The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1922 - "I Got Him First" Trump's War In Iran Explained In 5 Mins

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

The US and Israel overthrow the leadership of Iran, everyone misunderstands Trump's grand strategy, and Shia LaBeouf gives a viral interview on Christianity. Ep. 1922 - - - Click here to join the member-exclusive portion of my show: https://get.dailywire.com - - - Today's Sponsors: Cowboy Colostrum - Get 25% off Cowboy Colostrum with code KNOWLES at https://cowboycolostrum.com/knowles Ave Maria Mutual Funds - Learn more at https://avemariafunds.com/MICHAEL Tecovas - Get 10% off at https://tecovas.com/knowles when you sign up for email and texts. - - - DailyWire+: Become a Daily Wire Member and watch all of our content ad-free: https://dailywire.com/subscribe 🍿 The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin is now streaming exclusively on DailyWire+ https://dwplus.watch/ThePendragon 📘 My book "Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds" is available here: https://dwplus.shop/Speechless 🕯️ Get your Michael Knowles candles: https://thecandleclub.com/collections/michael-knowles 👕 Don’t dress like a squish. Shop my merch here: https://dwplus.shop/MichaelKnowlesMerch - - - 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

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and a currency transmitter in Rhode Island. NMLS number 1028236. The United States has launched a preemptive war in the Middle East based on the threat of weapons of mass destruction and the desire to liberate a people from a regime that we wish to change in a country whose names start. with the letters I are a and then one more. Does that sound familiar? Are you having

deja vu? Yes. Hold on. Two things here and they kind of oppose each other. But let's just get this straight right off the bat. Yes. It seems crazy that the president who ran specifically against the Bush era regime change wars is now launching perhaps the biggest Middle East regime change war that we've ever seen. Yes, right off the bat. That's crazy. Here's the second part, though. The craziest part of all of it is that this time it might actually work. I'm Michael Knowles. It's the Michael Knowles show. Welcome back to the show. There's a lot of Iran to talk about. A lot of Iran. We're going to be running. where at the end of this show, you'll say,

I ran a marathon today talking about this conflict. However, I hope we have time to get to Shaila Buff's great interview, one of the greatest interviews I've ever seen in which he talks about his faith, what he would say if he meant Jesus. We'll get to all of it. First, though, I want to tell you about Cowboy Colostrum. Go to cowboy colostrum.com slash Knowles, K-N-N-W-L-E-S.

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use code NOLS at checkout. I want to get into what happened in Iran. I want to get into the political calculation leading up to it. I want to get into the three different camps that you can find yourself in. People seem to think they're only two camps. Pro war in Iran, anti-war. I think they're really three, and I think it tells you a lot about Trump's thinking. I want to get into the grand strategy of it all, were we dragged into this war? Did we lead this war? What's this war even for? Is it about regime change? Is it about nukes? Is it about freedom? Is it about American interest? I want to get into all of that. However, the first thing I have to touch on is the liberal media's reaction because the U.S. and Israel launched the strikes on Saturday. Friday night, no, I guess it would be early

Saturday morning, Iran, but we wake up in the United States on Saturday. This has happened. And it worked. It took out the whole top of the Iranian regime, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. People are saying Ayatollah Khomeini, like the first Supreme Leader of Iran, but it's comment. I even I mispronounce it, and I've been saying this name for many years. Kameni, Kameni, whatever. Doesn't really matter now. You know, we're not going to be talking about them too much Anyway, here is what the Washington Post said in their obituary of the Iranian Supreme Leader. Ayatollah Ali Khamini, Iran's Supreme Leader, is dead at 86. Hold on. Let me get to the... Hold on. No, it's not the first part. Here it is.

With his bushy white beard and easy smile, Ayatollah Kameney cut a more avuncular figure in public than his perpetually scowling, but much more revered mentor. And he was known to be fond of Persian poetry and classic Western novels, especially Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. They will never outdo this one. We thought that the liberal media, I think it was the Washington Post, actually, had reached the peak when the leader of ISIS was killed, and they referred to him as an austere religious.

scholar. Abu Bakra-Arab Baghdadi, an austere religious scholar was struck down today. But this, this beats that one by a country mile. With his bushy beard and easy smile, they turned the Ayatollah into jihad Santa Claus. It's unbelievable. Bushy beard, easy smile. Oh, that affable Ayatola. He was avoncular, wasn't he? That's a great word. I do love the word abuncular. He was a and he loved Persian poetry, and he loved Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. There were actually these tweets from the Ayatollah. I guess, I don't know if the Ayatollah really was much of a reader, but he certainly presented himself as a reader. There were all of these tweets going around of all the books he'd read. One of them going around yesterday was that he had read Umbarto Echoes

the Name of the Rose. So I remember one time I read The Name of the Rose by Umberto Echoh. And I thought, okay, well, now I can confirm two bad things have happened to this man in his life. But that novel's not good. That's a bad novel. And Les Miserables. Okay, anyway, I don't think those are the salient facts about the Ayatollah's life. He is not Jihad Santa Claus. He was the leader of a nation that from its inception, from the beginning of the regime,

had been opposed to the United States. The regime begins by taking American hostages, by overthrowing the American ally, the Shah, and then taking American hostages. And they have been declaring jihad against the United States for the 49 or so, 49, 46 years of its existence. So Trump launches Operation Epic Fury. He alerted the nation. Here's his telling of the operation.

