Transcript
David Pakman (0:00)
All right, welcome to the show. The anti war president taking the United States to war. That's where we start today. Remember that Donald Trump promised to be the anti war president. He said the Iraq war was a disaster, even though that was only performative because he had earlier said on the Howard Stern show he would have gone into Iraq too. But still, he said it was a disaster. When he became a political candidate, he mocked forever wars. He claimed that Barack Obama would bomb Iran just to win reelection. And he warned voters, don't fall for it. This is what Obama's doing. And now in his second term, Donald Trump confirmed it. The United States is involved in war with Iran. Donald Trump posting to his very low energy social media platform, Truth Social, quote. We now have, we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran. Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment and plenty of it. But it doesn't compare to American made, conceived and manufactured stuff. Nobody does it better than, than the good old usa. The most important, we're going to talk about a lot of aspects of this, but the most important fact here is that this is not an unexpected crisis that rose out of nowhere, not due to Trump's own actions. Trump created this to a great degree. But let me get back to that in a moment. Important historical context. We looked at these 30 seconds yesterday. Nice little montage from Patriot takes on Twitter. Trump promising time and time and time again he will be the one who keeps us out of wars.
Donald Trump (1:59)
Speaking of World War Three, I'll keep you out of World War Three. What would happen if we had a war? We won't with me. But you will have World War Three, I believe, without me. But we won't have. I will be sure that World War three will not happen. I'm the only one can say it won't happen. But I stand here today and I'm the only candidate who can make this promise. I will prevent and very easily, World War Three. Very easily.
David Pakman (2:33)
There you go. Now, of course, during his first term, Donald Trump shredded the Iran nuclear deal despite the fact that every major global power said Iran is not violating the deal. There was no evidence that Iran was doing anything but complying with the deal. And so that was a decision that isolated the United States diplomatically, which Trump loves to do. It also ignited a powder keg, of course. Iran immediately resumes their nuclear program. Tensions rise, diplomacy dies, and the region starts to unravel. Now you fast forward to this month. Israel launches this major strike on Iranian facilities. Iran responds with a barrage of missiles to Israel. Initially, the Trump administration tries to say this was all Israel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio even insisted US has nothing to do with this. But then the narrative changes. Ted Cruz yesterday says to Tucker Carlson, we are involved there. We'll look at that interview, because that is really something to behold. All of a sudden we are told, oh, instead of not being involved, we are involved. And the strikes, whoa. And no idea where that came from. The strikes worked. And all of a sudden Donald Trump wants to get the credit for it. So it went from no involvement to supportive involvement to coordination involvement. And now it's we control the skies. Peace through strength. I don't think so. More like chaos through ego or something like that. And it's a president who ran on ending wars and keeping us out of them, now bragging about how dominant his involvement in a new conflict is. He's floating assassinations, which we will talk about a little bit later. And it really is leaving his supposed America first movement in a corner. The pro Israel war hawks love it. The isolationist base that believed, I guess, believe Trump would end American involvement in the Middle East. They don't like it. And the truth is that Trump didn't end forever wars, and he may be getting us involved in a new one. He hasn't kept us out of conflict. He blew up the deal that was keeping us out. And of course, Trump's anti war credentials from the first term are very questionable. Bragging about the assassination of Soleimani, increasing drone strikes, allowing other conflicts to stir. And now he is all of a sudden posting military ultimatums, kind of like a bored tyrant who thinks Twitter and truth social media are the situation room. So listen, if you fell for the whole anti war president thing, if you voted for the anti war president, you got the guy who is torching diplomacy, handing the Pentagon the keys and now saying we are dominating the skies over a country of around 90 million people. And again, it's not the generals, it's not the diplomats, it's not the contractors here who are primarily going to pay the price. It's people on the ground, it's civilians, it's bystanders and those who might get conscripted. So none of this projects strength. It's really a failure to do what he promised to do. Dressed up now as we're so strong, we've got the fighter jets, we're controlling the sky. And by the way, I know this seems so quaint now, like, David, the law, due process authorization, it doesn't seem like it's legal for Donald Trump to unilaterally enter the United States into a war with Iran, at least not under the Constitution and existing war powers laws. Because you might remember if you were around during the Iraq war era, if you were around when other engagements were being considered. Only Congress has the power to declare war under Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. What nostalgia as we go back to this now. As commander in Chief, the president can respond to immediate threats or emergencies. It's really hard to argue that what's happening in Iran is an immediate threat or an emergency based on the facts. Even according to his own Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's understanding of the situation, it's hard to argue that this is an immediate threat or an emergency. And the president is not allowed to launch a sustained military campaign or enter a new war without Congress saying we are voting for this. So legally, Donald Trump may be violating the Constitution, which he's used to doing, and the War Powers Act. Now, practically speaking, presidents have been pushing these boundaries for a long time. You look at Clinton in Kosovo, you look at Obama in Libya. You look at Trump himself in Syria in 2017. We never had formal war declarations there. Congress rarely holds presidents accountable for that. They sort of vaguely rely on authorizations for use of military force passed after 9, 11 or in the early 2000. But none of that covers Iran. And Trump has explicitly confirmed now that the United States is seizing Iranian airspace and participating in military actions. The so this is new active warfare by any definition. We do not have a legal justification for it. But I know I'm being so quaint. I'm acting like that sort of thing still matters. And of course, to an authoritarian like Trump, it doesn't matter. Let's now talk about Trump's broader statements about the war in Iran. A gleeful Donald Trump. I don't really know how else to say it. The supposed anti war president took the Truth social yesterday to announce that the United States is joining the war with Iran. Now, if I'm blunt with you, blunt or frank, right? Or Joe, if I'm blunt with you, these are not the posts of a stable leader. These are more the rantings of a man who has dragged the United States into a new war and now thinks that he's the lead actor in a movie about it. So once again, let's go to Truth social media. We already looked at this first statement and then I'll give you the big picture of all of the statements Trump said. We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran. Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, plenty of it. But it doesn't compare to American made, conceived and manufactured stuff. Nobody does it better than the good old usa. So this was Trump's first post acknowledging we are now involved in this war. This is Trump at his. Trump, he's bragging about military hardware like he's, you know, selling a used jet at Mar a Lago. Forget the fact that this statement confirms U.S. involvement in the war without congressional authorization. Forget that it directly contradicts his administration's earlier claims that Israel is acting completely alone. What matters to Trump is that we have the better bombs. The stuff is ours. We can flex. And historically, this has been the language that precedes escalation. You know, you think about former officials bragging about bombing Vietnam back to the Stone Age, for example, or Bush landing on the aircraft carrier with the Mission Accomplished banner. This is a dangerously toxic mix of insecurity combined with bravado that gets people killed. Ok, so that's Trump's initial post. Then he puts up another one. This is unhinged stuff, my friends. Quote, we know exactly where the so called Supreme Leader is hiding. Hiding. He is an easy target but is safe there. We are not going to take him out kill. At least not for now. But we don't want missiles shot at civilians or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter.