Ep. 2387 - Two Terror Attacks in One Day. What is Happening??

Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill? It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat, emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better. Every plan, $15 dollars a month a month. Every plan, $15 dollars a month a month, even unlimited. That's it. That's it. That's it. See terms. The FIFA World Cup is here, and you can now feel the thrill of the pitch in FIFA World Cup launch edition on Netflix, a fast and fluid football game where your phone is the controller and the TV is the stadium. Play for your country in 16 different stadiums with up to four friends, all included in your membership. Scroll to the games tab on your TV and play FIFA World Cup launch edition. Now, only on Netflix. That refreshed you've been putting off until the right deal came along? It's here. Wayfair's Black Friday and July sale is happening now so you can finally get the style you've been waiting for for less. Get up to 80% off area rugs and up to 60% off outdoor and bedroom furniture. Shop Wayfair's huge selection of styles and find the piece to fit your style, budget, and space. Plus, free shipping. Black Friday and July ends July 27th. Shop today at Wayfair.com. Norm MacDonald was right. If you're going to fight the war on terror, a good place to start would be this nation's haunted houses. According to the experts, the actual scary part about Islamic terror attacks isn't what happened to the victims. The real victims of terror attacks in the United States are... Muslims? Our toxicly empathetic, even sinister, democratic and media elites are so scared of the truth about radical Islam Islam Islam. At every single time a terrorist shouts al-Hu Akbar, they immediately respond by shouting Islamophobia. Well, folks, this here is reality. The real problem with radical Islamic terrorists is the radical Islamic terrorism. So, let's stop them in their tracks. Let's denaturalize and deport the terror supporters who are here, and let's kill terrorists abroad. Welcome back to the Ben Shapiro.

Radical Islam isn't a threat to the United States. I see millions of Americans being destroyed and none of it is at the hands of radical Islam. Is radical Islam under danger than only fans? It's not even close. It has been an overwhelming propaganda campaign to smear Muslims in this country. You are an Islamist who hates Islam. No, I don't hate Islam. You basically think all Muslims are to blame. We've seen you on videos saying it. And what you're doing now is deliberately inflammatory. It is deliberately poisonous. How is this? Sharia law is bad, Seth. I don't know if you've heard that. It's bad. It's worse than what's happening in New York and Detroit. It's just bad. I don't know why. It's just like, years of brainwashing. I just like, and you can tell when you go to a place like Abu Dhabi or Riyadh, like, oh, man, I hope we don't ever wind up with a society like this with a rape rate of zero where you leave your keys in your Lamborghini and don't ever worry about it being stolen. To all Muslims going up during my time in America, I am sorry on behalf of America for the way that you were treated. It is so unacceptable. When I go back and I re-examine that propaganda, that brainwashing that took place in the classroom to make me scared of something, I didn't even know what a Muslim was. The real problem in the United States is not radical Islam. It is Islamophobia. I want to speak to the memory of my aunt.

who stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab. But if Muslims are pure, right? That's what American media does. That's what American politicians do. I'm so sick of our lives not mattering. I think of on 9-11 when my teacher pulled me out of school, pulled me out of class rather, a classmate of mine and myself and told us that we may get bullied because of what just happened. The past few days and weeks have brought about all too familiar fears, fears that they will be targeted, profiled, or attacked, simply because of who they are, how they worship, or how they look. Many of you in the Muslim American community, the Arab American community, the Palestinian American community, and so many others are outraged and hearted, saying to yourselves, here we go again. with Islamophobia and distrust we saw after 9-11. I get messages that say the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim. I get threats on my life.

Worried about Islamic terrorism, that is a false flag or an op. Now, if you believe the people who tell you all these things, you are the sucker. And if America ignores the very real problem of radical Islam and you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, you'll end up dead. That is the message across America for the last couple of weeks, and it's coming in loud and clear. Yesterday alone, there were two Islamic terror attacks. The first happened at Old Dominion in Virginia, when ISIS linked Muhammad Baylor Jalo. 26, stormed a classroom asking if it was an ROTC class. He then shouted, wait for it. Alahu Akbar, I know, you're shocked, and shot the professor, Lieutenant Colonel Brandon shot several times before a group of heroic cadets jumped into action and stabbed Jalo to death. Here's the FBI explaining. How it was an act of terrorism, I can tell you that we have confirmed reports that prior to him conducting this act of terrorism, he shouted, or stated, al-Aqbar, and he was formerly a subject of a FBI investigation in material supporting terrorism. So, who was the terrorist who was Jallo, according to The New York Post? He was a naturalized citizen from Sierra Leone and a former Virginia National Guard member. Were there any red flags? Just a few. Fox News reports that Jello was forced to leave the military after he tried to provide material support to ISIS. He was a follower of Anwar al-Aliqi, the now dead leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The DOJ prosecution documents show that Jello praised a July 2015 terror attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in which a radical Islamist killed four Marines and a Navy sailor. He was actually arrested in 2016 after attempting to buy an assault rifle in northern Virginia and then sentenced to 11 years in prison. Then he was released just 15 months ago for good behavior. You know, good behavior. So we released an actual, honest to God, ISIS-affiliated terrorists into the population for good behavior. Did he drop his terror support somehow? If so, what was the evidence that he had? Why did America owe him a free run of the country after he decided to side with an actual honest-to-god terrorist group? And now an American hero is dead because of it, Lieutenant Colonel Shah, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Atlantic Resolve, and also a teacher. When he was arrested, it should be noted, Jolo received the victim treatment from leftists in the media. This is back in 2016. The Intercept, a far left publication, printed a sympathetic piece quoting Jolo's family, who said he was set up by the FBI. Jolo's brother, one Cherner Jalo, told the intercept that his brother was just another Muhammad that got set up. The problem, you see, was really Islamophobia. Never radical Islam, just Islamophobia. So,

