The Duran Podcast - Q & A: America First revival and NATO provocations

Episode Date: September 27, 2025

Q & A: America First revival and NATO provocations

All right, Alexander, let's answer the questions from the live stream with Robert Barnes. And let's start things off with Mark Hewitt, who says, surely Trump did not authorize Kellogg's stupid rant last week. Well, I think in light of some of the later things that we've been seeing from Trump, one can't be so sure. But my own personal view is probably not. And I think this is a problem with this administration. which is that it doesn't maintain tight discipline over what people say.

And this isn't Trump's fault. If it's the fault of anybody, it's of Trump's chief of staff. One hears an awful lot about Susie Wiles and what a good chief of staff she is. But I think more discipline on messaging would be welcome. From Supernova Soon, who are the geniuses behind these provocations? Do they know that there will be no way back if they work, that it would be a nuclear war, which includes them. Nuclear war is not an exchange, not war.

It's just the end. When I bring it up with the war pigs, they get a screensaver look. How can reality get through in a zero-sum game of mad? Before it was a defeat, there was time to adjust. Now decisions got to be made under a minute, no time to dislodge hatreds and delusions. What can be done? You are absolutely correct. I mean, playing a game of chicken with the Russians in the way that some people want to do is beyond reckless. I mean, it is irrecless to the point of being completely irrational. And fortunately, since we did our program with Robert, there's been some words of caution about this. So Boris Bistorius, who's the German defenseman. who's an absolute hardliner, is now rowing back and saying, you know, we can't just shoot

down Russian planes over the skies. And Macron is saying the same thing. But, I mean, you know, nonetheless, the very fact that these ideas are floated and talked about at all shows us how wild and crazy the situation has become. Yeah. B-Baskett says, T Alexander, what did you think of Jimmy Dore's comedy at your conference in Chicago? I loved it.

OMG Puppets says, Puppies, OMG Puppies says, for the left, violence is a dial for the right. It is a switch. Phil Labant. Oh, actually.

Yeah. L.J. Baskell says, I have a meeting upcoming, so I will pick up on the discussion later. Thank you for all this presentation. Thank you very much for that. Grote Smurf says, I'd like to get in touch to try and arrange an interview with Emmanuel Todd.

How can I talk? talk to you. You discussed this, I believe, on your locals yesterday, Alexander. Indeed, and I have received a private message, which I will forward, and we will see whether we can sort it out. The durand.locals.com, everybody. That's where you can get in touch with us. Iranian kiddo said, for years, the right, been portraying Chicago as a crime-ridden, dystopian hellhole. It's one of the most beautiful and greenest downtowns, towering our deck of style skyscrapers, vibrant nightlife and a view of the Chicago River.

Well, the part of Chicago I visited fulfills that description exactly. Now, I have to say, there is no doubt another part of Chicago. The very, very polite and friendly chauffeur who drove me from the airport, you know, cab person who drove me from the airport to the, to my hotel, warned me not to use the subway. You said it's not the safest place. So, I mean, I'm sure there is another side of Chicago. I fortunately didn't have to see it. I'm not good to say I wanted to see it,

but from what I gather, it is there. Trevor Mack says, thank you. Thank you for that. Iranian Kido says the worst thing happening in the U.S. right now is the atrocious attacks on free speech. For four years, the right. cried over Biden administration violating their freedom of speech, but now they literally are deporting people over speech. Well, can I just say, I am absolutely a free speech person, I believe

strongly in the First Amendment. I am completely against this. I have not yet seen, and I have to say this, I have not yet seen anything that remotely approximates to the kind of sustained attack on free speech that began, I would say, under the Obama administration, continued throughout the first Trump administration targeting the presidents, Donald Trump's enemies, supporters, I'm so sorry, his supporters, and which of course escalated massively during the Biden administration, targeting all kinds of people during the pandemic, people who were skeptical about the Russia gate allegations, all sorts of things. So yes, there's been some rhetoric from the Trump people over the last few weeks, few days,

in response in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk assassination. I hope that this will not lead to anything bad or really bad. If it does, I will oppose it. But it's nothing remotely comparable to what we have seen before. Ram V, thank you for that super sticker. Sparky says the dystopian future is now. Iranian kiddo says, you know what's inane. You know what's inane, believing there's going to be a rapture any day now,

