The Chris Cuomo Project - This Is How World War 3 Could Actually Start

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

Chris Cuomo breaks down why the current conflict with Iran could escalate far beyond what the White House is anticipating. Cuomo argues that the real danger isn’t just the initial strike, but everything that follows — from Hezbollah re-engaging along Israel’s northern border to instability across the Middle East and the risk of global escalation. He lays out how choke points like the Strait of Hormuz could disrupt trade, why proxy groups matter more than ever, and how quickly this could expand beyond a regional conflict. At the center of the analysis is a key question: what happens when a war is started without a clear plan for how it ends — or who gets pulled in next? Join The Chris Cuomo Project on YouTube for ad-free episodes, early releases, exclusive access to Chris, and more: https://www.youtube.com/@chriscuomo/join Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at https://shopify.com/chrisc Get 15% off OneSkin with the code cuomo at https://www.oneskin.co/cuomo #oneskinpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We'd love to talk. Business. Did President Trump just start World War III? That is a provocative idea, but I got to tell you, it's not that far-fetched. The big problem with what we're dealing with, with this campaign in Iran, this conflict, everything other than a war, even though that's exactly what he called it, is that there are so many potential eventualities that you have to consider. They're not possibilities, they're probabilities.

And that's why there's so much suspicion and concern. around why the president did this when he did, how he did, and why he did. Because there are a few moves that once you see them, and I'll lay them out for you. This is not just a slippery slope. This is a sheet of ice, especially because of how it started, especially because of what the president didn't do, that now is really coming home. to roost in a way that you and I have never seen in our lifetime. What are those things? How could it go? That's not just some BS conspiracy. This is a connect the dots scenario based on facts and circumstances that are in play right now have been in the past and threatened to in the future. The idea that you

just get in and out in Iran, and it's as simple as that on our timetable when we say, so when he feels it in his gut is foolishness and I can prove it. Chris Cuomo here. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo project. Thank you for subscribing and following, checking us out on YouTube and looking for the subscription that works for you. Come on over from Subsdack. Substack's done for me. I'm not a writer. Okay? I'm a visual guy. And there will be more opportunity for us to get together and do things together on YouTube. Check out the subscriber basis is there. Okay? Now, let me give you reason why it's worth subscribing. Let me give you some brain food as a critical thinker because this is why I sell the merch, right? To brand yourself, to wear your

independence, to show you a free agent, here's how it works. One, the obvious reason that doing what the president just did in Iran, and let's give him his best argument, by the way, okay, Iran is a threat. they were making missiles to defend their nukes. They're working on getting nukes because Obama's deal with all those other countries that went into it and all that negotiation that a big part of the world leaders thought was a good idea was actually a poo-poo agreement that had Iran get a bunch of money and a bunch of opportunity to skirt any kind of safeguards. And even though we bombed and obliterated their program, as the president told us, turns it out, it was obliterated for a few months, which is, of course, puppycock. But I got to tell you, bad in the inception, bad in

the execution, bad in the eventualities. That's what we're dealing with. They didn't get it right the last time. But even if you want to say, Obama screwed it up, had to be strong, Iran is playing games, they're exporting terror, they're behind Hamas, they're behind the Houthis, they're behind He's behind Hezbollah. They're behind domestic terror here in America. They've heard us before. They're killing us online. Had to do it. That's his best argument. Had to do it now. Doing it death from above. We'll keep the casualties really low, short in duration. Israel's doing a lot of it. They're going to fight Hezbollah and Lebanon. And that's why I did it because someone had to and they're bad, period. Okay. Is it true? A lot of that.

that is true. Yeah. The regime is bad. Exporting terror, all those proxies, bad, online, offline, true, true. So why now? Why didn't he do it last time? Why didn't he do it the last time he bombed? I don't know. That's a good question. Do I think there's only one reason that he did this? No. Then do I think if there were one reason, would it be that Israel made him? No. I don't buy it. And look, I have plenty of problems with how Israel has conducted itself in Gaza, what it's doing, in Lebanon, which is an untold story that we are going to live in blood and circumstance for months to come. But that doesn't make me anti-Zionist or anti-Semitic. It makes me anti-Certain policy decisions. And that's fine. That's fine. Plenty of room for criticism of all sides.

