The Eric Metaxas Show - #92 - John Zmirak / Larry Taunton

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

Today On The Eric Metaxas Show, Eric talks with John Zmirak and Larry Taunton about President Trump’s Iran strategy, the ceasefire question, why the mullahs cannot be trusted, and whether regime change is possible without another forever war. They also break down Trump’s brinksmanship, the panic over his rhetoric, and why radical Islam cannot be treated like an ordinary negotiating partner. Subscribe for clips from The Eric Metaxas Show to hear politics and culture from a Christian perspective.

Hey there folks, welcome to the program. This is what we call a big news day. And this isn't always a news program, but sometimes it is. Today it is what happened last night. What did happen last night? There's a question, which I'll ask my two guests. I have two guests, one at a time. One at a time, folks.

Please, one at a time. The first one is our great friend John Zmirak, but in the second half of the show, we're going to have Larry. Taunton. It's been a while since we have been in touch with him because I'm dying to process where we are now with Iran and talking to John Smirak and Larry Taunton is the way I process it. And you get to do that with me. John Zmirak, welcome the program. Thanks, Erica, do talk you. And of course, you're coming from the great state of Texas. Larry Taunton will be coming from the great state of Alabama because we want to talk to real Americans

about what's going on. So I will just say what I think happened last night, and I'll see if you agree. First of all, dealing with Trump's trash talking, I am staggered at the naivete or foolishness of many pundits who are all upset by what he said, and there's several levels of dumb. Number one, he doesn't speak literally,

he sometimes he jokes, sometimes he speaks hyperbolicly, sometimes he does trash talking. He's talking to wicked human beings. This is not the opposite team in baseball. These are wicked human beings. He's trying to rattle them, to threaten them, to keep them guessing, to confuse them. So he says things like, we're going to wipe out your civilization. And everyone in the New York Times, you know, lose their minds as though, oh yes he's actually going to destroy their civilization and bomb them back to the stone age and kill

civilians and you know it's all it's all obvious he just said it which is which is crazy so that's something we have to talk about but then what actually happened he you know declares we got a deal we're going to have a you know ceasefire for for two weeks uh that iran is going to open up the straight of her moves um there there's just a lot of ways to see this So, John, what is your take? Well, for one, I'm grateful for two things at the same time. I'm grateful that Trump has seriously degraded the military and intelligence capacity and the economic infrastructure of an evil terrorist tyranny that persecutes Christians

and wants to wipe American allies off the face of the map. I know some of my fellow Catholics have been saying crazy, reckless things about how this is just a war for Israel. Netanyahu has Trump on a leash. I want to point out that it turned out, once Iran fired all the cheap stuff, they then wheeled out their real missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles

that could hit our base in Diego Garcia off the coast of India. That means Iranian missiles could hit the Vatican. They could probably hit Paris. they could hit most capitals of Western Europe. And Iran was turned and developed nuclear weapons. How comfortable are you with end of the world apocalyptic radicals, even for the Muslim world, having nuclear weapons and missiles that could destroy most of the great cities of Western civilization?

I mean, isn't that the point? Kim Jong-un, who is one of the most wicked human beings ever to have lived, has nuclear missiles, but he is rational. He is not a religious fanatic who likes to blow up the world. He just wants to keep his little kingdom safe so that he can be king. But when you're dealing with the mullahs, you're not dealing with that. So people who don't get that, I'm fascinated they don't get that, especially given what has happened.

What you just said is that when they've used these missiles, it's like, okay, now we know that we needed to do this. So I don't know who knew it before, but we now know. You don't do it. Somebody, are real intel members, like some honest patriots in the deep state. There probably are a few left gave him the intel, or maybe the Israelis gave him the intel. These missiles could destroy the Vatican. These missiles could destroy Florence.

So then you won't get to go there on your tourist vacations. You won't get to see the Pieti. You won't get to see the Uffizi Gallery. Maybe that will appeal to the New York Times. Tell them how much art was threatened. How, heck, that's what you're bringing up Italy and you're bringing up. some of the Catholic, irrational Catholic voices out there, I have to ask you, I am again astonished

at the preposterous statements being made by a man they call the Pope. How strange is it that he is opining as volubly as he is on something that is really not relevant to where we are? I mean, talking about we're against violence. Who is not against violence? when the cops are taking down a violent felon, they're against violence, but they may need to use violence to take down the violent felon.

