The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1733 - Pope Leo XIV Keeps Looking Better and Better

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

Great signs from Pope Leo's first days, the libs stage an insurrection at DHS, and President Trump goes his own way on Mideast peace.   Click here to join the member-exclusive portion of my show: https://bit.ly/4biDlri   Ep.1733   - - -   DailyWire+:   Join us at https://dailywire.com/subscribe and become a part of the rebellion against the ridiculous. Normal is back. And this time, we’re keeping it.   “Parenting” with Dr. Jordan B. Peterson premieres May 25th. https://bit.ly/3RXTL07   Live Free & Smell Fancy with The Candle Club: https://thecandleclub.com/michael   - - -   Today's Sponsors:   American Investment Council - Learn more about the American Investment Council and private equity at https://investmentcouncil.org   Vandy Crisps - Start snacking right. Visit https://vandycrisps.com/knowles today to get 25% off your order.   Done With Debt - Start building the life you deserve! Visit https://donewithdebt.com and talk with one of their strategists. It’s FREE!   - - -   Socials:   Follow on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3RwKpq6   Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3BqZLXA   Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3eEmwyg   Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3L273Ek   - - -   Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're learning much more about the new Pope, Pope Leo the 14th, and the signs are better than just about anyone had hoped. Democrat elected officials then led an insurrection at a DHS facility and reportedly assaulted cops. We will get to the Democrats' very own January 6th, and President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are apparently at odds over Middle East policy. Lots to get to. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles show. Welcome back to this show. The Democrats did a January 6th. Sorry, January 6th. There was screaming, there was body slamming, there was assaulting police officers. I have a lot more to say, but before I get to any of that, I want to tell you about American Investment Council. Made in America means something to our country's private equity investors. When you invest

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Private equity keeps American small businesses growing and thriving at investment council.org, paid for by the American Investment Council. That is investment council.org. Go check it out today and see the people who are funding and powering America's innovation. Before we begin, I want to thank Ave Maria University. Some of you were able to catch my speech, but I was invited to the Ave Maria commencement. I'm now officially a doctor, so I'm waiting for my first. my prescription pad to arrive in the mail, but then at that point, if anyone wants, you know, Percocet or Co-D, just let me know, obviously, because I'm a doctor now. I was a great honor to be there and great privilege to be with the students at Ave Maria, just one more impressive than the next, really, really rigorous academic standards, and more importantly, just very, very well-formed

serious students, especially at a time when all the universities are collapsing. This was really, really beautiful to see. So in any case, we're going to try to get my commencement speech up on the YouTube channel at some point. The thesis was don't change the world. So it's a different kind of university. So I gave a different kind of advice at the commencement, but just a wonderful, wonderful time to be there. So congratulations to the class of 2025. And if you're looking for a place to send your kids to school, there is at least one sane universe. They're a handful. There are what, probably three or four sane universities in the United States. So that's definitely one to go check. out. Speaking of Maria, speaking of Mary, the mother of God, the Pope is giving us some early signs of what his

pontificate is going to look like. And you've got some people who are shrieking, oh, he's a liberal, oh, he's woke, oh, you know, he sent out a tweet that was critical of the Trump administration. He is a leftist, communist, whatever nonsense. Pope Leo the 14th on his, what, what is it, the second or third day of his pontificate, came out onto the balcony and sang the Regina Chele, Queen of Heaven, refers to Mary, Mother of God, in Latin. This is really good stuff. For the non-Catholics out there, why does it matter that he's singing this very traditional chant in Latin? Because it's just the latest piece of evidence. In addition to Pope Leo, wearing the Motseta, the traditional papal garments. His predecessor, Pope Francis, did not do that when

he first came out to give his first Orby at Orby, you know, to say hello to everyone as Pope for the first time. He is living in the papal palace, unlike Pope Francis, who shunned the papal palace and who lived in apartments and an apparent sign of humility, even though I think a lot of these signs of humility ended up being much more expensive than had he just done the traditions. So these are all really good signs. I think I saw a picture of him praying before the tomb of Pope Pius the 12th, great, you know, traditional Pope, beloved by many traditionalists. There's also this video that's come up of Pope Leo when he was still Bishop Robert Prevost describing the election of Pope Francis and what he thought that meant for his life in the church.

