Ep. 1760 - Fallout From Iran: Regime Change?
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President Trump launched a major attack over the weekend. I'm sure you've all seen it by now. It has reopened old wounds and threatens to plunge us into all-out war. But President Trump's fight with Congressman Thomas Massey is not the only news story. We also bombed Iran. I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show. ♪♪

Welcome back to the show. Was Jojo Siwa pressured to be a lesbian? That is what she's claiming. This legitimately upends the anthropology that we've been given by the pro-LGBT side. Can you be pressured into being a lesbian?

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Learn more about how private equity keeps American small businesses growing and thriving at investmentcouncil.org, paid for by the American Investment Council. Anything happen over the weekend? You know something happened because Mr. Davies and I were in this studio until the wee small hours. We were here until, what, 11 p.m., midnight on Saturday when President Trump announced that

that he'd bombed Iran. So I was giving my little toddlers a shower. So this is nice, have a glass of wine, had a nice dinner, go to sleep. And I just happened to be looking and I saw this post from Trump, just as it happened, minutes after it happened.

We have completed our very successful attack on the three nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran airspace. A full payload of bombs was dropped on the primary site Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American warriors. There is not another military in the world that could have done this. Now is the time for peace. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Love, thank you for your attention to this matter. Two phrases were capitalized here. Bombs.

And now is the time for peace. Both capitalized there. Then Trump came out and gave these remarks that evening. And I want to just thank everybody. And in particular, God, I want to just say we love you, God. And we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel. And God bless America. Thank you very much. This was a notable remark.

So the whole little speech was 10 minutes or something like that. It was very, very short, very un-Trumpian. It was also un-Trumpian that he walked out there with a bunch of guys behind him. It wasn't just him alone. It was all me. He was standing there with J.D. Vance, vice president, secretary of state Rubio, and Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, who were there not only for their roles in the government,

It's kind of odd for the vice president to be there. The vice president in many administrations doesn't do very much. That's been an American tradition going back to Washington and Adams. So why was Vance there? Vance does take a much more active role in this administration than many of his predecessors. Why was Vance there? Why was the Secretary of State there? Dropping bombs on Iran was not exactly diplomacy. What's the nation's top diplomat doing there? The Secretary of Defense makes a little bit more sense, but why didn't you have the Chairman of the Joint...

Joint chiefs. What was that about? I think this was about showing unity because President Trump knows that this issue, perhaps uniquely in his administration, threatens to divide his base because the MAGA base wants two things, and the two things are in conflict. The MAGA base overwhelmingly does not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon and overwhelmingly does not want to get bogged down in another war in the Middle East.

And there is a tension. I'm not saying they're totally contradictory, but there's a tension between those two things. And so Trump, I think, brought out Vice President Vance, who, according to reports, has been more skeptical of intervention in Iran.

and Rubio, who's a little bit in the middle, Pete Hegseth, who has been a little bit more hawkish on Iran. He's bringing them all out to say, my administration is unified. And Trump is very good at this. He's very good at pulling together coalitions of people who seem to have contrary views. The protectionists and the free traders, the culture warriors in the Chamber of Commerce, he's done a pretty good job of bringing them all together. But notice in that statement there, we want to thank you, God. I love that. He...

Seems like he's speaking a little more extemporaneously. These were meticulously crafted remarks. Here, he kind of loses the poise a little bit. And it's good. It's good to thank God. We love you, God. Pray to God. Because I think President Trump realized this is a precarious moment. The constant bravado that he displays. I think there's a little crack in that bravado here. I think he's saying, well, hold on. This is not something that I want to make the hallmark of my administration.

I think that's why he kept those remarks so tight, why he kept an image of a unified cabinet behind him. I think the way Trump views the attack on Iran is we had to do this. I said I would do this. I've been consistent for 10 years. This is something I had to do, but I don't really want to do it.

I want to focus on getting the economy spurring again. I want to focus on the deportations. I want to focus on the 250th celebration of America. I want to focus on domestic issues, not so much bombing Iran. So I'm going to do it. Trump felt as though this was necessary, but I don't think this is his top priority. There's a little twinge of uncertainty in his voice. So the question is, how will this play?

And this issue, unlike any I've seen in my lifetime, highlights a generational divide on the right. On the one hand, you have boomers and Gen X.

who I think view this as a display of strength. Yeah, we told you you can't have a nuclear weapon. We're going to go in there, fly those B2s. America, baby, going to send some freedom seeds down the range. And we're not going to let you do that. We're not going to let you push us around. Unlike these weak prior administrations, Biden and Obama, we're going in there. We're going to show you who's who. I think to boomers and Gen X, this plays a strength. However, I think to millennials and especially zoomers on the right,

I don't think this plays a strength. I think millennials and especially Zoomers view this as a display of weakness, that it displays Trump getting led around by the Israelis, for instance, being led around by the foreign policy establishment in D.C., being led around by the people who have wanted to bomb Iran for 20, 30 years.

