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- [00:00]
Ben Shapiro
Are you suffering from ideological bloat, verbal diarrhea, brain cramps all over the current Trump action against Iran? This is a medical warning. You may be suffering from IPS Iranian Propaganda Syndrome. Left untreated, it may result in stupidity. Click whoring an awkward giggle. And it may have been passed on to you by your favorite host or politician. Is your favorite host parroting Iranian propaganda? Have you found yourself contemplating the end of America and possibly even the end of the world? The answer these days may be yes. And those are all symptoms of ips Iranian Propaganda Syndrome. Here are a few of those symptoms. They're telling you that America is losing. They're telling you the Iranian government is flexible and durable. They're telling you you'll never be able to fill up your car with gas again, that the war will last forever, and that all of this is because of the Epstein files. To understand just what's actually going on, I want to start with the truth. This war is justified. It will be short, and we will win. And get to that in a moment. First, your reminder. You need to head on over to Daily Wire. Yesterday, I was just trying to check the news, and I got to tell you, the first place that I go to check what's going on in the world is the Daily Wire, because we have a great editorial team, great op ed team as well. Go check them out right now, or you're missing out daily wire.com and become a subscriber while you're at it. Okay, so let's talk about the justification for the war. A lot of people are still asking, understandably, what this conflict is all about. All about. After all, they say the administration has made a wide variety of cases. It's about preventing terrorism, or maybe it's about nuclear development or ballistic missile development, or it's about helping the Iranian people overthrow the regime. It's about an imminent threat, or maybe a more distant future threat. See, here is the actual answer. All of the above. See, as we've discussed, Iran is an enemy of the United States and has been for nearly half a century. They're responsible for the death of hundreds of Americans, the undermining of American allies, the spread of terror regionally and globally, attempted assassinations of President Trump, and massive geopolitical turmoil. Iran is also a supplier of oil to China. About 60% of all Iranian oil goes to China, our chief geopolitical opponent. And they are a supplier of drones to our other chief geopolitical opponent, Russia. And then there's the question of why now. So, again, there are a Few reasons. Iran has been radically ramping up its ballistic missile facilities to the point where the United States and its allies were be unable to fully stop Iran's terror apparatus and regional power grab. Iran has been redeveloping its nuclear capacity since the 12 Day War. If they achieved a nuclear weapon, it would make it nearly impossible to course correct the regime or topple it. See North Korea. At the same time, a unique opportunity presented itself. Millions of Iranians in the streets hoping to overturn the regime, a uniquely weak Iranian air defense capacity, and the complete collapse of the Iranian economy. It is in America's interest for Iran to pose no threat to its neighbors, the region or the world. It's in our interest to dramatically weaken that China, Russia, Iran axis. And it's in our interest to act when we can, at the point of highest possible success and the point of lowest possible risk. So why doesn't the Trump administration just say all of this? Clearly? The Trump administration, for example, has not pointed out really the connections between Iran and Russia. The answer is because President Trump is still pursuing a settlement in Ukraine. He's trying not to alienate the Russians. The administration also is not tying Iran to China because President Trump is trying to find an off ramp with China regarding Taiwan and doesn't want to draw China into the conflict with Iran. Trump also isn't making the case that Iran is a target of opportunity for regime change or that the United States is engaging in preemptive war, probably out of concern for rhetorical similarity to the Bush administration. But here's the thing. This is not Iraq and Trump is not Bush. Which brings us to the bigger question. How does all of this end? We've heard a variety of goals from the Trump administration. Destruction of Iran's forward capacity, unconditional surrender, regime change. Any or all of these results would count as major wins for the Trump administration. For its part, the White House says that President Trump will set the terms of victory. Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt
- [03:53]
Sham Sankar
explained that Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender. He's not claiming the Iranian regime is going to come out and say that themselves. What the President means is that Iran's threats will no longer be backed by a ballistic missile arsenal that protects them from building a nuclear bomb in their country. I could make an empty threat, but if I have no actions to back it up, then it's an empty threat. And so President Trump will determine when Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender, when they no longer pose a credible and direct threat to the United States of America and our allies.
- [04:27]
Ben Shapiro
Now, it sounds a little bit facetious, but it really isn't. It isn't, because in the end, it is really unlikely the Iranian government is going to simply announce that it has surrender. That actually has not happened. And in a major American war, Since World War II, when General Alfred Yodel signed the German instrument of surrender in France and Japanese representatives did the same aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, there have been armistice like, like the Korean War. We've seen political transitions like Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela. But unconditional surrender, as in Ayatollah Moshtaba Khamenei on an American aircraft carrier signing document, that is not going to happen. So what would unconditional surrender mean? Practically as Caroline Levitt says, it would mean Iran is in no position to continue the fight in any real way. And here's the thing. We're almost there now. We are running out of targets in Iran. That is the reality. Here is a timeline of the first 10 days of operation Epic Fury is put out by the Department of War. I mean, that is, that is an awfully large list of targets, including the blowing up of Iran's major air defenses by March 3, the United States had emptied the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman of all Iranian warships by this Monday with we'd put 50 Iranian Navy vessels out of action. Caroline Lovett spelled out the Iranian navy's dire position yesterday.
- [05:37]
Sham Sankar
The United States is also annihilating the Iranian regime's navy. And we have destroyed more than 50 Iranian naval vessels, including a major drone carrier ship. None of the regime's vessels are operating in major regional waterways. And the Iranian navy has been assessed as combat ineffective.