In March 10 years since Pope Francis's election. I knew Jorge Maria Burgolio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, that's the Pope's first name, as Augustine in general met him several times. When he was elected, I told some brothers, great, thank God I'll never be bishop. I won't say why, but not all meetings with Cardinal Burgolio were mutually agreeable. Okay, so what does this mean? I don't know, sign after sign after sign seems to suggest that Pope Leo the 14th is not just Francis 2.0. Now, it doesn't seem like he's going to really attack Francis.

He said wonderful things about Pope Francis. There's going to be, you know, a lot of continuity, I'm sure. But I don't think this is going to be Francis 2.0. Okay. First of all, not even Pope Francis was Pope Francis as the media portrayed him. You know, the media who portrayed him as a, you know, pro-trans, pro-LGB communist, you know, who basically works for Klaus Fobb. Not even Pope Francis was Pope Francis, but it is true. Pope Francis's pontificate was a little bit confusing, pretty liberal by historical standards.

And look, I know it's really untrad of me. I know it's very counter to the right-wing conservative instinct to not constantly think we're on the brink of utter catastrophe and collapse. But I got to tell you, I'm feeling hopeful about the pontificate. Now, the Pope also came out and explained his choice of name. You know, that I called the name. Not only did I predict the name, but I actually said that the name that I was hoping for in the next Pope was Pope Leo the 14th. And then he picked it, and we weren't quite exactly sure why he picked it. You know, there had been 13 Leo's before him.

Some thought it was St. Leo the Great and all of these other Leo's. I said, I hope he picks Leo the 14th because of Leo the 13th. Because Pope Leo the 13th was one of the great popes and a really important Pope to think of for our times. And we now know why he picked the name, and it was precisely for that reason. I decided to take the name Leo the 14th. There were many different reasons, hopefully of the 13th, who in his historic and cyclical Rayrum Novorum addressed the social question in the context of the first industrial revolution.

In this day, the church offers her social teaching to respond to another industrial revolution, to respond to artificial intelligence, and new challenges for the defense of human dignity, of justice, and of honor. So, man, I'm, I know, I know it's very untrad. I know it's very unconservative to have hope and think, oh, things might be actually going in the right direction right now. That's really good. But it picked the name.

Pope Leo picks the right name for, based on the Pope that I was hoping he'd pick the name for, specifically based on this great encyclical, Ray Rheum Navarum, which I've mentioned on this show many times, Ray Rum Navarum, responding to the Industrial Revolution, condemning not only communism and socialism, but also some of the ways in which capitalism goes awry. And we know the capitalism can go awry. the liberal elite and establishment have been running capitalism amok in recent decades. And that's, in fact, one of the great motivators of the Trump election. So it's this great Catholic social teaching.

I love it. And of course, the church does need to respond to this massive upheaval that we're seeing in artificial intelligence, this new kind of industrial revolution. Just, I don't know. I think I'm, I know I'm a doctor. now I'm overdosing on white pills. Okay, I'm just, I'm feeling, not saying it's all going to be perfect, but I'm just, this is pretty good. Enjoy the, enjoy the wins when we can get them, guys. Because then when things go south again, you're going to wish that you would just, just savor it a

little bit, these great wins. Before we go any further, you need to go to vandycrisps.com slash knolls. It is time to ditch seed oils and processed snacks. Vandy crisps are just real potato chips made the old-fashioned way. They taste better than any chip you've ever tried, so authentic that everything else feels like a cheap imitation. One bite, and you will feel nostalgic for something you never knew you were missing. Vandy Crisps were created to be the first real potato chip he'll ever taste made with just three simple ingredients, heirloom potatoes, grass-fed beef tallow, and sea salt. And that grass-fed tallow is not just for flavor, it is packed with nutrients that are great for your brain, skin, and hormones. Plus, you won't get that heavy sluggish feeling

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As I said earlier, the way the media portrayed Pope Francis was different from the actual Pope Francis. And there were plenty of questions raised by the actual Pope Francis pontificate. It's not that it was all business as usual, and the media were just totally making everything up. But the media just didn't understand Pope Francis. Well, apparently that's already true of the new pope. Here's a headline from the Guardian.

