The Eric Metaxas Show - #70 - Andrew Kolvet

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

Today on The Eric Metaxas Show, Eric talks with Andrew Kolvet about Trump’s decision to strike Iran, why he says deterrence matters, and the claims circulating about Iran dragging out conflict while pursuing dirty bomb options and hypersonic missile help. They discuss what success would look like, why regime change talk gets complicated fast, and how to think clearly when pundits are guessing.

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Exclusions apply. See M-Purks.com for details. Hey, the folks, welcome back. I'm very excited to have as my guest right now. A dear friend, Andrew Colvette. You know him from TPSA, executive producer of the Charlie Kirk show. Andrew, my friend, welcome back. Hey, thanks for having me, Eric.

It's great to be here. We're living in crazy times. But what I just said to my audience is that President Trump has earned my trust. So whatever he does, my first instinct is to trust him, even if I have questions. And I feel like people are way too skittish. It's like second guessing has become like the national pastime where people are like, well, what about this? What about this?

What about this? What about? And my answer is like, what about you humble yourself a little bit and understand that for sure the president has information you don't. So unless you have something substantive to. say a lot of the criticism is it's initially just easy sniping and i that bothers me because you know this is very serious yeah i'm completely on board with exactly what you just said uh listen i i we i did this multiple times with charlie uh wrestling through you know kind of the buildup to

kinetic strikes like we saw over the weekend in iran and understanding that there are things that we simply don't know there are strategic urgencies on the ground that we sometimes don't know. Of course, privately, we are lobbying for peace. But we also have to understand, I made a bunch of calls around Eric on Saturday before we did our live stream, it would react into the breaking news. And I heard it from multiple people that there was concerns that even though the Fort O attacks had been, Operation Midnight Hammer last summer had been successful, that Iran was basically trying to drag this out and that they were working on dirty bombs. They were also making urgent calls to China to acquire hypersonic missiles.

Those are carrier sinkers, Eric. So if they would have been successful on either end, then, you know, I understand that there are realities on the ground that could have moved up the timeline for something like this for President Trump. Listen, we don't always know all the details, but to your point, President Trump has a proven track record now of not getting us in forever worse. You heard that from Pete Heggseth and General Kane. It's not just that he hasn't gotten this.

And he has been on the record clearer than anyone. In fact, anybody who has this idea probably got it from him. He was the first one at stage in 2016 to talk about this and to make this an issue. So for people to act like it's their idea and he's not going along with it, if there's anybody who does not want to get us into a forever war, this is the guy. And I just think that we need to focus on that. That this is not George W. Bush. This is not Colin Powell.

This is not the old neocon guard that's kind of like happy to go to war forever. And I'm frankly, I'm astonished that people don't get that about him after all these years. Yeah. And I think, listen, you know, Iran is not Venezuela. Okay. Iran is much bigger, much stronger. They've been stockpiling munitions for a long time. I think they're, you know, their missile capabilities,

were stronger than, you know, you'd hear reported on CNN or Fox News. So, listen, it's a much bigger challenge, but one does have the impression watching what President Trump has done now repeatedly in these different kinetic strikes that he's orchestrated over the years. You kind of get the feeling like, were we even trying in the past? Were we tying the hands of our warriors so that they couldn't get in with lethality, precision, surgical strikes, and then get out? And you hear him even mentioning that Venezuela is the model for how they want to do this, right?

You head of the snake, you take out the senior leadership, and then you let the people kind of orchestrate their own new leadership and one that's favorable for the United States. Listen, Eric, here is the truth. Yes, we're reticent to get into regime change wars. Yes, it has been a debacle time and time again. But President Trump has proven that there is a different model. And so the truth is we just don't know how this is going to play out yet, Eric. there could be, you know, dozens of U.S. casualties. I pray that is not so. But if that starts happening, that's not good, okay? If, you know, this thing drags out, President Trump saying four to five weeks,

maybe we move that timeline up, maybe we move it back. Obviously, you want shorter duration, get in, get out as much as possible, but you got to make sure that the mission objectives are reached. And so you got to stay in there as long as you have to to get the job done once you make the decision to go. Once you hit that green light to go, we've got to make sure. we get the job done. So, you know, listen, the truth is there's a lot of armchair quarterbacking. There's a lot of people sniping on the internet. The truth is we just don't know how this is going to play out yet. We got to pray for success. We got to pray that the, you know, Pete Hague said, General Kane, President Trump, Marco Rubio are able to get these strategic objectives

accomplish quickly and with the minimal loss of life. But, you know, we have to pray for success. I mean, ultimately, we have to say, listen, we worked our butts off to get President Trump elected. He's elected to make tough decisions. He made this decision. You've got to have his back as he tries to get a successful outcome here. This episode is brought to you by Coligard. Do you know what's really scary? Not screening for colon cancer when you turn 45.