I don't understand why he says anything at this point. It really undermines Catholic faith. I think I speak for many Catholics where Pope Francis taught me not to even be interested in what the Pope was saying about anything. As I said here before on this program, when I want moral guidance, I turn to Gordon Ramsey. And that's what I recommend to the rest of prison. All right.

Well, no, but seriously, though, the elites in the Catholic Church and other mainline churches, and Pope Francis did his best to turn Catholic Church into another mainline Protestant body like the Anglicans. These men go to the same schools. they move in the same social circles where they learn to flatter elite opinion. Their goal is to get a positive story in the New York Times of the Washington Post. They are not focused on the salvation of souls

as their first order of business. And that's why New York State Parade, which the church is supposed to control, allows gay lesbian and transgender marchers, but not the pro-life contingent. I used to march in the St. Patrick's parade with the pro-life group. It's now banned. But the gay contingent is there, and the cardinal goes to the parade.

He allows the church to support the parade. It's just cultural surrender. We better move on. We better move on to something more uplifting, like the theocratic evil moas. So what is your sense of the deal? In other words, my sense, Mark Levin spoke last night on Sean Hannity's program. And I have to say, I think he's very clear and right on essentially everything he says. And anybody who because Mark Levine is Jewish thinks that he's lobbying for Israel, it's preposterous. This man clearly loves America and is America first, but he has the wisdom. them to understand the larger situation. But part of what he was saying, which I agree with, was that if we let this regime, whoever is in charge right now, stay in charge, these are profoundly wicked people who can't be trusted. And how do you keep them in a box? How do you deal

with that? What I see to you are... It does seem to me there has to be an end game where we're supplying the Iranian people with guns, hoping that they will take their country back. if we can send all the guns we want if we can figure out who to send them to. But I'm telling you, I care about what happens in America first. If we send troops to Iran, we will lose the midterm elections, we will lose the next presidential election,

and then America will be a regime more evil than theocratic regime in Iran. Because I want to be clear, the Democratic Party in America is more evil than the Iranian regime. And I have to leave, though. You made a leap. No, the leap is we will.

We will lose the election and the Democrats will install a totalitarian state as they came very close to doing in 2020. You made a leap. The leap was to sending troops. I'm thinking more than one step ahead. I said if we put U.S. troops there, do you agree that's ridiculous? Outrageous, we should never send American soldiers to Iran. I guess what the reason I'm saying you made, the reason I'm saying you made a leap is,

leap is because I hadn't mentioned that. No, but Mark Levin has. Mark Levin has on repeated occasion. Okay, I didn't know that. He said if need be U.S. troops to bring down our regime. And the fact is you don't bring regimes down with airstrikes. It doesn't happen. It has never happened.

Even in Japan in 1945, even after we dropped the atomic bomb, we had to agree to leave the emperor in place to avoid the land invasion. You can't conquer a country from the air. So if we insist on a full regime change in Iran, which we didn't do in Venezuela, if we insist on changing regimes like we did in Iraq, like we did in Afghanistan, it'll end up like Iraq and Afghanistan. That's what happens when you want it to regime change. Unless there's a revolution and it doesn't look like there's going to be one,

if you commit, we have to do a regime change no matter what. Stay the course. You're going to end up by the ratcheting logic. of events sending U.S. troops there and we will lose all subsequent elections and our country will be worse off than Iran. I'm not what we accept that. But you would agree that if it would be possible for let's say the Shah's son to take over to have some kind of actual democratic government that's not the Mullahs, that we would want that if that's possible without sending troops. Of course, absolutely. I would love that. I would love all of Iran to convert,

of Christianity and become like a Swiss village with popular democracy. No, I'm saying it doesn't make it sense. We have to go to a break. I'm sorry. Folks, we'll be right back. We're talking to John Zmirak. Don't go away. Folks, before we go, if you care about Israel, if you love Israel, if you love the people