Unearthed comments from New Pope, alarm LGBTQ plus Catholics. Previous negative remarks by Pope Leo the 14th about homosexual lifestyle at odds with papacy of Pope Francis. Okay, nothing about this headline is true. And nothing about this subheadline is true. Unearthed comments. These are not unearthed comments. They were never earthed. unearthed comments from the new Pope alarm, LGBTQ plus Catholics, there is no such thing as an

LGBTQ plus Catholic. That does not exist. That's a contradiction in terms. There are Catholics, just as there are people of every background, who have various sexual pathologies. And I don't even mean to just focus on those people. We all have different problems. We all have different temptations. And for some of us, it's gluttony. And for some of us, it's pride. And for some of us, it's wrath. some of it's this, and some people have sexual temptations that are a little bit off. Okay. There are people who are Catholic who have same-sex attraction, who have gender or confusion, who have all sorts of ideas in their head.

But there is no such thing as an LGBTQ plus Catholic. That identity cannot coincide with the Catholic identity, which says that biological sex is a gift from God, that we can know something about how we ought to behave from our sex and from nature. And in the beginning, God made man, male and female, created he them. And a man and a woman are to leave their families and to join together, become one flesh. What God has joined, let no man separate. That's what the church teaches. No faithful Catholic can embrace the LGBT, LMNOP identity.

That is not possible. And then you see the subheadline. previous negative remarks by Pope Leo the 14th about homosexual lifestyle at odds with the papacy of Pope Francis. Oh, is that so? Because I remember Pope Francis saying that gay marriage was a machination of the devil to confuse the children of God. I remember Pope Francis saying, which means you might have to believe, I don't know, do we bleep this word? This is a phrase reportedly said by Pope Francis. It means there's too much fagotry already. That's your supposedly pro-LGB Pope. Okay. When asked specifically about blessings for same-sex marriages, quote-unquote, Pope Francis said,

God cannot bless sin. Okay, so there's really no daylight between whatever the comments that they dug up from Pope Leo and Pope Francis or any other Pope. This is just Catholic teaching for 2,000 years. Coincidentally, it's substantially the same as Muslim teaching and Jewish teaching. and that's just kind of what everyone thought forever. And now we've got a, you know, an LGBT-LMNOP movement that's really grown out of the 1960s in certain parts of the world. But what this kind of headline, and get used to seeing it,

because you're going to see a lot of it, what this represents is just a fundamental ignorance, a profound and humiliating ignorance of Christianity from the people who are supposed to be the pundits and the geniuses and the investigative journalists of our civilization. They don't know but the first thing about our civilization. And I bring it up in a political context because get ready to see a lot more confusion from the press. You always do.

Now, beyond the Vatican, just generally speaking, we're going to still stick on the press for a second here. There is a big return to religion that is specifically among young people. The media are reporting on it. They've noticed it. can't figure out why it's happening. So Axios has this piece out. Young men are leading a religious resurgence. And I won't read you the whole article.

It says, stunning stat. Gen Zers, especially Gen Z men, are actually more likely to attend weekly religious services than millennials and even some younger Gen Xers. This is true, anecdotally. I've just seen this happen. I travel all over the country, all over the world, actually. And often I'm traveling on holy days or on Sunday. And I'll go to stop by a lot of churches.

And it's true. The people who are coming in, the people who write to me, the people I meet on the street, they say, oh, I'm going back to church. They're 22. They're young. That's a lot of men. Women too. So Axios is right about that.

What they're getting wrong about, though, is why it's happening. You say, between the lines, young men are leading America's religion resurgence. That's true. Young men tend to lead most things, though, because men tend to lead most things. So women have a very important role in society, and they do a lot of great stuff. But when you think of leaders in industries and politics and in the household even, it's usually men. So that's a meaningless statement. Zoom in, says Axios. Many young people have turned to religion to find communities. and connection after the isolating years of the pandemic, which hit Gen Z harder than most. That's where they get it totally wrong. Yes, people want community. Yes, people are lonely. People have been getting lonely and isolated for many decades now. That doesn't explain why the religious resurgence is happening.