I'm not saying that's what it is. I'm saying that is how it reads among millennials and Gen Z, especially in the very political, very plugged in, very online parts of millennials and Gen Z. And so what do you do if you're Trump? You're the man. You're the guy. You're the president. You're not the leader of some faction.

You're not the representative of a single generation. You are the president of the United States, leader of the Republican Party, leader of the conservative movement, and leader of the country. You have to balance both of those things. And so one way to find a via media here on the Iran issue might be to not totally isolate yourself, not say Iran can develop a nuclear weapon if it wants to, not say I don't believe the intelligence reports that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, but to say, okay, we're going to go in, we're going to bomb the facilities, but...

We're not going to push for regime change, which is what Vice President Vance said on ABC News Sunday.

Well, first of all, we don't want to achieve regime change. We want to achieve the end of the Iranian nuclear program, John. That's America's objective, and that's what the president has set us out to do. The president, in the very tweet you mentioned, or the truth that you mentioned, John, said explicitly that he's not trying to take out the Iranian supreme leader. He's trying to take out their nuclear program. And, of course, we took a major step forward with that last night.

And again, John, I think we have to back up and test some premises here. How do you achieve long-term peace? How do you prevent spiraling Middle Eastern conflict? Is it through overwhelming military power targeted to an American objective?

Or is it by sort of walking yourself into these long-term protracted military conflicts? I think by choosing overwhelming force and overwhelming force tied to something that is important to the American people, that is the end of the Iranian nuclear program, we can achieve peace much more fully than if we sort of sit on our hands and hope that somehow if the Iranians get a nuclear weapon, they're going to be more peaceful. That is a stupid approach, and the president rejected it.

Very, very well stated. I would say that that is probably precisely my view of the situation.

That if the security concern has really risen to this level that Iran is close to or close to close to being able to get a nuclear weapon, then America is the global hegemon has to intervene. But we don't want to push all the way into Bush era nation building, planting a Madisonian democracy in Iran, which would be even harder than it was in Iraq, in Iraq where it failed. So we are not pushing for regime change from the U.S. And it would have played very, very well.

Until President Trump posted about regime change hours later. Hold on, put a pause. I will get to that cliffhanger in just one moment. First, go to oldglorybank.com slash Knowles. You know?

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go to oldglorybank.com slash Knowles. Make the switch today. That is oldglorybank.com slash Knowles. Canada WLES takes just a few minutes to open an account and join the right side of banking. So J.D. Vance comes out and says, look, we had overwhelming military force. We intervened. This is not getting broiled down in a war. This is instead just a strike to achieve a tactical end. And now we're done. No regime change. And then President Trump posts

It's not politically correct to use the term regime change, but if the current Iranian regime is unable to make America great again, why would there not be regime change? Three question marks. MIGA! Three exclamation points. Make Iran great again, I take it. MIGA. So, are the president and the vice president contradicting each other here? I don't think necessarily. I think perhaps what you're seeing is...

Trump leaving a carrot. I think what you're seeing and what you've been seeing from the beginning on Iran, going back to the 60-day period when Trump, I think quite sincerely, wanted to come to a nuclear deal. The Iranian regime didn't want to play ball. They called Trump's bluff, and then unfortunately, Trump wasn't bluffing, unfortunately for them. I think what Trump is doing here is leaving the Iranian regime a carrot. So J.D. Vance comes out and says, quite rightly, Trump is leaving a carrot.

regime change in Iran is not our top priority. If we can achieve our strategic ends without regime change, we're happy to do it because it's going to bog us down. It could derail our agenda is the implication. Trump comes out and he says, look, you're not supposed to say regime change. Why shouldn't we? If this regime can't make Iran great again, maybe we need a new regime. Now, I think what he's leaving open as a possibility here is the Ayatollah could make Iran great again, but you got to play ball with the United States.

I think he's I think Trump knows he's he's made deal making enough of his identity for the last 50 years that he knows that in order to achieve a deal, you don't only use the stick, you use the carrot. You have to give people not only a threat, but an incentive. If you go along with what I want to do, we're going to reward you. The only incentive left that Trump has to offer the Iranians is that he won't destroy their regime.

So the threat obviously is maybe we will destroy your regime, but we've already got the economic sanctions. We've already dropped the bunker busters. We've already destroyed. Maybe we've destroyed your nuclear program. It's actually a little unclear. But hey, here's one incentive. If you play ball, we might let you stay in power. But don't call my bluff again. Don't call my bluff again because I'm crazy enough to take you out of power too.