of Israel, you know that they're enduring great hardships right now. Well, the folks at Magin David Adom, that's the emergency system that they go with their ambulances and help out these people. If you want to help them, please visit savinglifeisrael.org, savinglifeisrael.org. Welcome back, folks. I'm talking to John Zmirak. We have Larry Taunton coming up. John, what you just said in the last segment about, you know, you'd love it if Iran turned into something like a Swiss village. That means that that makes me think that maybe you don't think it's possible for Iran to throw off the shackles of the mollas? I think it's unlikely because you can't do regime change without ground troops.

We didn't win World War II from the air. We won it through battles like Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. I fear. But the people of Iran. I pray that it happens. But I'm not willing to risk America's future, us getting taking take. over by the likes of Kamala Harris and Zoran Mamdani. Well, look, I mean, clearly I agree with that,

but I guess what I'm, what I want to say is that there are many people in Iran who've been murdered by the regime. So presumably that gives me information that there are many people in Iran who hate this regime and who would be willing to risk their lives to get rid of this regime. That was not the case in Japan and

1945, correct? That's, that's true. That's true. But look, I want, I would love to see a revolution in Iran. I simply want to say there need to be two red lines. No U.S. troops and no Iranian refugees to the U.S. because refugees very likely would be spies of the regime. They're very likely would be radical Muslim terrorists. We, we let in way too many Iraqis, we let in way too many Afghans and now we're paying the price. So what I mean, that's not even something that anyone else has mentioned besides you. So that's a separate conversation. But remember, it happened with Iraq and it happened with Afghanistan.

We said, oh, well, we broke their countries. Now we have to take the refugees. That alone is an argument for not meddling with these countries. If we have to take refugees, it's not worth it. Okay. So I'm just trying to hold Donald Trump to his campaign promises going back to 2016. We're not going to invade the world and invite the world. We're not going to take over and micromanage foreign countries while our country goes down the toilet.

That's what the rhino Republicans were doing. That's what senators like John Cornyn and John Thun want. You'll notice that even while we're trying to wrap up this intervention in Iran, a bunch of Democrats and rhinos just launched an amnesty bill, offering amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. and making it impossible to deport them at the same time. If Jeb Bush had been elected president, it wouldn't be a worse outcome than that. So we have to remember there are powerful forces within the Republican Party,

within the establishment, within the deep state, trying to force Donald Trump to govern like George W. Bush. That is the constant pressure. It's like your salmon swimming upstream, Unless you keep swimming against that stream, you float downstream like a dead fish. We have to keep pushing back against the Republican establishment that wants foreign wars and cheap labor. Those are the two greatest threats to America.

We have to keep our eye on the prize, which is saving America, not saving Iran, much as that would be a nice, a wonderful thing. Well, to the extent, again, yes, it has to be, we are. Our aims, you know, have to be first, but what we've been doing in Iran, presumably, is about America. Up to now, I'm supportive of what the president did. I'm saying this is as far as we should go. No U.S. troops ever. That's all. But there have been people, even Ann Coulter and others seem to have said that this president is a war crime.

criminal or is advocating war crimes. And I'm just baffled by that. Okay. So in his tough talking rhetoric, Trump was saying things to scare the Iranians, things which if he actually were to do them would cross certain moral lines. Right. I don't think bombing civilian infrastructure is immoral. That's ridiculous. That's absurd. Yeah, and who said that it was? I mean, somebody was implying that the Geneva Convention is very clear that bombing bridges and power plants goes against Kniebic Convention. I thought, what is the most absurd thing I've ever. If it does, then tear up the generic convention.

It's another international paper. But purposely trying to kill civilians without any real military purpose is wrong. And it was wrong. Obviously, but who would believe that Trump would purposely try to kill civilians? I mean, Tucker Carlson would believe that. He threatened to wipe out an entire civilization. That rhetoric. Right. But you and I believe.