But the idea that Iran and what America is doing is just about them and not about us, not about distracting us from Epstein, from affordability, from all these different issues that are going on here domestically that the president can't seem to solve. This he can do by himself without Congress. It looks strong in his mind and the base is rewarding him even though you voted for the opposite of this. Welcome to stupid party politics and fringe politics in the battle to the bottom of this binary BS that we're stuck in with these parties. And it worked. We're not talking about Epstein. We're not talking about affordability, little gas and groceries, he shoes it away. So it worked for now. But where does it lead? First layer, you're provoking the Islamists. And that region is rife

within stability. Look, we know this is true. Because as soon as you hit Iran, what happened? Hezbollah, which had really gotten crushed a year ago, much more than the Iranian nuclear program, they signed a deal to disarm. America was helping that be executed up until this. Now they have gone all in against Israel in a way we have not seen in many, many years. They ran away a year ago. Now they're running toward the border. Okay?

They are dumping rockets right where I was standing by the dozens. And they have a lot of munitions that can reach all of Israel, unlike Hamas. Hezbollah is the largest terror organization in the region. And guess what else they do? They talk to the brothers and sisters of terror in the stands. We don't know what's going to happen in Syria. New regime. America's being friendly to them. But they're a bunch of former jihadis. Indonesia, North Africa, the Sudan. There are all these Islamist pods in all of these places, not sleeper cells. And by the way, sleeper cell, not a thing. to the intelligence community.

It's some kind of media political thing. It's not a thing for intelligence people. They don't deal with sleeper cells. They don't even believe in it. They don't even like the vernacular. Anyway, little food for thought. But we see them speaking out, putting out videos, saying, that's it. You want jihad.

Let's do jihad. And now you've got the region showing its vulnerability to the jihadis, right? Because the Emirates, they got nothing. They're getting pelted with rockets from Iran. All they have to do is complain. What does that do to our alliance? So you're provoking those Islamists. You start taking them all on.

What do you got? World War III. That's what you've got. Okay? Why? You go after the Islamists and you think it's just about the war on terror again, even though I don't know how you fight an idea. I got to tell you, the only way you beat an idea is with a better idea.

And we haven't seen that yet. Arab Spring, Afghanistan, Iraq, North Africa. nobody's replacing it with something that is demonstrably better than what was there before we spent all the blood and treasure on it. So stability is like a relative term, changes a relative term. Look at the choke points. The Strait of Hormuz has introduced a new front in the war on terror that could absolutely lead to escalation. How? Well, even if America says it had planned for this and it's not surprised by what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz sure has been effective.

and if they're so degraded the regime, what does that tell you about how little it takes to do a lot of chaos? Not so much, right? And by the way, I've seen the drones that they're using. Literally, in my hand, they are crap. They are like weed whacker engines with like model airplanes,

and they can drop a payload that we have to use munitions that are worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, to shoot down one cheap, drone and they have a gazillion of them and they can drop mines and other things so they can do it cheap they can do it with little and cause a lot of trouble and now the strait of Hormuz has opened up choke points that can be easily compromised in a way that will make trade hard and will make people

like insurers and shippers skittish because of what happened in the strait of Hormuz like what How many places are they like that? About half a dozen all over the world that can similarly be used as choke points of doing an outsized damage to commerce. Like what? Suez Canal. Suez Canal. Main, main, a 10% of global trade goes through the Suez Canal. Also, just as easy to attack with pinch points in that region of the world.

The Babel Mandelow, whatever they call it. it, which is linking the Indian Ocean to the Suez Canal. That's another little choke point, where terrorists could be very effective. You know, you got that point right along the Bosphorus, where they feed into it. Again, small. The Panama Canal, another part of the globe, but same issue. And, well, that doesn't have anything to do with this, Chris. You're overextending it. Am I? Am I? Tell that to the pissed off people from the regime in Venezuela. and the rebels down there and the nascent Islamists but more importantly the anti-American rebels that exist down there the guerrillas g-u-e-r not the animal they're war makers la guerrera g-u-e-r-r-a

that's where gorilla comes from it's not from the animal it's another little piece of information there for you but the malacca straits all of those can be compromised the same way the Strait of Hormuz is, actually even more easily. Okay? So now you get escalation. Now you get this reverberating all over the world. You see what I'm saying? This is very easy mission creep here. Now, you get to the next level. You're like, oh boy, that's that's a little tortured. I don't know. We've never seen that before. Really? Really. We never saw 9-11 before either. Support comes from Shopify. You need them, because, you need them, because, you know,