which Charlie Kirk supporters believe is going to happen anyway now. That's insane. Some people believe in the Rapture of the Stone. I mean, I am an Orthodox Christian. It is not part in my worldview. I don't know what Charlie Kirk thought about that. I don't think it's really relevant to this issue. I mean, the fact of the about the man was that he was entirely polite, he was courteous,

he was ready to converse and discuss. and debate people with people, people who disagreed with him. I mean, I don't really see where this issue of his personal religious beliefs comes in. Matthew says, will the USA succumb to these false flags? Well, at the moment, they're not doing so. Iranian kiddo says, do we really need organized religion telling us how to live in 2025? Don't we have no common sets? Well, I mean, that it seems to me, if you don't mind my saying,

so is, to some extent, a totalitarian perspective. I mean, when you say don't need, every single person exercising their right to conscience has their own needs. Some people have needs, which are answered for them by their religious beliefs, their spiritual sense, and should one deny that to them in support of rationality, a perspective of rationality. It has been tried in the past. The French revolutionaries, some of them tried it in France in the 1790s. It was attempted also, as we know, Russia after the revolution there. I don't think this is something we should seek to enforce or impose on people or insist on or classify people's views in the way that you do. CCP Buran says Maga is the slow awakening of American proletarian mass class consciousness.

Yes. John D. says the late Yuri Besmanoff explain all of this. It takes two generations to infiltrate the education system for the subversive leftist ideology to take over. Yeah, I think that Besmanov is clearly a very interesting man, and I'm not going to pretend I'm fully familiar with his ideas. But where I think he might have been wrong is attributing all of this to something that was being prepared by the Soviet Union. because in my opinion, a lot of this comes from entirely within the United States and from certain currents in the United States, which go back far and very deep, and which were fanned by the United States and deep state.

Kat says, come on, the investigation stinks, no narratives until we know of what actually happened. Well, I'm not going to discuss the investigation. which is still underwork. Vincent says so insulting that Al Jabroni is in New York today, Al Jabroni. You tell me. You're telling me. You're telling me, absolutely. I agree.

John Roberts says, I grew up in Chicago, visited there in July, and thought the downtown looked good, with plenty of tourists and shops and restaurants open. How divergent do you think the U.S. economy is from Europe? Very. Based on what I saw. To repeat again, I do not. what the whole of Chicago looks like. I was there for two days, the first day of which was tied up with meetings and conferences and all sorts of things. But the area of Chicago I was

in, which was absolutely the central area, was immaculate. You will not find any European capital now, which is as immaculate as that. When I see European capital, I mean Britain and the EU, of course. Hungary, maybe Budapest. But I thought even better than Budapest, to be honest. Iranian Kido says Jimmy Kimmel said Maga is using this case to their advantage. That's all he said and was absolutely correct. I thought lefties were the snowflakes. Robert, what happened, L.O.L.

No, I don't agree. I've heard what Kimmel said. I've read his comments. His comments seem to me perfectly clear. He was saying that the person who carried out the assassination was why. of magazine. I really don't see that there's any way that you can interpret that in any way other than the one that Robert did. Zick-Nas says Russia just announced they are seizing assets of degeneracy worshiping organizations. Meanwhile, Trump coeses up with globalist special interests

and fears them. Why? What files they have on Trump? Well, I'm actually, I am not aware of the Russians passing such a law. or doing those things. So I'm not able to make the kind of comparisons that you say, because I don't know what the Russians exactly are doing here. But, you know, bear in mind that if we're talking about seizing property and assets belonging to people, whatever we think of people, there is law, there are mechanisms of due process.

I'm always a person who supports due process. for many reasons, which I've discussed many times in these programs. I know that Robert is also, and I believe that the process should be followed. Vincent says, how would you guys define a globalist? Thanks. Robert. We discussed that at length. Yeah. Mobia Zero says Japan, most disrespected, belittled and possibly hated nation on Earth.

It appears Japan is going to sanction Russia, and a lot of people don't like that. how long will Japan be America's slave, so to speak? Well, all I can say about that is this. I used to, you know, when I was going to Russia very regularly before, one of the countries that people in Russia were enormously appreciative of and reveled in its culture was Japan. And there was this extraordinary explosion in Russia of sushi, restaurants and bars. It became almost a kind of Russian food. So the Russians certainly have a very high opinion, or did have a very, very high opinion of Japan.

