Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things Hillsdale Hillsdale dot ed or I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there and of course the listener to the Hillsdale Dialogues, all of them at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale Morning, Glory and Evening Grace. Welcome to
the Big Weekend Pod America. I'm Hugh Hewett. We had a lot of fun this weekend talking with our regular lineup, John Ellis of News Items, and you get news items by going to news Items in your Google machine and add John Ellis. It will take you right there, the best substack available. It just consolidates all the news and John and I picked four five stories every day that you might have overlooked.
Eli Lake is back.
We're talking about Iran, of course, Matt Continetty and I are talking about Iran and everything having to do with the tariff decision by the Supreme Court on Friday, as is the case with Ben Dominic, with a little bit of an Olympic thrown in at the end. And yes, I know the usual suspects are mad at the Chief Justice really, really, it can't be. It's not like people didn't see this coming. And Justice Barrett and Justice Gorsich
agreed with them. The liberals just agree with him because they're liberals and they don't want anything to do with Donald Trump. The Chief Justice reads the statute. The statute says no, can't be done. But the President's got other things in front of him, and he's gone off and done them. And this is by no means over. It's not the end of the world, not even that significant a decision, as I will argue with Matt and Ben today, but I will play for you the President's highlights. I'll
call them highlights after the Ben Dominic interview. Stick around if you missed President Trump's Friday press conference because there was a doozy and then just settle back and enjoy. Who knows, I won't be talking to you for a week. I expect the war to be underway and maybe over by the time I get back from my vacation next week. But Kurt Schlichter will be in for me, and he'll be doing the big weekend pod as well as the daily. You will not be left alone. Adam Harley and Dwayne
are here for you. Thank you for listening to the Big Weekend Pod America. What a significant Friday war is looming in Iran and the Supreme Court rule six to three today, Chief Justice Roberts writing, quote, our task today is to decide only whether the power to regulate importation is granted to the president in the IEEPA embraces the power to impose tariffs, it does not. With that decision, everything is up in the air, and John Ellis is
here to tell us what's going to happen next. John Ellis is the editor of news Items, and tomorrow's news items of the weekend is going to be full of this. John, But what's your initial reaction to the six to three decision, which included Justice is Amy, Cony Barrett, and Neil Gorsich with the Chief Justice and the three liberals.
I wasn't surprised, and I don't think the Trump administration was particularly surprised. They had an immediate rejoinder to it, So, I, you know, I think it's pretty The Constitution is pretty clear on the point, so I think that part is not a surprise. The question really is, you know, if the president insists on, you know, putting in this ten percent tariff and then using this section in that section to impose more tariffs. There's no real constituency for that.
That's the political problem. Not a lot of people want to have tariffs imposed on products that come from all these various countries. So it puts him, I think, in a sort of perilous political situation. And we'll see, you know, we'll see if I'm right about that.
Yeah.
I don't think it actually ends the discussion so much as makes sure that it doesn't have an ending, because remaining to the Court of Claims doesn't really tell us what's going to be upheld or refunded. And he's added a bunch of new impost duties today pursue at the different sections. It's a big cloud of dust. Behind that big cloud of dust, though, is this amazing armada that
has been assembled off the coast of Iran. The Ford should be there today or tomorrow, completing the arrival of everything. I think he has authority under the Authorization for the Use of Military Force and is in here at Article two Power. What's the contrary argument, John?
The argument is that Congress has to authorize, you know, declare, confirm made declaration of war. This armada is certainly doesn't look like an incursion or a targeted strike. It looks like the onset of a war. Presidents Bush senior and junior, so to speak, went to Congress and got authorization for war.
Trump has not done that.
And in the context of the of this Tariff's ruling, you know that it does raise the question is what he's doing illegal? So we again will have to see how that plays out. We also don't know, obviously if we are going to in fact bomb Iran or invade Iran or whatever, So that that part we obviously.
Don't know either.
But two similar cases where authorization by Congress is required and he gets turned down by the Supreme Court on the tarist's decision, and the question is this Congress is.
Going to go along with a war?
Should know one breakout without congressional authorization.
Now, you're absolutely correct. Both President Bush's forty one and forty three sought and received specific authorizations. However, for the Libyan bombing campaign, which lasted months and months in twenty eleven that's President Obama, and the Serbian Montenegro Yugoslavian campaign in nineteen ninety nine by President Clinton, number forty had no such authorizations, and so there is a gray zone here, and the court is very reluctant to get into that
gray zone. This is a statute ip, It's just another statue ory construction case. I'm not surprised by this, but I do think I'll put it this. I'll put it my answer in the form of a question, doesn't Donald Trump suffer irreparable political injury if he doesn't strike injury Iran.
Now he's put himself in a situation where if he backs down, he looks incredibly weak. And you know, to be faced down by the Iyahtola and the Iahtola couldn't possibly be in a weaker position, would be beyond embarrassment. So I think they're hoping that the is just this sheer mass of force that has that hadn't brought the bear on the situation, will cause the Iyatola to at least agree to disagree, to agree that more talks should
take place, and so on and so forth. That has to be the exit ramp if if we do attack. The thing that people I think don't fully appreciate is that Iran has a way, a lot of ways to attack back. And the last thing President Trump wants to do is get caught in a long war, sort of asymmetric war in the Middle East. So it's for my I don't I'm unusual in this regard and that I think the Iranians are in a much better position than people think.
Yeah, initial, at least you're the first person to say that. And I try to get guests from all points of view. Most people believe they can't really mount much of a counter attack if they're hammered. But we will see. Let me move to the AI stuff. Today's news items is choc a block fall with stuff that I kind of
got because John makes it gettable. But now you've sent me a new piece that compares Google and Claude and one is better than the other in some ways, and the other is better than the other and the other way. What are we to think? We lame it and we view we ignorant view about AI.