- [05:57]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, so basically the Iranians have been relegated to firing the occasional drone at American shipping. Well, what about suspicions that Iranians might plant mines in the Straits of Hormuz? President Trump touted destruction of those mines on Truth Social yesterday. He said, quote, I'm pleased to report that within the last few hours, we have hit and completely destroyed 10 inactive mine laying boats and or ships with more to follow. President Trump. Meanwhile, Iran's oil industry is basically at the mercy of the United States. We and our Israeli allies have attacked the oil facilities that are most directly connected to the irgc. We're not blowing up all the oil fields or anything remotely like it. We certainly could. We are not doing that because we do not wish to push the Chinese into some sort of action and also because a lot of those oil fields are still connected to an Iranian economy. That supports the population. The oil fields and and refineries that are being hit are directly connected to the irgc. It's still possible that in the near future the United States might just grab Kharga island and take control of 90% of Iranian oil export capacity. And as for complaints that the United States is at the mercy of Iranian caused oil shocks, that is not true. I'm sorry, but it isn't. Crude oil closed yesterday at about 80 bucks. Remember, catastrophists were predicting 48 hours ago it would be at 150 or 200 bucks a barrel. As Alicia Finley points out in the Wall Street Journal quote, unlike during past oil shocks in the 1970s, in the first Gulf War, the United States does not depend on the Middle east for oil. The vast majority of the oil Americans consume is now produced in the United States and Canada. Americans will see higher prices in the short term because oil is traded globally. But we face little risk of actual supply shortages, unlike the 70s, more vulnerable as China, which gets most of its oil from the Middle east and Russia. So what comes next? Well, we may be nearing the point where the Iranian regime will have been as weakened as humanly possible from the air. And that means the devastation of the IRGC's facilities. Yesterday, tape allegedly emerged from Iran of an IRGC Basij member abandoning his his post. Here's what that looks like. He's apparently saying everyone is gone or leaving. I'm going home too. It seems like the regime is finished and we should surrender. I just hope the people don't take revenge on us and hope that's real, even if it's propaganda. I hope that it is going out to the IRGC and Basij at this point. Now, this kind of stuff could be happening all over the country. We don't really know because the regime has shut down the Internet. What we do know is that the IRGC has been totally pulverized from the air. There is no money coming in to pay the Ayatollah's henchmen. And the Ayatollah himself is dead and his ridiculous son is now supposedly running the place and people are bowing to cardboard cutouts of him. Well, soon, as the President has suggested over and over again, it will actually be up to the Iranian people to take the final steps. Remember, this war actually began with the Iranian government slaughtering protesters in the streets, some 32,000 of them. President Trump promised help was on the way and, and he has delivered. The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be preparing the Iranians for precisely that moment that they will have to move on mass to seize their government. He wrote on X yesterday, quote, people of Iran, we are waging historic war for liberty. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you to remove the Ayatollah regime and gain your freedom. Together with the United States. We are hitting the tyrants of Tehran harder than ever. The Ayatollah is no more. And I know you don't want him replaced with another tyrant. So you must act. Are creating the conditions for you to do so. We have hit countless regime targets. We have taken out thousands of IRGC thugs and hundreds of their missile launchers. We are focused on regime targets and are doing our best not to harm the people of Iran. We are your ally, your best ally. We fully respect your sovereignty, culture and heritage. You asked for help, and help has arrived. We'll continue to hit with growing force the tyrants who terrorized you for decades. The Ayatollahs and their henchmen are on the run. But those cowards have nowhere to hide. In the coming days, we'll create the conditions for you to grasp your destiny. Dreams will become a reality. When the time is right, and that time is fast approaching, we'll pass the torch to you. Be ready to seize the moment. I mean, that's pretty clear. Meanwhile, Reza Pahlavi, who's the Crown prince, the son of the Shah, he is saying the exact same thing. He says the moment is coming when the people of Iran are going to have to rise up. Obviously, many of the people in the streets who are protesting and were being shot were supporters of Reza Pahlavi, who put himself out there as sort of a figurehead leader, a sort of almost English monarch figure to lead a transition. He says we're now at the decisive stage of our final struggle. I urge you to secure your essential provisions as soon as possible and for your own safety, withdraw from the streets and remain in your homes. Continue to strike and do not show up for work. Continue your nightly chance to show your unity. To the military and law enforcement forces. This is your last chance to break from the oppressive forces and join your people. Await my final call. Well, whatever happens next, the Trump administration, along with our Israeli allies, have done unbelievable work here. Destroying Iran's missile launchers and manufacturing capacity, wrecking its drone facilities, wrecking its nuclear facilities, devastating the IRGC infrastructure. All of that is a win for the United States and our allies. Joining me on the line to discuss all of this is Sham Sankar. He is the chief technology officer and Executive vice President of Palantir Technologies. He actually joined Palantir as employee number 13 and then helped transform Palantir from a Silicon Valley startup into a global industry leading software and AI company. He has a brand new book titled Mobilize how to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War three Sham. Thanks so much for the time. Really appreciate it, Ben.
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Sham Sankar
Thanks for having me.
- [11:34]
Ben Shapiro
So why don't we begin with the. The current conflict in Iran. The United States obviously is utilizing technologies that are of a wildly different generation than what Iran is using. You see the full force and might of what a first world American Israeli military look like when unleashed on a, on a backwards military. What do you think of the American Israeli performance? And then we'll get to sort of the shortcomings of that performance and what needs to change for the future?
- [11:59]
Sham Sankar
Well, I think the, the current performance has been astonishing if you look at the volume and scale, the complexity of what's been coordinated. But I also think to, to your point here, Iran really illustrates what's been happening to our industrial base over the last 30 or 40 years here. Having won the Cold War, really the impetus for writing Mobilize is that we now live in a world where we've lost deterrence. You know, if you go back as far as 2014, we had the annexation of Crimea, the militarization of the spratly Islands. In 2015, we've had a pogrom in Israel, we have the Ukraine war going on, we have the Houthis holding trade hostage. And of course this is all culminating in the current conflict that we're seeing. And it's reminding us of the fundamental lesson of World War II and the early Cold War, which is that deterrence is about production. It is not your stockpile pile that scares your enemy. It is your ability to generate and regenerate that stockpile. And your ability to make weapons really does matter. And when a country goes to war, the whole country goes to war.
- [12:59]
Ben Shapiro
And when you look at what the United States has been doing, as you mentioned, our technology is obviously far superior not only to the Iranian technology, and then they're trying to fly F4s from the Vietnam War era up against F35s, which is just insane, obviously. But you also have seen how much further advanced American and Israeli technology are than Russian technologies, than many Chinese technologies which have been seen in Iran. What do you think of sort of our comparative military prowess technologically? And then I want to get back to the supply chain argument because that, that is the big question is, is actually how we generate the enough force that it scares everybody else off the ball.