Over the past 36 hours, the United States and its partners have launched Operation Epic Fury, one of the largest, most complex, most overwhelming military offensives the world has ever seen. Nobody's seen anything like it. We have hit hundreds of targets in Iran, including Revolutionary Guard facilities, Iranian air defense systems. Just now was announced that we knocked out nine ships plus their naval building, all in a matter of literally minutes. Iran's formerly supreme leader, Ayatollah, Hameh, is dead.

This wretched and vile man died like a dog. ...had the blood of hundreds and even thousands of Americans on his hands and was responsible for the slaughter of countless thousands of innocent people all across many countries. The entire military command is gone as well. Okay. So there are three camps on war with Iran. People have been debating this for a long time.

And I have been making the case chiefly that probably we should not go to war with Iran, that probably the reward was not worth the cost. However, we have to be very clear about the camps here because there are arguments that can be made that cover multiple camps. The three camps as I see it are the peacnicks who are just six. simply opposed to war, no more war ever again. The peacnicks used to be chiefly on the left. In recent years, you've seen a lot of them on the new right as well.

You then have the idealists, the idealists, the neocons, the hawks, who have basically never seen an adversarial country they didn't want to bomb. The kind of people who believe not only should we intervene in pursuit of American interest, but we should intervene in pursuit of American ideals. You know, we need to spread democracy all around the world. And maybe that will have good practical effects in the end, but ideologically, we cannot tolerate totalitarianism or authoritarianism or anything that in any way diverges from Madisonian liberal democracy, if we even still have that.

That's the idealist hawkish camp. And then there are the people in the middle who are realists, who are pragmatic, who are one might even say America first, certainly in the way Trump means it. I think that's the camp that Trump is in. The camp that wants America to be strong, maybe to help the world order, because we are the global empire, but also to be strong so that we can be strong to benefit the American people. The kind of group that says, we need to be tough and intervene around the world so that we get better trade deals so that Americans stop being threatened when we go abroad, so that our enemies do not advance, enemies like China and Russia. We're going to intervene sometimes when it's in our interest,

when the intervention can be done efficiently, when the benefit will outweigh the cost, when that's that camp. And so right off the bat, when we're talking about Iran, I'm just going to write off the peacinks. The kind of people who say, we should never go to war, war is always terrible or whatever. That's just not a serious opinion. I have friends who hold that opinion on the left and the right, I guess, but that's not a serious opinion. You're not, you don't even get to join the conversation if that's your view. I'm reminded of C.S. Lewis's excellent essay against pacifism. That's just, I don't think it's a serious moral point of view, but I certainly don't think it's a serious point in statecraft. So write that one off. Now we're left

with the realist, pragmatic types, and the hawks and the idealist and the neocon types. So which is this. I think that the decision to go to war in Iran was not chiefly led by the neocons and the hawks. I think it was a battle from within the realist, pragmatic, practical camp. When President Trump says America First, he's been clear about what that means from the beginning. Some people want to pretend that America first means America's not involved anywhere in the world and we never use our military and we never go to war. That has never been what Trump has meant by that. Don't forget, when Trump launched America First, this iteration of America First back in 2015, 2016, one of his promises was to go destroy ISIS. So not only did he talk about

intervention, he talked about military intervention, not only military intervention, but military intervention in the Middle East. Clearly, what he means by America First is in that center camp. We need to be strong. We need to pursue our interests. We need to be respected on the world stage. So that's the debate. Now, had I been on the National Security Council, and nobody invited me, but had I been on it, I probably would have made the argument that the risks were too high, that the benefits were not totally clear, that things could spiral out of control, and things could still spiral out of control, by the way. The early few days have been very, very promising. There are a billion things that could go wrong. So I probably would have made that argument. But notably, that would not have been a

piecenik argument. And I don't think the argument that Trump is making is some neocon kind of argument. I think Trump's argument is, yeah, yeah, it's high risk, but I can do it. I'm the man who can do it. I'm the man who can get all these benefits for us. I'm going to take the risk. Trump's a risk taker. He's, I won't say a gambler, but he does it with skill. But Trump's going to come in and say, I have a great record on foreign policy. Look what I did in Venezuela. look what I did in the Middle East in my first term. Look what I did in Russia, Ukraine. I prevented that war from breaking out until Biden got in.

I can do it. And so the debate is not really over ideology. It's not really over even grand strategy preferences that we'll get to what that means. It's really a debate over. Can this guy really affect U.S. foreign policy better than any president in our lifetimes? And we don't know it remains to be seen. We are in the early days of this war, which President Trump says is going to go on for four weeks, maybe five weeks. You know, famous last words for some other presidents.

However, we have to observe. The first few days have been extremely effective, extremely successful beyond most people's wildest imagination. And President Trump has the best record on foreign policy practically in my lifetime. So even if some of us would have said, I don't think it's worth the risk, I don't, I think we should just deal with the Iranian regime, even though we've been at odds with them since 1979. Even if that's the art, really, there's not a disagreement on strategy here. All the serious people want to get rid of the Iranian regime in an ideal world. The only question is, can we actually pull this off?

thus far, President Trump is giving us a lot of reason to believe that. Now, what this means is that when we read President Trump's no stupid wars, no more stupid wars promise from 2016, we heard that. A lot of people heard that is no more wars. You know, the emphasis was on the word wars. But what President Trump is showing is, no, no, no, the emphasis was on the word stupid. The emphasis, when we say no more endless wars, we heard wars. The emphasis was on the word endless. I think Pete Hegseth just made that point.