Zoomers are not going back to church just because they're feeling a little bit lonely. Zoomers are going back to church because they want the truth. Full stop. How long has it been since Robert Putnam's bowling a lot? alone. How long has it been that we've heard that people are being isolated and they're, they don't have friendships anymore, and they're living alone, and it's been decades. And yet, religion continued to decline. Now they say, well, it's the COVID pandemic. COVID might have had something to do with it, but it's not because people were becoming lonelier and lonelier.

COVID might have had something to do with it in that during COVID, we realize that the people who lead our society are liars. At worst, they're complete ignorant dummies at best. That's the most charitable way to put it. And they're more likely just lying to us and deceiving us. But what that implies is that people are returning to religion because they want the truth. Okay, they realize that this tyranny of subjectivism where the elites just cast spells at their whims and by their preces, that that kind of society is deeply unpleasant, it's unsatisfying, it's incoherent. They want the truth. Because by the way, the young people who are going back to church, they're not going back to Kumbaya, you do you feel good church. I mean, the church does

feel good, but that's not the kind of church they're going back to. They're going back to more traditional parishes. They're going back to more orthodox preaching. They're going back to smells and bells and the sturdy foundations of our civilization. That's what they want. Because they realize that they have been denied a patrimony. And inheritance has been kept from them. At the cultural and political level, the great inheritance of our civilization. The thing that inspired men to build the cathedrals and to paint the Caravaggio paintings and to sculpt the David and to go explore the world like Columbus and to go do all the great things that we've done and not just sit around and pleasure ourselves and a loaf like a bunch of decadent,

you know, blobs. But back when we really did things, we were really growing civilization, the thing that inspired them to do that has been hidden from them, has been mocked, has been derided, has been pushed to the side. And young people feel robbed by that fact. I was one of them. I was kind of early on this trend, you know, about 10, 12 years ago. More than that now, 13, 14 years ago. But that's what's happening. They want the truth. And the newspapers, it's so funny.

It's perfectly ironic. The one thing that the newspapers can't understand that young people might want is the truth. Perfect. Couldn't have scripted it better. Now, do you know what people don't want? Young people, well, really all people, don't want Megan Markle on podcasts. And yet Megan Markle has made her first. podcast appearance. I figured she'd made many more, but no. It's her first podcast appearance.

She has very, very important advice for you in her own mind. We all know how it feels when bills start piling up. Sometimes it's not your fault, especially when inflation has been brutal. Everything costs more these days, groceries, gas, you name it. Prices have jumped about 26% in just a few years. If you're struggling with debt, you should check out done with debt. They take a different approach than most debt relief companies. Instead of pushing loans or bankruptcy, their team negotiates directly with your creditors to reduce what you owe. Sometimes they can even eliminate it completely. Best part, they work quickly. Many of their clients see results in the very first month. Just be aware that some of their debt reduction strategies are time sensitive,

so it's worth looking into sooner rather than later. Before you make another payment, why not have a free chat with one of their debt strategists? Visit donewithdeat.com to learn more and see if they can help with your situation. That's done with debt. dot com, again done with debt.com, start finding solutions to your debt today. Megan Markle has made her first podcast appearance on some random, what's it called, the Jane Kern Lima show? And this is the important pearl of wisdom she has for all of her legions of fans. I don't know what I'm doing yet. Yet. My business hasn't gotten traction yet. Yet. No one's picked up my book proposal, yet. Yes. I haven't found my soulmate yet. Everything is yet. The power of yet.

