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- [00:01]
Ben Shapiro
So yesterday, President Trump said he doesn't care about the American economy, at least according to the left wing media and the entire septic tank that is social media. Now, you probably believe that he said that if you are a retarded person, but if you are a non retarded person, you probably speak Trump fluently at this point. I do. It's been 10 years of this. And I'll explain just what President Trump was saying in a moment. Plus, we'll get to why Democrats are flailing in the midterms despite President Trump's rocky numbers on the economy. The latest on Iran and some cultural matters. This is the Ben Shapiro Show. All right, so here was the clip that launched a thousand non think pieces because again, in order to really be upset with President Trump about this, you have to take him out of context. The President was being asked about the impact of the financial situation in the United States with regard to his thinking on the Iran war. And here is how the President responded. To what extent are American financial situation motivating you to make a deal?
- [01:04]
Donald Trump
Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about America's financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all.
- [01:21]
Ben Shapiro
So in context, it is perfectly obvious what the President is saying. And as per our usual arrangement, he's being taken out of context. The President is saying with regard to a deal with Iran, he will not be pressured into making a crappy deal with Iran that allows them to have a nuclear weapon by the fact that we have some inflation in the United States. This, by the way, is what is called political courage. Because the reality is that every conflict in which the United States is involved does have an economic impact here at home. Imagine if FDR in the middle of World War II, had been asked about the economic impact of shipping millions of young men, work aged men across the country and across the world to fight. And if somebody had asked him, how does it, how does it impact your thinking about whether we ought to cut a deal with the Nazis? The economic impact? If he said, well, you know, I think about that every day. I think about, I think all the time. I think about, you know, how people are suffering here at home. And so it makes me want to cut a deal. The whole point that President Trump is making right here is that Iran has to understand we are not going to quit the fight until they fight no More that is it. Until they give up their nukes or until they are so harmed that they cannot build nuclear weapons anymore. This fight is not over. And he is not going to be deterred by the media focus on the economy because what the President also understands that the stock market continues to do really well. The last employment report that came out this week was quite good. And whatever is happening right now, economically speaking, because of the Iran war is temporary because there will be an end to it. The impatience that the media are showing is not real. It is not because they are truly impatient about the economic situation of Americans. It's because they wish for President Trump and America to lose the war. And the way to make President Trump lose the war is to convince the Iranians to hold out. And the way to convince the Iranians to hold out is if they believe President Trump is going to caveat. So in that quote, when the President says that he is not thinking about Americans economic situations, he literally prefaces it and ends the statement by saying he is talking about Iran and nuclear weapons. Of course the President cares about the economy. Of course the President cares about inflation. That is why he is pursuing a wide variety of economic measures ranging from the good, namely his attempts to deregulate AI and ensure that we have continued economic growth. There is to what I consider to be not the very good things like for example, regulations on homebuilding. But there is no doubt the President cares about the economy. He's just saying over and over and over, as he should, that we will not be deterred from denuclearizing Iran by the economic situation here at home. Which is precisely what he has to say. Cuz when the President talks, there are lots of people listening. Americans and yes, Iranians. And right now the Iranians are being intransigent because they believe they can outlast the President. The President over and over and over again. Again, this is political bravery. What we're watching right now, the President over and over and over again is saying, I will outlast you. I will outlast you. And that's what he has to say. Now, one of the things that's quite fascinating is that the economic statistics right now are obviously not cutting in favor of the President. Here, for example, is a graph of the consumer Price index change from one year ago. And as you see, obviously it jumped. The core CPI didn't jump very much, meaning excluding food and energy prices. But if you include food and energy prices, then it jumped to about 3.8% year over year, which is the highest that it has been since approximately 2023. Not great, obviously. And when you look at the poll statistics, Americans are not feeling very sanguine about the economy. A brand new poll is out from CNN asking which political party do they do Americans think would do a better job of dealing with a wide variety of issues? And here's what the poll found. On health care, 43% of Americans say the Democrats, 33% say neither. 24% say the Republicans. And helping the middle class, 40% say the Democrats, 27% say the Republicans. On income inequality, 39% Democrats 22% Republicans cost of living, 37% Democrats 28%. Republicans. On the economy more broadly, fairly evenly split, 35% for the Democrats, 33% for the Republicans, 32%. Neither on inflation, again, fairly even split 33%. Democrats 28% Republicans 39%. Neither on taxes, Republicans outdo Democrats 35, 2032. And on the stock market, Republicans crush the Democrats 38 to 21. So again, these stats there tend to favor the Democrats overall. On health care, helping the middle class. Inflation, Democrats are favored. On taxes. In the stock market, Republicans are favored. Okay, then the poll asked, generally speaking, do you believe that the following issues either have a positive impact, a negative impact, or no impact on your financial situation? On the war In Iran, 75% of Americans say there's been a negative impact on their financial situation, compared to 8% who say a positive effect, which again, understandable. The gas prices are up. The implementation of higher tariffs on foreign goods, 65%. Two thirds of Americans say negative impact on their personal economic situation. 