Trump's Iran Strategy EXPOSED: It's Not What You Think | 7/8/26

Summary

Steve Deace Show EPISODE SUMMARY

Episode: Trump’s Iran Strategy EXPOSED: It’s Not What You Think
Date: July 8, 2026
Host: Steve Deace (w/ Todd Erzin & Aaron McIntyre)
Guest: Daniel Horowitz
Blaze Podcast Network

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EPISODE OVERVIEW

This episode dives into the latest developments in the Trump administration's Iran policy following the breakdown of ceasefire talks, explores the political calculus behind recent U.S. strikes, and offers broader cultural and political analysis with Deace’s characteristic blend of snark and principled conservatism. The panel also reflects on domestic news: updates on the Charlie Kirk assassination trial, the Maine Senate race scandal, and ongoing schisms within the American Right. Daniel Horowitz joins in the second hour to layer deeper insight into U.S.-Iran strategy and the evolving dynamics on the political right.

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MAIN SEGMENTS & DISCUSSION POINTS

1. Trump’s Iran Strategy Breakdown

[00:26–19:00 & 80:47–86:00]

• Recap of Recent Events: Trump announces, at the NATO summit in Ankara, that the U.S.-Iran ceasefire/MOU is "over" following renewed Iranian attacks on shipping and U.S. retaliation.
• Market Impact: U.S. revokes Iranian oil sanctions waivers, causing oil prices to rise to mid-$70s/barrel.
• Trump’s Approach:
  • Realpolitik over ‘4D Chess’: Deace insists Trump is not merely realizing Iran can't be negotiated with, but is instead manipulating timing and outcomes to maximize political capital — e.g., lowering gas prices ahead of the July 4th travel surge, then shifting back to a confrontational posture.
  • “Just Cold-Blooded Realpolitik”:

    "No, I don’t think this is any kind of 4D chess whatsoever. I think that this is just cold blooded realpolitik. That’s all." – Steve Dace [06:16]

  • Polling & Public Opinion: Notes GOP base supports Israel, opposes Iran, but wants economic stability.
  • Alliance-Building: Strategy to balance U.S., Israel, and Sunni Arab interests, using cycles of aggression and pause for domestic/political leverage.

    “So you clear out the cachet... you built some goodwill back up ... you really, these guys just are hard to negotiate… No, this is nothing other than just reading balance sheets and polling numbers, folks.” – Steve Dace [11:06–12:20]

• Predicted Cycles: U.S. will use windows of political opportunity to strike at Iranian leadership, then pull back as needed; regime change via attrition, not ground war.

2. Iran, the IRGC, and the Mowing-The-Lawn Strategy

[24:14–30:06]

• Limitations of Negotiation: Civil government in Iran lacks control; real power lies with the IRGC, an unpredictable militant force.
• Endurance of Iranian Ambitions: Aaron notes that Iran’s ambitions (“Islamic eschatology problem”) can’t be eliminated merely by military means.

  “No matter how many of their centrifuges we annihilate, the desire will not end because of the belief system there.” – Steve Dace [30:06]

• The Ongoing Dilemma:
  • No true “burn the South”/total war option likely.
  • Trump’s real goal: Leave Iran so battered that either a new, more moderate leadership arises or the regime is left crippled.
• Caveats: U.S. intelligence may not know if a Gorbachev-style figure exists; could require years of attritional strikes.

3. Charlie Kirk Assassination Trial, Candace Owens Divide, and Right-Wing Recalibration

[01:32–05:29, 88:48–94:01]

• Trial Update: New evidence presented against alleged assassin Tyler Robinson; DNA evidence points to both Robinson and roommate Lance Twigs.
• Online Schisms: Deace observes that the "anti-Israel"/America First faction (e.g., Candace Owens, Ian Carroll, Marjorie Taylor Greene) is being increasingly marginalized in conservative circles, especially as their adjacent conspiracy narratives falter under new criminal evidence.

  “There is clearly an attempt to send Candace Owens to Exile island here. And isolate her as a punitive cautionary tale of cult grift. But I repeat myself…” – Steve Dace [14:06]

• Daniel Horowitz:

  “…what we’re missing from this conversation…is that even if you would be sympathetic to their view, what's starting to happen is their promotion of Islam and distraction from the problem just to own Netanyahu is not working for anyone.” [91:22]

• Effect: These elements are losing broader credibility, leading to more unity among the rest of the right.

4. Maine Senate Race Scandal & Progressive Tensions

[03:25–04:52]

• Maine’s Democratic senate candidate, Graham Platner, under pressure from his own party to drop out after rape allegations.
• Deace & team: Progressives may posture about standards but ultimately prioritize power.

  “And finally, The View’s Sunny Hostin says, hold my wine… If I lived in Maine I would…have plugged my nose and voted for him anyway.” [04:42]

• Mocking the moral flexibility of left-leaning voters.

5. Cultural & SCOTUS Updates

• [~52:00–67:30]
• Supreme Court upholds Maine's requirement for private schools to adopt LGBT policies for state tuition funding.
• Congressional gridlock and lack of will to act on immigration and border issues.

  “We do not have people who go there to do something. Most of them go there just to be somebody.” – Todd Erzin [54:06]

6. Philosophical/Religious Sidebars

[46:15–50:00, 68:05–74:56]

• Faith & Works:

  “Faith without works is dead. We go round and round on this all of the time. And until we get off of this absurd treadmill, our culture is going to die.” – Todd Erzin [47:48]

• Family Discipleship: The foundation for national revival is Christian parents actively discipling kids—though the clock is ticking.
• Political Shrewdness Over Absolutism: Don’t push for maximalist, draconian solutions before the culture is ready; instead, “make shrewd, incremental moves that stretch the Overton window.”

7. The “Is Mitch McConnell Dead?” Running Gag

• [~35:00–41:38, 79:37–80:47]
• Frequent banter questioning the health and lucidity of Senator Mitch McConnell, sparked by viral social posts and the fact that official communications about his state are opaque.
• “I don't believe Scott Jennings made it up. I just can't possibly. Because I just can't possibly believe a guy that's built what he has the last few years...” – Steve Dace [35:52]
• Metacommentary on elite power, cover-ups, and distrust of DC leadership.

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MEMORABLE QUOTES & MOMENTS (With Timestamps)

• On Trump's Iran Gambit:

  “No, this is nothing other than just reading balance sheets and polling numbers, folks, and taking a look at what your political capital is.” – Steve Dace [12:09]

• Real Reason for Policy Shift:

  “Trump did not realize you can’t negotiate with the Iranians; it was about optics, leverage, and the July 4th travel economy. The day after, he flips the switch back.” – Paraphrase [6:33–11:29]

• On Conservative Infighting:

  “There is clearly an attempt to send Candace Owens to Exile island here, and isolate her as a punitive cautionary tale of cult grift—but I repeat myself…” – Steve Dace [14:06]

• On the Limitations of U.S. Force:

  “I think if we put … the Wonder Woman lasso of truth around Trump…he would say: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon…the regime is nuts and crazy…we have to kill a whole bunch of them until we get to people we can negotiate with...I think it would just be that simple.” – Steve Dace [26:32]

• On the Right’s (in)Ability to Form Alternative Movements:

  “The right can’t run a carnival. I mean, they can’t run anything.” – Daniel Horowitz [94:21]

• Faith & Cultural Renewal:

  “Faith without works is dead…Do what Jesus told you to do. It’s not remotely complicated—but here we are.” – Todd Erzin [47:48]

• On Political Reality vs. Maximalist Solutions:

  “If you want to make sure we don’t win anything on immigration ever again, do exactly what’s in this proposition…If you have to do it, you’ve already lost.” – Steve Dace [57:20]

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Trump’s Iran Policy Is Tactical, Not Ideological: Recent policy shifts are less about new-found realizations and more about pragmatic timing—using ceasefires and escalations to manage economic optics and domestic political capital.
• No Negotiating With Iran’s Power Centers: Real control lies with the IRGC—not the civil government. Decades of failure to address this have made permanent solutions unlikely in the short run. The administration is employing an extended “mowing the lawn” strategy: periodic decapitations of Iranian leadership to delay, but not resolve, the threat.
• Conservative Movement at a Crossroads: The fissures between the America First/anti-Israel right and the broader conservative mainstream are intensifying, especially as adjacent conspiracy narratives lose steam under courtroom scrutiny.
• Political Will and Strategy Matter: Congressional and cultural inaction, not just flawed policy ideas, are at the root of conservative failures—shrewder, more manageable goals are needed.
• Moral Hypocrisy Across the Aisle: Both left and right are accused of sacrificing principle for power; Dems in the Platner scandal, the right via ongoing intrafamily feuds.
• Cultural Renewal Requires Christianity Lived Out: Both Deace and Erzin emphasize the necessity of Christian formation at home as the bedrock for any national recovery—but warn that there’s little time for slow revival before the situation deteriorates beyond repair.
• Running Gags and Snark: The show keeps a lively (sometimes dark) comedic tone, using the McConnell health saga and recurring political memes to satirize D.C. dysfunction and the state of the American right.

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IMPORTANT SEGMENTS: TIMESTAMPS

• Opening Montage/News Recap: [00:26–05:29]
• Trump’s Iran Calculus Analysis: [06:33–19:00]
• Mowing-the-Lawn Iran Strategy: [24:14–30:06]
• Charlie Kirk Assassination/Right-Wing Divide: [01:32–05:29, 88:48–94:01]
• Mitch McConnell Health Gag: [35:00–41:38]
• Congressional Inertia & Immigration: [53:09–67:57]
• Faith & Cultural Renewal Sidebar: [46:15–50:00, 68:05–74:56]
• Daniel Horowitz Second Hour Iran Analysis: [80:47–88:48]
• Closeout & Final Jokes: [95:24–End]

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode is a deep dive into how raw political calculation, rather than grand ideological shifts, is driving U.S. Iran strategy under Trump—and how this, along with ongoing infighting and a lack of will for real action in Congress, is leaving the American right at an uneasy crossroads. Deace and his panel balance serious political and cultural critique with biting humor and snark, aiming to both inform and challenge listeners about the underlying realities of conservative struggles at home and abroad.

Transcript

[Steve Dace]

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[Daniel Horowitz]

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[Aaron McIntyre]

This is Simplisafe. Police are on the way.

[Steve Dace]

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[Aaron McIntyre]

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[Steve Dace]

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[Aaron McIntyre]

Visit simplisafe.com licenses for alarm license information. Tennessee 2012 it's the Steve Day show and here's what happened while we were away. Brought to you by Fun while it lasted. President Trump during the NATO summit in checks notes Ankara, Turkey says he believes the ceasefire as part of the much ballyhooed memorandum of understanding with Iran is over.

[Steve Dace]

To me, I think it's over.