I think that's what's going on here. And I think in a helpful way for the Iranians, Trump is giving the Ayatollah the ability to save face here. Because what could the Ayatollah say to maintain his legitimacy and his credibility? At this point, he's been completely pantsed by the United States and Israel. He's been completely humiliated. There's very little left of the regime to change in the first place. But if the Ayatollah can come out to his people, to his neighbors in the Middle East,

to his allies in China and Russia and say, look, yeah, they took out most of my nuclear facilities. Okay, yeah, that was really bad. But you saw Trump. Trump wanted to kick me out of power and I held on to power. Take that, America. Take that, great Satan. Yeah, you thought you could push me around. You can't push me around. I've held on to power. It just gives him something to be able to save face.

But I think it's a credible threat, too. If the Iranians really don't want to play ball, maybe they say, look, at this point, in for a penny, in for a pound. We're done. I've named my successor. They're going to take me out. If not the Americans, the Israelis are going to do it. Because even if the Americans don't want regime change as an urgent priority, you know the Israelis do. They've said that, I think it was the defense minister of Israel said that the Ayatollah can no longer be allowed to exist because the Ayatollah struck that hospital in Israel. So, okay, look, maybe it's all over and we're not going to play ball. Maybe we will have regime change.

But I think Trump is leaving open the possibility. Maybe we don't. Now, some members, turning back to the domestic front, some members of Congress are saying that Trump's strike on Iran is illegal or unconstitutional. And whatever you think about the strike on Iran, as you know, I've urged a little more circumspection and caution on Iran, though I recognize we're a global empire. There are more forces at play than just particular ideologies. However,

Some people came out like AOC said this is unconstitutional, unconstitutional. We need to open up impeachment investigations for what? Not just her. Hakeem Jeffries was suggesting this was illegal, unconstitutional, a lot of top Democrats. So we'll get to whatever their argument is for a second, because I'm not surprised that AOC and the Democrats are calling this unconstitutional. But you have an ostensibly conservative Republican, Thomas Massey,

making the same argument on liberal CBS News. The Speaker of the House, who is from your own party, has really rejected this. He says the Article 1 power of Congress really allows for the president to do this. It was a limited, necessary, targeted strike, he says.

Well, he's probably referring to the War Powers Act of 1973, but that's been misinterpreted. There was no imminent threat to the United States, which was what would authorize that. And I think that's peculiar to hear that from the Speaker of the House.

Congress was on vacation last week when all this was happening. You haven't been briefed. We haven't been briefed. They should have called us all back. And frankly, we should have debated this war powers resolution that Ro Khanna and I offered instead of staying on vacation and doing fundraisers and saying, oh, well, the president's got this under control. We're going to cede our constitutional authority. OK, look, I don't have anything particular, particularly against Thomas Massey. I know they're in this fight now, Trump and Massey.

Massey is a libertarian, so I have lots of philosophical and ideological differences with him. I think libertarianism is kind of silly. I'm a conservative, so we have a difference of opinion on certain matters of first principle. But what he just said here, I've often thought he's an intelligent guy. He's a principled guy, even if some of his principles are wrong. What he just said is ridiculous. That is like AOC level ridiculous. He says, well...

This is such a libertarian argument. Sorry to our libertarian friends. I know there are many wonderful libertarians who listen to the show, but this is such a, this is like the worst of libertarianism. This is the utopian, ahistorical libertarianism. He says, well, the reason Trump thinks that he had the right to these strikes is because of the War Powers Resolution from the 1970s.

the War Powers Resolution, which says that the president can deploy troops and can wield the US military for 60 days. And it's really 90 days because you get a 30-day withdrawal period. But that's actually been misinterpreted. He doesn't really have that right. It's been misinterpreted. Now, notice why he has to say misinterpreted. The reason is presidents have done, presidents of both parties have done what Donald Trump did on Saturday night.

since the War Powers Resolution was passed. I think every single president, maybe with the exception of Carter. What a great example that was. What a great presidency that was, Jimmy Carter. Basically, every single president since the War Powers Resolution was passed has done at least what Trump did and usually more egregious examples of what Trump did. So Jerry Ford did what Trump did twice.

Ronald Reagan did it three times. At one time, the troops in Lebanon created a big problem, the Beirut barracks bombings, which killed a bunch of US troops. George H.W. Bush did it twice. Bill Clinton did it three times.

George W. Bush actually did get authorization, though sometimes he arguably exceeded his authorization. What's funny is George W. Bush was actually among the most constrained in using the War Powers Act. Barack Obama did it twice. Joe Biden did it a couple times, though it was a little bit murkier because there were much older war resolutions or use of force resolutions for Obama and Biden, but they basically used a couple times. So what is he arguing?

What is Massey arguing here? He's saying, okay, since this war resolution was passed in the 1970s, it has always been misinterpreted.

