Press Conference Speaker (5:08)

So with Iran, they were going to hang 837 people. And they let them be known that. And we let them know that if that happens, that will be a very bad day for. And they decided not to do it. They didn't hang the people. I can't tell you what's going to happen in the future, but supposedly they've taken that off the table. But they were going to last week. They were going to hang on Thursday or Wednesday. 1. They were going to hang, I think, 837 people and they didn't hang anybody. So we're just going to have to see what happens with Iran is the military option.

Mark Levin (5:44)

I'm not, I'm not. Okay. I. I'm not sure why hanging is the operative word here. They're murdering them. They're shooting them, they're butchering them. So if it's the word hanged, There's other ways. You kill people, murder people, and you can do it faster. And of course, my count is now they've threatened the life of the president five times. Five times. Five times. So I don't know what's going to happen. I know what I think should happen. Very confident about that. But as time goes on, the, the urgency of it wears down, doesn't it? Not for the people in Iran, but for our media, which has the attention span of a snail. So I'm deeply concerned about this. The Kurds are being slaughtered by the Syrians, our new friends. They've let thousands of ISIS murderers out of and would be murderers out of prison. Turkey's behind the whole thing, but now we're being told that the prison were shut. Excuse me. Thousands of ISIS terrorists have been released and God knows how many Kurds have been murdered and raped. And these are our allies. These are people who have fought with us through thick and thin. What's the status of that? No idea. I've never been a fan of this envoy. Thomas Barack as You well know I've talked about him here, I've posted about him. I think he's a disaster. He makes excuses for Syria, makes excuses for Turkey, makes excuses sometimes for Hezbollah. And please don't tell me he doesn't. I know what I hear and often trashes Netanyahu. I don't know what his problem is, but I'm not impressed in the least. Just saying. So look, we're going to keep monitoring this. You see what's going on. You can't just switch like a light switch, turn things off and on and say, okay, well, it's better now in Iran and the lights are off, the communications are still killed. If it's better now, why don't they turn the lights on and turn on the communications? They've already said they're going to keep killing these people. They've already said they're going to execute them. Whether they execute them with a bullet in the back of the head or hang them, dead is dead, in my humble opinion. And it's not so humble, it's really out of fury at this point. So I wanted to point that out. President has had many, many, many successes over the course of the year. This is his one year anniversary as president in the second term. And I want to talk about some of these things. Let's talk about Greenland for a minute because that has a lot of people worked up. I have an editorial here, let's see, by the Wall Street Journal. They pretty much print the position of the establishment Republicans and says here, for more than 75 years, the fondest dream of Russian strategy has been to divide Western Europe from the US and break the NATO alliance. That is now a possibility as President Trump presses his campaign to capture Greenland no matter what the locals or its Denmark owner thinks. And it goes on. Now, what's at the core of this, at the core of this is the president is rightly concerned we cannot defend our country if Russia or China in a war takes Greenland, which they can do in about 14 seconds, and uses it as a launching base against the United States and blocks our navy. Now, people aren't thinking who write these things. You recall he talked about the Panama Canal, Tars, and we're going to take it back. What happened? Well, the Communist Chinese took over the contract for both ends of the canal. Even though we built it, our people died building it. We spent our resources there. And it was given, quote, unquote, back to the Panamanians under conditions that, you know, we would be able to use it and so forth. Well, the Communist Chinese of all the places in the world were very interested in managing it and took it over. Well, they don't have control over it anymore. Their companies are not running it anymore.

Producer/Co-host (11:11)

Now we didn't take the canal, we.

Mark Levin (11:12)

Don'T own the canal anymore because of.

Producer/Co-host (11:15)

The stupidity.

Mark Levin (11:18)

Of the establishment Republicans, but we run it.

Producer/Co-host (11:23)

Okay, so the southern part of our.

Mark Levin (11:26)

Hemisphere now our, our navy can move from the Pacific to the Atlantic and the Atlantic to the Pacific. Okay, look at a map. Go north. What the President sees, obviously he's been briefed on as well, is that the Chinese and the Russians have key choke points geographically around the world. And one potential area is Greenland. Now the Dutch are incapable of defending Greenland. NATO is incapable of defending Greenland.

Producer/Co-host (11:56)

It's not even geographically part of Europe.

Mark Levin (12:02)

So the President sees that and he says, okay, we need that to defend ourselves.

Producer/Co-host (12:06)

Very simple. That's how he views things, in America's interest. Denmark says, well that's ours, you can't take it.

Mark Levin (12:15)

And yet it is and it isn't.

Producer/Co-host (12:17)

Because it has its own government.

Mark Levin (12:21)

So forth. So it's kind of an independent and yet not independent territory in many ways with links to Denmark. So the President says, look, we need to have Greenland to protect the United States of America. By the way, I would say this is exactly why the Israelis are saying.

Producer/Co-host (12:43)

Sorry, your border, peace, Gaza. Gaza was ours. Gaza can't be populated by Qataris and.

Mark Levin (12:52)

Turks, their military, it's too much of.

Producer/Co-host (12:55)

A grave threat for us. So I would say that it's similar.

Mark Levin (12:59)

And even more so in the case of Israel, is it not? I'm very consistent about these things. Very.

Producer/Co-host (13:06)

Logic is logic. So in the case of Greenland, Europe gets up in him. Why? Because they know they're never going to fight a war with us. So they're very tough when it comes to us, very tough.

Mark Levin (13:20)

So I have an idea, my own idea, maybe they can save face and we can protect ourselves. How about a 99 year lease of Greenland to the United States where we control the military aspects and have access and we'll share it with them and the Dutch to their rare earth minerals of which they have much and of which they do not mind very much. Greenland is a very big place. It's bigger than Alaska. Take a look at it again on a map. It's got almost minuscule population there. It's impossible for them to defend it. So my thinking is, and look, I'm not the negotiator working out details, we do a 99 year lease, we build military infrastructure there as we See fit docking for our subs, among other things. And we have access to the rare earth minerals that we need. And we don't want the Russians and the Chinese to take that. And they have their eyeballs on that, too, in a deal with the. The people in Greenland. What do they call the Greenlanders? I don't know. And the Dutch, with an automatic right of renewal for 99 years unless we choose not.

Producer/Co-host (14:57)

I don't know if they go for.

Mark Levin (14:58)

It or not, but it just seemed to me to make sense. So we can go. Okay. It's your country. You have it now. This is what we want to do. I think it's a good negotiating position. Don't you, Mr. Producer? Well, that's my thought. I've passed it along. I don't know if it'll matter or not. But just the thought as a. As a backup position. We'll be right back. I must tell you, America, I am.

Producer/Co-host (15:45)

Deeply.

Mark Levin (15:48)

Upset about what's going on to the people in Iran. It really has grabbed my heart and my soul. Same with the Kurds in Syria. These are our friends. These are our allies. It just. It does rip me. It tears at me, as I know it does many of you. The inhumanity of all this. The abuse of these young, beautiful people. The Kurds have fought with us shoulder to shoulder. I don't care what anybody says. That guy's no reformer. He's Al Qaeda in Syria. They overthrow Assad with Turkey's help. Turkey is aligned with them and isis. Turkey is going to be on the board of peace. Turkey wants to put troops in Gaza. Netanyahu is no fool. He's not going to be pushed around. But every major party in Israel except the two Arab or three Arab parties, opposes Turkey and Qatar being in Gaza. I mean, I oppose Qatar and Turkey and Saudi Arabia being in America. Quite frankly, I'm sick and tired of it. Them throwing their damn money around, buying our country, buying our politics, buying our sports teams, buying higher ed and K through 12. They are destroying our educational system. They are shoulder to shoulder with the Muslim Brotherhood, with Hamas, with the Taliban, with every terrorist group on the face of the earth. And they've been lobbying the administration against advising.

Producer/Co-host (17:44)

They call it advising, attacking Iran, as has Saudi Arabia. Who gives a crap what they think?

Mark Levin (17:56)

So this has me very troubled. Very troubled. All right, when we come back, we're still waiting for the Supreme Court on tariffs and much more. I'll be right back. Blasting conservative fire. The Mark Levin Show. Call in now at 877-3813.

Producer/Co-host (18:24)

811.

Mark Levin (18:26)

Back to the wall Street Journal. Why the tariff case is such a big deal. And it is. The world is waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of President Trump's emergency tariffs. And Mr. Trump's weekend tariff spree against European allies underscores again why his abuse of his authority needs to be reined in. Now, this is interesting. The title is why the tariff Case is Such a Big Deal. And the world is waiting, Mr. Producer. Now, why is the world waiting? They don't even realize what they just said here. The world is that foreign countries, Mr. Producer, foreign countries are waiting to see what we do with the tariff.