Was that attack at Old Dominion, the only radical Islamic terror attack of the day? Of course not. Halfway across the country at one of the biggest reformed Jewish synagogues in America, a radical Muslim suspect named Iman Chalazi, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon who received a visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and was naturalized under the Obama administration, tried to drive an explosive laden car into the entrance of a preschool with 140 students in attendance. According to the New York Post, he, quote, barreled down the hallway before security opened fire killing the suspect. That attack started a fire in the building. The driver was killed while he was in the car. Police found in the car a rifle and mortar shells. It is worth mentioning at this point. It was indeed a good guy with a gun that stopped the terrorist. That good guy with a gun was a trained security force that has become necessary at nearly every Jewish institution in America, thanks to the rise of anti-Semitism on all sides. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard explained. We've got a ton of people here. As I said, West Poolfield got on scene in a heartbeat. Everybody else came from everywhere. Actually, Chief and I have been communicating for almost two weeks. Every time I've gotten some intelligence from the national level, I've been sharing. We've been talking for two weeks about the potential, sadly, of this happening. So there was no lack of preparation. In addition, all Jewish facilities in the area are going to have a lot of extra presence around it until we figure this out. Now, the suspect allegedly came from Dearborn Heights, Michigan. This synagogue was located 20 miles north of Dearborn, an Islam-dominated city represented in Congress by radical Islamic terror apologist Rashida Tlaib. How radicalized is Dearborn? In recent days, some Dearborn mosques have been preaching in favor of Ayatollah Khomeini. We are gathered here today to commemorate the martyrdom of the great leader of our time, As Sayyid Ali al-Husaini al-Kaminae, When my think this was an attack led by Zionist Jews, but the commander of their mission is the very one who was trying to prove that Adam was not worth prostrating to. is the one behind the scenes leading their camp, in the shadows lurking, irking, in their symbology, their ideologies, their psychology, their economy, claiming they follow the laws of Moses and Deeronomy. A police is the hidden commander of today's society. Regardless of the stew we put at the desk of the Oval Office, Republican or Democrats, but even if a thousand elections come to pass, it is the fear that this country was built for and built by the Epstein Place.

And that just like Palestine, we live on stolen land when the devil worshipping three masons reached these shores, and the Zionist-binded Christopher Columbus, who came to explore, and they genocided the natives, and put the one eye of the devil on their currency to put their plans in full sight, while the statue of memory is actually Lusufor, demonic bearer, holding a torch of light. Wow, I didn't realize the Candace Owens did a show from Dearborn. In any case, in 2025, the city decided to honor terror supporting activist Osama Siblani with a street sign. Siblani is a radical Muslim who openly speaks of his pride in terror leaders like deceased Chisbalah head, Hassan Nasrallah, whom he called a great leader, saying he was proud of him. He also advocated for Chisbalah to make Israel, quote, taste the Lebanon poison. When a resident of Dearborn showed up at a city council meeting to protest naming a street after this radical Islamist, the mayor of Dearborn, one Abdullah Hamud, told him to get out of the city and then called him, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, an Islamophob. Hezbollah, you know, bombed the embassy in Beirut, including many Americans, so I just feel it's quite inappropriate. You are an Islamophobe, and although you live here, I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here. And the day you move out of the city will be the day that I launched a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city, because you are not somebody who believe in coexistence. That is the mayor of a city in the United States. You don't believe in coexistence if you think that actual streets should not be named after actual terror supporters. Now, unsurprisingly, there were some people in the media who found excuses for the terror attack at the synagogue. Over on G.B. News, one commentator explained that this was an Israeli temple. And thus presumably deserving of its fate thanks to Israel's actions. And this was an Israeli temple. It was aligned with Israel. I will say that. A Jewish temple. A Jewish temple. A Jewish synagogue is not an Israeli temple. It's called the real Israel temple. They're Jewish. Okay. They're the people of Israel. How do you just finish my point? So it was wrong from the premise. They're not Israeli. They're Jewish. So they're called the real Israeli temple, yes? And they do align with Israel and their beliefs. Of course, the argument here seems to be that if you are a pro-Israel Jew in the United States, then it's totally fine for a terrorist to drive a car laden with explosives into your synagogue. Then there is Ryan Grimm, formerly of The Intercept, who reported that the terrorists had family members recently killed by Israel and its current action against Chisbalah in Lebanon. Even if that's true, it makes for a rather strange defense of this terrorist actions. The mass murder of 1,200 Jews on October 7th in Israel has caused precisely zero Jews, zero to drive an explosives laden car into a mosque or near a Muslim school. There's just something about radical Islam that isn't quite the same.