So you have, okay, what, I'm sorry. But that's kind of the point, John, is like he said it. I'm glad he said it if it scared the mullahs into submission. I think that's the point. Going to another break, sorry. We've got some harsh breaks. We'll be right back. Hey, folks, before we get back to our guests, I just want to say a lot of people donate

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Ambulances on the road, blood banks for trauma and surgery, training for first responders, and equipment that's used every single shift. This is not symbolic giving. This is practical life-saving support. If you want your donation to have direct measurable impact, this is one of the clearest ways to do it. Go to savinglifeisrael.org. That's savinglifeisrael.org. Welcome back talking to Johns Merrick about the news of the day, what happened yesterday.

And I don't know the details of this 10-point plan. You always have to read between the lines with President Trump. And John, that's where we left it just a moment ago. Yeah. So I was saying, reading between the lines. If you don't hear what he says in context, you may as well not hear anything because he's speaking in a certain way. And most, it seems like a lot of people don't get it.

I think most Americans get it. Most Americans trust him that he would not kill civilians. So it is amazing to me that many people don't get that. And they think suddenly he's not. Let me explain why it was appropriate for Trump to talk that way. The Muslim world doesn't care about civilians. They use their children as human shields in war. They regard any of them that die as martyrs for Allah.

They don't care about civilians. They know we do, and they see that as a weakness. Look what they did in Gaza. They set up, Hamas set up in hospitals, in churches, purposely in order to force the Israelis to attack them in those civilian targets so that civilians would get killed, knowing that we don't have the stomach for civilian casualties. So if they use enough human shields, they can win the war.

Basically, if people are invading your country, holding up their children as human shields, so you'd have to shoot them through their children, they're confident they can conquer us that way. And we have to be grimly willing to do whatever it takes, to defend ourselves. If they are going to use their civilians as human shields, we say a prayer for them, but we do what we have to do.

That, I think, is Trump's attitude. And I think it was essential to signal to these radical Muslims, these apocalyptic fanatics, that we will do whatever it takes. And if you use human shields, we'll shed a tear, but we're taking you out. I think that was proven statesmanship. However, I think it's good to signal that we really wouldn't want that to actually happen, to actually bomb entire cities. That's something we Christians should not be super comfortable with. Right.

But, I mean, it seems so clear to me that Trump knows that and that it's kind of crazy not to know that he knows that. Only people who hate him would believe that he wouldn't care about that. I mean, if you actually know him and have followed him and pay attention to what he does, you know that he wouldn't do that. Let's be glad the Iranians didn't know. Let's be glad the Iranians didn't know. Excuse me, that's the point. And maybe... That is the point.

Maybe all these pearl-plunching Americans having hissy-fits helped sell the illusion. So they get it for favor. You're making the point that I was just about to make. I believe that in using the F-bomb in a post and putting that out there, the president was deliberately doing it to troll his enemies domestically so that they would scream so loud,

how can he speak like this, that it would underscore to the mullahs, oh my goodness, he's crazy. I actually believe that was part of his calculation in using the F-bomb, knowing that that people myself included would be upset by this. I didn't really talk about it because I thought at the end of the day it wasn't the most important thing but that he did that deliberately to get the

you know what would we call it the blogosphere to get people like David French to like have the vapors and have to be revived with smelling salt on the fainting couch. The same people who think

Drag Queen's Story Hour is one of the blessings of American Liberty but the president can't use file language which, oh, my dear, oh, my dear, I can must connect myself. Well, listen, I wish he hadn't done that. I mean, I think most people who know me would know that I wish he hadn't done that. But I do believe that in doing that, he did it in part to set the blogosphere on fire to make it even more clear to the mullahs like, oh, my goodness, this guy is unhinged.

To me, that's genius. It's absolute genius. that's called... They think Western men are all eunuchs who will give up their countries and let their daughters be raped by grooming gangs and the British and the Germans are doing their best to convince them of that.

