Iran has maintained a hold on the strait which is critical to the world's oil supply. President Trump says despite this incident, he is confident a deal to end the war will happen sooner than later. We have ongoing negotiations in Iran and with Iran that hasn't stopped. And we [00:00:20] could have at least an idea by one or two days from now, but I think it's going well. any way shape or form nuclear weapons. Well, soon after President Trump issued that statement, [00:00:36] which seems to be a repetitive statement he makes, it's recycled over and over again. Israel renewed its military offensive in Lebanon. Again, mere hours after Trump insisted yet again that there was a peace deal on the horizon with Iran. Iran has repeatedly stated that [00:00:54] they will not agree to a peace deal if the war against Lebanon. continues. And Netanyahu knows that, the Israelis know it, which is why they renewed their military assault against southern Lebanon in particular. And wouldn't you know it, the latest news is that the US [00:01:11] is currently carrying out strikes against Iran. It's a developing story, it broke right before we went live on air. But Glenn, before I give some more details about how we got to this point, I'm just curious what your read of the situation is at this moment. Obviously, this [00:01:28] is a war that Trump can't get out of. He has nothing but bad choices. He doesn't want to continue the war because it's been a disaster for him politically and economically and in every other way, especially with the midterms getting closer and closer. But also the people that he loves the most, which are the dictators of the Persian Gulf, are the ones who most [00:01:46] eagerly wanted into this war. They've suffered a lot of damage, and Iran can and will do a lot more damage to them if there's an outbreak of further hostility. So on the one hand, can't restart the war, but on the other he can't end the war without some credible claim that [00:02:01] he actually won something beyond what President Obama already secured with the Iran deal that President Trump under the demands of Sheldon Amiri Middleton and Netanyahu nullified in 2018. And right now the Iranians know that and they're not really inclined to give him anything [00:02:16] beyond that because they also need to tell their own population that they defeated the United States. So Israel has this opening because as we know, Israel doesn't want an end to this war. What Israel wants most is for Iran to be shattered into a million pieces because Iran is the only country in that region that can deter Israel, that can provide a countervailing [00:02:34] weight to their hegemony and their desire to dominate the region. And so you have Trump between his own political needs and the demands of the Israelis. And now because a drone supposedly ran into or was shot at. It's unclear, even the US says it's unclear, a US plane downing [00:02:52] that plane and the two pilots ejected safely and aren't harmed. President Trump now says we have to retaliate. We'll see if it's a mild restrained retaliation or whether this really does restart the war. But it's been a disaster all the way around. And the reason is President Trump is too afraid to end the war because he fears the rage of the Israel lobby both in [00:03:10] Israel and here in the United States. I mean, he should also fear the rage of the American people because this is a deeply unpopular war. uh 60 % of Americans are against it, a growing number of Republican voters are against it. uh Just recently the Brookings Institute, which [00:03:26] of course has its own biases, carried out its own poll which showed that even among Republicans, there are more Republicans who believe we have already lost this war than Republicans who believe we have won the war. More Republicans believe that uh We have achieved nothing. We [00:03:44] have actually lost through engaging in this war, lost in terms of American interests. And so it's just really interesting because on one hand it is true that the Israel lobby is incredibly powerful. And if you are in their crosshairs, they'll do anything and everything [00:04:00] to destroy the future of your political career. In the case of Donald Trump, dudes 80, this is his second term, but he's probably concerned about the midterms. I agree with you on that. But at the same time, The voters see what's happening to their own pocketbooks, they see [00:04:15] the rising price of fuel. They're not going to be happy about this. That's going to hurt them and that's going to discourage them from reelecting some of these Republican lawmakers way more than anything else that the Trump administration is up to. At least that's my [00:04:31] read of it. What do you think? Your read is correct is that he himself spent the last decade warning Americans. about the dangers of these kinds of wars saying that the Republicans and George Bush and Dick Cheney destroyed themselves with protracted conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He knew the American people were sick of these wars, understood that