← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Loading summary
Transcript119 lines
- [00:00]
A
This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human welcome back in.
- [00:06]
B
I say back in because it feels like we're constantly talking and always here because there is a lot of hours that we spend with all of you. It is the Wednesday edition of the program and I will say as a ceasefire has taken root in the Middle east as I speak to you all presently, the stock market has surged. Oil and gas prices have collapsed. It's almost like if you listen to us and do not panic, you will end up doing better in your life. The s and P500 up 2.4%. A huge surge in that marketplace. Dow up 2.7% as we are talking 1245 points at the present day. Needless to say, days when the stock market goes up over a thousand points are relatively rare. Days when the stock market surges like this are not common. The price of oil and gas as I speak to all of you dropping $18 down some 15% or so. Stock soaring, Oil sinking as a truce, a ceasefire is underway in the Middle East. Now, Buck, as you can well imagine, we've got some cuts to play for you. But I saw Pete Hegseth this morning saying Iran needs to notify some of its people via carrier pigeon that they need to stop firing off drones and missiles. There are still issues in Lebanon. It's not as if the Middle east is usually very calm in the first place. So you are, it seems, filled with some measure of trepidation about how long the ceasefire might last. But for the moment, stocks soaring, oil collapsing. And now you can come tap dance on with some negativity after my 1 1/2 minute positive open there.
- [02:01]
C
Thank you. And I'm glad that we represent both sides of the pro Trump, pro American peace in the Middle east point of view. But a little bit, a little bit of a variation here on my sense of it. First of all, I said yesterday they're going to just extend this thing, which is really what this is. This is an extension. Nothing has been agreed to. That is lasting bonding. I mean, I know you meant ceasefire, you said that. But this is not a truce. This is not a long term agreement. This is a, we're going to stop pounding you from the air and try to talk to you about some things and see if you will come to your senses. Now I view this play very much as a will see situation. But here is the downside or here is my, my negative impulses about some of this. The Iran 10 point deal that they've put forward via intermediaries in Pakistan is awful. It is unworkable.
- [03:02]
B
Yeah.
- [03:02]
C
Their positions are we get to keep nukes, we get control and can take tolls on ships. Now, in the Strait of Hormuz, America promises to stop attacking us and Israel promises to stop attacking Hezbollah as well as, I mean, you go down this list. Now, I understand this is a, as Trump says, a workable place to begin negotiations. But here is the fundamental problem as I see it. This is now a race against the clock. This is basically the timeline that Trump had for the completion of this mission. And I thought I said on the show, I think it'll be done by April 1st. Okay, it's April 8th. We aren't bombing them anymore. So pretty darn close. Because the politics here at home play a large part in this clay. I do not see a future in which Iran renounces its nuclear ambitions, agrees to true. And people say intrusive, but I mean, you know, real nuclear inspections, gives up its highly enriched uranium. And if anything, I think the Iranian, the Iranian regime that is in place views this as a, ok, you hit us with your best shot and we are still standing. I think the Iranians believe that we, for political reasons, and that's not even really the right term, the American people will not go along with a sustained ground invasion of Iran. And I would agree with that sentiment, I might add. So that's not on the table. The American people do not want high gas prices. And that means that Republicans are going to start pressuring Trump if we go back to bombing them, we have a delay here in the campaign. Does anyone really, I mean, I'll ask you this. Do you think in two weeks we're going to have a real agreement with Iran that they can be held to and that we have faith in, and that ends this thing?
- [04:57]
D
I have.
- [04:59]
C
And then what do we do? We start bombing them again?
- [05:01]
B
Yeah.
- [05:02]
C
Well, then they shut the strait. The straight of Hormuz is a real choke point. There's a real problem. Sorry, go ahead.
- [05:07]
B
No, no, I think the question you're asking is the one that is the next step here. How much is this going to hold? And already there's disputes over what can happen in Lebanon and all these different aspects of Israeli action because Israel has been very active in northern Israel, southern Lebanon. I think what's going to end up happening is there will be flashpoints on this for probably the next six months between now and the end of the year.
- [05:40]
C
And what do you mean flashpoints? Do you mean things going boom in Iran or do you mean mean words in the diplomatic.
- [05:45]
B
I think Things going boom in Iran. I think we'll probably scramble jets and go hit some more targets at some point in time to demonstrate that there has to be some. Some tacit relationship and agreement.
- [05:59]
C
We just. At the. After that, though, is there some. Does Iran finally bend the knee and agree to Trump's terms? I think the answer is no.
- [06:10]
B
There's 15 demands from our side, there's 10 demands from their side, and the two demanding lists are in direct.
- [06:20]
C
As far apart as. This is like, I want a million dollars for my house. I'll give you five bucks.
- [06:25]
B
That's where we are. Here is what I thought was the most interesting about this. First of all, who was attributed to making the decision on Iran side? It's the gay atollah. We don't even know if the gay atolla can talk. We don't know where you came up with this term.
- [06:42]
C
Is this a new term?
- [06:44]
B
I roll with it. I can pronounce that one. Well, the, the son of Khomeini, the gayatolla. I'm not sure.
- [06:53]
D
Little Mo.
- [06:53]
B
Little Mo. I'm not sure if he's alive. I'm not sure if he can speak. But what I think he provides, Buck is a convenient repository for decision making that makes it such that whoever is actually making the decision in Iran is able to say, oh, no, no, that's not us. If it's a little bit politically unpopular, that is the Supreme Leader. Even if the Supreme Leader is unable to make decisions, remember, we still haven't heard his voice. We still haven't seen a picture of him. We still haven't seen a video of him. There are just reports that he was significantly injured.
- [07:30]
C
And so I want to push you on this a little bit. I want to push you on this a little bit.
- [07:33]
D
Okay.
- [07:33]
C
Because I actually want your optimism. And I'll be honest with you, I think most of the, most of our people with this right now, they want your, like, they don't want what I'm selling. But I just, I can't lie. I'm. I don't think this is a disaster. Certainly in the market you're speaking that it's not a disaster right now. And I think Trump's going to walk away. But if you're telling me if we're looking at what comes out of this campaign, right, what fundamentally we get from this versus what the Iranians get and what we wanted from the outset, do you believe at the end, like, make it the end of this by the end of this year, has Iran given up the enriched uranium has Iran agreed to give up its nuclear pursuit. And is Iran no longer in a position to, to choke us at the Strait of Hormuz?
- [08:16]
B
Okay, so let's go through the order. They basically have no air force, they have no navy. They have very limited ability to engage in any sort of aggressive act.
- [08:28]
C
We destroyed their military. Right.