The power of yet. Yet. Yet. Yet again, I want to gouge out my ears. Well, Megan Markle is speaking. The power of yet. Let's be as fair as we can. She's proposing an idea, the power of yet, which is just a kind of blind optimism that things will turn around, even if once life is not progressing as one would like, it'll just turn around as long as we just keep thinking positively, the power of yet. That's at least a marketable phrase, right? That phrase is not even Megan Markle's own phrase. That phrase comes from a 2014 TED talk by some lady named Carol Dweck. Instead of luxuriating in the power of yet, they were gripped in the tyranny of now. It's not, it's not an original idea. She just ripped off this phrase from this lady,

Carol Dweck. It wasn't particularly interesting when Carol Dweck said it 11 years ago. And one does not need to knock Megan Markle for not having an original idea. No one pretty much has an original idea. But the ideas that she is then promoting are not even great ideas. It'd be one thing if she went on some podcast and said, well, you know, here's what Aristotle had to say about something. Oh, you know, here's a really interesting line from Euripides. I don't know. It was something that stood the test of time. No, no, no.

She's ripping off really shallow ideas from shallow self-help YouTube videos. Why? Why does this woman have a podcast? Why does she have a show? Why? The power, you know, these women, these people should not have a podcast. shows. And yet they, and that's an injustice. And the only way that I will be able to console myself is with the power of yet. That their shows haven't been canceled yet. Megan Markle has not been

silenced in public life yet. But I don't know. That's not a great consolation. It's not even original self-help gobbledygook. Why do all of Megan Markle's projects keep failing? she signs, didn't she sign a huge deal with Netflix and all this, but they all keep flopping. The reason they keep flopping is because she doesn't have anything to say, which is fine, I guess. I'm not, plenty of people don't have that much to say. But if you want to communicate, if you want to be a public figure who is a thought leader, who you need to have like at least something to say. But this has been Megan Markle's M.O. from the beginning.

She wants all of the privileges that go along with an identity, but she doesn't want any of the responsibility. She doesn't want to do any of the work. She wants the tiara. She doesn't want the public service. So she runs into becoming a princess, but then when she realizes that you actually have to do things when you're a princess, it's not all just Disneyland, you know, people waiting on you hand and foot and adulating you when you actually have to like do things. then she says, I don't want to be a princess anymore. I want to go back and be an actress. Then I can play a princess in a Disney movie or something.

And it's not just her. I'm not just beating up on Megan Markle. So many people, they want all the privileges, they want all of the honors, they want all the plaudits, but they don't want to do anything. And actually her advice ties in perfectly with this mistaken way of thinking.

She says, oh, things aren't really working out for me yet. I'm sure they will tomorrow. I don't have to change anything about myself. I don't need to work. I don't need to be in any way introspective. I'm just going to keep doing all the things that I'm doing that have failed, and I'm not going to take any responsibility. I'm not going to suggest that maybe that might be my fault.

No, no, no. It'll just all change tomorrow. What do they say that the definition of insanity is as you try the same thing over and over and you expect a different result? That's Megan Markle. She hasn't learned the chief lesson of her public life. which is you have to do things. You can't just be a thing.

You have to do thing. If you want to be the thing, you have to do things. All right. Speaking of left-wing ladies, the Democrats have staged an insurrection at a government building, assaulted officers. We have a little B-roll of it, I think.

We got some body camp footage. The DHS has released some body camp footage. So you see a lot of police, federal agents here, and you got these people in ties and suits, Democrat Congress. So you're pushing cops, slamming into cops, trying to burst into a government facility that these people have no right to enter. And then this one woman in a red jacket will get to who she is in one second. She started screaming like a banshee, screaming at police officers. This is after she's on camera, banging her body into cops. All right, that's enough.

I don't need to watch any more of her. What happened? Well, Newark Mayor, Ross Baraka, was taken into custody for entering and staying on Delaney Hall property unlawfully. He was charged with trespassing. DHS has accused Congress members Bonnie Watson Coleman and Robert Menendez Jr. of storming the gate, breaking into the facility illegally, and going and trying to defend and say, no, no, no, I didn't really do that. No, I didn't slam it. You could see that Democrat member of Congress slamming her body into some cop. DHS spokesman when Tricia McLaughlin says, we actually have body camera

footage of some of these members of Congress assaulting our ICE enforcement officers, including body slamming a female ICE officer. So we'll be showing that to viewers shortly. The mayor of Newark pushed back, said that he was invited to the ICE facility. He stayed there for over an hour. Someone allowed me to go in. I didn't climb a fence. I didn't kick the door down. So he's saying, no, no, I was invited in.

