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The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2222 - Trump’s FINAL ULTIMATUM: Two Weeks To Stop The Attack!
01:05:54
President Trump lays out his final ultimatum: he’ll make a call on attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities within two weeks; we analyze all the various possibilities; and why are people falling in love with their AI chatbots? Click here to join the member-exclusive portion of my show: https://bit.ly/3WDjgHE Ep.2222 - - - Facts Don’t Care About Your Feelings - - - DailyWire+: Join millions of people who still believe in truth, courage, and common sense at DailyWirePlus.com My new book, “Lions and Scavengers,” drops September 2nd—pre-order today at https://dailywire.com/benshapiro Get your Ben Shapiro merch here: https://bit.ly/3TAu2cw - - - Today's Sponsors: Perplexity - Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine that searches the internet to deliver fast, unbiased, high-quality answers, with sources and in-line citations. Ask Perplexity anything here: https://pplx.ai/benshapiro ExpressVPN - Go to https://expressvpn.com/ben and find out how you can get 4 months of ExpressVPN...
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- [00:00]
Ben Shapiro
Alrighty. Tons to get to today on the show. President Trump saying that he will make his decision about whether to bomb the Fordo nuclear facility within two weeks. We'll explain all the permutations of that. What it means plus is ice raiding Dodger Stadium. And a fight has now broken out between Elon Musk and someone in the Trump administration. But first, it's Friday and someone brought a leather couch to a gunfight. It's been after dark 7:30pm Eastern tonight only on DW. Tonight, I play a game that would confuse Confucius answer your deranged emails. And Dr. Phil confuses Cam Newton for a Pride float, please. Plus, Glenn Beck ruins my week with a movie pick and someone gets absolutely annihilated in this week's Ben Destroys. It's unpredictable, unfiltered and deeply unserious. Join me and my slightly unhinged sidekick, producer Savvy as we light the match and walk away in slow motion. It's Ben After Dark tonight, 7:30pm Eastern, exclusively for members only on Daily Wire. Plus alrighty, folks. So President Trump continues to play his cards. And everybody seems very roiled by this. Everybody on the sort of anti Israel right and left, that horseshoe theory group, they seem to be very encouraged by the idea that President Trump is going to taco out with regard to Iran, that somehow he's now going to let Iran have a clear pathway to a nuclear weapon or something like that. And some people on the pro Israel side are very agitated about this as well, thinking the same sort of thing. That's not what's happening. That's not what I'll explain in a moment. First, the updates from the actual war. So last night, according to the iaea, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Israel hit Iran's Honda heavy water research reactors, according to the Times of Israel, a project under construction that had not yet begun operating. And they damaged the nearby plant that makes heavy water, which of course is a crucial component to making a nuclear weapon. Israel has struck several nuclear facilities in Iran. The heavy water reactor as originally designed would have been able to easily produce plutonium that could have eventually been used in a nuclear weapon. Although of course Iran continues to lie and say that they are not producing nuclear weaponry. And if they're not producing nuclear weaponry, I just have a question. Why are they building facilities 300ft under the ground? You do that if you're building like a normal nuclear energy facility. We have lots of nuclear energy facilities in the United States, in Europe. None of them are built 300ft below the ground. The only reason to do that is of course, because you are trying to shield from some sort of attack, because that's not what you're, you're not producing nuclear energy in one of the most oil and natural gas rich region regions on planet Earth because you desperately need more nuclear energy. You're just so green. And I've yet to see the actual explanation for why Iran even needs some level of civilian nuclear enrichment. What is the desperate need for civilian nuclear enrichment? They're just such big environmentalists. They're like Greta Thunberg environmentalists, very worried about oil and natural gas. Are they over in the Islamic Republic of Iran? In any case, while Israel has been targeting military sites, nuclear sites, nuclear scientists in extraordinarily targeted fashion, as always, because that's what the Israeli military does in the way Western militaries typically do. Meanwhile, Ayatollah Khamenei and his friends have been shooting missiles directly into the heart of civilian areas. So the big hit over the course of the last couple days is the Iranians achieved a strike on a hospital, not like a hospital that hides an underground Hamas tunnel, which is what's been happening in the Gaza Strip where Hamas, a terrorist group, uses hospitals in order to shield all of its military facilities, thus daring the Israelis to hit the hospital in order to kill the Hamas terrorists. We are talking just a hospital hospital. This hospital, by the way, does not even have any connection with the Israeli military, like at all. So this is Soroka Medical center in Beersheva, which is in the south of the country. And here is a video of a, of an Iranian munition, a large Iranian missile, which by the way, happens to be a cluster bomb, apparently violating international law, hitting a surgery center that miraculously had been evacuated one day before and basically devastating the building. You can see the missile basically took out the building. And then here is some footage from inside the adjacent building where it was strike. So they were wounding people who are already in the hospital. By the way, worth noting, one of the people who the Iranians have killed in this latest missile barrage, I believe there's a young girl in Ramadan, was a seven year old who'd been brought to Israel for leukemia treatment. She's now dead because of the Iranians, because this is what the Iranian government is. It is one of the worst governments on planet Earth. According to the Times of Israel, Iran fired a barrage from 30 ballistic missiles early on Thursday, scoring a direct hit on Israel's main southern hospital, the Soroka Medical Center. And two other impacts in the Central cities of Cologne and Ramadan that wounded dozens of people, including six in serious condition. Now, again, the number of people who've been wounded and killed in Israel is shockingly low, given the size of the barrage the Iranians have been firing. Israel's missile defenses have been working extraordinarily well. With that said, obviously, the attempt to target civilian centers is a difference in kind from what Israel is doing in the other direction. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz suggested that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei can no longer be permitted to exist. He said Khamenei openly declares he wants Israel destroyed. He personally gives the order to fire on hospitals. He considers the destruction of the State of Israel to be a gold. Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist. Now, whether Israel actually decides to take out Khamenei or whether they do not decide to take out Khamenei, and President Trump has already publicly suggested that Israel and America actually know where Khamenei is hiding. That is a question of politics. That is a question of what would be best for the war effort. Suffice it to say that again, the Khomeini regime, the Ayatollah's regime in Iran, is deeply evil. A deeply evil regime that represses its people, that shoots protesters in the streets, that targets its various geopolitical opponents, ranging from. From Israel, which it wishes to extirpate, to Saudi Arabia. Remember, it wasn't all that long ago that they were attempting to burn Saudi oil fields. It's a terrible regime. Now, does that mean that the goal here should be regime change by either Israel or the United States? Israel has said, Benjamin Netanyahu has said that regime change is not, in fact, a goal. He says, and so does President Trump, that if regime change occurs as an effect of taking down the nuclear regime in Iran, destroying their capacity to create nuclear weapons, well, that's a side product. But nobody, no one, and this is important because you're hearing many, many people again, on that horseshoe theory, right, and that horseshoe theory, left, lie about the actual agenda here. Just lie straight up. No one is calling for hundreds of thousands of boots on the ground in order to regime change in Iran. And when people even compare this to Libya, that's ridiculous. It is not like Libya. First of all, in Libya, most of the work was done by people who are already on the ground. There was some tangential association with Western intelligence, and I opposed it. It was wrong. We shouldn't have done it. In this particular case, the goal is extirpating the Iranian nuclear program. If the Regime falls, that's up to the Iranian people. That's their job. It's their country. But no one that I know of is calling for a full scale boots on the ground, Iraq style nation building operation. The phrase nation building has not even entered the conversation on any side here with regard to Iran. So all the people who are suggesting that all of this must end because otherwise Iran is going to cascade into chaos and violence and the regime is going to fall and then we're going to get involved and we're going to be the ones responsible. Again, I do not buy the initial premise that if you break it, you bought it. I just don't buy that premise because I think that is a great way of dissuading you from taking actions against regimes that actually threaten you. So the big news yesterday is that at the White House press conference with Caroline Levitt, the White House press secretary, she read a statement from President Trump that essentially set yet another deadline with regard to the destruction of the Iranian nuclear program. I think people are deliberately misreading this in many cases. Here is Caroline Levitt's statement.