Well, one thing that we don't want AI to do for us when we you know, search or you know, seek answers to complicated problems, we don't want the AI to hallucinate. It's called so it you know, it gets an inquiry and it makes up that Hugh Hewett is a Muslim who is working for Hezbollah. Right, It's just complete craziness and it happens quite frequently. And what's happened with Gemini three point one, which is the Google product,
is that they've drastically reduced the hallucination problem. So they they haven't eliminated it, but they drastically reduced it. So all of these products, I mean, Chat, GPT and Claude four point six are you know, spectacular feats of technology, but there's been this hallucination problem. And the thing I guess that sort of allows Google to leap frog a little bit ahead of the other two is that they've addressed the hallucination problem and they seem to affect considerable success.
Yeah, John, I've run into this repeatedly when I'm looking for something specific that I know is in a book and it's a fact and it's a person saying something for Jample and William Blake's Israeli and I want the quote. They can't find it, and I'm astonished that they can't find it. But I can go find it myself later. So they're not yet even close to being comprehensive.
Right, Right, So you know, the hallucination problem is a really big problem if you are you know, doing doing work that a lot of people depend on, or a lot of people lives depend on their livelihoos depend on. So reducing that is devowed me to be wished. And Google, Google has you know, moved the ball significantly on that, which is great.
Yes, all right, let's move to I already put this my ex account earlier in the week when you highlighted it in news items SRCC insurance against strikes, riots and civil commotion.
The demand is going up.
I suppose the price is going to get pretty high in a hurry too.
Yeah, I mean in the story that you cited that I put in news items was in twenty thirteen so called SRCC, which it strikes, riots and civil commotion insurance, and the return on you know, the business on that was negligible, and it's now a eight billion dollar business and it's expected to, you know, expected to continue to grow as a business. So you now have you know,
insurance companies offering home insurance, life insurance, et cetera. And the sr CC product is something that we're going to be reading about more and more and more as the world gets more fractious.
All right. Last question has to do with the robotaxis. I myself am sworn never to get into one. However, if they destroy the market for Uber and Lyft, I may now have no choice. Is Governor Hokel helping me or hurting me?
Well, Governor Hokel has banned robo taxis from New York City and from the surrounding areas, the surrounding counties, and the big problem for a lot of people. I mean, if the way that the demographers characterize the US is there are urban areas, suburban areas ex Surban areas, and rural areas, and the ex Surban and rural areas are
drastically underserved in terms of car service. And given that for many people who live in rural communities, getting to a health clinic, for instance, can be as much as a fifty minute or one hour drive, if you don't have some kind of car service, you may never get to the health clinic. So robo taxis are the answer to this problem. And you know, these rural and ex Surban counties are underserved not surprisingly by Uber and Left
because they're not enough business. But if you had robo taxis out there servicing those communities, then that would be a very good thing. So you and I are for that.
You, I guess, I'm still very skeptical. I'm run to out to see it for a lot. Mike Gallagher got in one, my radio colleague, my tail news channel colleague, and so if Mike isness serialist, I guess I have to be. But I'm not sold yet. John Allison News items. Go to news items, Google news items John Allison subscribe. You'll thank me stay tuned.
The President to the running people off at Toronto talks with them. Do you have any message to the running people.
To running people in Iran or the people here people in Iran.
They better negotiate a fair deal.
You know, the people of Iran are a lot different than the leaders of Iran. And it's very, very, very sad situation. But thirty two thousand people were killed over a relatively short period of time. They were going to hang eight hundred two weeks ago, hang hang some by crane. They lift them up with a tall crane and they play them around the square. They were going to hang
eight hundred and thirty seven people. And I gave them the word, if you hang one person, even one person, that you're going to be hit right then and there. I wasn't waiting two weeks and negotiating, and they gave up the hanging. They didn't hang eight hundred and thirty seven. Supposedly, they didn't hang anybody. But no, I feel very badly for the people of Iran. They've lived like they've lived in the hell.
Welcome back America.
That is President Trump at the White House today. I'm joined by Eli Lake of the Free Press. He's a host of Breaking History, He's one of my go to guys on all things Iran. Eli, what is your reporting at this hour about the imminence of war? And the headline from the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Times of Israel today that President Trump is considering limited strike on Iran to coax it into accepting deal on his terms, which is the dumbest idea I've heard in many a months.
I'm very frustrated, Hugh. You know, if Trump wants to establish a kind of deterrence for Iran to do terrible things against its own people, I'm all for it.
But he didn't.
He failed to deter the slaughter, which he acknowledged just then he says he has deterred the executions hanging by cranes. But I would like some clarity for the American people. I mean, I see both sides of the argument. I'm not saying that he's violated in the Constitution. I understand the war powers debates and Article two authorities for the president and so forth. But I just want to get
back to here's what our strategy is. I don't understand the point about, like, you know, what are we negotiating? When I hear nuclear in Richmond, They're not enriching anything right now. We decimated their nuclear program. What is there to talk about? And I'm not getting any clarity from Trump, and I just would I think the American people deserve this is what we plan to do?
Is it a regime change war? What are we talking about?
And I understand the ambiguity is helpful in a limited sense, but I just think there are other values at stake. I am getting frustrated, even though I still think he's going to end up striking it run.
Yeah, I'm not here next Friday. I'll talk to Kurt schlector Eli. But when I come back the following Friday, I believe by then war will have begun. It may well be over and I don't believe it's going to be a symbolic tap on the wrist. I think it's going to be a massive, overwhelming first strike, because to do otherwise is to put American servicemen and women in
our allies at great risk. Because the iatolis are on a hair trigger, I don't know if they're going to be able to distinguish between a tap on the wrist and an all out for a strike. I don't know who's giving him that idea other than maybe more dust in everybody's eyes. So that's what I think is happening. But you don't have me be reporting one way or the other.
No that I can't tell you. I mean, I don't think anybody could do any reporting right now, Hugh. We know who's the decider is it's Trump? We know generally, we think we know where you know, people around him, or what they're considering.
We can get a sense of what he's asked for.