[Daniel Horowitz]

I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum.

[Steve Dace]

You know what scum is?

[Daniel Horowitz]

They're scum.

[Steve Dace]

They're sick people. They're led by sick people and they're vicious, violent people.

[Daniel Horowitz]

And if they had a nuclear weapon, they use it.

[Steve Dace]

As far as I'm concerned, it's over.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Trump's comments come after Iran attacked another handful of shipping vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and CENTCOM retaliated in kind. In addition, the US Revoked the oil sanctions waivers it had previously relinquished at the outset of the MOU going into effect. Oil prices ticked back up to the mid-70s per barrel WTI and Trump says more attacks could be coming.

[Steve Dace]

Maybe we'll take over Cargill and we may take over Cargill and there's not a thing they can do about it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Meanwhile, we're learning. At least four Americans traveled to Iran to mourn the passing of Ayatollah Khamenei during his funeral last week. Including names you might have heard of like Jackson Hinkle, Max Blumenthal and former staffer for his Senator Elizabeth Warren Kala Walsh. Day two of the preliminary hearing for Charlie Kirk alleged assassin Tyler Robinson went down yesterday with some never before seen security camera footage of Tyler Robinson's movements on the campus of Utah Valley University the day and time of the assassination. In addition, a DNA expert from the FBI took the witness stand and stated that DNA found on a screwdriver and towel at the scene of the crime matched both Tyler Robinson and his tranny roommate, lance Twiggs.

[Steve Dace]

Item 7 and 8 in your testing of these items that they both had mixtures. You stated, I believe that the minor sample, the minor contributor, was less than 20% and that it was actually 5%. The ratio was 5% to 95% for one of the samples, yes. Do you remember that?

[Daniel Horowitz]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Does that mean the 5% was from twigs and the 95% that that 94? 5% is assumed from the defendant, the Robinson. When I calculated the statistic Twigs DNA profile aligned with the 5% contributor and Mr. Robinson's DNA profile aligned better with the 95% contributor. Okay, same question with regard to 8. I think you said the ratio was 11% from the minor and 89% from the major. Is that twigs being the 11% and Robinson being the 89%?

[Daniel Horowitz]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Twigs better aligned with that 11% contributor and Mr. Robinson better aligned with that 79% contributor.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Day three of the preliminary hearing of Tyler Robinson starts later this afternoon. CNN contributor Scott Jennings posted on X yesterday he had a 20 minute conversation with with Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell and talked about Ukraine, Iran and other topics. That post spawned oodles of other similar accounts of recent interactions with the 84 year old hospital bound Senator, including this young man who says he also Talked to Mitch McConnell. I see dead people In Maine, a federal appeals court has ruled that the state can require private schools to adopt the state's so called LGBT policies to qualify for a tuition assistance program. The 1st U.S. circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that Crosspoint Church v. A. Pender, Macon et al. Weighing whether Crosspoint's Bangor Christian School must follow the Maine Human Rights act for families enrolled there to qualify for a state tuition assistance program. The court ruled that yes, in order to get that state money you have to follow the state's rules on so called LGBT policies first. Liberty Institute is representing the school in question and plans to appeal. According to the New York Times, Maine Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner has no plans to drop out of his race yet after the most recent allegation accusing him of rape. When asked about Platner, the new face of the national Democratic Party, New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani, says even he has standards.

[Daniel Horowitz]

I believe that it's time for him

[Todd Erzin]

to drop out of the race.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And finally, the views Sunny Hostin says, hold my wine.

[Todd Erzin]

If I lived in Maine I would

[Steve Dace]

have, you know, plugged my nose and I would have voted for him anyway.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Absolutely predictable. And that's what happened while we were away.

[Steve Dace]

So no, Trump is not just now figuring out you can't negotiate with Iran. I think I might have an idea what's happening here. I'll let you know. I do know this. If you're mourning the death of the Ayatollah in Iran, you can just stay in Iran and should never be allowed back. I do know that. I also know the Candace crash out is continuing as the evidence continues to mount against Tyler Robinson. And stand strong, Graham. Hang in there, brother. Stand up to the man. Don't let the system tell you that you have to go fight all the way to the bitter end. I think I speak for everyone within the sound of my voice that we have solidarity with Graham Platner today.

[Todd Erzin]

Forward.

[Steve Dace]

His quest to remain. Yes, indeed. Onward, onward, Nazi soldier. Indeed. That and more next here on the Steve Day Show. And greetings. Happy Wednesday. Welcome. Welcome to the Steve Day show here live and on demand. I am Steve Dace, he is Todd Erzin. He is Aaron McIntyre. And today is Wednesday. So you know what that means. It means that you're going to get some buy seller hold. Coming up at the bottom of the hour, we'll get to as many of your submissions as we can. And what remains we'll get to in the overtime today for Blaze TV [e-mail] dace and then in the final segment of the show, we're going to be joined by Daniel Horowitz as he takes us inside politics. But gentlemen, let's highlight some of the things that, Aaron, you mentioned just now in your montage. And let's start with Iran. So I've heard this take already a few times today. It's been texted to me, it's been emailed to me. It's shown up in my feed.

[Todd Erzin]

Ha.

[Steve Dace]

It's about time Trump figured out you couldn't negotiate with the Iranians. You can't negotiate with a demonic regime. I don't, I don't believe that's what's happening here at all. I, I don't think that, I don't, I don't think that Donald Trump, after being president now for almost six years, is just now realizing, oh, wow, you can't negotiate in good faith with the Iranians. I don't believe that's what's happening and I don't believe that's what's been happening this entire time. Let me explain what I think is happening. And no, I don't think this is any kind of 4D chess whatsoever. I don't, I think that this is just cold blooded realpolitik. That's all. Gentlemen, what just concluded? What did we just have this last weekend?

[Todd Erzin]

What we just have 250th birthday of the nation.

[Steve Dace]

And it's the. If you look at the way our calendar breaks down, I believe this is the longest possible Independence Day weekend we could like have. Right. You look at the way the calendar broke down. The third was on a Friday, the fourth was on a Saturday. A lot of people then also took Monday off. Right. So that would also make what we just had one of the most. One of the busiest travel weekends of the year too, as well. Right. A lot of, a lot of people taking their families out and about. Lots of folks taking some, you know, summer vacation time. Not the. Although if you were in D.C. as I was, it felt like the entire nation was there. That's not the case. I mean, lots of people just took opportunities to get away for a long weekend, enjoy time with family. There was just a lot of traveling happening. It was already. That's already one of the busiest travel weekends of the year anyway, the fourth of July weekend. But now when you have the, the bookends of the third and the sixth there and you can take extra time off. Right. With the fourth landing on a weekend, there was a ton of travel being done, right?

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

Okay. So a couple of weeks before the 4th of July, we announce a ceasefire and we've entered into to good faith negotiations with the regime. You cannot enter into good faith negotiations with Aaron about how long would you think it would take, I know you follow this stuff more closely than I do, but how long would you think it would take, you know, in arrears for the markets and the prices at the pump and stuff, to feel the results of a ceasefire and regular traffic being conducted through the Strait of Hormuz there?

[Aaron McIntyre]

A couple weeks, probably two, three weeks, something like that. The real bottoming out of the oil market. We wouldn't feel that till about Labor Day if it stayed Right.

[Steve Dace]

But there's consumer conditioning, right, where you're pretty pissed off that you're paying 450 a gallon and then three weeks later you're paying 350 a gallon. Now, six months ago you'd have been pissed off about 350 a gallon. Right. But after paying 450 a gallon, now it seems like things are going in the right direction. You follow me here?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah, there's, there's a billboard on my way home that has Trump pointing to a gas price of 450 and saying, I did that. Meanwhile, the quick trip right in front of that billboard has gas at 350. It's kind of indicative of what you're talking about.

[Steve Dace]

Yes. And it just so happened to be able to meet the moment with cheaper gas prices, when much of America, or at least much of the America that would ever consider voting for Trump and his party just so happened to be out and about and traveling. You guys following me here so far? You picking up what I'm laying down?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

So a lot of that travel money, because the economy is also not in great shape. So a lot of people's discretionary travel income for the summer, at least for the time being, was probably. Probably exercised here over this last July 4th weekend.

[Todd Erzin]

Right, sure.

[Steve Dace]

Which means there's gonna be a lot more people staying at home, doing their own thing, particularly because August is also one of the biggest vacation months of the year, so things kind of maybe slow down a little bit. And are you guys still following me here? Are you still picking up the breadcrumbs here?

[Todd Erzin]

I am.

[Steve Dace]

All right, so you clear out the cachet, right. Every now and then, you know, your iPad, your iPhone starts slowing down. You're like, what's going on? Haven't downloaded a whole bunch of new apps. You look and you're like, oh, man, why is my storage so high? And you realize that it keeps all the attachments, so all the family photos and videos you've been sending and texting to all your loved ones on those devices are all still there, and you've got to go into a separate file.

[Todd Erzin]

Right.

[Steve Dace]

And the kind of. That's. That's the old. That's the new version of the old. Clean out your cache on our computers back in the day. Right. Clean out your cash. Right. And so the new thing is you got to go in there and manually delete all those things and. And get rid of those files and. And photos that you're not saving anymore from 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 months ago. Kind of clears things up. The thing starts humming along a little bit better. You've cleared a lot of space. You follow me here still?

[Todd Erzin]

I am, yeah.