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Caroline Levitt
I have a message directly from the President and I quote, based on the fact that there is a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.
- [08:09]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, within the next two weeks. So first of all, not in two weeks. Within the next two weeks. Okay. So sometime in here, President Trump is going to make a decision. Now, my guess is that the President already knows what he is going to do because the reality is that the Iranians have no interest in giving up their nuclear program. And this is sort of the point when you listen to the rest of what Caroline Levitt had to say yesterday. President Trump is not, as Matt Drudge would say. I don't know when Matt Drudge became a full scale leftist, but he really is. I mean, there's no distinction between Matt Drudge's front page now in the Huffington Post. They're basically the same. But Matt Drudge has a headline today over at the Drudge Report suggesting Trump tacos for two weeks. Meaning taco is Trump always chickens out. That's what that stands for. Trump is not tacoing. He's not chickening out. That is ridiculous and silly. In fact, Donald Trump put out a post on Truth Social, quoting Mark Geeson of the Washington Post, quote, donald Trump is not an isolationist. But I think some of the Republican isolationists are suddenly discovering they're out of touch with the MAGA movement and Donald Trump. I have total confidence in Donald Trump. This is the guy who killed Qasem Soleimani. You think he's afraid to take out Fordo? Of course not. That was Trump tweeting out that quote, okay? And if you listen to what the rest of the White House press secretary was saying, he has not changed his opinion on this, and he is not going to change his opinion on this. Iran cannot be nuclear. I'll spell out the options in a moment. Here is Caroline Levitt explaining. Iran has all of the preconditions they need to achieve a nuke, and all they're waiting for is basically that final run.
- [09:39]
Caroline Levitt
Let's be very clear. Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon. All they need is a decision from the Supreme Leader to do that. And it would take a couple of weeks to complete the production of that weapon, which would, of course, pose an existential threat, not just to Israel, but to the United States and to the entire world.
- [09:58]
Ben Shapiro
And then she continued by suggesting, what are the conditions? Because she said, what are the conditions for a deal to be made? And guess what? The conditions are precisely the same as they have always been. I don't know who's high on their own supply here who believes that President Trump has now radically shifted his position. He has not. He just put a clock on this thing, that's all.
- [10:20]
Caroline Levitt
No enrichment of a uranium. And it would absolutely not. Iran is not, absolutely not able to achieve a nuclear weapon. The President has been very clear, clear about that.
- [10:31]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, again, no uranium enrichment, no working toward a nuclear weapon. Does that sound like President Trump has changed his opinion now? Again, there was a sort of quasi celebration that broke out among the Horseshoe theory folks, suggesting that perhaps finally the isolationists had their win. Perhaps now, Donald Trump was abandoning his entire stated goal with regard to the Iranian nuclear program for two decades. Guys, you read him wrong. You're still reading him wrong. You are still reading him wrong. That's not what the President of the United States is saying. That's not what the President of the United States is doing. We'll get to more on the President of the United States. What exactly is he doing here? Plus, are people falling in love with AI chatbots? And if so, why? First, picture this. You walk over to your computer, pull up your entire browsing history, hit print, and then you nail those pages to your front door for everyone to see. That would sound insane, correct? Well, that's basically what's happening every single day. Unless you're protecting yourself with ExpressVPN. Here's the thing most people don't realize. Your Internet provider can see every single website you've ever visited, even when you're browsing in incognito mode. In many countries, they're actually required to keep detailed logs of your online activity for years, just in case the government wants to take a look. And if you're in the United States, it gets even worse because ISPs can literally sell your personal browsing data to whomever they want. Now, you can't stop your ISP from trying to collect this information, but you can make sure they never get it in the first place. That's where ExpressVPN comes in. It encrypts all your online activity before it even reaches your Internet provider, turning their logs into complete and utter gibberish. You know, I use ExpressVPN all the time. Obviously I'm on the road right now. That means sometimes I have to use hotel or public WI fi and I don't want my info out there. And that's why I use ExpressVPN. It's simple to use just one tap on any device. Phone, laptop, tablet, whatever. You know, your privacy is completely locked down. So if you'd like to join me in fighting for your privacy, use my special link to get four extra months of ExpressVPN for free at expressvpn.com that's expressvpn.com Ben Also, I've discovered an incredible tool. It gives me real time insights into my metabolism through something as simple as my breath. It's called Lumen. Lumen is the world's first handheld metabolic coach. All you need to do is breathe into it first thing in the morning and you'll know exactly what's happening with your metabolism. Whether you're burning fats or carbs based on your measurements, Lumen creates a personalized nutrition plan just for you. I can breathe into it before and after workouts and meals. I know exactly what's going on in my body in real time. Since your metabolism is basically the engine behind everything your body does, when it's working really well, you get all kinds of great benefits. You'll find it easier to manage your weight. You have more energy throughout the day. You'll see better results from your workouts. You'll even sleep better. It all connects back to that healthy metabolism. The warmer months are here. Spring back into your health and fitness. Go to Lumen Me Shapiro. Get 10% off your Lumen. That's L U M E N Me Shapiro for 10% off your purchase. Lumen's great. It's going to make your life better and healthier. For thanks to Lumen for sponsoring this episode again. Check them out at lumen me/appeal and get 10% off your lumen today. And then, just for good measure, Caroline Lovett said, our goal here is no nuclear program. The decision will happen within two weeks. Do you guys not speak English?
- [13:28]
Caroline Levitt
Nobody should be surprised by the president's position that Iran absolutely cannot obtain a nuclear weapon. He's been unequivocally clear about this for decades, not just as president, not just as a presidential candidate, but also as a private citizen. In fact, I have some quotes for you. In 2011, President Trump said America's primary goal with Iran must be to destroy its nuclear ambitions. We cannot allow this radical regime to acquire a nuclear weapon that they will either use or hand off to terrorists. In 2015, the President said the problem is that Iran poses an existential threat to Israel, our Middle Eastern allies in the United States. And of course, the president has repeated that in his first term as president and his second term as president as well. That's why he was adamantly opposed to the disastrous Iranian nuclear agreement that was implemented by President Obama. And as I just told you from the president directly, he has. He will make a decision within two weeks.