they were being fought [00:04:49] based on lies and not in their interest. Which is why he rode the wave of this anti-war sentiment by promising that he wouldn't involve the United States in new wars, especially in the Middle East, especially ones dedicated to regime change. So this to me is the key point, Ana. He knows it because we've heard him say it so many times. It's not like George W Bush or where you wonder [00:05:09] like why did he go to the war in Iraq? Maybe he just got persuaded by warmongers. This is somebody who has spent years warning that exactly this sort of thing would happen if the US got involved in another regime change war in Iran. And yet not only did he do it anyway, knowing that this was likely to be the outcome. But also now that he's in it, and as you say, the [00:05:28] American people are enraged about it. This war was unpopular from the beginning and has only gotten more unpopular as we've gone on. Why isn't he getting out of it? And I think he, again, he can choose between the American people and the people who are surrounding him who financed his campaign, which is the Israel lobby. And he's siding with them for a variety of [00:05:45] reasons that I think are worth discussing. But it's not unclear or in doubt who side he's on and it's not the American people's. One other thing that I'm kind of curious about, terms of your own opinion, because this is a theory that's been thrown around. I certainly think there might be some credibility to it. The fear, about the Israel lobby, I think [00:06:05] goes beyond losing their support. Some are concerned that there might be dirt that the Israelis have on Trump and maybe they're holding it over Trump's head and that because a lot of his behavior doesn't make sense. I mean, he is losing more out of engaging in this war, [00:06:23] making good on his so called promises to the Israeli lobby than anything else. It's not benefiting him, it's not benefiting the Republican Party. He's only harming himself by continuing in this direction. Look, I don't know what your plans are for the summer, but if you're still paying Verizon or AT &T tons of money for your phone plan, you should stop. Really [00:06:42] stop right now. My friend Andrew Yang, the guy behind Universal Basic Income, launched a phone company and he's basically giving money away. He loves to do that. Seriously, it's been a total game changer for me. I use it. Here's the deal. If you sign up right now, new customers get the first three months completely free. No tricks, no cash. The whole summer, totally [00:07:02] free. That's money you could spend doing things you actually enjoy, like going to the beach, going to a concert, grabbing ice cream with your friends, whatever you want. Not convinced? Here's the cherry on top. Noble Mobile actually pays you to use your phone less. The less data you use, the more cash back you get right into your account. So not only are the first three [00:07:20] months free, but the fourth month could be super cheap too with all the cash back you've gotten in the first three months. And don't worry, you're still getting great. reliable coverage on T-Mobile's 5G network. I'm telling you, this deal is too good to pass up. Stop throwing money away. Do yourself a favor and let Noble Mobile pick up the tab for your summer plans. [00:07:39] Why spend your summer doom scrolling where you can be out having fun? So make this switch today at tyt.com slash switch. That's tyt.com slash switch. All right, he took the money from the Israel lobby, he took the hundreds of millions of dollars from the Adelson's, [00:07:56] not just in his second term, but also in his first term. What happens if he just walks away and says, I've done enough for you, okay, enough, I'm walking away now. I mean, what's the worst that could happen if they don't have dirt on him? I think first of all, I'm going [00:08:12] to get to that point in a second, but I just wanted to note this one thing, which is you have to look at where Trump's social and family circle is centered. His daughter, who by all accounts everyone who knows him will tell you that Ivanka was always his favorite daughter, like the child, or the favorite child actually, the one he thought was like the only real interesting [00:08:28] and talented one. She's married to Jared Kushner, who's an Orthodox Jew. Jared Kushner's father was this fraudster who made, of millions of dollars went to prison for it. pardoned him. Ivanka Trump has now converted to the same kind of Orthodox Judaism that the Kushners belong [00:08:44] to. They fund West Bank settlements. They're hardcore Israel supporters and those are Trump's grandchildren as well. He's been surrounded his whole life by people like Steve Witkoff and Howard Elatnik. He's kind of Jewish real estate billionaires in New York who are very pro-Israel. They form the core of his social circles. And it's not just the core, and then [00:09:01] you have evangelical leaders on whom he depends to are extremely pro-Israel. And these are the people constantly in his ear. That said, I do want to