- [08:30]
B
Their military is done, if you take at their word, and I think this is likely true. Right now we have satellite observation on all of their future fuel cells, all their uranium deposits, everything that would be used to construct a nuclear bomb. And if Iran makes any effort to go and try to retrieve that which appears to be significantly buried under lots of topsoil based on attacks, we would take action as we see fit. So I think getting to the uranium, enriching it, all those things are going to be very difficult. So I think we have effectively neutered Iran's ability to impact, in a significant way, action in the Middle East. What I think is the most significant factor right now is who is making decisions and can we trust them. To what extent do we believe? Remember, go back in the early days of Venezuela, Buck, when Delsey Rodriguez came out and said, oh, they're still the American infidels. And, and then she's saying publicly one thing, but privately she's basically doing whatever we want and we're not talking about Venezuela in a significant way. Does someone have the sway in Iran? I don't care what they say about publicly in our country. I don't care if they show up and they throw their fist in the air and they chant death to America. Privately, are they being rational and negotiating with us in a productive way? And does the person who we are negotiating with, to your point, Buck, actually have the wherewithal to control action in Iran? Because it doesn't take much to blow up one of these fuel tankers. And, and so if there are competing factions inside of Iran, to what extent is the leader able to actually lead and control what people in the country are doing?
- [10:14]
C
We did this. And there's a very detailed New York Times piece. Take it for what it's worth, whether you think they believe it or not, but a lot of it reads like what you would expect it to read
- [10:24]
B
like taking you into some of those meetings. I read this article too. Sometimes New York Times articles read like fiction. This to you, and you've been in the rooms, but this read like an accurate telling of what the debates surrounding this war were would be like.
- [10:37]
C
Yes, it sounds like somebody who was in. It sounds to me like somebody who was in the room told them. Now, whenever someone does that, of course, they're usually the hero of the narrative. And, you know, you could sort of piece some things together or they at least look the most astute. But I think the New York Times piece largely aligns, and I told you this at the time, it talks about the little, the, the idea of maybe getting the Kurds involved, which they say came from the Israelis, which I know from working the Iraq issue for years, was a complete nonstarter. And sure enough, I was right. But the fact that that came up, or rather that the reporting is that that came up in the context of Iran. There were some pieces here that make me think that this is how it went down, how their decision making process was laid out. But Clay, we keep going around that this war was fought to stop Iran from ever being able to go nuclear. Now we're being told more that it was to stop Iran's ballistic missile force. Okay, they're going to be able to rebuild that. They're going to be able to count on the oil flow to fund buying from the Russians, buying from the Chinese, etc. Military hardware to get them back to where they were. So I know that we're supposed to believe that the destruction of the ballistic missile capability is like some fantastic victory. It's a victory. I'm not discounting it. Our military did incredible things. I'm not encountering that, discounting that either. But at the end of this, do we have either a different regime or a regime that agrees to the terms with which we could go forward and say Iran is not a nuclear threat anymore? I don't think the answer to either of those questions is yes. And I just have to be honest about that. I don't think that we're in, we're in place with either of those things.
- [12:29]
B
If the incentive structure as we have talked about on the program is for Iran to get nuclear weapons because it strengthens the ability and people in positions of power to stay there without external forces being able to remove them as exists in North Korea. Is there anything that could occur that would lead to Iran not pursuing nuclear weapons?
- [12:51]
C
Well, this is, but this is my, my concern here is that we hit them with everything we could from the air, as they told us. As Secretary Hegseth has told us, we. And we annihilated them with everything we could from the air. We got to a point where it was, well, now we're just going to blow up your power plants and your, you know, your water treatment facilities and everything else that was what Trump was talking about. Ok, well, that's, that's not a good thing. Like, that's not something you really want to do to a country of 90 million people. And if that's where we are for the next round of punishment, I don't know that we have a stick big enough, so to speak, to beat them into submission, to give us what we want at the end of this deal, I think they're going to say to us, fine, hit us again. We'll close the straight. How long before your elections? That's my concern, Clay. I think they see what's going on here.
- [13:38]
B
I understand that concern. I think in the back of their mind, every leader in Iran knows that we can take them out. And I'm working under the capacity that we believe we have reached for Iran. Rational leadership that does have some control over the country. We'll see.
- [13:56]
C
I don't think we do. I don't think. I don't think we have a different government. I don't think we have different people in charge. I think that that is. That ship has sailed.
- [14:02]
B
Here is, here is the test. To what extent do any of these oil and tankers get blown up? Because if they get blown up, then everyone purely economically is going to say, we can't risk going through the Strait of Hormuz right now. I don't think it's a rational act on Iran's leadership's behalf to blow up oil and gas tankers right now. But if they do, either they are intransigent, not working with us, or they just don't have any control over the factions that are willing to do that.
- [14:32]
C
If I'm like the head of whatever's left of the IRGC leadership, Clay, and Trump in two weeks, blows up my power plants, blows up truly civilian infrastructure. Yeah. I blow up an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Like, I make this the whole world's problem real fast.
- [14:51]
B
So just looking at a bunch of them, you could blow up a bunch of them and it would cost almost nothing in terms of the physical assets required to do so.
- [14:59]
C
And this is, my friends, this is a suicide bomber culture we're talking about here in the Middle East. Like, they're willing to take a lot of pain to take other people down. So keep that in mind. You know how the Iranians used to clear minefields, Clay, in the Iran Iraq war, they had a special cadre of humans who would run to save tanks. Yeah. The martyr brigades. They would clear the minefields by walking on them. And that's what we're dealing with, everybody. All right, sorry. Buck is wamp wamp. But I'll always tell you the truth. I have my concerns. I love Trump. I love this country. I hope everything works out fantastically. Oil prices are dropping. That's good. But we're a long way from a victory dance in the end zone here in Florida. If you don't have a very intact roof, you got some issues. I'd like to tell you roof repairs are a diy, but we all know that's not the case. That's why you got to trust professionals like Erie Home. 50 years of experience, hundreds of thousands of repaired or reinstalled roofs to prove it take advantage of their offer. Now they'll inspect your roof for any problems free of charge using a 25 point inspection plan. If your roof needs replacement, they've got all kinds of options at Erie Home. They've got the newest best materials. Your roof can last up to two or three times longer with what Erie Home can bring to the table. Your new roof from Erie Home comes with a 50 year transferable warranty, so that adds value. If you're going to sell your house, schedule your free inspection@eriehome.com Buck today and get a discount on the installation price. That's E r I e home.com buck this discount is maximized at $1200. Valid a new roofing installation only. Minimum purchase required and restrictions applies to your rep for warranty or promotional details. Preset your pals playing buck on the
- [16:40]
A
iHeart app day or night. Verbo is here 24, 7 to help make every part of your stay seamless. If anything comes up or you simply need a little guidance, support is ready whenever you reach out. From the moment you book to the moment you head home. We're here to help things run smoothly because a great trip starts with the right support. And hey, a good playlist doesn't hurt either.