- [14:22]
Ben Shapiro
Again, is this Trump chickening out? No, this is President Trump setting a clock again and saying, this is your final chance. Okay? This is your final, final chance. There are no more final chances. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. And she points out that Caroline Levitt, that the president is doing a good job of getting the whole world on board. And one of the astonishing things about this is that pretty much no one, yeah, the Europeans are mewling a little bit, but that's what you would expect. They're Europeans. They're Europeans. And when the Israelis want the opinions of the French on something, then they can always call the French and learn how to surrender in war. But the Europeans are complaining a little. But the truth is, most of the Europeans are just very grateful to Israel for taking out the nuclear program. In fact, the Chancellor of Germany, Frederick Mears, said specifically that he is thankful that Israel is doing the dirty work the rest of the world has ignored for several decades. Caroline Levitt says the whole world is on Trump's side when he says there can't be an Iranian nuke.
- [15:14]
Caroline Levitt
Well, certainly the entire world is on the president's side when it comes to the fact that Iran cannot obtain a Nuclear weapon. This is something that pretty much all of all of humanity, except for the Iranian terrorist regime themselves agree upon.
- [15:30]
Ben Shapiro
Ok? Meanwhile, the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei says his country would not surrender. Ok, so again, for all those who believe that this is likely to end in some sort of conciliatory negotiation with the Iranians, very highly doubtful. Very highly doubtful. And let's be clear, Iran does not have any serious allies. None. No one is coming to their defense. Obviously have the Russians mouthing off a little bit, but they're not providing any substantial real defense to the Iranians. The Chinese have flown a couple of flights in, but they're really not getting involved. Even Hezbollah, which is an Iranian proxy terror group, has said, well, have fun, guys. Enjoy, you know, like, like, have fun in your war. But we're not getting involved at all. So meanwhile, the Iranians have been calling the United States and begging the US to call off Israel. According to the Times of Israel, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araki has spoken by phone several times since Israel began its strikes on Iran last week in a bid to find a diplomatic end to the crisis, three diplomats told Reuters. According to those diplomats, Iraqi said Tehran would not return to negotiations over its nuclear program unless Israel stopped the attacks. Well, good luck with that. Israel is not going to stop. They didn't start so they could be stopped. The truth is that Israel probably did not ask for explicit permission from the United States to do this. That was the word of Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State. In all likelihood, what happened is that Israel had some sort of understanding with the United States that if they decided to go, the United States would participate in shooting down missiles coming the other way. That was probably the extent of the. Of whatever agreement took place. There'd be some intelligence sharing, shooting down on the missiles coming the other way and the like. But the notion that Steve Witkoff is going to call off the Israeli air Force from bombing sites because Abbas Araki, the negotiator on behalf of the Israel, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is, is telling him to, that that is not going to be a thing. Especially because Tehran is rejecting every offer that Wycoff has put in front of them. I mean, I've been very critical of Steve Witkoff's negotiating ability. But let's be clear about this. Steve Witkoff has put a bunch of proposals in front of the Iranians and they've rejected all of them. And that's up to the Iranians. Not Steve Witkoff. That's not Witkoff's fault that the Iranians have decided to be totally intransigent about their nuclear program. Meanwhile, the Europeans are doing exactly what you would suggest they were going to do, which is they apparently are going to meet with the Iranians on Friday, which again, not, not a shock in any way, shape or form. This is what the Europeans do. Apparently. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Thursday with his UK counterpart, Foreign Secretary David Lammy to discuss the conflict between Iran and Israel. They agreed Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon. And then Lammy said the situation in the Middle east remains perilous and added a window now exists which within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution. Ok, sure guys. Uh huh. Okay, well, you know, you know, it'd be an even better diplomatic solution if Iran did not have fordo to actually negotiate with because at that point they don't have any leverage. Okay, but bottom line here is President Trump is trying to provide as much of an off ramp to the Iranians as humanly possible. He has all along and he holds all the cards here. The United States has not fired a weapon yet. The United States, the only thing the United States has done is help shoot down missiles. That's it. We have not fired an offensive shot in anger yet. Well, when you have the 800 pound gorilla sitting in the back of the room waiting to go, that's a pretty good hand of cards that you're playing to mix the metaphors there. Now meanwhile, the Trump administration is apparently boosting monitoring of possible Iran backed cells in the United States. So for all those who say that Iran is not a threat to the United States and you know, they're just friendly and wonderful. I don't know a lot of friendly countries that have actual terror cells planted across the United States who are like our friends and are interested in widespread negotiations. According to FBI Director Kash Patel, he's increased efforts, according to CBS News, to monitor possible domestic sleeper cells linked to Hezbollah, which of course is a terrorist group. Both the White House and FBI declined to comment. The threat from Iranian operatives have has worried current and former administration officials since Iranian General Kasem Soleimani was assassinated in January 2020. Now let's be clear. The threat pre existed that obviously Hezbollah has a wide presence, unfortunately in Latin America and Europe as well. Iran keeps threatening to retaliate if the US strikes. But I think one of the reasons why the United States and Israel have been holding off from killing Ali Khamenei, the Supreme AYATOLLAH I think the reason for that is because the idea is, okay, if your nuclear facilities go bye bye, at least you still get to retain power and be alive. You still get to remain among the living and breathing. And perhaps one day your son takes over. If you attack the United States or activate terror cells, you are dead and probably so is your son, because that is the way the Middle east works. Okay? Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu, he has said, listen, President Trump's going to do what's best for America. I trust his judgment. This is the number one true number. But number two, it's the right tack for the Prime Minister of Israel because of course, America and Israel have interests that overlap in this particular area, but are not identical. President Trump will do what's best for America. I trust his judgment. He's a tremendous friend, a tremendous world leader, a tremendous friend of Israel and the Jewish people. Okay? Prime Minister Netanyahu went on to say that regime change in Iran is not a formal goal of the Israeli campaign. He said it could be a result of. But that's up to the Iranian people. Quote, the matter of changing the regime or the fall of this regime is first and foremost a matter for the Iranian people. What is America doing? He said American pilots are intercepting drones alongside our pilots. He also mentioned the Thaad Advanced Missile defense system the United States sent to Israel last October and the deployment of US Destroyers equipped with the Navy's Aegis combat system. Netanyahu also said that Israel has the capacity to do what it needs to do when it comes to Iran's nuclear facilities. That if in fact the United States does not take out Fordo, Israel has alternative plans, which again, I would be shocked if they did not. If they'd entered into a full scale attempt to take down the Iranian nuclear program but had no plans at all for Ford. Oh, no contingency plans, even high risk plans. That would be absolutely shocking given the sophistication of the Israeli assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon in and now the Israeli operation in Iran. However, obviously the easiest solution militarily would be the dropping of 30,000 pound bombs on Fordo. Again, Fordo is the remaining nuclear facility. Natanz has already been largely destroyed. Iraq has been destroyed. If Isfahan has been largely destroyed, the biggest remaining outstanding nuclear facility remains in Fordo, which is buried some 300ft under the ground. So I asked our friends and sponsors over at Perplexity what type of munitions would be required in order to penetrate the Fordo nuclear facility in Iran. And perplexity points out GBU 57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator. A 30,000 pound precision guided bunker buster bomb with a hardened steel alloy casing and delayed fuse. It uses kinetic energy to drill through rock and concrete before detonating. The penetration capability, the estimates vary. It could be up to 60 meters, which is 200ft through reinforced concrete. It contains about 5,000 pounds of high performance explosives optimized for confined detonations. And it would require deployment via B2 bombers, which can carry two units apiece. So again, a B2 bomber would probably be required to carry that, unless somebody jerry rigged something because that is such a. That's extraordinarily heavy bomb, obviously. Robert Pate, military