I think Pete made a statement maybe this morning. Here's the Secretary of War. To the media outlets and political left screaming, endless wars, stop. This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both. Our generation knows better and so does this president. He called the last 20 years of nation building,

war's dumb, and he's right. This is the opposite. This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission. Destroy the missile threat, destroy the Navy, no nukes. Israel has clear missions as well, for which we are grateful. Capable partners, as we've said since the beginning, capable partners are good partners. Unlike so many of our traditional allies who ring their hands, hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force. There you have it. This will not be an endless war. This will not be. We're going fast. I think what's confounding a lot of people about this, and again, a billion things could go wrong. But the fact that this worked so effectively, what's shocking to a lot of millennials, certainly to a

lot of Zoomers, maybe even to a lot of Gen X, is that in our lifetimes, we have never seen the United States military truly unleashed. We've always put all these constraints around it. I mean, under Bush, after the initial days of the global war on terror, the U.S. military was told to function basically as an NGO, as some kind of U.N. nonprofit or something to hand out goodies to the locals. They were constrained. Under Obama, they were especially constrained. And so you saw these bungling missteps that were generated really by the political class in Washington, not by the U.S. military. I think looking at these operations, Venezuela and now Iran, I think a lot of people are just shocked to discover the amazing strength, from the perspective of technology and personnel, the just amazing, awe-inspiring force of the United States military, because we hadn't seen that unleashed. And that changes the calculation.

So just to wrap up that bit, should we go to war in Iran, should we not? Obviously, Alia Iachta est, the die is cast. but everyone is debating this from the perspective of ideology. Well, I'm an interventionist and you're an isolationist. Isolationist, which is always a term of derision, always a term of insult. No, I'm a non-interventionist and I'm a liberty-loving America first and you're a warmonger. It's all from ideology. That's not what this is about. The questions that we don't have answers to, frankly, outside of the government.

Maybe the government doesn't have answers either, but we certainly do not outside the government is. Was the threat posed by Iran really that great? We don't really know. The government could be lying about it. The government might not even know, but we certainly do not know. Was the threat posed by Iran really that great? And two, can we really effectively and efficiently install a friendly regime in Iran? Those are the two questions.

Not should America ever intervene or not should we spread democracy or should it's none of, it has nothing to do with any of that. I think from Trump's perspective, certainly from my perspective, those are the two questions. What really was the threat? How effectively really can we install a pro-Western regime? If the threat was high and we can easily install a pro-Western regime, then obviously this was awesome. This was like the greatest thing ever. Trump will go down as one of the greatest presidents in American history. Replacing this regime in Iran has been a pretty high American priority since 1979. If the threat was not that high, and we get bogged down in an endless war, Trump will have

destroyed his legacy, and he will go down in much the same way as George W. Bush. That is serious risk that this guy is taking based on his confidence in the United States military and his confidence in his own statesmanship. Say what you will. That takes serious will youans. Okay, we will get into the reasons for the war, what has happened. since there were protests, according to the liberal media at U.S. embassies, especially an embassy in Pakistan. There, too, you saw the U.S. military unleashed. This ain't the Obama era, guys. This is the real deal. We will get into what happens next and when I can finally get Cuban tobacco to blend into Mayflower Cigars for the next country that we take over. First, though,

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I want to really drill down here on what we're doing. One reason that has been suggested is that Iran was on the brink of a nuclear weapon, something we've been hearing, in my case, almost every year of my life since I was born. What, since the 90s? Really, since the 80s we've been hearing this. Since before I was born, Iran is on the brink of a nuclear weapon. According to reporting and sources from Capitol Hill and elsewhere, was Iran really on the brink of a nuclear weapon? No.

Were they pursuing a nuclear weapon? Yes. Did Trump's military strikes on Fordo last year set back the nuclear program? yes, obviously. But it couldn't be the case that that was a totally successful operation and Iran was once again on the brink of nuclear weapons. That would be contradictory. But that's not what, that's not even what was being claimed. Iran was continuing to pursue nuclear weapons. Trump was clearly unhappy with how the negotiations were going. We tried to negotiate with Iran for almost 50 years. They just wouldn't, they wouldn't play ball. So Trump said, okay, well, look,

I gave him, I gave him a serious hit over the summer. They didn't want to play ball after that. I guess I got to take out the regime. So rank of nuclear weapons, probably not. There was another claim that Iran was about to launch an attack on U.S. interests, and so we had to preempt that because they were about to launch a missile attack any day now. There is really no evidence of that at all. I think that is just pure propaganda flying around from where I'm not totally sure, but according to the people who were debriefing Congress on this matter, apparently no. Iran was not about to launch an attack on U.S. interests. Now, you could observe that Iran had already seriously harmed U.S. interests because Iran has killed about a thousand U.S. troops over the course of its regime, going all the way back to the