- [17:11]
C
Second hour of Clay and Buck kicks off right now and something clay I thought was really interesting. This New York Post report on you see this? The CIA used a futuristic new tool called a ghost murmur to find and rescue the second American airman who was shot down in southern Iran. According to the New York Post here, secret technology uses long range quantum magnetometry to find the electromagnetic fingerprint of a human heartbeat and pairs the data with artificial intelligence software to isolate the signature from background noise. Again, according to the New York Post here. So by the Eddie was guy I. I'm. I wasn't even good at high school geometry so, like, this, you know, this is not, this is not what. I had nothing to do with any of this kind of stuff in the military industrial complex in the agency. But just even reading that, and they're saying that Director Ratcliffe of the agency and President Trump alluded to it in the White House briefing on this. So they, you know, they're feeling pretty confident in their reporting. Clay. I mean, that's just reading. That's like, wow. Yeah, I've never heard of, obviously, if it's never been used before, I'd never heard of this before. I have no idea.
- [18:27]
B
So here I was optimistic in the first hour about straight up Hormuz, everything else. This is something I'm actually pessimistic about if you want me to go negative on this. I spend a lot of time thinking about what's, what the world is going to be like, and it may happen sooner than we even think. When individual bad actors have access to drones that can be, can be weaponized and are able to just send drones to blow things up. In other words, like a lot of this audience has guns to protect our homes, right? Have weaponry, fences, all these different things to try to make us safer inside of our homes. Some people even have armed security that is patrolling homes. All these different things. Have you, have you sat around and thought about, as we look at what's happening with Ukraine, where basically Ukraine, Russia is a drone war. We'll take some calls on this. But one issue on the Strait of Hormuz is one weaponized drone, which can be deployed by one individual, can blow up an entire tanker ship. At some point in time, bad guys are going to get access to this drone technology, and I fear they're just going to be able to bomb random people's houses. In other words, right now your concerns an armed robber might show up at your house with a gun and you're trying to think about ways to defend yourself. What happens at 2am when somebody just loads up a drone with a bomb and just flies it at your house because they don't like you. This is one of the things that I worry about because I think the technology is, is a moving so rapidly buck that it's inevitable that individual bad actors are going to get access to these weaponized drones and start to use them with impunity. That's.
- [20:20]
D
That.
- [20:20]
B
That is scary to me. Me.
- [20:22]
C
Yeah, the cartels have been doing this for some time. They've used drones. The Mexican drug cartels, they've used drones for not just surveillance, but even to drop like grenades Drop explosives on targets, enemies, law enforcement, whomever we are. Not far from the, from a. Well, the technology already exists. It's just a question of how long before you start to see. Because these drones are also going to get to the point where they have autonomous. They have an autonomous flying and movement capability. So you could essentially set the target and then it just goes and finds the person.
- [20:59]
B
That's where you and I in the White House saw a drone and we've talked about this because they declassified it but saw a drone attack where there's a car full of four people and the drone is. Now the technology is so specific on the drone that they can fly in, kill one person in the car and then the other three people you can see on the video just fleeing. That's how they know what seat the guy's in. They're not taking out the car, they're taking out the guy in a particular seat inside of a guy.
- [21:30]
C
It's a variant of the Hellfire missile. It's called the flying Ginsu, the AGM114R9X. A non explosive missile projectile that essentially has six sword like blades. Swords because they are big and long sword like blades that come out. And you know, it's messy but no, in a sense it's less messy because no collateral damage. But you wouldn't want to get hit by one of these things, that is for sure. But yes, the technology that is being deployed here is very real. But anyway, that New York Post story I just thought was, was particularly interesting because there's people ask me, I mean now I've been out, I've been out of the, the COVID world for 15 years now. It's be 15 years. I've been doing media this June so they got all kinds of new whiz bangs. I never heard of some of this. Obviously this. No one to my knowledge who isn't currently active and working on this technology in the government would have had any, any idea about this because it's brand new.
- [22:33]
B
But well, it also.
- [22:35]
C
The Maduro. Yeah, yeah, the Maduro thing which they admitted to, which was essentially a sonic weapon to disable all of people. People ask me, they're like, oh man, do you know about this? I was like, no, this is crazy. This is new stuff. Never heard about it before. But technology on the battlefield, guys, it's going to advance so rapidly and it's going to change so much. And we are. You're already seeing some of this stuff in the early phase that is going to become ubiquitous and you know this is where we're entering a whole new era of warfare that will be very different. I think we're at the. I could put it this way, Clay. I think we're about to enter an era of warfare with the biggest transformation in how battles are fought since the early days of gunpowder. I think we're entering.
- [23:28]
B
That's how. That's a bold prediction.
- [23:31]
C
Well, because we're going to have.
- [23:34]
B
We already do it.
- [23:35]
C
So, I mean, you could argue we're already kind of there. You're going to have on ground, air and sea, non human combatants making real time decisions, not just on where they go, but on who and what they target using artificial technology and satellite based communication so that they can't be jammed or interfered with. I mean, this is. You're talking about, my friend. We're talking about robot armies here. We are on the edge of robot army stuff in a way that, you know, you say, okay, we don't have humanoid robots yet. Have you guys seen some of the stuff that is coming out from even, you know, Elon's companies now? He's not making Terminator. The T. What is it? The T800, was that the original. The T1000 was the, was the alloy metal thing.
- [24:25]
D
Right.
- [24:26]
C
But the T800, I think was the original Terminator. He's not making that. He's making nice little robots that are going to fold your laundry. But if a robot can fold your laundry and it can, you know, make decisions, it can also shoot a gun.
- [24:40]
B
And basically, I know we haven't talked about the Ukraine situation in some time, but effectively Ukraine seems, seems to have created enough drones, and Russia certainly has got them too, that we have reached some form of equilibrium. Now we're coming out of winter, so the roads are getting better and we'll see what happens in the spring, summer. But basically the lines are not moving very much. Because if you leave, much like back in the olden days, for those of you who remember and have studied at all, World War I, like you put your head above a trench and you were done for. And so it became almost impossible to move in many ways. That's kind of what's happened with drones now, where if humans come out in any way and try to advance, the drones are coming, it's not other humans taking them out. But we got a lot of talkbacks. We'll start with this one because you wanted to hit this a while back. And it is probably the number one question we are getting. And it is, it has to do with what we were just Talking about, which is the larger drone issues. Many of you have been asking a version of this question, which is what Tom in Oklahoma City Cut F is
- [25:50]
D
asking if we destroyed their military, how is it they're still able to try to shut down the Strait of Vermouth? I don't understand how that's working, Tom.