Of course, as we have been following, the two attacks yesterday were not the first attacks of the last few weeks. Last week, we reported on a radical Islamic terror attack in Austin, Texas, in which a 53-year-old Senegalese immigrant to the United States killed three people and wounded 13 more. He happened to be wearing a sweatshirt that read, wait for it, wait for a wait. Property of Allah. I know, you're shocked. And over the last weekend, we saw two ISIS-affiliated radical Muslims throw IEDs at a rally outside Gracie Mansion, all of which led the mayor of New York to spend extraordinary efforts condemning. Wait for it, wait for it. You're not going to believe it. I know. Islamophobia. On Saturday, a protest was held outside Gracie Mansion, where I live with my wife Rama. Neither of us were home at the time. This was a vile protest rooted in white supremacy entitled Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City. I'm the first Muslim mayor of our city. Anti-Muslim bigotry is nothing new to me, nor is it anything new for the one million or so Muslim New Yorkers who know this city as our home. Now, of course, Zohran Mamdani is expressing his deep and abiding sorrow at the anti-Semitic terror attack in Michigan. He tweeted, quote, The attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan is horrifying. My thoughts are with the congregation and all who are shaken by this act of anti-Semitic violence. Let's just say I find Zohran Mamdani's newfound unease with anti-Semitism a little unconvincing. especially given the fact that his wife is a gigantic fan of terrorist activity against Jews and recently illustrated an essay book for an author who rants about Jewish vampires, demons, and ghouls. That author wrote shortly after October 7th, quote, whether or not Israel indeed knew of the plans in advance, those few freedom fighters inspired not only the whole of Palestine but the oppressed masses worldwide to imagine what freedom looks like, what resistance is possible, and what life is attainable. So yeah, I'm going to withhold my kudos to New York's terror-supporting mayor. And the recent history of radical Islamic terror in the United States is unfortunately quite rich. Between April 2021 and December 2025, according to the House Committee on Homeland Security, quote, more than 60 cases of individuals linked to or inspired by foreign terror organizations were recorded in the United States. How does this radical ideology spread in America? Well, the answer is twofold. First, we import people who are sympathetic to terrorism. And then Adel-Pated Americans argue that they ought to be mainstreamed. That's how you end up with Zohran Mamdani and Zohran Mamdani. Yes, he is a terrorist supporter as mayor of New York. It's how Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar end up in Congress. So what should we do about it? Well, first off, we can stop future immigration from radical Islamic countries and other third world where we can't vet our immigrants at the source. You cannot import problems from other parts of the world, require zero assimilation, and then pretend that the big issue is Islamophobia. I mean, here's video from just last year from the southern border. This is from 2024. This is by the way, if you are smart enough, you will know who I am. But you are really not smart enough to know who I am. But soon you're going to know who I am. Very easy. The entitlement, the entitlement. Soon you're going to know who I am. Well.

This seems like a poor way to ensure the safety of Americans. And unfortunately, there are people dedicated to opening our border wide. The Daily Wire reported yesterday on new tactics being used to end around President Trump's deportation policies. By the way, you should subscribe to Daily Wire. We are doing investigative reporting. We obviously have our hosts. We have tons of fantastic content coming. We need your help so become a subscriber over at DailyWire.com slash subscribe. According to The Daily Wire, illegal immigrants have been filing habeas petitions that force their release at rates never before seen. Reporter Jenny Tehr writes, quote, illegal immigrants have filed more than 18,000. habeas petitions since Trump's return to the White House last January. That is more than all of the habeas petitions from the past three administrations put together. U.S. Attorney Timothy Corchane told the Daily Wire, quote, in most of them, they're granting bonds. We've been losing almost all of these, and folks will be released. Habeas petitions moved ETNI's cases out of immigration court and into the district court docket. And once they're there, judges can offer migrants a lot more relief than they would ever get in immigration court. And here's the reality. Once citizenship is granted, it is very difficult to revoke. But that brings us to yet another solution. We ought to enforce the law to revoke the citizenship of people who associate with terrorist groups or who favor totalitarian forms of government. That is, in fact, a law under Title V, 8, U.S. Code, section 1484, quote, no person shall hereafter be naturalized as a citizen of the United States who advocates the establishment in the United States of a totalitarian dictatorship or who advocates or teaches the overthrow by force or violence or other unconstitutional means of the government of the United States or of all forms of law, or the duty, necessity, or propriety of the unlawful assaulting or killing of any officer or officers. either of specific individuals or of officers generally of the government of the United States or of any other organized government because of his or their official character or the unlawful damage injury or destruction of property or sabotage. In fact, under the law, citizenship can be revoked under Section 1451 if it was, quote, procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation. If enforced properly, this would mean revocation of citizenship for a wide variety of radical Islamists living in the United States right now. Now, listen, this law is difficult to enforce. It requires a high degree of evidentiary demonstration. But that degree ought to be met when you affiliate with an actual terrorist group. And if it is not, then the law itself ought to be changed to allow for revocation of such citizenship. America does not owe a duty to people who seek to destroy America in the name of radical Islam. Until the law is either enforced to the letter or changed, we have an enormous number of people in the United States who are devotees of radical Islam. Once more, we've been told by one entire political party that mentioning this inconvenient fact is tantamount to Islamophobia, fear of Islam itself. That is insipid. Calling out radical Islam need not entail attacking every Muslim as a radical. American Muslims are indeed far more moderate in disposition overall than Muslims in Europe or the Middle East. But...