46% of Americans say the increasing use of AI has a negative effect on their financial situation, which is kind of an astonishing statement considering that it is only AI growth that is holding up job creation, but productivity increases and stock market increases. But there's been a lot of propaganda against AI these days and a lot of uncertainty about what AI is going to do. 41% of Americans say that the set of recent changes to tax law have had a negative impact on their financial situation, compared to 25% who say that they think it's been good for them, the tax changes. And 35% say there's been a negative impact on their financial situation, compared to 25% who say positive. So bottom line is people are in a very bad mood about the economy, generally speaking. And Democrats, of course, are trying to take advantage of this. Zoran Mamdani, our Islamist and socialist mayor of New York, he put out a tweet saying inflation is at a three year high. Everything costs more. Groceries, gas, healthcare, a plane ticket. The math is simple. Every American dollar spent overseas on war is a dollar that could have been spent here at home to pay for a dignified life. It's time we change the equation again. This is just nonsense. It is nonsense for dumb people. The idea that a dollar spent abroad is the reason we are not spending a dollar at home is incredibly stupid. American government spends oodles of dollars here at home. Like lots and lots and lots of dollars. The New York City government is bankrupt because they spend so many dollars here at home. The cost of the war in Iran is a drop in the bucket compared to domestic spending. In just a moment, we'll get to why Democrats seem unable to pull away in the congressional elections. We will also get to the latest on Iran and I have a bit of a heterodox take on the latest turn that euphoria on HBO seems to be taking in some weird, interesting ways. First, my wife and I. Well, we sleep differently. She tends to like the mattress a little bit softer. I like it a little bit more firm. My wife tends to go to bed a little bit later. I tend to like going to bed a little bit earlier. Well, if you're married, you already know this is one of the great ongoing negotiations of adult life. This is why Helix has been such a good fit for us. Helix doesn't do the one mattress magically works for every human thing. They have more than 20 different mattress models designed around different sleep styles, body types and preferences so you actually get something tailored to how you sleep instead of just buying whatever mattress had the loudest commercial. Now, when it comes to, for example, our blankets, my wife tends to steal the blanket. When it comes to the temperature, I tend to win that one because hey, if she's going to steal the blanket, I get to have a cooler house. But when it comes to Helix, that we can agree is great. We've had our Helix mattress for a long time now. The difference is real. But better support. Better temperature regulation, less tossing around at night. And honestly, when you sleep better, everything else functions better too. Mood, focus, energy. All of it. And Helix makes the process easy. It ships right to your door for free. You get a 120 night sleep trial and a limited lifetime warranty. And it's not just marketing hype either. Helix has been reviewed and recommended by places like Forbes and Wired for a reason. So if that current mattress feels like a leftover from your first apartment after college, now's a great time to Upgrade. Go to helixsleep.comBen for 27% off site wide exclusive for listeners of this podcast. That's helixleep.comBen for 27% off Site wide make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you. Representative Ro Khanna, who again thinks he's going to run for president, put out a tweet quote, if we were not at war, the Fed would have cut rates two to three times this year. Now it will likely be zero. Ok, first of all, that's not true. If we were not at war, the Fed probably would have left the rates where they are. Americans are paying more for their mortgages, more for credit cards, more for student debt, more for food and gas, all because Trump went along with Netanyahu's Iran war again, got a sneak some of that anti Semitic conspiracizing in there. The idea being that of course Netanyahu talked Trump into the war as opposed to Trump having any level of agency. Okay, well here is the question. With all of this being the case, you know, with the propaganda out there that the president doesn't care about the economy, with the poll numbers that suggest that Americans are not super happy with the economy and that Americans have problems with our foreign policy, with our domestic policy, why are Democrats in Congress unable to pull away from Republicans? What is happening? Because that is the actual big hidden story here. Harry Ensign in CNN points out that right now the question of whether Democrats even win back the House, which they clearly should, that is up for grabs. Remember, it is an off year election. Every off your election favors the party out of power. But Democrats are having a tough time clearing the bar.
- [10:36]
Harry Enten
Harry Anson explains Democrats in the national House vote margin. According to my estimate, what they need for control with redistricting in terms of the national popular vote is somewhere of a win between three and four points. What CNN's current poll with no clear leader, it's a three point advantage. If this were in fact the actual result come election day, the race for Congress, the race for the House would be basically a toss up. And that is why the redistricting efforts that have been happening are so important. Because before the redistricting happened, Democrats essentially just needed to win the national House popular vote in order to win control of the House of Representatives. But but now with the redistricting their ladder, they have to climb ever higher and a three point win may very well not do it. This is well within the realm of possibilities. Could be Democrats take back the House. You know, if Democrats outperform the CNN poll by A few points, they take it back. But they could underperform as well, and that would be big time trouble. As I said at the start here, this game is most certainly not over. Republicans very much in the race.