- [26:02]
C
It's a very good question. We have essentially annihilated their navy. Like their navy, they've got very little left. It's also, it's hard to hide big boats, right? So they've got very little left. They've got very little air defense, although not none as we've seen. I mentioned the manpads and I think there were actually SAM sites that people are, I have to go back and read the reporting on it. I think it was a combination of manpad and SAM site is a surface to air missile. Manpad is the shoulder fired rocket. So they still have those and they still have a over half million person standing army. We haven't killed a half a million Iranian soldiers, thank God, because that would be, that's a lot of people to kill. We haven't done that. So they have. Their ground force is very much intact, which is what we would have to contend with even if we were going to land on the shore of the, of the, the Iranian. By the way, all this stuff, it is helpful to pull up a map for some of this stuff so you can see, you know, you got, you got the Strait of Hormuz and you got, you know, the Saudis are on one side of this body of water, the Iranians, then you got the Iraqis, the Kuwaitis. I mean, this is, this is for the oil world about a strategic piece of real estate or a piece of waterway as you could possibly find. But so Clay, the answer to our friend's question here is we've really destroyed their air force surface to air their ballistic missiles. Their navy, they got a lot of guys with Kalashnikovs and, and you know, RPGs and stuff running around still. So think about that for an invasion. That's why we don't want to do that. And it doesn't take much for whatever they've got to fire from shore and blow up a tanker. It's easy to do even if you're decimated militarily.
- [27:46]
B
Which is why the question that I think we were having in the first hour is to what extent does the Iranian leadership have the ability to curtail individual actors from making choices inside of Iran? And this was Pete Hegseth in his press conference this morning saying, hey, there's still some missiles and drones being shot off. And I think Iran's response is, well, we don't have great communication infrastructure, so we're having difficulty reaching everybody inside of the Iranian defense and saying, hey, we've got a ceasefire going on right now. It's also possible, and this is where I think it becomes really messy. It's also possible, Buck, that we have several different factions competing for power inside of Iran and there isn't any real leader that has the ability to control the actions inside of the country. But the easy answer, I. For the, for the caller there or the talk backer is it, it takes very little to blow up in a oil tanker. And if you are an owner, your private industry and you own an oil tank, what do you think an oil. Oil tanker is worth on the market? $80 million, $90 million.
- [28:57]
C
Oh, I mean, full, full of oil. Yeah, I got to think.
- [29:00]
B
But I mean, just the physical structure of like, you know, you're running constantly oil on the oil tanker. But if you are the business that, let's just say it's $100 million asset, it turns into risk analysis. Right. What are the percentage chances that something could happen to your ship? And as we talked about a lot on this program, the one thing you don't want to be transporting if suddenly you have flame or if you have an explosion, missiles.
- [29:26]
C
You know, when missiles are flying at you and you're on a virtual sea of oil? That's rough. It's a rough place to be. Podcast listener Clint E. From North Carolina. Hit it.
- [29:35]
D
Clay, you're going to have to take that microphone away from Buck. He's going to have my 401K 2 1/2% down instead of 2 1/2% up by the end of the day. Very funny. It's fair.
- [29:46]
B
It's a fair point. Fair point.
- [29:47]
C
I'm, I'm not, I'm not sort of bullish on. Well, no, I think Trump's going to want, I think this is going to end up in negotiations. I just think that when people are assessing the success of this longer term, it's going to be more of a challenge. But we'll see. We'll see. But I don't think we're going to have a continuous Blow them up, come back to the table, Blow them up, come back to the table. You're going to just, like I said, give it two weeks. We might blow up some stuff and then there'll be an agreement to talk again. And this agreement will go for a month or two. You know, this. That's. That's what I see happen. We're going to keep talking and talking and the Iranians will not concede on the key points. That's where I think this is all heading. Tom from Oklahoma City. Oh, no, I'm sorry. We already did that one H. Kenneth from Melbourne, Florida.
- [30:33]
D
Clay, you're twisting yourself in knots trying to make your point.
- [30:38]
C
Bottom line, Buck is right.
- [30:40]
D
Look, we asked them to open the straits and let the ships through.
- [30:46]
C
That obviously means we cannot open it.
- [30:50]
D
They control it.
- [30:52]
B
Clay, your.
- [30:52]
C
Your floor.
- [30:54]
B
My floor is look at the map.
- [30:56]
C
I mean, like, the floor is yours.
- [30:58]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, yeah, I'm taking the floor. Look at the map. We control once they come out of the Strait of Hormuz. And we have allowed Iranian oil and gas because we want Iranian oil and gas on the marketplace. So if, like this whole idea of control, if we want to stop as the United States, all ships from being able to come out of the Strait of Hormuz, including Iran, we 100% can do that. Iran is saying they control the straight of Hormuz because they are crazy enough to just blow ships up. If we wanted to blow ships up, we could, quote, control the straight of Hormuz. We don't want to do that. We want global commerce to be able to exist. So it's control is just. They're crazy enough to blow up ships and we're not willing to do so. So again, if we just said, hey, Iran, you're not going to be able to sell your oil and gas. My argument is the ultimate trump card, which is obviously well played in this context, is that we can just say, hey, straight of Hormuz is closed. Like we actually have the ability to close it. What Iran has the ability to do is levy enough risk such that rational business owners say, I'm not going to risk my hundred million dollar boat. Let's just say it's $100 million boat to try to get this oil and gas out, to say nothing of the potential loss of lives. And by the way, a lot of crewmen may be sitting back there saying, you know, Buck, I'd prefer that we don't risk whether or not we're going to get blown up going through the Strait of Hormuz, too. These are rational human actors, and Iran is playing on their rational human fear.
- [32:33]
C
Preborn does amazing work every day. The Preborn Network of Clinics are a nonprofit that save the lives of unborn babies. They work with hundreds of pregnant Mothers nationwide. Mothers like Linda who was contemplating what should she do? Life or abortion for her baby. When Linda learned she was pregnant, she knew that abortion was wrong. But fear consumed her and led her to dark places. She didn't know where to turn. But when she found a preborn clinic, she was met with prayer, compassion and the truth that pierced through her fear. Linda chose life for her baby. Linda got truthful answers about matters related to her unborn child at that preborn clinic. Because when a mother hears that heartbeat via ultrasound, lives are saved. But preborn needs your help. $28 provides that free ultrasound. Just $28 will provide a free ultrasound to women like Linda. That single gift, that experience of meeting her unborn child makes all the difference. This is your chance to make a difference to will you answer the call, pick up your phone, dial £250 and say the keyword BABY. That's £250. Say BABY or donate securely@preborn.com Buck that's preborn.com Buck B U C K Sponsored by Preborn.