There are mosques that provide material support to terrorist organizations, and they ought to be shut down in accordance with the law, as should all organizations that do the same. We'll get to the bigger problem, the much bigger problem in just a moment. First, today's episode is sponsored by American beverage. Think about iconic drinks you grew up with and still love today. Whether it's a soda, a sparkling water, my kids call it the bubbly water, a tea or sports drink, the company's behind those beverages, Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi products. They've always made them right here in America. So while there's a lot of talk about bringing jobs back, America's beverage companies never left in the first place. These are American companies making American products with American workers in America's hometowns. 275,000 men and women across all 50 states who show up every day, do the work, and help keep the country moving. We're talking good-paying jobs, the kind of jobs you can raise a family on. For more than 100 years, these companies have been part of the American story. And they're still here, still investing, still building. Learn more about how they're keeping America strong at we deliver for America.org. That's we deliver for America.org. Go check them out right now. We deliver for America.org. Also, picture this. You print out your entire browsing history, you sign your name at the bottom, and then you nail it to your front door for everybody to see. That would be a stupid and crazy thing to do. No? Well, that's basically what we're all doing every day unless we use my sponsor, ExpressVPN, which I do, because again, don't want to be dumb. Here's the reality. Your internet provider can see everything you do online, every website, every link, every embarrassing late-night search, even in so-called incognito mode. And worse yet, in the United States, they can legally sell that data to whomever they want. That's right. You are the product, but there's a solution, ExpressVPN. It encrypts your internet traffic before your provider ever sees it. That means your online activity turns into total gibberish, a big bowl of data soup no one can read. Whether you're on your phone, your laptop, or your tablet, just tap one button, and boom, you're protected. Personally, I use ExpressVPN because I care about privacy, and I don't like the idea of my internet habits being auctioned off. I'm using ExpressVPN all the time. I was traveling just the other day, up to our offices in Nashville. That means I's on the hotel. Wi-Fi, and you know what? I don't want them watching what I do, so I'm using my VPN. If you want to join me in fighting for the rights of privacy, now would be the best time to do it. ExpressVPN is now available at just 349 a month. If you use my special link, you can get four extra months of service at ExpressVPN.com slash Ben. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-V-P-N for four extra months of service. There is a bigger problem than even radical Islam. Americans' toleration and indeed celebration of radical Islam. Zohran Mamdani was elected to the mayoralty of New York while preaching exactly the same messages as Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. Zohran Mamdani's solidarity with open terror supporters like Mahmoud Khalil, who was at Gracie Mansion, days ago, speaks volumes about the political left's unwillingness to come to grips with radical Islam's predations. On the same day that there were two radical Islamist terror attacks, Senator Chuck Schumer spent his time tone policing Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. He posted, quote, Muslim Americans are cops, doctors, nurses, teachers, bankers, bricklayers, mothers, fathers, neighbors, mayors, and more. Islamophobic hate like this is fundamentally un-American, and we must confront it whenever it rears its ugly head. To which Tommy Tuberville quite properly responded, quote, calling radical Islam out for being a cult doesn't make you an Islamophob. Radical Islamists chants at death to America and would love to see every Christian and Jew murdered. Under Sharia law, if you are not a Muslim, you are the enemy.

Under Sharia law, minorities are persecuted. Under Sharia law, women are sold, raped and trafficked. Don't believe me, read it for yourself. Radical Islam is not compatible with the Constitution and has no place in America. I won't be silenced about this. Atheist writer Christopher Hitchens famously tore into the very concept of Islamophobia, now in 2009. Resist it while you still can, and before the right to complain is taken away from you, which will be the next. thing. You will be told you can't complain because you're Islamophobic. The term is already being introduced into the culture as if it was an accusation of race hatred. for example, or bigotry, whereas it's only the objection to the preachings of a very extreme and absolutist religion. Watch out for these symptoms. They are just symptoms of surrender, very often ecumenically offered to you by men of God in other robes, Christian and Jewish and Smarmi ecumenical. These are the ones who hold open the Bill Gates for the barbarians. The barbarians never take a city till someone holds the Bill Gates open for them. And it's your own preachers who will do it for you and your own multicultural authorities who will do it for you. Resist it while you can. The very unwillingness of the West to speak openly about the evils of radical Islam leads to its importation and its promotion and then to its fruit, terrorism, and murder. I'm not sure, honestly, there has ever been a better visual representation of this phenomenon than this video from outside Gracie Mansion last weekend of a left-winger shouting about the wonders of open borders only to be used as a human shield by an ISIS-affiliated terrorist throwing an IED. But for those who have decided that America's institutions are fundamentally flawed, the real enemy is not radical Islam. It's America and our allies. This is why, presumably, so many leftists are raging at President Trump like idiot woman child and official Lord Farquod from Shrek lookalike, Granite Tunberg. We need to talk about what's happening in Cuba right now. As the Trump administration is waging illegitimate wars across the world, killing countless of people, it is also strangling the Cuban people, deliberately, methodically and openly. We should mention that the Cuban people have been under the thumb of a communist dictatorship for, you know, 70 years. This is also why Nick Fuentes, a true hater of the country, says he is rooting for Iran. rooting for Iran to survive. I'm rooting for Trump to walk away. I'm rooting for deterrence to be reestablished. This is not a war ironically that we want to win. This is maybe a war that it's better if we lose. Now, I'm not sure about you, but I have never identified a war that I want America to lose. A West that hates itself is a civilization that imports ideological cancer to its shores.