Donald Trump is reminding them that Americans are a breed apart. We have not yet completely gilded ourselves and decided to shuffle sadly off the stage of history. I think that sums it up and I'm glad we got to that. We only have 15,

seconds left. So we'll leave it there for today. But I do think we have Larry Taunton coming up for the second part of the show. Curious what he thinks about what happened last night. There's a lot to process, actually, and I don't think this is over. John Zemirik, thank you for being my guest. While the corrupt federal elites have been quietly building wealth through cryptocurrency, hardworking American patriots have been left behind. Today, I want to tell you about MetaxusCrypto.com. They're bringing access to cryptocurrency wealth to real Americans. Crypto is supercharging President Trump's America First Economic Miracle, and now you can be a part of it. I've partnered with Block Trust IRA because their mission perfectly aligns with President Trump's Make America Great Again agenda,

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promises kept. Larry, welcome back. Good to see, Eric. Well, it's been a while for no good reason. I've been a little busy trying to finish a book about the American Revolution, but we're here to talk about the news of the day. I just spoke to our friend John Smirak about it. Donald Trump, there's so many ways, there's so many ways into this conversation, but it seems to me that he wanted at least because he's crazy like a fox, right? He wanted, I think even if the ceasefire doesn't last, or even if our conversation negotiations break down in the next 10 days or whatever it was. He said we've got a 10-day ceasefire.

I think he wanted a temporary, he wanted to hit pause so that we can move some oil so that, you know, the world markets would improve. people would would calm down. And he got the mullahs to blink by being a trash talk and lunatic, which is his genius. That's my theory. But what do you see? Where are we right now with regard to all this stuff in the eyes of Larry Taunton? Well, I think you're right, Eric. I think, listen, Trump is nothing, if not a shrewd negotiator. I mean, he's the author of the book, literally the book, the dealmaker, the negotiator. So it's the way Trump operates. And I think he recognizes that this war has hurt him in the polls. I, for one, have been very supportive of this war. Iran has been an enemy of the United States since 1979 and has been carrying on an

undeclared war against the United States, United States servicemen, civilians, attack the United States, U.S. troops, no less than 83 times just in the first two and a half years of the Biden administration. So when people say this wasn't provoked, it absolutely was provoked. Israel aside, it was provoked. But I also would want to caution the president, I'm sure he has been, that they're pretty shrewd negotiating on their part. They're deeply dishonest. And they will just see this as an opportunity, kind of like the Vietnamese during any you know, kind of ceasefire to move more ammunition down the Ho Chi Men Trail. That's, that's exactly what the Ayatollahs, the Mulas are going to do. Well, yesterday, I don't know if it was

Fox or Newsmax, but somebody was opining that we, it was Newsmax, that we're doing the same thing. In other words, that right now our intel is going in, identifying targets and being prepared in a sense for the next moment where we have to, you know, rain bombs on them, if that should happen, which it very may well happen. Yeah, well, we would be foolish to do otherwise. But listen, Iran is, you know, their leadership, their religion, their pseudo-religion, is sworn to the destruction of Israel. And secondary to that is sworn to the destruction of all infidels, which United States, you know, fits that very neatly. I mean, they coined the phrase, the great Satan, as, you know, referring to the United States. So we have to assume that this is an implacable enemy who's, they're going to carry on their war with us, with the Israelis, with the West in general at first opportunity.

They just, they're at present, they just simply don't have any leverage. Well, so John's Merrick was just on and he was talking about how, you know, we cannot have boots on the ground. And I guess my question then is, I agree with that. How do you square the circle? How do you, you know, if they're going to be perpetually at war with us, how do we end that without affecting regime change? Now, the question, how we do that is always the question. The, you know, arming people on their side, you know, arming the Iranian people against the Mullahs, against the regime.

Do you think that is happening? What do you think the odds are that the people in Iran who hate this regime would be able to rise up? I'm probably not very good. And I don't know what John said regarding this, but I suspect he might agree, with me and this. I certainly am of the view that we don't put boots on the ground. I mean, it becomes another Afghanistan, a Vietnam, whatever you want, a quagmire. However, I'm not in favor of arming the Iranians either. I mean, we've tried that in Afghanistan. We tried that in Iraq. We've done that a number of places. And we have to understand the ideology that we're dealing with

here, which is Islam. And I get it that. that many of the Iranian people are not Muslims, but I am not in favor of sending yet more weaponry to the Middle East is going to end up in the hands of Hezbollah or Hamas or... So you think that's the reason that we would not do that is because it would, in fact, end up in the hands of our enemies and the enemies of the good people of Iran. Yeah, that is my opinion.

