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Jimmy Dore
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Douglas McGregor
Establishment media sucks. August lighting so good luck. Bullshit we can't afford why fomenting this watch and see as his jack off the medium speeds and jumps the medium and hits them head on. It's the chimney door
Jimmy Dore
got special guest with us returning. Douglas McGregor is a popular political commentator and retired US Army Colonel who served as senior advisor to the acting secretary of defense under President Trump, has served on the board of U.S. military Academy and is currently the CEO of our country our choice, a media company that aims to unite like minded Americans. He recently launched a substack@mcgregorwarrior.substack.com Douglas, thank you for accommodating my schedule as you always do. I appreciate it and always appreciate your insight. This is my, this is, that's, that's my Judge Napolitano introduction. I hope you.
Douglas McGregor
I wondered about that. I was trying to figure it out.
Jimmy Dore
Yeah. Yes. So anyway, I'm glad to have you here. I wanted to of course go over the. The news that's all over the place. So I just wanted to. This was from April 28th. It says U. S. Spy agencies asked to analyze how Iran might react if Trump were to declare victory and back away from military operations. Right. Well, so that was on 28 April and Trump had launched his new. What is it called? The freedom flotilla. Whatever.
Douglas McGregor
It's Project Freedom.
Jimmy Dore
Project Freedom where he was supposed to be escort using navy ships to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz. But it turns out it didn't work out because from the Hormuz letter, the cargo ship that Iran attacked, one of those cargo ships that were being shepherded through by and it says the cargo ship attacked by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday has been identified as a French owned. It's attempting the US Backed crossing and designated route by Trump with AIs transponders switched off. UK MTO hid the locations to avoid admitting the US Route isn't safe. And then Trump, four hours later, he canceled Project Freedom after that happened. And I just wanted to the vessel that was hit by Iran tried to follow the US Route through the strait. After the failure, Trump suspended his project. And well, here it is. Here's Trump saying that based on the request of Pakistan and other countries, the tremendous military success that we have had during the campaign against. Sounds like Joe Isuzu, if you're old enough to remember what that means against the country of Iran. Additionally, the fact that great progress has been made toward a complete and final agreement with representatives of Iran. We have mutually agreed that while the blockade will remain in full force, in effect, Project Freedom, the movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the agreement can be finalized and signed. And that's signed by President Donald Trump. And here's Marco Rubio. Here's him saying on Tuesday what he want, what the United States wants.
Marco Rubio
As President Trump has said, and the facts clearly bear out, the United States of America holds all the cards. There is no scenario here in which if they decide to join a ladder of escalation, they wind up getting the last say. But our preference is for these straits to be opened to the way they're supposed to be open back to the way it was. Anyone can use it. No mines in the water, nobody paying tolls. That's what we have to get back to. And that's the goal here.
Jimmy Dore
So if you don't know what he just said is we had to start a war so we could go back to the way things were before we started the war. It's a genuinely one of the most absurd foreign policy statements I ever heard. And here is kind of like Donald Trump is. This is from that Austin Powers movie. This is him trying to get out of the Strait of Hormuz. This is what it, it kind of looks like. So let me. That's kind of funny, but let me just go real brick Let me just cover it real quick and we'll get your response. This is from Axios. US and Iran closing in on a one page memo to end the wars. But then that was from Tuesday. Then today, Trump's surrender deal is immediately dealt a brutal blow. A report that US and Iran are nearing an agreement on a one page memorandum to end the war was met with almost immediate pushback despite President Donald Trump claiming progress. Iranian officials and the President have been sending a series of chaotic and mixed signals since Trump announced on Monday that he was pausing Project Freedom in the Strait of Hormuz. Early Tuesday, Axios reported that the White House believed it was getting closer to a memorandum of his understanding to end the war and set parameters for nuclear talks. But a senior Iranian parliamentary official threw cold water on the idea. And what he said was Axios's text is America's wish list. Until it becomes reality, America will not obtain, will not obtain through a failed war what they failed to gain in face to face negotiations. Iran has its finger on the trigger and is ready. If they do not surrender and grant the necessary concessions, or if they or their devilish hedge hog allies try to act mischievously, we will deliver a harsh and regret inducing response. So he, and then so he came back. Here's Trump's latest. This is from today, right. He says assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is perhaps a big assumption, that already legendary epic fury will be at an end and the highly effective blockade will allow the Hormo Strait to be open to all, including Iran. If they don't agree, the bombing starts and it will be sadly at much higher level and intensity than it was before. So let me just get your, what's your response to this back and forth by Trump and the Iranian officials?
Douglas McGregor
I think we elected P.T. barnum as president.
Jimmy Dore
It sounds like it. Right.
Douglas McGregor
He seems to think that every American is a sucker. Obviously the Iranians are not suckers. The last thing that I was sent was a message that the Iranian government had directed everyone to evacuate all building official buildings, government buildings, hotels, other structures. I think they anticipate that the war will begin anytime
Jimmy Dore
now. I've read Larry Johnson substack and he said there's credible reports, but he not confirmed at all that the plan is to start the war again on May 7, which would be tomorrow. Do you have any information, can you talk to that?
Douglas McGregor
Larry could be right, his source could be right. I, I was asked earlier today and I said I think within 48 hours something's going to happen. The Iranians have already attacked targets in the United Arab Emirates, which has been a. A not so secret Trojan horse for the Israelis for a long time. I think the air defense networks are up and running, and as I said, the Iranians have already instructed everybody to go below ground and hide out. So my suspicion is it's coming. But is it coming tomorrow or the next day or the next day? I don't know, but it's definitely going to happen. What else can they do, Larry? I mean, this. This is like Laurel and Hardy is running the State Department on behalf of Trump. It doesn't make any sense. We go from one silly thing to the next. We claim victory every other hour. We tell everyone how many alleged ships have been sunk. I mean, the Iranian navy didn't have much of a navy to begin with. The Iranian Air Force hasn't really been a significant player since the Shah departed. I mean, none of this stuff matters. It doesn't. It just. It's one unending sort of flow of crap that comes out of the White House. I don't think. I don't think anybody with a brain is going to believe anything that the White House says anymore.
