Navigating the Tensions: Trump's Next Move in Iran and how it created a MAGA Meltdown

Incredibly tense moments right now, folks, between Israel and Iran, obviously.

But the questions that I'd like to answer right now are, what is Donald Trump positioning to do? What's his next move going to be? And what is the intel saying? You know, you haven't heard a lot about that. What is the intel saying about this whole situation and the capability that Iran has? And the second part here, folks, I just want to touch on for a second is, what does this sound like to you that's going on here?

I mean, I think we've heard this before, and we know how it's going to go, folks. And then the last part that I want to discuss is, did you realize that there's a MAGA meltdown that's happening right now over this whole thing? And I'm talking about Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson.

They happen to find themselves on the side where they want to give diplomacy a chance, they're kind of framing it as you know let's focus on the united states and the problems that we have here but essentially they're saying let's give diplomacy a chance and they're catching hell like you would not believe like you would not believe folks and here's how steve bannon today kicked off his podcast have a listen to this uh said no we're not going to go after i'm

not going allow you to go after and assassinate the religious leaders. Who knows if that has changed? Who knows if even many of those guys are still alive? President Trump's been pretty adamant that the negotiating team at the senior level that Wyckoff is supposed to meet with, I think he said publicly, they're all dead, right? So I'm sure they have other people deputized. But obviously, President Trump is pretty adamant. They're not going to have nuclear weapons.

He's been adamant. We think there's a way to go about it that uses economic warfare and allows the Persian people to overthrow the Mullahs because the Mullahs are, there's no question whether they're bad guys or not. They're essentially very bad guys. President Trump now, I think, weighing and measuring what's going to happen here. So you heard what he said that the team that Steve Wittikoff has been negotiating on the United States side with, they're all dead.

I mean, if that doesn't make you sort of step back and say, okay, yeah, we do need a little bit of time here from today on True Social. Said something like this. We know exactly where the supreme leader is hiding. He's an easy target, but safe there, he said. We are not going to take him out, and then in parentheses he put kill, at least not for now. But we don't want missiles shot at civilians or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention. My God.

You know, I've never been a fan of the way Donald Trump phrases diplomacy because I don't know if it comes through the way that he thinks it does. But I mean, how does that sound to you? He's an easy target. This is the leader of Iran, but he's safe there. We're not going to take him out, at least for now. I mean, what does that mean, for God's sakes? You're safe, but you're not. Oh God, I don't know. I don't know. But there's kind of room here in my mind for like, okay, hold it now.

Let's put some breaks on this. We can't expect a response immediately. I mean, can you? Because they're all gone. They're all gone. So what is going on here with this? So when you look at the ticker, if you will, of what's going on with the Israeli situation, just an hour ago, I think it was, Donald Trump also posted this. Now you've got this huge situation going on, right between Israel and Iran, been going on with the fifth day.

And Donald Trump posts something like, it is my great honor to announce that I will be putting up two beautiful flagpoles on both sides of the White House, North and South lawns. It's a gift, in caps, he says, gift from me of something which was always missing from the magnificent place. Okay, come on, come on. What is going on here? I mean, we've got an escalating situation and lives are at stake. My God, I don't get it, folks, and I never will.

I'll never get it. I'll never understand what is going on in the mind of Trump. And please don't say that I've got Trump derangement syndrome because I've got my reasons, right? Okay, this is one of them. But what is the intel saying? Okay, let's look back. Let's just do a little rewind.

And his U.S. national intelligence officer Tulsi Gabbard this is quoting the Guardian said left no doubt when she testified to Congress about Iran's nuclear program earlier this year telling lawmakers that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and its supreme leader had not reauthorized the dormant program even though it had enriched uranium to higher levels now why would she say that if it wasn't true video.

I mean, they're all eager to please Donald Trump, right? And I don't know if that's something that maybe was along the theme of what he wanted to hear. But why would she say that? I mean, what did she have to gain? Nothing. That's what the intel's telling her. Donald Trump, in response, said, I don't care what she said. He told reporters. In his view, Iran is very close to having a nuclear bomb. Why? I mean, where's he getting his intel?

Folks, it's dangerous. Where's it coming from? We need to know. Is it coming from Netanyahu? Right? I mean, that's got 30% support in Israel. I mean, where are we going and where is the intel coming from? Listen to the people that know, right? I think that's what this whole thing is telling us here. You know, we've been here before, right? Remember this whole thing with Iraq? We got to get in there.

We got to go back and finish the job. Remember that? They found no weapons of mass destruction after an exhaustive surge. The Iraq Survey Group, a CIA-led team, concluded in 2004 that Iraq had no active WMD programs at the time of the invasion. Intelligence failures all over the place sound familiar? U.S. And allied intelligence was deeply flawed. Key sources like the infamous informant Curveball were unreliable. Descenting views within the intelligence community were downplayed or ignored.

Sounds a lot like that, doesn't it? history does repeat itself folks and what happened because of of that failure to listen to the intelligence over 4 000 troops were killed tens of thousands wounded the iraqi deaths ranged from 200 000 over 500 000 i mean there's real world consequences in human lives that are at stake here not to mention do we even have to say that trillions of dollars were spent by the u.s two to three trillion dollars on that war and it

was all because of crappy intel crappy intel folks the whole premise was false the aftermath catastrophic i mean it undermined u.s credibility for decades for decades i mean let's just think about where we're going here with this if there's ever a time to pause i mean it's now. So what's happening is, obviously, Netanyahu is trying to push and pressure Trump so that he can get his hands on those GBU-57B bunker busters.