Producer/Co-host (19:11)

So a tariff isn't just a tax then, Right?

Mark Levin (19:14)

It's about foreign policy and diplomacy.

Producer/Co-host (19:19)

Let me read the first sentence again.

Mark Levin (19:21)

Because they don't even realize.

Producer/Co-host (19:22)

They just started making the case.

Mark Levin (19:24)

Because my argument has been whether people.

Producer/Co-host (19:27)

Like it or not, the issue over the power of the purse and the power over foreign policy, one to Congress, one of the president is indivisible. You can't bifurcate them. The framers gave the power to both. They gave the power of the purse to Congress, but they gave the power of a foreign policy to the president. And tariffs involve international trade, international commerce, national security and diplomacy. They don't go in one box or the other. And the worst thing that could happen is that judges, and in the end it would be trial judges, would make the decision in every instance. Then when a president decides to put in a tariff, 770 of them, how is that worked out on every other issue? How are you going to run foreign policy? How are you even going to run the economy when judges who have two or three clerks substitute their decisions for the other two branches? That is the court shouldn't be involved. As a matter of fact, Congress isn't even a party to any of this litigation. Congress hasn't done anything about Trump and his tariffs. Now, if you think the president is overreached with his tariffs, as the Wall Street Journal does, because they speak for Wall street, if you think that's the case, then you elect a new Congress. We the people and the elected branches deal with this. But this can't, can't have a politburo of lawyers who are going to sit down and decide how these things are going to be decided, they go on. Mr. Trump unleashed a new tariff volley against several European countries to coerce Denmark to sell or see Greenland to the U.S. okay, you don't like it, Wall Street Journal. But that's exactly the point. He's using tariffs, they're not to raise money, but to achieve a foreign policy end. The same way. The week before, he used tariffs 25% against any country that does business with Iran. That wasn't about raising revenue, that was about national security and foreign policy. So we are going to have judges make these decisions. Will countries, other countries be able to come into court now and say, wait a minute, every industry will hire more lawyers to go in front of more carefully chosen judges. Can you imagine the disaster? I'm defending the Constitution. It's not a matter of Ford or against tariffs. If you don't like what the president does with tariffs, then the next president you want to vote for, then make sure they don't use tariffs. Now, Ronald Reagan wasn't being terrorists, but he was huge on quotas and the constitutionality of a president putting in place quotas. Like telling Japan you're not selling any more motorcycles into this country for a period of time. Like telling Japan you're not selling any computer boards into this country for a period of time. That's what he did. And he did it on a whole host of products. Right or wrong, the issue is who decides the opinion, decides the decision, makes the decision. Now, whether you like it or not, that's politics, that's policy. We're talking about the Constitution, though he didn't say, presumably he's doing so under what he has claimed is his power in an emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. I've never been fond of using that.

Mark Levin (23:36)

Because then you have narrowed your focus.

Producer/Co-host (23:40)

But see, they have to write that.

Mark Levin (23:42)

Because presidents have used tariffs before, long before this statute even existed, McKinley being one of them.

Producer/Co-host (23:52)

But Mr. Trump wants ownership of the, of the island. This is Greenland on his legacy resume.

Mark Levin (23:58)

That's, you know, the problem with this guy Paul Gigot and the others, and I know who Gigot is very well is they hate Trump, those that they do these, not all of them. But he's the head. He's the head man over there. And by the way, I like the Wall Street Journal, but I'm taking issue with this and these issues.

Producer/Co-host (24:20)

I mean, you got an article in here. I don't know.

Mark Levin (24:22)

The last time I read this newspaper, you've got an article in here or a piece by Mitt Romney.

Producer/Co-host (24:32)

What does Mitt Romney have to say in a letter? I should say my country before my tax bill. Like raising taxes. Good old Mitt Romney is righteous. And there he is. You can raise taxes on me. I'm wealthy. But what about the impact on the economy. It's not a matter raising taxes on the wealthy. And so there he is. But there's a great piece in here hit Iran in Its Shadow Bank Accounts by Mike Duran. Michael Duran is superb.

Mark Levin (25:02)

He's the director of the Middle east.

Producer/Co-host (25:04)

Center at the Hudson Institute.

Mark Levin (25:05)

We're going to have him on the program, as a matter of fact, in about what, 40 minutes or so next hour to discuss some of this. We're also gonna have Peter Schweitzer with his new book that I helped him launch on Sunday, which is a stunningly good book, very important as well. I don't just do authors. I do them if they're great, if they have great books, if they're great thinkers, and he's certainly one of them. But the tariff issue, if you're saying a president can't, you know he's gone too far, he's going to.

Producer/Co-host (25:41)

What does that mean?

Mark Levin (25:41)

And who decides?

Producer/Co-host (25:42)

Okay, let's say the court. And this is what I talked about.

Mark Levin (25:45)

Over the weekend on Fox, because a few of the justices watch the show.

Producer/Co-host (25:49)

And this is what I've been talking about with you before the weekend and.

Mark Levin (25:53)

Since the weekend behind my microphone here, which is.

Producer/Co-host (25:57)

So if the court says the president.

Mark Levin (25:59)

Doesn'T have the power to do this.

Producer/Co-host (26:00)

Doesn'T have the power to do what? Any tariffs? How about any quotas? Nothing. So they just took tools away from him that are very powerful. What? Foreign policy, national security tools. If another country decides tomorrow, you know, we're putting a thousand percent just as an example.

Mark Levin (26:27)

Tariff on America's widgets.

Producer/Co-host (26:30)

President has to wait for Congress to act. Well, hell will freeze over by the time Congress will act. They can't even get a budget done. Now, the framers understood this. They didn't give this foreign policy, national security power to Congress. They gave them the power of the purse, which they're screwing up all the time. That's why we have almost a $39 trillion debt.

Mark Levin (26:54)

Trump didn't do that. Congress did that. We like to think that, you know.

Producer/Co-host (27:02)

The Senate is a deliberative body. You have a lot of people who support the filibuster because it slows things down. It's slow.

Mark Levin (27:09)

You need 60 votes, which are very.

Producer/Co-host (27:10)

Very hard to get. And so it's a laborious process. And that's a good thing. But it's not a good thing when you're dealing with foreign policy and national security. It's a bad thing. Now, when you're heading into treaties, that's a good thing because you want the full body politic It's a treaty bigger than a deal, bigger than an agreement. But we're talking here about tariffs.

Mark Levin (27:34)

Tariffs. The Wall Street Journal is taking the position, the judges to make this decision. What do you mean, Mark? They say Congress, no judges. Judges will make these decisions because there will be litigation continuously if a specific tariff with a specific country and specific products or industries are more national security or more tax intended. And if the president doesn't decide, somebody has to decide. It's going to be these judges. So let me be clear and let me underscore a point. The Wall Street Journal, whether they've backed into it or not in an editorial that is very ignorant because it doesn't.

Producer/Co-host (28:18)

Play out how these things actually work.

Mark Levin (28:20)

In the real world, has decided the.

Producer/Co-host (28:22)

President does not have the power to.

Mark Levin (28:25)

Do what he's doing.

Producer/Co-host (28:26)

Therefore Congress has the power.

Mark Levin (28:28)

Really?

Producer/Co-host (28:29)

And what about the power over foreign policy? What if a tariff relates to that? You're going to litigate it in front of a judge?

Mark Levin (28:36)

Yes.

Producer/Co-host (28:36)

Then they appeal it to a circuit court, then it goes back to the Supreme Court. It's idiocy. What the court should do is reverse the lower court. Reverse them. Reverse them and say, no, we're not getting into the issue right now, at least on whether this is constitutional or not. We're going to let the Congress and the President have the flexibility to duke it out or not. Or not. Because they each have a power, the power of the purse with Congress, the power of a foreign policy. It's utterly clear. His plenary power over foreign policy. It goes to the President. You can't, you can't divide them in the vast majority of cases. In the Wall Street Journal's case, they come out in the very first paragraph and they tell us why you can't. But somehow they missed it.

Mark Levin (29:33)

I'll be right back.

Announcer (29:35)

Much love. In.