We know that he's asked for significant war plans that are far more than just a tap on the wrist. I've reported that out and you've reported that. But I don't think we know at this point the direction he's going to go and that's kind of the frustrating part
of it. At a time like this, we would normally have an address to the American people from the Oval Office, laying out the history of Iran, what they've done to the United States, the opportunity that the United States has now that the regime is wobbling, and you know, assurances, you know, that's the kind of thing we would get. Instead, we're relying on, you know, little bits of pieces here and there when he does press conferences and background senior administration officials from reporters.
I would like a little bit more clarity now.
I happen to believe it's a guess, right, it's a complete guess. He's going to announce it during the State of the Union, And when he does announce it during the State of the Union, it's going to have an electrifying effect. If he does it well. Rhetorically he can.
Be quite good.
He is often not focused and not quite good. But if it's a short focus, if he doesn't, nobody cares about tariffs except Donald Trump. Please don't make the State of the Union about tariffs. I'm afraid he will. But if he just makes it about time Supreme Court, yeah, I mean, nobody really knows what the court ruled. I've read it. Chief Justice said you can't do what you did, but he didn't say what you can do and what you can't do. So the president's out doing other stuff.
It's a punt disguised as a kickoff. It's not really a kickoff, right.
Well, I don't have a lot of insights into it. I'm just disturbed when I see quotes from him about foreign influences on the Supreme Court, which just sounds crazy to me.
Well, I haven't seen that one yet, but I haven't gone through that taping stuff earlier. Let's go back to an overwhelming force. Israel is allegedly on high alert, but no change in instructions to the public. Does that really matter? Doesn't the public know they might want to stay near the bomb shelters.
I think that's the case.
And the other thing is is that, I mean, they can't necessarily share this, but we know that the Israeli penetration of Iran is so great right now. I Mean, the one thing that I would want to know if I could see access to everything, is what are these railies telling Trump about who might be willing to turn inside the regime, or what a limited strike of some of the leaders might do in terms of motivating other leaders to then embrace some sort of transitional transition period.
And Iran, I'm only interested in one thing. It's the end of the regime. It sounded in the beginning of the year that Trump was there, and then the language we're getting from him is that this is a negotiation about nukes and missiles. And you know what can I say? I'm disappointed?
You know, I am on the report tonight, special report panel, and you always have to give winners and losers. And my lining this week is Foreign Minister Arachi. Am I pronouncing that correctly? Eli?
Yeah, I think that's right Arachi?
Or he can't win. He's supposedly preparing a homework assignment for the Americans, but the Eye toldally, we're going to check his work before he turns it in, and if it's a real concession, he'll be shot behind the barn. If it's not a concession, you'll get bombed and killed by the American. The guy's in a bad no win situation, isn't he.
He could pull up Tarikazi's which is that he could be pretending to negotiate on behalf of the regime and.
While you're gonna have to fill that in for dealers, fancy, I got the joke, but they won't know who Tarikazi's is.
Tarikazi's was Saddam Hussein's foreign minister, and in the end we know that he was working with us. We didn't know that at the time, but so there's all kinds of duplicity. I mean, I would hate to be in his position, although you know, I have no sympathy for the man. He's part of an evil and foul regime. But I mean, the whole thing just seems like, why are we going through this? There is not going to
be a deal. As you said, and as you've been saying in your programming, and you've been terrific on this heel, there's nothing to negotiate at this point. They're not enriching anything. There's nothing that would be acceptable to them. So why are we even talking? I mean, the only thing I can think of is to get our forces in place,
make sure there are enough interceptors. And then you know, when you see these stories about limited strikes, and who knows that could be wish casting from someone who would like to influence it in a certain ways.
Either's smoking our eyes or wish casting. Eli, can you wait for two more minutes. I got to ask you about the uranium that's flowing in the four Dough and I want to know what your reporting is on that. I'll put it on the big weekend pod in America. Don't worry about it, or I'll play it later in the program. Stay tuned. Coming right back with continenty after
the break. I'm back with Eli. I had one question that no one's reporting on it, assuming for a moment that the regime topples, don't they have an amazing Chernobyl like problem on their hands at four Dough and every place else that we blew up that had yellow cake or uranium or whatever they were working on.
Well, we also have to worry about the reports at the time, right before the bombing that they were moving out some of the highly enrichment material.
So where is that?
And I'm sure that that's an important factor that we're trying to get, But it would be a very bad deal if we just got the remnants of that, because they have no capacity to enrich it right now. If that's really what we were giving up, So I'm not entirely sure, but yes, we do have to worry about that, but there are you know, this is why we have a wonderful military that makes lots of contingency plans with
our CIA and hopefully in the Masad. That's the number one thing, one of the number one things that Israel has to worry about. So I would imagine that there are people who worked wanting to keep an eye on it. Again, I think that the Israelis have the place wired, so let's let's wait and see there.
And a final question. There was a one off story maybe six weeks ago that when the Iranians bombed Ali Sad in twenty twenty, they had agents either chemical or biological on their warheads that may have hurt American I've seen nothing since then. I know people who are on Ali Sad they said, no, we're not sick. Did you see that story? And is there anything to it?
I made okay, So I say I made a couple of perfunctory compune calls. I didn't really dive into it, but I was waved off of it as well. Okay, But it doesn't mean I mean there may be something that we'll find out. I mean but at this point I have not seen to follow up on it. But that I mean it was true, that would be extraordinary, but it doesn't really follow because it was so coordinated. If you remember, it's like the Iranians were looking for
an out in some ways. You know, they wanted to say we struck back, similar to what they did after the Twelve Day warn.
Anything on the discombobulator, Eli.
Well, I told you before my theory on that that was a It was a technique plus a new technology that was able to basically blind an opponent's command and control.
You said you're going to write some several hours, you said you're going to write a piece.
Did I say it was? Well, I've been working on some domestic political things. I've got a good piece on Jesse Jackson coming out on Saturday.
I hope you make a breaking history about Jesse. I enjoyed Meetingum in person in ninety one and what a skezophrenic political persona.
So good luck with that one.
Eli like always a pleasure breaking history. Always enjoy follow him on exit, Eli Lake, stay tuned in America. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewett. Continetti is a commis for The Wall Street Journal. He is the head of domestic policy studies at American Enterprise Institute, and when we are Lucky, he's
our guests for the Weekend Pod and the Weekend Review Show, Matt. Today, Jan Crawford of CBS News declared that the tariff case was quote the most significant US Supreme Court loss for a US president I think in modern history.
Close quote Jeez.
I thought Nixon lost the tape case.
Matt, Yeah, and the Clinton decision on the grand jury testimony that also had real repercussions for the Clinton's presidency. This is a big blow to President Trump, There's no question. Of course, he raised the stakes throughout the year as this case was being litigated, saying that if the Supreme Court knocked down his tariffs under APA, the country would be destroyed.
Well, we're still here.
The country will exist, and in fact, as President Trump pointed out, he's going to pursue his tariffs under different authorities.
I really think this decision came down to did the President have the authority under this one statute to have these extremely sweeping tariffs that he could set at any level he wanted, and not have to submit them to review by either the judiciary or the legislature, and the six to three majority, with the Chief Justice Roberts writing the decision, found that he did not have authority under this one statute, but he has authority under other statutes, Hue, and he's about to use it.
Yeah.
Man, I was predicting a big punt by the court that they would just kick it all back and say sort them out between the nationals. They just didn't. They struck them all down. But it's still a punt because the Chief Justice said they can't do it, and then he didn't tell us what happens everything that's been done, or the terriff trade treaties that have been agreed to,
or the other authorities. It's a very very modest decision that simply says the IAAP may not be used in the way President Trump is used it, but it doesn't tell us about anything else. So I kind of think it's a lot of hazah about not much.
Yeah, I mean, I do think it's it's a major decision, and President Trump put a lot of effort into this policy and really kind of backed it to the hilt, and I think they are going to have to go back to the drawing board on some of these tariffs.
But you know, we don't talk about it much here, but the fact is after Liberation Day last April, where these reciprocal tariffs were imposed on every country in the world, including uninhabited islands where they were only penguins, the administration has course really kind of clawed back.
A lot of the tariffs and they imposed.
And so if we get the ten percent global tariff that Trump is now going to pursue under a different statutory means when where I think he'll have a stronger case, that's not too much different from the about fifteen percent average tariff we have on most countries right now. So yeah, I guess in that sense, you're a claim that maybe this is much ado about nothing is supported.
Here's the nut of the ruling. Chief Justice Roberts, right. Our task today is to decide only whether the power to quote regulate importation close quote as granted to the president, and I ee PA embraces the power to impose tariffs. It does not. That's the whole ruling, Matt. And so there's so many ways out around and over and under that ruling that I think the President was way too ticked off.
That's more.
My favorite thing about this decision, Hugh, is that if you read it, Chief Justice Roberts says that this law, the AIPA, says that the president has the authority to regulate trade and given emergencies. But Chief Justice Roberts says it does not give him the authority to tax trade in an emergency. Well, where if we heard that language before from Chief Justice Roberts.
In the o BI.
I remember Decision twelve.
Yes Obamacare, the difference between a regulation and attacks. In that case, the mandate was a regulation and not attacks, and therefore it was constitutional. In this case, the tariffs are attacks, not a regulation, therefore they're unconstitutional. All we know is that Chief Justice Roberts, a landmark figure in any ways, pays very close attention to the difference between a regulation and attacks.
He is a landmark figure.
I know he gets a lot agree from our team, but he's a very appropriately modest officer of the federal judiciary. And I can't I haven't read Justice Kavanaugh's opinion yet, because I would have thought Kavanaugh was with the six given the major questions doctrine and is ruling on Chevron. But he's with the three and I just don't know what to make of this. I think it's going to end up being one that we skip over in a hurry and con lock Hay case books in the future.
But it does the president a little bit, but it's not a slam down. He's not going to jail. However, if he does this, I have a theory, Matt Continent, We're going to lose the House, the Republicans being we this will be an article of impeachment as well, ignoring TikTok, They're just piling up articles of impeachment for the House.
Do you agree with me?
Yeah, well, I mean I think it would be a weak article of impeachment because Trump isn't defying the Supreme Court all once again, all the talk about Trump being a dictator out of control, the Supreme Court rules, he obeys. That's Donald Trump. He's just going to pursue another message. So I think the Democrats are going to impeach him on other grounds.
I will talk impeachment during the break, and then Matt will be back to talking Iran after the break. Stay tuned. Back in the days when Matt Continent, he was a regular panelist on the commentary podcast. He would also often point out that the TikTok statue was not being enforced by the president. I think that was you, Matt, wasn't it.
Yeah, I've pointed it out on several occasions.
Yeah, don't you think that's an impeachable offense not to execute the laws of the United States has written.
This would be something that I do think the Congress Democratic Congress would raise and have inquiries not adjusted to why the law wasn't obeyed, but also the structure of the deal that has been announced. It's still unclear actually where we stand in the TikTok's ownership or actually whether China will really be giving up control of the algorithm, the secret sauce at all. I think I expect TikTok to be up there with crypto in terms of the
most heavily investigated subjects. Under a Democratic Congress.
This is what I see happening. I think we're going to lose the House because that's just the tie title charts of American history. They got nothing to do because you'll veto anything even if they got the Senate, and so all they can do is impeachment, and that's a lot of fund and it raises a lot of money, and they're going to impeach them on Like Nixon was impeached on four different things. People only remember Watergate, but
he was impeached for bombing Cambodi. Yeah, he was impeached for I can't remember what the other obstruction of justice. He was impeached on many different things. I think they're just going to go on an impeachment parade. Matt good or bad for their party.