You saw the body cam footage. Does that look like he was invited in? Now, he says, well, no, I was invited in, but then, I don't know, I overstayed my welcome or something. I just, everything about this scene is so perfect. Because this is the perfect analogy for January 6th, the worst day. I'm going to do my Adam Kinsinger impression. The worst day. I can't keep my teeth.

years back for the worst day in the history of politics since ancient Athens. And why was it such a bad day? Because we were told some people trespassed in a government building. And now that some of the people said, well, actually, we were invited in. And there's, in that case, on January 6th, there's actual video evidence of the January 6th being invited in, escorted in by police. Even the Hornhat guy was escorted by police. In this case, this government building, I don't really see any video evidence of them being invited in.

But okay, that's the claim. They're making the same defense as the January 6thers. It's the same type of incident, trespassing and getting really rowdy at a government building. The sobbing Democrats and de facto Democrats like Adam Kinsinger from January 6th, they say, that the January 6thers assaulted police officers. Now, they floated a few hoaxes about this.

Specifically, this one officer, Brian Sicknick, they said that Brian Sicknick was murdered by the January 6thers. That wasn't true. The medical examiner came out and said that wasn't true. He died of natural causes, not even on the same day. He died the next day. Yet here, when we hear all the hand-wringing from the January 6thers about assaulting police officers, here you see Democrats assaulting police officers.

And then here's the big difference. on January 6th, the right wingers who went into the Capitol and made a ruckus of themselves, they were eccentric civilians. They were just regular old citizens, Midwestern grannies, some, you know, eccentric Floridian men who were taking selfies in the Rectonda. But they were just kind of random people. Here, the people who were doing an insurrection at a government building and trespassing and assaulting police officers. officers on camera. Those people are Democrat elected officials. You didn't see Republican elected officials in the Capitol on January 6th, other than the

members of Congress who were supposed to be there. Here, it's not the supposed rabble of the Democrat Party, the Hoy-Polloy. These are the people they elect. So in any case, I know that DHS is talking about charging these people with crimes. More arrests should be, more arrests should be made. They should arrest these members of Congress who were who assaulted cops who are trespassing, absolutely. What is good for the goose is good for the gander, and if we don't, if we don't show Democrats we are willing to do to them,

at least half of what they're willing to do to us, then the next time they have power, they're going to do it to us 10 times over. So just as a matter of political prudence and justice, you've got to hold them to standards. Folks, I strongly encourage you to go to dailywire.com shop because you can get the yes or no game along with the yes or no expansion pack all sorts of

expansion packs we have the relationships expansion pack the conspiracies series expansion pack the philosophy and politics and religion expansion back all sorts of them one question that's come up posted it on instagram created a big big sort of reaction the prompt dogs don't go to heaven what is your what's your take on that Dogs don't go to heaven. Tell me your take. Put it in the comments below. Because I have very strong opinions about this question. But it riles people up. This is the sort of thing. You need to get the yes or no game so that you can find out what your loved ones really think. When you're a DailyWire Plus All Access member, you're not just watching the daily live shows. You're part of the conversation.

No ads, exclusive access to live Q&As, where you ask us the questions directly, and first looks at what's coming next. That includes parenting, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson's new series dropping May 25th, exclusively on DailyWare Plus. You get the full entertainment library, every original film and documentary, early access to major announcements before anyone else. Become an all-access member today at DailyWirePlus.com. My favorite comment on Friday is from Herb Pallendrom, who says, I'm starting to think that Michael may not actually hate to say, I told you so. I don't know why you would get that impression. Speaking of political division, Trump and Netanyahu, bosom buddies, right? They just couldn't be tighter.

Trump has towns named after him in Israel. Trump pals around with Netanyahu. There's no distinction between U.S. policy and Israeli policy. And some people in both the U.S. and Israel criticize this perception. Some people say, ah, Israel is just leading the United States around. You know, Israel's buying off politicians. Israel does have a big lot. lobbying campaign, of course, as do many nations, but they say in Israel's dictating the policies

of the Trump administration. They bought off the politicians who are dictating what Trump is going to do. Some of the criticisms in the state of Israel is that Netanyahu's gotten too chummy with Trump. And that the state of Israel needs to make sure that it has good relationships with both political parties and the fact that Trump and Beebe are so tight that nothing gets between them. That's actually, that could prove a risk for Israel because the Democrats don't like Israel anymore. Well, looks like there might be a little trouble in paradise between Trump and Netanyahu. There's a New York Times report, which is that saying, and it's not just the New York. If we're just the New York Times, I'd ignore it.