Now they're looking at this mountain hillside sort of situation in Iran where their enrichment sites are. It's called, they call them Fordow, F-O-R-D-O-W, one of Iran's two main uranium enrichment sites. And the only thing that can get down there are these massive ordnance penetrators. So that's why Netanyahu is hammering away at Donald Trump right now. And the intel suggests otherwise.

Time to pause time to sit back and think about this before we rush into it so while all of this is going on folks let's get to the MAGA meltdown that's happening between Tucker Carlson and Steve with Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon this MAGA meltdown where all of a sudden, you know they're being attacked by MAGA pitbulls just because they're arguing against Trump taking action and giving diplomacy a chance.

I mean, it's hard to believe. I would not have imagined that we would be sitting in a situation like this with Iraq, Iran. Elections have consequences, don't they? And then to have this MAGA meltdown, this civil war that's brewing between different operating factions of MAGA. I mean, we on the left, we know this, right? Those of you who are so-called rhinos, you know this. Those of you who are independents, you know this. MAGA loyalty is dangerous.

If you dare to have a dissenting opinion, the Trump MAGA loyalist will turn on you like pit bulls. And it's happening to Tucker, folks. Have a listen to this. He's feeling the heat. But the point is, if you think that saying, hey, let's focus on my country where I was born, where my family's been for hundreds of years. That was the promise of the last election. Please do it. If you think that's hate, you know, you've really lost perspective, I guess is what I would say.

But they do think it's hate. And what's happened is what I knew would happen, which is just like attacks I don't want to deal with that are affecting personal friendships that I care about. The viciousness and the dishonesty is almost unbelievable. Anyway, not to whine. I never whine about stuff like that. It's just that I knew this was going to happen. I didn't want to talk about it at all. He knew this was going to happen.

Well, I could have told you that it was going to happen because we know how they operate. We felt how they operate. I mean, you see it online. It's like the cult. If you say anything descending online, even in a social sense, whether it's X or Twitter or whatever it is, I mean, you get attacked instantly. Instantly. And he didn't let it go there, folks.

And he sort of, I don't know if this is causing him to really reach down deep inside himself and figure out who he is and who he's been allied with, but Tucker's having a hard time with this. But at the end of it, this next clip that I'll play for you, he put the blame right at the feet of Fox News. I've spent a lot of my life being cruel and really cruel, and I'll have to answer for that someday, and at times dishonest. What do you mean cruel?

Just going after people's weaknesses. No, that's my instinct always. I mean, I grew up as a debater, and I'm nasty in some ways. And so I look at some of the players in this whom I've known since they got to Washington.

Since, again, I'm from here. had breakfast at the metropolitan club this morning alone and uh no it's like my city right my dad worked for the government this is where we're from and and i look at these people who i've known since they you know came in from the provinces including the senator you mentioned who's from a state i used to live in and you know you could really be mean about it and they are mean you know they've attacked my family and all this stuff but i'm trying not to respond

that way My interest is really simple. I don't want the United States enmeshed in another Middle Eastern war that doesn't serve our interests. I saw that last time. I covered that war. I had a friend killed in that war. Talk about Iraq, because Iraq is some of the same voices at the Fox platform. You know, the Fox platform is just, it's so disgraceful. It's so disgraceful. My God. Yes, it is. It is. I've been saying this for years. For years.

And did you hear what he said? Tucker said, I've spent a lot of my life being cruel. Oh, yes, we know that. We've been following that. We know exactly what you're talking about. He said, I'm nasty in some ways. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, folks, I don't know what's going on here, but they had a machine that was moving in one direction, and now it's not.

And I think it's causing people like Tucker to really think of why they're doing what they're doing and why they've done what they've done in support of this group that's now turning on them. You know, it's becoming more apparent to them that they're a part, or they were a part, of a cult.

And we can only hope that this kind of you know retrospect you know this thinking this looking back you know is going to maybe create a little space for some thought some true thought like like they're expressing now like let's give diplomacy a chance it can only help folks and the last thing i just want to say about this and you might think i'm crazy if you don't already think I'm crazy.

But you might think I'm crazy for suggesting this, but to have leaders that are in their 70s and 80s suggesting that a country cannot have nuclear weapons, technology that goes all the way back to World War II. I mean, how practical, how practical is their approach today, given that And it's just a matter of time. And I get it. Three years in their lives is a big deal, right? When you're 80, three years is a big deal. And if you can keep it away for three years, I suppose, yes, that's good.

But in the overall scheme of things, in the next five or ten years, folks, is what I'm talking about. How reasonable is it to expect that a country like Iran, who has friends that have nuclear weapons, like Russia, how reasonable is it to expect that they will never, ever, ever have nuclear weapons? This old technology, right? That's another reason why we need to give diplomacy a better chance. Take a stop, take a halt, step back.

Because eventually, they're going to have it. and they're going to be madder than a hornet. Now, I'm not saying that they're just going to pull the plug, you know, and pull the trigger on a nuclear weapon just because they have them, because I don't think that is a reasonable expectation as well. I think that countries use this largely to curry favor economically, right? It's a certain amount of prestige.

I don't think that having a nuclear weapon automatically disposes a country to use that because at the end of the day, I think we're all human, right? And that would be a mistake. And I think at a base level, we realize that. So let's put that lens of what's happening today and what's happening now, where Netanyahu is pushing Trump, obviously, to take this action and destroy Iran, basically, after the bunker busters hit. Do you think you'll stop there? Probably not.

So here's some old men saying, yeah, let's get in there and knock it all out. Let's knock it out. And I'm telling you that, you know, five to 10 years down the road, where at some point Iran is going to have nuclear weapons. Think about that. And how should that sort of dispose us to act today? How should that model our policy and our thinking today? Thanks for joining me, folks. And we'll look for you next time.