[Steve Dace]

So you. You clean. You clear out. You clear things out for a bit. You also want to make sure that you are. You have a. You have a dual coalition that you're trying to balance with the Israelis on one end and the Sunni Arabs on the other. Right. So let's just take a pause here. Let's see if we. Let's see if the Iranians have learned anything whatsoever. They probably haven't, but, you know, there's a lot of them dead. We killed 90 of their leaders. All right, so the first and second strings are pretty much all dead. Ron to the third stringers. Now maybe they like living more than the first and second stringers. We'll give that a shot. We'll see and we'll give it a shot. Just long enough for the July 4th weekend and they have the biggest travel weekend of the summer to go ahead and clear itself out and for those gas prices to get down to a more manageable number. And then lo and behold, wouldn't you know, guys, literally the day after the July 4th weekend expires, Trump's like, you just can't negotiate with these people. They're just terrible people. Just can't negotiate with them. You have to just bomb them again because you kind of rebooted things. So maybe you think you've got a little bit more political Runway here for another few weeks. If we've got to go ahead and extinct the third string Iranian high command and we got to extinct them and maybe we're looking at, you know, another spike in oil prices and thus prices at the pump. So you got a few more weeks where you can drop some bombs, send some messages, right? Increase the amount of pine boxes being shipped to the, the city of Tehran, Iran, and you've got really maybe enough Runway for the rest of July politically to just go ahead and, you know, just try to kill as many of these crazies as you possibly can. And you follow the polls and you see how the people react and respond. Did you guys see the polling that came out yesterday that an overwhelming majority of Republicans are still in favor of Israel compared to what the Tucker Group wants and are still very much against Iran? They just don't want to do any, they just don't want to confront Iran at the expense of their own economy and their own way of life. But if you can, if you can manage to kill every last member of the Iranian high command and not have it impact us existentially, 90% of Republicans pretty much are like, cool, you know, they needed killing anyway, so Godspeed. Any coincidence this polling comes out, it's the end of the 4th of July weekend, and all of a sudden Trump's like, you know what, you really, these guys just are really hard to negotiate. They're kind of the scum of the earth and they're just terrible people. No, no, this is nothing other than just reading balance sheets and polling numbers, folks, and taking a look at what your political capital is. And you've, you, you built a little goodwill back up. You just had America 2:50 get your rallied your base again. Now you're watching essentially every non insane person on the American right is now pointing their guns at Candace Owens and Ian Carroll and that entire clan, after many of them sadly looked the other way for the last eight months, which is one of the reasons why we're in this position to begin with. But, hey, you know what? Much of our brethren are doing the right thing now. You and I were just talking about it before the show. Yeah, right. There is clearly an attempt to send Candace Owens to Exile island here. Okay. And isolate her as a punitive cautionary tale of cult grift. But I repeat myself, because the evidence continues to mount in Tyler Robinson's preliminary hearing. And so now those elements that were also attacking Trump over this war are getting discredited on another front with the Tyler Robinson trial. So you've got more unity on your side than you had when you first started this a few months ago when this stuff was raging at its absolute zenith. And then this just kind of threw another shrimp on the barbie and took those tensions and made them even worse. Right. But now a lot of those forces that were divided over what to do with Iran are now united in a singular rebuke of a handful of, you know, Tuckers and. And Candaces especially, and Marjorie Taylor Greene's. You've kind of already absorbed the sunk cost of them rebelling against you. Right. And so now you're. This is the reverb against the rebellion. Against the rebellion. Right. This is the. Okay, well, you know, these guys really don't have anything critical to say. They don't really have. They're not offering us really anything new. They're a terrible influence. And on second thought, you can't quit us. We fire you. That's kind of what's going on right now within our ranks right now on social media. So if you're Trump, that group now is getting. That was castigating you the loudest, is getting uniformly castigated by everybody who's not insane or, you know, on a Russian or Chinese payroll or an Arab payroll somewhere. And so you've got a little Runway here to go ahead and push some buttons and extinct some more ayatollahs, and let's see what happens, because I also don't think it was a coincidence that this was launched. Where was Trump sitting when these were launched? Where was he?

[Todd Erzin]

Turkey. Right, Turkey.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah. How's Erdogan feel about Israel? And how does Israel feel about him? Besties? No, no, they detest each other. Right. So messages being sent there, too. So, no, I don't think this is any 4D chess I think this is just simply a guy that knows how to read balance sheets, knows how to read polling numbers, knows when to push on, leverage, when to pull back. Doesn't mean he's always right, but I, I just think he's just following trend lines here. And so he's got some Runway now. We just got through with the biggest summer vacation weekend of the year. Until next month. People are going to be largely homebodies for the next few weeks around the country anyway. You got to push gas prices a little bit further to continue to send a message to Iran. Go for it. You push that button right there when you're sitting in Erdogan's backyard, and then you're the one that goes out there and says, yeah, he wanted to get in and help Iran, but he wasn't gonna do that because of me. What does Trump mean that Erdoin wasn't gonna do that because of him? It means he doesn't want me pushing buttons against him. That's what that means. Because he's watching me push buttons against his buddies in Tehran right now. I just think this is just flat out real politik. And I think the President feels like he's got a little. He's got a little wind at his sails now, and he can expend a little bit more of this capital here in Iran, and the timing is right to do so. And in the minute that that capital is depleted and there's just not the will to continue this any longer. If we haven't killed enough of them by then to get them to wave the white flag, we'll do the same thing again. We'll pull back this time. We'll probably pull back till after the election would be my guess, because, you know, now we're looking well into, like, August, September, you're into. You don't want to mess around with that, right? So you just pull back, you know, until the election. And then, like, I don't know, first Wednesday in November, you know, they still haven't gotten the message over there in tehran. Then meet Mr. Moab. You know, we're just going to do this again. I. I just think that's all that's happening here. That's all. I think a guy's just reading markets, reading polling numbers, and he's got some room now to send some messages to Tehran, and I think he's taken full advantage of it. Your thoughts?

[Todd Erzin]

I think that's true. The hundred million dollar question is if there is a deal, a real deal, on the back end of that and what the time frame for that is that Trump is dealing with. If Trump is out of the deal guy, is he just doing this ad infinitum? Because there really isn't any deal to be had because of all the things you've been talking about for months because how do you deal with these people? Or is there legitimately some real tangible close on this thing? I think we don't have, and I have, and you have, and almost everybody has the ability to discern whether that's true to the same degree that I have the ability to know whether Scott Jennings talked for 20 minutes with Mitch McConnell. So I, that's, that's what's so frustrating about this. We're, there's, we're reasonably smart people, but there's that. And that's why this still feels so covety to me. It's way too shadowy. And you're just trying to pin Jello on a wall all of the time.

[Steve Dace]

Well, I get the, the COVID vibe.

[Todd Erzin]

Vibe.

[Steve Dace]

You and I would both agree Iran is way more of a realized threat than Covid ever was. But in terms of the handling, I get why you feel that way. The thing I don't think, I don't think even our intel knows. I don't think anybody really knows, because nothing's. This regime's never been tested like they're being tested right now. They've only been placated, they've only been bribed. They've only said, here's pallets of cash, don't build a nuclear weapon. They have. That's why I really resented, I really resented this idea that Trump had caved to the Iranians by being willing to go to the negotiating table with them. I really bristled at that last month because no one has extracted more pain against the Iranians than Donald Trump has. Nobody has. Nobody has, Nobody has. Now, is it possible that There is some 31, 32, 35 year old, you know, Iranian Gorbachev sitting there? That's. So that's low enough, low enough in the pet, in the flowchart pecking order that we get down to that person and he's got a connection, he's got enough connections in the military that they're like, listen, if you guys just let us be the, the, the, the Shia Saudi Arabias, okay, but we can still subjugate our women and stuff, then we'll, we'll stop, you know, what we're doing. If you'll just let us live, basically, that person may exist and we just don't know Right, because, because we're killing so much of their high command that that person maybe was not going to, was going to need another 20, 30 years to come to power. That they might be able to do it in the next 20 to 30 days. That's very possible. You kill 90 of the nation's leaders. That's you, You've, you've, you've heard their, you've heard their depth chart. Is that fair? I mean, that depth chart is, it's not what it once was, right, Hoss? Okay, so is it possible that it just keep killing enough of them, eventually get to the person whose survival instinct is, like, you know, on the second thought, I think Allah would want me to live.

[Todd Erzin]

Right.

[Steve Dace]

You know, you might find that person. Then again, why not?

[Todd Erzin]

Right?

[Steve Dace]

And so there's only one way to really find that out, isn't it? And that is just keep killing them until they answer the, until they give you the answer that you want. We are negotiating. We've been negotiating, actually, the entire time. It's just not, you know, in good faith with, you know, representatives on each side, you know, around a table. The negotiation has been, okay, you'll take our deal or we'll make you take it. That's been the negotiation that's been going on since this began in March. And so far, they have not been willing to take it. So we're just going to keep killing you until you can, until you take it. And if you guys won't take it, then we'll just kill you all if we have to. You know, might take a while, but we'll just keep doing this. We'll pull back for a few months, manipulate the markets. Oil prices will come down, pull numbers, will go back up. All right, we'll have a few more weeks. We'll just come in, mow the lawn again. I, I think that's what's going on here.

[Todd Erzin]

I, like I said, I'm, I, my, my degree of confidence on being able to comment on anything beyond what you've already said. I, I, I agree that this is what's happening. I love a real politician where it is action, reaction, but I don't. The million dollar question is, is, is there a close that is known that is agreed upon, or are we on the fifth close over many months?

[Steve Dace]

That's a, See, this is why I was not huge into this from day one, because of that question. Okay. I still don't think we have the answer to that. I don't. And I think if you want to have a separate argument about Even if this is a good plan, where would you rather be spending your political capital on mass deportations or mass, you know, executions of Iranian leaders? I'd rather be spending our political capital on mass deportations if it were me. Right. But I don't. I didn't get elected president. I don't get to make those choices. So, Aaron, this is the choice that's been made on our behalf.

[Aaron McIntyre]

My understanding of who's actually doing the firing and calling the shots is irgc. And since day one, it's been this, quote unquote, mosaic defense strategy from Iran. Well, from the irgc, the people that we're doing the negotiating with, my understanding, again, are the leaders of the civil government, the civil political leaders. So, again, we're getting back into this area where we have reduced Iran. They don't really. It's kind of like the meeting of the gangster minds in the dark night. That's kind of what the IRGC is. So even if we did a deal with one of the leaders of the IRGC from one sector of the country, maybe another one doesn't like the deal, and so they're just gonna keep firing. There's no leverage here over the leadership of the irgc. So the strategy then has to be. Has to be, at least from my vantage point, kind of what you're saying, mowing the lawn. But I don't think we have really a frame of reference for how long that's going to take. Meaning. I think this is going to take a long, long time, like years, if that's the strategy, years of weakening the irgc. One boat after one boat, one interception after another interception. Because this problem, the Iran problem, has been allowed to fester for nearly 50 years. It was never going to be quick and easy like Venezuela. I don't think. I think that was maybe the hope, but I don't think it was ever going to be that. So this strategy of trying to reach deals, strike bargains, what have you, I don't think anybody in the civil government has one ounce of leverage over the irgc. I really don't.

[Todd Erzin]

And that plan, listen, we tried this in America during the Civil War and the amount of generals that Lincoln had to go through who had basically had a mow the lawn strategy until he finally got to Grant, and he said, this man fights. And we had a, you know, burn the South. Like, are we all of this mowing the lawn? This is the thing, whatever.

[Steve Dace]

So let me, let me.

[Todd Erzin]

If the end game is, has it been the same thing all along? Is it shifting to something more and more desperate. And sooner or later, no matter what we do now, are we just going to have to go to the burn the south option anyways? And I don't know.