I think, well, it would be bad for their party in the long run. I think it's where their party is right now. Hugh, there's no question. And I think a lot of Democrats are going to run this year on elect Us to check Trump.
Trump needs a constraint.
A Democratic House will be a constraint on Donald Trump. But of course voters might want Trump to be a little bit more constrained. But I don't think they're interested in another impeachment drag out fight. And so I think actually Republicans might have an argument there to say, no, Look, they're talking a good game, but do we really want
to live through another impeachment process. Donald Trump's third for the next two years, and we have much more pressing concerns and I think you'll be the crux of the argument.
They'll raise so much money they cannot not do it. The consultants will make so much money, Matt. Finally, Alexandria Casio Cortes Whitmer's out she'd dumb. But AOC, as Josh Holmes pointed out on this show, when she dismissed the idea that the Spaniards brought horses to the United States, he said, you know, her last name is Cortes, which I found very amusing. But she also made a comment about the enslaved African Americans. Want a word, What in
the world did that mean? They didn't bring any horses with them on the slave ships.
Well, I'm still trying to figure out AOC's answer on whether she would defend Taiwan if China invaded. I mean, that was an incredible word salad. She looked as though she were a contestant on who wants to be a millionaire? You know, she wanted to ask if she could call a lifeline for an answer, but unfortunately rechs Fhilbin wasn't available.
So I think she really took.
A hit in terms of her political fortunes this year at Munich over the weekend. Que she has time to recover, but it's going to be hard to escape the fact that she avoids tough interviews. And if that was too tough for her, imagine what the future might hold.
Oh please God send her to me. I'll be right back with Matt Contenetty. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewett. Matt Contenetty is my guest. She's had a domestic policy Studi's at the American Enterprise Instute. He's a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, and he's a contributor most Fridays here on the program. And I appreciate that, Matt. Yesterday the Journal ran late in the day the story that has now been picked up by the Times of Israel
with this headline. Trump says considering limited strike on Iran to coax it into accepting deal on his terms. I don't believe it because it's so stupid, because he's not stupid. If they hit Iran with a pop gun, Iran could go off on Israel with everything they've got. It's got to be a massive preemptive first striker or no strike at all. Do you agree with me?
I think you're right.
I mean it's telling, isn't it that the leaks aren't about Trump not striking, They're about the severity.
And timing of a structure to have.
So I think that that in itself suggests that the White House is pretty set on a particular course of intervention against Iran. I think I think anything America does is going to have to be broad. It's going to have to be pretty sudden and pretty fierce. Let's not forget, though, the Iranian air defense system is as severely, severely weakened still from the Twelve Day War, and so America and then if Israel joins a fight as well, I will have I think air superiority pretty rapidly.
And I allow a Greenway on the program on Wednesday, Arci Greenway from Heritage is Allison Center, former NSCA for DIA Special Forces. He said, probably if there's a more dangerous place to be in the world than on an Iranian submarine, he doesn't know of it. I do believe all of their navy and their five submarines and all of that will go down to the bottom of the ocean in round one, because we're not going to let them get near our ships. You agree with that assessment.
Matt, Yeah, I mean I imagine that anyone at the Pentagon planning this type of operation is going to say, the first thing we need to do is make sure that the Iranian capacity to retaliate against our forces and against the Israeli civilian population will be diminished. So that means, yeah, going after the navy, going after the air defense system, going after the missiles and the missile launchers in particular, because you know, the missiles are no good if you
don't have a launcher. But then you know, I've also been thinking a lot, Hugh, we need to pay attention to the Huthis because the Iranians have different ways of retaliation and they still have this proxy network. Of course, there's Hesbolas been defanged in Lebanon, but still.
Could cause some trouble for Israel. But the Houthis, you.
Know, they're still there in Yemen and they can still threaten the Gulf of Aiden as well of our as our naval assets. They've been weakened, for sure, that's our operation. Rough writer did that last year, But I assume the Pentagons has an eye on the Houthis as well.
If we enter conflict with Iran.
I was only in the Beltway for a week. I did not have a chance to talk to people who wouldn't know. But Mohammed bin Zayad, who's the ruler of the Emerds, Uae and Bahrain and the leader of the Gulf states that are smaller other than Gutter, is allegedly at loggerheads with NBS, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. What do you make of that, because they've always been as thick as allies could be.
Yeah, it's interesting.
I think it's another byproduct you of Iranian weakness that we spent the past decade or so with the empowered Iran really ruling over a Sheite crescent in the Middle East, extending its tentacles into Iraq, into Syria, into Lebanon, and into Yemen. As I just said, with the Huthis and all the other powers in the Middle East were aligning
against Iran. Well after the Twelve Day War, after Operation Midnight Hammer, after Operation Rising Lion, and the Israeli war on Hesbalah and Hamas, Iran is weak, and what we've seen as a result is that the other powers are beginning to flex and change their alignments.
In the region.
That means that NBS, the leader of Saudi Arabia, he's become much more of a wary of Israel than one might expect.
We see Airdiwan and Turkey.
He's trying to assert himself in Syria, and yes, a power like the UAE and NBZ, they're going to try to cut against the Saudis in their own way, and they of course they have a dispute over Yemen as well. So you know, ironically, the weak in Iran is better for America, it's better for Israel, it's better for the world, but it's actually contributing to a more chaotic landscape.
Well, this is very clarifying though, Ua, which General Mattis is always called Little Sparta, has fought alongside us in every theater since the Long War began, and their special forces are pretty good UAE and they have a good jet force. Saudi is not, although Saudi was involved in
nineteen ninety one. Also clarifying, we got a bunch of c big planes I think they're one thirty five parked in Serbia, non in Serbia, in Bulgaria at Sofia Airport, and we're not allowed to use the airports in United Kingdom. How clarifying a moment is this, Matt Well, it's.