- [13:36]
Sham Sankar
Yeah, I mean, without a doubt our military is the best in the world by a wide margin. Our service members are better than we deserve. Quite frankly, the talent that is oozing out of that the uniformed services is eye watering and the equipment they have is breathtaking. I think the warning in that is that we shouldn't use our technological advantage as an excuse not to have quantity. Quantity is a quality all to its own. And you could reason by analogy. In World War II, the Germans were better engineers. They had more exquisite technology. They just couldn't make it in any numbers that mattered whatsoever. And so having a 70% solution that you could outproduce by a factor of 50 was determinative. And as we look at broader threats, as we look at deterring China, you know, whereas we were the best at mass production at the beginning of World War II, obviously China is the best in mass production today. And we need a strategy to counter their strategy in that regards. And I think almost through divine providence, there's a reason the AI revolution is an American phenomenon. This is David's slingshot against Goliath here. You know, you're not going to win the war with software, but you can use AI to underwrite the reindustrialization of America. And that's really important, not just narrowly in terms of weapons. Because if you look at the industrial base that won World War II, it was not a defense industrial base, it was an American industrial base. Chrysler used to make the Minuteman ICBM and minivans. You know, Kodak was in the spy business. You know, we had a very different American economy where our companies, they weren't dual use products. That's too facile. They were dual purpose companies. They were equally invested in prosperity and freedom. That underwrote that prosperity for the American people.
- [15:22]
Ben Shapiro
So let's talk about how the AI revolution is going to help the United States. So as you mentioned, you know, quality can be overcome by quantity. We've actually seen this repeatedly. It doesn't tend to work in the long run, but in the short run it can do extraordinary damage. I think that actually the October 7th war is a great example of this where you have the most low tech attack on, on Israel. And it is capable of doing tremendous damage. Obviously over the long run. Technological advantage will tell if you can ramp up your production to meet it. But your point is you shouldn't have to ramp up production to meet it. You should just be so ready that nobody ever wants to Take you on. So how do we use AI to revolutionize our manufacturing industrial base?
- [15:59]
Sham Sankar
Well the good news is this is already starting to happen. So the work that we're doing in ramping submarine production, the work that we're doing with American manufacturers outside of the defense context, the opportunity is to use AI to eliminate the dead weight loss dwell time when the factory floor is sitting idle. So an example of this would be production planning. Oh, I need to read 150 page PDF. I need to understand what I need to change about production. What's different about this part? How do I quote it? How do I come up with the plan? Then I have the American worker, the best worker in the world, go build those things. So in one example we were able to reduce planning from three weeks to one hour. This producer got so efficient with their need to produce, they actually added a third shift. So this is I think a narrative violation which is like, wait a second, so AI is creating blue collar jobs and I'm not talking about building data centers. I mean persistent production that's going to exist well beyond when the data center gets stood up here. And I think the way I think about it is it's going to give the American worker superpowers. How do we make the American worker 50 times more productive than any other worker in the world? Because I am a re industrialization maximalist, I don't think. I think to a large degree, friend shoring is kind of a half measure. I mean I'm all for our allies and partners, don't get me wrong. But here is the basis for that, a conceptual basis is that innovation is actually a consequence of productivity. The thing you can't do is tell yourself, hey, we're going to do the innovation, they're going to do the production. Guess what? If you wait long enough, the production is what inspires the next generation of innovations. And you're depriving yourself of that stimulus of how to do it. We see that very concretely with SpaceX. The fact that they co locate the R and D people with the production people allows them to realize what the problems are and very quickly make the Raptor V3 eye wateringly different and more efficient with less parts than the original Raptor engine.
- [17:47]
Ben Shapiro
I mean this makes perfect sense. And nobody actually thinks about it in those terms. Because the truth is that if you're at home and your sink breaks, you're going to innovate a way out of your sink being broken. Whereas if you were just told go come up with some creative solution to fix things it's more abstract. It's not right in front of you. The necessity is not the mother of invention. I think that maybe the flip side of what you're saying, that production and innovation are linked, that necessity is the mother of invention. If you want to make it better and it's right in front of you, then obviously the impetus to actually go and do that is, is really going to be high. So, you know, all of this goes to, you know, what should the United States be focusing on when we do build up? I mean, there's been a lot of talk about what kinds of technologies we should be focused on and a lot of interesting debate about that because we've seen some, you know, low tech elements that we've underproduced. But at the same time we are, we are overproducing in some areas. I mean, there's been a lot of talk by the Trump administration about the continued utility of, for example, aircraft carriers, been very useful in this war. Will it be useful in a war or a conflict over the Taiwan Straits?
- [18:47]
Sham Sankar
We should resist the kind of Soviet communist central planning urge to think that we can, from a top down perspective, design the perfect force structure. You know, one of my quips has been every, everybody's given up on communism, including the Russians and the Chinese, except for Cuba and the Department of Defense. Now all credit to the Department of War as different from the Department of Defense in the last year. It is an unrecognizable place that has just slashed and burned bureaucracy and has really put, put us on the right footing to solve these problems with urgency. But, but that I think is, is one of the challenges. So as an example, I think In World War II we made roughly 154 different airframes. I'm pretty sure 10 of them really mattered, but obviously there was no way to know ex ante which 10 were going to really matter. So part of what makes our system so amazing is that we cherish what I like to call the heretic and hero. You know, so Hyman Rickover, who built the nuclear Navy in the 50s, think about this. So Oppenheimer, the father of the bomb, thought that Rickover was going to fail. He told him, this is going to fail. You're a moron. There's no way you're going to build nuclear powered submarines. Think about the chutzpah that's needed to say, yeah, I know you're the best at this in the world, but I think I can still do this. And the humiliation that guy had to suffer his first office was the women's restroom, because the Navy was trying to figure out how to get him to quit. But that is actually, if you look at the history of defense innovation, it always looks like that Churchill, as the head of the Royal Navy, built the tank. He had to call it the landship, because obviously in the Admiralty, he wasn't allowed to build ground warfare equipment. But it shows you that our greatest innovations always come from this kernel of heresy. Someone who's thinking differently. The system is trying to crush them. And I think it's really important, this moment to remember, because a lot of the lessons, the wrong lessons we learned having won the Cold War, is that you can rely on the system, that there is a process that's going to generate that. And a big part of the message of mobilize is, no, there isn't. That's a cargo cult. What has always generated victory is incredibly compelling humans who are just almost pathologically committed to success and winning in their ideas. Whether it was Andrew Higgins and the Higgins boat that won the war. The Navy tried to kill this boat. But in the end, 92% of all boats in World War II were Higgins boats. Can you imagine what would happen? We would not have landed at Normandy successfully without the Higgins boat, you know, or Edward hall and the Minuteman, and just, you know, a very feisty character who was fired more than once, but still, in the end, was the only guy who could give us a solid fueled rocket icbm.