just, you referenced at the start this report about how Israel was spying on the United States. And it's true every country tries to spy on every other one. But the report was that they're spying in the most invasive [00:09:20] ways on our top officials about our most sensitive information, namely negotiations with Iran. We did Snowden reporting on 13 years ago or so now where we published documents that the NSA said that even though we give a ton of information and technology and raw data on Americans to [00:09:36] Israel. They're the number one surveillance threat against the United States. They spy on the United States more aggressively, more effectively, more invasively. And if you look at Donald Trump's life, it's not exactly been a paragon of fidelity or sexual morality. He was very close friends with Jeffrey Epstein. That is the reality. Eventually that ended, [00:09:54] that was the circle in which he was circulating. Who knows whether sexually or. I don't want to sound like a Russian gate fanatic because that was what they were saying about Trump and I'm not saying it's true. But the Israelis use these tactics constantly. They spy on people, they collect that dirt and information on people. see their national security as an existential [00:10:12] matter and a religious matter and they will do anything and have proven that repeatedly against people who threaten them. And I wouldn't be surprised if Trump is at least afraid of that, even if the Israelis haven't actually used it. Trump is aware of all these things and I think he genuinely fears the Israel lobby. I think you're right, I think you're right [00:10:28] about that. so we, and I think the point that you make about the individuals who surround him and how he's really just kind of getting this repetitive pro-Israel messaging, it's a powerful point and I think we forget that often. Something that I brought up on the [00:10:45] show multiple times and it bears repeating is that members of his own administration, his own cabinet have actually worked on Benjamin Netanyahu's reelection campaign. I mean, Suzy Wiles, his chief of staff. was a consultant for Benjamin Netanyahu's reelection campaign [00:11:00] in 2020. And she really is the gatekeeper in regard to who has access to the President of the United States, who gets to talk to him, who gets to lobby to him. And honestly, with that in mind, it was kind of shocking that someone like Tucker Carlson, who's so vehemently against what we're doing in the Middle East, had any access to the President at all, given the heavy [00:11:22] pro-Israel bias within Trump's cabinet. And what's also really interesting, Glenn, is that when he was running and when he was appointing certain people uh to his administration, not necessarily cabinet officials, but people within the State Department and things like that. [00:11:37] It seemed as though he was moving in a more America first direction where we wouldn't necessarily abandon Israel, we wouldn't carry out everything Israel wanted us to carry out in the Middle East, including arming terrorist groups in places like Syria, stuff like that. But I just feel [00:11:56] like we all got fooled, right? I mean, he then proceeded to fire those individuals from his administration at the behest of Laura Loomer of all people. And what we ended up getting is a US foreign policy that's even more brutal toward the Palestinians or toward uh the Arab [00:12:16] populations in these Arab majority countries and Muslim majority countries in the Middle East. So- What's amazing to me is you see those who have totally bought into his cult of personality, they're going to love him and support him no matter what. That's about, I don't know, 25, 30 % of the country. But that pretty robust coalition that he was able to build leading [00:12:36] up to the 2024 election is now completely fractured. And people are just kind of aimlessly trying to figure out where they fit in this political duopoly where they don't really feel represented by either party. Biden was awful. on foreign policy, absolutely horrendous on foreign policy. [00:12:56] And Trump is just worse. So where do you go from there? Who do you vote for? Who do you support? It's frustrating. Yeah, I couldn't agree more with that. I think it's worth remembering because I think it's been forgotten that when the Never Trump movement first emerged, kind [00:13:14] of lifelong Republican operatives, conservative operatives, like the Bill Kristol types. When that movement first emerged, the first trigger for it was that Trump had given an interview where he was asked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And he basically said, we have a lot of business we want to do in the Middle East. already had his eyes on all that money [00:13:32] in Saudi Arabia and the Emiratis and the Qataris and the Bahrainis. Trump is attracted to money, he saw that money. And he said we need to get a two state solution and a deal done to get rid of this Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And the problem is we can't mediate it because we've been