1980s, and a lot during the global war on terror. And even recently, it's not like it was over, you know, 10 years ago. Iran killed three Americans just two years ago. I think it was January of 2024. So we went in and we blew up the Iranian Revolutionary Guard headquarters. among other military assets. There's video going all around about this, aircraft carriers and destroyers, and we blew it up. Okay, another cause of the war

that's been floated is Israel. Did Israel try to drag us into this war? I think the answer is yes. According to the Washington Post, the answer is yes. According to Washington Post reporting, which again, grain assault, they're the ones who said that

the Ayatollah was Santa Claus, but still, here's their reporting. In the briefing on Tuesday for the gang of eight, which consists of leaders of the House, the Senate, and each chamber's intelligence agencies, or intelligence committees. Secretary of State Marker Rubio indicated to lawmakers that the mission's timing and goals were shaped by the fact that Israel was going to attack with or without the United States, according to a person familiar with the administration's outreach to lawmakers. So the only debate that seemed to be remaining was whether the U.S. would launch in concert

with Israel or if the U.S. would wait until Iran retaliated on U.S. military targets in the region and then engage. So this could mean one of two things. One, this could just be the White House trying to fly some political cover and say, no, it's really Israel, but, you know, so therefore we were dragged into this. That would be very much in keeping with state craft going back millennia. However, it could be totally sincere that Israel has Mossad agents throughout every Iranian interest everywhere. The degree of penetration is absolutely astounding. And they said, okay, no, this is it. This is the moment.

We got them. They're all going to be in this meeting. we're going to blow them up now. So we're going to go in and you can deal with it. And the problem is, because the United States is so closely tied to Israel, Iran would not retaliate only by hitting Israeli interests. They would retaliate by hitting American interests. So if Israel even did act alone, we would still get dragged into it. That's just how alliances work. America is a global empire and Israel is part of the empire. That's how it goes. People can debate whether or not that's a good thing or whether or not the tailwags the dog sometimes or whether or not our interests or two closely

We can debate that all day. It's just a fact. Just as Judeo was a troublesome province for the Roman Empire, so too. That neighborhood of the world is tricky for us. It seems to be just part and parcel of the Holy Land. Okay. So that part, I believe, Israel was going to do it. Maybe Israel had very good reasons to do it. Israel's wanted to do it, obviously, for a long time and has struck various Iranian interests many times. But Rubio says that's why we had to go in to have an early advantage. Now, was it just Israel? dragging us into war? According to the Washington Post, no. You know who else was dragging us in? This is a little interesting tidbit. Saudi Arabia. Now, that's odd. This is one of the most distinctly Muslim countries in the entire world. So you got one of the most distinctly Muslim countries in the entire world teaming up with the distinctly Jewish country. Historically, they haven't always gotten along. And both of them, according to the Washington Post, lobbying the United States to go in and attack the other regional power and the other very prominent Muslim country, the Shiite Muslim country, Iran. According to the Washington Post,

the Saudi leader, Mohamed bin Salman, warned that Iran would come away stronger and more dangerous if the United States did not strike now after amassing the largest military presence in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. And this is according to people who were all speaking on the condition of anonymity. So the idea being, look, we built. up these huge military assets in the region, much as we did in Venezuela in the lead-up to ousting Maduro. And so if you get all the way there, and then Iran really won't negotiate, they just keep stalling, they keep putting everything off, and you don't do anything, then Iran wins the game of chicken. Iran is stronger than it was even before you sent the USS

Gerald Ford and the USS Abraham Lincoln into the region. So according to the reporting, which Saudi Arabia denies, Saudi Arabia says, no, we've been consistent in supporting diplomatic efforts to reach a credible deal with Iran. We never lobbied. We never. No, of course, this is the Saudi regime that for a long time denied that they killed Jamal Khashoggi, who also our media lied to us and pretended with some journalists for the Washington Post, actually, but actually he was like a Saudi spy. And anyway, that all of that to say, you can't always take the Saudis at their word. And I believe the reporting that they too were lobbying to hit Iran. And regardless, as Saudi Arabia supports hitting Iran right now.

Riyadh has issued a statement calling on the international community, which really means the United States and Israel, to take all necessary and decisive measures to confront Iran. Okay, there are two other people who I think could have been really pushing us into war. And one of those people is not really talked about. But he happens to be the guy sitting in the Oval Office. First, before we get to that, I want to tell you about Tukovus. Go to Tukovas.com slash NOL.

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No. Was it that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons? Yes. Was it that Iran was about to launch an attack on U.S. interests? No. Was it that Iran has already attacked U.S. interest? Yes. Was it Israel? Yes. Was it Saudi Arabia? Yes. Was it the Iranian diaspora? Was it the Iranians, who tend to be very pro-Western, who live in the United States and throughout the West, who have been begging for the U.S. to bomb the Mullahs for decades now? Well, according to the crown prince of Iran, whose father the Shah was deposed, yes, this is a great moment. And just wait to wait.

you see the look on this journalist's face when Pahlavi talks about how great Trump is for doing this. What is your message to President Trump? My message to President Trump is that I'm here to echo and join millions of my compatriots inside and outside of Iran to thank him for having done and having the courage to do what is not easy but intervene. And he will go down in the annals of Iranian history as the most celebrated foreign leader that changed the ballgame and changed the world as a result. In January, there's this great bit there at the end where you get the Reza Palavi, the conference, he says, you know, yes, Trump is the greatest guy ever. We totally love Trump.

And then the 60-minute journalist, she goes, uh-huh, okay, uh-huh. All right, next question. No doubt. The Iranian diaspora absolutely loves this. And then there's President Trump. And he's the guy. Was it Israel? Yes. Was it Saudi Arabia? Yes. Was it this threat?