Basically, every president of both parties has used it in the wrong way. But I, Thomas Massey, I know the true meaning of the War Powers Act. And so I know that it has just been constantly misinterpreted for 50 years because no one asked Thomas Massey. Someone should have just asked Thomas Massey and then they would have been clear on what the law actually meant. And that's why what Trump did is illegal and unconstitutional. Give me a break. This is ridiculous.

This is ridiculous. If a law is interpreted by both parties and multiple presidents for 50 years as meaning one thing, some random libertarian member of Congress doesn't get to redefine that. Sorry. So ridiculous. That's why it's unconstitutional and illegal. This is also why people have problems with libertarians. This is why. Because, look, I was a libertarian once. We all were libertarians. Many of us were when we were teenagers.

And people say, well, listen, these libertarians, they're so principled. They sometimes get things wrong in practice, but they're the ones who are truly principled. Some people, there are surveys that come out. They say Thomas Massey is the most conservative member of Congress. That's not possible. It is not possible at once to be the most libertarian member of Congress and the most conservative member of Congress because libertarianism and conservatism are different things. Okay, but even beyond that, well, he's the most principled. He's got the most principles. Let me ask you something.

And I say this with affection. I know it seems like I'm on an invective here. I'm just haranguing the libertarians, but I do so out of love, like jilted love, because I was once, I thought like this. Pick your favorite libertarian politician. Just close your eyes. It doesn't have to be Thomas Massey. Close your eyes.

Who's your favorite libertarian politician of any era? I'm not talking about a Republican who likes tax cuts. I'm not talking about a conservative who watched Milton Friedman videos. I'm talking about a real libertarian like that. Capital L libertarians claim this guy is a libertarian. Okay, close your eyes. Imagine that person. Now, name one concrete political achievement that that person has ever done.

that that person can claim. Name one. I'm talking not, well, you changed the culture. No, no, no. I want like a concrete, actual political achievement. For your most favorite, beloved, principled libertarian politician, you can't name one is the thing. That's the issue. And you can't name one because libertarianism is a utopian political ideology that misunderstands human nature and therefore politics because man is the political animal. Okay, that's why. That's the problem. That is my issue. Okay.

I like them. You know, I think generally they have good intentions, but that's the problem. And Trump has taken that frustration and gone death con three to quote Kanye West. He has gone all the way. He has declared war on Thomas Massey.

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It's a lot. I'll try to read it quickly. Congressman Thomas Massey of Kentucky is not MAGA, even though he likes to say he is. Actually, MAGA doesn't want him, doesn't know him and doesn't respect him.

He has a negative force who almost always votes no, no matter how good something may be. He's a simple-minded grandstander who thinks it's good politics for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, the highest level nuclear weapon, while at the same time yelling death to America at every chance they get. Iran has killed and maimed thousands of Americans and even took over the American embassy in Tehran under the Carter administration. We had a spectacular military success yesterday taking the bomb right out of their hands, and they would use it if they could. But as usual, and despite all of the praise and accolades received, this lightweight congressman is against what was so brilliantly achieved last night in Iran.

Massey is weak, ineffective, and votes no on virtually everything put before him. Parentheses, Rand Paul Jr. He's going after Rand too. Rand is catching strays during the attack on Thomas Massey. There he repeats the same thing, votes no on everything, no matter how good something may be. So you're getting the sense. I just love Trump's prose, where it's like stream of consciousness. He is disrespectful to our great military and all that they stand for. Now he's really ratcheting up the rhetoric here. He's disrespectful to our military.

All they stand for, not even acknowledging their brilliance and bravery in yesterday's attack, which was a total and complete win. Massey should drop his fake act and start putting America first, but he doesn't know how to get there. He doesn't have a clue. He'll undoubtedly vote against the great, big, beautiful bill, even though the non-passage means a 68% tax increase for everybody, and many things far worse than that. Okay, so here you're getting the sense, hold on, Trump's just barrage against Massey and Massey's attacks on Trump. It might not just be about this Iran thing.

It might be about a little bit more than those bunker busters on Saturday. He goes on. He goes on. MAGA should drop this pathetic loser, Tom Massey, like the plague. The good news is that we will have a wonderful American patriot running against him in the Republican primary, and I'll be out in Kentucky campaigning really hard. MAGA is not about lazy, grandstanding, nonproductive politicians, of which Thomas Massey is definitely one. Thank you to our incredible military for the amazing job they did last night. It was really special. Make America great again. Okay.

Okay, now I know a lot of people love Thomas Massey. A lot of people are really upset with Trump. At least, not a lot, but a lot of people, at least online, are really upset with Trump over the Iran bombings. So that's why Trump is coming out really hard against Massey. My point, regardless of what you think about the Trump-Massey feud, is you should not be surprised by the Trump-Massey feud. This has been going on for a long time.