- [33:44]
B
Keeping it real, keeping it right. Clay and Buck, find them on the iHeart app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [33:52]
C
Welcome back into Clay and Buck. We are joined by Florida Senator Rick Scott. With us now, the great state of Florida. And Senator, not only do you have a full time. Do you hear that New York state tax authorities, a full time Florida resident here with me. You've got a part time Florida resident with Clay. So a lot of love for the Sunshine State. Thank you for being here with us. Let's first get into this because the big news of the day is the ceasefire you come from. I mean not only do you have the Senate to draw upon for all of this, of course, but you come from a business background, you've done plenty of negotiating yourself. How do you feel about this ceasefire and what do you think comes next?
- [34:35]
D
Well, first off, you have to really admire Donald Trump. The guy, the guy is a deal doer and he should listen to what he tells you. I mean he clearly wants to get rid of the nuclear weapons, which I'm very appreciative because I love my family. I don't want them killed by nuclear weapons. And I think every family should be thinking that way in America. Thank God this president cares about us, wants to save our lives and what in the hell was Obama doing and, and Biden doing so and he also wants to get rid of the ballistic missiles. And so I think, I think it's great. I hope Iran smart and they keep it going. The Democrats are completely insane. I mean, they, they say, oh, we got to, you know, they want to impeach Trump because, you know, he is holding Iran accountable. So think about it. These same Democrats were in office. Sherman wouldn't have, you know, gone through the south because by then Lincoln would be impeached. And Roosevelt sure as heck would have destroyed the infrastructure in Germany because he had been impeached. And Truman wouldn't have dropped the bomb because he had already been impeached. So these mean these Democrats are defending Ayatollah Hamas. I mean, they're in my, you know, close to Florida. They're out there down in Cuba defending a horrible regime. They're defending the Iranian regime that killed what, 30 some thousand people just in September, January. So it's, but Trump's doing the right thing. I'm very optimistic that this is going to last. It's, but if it doesn't, I mean, I wouldn't play with Trump. If they don't do their part, don't live up to their part of the bargain, you know, all hell is going to break loose. You can, if you, have you seen that chart of all the leadership of Iran that's been destroyed. So, so I don't think there's anybody for Putin to call anymore.
- [36:23]
B
We're talking to Florida Senator Rick Scott. You're up for reelection, if I'm not mistaken, this November. You don't know your opponent yet, but you're also high up in overall Senate leadership. Let's talk about the big picture here. I was just on Fox News talking about the situation in Michigan. Mike Rogers is going to be the nominee there. New Hampshire also and Georgia are potential pickups. And then you have battlegrounds coming in North Carolina, in Maine, Ohio, others. What do you expect for the fall to look like? And, and how optimistic or pessimistic are you about the larger state maps?
- [37:04]
D
I think, I think Republicans can do well as long as we have something to run on. Trump's given us a lot to run on. I mean, if you look at what he's, what he's done trying to bring, you know, before the Iran thing, but they'll come back down oil prices, down the cost of living, down supporter, law enforcement, support our military. So Republicans, Republicans are the party that we care about your job, we care about your kids education, we care about public safety. And the Democrats are clearly the party that doesn't care about jobs, doesn't care about your kids education and doesn't care about public safety. So that should be our message. If it does, I Think we're going to do well, but we got to get our votes out. Susan Collins has got a race in Maine. Houston's got a race in Ohio. Mike Rogers got a race in Michigan, while they've got a race in North Carolina. Sullivan's got a race in Alaska. So we know. And we've got a pickup opportunity possibly in New Hampshire with the new new pickup opportunity, you know, hopefully to beat Ossoff in Georgia. So we just got to raise our money, have our message bust our butts every day. You want your work every day to get your, you know, to get your votes out every, every, every day. So if we do, I think we're gonna have a good fall.
- [38:12]
C
Well, let's certainly hope so, because we all know, Senator, you've probably just seen this popping up in your newsfeed. They're already talking impeachment. These Democrats in the House are already talking crazy stuff. And I, do you think that I'm just gonna put this out to you? Do you think that the President is gonna have to give preemptive pardons to some members of his cabinet if just in case a Democrat were to win because they're so hell bent on some kind of payback? I worry the Democrat psyche has been so damaged by Trump. Go ahead, Senator.
- [38:45]
D
Yeah, I agree. I mean, I mean it's just Trump derangement syndrome. They, they don't, they don't care about this country. You saw it in the State of the Union when Trump asked stand up if you think your first job is to protect Americans and rather than illegal alien. And not one. Democrats stood up for that. So the, I don't think even betterment stood up for that. So the, so I don't know what will happen. We get, we just. The bottom line is we cannot lose. We have got to, we've got to do it. We got to keep a majority in the House and Senate. If, if they get the House and I assume they're going to impeach a lot of people and we're going to have to deal with it in the Senate. But Trump, I mean, Trump is doing, I mean, what's fascinating is if you care about this country, you have to thank Trump. You know, you might say, oh gosh, I wish he, I wish his rhetoric wasn't that. But guess what? He scares the hell out of people. I mean, look at what he's done. Look at, look, we got, we have a chance for democracy. And in Venezuela, with getting Maduro out, it looks like we got a big opportunity in Cuba. You look at look at what he's trying to broker peace around the world if we can, if he can pull off what he's going to pull off in Iran, it completely changes the Middle East. And guess what? Russia and China don't have an ally in the Middle east anymore because, I mean they, you know, it's all transactional in Iran, just as their friend, because they all hate America.
- [40:10]
B
You represent a state that has a huge Venezuelan and a huge Cuban population. You just mentioned both. President may well have asked you, certainly a colleague of yours, Marco Rubio, a Secretary of State who you know very well. Let's go to Cuba. What to you should happen in Cuba? What would you advise the President as a senator representing the state with more expat Cubans than any in the country? What should we do with Cuba? How should we handle it? What should the future look like?
- [40:41]
D
There we go. And first off, we all have to realize Diaz Canal is not the leader. The only leader is Raul Castro. Raul Castro needs to be indicted. And the first step is I would indict Raul Castro, then I would arrest him. Right, because he's actually the leader. If Cuba, Diaz Canal is not the leader. Next, I would make sure the regime has nothing. They have no dollars, they have no petro and they have nothing. Just in the last two weeks, Democrats have gone down to Cuba to prop up a regime that kills its own citizens. That puts them in prison as young as 16. There's a 16 year old is in prison and they go down there with a guy that lives in, I say it says that I should be killed. He goes on radio and says, Rick Scott, you need to go kill Rick Scott. So the, this is, these are disgusting people that don't care about people. Like I asked, why didn't you go down and ask, you know, talk to the political prisoners, what they see, ask him what it's like. So, but I'm, I'm hopeful if Trump keeps doing what he's doing, I think the regime is going to fall. I think the people of Cuba are going to rise up. They've been, they've been protesting. So I think they will rise up and take over and, and pick the government they want, not the government that, that you know, they was lied to by Fidel Castro.