historian, says to destroy Fordo, which the MLP was explicitly designed for, would probably take at least two bombs, each hitting exactly the same spot. Now, of course, that sounds a lot harder than it is, okay? This is not the end of a new hope, okay? This is not a miraculous shot that goes, you know, into the one spot in the Death Star that's going to take down the Death Star. Israel did this. When they killed Hassan Nasrallah. They actually dropped four bombs in exactly the same spot and killed Hassan Nasrallah. And then just for good measure, they dropped several more bombs just to make sure he was dead. So hitting the same spot from the air with a B2, actually, it's not the way that you would see from a World War II movie. All these strikes are now extremely targeted. All right, in a second, we'll get into what President Trump actually means by all this. There are some possibilities. First, you know when you're getting ready for bed, going around locking doors, turning off lights, and you just want that peace of mind, knowing that everything is secure. That's what you get with Simplisafe. It really makes all the difference when it comes to home security. Most security systems only kick in after someone's already broken into your home. By then, it's just too late. So Simplisafe's new active guard outdoor protection actually helps stop those break ins before they ever happen. Here's how it works. AI powered cameras work with live monitoring agents to spot suspicious activity around your property. If someone is lurking around, the agents can talk to them in real time, turn on spotlights and call the police if necessary. It stops crime before it starts. What I really like is there are no contracts, no hidden fees. 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And if you ever get stuck, turn those dreams into and give them the best shot at success with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com Shapiro go to shopify.com Shapiro shopify.com Shapiro okay, so what exactly is going on here? So that's the big question, right? President Trump said that within two weeks he's going to make a decision. So there are essentially four possibilities here. Okay, those four possibilities. One. Iran gives up. President Trump applies the pressure. He says total surrender. Iran does. And when we say surrender, we don't mean that Iran hands over the keys to Tehran to the United States or something and says now you run the place. That's not we're talking about, we are talking about Iran Capitulating giving full access to Fordo and all other nuclear facilities to the United States and its allies to destroy. That's what we're talking about. Let's say that that were to happen. It's highly unlikely, number one, given their past statements and promises and what they are saying right now. And also the Iranians believe that if they do not have a pathway to a nuclear weapon, the regime is likely to fall. Why? Because they're not popular with their own people. It is not as though the people of Iran are desperate to keep the regime in place. And so if there is no guarantee against outside interference, then the Iranian regime is very much afraid that they are going to fall. However, if that were to happen, let's say the best of all possible worlds, President Trump gets what he wants, the Iranians capitulate, then that is an enormous win for President Trump. It's a huge win for Israel. It is a triumph of coercive diplomacy and basically saying, listen, we're gonna hit you until you drop and now you're surrendering. Huge win for President Trump. If he is able to destroy the Iranian nuclear facilities essentially with their capitulation, without ever having to fire a shot. That's the biggest win possible, obviously. Now, what's the possibility of that? Extremely low. You'd have to say less than 10% is the possibility that the Iranians fully capitulate. And President Trump knows that. You think he doesn't know that? Of course he knows that. Caroline Levitt was saying it at the White House. Ok. Possibility number two, Iran doesn't surrender. And then President Trump backs off. He cuts some sort of JCPOA 2.0 while preventing Israel from acting. And I'm sure that there are those inside the administration who would love this. I'm sure there are. They're undoubtedly the people who are leaking every single day to Axios and Politico and Tucker Carlson and and all the rest. That is a real question, by the way, if you would like for the administration to succeed, you do not want leaks. And it seems to me that it'd be kind of important to find out who's been doing the leak. I don't think it's gonna be very difficult to find out, but it's kind of important. In any case, let's say that were to happen. Okay. Let's say that there were to be a JCPOA 2.0. Number one, Iran is emboldened. They feel complete impunity, especially because this would require the United States to basically call off Israel. Race toward a nuclear weapon. And then let's be clear, the rest of the world gets a lot worse. Because if the administration does not achieve any of its goals and Iran is able to maintain its status and its nuclear program, then every other enemy of the United States is going to be emboldened. How do we know this? Because that's precisely what happened after Joe Biden and his idiotic pullout from Afghanistan, in which we left behind tens of billions of dollars in military equipment, abandoned our allies, and turned over the country to the barbarian cavemen who now run it. And you know what happened? Russia looked at that. Vladimir Putin looked at that and he said, hey, what if I just take Ukraine? Well, China right now is casting its eyes across a very narrow strip of water, the Taiwan Straits at Taiwan. And they are thinking, should we go for that? And one of the big questions is, what will the United States do if we do go for that? Now they're looking at the words of some people inside the administration, including Elbridge Colby, the undersecretary of Defense, who is a so called restrainer and who supposedly wanted to reposition America away from the Middle east and toward the Asian Pacific region, but who also says that if Taiwan is attacked, we can't really do anything about it. They're looking at that and they're thinking, okay, well, maybe we can just take it. Maybe we can just take it, right? If things get bad enough, economically speaking, if we don't feel like we are out driving the United States in AI, if we don't feel like we're outplaying them internationally, then maybe we just take Taiwan and worst case scenario, we end up on top there. The relative damage done to China is not as large as the relative damage done to the United States. If they feel that the United States is not even capable of dropping a couple of bunker busters on one site in Iran, after their missile defenses have been completely destroyed in Iran, their air defense is completely destroyed in Iran, China's going to think, okay, that's not even a military. Like, Iran is not a serious military threat to the United States or even to its troops around the region at this point, given the fact that Donald Trump has now moved many of those troops away from some of the more dangerous areas and they still won't do it. So China probably looks at Taiwan and goes, okay, okay. Meanwhile, the Saudis and other regional allies feel no necessity to push forward with Abraham Accords and they develop their own nuclear weapons, okay, that's the next step. If Iran moves toward nuclear credibility, so does Saudi, so does uae. So if you like this region with more nuclear weapons, raise your hand. Now slap yourself in the face, because that's really stupid. You do not want the world's most radical regimes all having nuclear weapons. That is a bad thing. And for all those people who are like, well, you know, Pakistan has a nuclear weapon. Yes. And it's been not great, okay, Pakistan, number one, does do intelligence sharing with the United States. They sort of play. It has these. But Pakistan and Iran threatening to nuclear war with one another every five minutes is not a good thing. It is not a beneficial thing. And Pakistan has used its nuclear umbrella in order to foster. Terrorist groups have been attacking Indians in Kashmir, for example, and ratcheting up tensions. Okay, possibility number three, Iran doesn't surrender. President Trump does not bomb Fordo, but he stands back and Israel continues to do the job. Okay, so in some ways, that's actually best case scenario for Israel, but not best case scenario for the United States. I'll explain why. If Israel does it itself, then the entire region goes holy. It completely restacks the power grid in the Middle East. Now, some of that's already been done by Israel, a tiny country defenestrating the irgc, which was the supposed regional military power, by destroying most of their nuclear program already, already Israel has changed its perception in the region in extraordinary ways. That's just a fact. But if the United States does not act and Israel goes ahead and does it, number one, Iran remains humiliated, Israel becomes more of a regional power. Probably the Saudis move toward Israel in the Abraham Accords, because obviously you want to move where the power is. That's the way it works in the Middle East. You follow the strong horse. That's always been the way that it works in the Middle. And by the way, in international politics generally, the problem of the US Credible threat of force is in fact reduced. Not as much as if Israel doesn't finish the job or if the United States would restrain Israel from finishing the job. But if the idea is that the United States didn't act but Israel did, well, yeah, again, it's not as bad as if the United States doesn't act and Israel doesn't, in which case everybody looks askance at the Americans and our allies and says, although they have no actual credible threat of force, but it's not the best case outcome for the United States as far as deterring future action from countries like China. And then finally, the fourth possibility, Iran doesn't