Thomas Massey was not a Trump guy. In 2016, Thomas Massey, being a libertarian, endorsed Rand Paul for president. And when he was asked what he thought about the state of the Republican primary, this is after Paul got out, I think, he said, well, he's really pessimistic. And he kind of grudgingly voted for the Republican ticket, but he didn't want to. He was really anti-Trump in 2016. Then,

Around January 6th, the worst day in the history of this or any republic, Thomas Massey and five other Republicans in the House wrote a letter.

opposing President Trump's efforts to clarify what went on in that election. And it was somewhat balanced, but they were going against Trump around January 6th. Sorry, January 6th. And then in the 2024 primary, Thomas Massey was one of the first guys to come out and endorse Ron DeSantis and campaign for Ron DeSantis. So that's the backstory here. There's a whole backstory to this.

that goes on much further than the, maybe further than the Iranian nuclear program, at least further than this episode in the Iranian nuclear program. So someone asked, they're like, why do libertarians play so well? Why does the internet, why do podcasters love libertarians? And the reason is libertarians always play really well on the internet. The problem for libertarians is they play well basically nowhere else.

That's why I remember, yeah, it was 10, 15 years ago. There were all these think pieces. The libertarian moment. Is this the libertarian moment? No, there will never be a libertarian moment. If you think, this is tough love, but you know, you tune in to hear the truth, okay? You don't tune in to be flattered or coddled. There will never be a libertarian moment. It will never happen anywhere. It's never happened before. It will never happen. The reason there will never be a libertarian moment is that libertarianism misunderstands human nature.

and views human beings fundamentally as isolated individuals, atomized, rather than as what we are, which is social creatures who have not only entitlements and rights, but also obligations, and primarily, really, duties and obligations. That's why, because it's a utopian ideology. So whatever you think about the Trump-Massey fight, we'll see. I'm actually a little skeptical that the GOP could oust Massey. I think he's pretty popular in his district, so we'll see. But

This is an outgrowth of a deeper philosophical debate, which is the debate between conservatives and libertarians. Now, speaking of political debates, Gavin Newsom is thirsty for a debate with J.D. Vance. He tweets out on Juneteenth. Juneteenth, of course, is the day. It's the sacred feast after Juneteenth, but before Juneteenth. Gavin tweets out, hey, J.D. Vance, nice of you to finally make it out to California. Since you're so eager to talk to me, how about saying it to my face? Let's debate.

Time and place. Yeah, debate me, bro. Gavin Newsom really wants to be the Democrat nominee for president in 2028. I don't know if you'd noticed that. He really, really wants to be the

the guy. And he's doing pretty well at distinguishing himself from the rest of the field. It's mostly because there is no rest of the field right now for the Democrats. Kamala Harris, total joke, going nowhere. Mayor Pete, I don't think so. Who? Gretchen Whitmer is maybe the closest other thing they have to a candidate. So Newsom, just by process of elimination, I guess, is the leading guy in the field for 2028. But notice,

Gavin Newsom is trying to launch a 2028 Democrat presidential campaign by imitating what the American right was doing in 2015. First, he launches a podcast. And on that podcast, he invites on Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk and tries to suck up to MAGA. That's the first thing he does. The first...

tactic is, hey, guys, check out my new podcast. The year is 2025. That's very 2015 energy. Hey, guys, check out this. I got a cool new podcast, man. I'm cool and hip. And then the second tactic is debate me, bro, which is the American rights tactics from 10 years ago. I was part of it. I did that. A number of us did that.

But buddy, come on, it's 2025 and you're governor of a state and you're trying to run for president as a Democrat. I don't know if it's going to work. Kind of weak. Like many of you out there, I enjoy shooting guns in my free time and in my busy time. Now, I thought I had it pretty good until my friends over at Silencer Shop showed me what I was missing. Shooting suppressed is not just quieter. It's just all around better.

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Speaking of California Democrats, a true political achievement from a very prominent Democrat, Nancy Pelosi has outperformed every large hedge fund in the country last year. Her portfolio is the greatest example of financial acumen anywhere in the country. She raked in between $7.8 and $42.5 million in 2024. That's a pretty big amount.

range. This is according to reporting from the New York Post. That means that her net worth, along with her husband, is now somewhere in the neighborhood of $413 million, according to financial disclosures. That's pretty big because her 2023 net worth was $370 million. So that's a lot of scratch. How'd she make all that extra money? Well, we actually know. We have a few examples from reporting of how she made that money. She, for instance,

dropped 5,000 shares of Microsoft, which was worth north of $2 million back in July. That was one of their largest sales in three years. That was just a few months before the FTC announced an antitrust investigation into Microsoft. What are the odds?