Mark Levin (29:49)

By the way, as the great ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who we adore in my family and of course my stepson works with him, he's pointed out that Martin Luther King was a Christian Zionist and he wondered if Tucker Guitar will smear him and attack him now, too. And that is the truth. I played the audio for you last night. As for hangings today, 13 people were in fact hanged in Iran in Seri, Tabriz, Ivhanan, Qom and Shiraz. Thirteen people were hanged. I'm sure many more were slaughtered with bullets, certainly more efficient. And that's all we know is about those 13. But look, that's the point is they're slaughtering people, raping people, torturing people, murdering them at an ungodly rate. And either we're going to help them or we're not. I'm on the side of absolutely 100% for a thousand different reasons, starting with morality, then moving on. National security. The entire region, the entire country, protect entire world. Thousand different reasons. That regime only exists because we've allowed it to exist. And I frankly don't give a crap what Qatar or Saudi Arabia have to say. In fact, when I hear Qatar takes one view or Saudi Arabia takes a view, 99.9% of the time, I take the opposite view. They should be nowhere near Gaza. They shouldn't be promoting the regime in Iran against the people of Iran. I know why they are. Look, folks, these are inbred monarchies. They hand the country over from one child to the next. A nephew, a niece, whatever. This is the kind of thing that existed prior to the Enlightenment.

Producer/Co-host (32:04)

Prior to the Enlightenment. And that's why the Islamists hate the Enlightenment. They want monarchies.

Mark Levin (32:10)

They like feudalism.

Producer/Co-host (32:11)

That's what they are. That's what they believe. They like indentured servants, foreigners who come in and can't get out. And they want to conquer the world just like the other monarchies did hundreds and hundreds of years ago. But they used terrorism, Islamism. So this is a throwback, as I keep saying, they are a throwback to the seventh century. And this whole idea of feudalism is a throwback, of course, to pre Enlightenment. So these are barbaric primitives. Some of them have a lot of money trying to poison the west with their money. Buying lobbyists, buying law firms, buying media outlets, buying our entertainment industries, And worst of all, poisoning our children and grandchildren to turn against us. And of course, putting outposts all over our country, all over Europe. These things don't just happen. Wow, look at that. How did that happen? How do you think it happened? That's why Peter Schweitzer's book is so important. And quite frankly, my book on power is so important.

Mark Levin (33:26)

That's why this show is so important, to be perfectly honest with you. Very important in what we say here and what we do here. And I'm like a Doberman. I don't give up.

Producer/Co-host (33:42)

Once I have, you know, somebody's pant leg in my mouth, I don't let.

Mark Levin (33:47)

It go, Mr. Producer.

Producer/Co-host (33:48)

I don't let it go.

Mark Levin (33:49)

And I'm not going to let it go. Next hour, as I mentioned, we have Michael Duran, who is the director of the Middle east center at the Hudson Institute. Very good organization he says Dubai based financial institutions helped Tehran escape sanctions. The US has the means to stop it.

Producer/Co-host (34:07)

Well, if we have the means to stop it, we need to stop it. We need to stop it. And if you want to take a more.

Mark Levin (34:20)

What should I say, local view of this thing.

Producer/Co-host (34:24)

We need to stop Khomeini for us. This guy's not going to go away. Your children and your grandchildren are going to be threatened by this guy. I just told you. They successfully fired a 10,000 mile ICBM into Siberia with Russia's okay and assistance. Remember when people used to say, hey, it's 7,000 miles away. Who gives a damn? I give a damn. They give a damn. I mean, I don't understand why people don't get this. I really don't. They throw around slogans like Marx, forever wars. Who's talking about a forever war? You know, first of all, evil is forever. Those of you have faith, you know evil is forever and has to be confronted. The issue is, how do you confront it? How do you deal with it? You don't pretend it doesn't exist. And people who don't have faith know from common sense, then it's true. You have a lock on your door.

Peter Schweitzer (35:26)

Why?

Producer/Co-host (35:28)

Why do you lock your cars? Why do you avoid certain neighborhoods? Why do you have guns? Why do we have police? Because evil exists. And with Islamist regimes, it exists times a thousand. Because that's what they believe. That's what they say their faith believes. Conquering, destroying, killing, eliminating even other Muslims. How many more people have to die.

Mark Levin (36:00)

Before we wake up to this?

Producer/Co-host (36:04)

I am on the side strongly of helping the people of Iran. And I cannot understand why there aren't more. I think the American people are. But they shouldn't be complicated. It shouldn't be complicated at all. We are a people who saw what happened in the 1930s. We are people who saw what happened in Cambodia. We are people who saw what happened in Africa. 100,000 people slaughtered in six months.

Mark Levin (36:46)

We've seen this. Don't tell me we've gotten used to it. Please don't tell me we've gotten used to it. I'll be right back.

Producer/Co-host (37:01)

This segment of the podcast is exclusively sponsored by PureTalk. PureTalk offers great coverage and can save your family money on your wireless bill every single month. Go to PureTalk.com to find the plan that's right for you. Thank you again for listening and thank you so much for this sponsorship. PureTalk.

Mark Levin (37:20)

He's here.

Announcer (37:21)

He's here now, broadcasting from the underground command post deep in the bowels of a hidden bunker somewhere under the brick and steel of a nondescript building. We've once again made contact with our leader, Mark Levin.

Producer/Co-host (37:40)

Hello, America. Mark Levin here. Our number, 877-385-3855.

Mark Levin (37:47)

That is the number 3811. The hell's wrong with me? 3811. Okay. Okay. I want to read something to you. There's a lot that I'm going to get to. We have two great guests, so I will do my best for God and country. Lee Carter, I believe it's a she, and I believe she's a longtime consultant pollster, but nonetheless, she wrote something very intelligent here that I hadn't thought about. Trump's approval ratings reveal what legacy media refuses to see. This is at fox news. Tuesday, January 20th marks one year since Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office. One year of executive orders, foreign policy shock waves, immigration crackdowns, and a governing style that never once tried to soften its edges. Stay with me on this. And for one year, the same headline has seemed to be everywhere. Trump is unpopular. Approval in the low 40s, disapproval in the mid-50s. The verdict, according to the polling industrial complex, is clear. But one year in, it's worth asking a more uncomfortable question. What if the polls aren't telling us Trump is failing? What if they're telling us he's delivering and the country is splitting in response? Because Trump is not like other presidents. And that means we're reading this first year through the wrong lens. I thought this was actually quite brilliant. Most presidents spend their first year recalibrating. They discover the limits of power. They soften the rhetoric. They explain why campaign promises were harder than expected. They govern in beige after campaigning in bold colors. Trump never did that. He governed exactly as he campaigned, and he dared the country to react. He promised to get tough on immigration. He did. He promised to put America first, even if allies bristled. He did. He promised decisive action over consensus. He delivered it. You can disagree with the choices, many do. But you cannot credibly argue that he misrepresented who he would be. And that's why his polling looks so strange and so stable. One year in, according to national polling averages, Trump's job approval sits around 41 to 42%, with disapproval in the mid-50s. Those numbers dominate headlines. But buried in the same data is.

Producer/Co-host (40:16)

The statistic that actually defines his first year. According to a Wall Street Journal poll this week, 92% of voters who supported Trump in 2024 still approve of the job.

Mark Levin (40:27)

He's doing today. That is not drift.

Producer/Co-host (40:31)

That is not erosion. That is not alignment. Trump didn't lose America, he kept his people. Here's the shift that explains everything. The polls absolutely reflect what Trump is doing. They just don't reflect the way they used to. In past presidencies, performance led to persuasion. A good economy moved numbers, A crisis moved them down. Voters behave like jurors, weighing evidence and revising judgment. Today, voters behave more like mirrors. Trump acts.

Mark Levin (41:02)

People don't reconsider, they react as who.

Producer/Co-host (41:05)

They really are, one way or the other. Supporters see delivery, opponents see confirmation. The same action produces opposite conclusions, and.

Mark Levin (41:15)

The polls record the split. Think of today's polling like polarized sunglasses. Everyone sees the same reality, but one lens turns it red and the other blue. The event isn't hidden, it's filtered. Trump's presidency doesn't change minds, it clarifies them. Isn't this brilliant, Mr. Producer?