[Steve Dace]

I don't think there'll be a burn the south option. I don't think there'll be a ground invasion. I don't. I think if we put, in fact, I think there's almost no chance of either one of those things. If I had to, if I had. This president is very willing to use power to make his point, but he is very hesitant to do so in a way that causes a lot of civilian casualties at the exact same time. If I did, if we put the Wonder Woman lasso of truth around Trump, this is honestly what I believe he would say. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. The regime is nuts and crazy, all right? We have to kill a whole bunch of them until we get to people we can negotiate. We're not even sure that there is a layer of people we can negotiate. So as long as I'm president, we're just going to kill as many of these leaders as we possibly can. We're going to decimate as many of their, as much of their military as we possibly can. So that when I leave office, one of two things has been accomplished. Either A, there has been some form of internal reckoning within that country now that has had some kind of late, late stage Soviet Union perestroika of glass nosed kind of event, all right, which gives my successor an opportunity to maybe reshape the region for the next generation. Or we've just killed if that's not possible, we've so decimated their military and killed so much of their brass that they are a paper mache version of what they were when I took office. And I think it would just be that simple. I think that's what the Wonder Woman lasso of truth version would say.

[Todd Erzin]

Well, we keep talking about the nuclear part of things. Aren't we supposed to know by now whether that at least is off the table for the foreseeable future based on what we've done to them? Isn't that variable supposed to be?

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, but the problem you run in. Yes, but the problem you run in and that's that those are some of the most direct answers that the vice president gave Bill Maher just about a week ago was on the dust and centrifuges and all that stuff. The problem that though you're going to run into is I think we all know that the people in charge of that country Have a will to still want to continue to seek this out for sure.

[Todd Erzin]

I just. But doing that, you know, you're not.

[Steve Dace]

And there's only. There's only one way to suppress a will that I am aware of, and that is to suppress the ones who have said will. I don't know of another way to do it.

[Todd Erzin]

Once you totally destroy an operation that has been ostensibly been built up after years and years and years, doesn't it take years and years? I mean, that's what we keep talking about is if after all the work we've done, we've said simultaneously, it's decimated and I can never let it happen again. Well, isn't that part of it, like literally off the table for a decade? Perhaps. And the way they keep talking about it is we still can't know that. I thought that's supposed to be one of the definites. If we're going to do realpolitik, I need to know what's real about that variable. Have we kneecapped them for the foreseeable future or not on that? Well, I mean, because they can't have it. Both ways are.

[Steve Dace]

First of all, none of us here do intelligence. We can't possibly answer that. You can't ask the question any better than what Bill Maher tried to. He basically asked your question almost verbatim what you just said. In his own way, just of the Vice President last week. He gave very specific answers to that. But I think what we're trying to enact is a regime change, but by pushing them so far over the cliff that internally it's able to happen on its own.

[Todd Erzin]

Okay, but was that the goal all along?

[Steve Dace]

I think it was the goal all along. Yeah, I do. I think that's why we did the massive buildup there and everything else.

[Todd Erzin]

I do.

[Steve Dace]

I think that was the goal. I think. Yeah, I do.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Do we want any Islamic country to have nuclear weapons?

[Steve Dace]

No, no, no.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Pakistan has nuclear weapons. So what's different about Iran? This is not a nuclear weapon problem. It's an eschatology, Islamic eschatology problem. That's been the problem since day one.

[Steve Dace]

Correct. That's why the desire, no matter how many of their centrifuges we annihilate, the desire will not end because of the belief system there that pre exists the desire and in fact inspires it. Correct. Iseller hold is next. The Steve Day Show. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of

[Daniel Horowitz]

unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back.

[Steve Dace]

So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal.

[Daniel Horowitz]

So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a [e-mail] switch upfront payment

[Steve Dace]

of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 month plan required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when network is busy.

[Daniel Horowitz]

See terms.

[Steve Dace]

All right. Back here on the Steve Day show, you know your DNA is yours, period. You know what's wild though? We live in a country where big tech thinks they know more about your browsing habits than you know about your own biology. The government wants to track what you say, what you buy, what you believe. But the most important data you're ever gonna own, your DNA. A lot of us don't have any clue. Well, Jevity wants to change that. They just launched longevity genomics. One cheek swab from your own home. About 80 gene variants analyzed across 23 health categories and you get roughly 160 insights about how your body actually works. How you absorb nutrients, how you metabolize caffeine, how you process inflammation, whether that B vitamin you're taking is even the right form for your body and more. And know your DNA is never sold, never shared. It's yours, period. It layers right on top of your blood work so our so their care team can build a protocol that's built for your body and not somebody else's. One swab insights for life. That's it. That's the way it should be. So go to GOM. G O G E V I T I Gocom use the code DACE for 20% off. That's gone. Code DACE and decode yourself. Codejevity.com that's where you want to go. Go code DACE for 20% off with the code [e-mail].

[Daniel Horowitz]

all right.

[Steve Dace]

Are we ready for it? Play some buy Southern hold. Since I had to miss out on this last week, man, I'm excited.

[Todd Erzin]

Let's go.

[Steve Dace]

Let's get to it. You guys know how this works. You have sent your hopefully awesome submissions to Aaron and a plentiful bounty so that Aaron has more than he is capable of sifting through to determine which ones to posit to both you and I. Todd, we'll get through as many of them on this show as we can. What remains we'll do in the overtime today for Blaze TV subscribers. You and I are gonna decide with each and every one. Are we gonna buy it? Are we gonna sell it? Now it is buy, seller, hold. Okay, so you can hold. You. You can hold. You can. But if you hold. Oh, oh, if. If you hold. You have to find out because you have so emasculated yourself. You have really embarrassed your. The. Your entire gender. You have to find out what fireworks Lindsey Graham let off last night when he saw Trump bombing Iran again. That's the price you have to pay to hold. Are you willing to pay that price, Todd?

[Todd Erzin]

No, but by your Lindsey Graham standards, that's pretty benign, really.

[Steve Dace]

Okay.

[Todd Erzin]

I thought we were going to get something involving the corpse of Mitch McConnell or something, so.

[Steve Dace]

All right, let's pause for a second. This is the third time you've brought this up. You are clearly fascinated by this, aaron. Is Mitch McConnell alive? What do you think?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Who cares? I mean, I. I hope his soul is safe whichever side of eternity he's on.

[Steve Dace]

Todd, do you think he's alive? Do you think he's alive? And when I say alive, let me say this. Is he conscious? No, put it that way. So not brain dead. Okay.

[Todd Erzin]

I think he's.

[Steve Dace]

You think he's cool as a cucumber right now, is what you're thinking.

[Todd Erzin]

I think he's cooked. But that's why I'm fascinated. All these people saying, I mean, even Scott Jennings. What are we doing?

[Steve Dace]

I'll get to Scott Jennings in a minute. So, Aaron, do you think that Ditch is conscious? No. Do you? Todd, do you think Scott Jennings talked to him yesterday?

[Todd Erzin]

No.

[Steve Dace]

You don't. So you think Scott Jennings just went on CNN and just lied?

[Todd Erzin]

And I'm fascinated about the reasons why.

[Steve Dace]

Okay, Aaron, what do you think?

[Aaron McIntyre]

I don't know. You know, Scott Jennings, pretty sharp dude. Yeah, he's a very sharp dude.

[Steve Dace]

Who's produced more viral clips not named Donald Trump in the last two years than Scott Jennings.

[Todd Erzin]

Aaron, you laughed at me yesterday when I brought up. I saw multiple posts that his wife is in China. And you laughed when I said that. Is that.

[Aaron McIntyre]

No, I laughed. I laughed because isn't she. Wasn't she a registered foreign agent of China?

[Steve Dace]

I believe she was because I was

[Todd Erzin]

prepared to make that literally, one way or the other, on life support. And you're in China. What's going on?

[Steve Dace]

Nothing good happens after 3:00am, coach. I mean, this math does not check out. Now, here's the thing. I don't believe Scott Jennings made it up. I don't. I just can't possibly. Because I just can't possibly believe a guy that's built what he has the last few years. I mean, I don't know of anybody I can think of not named Donald Trump, who has produced more viral clips and of more destructions and crash outs that he has induced of Democrats than Scott Jennings has in the last couple of years. Can you think of anybody else who has? I can't.

[Todd Erzin]

I get it.

[Steve Dace]

So I know that he used to work for Ditch years ago. So he's just going to throw all that away to make this whole thing up. Not to mention, guys, Jennings said that Ditch wanted to talk about Ukraine. That is, that is, that is as on brand as it gets. Maybe it might be Mitch McConnell's last phone call on planet Earth. We have to talk about Ukraine. Doesn't that just sound completely legit? Yeah, it sounds totally legit to me. I mean, if you found out Ukraine was Mitch McConnell's last words, would you be shocked? Totally believable, right? That's his rosebud. That's his check out Ukraine.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steve Dace]

So I, I don't believe that he made it up. I just can't believe a guy would throw away the career he's built for himself for that. I just can't believe it. I can't, I don't believe it. But I do believe that the memes surrounding that phone call are, have been, have been very precious over the last 24 hours. People are finding out what, what SPF. I, I had a 20 minute phone conversation with Mitch McConnell. He told me what, what FB, SPF sunblock I needed. I mean the, the, the memes have written themselves.

[Todd Erzin]

Ditch is around this long, in this level of frail health because he's as attached to whatever the hell the deep state is as anyone else. And his wife is over there in China and all. See, this is the, there's, if there's something, if nothing else is Scott Jennings just putting a pause button on something. I find it absolutely believable that he would hide the truth for a short period of time because he's, he knows what's going on as well as anybody. I, he should Ditch should have been out of our political conversations a long time ago. And on a global level, he may be deeper than ever before. And that's insane.

[Steve Dace]

So Jennings says, quote, all I can say today is that all the rumors about him being dead or brain dead or his body being hidden somewhere, I've seen some crazy stuff on the Internet that's obviously not true because he picked up the phone and he called me.

[Todd Erzin]

See What? Why would you say that out loud?

[Steve Dace]

I don't know.

[Todd Erzin]

You're not his spokesman anymore. You worked with him. There's no. This is just weird.

[Steve Dace]

So apparently the law. That's what I was just looking up. The law in Kentucky says that the governor has 30 days to call a

[Aaron McIntyre]

special election with a deadline of like August 1st.

[Steve Dace]

Correct? Yes. August 3rd.

[Todd Erzin]

Is the deadline. August 3rd. Yeah. Well, no. If you finding this information now in real time, we're talking. This is what I'm talking about. Reasons. See,

[Steve Dace]

You still think Scott Jennings has made the whole thing up?

[Todd Erzin]

I think there's a very high likelihood. Okay, yes.

[Steve Dace]

I can't possibly believe he did that for this. I can't. But. Okay. Buy, seller, hold. Buy, seller, hold. Mitch McConnell is still the U.S. senator from Kentucky at the end of this month. Buy, seller, hold, sell, sell,

[Todd Erzin]

buy.