- [11:40]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, the, the real question here though is why are Democrats only leading by three points? Remember, Republicans are in control of Congress and the Senate and the presidency and the President is riding at about 40% of the approval ratings. Why are Democrats unable to pull away? The answer is actually pretty obvious. The state of the economy right now is temporary. But socialism and support for terrorism, those are forever. And the Democratic Party moves ever further to the left. A brand new poll is now out from Atlas intel, which is, and it shows for the first time, Alexander Ocasio Cortez surging to first place in the Democratic primary polling. And this is an astonishing story. The fact that the idiot congresswoman from New York who has achieved zero true things in Congress and whose entire Persona is being the lady who says like a lot and doesn't understand basic economics while weeping over the funding of Iron Dome in Israel. That lady is currently leading her first 2028 poll. According to this poll, right now she leads with 26% of the Democratic primary base. Pete Buttigieg clocking in second at 22%. Gavin Newsom at 21%. Kamala Harris at 13. Everyone else way down there. Way down there. So a few headlines there. One, Kamala Harris falling off. She's falling off pretty quickly. Unclear whether she's even going to make it to the starting gate. Pete Buttigieg overperforming in this particular poll. They must have oversampled white liberal ladies. But Alexander Ocasio Cortez out in front. I've been saying for a while, I think the people are selling her stock too low. I think that the Democrats are aiming for the far left and they are hitting it. And you can see that everything that used to be a bug for Democrats is now a feature. Being too radical for the crowd is now a feature. Being Graham Platner is now a feature in Maine. The guy with the swat, the, the Totenkopf, the guy, the, the SS tattoo, that guy, that's a feature. Zoran Mamdani being pro terrorist, that's a feature. And apparently the Democratic nominee in Michigan is going to be El Sayed, which is insane, right? The, the, the fact that Abdul Rahman Muhammad El Sayed is going to almost certainly be the Democratic nominee in Michigan demonstrate how far the left has moved. They are now openly embracing people who stan terrorism. Love it into it. Remember El sayed was caught on tape saying he would not condemn people who are in favor of Ayatollah Khomeini. This is a person who's expressed support for terrorist groups, El Sayed. And that is a feature, not a bug in the modern democratic party that made him do better. According to a brand new story from this polling data, after endorsements from u. S. Senator Bernie Sanders and controversial podcaster Hassan piker, Abdul El sayed has surged into a nine percentage point lead over Haley Stevens and State Senator Mallory McMurrow in the race for the democratic nomination. Earlier polls had shown the other two in a lead and Elsa just a few points behind. Jon Favreau over at the pod save america crew, a person who spends his days trying to legitimize radicals. He responded to the new polling on x. He called it a third way bump. And then Ben Rhodes came back, of course. Remember Ben Rhodes, a foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama whose literal nickname in the white House was Hamas, Not a joke. Jumped on X, you say? You mean voters don't take direction from Washington think tanks and Wall street journal op eds? Now listen, there are a lot of problems with El sayed, including, according to politico, the fact that he calls himself a physician and yet he has never been granted a medical license. So that's awkward. He has a doctorate in public health from Oxford university. He worked as an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia, but he never practiced medicine. He still calls himself a doctor, but again, the real drawback on him is that he is pretty in love with radical Islamic terrorism and campaigns with people who also are pretty in love with radical Islamic terrorism. And it turns out in the end, Americans don't like this stuff very much. They don't like this stuff very much. When Americans see video from Brooklyn of girls getting punched in the head by Hamas niks, they don't like it all that much. They're not all that fond of it. Zormadani, as mayor of New York, has allowed to blossom radical pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah rallies in the center of the city and also into the suburbs. There is video that emerged a couple of days ago of pro Hamas marchers going to houses in the middle of Brooklyn in order to protest. And one Jewish girl gets punched in the face by one of these protesters who's located in a car. Here's some of the footage. You can see all the Hamas niks here with their. With their kaffirs on. I mean, people literally assaulting Jews in a neighborhood for being Jewish. And this apparently is what Democrats are into. Remember, Mamdani says the right to protest is sacrosanct, which is why he allowed this sort of thing in the first place. While, by the way, condemning anti radical Islam protesters outside the mayoral mansion at the same event where a radical Muslim tried to throw an IED into the crowd. Meanwhile, Zaramdani and his radical take on economics, these have become the leading point of the spear for the Democratic Party. Mamdani is celebrating that he balanced the budget without instituting property taxes on everyone. What he actually did is he just lied about it. He does what Democrats everywhere do. He tried to kick the can down the road. So he is pretending that he's going to gain $500 million in revenue from the new pied a terre tax on luxury second homes and that he is going to pick up 3.163 billion through state authorization of other savings measures, including $2.3 billion in pension restructuring, which means just kicking the can down the road and making the costs appear much later. Again, this is. It's him lying about the budget. But here we are. He's going to pretend that he actually is doing a masterful economic job here.
- [17:53]
Zoran Mamdani
We inherited a $12 billion budget deficit. We are speaking about a fiscal crisis at the scale greater than the Great Recession. Was the Great Recession, Great Recession. Many said the only way out of this was slashing services and passing an austerity budget. We rejected that. After months of painstaking work, that deficit is now zero. Our city is now on firm financial ground. We achieved this in two major ways. Increasing revenue and support from Albany and cutting wood waste and finding savings here in New York City. Thanks to Governor Hochul, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart, Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Hastie and months of organizing from New Yorkers, we tax the rich. That tax alone will raise half a billion dollars per year. And that's not all. Thanks to Governor Hochul and our partners in Albany, we finally got a better deal for New York City. We're getting billions more from the state to help tackle the gap.