Now, radical Islamic states have learned already. They can exploit the West's own stupidity and blindness for their own end. Iran has imported cells of terrorists throughout Europe and Latin America and South America and yes into the United States. And now they're trying to use those terrorists as leverage to stop the United States from finishing off the regime. This, by the way, is literally the purpose of sleeper cells, leverage. And useful idiots help Iran in their quest. Yesterday, one CNN analyst, Juliet Kayam, blamed the Trump administration for the synagogue terror attack. I think it's absolutely that he said specifically in the last two weeks. He has been in contact with federal authorities as well as the Jewish community about the heightened threat level. It is something that... All of us have been warning about that, you know, this may be a regional war, but it's going to have global consequences. And one of them is going to be incitement, radicalization, in particular as Islamic terrorist groups are utilizing the war like ISIS to go online and to lure people to violence. Again, the idea here seems to be that everything is blowback to America. But the reality is that Iran and other countries like Iran set up such cells. And the fact that radicalized terror supporters are going active in support of Iran, they do this because they wish to push us off the ball. That is the actual goal. And in fact, that is another reason why the regime ought to be defenestrated. In fact, many of the arguments adduced against President Trump's action in Iran are actually arguments for action. Take, for example, the argument that Iran can shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Here is Senator Chris Murphy, who I don't know why this guy thinks he is going to run for president. I really, really don't. He looks like a character from Rocco's modern life. Here we go. Well, I mean, first is what we're watching right now, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran can keep that straight closed essentially for as long as they want. And we can't necessarily get into it. outside a classified setting. But this is maybe the primary reason why we have not been willing to open up a full-scale war with Iran, because they can control that straight. They can move energy prices from $100 a barrel to $200 a barrel. They could essentially shut down the global economy, which they are in the process of doing. Well, yes, Iran is indeed attacking shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. They are bragging about their ability to spike the price of crude oil. They are threatening to choke off the global economy. The new Supreme Leader of Iran, Mostabha Khomeini, who's not making any public appearances since he may be actually missing a leg or in a coma or dead. They're putting out like cardboard cutouts of him and then written statements. Well, he put out a written statement or someone near him put out a written statement explaining that the Strait of Hormuz should be used as a tool to pressure the enemy.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that right now it's not possible for the Navy to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, but we may do so shortly to reopen it. Is it your belief that the volume of ships going through the Strait of Hormuz will be improving immediately from now? My belief that as soon as it is militarily possible, the U.S. Navy, perhaps with an international coalition, will be escorting vessels through. So here is my question. Why would we possibly want a regime that threatens to shut off global trade every time they murder 35,000 of their own citizens? Why would we want that regime to continue to maximize its power? If such a regime went nuclear, then they would have more leverage. If they had a full complement of ballistic missile capacities, they would be far less vulnerable to the sort of military strikes that could break their stranglehold on global trade routes. It turns out, easy rule. When we allow our enemies to grow stronger, our life gets harder. By stopping the Iranians, we actually strengthen our position in the world. I've been very critical in the past of the president's trade advisor, Peter Navarro, but he is totally right when he wrote in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, quote, if the geopolitical risk associated with Iran were reduced. Oil prices would fall toward their underlying supply and demand equilibrium. Market evidence suggests equilibrium prices could be well below $60 a barrel. Enfronting Iran's destabilizing behavior is first and foremost a matter of national security, but it also promises to reduce the persistent geopolitical risk surrounding Persian Gulf energy flows and bring down the Iran terror premium. This, of course, is exactly right. You know where we typically don't worry about oil flows being choked off by tyrannical regimes? Where there aren't tyrannical regimes? Or where are the regimes allied with the United States? all of which brings us to the current update on Iran. So tragically yesterday, the United States lost a military aerial refueling tanker. Four service members were reportedly killed. The tanker went down over Iraq in an incident that did not involve friendly fire or enemy fire. It seems it involved a crash between two U.S. aircraft. The other aircraft landed safely in Tel Aviv. Obviously, our prayers go out to our heroes on the front lines and their families. We'll get to more on this in a moment first. There are certain purchases that should be simple. Somehow they still feel stuck in another era. Window treatments are one of those things. You decide you want new blinds or shades. And suddenly you have to schedule an appointment and wait around for somebody to show up and you sit through a sales pitch. And then you brace yourself for a gigantic quote.