Just another sign that the starmer government in the United Kingdom is off the rails and there's so much political chaos in turbula. What's happening in the UK right now. It's sad, you know, for our great ally of Great Britain to say that we can't use are bases there against Iran. And Ron threatens not just the Middle East, not just Israel, It threatens Europe, it threatens the United States. You have this apocalyptic millennial power driven by radical Islamic
fundamentalism that has done nothing but so chaos. Terrorism, kill innocent people, kill its own people, pursue the world's most deadly weapon, a reckoning against the Mullahs in Tehran. Is in the American interest, it's in the British interests, it is in everyone's interest. So it's very sad to see some of our closest allies say that they won't be a part of it. Other European powers, yeah, other European powers are i think moving into position where they could contribute to Poland.
But if the United Kingdom does this, does that not assist the so called restraint are anti NATO people. I've allayn pro NATO, but this is an argument against NATO if they're not going to help.
Yeah, yeah, well, you know it's I think that's something too that if they really do stick with the current position, you know, as we know, once once fighting starts, things can change very rapidly. But yeah, if the Alliance isn't coming to aid America, if they're not proving good on the commitments they've made to increase defense spending, then it does empower people who say, what is the purpose of NATO?
But I think that's you know, the more pressing concern is is President Trump prepared to explain to the United American people at the State of the Union next week what is at stake in Iran, what the potential cost might be, but why intervening is necessary.
Remember when the State of the Union's on President Reagan joke bombing and Russia begins in time minutes that could show up in the State of the Union. That Continetti always to see your farm on Extra CONTINENTI read him in the Wall Street Journal and come right back to the U yalership.
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first five months. Think of all the money you will save. Go to Consumer Cellular dot Com slash shoe promo Q twenty five or called one fifty four Consumer Cellular dot Com slash shoot. Welcome back America, Morning, Glory and evening grace. I'm Hugh Hewitt on this Week in Review program. Ben Dominis joins me. It's been a very busy week. Ben Dominic, host of the Big Ben Podcast, is also well. Ben, would you give me the URL for the Big Ben Podcast?
I always screwed up. It's a Fox News but it's got its own url.
Yeah, it's you can go to radio dot foxnews dot com and you'll find it along with all of our other podcasts. But you can and you can follow our social Instagram and on the X at Big Ben Show, Fox.
Big Ben Show Fox. All right, Ben, let's start with the Tariff earthquake on the assumption that while I was taping earlier today, war is not broken out yet? Am I right about that? War is not broken out?
Not as we are currently talking? All right, gret war war were not yet declared.
Yeah, it may or may.
Not happen during this show or during the week I'm off up next week. Of course, that means the war will happen when I'm off.
Next That one hundred percent means it will happen next week. Put your bets in the prediction markets. Now, will Iran war happen while you is off?
There you go, people can go right tell whatever that is. President Trump said thirty two thousand people were killed from the Iran protest today. I think he's low. The Crown Prince told me thirty five five to forty doesn't really matter. The point is he gets the regime will come to the tariff rolling in a second, Do you think he's going to get the regime since he gets the regime.
I believe he is. And I think that one of the things that we have been paying attention to over the course of the past week is simply the movement of American resources and material. You do not have the kind of representation of the American armed forces in that area for an extended amount of time. You've got such a significant portion of the US Navy there right now, and that's they're not just there to sit around and
do nothing or to just intimidate from close by. And in terms of trying to get the Iranians to come to a deal, I think that the Iranians are dug in. I think the regime really does not, you know, have any kind of decision making process other than to battle to the end. And that creates a very difficult situation for Donald Trump to do anything, I think, other than to pursue what has been our policy as regards around
for a very long time. And I think that, you know, when I say hour, I should say Republican policy.
Now.
The President obviously has his own misgivings about this. His whole political career is in large part due to the fact that he was someone who is willing to go and criticize the regime change wars that have been you know, the bread and butter for a number of years under George W. Bush, something that certainly a lot of Americans disagreed with in the aftermath. I always try to remind them how popular they were at the time that they were launched. But it's one of the things that I think,
you know, was critical to his career. But in this particular moment, he's facing a situation which is very different than the other foreign policy decisions where he's pulled the trigger. He has made the decision to go and expel trait. You know, a leader in Nicholas Maduro who obviously was going to be difficult to do, but he did it without the loss of a single American life. The achievement when it came to the setting back the Iranian nuclear
program obviously impressive, unbelievable. What went into that. Those were fundamentally different than what you would be dealing with in this situation. I think the President knows that. It's why he's been a bit hesitant. But if the Iranian regime is as dug in as they seem to be. I don't think that there's really another decision here. I think it's already been made for him to a certain extent.
Now, yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran a story that I thought and said yesterday at the time, that doesn't make any sense that Donald Trump would do a symbolic strike in an effort to bring them back to the table. That would I think unleash as everything that Iran has. I think they're on a hair train. Yeah, so you've got to either preemptively strike them with everything or not strike them at all. That's my exactly what you.
Are you've got to do, is you've got to do the whole thing or not do anything. I don't believe in the idea that there would be some kind of symbolic gesture here, because, as you said, they would respond vociferously, and I think that you would see American lives as
part of the penalty for whatever was done. And understanding that that's a very real risk, I believe that you actually have to do you have to go the full thing if you're going to do it at all, and there seems to be in this administration they believe that this is a moment that is unique, where the regime is as weak as it has ever been and certainly within my lifetime, and that you have the type of opportunity here that rarely presents itself, and as well that
the degree to which there has been a human cost to this, we should not underestimate this. By the way, Donald Trump always talks about that. I don't know why people don't pay more attention to it. He talks about human loss when it comes to these wars, including in the Ukraine, with a difference than a different attitude than I think we hear from a lot of other politicians, as it's something that I think weighs on him to
a certain degree. That you know, the idea that if I had made a different decision, or if others had made different decisions, this could have been avoided, or we could have had less of a loss of innocent human life, particularly as regards these protesters, And like, I don't think we should underestimate that as motivating.