Jimmy Dore
And what do you. What now? I've been pontificating on social media about what would happen if Trump does restart this war and starts hitting civilian targets inside Iran again. What do you think will happen if Trump does restart this war? It starts bombing Iran again?
Douglas McGregor
Well, I think if you follow this, Jeff Keary, he writes excellent work for the Carlyle Group on oil and gas. He's tracking every conceivable trend that you can imagine. He says that by July, we'll have pretty much run through what's left of our petroleum reserve, will be close to the bottom of the tank. I think the. The whole world is in a lot of trouble right now and is running out of petroleum products. This morning, I received a note from a friend in India who says it's $118 a barrel for oil right now in India. And I guess jet fuel is up to $250 a barrel. Surprise, surprise, that so many, you know, aircraft are sitting on the ground that are not flying. Nobody can afford it. I think we're in a lot of trouble. And, you know, diesel is extremely problematic now to develop. And everybody talks about, well, you know, we have fracking, but they don't understand that what we frack, we can't actually refine. So we sell the results of the fracking overseas, and then it's refined as a special form of oil into gasoline or something. Else, you know, we've got 70% of our farmers that say they can't afford to buy fertilizer. We've had a 50% spike in fuel prices across the country. I think we're talking about disaster as it stands now. Now, if we go back to bombing, I think instead of recovering within the next two to three years, we won't see recovery for at least a decade. And what Curie is saying, and I'm hearing this from many, many people, we're going to head into a global depression. If we have another phase of bombing. We won't right now. We're going into a recession. Our recession is probably going to be very deep. But the world is facing depression as well as famine and a lot of other things. So how much of a catastrophe do you want? You've got a catastrophe already. We're not going to recover from this very quickly. All the tankers that left the Persian Gulf that were full of petroleum and other products, fertilizer and so forth, and aluminum, you name it, they've already arrived. So now we have a permanent disruption if we restart this war. And I see no evidence that we're not going to do it. And it doesn't seem to me that President Trump understands the global consequences of what he's doing.
Jimmy Dore
So no one's telling him. I mean, I know that most of the people in the room when he decided to, to start the war in the first place were against it, except for Hegseth. Even Marco Rubio was against it. The head of the CIA was against it. General Kaine, everybody, J.D. vance, everybody was advising Trump to get. He only listened to Bibi Netanyahu. Do you think there's. He's listening to anybody else now except E.B.
Douglas McGregor
well, I don't want to rain on your parade, but I think you ought to consider the possibility that these people who claim that they said they were opposed to something may have said something along the lines, well, boss, if that's what you want to do, we got it. We'll go with it. You know, I, I might. You might think about something else. I'm not sure this is the, this is the right move, but, you know, I'm with you. I think that's what people said. You know, this business of standing up and telling somebody that's a disastrous idea. Don't do it. Nobody does that. When, when Ian Brenner flew into Baghdad in March of 2003 and he announced, well, whatever else you've heard, forget it. What we're going to do is we're going to dismantle the Iraqi army, dismantle the Iraqi state, dismantle the Iraqi bureaucracy, stand down the police. We're going to rebuild this country from the ground up. It's going to become the first liberal democracy in the Arab world. It's going to be friendly to Israel and all this sort of business. Only one man in the room said, I, I'm, I'm concerned, Mr. Bremer. And he said, what are your concerns? He was a full colonel in the chemical corps. He was the only man that said anything. Everybody else sat there and said, well, you know, okay, this is tough. And Dave Petraeus famously said, well, you know, downsizing is hard to do. And everybody walked out of the meeting. And after the meeting was over, everybody stood around outside and told journalists, oh, I think this is a really bad idea. This is something we shouldn't do. But when it was their turn to stand up and take a firm position, they didn't do it. So I'll be frank with you. I don't believe most of that. I, I think most of the people in the White House live in fear of Donald Trump. The people that are working over there have told me that they're, they're afraid of him. He blows up. He doesn't like facts that get in the way of his preferences.
Jimmy Dore
And so my theory is that what Iran has promised and what Scott Ritter has also said, that if Trump restarts this war, that they're not going to respond proportionately as they have been so far, that they're going to go for the jugular, and they're going to go right after the desalination plants inside the Gulf states. And as we know, that's where 70% of their water comes from, if not more. And so do you think Iran will do that? And will. Will the result of that be the complete desertion of those countries? Because in 72 hours without water, you have a humanitarian crisis. So they're going to. Do you think that a Iran will do that, hit their desalination plants, and will there be a mass migration from the Gulf states if that happens?
Douglas McGregor
The short answer is yes. When this war began, there were 67 million people living from the Iraqi border all the way down to the border with Oman in the Gulf states. Think about that. And Saudi Arabia, 67 million people. I don't know how many people are living there now. But you don't necessarily have to destroy the desalination plants if you've already destroyed the power grid and the source of the power and the oil Infrastructure. You can't run a desalination plant on thin air. It needs to be fueled. You have to have power sources. So if you destroy the power sources, it doesn't make any difference. So I think that's exactly what they will do. Now if we are also attacking their oil infrastructure, their power grid and their desalinization plants, and I guess the Iranians will respond with the destruction of the desalination plants. But basically, if you don't have power, it doesn't make a great deal of difference.
Jimmy Dore
So it's the, it's the same outcome either way. If Trump, so now Trump must, must know this, no? Or do you think there's a chance he does not know this? And if he does know this, does he just not care? I mean, the, the Gulf states. Okay, let's just answer that. Let's, let's, let's take it one step at a time. Do you think Trump knows this? And if he doesn't know this, does he don't know this? Does he not care?
Douglas McGregor
He may have been told something like this, and he may have said, I don't believe it, or I think you are exaggerating. I mean, those kinds of things are quite possible. People that in the Soviet hierarchy and the Soviet general staff, before they went into Stalin were always told, never tell him how many casualties we sustained, don't bring it up. So nobody ever said the Soviets had X number of casualties. They only reported German casualties. You have that kind of atmosphere is what I'm told. You can't go in there and tell him things that he absolutely does not want to hear. And you're still dealing with Roy Cone's student. And remember what Roy Cohn told him. You know, you attack, attack, attack. You deny, deny, deny, and then whatever happens, you declare victory and take credit for it. So this is not somebody who's pre, predisposed to, to listen to the hard facts and certainly doesn't want to admit that any decision he took could have been flawed in any way.
Jimmy Dore
So what, I, I've mentioned this before, is it not in the Gulf state? The Gulf states must know this, right? So wouldn't they be the one haranguing Trump and getting in his ear about this, like, hey, we're going to get wiped out if you start this war again and don't do this?
Douglas McGregor
Well, the GCC already warned him what could happen, so he's aware of that. But I think what he's told them is, look, we'll come, we'll be back, we'll win this you'll get everything back. We'll help you rebuild, on and on and on. I think that's what they were told and I think there's not much they can say in response to that. I think the UAE was a little different than the rest because the UAE has actually encouraged him to do everything in his power to utterly destroy Iran.
Jimmy Dore
Is, is that because the UAE is the closest Gulf state with Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu?
Douglas McGregor
Yes, yeah, very much so. And you know, they've also, they've also signed up for dollar swaps. Remember they stepped out of the, out of OPEC very recently. I think all of these things were part of the deal. We'll, we'll rebuild everything, we'll fix everything and so forth. The truth is you're looking at 10 years of total, you know, no recovery for 10 years of this entire region as a result of this war. If he goes forward with another massive air and missile campaign, that's a foregone conclusion. Everybody says that. And Larry, we're not going back the 27 plus bases in the region that are completely destroyed, as the Washington Post has now finally admitted. I guess the CIA told them to tell the truth. As a result of that. We can't rebuild all those things. We don't have the money for it. We can't afford it. And why would anybody living there want us to come back? We've turned ourselves and them into a magnet for attack. We can't defend them. That's being ably demonstrated.
Jimmy Dore
And, and as I've pointed out here on the Jimmy Dore show and said on social media that you would think the people like in, you know, the money people in the United States, the bankers, the Wall street people, even Silicon Valley, now a great amount of that oil money that comes out of the Gulf states goes directly into our stock market. And now if they get wiped out and well, they're already not able to make money off oil currently. And so the money that would have gone into our stock market is not going in, which will probably cause some kind of a crash on our stock market soon. And if it's wiped out for 10 years. So I guess my question would be, wouldn't the money people and the, and the tech people in the United States along with the Gulf States be screaming at Trump? And do you agree with what I, what I just laid, the scenario I just laid out?
Douglas McGregor
I think your scenario in terms of the outcome is, is accurate, but I don't think you've accurately evaluated the people on Wall street or in the tech Community. What do these people know about military power? What do they know about warfare? The answer is nothing. And what do they listen to? They listen to Donald Trump. We have the greatest military in the world. We can do anything. There's nobody that can compete. Okay, in some areas that's going to be true. In a lot of areas that's not true. They don't understand that with the weapons at our disposal, with the forces that we have that are really forces that were designed to refight some version of World War II, are not the right answer to the problem that we confront. We can't fix this with military power. I've had people say, oh, you're wrong. The Navy and the Marines, they'll go, they'll, they'll take that straight, they'll occupy it. It's all done. How do you explain to someone that the Iranians don't have to occupy anything? If you move a ship into the strait, that they do not want to move through the strait, they're going to pick that up instantaneously. Thanks to persistent surveillance from space based intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance, that data will be sent instantaneously to missile systems, cruise missiles, tactical ballistic missiles, unmanned systems. Those will be launched and that that ship will be damaged or if necessary, sunk. They don't understand what's going on. It doesn't have to be a little Iranian man standing on the edge of the waterway with an AK47 and an RPG telling you to stop. That's not necessary. That's not how this works. We're not prepared to deal with this. We haven't been prepared for this for 30 years. Back in 1997, I published a book called Breaking the Phalanx. It talked about exactly this kind of thing happening, saying, you're off. Offshore naval power will be driven hundreds of miles away from the shore because if they come too close, somebody's going to launch a missile and it's going to be very difficult to defend against. The missile I used at the time, oh gosh, it wasn't Iwo Jim, it was Okinawa. I used the example of the kamikazes at Okinawa and I said, how many ships were damaged? How many were sunk? How many thousands of people were killed or wounded? Well, it was enormous. You had 26, 27 ships that were badly damaged, 23 sunk, so forth, thousands of people. And this was a, these were just manned cruise missiles flying at relatively slow speeds. Now you're dealing with missiles traveling at hypersonic speeds in many cases, and you're dealing with large numbers of them. How do you defend yourself against that. You don't have enough missiles to fire in response to defend yourself. So what does the Navy do? The Navy very intelligently goes out into the sea. It moves 300, 400 miles offshore because it doesn't want to be tanked. But people don't understand this, so they think we can do things we can't.