- [42:01]
C
Speaking. Senator Rick Scott of Florida. Senator, how are we doing with the. This is something that is always in the background of my mind because I think it is one of those parts of an administration that is super important but doesn't always get much attention to headlines because it's an ongoing thing. Although the possibility of a Supreme Court vacancy will certainly get attention if that happens. How are we doing with the judge confirmation machinery in the Senate? As you see it is Trump getting judges on the federal court in the numbers that he needs to, to basically rebuild some aspects of our judiciary towards sanity after the Biden years?
- [42:43]
D
Well, he's getting the ones done in red states. We have the blue slip process with the blue stuff process was not to stop judges or U.S. attorneys or U.S. marshals. And that's what the Democrats are using it as. So we already have had to change the rules on nominations because they were blocking all the nominations. So that would change last year. And if they keep doing what they're going to do, you know, with whether we have to get rid of the filibuster, we get rid of the blue slip process because he won, whether the Democrats would like it. He is the president. He gets to make nominations. Right. That's, that's the way this works. And if it's somebody that we think is inappropriate, that we can decide not to vote for him. But, but the Democrats are trying to use every mechanism to prevent any success by Trump. They want the economy to be horrible. The Democrats wanting to lose in Iran. They hate our country. All they want to do is beat Trump because they don't care about the Democrats, don't care about Americans. They just care about Trump failing and they get back in power. That's all they think about is how do they get back in power. That's all Schumer thinks about, Jeffries thinks about Democrats. All they think about is power, power, power.
- [43:54]
B
There is report coming out of Caroline Levitt. JD Vance Witkoff and Kushner are headed to Pakistan to have face to face meetings with representatives of Iran to try and figure out what could take place during this cease fire. What does victory to you look like? Senator Buck and I debated what should happen, what could happen if the President were to ask you, Senator Scott, what should I be? My red line, so to speak, what is victory at this point in Iran? What does that look like? You would say?
- [44:27]
D
What for? The minimum for him, which I agree with, the minimum for him is they have no ability to build a nuclear weapon, no ability to build ballistic missiles. We take all the enriched, enriched uranium out of the country and we control it. That's, that's, that's the absolute minimum. Now, on top of that, it's hard to believe they'll stop helping Houthis and Hamas and Hezbollah unless we've destroyed their economy. So either they have to have no economy or they have to have new leadership because we cannot allow them to have. Have a future president. Give them like Obama Day gave him, billions of dollars so they can go try to kill more Americans because they've been killing Americans, you know, for what, 47 years? So. But the minimum is no nuclear weapons, no ability, and no ballistic missiles and no ability to do it. That's. That's the bare minimum. You think we'll get there?
- [45:21]
C
Do you think the Iranians will agree to this?
- [45:24]
D
I think, yeah, I think they will, because I think they. If you look at what the American military has done, I mean, it's unbelievable what we've done. So I think that if I just look at the chart of the people that have been killed from the leadership, and that's primarily been done by the Israelis. But if you're sitting there and most people are not interested in dying, that's been my experience in life. So you look at the org chart and say, oh, I'm next if I don't change. So I think that they're going to change. But, you know, I'm an. I'm an internal optimist. But I wouldn't be on the opposite side of Trump right now. I would never be on the opposite side of Trump. I think the guy. The guy is willing to go make the tough choices to protect us.
- [46:17]
B
For people out there who maybe just aren't thinking about it, there's lots of talk about the House. The Senate, we think is far more impactful. Buck mentioned judges. There's the possibility of Supreme Court vacancies for people out there that are maybe not paying attention to it. What's the difference? You've been in both between being on the majority side and the minority side in the Senate.
- [46:40]
D
Well, if you're in minority, you don't get to decide what you vote on. That's number one. Number two, you know, none. There's. So there's nothing you're gonna. That you want to get done. Like we've been busting our butt to get the Save America act done. There's no way. I mean, look, I'm going to keep fighting for that. But the Democrats control it. No, they want fraud. There's no. There's no way we'll get a vote on it. It's hard enough when we're in the majority. But. But, I mean, there's nothing that would be good for. For Americans that will happen. It will be the Democrats. What they want to do is destroy this country. They want to bankrupt this country. They want to make everything woke. They hate law enforcement, they hate our military. So if you love our country, there's no way in the world you can vote for a Democrat. So we, we have to have a majority, and we need to have a majority in both the House and Senate, and we should, we have stuff to run on now. We got a lot of work left to do, but we have got to get this done. Now. I come out saying we got to get rid of filibuster, because the way what Democrats are doing is they're used. Filibuster is always supposed to be used to stop debate, but you get to debate, but eventually you shut up and you go vote. They're using it to say, you know, you never get a vote. That was never the way the filibuster was supposed to be set up. And so we, I think we're going to have, if we wouldn't, if we want to have something wrong in November, we're going to have to say to ourselves, finally, you know, all this obstruction stuff by the Democrats, we're tired of it. We're, you know, we gave them a chance, they want to work with us. So we're going to, now we're, we're going to go get rid of filibuster. We're going to, you know, unfortunately, you know, get rid of things that, that were supposed to be, you know, useful. Like I, you know, I try to work with the Biden administration on judges, right? Instead of saying no, I just, all I cared about is give me a judge. That's not going to create the law. That's all I cared about. When I was governor of Florida, I appointed 407 judges. That's the only thing I care about. You are not, you don't get. The legislate legislature does. So but Democrats, they, they, they want to block everything. Trump wants to get done everything.
- [48:47]
C
Thanks so much, Senator Scott. Appreciate you being with us.
- [48:50]
D
All right, take care.
- [48:52]
C
Thank you. All right, business owners, you own your business, so this question should be easy for you to answer. You ready? How many insurance brokers does it take to insure your business? It's a tougher answer than it should be, right? Multiple policies, applications, no clear view of how it all fits together. And when questions come up, it's just not even possible to get clarity quickly. Super sure changes that. There's one broker for all of your business insurance backed by a team that is there for you to work with. You answer questions, make sure you're all set year round, not just at renewal time. If you've ever stared at a policy wondering what it covers, super sure has a fine print facts tool that translates all that legal jargon into plain English so you know exactly what's covered and what's not. Go check this out. It's incredible. Go online to super sure.com get a full report on your current policies with no obligation. Find out if you're overinsured, underinsured, or somewhere in between. Go to super sure.com it's one super agency, one powerful platform. All your policies in one place. Go to super sure.com that's super sure.com paid for by Super Sure Insurance Insurance Agency, LLC, a licensed insurance company.