[Steve Dace]

Precisely because you think he's dead. Correct. Just get a Weekend at Bernie's this thing. Democrats did that with Joe Biden. Right. So we're going to do it now with Mitch McConnell on our side.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Did you see the protocol that was leaked from the hospital that he's staying at?

[Steve Dace]

No.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah, so the. So the protocol for treating him and keeping him. At least his brain activity, at least whatever, it's wave hot nurses.

[Steve Dace]

Wave Ukraine flags in his room.

[Aaron McIntyre]

No, it's not. It's male nurses.

[Daniel Horowitz]

Of course.

[Aaron McIntyre]

They have to come in every five minutes and yell the Save America act is about to pass. Every five minutes. That just keeps them.

[Steve Dace]

You chose something even snottier.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Barely alive.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, I respect that.

[Todd Erzin]

I just have visions of that awful last Star wars movie where the Emperor Palpatine is, like, back alive somehow. That's Ditches.

[Steve Dace]

Those are Ditch's last words. Secrets. Only the Sith knew one of the worst lines of dialogue in movie history. Oh, my gosh. That's what. You know what? On second thought, if it's a hold, if you use your hold, you got to personally check to see if Ditch is still alive. You got to check those vitals, brother. That's your job.

[Todd Erzin]

I have answers to my questions.

[Steve Dace]

You would get answers. You would. All right, Aaron, fire away. Let's get to it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

We're going to start with Brutus Maximus, who says buy, sell, or hold. If you really think about it, Graham Platner's candidacy makes perfect sense. Democrats have struggled with masculine men, especially masculine, straight white men, for years. They tried a fake and gay version with Tim Walls and white dudes for Harris, which didn't work. So they tried Platner, which they think is the real thing, a toxic, ill tempered, violent, racist misogynist who abuses and rapes women. The left has been proudly saying that's what straight white men are for 20 plus years. So buy, sell or hold. If you think about it, Graham Platner's candidacy makes perfect sense.

[Steve Dace]

Well, he certainly does fit the, the archetype of who they think people like us are. So I will buy that for sure. I don't know enough about internal main politics to know. I mean, because didn't he beat the governor for this nominee, this seat?

[Todd Erzin]

I don't.

[Steve Dace]

Wasn't. Wasn't the governor he was running against.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

So I have, I can't possibly know enough about Maine politics internally to know how this dude beat out a sitting governor in a primary in that state among Democrats. But it would point to something very meta that Brutus is alluding to here. Right. So for that reason, I'll buy.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah, same.

[Aaron McIntyre]

All right, next up, we go to this. Aaron Rialy says given SCOTUS wants to rely on English common law definition for subject to the jurisdiction thereof, we should rely on English common law for high crimes and misdemeanors, along with Federalist65's abuse of public trust and impeach. Chief Justice Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett.

[Steve Dace]

Well, if we're going to rely on English common law definitions, how about the English common law definition on what is, on sodomy, on what is marriage? There's all kinds of things. If we're going to rely on the English common law definitions, then sign me up. Okay, the problem, first of all, I like this, I like this proposal. It's snotty and appropriate. So I'll buy. The problem with using English common law assumptions to define terms is that this is the 14th amendment written, you know, for a country that's already well over 100 years old. So we already have like our own assumptions. You see what I'm saying? Our own traditions, we have our own functionalities, we have our own precedents. It's not required to go back into some deeper understanding of definitions because they, they clarified, I mean, Senator Jacob Howard of Michigan who wrote the amendment, clarified it in real time what it actually meant. So it's not even requiring any deciphering at all. I mean, he clarified in real time what it meant. So that's the problem with using. Because in other, in other applications, I think we'd be totally fine with using English common law definitions to apply things, particularly when you're getting to what did things mean at the founding of the country. Because pretty Much every one of the framers would have been brought up or believers in what English common law. Right. Like Blackstone and his commentaries on the laws of England, for example. So. But in this case, now we're not at the dawn of the country, are we?

[Todd Erzin]

No, no.

[Steve Dace]

We're not transitioning from wannabe Englishmen who were taxed without representation to full fledged Americans. So we're kind of terraforming with these meanings and traditions and definitions are going to mean for the first time as a people. Right. We're codifying them in real time. In this case, that was. Had already been, that was already done and laid that foundation of a nation was laid. That's what we had a civil war to fight to see if we're going to maintain that foundation or not. Right. And so the senator that wrote the amendment just let you know in very plain English what the amendment meant. So there's no need to attempt to translate it at all.

[Todd Erzin]

He.

[Steve Dace]

It's pre. Translated for you. It's preloaded. So that's why this attempting to use English common law here is a farce. That being said, this proposal here from Aaron is not. So I buy.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah, I'm, I'm going to have to go. Whatever the answer is that indicates that there's no leverage to do what you're talking about because our congress is our Congress. I mean, I, of course, the math that we think exists, oftentimes on paper, we don't have the team to execute. That's it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Quickly, before the break. Deacon AR is next. Who says buy, sell or hold? Only not doing what Scripture forbids, while not doing what scriptures and Christ specifically tell us to do puts one in danger of Raqqa and the chastisement of Christ that he gave to the scribes, Pharisees and Hypocrites in Matthew 23. Biceller, hold. It's not only not doing what Scripture forbids, we actually have to do what Scripture prescribes. Or is this a distinction without a difference?

[Steve Dace]

I'm going to let you answer this first.

[Todd Erzin]

The fact that this is, and I'm not casting any pejoratives on the individual asker, but I do see this all the time. The fact that this is not clear after 2000 years of church history right now to many a people, is a sign of why we are where we are. I don't. This isn't. See, this is not remotely complicated in my tradition. I don't understand why people are befuddled in any way. This isn't a Rubik's Cube this isn't high level math. Do what Jesus told you to do. It's. But. But here we are. So I'm buying because faith without works is dead. We go round and round on this all of the time. And until we get off of this absurd treadmill, our culture is going to die.

[Steve Dace]

I think I buy as well. But I would add a believer should want to do what Christ wants him to do. I mean, it's no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. The hope of glory. I die daily. I am. My life is not my own. I was bought at a high price. Why do you call me Lord if you do not do what I say? I mean, ultimately we should want to do what Christ wants us to do. We should want to do his will. Lord, teach us how to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We should want to do the will of Christ. We should want to. That should be a desire change. Now, we're not always able to because we're battling the world, the flesh, our own and the devil, but our desire should be to want to do what Christ wants us to do. So I think I agree, but I think the premise of the question is flawed. More buy seller. Hold in a moment. And we're back with hour two here on the Steve Day show alongside Todd erzin and Aaron McIntyre. I'm Steve Dase. Let us know what you think about what we think via the stevedase.com inbox by emailing us steve dace.com that's D E A C E like us on Facebook, me, we and Gab. You can follow me at Steve Day show on X Instagram and Tick Tock. Subscribe to our Rumble channel at Steve Dace on Rumble. That's at Steve Dace on Rumble. And if you wouldn't mind, if you are a podcast listener, first of all, yesterday's episode was number six overall in our entire category yesterday on Apple. And that's like 35,000 podcasts in that category. So thank you guys very much. I think that's the highest we've gotten so far with an episode was number six. So thank you guys very much for that. You make sure that you don't miss an episode, hit subscribe, or if you are an Apple itunes person like me, hit follow to make sure that every new episode drops right there inside your podcast feed. And also make sure that you're one of the tens of thousands to leave us a five star review and thank you for each and every one of those and for those of you that are going to add yours here today and your kids will thank you later. If you take my advice and check out our friends over at Freedom Project Academy as a potential option for your kids education this fall. Judeo Christian Values for kids in a fully accredited classical online education environment for kids pre kindergarten all the way through high school. If you're looking for structure live real time classrooms in a virtual environment, you need flexibility Anytime course is available 24,7 if you want a homeschool track to put your kid in the driver's seat, they've got that too. Whatever you're looking for in that environment, they've got it. Without the stuff you're not at Freedom Project Academy and they've got a 10 discount on tuition with the code Steve find out for yourself why Freedom Project Academy was awarded the 2026 Christian School of the Year by Education Insider. Go to freedom4school.com all right, check out all the incredible classes there. Freedom for F O R F O R freedomforschool.com Use the promo code Steve for 10 off your tuition. Had my own son Noah in FPA for 2 years. Can't give him a better recommendation than I let him teach my own kid. Freedomforschool.com promo code Steve that's freedomforschool.com promo code steve bottom of the hour we will be joined by the prophet of woe and lamentation. Until then Aaron, let's keep it rolling with buy seller hold.

[Aaron McIntyre]

We'll continue on with Jeff Johnson who says the left will throw Graham Platner under the bus so they can say see we don't tolerate that behavior, knowing they will get exactly the same votes from Susan Collins and they will get the moral high ground cell.

[Steve Dace]

The left doesn't care about moral high ground. Susan Collins being there. They'll get a lot of the same votes, but the votes they really want, Supreme Court justices, things of that nature, they're not going to get any of those. And so this is just about power to them. We are concerned about moral high ground. We are like, yeah, we lost, but don't we? Aren't we? So look how sanctimonious we still feel about ourselves. They don't. They don't have any of those temptations at all. It's just all will to power all the time. There is nothing other than just ID incarnate. It's just craven ambition and desire made manifest. There's no higher reasoning happening over there at all. So total misread of our opponents. With all due respect.

[Todd Erzin]

Agreed.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Next we go to Dacian memes for pumpkin spiced queens. Says a given SCOTUS 14th Amendment ruling and the unlikelihood of a constitutional amendment. Congress needs to start dealing with this issue by thinking outside the box.

[Steve Dace]

Totally agree, but I think the executive branch does as well. I think deportations need to pick up considerably. I just think the president ought to just shut down immigration. That's what I do it. Do you guys see a reason we have to bring like one more person into America for like any reason at all?

[Todd Erzin]

No, but this. Remember what I said before. This is the carbon copy of last just a couple questions ago. The math of acting on paper may seem obvious. We don't have the team on the field. You outside the box. How about just acting? What does Congress do? It can't even or won't even do the save act. All right, John, we do not have people who go there to do something. Most of them go there just to be somebody. And if they do anything, it's not for you. It's about enriching themselves in the ways that require Mitch McConnell to have phone calls from the dead. So yes, Congress. You know, Aaron, that stick figure thing, do something. Anything's possible. We've had. This is the second go around with somebody like Trump. We've had. We've had the whole thing, right? The majorities. If we've been promised, if we just have that, we can act. I mean, Steve, how many times have you lamented, like, what more do you expect a version of like Donald Trump to do? Like, you don't have to think he's perfect, but hasn't he, like, acted with executive vigor? I again, Congress is it. It just is not the team. It doesn't matter what game plan you give it, it won't execute it. It can't execute it. Some combination thereof. They like sucking. They don't.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Ready to move on. Let's go to righteously indignant David, not Anon. I think that's for you, Todd. My submission is the same as last week before Steve got the cooties, but with a little context because American memories are short with regards to the SCOTUS decision to birthright citizenship. We need perspective and ideas on how to enforce what is good and righteous. But now, since the door has been left open to corruption, we need to be creative and not hold back, buy, sell or hold with foreign women that are here on a visa. If they are pregnant or get pregnant. Their child within their belly is a human being that has not been vetted by the government for legal entry. Therefore the mother is effectively a human trafficker. Prosecute and deport accordingly. Buy, sell, or hold. Is this the outside the box thinking we were just talking about?