Jimmy Dore
Hey, you know, here's another great way you can help support the show is you become a premium member. We give you a couple of hours of premium bonus content every week and it's a great way to help support the show. You can do it by going to jimmy dork.com clicking on join Premium. It's the most affordable premium program in the business and it's a great way to help put your thumb back in the eye of the bastards. Thanks for everybody who was already a premium member. And if you haven't, you're missing out. We give you lots of bonus content. Thanks for your support. Hey, guess what? Speaking of failed media enterprises, Ben Shapiro at the Daily Wire has fired half his staff in mass layoffs. No. Yeah, because they've lost 85% of their YouTube audience since last year. I wonder why. Maybe Ben Shapiro should come out and tell people, fuck you. You don't get to live in your own neighborhood you grew up in anymore, you asshole. And you shouldn't be able to retire. He should tell them more stuff like that at least to tell him that the United States needs to be a better ally to Israel as, as they crack down on our free speech rights and all the stuff and tell students to shut up and. But, you know, never win a debate with an adult. Only never win a debate with an adult. But they have lost 85% of their viewers. But the consolation prize is Ben Shapiro's eyebrows have grown 85%. They've grown 80% to compensate. Isn't that nice?
Mike McRae
He's got a greater eyebrow project.
Jimmy Dore
He, you know, once the rest of his audience has bailed on the Daily Wire, he he's going to be a fur covered wolfman in a Ukrainian zoo where he can finally start making some real money. Am I right?
Mike McRae
Guys got Hitler mustaches for eyebrows.
Jimmy Dore
Ben Shapiro. This is from the rap Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire hit with layoffs across numbers of teams, largely from Nashville's headquarters. Ben Shapiro, right wing media company confirmed the layoffs, saying that they impacted staffers, span a number of teams and that the layoffs were largely concentrated at its Nashville headquarters. Today the Daily Wire made a difficult decision to restructure the organization which. Yeah, yeah. The reason why is because you're a failing enterprise. Right. The idea that they were going to be able to make it without Candace Owens is like the idea that TP USA is going to be able to make it without Charlie Kirk. Ok.
Mike McRae
I mean, how about that great Snow White that they were supposed to make? That came out the traditional, remember?
Jimmy Dore
That's right. So like at the end he says, we are deeply grateful to those impacted. Their contributions were instrumental in building the Daily Wire into what it is today. What it is today is a failing media empire spiraling. Spiraling in the wrong direction. The statement continued, the cuts were largely concentrated at our Nashville production office as the company has invested in new. Oh, yeah, they're just, they're just switching their focus, Kurt. It's not that no one's watching them anymore because everyone has turned against his favorite country, Israel, which. Which he cares more about than the United States. Over the last year, we have added production staff in dc, the Northeast and Florida. This step allows us to focus our resources on the ambitious is the double C game and ambition Slate new entertainment project. Yeah, we're going to do, you know, now that the old ones have failed, we're going to try new ones. So they're running on fumes and donor money because no one's watching their show.
Mike McRae
They went, did you see what happened? They're making an action movie with that guy from Marvel that got run out for beating his girlfriend and then they picked him up. Then he got brutally injured crashing through a plate glass window because they don't have union safety standards.
Jimmy Dore
Oh, no kidding. I didn't know that.
Mike McRae
We don't like unions there. So like the guy's all messed up now from crashing through. It wasn't the fake glass, it was
Jimmy Dore
like the real glass or something, you know. But you know, just to show Ben Shapiro's gratitude towards the teams, the people he's had to lay off, he has, in a symbol of gratitude for them, he has agreed to do personalized gag answering phone messages for each fired employee.
Mike McRae
Ben Shapiro is absolutely ridiculous.
Jimmy Dore
Candace Owens, who worked at the company until 2024, also commented on the layoffs of her former employer. She hinted that at least 50% the company staff was affected. Here it is hearing that the Daily wire laid off 50% of their staff today. As much as I impositately despise what their execs put me and my family through, there's a lot of good people that work there in their family's feet. They could use our prayers. Okay. All Right. These cuts at the Daily Wire are the latest for the company. The last round of layoffs at the media company came in March of 2025. The layoffs at the Daily Wire are just the latest in the entertainment and media sector. A couple of weeks ago, Disney announced layoffs totaling a thousand people across Marvel, its PR division and home entertainment Axios. And Netflix also announced layoffs in March. And Netflix too. Oh, I thought they were doing so good just a couple of years ago. You know, as long as they don't lay off all the brand new Comedians with 15 minute specials of comedy material that they can milk into a half hour special. Am I right? The Daily Wire is a case study of why personality driven media companies can't compound peak. In late 2023, Shapiro's YouTube alone pulled in 170 million monthly views. Daily Wire plus subscriptions, Nashville Studio operations, Berkeley kids streaming, and an E commerce arm with razors and chocolates and cigars. The company was running a billion dollar conservative Disney bet. Then they made the studio bet bigger. This is what you're talking about, right? The Pentragon cycle, The Pen Dragon cycle. Dragon cycle and Arthurian fantasy series of the kind that has bankrupted larger production houses.
Mike McRae
Yeah, Ben, they all want Game of Thrones. They all want their own Game of Thrones.
Jimmy Dore
Bentke trying to compete with Disney for kids. Attention, Daily Wire plus chasing Netflix. Running a newsroom, a film studio, a children's streaming platform and a private label consumer goods business simultaneously requires either limitless capital or an extraordinary discipline. Some of it worked. Matt Walsh's Amiracist was the top grossing documentary of 24, but most of it didn't work.
Mike McRae
No kidding. I didn't know that was the top grossing documentary in 2024. No kidding.
