Zoran Mamdani (6:20)

You know, my wife is the love of my life. And she's also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my city hall. I, however, was elected to represent all 8 1/2 million people in this city. And I believe that it's my responsibility because of that role to answer any questions about my thoughts and my policies and my decisions.

Ben Shapiro (6:41)

Okay, I have a question. Why was your statement about ISIS affiliates throwing bombs at a rally? Why didn't your statement mention isis, radical Islam, terrorism, or anything else? Are we supposed to believe that the husband of the woman who was kind of sympathetic to October 7th disagrees with any of her sentiments? And if so, precisely why? Folks, you can see the Democratic Party basically destroying itself, following its radicals down the rabbit hole. You're seeing the Horseshoe, right? Do a lot of the same kind of garbage. We don't do that here at Daily Wire. Daily Wire. We are committed to to facts. We are committed to conservatism. We are committed to truth. We're committed to evidence. Those are things we need your help to bring you in order for us to continue to bring you the news and the commentary. You want to fight the fight. Please become a member today. Head on over to DailyWire.com and subscribe. We have lots of great stuff over there, including a brand new episode of Matt Walsh's Real History, which is all about the true history of Native Americans and the conflict with colonial settlers. It'll myth bust all the stuff that you learned back in high school from your NEA teacher, but we got lots of great stuff that's constantly coming out behind the paywall over at DailyWare. Join us. Subscribe Become part of the Fight now the problem here isn't just a fringe issue. It is now a mainstream issue for the Democratic Party, which has decided that pooh poohing radical Islam is de rigor in order to condemn both America and Israel. It happens every single time a Democratic figure is asked to say the same thing that Senator John Fetterman will say that, for example, the world is better without Ayatollah Khamenei in it. Instead, from Democrats, we get hemming and hawing about how the Ayatollah was really bad. It's kind of mean, but somehow killing him is significantly worse. None of that is necessary. It's just another instance of ideological capture by a fringe of the Democratic Party base. There's a brand new Manhattan Institute study examining what most Democrats actually think on the issue. So, for example, Democrats were asked whether they believed Israel is a colonial apartheid state that must be dismantled, that Israel, not the Palestinians, bears responsibility for any and all violence that has followed its establishment. That would be the position of Zara Mamdani's wife and of Mamdani himself. Likely. But that view is only held by 13% of Democrats overall, not 13% of Americans. 13% of Democrats, in fact, more Democrats believe Israel is a legitimate country facing serious security threats and that while its actions are not perfect, it is largely acting in self defense. Then believe what Zoramdani believes. A plurality of Democrats believe Israel has a right to exist, but they don't like how the Israeli government treats Palestinians. Or take immigration. Only 11% of Democrats believe we shouldn't be focused on deporting illegal immigrants at all. Only 23% believe the number of immigrants allowed to enter the United States legally ought to increase. So that's a fringe position. How about transgenderism? 46% of Democrats, a plurality believe that people ought to compete in sports against others who share their gender at birth. Meaning like boys should compete against boys and girls should compete against girls. Only 34% of Democrats believe the opposite. Only 21% of Democrats believe that minors ought to be allowed to receive transgender medical interventions. You hear that stat? That's an insane stat. Because if you listen to Democrats, trans kids must be, they must be given Medical. And only 2 in 10 Democrats believe that's the case. 64% of Democrats believe founding of the United States has been mostly a force for good in the world. Only 18% of Democrats believe the criminal justice system is too tough on offenders. 55% believe police are essential. So you might notice, even Democrats, most Democrats take largely mainstream normie positions. So what's happening with Democratic politicians? If most Democrats aren't totally nuts, then why are so many major politicians who are Democrats moving in the direction of, of the crazies? The answer is that beneath the veneer of rational moderation, politicians are sensing something. And it's a real thing. A grievance based view of the world that can be exploited for votes. The most important statistic from that Manhattan Institute poll concerns conspiratorial thinking. Conspiratorial thinking, as we've talked about a lot on the show, is a hallmark of grievance culture. When you believe the system is screwing you over, you tend to also believe that the system is lying to you about everything. Now, again, there's a difference between conspiracies and conspiracy thinking. Conspiracies actually exist in the real world. There's evidence for, for these conspiracies. You can uncover that evidence, you can explicate what, what is happening. Conspiratorial thinking suggests that in the absence of any evidence, there must be some evil cadre of people manipulating the system and lying to you. And this has become incredibly prevalent among Democrats. That only 46% of Democrats say the assassination attempt against President Trump in July 2024 was orchestrated by his supporters to increase sympathy for him. 64% of Democrats believe Vladimir Putin has blackmailed Trump. 