- [21:22]
Ben Shapiro
So I want to finish by asking you where you think the United States currently stands geopolitically? Obviously, there's a lot of worry, I think proper worry under both the Obama and the Biden administrations about the recession of American power in the world, the attempt to almost draw spheres of influence. President Trump is fighting back hard against that. Obviously, there have been a lot of sort of interesting interpretations. What was going on inside the Trump administration was the Don Row doctrine, that we were going to essentially dominate the Western Hemisphere, but the Eastern Hemisphere, we're kind of going to leave alone. We're going to allow Russia to carve out its sphere of influence and China to carve out its sphere of influence. President Trump seems to be cutting hard against that. And right now, it seems to me that the United States actually stands at the brink of a historic opportunity to extend its global dominance by a century, by two centuries, given, you know, our advantage in terms of innovation, in terms of tech, and in terms of economic capacity. But it does require some of the willpower that you're talking about. Where do you think that we stand especially as we, I assume, draw toward the end of the conflict in Iran.
- [22:21]
Sham Sankar
Well, I think will is exactly the issue because I see the same opportunity you do. The American worker built the 20th century. We have an opportunity for the American worker to build the 21st century. It requires. Our greatest threat is suicide, not homicide. It's our ability to realize that we need to re industrialize, that we need to invest in technologies that make the American worker more productive, make the American worker more prosperous. That that requires us as a whole to be unwarfitting, both in the literal sense, like we need to make a lot more munitions. We need to take this very seriously. This is the basis of underwriting our deterrence, but also as an economy generally in terms of how quickly we are implementing these technologies to realize, remember, the end goal is to realize prosperity for the American people.
- [23:02]
Ben Shapiro
Well, that's Sham Sankar. He is CTO of Palantir and his new book is Mobilizedham. Thanks so much for the time. Really appreciate it.
- [23:08]
Sham Sankar
Thank you, Ben.
- [23:09]
Ben Shapiro
Well, if President Trump, Pahlavi, Netanyahu were to have their way and the Iranian people were to rise up, it would make a transformational change in the Middle East. In the meantime, obviously the place is still rife with conflict, which is why our sponsors, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, exists. So let me paint you a picture of what's going on right now. Actually, it's midnight. Sirens blare. You have a few seconds to grab your kids and run to a bomb shelter. Now imagine that you're elderly and things don't kind of work like they used to. Getting downstairs can feel impossible. And then you end up in a bomb shelter for hours, even days, because you don't want to go up and down the stairs. That sort of stuff is happening across Israel as Operation Epic Fury continues. America and Israel are winning. But obviously the situation on the ground means that lots of people are rushing to bomb shelters. It means that homes have been destroyed. That is why the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is there on the ground bringing food, emergency equipment, care for children and help for the elderly. And also supplying bomb shelters and medical centers with with critically needed essentials. If you've ever wondered what it looks like to stand with Israel for good against evil, this would be it. Please act right now. Give 45 bucks right now to rush life saving essentials to the vulnerable under fire. Visit BenForThe Fellowship.org to rush your life saving gift. That is one word. BenForThe Fellowship.org Again, BenForTheFellowship.org Also, as you can see, I'm on the road, not in my home studio and that means that I'm not eating the way that I should. Very difficult to get good nutrition while I'm on the road. But this is why I rely upon balance of nature. You, you've been told since you were a kid eat your fruits and your veggies. I tell my own kids that, but nobody really explained why. So here's the reality. If you're feeling off, tired, foggy, a big part of that might be what's missing from your diet. Luckily our sponsors Balance of Nature can help. We've let so called experts turn nutrition into a gigantic kind of phone book manual and it's hard to decode or understand. But nature is not that complicated. Plants have their own nutrition phytonutrients. Those are the natural compounds your body uses every single day to adjust, repair and respond to stress. And that's what Balance of Nature brings you. They take real produce, they run it through a tailored vacuum cold process that stabilizes that phytonutrition instead of destroying it. Their whole health system bundle fruits and veggies plus fiber and spice gives you 47 ingredients of actual whole food and their phytonutrients in one simple routine. Again, I'm on the road. I bring balance of nature with me. It helps keep me healthy even when I'm not getting enough sleep. And the new cycle is crazy. They've even added brand new freeze dried snacks that go through a similar process. You're still getting that phytonutrient rich goodness without the junk. And instead of overcomplicating your health with the latest fad, how about you fight the good fight with whole food phytonutrition plus balance of nature go to balanceofnature.com to subscribe save today. Join hundreds of thousands of people who have decided to simplify their routine and do something good for their body. Again, that's balanceofnature.com to subscribe the Washington Post is now reporting that pro Iran accounts have been overwhelming social media with AI slop connecting Trump with Jeffrey Epstein, according to the Post, quote to erode public support for the joint US Israel military operation, Iranian state media has sought to portray those countries leaders as part of a corrupt and depraved Epstein class or Epstein regime. While such content often fails to gain much traction outside Iran, the message is spreading through generically named news accounts that researchers say appear to be using the Epstein conspiracy theories to serve pro Iran talking points to a global AUDIENCE the Epstein posts are part of a maelstrom of Iran related misinformation that has engulfed social media since February 28, when strikes by the United States and Israel killed the country's supreme leader, Hamas, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and