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Learn more or request a prescription today at coligard.com slash screen. Well, and there's so much involved. I mean, first of all, I have to say, I'm always grieved when, you know, people don't care about other people suffering. Like, we all know, you know, I can't, we can't go to war with North Korea and China. But if we could free the people of North Korea, if we could, if we could, do that with limited loss on our part. I mean, that's what we have in Iran. We have for the first time in 47 years an opportunity, a dramatically weakened Iran and a moment to overturn 47 years

of evil leadership. The people of Iran are longing for this. It's not like what we heard about the people in Iraq or the people in Afghanistan who really weren't there. These people are just absolutely, I mean, they've been murdered in the streets. I don't know why if we didn't have the opportunity to do something about it, we wouldn't. And again, this is not about we could save the world. This is not, you know, George Bush's second inaugural speech, which is a little crazy. This is Donald Trump. And I just don't see him as some utopianist neocon lunatic.

I think if there's anybody that I can trust to make these decisions so far, I don't see anything in him to make me doubt him. Or you have people, I mean, it's amazing people that seem to think that, well, Donald Trump, you know, he's a, he's, he's, he's not that bright and probably Netanyahu is pulling the strings or bullying him or so. I just think, who, have people been paying any attention to President Trump to the thing that, that he could be pushed around by somebody? I'm just amazed at that. Well, you know, think about the attacks on President Trump. Oh, he's like a mob boss. so he wants to be like Putin and a strong.

Listen, we have a guy that would cut his teeth in New York. And he was, you know, he saw the way these tough guys operated. He's the one guy that knows how to deal with tough guys, with bullies across the world, right? And so you can't, you know, you got to get your head out of the ivory tower to understand what President Trump is. Yeah, he talks, you know, in a very direct style. He talks tough. And then he backs it up. And that's the difference, right?

And so if you're going to have any president in living memory, modern American history that knows how to deal with these guys, you need somebody like President Trump that's not going to get stuck on trying to talk pretty and, you know, impress CNN with the way that he's presenting the facts. Here's the deal. He knows how to deal with thugs. He knows how to deal with tough guys. This is what he's been steeped in. This is what he knows.

So that's one thing. But, you know, secondly, to your earlier point, Eric, you know, I think Americans rightly want to know what's in it for them. Why are we doing this? And I think you have to keep a couple things in mind. Listen, Americans are tired of foreign adventurism. We are tired of foreign conflicts of nation building abroad. We need to nation build here. But here's my reaction to that.

I don't get any impression that President Trump's trying to nation build in Iran. He's telling the people, this is your chance to rise up and take it. And even in some comments that he just made to Brett Baer and to apparently Jake Tapper at CNN, And he's saying, we'll see who they choose. Meaning he's indicating that it's on the Iranian people to choose their next leader. Okay, so we'll see how this plays out. Another thing to keep in mind here, he said, Kamani tried to get me. I got him first.

Okay, so don't forget that President Trump has been under a fatwa, that they're trying to assassinate the president of the United States. He's lived under a constant knowledge that Iranian regime wants to assassinate. fascinate him, okay? So he, this is in America's interest just in that regard. Thirdly, I will point out to you that, you know, our bases were sitting ducks as they developed more and more sophisticated drone technology, more and more sophisticated ICBM technology. So there was multiple layers here of what was in our interest as well. And I will just, I'll put this out there. What this does is it establishes an ultimate deterrence within the region, but global.

as well. There is not going to be anybody wondering whether or not Trump has the guts to go in and press go. None of that changes. My absolute abhorrence of regime change nation building abroad, you have to go into it the absolute most humility knowing that bad things happen when you, when you do regime change, right? We have fought this publicly and privately for years with Charlie on the show at turning point. We're not, we're not pro it. I can tell you the Gen Z, a crowd is not pro regime change nation building abroad. But I will say, what I'm hearing so far, Eric, is that this is not regime change nation building. This is, this is head of the snake, let the Iranian people do what they need to do. There are strategic interests beyond just even

what I mentioned, right? There's strategic interest with the CCP. They get a ton of their oil from Iran. They get oil that's been sanctioned at cut rate prices flowing straight into the CCP. So there's going to be knock on effects, downstream effects that we have to consider. But again, to your earlier point, and I think it's still the most salient point here, Eric, is that President Trump has earned a lot of trust, a lot of trust that he doesn't do nation building. He doesn't do boots on the ground. He does lethal, precision, kinetic strikes that achieve strategic objectives. And we just, you know, hopefully we can get in, get out quickly.