But it's being reported by all outlets of all sort of political backgrounds. Once in sync, Trump and Netanyahu now show signs of division. Both men are politically divisive, fiercely combative, and have outsized egos. But as Trump arrives in the Middle East next week, the fate of the region could hinge on their relationship. Okay, trouble in paradise. What's it over? The Iran nuclear deal. Trump might cut a nuclear deal with Iran that would allow them to have civilian nuclear capabilities, but not nuclear weapons. This is more or less what Barack Obama was pushing for in his first term. Trump will say that he's going to get a better version of this deal. And he probably will get a better version of this deal. But the state of Israel doesn't want there to be any nuclear deal with Iran. They want to blow Iran to smithereens and get rid of the Mullahs and not have any nuclear program in Iran. Another reason there's trouble in paradise, Trump made an agreement with the Houthis. The Houthis are firing missiles into Israel. And Trump made a deal outside of Israeli negotiation channels reportedly. He made a deal with the Houthis and he said, hey, if you stop firing on U.S. vessels in the Red Sea, we're going to stop bombing you.

That reportedly irritated Israel. And then on Gaza, according to reports, Netanyahu wants to intensify the war. Trump wants to wind the war down. So Trump reportedly negotiated directly with Hamas, set on Sunday that the last living American hostage in Gaza, Edon Alexander, will be released as part of efforts to set up a ceasefire. And the Hamas apparently went along with this. And the state of Israel doesn't like it because the state of Israel was reportedly cut out of the negotiations. Now, everyone is shocked by this. Everybody is shocked. The Israel critics are shocked. The Israel lovers are shocked. The Trump critics are shocked. The Trump lovers are shocked. You know who's not shocked? You know how much I hate to say, I told you so. You boy, I'm not shocked. And I'm not shocked.

In fact, I called this because I could see back at the Trump Netanyahu meeting in February in D.C. I could see that Trump was doing things that he had not discussed with Netanyahu. He was taking Netanyahu by surprise. Specifically, you remember Trump came out. He said, hey, the U.S. is going to take over Gaza. And we're going to build a big Trump hotel and casino in Gaza. He didn't literally say that for that. The insinuation was we're going to do with it what we want. And at the time, all this criticism,

oh, Trump's just letting Netanyahu dog walk him, you know, there. He's just doing whatever. They cook this plan up behind the scenes. And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, guys. Look at Netanyahu's body language when Trump announced this at the press conference. I don't think he was expecting this announcement. And look, I'll take you back to the video. take a listen. This is just with the camera

on Netanyahu. The U.S. will take over the Gaza script and we will do a job with it to we'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. Now he looks out at the press.

Wait, what? He's doing a double-take. He actually does a double-take. Wait, what did he just say? He's a talented politician, so he's keeping some composure, but do a real job to something different. He's kind of smiling? What is Trump saying?

Is he joking? Rolls his eyes. I'm hopeful that this ceasefire could be the beginning of a larger and more enduring peace that will end the bloodshed. Shifting his weight. Looking at Trump, wait, what? What did you just say? So at the time, this is what, two, three months ago now? I said, I don't think that Trump and Nanyahu were just cooking up secret plans in the back room.

I think Trump is doing his own thing. And he supports the state of Israel broadly, and he has a town named after him in Israel. But he's not just going to do whatever Israel wants. So look at Nanyahu's body language. And nobody believe me, but now they do. Because of this, Trump is his own man. When Trump goes and cuts a deal with the Houthis

and doesn't ask Israel's permission, we don't have to ask Israel's permission to do anything with the United States. When he cuts a deal with the Houthis, when he goes in, he says, all right, we're going to take over the Iran negotiation. When he even goes in and starts talking about Gaza, remember, when Trump was elected, he said, I'm going to end this Gaza war on day one. And I told you at the time, that seemed like he was saying to BB Netanyahu, hey, do whatever you got to do, do whatever you want on Biden's watch to wrap up this war in a way that it's satisfactory to the state of Israel, which is a country I support. but the minute I get into office, I'm cutting you off.