[Steve Dace]

I'll let you take this one first.

[Todd Erzin]

I don't know, because there's no will to do what you're talking about. So I'm stuck in this position of trying to figure out to say the exact same thing I've said on two other questions in a different way. Not your fault, you just coming in line. But who's going to do that? I get where you're at. You're trying to think of the magic meme. No one's going to do that. I'll do it. Steve will do it. Aaron will do it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

But is there some 4D chess here that could be played or even just 2D chess that could codify at the national level because of the way the Supreme Court ruled on the 14th amendment? And this is, I mean, this is not a new argument, but because of the way that they ruled on this issue, that you could codify once and for all when a life begins, what is a human.

[Todd Erzin]

It's not even 40 chess.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, that's an interesting proposition.

[Todd Erzin]

There's gaping loopholes that if you wanted to leverage them, force their hand, but we aren't that people.

[Steve Dace]

So I think when you're, when you're trying to push a people beyond what the current extent of their demonstrated worldview indicates they are capable of, I am a big believer that doing so strategically is a key component of your ability to be successful. And that just leaning right in on a point to stretch somebody's worldview beyond what it's currently demonstrating it's capable of is a great way for them to just reject it out of hand because it just, it doesn't feel right. Something feels wrong about this. If, if you want to make sure we don't win anything of significance on immigration ever again, do exactly what's in this proposition. Do it now. If you want to ensure that you will have an open borders nation forever and that you will lose every last ounce of credibility on the immigration front, do what is suggested in that. In that proposition. You will, because. Because we haven't done the. See, what you're proposing is the kind of stuff that if you have to do it, you've already lost. Because if you get down to, well, I guess if you're doing birth tourism, you're a human trafficker. If you're down to that card to Play. It's because you haven't played like your, your guys. Yeah, you know, I had an, I had, I had an ace, I had a king, I had a queen, had a jack, didn't play any of those cards. I'm down here to the deuce of clubs. We're on our all in.

[Aaron McIntyre]

We're on our fifth string quarterback which happens to be a left tackle.

[Steve Dace]

Corre. All right. Yes. All in. All in. Let's go. Let's go there. This is why, for example, on the whole do we prosecute women for abortions thing, I am. I think we're asking the culture. I agree it is the morally proper thing to do. But you're also asking the culture to do something beyond the worldview it is currently demonstrated. Do we all agree on that?

[Todd Erzin]

Of course.

[Steve Dace]

So therefore you do so strategically. Okay, how about if I go online and I say I committed murder and I'm proud of it, is that person a murderer? Have they not admitted to being one? Right. What would we do then? Anybody else who has committed a murder that we can verify and then admits to it, what would we do to that person in every other context? Prosecute them as such, Correct?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

So then why wouldn't we do that in this one? See now, now we have to acknowledge political considerations. But notice the term I use there. Acknowledge them. Did I say we have to worship them? Is that what I said? Did I say that we have to self limit what we think to political considerations? Is that what I said? No, I said we have to acknowledge them. We live in a real world. God made us both mind, body and spirit. God was. Jesus was both fully man. So is he fully human? Yes, he was fully God. Was he fully God? Yes. So is he fully human or fully God? Which is it?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Yes. So. So there are in the physical world, there are realities we have to acknowledge in the physical world, correct?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

So, for example, there's a law of gravity that God himself put in. Correct. If he wanted to, at any point, he could violate it for any single one of us and for all of us if he wanted to let us just instinctively and intuitively fly. Correct. So he could do it, right?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Has he done it though?

[Todd Erzin]

No.

[Steve Dace]

No. So therefore, because he put that law into motion, he could suspended force, but has not done so. That is a physical consideration that we have to acknowledge, correct? Yes. So we have to acknowledge political considerations. We don't have to worship them. I would suggest not. That would be mob rule. That's a terrible idea. We. We don't let Them self edit us. We, we don't let them dictate terms to us because as believers, a lot of times political considerations are going to be from the kingdom of this world. Right. And if we let them dictate terms to us, then we're never going to represent the kingdom of another world. We, we typically do, but we're actually playing by the devil's rules, correct?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

But we still have to acknowledge them, correct?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

So like if you're Paul and you're writing epistles, you know Nero wants to kill you, you don't stop like writing epistles. Right. You don't stop writing them because God wants you to do that. Right. You don't stop doing missions. Right. You don't stop doing evangelism. Right. You know, but maybe it just, you know, don't go within like a two block radius of where Nero hangs out, maybe. Right. See what I'm saying?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

So there's political considerations. You have to consider the political realities. This doesn't do any of that. And it bypasses about 50 other cards that we could play strategically to then come up with the most byzantine draconian solution we possibly could. And then ask a morbidly obese culture, we need you to do 100 chin ups, like right now. Go. Never going to happen.

[Todd Erzin]

And the political consideration again is we don't have the team on the field like yesterday. The point I was trying to make with Steve as he, as Steve goes down nostalgia lane and tries to find 10 modern actors who would. The other side of the lens doesn't care. The we the people problem. But what if the people are retarded? This is where we are. They don't, they don't care. You can't sell that to them. And that's the reality Steve is talking about. You can't fly, you can't, you don't want to. You're angry at video games right now, literally as we speak. So nice try. You can't execute this game plan.

[Steve Dace]

This is a moment for coming up with strategic bargaining chips that get synapses firing and make people think, oh, okay, I guess I hadn't looked at it that way before. Right. This is, this is a moment for shrewdness and wisdom because you're going to ask a people to stretch their worldview beyond what it's currently capable. And you don't usually do that by jumping to, yes, you're 600 pounds and tomorrow you're gonna need me to do 100 push ups or I'm just going to give up on you. That person is very likely gonna just probably give up on themselves at that point. Right? So, no, this is a moment now. Not for the most absolute arcane, Byzantine, draconian solutions we can come up with, but frankly, the shrewdest and wisest ones, that pushes people's intellect, opens that Overton window a little more and then a little more and then a little more and then a little more like what Todd has argued for years, just, okay, put up a bill. We're going to ban all abortions in America except rape, incest and life of the mother. See what happens. None of them are going to vote for it. But let the American people see that. Why won't we just let them see what that looks like, call their own bluff. This is a moment for doing things like that. Ok? Thinking with shrewdness.

[Aaron McIntyre]

So with that in mind, the line for what is politically acceptable is Minneapolis. Buy, sell or hold.

[Steve Dace]

That's the line right now.

[Todd Erzin]

Buy.

[Steve Dace]

Because we didn't push them at all. Not at all. We ran. The truth of the matter is we ran from that. That's just the truth of the matter.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

I don't like that being the truth. But, you know, just like the truth of the matter is Trump was never going to cave to Iran after spanking them harder than anybody else ever has. And everybody saying that looked really fake and gay a few weeks, a couple weeks ago. They look real fake and gay.

[Todd Erzin]

Now.

[Steve Dace]

The truth of the matter, though, also is that Trump did run from Minneapolis. We ran from it. That's. And I say we, because he's my captain. I'm on his team. My team ran from that fight. We ran from that one. We did. We didn't want any part of it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

So there's the secondary buy a seller hold. I have a tertiary buy seller hold. Anything short of that line in terms of deportations after the midterms is an abject failure, 100%.

[Steve Dace]

I mean, I would argue we're failing now by letting that remain the line. I would argue that. Okay, I would. I would argue that. But. But your point for sure is true. Yes.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah, but I, you know, there's lines, H1B lines and mosques being built in Texas. There's Social Democrats being elected. I mean, in. We're not. We're losing on all kinds of fronts.

[Steve Dace]

All right, next, especially can I. Your. Because your point on Minneapolis, so good. Let me draw another point because, Aaron, you tie into my point, I think, in a way that I had not even considered after you, before you, after you said it so when you talk about shrewdness and wise examples that stretch a people's worldview, what is a better opportunity to do that than the Somali community and all the fraud and anti American fervor within that community? You see what I'm trying to say? That community is ripe, rife with marketing talking points. I mean, we could not have asked for central casting to give us better villains to have to deport than that community than what's coming out of that community so far this year. I mean, that's the place where you go to make examples out of people because that's one that anyone who would ever think of voting for you for more than a nanosecond was like, I get that. Yeah, I get, get all that fraud, all those empty buildings. What are they doing? That's all my money. Get those people out of there. You see what I'm saying? That's so that's another reason why that's an abject failure is, is we didn't just run from Minneapolis, but based on what we found out about Minneapolis after we ran the stuff that came out after we ran, we ran away from the most target rich environment to stretch the American worldview on this issue of immigration than could have. We could have possibly asked to be available to us.

[Aaron McIntyre]

All right, next, switching gears a little bit. Colton O' Halloran says today marks my 10th wedding anniversary. Congratulations, Colton.

[Steve Dace]

Congrats.

[Aaron McIntyre]

In these 10 years, my wife and I have been blessed with four children. We diligently strive to teach them the word of God and with the help of the Holy Spirit are actively seeking to catechize them in the faith. I say this not out of pride or perfection, for I am neither far from either, but because I believe that if all Christian parents would commit to doing the same, buy, sell or hold, this would single handedly begin to turn the ship of our nation back in the right direction.

[Steve Dace]

I don't disagree with this. I mean this is 10,000% true because this is how you create a critical mass of people that it's that great scene in. Is the movie called An American Awakening or the Great Awakening? The Whitfield film, What's it called? I always forget the title because it's about. I think it's An American or A Great Awakening. Maybe I confused it in both cases because it's about the Great Awakening. So I think maybe the film is called A Great Awakening.

[Todd Erzin]

Maybe that's right.

[Steve Dace]

But it's the George Whitfield film. If you get a chance to see this, you have to see this. It's a. It's really well done.

[Todd Erzin]

It is.