Because I do think politically, the country is desperate to nation building. here at home. Unlike some government programs, Medicare is not a handout. It's something you have earned. You work for decades, paid your taxes, and contributed to a system that's supposed to serve you when you retire. So when it comes time to choose a Medicare plan, you deserve one that actually works for you, not the one that fills someone's pocket with the biggest commission check. That's why when you need to choose a Medicare plan, I recommend chapter. They're not an insurance company. They don't work for the government. They're independent advisors who help you understand all of your Medicare options to help you pick what's best for you. By helping people find the right plan for their

needs, Chapter saves people an average of $1,100 a year on health care costs. Their help is honest. It's free and it's fast. They can review your options in under 20 minutes. So if you're on Medicare or we'll be soon, call Chapter at 571-421-1253. You paid into your insurance. You paid into your options. You paid into to Medicare and you deserve guidance. You can trust call chapter at 571, 421, 12, 5,5.3. You know, it's interesting what you said earlier about, you know, the stuff that we don't hear, or maybe we hear a little bit about it, but the desperation, I don't think people are aware, I say this over and over, of the evilness of evil.

Like, we live in, we're so spoiled that we just don't understand that when you're just, dealing with Iran, when we were dealing with a former Soviet Union, they were evil, but they were reasonable in the idea that they were not religious lunatics. They wanted to preserve, you know, their country. But when you're dealing with religious, theocratic lunatics who would be thrilled to see the whole world burn down so they can get their 72 versions, you know, that's something you have to be realistic about. If anybody was not, it was Obama and others who seemed to think, like, we're talking to people that are just like us. No, you're not.

And they will do absolutely anything. So you talk about them making a phone call to China. They are cornered and desperate. They would do anything. That's a chilling thing. That is a chilling thing to me to think that they would get, you know, missiles from China. They would, they would do absolutely anything to survive. So where we are now, we don't know where this goes.

And they will, it seems to me that they would, maybe they will, um, you know, awake in sleeper cells that are, that were led into the United States, thanks to Joe Biden or whoever was running the auto pen president, we don't know what lies ahead. But the idea that we're not going to, we're not going to do anything. We're just going to wait and see. I don't think you can do that. Well, and I want to make a point here too. You know, there was a lot of chatter I saw online saying, well, were the strikes against Ferdot, where in there, I think there was a couple other sites, but were those strikes successful or not? You know, why do we have to go back in and strike again if those were so,

successful, like we were told. Well, two things can be true at once. Those could have been very successful strikes. And to your point, the regime could have gotten increasingly desperate. And like I said, there's indications. Some intel would suggest that Iran had actually already fired dirty bombs at American troops in Iraq in 2020. And, you know, if they saw that that was a model that could work, they're going to get desperate. They're backed into a corner. What happens when a dog's backed on the corner, he's going to bite, right? And so two things can be true at once, that, yeah, they were weaker than ever. The regime was weaker than ever.

The strikes were successful, and yet they were, in some sense, more dangerous than ever because they realized that they were going to have to, you know, make some sort of offensive action sooner than later or what happened was going to happen, you know? And so I think you've got to be able to hold two ideas in your head at the same time, not get bogged down on, you know, simple black or white, explanations for things. The world's a lot more complex than Twitter will let you believe at times. And so, listen, I don't know that those reports are true, but I will tell you that I wouldn't be surprised that they are, in which case, the calculus of whether the

strike or not strike changes dramatically. And I think based on the decision-making matrix that we've seen play out here, I'm inclined to believe that those reports are probably true. Well, I want to ask you just to pivot slightly, I don't know if you, you're going to you have a commentary, but the people are always, and this is just so gross, but people are always pretending to say what, what Charlie would have said or what he said at some point and they kind of twist it to make it sound like, you know, he was on the verge of converting to Catholicism, which I know is not true, or that he was threatened by Jewish donors in the Hamptons. I mean, I hear all of this stuff, and then I see it debunk.

but I know you're at the center of dealing with this all the time. What is the latest that you want to correct on that score? Yeah, no thanks, Eric. I mean, listen, there's so much that is thrown out there. And I try and remember that it is ultimately a compliment to Charlie because so many people want to claim Charlie and they want to relate to Charlie and feel like he was their guy. So there is, broadly speaking,

It can be a really beautiful thing and you just have to kind of like take a step back and realize that it's an overflowing of love for Charlie. I would say that there was another element that wants to use him for their, you know, current aims or whatever. And that's, you know, that's obviously disgusting to watch.