too pro-Israel and we need to be more even handed. That was really the first [00:13:50] thing you go back and look in 2015 that made the Bill Kristol's and David Frum's of the world absolutely apoplectic and started saying Trump is a huge threat and never Trump. So he has this instinct on the one hand that has been apparent throughout the next 10 years where he called his movement America first. And yet look at what the second Trump administration [00:14:08] has been. bombing Yemen, going to kidnap the president of Venezuela, bombing Iran with Israel last year, bombing Iran and starting a whole new war with Israel again this year, talking about regime change in Cuba, focused on everything but America. Just constantly trying to do these wars that neocons have craved for years. So the question is, was Trump a fraud the whole [00:14:28] time? I really don't think so. I think what happened was he always had these kind of two. different impulses. And ultimately the neocons and the Zionists won out, I think partly because they saved Trump in 2024. Remember, he really believed truthfully that he was running to avoid prison for life and he lost the Democrats were going to put him in prison for life. So [00:14:47] he became for sale. He sold himself to the highest bidder. And that was the neocon. And I think the one of the most significant things, even though it seems like a little interpersonal drama was when he got rid of Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Alex Jones. Tom Massey, Marjorie Taylor Green, anyone questioning him on Israel, he said these people are traitors, [00:15:06] they're dirt, they're out of our movement. And he basically told everyone the only one you should listen to is Mark Levin. And if that doesn't tell you what the second Trump administration is about, I don't know what does. Fair, that's definitely fair. Well, let me just back up a little bit and give the audience an update on what Israel has been conducting in Lebanon. [00:15:25] So, as I mentioned earlier, Israel has renewed its assault, its offensive on Lebanon, southern Lebanon to be exact. And this comes after Iran made abundantly clear that they will not sign on to any peace deal with the United States if Israel's attacks against Lebanon continue. [00:15:43] Now here's what we know so far, let's go to graphic three here. Its military issued fresh, meaning the IDF, issued fresh evacuation orders for Tyre, the fifth largest city in Lebanon, including the city's Christian quarter that had until now been spared the destruction inflicted [00:16:00] on much of the area, meaning southern Lebanon. The IDF claims that the Christian quarter was uh housing Hezbollah fighters. There was the presence of Hezbollah. However, as always, they uh refuse to provide even a shred of evidence justifying these evacuations and these attacks [00:16:18] on the Christian quarter. By the way, just to be abundantly clear, I don't think any of these attacks should be carried out. I don't care if it's the Christian quarter, I don't care if it's an Arab village in southern Lebanon, a Shia village in southern Lebanon. These attacks are very clearly being carried out in an effort to annex land from Lebanon under this false [00:16:39] narrative of we feel so afraid of Hezbollah that we must do this. We must steal more land, settle it, which is what they typically do. And then when the settlers are attacked by resistance fighters, end up justifying annexing even more land, right? It's just this circular [00:16:56] logic that goes on and on and on. Now Netanyahu is getting attacked for agreeing to stop bombing Iran. And this kind of gives you a sense of the type of internal politics at play within Israel. And so here's one example. This is an ad that was shared by one Israeli politician [00:17:13] by the name of Gadi Eisenkot. uh And it's meant to, I guess, push this idea. that Israel is being controlled by the United States, which I find laughable. Take a look. [00:17:45] So Glenn, a few things that I want to mention and get your thoughts on. Number one, I was talking to a friend who does business with Israel. ah He works in the medical equipment industry. And so he has conversations with a lot of Israelis and the topic of who controls who comes up [00:18:02] a lot. They genuinely do think that the United States controls the government of Israel. In the meantime, here in the United States, we see the undue influence. Israel has over our own government, obviously through the Israeli lobby, uh through the individuals who own [00:18:20] our media or increasingly are beginning to own all of our legacy media. There was a new story today in the New York Post about how Barry Weiss might be tapped to have editorial say over CNN. So my days over at CNN were numbered anyway, but all of this is going on. Internally in [00:18:38] Israel, they have the totally wrong idea and Netanyahu knows that he becomes a political target if he does listen to anything Trump has to say. So, I mean, I don't know how you become allies with a country that has completely different goals than the