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and you will get a $1 per month trial if you go to Shopify.com slash Chris C. Use my name. Tell the folks at Shopify, Cuomo sent me. That's Shopify.com slash Chris C. We're talking to World War III, so what does that mean? Well, it's got to be bigger. How does it get bigger? Who does Iran cozy up to? They're not stupid, okay? They're evil, the regime, but they're not stupid. They've been in power 47 years in a place where they don't belong, okay? Russia and China. Now, Russia, we just gave ourselves a little bit of a break on in terms of making them part of what exacerbates, accelerates this situation. But boy, is that going to come at a cost, which I'll explain in a moment. China buys up the overwhelming majority of Iran's oil.

Now, by the way, Iran is not a huge oil producer to like 5% of the world output. But China buys 70% of it. So what does that mean? Well, China's got a vested interest in keeping this going. All right, well, fine. They'll get it going with the new regime. That's not a guarantee. They like what they have right now.

They've given them a lot of money and resources and building to put up infrastructure together for this regime. How do we know that China, if this goes on, doesn't want to flex? How do we know that China doesn't see this and say, look, enough? The guy does it in Venezuela, which, by the way, has a huge Chinese and Russian presence. By the way, they had security forces in Venezuela, not just diplomat. And we just blew through all of it. Now, you could say, yes, so they learned they can't mess.

Or they learned that it's time to mess. Okay? Distinction with a difference. Now they hear it's not just Venezuela. It's Iran. Now they hear it's not just Iran. It may be Cuba. And guess who else is in Cuba?

The Chinese. Now, fair point. The Chinese are everywhere. But how long until they want to do one of their own with Taiwan? And say, wait, what are you saying to me? You do Venezuela, you steal the guy, you do Iran, you flip up the regime whenever you want, you bomb all over the place, you go and take Cuba, you don't think we're going to do something. Who are you to tell us not to do Taiwan the way you're doing these other places?

Now what do you have? The Biden administration, the Trump administration, they've echoed the same language. You go at Taiwan, you go at us. Really? What does that look like? What does that look like? I would argue that's an impossibility for America. No way you can get into a situation with China like that. No way. No winners. World War III. Russia, they could have been an equal antagonist and teamed up with China. Not far-fetched. Not far-fetched. North Korea, by the way,

also could be an agitator here as a proxy for China. Not far-fetched. Not far-fetched. But what did we just do? We just loosened up the restraints on Russian oil. Why? To help offset what's happening in the world market. What does that mean about Ukraine? Exactly. What does it mean? What does it mean in terms of Russia's bravado to expand itself?

Now what do you have? World War III. You see what I'm saying? It's not just about Iran. It's not just the regime. And that's why the president keeps stepping backwards. Keep stepping backwards. Why is the administration suddenly

having it both ways with Israel? We love BB. Thank you, Bami, Bibi, Bibi, Bibi the bomber. The Bibi Bibi Bhaba Bhaba. Why? Because it's gibberish. Where are we with them? We're allowing a dialogue to go on right now, specifically on the right, that Israel talked us into this.

that Israel duped America into this, that it's good for them, and they convinced Trump, just like they did in Iraq. It's bullshit. It's demonstrably false about those tropes, those mythologies about Iraq. I lived it. I studied it.

I reported on it. We went in there because of hubris. We went in there because of stupid people around President Bush, who were war hawks, and thought they could just lie to the American people and get in there, and everybody would celebrate, yellow cake, weapons and mass destruction, bullshit. Now, but you're having it both ways.

Why? Because the president doesn't know where the power center is here. So he's letting Israel get blamed for this with a lot of his own voters. Why? Better than him. Why? Because he's worried about this. Why? Because it's not going the way they told them it would. Why? Because it's not Venezuela. Why? Because this is. a very big place with a lot of people that's decades deep with different infrastructure and different layers. And they have different capabilities. That's why. Where's the win? Well, we're pummeling the regime so that they won't rebuild. Like the last time we obliterated them? No, no, no. This is

much worse now. We're killing everybody, crushing them down. What happens when you smother a fire, and leave even a few embers. If the wind's blow the right way, guess what happens? It relights. Right? He said he's not in regime change mode. Why? He said Iran is going to have to step up and do it for themselves, the people. Why? Because he doesn't know that he can get it done in a way that gives him a win. Why? Too many variables. We've already lost almost a dozen people here and what? They're not even in direct engagement. And who knows what? And who knows what? what's happening on the ground in Tehran.