What are the odds? Amazing timing. Then the Pelosi's also sold 2000 shares worth over half a million dollars of visa. That was less than three months. Again, three months. That number is kind of interesting. Before the credit card company was hit with a DOJ monopoly lawsuit. Wow. Impressive. And then Nancy Pelosi exercised a call option in December.

that she had bought in late 2023 at a premium of $1.8 million, which allowed the Pelosi's to get 50,000 shares of NVIDIA for 12 bucks a pop, less than a tenth of its market price. So they exploded because of NVIDIA, which means that the couple paid $2.4 million for the NVIDIA investment, and it's now worth over $7 million. Wow, man.

What am I thinking? I got, you know, a buddy of mine manages my money. He's a smart financial guy, but I guess I got to fire him. I got to hire Nancy Pelosi, huh? You should too. It's amazing. No one, I don't care how loyal a yellow dog Democrat you are, no one can possibly look at this and say it's not corrupt. It's just not possible. Nancy Pelosi, even if she'd outperformed a hedge fund, she can't outperform all the big hedge funds.

And have it just be chalked up to her financial acumen. It's so, so corrupt. And so the Democrats are losing on two fronts right now. One, they don't know what they believe. Are the Democrats for securing our borders or the Democrats for open borders? Are the Democrats for Israel or the Democrats for Palestine? To talk about this recent issue in the Middle East.

Are the Democrats for supporting American labor and protective tariffs or the Democrats for free trade and forget about labor, which plays into the immigration issue, too? They don't know what they believe and they're manifestly super duper corrupt, which is why tying it all the way back to what we're talking about, which is what most people are debating today, the Iran issue. It's why the Iran issue is so perilous right now for Trump.

Because Trump has a great domestic agenda and he's racking up great domestic wins and he's assembled a great voter coalition that includes disaffected Democrats who came over with Bobby Kennedy on Maha, but also a lot with Tulsi Gabbard on opposing the forever wars. So Trump has a great domestic agenda. And if he can go in, bomb Iran, take care of the nuclear problem and just move on. Great. That's one thing. If we get bogged down,

in a regime change in Iran. So we boot out the Ayatollah and then what? Maybe we don't know who comes in. Does Reza Pahlavi come in? The crown prince, the son of the deposed Shah? Maybe that works. Maybe it doesn't work. Maybe there's an election and maybe, I don't know, some other party wins. Maybe there's a Shia insurgency. Maybe, who knows? Maybe it's not so easy to change regimes as we sometimes think it is. If he allows himself to be distracted by that,

You could lose the domestic agenda at a moment when Democrats are historically weak. The Democrats have not been this weak in my lifetime. This is unbelievable on the ideology because of wokeism and on the corruption front because of people like Nancy Pelosi and the Bidens and the Clintons are just so obviously corrupt. So Trump is walking a tightrope right now. That's why when his voice cracks a little bit, when he's talking about God, your voice should crack when you talk about God. You should have a one wonder. It's the beginning of wisdom. But that represents a real problem.

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If you are not yet a Daily Wire Plus member, now is the time to change that. You get every single Daily Wire show, including this one, most importantly this one,

at least an hour before anyone else. By the time the show's... The news could have completely changed at this rate. Plus, you'll get the show ad-free and uncensored. It is more than just early access and premium content. It's about joining a community of people who want the truth, respect tradition, and are armed with good old-fashioned common sense. This is where like-minded people come together to push back, speak up, build something the left can't cancel or burn down. If that sounds like you, join now at dailywareplus.com. Okay. My...

Favorite comment. When was it? When were we here? Saturday? It's from Flexible Aspect, who says, Breaking news. A federal judge has demanded Trump retrieve the bombs and repair the nuclear facilities. That's true. That's all it takes. One federal judge out of 700. One district judge. Okay, sorry. Send in the B-2 again. Have them scoop up that bomb. What can we do? What can the executive of the United States do? Some random federal judge has said we must.

Okay, most important story, of course, of the last week. Jojo Siwa says that she was pressured to be a lesbian. Who is Jojo Siwa? I don't know, really. I think she's an actress and a singer, something like that. She's a pop culture figure. And she was a lesbian, but she's not a lesbian anymore because she posted a picture, her boyfriend posted a picture with a guy. She was like lying in bed with him, all nuzzled up. And it wasn't even a girly boy.

It wasn't even a guy who paints his nails or something. It was like a giga chad kind of looking guy. Very strange behavior for a lesbian. And she's addressed this. Jojo says, quote, when I came out at 17, 17, it's a minor. I said, I'm pansexual because I don't care about gender. That's what she said to the Daily Mail. But then I kind of boxed myself in and I said, I'm a lesbian. And I think I did that because of pressure.