touched off a conflict that has spread across the Middle East. Mixed in with real footage of the conflict are dramatic videos of missile strikes down fighter jets, earth shaking explosions that have racked up millions of views on X, TikTok, Instagram and Telegram, only to be debunked as AI generated fakes. Real footage from past conflicts being passed off as new or scenes from video games. Well, here's the thing. Iran has found pretty fertile ground for this psyop. Members of the Grievance Party, eager to spread rumors of conspiratorial cabals are actually running the world. In their view, President Trump is never the decision maker. It's deeper, darker forces who are in true control. Jimmy Kimmel, right on cue, exemplified this last night when he thought it was absolutely hilarious to point out that Trump's actions in Iran are supposedly a distraction from the Epstein files. Because of course, the conspiracy can't end with, you know, Jeffrey Epstein. Now entire wars are being started by the Epstein cabal. The same thing that those with Iranian propaganda syndrome and the people promoting it, like Iran are saying. Here's Kimmel. Trump claims we are way ahead of schedule on the war. He's got a schedule, which means it should be over just around the time we see his taxes and the rest of the Trump Epstein files. Ironically, this war he launched to distract us from those could turn out to be more damaging to him than the Trump Epstein files themselves. They're saying this could be worse. And that would mean he'd have to come up with another distraction for from the war. And if you do need that, Mr. President, I got a good war. You know what would distract us from the war? Release the unreleased Trump Epstein files. That would be a shiny object we could gather around. Now, again, to be fair to Kimmel, he probably didn't need Iranian propaganda in order to push that trash. He just hates Trump. That's good enough for him. The same is probably true of Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a man so pro Iran that he lobbied just a few years ago to remove the IRGC from America's list of sanctioned terror groups. Well, now he's out there promoting lies about how America is somehow losing a war in which we've absolutely devastated our enemies. I just came from a two hour closed door classified briefing on the war just confirmed to me it's totally incoherent. We are not going to be able
- [28:28]
Sham Sankar
to achieve any of our stated objectives.
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Ben Shapiro
But I mention it because it's another closed door briefing. We have still, we still not yet heard a full explanation as to why this is necessary. We still have had no hearings in front of Congress that the public can see. And I think that's pretty simple. Because if the President did what the Constitution says, come to Congress to get
- [28:53]
Sham Sankar
authorization for this war, he wouldn't get
- [28:56]
Ben Shapiro
it is the American people would demand that their member of Congress, their senator, whether they be a Republican or Democrat, vote no. Because this is a disaster of epic proportions. Disaster of epic proportions. By what standard is this a disaster of epic proportions? Truly, we are talking about in wartime terms, minimal loss of capacity by the United States and devastating havoc wreaked on our enemies. But that's what Chris Murphy is out there doing, pushing the left wing propaganda. But then there are your favorite commentators, many of whom seem strangely susceptible to conspiratorial musings about the Iran conflict. Let's talk about Joe Rogan for a second. So obviously I'm friendly with Joe. Joe is a skeptic of intervention. It's fair enough. But his arguments are not convincing. Joe keeps insisting that this is an endless war. Now that's wild because we are less than two weeks into the war and it's not going to last probably more than another two weeks. When Michael Shellenberger pointed this out on his show, Joe then responded that all wars are endless, which, I mean, they're not. That's not.
- [30:04]
Sham Sankar
Ultimately they're not. They're not acting on the basis of achieving regime change, but just seems so insane based on what he ran on. I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on no more wars and these stupid senseless wars. And then we have one that we can't even really clearly defined why we did it. Well, but he said he's against endless wars. Well, they're against endless. Listen, man, they're all endless.
- [30:29]
Ben Shapiro
What the f. What? Like. No, they're not. Because wars have a beginning and they have an end. Not all wars are endless, obviously. By the way, Joe happens to be wrong on the numbers in terms of people feeling betrayed who are in maga. MAGA remains behind President Trump Foursquare. According to a brand new YouGov economist pollution, 91% of MAGA supporters approve of the way Trump is handling Iran. 83% of Republicans overall approve. No one is feeling betrayed unless they fundamentally misunderstood President Trump's foreign policy from the get go. So why then is Joe saying what he is saying? Well, as I say, he had on Michael Shellenberger yesterday, and Shellenberger is a reporter who had originally posited that the Jeffrey Epstein story was about foreign intelligence and child sex trafficking to prominent people. And then he bothered to look at the evidence. He went through the documents. He found a far more prosaic grift and sexual abuse story in which Jeffrey Epstein bilked rich people for money and used that money to pursue his sick fetishes. But Joe was not having any of that. And he continued to posit that somehow the real story of the Iran war and everything else is that Donald Trump is somehow being blackmailed by Epstein material. Russians aren't behind him.
- [31:37]
Sham Sankar
Israelis, I mean, Trump is. Look what he's been through.
- [31:39]
Ben Shapiro
I mean, he's, you know, he's got where he is. There's no way he's going to. They don't have anything on him. That's my. How do you know that?
- [31:44]
Sham Sankar
I don't think they have anything on him. He doesn't behave that way.
- [31:47]
Ben Shapiro
Well, he could, but I'm not.
- [31:48]
Sham Sankar
We don't see any evidence for it. Well, you wouldn't see any evidence until it broke out, until they released it. Yeah. And.
- [31:54]
Ben Shapiro
Well, we'll get. Well, I'm sure we'll get into Epstein,
- [31:56]
Sham Sankar
but I mean, I just think when
- [31:58]
Ben Shapiro
you don't have evidence of something, then
- [32:01]
Sham Sankar
you can't assume that it's happening. I haven't seen any evidence.