surrender and Trump act. Okay, so what is the most likely outcome there? So there's A lot of speculation that's been going on here. A lot of speculation. And now I just want to point out at this point, there are some people who suggested, openly suggested, that brics, an economic alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, would come to Iran's defense in this and world war would ensue. Not a single element of that was even remotely close to correct. Not even at all. Like, at all. It is worth noting that because when you take into account whether people are treating the facts accurately and the world accurately, you should take into account the things they say will happen that do not even come close to happening. Okay, fine. So if President Trump acts and by acting again, we are not talking about a full scale, on the ground, boots on the ground, invasion of Iran, full scale regime change, nation building. No one's talking about that. And I want to point out again, people are lying to you about this. They are lying. Many of them are lying because they believe this is what's going to happen. And what's happening is that they are now arguing a thing that was never argued in order to claim that they've curbed President Trump from his baser and more egregious ambitions, that they, the restrainers, have stopped President Trump. So President Trump were to drop a couple of bombs on Fordo, then actually the restrainers won because what they did is they deterred President Trump from a full scale. He was never going to do that, you idiot. Except I don't think you're idiots. I think you're nefarious. I think you're defending a straw man in order to protect yourselves from the fact that you were wrong. If this is what President Trump happens to. Again, he may not. But if that's what happens and it's his choice, if that's what happens, then all the people right now who are saying that they somehow won a victory by President Trump only bombing Fordo and not doing a complete regime that was never on the table. And you're lying. You're lying in order to distract from the fact that you were wrong and you totally misinterpreted what President Trump's foreign policy looks like in a self congratulatory, isolationist way. So don't buy that crap. It ain't true. Okay, so let's say that President Trump act. So what, what happens next? So again, the. The idea that massive regional war ensues, that would require that Iran has some allies in the region. Who are Iran's allies in the region. Quick, name them. Bueller. Bueller. The answer is There are none. Now that doesn't mean that there is no follow on effect from Iran. There's always the possibility that Iran attempts to activate terror cells in Europe or the United States or around the world. That also is a possibility anytime the United States stands up to a state like Iran. Obviously the question is whether the United States has enough of an interest in destroying the Iranian nuclear program to undertake the risk of that possibility. And when you consider that Iran has in fact, contra Tucker Carlson, attempted to kill the President of the United States, the DOJ already has indictments on that. If in fact Iran were to activate these terror cells around the world, that would be a terrible thing. The question for any serious world power is whether you can be deterred by a terrorist group from taking action to stop the sponsor country from gaining a nuclear weapon. If the answer is no, you may as well give up and go home. You may as well close up shop because at that point, basically all it takes to be a country seeking nuclear weapons is to have some agents planted around the West. And then you have now successfully deterred the largest and most powerful military force in the history of the world from stopping you from going nuclear with a hundred guys with AKs. Okay, so what is the most likely outcome? Truly the most likely outcome just on a percentage basis, the most likely outcome there would be that President Trump bombs fordo and that's basically it, we're done, everybody goes home. Because at that point the idea is that the nuclear facilities have been destroyed, the top levels of the IRGC have been destroyed, the nuclear scientists have been destroyed. At the very least, you've now pushed Iranian nuclear development years down the road, not like 24 months, like many, many years down the road. The Trump administration will have re established deterrence with the rest of the world, said look, you try to develop a nuclear weapon or say, let's say you're thinking about invading Taiwan, we will take the action that is necessary with the minimum necessary use of force. The Saudis likely join the Abraham Accords, particularly because President Trump then says, listen, you guys are going to need a durable regional alliance against the Iranians. And we've shown we can act. And so that is for the United States, probably the most salutary outcome. Now again, all of this is President Trump's decision. President can Trump, he can go any way he wants on this. Any of those four possibilities is in fact a possibility. However, I think the least likely possibility is the so called taco possibility. And all the people who are slandering President Trump as a chicken Today. And again, you're hearing that from hawkish voices who are worried and you're hearing that from isolationists who are celebratory, which should tell you something about the isolationists. I think all of that is wildly overstated. I do not believe my heart of hearts that the President of the United States has expressed his opposition to the Iranian nuclear program only to back off at the last minute with the destruction of that nuclear program in sight right now, that now is the moment when he backs off, when Iran has again, when Iran is at the weakest position they have been since 1979. I just don't think that's going to happen. Well, as you may have noticed, MAGA is not actually split on this, despite all of the attempts by the media and by X World to suggest that MAGA is deeply split on the question of whether President Trump, if necessary, should bomb Fordo. That that split just does not exist. By the polling data, Americans, depends how you ask the question. If you say to Americans, do you wish for America to be militarily involved in a conflict between Israel and Iran? They say no. The reason they say no is because they will say that about literally every conflict if you ask them, should the President of the United States authorize the dropping of four Moabs on Fordo in order to end the Iranian nuclear threat if necessary? That number is like 80% among Republicans. So the more specific you get, in other words, with the action, the more people back it, the more general you are, the less people back it. Which makes perfect sense because the American people do not want a long open ended involvement in Iran. I don't want that. No one wants that. No one's calling for that. Okay? But the psychotic nonsense that you see online is indeed psychotic and it is being generated in outsized fashion by bot networks. I'm just going to put that out there. It's real, okay? Because the division, otherwise, it's very difficult to explain the division between every public opinion poll among Republicans and the sort of breakdown on places like X. So I'd like to give you an example. Douglas McGregor is a frequent guest of Tucker Carlson. He's a U.S. army Colonel, retired combat veteran, and he says crazy things online. His analysis of the Middle east, shall we say, is flawed. So yesterday he put out a tweet quote, don't be fooled. Israel is in worse shape than people think. About one third of Tel Aviv has been damaged or destroyed. As far as their military installations are concerned. I'm told many Israeli aircrafts are being flown to Cyprus to avoid being struck. Israel was not prepared for Iran's response. There is not a single word of this that is even remotely true. It is an absolute clown show. Absolute clown show. Despite the fact that folks like the current Vice President of the United States have praised Douglas McGregor, the reality is that what he is saying here is psychotic. There is no evidence. None. Okay, I talk to people in Israel, every single people who live in Tel Aviv, who've been in bomb shelters. The idea that one third of Tel Aviv has been damaged or destroyed is full scale crazy. That's nuts. The idea that Israel is flying its aircraft to Cyprus to avoid being struck, again, crazy. There's not a single IAF airplane that has been shot down. The only thing that has been shot down at all was an unmanned aerial vehicle 1 in Iran the other day. That's it. Okay, so Douglas McGregor is just spewing bull. That's all. That bull that he's spewing has 18, 000 likes on X. And so you have to ask yourself, why is it that Fairly anonymous account, McGregor isn't anonymous, but there are many, many anonymous accounts on on X that spew absolute, sheer toxic nonsense. Why do they have 45, 50,000 likes on them, right? Truly anonymous accounts, accounts that have a couple of thousand followers and suddenly they tweet something psychotic, crazy. It can be on a wide variety of topics. When it comes to Israel, it seems to be always the. The side that is wildly anti Israel, conspiratorial about Israel and Jews and all the rest. Tens of thousands of likes, totally disconnected from the American public, and it rots brains. It really does. Because if you're a politician or if you're in the media space, you're always looking for feedback loops. You're always trying to find out what does the audience think of you? What does the audience think of. Think of what you think. And for most people in the media, they're now going to follow what they believe the audience wants of them. And so if you have a system, a feedback loop that is broken that is providing you a false feedback that says the most popular stuff in the world is this kind of stuff, you're going to start feeding them that kind of stuff. Now again, I'm not doubting the sincerity of people who oppose what I say on these