24% of Democrats aged 18 to 29 say the Holocaust did not happen, as historians describe. 28% think the moon landing was fake. 37% are 911 Truthers. 38% say October 7th was an inside job. That's young Democrats. 52% of all Democrats believe the US has a long history of racism and is still a very racist country today, which is a grievance politics. So why does that matter? Because Politicians now fear saying true things for fear of upholding that supposedly conspiratorial system. Conspiratorial thinking is in its essence anti establishment in the fullest sense. If you believe the moon landing wasn't real, you believe that every single person in your life, from your parents to your teachers, to television to books to the government, has been lying to you. If you believe that Vladimir Putin blackmailed Donald Trump, you believe that our system is so moth eaten with corruption and evil that no one can put it right, the system has to be torn to shreds. When that feeling runs strong in voters, politicians fear to speak the truth. Because if you speak the truth, like for example, the moon landing happened and the Holocaust did happen, and Donald Trump was in fact shot in the ear by somebody who is not a fan of Donald Trump, if you say that sort of stuff, it is now perceived as an establishmentarian act. If you say that men are not women, as a Democrat, you're saying that the system actually has been telling you the truth your whole life and that tends to uphold the system. If you say that the border ought to be controlled, you're saying the system deserves to be upheld and that upholds the system. If you say Israel isn't an apartheid state and that America is right to strike Iran, you. You are saying that the west is fundamentally better than Iran and that burnishes the system. Democratic politicians suspect they will receive no credit for upholding the system, not in today's day and age. Upholding and correcting the systems that make our country great, our Constitution, our rights, our meritocratic values, or defending America's history and virtues, all of that is establishmentarian. And upholding the establishment is boring and also at its core, kind of demanding because we're conspiratorial thinkers inherently preach this culture of grievance, which is a culture placing responsibility for failure upon evil systems. Defending America requires telling Americans the hard stuff, that most of their choices are in their own hands and they need to take responsibility for their own lives. And that's the thing Democratic politicians will not do. To be fair, more and more Republicans won't do so either. Well, Democrats need to do a little spring cleaning, I would think. I would think. But it's time for you also to do some spring cleaning. And let's be honest, we all know where to start. Dig out that old wireless contract you've been clinging to and chuck it out the window. It's outdated, it's overpriced, and it's kind of ridiculous. Now, if you actually care about saving money and getting quality service. Switch on over to Pure Talk. That's the company I use. 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Peertalk.com Shapiro sadly, younger Republicans have become similarly prone to conspiratorial thinking. According to Manhattan Institute, 54% of young Republicans, men under 50 believe the Holocaust didn't happen as historians describe. 53% of Republicans under 50 believe in 911 conspiracy theories. 51% believe the moon landing was faked. These people too have bought into a grievance based distrust of the system and it's showing in their embrace of psychotic figures and disconnected politics. You want to know why the left and the horseshoe right have been holding hands? The answer is they share at root the same common worldview. The only difference is the people they believe are the victims of the system. The left says that the victims of the system are marginalized groups. Blacks, Hispanics, women, lgbtq. And the horseshoe right believes that the marginalized people are white Christian males and they're the victims of the system. Okay, the reality is that there is always a grain of truth to every complaint. That obviously America's history is replete with discrimination against minority groups. And also it is true that in the past couple of decades policy has been reversed to discriminate against white Christian males, for example. But instead of trying to course correct or recognizing that even today most of your decisions are in your own hands. Politicians in the grievance party, which is what we should call them, politicians in the grievance party instead tell you that all of your problems are must be laid at the foot of the system and you are not responsible for literally anything in your life. And this is a major problem. The horseshoe right and the left, they believe at root the same basic type of politics. So we should probably stop distinguishing between them and just call them what they are, the grievance party. So how should non conspiratorial Americans fight all of this? How should we promote things like rationality and meritocracy and American strength? The answer is by winning. The answer is victory and there's no substitute for it. And this is where the war in Iran comes in. So good hearted liberals seem puzzled that so many Democrats, people who supposedly believe in human rights and stand against theocracy, are against President Trump's intervention. Bill Maher is a good hearted liberal. And here he was on his show on Friday night being absolutely puzzled why Democrats are suddenly against overthrowing the Ayatollahs.