Jimmy Dore
I didn't know it either. In March of 24, they parted ways with Candace Owens. She talked. She walked into the open market and built a show that competes with theirs, in fact blows theirs away. She's the number one audio puck today. We have 5.5 million YouTube subscribers and added 10.9 million followers across all her platforms since January 2025, generating roughly 805 million views. In that window, Daily Wire converted its biggest distribution asset into its largest competitor. Kind of like what the young turks did with this show. Early 2025, co founder Jeremy Boring stepped down as CEO and launched a solo podcast outside the company he co founded. Bend Key was shuttered the same year. The entire team cut. Then the audience math hit Shapiro himself. 170 million monthly YouTube views in late 23 to roughly 22 million in early 25 and 85% collapse in 18 months. Another 60,000 subscribers gone in the last 90 days. Layoffhedge.com estimates cumulative workforce reduction above 60% over the past year. Wow. Wow.
Mike McRae
Why did he call it the Greater Boring Project?
Jimmy Dore
No kidding. Tucker Carlson left Fox in 2023. He kept his audience runs his shop with a fraction of the head count. Megyn Kelly's network drew 138 million YouTube views in February alone. The personalities figured out they don't need the platform. The platform discovered the opposite. Which is what I was telling Chris Hedges all along. And he finally took my advice and started his. He's killing it now. I told him you don't need a billionaire funding your. Your voice on independent media. And he figured it out. Daily Wire built a billion dollar valuation on names that can walk, take the audience with them and run a competing show from a laptop the next morning. 170 million views to 22 million. The company kept the overhead. The audience left with the people. So Candace Owens tweeted this out. Very good read. I would only add that the Daily Wire also suffered in the end from a Ben Shapiro problem. Any plan to save the company would have had to include him stepping away as the public face of it. That's just the reality. His brand has become toxic to growth 100%. No kidding.
Mike McRae
What about Vivek Pastrani as a replacement?
Jimmy Dore
How about it? He's going to be the new governor in Ohio so he can screw over workers even harder. Reports that the Daily Wire has fired half of its staff because no one wants to watch their lame ass propaganda. Ben Shapura Shapiro and the Israeli Wire are reporting financial difficulties and cratering viewership. They were selling Israeli wire memberships for 50% off. You couldn't pay me to watch that garbage. And there it is. There's Candace Owens given the sign above his grave. Fantastic.
Mike McRae
Did you see the New York. I was in the New York Post. I think about the Jesus Phone, which is a phone that blocks pornography or something for Christians. But here's the thing. It's run by Israeli security programs. Oh, no, you're just giving Israel your porn viewing habits.
Jimmy Dore
And I mean, aren't Zionists the biggest porn producers in the world? Anyway, they own all the both sides
Mike McRae
of the game of the war, usually.
Jimmy Dore
Yeah, yeah, there you go. You create the problem and you sell the solution to it. Isn't that. That's the. That's kind of what they did with the COVID Fauci invented the virus and then he Sold you the vaccine, isn't it? So that's called you a success. That's called a scam. That's called a scam. So Ben Shapiro, good to see him sucking a big bag of dicks.
Mike McRae
He really is unlikable, isn't he?
Jimmy Dore
He's, he's, he may be the most unlikable. He is, he, he makes Erica Kirk look like a good Time
Mike McRae
Kyle when he would do impressions of him. And Kyle's not like really, you know, he doesn't know all the ins and outs of these people like that. But he just like, he's just so twerpy. He is, he's got this little twerpy and. Absolutely. He's the worst dude. His eyebrows, I don't know, do whatever with him, but I don't think it's helping.
Jimmy Dore
I don't know. What, what, what do you do? Let's see, let's see his eyebrows again. There they. I don't.
Mike McRae
Those are his war eyebrows. And now he's back to ceasefire brow. You see his plumage extends when he's under threat from a rock.
Jimmy Dore
Yeah, that's. So Russia just banned the dollar from its energy trade with Europe. All future oil and gas deals, Russian rubles or Chinese Yuan only, no dollars ever again. So Europe sanctioned Russia to protect the dollar system. Russia just removed the dollar from the European. That is shocking. This is again having major unintended consequences. The international security State and the WEF Davos group thought that they were going to be able to crush Russia and break it up and Balkanize it into pieces and then blackrock and State street and Vanguard could buy it up. It didn't happen. In fact, Russia is stronger now than ever before. Putin has got a higher popularity ratings than ever before. 75, 80% popularity ratings. And he's closer together with China and now they're trading oil and not the dollar, which is the worst outcome for the United States. Because our whole economy is based on the petrodollar and when that goes away, our, our, our currency devalues and our ability to print money if we're no longer the reserve currency of the world, our whole. Everything's got. We can't sanction people, we lose all our power and our, our economy crashes. So just wherever you'd like to take it, talking about the Ukraine war, the craziness of Europe in general because they're doubling down. They want more war with Russia and if you have any ideas on why that is and what's going to happen, go right ahead. Well,
Douglas McGregor
just in the last 24 hours, King Charles III has been speaking in the presence of Donald Trump and has been making plain his, his belief, his opinion that, that we, we being Britain and the United States have to stand fast in support of the, you know, the brave people of Ukraine and the, and, and the independent status of Ukraine. Now of course, you know, the citizenry of Ukraine, you know, God help them and God bless them, you know, the ordinary people that have had this descend upon them, but you know, the Zelenskyy regime, you know, that being what I mean by Ukraine in this context, the fact that the king, whose sworn duty is to look out for his subjects, to protect the people, to be their last line of defense in many respects. And he's basically, basically getting behind the idea of ongoing war with Russia. I just find that once again he in this context is again playing out of the worn out playbook. You know, he was invoking, you know, in the aftermath of 9 11, how we, how we came together, you know, with unity. And he was also playing the greatest hits of Second World War and the First World War, how we stood shoulder to shoulder at that time. It's surely too late for the latest iterations of these people. The monarch in Great Britain, the President of the United States, the President of the European Union. It's too late. Too much has changed and too many people are aware of too much for them to keep on banging these same drums. You know, you invoke 911 now and too many people say, oh yeah, yeah. You mean the one that the CIA knew about? You mean the one that George W. Bush knew about? You mean the one that Israel knew about in advance? You mean that 9 11, too many people air those so called, whatever conspiracy theories and you invoke, you know, the, the Second World War and by now too many people say, oh yeah, the one that you mean in the aftermath there was the Bretton woods agreement that pinned the dollar to gold and pinned every other currency then to the dollar, which then set the, which then set the pattern towards everything else that has happened in the name of the dollar. You mean World War II where, you know, it was Britain went to war to liberate Poland and then by the end of the war that wasn't even attempted and Poland was just thrown under the bus. You mean the Second World War where the communists were handed half of the continent? You mean that Second World War? You mean the Second World War? We have Operation Paperclip lifted thousands of Nazis war criminals out of Germany and transplanted them to America, you know, for the rocket Program and into academia and into every walk of American life. Too many people have those responses now and yet we all still have to sit back and watch the latest monarch of Great Britain and the latest president of the United States of America invoking their greatest, invoking the greatest hits in expectation of the kind of response they used to get. When are they going to realize that those days are over? That on account of what has happened, the realization that's been made possible by people's exposure to the information that's on the Internet, the information that's circulated and discussed endlessly by the alternative independent media. People know too much. And yet we're still, we've got talk of, you know, the toy soldiers in what remains of the British army, you know, talking about the necessity for the nation to prepare for war, kinetic war with Russia, the European Union promising 90 billion euros to Ukraine. Euros that the people of Europe need and are being denied, but that are promised nonetheless to the Zelensky regime in Ukraine. We all know this stuff and we're still having to watch these tired acts step out on stage and play the same old, the same old tunes. When are they going to realize that nobody buys it anymore and the show's over?