I mean, the United States has a history of arming those that we think our allies who in the end, you know, aren't our allies. I just saw on television a few nights ago, an old Bond movie with Timothy Dalton where the Mujahideen, you know, are portrayed as our friendly, good allies. This movie is what? You know, maybe like, maybe like 88, you know, or something like that. And boy, have times changed. And we were arming them and saw them very much as, you know, as our allies. I mean, the Biden administration just left 85 plus billion in state-of-the-art military technology in Afghanistan. And, you know, when I was just in Israel and down at Gaza, I was asking questions about the weaponry that was being used by Hamas, because I was very

curious to know if any of that stuff was stuff that had come out of Afghanistan. But regardless, we do know that Iran has been arming Hezbollah, has been training Hamas, has been supplying them. So, I mean, this is an ongoing eternal war. I'm not the military strategist, but my gut reaction is that we just keep cutting the head off the snake. I don't think we have to get involved in nation building here. Well, I mean, I think most Americans. What's that? I said Cuba, however, is different.

Well, yeah, and I want to talk about Cuba and Venezuela, but I think most Americans have learned what you just said. We don't want to be involved in nation building or forever wars. And I think part of the reason we've learned that is because of Donald Trump leading the way in explaining this to us, leading the way in framing this for us, when in the debate in 2016, he calls out Jeb Bush and Jeff Bush's brother. that was a moment in America. I mean, I will never forget it. I thought, wow, here is someone who has gone against the, you know, the Republican establishment. He's gone against the Bushes. And he has defined what he sees as what our foreign policy ought to be or the limits of our foreign policy.

And that was an important moment, which is why I'm inclined to trust this president, because I really think that he is the one who's framed this this way. So when people say, no forever wars or no, we're not into nation building, that's true, but it doesn't mean that there aren't things that we can do in those directions. And the question is, where does that line exist? Yeah, I agree with that and how we find that. Listen, looking at this with the eye of a historian, we do know, we do have a model. where we have defeated an evil ideology like Islam, and that's found in Japan. I mean, the suicide bombers of Islam today are the kamikaze's of yesterday. And they were every bit as fanatical in Japan is one of the most stable democracies in the world now, Constitution, written largely by Douglas MacArthur and his staff.

Some would say it's a constitution that's even more, you know, democratic, you know, than our own. So we do know that it can be done. I do not believe, however, that is realistic to believe that it can be done in the Middle East. For reasons of geography, Japan was an island. It was isolated. It was a situation where we had the ability to completely isolate it and therefore for democracy to work, to move. move them from a feudal emperor-worshipping society into the modern world. If you're trying to isolate Iran, how do you do that?

And when they're surrounded by other Islamic states who are just going to continue to feed in terrorists and weaponry and all these, you can't be done. But we do know that they were not who they are now before 1979. You know, they were our friend before 1979. Well, of course, the whole Middle East has changed greatly since that time. You know, I just think that given our experience, given the Russians experience, and even before them, a century before, the British experience in the Middle East and in Afghanistan, it's been the same thing. You know, just one Western Army wrecked right after another going into the Middle East. Cuba, however, I do think we can change.

We have to go to a break. We will talk about Cuba. We're talking to Larry Taunton. We'll be right back. Hey there, folks. I've been saying that 2026 must be the year of accountability, whether talking about government spending or the way we steward our own families, we have a moral duty to seek the truth. But let's be honest, in the world of Medicare, truth. is often the first casualty.