- [50:10]
B
Level up your brain. Mental mugging with Clay and Buck. Welcome in our number three Wednesday edition, Clay and Buck show a lot of different details. All coming down just recently with Caroline Levitt in the White House press briefing. And I have got a series of these to update you all with these. I believe these are in the order in which they were occurring. And then we've got a ton of your talkbacks that we will play and 800-282-2882. We will take some of your calls as well. Okay. And Buck, this is one of the big points of discussion we got into in the first hour. To what extent is the public and private commentary different from Iran? How can you rely on what is being said? Caroline Levitt, cut 26, says that what Iran is saying publicly is different from what they are saying privately.
- [51:12]
E
Cut 26 with respect to the first reporting out of Iranian state media. The president was made aware of those reports before I came to the podium. That is completely unacceptable. And again, this is a case of what they're saying publicly is different privately. We have seen an uptick of traffic in the strait today. And I will reiterate the president's expectation and demand that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened immediately, quickly and safely. That is his expectation and it has been relayed to him privately that that is what's taking place and these reports publicly are false.
- [51:44]
B
Okay. This is an easy one that we can test, Buck. Either there's going to be a lot of ships that are coming through the state of Strait of Hormuz safely, or there's not. And if there's not, it's a pretty good sign that that is dishonest, that they are actually still curtailing traffic substantially.
- [52:00]
C
My sense also is that she's referring to also here, referring to the position that the Iranians are taking on the deal points and is that included in that Response there.
- [52:14]
B
We've got an additional, we've got an additional cut on that, I think, which is her saying the 10 point request is just not accurate and we are not agreeing there.
- [52:26]
C
Well, but this is where the public private dichotomy matters so much. Right, because they're saying, the White House is telling us, oh, don't worry, behind closed doors, the Iranians are way more compliant and willing to play ball on these things than what. Because what they put out, to be clear, and we can, I guess we might as well play this, what the Iranians put out as their deal position is a giant extended finger in our direction. It is, it is maximalist, maximalist points on their side that they are taking here. This is 28. Here's Caroline Levitt on this.
- [53:01]
E
I've seen a lot of inaccurate coverage today from the media about these negotiations and these plans already. So let me be clear and correct the record. The Iranians originally put forward a 10 point plan that was fundamentally unserious, unacceptable and completely discarded. It was literally thrown in the garbage by President Trump and his negotiating team. Many outlets in this room have falsely reported on that plan as being acceptable to the United States and that is false. With the President's deadline fast approaching and the United States military completely decimating Iran with each passing hour, the regime acknowledged reality to the negotiating team. They put forward a more reasonable and entirely different and condensed plan to the President and his team. President Trump and the team determined the new modified plan was a workable basis on which to negotiate and to align it with our own 15 point proposal. The President's red lines, namely the end of Iranian enrichment in Iran, have not changed. And the idea that President Trump would ever accept an Iranian wish list as a deal is completely absurd.
- [54:07]
C
I don't think anyone. Well, I mean, we certainly haven't. I haven't seen anyone say that the 10 points put forward by Iran were accepted by the White House. So I think that's a little bit of a red herring. No one's saying that we've agreed to that. Not even CNN or New York Times is saying we've agreed to that. But that is what was put out there. Look, everyone, we are very pro Trump and very pro America and very pro humanity in these matters here. Clay and I can certainly agree on anti death, anti, anti death, anti innocent people suffering, anti chaos, mass hysteria, dogs and cats living together. We don't like any of those things. I'm going to have to now step in. I'm a little, I'll tell you this, I Feel I should have been louder about dhs. Secretary Noem was a horrible choice, and it was an outrageously bad case. People might say, oh, it doesn't matter, really. How many deportations have we gotten done, really? How's our immigration stuff looking from the deportation perspective and how much time has been lost and how. Anyway, so I feel like I gave Trump because he's Trump and he won. I was like, you know what? His team, his picks. Who am I to. Who am I to judge? No, I knew. I knew, and you all know that I knew on this one. Clay, how's our whole ending the Ukraine war thing in one day going? Not going. How's our whole getting Kim Jong Un to open a whole new universe of the talks with Trump? And, yeah, he's not firing off rocket. I'm not saying nothing has been done or there's not concessions or whatever, but hasn't happened. Ok, Russian. Russian aggression against Ukraine still ongoing. I am sorry. I'm feeling a little bit of a spin coming from this White House on this, where they're saying, oh, no, what they're saying in private. We'll see. We'll see. Trump's red line is that they're going to give up. They're going to agree to formally remember to agree to give up the nuclear program comes with things like getting rid of their enriched uranium, like allowing inspectors, you know, there are actual processes. It's not just like, oh, yeah, we'll do that, and then they can lie about it. Right, because that wouldn't be acceptable either. They're not gonna do it, guys. I hope I'm wrong. I'll come and I'll tell you. I'll be like, oh, in two weeks. You know what they're gonna say? We're getting closer. We're getting close. Great progress has been made. Jared Kushner's nailing this thing down. Great progress has been made. Okay, we'll see. Hopefully the straight opens. That's a big part of it, Clay. But I think they will open the straight because now they're in the negotiation phase, and that's their leverage against us.
- [56:47]
B
That's why I think the end result, this is my prediction, is going to be both sides agree to just kind of put down arms and leave things where they are. And our argument is that Iran has agreed that they're going to stop, and we think that the uranium is underground and unreachable. And then Iran is saying to their people, hey, you know, they came for us, and we haven't given up anything.
- [57:18]
C
That May be true. This is a little different from what we're talking about the first hour. Clay, I could see what you're saying happened, but keep in mind that is not achieving a non nuclear Iran and that is not what that is though.
- [57:28]
B
But I, yes, but that what that allows. This is what I'm thinking is going to end up being the end result because the only other option is this like right. There are two options for how that thing ends. We go on the ground with our, you know, somebody was with our nerds who have to actually get the canisters right. We go on the ground in Iran with which was. There was a report, I think in the Wall Street Journal that we were considering doing this. We seize it all, we bring it back, we hold it up and we're like, we got it, here it is. And they can't use this anymore. The other option, which I think I agree with you on this, is Iran just agrees to give it to us. I can't foresee a world in which Iran is humiliated enough to just hand over all of the uranium and all of their literal physical capacity to try to make nuclear weapons. Here's the other question that, that I think is, is going to, is going to loom large here. And, and that is something I bet again we're, we're going to get a good sign for what is the public posture versus what is the private posture. Ships are either going to come through or they're not. And if the ships aren't coming through, then the argument of the straight of Hormuz is 100% open, is not accurate. And we can determine that now the price of oil and gas has come down $20, which suggests that there is some optimism that the flow of oil and gas is going to continue. But I, but I think that's a, that's the number one trust but verify component here is are the ships coming through? And that's what I would want to see as the hey, you can be trusted component of this early stage negotiation with jd, Vance, Witkoff and Kushner headed to Pakistan.