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For your own safety, stay away from such locations. And my special message to bureaucratic employees under no circumstances report to your workplaces. Not sacrifice your lives in safety for the survival of the Islamic Republic. You not allow yourselves to be used as human shield. You know that your work and activities become tools for the repression of your fellow compatriots. You need your resources and access to disrupt the process of repression. Well, meanwhile, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was crystal clear about the state of the Iranian regime at oppressor this morning. Here's what he had to say. We know the new so-called not-so-supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured. He put out a statement yesterday, a weak one, actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement. He called for unity. Apparently killing tens of thousands of protesters is his kind of unity. Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why. And moreover, when the press court inquired whether the administration even thought about the chokehold at the Strait of Hormuz, Secretary Pete Hegseth stated the obvious, yes, duh, we thought about that. We plan for it. We recognize it because ultimately we want to do it sequentially in a way that makes the most sense for what we want to achieve and ensure that we're sending the right signals to the world when we do so. So when Chris Wright speaks or we speak, it's based on a... full assessment of what we're what we're up against what we want to say to the world how we want them to see and understand the conflict it's like this whole idea of the war widening that's what the press wants to make it look like like it's widening and chaos and so no we're actually closing in on grabbing hold of and controlling what what objectives we want to achieve and how we want to achieve them shape this called shaping operations and setting the conditions but when you shape the environment you don't always tell i mean foolish political leaders and foolish military leaders of the past, we'll hang an exact deadline on it, or here's exactly when we'll do what we're going to do, or here's how long it's going to take us. And then if you meet that, maybe you meet it, but if you don't, you fail and if you're far beyond, we know exactly what we're shaping and why. And in case you're still not convinced that our military knows what it's doing, Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked specifically about Tucker Carlson objecting to the war, calling it disgusting and evil. Here was the secretary. Particularly from your fellow Fox News alum, Tucker Carlson, he called the war disgusting and evil, and then set of unconditional surrender, which the president has called for, means foreign troops get to rape your wives and daughters. Have you heard these comments, and what's your reaction to them? We're busy executing on behalf of great patriotic Americans with a clear mission that's 47 years overdue, and we're going to execute on that regardless of what people say about it. So essentially, we now have a battle of wills. The will of President Trump and his administration and our military against the will of the Iranian Ayatollahs and the IRGC. Iran is hoping that the West will crack and simply back away. But if the West doesn't, the regime is in serious, serious trouble. And there are, as we have been discussing continuously, levers that can still be pulled. Iran's capacity to attack shipping can be stopped. Karg Island, the choke point for the entire Iranian oil industry, can be taken with special operations.

Iran nuclear materials can be captured as well. In fact, as Iran ups the ante, the goals of the war must shift as well. Iran's willingness to mine this rate of Hormuz and attack shipping directly means this must now be considered a terror capacity of the regime and must be dismantled. The war in Iran isn't over yet, but Iran's government has only one strategy, and one strategy only. The strategy is to increase pain. and their ally, fifth columnists and panikins in the West, who will trade a little temporary relief for long-term insecurity. Thank God for the President, who doesn't seem inclined to acquiesce to this weakness. He posted overnight on Truth Social, quote, We are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise. Yet, if you read the failing New York Times, you would incorrectly think we are not winning. Iran's Navy is gone. Their air force is no longer. Missiles, drones, everything else are being decimated. Their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth. We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time. Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today. They've been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th president of the United States, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so. Thank you for your attention to this matter. That's what my president sounds like. Well, folks, a lot of hot topics in the news. What better time then to join me, Michael Knowles and Andrew Claiband for a live afternoon edition of Friendly Fire. Conversations about the biggest stories in the headlines, the media narrative surrounding them, and of course, we will talk a little bit of Oscars. Watch Friendly Fire live today, 2 p.m. Eastern on Dailywire.com and the Daily Wire Plus app. Joining me on the line to discuss the status of the U.S.-Iran conflict is John Spencer. He's a combat veteran military analyst and one of the world's leading experts on urban warfare and modern military strategy. He also serves as the executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute. John, thanks so much for the time. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me, Ben. So why don't we begin with where you think the war currently stands? What the United States' goals should be in this war and how close are we to achieving those goals? Sure. So I think at this point we're historic. Really, there's no comparison to even how this operation opened. I do believe this might be the first war where no matter how many times our senior leaders say what the goals are, the media runs with what they think they are. As of 30 minutes ago, the Secretary of Defense went on TV again to say the objectives are very clear, deny nuclear capability, destroy the missile. shield and all of its parts and components and destroy the Navy. If you take those goals, not what people think they are, that it's not a regime change war, then we're doing ahead of schedule extremely well. Soon, the Iranian military will not have a Navy. They will not have an Air Force. They will not only not have missile launchers, missiles, the ability to manufacture more missiles. They will... also be continuing their weekend at bernie's leadership style where we don't know if he's alive or dead and just in a hole like a rat sending out a telegram notes i guess so you know from a military analysis i think they're ahead of schedule measurably achieving the objectives war is always uncertain so nobody knows where it actually end but as of this morning 16 000 targets 90 ships

uh it means just incredible a lot of historic first moments the first time we've ever sunk a submarine with a uh precision attack them or basically a ground-based system there's so many successes here and it's weird because if you go to any media channel it seems to besides uh you know most of them it seems like that we're not achieving anything even the 90 percent uh launches so the I don't know if it's called the bar fight tactic, but Iran's not striking the U.S. or Israel, it's just slapping everybody around them. 90% of missiles down, 90% of drone launches down, I think it's going extremely well. So let's talk about the sort of shadow purpose. So a lot of people are speculating that this is about regime change. Obviously, it would be very good for the region and the world if the regime were to change in Iran. The regime lashing out, it does feel like it is in serious, serious trouble, which is why it is using, as you called it, the bar fight tactic, firing more ordinance at UAE than it has fired directly at Israel by a multiple. And not only that, now. just shooting random ships in the straits of Hormuz in an attempt to stop the flow of oil and put pressure on the United States to stop its own action. We should talk about the Strait of Hormuz because obviously 20% of global oil transits the Strait of Hormuz. An enormous amount of that oil actually heads for China. And the Iranians continue to allow oil that is directed toward China out through the Strait of Hormuz without shooting it. The big question becomes, this is an Iranian offensive capacity to shut the Strait of Hormuz to prevent the flow of oil. Should it be on America's target list to reopen the Strait of Hormuz? And how would you go about doing that? How should America see the Strait of Hormuz situation? Absolutely, it should be. And that's why the destruction of the Navy was one of the goals set on the opening day. And again, every leader every day is going up and saying the goals. But keeping the straight to Hamuz and more importantly, taking away that threat, the Islamic regime of Iran has been doing before 47 away from holding the world economy at hostage so it can continue terrorism is a major goal. How can it be done? So it's not like we haven't done it before. If you remember the end of the Iran-Iraq War in the late 1980s, President Reagan, another great president, did Operation Ernest Will because they were attacking the tanker. It was called the Tanker War. And we, the U.S. Navy, started escorting ships. Phase one was to destroy everything that was moving along the shoreline. Now, of course, today there's more stuff, but the immense amount of destruction that... the United States Navy, the United States military is doing right now to destroy anything that could deny traffic, disrupt traffic through the strait drop home moves. That's what's happening right now. The sinking of those 90 vessels, the attack of the mine-lane ships, anywhere they might be hiding anything. And then the next phase is you escort. And even the secretary, both secretaries involved in the U.S. operations said that militarily, when it's...

convenient or not convenient when it's possible with the lowest amount of risks of U.S. Navy, like in 1988, we'll start escorting the frigates and the commercial supplies through there. And remember, that operation went for a year and there was actually a U.S. Navy vessel that was basically hurt. It was hit. And then we did Operation Praying Mantis where we unleashed. ungodful hell on the coastline and i think that would happen again um it's absolutely should be an objective i think it absolutely is um with that that that's why the navy is continued to be that one of the objectives absolutely possible has been done in the past um that does not say you rush to it um i know everybody likes their 30 second clips they want all information now they want nothing secret um and they want their you know the breakfast right now uh it takes time but i i absolutely think it's a necessary objective and it will happen. So meanwhile, obviously, one of the big concerns is the possibility that the Iranian regime does in fact survive all of this. They've been extraordinarily damaged. It appears that lines of communication have been broken between the central government in Tehran and various IRGC facilities throughout the country. Israel has destroyed an enormous number of IRGC facilities. Israel is now sending suicide drones into the streets of Tehran to take out actual checkpoints that are run by the IRGC, presumably in the hopes of fostering an... In uprising in Tehran today, there was a big march in Tehran with the IRGC escorting top members of the government through the streets, an attempt, I assume, to show some sort of remaining strength in the background. You can see Israel still hitting targets directly in Iran, like blocks away, which shows a couple of things. One, that the Iranian government is not in control of its guys. And number two, that the Iranian government is very, very confident that Israel and the United States are not, in fact, targeting civilians because if you are marching, your top leadership in the streets with a bunch of civilians, and the United States and Israel know that, and they could theoretically kill you, and you're relying on civilians to prevent that killing, that is assuming the humanity of the United States and the United States and the We are perfectly happy to walk in the streets knowing their civilians around because we know the U.S. and Israel won't actually kill us if there are too many civilians around. But back to the sort of generalized topic of what ought to happen next. So if the United States were to try to pursue a faster collapse of the Iranian regime, I've mentioned on the show, Karg Island, which is a coral island, about 15 miles off the coast of Iran, and 90% of all Iranian crude is processed there. Do you see the possibility that the United States military unleashed a special operation to take Karg Island essentially choking off the final vestiges and indeed the entire centralized economy of the Iranian state and essentially ending the IRC's capacity to do anything?

Ben, I think it's quite possible. But this is what we've seen, you know, the whole ideal of telling the world what the United States won't do and what Israel won't do. I think that's a potentially option as much as Special Forces operations to secure the 60% rich uranium that is out there. Possibly, the chairman just a few minutes ago said that. today will be the biggest day of our strikes i think the the whole purpose of war is not to let your enemy believe that they they can continue doing what they're doing and that is absolutely one of the potential variables i'm not sure if there will be necessary um and this is the you know what we know about war as clausal has said is you know three-fourths of his fog is covered in a fog that we don't know but we seem this A lot of influencers, they want to know everything and they're predicting everything. It's potentially absolutely a possibility as much as we've seen Israel going after all of those levers that the Islamic regime uses to suppress. And the minute they think they can, they'll go out and start killing the population so they don't get an ideal to do this uprising, like attacking the IRGC headquarters, the Beseesea headquarters, anything, cyber. All the levers that we saw them use in January to kill over 35,000 civilians. So absolutely a possibility. But if anybody comes on your show and tells you what's going to happen, you just don't have them on again. So, John, I think that the biggest question here is obviously the endgame, how long this is going to last if the United States leaves with the Iranian regime still in power, but tremendously weakened, missing its forward capabilities, unable to support terrorism, basically on its last lags and isolated, sort of like the Cuban government is currently. Would you consider that a win? Should Americans consider that a win? Absolutely. Measure the win or loss against the objectives that the president set on March 1st, and then every leader from Secretary of War to the general chief of staff has said since then. This is about taking away all of those levers, which... the Islamic regime wanted to use as an umbrella to continue their plan for the Middle East. And that's been upset since October 7th. There's a new Middle East. No matter what I believe after this, if this operation stops tomorrow, the United States is safer, the U.S. bases in the regions are safer, Israel is safer because the goals were set, deny that nuclear program, destroy that ballistic missile shield that it's clearly wanted to use to terrorize the world and prevent it from using that threat of closing the streets of her moves from us. Absolutely, you could view it as a win. Israel and the United States are winning. I won't tell you what's going to happen, but I believe no matter what, everybody is safer to include the Iranian people. Well, that is John Spencer. He is the executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute. John really appreciate the time of the insight. Thank you, Ben.