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Talk to a real person and get the honest answers you deserve. Welcome back talking to Larry Taunton. Larry, we may have to talk about Cuba tomorrow with you. But right now, let me just say what happened yesterday with the president, you know, threatening to wipe out their civilization, what amazes me, really, is that people still don't understand how Donald Trump communicates. It's kind of amazing how people think he. would have no problem with committing war crimes,

with, you know, dropping nuclear bombs on civilians. People are talking about this. And I just thought, what world do they live in? If you know Donald Trump, you know that you don't need to tell him not to do that. He doesn't want to do that anymore than you want him to do that. But people reacted to his posts on Tooth Social. I mean, I even said to John Smirik, I think he used the F-bombs. deliberately to gig his domestic opponents into freaking out so that it would make it even more

noisy so that the mullahs would say, you know what, this guy's crazy. Even his own people think he's crazy. We don't know what he's going to do. And then, of course, he wins. They say, okay, let's have a ceasefire. We'll let some ships move through the straight of Hormuz. And he gets what he wants. That's what he was doing all along.

I mean, I just don't understand the hysteria as though he actually doesn't care about the Geneva Convention, doesn't care about anything. He's a madman. It's, you know, I mean, look, they said this about, I remember they said this about Reagan. They said it about George W. Bush. They'll say it about anybody who seems to have any guts or any swagger. It makes them uncomfortable. And, you know, it's the standard pearl clutching. is what happens. So that's kind of what, that's how I see it. That he got what he wanted. And that last night,

he did not have to bomb power plants and bridges. Well, let me explain what I think's happening here. And by the way, I agree completely with you. Setting aside the left, because we know there, it doesn't matter what he says, what he does, as he said during state of the union, I could cure cancer. And they're not going to, to clap. So they're, in my opinion, they're completely irrelevant to, your point. They're not irrelevant, but they're relevant to this particular point. Let's talk about those people within the party on our own side, so to speak, who did freak out and you do think that he's nuts. There are those people, you know, who believe that. I agree with your assessment insofar is this is classic brinksmanship. That's what this is. It's brinksmanship. And you and I are

old enough to remember the hilarious hot. Hot Mike, hot Mike supposedly moment with Reagan where he was supposedly sort of jesting. You remember where I'm going with this? We begin bombing in five minutes. Exactly. Where he says, I have signed legislation or something that is effect, an executive order, you know, abolishing communism forever. Bombing begins in five minutes.

And the Soviets went berserk. Well, what you say, the Soviets, do you mean the Soviets? at the New York Times? Is that what you mean? I mean, the left went insane. They went completely insane. And to this day, you know, you will see clips of Gorbachev well after, you know, he was deposed saying that Reagan was nuts, that he thought Reagan was nuts.

That's exactly what Reagan wanted him to think. Reagan absolutely wasn't nuts. I recall Margaret Tuttweiler telling me personally, she was in the. Reagan administration and eventually became ambassador to Morocco under George W. Bush. But her telling me that as young staffers, they all thought that Reagan was a little unhinged. And then they began to realize the old man's smarter than all of us. He knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing.

And she told the story under George W. Bush that they were in negotiations of First Gulf War with Tarika Z's, where Tariq Aziz threatened to use poison gas on American soldiers. And James Baker said, so help me if you do it. We will reduce your country to powder. We will nuke you. And she says, Aziz went, you know, went white. And she said he was a smoker like she was and steps out and is like, you know, this administration is nuts.

And she was conveying that this was brinksmanship. and they have to believe it. Otherwise, it doesn't work. A bluff has to be, it has to be taken as real. So for the left to go bonkers like that just plays perfectly into Trump's hand here. So that's what I think he's doing. And I actually think Trump probably modeled this after Reagan. Reagan doesn't get enough credit at all.

But he doesn't essentially doesn't get enough credit for how he has inspired Trump. Trump follow us a lot of the Reagan plan. And if people want to know what it's called, it's called Crazy Like a Fox. Yes. We'll be right back. Hi, everyone. If you were injured in an accident, listen up. We have legal professionals standing by to answer your questions.

You can find out if you have a case and how much it's potentially worth. I'm Gina Bellich, along with Super Bowl champ and two-time pro bowler Vernon Davis. So Vernon, tell everyone watching who should call right now. Well, Gina, if you are someone you know were injured in an accident, that was not your fault. Give us a call right now. You can find out if you have a case and how much money is potentially worth.