Who knows what's going to happen in Lebanon? And who gets pulled in? These are zealots. They fight as a function of their faith. They are happy for a one-to-one exchange of life. We are not. We think it is worthy of criticism when the wrong people die at war.

Okay? about the problems of privilege. You talk about rich people problems. You talk about first world problems. You think only the bad guys get killed in war? Boy, oh boy, you people are very lucky we didn't have these during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Because you guys would have seen a lot of things out of context that show that war is hell. We stopped showing it to you because you couldn't take it anymore. We didn't even show you dead American troops. Couldn't take it. That's why you don't get into it. That's why the president arguably miscalculated how this goes. Why? Because he ain't three, four, five dimensional chess. That is baloney. Never been accused of being

a strategist. Never been accused of being a deep thinker, a planner. let alone a military tactual he has the Pentagon for that. Yeah, how's that working out? Mission creep, led by Hegsef, whatever he knows or doesn't know, changing the message all the time. This could get ugly, early in a way that goes way that goes way beyond killing a school full of kids, which was terrible.

And if anybody else had done it, that's all MAGA would be talking about. But not everybody in the world plays by our rules. And we are extending ourselves. We have all of these different battlefronts. And at some point, it could trigger regional, religious, or next level implications. Support comes from one skin. If you're going to put something on your face, shouldn't it be the best? Seriously, the skin absorbs every.

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Many promotions are available both in-store and online, though some may vary. The last factor, the X-factor, the biggest mistake that was made here by the President of the United States that could lead to World War III, is going alone. Going alone. Never seen it before. Where you just gave the middle finger to NATO, gave the middle finger to your allies again, and you were wrong.

You said we don't need you. We're just going in. We're not going to tell you anything. We don't want to compromise it. I don't want to deal with you. You're a pain in the ass. Just like Trump is with Congress, just like Trump is with everything.

And he goes in by himself, and now what does he need? Help. And now he's threatening his, allies if you don't help me we won't forget really you just tariffed the shit out of them for no good reason right that's unwinding you're refusing to pay back the money and coming up with some process that's not done yet all these small businesses hanging on by a thread you're in no rush because you don't like to take the loss you should have had the allies you needed a coalition of the willing

why that's how you avoid world war three because it's all us so that makes the sum of us not want to mess with the all of us that's why we always have these coalitions of all these countries where you're like what do we go australia and who and what and belgium what why do we need these people what because you have numbers matter strength in numbers consensus now you got nato like why'd you do this you got the allies now i'm not i'm not going to help you shut down the straight of four moves i'm not i'm not i'm not going to help you open it up no way too dangerous. I'm not sending ships. Japan. We're not sending ships. What? What? Germany. UK. We're not saying, no, no, no, we're not going to do this. France. No, no, no. We didn't start this war.

Wow. Risky. And what does that make America look to Russia and China? Vulnerable. That's how it makes them look. Maybe the other guys won't step up. And if they do it, what cost? You don't think it's going to change the tariff structure. You don't think it's going to cost us a shit ton of money to get their help in the straight of Hormuz, which we should have anticipated in advance. That's how you get to World War III. The mistakes in planning, strategy, execution, and understanding the eventualities. Forget about winning the war, winning the peace. No, no, no. This is something very different than that. This is not anticipating that the war will be a breach of peace that takes it to all of a new level.

What if you don't wipe out the regime? What if they stay in there and they just cut a new deal? Now you have the frustrated Iranian people who now start to look at what you did to them on the ground differently. Now a school full of dead kids looks different because you didn't even get rid of the regime. You just get a new deal. Now what? Syria. Now what?

Yemen. now what? North Africa. Now what? Central Africa. All of these offshoots of these extreme Islamists. Now, who steps up? Look at Hezbollah. They had a deal to disarm to do it the nice way after getting the shit kicked out of them and they still went right into jihad mode. Who's next? What do we do about it? How many fronts can you fight? You were supposed to be the non-interventionist. Oh yeah, but this one we had to. Oh, really? What hypocrisy. especially if you didn't plan it outright, you didn't even go in with a coalition of the willing.