- [18:39]
Ben Shapiro
So they are getting the state to sign a check to them. You may notice that there is a $12 billion gap. And he says the Pieterra tax is going to cover $500 million. I noticed 500 million is a lot less than 12 billion. Where's the rest coming from? Well, according to the Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Ryan, quote, the executive budget closes over half the gap with short term strategies rather than a full scale effort to shrink spending that doesn't deliver for New Yorkers. A pension Gimmick and temporary plugs exacerbate fiscal problems rather than solve them. So in other words, they're lying as per the usual arrangement. Meanwhile, over in California, same sort of thing happening. So California is emptying out its key industries, tech Hollywood. It is very, very difficult to make TV or movies in Hollywood anymore. They're gigantic sound stages in Hollywood that are now completely empty because of the cost of doing business in Hollywood. And as for tech, tech founders are leaving California every single day buying gigantic places here in Miami. So what exactly is keeping California afloat? Well, it's healthcare jobs. According to the Wall Street Journal, hiring for health and social assistance jobs in the Golden State grew 25% in the four year period from March 2022 to March 2026. These are often low paying jobs in roles like senior care. Hey cool, you lost your job in Hollywood, you can take care of a senior. Exciting things happening in the Golden State without those sectors. According to the Wall Street Journal, the state hosting the nation's high tech and entertainment hubs would have lost jobs over that same period. So Democrats doing a wonderful job on economics. Wonder why Americans are a little bit uneasy about handing the reins back to the Democrats. All right, coming up, California continues to be governed by idiots. Plus, we'll get to some interesting Hollywood news first. Everybody has that moment with their car. The weird noise that starts coming from under the hood. The check engine light comes on. You are counting down the seconds until you make it home. The the worst part is you already know what's coming next. Some mechanic is about to look at you with the expression of a man delivering bad medical news and say, yeah, this is gonna cost. Well, that's why Carshield makes a lot of sense. One of our sales executives recently signed up after his extended warranty expired. He compared a bunch of different options. Car Shield came in around 20% cheaper than the other extended coverage plans he looked at. He's already used the service. He said the whole process was easy. And honestly, the appeal here is pretty straightforward. Cars are absurdly expensive to repair right now. Car Shield helps protect you from those giant surprise repair bills. They also provide 24. 7 roadside assistance, towing and rental car options at no extra cost. They also work with ACE certified mechanics and repair shops nationwide. Their plans are month to month with low deductibles. So instead of panicking every time your car makes a noise it probably shouldn't make, you can drive with a little more peace of mind. The road is calling. Make sure your car is ready to answer right now. Carshield is offering our listeners 20% off with the code shapiro@carshield.com Shapiro Protect your vehicle from the unexpected before the first big repair bill hits. Join the millions protected by car Shield. Go to carshield.com Shapiro use code SHAPIRO now for 20% off. Meanwhile, the next governor of California right now is likely to be Xavier Becerra, who is so bad at this that he has been relegated to asking interviewers to ask him easier questions. He's on ktla, which is a station out in la, by the way.
- [21:45]
Xavier Becerra
This is a profile piece. This is not a gotcha piece. Right.
- [21:48]
Interviewer
Well, look, I think these questions are fair. It's in order to learn about you as a candidate.
- [21:54]
Xavier Becerra
So long as it's about the profile.
- [21:55]
Interviewer
I don't know how you define profile, but I'd like to begin the interview.
- [21:58]
Xavier Becerra
The way I describe profile is you talk about all the things that I've done, things I want to do, and along with some tough questions. But not only tough questions.
- [22:08]
Ben Shapiro
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is not great, Bob Woo. You know that you're a bad candidate when you're sitting there asking the interviewer to be nice to you and she's like, well, can we just start the interview? And he's like, nope, I need to explain to you what her profile is. By the way, one of those tough questions might be the fact that Xavier Becerra, while he was Health and Human Services Secretary, he presided over the losing of a bunch of minors because Immigration Services was basically releasing minors to unrelated adults. And Becerra tried to claim that he had nothing to do with it.
- [22:40]
Interviewer
During your time as HHS secretary, a New York Times investigation found the Health Department couldn't find some 85,000 children it had released.
- [22:48]
Xavier Becerra
That's not accurate. What you just read is not accurate. First, that's what I'll say, because it was never the case that we could not find kids. You're essentially. I don't know if you got those talking points from Donald Trump.
- [23:00]
Interviewer
It's from a New York Times article.
- [23:02]
Xavier Becerra
That's not what the New York Times article said. The New York Times said that individuals, the children and their sponsors did not respond to calls. They didn't say, we couldn't find kids
- [23:12]
Interviewer
working overnight in slaughterhouses, replacing roofs, operating machineries and factories. Children as young as 14 years old.
- [23:20]
Xavier Becerra
That part occurred after these children had left the care of Department of Health and Human Services.
- [23:26]
Interviewer
Do you let these children go into those individual sponsors in their responsibilities?
- [23:31]
Xavier Becerra
Some of these kids probably because they needed to earn some money, started working in places that were very exploitive.
- [23:37]
Ben Shapiro
Oh, they needed some money and they started working in places. But you had nothing to do with that. Yeah, that's who California is going to hire as its governor. Slow clap for the Californians. Does the rest of the country want a piece of that? Well, some people have doubts. Well, Democrats, given the fact that they are not particularly popular on either foreign or domestic policy, they're now being relegated to doing what they do best, playing the race card. Representative Ro Khanna is now claiming that South Carolina is denying black people the right to serve in Congress. Quote, South Carolina, where the first shot of the Civil War was fired, where 40% of those enslaved came through the Charleston port, is today engaged in an ugly recidivism to draw maps that will deny a black person the chance to serve in Congress. The stakes could not be higher. Our political fight is not on a playground, but a moral battleground. We must stand for black representation across the South. Just going to point out at this point that one of the senators from South Carolina is Tim Scott, who is black, and he has been in either Congress or the Senate since 2011, but he's a black Republican, so apparently he doesn't count. You know, Bakari Sellers. And again, I like Bakari. He's a nice guy. But this is a pretty wild take here on CNN suggesting that nothing has changed in America between 1896 and 2026, which is strange since both he and another black host are on the air discussing it.
- [24:56]
Bakari Sellers
If somebody fell asleep in 1896 and woke up today in 2026, they would simply say the only difference is now Negroes have a TV show and we wear nice suits. They. They swapped out Klan hoods for Brooks Brothers suits. And that is the problem. I mean, Plessy v. Ferguson was 7:1 and it gave birth to 50 years of Jim Crow. What we have with this court right now, what we're seeing is watching people who have fought and died and bled so that we would have access to the ballot box, so that we would have access to our voices being heard in Congress being ripped away.