- [59:25]
C
I, I just, these, these Iranians, man, they're wily cats. These guys know what I'm telling. This is what they're going to do. They're going to say hold on a sec, and they're going to put out, they're going to use the mechanisms they have to put out statements to whether it's, you know, through the running it through press in the Middle east or wherever. I mean they can just put it on X for all it doesn't really matter. They'll say, hey, hey, guys, we open the straight, we're negotiating, we're negotiating, we're figuring it out, we're figuring it out. And then as a little bit of time moves on, you know what they're going to say? They're going to say, you know what, Trump, you really don't want us to shut down this straight with you guys having the midterms coming up. So, you know, I, I think they think the leverage has switched to their side on this. I really do. And if we, we start bombing, we're, we're bombing them through Fourth of July weekend this summer. You think that's going to be a good look? This was promised to be four to six weeks. We are at the deadline, this is where we are now. And we're sending in Jared and Witkoff to Islamabad apparently to figure this whole thing out via Pakistan. I don't know, man. So I think you're right. I think they're going to open the straight up. But the point is they're going to open the straight up and then they're going to say, yeah, everything else stays.
- [60:32]
B
Here's the larger issue. This is where I actually agree with you 100%. Midterms are an issue. But let's move beyond, let's actually think bigger picture, longer range. Iran knows worst case scenario for them. Trump is out in January of 29. Who is the most likely successor to Trump right now?
- [60:56]
D
J.D. vance.
- [60:57]
B
What does J.D. vance argue in the New York Times piece that came out today? That he didn't want to do anything to Iran. If I'm Iranian leadership right now, I'm saying, hey, two and a half years, it may be rough, Trump may come after us, but if we get JD we can work with JD and by the way, Democrats, we saw Obama bit over backwards and gave butterfly kisses to the Iranian leadership. So the concern is Trump's the only bad guy they have to deal with. And it's only two and a half years.
- [61:27]
C
Now you sound like, now you sound like an Iranian bad guy who knows who he's selling his pistachios to.
- [61:32]
B
You know what I'm saying? I mean, this is, this is the long range. And I do think the advantage that evil dictators have is evil dictators can think longer than a four year cycle or a six month cycle. And this is why my argument for, you know, this is why I like kings. If you got a good king, you get him for like 40 years. You know, you got a good president.
- [61:56]
C
Even Socrates was Like the best government is just having a perfect person in charge of everything. Unfortunately, there's no perfect person but Trump,
- [62:03]
B
the best possible person that we could have is only here for eight years. And my God, can you imagine what will happen if Kamala Harris or Gavin Newsom is in office in January of 29? They're not going to do anything. So that's the ultimate, I think, challenge that Trump has is two and a half years is nothing. The older you get, the less two and a half years is. And then you add on the religious fundamentalism and those guys think in hundreds and thousands of years that's, you know, they're thinking about conquering the world in 2800, not worrying about what the next three years are going to look like.
- [62:41]
C
That's my beard is getting a little longer. His Farsi is getting a little bit clearer. Like he's, you're, dude, I think you're, you're edging at least towards seeing, I think how this can go sideways really fast, which is even, even if you're right about the feelings on the, you know, the state of the negotiations right now, let's just say there is some private. There are so many ways that this thing gets, gets screwed up. Now here, here's the, I'll give you my biggest upside to this, is that our downside has been quite limited. That is, and that's why the ending this thing now is, is I think the right move, but I think it's basically ending now. And I think we walk away. They think they won, we think we won. And this is the way this thing moves forward. I don't think there's going to be a nuclear deal at the end of this. We didn't lose hundreds or thousands of American soldiers fighting. We didn't get into a six month or six year, heaven forbid, war like this. This is manageable where it is now. So that's, to me, the upside of this. But people are going to tell you if, if this is the end state where we are right now, which is the straight opens and there's negotiations going forward. That's not what the purpose of this, of this air campaign was. Just to be clear, that's, that's not, maybe they're going to get there and that in that case, great, I'll say they get there. But it was not, we're going to negotiate more over this stuff. And the Strait of Hormuz is open and we destroyed a lot of their military stuff, which we did do. And it was an amazing display of American military power. But that is not what, that is not what this was all about. And I think that's why the Israelis, by the way, are very annoyed about this current situation based on the reporting that we've seen.
- [64:18]
B
And by the way, Lebanon is still going to become an issue because they're still fighting going on there and they're saying that's supposed to be a part of the cease fire. The other thing is, again, I really encourage people, not always we say this to read that New York Times piece, Israel told Trump that there would be regime change, meaning the Ayatollahs would be out if we did this. Now, the Trump advisors, Marco Rubio didn't buy it according to the reporting. JD Vance didn't endorse this in any way.
- [64:48]
C
People listen to the show now. I've never bought it. I've always been like, I don't think that's gonna happen. It's not gonna happen.
- [64:55]
B
So Trump is now saying regime change is a new leader, which technically is accurate, but it isn't a new democratic leader. It's just a different religious fundamentalist.
- [65:08]
C
When you're talking about things like this, you don't want it to turn into being clever with your comms. You want it to be clear, mission accomplished, move on to other things like here at home. But we'll come back into this. We'll play more your talk backs. We'll get into more of this conversation for sure. Inflation, my friends, it just chips away, eats away at your savings. It's been happening for decades, as you know. But there's something you can do. Gold. Gold has grown by 700% in value over the last 20 years. Central banks are buying gold. So many long term investors still see the upside value in gold because they think it will hold value while currencies are debased. This is why you need to check out my friends at Birch Gold Group. They've just announced their Learn and Earn Precious Metals event. It's a great opportunity to learn more about our nation's economics, your saving ability and how gold and precious metals play a part. This free online event rewards you for learning the basics of investing in precious metals. Sign up to get free silver on your next purchase if you qualify. And you can get even larger incentives as you go. The more you learn, the more you can earn. Act now. And as this special event runs only through April 30, the value of our dollars is once attached to gold as its anchor and steady force. That changed in 1971. Text my name Buck to 989898 to get Birch Golds to join Birch Gold's Learn and Earn Precious Metals event by April 30th. Text B U C K to 989898
- [66:32]
B
preset your pals playing Buck on the iHeart app.