I would say, you know, yeah, on the Catholic thing, I don't want to make too much of it. Charlie loved Catholics. We have a ton of Catholics that work at Turning Point. you know, Charlie loved debating with Michael Knowles or Jack Posobic about, you know, Catholic doctrine versus, you know, what, you know, he was evangelical. He was baptized evangelical. It's there's, you know, very publicly known. He loved debating, but it was because he, he was very ecumenical. Just the way that he built, you know, coalitions and they looked towards the conservative coalition, there was room for a lot of disagreement. There was room for a big tent. And he loved anybody that was a, was a true Christian that loved Jesus Christ. And, and that That didn't matter if you were Orthodox or Catholic or evangelical or whatever. So, you know, the fact that there is, you know, these rumors are swirling, I just find it bizarre. Because Charlie didn't really make that big of a distinction himself.

Charlie is evangelical. It's true. He really, really was jealous of, you know, some of the Catholic liturgy and just the beauty of it. Hated skinny jeans and smoke machines at churches, loved the cathedrals, loved the, the, the ritual, the ancientness of it. I'm a cradle Catholic. Like I said, Eric is a cradle Catholic. You know, like I said, we have so many people on staff that are, you know, very, very devout Catholics that are, you know, even I grew up Catholic.

I did First Communion. You know, I went to Catholic high school. I still don't know all the rituals. Like, you know, I was like, wait, you were church today. I would say, oh, you can't eat, you know, meet today. You know, I mean, our team, there's a lot of team members here that are really like that. You know, I just don't want to make it an anti-Catholic thing. It's a very pro-Catholic thing.

But to say that he was converting to Catholic is just, it's just not true. And I'm sorry that that upsets so many people, but, you know, it's just not true. And, you know, and then on the other thing, you know, when it comes to, you know, Iran or the strikes, the truth is I don't know exactly how Charlie would have reacted because Charlie took every situation on its merits. I have a pretty good indication based on the fact that we struck Iran in the summer. of 2025 of it basically how it would play out. Charlie did, and I tried to emulate Charlie to the best of my ability, although I will always fall short. But I, you know, privately, there was a lot of discussions urging restraint, urging peace, urging caution. But ultimately, Charlie worked his butt off to get President Trump elected, and he was going to have his back. And Charlie, on multiple occasions,

I see these quotes cherry-picked about how he was, oh, regime change, you're going to spark a civil war and all this stuff. Yeah, well, he did think he was worried about that. And you would be a fool to not be worried about that. Right. Let me repeat, you would be a fool not to worry about the potential downsides of doing something this drastic and dramatic. And it is. But you would also be a fool not to understand that Charlie worked his butt off to get President Trump elected. And that when you press go, he's a, Charlie was a patriot. He loved this country. And as soon as we, we, you know, made that decision as a nation, as President Trump made that, decision, he was going to have his back, pray for peace, pray for limited casualties, no casualties,

and he was going to pray for victory and that this would ultimately be a good thing for the world. And listen, you would also be a fool not to look at this and say, hey, strategically, there are a lot of upsides if this plays out well. And there's strategically a lot of downsides if it plays out poorly. And we got to pray for the fact that it's a success for our country, for the world, and that politically that we can sell this to keep the coalition together. are big ifs, but Charlie would have been instantly working to make sure that all of those happen. And when you say to keep a coalition together, that's to me, that's the biggest thing. And that's why when I first became a Christian, I took my lead from Chuck Colson.

Chuck Colson would never become a Catholic, but he was a very pro-Catholic evangelical. I am a very pro-Catholic evangelical. And people who try to divide, it just infuriates me. That's the devil, that God is doing something with Christians and even beyond. and there are people that they care more about some theology or whatever it is than saving the West or America or whatever it is and they want to focus on that and they want to use people. And as you said, it's a compliment to Charlie.

People have been doing this to C.S. Lewis since 1963. He would have become, if he'd been a lot, he would have become a Catholic. They try to claim him and whatever. Listen, folks, whatever.

Praise the Lord. God is good. And God is doing great things. and this idea again of President Trump, he has earned our trust. So yeah, of course we're going to question him, but we're at war now. You know, we need to be careful. There's so much here. Andrew Colbert, just always a huge blessing to have you.

Thanks for coming on. Thanks, Eric. It's always a pleasure to be with you, man. I don't like alarmism. I don't like fearmongering. I especially don't like people who profit from panic. But I do believe in telling the truth, especially when the markets are reminding us, how fragile things are.

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