One crunchy bite of her Hershey's cookies and cream bar, and I'm taken right back to college moving day. I was a little overwhelmed by the newness of it all. Boxes were everywhere. I needed a break from unpacking. But just as I was able to take a breath and open my Hershey's cookies and cream bar, my new roommate Rachel walked in. I offered her a piece, but she said no. Then after a beat, she said, actually, those are my favorite ones. We laughed. The ice was broken, and we've been friends ever since. Hershey's, it's your happy place. In the U.S., there's a break-in every 26 seconds. But when intruders step near, Simply Safe home security steps up. Stop. This is SimplySafe. Police are on the way. Using AI alerts, U.S.-based live agents help deter break-ins. Simply safe, no long-term contracts. Save 50% on your new system with professional monitoring at simplysafe.com slash Spotify or with promo code Spotify. Outdoor deterrence requires a SimplySafe Active Guard outdoor protection plan starting at 4999 a month. Visit simplysafe.com slash licenses for alarm license information. Tennessee 2012. All right. Well, meanwhile, the Oscars are happening this Sunday. I know. Lighter news. It's Sunday. I guess 7 p.m. is when it starts. There'll be red carpet and... insufferable celebrities wearing stupid bins and all the rest. Well, I watched all 10 Best Picture nominations, so you didn't have to. My full review of each is going to be released on my YouTube channel tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern. But for now, let's go through what we can expect at the Oscars. Okay, I'm going to pull up the Oscar odds over on Kalshi. Kalshi, of course, a sponsor of the show. All right. So, according to the Kalshi markets, 76% of people believe that one battle after another is going to win best picture. 23% believe that Sinners is going to win. Best Picture, Hamlet at 3, Marty Supreme at 2, sentimental value at 1. So it is very likely that one battle after another is going to win. I'm going to say Sinners is going to win. I think Sinners is going to win, mainly because when it comes right down to it, when it comes right down to it, so many academy voters feel better about voting. for the woken movie as opposed to the movie that really is about the evils of America and white supremacy and illegal immigration crackdowns and all of the rest. I think Sinners is going to pull this one out. I think this will be a big shock of the night is when Sinners wins Best Picture. Timothy Salome has dropped to second place in the Calhshire markets behind Michael B. Jim Jordan in centers. Michael B. Jim Jordan is fine in centers. Timothy Salome ought to be running away with this category. His performance in Marty Supreme is easily the best performance of the year. It is not particularly close. He is terrific in the film. His character is utterly unlikable, but somehow also kind of charming. Michael B. Jim Jordan is great. I think he's fine. in sinners. But Chalemay should be winning. Apparently, he was winning until he announced that film may be a dying industry. He doesn't want to see it be a dying industry, but it may be a dying industry like, say, opera and ballet. And everybody's been going nuts over that, which, I mean, listen, as a fan of both ballet and opera, those aren't exactly the big moneymakers. They're essentially driven at this point by major donors who want to see the opera continue.

And when it comes to Best Supporting Actor, unbelievably, Sean Penn is leading in the Best Supporting Actor category. This is unbelievable to me because I think that his performance in one battle after another as a white supremacist cop who has a sexual fetish for a black revolutionary, I think it's a truly bad performance. I think he's awful in that movie. I think there are some movies like Mystic River where Sean Penn is terrific. I think he's truly not good in one battle after another. Stellen Scarsguard. is in second place there. It's a weak category, to be fair. It's a weak category. Best director, Paul Thomas Anderson, running away with that category. I mean, honestly, I think that Ryan Coogler should probably win this category. Just in terms of the directorial skill and entertainment value unleashed, this is not Paul Thomas Anderson's best film by far. This is not even a top five PTA film. Ryan Coogler should be winning this one walking away, honestly. And again, I don't like any of these movies. I think that one battle after another is not a good movie. I think Sinners is half of an interesting movie. But it is beautifully directed. And so it's kind of surprising to me that Coogler is well behind in the Calciads over there. Then you have for the best actress, Jesse Buckley, with a wide lead for Hamnet. That's fine. I mean, I think that that she is the only star who is in a... a Best Picture nominated film that actually has a shot of winning and got any sort of coverage. I didn't really like Hamlet very much. With that said, Jesse Buckley is at 96% in the Calciades. Best original screenplay, apparently Sinners is way ahead, which I find insane since Sinners is basically just a rip-off from dawn to dusk, the Tarantino film, but with a bunch of racism attached. But we will see how exactly... All of this goes in the Oscars. If you want to see my full breakdown of all of these movies, again, I watched every single Oscar-nominated film this year. I watched all of them so you don't have to. My full review will be released on my YouTube channel tomorrow. So if you want to prep for the Oscars, but you don't actually want to watch so many of these movies, the way that I had to for you, the people. Head on over to YouTube. Check at my channel tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern. Already, folks, coming up, there is more show. But. The show is only available to those of you who subscribe, and this is where I answer your most burning questions. So you and I, behind the paywall, we could be best friends. You never know. If you're not a member, become a member, use Coach Josh Shapiro, check out to try two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us. Legal sent this list of everything we're not allowed to do in season two. We're going to do all of it. We've got games, more celebrity guests, and yes, the mailbag is somehow worse. If you thought season one was extra, season two, we're doubling down. We're not supposed to be doing this. Exactly. Ben After Dark season two streaming on Daily Wire Plaza.