be involved

in regime change, go back and get that domestic agenda going. We have 700 illegal immigration arrests yesterday and we barely have 700 illegal immigration arrests yesterday. We barely have time to talk about it. I mean, that's stuff I want to talk about. I want to get back to that agenda. I want those maja moms reached out to. The Epstein files are not going to, no one's going to be happy about that stuff.

And that continues to erode the trust in the people, the normal people, the new people in Trump's coalition. And those people need to be focused on, starting with the immigration agenda, the new people in Trump's coalition, and those people need to be focused on, starting with the immigration agenda, getting those tax cuts going, all the things that Trump had promised. That needs to get done next in order to solidify that he's a man of his word, which I think he is. So I'm very optimistic today.

And Blake, the Iranian response being theatrical is very good for us, especially if we want like they gave us an off ramp and it looks like President Trump is going to take it. It's conceivable that a week from now we're going to be all back to deportation talk. Yeah, that's one of the great things. If we get the successful off ramp, this just becomes I mean, how many details do you remember about the Soleimani thing? How many details do you remember about the Iran drone crisis? Can you remember the month either of those things happened?

Probably at this point, some of us could, but I bet most people they couldn't tell you the exact number of You know war crises we had with Iran in the first Trump term or when they happened and I think the biggest win for Trump Would be if in you know a year from now people can't even quite remember exactly when this happened President Donald Trump This is breaking news from Axios his administration Was aware of the Iranian attack in advance. So pretty amazing. So, all right, email us as always, freedom at CharlieKirk.com and subscribe to our podcast.

Alex Marlow, what else are you seeing and hearing? Yeah, I think that Charlie, you're talking about the right stuff, the urgency to end this thing and to move on is the right thing But it is incredible display of weakness by Iran that this is all they could summon after two days and it shows you that they're deeply vulnerable and I'm not rooting for or against regime change there

but I am rooting for us for America not to be a part of it and Israel has to Have they've said they've won in the war to end as well They can keep bombing for another week or so and then after that, you know Why this thing down and start focusing on those deportations and the rest of the domestic agenda. If that happens, Trump is going to look like just a historic figure with historic wisdom. He continues to play this thing right and I continue to stay optimistic. I'm trying to find one thing here, but Blake, what does this then mean for the broader foreign policy project? China, Ukraine, Russia, does this have other implications?

Well, if we if we get out of it, I think it's probably mostly positive. I think our adversaries, if they had a hope, you know, what could happen to America, they would be thinking, oh, could America get into another conflict that will deplete them and distract them? I imagine Russia would love it if we got in an Iranian quagmire because that would probably mean the end to any significant support to Ukraine. China might see, oh, this is going to slow down their pivot to Asia. Maybe that's our chance to go for Taiwan. If we get out of this quickly, I think that might make them think, well, one, they're

not distracted, and two, we saw US military hardware on display. It seems to be working properly. It seems any talk about America's armed forces being a paper tiger might be overblown. And that could assist us in a lot of our international relations. And also, if we're able to successfully kind of put Iran in a corner,

that can definitely improve the relationships we've been building in the Middle East. Can I chime in on that? Yes, please. Charlie, because I was thinking about what you guys were talking about earlier about the Strait of Hormuz and how that's not shut down yet. And I was thinking if Iran really thought they were in a position of strength, it would have been shut down by now. But I know that there's people in the area who are more aligned with them who are saying, absolutely not, do not shut this down, you can't do it, or else we're going to throw you under the bus too. So it just speaks to the vulnerability that they have right now.

And I think that that is another sign that Trump is acting very prudently here by doing something. Don't do too much. No ground troops at all. I know Bannon's warned about the ground troops. He's right to warn people about it. But overall, it feels like we're in very strong footing at the moment. Yes. And sorry, I was just I was just double checking right now. So it looks as if the attack is over. US officials told Fox News that no American soldiers were killed or injured in the Iranian attack. Praise the Lord.

Beautiful. That's huge, everybody. Beautiful. That's praise the Lord. It is really big. So the American official says, quote, the US is not expected to respond to Iran's failed attack. And so the U.S. official will see what happens. And we need to double and triple confirm that.

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Visit noblegoldinvestments.com.. Visit noblegoldinvestments.com. That's noblegoldinvestments.com. The world is turning to gold. Shouldn't you be looking into doing that too? Okay, Blake, what are we seeing as far as the reaction online from folks? Blake I mean, the reaction online, what's funny is, you know, this is all so immediate. I'm not even sure if everyone's seen it. They're at work or whatever.

But the initial stuff from people who are hyper online, I think is optimistic. I think there's some gloating. A lot of people at this point are really just in the phase of making fun of Iran. I was messaging you earlier. It's almost like this is the moment where you remember that Iran is a regime founded by college professors. Like they just talk a little game, kind of inept, kind of incompetent, aren't really good at the real world stuff. And you know, that's good to the extent that it's true. And I think further reactions will

depend greatly on what actually happens. We live in a very, you know, ADD society, so some people are already spiking the football, declaring total victory, declaring everything's worked out exactly as we wanted. We will see what happens. Things change a lot. We'll even have to see, one thing we were discussing this morning, we still don't know for sure how much damage was actually done to Iran's nuclear program. Did they get their uranium out? That's still an open question. It could turn out maybe Iran did a minor response because they already know a lot of their nuclear material is fine and so they just don't want to antagonize the US because they can just get right back to getting that underway again. So I don't think we should overreact to

things but I think the reaction to the extent that exists is a mixture of cautious optimism and making fun of Iran. Okay, I agree with that. So the response seems to be largely theatrical, but it looks as if based on all reporting, and we're going to hear from the US officials and the US administration sometime soon, doesn't look like the United States is going to respond. Again, there's a lot of fog of war going on. Can you talk about the fog of war? Where does that phrase come from, Blake?