Producer/Co-host (41:36)

That's why approval doesn't swing wildly. That's why scandals don't collapse support. That's why victories don't expand it. The country isn't being persuaded. It's being sorted. Sorted in response to Trump doing exactly what he said he would do. Some support it, some oppose it. This is why Trump's approval ratings feel so unsatisfying to everyone. Critics want them to signal collapse. Supporters want them to signal dominance. Instead, they signal something more stability without consensus. Recent polling suggests Trump's approval is stabilized after early dips. Not because nothing is happening, but but because everything is settling in place. The sides are formed, the reactions are predictable. The country has chosen its lenses. Trump isn't chasing approval. He's holding his line. And that one year in is the defining feature of his presidency. He's holding his line. He's doing what he said he would do. Here's the thing that makes both sides uncomfortable. Trump didn't run as a unifier and then divide. He didn't run as a reformer and then manage. He didn't run as an outsider and then assimilate. He ran as a disruptor and governs as one. That doesn't make him right, it doesn't make him wrong. It makes him consistent, she says. And consistency in a country this divided is no longer a virtue everyone can tolerate, it's a provocation. One year in, Trump's approval ratings aren't a warning. Sign their receipt, they show that he delivered exactly what he promised and that half the country can't stand what he has delivered. In an era built on walk backs and reversals, Trump did something voters are told never to expect from politicians.

Mark Levin (43:25)

He meant it. He meant it. And on the one year anniversary of his presidency, the polls aren't judging his performance. They're measuring America's discomfort with getting exactly what it voted for. Brilliant.

Producer/Co-host (43:41)

Brilliant.

Mark Levin (43:43)

And a lot of us are very comfortable with what we voted for. I thought that was right on. Just a few minutes. Michael Duran, director of the Mideast center at the Hudson Institute, will be with us. The Hudson Institute is one of the great think tanks. And he says whether or not President Trump orders a military strike on Iran, he ought to seize the billions of dollars its rulers have hidden offshore. Freezing these assets could have an effect comparable to military attack at a fraction of the risk. The US treasury knows where Iran's money is. But successive administrations have hesitated to act for fear of damaging relations with valued allies like the United Arab Emirates. It's time to reconsider that calculation. We're going to pursue this with the man who wrote that, Michael Duran. In a moment. I'll be right back.

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Mark Levin (44:43)

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Flow is to reduce your monthly recurring bills. Start with cutting overpriced wireless and switching to my wireless company. Go to PureTalk.com Levin L E V I N and make the switch today in as little as 10 minutes. Again, talk text and data. Just $20 a month. That's PureTalk.com Levin L E V I N and you'll save an additional 50% off your first month. PureTalk is America's wireless company. It's a pleasure to have our friend Michael Duran with us. Really one of the true experts on the Middle East. Director of the Middle east center at the Hudson Institute. A great organization. Michael, how are you? Great.

Michael Duran (45:57)

Great to be with you.

Peter Schweitzer (45:58)

Mark.

Michael Duran (45:58)

Thanks for having me.

Mark Levin (45:59)

Always a pleasure. Well, this article you wrote is very important. Hit Iran and its shadow bank accounts. Let's start from the beginning. What do you mean by shadow bank accounts? Where are these shadow bank accounts and what do they have in these shadow bank accounts?

Michael Duran (46:15)

So back in 2019 the Trump administration, the first Trump administration, designated the Central bank of Iran as a terrorist finance financier. And this forced the Iranians to move all of their foreign currency transactions offshore to externalize them. Now selling oil to China, which is how their primary export, they export 95%, something like 95% of their oil to China, but that is also a designated, designated by the United States. So that forces them to engage in a clandestine sales because no reputable bank wants to work with the Iranians to help sell the oil or any reputable transport company because then they'll be through the secondary sanctions, they'll be sanctioned by the United States. So what the Iranians did is they set up a shadow banking network. And it begins with the fact that they set up shell companies. Hundreds of shell companies around the world that pretend not to be, to be engaged in activities other than selling Iranian, Iranian oil. And they'll often be fronted by third, third parties from other nations, you know, like Indians for example, or, or, or, or, or Pakistanis and so on. And, but that money. So those companies will pretend to be engaged in import export activities or some other something other than selling oil. And they will then put that money in banks, especially in Dubai. And they will be, they will pretend, the banks will look the other way. They won't engage in normal, know your client activities. They have no doubt, these banks in Dubai have no doubt that the, that the money that's being deposited with them is really coming from Iranian oil sales. And we're talking about very large psalms, hundreds of millions of dollars. And you've got some anonymous Indian guy who claims that he's moving jewelry back and forth between the UAE and India. So it's obviously false. And what we, what we've been doing, what the US treasury has been doing is it's been playing a whack a mole game of designating these, these, these shell companies which then just disappear and then they, then they reappear in another form. But we have avoided designating the banks that are doing the transactions. And these are almost not, they're not entirely. They're, they're, they're, they're in Hong Kong, but especially they're in Dubai in our ally, the United Arab Emirates.

Mark Levin (49:08)

All right, let me slow you down. So the choke point is the banks, not the end users or the end receivers because they keep, it's a shell game, as you point out. But the banks, there's only so many banks.

Michael Duran (49:21)

That's it. We want to go after that. If you want to take down the system rather than little, no, little insignificant nodes in the system. I mean, sometimes they can be rather significant nodes, but they just, they disappear and then reappear in another form. If you want to take down the system, you've got to go after the banks.

Mark Levin (49:40)

So why don't we.

Michael Duran (49:43)

I think it's a good question.

Mark Levin (49:45)

Start off this way first. I apologize. How would we go after the banks if we wanted to go after the banks?

Michael Duran (49:53)

There are two ways. The first way is to start hitting them with very significant fines. And that's, I think that's the first step. The second step is you designate the bank as engaging in terror finance. Because the Iranians are using this money, the hard currency that they get. They sell the oil to China. China pays in yuan, prefers to pay in yuan. Sometimes it will pay in dollars or euros, but it prefers to pay in yuan. The yuan is not a convertible currency. So then they have to use these banks and shell companies to convert it to dollars and euros so it can be used for their purposes. And in order to do that, they have to take a big. They have to take a big haircut on the, on the conversion because the yuan is not really convertible. So the Chinese win in two ways. They win, they get the oil at a discounted price to begin with, and then they pay in a currency that, that, that, that is not really convertible, which is, which amounts to being another discount that they get on the back end. And so, and then the, and then the UAE moves it to these accounts, and then it. And then they use it to buy components for their missiles, to give dollars to Hezbollah. Hezbollah only wants dollars. Hezbollah doesn't want yuan, and so on. So they're engaged in. All of the nefarious activities that we're trying to stop are being run actually through these banks. So we should hit them first with a fine. And then you actually want to designate a bank itself. Now, the treasury doesn't like to do that. It's done it in a number of cases. But in general, it doesn't like to do it, I think, for two main reasons. First of all, designating a bank kills it, and you're basically killing the bank. And that can have a lot of really adverse effects on an economy. It's quite a, it's quite a scary thing to have a bank.

Peter Schweitzer (52:06)

Just.

Mark Levin (52:07)

So that would be the UAE's economy. And they are an ally in many respects. And I think they're one of the most friendly of the Arab countries, quite frankly. And yes. So you could, you could hurt, if not destroy their economy.

Michael Duran (52:22)

Yes, you could hurt their economy greatly. And there's always a fear. The United States knows that it has this amazing tool, the fact that the.

Peter Schweitzer (52:33)

Dollar.

Michael Duran (52:37)

Is the king in global finance and we use our economic sanctions as a major tool of our foreign policy and we're afraid that if we overuse that tool then there will be a movement away from the dollar from some of our allies, which in some ways there already is.

Mark Levin (53:03)

Right. China's trying to replace the dollar.

Michael Duran (53:08)

The Chinese are trying to do it, but they can't really because of this issue of the non convertibility of the yuan. If they yuan was floated on the international market like the, like the dollar or the euro, what would happen is that the super wealthy people in China would move their money out of China and you'd have a huge drain out of China.

Peter Schweitzer (53:32)

Capital.

Mark Levin (53:33)

But you argue here, look, this is a way to take down the Iranian regime. We ought to look at this. Isn't that your point?

Michael Duran (53:42)

That's absolutely my point. This is the, I think that this issue, this step is the single.

Mark Levin (53:56)

The.

Michael Duran (53:57)

Least dangerous, high impact step that the United States could take.

Mark Levin (54:02)

Because you think it'll collapse this regime.

Michael Duran (54:07)

I don't want to go so far as to promise it will collapse, but it will be amazing, major shock to the regime because what's happened, our sanctions have really had a major impact on, on Iran and you now have a two tiered economy in the country. The whole, because they, because they have externalized all of their foreign currency dealings and because oil is their major, their major industry and the whole economy is based on it. All that money goes abroad and it stays abroad. The Central bank of Iran is tracking all of these crazy fake transactions that are going on, but they're not repatriating any of that, any of that money to Iran. So it's not doing anything for the local economy.