Was it that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, let's get down to basic decision-making. I think this answer from Trump on the cause of war tells you so much about his decision-making process and his grand strategy. I just spoke to President Trump for several minutes about Iran. I asked him about who is going to take over now that the Ayatollah, the Supreme Leader, is gone. And his answer was interesting.

He said the attack was so successful, it knocked out most of the candidates. He told me, it's not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. I talked to him about the fact that the Iranians had tried to kill him. There was a plot in 2024, an Iranian plot to try to kill Trump. And he said, of the Ayatollah, I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first. As for how long the war will go on, the president told me he always thought it was going to be a four or five week deal.

That's what he told me, a four or five week operation. He said it could be shorter and he was prepared to go longer. I got him before he got me. That is the talk of a Manhattan real estate developer. That is the talk of a guy who, by virtue of his previous job, had to deal with the mob. That is tough guy talk. Iran has tried to kill Trump.

This is not just based on, you know, intelligence community analysis, a lot of people don't believe intelligence community analysis. Iran has been pretty open about this. This is not, they weren't hiding the ball here. Iran has tried to kill Trump on multiple occasions and threatened to kill Trump for a long time. And then Trump comes out, he goes, yeah,

He tried to get me, but I got him first. Funny how that works, huh? This tells you a lot about how Trump views the world. First of all, we're struggling to understand this because we think this is war with Iran. This is not war with Iran. And even some of the messaging you're getting out of the White House here, it's not going to be an endless war. It's not going to be like Iraq. It's not going to be this. Even that, I think, kind of misses the point. Trump just told you what this is about. What, what, the first impulse is about, which is, he goes, yeah, Kameni, he tried to get me, but I got him first. I was talking to a buddy of mine about this last night, and he made an excellent, excellent point. Trump does not believe in institutions. I love institutions. I'm a conservative. I love it. Trump does not believe in institutions, and I got to give him credit here. I think that he has a really good point when it comes to foreign policy. Trump believes in individuals. He does not believe in institutions, he believes in individuals. Had Trump been the CEO of a Fortune 50 company, Trump would

believe in institutions a lot more than he does. He would believe in boards and legacies and contingencies. But Trump was the head of the Trump organization. Trump was the reality TV star. Trump was the guy who is a personal brand. And in Manhattan real estate in particular, you're not dealing with institutions. You're dealing with individuals. So we, when we think of foreign policy, we think, okay, we think of the Chinese Communist Party. Trump doesn't think of the Chinese Communist Party. He probably doesn't know what the Chinese Communist Party is. He thinks that's a waste of time. He knows Xi Jinping. And he knows if he can get along with Xi Jinping. He knows how he can get along with Xi Jinping. He knows what can anger Xi Jinping. He knows what can put Xi Jinping into a corner.

He's dealing individually. He knows Kim Jong-un. He doesn't know anything about the regime of North Korea. He knows Kim Jong-un. He knows Vladimir Putin. Look at what he did in Venezuela. Did he replace the socialist regime? Did he go in there and replace that socialist party in Venezuela and replace it with the classically liberal center-right party? No, he didn't do that. He went in. He kidnapped Nicholas Maduro. And then the person underneath Nicholas Maduro, he put in charge, according to reports, he was impressed that she was able to keep up oil exports even amid American sanctions. So he thought, you know, this lady, maybe she can play ball. And then he went in and he said, hey, you're going to run the country now.

And he said almost verbatim, if you cross us, we'll kill you. He said, I'm getting the words a little bit off, but he said, look, I think we can work with her. But if she crosses the line, it's going to be worse for her than it was for Maduro. Maduro got kidnapped. She'll get murdered. That's the implication. And you know what? That's worked pretty well. And I suspect that's what's going to happen here. Compare that to George W. Bush in Iraq. George W. Bush and Iraq goes in, we win the military victory.

We rots Saddam Hussein in like five minutes. And then what do we do? We disband the Iraqi bath party. We disband the army. We disband all of these institutions because in the Bush view, the institutions are the problem. we need to spread democracy and Western liberalism. And I don't think that's what Trump's thinking. I think Trump's going to go in. He's going to kill the number one guy. And then he's going to kill the number two guy. Trump had to joke about this.

He goes, yeah, you know, look, some of the guys we were thinking could take over. Unfortunately, we were so successful, we killed them all. Oops. Guess we're going to have to find someone new. He's kind of trash talking. He's very good at that. But I think Trump is looking at regime change in Iran more like the Maduro model. because there are two potential meanings of regime change.

The first potential meaning is you truly change out the regime, the whole, the ideology, the party that is powering the government. But the other way that you use regime change in a looser sense is you take out the leader and maybe you leave the party in place. Maybe you leave the ideology such as it is in place. You just put a new guy in and you put a gun to his head and you say, you're going to play nice. or you know what's going to happen, we're going to kill you too. And then we're just going to keep killing you until we get a guy that plays nice. Kabish? That worked in Venezuela.

I suspect that is what President Trump is doing here. You know, it's funny because all the foreign policy geniuses make fun of Trump. He doesn't understand the nuances of the Shia and the Sunni and the this party and that party. He doesn't understand the nuances of the Chinese Communist Party and the FSB and I don't know. Trump, understanding individuals talk about a vindication of the great man theory of history. Trump just dealing mono on mono seems to have worked out pretty well. And this brings us to the grand strategy here. Trump, what I think he's after is not just revenge or even self-protection for the guy who tried to kill him. I don't think it's just about the oil. I don't think it's

about freedom for the people in Iran. I think it's in part about that, but I think it's only about that. I think Trump. I don't think Trump wants to retreat, you know, as an isolationist. I don't think Trump wants to spread democracy around the world.