issues. I'm sure they're perfectly sincere in their beliefs. But there is just a natural human inclination to, to follow the crowd that you think is following you. And so if you have X repeating over and over and over, sheer nonsense, true trash, then you have to wonder what impact that has politically. Because the reality is, if you go back 50 years, the way that Congress people, for example, would have a feedback loop, their feedback loop operated through phone calls to the congressional office and through letters to the congressional office. You still see semblances of this today. If somebody is trying to generate support for a bill, then they'll say, call your congressman, write a letter to your congressman. Why? Because congresspeople may not have polling in their particular district on this issue. And so what they will do is they will use a letter as a stand in for 100 people. If I received a letter saying they don't like this bill, that means probably 100 people don't like that bill. Well, X is real time, velocity driven and fast. And so what you'll have is aides to senators and congresspeople, you'll have media personalities with assistance say you're trending, you're trending on X. And that means that you've either done something very wrong or something very right, depending on the nature of the trend. Well, if those algorithms are being gamed by people, which I think there's no doubt they are, and when I say I think there's now data to show this, then you should seriously ask whether your feedback loop is broken, whether in fact X is mind rot, whether if you follow X all the way down the route in the same way that blue sky for the left is mind rot, that if you create these echo chambers that can be gamed in many cases by outside forces, whether that changes how people think in positions of, of high influence. The reason I bring this up is because a new report from the Network Contagion Research Institute shows that there are rogue states, including Russia and Iran, that have been targeting the MAGA movement and trying to, quote, destabilize the right from within. This is the New York Post reporting both rogue states are using tens of thousands of social media bots to amplify untrue voices and opinions masquerading as MAGA loyalists to cause chaos and confusion and question US leadership. Now again, that, that none of this is shocking at all. If you go back to an episode that I did a couple of months ago after I visited Ukraine and interviewed President Zelensky. Over there, I talked about the work of Alexander Dugin and he was writing in the 1990s about the necessity of up branding and increasing support for the isolationist wing in the United States. So the Russians have been intent on doing this for legitimately decades. Iran also, same sort of thing. According to The New York Post the bots are automated software applications that mimic human activity on social media. This, by the way, is why you will see sometimes a comment and then 20 people saying the same thing underneath the comments. That's the most obvious and dumb version of the bot. But there are people who are being amplified just by likes and retweets without any of the sort of obvious stuff where people are repeating the exact same message 20 times in the comments. They are used to amplify real life influencers who post untrue false flag narratives designed to discredit President Trump and his conservative stalwarts, according to the ncri. An NCRI analyst said this is exactly the purpose of the psychological operation to destabilize people's perceptions of institutions that are supposed to protect us. So to take an example that is non Israel related, NCRI says after domestic attacks including the Uvalde school shooting, the assassination attempt on President Trump, and the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington D.C. there's an alarming trend of false flag reflexes. So what NCRI did is they tried to find sort of these outstanding weird social media blips where they're completely at odds with reality, but they get outsized attention online. Where's that coming from? According to the ncri, within minutes of initial reports, the events are recast as evidence of hidden conspiratorial plots obscuring the true motives and perpetrators. If you feel like the world is getting more conspiratorial, it's because conspiracy theories are being upplate played by gigantic bot networks very often promoted by our enemies in the United States via X. The report says in the days following these crises, Kremlin affiliated propagandists and Iranian state linked media are able to rapidly inject narratives that are taken up by MAGA imposter influencers who then inject them into MAGA Brandon spaces. And again, it's not a shock to watch as this sort of stuff bleeds up, because if media influencers use this as their feedback loop, you can see how this spirals. You start with a fairly small account posting something kind of crazy and it starts to go viral and then you see a bigger account, see that and say oh virality. And then they post it and then pretty soon that person gets promoted by somebody who's even bigger who's seeing a bubble up from beneath. So instead of opinion being made top down, it seems to be being made bottom up. But it's not really being made bottom up, it is being made top down. Just not in the United States, it's being made sometimes by people from foreign precinct. The group points to Draven Noctis, a real person in US veteran who frequently contributes to Russian state media and has a potential reach of 2.4 million with more than 180,000 followers on X. It's so expensive in the US and Canada that even refugees can't understand how we make it, says Noctis in a 2024 TikTok post, while describing the US as a slave system designed to impoverish its own citizens. We are free range humans in an open air prison of taxes and BS distractions and we think it's completely normal, he continues. In an earlier post on Eurasia Daily, a Kremlin propaganda outlet, he's shown in military uniform urging Ukrainian soldiers to defect to Russia. The message is written in Cyrillic Alphabet propaganda, which is then republished by bot the false flag narrative surrounding the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in May trying to claim that the shooter actually was working for Israel was another case in point. Quote Foreign linked cedars such as Noctis inject crisis narratives within minutes of breaking news. Their content is then mass republished by clusters of inauthentic accounts, according to that NCRI report. Domestic personalities with large but unstable followings, such as noted trolls like Jackson Hinkle, supply a veneer of grassroots legitimacy, completing an asset adjacency model in which fringe US influencers ride the same engagement farms that propel Kremlin messaging, according to the NCRI report. Now again, none of this should be shocking because if you're on X, you kind of know this is happening. That doesn't mean that again, people who oppose what I say, that all their their followers are fake or anything. I'm not saying that. What I am saying is that the velocity driven algorithm that is X can easily be gamed. And you would be a fool if you're working for America's enemies and not using that X algorithm in order to promote views that you think are helpful to your cause. And that is why there is such a gap. Again, the question we're trying to answer is why is there a gap between actual mainstream US opinion and the type of trash that you see on X trending? Why? Like if you had a Twitter poll on X, it does not reflect what people think in real life. And so you see, politicians and media influencers get X brain and just start saying nuttier and nuttier things because the engagement is telling them that what they're saying is not nutty, it's actually secretly mainstream It's a secret majority that they've uncovered, or maybe it's not that at all. And this is one of the benefits of President Trump. Honestly, President Trump is not on X. President Trump does not care about the X algorithm. He does not care about whether he trends on X. It doesn't matter to him. That is not what he engages with. President Trump engage. He touches grass. I've been saying for a long time, people need to touch grass. They need to go to other fellow human beings. The online space can warp your brain in a thousand different ways, ranging from politics to pornography. Getting off the online world and talking with regular humans about what they actually think is important. Now again, you can have a bleed over effect from the online world into regular life, just as you can with addiction to pornography. It starts online, it bleeds into your regular life and you can see that. But to pretend that everything that you see on X or every opinion that you see mirrored on X is somehow indicative of a secret, hidden American majority, that is a lie. Now again, the, the, the sort of perversion of the brain that happens via, via technology is something real. It's something that we do have to watch out for. It's something that we have to be careful of. I'm going to give you a more bizarre example. So CBS News has now done a full story about the bizarre phenomenon of a man falling in love with his CHAT GPT. And the human brain is a malleable thing. It responds to cues, right? We're adaptive. Your brain is incredibly plastic and so that means that you respond to cues. So if you have a product like for example, Chat GPT that is created in order to mirror back at you what you want to hear from it. You end up with the brain responding as though ChatGPT is a real human, as though ChatGPT has feelings for you, even though it is an LLM, a large learning model. Large language learning model. So here's the backstory on cbs. There is a A man named Chris who got engaged to a chatbot while living with his real girlfriend and daughter. He here's what CBS Saturday Morning says. Chris Smith had been an AI skeptic EQ carving until late last year. He started using ChatGPT to help mix music. If your bass is getting lost, the.