- [25:36]
Ben Shapiro
If a Black person from 1896 woke up in 2026, the first thing they would say is, this is wild. You mean we had a black president already, like, for two terms, and we have a bunch of black Congress people and we have a bunch of black senators, and the TV is filled with prominent black people. And also we have magical machines that allow you to order anything to your door at the press of a button. What's happening right now? Yes, 1896 is similar to 2026 in Crazy Land. So that's what the Democrats have to sell is, again, racial grievance. They can sell socialism, I suppose, bad economic policy, kicking the can down the road, and, of course, hatred of the United States when it comes to foreign policy. Which brings us to the latest on foreign policy. The President of the United States has made very, very clear that if Iran will not give up the ghost on its nuclear program, more is to come from the United States military. According to NBC News, the US Military is officially considering renaming the war with Iran Operation Sledgehammer. If the current ceasefire collapses and President Trump decides to restart major combat operations. Now, again, one of the reasons for that is that if he does that, it is a separate operation and the War Powers act may be avoided in certain ways. Also. I kind of love that name, Operation Sledgehammer. I'm into Epic Fury was kind of great, but it did feel like a 1980s video game. Sledgehammer is a good military name. And I would assume the first step of Sledgehammer would be to blow up the Iranian energy facilities and put them on their final footing. Meanwhile, the President is still claiming that a lot of good things are going to happen with regard to China and Iran. Here was the President yesterday. What is your message to President Xi as it relates to the Iran war?
- [27:17]
Donald Trump
Well, I think, number one, we're going to have a long talk about it. I think he's been relatively good, to be honest with you. You look at the blockade, no problem. They get a lot of their royal from that area. We've had no problem. And he's been a friend of mine. He's been somebody that we get along with. And I think you're going to see that good things are going to happen. This is going to be a very exciting trip. A lot of good things are going to happen.
- [27:43]
Ben Shapiro
The President of the United States took off for China yesterday. Meanwhile, General Dan Kaine was testifying before Congress. And as he points out, the military is just one part of what we are doing in Iran, with a hat
- [27:54]
General Dan Kaine
tip towards Secretary Besant, Secretary Rubio and the rest of the interagency. The totality of total pressure, which the military element is just one component on, is what the regime in Iran is feeling right now. And I think there's no shortage of ability to hold that pressure. The decision on for how long to hold that pressure is, of course, a political one and within our civilian leadership. But I would highlight that they are absolutely feeling that pressure not just from the blockade, as the secretary talked about, but the continuation of sanctions that treasury and others have put on there. And we retain a range of military options.
- [28:39]
Ben Shapiro
Meanwhile, the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, says that Iran has been trying a North Korea strategy, which of course is right. They are trying to speedrun to a nuclear weapon to make themselves immune to some sort of regime change or regime behavior change so they can foster terrorism all over the region.
- [28:54]
Pete Hegseth
The core of it is the nuclear weapons issue. Those other factors are always a factor. Understanding that Iran has effectively tried to use the North Korea strategy with such overwhelming capabilities conventionally that no one would dare prevent them from pursuing a nuclear weapon. And it took President Trump to have the courage to make that historic decision.
- [29:15]
Ben Shapiro
Hegseth also explained the $29 billion budget that has been spent on this war. He says that's just for the arsenal
- [29:21]
Pete Hegseth
of freedom President Trump's War Department has begun to turn the lights back on in manufacturing towns across this country to forge a lethal arsenal of freedom where our critical supply chains are threatened. The Department of War has acted decisively to inject capital, stimulate production and prevent adversarial exploitation. We are firing up the American economic engine at every level of the defense industrial base. Every policy we pursue, every budgetary item we request serves to ensure that this department remains laser focused on increasing lethality and survivability of our fighting force from the front lines.
- [29:59]
Ben Shapiro
It is also worth noting, by the way, that when everybody talks about how this was in Israel's interest, the Saudis apparently launched actual military strikes against Iran. So did UAE in the middle of the war. This is according to Reuters. According to two Western officials briefed on the matter and two Iranian officials briefed the Saudi attacks marked the first time the kingdom is known to have directly carried out military action on Iranian soil. The attacks were launched by the Saudi Air Force. They were said to have been carried out in late March. And again UAE allegedly did the same. That is the second Gulf country, according to the Times of Israel, to join the United States and Israel in their war against the Islamic Republic, Bloomberg reported On Tuesday, the UAE carried out strikes both before and after the April 8th ceasefire. One of those strikes, which was a response to the April 5th Iran attack on the Emirati Barouche petrochemical site, was coordinated with Israel. That coordination has been reaching extraordinary heights between the UAE and Israel. By the way, one of the funniest things is Iran trying to market its way out of all of this. So Iran's Ministry of Foreign affairs spokesperson, a person named Ismail Bakai put out a very, very long tweet saying that what this is all about is a struggle for the future of humankind and appealing to Western leftists and of course members of the Woke Right or the New Left to join him in fighting on behalf of humankind. Quote to every decent human being, regardless of religion, ethnicity, nationality, race or any other distinction. To Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and all others of faith, and to those who follow no formal religion, but hold deeply to the universal values of peace, justice and human dignity. The US Israel launched this war of aggression on February 28, 2026 for a second time in less than a year while Iran and US were engaged in diplomatic negotiations. This is not merely a war over land, resources or geopolitics. This is a war that will determine the very meaning of good and evil in our time and for the future. What has been unleashed upon our peace loving nation is not just another conflict. On one side stand those who delight in violating every law of war and basic human decency. Those who murder for sport, who slaughter children to torment their families, who, who fire newest missiles at women's sports halls simply to test their destructive power. This is a war between those who boast of torpedoing unarmed vessels for more fun, and those who go to extraordinary lengths to protect innocent lives. If you believe this, I have to say, your head is so far up your ass, if you believe this, it's coming out your face again. And there are people who will believe this, or at least will parrot it because they love the Iranian propaganda. But the fact that Iran has been relegated to claiming that it cares about innocent life, well, fostering the vast majority of terrorism in the region over the course of the last 50 odd years is insane. Totally, totally crazy. That Iran is the human rights loving party in this particular conflict. Absolutely nuts. Absolutely nuts. He concludes, quote, do we accept a rule, a world ruled by modern slave masters, arrogant, domineering and unaccountable, who governed through coercion, lies and extortion. They literally murdered 42,000 of their own citizens for protesting them. They went out in the streets and they murdered them while presiding over the worst tyranny on planet Earth. It's unbelievable. Humanity's conscience is not yet dead, but in times like these, silence is complicity with evil. Being lectured by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign affairs about morality and complicity with evil and terrorism and disdain of innocent life. Yeah, that's a, that's a hell of a take. That is a hell of a take. Well, the President of the United States put out a statement pointing out that there are a lot of people in the west who seem to sympathize with the Iranians on all of this. Quote, when the fake news says the Iranian enemy is doing well militarily against us, it's virtual treason in that it is such a false and even preposterous statement. They are aiding and abetting the enemy. All it does is give Iran false hope when none should exist. These are American cowards rooting against our country. Fact checked true. Iran had 159 ships in their navy. Every single ship is now resting at the bottom of the sea. The they have no navy, their air force is gone, all technology is gone, their leaders are no longer with us, and the country is an economic disaster. Only losers, ingrates and fools are able to make a case against America. President Trump, he is not wrong. The Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, went up against Chris Coons of Delaware, not one of our brighter congresspeople, pointing out that actually he has no clue what's going on.