Bill Maher (17:15)

I just want to reiterate what I said in the monologue. I'm cautiously optimistic. Unless he puts boots on the ground, then he's going to lose me. We'll see. For now, I just don't get what liberals don't get about liberation. I see so much happiness. I see it in Venezuela, I see it here in Iran. Could we skip the part where we talk about, oh, they had so many different reasons for going to war, regime change and we got to get rid of the nukes and they were supporters of terrorism. It's all of it. How about this? This was a fascist theocracy and nothing in the Middle east was ever going to get better while they were still there. Everything up,

Ben Shapiro (17:55)

what he said, what he said. And it's not like Democrats in elected office have good answers. So Maher had on Senator Adam Schiff, who again, it's insane that Adam Schiff is a senator, given the extraordinary lies he told during the first Trump administration about Russiagate and the fact that he basically set a pup tent up in the CNN offices so he could be on TV every five seconds. In any case, Maher had on Adam Schiff. Adam. And he basically, she'll act him over

Bill Maher (18:19)

this, this statement from the administration. The president had the constitutional authority to direct the use of military force because he could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest. That's too vague for you.

Adam Schiff (18:33)

Totally vague.

Bill Maher (18:34)

Okay. Because that's from Obama about Libya.

Adam Schiff (18:38)

Well, Obama made the argument initially that he could go into Syria without an authorization. I and many others pushed back on that argument. Ultimately, he did not go forward with going after Assad, even though Assad was gassing his own people because he thought he might lose the vote in Congress. But I respect the fact that that was important to him, and the fact that he did not have the support of Congress meant that we weren't going to go forward.

Ben Shapiro (19:05)

Well, you might have noticed that Bill Maher didn't mention Syria there. He mentioned Libya, where Barack Obama was very much involved. So, again, Democrats have no principles on these issues. In fact, President Trump is frustrating the living hell out of many members of the Grievance Party by standing up for some basic American principles. America is a force for good in the world. Radical Islamists are evil. American allies who demonstrate strength, are an asset for us. Terrorists are bad. Members of the Grievance Party are losing their mind over this, and now they've been relegated to basically rooting for Iran to win. So members of the Grievance Party, meaning Democrats and members of that horseshoe right, have decided that after paying lip service to the horrors of the mullahs, the true horror is American interventionism and destruction. America must be undermined. Mehdi Hassan, a man who is essentially a propagandist on behalf of Iran and has been for a very long time, says that the United States military is worse than the Nazis. It's a moral abomination.

Abbas Araki (20:00)

And, yes, it's tactically stupid.

Ben Shapiro (20:02)

They, you know, they bombed a submarine and just let the sailors drown to death. Going again. Even the Nazis didn't do that during World War II. Apparently, even the Nazis collected people from the water. I mean, give me a break. I mean, this, this moral exemplar. Mehdi Hassan also spent the weekend questioning just how bad hamas was on October 7, to which the White House responded, calling him, quote, a depraved terrorist, sympathizing moron. Well, points for accuracy. And, of course, horseshoe theory is undefeated. Tucker Carlson sounds pretty much exactly like Mehdi Hassan these days. They hold hands. Maybe they spoon at night. Here was Tucker Carlson explaining that he hopes that America does not get unconditional surrender from Iran and accuses the United States military of apparently wanting and President Trump of wanting to actually go into Iran and rape everyone. Okay, this is, Remember, this is Tucker Carlson supposed conservative.

Tucker Carlson (20:57)

Unconditional surrender means foreign troops get to rape your wife and daughter if they want. And everyone knows that. And that has been. If there's one consistent lesson of history, it means unconditional surrender means foreign troops get to rape your wife and daughter. Everyone can feel that. That's like the most atavistic instinct there is. And so to avoid that, people will do Anything. And so that's why it requires that level of force to get a population subdued to the point of unconditional surrender. That's why. And so in this case, of course, we don't have the ground force necessary. I don't think Americans would voluntarily participate in it. I just don't think we can do that. It would require weapons of mass destruction. It would require, presumably, nuclear weapons.