Mark Levin (54:50)

All right, I don't want to rush you. I want to hear more, I want to present the American people more because I think it's a brilliant point. He's Michael Duran, director of the Middle east center at the Hudson Institute and we will be right back with him. If your credit card balance is freaking you out after all the holiday spending, I have something that can save you money right now. Cut your cell phone bill in half by switching to PureTalk Saver plan. Just $20 a month for unlimited talk text and 3 gigs of high speed data on PureTalk's super fast nationwide 5G network.

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Mike within the thunder on the right. Call in now. 877-381-3811.

Mark Levin (56:12)

All right. We are here with Michael Duran, director of the Middle east center at the Hudson Institute. And he's saying you really want to choke these guys off in Iran. I can't guarantee anything. Nobody can, of course, but it would really plummet their economy even beyond what it is. I mean their economy that is to sanction these banks that have their money in them in the uae. But Michael Duran now their economy already is teetering, isn't it?

Michael Duran (56:41)

Yeah, there's a two tiered economy for the average person. The economy has collapsed. I mean the currency is worthless. It's, it's like it's being paid but in the Iranian real is like being paid with Chuck E. Cheese tokens. I mean there's, it's, it's worthless. And you can't, you, you can't go to the bank if you have a small business and get a loan. The whole, so the economy has ground to a halt and that's one of the main reasons why we have these widespread protests. Everyone, every normal person in, in Iran is suffering greatly as a result. And we have these water shortages in Tehran in the capital and electricity shortages. So the regime can't provide basic, basic services to the country and it doesn't have the capacity to fix any of this because of the economic problems. But at the same time, because you have this shadow economy, the shadow banking that I'm talking about, about the elite in the country is still well paid and relatively speaking. And you have the regime core is living lavish lifestyles that are wildly out of sync with what everyone else is experiencing. And if we hit the banks in the uae, we will strike at that elite and the economy that is sustaining it and also the mechanisms by which they are purchasing the components that they need for the ballistic missiles and the way they are financing their proxies.

Mark Levin (58:34)

Have you shared this information with any decision Makers. I don't care about their names, but. Or is this article hopefully intended to get to them?

Michael Duran (58:45)

Well, one of the interesting things, Mark, is that they know this. It's interesting the treasury knows this. If you. One of the things I pointed to is there's a fascinating report that came out in October by Bessants, Treasury Department, where he called attention, he called the UAE out. I quote it in the, in the article, if you follow the treasury designations, treasury has been saying it openly. So I can only conclude that there has been a decision taken on high to avoid really calling out the UAE on this. But, but I think the fact that treasury has. I couldn't have written this article if I didn't have all this information from treasury at my fingertips. So I think that there is a current of opinion in the administration that thinks this is the right thing to do.

Mark Levin (59:42)

But I don't get the sense, and I'm concerned, Michael Duran, that that's in the cards. And now I'm hopeful, militarily, we've moved these assets at tremendous expense. I personally am hopeful that that's in the cards. What do you think is in the cards? I mean, requires you to look at the crystal ball, but the longer this goes on without some action, the less likely it is. Am I wrong about that?

Michael Duran (60:10)

I'm not so sure, Mark. And like you, I don't have a crystal ball. And anyone who really knows what the President is thinking isn't, really isn't talking. But I'll be surprised if by the end of next week we haven't seen some kind of sort of, some kind of military pressure from the United States on the regime. I think the President realizes that he can't achieve anything that he's trying to achieve in the Middle east unless he forces the Iranians to capitulate to him to do nothing.

Mark Levin (60:46)

Could be disastrous, couldn't it?

Michael Duran (60:49)

Yeah. I think it will undermine his authority, it will undermine his agenda. It will work to the advantage of China and he sees that. I believe that's, you know, I got it wrong. Last June, I read all of the apparent tension between the Israelis and President Trump incorrectly. I saw that President Trump was sending Steve Witkoff. I think I was actually on your show just before, just before, if I recall correctly.

Mark Levin (61:20)

And.

Michael Duran (61:23)

I was not pessimistic about the President taking action, but I wasn't sure he was going to and I didn't see it coming when it came. He likes to keep us guessing, but I think we can count on him to be reading the geopolitics Correctly.

Mark Levin (61:42)

I agree with you. I agree with you 100%. Michael Duran, I want to thank you very, very much. It's very insightful, very helpful to me, and I think many of the people who are listening to this program and keep up the good work. God bless you, my friend.

Michael Duran (61:56)

Thank you very much.

Mark Levin (61:57)

All right. Take care of yourself. He's a superb thinker and writer. Now, I didn't know about all this. Maybe some other people did who are listening. But the uae, they have these banks. We encouraged Iran some time ago to use these banks. Iran's using these banks, and that's where you would target most of their money. It could be very harmful to the uae, I'm not sure. But all that said, what this tells you and opens my eyes to is there are several options we have. Several options we have. But to me, even if we economically destroy the regime, they still have the military. This is my problem. This is my view. So they have to be hid militarily. Again, that's just Mark's view, and I believe that strongly. Otherwise, I mean, let's be blunt. I'm blunt with you. Let me be blunt. If Khomeini survives, that regime's going to survive, unless, of course, he runs off to Moscow or something. But it has to be taken out. It has to be taken out. In my view, this is also potential option. But in order to take him out, he has to be taken out or he needs to. He needs to flee. That's the only way that he could work. I think, at least that's my view. Mr. Producer. Well, let's see here. Give me one second. I want to pull this up. Let's see here. Yes, this is. I got to pull this up. The Jerusalem Post has a very important piece, and I think they're right. Fate of Iran's protest revolution rests on our president and our military. What the president will do if he decides to attack is far from clear. And whether he would succeed is a question. But if nothing is done, there's no question what will happen. And that is the regime will survive to kill and to build nuclear weapons and do what they do to do what they do. And I'm just deeply concerned here. I am. Do I think the president will act? Yes, I do. I think he will. But I'm deeply concerned about, as I see, a softening of attitude in the media and other people. And here we have from Iran. International Interior Ministry official in Iran defects, urges the President intervene. A serving official of Iran's Interior Ministry has defected from his post and joined the protests, urging President Trump to intervene against the Islamic Republic, he said in a message. He said in an audio message recorded on Sunday he stayed away from work after a call by exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, Iran internationals withholding the official's identity. Obviously, he said he took part in recent demonstrations and witnessed the Islamic Republic's use of live fire against protesters. He said protesters were facing armed forces with no means to defend themselves. People have done everything they can and made their demands clear, adding that security forces were deliberately targeting demonstrators with live ammunition. The official applied appealed rather directly to the president to act, saying many Iranians were waiting. People are waiting and if he does nothing widespread, he says they say he'll be hated because he told them to continue their protests and help was on the way. Official also described what he called de facto martial law now in most of the country, with traffic tightly controlled. Motorcycle units deployed, armored vehicles patrolling streets to prevent gatherings, said the scale of protests on the 8th and the 9th was unprecedented in the history of the republic, prompting authorities to restrict Internet access and block the flow of images and videos. Let's see here. The Islamic Republic is ruthless and will do anything, he said, adding that agents were operating openly with weapons in the streets. The Interior Ministry officials said he believed the president would ultimately act. He stressed that expectations among protesters were growing as violence continued. See here. In his most recent comments to Politico, the president spoke openly about the need to for leadership change in Iran, calling Supreme Leader Khomeini a sick man. Let's see here. All right, there we have it. I'll be right back. If your credit card balance is freaking you out after all the holiday spending, I have something that can save you money right now. Cut your cell phone bill in half by switching to PureTalk Saver plan. Just $20 a month for unlimited talk text and 3 gigs of high speed data on PureTalk's super fast nationwide 5G network.

Producer/Co-host (67:23)

As a veteran led company that cares.

Mark Levin (67:25)

About giving back to those who serve.

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Mark Levin (67:29)

A first responder, you'll save an additional 20% every single month.

Producer/Co-host (67:33)

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Producer/Co-host (68:05)

We're going to spend a lot of.