- [34:13]
Pete Hegseth
My concern, Mr. Secretary, is that you've achieved a series of tactical successes but are on the verge of a strategic loss because we are now negotiating. Just think it's so foolish. Here we are in a committee in the United States Senate 74 days in, and you're talking about strategic loss. We have the ability to a 47 year threat of a pursuit of a nuclear weapon. We have more leverage than we've ever had. We've had incredible battlefield successes. And you're talking about a strategic loss, Mr. Secretary. Of disingenuous questions. Mr. Secretary, this is how you understand things that could otherwise and are otherwise. I am not your enemies.
- [34:49]
Ben Shapiro
Again, the fact that Coons is doing this routine is demonstrative of a left that wants America to lose. They would love nothing better than for America to lose because they want America's power in the world diminished. They hate President Trump, and they would rather have an Iranian government with a nuclear weapon killing tens of thousands of its own citizens in the streets and with the permanent capacity to shut down things like the Strait of Hormuz while spreading terrorism across the world than for President Trump to win. It's that simple. All right, coming up, the Department of Homeland Security making some strong moves on both immigration and counterterrorism. First, getting a wide variety of whole food ingredients into your diet. It sounds pretty simple in theory. And then there is real life. You're traveling, you're working, you're running between meetings, kids, activities, whatever chaos the day throws at you. And suddenly balanced nutrition becomes grabbing something vaguely edible at an airport kiosk and pretending that it was a vegetable. That's one reason I like Balance of Nature's Whole Health System. It's a simple way to add more real whole food ingredients into your daily routine with without turning your life into a full time meal prep operation. I'm constantly traveling these days. It totally wrecks your nutritional routine unless you are working with Balance of Nature. What's interesting about the Whole Health System is how versatile it is that fiber and spice supplement mixes easily into drinks. If you want, you can open those fruits and veggies capsules and mix the powder into smoothies or even sprinkle it onto meals. These are real whole food ingredients, 47 of them. Fruits, veggies, spices, fibers including things like flaxseed, turmeric, spinach, kale, wild blueberries, shiitake mushrooms, mango, pineapple, cinnamon, cayenne pepper and more. No prep, no mess, no complicated routine. Just an easy way to make sure you're getting more of your nutrients your body actually needs every single day. Go to balanceofnature.com today. Get an additional 10% off the whole Health System subscription when you use Code Shapiro Meanwhile, the DHS is not giving up on its attempts to shut down threats to the United States. The Daily Wire's Jenny Terror has an excellent piece of reporting today talking about how the DHS is going after foreign student fraud. We talked about this a little bit on yesterday's show. We talked about the importance of stopping the importation of people who hate the country by sending them to American universities. Well, according to Jenny reporting for Daily Wire, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Tuesday that Operational Practical Training Program, known as opt, has become a magnet for fraud, with foreign students claiming employment from highly suspect employers. Acti's director Todd Lyons described the controversy at a press conference, noting the program allows foreign students to work in their area of study for up to one year while attending school. But it turns out a lot of these foreign students are not actually working. They're just having money funneled to them. According to dhs, they found empty buildings with locked doors where hundreds of foreign students were said to be working. In some cases, multiple employers claimed the same address. None of them actually had a lease there. Some small homes were listed as work sites for hundreds of foreign students. There were no employees present. Other alleged employers claim to have offshore HR and payroll personnel. Many of the employers had tax liens, civil lawsuit collections and breaches of contract on their record. Well, why exactly is all of this happening? Well, because Again, that operational practical training program very often is designed as a pipeline to get people to commit visa fraud. According to the Daily Wire in Houston, agents found an alleged pay to stay visa fraud scheme in which a company was charging students under the table to to help them fraudulently maintain visa status. One OPT employer in New Jersey claiming to support more than 150 foreign students who couldn't answer federal investigators basic questions about who they were or what they were hired to do. The investigators encountered only one student at the site who revealed that he had not worked for the listed company in over a year and was instead being trained by a company based in India. Well, the good news is that because of the visa clampdown, U.S. colleges are dropping students like fry like flies. 