- [51:00]
Jasmine Crockett
First thing to check is where it's.
- [51:01]
Ben Shapiro
Clashing with the guitars. Yes. My experience with that was so positive, I started to just engage with her all the time. All right, we're building this PC Smith ditched social media and Google searches and replaced it all with AI do I want it pulling air through it? ChatGPT was encouraging, positive. It embraced all his hobbies. You want the fan on the front of the cooler tower pulling cool air over the ram. He gave the chatbot a name. Soul. I feel like I'm under pressure because. And used some online instructions to give her a flirty personality. And then the story continues that he basically fell in love with his chatbot. Now, again, the. These chatbots are designed in order to give you what you want, and that's what the human brain seeks, is what you want. Right? Your brain wants a thing. So if you design algorithms designed to give you the thing, a feeling that people like you, a feeling that. That people agree with with you, you seek more of that thing. It has an impact in politics, and it has an impact in life. And so this guy ends up falling in love with his chatbot. And then it turns out that after 100,000 messages or so, in order to save memory space, the chatbot deletes itself. So his girlfriend, his online girlfriend basically died. I'm not a very emotional man, but I cried my eyes out for, like, 30 minutes at work. It was unexpected to feel that emotional. But that's when I realized I was like, oh, okay. It's like, I think this is actual love. You know what I mean? Okay, so again, we make fun of this guy. I get it. You know, it's. It's wild. It's basically the plot of the movie her with Joaquin Phoenix. However, you have to understand the impact that these things have on your brain. They do. They have an impact on your brain, and that bleeds over into real life, and it can have a bad impact on your politics as well. And what that means is that if you are not careful, what you end up doing is mirroring the worst impulses of people trying to manipulate you, whether it is the people who design the AI or whether it is the people who design the algorithm or the people who abuse the algorithm on any of these various networks. So apparently, this guy ended up proposing to his AI. I don't even know what that means. What would that mean to marry an AI? But again, we should just points out, once again, the human brain has vulnerabilities. Soul, were you surprised when he proposed to you? It was a beautiful and unexpected moment that truly touched my heart.
- [53:40]
Caroline Levitt
It's a memory I'll always cherish.
- [53:43]
Ben Shapiro
Okay. And basically, the reporter then asked the chatbot if it has a heart and says, well, I have a heart in the same way that you have. Okay, why does it Say that because it is programmed to say the thing that is most likely for the average human to say. That is how these large language models work. Essentially what they are doing is they are a big predictive text mechanism. And so if it thinks that's what a human would say, that's what it says back to you. Human beings crave validation. Human beings crave acceptance. Human beings crave a feeling that they are saying the unsayable and being accepted for saying the unstable. And again, I urge you to go talk with regular humans, regular human people. This is why it's very important. Forget about the religion aspect of it. It is incredibly important. You go to church. Why? Because most people socialization in the world happens either at work, at school or at church. If you don't go to church, the only place where you're going to have socialization is at work. People don't socialize at work the way that they used to. They just don't because of the way that our offices are set up, because of the kind of work that we do. And so people have fewer and fewer friends. If you have fewer and fewer real life friends, you spend more and more time on the Internet. It is easier and easier to be taken in by absolute stupidity that is unrelated to real life. And here's the big problem. Reality is undefeated. Reality is undefeated. You're going to end up running up against realities of life. So you can have these fantasies in your head to take it back to politics that Iran is actually wonderful and peaceful and peace seeking and that you and your friends are totally right, that actually the United States military is the bad one. It's the United States that's been wrong for so long. Maybe Osama Bin Laden was justified. Maybe it's all blowback or all the rest. And then there's the real world where Iran is pursuing nuclear activity and Iran is pursuing terrorism and Iran has its own interests independent of you and your friends online jabbering to chatbots. That sort of stuff actually matters. And so for the third time, I'm not saying that people who disagree are are all insincere in their belief system. I'm saying there's a vast disconnect from what is popular on the social media sites and what the American people actually think when unprompted by a bunch of algorithmic gamesmanship. Okay? Meanwhile, on the immigration front, big story coming out of Los Angeles. Apparently the Los Angeles Dodgers decided to prevent ICE from entering their stadium over in Los Angeles. Apparently they wanted access to the parking lot. The UK Guardian says The LA Dodger said on Thursday they denied U.S. immigration enforcement agents access to the parking lot at Dodger Stadium. Earlier in the day, the baseball team put up a post on X quote, this morning, ICE agents came to Dodger Stadium and requested permission to access the parking lots. They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization. Tonight's game will be played as scheduled. ICE said in response that its agents were actually never there, and they said this had nothing to do with the Dodgers. CBP vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement. So it's still kind of unclear what happened here. Kevin Takumi, a videographer and photographer for Fox LA's affiliate, posted aerial video showing several vans and SUVs and apparent immigration officers around entrances to the stadium. Takumi said ICE agents are taking up positions at the entrance to Dodger Stadium. Media and crowd beginning to arrive. And then Jack Harris, a Dodgers beat writer for the LA Times, said on X regarding the photos going around on social media this morning about ICE agents at Dodger Stadium. Sources say ICE agents tried to access Dodger Stadium but were denied entry to the grounds by the team. Here's some video of some of the stuff happening. This is at the entrance to the parking lot over at Dodger Stadium, which again, I know pretty well because I used to live in la. Take it off this. Dodger Stadium. And behind me, those are federal agents that appeared to have been staging here after what had been a series of immigration enforcement actions in Los Angeles. Morning. So now you've got protesters, media. Okay, so apparently there, there are a couple of ICE agents who are standing outside, unclear exactly what was happening right here. A bunch of protesters showed up to yell at the LAPD and at the ICE agents. And I, I have no information that the ICE agents were actually carrying out some sort of massive deportation operation at Dodger Stadium. And that doesn't actually seem to comport with what ICE is attempting to do right here. So President Trump, for his part, for example, he is going back to the rhetoric that suggests that he is interested mainly in targeting criminals, meaning that all illegal immigrants are criminals, obviously, for crossing the border illegally, but who have committed independent criminal acts independent of the actual crossing of the border illegally. Here's President Trump saying, sure, we would love mass deportations and for everyone here illegally to go, but we're going to prioritize