As for where that pressure came from, she says, quote, in a weird way, I think it came a little bit from inside the community at times, the LGBT LMNOP community. From people I know, from partners I've had, you just put in this world where you feel like, because you now have said, oh, I'm a lesbian. You have to be a lesbian. And the truth is, man, sexuality is fluid, you know? Okay. Clear away the gobbledygook from that statement. What is she saying? She's saying,

young people, kids, teenagers at least, become gay because of peer pressure from the LGBT community. Is this Pat Robertson? Is this the religious right? Is this the church? Is this a terrible conversion therapist? Homophobic, whatever, saying this? No, it's a girl who said she was a lesbian until five seconds ago. Young girl said she was a lesbian as a teenager,

And now says, actually, I wasn't really a lesbian or the way I became a lesbian is because I was peer pressured into it by the LGBT. I was groomed into it as a teenager by the LGBT community. She is saying exactly the same thing that the religious right and the social conservatives and the so-called homophobes have said for decades. So what is it? Is that is that is she right?

Choose your answer carefully. I know there are liberals and leftists and all sorts of people, LGBT, LMNOP activists who watch the show, some of whom are paid to do that so that they can get clips of me, but some of them who watch it just out of their own choice. Keep an open mind. You obviously have one. One of two things can be true. Either what Joe Josiwa said is right, that kids are groomed by the LGBT community into adopting LGBT identities, into adopting weird sex stuff, or...

You have to deny the lived experience and the self-professed sexual orientation and identity of a young queer girl. Those are your only two options. Which one is it? It's a tough one, huh? What is it? Well, it's the former. But you could also do the latter. You can also deny people's self-identified sexual identities and orientations.

because there is such a thing as objective reality. We can know these things through reason, and it turns out that the whole sexual revolution was false. We talked earlier in the Trump-Massey fight about false anthropologies, false conceptions of human nature.

There is no falser conception of human nature than the LGBTQ identity. Just ask young erstwhile lesbians. They will tell you. Speaking of weird sex stuff in the sexual revolution, one last point. Really good news. I know there's some news where people don't. Is it good news? Is it bad news? Bombing Iran. Oh, there's some infighting on the right. Oh, maybe Trump's domestic agenda is imperiled. Oh, there's some perilous news that's come out. But I've got some unambiguously good news. NBC, of all places, is reporting...

that the crusade against pornography is attracting a huge coalition, huge coalition of people. The strange bedfellows driving and winning the war on porn, feminists, religious crusaders, and alpha male influencers have turned the tide in the decades old battle over adult content. Here's just one paragraph from it. Once viewed as a fringe moral crusade, the war against porn has ballooned into a multi-pronged mainstream force over the past decade that now counts feminists, religious crusaders, alpha male influencers,

and a growing number of politicians among its ranks. And after several key social and legislative wins, the movement faces its biggest test. A Supreme Court ruling this summer is set to determine whether a Texas law, which mirrors legislation in over a dozen states and requires porn sites to confirm a visitor's age or face financial penalties in the name of protecting minors from explicit content, infringes on the First Amendment rights of adults. Does applying the same rules we've had for porn magazines and newsstands forever...

Does applying those same rules to the internet, that is making sure little kids don't get this content, does that violate the First Amendment? This sounds like the people, Trump, Trump violated the Constitution by doing what every president has done since the War Powers Resolution, which is obviously within his purview as Commander-in-Chief. Does this, is this, when the framers of our Constitution

were writing the First Amendment. Do you think they said in this, here we are gathered, gentlemen, to ensure that little children can be groomed into creepy, obscene sex stuff from the very, very youngest ages. We, the people, are here gathered to preserve creepy porn for children. That is why we fought, why we bled the blood of independence in the revolution. No, I don't think so. By the way, this coalition...

Pache, NBC News, is nothing really new. Here is Catherine McKinnon, a radical feminist, not a conservative, not a libertarian even, just a radical left-wing feminist in 1995 explaining her view of porn. How does your position on this differ from that of...

the religious conservatives like Reverend Wildman and others who are in favor of censoring pornographic material? Well, it mainly differs because they don't support our ordinance. That is, they don't support our work and don't agree with it. You go further than they do. Well, I don't know exactly what you would say about... I mean, we go further because our approach would actually be effective in doing something about it.

I their approach is obscenity law which has been in effect since 1973 and has done nothing while the pornography industry has somewhere between doubled and tripled inside okay so she says no I'm not like the religious right

I mean, I share all of their goals. The difference between me and the religious right, me, a radical feminist on porn, is I want to be effective. I want to go much further. So how does she go further? How do the anti-porn feminists, the sex negative feminists, let's say, contrary to the sex positive people that we've heard so much about the last 20 years, how do they go further than the religious right? Here's what she says.