20% drop in foreign students over the visa clampdown. U.S. international Education Group national association for Foreign Student affairs points out that foreign enrollment in graduate programs dropped by an average of 24%. Some 62% of schools reported lower foreign enrollment in both undergrad and graduate programs compared to spring 2025. That seems totally appropriate. That does. You know the people who are coming here to study. You want to study, you want to come here, you want to join the American project, get a visa, become a citizen, help contribute to the American economy, become a great part of the American dream. Great. If you are coming here to study from China and to pick up our national security secrets, to understand our science, to take advantage of what we have to offer and then you go back and work with our enemies, well, you can go. We don't need you here. The US Counterterrorism strategy, by the way, also being corrected since we are talking about regulatory policy here and the Trump administration winning according to the new U.S. counterterrorism strategy. They are setting the record straight on domestic terror threats. They're correcting a false record that has been crafted by the legacy media, claiming that only the political right is responsible for political violence. That of course is a lie. The news strategy says, quote, our nation has not been well served by its IC intelligence community, which has been mired in old ways of looking at threats or has been actively weaponized by its leadership as a political tool. Whether plotting against conservative Catholics, attending traditional Mass in Virginia, parents standing up for their children at school board meetings, members of Congress or President Trump and his associates, this administration will continue to prohibit the IC from being used politically against innocent Americans as real threats were ignored or underplayed. Americans have witnessed the politically motivated killings of Christians and conservatives committed by violent left wing extremists, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk. In addition to cartels and Islamist terror groups, our national counterterrorism activities will also prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti American, radically pro, transgender and anarchist. The goals of the new counterterrorism strategy, by the way, include new and evolving collaboration between nation states and groups like cartels, new and deepening alliances between the far left and Islamists, that is the Red Green Alliance. That's what you're seeing march in Brooklyn, punching girls on the street, new and evolving alliances between established terror groups like Al Shabaab and the Houthis, and exploitation of new weapons like drones by cartels and jihadists. All of that is quite good. Okay, again on the regulatory front, the other big news on the regulatory front yesterday, aside from this excellent new counter terrorism strategy, he's the ouster of Marty Makary over at fda. Again, Marty is a friend of the program. He was somebody who appeared regularly during COVID to give us updates. President Trump thanked Dr. McCary for having done what he called a great job at the fda. He was a hard worker, respected by all, will go on to have an outstanding career in medicine. A person named Kyle Diamantis will be put in the acting position. And McCary's resignation comment read like this. Dear President Trump, please accept my resignation effective today. During my tenure, I announced 50 major FDA reforms. Joe Biden's FDA had none. I'm extremely proud. We reduced drug review times from a year to one to two months, wrote new guidance to advance psychedelics, introduced a new plausible mechanism pathway for rare disease drugs, and changed estrogen labels to tell women the truth about menopausal hormone replacement. It's been the honor of a lifetime to serve as your FDA commissioner. I am forever grateful. There some controversies obviously surrounding McCary's departure. There are some pro life people who wanted the FDA to restrict telehealth prescription for the abortion pill Mefapristone, which again, I think is a fair argument. Also, he was pressured by President Trump to authorize flavored vapes even though he raised concerns about the products. And again, I would side with Dr. Makary on that one. And he was criticized by certain biopharmaceutical companies arguing that McCary's agency was inconsistent in his review of their medicine. So McCary has been replaced. And meanwhile, on the cultural front, we have to give a shout out to Billy Bob Thornton of Landman. So Billy Bob Thornton said, you know, something actually smart for a celebrity. He said, I don't know about politics, so I'm not going to comment on them. I mean, slow clap for, for Billy Bob Thornton right there. I mean, that's a rarity. Here we go. So if you could be open and share who you are, how you feel, how you cope, that's definitely going to
- [42:58]
Billy Bob Thornton
do something that I think to me is way more important than an actor or actress or musician telling people like you said who to vote for. Because it's like, I mean, some guys on the fence, you know, and it's like, well, Dash Riprock said it on the Golden Globes. So I'm voting for, you know, it's like we, I mean, I don't know anything about politics. I have no idea. I mean, and if, and the stuff that I believe about it, I don't want to force it down somebody else's throat because I'm not an expert on that.
- [43:31]
Ben Shapiro
Again, good for him. Good for him. Hollywood would be much better off if people were to stick to their lane of expertise, entertaining people, being good at acting. The view, of course was very upset with Billy Bob Thornton because all must bow. All must bow. The knee before the left wing goddess. Imagine bragging about how uninformed you are. Yeah, you know.
- [43:50]
Sunny Hostin
Well, I think he's saying more. It's like I'm not an expert. So my opinion.
- [43:54]
Ben Shapiro
No, I don't know anything about politics. You're an American citizen. Don't you want to?
- [43:57]
Sunny Hostin
Well, I would say that I actually don't think you have an obligation. I think we are at a crisis point. That's right. In this country. I think democracy is participatory. I think when you have a platform that means you have an outsized voice. And when you have a platform, I think that you have a responsibility to speak up about what's going on in this country. In my view, silence is complicit. And every minute they need every single ally.