Ben Shapiro (21:43)

So he thinks that when President Trump calls for Iran's unconditional surrender, what he's calling for is the mass rape of Iranian women by American troops. And also, we're going to nuke Iran. I would ask if Tucker Carlson was dropped on his head as a baby, but we have a long record of him not being like this. So the question now is whether he was dropped on his head as an adult. I highly recommend, before anyone uses as much ALP as Tucker is using, that they take a look at the outcome of that kind of ALP use. Because you end up saying this kind of crazy horse, holy moly. Holy moly. I would call this stupid, but it is so beyond stupid that we lack for verbiage to describe this type of nincompoopery, this type of imbecility. It's insane. Which, by the way, should be the name of Tucker's autobiography at this point. Total insanity. That Mehdi Hassan Tucker Carlson crossover episode, which I am sure is shortly to drop, will be lit, and then we'll be told by the usual suspects that Tucker is still. Don't worry, he's a. He's a mainstream part of the conservative movement. While he says that Trump wants American soldiers to rape Iranian women and wants to nuke Iran, well, the grievance, right, is very real. You know, it's even more real than that death. I know that was. That was a sharp right turn right there. But here's the reality. We are all going to plots at some point, and that is why we all need life insurance. And that's why our sponsor, Policy Genius, is here to help. The reality is the responsibility of protecting your loved ones. Planning for the future is heavy. Trying to navigate life insurance on your own is a giant bureaucratic mess. Policy Genius makes that process dramatically easier by acting as an online insurance marketplace, not an insurance company. So you can compare quotes from some of America's top insurers side by side for free and actually understand what it is that you are buying. Their license team works for you, not the insurance carriers. And that means their guidance is about your needs, your budget, your family, not somebody else's Commission structure. What really stands out is how fast you can get from I really should do this to actually having the coverage. They'll help you figure out coverage amounts, prices, terms, all of it. So there's no guesswork, just clarity and peace of mind. I mean, I'm just telling you, you're walking down the street, everything's fine. Then one time you're not looking down, there's a manhole. Bam. As you are falling through the manhole, in that split second before you hit, you will be thinking about this very ad read and thinking to yourself, man should have listened to Shapiro about Policy Genius. Policy Genius will answer your questions, handle the paperwork, advocate for you throughout the process. That's why they've racked up thousands of five star reviews on Google and trustpilot from people who found the right policy for their situation. Protect the life you've built with Policy Genius. See if you can find 20 year life insurance policies starting at just 276 bucks a year for a million dollars in coverage. Head on over to policygenius.com Shapiro Compare Life Insurance quotes from top companies. See how much you could save. That's policygenius.com Shapiro your new home is now ready.

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Ben Shapiro (24:51)

Meanwhile, Steve Bannon, podcast host, confused wearer of multiple shirts simultaneously, and Jeffrey Epstein's PR flack, yes he was, is also upset about the possibility of American victory.

Steve Bannon (25:05)

I am not a wild enthusiastic supporter of this war. We are going out of our way

Adam Schiff (25:11)

at War Room to show you a

Steve Bannon (25:12)

range of facts and opinions to make sure it's balanced. However I'm for if it's a chaotic mess, I just don't care. I don't care about Iran, I don't care about the Persia. I just don't. We got enough problems here that we got it like yesterday's thing. And to get I noticed nobody's Talking about the 25 million illegal aliens we got in the country.

Ben Shapiro (25:36)