Mark Levin (68:07)

Time next hour on this issue of immigration. Customs. Well, we used to call it customs. I guess we call it ICE now. And what's really behind all this? Now, for the isolationists out there, all three of you, this is an international problem. Foreign countries that hate us are playing a large part in destroying our country from within. A large part. And in China, as Peter Schweitzer writes in his book, there's a hundred thousand birthright babies every single year. Then go back the last 13 years, there's 1.3 million in this country, automatic citizens, and the Chinese government is moving them into this country. There will be voters. They will have access to all of our jobs, and that includes jobs involved in the military industry. And if you deny them jobs, of course they will use our civil rights laws, EEOC and all the rest of it against us and claim discrimination, unlawful discrimination. Our enemies look for weak spots, and we have many because we're a free people. But we need to be resolute, and we're not. You and I are, but the rest are not. In terms of the left, the Democrats and some of the republics, and we have a whole phalanx now of federal judges appointed by Biden and before him, Obama, who hate the country and pretend that the First Amendment applies to the enemies within. So this issue of how much time is left here, Mr. Producer? Not enough. So this issue of the attack on ICE is an attack on you, America. If we lose this battle over immigration, then we lose the battle over citizenry. The borders will be opened under the Democrats. If we have birthright citizenship under the Supreme Court. Just think of the numbers. We can't stop what's taking place. The Democrats will open the borders again. They will not deport illegal aliens. We'll have birthright citizenship. Ten years, it's done. The Islamists, the birth rates through the, through the sky. There will be more who come in. And why wouldn't they? They're being told to come in. Why wouldn't they? Communist Chinese will send more pregnant women into our country. Why wouldn't they? There's no consequence. And this is all taking place. Lots of money, governments all over the world.

Producer/Co-host (71:16)

Hey, I'm tired of these forever wars. What forever war? Are we in a forever war right now? Yes, it's called evil. But what specifically are they talking about? Nothing. They're stupid people. That's how they talk. They learn three phrases from a bumper sticker and they just keep regurgitating it. We got to protect our country. There's a thousand ways to do it, and we got to do it. I'll be right back.

Dan Bongino (71:44)

It's back. Hey, it's Dan Bongino. I've got some big news for you. Starting February 2nd, the show is back. That's right, the Dan Bongino show is relaunching and we're going bigger than ever. Join me live on rumble.com Monday through Friday, 10am to noon Eastern. We'll cover the stories that matter, cut through all the garbage and get to the truth. Can't catch it live.

Mark Levin (72:05)

No problem.

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Grab the audio wherever you get your podcasts. Remember February 2nd, the return to the Dan Bongino Show. Don't miss it.

Mark Levin (72:16)

He's here.

Announcer (72:17)

He's here now, broadcasting them from the underground command post Deep. The movie fouls of a hidden bunker somewhere under the brick and steel of a nondescript building. We've once again made contact with our leader, Mark Levin.

Producer/Co-host (72:37)

Hello, America. Mark Levin here, our number on the power hour, 877-381-3811. Hello, 877-381-381100. Again, Peter Schweitzer will be with us.

Mark Levin (72:52)

He's got a brand new book, the Invisible Coup. I interviewed him Sunday night for the full hour. Shot his book up to number one on Amazon, which it typically does, to be perfectly honest with you. Except this book is really exceptional. It's outstanding. And to lay the foundation for when we speak to him, these ice people are putting up with a lot of crap. And most of the people who are confronting them are professional, paid or revolutionaries, radicals. It's not mostly. There's some, but it's not mostly Mr. And Mrs. America. It's a combination of Marxists, Islamists and illegal aliens. It's true. Here's the president today, was asked about it at his press conference. Cut five. Go.

Press Conference Speaker (73:43)

All they want to do is get them out. They want to take them out of our country. And we're met with paid agitators and insurrectionists. Troublemakers. They're paid. You know, when the Wilner was shot, I felt terribly about that and I understand both sides of it. But when she was shot, there was another woman that was screaming. She shame, shame, shame, shame.

Peter Schweitzer (74:10)

Right.

Press Conference Speaker (74:10)

You saw. So loud, like a professional opera singer. She was so loud and so professional. She wasn't a woman that was hurt like all my heart's injured. She was a professional. Shame, shame. She's screaming shame. Ship. I said, that's not a normal person. That's That's a professional. These are professional agitators and professional people that want to see our country do badly. But that's not happening because we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Despite this stuff.

Mark Levin (74:46)

You know, I thank God that he is the president taking on these people. This revolution by immigration, as I've been calling it. I can't think of another Republican. Well, there are a few, but I can't think of many that would have the guts to do this the way he's doing it. I really can't. I really can't. And cut number six. Go.

Press Conference Speaker (75:12)

Signed an order that will end birthright citizenship for children of illegal migrants. You know, that case is in court right now. That case was meant for the children of slaves. All you have to do is look at the years. Look at the. Look at the years where the cases were filed and where the decisions were made. They were right at the end of the Civil War trying to say that, you know, China is making a big business out of that. They come to the country, they have a child, they're American citizen, they get all the benefits. Nothing to do with that. That was for the children of slaves. And I hope the Supreme Court so rules.

Mark Levin (75:53)

Yeah, I hope so. I hope they're not gutless wonders. We're about to find out. I think some of them have been intimidated by the mobs. I think that's part of what's going on here. Honestly, I really do. I think part of the mob action is to tell the Supreme Court justices, look what you're in for if you don't do what we want you to do. I sure as hell hope that's not the case, but in many ways, I believe it is. The Invisible Coup is the book, and Peter will talk about it better than I can. I've read this book, how American elites and foreign Powers Use Immigration as a weapon. It's not that you don't know some of this from a basic perspective, but you and I don't know most of this in terms of the details, that foreign governments are actually organizing this, including within the United States, Mexico's consulates. It's got, like. What is it? It's got, like six dozen consulates, five dozen consulates in the country, more than any other country. And they had a meeting, and Peter and I will talk about that, about the election. They didn't want Trump to win. They want the borders open. This is crazy. But it's happening. Communist China. The president got that point from the interview with Peter on Sunday. It's like an Industrial program. They have to get people in here, pregnant women and have them have babies. Many of them go back to China, but their children come back to the United States anytime they want because they're American citizens. It's all playing that way. The Islamists, they're targeting certain states, Texas and Florida in particular, For these segregated communities. And they come in by large numbers. You can see it now in Northern Virginia and other pockets. And you know when you get these segregated communities and these pockets of Islamists, when you have a state that's kind of a purple state or it's a closed state, that flips the whole state. Virginia is now flipped. The governor is a radical lunatic. She pretended to be a moderate. She had worked at the CIA. I don't know why people fall for this. We even had some Republicans on cable and so forth, some hosts talking about how she's a moderate and she's not a moderate. They are preparing a massive tax increase in Virginia. Now you've got in Florida, the governor with no income tax, trying to figure out how to get rid of the residential property tax. And he'll do it. Two different worlds. Two different worlds. And you're seeing people depopulating the blue states, citizens and going to the red states, and you see illegal aliens and others depopulating other parts of the country and going to the blue states and cities because the welfare benefits are better. My God, what would the founders say? They'd say, what the hell have you done to our country? What the hell have you done? Haven't you read the Declaration of Independence? What would the framers say? They'd say, my God, haven't you read the Constitution? Don't you know how this country was founded and why it was founded? The way it was founded? That's what they'd say. This is suicide, absolute suicide. And as I've told you many times, Maybe it'll be 50 years from now, 100 years from now, 200 years from now, 500 years from now, people are going to look back at this country and say, why did you do this to yourselves? Why did you destroy yourself? The most fabulous nation on the face of the earth with individual freedom and free will. Beneficent nation, a tolerant nation, a diverse nation, a truly civil society with just laws, government with limited powers and dispersed powers. How did you throw all that away? How did you throw all of that away? Well, when you look at Bernie Sanders and AOC and Talib and Omar Raskin, Hakeem Jeffries, and then when you. You look at the wimp Republicans, certain of them. How they just buy into this stuff. They pretend they're not as extreme. So, you know, I'm between the conservatives and the. No, you're selling out the country because acquiescence is not good enough. It's a disaster. With a very, very weak ruling class. And it throws in with the loudest. It throws in with the bomb throws, if you will. And these really are grave times. Grave. What's happening. Ten years ago, you would never have thought of Islamist segregated communities populating states. You never would have thought Dearborn, Michigan, really, the home of Ford Motor Company would be conquered by Islamists trashing Christians and forcing them out of the town. And the Democrat Party bending knee trying to get their votes. Even a Jewish governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, he's offended by what Kamala Harris did and her team. He should be. But I'm offended by him for giving $5 million to one of the most radical radical community centers tied to a mosque in and around the city of Philadelphia, which is radical enough. He's a disgrace. I'll be right back.

Announcer (81:59)

Mud Lev.

Mark Levin (82:15)

This show's moving awfully fast now. It'll move faster because we have a good man with us, Peter Schweitzer. His brand new book, the Invisible Coup. American elites and foreign powers use immigration as a weapon. It's number one on Amazon.com I hope you saw him on Life Liberty in Levin on Sunday. Peter Schweitzer, it's a pleasure to have you. You know, most people know immigration is a big problem. They know. They see what's happening with ice, these people attacking ICE and so forth, but they don't and wouldn't because they work for a living, know what's behind it. We're being conquered from within, aren't we?