Here is what I think Trump wants. And the Iran strike gives you this perfectly. Or could give you this perfectly if it doesn't spin out of control. Trump wants to reshape the world order in a way that benefits the United States. The American Empire has been on decline for 25 years since 9-11. Maybe even before that. You know, we had this huge

peak because of the dot-com bubble and the information technology revolution. But we were socially becoming weaker. And after the Cold War, we kind of squandered the post-war dividend. And we're just, we were kind of declining. And then we had the bungal in Iraq and Afghanistan, we started declining. We had the global financial crisis. We're declining more. We had the Obama years who were really declined. I mean, this is really bad. Then we had Trump come in the first term and kind of staved it off, little bit. Okay, but then Biden, oh my goodness, we just started plummeting. Three million illegals coming in a year. People don't speak English anymore. The economy is on the brink. It's just collapsing, right? And then Trump comes in. And I think what he wants to do is just reset things.

Say, no, no, we can win it. I mean, even the shock for many Americans, 50 and under, that the American military actually can succeed and succeed beyond people's wildest expectations when the politicians in Washington don't constrain them, when we fight a war to defeat our enemy and get what we want. Within the confines, I think, of law and justice. If we have time today, we'll get to, some people are arguing that this is an illegal war,

whether by the law of the Constitution or by international law or by just war theory. I'll try to get to that today. If we don't, we'll get to it tomorrow. But that's what Trump wants to do. And from this perspective, I think it is undeniable. at this point. Trump understands grand strategy better than any president in our lifetimes. And the proof of

this is Iran's reaction, not at the United States or even Israel, Iran's reaction to all the Gulf states after this strike. We'll get to that momentarily. First, this weekend, the moment news broke that the U.S. launch strikes on Iran, the daily wire went live immediately. I lost my Saturday morning and my wife wanted to kill me. But it was okay. We had to do it. This is a big event. We brought in real experts We delivered real analysis. We covered the latest developments as they happened. That kind of live coverage is only possible because of our members. If you value breaking news, investigative reporting, and journalism that helps you understand what is actually happening in the world, go to DailyWire.com and become a member today.

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You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Ebbglis. Before starting Ebbglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Ask your doctor about Ebbglis and visit Ebbgless.com or call 1-800 LilyRX or 1-800-545-9. My favorite comment yesterday, or no, on Friday. This is from Whalen Jenkins 2-22 who says, I got more prison time for a bar fight. It's a shame. Oh, yeah. Speaking of violence, you talk.

you talk about this guy, this Antifa guy, showed up to one of my speeches threw an explosive, seriously injured a female cop. He should have gotten 20 years. Instead, or more. That's attempted murder. You throw an explosive in someone's face.

Instead, he got, I think, two years. Now he's at a halfway house. Pathetic, it's true. You could have gotten more jail time for a bar fight. Okay. Trump's grand strategy here. it's Iran's response that proves in the early days the wisdom of this strategy. So right off the top, Iran declares jihad on the United States.

I shouldn't laugh. This is from Visigrad 24th. It's breaking. 99-year-old Iranian Grand Ayatollah Nassar Makaram Shirazi has declared jihad against the United States and Israel. Is that really breaking? Would we say breaking? First of all, the guy is almost literally 100 years old. And I'm pretty sure Iran has declared jihad against the United States and Israel for like half his life.

For the whole of the Iranian regime. Breaking news. Iran doesn't like America or Israel. Okay. Next response. Drones hitting the Saudi Aramco-Ros. Tannura facility. This is one of the biggest oil export facilities in the entire world. They processed 6.5 million barrels of oil a day. This is apparently 7% almost of global oil supply going

through this one facility. Iran hits the Saudi facility. Iran hits Oman. Iran hits Bahrain. I think Bahrain, Kuwait. Iran's just hitting these Gulf states. And I see. I see. I think Bahrain. I think Bahrain, Kuwait. Iran's just hitting is Gulf states. And I think this was probably a pretty bad idea because I think it actually advances Trump strategy. You don't even have to take my word for it. The Iranian foreign minister has just admitted this was probably not great. Well, there might be a risk. I have been in touch with all of them, as I said, especially with Qatar and Oman foreign ministers. I explained for them. What happened in Oman was not our choice. We have already told our army, armed forces to be careful about the targets that they choose.

As a matter of fact, you know, our military units are now, in fact, independent and somehow isolated, and they are acting based on instructions, you know, general instructions. given to them in advance. No, no, no. This is all big understanding, you understand. This is all, we did not mean, I know Iran hit Oman. I know this seemed very bad and hit Dubai. I know, I don't know what accent.

It's like almost Russian or something. I know, no, but it is big mistake, Habibi, a big mistake, you see, because we actually don't have any control over our military now. That's basically his argument. His argument is we have no control over our, over our terrorist. slash army forces. This is one of the big risks for Iran. Because the chief problem of Iran over the last 50 years

is that they've got one foot in the international order and one foot outside of it. In some ways, they're like a real state. In some ways, they're like a terrorist organization. And so one of the problems is when things start to break down, the most charitable view of what he's saying is you lose control of your terrorists. In any case, they hit Dubai?