- [32:04]
Ben Shapiro
I've seen evidence that Trump is fully independent. So Joe's standard of evidence here is literally no evidence. So if there's no evidence of a proposition, according to Joe, then you should assume that it's happening. Now, here's the problem. That mindset is the most exploitable mentality possible for bad actors. Iran knows this, which is why they are spreading it. And ironically, people who pose as the great skeptics of the system, the people who suspect conspiracy lurking around every single corner, are actually often drinking from a well poisoned by actual Iranian propaganda. Now, to be fair, some people don't need Iranian propaganda to push this stupidity. True members of the grievance party don't need any encouragement at all. They despise America's institutions and history just as much as the Iranian government does. A couple of days ago, the Lord Haw Haw of the Middle east tried to liken the United States to Japan before Pearl Harbor. And that came just days after claiming that President Trump's call for unconditional surrender was a prelude to the mass rape of Iranian women by Americans. Here is Tucker Carlson. But if it ever emerges that our diplomatic efforts with Iran, both in February of this year and in June of last year were fake and they were designed to lull the Iranians into a false sense of security so we could launch a sneak attack on them, how is that better than Pearl Harbor? How is that better than any dishonorable sneak attack in history? Of course it's not. It's low. It's beneath the United States. It's beneath us as American citizens. And anyone who participated in that needs to be punished for it right away. So our negotiators who are negotiating, if they're providing cover for military preparation, they need to be punished according to the bad guys, remember, are the Americans always and forever. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas is absolutely correct when he says that he does not share a party with people who mirror Elizabeth Warren's economic policies or Rashida Tliebs, who foreign policy. That would be the grievance party. I do not agree that I share
- [34:00]
Sham Sankar
a political movement or a political party
- [34:03]
Ben Shapiro
with anyone who traffics in anti Semitism and
- [34:12]
Sham Sankar
for that matter, doesn't just traffic in anti Semitism or at least adjacent
- [34:18]
Ben Shapiro
to anti Semitism, shares Liz Warren's economic
- [34:23]
Sham Sankar
policies or, or Rashida Tlaib's foreign policy.
- [34:31]
Ben Shapiro
Well, speaking of people who share Rashida Tlaib's foreign policy, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, true isolationist and sort of charter member of the Noam Chomsky foreign policy brigade on the far right of the Republican Party. He was complaining about the war in Iran, suggesting that somehow it is a symptom of a policy to free all oppressed people, which will lead to endless war. Again, this is, this is if there is such a thing as AI slop, this is just political slop, True slop.
- [35:02]
Rand Paul
As far as the reasons for the war, there have been many different reasons floated, but none of them, I think, have been very convincing. One reason is that we want to free the Iranian people from. From oppression. I have a great deal of sympathy. I want people to be free around the world. But if our foreign policy is to free oppressed people, I'm not sure where war would end. I mean, there are many people that are said to be oppressed in China, Tibet, the Uyghurs, North Korea, Russia. Where, where would war end if our goal is to free oppressed people? So I think that goal is too grandiose and would perpetually tie us up in war.
- [35:39]
Ben Shapiro
Well, number One, it turns out that that's not our actual policy. Our policy is to end threats to the United States and our interests. We're not focused on going to war to end the oppression of the North Koreans or the Chinese, and Rand Paul knows that. But you know, the propagandists have to propagandize. And that, in the end, is Iran's last resort. Getting some fifth columnists in the United States to push their ideas. Iran is still claiming that its own attacks on surrounding countries were false flags. By, wait for it, the Jews. I mean, guys, I'd understand that junk coming from Tucker, but have some respect for yourselves. The Iranian Ministry of Foreign affairs saying regarding the Republic of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Cyprus, the General Staff of the Armed forces explicitly and officially announced that no such projectiles were launched from within Iran or by our military forces. As for Cyprus, even British officials confirm no such incident took place. That is not true. They've consistently warned against false flag operations. The Baghdad bombing is extremely strong here. Nonetheless, some will be taken in by all of this. Undoubtedly, they'll believe that somehow, despite America's overwhelming victory in Iran, that we are winning right now. We've lost. Maybe they'll point to the plethora of bad information on X. Now, listen, there are a lot of people who fall for this sort of stuff. A lot of Democrats, members of the grievance right who will promote it. The fact that they are mirroring the same conspiratorial insanity as the government of Iran says something about their priorities. The priority being undermining faith and trust in the Trump administration and also America's institutions more broadly. So for those who are suffering from Iranian propaganda syndrome, if you find yourself mirroring the false narratives of people who seek America's destruction, try to get off the juice. Seriously. Listen, it's easy to fall for propaganda, but that is why we launched the Daily Wire is to help you not fall for the propaganda. You should subscribe. But also, let me tell you about how we run our business here at the Daily Wire. Well, when we launched, we had all the usual uncertainties. What if nobody listens? What if people don't care what we have to say? Well, we took the risk and I'm glad that we took that risk. And you can do the same. You can launch a business with our sponsor, Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform powering millions of businesses around the world and and 10% of all E commerce in the United States, including our very own daily wire shop. Getting started is super simple with hundreds of ready to use templates, you can build a beautiful online store that matches your brand's style. Shopify is packed with helpful AI tools that write product descriptions, page headlines, even enhance your product photography so you can accelerate your efficiency whether you're uploading new products or improving those existing ones. Maybe you already know you have a good product, but you need help getting that word out. Shopify helps you find your customers with easy to run email and social media campaigns, making it feel like you have a marketing team behind you. You can tackle all those important tasks in one place, from inventory to payments to analytics without juggling multiple websites or platforms. And if you ever get stuck, Shopify's award winning 24. 7 customer support is always around to help. Plus, that iconic purple Shop pay button isn't just recognizable, it's the best converting checkout on planet Earth. That means more sales for you. We use Shopify for our DW shop. That's why everything is so easy. It's why it works well. It's time to turn those what ifs into with Shopify today. So sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com Shapiro again, that's shopify.com Shapiro shopify.com Shapiro also every weekday on the Ben Shapiro show, we take the news. We try to make it all make sense. Sometimes it's more fun to argue about it. So we have Friendly Fire. Join me, Michael Moles and Andrew Clavin for a completely live conversation about the biggest stories in the headlines, the media narrative surrounding them, and of course our Oscars preview. Yeah, you forgot the Oscars are happening, didn't you? I watched every single Oscar nominated film this year. I suffered. So you don't have to watch Friendly Fire Live this Friday. Yes, Friday the 13th at 2pm Eastern on DailyWire.com and the Daily Wire app. Many in the legacy media continue their quest to cover for radical Islam. CNN yesterday had to retract its insane article seemingly sympathizing with ISIS terrorists who tried to lob IEDs at a new York protest. The original CNN article explained as we talked about yesterday, quote, two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could have been a normal day, enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather. But in less than an hour their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti Muslim protest outside of Mayor Zoran Mandani's home. Well, CNN had to retract that one because why are you romanticizing terror like they were going to go out on a date and Then things went wildly wrong. They were arrested Saddo Voce for throwing bombs. So CNN retracted it. They said, quote, a post regarding the two individuals arrested for throwing homemade bombs outside of New York City, Mayor Zoramdani's home, failed to reflect the gravity of the incident, thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting. It has therefore been deleted. Oopsies. While that actually wasn't CNN's only screw up of the day, yesterday on this story last night Abby Philip or her teleprompter reported that the IED bombers were targeting Zoran Mamdani.