The fog of war? I think it originally comes from Klauswitz. Have you ever heard of that guy? No. Klauswitz was a Prussian—it might even be older than that, but I think it's from him. He was a Prussian military theorist in the 1800s. He wrote a book on war and it was kind of the first modern, like, analysis of war that wasn't just like old-fashioned, like medieval or ancient text. It was a guy in the 1800s. He was German, so of course the book had to be like a thousand pages long. And he would write, and I think he also was the source of kind of the concept of

no plan survives first contact with the enemy. So he's like in warfare you design plans but as soon as you actually get into combat those plans break down you have uncertainty about what's unfolding around you. That's the fog of war. And so from a diplomatic standpoint and now a U.S. domestic one you say, Blake, is the lesson or the takeaway if no US troops died? If no US troops die, I would actually like to caveat there can be worries about that. A worry that you might have is if we're able to do this, blow up a lot of Iran's nuclear program, and get out without any casualties, that could make us overconfident that that can be replicated. You might think, oh well we can apply the same lessons to

this other country and they'll probably not hit back at us either, and you make that mistake. I would like to caveat that that could happen. That said, I think a lesson we could take is President Trump has at that point a very clear track record of having good instincts on what he can. What he's able to do force wise without causing things to spiral out of control. So it would be a strong win for President Trump's personal instincts in that realm. It's a display that it is in fact possible to do limited war that we can get America back to this attitude of We can do military ventures with clear objectives rather than open-ended nation-building I think a reason so many of our wars became these nation-building fiascos is Because there was a mental tendency in America in

Washington that our interventions had to go that way, that we couldn't just say, we're going to beat up on this country. It was almost, we got too moralizing about our wars that every war had to be to like rescue an entire country and bring them freedom and democracy. Whereas Trump, because he comes from a more real politic school of thought,

he thinks, I wage war for America's interests. And even if it'd be great if Iran was free, that is not why America goes to war. Totally. And it's just, so just to be clear, third verification now from a US official, no casualties reported in Iran missile attack on US base. Blake, some people in our audience are saying, still, we have to respond with force. Come on, guys, take the win. Yeah.

I mean, they just did a whole theatrical response. A way to think of it. You think our enemies are just gonna not do something, at least theatrical in response? Yeah, it's like if you're, if you have this annoying neighbor or something, and he's doing, I don't know, if he's doing something,

if he has something really like Aggravating on his property and you go over and you like smash it to bits or whatever because it's bad And then he comes over and he's like you're big and strong and he's this little Twink and he like punches you right in the chest and like it doesn't even hurt you and you're completely unharmed Do you then like respond to like grabbing him and breaking his arm? No, you just you laugh at him and you walk away What you guys email us freedom freedom at CharlieKirk.com. Some people say the chapter is not closed. We should send boots on the ground.

Some people are saying that. Email us, freedom at CharlieKirk.com. I think that's wild, to be really honest. Oil prices, though, are falling 5% after the Iranian attack on a US military base. The whole world knows what this is. And I fully anticipate President Donald Trump. Here's what President Trump should do, if you want to ask my two cents. President Donald Trump should do a prime time evening address tonight with more specifics

about what we did, why it was an American interest to strike Iran, why it was not done lightly, the amazing military accomplishment and how Iran responded and no American troops died, and then say that this, you know, we're going to stay engaged and involved, and Iran dares, perks up, we will respond even more, but for all intents and purposes, we don't have any further military action. I think that would be a great response. Okay, everybody, just to recap today. So we started the day kind of talking about the political fallout.

And Iranian missiles were launched. Ten of them were launched at US base in Qatar, one in Iraq, and no casualties reported. If this ends up being the case with this fast moving, breaking news day, President Donald Trump will have pulled off a phenomenal success, a legendary success, textbook, a masterclass in a way that none of us could have ever potentially dreamed. We're very worried about escalation as we should be. These things can still escalate from this point forward.

These things can still go to levels that we do not anticipate and that we cannot always predict. But I could tell you right now that President Donald Trump is putting on a foreign policy masterclass. And I believe that President Trump will now exercise restraint. This is how strong nations exercise military power. You don't have to agree with it, but how could you be against the result though? If the result ends up being a nuclear program that is severely put back and capability that is jeopardized and no U.S. troops and no foreign war, no regime

change, how could you be against the result? So I encourage you to enter into this discussion with a fair amount of honesty and integrity. So the takeaway for me, and I think for a lot of people, is President Donald Trump has navigated this beautifully. Again, there's still a lot of situational awareness we must have here. There is still a lot of blowback that can still occur, but look, what Iran did here is very simple. Iran is very worried about what an American response would potentially be.

30 seconds, final thoughts, Blake. I think we talked about why we were worried about this at the outset the ways it could spiral out of control. So far it is not spiraling and I think we would both agree it'd be great for us to seize that opportunity, take the win, say we did what we came here to do and we're getting out. We are setting a new template for US military action. Limited, restrained, clear objectives, brief. And that's an asset that we have and we should be grateful for it. Very good. Thanks so much for listening everybody. Email us as always freedom at charliekirk.com.

Thanks so much for listening and God bless. For more on many of these stories and news you can trust go to charliekirk.com.