Jimmy Dore
Well, wouldn't that show up in elections then? Wouldn't that show up in the European elections and we would get new leaders? Because I always thought people in Europe were much smarter and more cosmopolitan. People in the United States, don't they know that when they blew up the Nord Stream pipeline that it negatively affected their economy?
Douglas McGregor
That people, because people, because people still, because people, unless and until people realize, realize that if you're offered it as something you can vote for, it's, it's another buttock of the same arse. So people, people are, are offered so called alternatives. It's, it happens all the time. But they are sanctioned alternatives, you know, all across people, people in good faith, people in good faith think that they can vote their way out of it. They believe in the concept of democracy and they believe that eventually the right party and the right candidates are going to step forward and if they can just get them into power, everything will change. You know, that's the last redoubt. As long as that corrupted rotten system is perpetuated by well meaning people who think that ah, finally, that's the party for me. They'll deliver the goods, they'll come through on their promises, they'll stop the population changing mass uncontrolled immigration. They'll get us out of this, that and the next thing they'll stop all the things I'm frightened of because people aren't realizing that if it's wearing a suit, it's got on a rosette and it's standing on a soapbox and you're allowed to vote for it, it's part of the problem. It's just the. It's just the new face of the same problem.
Jimmy Dore
So what I hear you saying is, is that there's no way to vote our way out of this. Right? Is that what you're saying?
Douglas McGregor
No. That system, that system's been corrupted all the way. Liberals aren't liberal.
Jimmy Dore
That's right.
Douglas McGregor
Conservatives aren't conservative.
Jimmy Dore
Correct.
Douglas McGregor
Labor doesn't work.
Jimmy Dore
Nope.
Douglas McGregor
The Greens aren't green. The Greens are about greed. It's. It's. Yeah. So.
Jimmy Dore
So how do we get out of this?
Douglas McGregor
People. People have, People have not understood. It's a very. People say that to me all the time. How do we get out of. Does come back to people understanding certain things. Democracy is not made manifest by voting in an election. That's not democracy. Democracy is people governing themselves, self governing people. And you only govern yourself if you have the last C on the law, the laws under which you're expected to live. And then if there's a mechanism for manifesting that as a reality, then you've got democracy. Now, In Britain, for 800 years, we had trial by jury whereby an accused person is brought before a jury of his or her peers and that jury, whatever, listens to the story they're told and decides based on their conscience whether or not they think the person should be convicted or not of whatever breach of legislation has seen them land up in court. But much more importantly than the guilt or innocence of the individual, they are there to weigh up the justice of the legislation, the justice or not of the law that that person is being accused of breaking. And moment by moment, with every case, a jury is empowered to check the justice of the law that's being taken away. In Britain, trial by jury is all but gone. And if you end up in a situation, as we will in Britain, where an administration can write its laws, get them passed because it has a majority, or otherwise controls the parliament and then decides what the punishments will be for anybody breaking that law and employs the judges that will make the decisions about guilt or innocence, that's textbook tyranny. We in Britain have watched that happen. That's the end of democracy. That is the end of democracy. Voting in elections, that should only be about, you know, you know, having a momentary concern about the makeup of the administration that will look after that will administer the wishes of the people. So with that, because of, because of what's been done to trial by jury in Britain, for example, we don't have democracy. The people cannot govern themselves because the only mechanism that manifests that as a reality, which is trial by jury, where the jury sitting as a little parliament tests the justice or not of the legislation. Once that's gone, it's a dictatorship, people. So in answer to your question, how do we get out of this? You're not going to get out of it by voting, because if you can vote for it, it's one of them.
Jimmy Dore
Yeah, that's. I had tried to explain that to people and it's hard to get it over on people. They just can't. You know, in the United States, people just see Trump as the ultimate evil instead of just a continuation of what we all have had. And, you know, they somehow turn a blind eye to Joe Biden forcing experimental medical treatments on people. They turn a blind eye to Joe Biden starting a proxy war with the nuclear power. They turn a blind eye to Joe Biden funding a genocide right in front of our faces. They've turned a blind eye to him smashing a union strike. They, they turned a blind eye to the Democratic Party rigging three primaries in a row so we don't even get a choice. Three primaries in a row. And the last one, they'd even bother to have a primary. But anyway, go ahead. You wanted to say we.