So certainly they respected and liked Japanese culture. If the Japanese are coming after the Russians because the Americans are asking them to do it, well, they're making a huge mistake. Sparky says Robert Brown University economist Mark Blythe can recover an economy. without subjecting regular people to crippling austerity, should President Trump replace Soto, CIA, Stoge Besant with Blythe? Robert answered that. He did answer that question. Iranian kiddo says Charlie Kirk was no saint as they tried to canonize him.

He made hateful comments over years. He was a religious extremist of no short order with deeply flawed view, particularly of women and LGBT people. Well, I think every single point that you've made about his views has actually been Rabatid and about his views about women, they've been challenged directly by his wife, who has pointed out that she is the CEO of several companies and somebody who was heavily involved in all kinds of activities and was an active person, active, both in business and society. So there's an awful lot of things said about Charlie Kirk, and there's an awful lot of things

that are taken out of context, which he did say, but which are not said or what. not said in the way that you say, or which many people are saying, as to him being a religious extremist, I'm going to say straight away, I've come across people who can be described as extremists, both religious and otherwise. And the one thing every single one of them had in common, and I've come across many people like that, is that they did not debate others and ask them, show me where I am wrong. Extremists do not do that. Sparky says, Robert, does President Trump realize that President Putin

Xi want to help him make America great again, and Trump could learn a lot from them? Seems to me they may be his only true friends. We discussed that. We discussed that. Mobius Zero says, why does the likes of South Korea and Japan rely on U.S. troops? To begin with, we, the United States, can't win a war, save our lives unless the Koreans and Japanese want to go down with us, that is. Well, I can't speak for people in Japan and South Korea. I went to South Korea many years ago, 20 years ago, and I was very impressed by it at that time.

I can say with some confidence, because I'm still in touch with people from South Korea, that there is a strong current of opinion in South Korea. Korea, which shares your views and thinks that it is time that South Korea went its own way and stopped being quite as connected to the United States as it has been. I cannot speak for Japan, which I have never visited and don't know very well. What I would say about Japan is Japan has a long, long history of rivalry with China now, and I suspect that this is what is driving it. Ronnie and Cato says, late-night shows are American tradition since Steve Allen and Johnny Carson days since the 1950s. You don't like it to change the channel. Who asked you to watch?

Two shows are canceled within two months. Well, I don't disagree. I mean, I'm not going to get into the discussions about Jimmy Kim, who's back. I mean, that's no interest in me. I mean, as somebody pointed out, it was like he's just been given a sort of brief sabbatical. So, I mean, don't over-dramatize or talk about this, if you want what's been going on over the last couple of weeks in the immediate aftermath of a assassination, which remember was an absolute brutal and extremely violent attack on free speech. What has been happening over the last 10 years, driven by completely different set of people, has been far more sustained on a far big, bigger scale and much more sinister.

Joanne Lanske, thank you for that super sticker. Sparky says Robert, ironically as a boomer, President Trump may have been the only one in the TV audience watching Kimmel's show, should his children tell him old school TV is over? Good point. Iranian kiddo says Kimmel said, quote, we hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to categorize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other. than one of them. He never said Maga got him killed. Check your facts. We've already answered this. I mean, I can't, I mean, I can't see how you can read those words in any other way than the one that I just expressed and the one which Robert just previously expressed.

Klaus Vatna says the Kirk killing has a lot more the signs of an intelligence operation. They want you to suspect the left. Chaos serves the elites to impose control. Well, maybe. We'll maybe. We'll say he did answer. He answered that. Mobius Zero says, given that the U.S. practically owned Japan, should we just annex the place and call it New Hawaii?