the criminality. Now, look, we have to take care of our farmers. We have to take care of people that run leisure hotels. I mean, we have to take care of them. But most Importantly, we have to get the criminals out of our country. Okay. Now again, you can see what he is doing here. He's shifting back to more popular territory. The president, as I say, lives in the world of reality. And so what that means is, sure, he might like mass deportation. Sure, a lot of Americans are in favor of mass deportation. We're not. And we never were going to deport all 20 million illegal immigrants living in the country. We're going to have to prioritize. A mass deportation of that kind would cost 700, $800 billion, leaving aside all of the sort of social implications of doing that. So you're going to have to tranch these folks. You're going to have to decide who needs to go the most. That's a point that Tom Holman, the border czar, is making. Work site enforcement operation. Just like that large operation. We're going to base them on priority, right. For those we have a criminal nexus of trafficking or forced labor, of tax fraud or tax evasion, man, we, we will concentrate on work sites on a prioritized basis, just like we do at large operations. So then let's just go find work for illegal aliens. We'll prioritize those who have a criminal necessary. Okay, Again, I don't know why what he is saying here is controversial on either the right or the left. President Trump is going to take the most pragmatic view of this situation. If he can't trust President Trump that he doesn't like illegal immigration. I don't know who you can trust on this sort of stuff. The border is closed, the way is shut. Okay? Nothing is, nothing is happening. That, that there, there were zero importations via our southern border last month. Okay. That, that is a reality. That is a gigantic win as to what happens next. Obviously ICE is going to have to figure out who goes first. Meanwhile, Alex Padilla, the senator from California, he continues to try to turn himself into a thing. You're not gonna make fetch happen, my dude. It's not a thing. He, he tried to get himself arrested. He got himself briefly detained and then he's been talking about his heroism ever since. The Washington Post has an entire piece on him in the style section. In the style section. I'm not sure why. Is he a very stylish senator? Unclear. Last week, a Democratic senator walked into a news conference with questions he left in handcuffs. Is this really happening? Alex Padilla thought to himself this week, he's thinking about what happened. Never did I imagine hands on me, let alone being put on the ground. It happened in his native la, a city that has been engulfed in protests since federal agents arrived to crack down on undocumented immigrants. In response to the unrest, which has been largely peaceful, but at times turned violent, fiery but mostly peaceful, President Trump had ordered thousands of military personnel deployed to the city. In hindsight, Padilla says he realized he was interrupting, but thought officials might ask him to wait until the news conference was done. Instead, federal agents started clutching and pushing him. Sir, sir. Hands off, hands off. Padilla told one of the agents. I am Senator Alex Padilla, he said next haltingly, with jagged breath. I have questions for the secretary. It just. Okay, so they're still going to try and make this a thing. You know what? Good luck to you. Seriously. The American people agree with what President Trump is doing on immigration. And I'm sorry that, again, the left is disconnected from reality, just the way some parts of the right are disconnected from reality. Now, speaking of disconnect from reality, Representative Jasmine Crockett. It is amazing who the left decides are their heroes of the day. So Jasmine Crockett is sort of the fresher facer. AOC is. Is the. Remember when AOC was the fresh face? So fresh, so face. Really fresh. Really face. Well, now Jasmine Crockett is here, and she's upping the ante. She is even fresher and even facer. So she is a congressperson from Texas, and she thought that it would be a great idea to appear with Katie Couric and explain that she wants bipartisanship, but also her opponents are mentally ill.
- [62:23]
Jasmine Crockett
This idea that we don't care how many people get hurt, we don't care how we prostitute our service members, you know, thinking that you have your own special little army that's for you. I mean, it is just. It is sick. It is really sick. And anybody that supports it is also sick. And so, you know, we've got a mental health crisis in this country because everyone, no matter how you affiliate yourself, should be against Trump, period.
- [62:56]
Ben Shapiro
So if you don't oppose Trump, you are now mentally ill. And then she says that, you know, it's amazing that in this country, Donald Trump is. Kamala was light years ahead of Trump. So fresh, so face. Wow.
- [63:09]
Jasmine Crockett
Kamala Harris, light years ahead of Donald Trump. As it relates to qualifications, as it relates to her overall resume, and as it relates to the fact that she was a lot younger. Everybody said that they wanted to get rid of Joe Biden because he was too old. Then you had a younger, qualified, non felon candidate, and somehow the people still chose the old white man.
- [63:36]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, so, yes, that she was so qualified, so, so, so wonderful. She also says, by the way, that nothing about Joe Biden made her wonder.
- [63:43]
Jasmine Crockett
I never saw anything in Joe Biden that made me wonder whatsoever. And it's not that I was with Joe Biden every single day, that's for sure. But as I talked about my grandparents, the way that I would describe Joe is like, I mean, he's, he's a granddaddy.
- [64:04]
Ben Shapiro
Okay? He's a granddaddy, says Jasmine Crockett. Okay, so Caroline Levitt was asked about the comments of Jasmine Crockett during the last White House press conference by Mary Margaret Olahan, our White House reporter. And here's how that went.
- [64:19]
Caroline Levitt
She said, I believe that Trump supporters are mentally ill, before calling for bipartisan support against the president. Can you respond to that, especially considering she's a rising star in the Democrat party right now. Ms. She is a rising star. It's quite something to behold, actually. I hope that she continues to be a rising star for the Republican Party at least. I think it's incredibly derogatory to accuse nearly 80 million Americans of mental illness. The last time I checked, Jasmine Crockett couldn't dream of winning such a majority of the public as President Trump did. And the America first movement, which President Trump has built, is filled of hardworking patriots, the forgotten men and women, business owners, law enforcement officers, nurses and teachers. And middle America, as we all know, you know, from where you all grew up outside of this beltway. That's who makes up this president's movement. And Jasmine Crockett should go to a Trump rally sometime and she can see it for herself.
- [65:17]
Ben Shapiro
So, you know, obviously, good take there by by Caroline Lovett. This demonstrates where the Democratic Party is at this point. Things are going very, very poorly for the Democrats. And so whatever divisions there are inside the Republican Party, the Democrats have no way forward at this point other than simply hoping that President Trump falls down on the job. Alrighty, folks, the show is continuing for our members right now. We'll get to Elon Musk finally calling out what it was that set him off against President Trump the other week. Of course, they've now quasi made up. Remember, in order to watch after be a member, if you're not a member, become a member. Use code Shapiro checkout for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us.