Now this sack of mottled alcoholism clad in multiple shirts and three pens. My goodness. Well, Tucker and Bannon and the Grievance party would love nothing better than America losing here. Because if America loses, they can claim the systems were skewed against them by the Jews or the military industrial complex or the Israelis or whatever. They are always the continuing victims of a nefarious system as they rake in millions and millions of dollars off of their audience. Who they are informing are the victims. These folks have some administration allies, apparently. A leaked intelligence report printed in the Washington Post over the weekend and springing from the National Intelligence Council, basically Tulsi Gabbard's office, said the United States would, quote, be unlikely to oust the Islamic Republic's entrenched military and clerical establishment. The report, completed about a week before the United States and Israel initiated the war on February 28, outlined succession scenarios stemming from either a narrowly tailored campaign against Iran's leaders or or a broader assault against its leadership and government institutions. The people familiar with its findings said in both cases, the intelligence concluded that Iran's clerical and military establishment would respond to the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by following protocols designed to preserve continuity of power. Well, I mean, first of all, duh, you mean that when you attack a regime, that they are likely to follow protocols to preserve their own power? Woo. Mind blown. But of course, the real story is not that report, because we don't have all the reports. We don't know what all the reports said. We have just that report. The real surprise, of course, is not even the leaking to mainstream media outlets like the Washington Post seeking to undermine the president. That has been a constant feature, a constant feature of this administration. Isolationists as part of the administration seeking to undermine the foreign policy of the administration by leaking to legacy media outlets. And that is a thing that has been happening over and over and over again. But America happens not to be losing. We happen to be winning right now. Over the weekend, the Iranians secretly selected a new leader. Why were those so secret about it, like they held it for the whole weekend? Well, they were really, really worried that the minute they said his name out loud, an Israeli F16 would appear in the skies above them and just kill the guy. Who is it? Well, it's Iranian Nepo baby Mojtabah Khamenei, mostly known for his impotence. Not like his ideological impotence. His actual impotence, like his penis, does not work properly. According to the New York Post, quote, the son of Iran's slain supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who is reportedly the favorite to succeed his despotic father in power, was treated for impotency so severe he had to be hospitalized numerous times. Diplomatic leaks Show. First of all, I'm not sure how you got hospitalized for impotency. That's. That's interesting. Take some might say his missile launchers are misfiring. Failure to launch is occurring repeatedly. Well, apparently Nepo Baby Mojtaba's big credential is that he is close with the irgc. The regime, it should be noted, declared hereditary transfer to be UN Islamic back in 1979. But no biggie. You go with the army you got. And that apparently includes the impotent, wounded son of Ali Khamenei. By the way, he was already wounded. Unlike the original strike, President Trump has already announced that Khamenei's son is unacceptable as the leader, which should not be a surprise. In fact, the least surprising thing here will be when Israel kills him, at which point he will be replaced by a cousin or a nephew, and then Israel will likely kill that person as well. Things are getting discombobulated for the mullahs. Over the weekend, Iranian President Mahmoud Pescheskian actually apologized hilariously, to countries Iran is currently bombing, pledging to stop, but he didn't mean it. The Iranian foreign minister actually had to back off of that this weekend. You got to love the picture in the background of Ali Khamenei with the black band around it, because, of course, he is now resting in pieces. Here is the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araki, dancing around the apology. Mr. Foreign Minister, if you're not attacking your neighbors, why did the Iranian president apologize?

Abbas Araki (29:33)

Well, first of all, apology in our culture is a sign of dignity and strength. Secondly, he apologized from the people of peoples of the region for the inconveniences they have faced because of this aggression by the United States and retaliation by us. So, as a matter of fact, it is, in fact, the President of the United States who should apologize from the people of the region and Iranian people for the killings and destructions they have done again against us.

Ben Shapiro (30:07)

So, remember, they apologized, and then they went on TV and said, really? The United States owes us an apology. We are only apologizing for the apology, that we never apologized, that we apologized. And also, we're bombing a bunch of countries that weren't involved in the war directly in the first place. Awkward. So how is the war going? Well, swimmingly. I mean, not for the Iranian Navy, which is basically at the bottom of the Strait of Hormuz at this point. As the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth says, this is not a fair fight, and it should not be. Here's the Secretary of War.

Pete Hegseth (30:39)

But we can be Clear with the American people that this is not a fair fight. And that's on purpose. Our capabilities are overwhelming compared to what Iran. And frankly, when you combine our air force with the air force of the Israeli Defense Forces, it's the two most powerful air forces in the world. The ability for us to be up over the top and hunting with more conventional munitions, gravity bombs, 500 pound, 1000 pound, 2000 pound bombs on military targets that we haven't even really begun to start that effort of the campaign, which is going to showcase even more how we will execute on those objectives.

Ben Shapiro (31:15)

The United States is destroying, along with our Israeli allies, Iranian facilities, including oil facilities and IRGC and police stations. Here are some before after satellite images of damaged Iranian naval and aircraft facilities. Okay, this would be the before. So you can see there is the aircraft facilities, there is the after. You can see that things are not going amazing for the Iranians. We're blowing up all of their vintage airplanes. They have these airplanes left over from 1965 and they're all being blown up on the ground. It's really sad. Meanwhile, the Tehran Oil Depot was set on fire as well. The images were pretty spectacular. President Trump put up a post on truth saying, quote, we just concluded a very good meeting with the largest U.S. defense manufacturing companies where we discussed production and production schedules. They have agreed to quadruple production of the exquisite class weaponry in that we want to reach as rapidly as possible. The highest levels of quantity. Expansion began three months prior to the meeting and plants and production of many of these weapons are already underway. We have a virtually unlimited supply of medium and upper medium grade munitions which we are using as an example in Iran and recently used in Venezuela. Regardless. However, we have also increased orders at these levels. The companies represented were the CEOs of BAE Systems, Boeing, Honeywell Aerospace, L3, Harris Missile Solutions, Lockheed Martin, North Rupp, Grumman and Raytheon. The meeting concluded with another meeting scheduled in two months. States all over the country are bidding for these new plans. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President Trump and Iran has been running out of leadership options. The President was aboard Air Force One and he explained that eventually we'll find somebody who will surrender or maybe we won't because they'll all be dead.