Sparky says, Robert, does President Trump know Javier Malay is a globalist who pretended to be like Trump to get elected, then smuggled Argentina's gold reserves to the UK, increasing globalist leverage. We're going to discuss Argentina and a dedicated program. Iranian Kido says Max Blumenthal, a trusted source, said that just weeks before Kirk was approached by pro-Israeli billionaire Bill Akman to not host Israel critic MTG in a forum, but of course nobody mentions that. It's anti-Semitic. It has been mentioned by many people. Robert answered that question. Yeah. Baschan Paltzschitz, thank you for that. Super sticker. Danya and nobody the four, thank you for that. Super sticker. Sparky says, correction. I mistakenly ended in a period instead of a question mark on my last question. No problem. Thank you for that. Sparky. Sparky says, until recent decades, rare earths

were mainly used for exotic military equipment. There was no consistent need. So they were processed on an artisan basis. U.S. left future mass production to China. Yeah. I didn't dispute any of that. Yeah. Sigma Maverick says with Trump giving the green light to shoot down Russian jets over NATO states, how close are we to nuclear Armageddon, no longer a matter of if but when? He didn't actually, properly speaking, give a green light to do that. I mean, he gave an off-the-cuff answer, which he shouldn't have done, by the way, in response to a journalist's question. The push to do this is not coming from Trump. It's coming from some very, very unbalanced and deranged people in Europe.

And already we're seeing a pushback against it as the Europeans start to think. and understand what doing that might actually mean. From Iranian kiddo, Dresden Air campaign, by the way, achieved nothing other than getting up to 200,000 innocent Germans killed based on some reports. America still using the same failed military strategy 80 years later. Well, can I just say something about Dresden? I mean, the 200,000 figure has been quoted by many people, but it has been universally debunked. So let's, you know, it wasn't quite as bad.

It was a war crime. It was an absolutely horrible thing. After it was done, there was a massive revulsion in Britain itself. Remember, this is a time when Britain was still at war with Germany, but people in Britain, when they heard about it, were horrified. The commander of the British bomber air force, a man called Harris, then tried to explain it and he got a professor of philosophy to deliver a lecture called the ethics of bombing to justify what was done to Dresden. And the response was that the lecture was not the ethics of bombing. It was the bombing of ethics. That was the Britain that existed at that time, in the middle of the towards the end of the Second World War. Now, nothing yet has been

done by the United States since the Second World War that equals the horror of Dresden. They've done some very, very terrible things. And I agree with you, they overestimate massively what bombing can achieve. Patrick, thank you for that super chat. Sparky says Robert will President Trump end the war on small business without small business and labor unions? It's not possible to have a large driving middle class, which is key to a stable. economy. Robert gave a very detailed and far answer to that one. Yeah. Iranian Kido says unions are

getting weaker and weaker because billionaires like Trump and his friends for decades have been pressuring unions to give up their power. Well, they have been getting weaker and weaker, and it's certainly the part billionaires have played a part. The question is not what Trump did before. It's what is going on what he's doing in government now. We'll see. To my knowledge, And I've had quite a lot of experience of the construction industry and I've had dealings with them. People who work in construction for all kinds of reasons that I'm not going to go into tend not to be unionized very much anywhere. From K.N. Corinne. Candice did not say that Israel killed Charlie. She said the current info not adding up. Please stop lying on her. Well, I don't. I'm good too. I wrote answer that one.

as well. Trevor Mack says at Robert Barnes, is Pam Bondi willfully incompetent or, question mark? You did answer that too. Sparky says, Robert, I helped dad in his drugstore when SSRIs became popular. A noticeable amount of patients returned to them, saying they gave them visions of killing faceless people than themselves. Yeah. Sparky says, Robert, what happens when President Trump finds out Antifa's largely funded and run by U.S. NGOs in Trump's CIA. Also, what if Trump finds out Soros has been CIA adjacent since the Cold War? I have a feeling, by the way, that Trump knows quite a lot about a lot of this.

But we'll see what comes. Yeah, that was answered as well by Robert. Sparky says, clever Perry does, but it does matter. Candice Owens never actually said she accused Israel of Kirk's assassination. Yeah, okay, okay. I mean. Iranian Kido says that quote by Kimmel, in no way suggested that MAGA got Charlie Kirk killed. I'm sure you're a great lawyer, but that quote simply doesn't imply that.

Well, I disagree with you. I'm sorry. I mean, I read it. I mean, to me, the words are perfectly clear. And they allow of no other meeting. Iranian Kido says millions of Americans showed support for Luigi because for decades Americans have been going homeless for a sudden visit to the emergency. room and they couldn't pay the hospital bills. Robert made it absolutely clear that he's not a fan

of the insurance industry in the United States and nor am I. But murder is not something one should cheer on. All right. We will end it there. Take care, everybody. Thank you for the questions.