Are women and children or men being hurt on the basis of sex? By the... Can you prove that someone is being hurt by this? For example, a white only sign. Right. It's only words, but it segregates. Right. For example, cross burnings. They terrorize, they intimidate, they segregate, they do things. Right. For example, lynchings. A lynching is to be watched. You've got a dead body hanging in the square after the thing has been accomplished.

It expresses something. It expresses white supremacy. It says, "Stay in your place. Keep down." Okay, now, we have a pornography industry that does all that through a technologically sophisticated means, through pictures and words. That is all it is, and that is all it does. It's the same thing.

And those are actual acts. That isn't what quote unquote offends somebody. Charlie, if you heard a woman screaming in the next room by being bounced off walls by a man she lives with, are you offended? I mean, that isn't what you say to yourself. You're experiencing the enactment of an abuse. You're witnessing it. Okay, I almost totally agree with her here. She, and Catherine McKinnon, she's making great points here in the 90s. She's...

more recently made kind of crazy points. She embraced transgenderism. I mean, she's a feminist. She's like a radical left-wing feminist. But the point she's making here is really, really good. But I would go further than her. She says, I agree with the religious right, but I would go further than them. I say, I agree with her, the radical feminist, but I would go further than her. She's trying to preserve liberal proceduralism

By saying, look, I'm not calling for censorship, really. I'm just saying there's a difference between offensive content and speech acts. She's trying to draw this hard line between anodyne speech and speech that has effect.

So she says, when you've got cross burning or something, that's doing something. Unlike other speech, it doesn't do anything. When you've got pornography where it's an enactment of an abuse that then appeals to men and arouses their lusts by the abuse, that's actually an act of doing something with words, not just what? Doing nothing with words?

All speech does something. That's why I would go further than her. I would say all speech does something. That's the point of speech. I mean, our speech is in many ways what distinguishes us from the brutes and from the angels for that matter. It is in many ways what distinguishes us as humans because it means that we, like the angels, are rational creatures.

We can debate things. We can discuss things. We can use signs and symbols to talk about external realities, objective reality. But like the brutes, we're incarnate, so we can't communicate through osmosis or telepathy. We need to communicate through the physical world, so we need to communicate through sounds. And you need to be able to hear a sound and then have your physical senses take that sound in, and then your mind can interpret it. And I would go further and say, no, that's all speech.

Of course, all speech does something. If speech didn't do something, we would just be grunting like baboons. So that's why we need serious standards. And we don't need to preserve liberal proceduralism. We can, we can, and this brings me to my broader point, my broader point, which is something pre-liberal.

maybe post-liberal, but certainly pre-liberal. You can have good government. In fact, I think you're more inclined to have good government without all of this liberal idolatry of procedure. You'll have procedure, you'll have due process, you'll have all of those things to a much greater degree than you do during liberalism. But we need to be able to do good things and avoid bad things. And if your ideology prevents you from doing good things

and avoiding bad things, then you have a false ideology. And I think that's often what people see in the ultimate impotence of libertarianism or the kind of soft liberalism that you see on the American right. And I think that's what's really at stake in the Iran issue. There are some ideologues who just want to reduce the Iran issue

to a cartoon caricature. You have some people who say, oh, this is just the Israelis dog walking. I mean, you have some people on the really the fringes who say that, you know, this is just the Israelis owning our country and using us as their own military. And America has absolutely no interest whatsoever in nuclear nonproliferation. And usually those people just generally don't care for the Jews broadly. And so there's that cartoonish side.

Then there's another cartoonish side, which says, well, you know, the only way that we can be free is if we topple the regime in Iran. That's the only they threaten our free. They hate us for our freedom and they pose an existential threat to us. And we need to go glass the whole Middle East if we want to have our freedom. That's that's that's also not true. But there is this nice place in the middle, which is called reality. And that's where you have to weigh competing goods and where you have to try to have a practical political solution.

You have on the one hand, these utopians who say, well, the president can never wield the military as commander in chief ever whatsoever. The Congress needs to declare every war. And that's just not true. On the other hand, you might have some people who say the president can do whatever he likes. That's also not true. There is a place in the middle.

Beyond the stupid sophomoric procedural debates of the ideologues, there's a place in the middle for debating substantive goods. And the way that you should check your ideology is to say, does my ideology permit me to do what I know is obviously right? Does my ideology permit me to avoid what I know is obviously bad? For many people, they will say no.

Then get rid of that ideology and live in reality, in the real place of politics where the real decisions are made, where real leaders have to grapple with real issues and competing apparent goods. That's where Trump is right now. That's where our country is right now. And it's why it's good to ditch ideology and ground your political views ultimately in God, which is also what Trump is doing. It's why his voice cracked a little bit. Okay, today is Monday.

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