Peter Schweitzer (82:56)

That's right. Mark, always great be with you. Thanks for having me. Yeah. I mean, we debate and look at immigration as an issue as we should. You know, how it affects the economy, how it affects our culture, how it affects violent crime. But we have to recognize that it's actually been weaponized and that foreign adversaries, China, Mexico, the Muslim Brotherhood and others use it as a weapon to deploy against us. My parents were immigrants. They came over in the 1960s from Europe. But the immigration that we've been experiencing in recent decades is very, very different. It's organized. And these groups use it as a way to undermine our country. And they also use it to meddle in our politics. They see it as a tool to undermine American civilization. And frankly, it's working. So feeling the Boy, border hugely important by the president deserves a lot of credit for that. But there's still a lot of work that needs to be done inside the borders of our country.

Mark Levin (84:03)

Now, there's a long list of groups and governments involved, but let's, let's deal with a few. You write in the book about Mexico and the consulates in Mexico and a big meeting they had prior to the last election. Explain that.

Peter Schweitzer (84:17)

Yeah, so Mexico people thing. Mexico's interest in immigration is they. They have a safety valve. They can kind of let their people hear, they get remittances. All that's true. But they actually view mass migration and those that are inside the United States as a tool to essentially retake territories that they lost from us in the 19th century with the Mexican American War. And if that sounds crazy, all you need to do is read the quotes in the book. There are dozens of them from senior officials, including presidents and senators in Mexico, saying that's the case. And they, they've weaponized their consulates in the country. There's 53 of them. Compare that to the United Kingdom and China, which have six and seven. So they have this vast network. And what you're referring to, Mark, was a meeting In May of 2024, an election year in the United States. Donald Trump. They did not want Donald Trump to win. Mexico was adamantly opposite opposed to that. They brought diplomats together from Los Angeles, from consulates in Orlando and everywhere in between. Gathered in Oklahoma City. Foreign Ministry officials from Mexico City came up. The Foreign Minister of Mexico addressed the group by video, but with these diplomats. Meeting with them were Democratic Party political activists. And the conversation was about how were they going to. Going to stop Trump. And the conversation between these diplomats and Democratic consultants was, you know, we turned California from red to blue. We turned Arizona from red to blue. We need to turn the rest of the country from red to blue. This is not what diplomats are supposed to be doing. It's an outrageous violation of our sovereignty by a foreign government. And it's just one example of many of how Mexican diplomats are interfering in our politics. They're all also organizing some of these violent protests that we're seeing taking place in our streets.

Mark Levin (86:17)

And people wonder why they have the same signs, Peter. They wonder why they're so well funded. They wonder why they move from state to state, city within city, each state, and wonder why their causes fundamentally are the same, but they're different in the sense of the nomenclature, you know, Palestinians and then illegal aliens and then against ICE and then this, that, and the other Yep. This is all part of it, isn't.

Peter Schweitzer (86:44)

Is. And so think about this for a second, Mark. You have these Mexican officials that live inside the United States who are organizing violent protests. They are distributing, they are waving the Mexican flags at a lot of these events. But to your point, these Mexican diplomats, they're also out there for fighting for the radical Palestinian cause. They're also out there fighting for the Chinese cause because they view it as one in the same. It is a alliance of convenience. They don't have the same view of the world. You know, China and Mexico, the Muslim Brotherhood, they have different views of how they want society organized, but they have one common enemy, and that's the United States. So the. They reinforce each other and they try to help each other, and they're successful in doing so. And that's, I think, one of the key things to understand. There is a reason why some of the familiar faces, familiar organizations that were involved in the violent anti Israel protests on college campuses have now migrated to Minneapolis and they're organizing the anti ICE protests. There's a reason that this is happening. And the reason is they see migration as a tool that can be weaponized, that can be used to undermine American civilization and advance what they want, which is a radically different country. They talk about transforming our country, and that is what their goal is, and they're working very hard towards it.

Mark Levin (88:17)

Unbelievable. And the Communist Chinese, what are they up to in addition to participating in all these activities?

Peter Schweitzer (88:26)

Yeah, the Communist Chinese are perhaps the most sophisticated in exploiting our immigration laws, in particular, birthright citizenship. This, of course, is the idea that the left pushes, that if you're born in this country, you're automatically granted citizenship. Well, what China has done over the last 13 years, Mark, is they've set up an entire industrial model for minting U.S. citizens that are actually being raised in China. And so how it works is the government, you know, 13 years ago starting running articles in the People's Daily, the main newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, saying, hey, if you give birth, you give birth to a child in the United States, they can be a U.S. citizen. We think this is a good idea. Now, why would the CCP want that? Because they see it as a subversive tool. And so what's happened over the last 13 years is according to the Chinese government, every year roughly 100,000 Chinese nationals have been born in the United states. They get U.S. citizenship according to birthright citizenship, but they are taken back to China. They are raised in China, they're raised in CCP schools, Their parents are part of the the elite, their military officers, intelligence officers. When these, quote, unquote, American citizens growing up in China turn 18, they're going to be able to vote. They're going to be able to get government jobs. And let's remember, this is more than a million people we're talking about. The 2016 presidential election was settled. Hillary Clinton lost by what, 80,000 votes. So this is a massive tool that the Chinese have in their arsenal. They're also doing things with surrogacy. Chinese elites are basically renting wombs from women in the United States. They donate their sperm. A child is born in the United States to an American mother, a Chinese father. The child is sent back to China, raised there. It's going on in that way as well. And the Wall Street Journal ran a story a couple weeks ago, Mark, about one guy in China who has 100 children in the United States using this technique.

Mark Levin (90:39)

We're going to come back. You have time to come back, Peter?

Peter Schweitzer (90:45)

Yes, absolutely.

Mark Levin (90:46)

All right. After the break, Peter Schweitzer, I want to get into the Islamist part of this, which is going to shock you, too. We'll be right back.

Producer/Co-host (90:56)

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Mark Levin (91:05)

How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usaa.com autodiscounts restrictions apply. The new American Revolution starts here, the Mark Levan show. Call in at 877-381-3811.

Producer/Co-host (91:22)

So this book is out today, the.

Mark Levin (91:23)

Very First Day, the Invisible Coup by Peter Schweitzer. You know, he's a great author. How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon. And you can get it in any major bookstore and you can certainly get it on Amazon.com and I've linked to it on all my social sites. I encourage you to get it. So, Peter, it seems like we turn around and all of a sudden there are millions of Muslims here and a significant percentage who are Islamists. How the hell did that happen?

Peter Schweitzer (91:55)

Well, it happened in a couple of ways. First of all, it was organized by the Islamists. They have always viewed migration as a powerful weapon of conquest. And I quote from prominent Muslim leaders looking at Muhammad and the techniques he used. So this is kind of ingrained in their approach. What happened in the United States is they used the R1 visa, which is a visa for religious workers. You know, Catholics and Jews and Protestants, Protestants and Mormons can all use it, but the Islamists that use it in particular are problematic because a, there's a lot of corruption involved, a lot of false information. Homeland Security has looked at this and said that it's a huge problem. But the added problem is that it's bringing radical clerics into the United States. So when you see videos or you hear about an Islamist in Dearborn, Michigan or Tampa Bay making an outrageous statement in a mosque, the odds are overwhelming that that individual was not actually born in the United States, didn't live here. They were imported. They were imported by Islamists. And what they do is pressure Muslims that are in the country to say, look, don't conform. Don't become part of the United States. Don't live the American dream. If you do, you are a bad Muslim. The other thing they do, Mark, is that they preach, and I quote extensively in the book them stating that the fraud that we're seeing, for example, among Somalis up in Minnesota, they actually praise it. They say that this is actually a tax, so to speak, that non Muslims pay to Muslims, non Muslims pay to Muslims, and that public assistance is away from of carrying out this righteous act. So you actually have these imams that are encouraging fraudulent behavior because they view it as a form of civilizational warfare against the United States. We have not woken up to the fact that immigration has been weaponized by these entities and by US Elites that want this behavior. Elements in the progressive movement, elements in the Democratic Party who see the political advantages of a large, align themselves with these foreign entities.

Mark Levin (94:15)

And this is one of the reasons why the court really needs to uphold the Constitution. But it's also one of the reasons they're going to be under immense pressure not to. Right? Yeah. Birthright citizen.