Donald Trump (33:12)

They're being decimated now. You know, at some point I don't think there'll be anybody left maybe to say we surrender. They're being decimated. When you look also, they all of a sudden they apologized to the Middle Eastern states and they shot at him. I was very surprised to see they did that. But you marked that down as a victory for us and for the Middle Eastern states, who are really friends of ours. But I guess they're not going to be shooting at them anymore. They apologize and we'll see what happens. But that's a big loss. That's a surrender, surrender right there. I called it a surrender today when they apologized and said they're not shooting at them anymore. That's really a surrender to those states and to us.

Ben Shapiro (33:58)

And now they have continued to fire off the occasional missile. They're afraid of firing too many because the minute they fire a missile, then the Americans and the Israelis locate their missile launchers and blow them up. Iran has some real problems. So left with virtually nothing over here in the pantry, opponents of the Iran action have now turned to their latest product, the latest panic attack, oil prices. Now, here is the reality. Always and forever, when things get spicy in the Middle east, oil prices go up. But the panic has set in. Oh, no. Oil prices are up 20% since the beginning of the war. This is going to be just like the 1970s. That's true if you are a dumb person. Here is a chart of crude oil prices in the United States from 1950 to 1980. Behold. Okay, take a look at the fact that crude oil prices on this chart were from basically 1950 to 1970, somewhere between $250 and $4. And then 1973, you got the Arab oil embargo and prices spiked by 300%. Not 20%, 300%, they triple. And that oil embargo lasted for five months. And then the prices basically stayed there for the rest of time forever. Well, here's a thing that's not going to happen. That thing. President Trump happens to be right. Here's the President of the United States on Truth Social. He put up a post. He said short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for the USA and world safety and peace. Only fools would think differently. President Donald J. Trump. Correct. He is right. So you ask, why would the prices drop again? Well, because what we're watching here is not a serious reduction in oil supply that is systemic in nature. It is a temporary choke on oil supply in the Strait of Hormuz. And what's happening over there is going to be over one way or another within the next few weeks. But listen, if you're Iran or its fifth columnist allies in the United States, this is basically your only leverage point. Getting Your ass kicked in the air, in the water, on land. So now you're going to claim the oil supply will be permanently kinked by the United States action here. Iranian General Mosse Rajai is warning that oil will reach $150 a barrel in the next few days. Qatar, which again likes to play both sides and is trying to convince the United States to stop, is saying the same thing. They're all hoping that if they put pressure on Trump because of oil prices, that Trump will call off the dogs. That is likely not going to happen. Why not? Well, because the United States has a timeline. That timeline is weeks, not months. And the United States is going to win. And you know what's going to happen when the US Wins? The amount of oil coming out of Iran itself and into the world market will skyrocket. See, as of January 2026, before the action, Iran was producing somewhere between 3.2 and 3.3 million barrels of oil per day. Most of it went to China. For the past couple of weeks, it's been 1.2 million barrels of oil per day. If the Iranian economy were integrated into the world economy, the original number would double. You'd be talking 6 million barrels of oil per day from Iran. And so if Iran were to integrate into the world, if. If Trump gets what he wants, the amount of oil coming from Iran would be twice as high in the next few years as it has been prior. Or what if, and I don't mean to speculate about future military action here, but I kind of think this is highly likely, President Trump were to go full Venezuela and just take control of Iran's oil supply directly. Behold this island. This island is called Kharg Island. It is located some 15 miles off the coast of Iran. This small coral island is responsible for processing 90% of all Iranian oil. See that tiny little island right there? Yep. That cute little thing. Well, according to CNBC, before 90% of Iran's oil even makes it to the Strait of Hormuz, it passes through a tiny strip of land in the Persian Gulf called Kharg Island. PMV oil analyst Thomas Varga told cnbc, quote, if President Trump were to decide to seize this pivotal hub, it would deal a significant blow to the Iranian regime as it would deprive them of a critical source of revenue. So if the United States were to seize Kharg island, it would essentially choke off the Iranian economy completely. The United States would then be in control of basically all Iranian oil flow because it's a choke point. Game over. The IRGC could not pay its terrorist friends. It couldn't pay for new ballistic missiles or literally anything else. At that point, it becomes kind of likely that the president of Iran, Masoud Peshekian, would cut some sort of deal, mainly because he wouldn't have an alternative to a deal. So what would it take to take over Khargarland? Maybe a few special operators, maybe a few. A few soldiers, I would assume. This is why the administration is not ruling out all boots on the ground, because there might be some sort of special operation here. Here's Pete Hegseth over the weekend.