And that appears to be what's going on because Trump seems frustrated that the parties in both the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the Israel-Gaza conflict are not wrapping up the wars. Fairly or unfaily, Trump seems to be upset about this. And so he's going to do it on his own. Does this mean that Trump doesn't support the state of Israel? No, I don't think it means that at all. It just means that Trump is his own man. and the United States has interests. And so while the United States is happy to support the state of Israel broadly,

the U.S. wants the war to be wrapped up. And if Netanyahu doesn't want that to happen, and maybe Nanyahu has perfectly good reasons not to want that to happen. But if he doesn't want that to happen, or if he is taking too long or it doesn't serve U.S. interests, Trump's going to go in and do it himself. The man, his chief distinctive characteristic in foreign policy especially, is that he is unpredictable.

And if you just always do whatever your allies want, you're predictable. This is it. The thing that we could have predicted, the paradoxically predictable part, is that Trump was going to be his own man. Some people doubted, I did not really doubt. The guy wants an end to the war, and he's going to do whatever he thinks he needs to do to end that war. The same is true in Ukraine and Russia.

Now, speaking of Trump's opponents, the new AOC, Jasmine Crockett, has come out. and she is accusing her own party of being afraid of women, being afraid of minorities. Her own party, she says, is sexist and racist because they want the most boring white boy imaginable to take on the Republican in 2028. It is this fear that the people within the party, within the primary system, will have about voting for a woman because every time we vote. voted for a woman, we've lost so far. And I think that that's a natural fear because we just want to win. So there's a lot of people that are like, you know what?

Like, let's go find the safest white boy we can find. I mean, I'm just saying. Those are the callers that we're hearing. We're hearing people. No, for real. A white man's got to do it. No, no, no, no, no. For real.

And to be clear, when we talk about them, I can tell you that there is one specific candidate. I had a donor on the phones with me telling me that all the donors are lining up behind that candidate. So I can tell, and I tell you, it's not a black person nor woman, okay? It's Gavin Newsom. Spoiler alert. Jasmine Cragut isn't told me, but I assume it's Gavin Newsom. And this woman is really actually quite good at what she does. I know all the Republicans are attacking her in the exact same way they attack to AOC. She's just getting attention. That's really the main job of a member of Congress. And she's right. I bet that the donors are lining up and saying, need a boring white guy to take on Trump because we've tried a white woman. We've tried a black

woman, blackish, Indian woman, woman of color, we say. And it didn't work. Trump completely obliterated both of them. And they say the white guy beat Trump. A little bit of an asterisk on that election, but whatever. They say Biden beat Trump. So we need another Biden-like figure. And the closest to a Biden is Gavin Newsom. Slick, simpering, good set of teeth, maybe not the sharpest tool in the shed, but really good at getting people to like him. So, okay, it's going to be Newsom, right? Now, other people want it, including women of color like AOC. Big report in the Wall Street Journal, AOC is not ruling anything out, including the White House. I pointed out, AOC already released a presidential campaign ad the other day when she was in Idaho. Talking about, I'm a girl from the Bronx. I'm here in Idaho.

was very clearly a presidential campaign. So she is running right now. And the Democrats are going to be a civil war over it. And if you want to see how nasty that civil war is going to get, you have prominent Democrats already accusing their own party of being racist and sexist because of the candidates that some of the donors want to back a year and a half out. Whatever division you're seeing on the right right now,

The absolute bloodbath that is going to be the 2028 Democrat presidential primary is going to be absolutely delightful to behold. There might well be an insurrection in the Democrat Party. Okay, today's music Monday. The rest of the show continues now. You do not want to miss it. Become a member use code Knowles at checkout for two months free on all annual plans. Ryan Reynolds here from MintMobil, the message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please for the love of everything good in this world, stop.

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