How important, how necessary could it have been if you couldn't even convince the people who are always by your side? How of a no-brainer could it have been? How much if you didn't even think you could go to them and get it done? Why aren't you asking yourselves that in MAGA? Two things can be true.

Tucker Carlson's probably full of caca about the CIA looking at him. Why would I say that? Because he's offered no proof. Oh, but the government should step out. They're not going to say anything, but even if they did, what makes you think it happened? Why would he lie?

Why did he lie in 2021? When he said the NSA under Biden was looking at him. Oh, I don't really remember. Oh, really? Yeah, it happened. Internal review found nothing was going on. The Republicans in Congress thought they had high ground because they believed Tucker Carlson. So they do an investigation.

What do they find? Nothing. He just made it up. Oh, I don't know. I don't know. That's just your opinion. Oh, really? Just like with what he just did at Bangorian Airport in Israel, right?

Being detained. And then I interview Ambassador Huckabee. What does he say? Boulder Dash. The guy's taking pictures. He's enjoying himself. He never told Huckabee anything else happened like that, and they were in contact the whole time.

He just made it up. Why? I don't know. Why does he say he was attacked by a demon? I don't know. I don't want to believe he's a bad guy. guy. Maybe he's a sick guy. I don't know. But I'll tell you what, even his cookey ass is not wrong to question what we're doing in Iran and why it makes sense for the American people set against

all of the costs and all of what we're not dealing with here because of what we're dealing with there, perhaps as a distraction to what we're not dealing with here with the midterms coming. But it's going to affect the midterms. It may not be even over during the midterms. And even even if it is over mission accomplished, dare I say, we're averaging, thank God. Not for a minute, not for a second, but multiple terror attacks domestically

each week that this has been going on. It's not a coincidence. They're not even affiliated. And we're at war with ourselves, so even those events wind up getting depicted and by false narratives, the guy in Michigan, oh, well, yeah, he bomb.

He ran into that synagogue with all those Jews, but, you know, his family had been bombed in Lebanon. I mean, what are you think is going to happen? Oh, his family? You mean his brother, the Hezbollah commander? The guys are freaking terrorist. This guy's a terrorist. What kind of narrative is that to make him sympathetic for trying to kill a bunch of Jews? But Tucker Carlson is not crazy to be concerned about what's happening in Iran.

I think blaming it on Israel is stupid. looking for a boogeyman. Blame Trump. Blame Trump. Since when does he get led by the nose? Since when does he do what anybody tells him to do unless he thinks it's good for him? Mission creep.

No eventualities. No alliance. Multiple choke points. Russia and China seeing it all happen and seeking advantage, wondering if this is their moment of destiny, World War III. That's how easily it gets that fucked. Now, could I be wrong? Please, please. Let me be wrong. I don't want to cover it. I don't want to

live it. I don't want to suffer it. But the idea that this is far-fetched, I'm not Tucker Carlson. This is all one, two, three moves away based on the facts, not based on some conspiracy theory. This is what could happen. Regional conflict, buy-in by Islamists. choke points and seeing the Strait of Hormuz as is a fast track to magnified relevance, magnified capability, choking trade. That's how you hurt America. That's how you hurt the world. Money. Look at how it's working for the regime in Iran. Russia and China looming over it all. Us with no allies on this and divided at home. It's a scary combination of, things, ingredients that could really create a shit stew. And I hope it doesn't. I'm Chris Cuomo,

food for thought, be a critical thinker, be a free agent, show people that you are different, that you wear your independence proudly because that's what will get us through this. We got to stop thinking party first. It can't just be that it's about right and left and advantage all the time and that your answer to all these questions that I just teed up is, yeah, but Biden, Yeah, but, you know, but Biden, yeah, but Obama, yeah, but... It's got to be about right and wrong, not right and left. I'll see you on News Nation, AP and midnight. I'll see in the morning on Sirius XM-124, Podish Channel,

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Please. And check out the merch so you can wear your independence. My brothers and sisters, the challenges are real, as real as ever. It is not to hide. It is not to divide. But also, we cannot abide. Ooh, channeling Reverend Jackson. I miss them. We need them now. Let's stay together. Let's get after.