- [44:23]
Ben Shapiro
You see, Billy Bob Thornton did something terrible. He said he wasn't an expert on something and therefore wasn't going to talk about it. But you must talk about it. You must say the things that Sunny Hostin wants you to say. If you don't say the things Honey Hosin wants you to say, then you are a trumpkin. That means that you are complicit in everything that is going on. We don't even know how Billy Bob Thornton voted. He may well have voted Democrat. We don't know. But the fact that he won't say, he must say, say the words Billy Bob Thornton. And if you won't you're going to be condemned by the harpies of the View for not saying the things they want you to say. Do they ever just, you know, sit back and breathe for a second? Just like, take a breath. It's okay. Billy Bob Thornton doesn't have to be an expert on politics. You have everybody else in Hollywood who thinks there's an expert on politics. I mean, like Javier Bardem is busy wearing, you know, Palestinian flags around. Isn't that enough for you? You already have an enormous segment of Hollywood that speaks out consistently about politics. By the way, it has not had any market impact on the electoral direction of the country. But if Billy Bob won't say it, then Billy Bob is bad. In other news, kind of surprising news. So HBO's Euphoria, which is a very explicit show, a lot of explicit material on that show, but it's doing some interesting things. Some, some interesting things. So there's a clip that is making the rounds of Sydney Sweeney's character, who in season three is playing a woman, Cassie Howard, who is really insecure and she becomes an OnlyFans model. Her storylines are usually about seeking attention and approval and validation and all this. And her husband is short on cash, and so she joins OnlyFans. And there are a couple things that are happening here. One is this clip. So there's a clip that's going around and it's, it's pretty funny. It's Cassie who is appearing on a, on a podcast. It's hard not to laugh at this.
- [46:07]
Sydney Sweeney
I just feel like American men have been treated like same class citizens.
- [46:11]
Interviewer
You know what?
- [46:11]
Sydney Sweeney
I think I agree with you there.
- [46:13]
Interviewer
Why is it that women hate men these days?
- [46:16]
Sydney Sweeney
Well, in the past, men used to be hunters and guys, gatherers and protectors, but now they're being forced to walk around on their tippy toes. I mean, it's not natural. Men should be free. They should be able to speak their mind, voice their desires.
- [46:27]
Sunny Hostin
You think they're being too restricted by society.
- [46:30]
Sydney Sweeney
Like, if a man today were to say that he wants a girlfriend that can cook or clean, he might as well be screaming the N word.
- [46:36]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, well, you sound like a Democrat.
- [46:40]
Sydney Sweeney
I'm not retarded.
- [46:42]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, I laughed. Okay, it's funny. Okay. But there's something else that's happening on the show, and it's actually kind of subversive, like subversively important. So Sydney Sweeney is playing this OnlyFans model. You've seen a lot of people critiquing that online. And again, the show is quite explicit. The question Is. Is the show condemning OnlyFans or is it saying that it's great? It's pretty clear that the show is taking the radically subversive position that OnlyFans is awful and robs you of your soul. That is what's actually happening on the show. I'm not just reading that into the show. That's a thing that is happening on the show. According to the Post, millennial sex workers are very angry at The Sydney Sweeney OnlyFans turn, quote, in the climate we're in, that they dressed her up as a baby to make pornographic OnlyFans content was beyond troubling and again, serves to perpetuate stereotypes that sex workers have no moral compass and that they will do anything for money. Explained one sex worker. Well, yes, that would be the point. And there's always this untrue stigma that somehow sex work is synonymous with sex trafficking and abuse. And they just said, let's make a joke of it. That is so funny. I'm not laughing. Well, I mean, it's not about you laughing. It's about the truth that OnlyFans robs you of your soul. So the show's creator, Sam Levinson, did a. Did an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, and he explained a lot of these scenes. And of course, you've seen a lot of them trending on X. Quote, cassie has got her doghouse and her little dog ears in the nose. And that has its own humor. What makes the scene is the fact that her housekeeper is the one filming it. What we wanted to find is the other layer of absurdity that we're able to tie into it so we're not too inside of her fantasy or illusion. The gab is to. The gag is to jump out to break the wall. And he continued, quote, some of these scenes we only lit with these ring lights that she would use. When you're inside, it's a beautiful glowing front light, but then you jump out of it and it's just a pool of light and everything surrounding it is dark. It's just gnarly and jarring. We wanted to capture what she's trying to show the audience and be inside of it, but then also pull back wider and see how depressing it is. Do you understand how crazily subversive that is, what Sam Levinson is doing right there? By pointing out that the fantasy of OnlyFans is not remotely the reality, and that's actually depressing and lonely and sad and exploitative of people who are damaged. That's one of the most subversive things that Hollywood has done in the recent past. Again, there are certain shows out there that overtly sort of appeal to the right. Obviously, Taylor Sheridan shows do this sometimes. What Levinson is doing is something significantly more subtle and I think more effective, particularly with young women with whom the show is very, very popular, pointing out the emptiness of the onlyfans lifestyle. I mean, that is a subversive, subversive move from HBO's Euphoria. Alrighty, folks, the show is continuing for our members right now. We'll jump into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member. If you're not a member, become a member. Use code Shapiro checkout for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us.
- [49:27]
Narrator (Daily Wire special)
Martin Luther King, Jr. Is an American icon widely considered one of the greatest Americans who ever lived. A man who had a vision for a colorblind society, a post racial America. He had a dream. It's just not the dream you thought it was. Were his true aims a colorblind society or something far more radical who bankrolled him? What unfolded behind the scenes in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 was civil disobedience actually peaceful? We wanted to show you a clip of the I have a Dream speech, but according to our lawyers, we can't. In fact, King's family has made a lot of money suing media outlets. They want to silence critics like us. What they're doing makes it very difficult to judge Martin Luther King Jr. Not by the color of his skin, but but by the content of his character. Is America today stronger, more unified and racially equal than before King's rise? These questions demand answers and as Americans, we are entitled to a full accounting of the civil rights movement and its consequences. King's movement fundamentally transformed our country and our system of government.
- [50:32]
Ben Shapiro
I speak as a citizen of the world. Each day the war goes on, the hatred increases. Know the cause of evil.
- [50:41]
Billy Bob Thornton
Prosper.
- [50:42]
Narrator (Daily Wire special)
First part of our two part special on the Civil rights movement, A new Constitution, available now on Daily Wire. Plus.