Ah, that's not a good look. Oman? I've been to Dubai and Oman. They're both very nice places to be. Dubai is a little bit degenerate, but, you know, people go there, get up to no good. But Oman is a beautiful, beautiful country. And what these countries desire, more than anything in my limited experience there, what they desire is to not have terrorism. They really, they don't want any of that. They don't, these are places, especially Dubai and the Emirates, that thrive on tourism, that thrive on international, financial, and business being here to give Westerners a nice place to live where they don't have to pay taxes. That's what they thrive on. When missiles start flying, that becomes an existential threat to their polities. And so what's the grand strategy of this old? This is where you really, whether you're totally in support of the Iran War, whether you're

skeptical of the Iran War, as I continue to be, as I certainly was before, though now the die is cast and we're all in, you know, with our president. He deserves a fair bit of credibility, and in any case, it's our country. but one can keep a healthy skepticism or whether you're all for it. Regardless, I think you have to appreciate the grand strategy here. Going back to the first term,

first term, what is Trump's signature foreign policy accomplishment? It's the Abraham Accords, where he gets some of the Gulf states to drop the hostilities with Israel, Israel, which is an American ally, and even if you don't think they're a great ally, and I think there are arguments that they're a pretty decent ally,

but regardless, they are an outgrowth of the American Empire. So to get the Gulf states, and we have allies there too, to drop the hostilities with Israel, is a great achievement. But it's still kind of loose. It's kind of nebulous. It started to fray, obviously, during the Gaza war. By getting Iran to fire not just on Israel, not just on some American bases, but to fire on Dubai, but to fire on Oman, obviously to fire on the huge escalation to be hitting Saudi Ramco to hit all of that

codifies consolidates the you know reifies the the Abraham Accords kind of abstract alliance into a military alliance it really begins

to reshape the region in China and Russia have taken serious notice of this between Venezuela and Iran we've just cut off almost 20% of China's oil It won't be a huge deal and they can figure it out. But that's a real hit. The fact that Russia is not coming in to the aid of its client state in Iran tells you that Russia realizes this was a pretty successful move by the United States.

And they don't want to get on the wrong side of it. Putin then responds. And within hours of the strike on the Ayatollah, he says, hey, you know that thing you wanted in Ukraine? You know that those security guarantees you wanted. Yeah, we're good with that now. that is a that is a reordering of of the world again a billion things could go wrong and it could tarnish trump's legacy and all but you have to give the guy he has a keen sense of grand strategy even if it's not totally conscious i kind of give him more credit than a lot of people do but

this is a really really smart grand strategy and it kind of makes a mockery of the whole foreign policy establishment in dc for the last 20 30 years there's so much more to get to. I don't care. I'm running a little late today. I don't care. There's too much to get to. I just mentioned Russia accepts the security guarantees in Ukraine. Now you've got Muslims overrunning U.S. embassies in Iraq and Pakistan. But even here, look, there's video coming out of the attack on the embassy in Pakistan. Notice something different about this attack than attacks on U.S. embassies under people like Obama. Coming, running, babbling. Got it. What's going on here? What's going on here? Well, what's going on is

these guys show up to the embassy and the Marines just start shooting them. And the way it's being reported, the headlines, I love this, this is Bloomberg and I think Al Jazeera. I can't tell the difference. It said 10 killed in pro-Iran protests at U.S. consulate in Pakistan. The protests. 10 killed in pro-Iran protest at U.S. consulate in Pakistan's Karachi. That was Al Jazeera. It's a protest.

It's a protest. Hey, let's take a look at the protesters. Do we have a picture of the protesters? Oh, okay. It's a guy shooting at the Marines. Got it. Okay, it's a guy with a gun. Though it doesn't, I'm waiting for the Wapow obituary. If this guy got killed, you know.

Known for his crisp white shirt and keen ability to balance on one leg, this protester was, yeah, I don't, that's not a protest. That's an attack. And under previous administrations, they would have either been constrained or not properly resourced and fortified. under this administration, though, we have the Marines. And if you try to storm our embassy, we're going to shoot you. We're going to shoot all of you. And that's a tough.

I don't really take pleasure in this. Some people, I don't know, they get a little bloodlust up in the war. But you don't, this is a lesson. This is a very tough lesson for people. And it's a lesson that they might not have understood because of the weakness of previous administrations. But this is an important lesson for everyone to recognize. all these people who want to do harm to American embassies or American interests even at home. This is not Obama.

This is not Biden. This is not Obama. If you threaten us, we're going to kill you all. We're going to kill all of you. Why do you think Putin picked up the phone so fast to try to wrap down the Ukraine war the minute this hit? He said, oh, Trump will really do it. He'll just go in, kidnap the leader of Venezuela. Based on a legal predicate, by the way.

The guy had an arrest warrant out for him, Maduro. Ali Kamene. We've been talking about getting rid of these people for 49 years. It was 49, 46. I keep forgetting the number. For a long time. And Trump just goes in and does it. And that sends a message to people that this is not Obama. This is not Biden. This probably is not George W. Bush either. We should point out there have been American losses. So far confirmed, I think there were three American servicemen have been killed so far. there have been some other injuries. You know, obviously awful.

We should all say prayer for the repose of their souls and for their families. Also, multiple F-15s were shot down in Kuwait by Kuwait. It was actually friendly fire. You know, not great coordination from our allies in Kuwait.