And I'm so glad you said that. I have said repeatedly he's the most visual president. Cerebral people read, visual people look, and when he looks and he sees, for example, he ordered the first strike against Syria after he saw children choking to death. He ordered the second strike. That's the same reason against Syria. He looks at the Ukraine pictures. He now looked at the pictures of thirty two thousand people massacred. He is very visual developers are they just
see stuff. I've worked for enough of them over the years when I was a lawyer. They're visual people, and he reacts to visual stuff.
Yeah, and I think that that's true here, as it is true with a lot of the other decisions that he makes. I will just in the side say, as a developer, he has to enjoy the fact that the Obama Museum so ugly, the way that it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen, so ugly, so ugly. But frankly, I think it's kind of consulting. Like I mean, Obama was it was a bad president from my perspective, but it's like, wow, this is really bad.
This is really bad.
And you know, they had their pick of anyone in the world would have done that, and they have this great I know the space, it's where the Chicago World Fair was and I visited the Unity of Chicago. It's a beautiful space. They could have done anything, and they built the Martian landing craft that got banged up by a meteor on the way here. Let's turn now to
the big news of the day. Assuming we aren't overtaken by tonight and Saturday night by a war, and that is John Roberts and five other justices said not now, not ever, and ever, you can't do tariffs, and it was it's not very clear about what happens next. President Trump wlaited about two hours, walked out and said, effective immediately, all national security tariffs under Section two three two in all existing Terra Section three oh one tariffs remain fully
in place and in full effect. Today I will sign in order to impose a ten percent global terriff under Section one two two, over and above our normal tariffs already being charged.
Now that is a direct quote.
I have no idea if what that means or what if he can do it, then what's it means that.
You I wish that you did, because I'm not going to be the one to say it all rast for you. Unfortunately, I don't know what that means either. And one of the other things that I don't know is is this a situation where we are going to just have the president doing something and then having these having to have it work through these processes because you know, all over again, because this is this is a situation that Congress itself
is incapable of resolving. They do not have the ability to resolve this just given the makeup as they currently.
It's an impeachable offense. Yeah, you see that that Immediately I thought, oh, he doesn't care. I's gonna get impeached anyway for not doing the TikTok law. He's going to get impeached for not listening the court on the tariffs. But he doesn't care.
Yeah, it's no longer a threat. It's like, oh, yeah, what you know, I get three now? Okay, well, you know whatever called me in the morning. The thing, the thing that I think is interesting.
Though about this is.
This is one of those issues where if we had a functional Congress, if we have the ability for them to work through this, then you could have a tariff process that is more orderly and that and where you know certain there there's certain expectations about what we're doing. Instead, we are stuck in this situation where people are getting jerked around. And I had a bunch of people, you know, texting me just you know, as this decision came down, saying what does this mean for what's already.
Been in effect?
You know what about clawback situations and lawsuits that are you know, a fallout because of this decision. And the truth is I just don't know the answer to that.
It's well, I.
Read as quickly as I could the Chief Justice's opinion and excerpts of the other The Chief Justice does not answer that question. No, classic Supreme Court, The question before us is whether he can do it. The answer is no. Let's go to the next case. And there's no nothing, not even a clue. Now, by the way, it's remanded to the court a client for further proceeding consistent with his opinion. I don't know what that means.
Yeah, this is this is I think going to be quite chaotic, and I'm not I'm not sure what's going to be the outcome of this. But one thing that I would point out is that the President is not wrong when he says that his teriff for GI has not resulted in the in the effects that so many of the doomsayers, including by the way at the Journal, who were predicting, you know, utter catastrophe because of it
that has not happened. And we have seen decisions made because of an in response to these parists that are logical decisions and that you know, I think have some predictability to them. But now I think all that gets chucked into a cocktac.
I have a talk with Ben during the break. He'll be back on the other side. If you don't talk about the Olympics on the other side, but during the break, I want to talk to him about the markets and oil. So don't Cony or America. If you want to listen to it all. It's on the Big Weekend Pod when it posts tonight of the month. I'm back with Ben Dominich. Now, Ben, after the terrorists were announced, the markets were up and down,
up and down. Right now gold is up by about two percent, Crude oil is up by a little bit, and all the markets are well off. That crude has gone up to sixty six and a half bucks. The oil markets think there's are war coming, right.
They definitely do, and that's being priced into that as an indication. Look, I don't think that you need a prediction market in order to see that that's happening, and that it's going to happen soon. I believe at this point it would be surprised if it doesn't happen. And I don't say that with any particular happiness, but I think that we have gotten to this point because of every decision that the regime has made that has led it to it. It could have backed off in so
many different ways. It could have tried to do another deal. I think that Donald Trump probably would have been receptive to a deal that a lot of Republicans, including our friend Tom Cotton, would have criticized, you know, But in this case, because of their unwillingness to really even entertain any of those ideas, they have now put themselves into the target sphere. And that's going to be something that I think will ultimately lead to the end of this
regime one way or another. Now that doesn't mean that what comes next is going to be you know all
you know, honey and roses. But it's one of these things where the the ultimate I think blame for this is the fact that they have misjudged, as so many other people have, Donald Trump and his resolves and what he prioritizes, and when it became clear that he had been convinced by a number of people around him, including I believe Secretary Rubio, that this is that this is a moment in which something good can actually happen that will help remake the Middle East. And you know, I
think that you know, Jared Kushner has wow. I mean, talk about the role that he has played in not one but two Trump terms in terms of what he's
been able to do there. I believe that this is going to be, you know, a legacy making decision one way or the other, and the President is going to have to reckon with the fact though that there's going to be a lot of people who supported him early on who are going to be very dubious about this, and we're going to raise concerns that he has been you know, had people in his ear again including Secretary of Rubio, who he should not been listening to, and
that they wanted to to have a foreign policy that was less active, that was less willing to lean into even opportunities like this victory.