Douglas McGregor
Well, we as a species are watching genocide. I know the 20th century was supposed to teach all of us that if we so much as smelled the smoke of a potential genocide, we were supposed to shout fire. That was supposed to be the lesson of the 20th century. Don't wait until it's happening. If it's happening, stop it. But don't wait until it's happening. But we are watching a genocide unfold. In Lebanon. Christians in Lebanon are being murdered and dispossessed in Lebanon under our gaze. How can. So, I mean, you know, before, before you get to things like democracy and, you know, and, and union strikes being smashed, we have, we have disregarded lesson number one that, as I understood it, we were supposed to get from the 20th century, which is, you don't stand by while someone somewhere mows the grass. You don't do that. That's, that's, that's step number one. If we're going to, if we are going to watch a genocide, we've got. We've got a President of the United States of America vowing to, to bomb into the stone Age a 4000 year old civilization, promising, promising that it will never rise again, that civilization, unless he gets his way. J.D. vance is still saying, oh well, if Iran will just, if the people of Iran will just do what we need them to do, if they'll just go where we want, then it'll be an economic success story. How many times are people gonna watch that playbook played by America? You know, after the, you know, the seven wars in five years?
Jimmy Dore
Yeah.
Douglas McGregor
Libya was promised, you know, a bright new future if it wasn't for the Gaddafi regime. Now what happened there? Well, you know, Gaddafi was sodomized to death with a scaffold pole and now you can buy slaves in Tripoli for 400 bucks. How many people, how many people are going to look on at the endless repetition of the use of the same playbook?
Jimmy Dore
Look at Syria. Syria. Now, as we predicted, if you get rid of Assad, they're going to install an. Al Qaeda is going to take over. And that's exactly what happened. Except he took off his terrorist garb and he put on a Brooks Brothers suit and he's welcomed at Downing street, he's welcome at the White House. Everybody loves the former chief head chopper of Al Qaeda in Syria who's now running that country. But of course he's working with Israel because that's part of the Greater Israel Project. And now Israel does control about a third of Syria. So yeah, it's exactly what you're saying. Exactly what you're saying.
Douglas McGregor
Look at Libya, look at Iraq, look at Sudan, look at Somalia, look at Afghanistan. One country after another, look what's happened. It's the same thing that happens every time, you know, Iraq and Saddam Hussein, that had to be taken on because he was looking at trading oil and other resources in his own currency or without the petrodollar.
Jimmy Dore
Can't happen.
Douglas McGregor
So he was hanged by the neck until he was dead. Look what happened to Muammar Gaddafi. Same thing he would contemplate. And stepping out of line. Yeah, not having a central bank, not playing by the playbook of the bank for International Settlement that runs the central banks. He wouldn't do it. So he ends up in a drain pipe with a mob. And yet these are the things that have to be. God, it's a long road, but to me, in my lifetime that were watching, that were watching a genocide and excusing it, we're watching a genocide and saying, and listening to people say, well, someone's got to do it.
Jimmy Dore
I know. Back to Marco Rubio, according to our friend Furkan, he is visibly panicking. He's literally begging Beijing to step in and save the collapsing economy. Let's listen to what he said.
Marco Rubio
First point about the visit, it's fine. I hope the Chinese tell them because
Jimmy Dore
Trump is scheduled for a visit in just a few days in China. So this is what he's referring to
Marco Rubio
on the first point about the visit. It's fine. I hope the Chinese tell him what he needs to be told and that is that what you are doing in the straits is causing you to be globally isolated. You're the bad guy in this. You guys should not be blowing up ships, you should not be putting mines, you should not be holding hostage the global, trying to hold hostage the global economy. I hope the Chinese bring, whether it's done privately, but I hope it's done directly, that that's the message they deliver to them. As I outlined earlier today, China is an export driven economy. Okay. I'm not here to speak on behalf of what's in the best interest of China, but it's obvious China is an export driven economy. That means they depend on other countries to buy from them. Well, you can't buy from them if you can't ship it there. And you can't buy from them if your economy is better being destroyed by what Iran is doing.
Jimmy Dore
So just to let you know, according to reports, Chinese oil tankers are passing the straight up Hormuz daily and the United States hasn't said a word about it. What's your reaction to Marco Rubio and to this report?
Douglas McGregor
Everything that Marco Rubio said the Chinese should communicate to Iran will be communicated to President Trump when he shows up in Beijing. Yes, Iran isn't going to tell, or rather China is going to tell the Iranians that President Xi understands exactly what's happening. He knows who started the war and he knows why. And he takes the position, I'm sure, in private. What are you doing? Why are you going to war on behalf of Israel? This makes no sense. This is destructive. That's what President Xi will probably say in private, but otherwise he's going to give him exactly that message. He's going to say, president Trump, you need to stop this before the entire world economy is destroyed. But he's not going to turn on Iran. Iran is defending itself. He's helping Iran to defend itself. So is Russia. So I think, I think Secretary Rubio has turned everything on its head, and that's not surprising. That's what he's being paid to do,
Jimmy Dore
I guess and do you have any information on this report that Chinese oil tankers have been passing through the Strait of Hormuz daily?