The good news is, we lost the airplanes, but all of the pilots ejected safely. So I don't think any American servicemen were killed in this friendly fire, but pretty scary.

in any case we should pray for their families. What comes next? What comes next? Maybe we get a little, I don't know, Cuba. We'll talk about that. Trump's actually already hinting at that. But I think Rubio put it very, very well. What we need to recognize is this is not just about Trump getting some oil.

This is not just about, you know, spreading democracy even further than it's ever been. This is not just about the world order, as we have known it, is over. It is passing away, both because of the passage of time, but also, here's the good part, because it was an order that had America in decline. And now there is a new world order that has the possibility of America in assent again, of American strength again. There's no guarantee that it actually works. But I think Trump's broadest view of, of the grand strategy is, is that he's going to make America great again. And a lot of people, even many people on the right, don't think America can be great again because of all sorts of

economic and demographic and cultural reasons. But Trump is serious. When he says, I want to make America great again, he's really serious about that. And he'll either do it or he'll go down swinging. Here's Marco Rubio. The world is changing very fast-threat on a burst. The old world is gone, frankly. The world I grew up in. And we live in a new era at geopolitics. And it's been a reform. all of us for to re-examine what that looks like and what our role is going to be. And we've had many of these conversations are private, many of our allies, we are our allies. And you need to continue to have those conversations.

And I think Saturday, hopefully, and the meeting's why I'm there when we'll see men. Okay, before we go, I know I'm running late. I don't care. I have to get to Shailabuff. I promised we'd get to Shailabuff. This is an interview going around. It has nothing to do with Iran. Shailabuff, though, he's led a colorful life.

He converted. He had a religious conversion some years. years ago and converted to Catholicism. It was free taken with the traditional Latin Mass. And then recently around Mardi Gras, he apparently went on a little bit of a bender in New Orleans. I think he was in jail. He had to go sleep it off or something. And then he just out of the blue gave this interview. What would you say to Jesus if you could meet him? I wouldn't say shit. Really? Nah. But I kiss. I kiss. I kiss his feet. No one say nothing.

Chill out with these questions, Andrew. My bad, I didn't know. It was gonna make you emotional brother. Yeah, I'm a real Catholic, bro. A real one. I just thought you had thought about it. No, I'm a real one, bro. I wanna believe.

Mm-hmm. Something. Well, hey, bro, you gotta hit your head into the wall hard enough where you just go, fuck it. It's the only way, dog. That's how you find God? Yep, for me.

For the hard-headed ones? Yeah, you gotta go hard. What do you think was the real life equivalent of you smashing your head on the wall? I put a gun in my mouth. I was ready to kill myself. blow my brains up, writing letters, dark days. For real, gone, I'm ready to go.

Why didn't you do it? Why didn't I do it? Because I'm and also my mom. So, God bless her. She kept me alive that night. This interview is magnificent. I'm not sure if it was ethical to interview him in this way, because he's clearly going through something pretty hard right now.

And so, you know, probably should pray for Shia, and, you know, he should, you know, process this. probably out of the public. But in a way, I'm glad he gave the interview. Because it's really touching in many, many ways. He goes off on all sorts of other questions. He's asked about homosexuality. He talks about Martin Luther.

It's a lot. But I love this interview, and I love his response. First of all, his answer is totally right. What would you say if you met Jesus? He said, I'd say nothing. I'd kiss him. What would you do? You'd adore God.

of course, if you would. Of course you would do that. That's what you should do anyway. He says, I'm a real one. He's not saying I'm perfect. He's not saying I'm holier than now. Certainly not. He's just the whole time he's speaking in the context of what a sinner he is, all the ways he's screwed up his life. But we all listened to a, I don't know, I certainly listen to a lot of apologists, theologians, people speaking, especially from an intellectual perspective about God and Christ and the truth of Christianity, and I find it very, very edifying. And that can have great apologetics effects, great evangelical effects. Shaila Buff's answer in that one-minute clip might have even more stronger evangelical force than like every modern apologist. It just resonates with people

because even if you've not been exactly the place Shailabuff was, we've all been to some version of it, some proximity to despair, some, and we've all, we all have the longing for God because we're human beings. And it was great. Shaila Buf, Shia LaBuff is

for all his flaws, for all of his flaws, because of all of his flaws. He is, A very, very powerful evangelist. Okay, the rest of the show continues. Now, you do not want to miss it. Become a member of your own old's candidate,

W.A., so check out for two months free on all annual plans. Tomorrow, we make war. I think it's a desperate plan and foolish. I would save my people from destruction. So should you. This new faith is glad of his judgment. He's waiting on a miracle. And why do you tell me this?

Because I think you can give him one. If I lead you into victory, Uther, the men of Britain would proclaim me, king. He seeks our deliverance from God when he could so easily just give it to us with his own hands. Not long ago you offered me the Fisher King's sword. I have always believed you were meant to be High King. How many lives must be lost before you accept the power you were born to wield? For Britain! How are we to drive out?

out 15,000 sacks with only 2.5,000 men. Today, Britain die. 10 Dragon Cycle, Rise of the Merlin. Now streaming, only on Daily Wire Plus. Not loving your AT&T or T Mobile Bill. Yeah, we've been hearing that a lot. Good news. Bring your AT&T or T mobile bill to Verizon

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