- [40:38]
Sham Sankar
Two Republicans say Muslims don't belong here
- [40:41]
Ben Shapiro
after an attempted terror attack against New
- [40:43]
Sham Sankar
York's Mayor Zoran Mandani. And the House Speaker Mike Johnson says nothing really to condemn those comments.
- [40:51]
Ben Shapiro
I'm just going to point out that the attacks by the IED throwing ISIS guys were against an anti Islam rally, not against Zormandani. She walked it back online the next day. But why is it that for the legacy media, all editorial errors run in one direction and one direction only? The direction of sympathy for the far left and their radical Islamist fellow travelers. Well, in other news, hot debate has now broken out in the Republican Party over the so called Save Act. Republicans support the Save act, of course, that is the act that would force voter id. Nationally, Democrats in the Senate have been holding it up. President Trump correctly points out that the Save act is quite popular with Americans.
- [41:27]
Rand Paul
Boy, did they get killed. Because even the Democrats, you saw the numbers today. Democrats voted 86% that this stuff should be passed. The Democrats with Republicans, you're at 98%, but Democrats are at 86. Except for the people that run the Democrat party because they want to try and win elections illegally. It's the only, the only reason you vote against voter idea is because you want to cheat. There's no other reason. They come up with reasons. They say it's racist. That's their number one racist. Then you have to explain it. And they're just sitting there mumbling. They can't explain it.
- [42:03]
Ben Shapiro
President Trump has also been having some fun mocking Chuck Schumer.
- [42:07]
Rand Paul
It's the easiest thing we have. Now. The problem is you call it the Save act and nobody knew what the hell to save act have you been seeing. I've been working overtime the last month. It's called the Capital the, the Save America act and I saw Schumer yesterday. We will stop Save America. He's getting killed. They can't do it.
- [42:31]
Ben Shapiro
Well, President Trump says that Republicans now should not approve anything until the SAVE act passes.
- [42:38]
Rand Paul
But they have to get it done. Because if we don't get this done, I'm for. If it takes you six months, I'm for not approving anything. I'm for not approving anything. I don't think we should approve anything until this is approved. And they can't win politically. Look, you have the in a corner and they're listening to every word I'm saying. It doesn't matter. Because they can't win it politically. Because when they say we don't want voter identification, we don't want proof of citizenship, all these things are just losers for them.
- [43:07]
Ben Shapiro
And Chuck Schumer, for his part, keeps arguing that if we clean the voter rolls of people who have moved or are dead and require people to use voter id, somehow this is going to result in mass voter disenfranchisement. A proposition that pretty much no one actually agrees with. It makes it. It allows ICE to kick tens of billions of people off the rolls. Off the rolls. And they don't tell them until election day. And you show up and you say, you're not registered anymore. You're not registered here, you're not on the rolls. And they say, I didn't know that. This is a bill that destroys the country. And it is not about showing ID when you show up to vote. It's about the voter registration rolls, destroying them, purging them, not letting people know, and taking the rights in a algorithm put together by ice, put together by Doge and Musk. It's an outrage. Okay, if you just say Doge Musk three times in a row, then Beetlejuice appears, according to Chuck Schumer. This is silly. If you can't abide by the law with regard to voting, you shouldn't vote. And if you moved and you didn't tell them you moved, then you probably should tell them you moved. Democrats trying to turn basic adult function into some sort of MENSA test are lying. It's not hard to register to vote, and it's not hard to determine where and how to vote. People have been figuring out for decades. But now, because Democrats are trying to filibuster the SAVE act in the Senate, which is means to prevent it from passing by forcing Republicans to find 60 votes in the Senate. President Trump is talking about killing the filibuster. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, by contrast, says, no, we're not doing that. We don't have the votes either to proceed, get on a talking filibuster, nor to sustain one. If we got on it, but that's just a, that is just a function of math and there isn't anything I can do about that. I mean, I understand the President's got a passion to see this issue addressed as we all do. Does he understand that, though? Well, we've conveyed that to him, but we'll continue to make that argument because I think it's important that everybody understand that this really is about, it's about the votes, it's about the math. So a lot of people asking, why doesn't Thune kill the filibuster? And the answer is actually simple. He's concerned if Republicans kill the filibuster, the next time the Democrats have a majority in the House and the Senate and run the presidency, they simply run roughshod over Republicans and essentially end any chance of possible parody in future elections, all with just 51 votes. They add new states, they add new senators, they change the voting rules and all the rest. There have been two arguments that have been put out there to counter John Thune's argument. First, there's the argument that Republicans should end what's known as the talking filibuster. Now, when most people think about the filibuster, they think of Jimmy Stewart talking for hours until he faints and Mr. Smith goes to Washington. It takes 60 votes to ensure cloture, which means to stop a talking filibuster. Under Senate Rule 19, each senator can speak twice per day. Members of the same party can hold the floor continuously physically. Theoretically, Jonathan could force Democrats to do that, like get up there and just talk and talk and talk and talk. In the past, however, opposing parties have allowed the so called silent filibuster, a filibuster that all agree would be possible in the absence of talking for days at a time. Right? So people basically say, you don't have 60 votes. Instead of making us talk for weeks on end, we are just going to, you know, not do that. And you don't have 60 votes to kill it anyway. So why doesn't John Thune kill the silent filibuster? There are a few practical reasons. First, if 47 Democrats each gave six hour speeches and they did that continuously in a cycle, they could stop the business of the Senate for literally months. Also, the only way to keep the Senate in session in order to keep the pressure on Democrats to keep talking would be for Republicans to maintain a quorum, meaning 51 senators nearby. If they don't have a quorum, like if somebody goes home and Suddenly there are 49 senators, Democrats can move to adjourn the session, and