Douglas McGregor
Well, I don't know about daily, but I know that the Chinese went quickly to the Iranians, and the Iranians made it clear that they would allow all the Chinese tankers to pass through unmolested. By the way, similar arrangements have been made with the Japanese, and similar arrangements are in progress now with the Koreans. And I think we're going to see more and more nations, particularly in Asia, who are sympathetic to Iran's position, who are going to reach similar agreements. That's why Secretary Rubio's comment is not headed in the right direction. It's China that needs to be very straightforward with President Trump. Let me go a little bit further, because people don't understand how important China is. If, if President Trump thinks he can go to Beijing and make demands and expect President Xi to comply, he's lost his mind. Beijing recently announced that Chinese companies will not observe and abide by US Sanctions, not on private refiners, certainly not linked to the Iranian oil trade. Absolutely will not hinder or limit heavyweight Hengley Petrochemical refinery company. This is a sea change in Beijing's relations with Washington. Beijing is normally always trying to accommodate. They tried to accommodate us on tariffs and other things. They're not going to accommodate on energy. China is now tightening its grip on trade with us. They're expanding export controls on critical minerals. They're reinforcing their own supply chains. In addition to cornering Washington on trade, Beijing is also reducing its holdings of our treasuries. They are reallocating their reserves toward harder assets like gold and reducing reliance on U.S. debt. Let me tell you, if he goes there with anything other than an attitude characterized by cordiality and humility, he's going to be embarrassed. He's going to be shown the door pretty quickly.
Jimmy Dore
So if what you say happens, if what you say is true, that Korea, Japan, China have a deal with Iran to let those ships go through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Trump, they're going to stop it, right? Do you think that they will? Do you think that they that means them attacking China, Korea and Japan, do you think that will happen?
Douglas McGregor
No, I don't. But I do think you are right. And I think within the next 48 hours, whether it's the 7th of May or the 8th of May, we're going to restart this air and missile campaign that will, in fact, do the same thing as stopping trade, period. Because as soon as the missiles and bombs start to fall and strike targets. That's over. Everyone in the Gulf is going to batten down the hatches and try to ride this thing out. There will be no movement through the strait of war moves, so he'll accomplish his blockade by going back to war. The problem is that that's going to permanently alienate most of the world against us and especially China.
Jimmy Dore
Okay, well, you've been. You've been very gracious with your time. I appreciate you accommodating our schedule as always do.
Douglas McGregor
And you're back to the Napolitano routine.
Jimmy Dore
We appreciate your insight as always. You have great knowledge and I appreciate you sharing it with us. And I look forward to talking with you again soon. Douglas McGregor. Thank you very much, sir.
Douglas McGregor
Hey, thanks. Good to see you again.
Jimmy Dore
Good to see you. Hey. Become a premium member. Go to jimmy door comedy.com sign up. It's the most affordable premium program in the business. All the voices performed today are by the one and only, the inimitable Mike mcrae. He can be found@mikemcrae.com that's it for this week. You be the best you can be and I'll keep being me. Don't freak out.
Douglas McGregor
Don't freak out.
Jimmy Dore
Don't freak out. Don't. Do not freak out.
Douglas McGregor
I'm not giving.
Jimmy Dore
Do not. Do not.
Douglas McGregor
I'm not.
Jimmy Dore
I'm not. I'm not.
Douglas McGregor
I'm not.
Jimmy Dore
I'm not.
Douglas McGregor
I'm not.
Jimmy Dore
Freak out. Do not freak out.
Douglas McGregor
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Episode Title: Trump To RESTART Iran War In 48 Hours?!? w/ Col. Macgregor
Air Date: May 8, 2026
Host: Jimmy Dore
Guest: Col. Douglas Macgregor (retired US Army Colonel, political commentator, CEO of "Our Country Our Choice")
Special Voice Performances: Mike MacRae
This episode focuses on the escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, specifically addressing reports that President Trump may soon restart direct military conflict with Iran. Jimmy Dore explores the logic, risks, and potential global consequences of renewed warfare in the Persian Gulf, especially regarding energy markets and geopolitical alliances. Col. Douglas Macgregor provides expert military and strategic analysis, and the conversation extends to broader themes of political dysfunction, US foreign policy failures, the economic fallout of endless wars, and skepticism toward establishment political solutions.
“We had to start a war so we could go back to the way things were before we started the war. It’s genuinely one of the most absurd foreign policy statements I ever heard.”
— Jimmy Dore [04:54]
“It’s like Laurel and Hardy is running the State Department on behalf of Trump. It doesn’t make any sense... It’s one unending sort of flow of crap that comes out of the White House.”
— Col. Douglas Macgregor [08:16]
“We’re talking about disaster as it stands now. Now, if we go back to bombing, I think instead of recovering within the next two to three years, we won’t see recovery for at least a decade... We’re going to head into a global depression.”
— Col. Douglas Macgregor [11:40]
“Nobody [in Washington] does that... when it was their turn to stand up and take a firm position, they didn’t do it. I’ll be frank with you. I don’t believe most of that. I think most of the people in the White House live in fear of Donald Trump…”
— Col. Douglas Macgregor [13:00]
“If you destroy the power sources, it doesn’t make a great deal of difference. So I think that’s exactly what they [the Iranians] will do.”
— Col. Douglas Macgregor [15:55]
“This is not somebody who’s predisposed to listen to the hard facts and certainly doesn’t want to admit that any decision he took could have been flawed.”
— Col. Douglas Macgregor on Trump [17:24]
This episode delivers a forceful, critical, and often darkly humorous analysis of the spiraling US-Iran conflict, critiquing both the absurdity and the catastrophic potential of renewed warfare in the Persian Gulf. Col. Macgregor frames the crisis as emblematic of US hubris, bureaucratic cowardice, and the broader decline of Western political legitimacy. The discussion links military strategy, economic ramifications, and the collapse of trust in both media and democratic institutions. While grim in outlook, the episode pulls back the curtain on realpolitik decision-making and warns of the long-term global consequences if current trajectories aren’t dramatically altered.
Key Message:
The prospect of renewed war with Iran is not merely reckless—it threatens economic, political, and humanitarian disaster on a global scale, and is symptomatic of deeper failures in Western governance that cannot be resolved by mere elections or media spin.