[Steve Dace]

And one of my favorite scenes in the film is Ben is. Ben Franklin is sent as the ambassador to the colonies to go negotiate one last time with the British before independence is declared. And the scenery sitting down and playing chess with the. I. I don't know which member of the king's court that this gentleman is that Franklin is talking to, but when Franklin says, see, there's been an awakening. There's been a spiritual awakening back in the colonies. And they think since they have no king but Jesus, that they're not in need of government to be had. Take such a heavy hand in their lives and tell them how to live and what to. And every single decision they have to make because they think they're accountable to God first and foremost. I'm. I'm paraphrasing here, but you know what scene I'm talking about, right? It's very well done. And this is. So this is the formula right here. I mean, this is when we talk about. And this was the talk I gave in dc. You'd have loved this talk. Todd.

[Todd Erzin]

Clips. Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

That. You saw the talk I gave in DC for America 250 for make Evan cr it was. How do you know if you've been in a revival? How do you know? We all agree there must be revival. We all. We've been a revival or bus show now on this for as long as you guys have worked here. I've been saying this. So what does it look like? There's the event, but then there's the movement. Right? Then there's. Then there's. Then there's the reality. Like the wedding. I said, you know, your wedding was an event, but that was the beginning of your marriage, not the culmination of it. The real work will begin for the. The years that go by after the event. And so you can have things like. What was the. Wasn't there a university? I think it was in Kentucky a few years ago, Aaron. Where there was. We talked about it, covered it. Yeah. Asbury. Thank you. And there was.

[Todd Erzin]

And.

[Steve Dace]

And evidence of revival. People repenting of sins and things of that nature was going on there. Right. Okay. But that's an event. How will you know it's a movement? The event was hearing Jonathan Edwards preach to you on Sunday morning. The event was showing up at a George Whitfield revival event. That was the event. But it's how you lived your life after leaving that event that determined if you were part of a movement or not. It's the day to day life change that goes on. Otherwise it might have just been an emotional connection, but it didn't. The seed did not take root, didn't grow, didn't, didn't produce any fruit. And see, what you're talking about here, brother, is the stuff that produces fruit and long lasting. So absolutely, you're right, with one caveat. We are this close to the edge of a cliff that we really cannot afford to just kind of hold out. And we got 10 years until your kids come of age and take it from here, or 20 years, we don't have that. So we're going to have to get aggressive and take some political scalps here of the other side to roll the, to slow the clock down and to roll it back so we can wait for the long term effort that you're talking about to produce real cultural renewal and revival. Because you're right, what you're suggesting is what does it. But in the meantime, we are going to have to do more than just vote in November. We're going to have to do some painful, hard things to get the time for what you want to do to work.

[Todd Erzin]

Todd well, another question I answered already about the fact that this is being brought up at all. This is Christianity 101. And I think the fact that you're bringing up is because if we're being honest, how rare this is. It's not just about words. It's that old phrase, yes, preach the gospel and if necessary use words. Your life must be fundamentally different. It must be Josephus, look how they love one another.

[Steve Dace]

Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice. Paul says, yes, you push back.

[Todd Erzin]

There's all kinds of people that previous question, there's all kinds of people saying online they are certain they're saved and they don't have to do anything. We just had that question.

[Steve Dace]

I guarantee that person's not saved. If you believe you're safe so you don't have to do anything, you would, you should because you're saved. You should want to do things.

[Todd Erzin]

You should want to see. These are one on one issues and we're still confused about them. We just, and if push comes to shove, as I mentioned yesterday, here's the list of 10 things that let's see if we're real about this. Let's sacrifice these things, let's smash these idols. The conservative Christian community would fight you on them. They don't want to do it. They really, really, really want to be comfortable at the end of the day. And so of course, brother, of course, but this is Captain Obvious territory and the Lord himself. Will you run for me too now? Yeah, probably.

[Aaron McIntyre]

You're planting right now and the field you're planting in is going to bring about some good, a good harvest. However, the field is also full of weeds, a lot of weeds. If you don't start at least making ground against the weeds, eventually those weeds, even if you have a good crop or the crop rises up here and there, it's going to envelop that crop. And that's what I think I hear from, from Steven Todd is that, yeah, there's planting, yes, there is reaping, but there's also weeding. And that's a large problem right now. Tactics is next. Who says, like her mentor Bernie before her AOC will be winning the primary. I think he's talking about the 2028 primary, only to have the DNC Thanos snap and replace her with Josh Shapiro or Gavin Newsom type.

[Steve Dace]

It won't be Josh Shapiro. He's Jewish. She had no chance. But I could see that happening to her for Gavin Newsom, I could see it. But the levers of power that the people who did that for Joe Biden in 2020, the Pelosi's, the Jim Clyburns, these people are old, dying, leaving, and they're being replaced by a new generation of Democrats. So I could see them try something like that, but they don't have the, they don't have the power that they did six, seven years ago. And it certainly won't be for a Jew. I mean, the Democrats are openly anti Semitic party.

[Todd Erzin]

I'm selling you. You're not giving AOC enough credit in terms of her ability to make people swoon. If, if she's the it girl of the moment. Don't, don't.

[Steve Dace]

One thing also the girl thing. Doing that to Bernie Sanders, an octogenarian straight white male, and doing that to a younger woman of color in the Democratic Party are two totally different things. Two totally different things.

[Todd Erzin]

It's really, really going to be important that despite the fact that Trump won this election, we come to terms with the fact that things are worse than a lot of you understand that they are in terms of the ability to manipulate the human condition. The degree people are checked out and addicted to their idols, the degree Christians are lying to themselves. I can't stress that enough right now. If you think like AOC is obviously an absurdity, that can't happen. And she, oh yes, she can be the Khaleesi that if, if she just captures the right zeitgeist. In the moment. Of course she can.

[Steve Dace]

She's a way more talented politician than Kamala Harris is.

[Todd Erzin]

Have we not learned this? Way more.

[Steve Dace]

Way more.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Elliot Evans is next. Who says attacking Gen Z men as being lazy and attacking their favorite podcasts probably won't help Team GOP or Con Inc. Win the midterms. I think this is at least in part, a reference to Caroline Levitt's comments with, I think it was Jesse Waters on Fox News talking about Gen Z. She was specifically talking about, I think, Gen Z in New York City being born with a quote, unquote, silver spoon. And I think she even threw herself, threw herself into that as well. But those comments blew up over the weekend as well.

[Steve Dace]

You know, as someone who has gotten hundreds of emails over the years from people who apparently names were all Boomer. I had no idea this many people were named Boomer. When I've made it very, very, very, very clear what, who, what belief system, worldview I am talking about over the years. My, my, my inclination is if you're the kind of guy who reacts to Caroline Levitt's comments in the way that you just described, then all you did was confirm what she said.

[Todd Erzin]

I've got takes on both sides. Levitt there, knowing she's supposed to be a communicator.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And this is the problem that I have.

[Todd Erzin]

You can't expose your Achilles heel.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Don't make it easy for her.

[Todd Erzin]

You made it very, very easy because of who you, you don't feel guilty about who you married and who love, that's fine. But you're, you're doing pretty well for yourself and that has nothing to do with your job. So don't open yourself up like that. But last every generation. I don't like which podcast. What are you watching? What are you spending your time doing? Is it true? See, that's not on the table, apparently for you with that question, are you wasting your life? Can that be pointed out? See, that's the other side of this coin.

[Steve Dace]

Good points, good points. All right, let's get some good points from Daniel Horowitz here next, The steve day show. All right, let's get to it. Been too long since I've had a chance to talk to my good friend and the prophet of woe and Lamentation himself. Daniel Horowitz joins us. Take us inside politics here on the Steve Day Show. Good to see you, brother. How was your fourth, Steve?

[Daniel Horowitz]

It was amazing. Oh, my gosh. You know, if only our actions would match the spectacular nature of the fireworks, man, we'd be off to the races. But here we are. Now we're back to reality.

[Steve Dace]

Do you believe Mitch McConnell is alive?

[Daniel Horowitz]

I do, I. To be, to be fair, he's been hanging on at this state of fragility for quite a long time. So it wouldn't surprise me if he holds on a little longer. I will say.

[Steve Dace]

Do you think he's conscious? Do you think he's lucid? You think Scott Jennings talked to him?

[Daniel Horowitz]

It could be. I mean, Scott, by the way, it's, it's hilarious. I mean, and again, I, I don't mind him. Scott's been a huge defender of Jews, I gotta say. But you know, Scott was one of his right hand men and now he's like a hero on Maka now. I mean, back in the day we were on opposite sides. Everyone's a big hero. That Mitch McConnell is just like a deadbeat. But when he actually mattered, it, Steve, it was a pretty lonely fight. So I would say 13 years later, where are we with the Mitch McConnell's of our time? And that's, we're always a hero on like, everyone's like, yeah, Bob Michael sucked, Bob Dole was lame, but we're kind of bad at recognizing the Mitch McConnells of our time.

[Steve Dace]

The president back to bombing Iran and says things here are likely to escalate. Here's what I think happened or has been happening. I think that we just ran out of political capital, had to pull back, had needed a break, needed to get gas prices lower, particularly with a long holiday weekend, one of the biggest travel weekends of the year. Make them more reasonable. You did that. Polling comes out yesterday right after the holiday that shows despite the best efforts of a handful of podcasters, Republicans are still overwhelmingly pro Israel, overwhelmingly opposed to Iran. They just don't want to fight Iran at the expense of their own economy, essentially. But if you can manage to do that without it, having, having it, you know, cost us, you know, a cataclysmic economic cost, then by all means. I think you look at that, I think you look at the end of the holiday, I think being in Turkey, where the President's already not satisfied with NATO, a chance to send a message there by launching against Iran while he is there. I just think that this has just been, I'm just following trend lines. Um, I think we don't know who really is running Iran or could run Iran. I think the goal frankly from the beginning has been either we just kill enough of these people that eventually we find somebody there at some 30 year old, 35 year old Gorbachev, who might have taken over in 20 years but can take over now and wants to live, or we just keep killing them enough until, you know, they're so decimated that they're not really a threat to the region. And I just think we just are back because there's some, we've got some political leeway now. We had some gas price relief. People are going to be home a lot for the next few weeks until the August vacation time kicks in again. So there's a few weeks now to go ahead and bomb the hell out of them again and kill another 90 of their leaders or so if we have to. I think, I think that's all we're doing here. What do you think?