then the clock restarts and all the senators can speak twice again. Which means that killing the silent filibuster basically ensures pain but not gain. Now, that's not going to stop critics from attacking Senator Th and other Republicans as somehow feeble or insufficient in their defense of conservative policy. That's always the wrap from people in my industry toward politicians that the reason that Republicans don't do enough is a lack of will. If only they had more Nietzschean willpower. Or maybe they're corrupt. But that's actually not what's happening. The simple case here is that in the Senate, which happens to be a more collegial body than the House, I know a lot of senators, Republicans must always have one eye on the question of what happens when the political shoe is on the other foot. Just as Democrats killed the judicial filibuster only to watch Republicans stack the Supreme Court, Republicans have to be careful not to kill the filibuster on other issues. Just to watch Democrats ram through fundamental changes to the nature of American life and law. While Democrats are obstructing, there's no question that that is what is happening. The Democratic shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security purportedly over their upset over the Trump administration's ICE policies, continues. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was fighting mad over this yesterday. Democrats have made the conscious political decision, crazy as it is, by word and by deed, to protect criminal illegal aliens over hard working American citizens. That's it. Democrats have dragged the American people through multiple shutdowns now, first to protect. Remember last time in the longest shutdown in history, last fall, their argument was they wanted to protect health care benefits for illegal aliens. And now they've jeopardized the security of every American citizen to keep criminal illegal aliens in our country. They want to fight the Department of Homeland Security and the rule of law. Johnson is correct. Senator Thune points out the Democrats have gone totally AWOL. They're not even negotiating over the DHS shutdown. So here we are in the 26th day now of a government shutdown instigated by Democrats after they had agreed to the very bill that they are now opposing, and are now opposing, even sitting
- [48:47]
Rand Paul
down and talking
- [48:51]
Ben Shapiro
and negotiating on the
- [48:52]
Rand Paul
things they say they want.
- [48:55]
Ben Shapiro
Democrats, for their part, seem to think they're winning this political fight anyway. Senator Jeff Merkley is out there claiming as always, that ICE is the Gestapo. I mean, my goodness, folks, now Trump
- [49:06]
Sham Sankar
has turned ICE into secret police. I can't believe that we now have secret police. In America, but we do. I, well recall studying secret police back when I was in college. And the basic mark of them was they'd show up in unmarked vans, unmarked uniforms, no judicial warrant, knock down doors without a judicial warrant, grab people, detain them, and often prevent them from having access and communication with families or lawyers. All of that's happening right now in America. We now have a secret police called ice.
- [49:50]
Ben Shapiro
Well, I mean, it's not that secret since you're calling it ICE and you just explained everything that they're doing. And also all the things that they are doing are in compliance with federal law in order to deport illegal immigrants. But. And you keep going to those Gestapo comparisons. Ridiculous. The least joyous of all joys, Joy Behar is comparing ICE to the Reign of Terror.
- [50:10]
Sham Sankar
I feel like we're living in the Reign of Terror.
- [50:12]
Ben Shapiro
Am I the only one here to remember the French Revolution? I really feel like every day I wake up and he has created more chaos, more misery around the world. The economy is going down the toilet. Gas prices are going through the roof. We world economies are suffering, and we're
- [50:32]
Sham Sankar
in the middle of this.
- [50:32]
Ben Shapiro
And I feel like we're pretty much helpless to do anything because the Republican Party will not stand up to this fall. Yeah. Yes, we are in a reign of terror. Because what reign of terrors are very, very famous for is bat bleep loons wearing extremely garish jewelry, jabbering on television for long periods of time against the regime. That's what reigns of terror are famous for, is for letting people jabber to the crowd about how terrible the regime is. For some reason, Democrats seem to think that this DHS shutdown is a winner. That's not what the polls say. According to a new NBC News survey, ICE is indeed unpopular at 38% approval rating. But you know what's even less popular? Democrats. They are stuck at 30%, by the way. California Governor Gavin Newsom is stuck at 27% approval. Well, maybe that's because he has so poorly handled California. A breaking story from CBS News shows massive hospice fraud in Gavin Newsom state. According to that report, quote, three years ago, California's state auditor sounded the alarm that LA county had seen a 1500% increase in hospice companies since 2010, more than six times the national average relative to its elderly population. Auditors estimated LA county hospices over billed Medicare by $105 million in a single year. CBS News analysis reveals that over 700 of the roughly 1800 hospices in LA county trigger multiple red flags for fraud. As defined by the state. Well, I mean, that's not great for the governor of California, but I guess at least his wife isn't pushing weird gender films in California classrooms while paying herself a bunch of money. Well, strike that. Sorry. Actually, new new report in that did happen. According to the New York Post, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker, quote, leaned on her powerful hubby and his education board to push preachy flicks about toxic masculinity into classrooms, casting her husband as an enlightened Democratic savior, all while raking in a to $300,000 annually through her nonprofit, the Representation Project and for profit outfit Girls Club Entertainment. Well, I guess the good news that now they can afford to eat at the French Laundry. Alrighty, folks, the show is continuing. There's more show. You know, when I say at the end of the public show that that's the end of the. There is like more show to come. And this is where I answer your questions and you get to interact directly with me and we can be best friends, but only if you become a member. Head on over to DailyWire.com right now and become a subscriber. Legal sent this list of everything we're not allowed to do in season two. We're gonna do all of it.
- [52:52]
Sham Sankar
We've got games, more celebrity guests, and yes, the mailbag is somehow worse.
- [52:57]
Ben Shapiro
If you thought season one was extra, season two, we're doubling down.
- [53:01]
Sham Sankar
We're not supposed to be doing this.
- [53:03]
Ben Shapiro
Exactly. Ben After Dark Season 2 streaming on daily Wire. Plaz. Sam.