US, completely different [00:18:58] objectives in the Middle East. Israeli society wants more war, they want the American people to bankroll more war so they can expand their borders. This is an unwinnable situation for the American people. And I don't know how we get out of it other than pushing for anti establishment [00:19:18] candidates to be voted in and oust these Israel firsters in Congress. But even that, I don't know if it's going to work. I I look at some of the individuals that have been elected in recent years who are supposed to be a check on the establishment's power. But they've only [00:19:35] acquiesced to the establishment ever since. And so, what do we do with that? When I first started running about politics in 2005, I naively believe the Democrats and President Obama when they said things like, the war on terror is so evil and sinister and [00:19:53] we have to put an end to it. I really believe that it was important that Nancy Pelosi become House Speaker in 2006 and Obama went in 2008 because I thought that they would. followed through on what they were saying, which is that they hate the war on terror and would end it. And lo and behold, Nancy Pelosi does one in 2006 writing an opposition to the Iraq war. [00:20:09] And the first thing she does is says, I'm gonna keep funding the Iraq war because we can't defend it because that will leave our troops in harm's way or whatever Fox News narrative was being put all the time. And then of course, Obama gets into office and immediately starts defending and even expanding many of the worst defining parts of the war on terror. And that's [00:20:28] when over the years I started realizing, I even had a pact once with Jane Hampshire and the idea was, which she was like an old school liberal blogger. And the idea was let's recruit primary challengers to Democratic incumbents who are anti establishment or anti war, anti Israel. And you pour all your heart and soul into that. The liberals at one point got Joe Lieberman [00:20:48] out of the Democratic Party, but he ran as an independent and won anyway. And at some point you start looking for alternatives. And that's what I've spent the last eight years doing, seeing these cracks in. the MAGA movement and anti-war movement and opposition to supporting and financing Israel. And even opposition to corporatism and kind of big corporations and [00:21:08] trying to work these wedges. And of course, then you get accused of having to switch sides or become a far right, whatever. And I think the time is here to start seeing the world not through the prism of right versus left. There are times when it's still- applicable [00:21:24] on abortion or social issues. You can still see the world that way, but increasingly that's not the way to understand the world. And to me, I find optimism in that. I think it's so encouraging that there's finally a significant portion of people on the right who are saying Israel commits genocide. And they're using our taxpayer dollars and our government to commandeer [00:21:44] and force them, force us to fight wars. And let me just have one thing, Ana, which is like- It was never the case that Israeli and US interests were converged. In fact, Israeli and US interests have been at odds for a long time. You go back to the 80s, where the Bush 41 administration [00:22:00] was outraged that Israeli settlements kept expanding because they knew they needed uh a two state solution to be able to do deals with Arabs, which Bush being an oil man always wanted to do. And the thing that made us so hated in that region was the perception that we were tied at the hip to Israel. And they told the Israelis, we're not going to give you work. [00:22:18] guarantees anymore if you don't stop West Bank settlements. And they were accused of being anti-Semite. Bill Clinton ran against Bush 41 in 1992 by calling him an anti-Semite, saying he's endangering Jews by criticizing Israel. And we've lived in this climate for so long, where we pretend that we have an interest in supporting and arming and financing Israel. [00:22:36] When in reality, there are few things more damaging to our national interests than that, and yet it doesn't stop. And we'll see now with this huge shift in public opinion, which I never thought I would see, where you and I and a lot of other people can say things openly and aggressively that even five years ago, we would be destroyed if we said. Now being more more mainstream, [00:22:55] these things are encouraging to me, but it's not going to change if you just stick to the Democratic Party and hope to vote in a few more AOCs or whatever. Because we've seen with the AOCs that that doesn't really work. You need a political movement built around this perspective of the world. anti-war sentiment extricating ourselves from these alliances with countries [00:23:15] that only drag us down, including Israel. And only then do I think you can start to see actual change in the policy of United States because at some point you have to listen to mass public opinion. You can only ignore it for so long. uh