Has a thousand fathers and seventy seven million voters. We'll talk about that after it happens, if it happens. Coming right back with Ben Dominich Stay Tunes Welcome Back America. If you want to catch what I talked to Ben dominic about during the break, you have to listen the Big Weekend Pod. Ben two questions. One is about the Olympics. But first fourth quarter growth was only one point four percent at an annual rate. I thought it was supposed to be five percent. What happened?
I mean, I think that we have seen a turn in this economy that is unfortunate, and it's one of the reasons why the Republican ideas that have been infecting them of late in Washington that things perhaps are not as bad when it comes to the midterm elections. That they have a bunch of silver linings that keep getting pointed out to me by staffers and folks who've been trying to convince themselves that the big, beautiful bill it's going to is going to write the ship, you know,
internally and for their future. I think that they have a much bigger hill to climb, especially with the in the minds of the American people than we expected. I don't think that they they can look around and say, you know, energy costs or low gas costs are low. All these different prices for food goods, you know, are our staples are lower than they were when President Trump got into office, but there's still not low enough. That's
the point that I keep making about those things. The gas price thing, I think is you know, a huge boon to them. I think they should lean more and more into it, especially in contrast with the agenda that Democrats are offering. And quite quite frankly, I think it's perfect that they chose someone like Governor Spamberger to be the opposing voice. Following the State of the Union, I realized those things don't always get a lot of attention, except as fodder for for humor when they go badly.
But I do think that in this case there is a real contrast. And you know, for someone who runs on affordability and then embraces an agenda that's only going to increase energy costs and the like, that's something that Republicans should be highlighting about Democrats. They should be leaning into it and saying, look, we are headed in the right direction. It's not as good as we would like it to be. It needs more time in order to work and to have an effect on the economy that
we believe will happen. We have faith in this, but we I think that there should be more done at this point by the Congress to try to get something else across the finish line before November that people can point to to say, this is another thing that's going to be helpful beyond just folks getting better tax refiles.
Now Q two first Trump quarter gross with three point eight percent, second quarter four point four percent, and the astimates after that came out was you might hit five percent in Q four and it goes down to one point four percent, and they're blaming the shutdown. I did not think the shutdown could have that kind of thing a sequence to you.
I did not, and I'm still not sure that it did. I think that you know, this is this is one of those areas where, you know, people like to blame government shutdowns on all manner of things, but I don't. I'm not entirely convinced that it has as big of an effect on the economy as some people do.
Now, okay, last topic. I'm doing special reports night winners and losers, and my winner, I'll tell you in the audience will hear, but it'll still surprise most Fox News is the American women's talking team, because that may be the most thrilling victory.
That was fantastic, wasn't it. And well, have you seen what the Canadians put out?
They got a bunny?
No, no, no, the Canadians. The Canadians be tweeted out silver shines just as bright. Oh no, the Canadian single or talk about I'm sorry, that sounds like what a loser says.
That is so bad. I saw the film of them getting a bunny or a stuffed animal, and everyone looked like they wanted to stuff it down the throat of the presenter because they you know, it hurts, It really hurts. Nobody wants to get a silver medal. I mean they do later, but they don't want to. And I still, you're a hockey guy, right, yes, I am, okay. So whatever that that Keller did with Megan Keller, right, Megan Mallard, Yes, Megan Keller, what.
Does she do?
I still, I've watched it twenty times.
Is that normal?
No, that's not that's not normal. I've not I've not seen that move for especially from a woman's team, that I can recall. But I will tell you this, there's just something so satisfying about being the Canadians that the things that they think that they're best at. And and look, I realized not everybody likes the Olympics. You know, some Republicans, some conservatives are like, ah, you know, the Olympics is this you know, global thing. I view it in very
different terms. I grew up watching the Olympics with my family and cheery on the United States, and I believe that it's essential to to inject that into your kids. You should have national pride about a performance and root for our teams. It's critical, it's important. And that's one of the reasons why I find everything surrounding this whole Eileen Goose story as the most disgusting thing. You know, where she's being held up by the American sports covering left.
You know, Pablo Tory going on and talking about her, and you know all these other people who basically are using her as kind of a foil for Donald Trump or something like that.
Ask her about the Wigers. I just keep waiting for someone to ask her about the Wigers. No, the thing that was satisfactory is that Carne gave that speech in Dava. I like Canadians. My daughter in law is a Canadian who has become naturalized. My in laws are Canadians. They're lovely people. I like Canadians. But Carnie gave that speech.
No words against Selene Dion.
But if you go to Davos and you punch us below the belt repeatedly and you're too cowardly to say what you mean, and then you get hand your hat and your other guy cheats and curling, which is really kind of.
Despicable if you haven't if you haven't seen it yet, hugh. Uh. The there's a trend going on on Instagram and TikTok of people posting, oh, I'm just unleashing my inner Canadian and just showing them like lightly shoving and people food on their plate, you know. So look, I mean this is this is embarrassing for them. It's it's deeply embarrassing.
But man, I love the fact that the women's hockey team did that, and I love the fact that, you know, my my girls love hockey and they pay attention to it, and in both both of them want to play. I think only one of them will. But but it's one of these things where it's it's inspirational to see that, and hey, I'll be cheering on the US team as well.
So last question, it was wonderful to see them saying the national and yeah, full throat crazy, no one holding back, no one taking a knee. It's the way it used to be. But I guess it's kind of nice not to have any controversy.
And this is the thing, huge, that's what these sports journalists are always trying to inject when they get into things. Think about the questions that we're happening. I believe it to be Australian open. You know that we're directed to the American Stacey, it's ridiculous. And the truth is in that moment to see that national tribe, it's great and we should be able to unite and say that it's great. And the fact is that you know that's to me,
that's a good sign. It's like we're moving forward. We're healing in order to be able to come together and sing like that and you know, not hold back at all.
Nature is healing. Ben Dominic, thank you.
Listen to Big Ben Podcast, follow him at b Dominich on x, and you can find them anywhere. You'll love this week's conversation, So go to Big Ben Podcast.