Peter Schweitzer (94:26)

There's a reason. Exactly, Mark. I mean, there's a reason why we see the violent resistance to ice. It's not out of humanitarianism. It's because progressives and Democrats realize this is their constituency. Bill Clinton figured out back in 1996, the Democrats actually looked at this. They found that if somebody becomes a US citizen, there's an 80 to 85% chance they're going to vote Democrat. Now, as the generations go on, that number reduces dramatically. By the time you get to the second or third generation, it becomes closer to 50, 50. The problem is, is you're looking at basically 4, 40 years where you have a constituency that's going to vote overwhelmingly Democratic. And birthright citizenship is just one of those elements. And Mark, you are obviously the legal scholar. I'm not. But, you know, there is the question, I think that the Court has to understand that birthright citizenship, what's happening is not random. It's not somebody who happens to be on vacation in the United States, gets pregnant, has a child, and it happens sometimes it's happening on an industrial scale. It's organized by foreign governments for the purpose. For the explicit purpose of subverting us. And the court, you know, has found before the Constitution is not a suicide pact. You. You are allowed to.

Mark Levin (95:51)

Yeah, if you believe in it.

Peter Schweitzer (95:52)

Of the country.

Michael Duran (95:53)

Yes, yes, exactly.

Mark Levin (95:55)

People don't. And then we have this Marxism aspect to it. Liberation theology. Explain that. Yeah.

Peter Schweitzer (96:06)

So this is how the Catholic Church, the recent Catholic Church, got so heavily involved in the sanctuary movement and in saying that we should not have any borders. It's liberation theology, which is the idea that the teachings in the New Testament, the teachings by Jesus, aren't really about spiritual redemption, they're not about spiritual growth. That actually what he's talking about is changing society in a Marxist way. That's what liberation theology argues. And so they view the real problem is not sin. The real problem is not Satan. The real problem is not evil. The real problem is capitalism and Western civilization. So this has become a huge strain within the Catholic Church, certainly with Pope Francis, I quote his mentors in Latin America, where he grew up, saying he's a liberation theologist and we're happy for it. He really did this, put this on steroids, to where the Catholic Church not only made a lot of money because they got grants for handling refugees, but pushed for this notion that mass migration is good because it's going to change, transform the United States. They think this is a good thing. So, again, it is something you would not expect, you know, Catholic liberation theologists to be working with Islamists and having common cause, but they do because they share a common goal and a common enemy, and that is the United States. And the way that they want to defeat the United States is not in a shooting war and a battle that they know they can't win. It's by fundamentally, translated, transforming the country and our culture through mass migration.

Mark Levin (97:47)

So you have the fusion of all these elements. And people would say, well, they're very disparate, you know, illegal aliens from Mexico. You've got Islamists who've got their fundamentalism that they're trying to impose on the nation. Then you have the Marxists who don't even believe in God. So why are they all working together?

Peter Schweitzer (98:07)

Well, you know, it's interesting, Mark, I recount in the book. Book. A story that took place in 2007. And that's the year that Che Guevara, the enforcer of the Cuban revolution, that nasty revolutionary that butchered so many people, and you see these leftists with T shirts of Che Guevara on college campuses. His daughter and son, who of course are grown adults, made a trip in 2007 to Tehran to visit with the mullahs. Now they are being Che Guevara's children. And communists are Marxists. And when they first met with the mullahs, the meeting didn't go well because the mullahs, you know, were talking about God and they were saying, we reject God. But once they brushed that aside and they did, they came to the conclusion that they were going to work together, that the left and the theocrats in Iran could work together together because they had a common goal. And that common goal, as they described it, was the destruction of the United States of America. So that's why we have today this crazy situation where left wing Marxists who are pushing trans rights are working with Islamists who want to kill trans people and gay people. And they're prepared to do it because they have a common enemy. What a lot of the people on the socialist left have to wake up to is the fact, and I quote them in the book, is that Islamists say, look, when we win, first thing we're going to do is kill the people that have been working with us. So it is a marriage of convenience. But they are doing it because they have this common, passionate goal, which is to destroy the United States.

Mark Levin (99:48)

And that's not unusual. That's what Islamists do to Islamists. That's what Marxists do to Marxists. I mean, you know, after the London revolution, the Russian revolution, Stalin was busy wiping out his opponents. And you can see the same with the Islamists wiping out others. And this is the bottom line, but the core of it is to destroy the west and especially the United States. And Peter, I think the Republicans, through acquiescence, but the Democrats threw affirmative steps, especially the Democrats. This is their agenda. I wrote this book, the Democrat Party hates America. And I put, you know, chunks of this in, certainly not the extent of your details here. And you really have to hate America to be a political party to do this to our country, don't you?

Peter Schweitzer (100:38)

Yes, you have to hate the country. And you also have to be wildly cynical and manipulative because what they've decided is that we get such a political advantage by aligning with these people. It's become a core part of their party, even though they have to know what the ultimate agenda of these groups is, they don't care because it gives them political power, at least in the short term. And I think the challenge that Republicans have is they need to wake up to the fact that immigration, immigration is not just about jobs and wages. That's important. It's not just about getting these thugs off of our streets. That is absolutely important. We have to look at what is actually going on, which is this is a civilizational war. This is what our enemies tell us. This is a civilizational war against the Judeo Christian West. I quote in the book a Chinese theoretician who's very close to President Xi and he says, our goal is to destroy Western civilization and its obsessions with individual rights and replace it with our superior civilization, which is of course Marxist and counter to individual values. That's what's at stake. This is not ultimately about jobs. It's not ultimately about. About violence in our streets. It's about the very core survival of our civilization. And they're quite optimistic, Mark. They don't like the Trump feel the border, but they feel like they can win this battle as long as the United States is asleep.

Mark Levin (102:16)

Folks, I encourage you not just get the book, but share. To get books for other people too. This word needs to go out far and wide. The Invisible Coup is the title. The Invisible Coup by Peter Schweitzer. You can go to Amazon.com right now, any major bookstore. I will say Barnes and Nobles are popping up all over the place. They're beautiful stores. They've been very good to me, except for one book. The Democrat Party Hates America. But all the rest of them, including my last one, and they will have this book, as most retailers should. But if you're not in the mood to go to a bookstore, just order it online right now. The Invisible Coup. Read it, discuss it, word of mouth, it's crucial. Peter Schweitzer, you've made a big contribution to the nation here, right? In time. Take care of yourself, my friend.

Peter Schweitzer (103:04)

Thank you, brother. I appreciate it.

Mark Levin (103:06)

All right, you take care. And by the way, he's the nicest guy in the world. He just is a very nice guy. We'll be right back.

Announcer (103:14)

Mark Le Ben.

Mark Levin (103:27)

Let's take some calls. Let's go to Bahman in Charlotte, North Carolina. XM Satellite, how are you?

Caller Bahman (103:33)

Yes, good evening, Mark. I'm an Iranian based in Charlotte, N.C. on behalf of all these Iranians who's been slaughtered, we want to say thank you very much for being their voice. They slaughter over 20,000 Iranians and you have been the only voice for us. I'm really grateful for your voice. Thank you for being with us during these crucial days. It's unbelievable that you raised the issue and you put us in a category that we are being slaughtered and everybody else is silent. But you're the one who have Being our voice. I want to be. I want to say thank you very much for doing this.

Mark Levin (104:22)

Let me just say this to you. I'm going to continue to be the voice because I'm going to tell you the truth. I can't sleep at night over this. I think about all these people. I see their faces, these young women and men, how they've been executed, how they are brutalized by these animals. I can't sleep over this. Last night. I'm not. I got one hour sleep the other night. One hour. My wife says, what's good? I said, I can't sleep. This is just. It's on my mind. I can't stop. I got to use all my platforms. I got to do whatever I can. And I just pray to God that more is done. And you don't have to thank me. I just think I. God has given me a platform for a reason, and if it's not something like this, then what's the point? So God bless you, and I'll just keep doing my part. I wish everybody else would do their part. Who have microphones and TV cameras. There are some. There are some. Hannity's been great. A few others have been great. But I want to thank you very much, Bahman, and I wish you Godspeed. It's just terrible. And I just think about this a lot. Just like I thought about what was happening to the Israelis and the hostages a lot and the Kurds a lot. But the level, the extent of this genocide against the Iranian people, this is. People, to sit quietly while this is going on. We've got to do something to help these people. There's simply no doubt in my mind. If we don't, there'll be another 20, 30, 40,000 murdered. We salute our armed forces, police officers, firefighters, emergency personnel, our truckers, the men and women in Ukraine, the men and women in Israel, the men and women.

Producer/Co-host (106:25)

In Iran, and you, the American people. God bless you.