Thanks, Vernon. You know, the phones have really been busy. So what kind of calls have we been getting? We're getting calls about all types of accidents from car accidents to slipping falls and so many others. So if you were injured in an accident, don't go at it alone.

Call for a free case review and find out how much your case is potentially worth. Thanks, Vernon. You heard the man. Call now to find out how much money you qualify for. Final segment with Larry Taunton. Larry, where do you think this goes?

You know, we've got some 10-point peace deal theoretically. My theory is that you can't reason with madmen. They're liars. They're not just evil. They are also irrational theocratic lunatics. So I mean, for them to agree that, you know, they're going to let people come in and make sure that they don't have uranium, that they don't have this, that they don't have that. They will only agree to that if they have to for as long as they have to.

And then the second somebody looks away, they're going to do whatever they can do. So I wouldn't be surprised if in less than 10 days we resume bombing. Yeah, well, I wouldn't either. And again, I just keep coming back to this. It's his long. It's Islam. It's a really, really human nature is the same the world over. And if you're a Christian who's listening to this conversation, then you're obligated to believe that human nature is fallen. Jeremiah 179, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? That is a Christian, a Jewish doctrine that we are fallen. But some ideologies exacerbate our fallen nature while others restrain them. The Christian faith, this is my argument in my book, The Grace Effect, which everyone should buy at booksellers everywhere. Hey, listen, it is a great book, The Grace Effect by Larry Taunton.

It's how I met you. What? It's how I met you. I had no interactions with you and you did a breakpoint. You were doing breakpoint in those days. And I had friends texting me and said, hey, Eric Metaxus just did a whole thing on your book. And I thought, what a nice guy to do that. Didn't even know he'd read it.

So thank you very much. It was a wonderful book, and I was doing Breakpoint with Chuck Holson. And it's, but I mean, yes. And the thesis, of course, is that when you bring Jesus into the equation, everything changes. And that's what's supposed to happen. Jesus changes everything. That's what the grace effect your book is about. And Islam.

Exacerbates. It exacerbates our fallen human nature. And we become even more evil. rather than less. You know, I would argue, I would argue as with, you know, I think it was evil in Wall who said this. Someone said to him what a wicked little man he was. And he says, yes, and imagine how much worse I would be if I were not Christian. And that's, that's what, that's what the Holy Spirit does in our life. It doesn't make us good, but it makes us, it, it, it certainly curbs our evil appetites. And you see, Islam goes absolutely in the other direction. It says you

You can lie, you can steal, you can rape, you can pillage, you can do all that stuff. You can rape and you can murder. Absolutely. I mean, wow, wow, wow. You can slaughter. Look. And so that's what we're dealing with at Islam. An interesting book I read maybe, it's probably been 15 years ago, but it's worth reading.

It's a book by Saul David, Saul David called Victoria's Wars. It's referring to Queen Victoria, Queen of England from 1837 and 1901, victorious wars. In battle after battle after battle, the British find themselves up against a rising militant Islam. And so many of the stories involve things like this where there's a negotiated peace and the British Army will depart the fortress. in peace and turn it over to the Muslims. And the moment that they come out, believing that there's a ceasefire, they're immediately set upon and murdered and slaughtered. And it happens time and time again.

And I promise you that they will do it here if they think that they're able to do it. Well, in my... They can't be trusted. In my research on the American Revolution, I was shocked to see that the British empire in fighting us were similar. In other words, they did not have Christian scruples the way the Americans did. They would, if you surrendered, they might well bayonet you to death as a reward for surrendering. And what this is, you know, where we're out of time here, but it basically, Larry, it's understanding the evilness of evil. Who are you dealing with? And in dealing with,

With Iran especially, these are deeply wicked people. And I think most liberals are incapable. They were incapable of seeing the evil of the Soviet Union. They don't get it. But there are a lot of people, you know, even in the Republican Party, that don't understand this and that are guilty of thinking that you're dealing with people who are going to behave the way you are. And I'm glad that you underscore that is,

is not similar to Christianity. And tomorrow I want to talk to you about Tucker Carlson and the comments that he made. But for today, we'll have to leave it there. Larry, thank you.