Pete Hegseth (38:50)

Will we take it out ourselves? I would never tell you or anybody else what our options are. See, that's another thing people keep asking.

Steve Bannon (38:57)

It's a legitimate question.

Pete Hegseth (38:57)

It's a very fair question. People ask. Boots on the ground. No boots on the ground. Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks.

Ben Shapiro (39:04)

Go in.

Pete Hegseth (39:04)

Go in. President Trump knows. I know. You don't tell the enemy. You don't tell the press. You don't tell anybody what your limits would be on an operation. We're willing to go as far as we need to in order to be successful. Do we have any overt or covert forces inside Iran?

Ben Shapiro (39:22)

Now,

Pete Hegseth (39:25)

I wouldn't tell you that if we did. Only reason I ask is earlier this week, you said. Said no. Is that still the answer? Yeah, that's still the answer, but we reserve the right. We would be completely unwise if we did not reserve the right to take any particular option, whether it included boots on the ground or no boots on the ground.

Ben Shapiro (39:45)

Okay, so again, Hegseth saying, like, guys, I'm not going to tell you what we're going to give. You'd be an idiot to tell the press what you're going to do. Duh. I mean, like, again, this is stupid. Of course he's not gonna tell Major Garrett. Yeah. By the way, here's our specific plan. Here's what we're gonna do tomorrow and the day after. I have to say, the impatience that people have for military operations is pretty astonishing, really astonishing these days. We are now on day 10, entering day 11 of conflict. Day 11. It's worth noting here, by the way, that using a limited number of troops to perform a single operation is not boots on the ground in the way that most people think of it. When people think boots on the ground, they think a prolonged operation involving hundreds of thousands of troops for years on end. No one is talking about that. Now, listen, maybe the United States doesn't do this thing on Carg Island. Maybe it does, but could it be on the table, sure. But here's the bottom line to all of this. The United States is currently winning, and we are winning for a good reason. It turns out that America and our allies are superior to our enemies. This is why I say that victory is the only answer to conspiratorial thinking. We are better than the mullahs, both morally and. And also at breaking things. Not just at breaking things. We're better at. They are than breaking things, obviously, but our values are better than theirs as well. This is a point the White House made over the weekend. They laid out the atrocities pursued by the Iranian government since 1979. And it is a very, very long list. This is why when people suggest, you know, what did Iran ever do? I mean, what did they ever not do? 1979, 66Americans held hostage at the embassy. April 1983. 17Americans killed in Beirut from the car bomb. October 1983. 220 Marines and 21 other service personnel killed in a truck bombing in Beirut. December 1984. Two Americans tortured and killed in a plane hijacking. April 1995. An American killed in a car bomb in Gaza. February 1996. Three Americans killed in a suicide bus bombing in Jerusalem. March 1996. Two Americans killed in Tel Aviv shopping center suicide bombing. June 1996. 19 U.S. airmen killed in a truck bombing in Saudi Arabia. Again, the list just goes on and on and on and on because Iran has been an enemy of the United States for literally half a century now. President Trump pointed out that Iran is trying to play victim here, but that Iran has been the aggressor state for nearly half a century. Here is President Trump aboard Air Force One.

Donald Trump (42:04)

They are among the most evil people ever on Earth. They cut babies, heads off. They chop weapons, women in half. What they did, take a look at October 7th. Take a look at what they've done over the last 47 years. So I know nothing about a desalinization plant other than to say if they're complaining about a desalinization plan, we complain about the fact that they shouldn't be chopping babies heads off, okay?