[Daniel Horowitz]

I don't know, Steve. It's, it's very hard to look at this on again, off again thing because we're, we're already into what, four and a half months of this. And the bottom line is, you know, if we want to pull back and leave a deterrent, then you do it on our terms. What you don't do is unfreeze their assets and take off the sanctions that even Obama didn't do, which is what was being proposed until now. But you just kind of call it quits with the prerogative to always come back and do this. My concern about doing more is I just haven't seen a will to do what it takes in the modern era to better an enemy into submission. Because if the president is serious about it, that's what he needs to do. The only option is to rip the band aid off and to stop dragging this out, because that's the worst. Because then you get the worst of all economic outcomes. You know, Iran's able to fire off more stuff. It has to be unrelenting and with the goal of whatever happens, happens, we just make sure the straits are open. If there's someone we can work with, we work with. If there's nobody home, all the more so then we'll just, you know, have shipping right through there. But I think what we can't do is continue this on again, off again pursuant to negotiations because there's nothing to negotiate with. I mean, that was, that was obvious from day one. You could, you could say it's not a strong enough threat, particularly after we degraded them a year ago, their nuclear program, that we should just leave it alone. Or you could say we just need to completely take them out. But this middle ground is just the classic lukewarm hell that I hope you're right, that he's moving away from,

[Todd Erzin]

I

[Steve Dace]

think we're going to see how many more of them we have to kill over the next few weeks. And then if it doesn't work, we'll pull back again, go through some fake negotiation again, just again to, you know, draw down the oil prices again, get us through. Maybe we'll come back after the election, after the midterms. We'll see. I, I, I don't think we've really been trying to negotiate with them. I, I don't think that Trump thinks he can negotiate with them. Uh, I think that he thinks, though, that there is a, I do think he thinks there's a third way of how to do a regime change without some, you know, armada boots on the ground, that you can so decimate them that they're, they were so vulnerable. You get so decimate them that you essentially put them on the cliff and let, you know, the, the people kind of push it the rest of the way or get some kind of perestroiko or glass nose to there. I'm not sure I agree with that either, but, but I do think the

[Daniel Horowitz]

president thinks that, or anyone who would be likely to lead that on the ground, if I were them, I would not put my head out. I mean, because we've already seen the reprisals, you know, once we, we stop the bombing. So I just don't think we're supporting those circumstances, which is why, contrary to a lot of my friends, by default, I just feel like it's better to leave it alone. Now when I say leave it alone, that means not to pay tribute and not to take off sanctions. But I just, I just don't see him doing this. And I think you're right. It's going to be this stop again, on again, off again. I also do have to say that you have to have a strategic vision vis a vis Israel vis a v their enemies, vis a vis the, the Gulf nations, Turkey, Syria, that all is coherent. So, you know what I mean? Like, if you're going to promote Cutter and promote Turkey, but then we're going to go all out on Iran. I mean, it just, it, it's inconsistent.

[Steve Dace]

I agree. I first, let me, I'm going to push back on what you just said, but I want it with a caveat that I agree with you. Okay. So my pushback is what I think he thinks, not what I think. Okay, sure. I think that, that he believes that if you got rid of Iran, if there were two obstacles to forming a Sunni Arab Israel alliance that stabilized the region, I think In Trump's mind, the Palestinian, the so called Palestinian question was the first and Iran was the second. And he's already shown he can successfully get around the Palestinian question to some degree. He's shown some ability to do that. And I think that he thinks that Iran is the other instigator and that without the so called Palestinian question and without Iran, that the reality is there's plenty of Sunni Arab leaders who are tired of endless war with Israel as well, that would just like to go ahead and, you know, enjoy their harems and their oil riches and move on with their lives. And I think that's what the President thinks he's doing

[Daniel Horowitz]

and that that could be. I do think there's some other, again, considerations with the ties to the Gulf nations, because it's kind of like you have to understand from Qatar and Saudi Arabia's perspective, even the UAE to a certain extent, and certainly Turkey, if you watch the United States government, if they were like, pedal to the metal, Israel, do what the hell you need to do, and they were confident that was where we, where we are and we're going to stay there, I think they would react accordingly and go all in against Iran and they'd leave Israel alone. But they see that, that they're amendable to it. So from their perspective, they're getting the best of both worlds. They have Israel's military, which is doing enough to degrade Iran over time and to sort of check them, but they could always count on America, both Republican and Democrat administrations, to sort of rein them in enough that they don't become king of the region, which, which is, from their perspective, what they would want. Now, if you try to force them, well, okay, either you're under Iran's thumb or Israel's king, that would be a different story. But they know they don't have to face that choice. So they're going to lobby and use, you know, some of the leverage and relationships they have with the administration to achieve that.

[Steve Dace]

There's a, there's a subplot here. I want to get your take on politically, and it's what's happening with Tyler Robinson's preliminary hearing. All right, not, not every person that promoted tpusa and Erica Kirk or not, not every person who is dubious of our relationship with Israel promoted tpusa or Erica Kirk conspiracy theories, but everybody who did is dubious of our relationship with Israel. There's a, there's a, there's a one to one. All right, you know, Venn diagram here. It's perfectly perfect overlap between your position on Israel and whether you were pushing Erica Kirk TPUSA conspiracy theories following Charlie's murder. Right.

[Todd Erzin]

Okay.

[Steve Dace]

As we are watching now, just mountains of evidence being presented from Tyler Robinson before we even get to the fact he confessed, before we even get to the fact DNA is everywhere, videos everywhere. And, and you're watching a lot of the elements that tried to push this now for the last seven, eight months are getting isolated now. Not just Candace, Candace, Ian Carroll, this whole group, they're getting isolated. There's a lot of collective pushback now against the entire what's left of the right, against these people essentially trying to push them off into Exile island, if you will, and say, hey, you guys can't quit us. We fire you basically before you decide you're gonna schism us. We're already throwing you out. Basically, you guys are out of here. All right, you can see this kind of taking place right now. This plays into this conversation we were just having because again, this is also largely, not exclusively. All right? There are still a lot, there's still a lot of sincerely reformed Catholic people who are questioning the, the former generational dispensational narrative. Okay? So we're still going to have to have some of these long term conversations. I know you as a Jew would like to have some long term conversations about what our relationship with Israel looks like as yourself. Ok, but, but sort of doing so from the lowest common denominator, knuckle dragging denominator. This group is getting isolated right now and kind of getting expunged from, from the mainstream. Right. By the by by what's happening with, with Tyler Robinson's preliminary hearing here and likely guilty verdict. What do you think that does in terms of the overall political influence of this group? Is it just largely an online phenomenon? What's your read of this?

[Daniel Horowitz]

So like this, it depends what degree you're talking about. What we've been seeing until now is that their hatred for Jews is greater than their alleged love for America.

[Todd Erzin]

First.

[Daniel Horowitz]

What I mean by that is because to your point, we have Islam and antifa and there's, there's a huge nexus there where they're sometimes together, sometimes not. We have this culture of assassination and subversion and violence on our soil. And we thought Charlie Kirk would be that cathartic moment, but in fact, really nothing has been done policy wise to, to deal with this. And it's because these people have hijacked the conversation to talk about Israel all day, which like you said you could have opinions on it. But I think what we're missing from this conversation with, and I think this is where these people are getting exposed and losing clout is that even if you would be sympathetic to their view, what's starting to happen is their, their promotion of Islam and distraction from the problem here just to own Netanyahu is not working for anyone. So, for example, you know, here's where this comes in. You, you could hate Israel from afar if you don't have the problem of Islam in your own country. But once you have the problem. So they're cheering on, you know, some of Trump's comments and his visit with Erdogan and, and, and praising Erdogan and Erdogan's an enemy of Netanyahu. Yeah, but what does that do for you? Erdogan is funding so many of these mosques in America. Okay. Like, I'm not worried about Israel. They'll be fine. I don't think Erdogan funds mosques in Israel. I don't think they allow that. Like, they'll be fine.

[Steve Dace]

We won't.

[Daniel Horowitz]

And I did see a clip. I mean, just, just full disclosure, I don't go there. But it's, it's like shoved into your Twitter of Nick Fuentes actually saying, you know, it was, it was an acceptable alliance a couple years ago, but now I'm sick of the Islamists, I'm sick of Muslims, which is kind of an interesting history there. But I think they realize that that position is untenable and whoever is maintaining it is going to be marginalized.

[Steve Dace]

Are we seeing then a schism here on our side? Are these folks going to become sort of their own movement at this point, moving forward, that the only thing that unites them is just a hatred of Israel? So you have Anna Kasparian and Chuck Unger, you know, united with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson, for example. This is what really unites them.

[Daniel Horowitz]

I, I don't. In some sort of gay way, maybe, but not in any efficient, effective way. It for two reasons. Number one, I mean, look, the right can't run a carnival. I mean, they can't run anything. For better, for worse, in this case, probably better. But, you know, we can't get our, our craft together.

[Steve Dace]

So you're dubious that the most elements within our own ranks will be able to accomplish with the most sane elements in our ranks? I've been able to do, yes.

[Daniel Horowitz]

It's not happening. And, and number two is for the same reason why they're choking on their own criticism of some elements of the pro Israel crowd. So what's the criticism? Look, we're drowning economically. We have social problems, we have demographic problems. We have anarcho tyranny. We have antifa. We have Islam. And their allegations that certain people care more about Israel than America. Well, what they're demonstrating is they care more about Israel than America. I mean, you know, I mean, you know my show, it's like 99 been about all the things they claim to care about. I barely talk about Israel. You look at Tucker, he's like, he's the only dude.

[Steve Dace]

I texted. We're almost out of time. I texted our former colleague Steve Baker over the weekend. I said, bro, your content is so compelling, you got Tucker to talk about something other than Jews. Props to you, brother. I texted that to him over the weekend. I did. Just to prove your point. Good to see you, Daniel. Thank you.

[Daniel Horowitz]

Take care.

[Steve Dace]

Take care. Gentlemen, we got about 90 seconds left. Any thoughts in that conversation?

[Todd Erzin]

Daniel said what I said in his own words. We do not have the team in the field that is capable and. Or interested of executing the. It is gay. And

[Aaron McIntyre]

yeah, we do have a wonderful singing voice, though. That is.

[Daniel Horowitz]

That is.

[Aaron McIntyre]

That is right up. I mean, have we asked Mitch McConnell what he thinks about the team on the field?

[Steve Dace]

Ukraine, Right? That's what he said.

[Aaron McIntyre]

AI. Mitch McConnell speaks at CPAC before Steve.

[Steve Dace]

Oh, that's 10,000%. It's possible AI McConnell has already spoken at CPAC and has already been a senator. Would we know the difference?

[Todd Erzin]

No.

[Steve Dace]

AI. AI. Mechanical. Mechanical AI McConnell. More or less conservative than actual McConnell. Todd, since you're the biggest AI skeptic on the stage, if your choice was actual McConnell or AI McConnell, what would you choose?

[Todd Erzin]

It might actually be more conservative.

[Steve Dace]

I think AI McConnell would have a

[Todd Erzin]

better chance, just accidentally.

[Steve Dace]

Yes. Agreed. Agreed. All right, we're gonna stick around and do over time for Blaze TV subscribers for the rest of you, but we're gonna see you Tomorrow noon to 2 Eastern, right after Glenn Beck, right here on Blaze TV. Until then, go hard. Romans 8:28.