Ben Shapiro (42:31)

It should be mentioned, by the way, that we are also much, much better than they are at breaking things and much, much more moral than the people that we are targeting in terms of the Iranian regime. A lot of Trump's critics today are pointing out this tragic incident with an Iranian school in which 160 girls were killed. That is indeed tragic, and it's terrible. And it's also called collateral damage in war it is unclear at this point whether the munitions were American or Iranian. We'll find out. Here is the point. Do you really believe that the Trump administration knew there were girls at a school and they decided to hit it with a tomahawk? Do you really believe that if you do, you hate not only Trump, but America? Truly? Because that is a scurrilous lie. Iran, by the way, would, if Iran had the ability to launch a cruise missile at an Israeli school filled with schoolgirls, they absolutely would hit it on purpose. They do it constantly. The Iranians at this point are punch drunk. As President Trump says, Iran is in serious trouble. On Truth Social, he said Iran is no longer the bully of the Middle East. He said, quote, iran, which is being beat to hell, has apologized and surrendered to its Middle east neighbors and promised it will not shoot at them anymore. This promise was only made because of the relentless US And Israeli attack. They were looking to take over and rule the Middle east and it's the first time Iran has ever lost in thousands of years to surrounding Middle Eastern countries. They've said, thank you, President Trump. I've said, you're welcome. Iran is no longer the bully of the Middle East. They are instead the loser of the Middle east and will be for many decades until they surrender or more likely completely collapse. Today, Iran will be hit very hard. But under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death because of Iran's bad behavior are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Here's the thing. If America wins, the grievance party loses because they can't claim that America was screwed by a coterie of elites. America winning would be great for everyone. It would be great for American security because the chief sponsor of global terrorism would disappear. It would be great for the American economy because the Middle east would bloom into an area of investment and non conflict. It would be amazing for our geopolitical standing because Iran, of course, is both a client and a sponsor state for Russia and China. Most of all, most of all, American victory would be excellent for American politics because when America wins, Americans are less likely to feel aggrieved and therefore become subject to the grievance party. That's true everywhere. Listen, grievance parties aren't unique to the United States. They've existed throughout the history of politics, like literally since the beginning of time. But in catastrophe, such parties gain power and then they use that power to wreck systems and destroy lives. In fact, it's precisely Those who claim they have been aggrieved in politics, who are likeliest to centralize power in themselves and then harm the people they don't particularly like. The philosopher Karl Popper talked about societal conspiracy theories. He wrote, quote, people who sincerely believe that they know how to make heaven on earth are most likely to adopt the conspiracy theory and to get involved in a counter conspiracy against non existing conspirators for the only explanation of their failure to produce their heaven is the evil intention of the devil who has a vested interest in hell. When you look at the political leaders of the Democratic Party these days who are charter members of the Grievance Party or many of the commentators on the right who are rooting against the United States in the war with Iran and are members of the Grievance Party, remember, the American people are a strong, virile and durable people. We're a free people. We are people who have the capacity to choose. So don't fall into the trap of these grievance mongers. The grievance mongers who are constantly catering to the far left and far right fringes of the Democrat and Republican parties. Don't fall for it. Don't fall for it. President Trump isn't falling for it. America's victory will be a signal rebuke to the Grievance Party, to the Democratic Party, and to the horseshoe right that is holding them up and holding hands with them. So I want to tell you about a rally that I am doing at George Washington's Mount Vernon estate, August 6th this year. It's part of a national Tour marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. That event is organized by my friends over at Young America's foundation in partnership with the Daily Wire. And it's going to be the opening program for Yaff's 48th annual National Conservative Student Conference, which is going to be awesome. Registration open Monday, March 9th. Go check it out right now. Very cool stuff. All right, guys. Coming up, the show continues for our members. Ayan Hsi Ali, who knows more about the actual inside of radical Islam than pretty much anybody on earth because of course, she grew up in a radical Muslim country, stops by to explain the real danger to the West. Remember, in order to watch that interview, you have to be a member. If you're not a member, like, make it happen. What are you waiting for? We could be best friends. Just go do it. Become a member. Use code Shapiro at checkout for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us. Legal sent this list of everything we're not allowed to do in season two. We're gonna do all of it. We've got games, more celebrity guests, and yes, the mailbag is somehow worse. If you thought season one was extra, season two, we're doubling down. We're not supposed to be be doing this. Exactly. Ben After Dark, Season 2, streaming on daily Wire Plaza.