Guess Which Country Trump Is Threatening To Bomb Next! w/ Chris Hedges

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Here's Trump uh saying he wants to uh he's going to he's going to bomb Oman now, a Gulf state. Let's listen.

[00:00:11]>> And Saudi Arabia combined. There's never been anything like that. We have we don't need oil. We don't need the straits. We don't need anything. But we have more oil now being produced by double to control it. Nobody's going to control it. It's international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we'll have to blow them up. They So I think what he means by blow them up uh you know like how we blew up Iran meaning that we're going to inflate their economy like a Macy's day parade float. I think that's what he means. Uh so here is what he's upset about. I'll show Trump threatens to blow up Oman despite centuries of US ties. According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, uh, countries can stake a claim up to 12 nautical miles for their territorial waters and the straight of Hormuz just 21 nautical miles wide. Um, so if by the way, United States not a signatory to this to this. So we can't, you know, claim to want to enforce this something we're not a signatory to. But here if you look at the map so here's Oman is right here and then so there's Iran and so if they enforce their uh 14 miles and Iran enforce so that effectively covers the whole straight right there. So that what they can do is that gives them the right to actually uh charge a toll that this isn't some kind of international waters and um the US does not have permanent bases in Oman as it does in Carter, Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia.

[00:01:45]However, the Navy has an agreement that ensures regular access to a port on Oman's southeast coast. For decades, Oman has maintained very good relations with the US and open diplomatic ties with Iran. Oman's unique position. It goes back centuries. Uh the Sultan of Oman dates back centuries and once controlled an empire stretching from the Indian Ocean to the east coast of Africa. This contrasts with the relative youth of its neighbors such as the UAE Carter which were established as independent states in 1971. Oman has the oldest diplomatic and trade ties with the United States going back to 1790.

[00:02:25]So here um so here is Trump threatening to what the longest diplomatic So what do you make of this kind of bluster?

[00:02:35]>> Well, it's just one more alienation, you know, one more stupid threat uh that alienates a traditional if not an ally, somebody we've had, you know, working diplomatic relations with for a very long time. Uh, I mean, look, Trump has just done this to about everybody.

[00:02:56]Uh, you know, starting with Greenland and didn't he say he wanted to run for >> prime minister of Israel?

[00:03:04]>> Venezuela and and Israel, too. He could be the prime minister of Israel, right?

[00:03:09]>> Yeah.

[00:03:10]>> Uh, and this is because Oman has now realized that America is this paper tiger. And so they're they're hooking up with Iran instead of us. That's what this is about.

[00:03:22]>> Yeah.

[00:03:22]>> And I I I can't believe that they all aren't doing that. I immediately I I been asking everyone who comes on the show, why don't the Gulf States uh get together and join with Russia and China?

[00:03:34]Because they're obviously the rising power and we're over with. And now Oman is doing that.

[00:03:39]>> Two reasons. One, you still have significant US military bases uh especially in places like Qatar. Uh secondly the dollar they are still hostage to the dollar. So >> uh you know and the financial system the the financial effects of this war has been quite harsh for uh many of these Gulf states. So they remain in a precarious position where they have to watch their steps. But I think in the long run, my guess is that you're right that that as they as once there's some kind of regional and financial stability there, you know, they've learned their lesson, they're going to walk away.

[00:04:26]>> It's uh I mean, every time he makes these threats, it it it's, you know, it's the it's the boy who cries wolf. No, no one I don't the world doesn't even pay attention anymore. I mean, you know, it's it's how does he not I mean, even someone like Trump has to know that this that saying something like that and unless he is suffering from uh you know the onset of dementia, which a lot of people have claimed. Um I don't know if it's just aging, but it it's just it is kind of mind-boggling to me. Does it boggle your mind or are you you you expected it? I don't think I think he's really pretty limited and clueless especially about international affairs.

[00:05:10]Remember one of the things which happened before Trump came into power is we evviscerated our diplomatic corps. So even when I was overseas embassies were dominated by the CIA the agency. The ambassadors often had no idea what they were doing and all these military attaches and this has been accelerated again under the Trump administration and the purging of within the state department. Now empires need good diplomats for two reasons. One, you have to understand how not only your adversaries but your friends, your allies think. uh and if you know and I think that there was probably enough of a residue of intelligence officials and diplomats because of the the opposition to BB's pitch to to Trump to understand that uh Iran was not going to collapse.

[00:06:00]Iran, by the way, is also the Persian civilization is also very very uh old and and rooted. And I've worked in Iran or the Iranian elite is highly educated. So um and that that essentially blinds you. Uh and I think uh so Trump is of course surrounded by sycopants. I mean his every cabinet meeting is just an embarrassment. Um uh and uh so you know people do not tell him what he needs to hear and when when they however tepidly attempt to tell him what he needs to hear he blows it off for his intuition. Uh so I I really think it's stupidity. I think uh I don't think Trump knows much. I think he knows that the war with Iran is not good for the world's financial system. I think he's figured that one out which is why he's backing away from it and why BB Netanyahu is apoplelectic about what's happening because uh if if this war is not remember US goals in Iran are not the same as Israeli goals.

[00:07:06]Israel seeks to turn Iran into a failed state to just bomb its infrastructure >> you know and destroy it the way they >> in Syria. Syria. Exactly. In Syria or the way they're doing in southern Lebanon, which is a kind of Gazaike uh reduction of everything below the Latani River in Lebanon to rubble.

[00:07:26]That's their goal. Uh America's goal is regime change. I mean, let's put in a puppet client state that will do our bidding. And you know, it kind of worked in Venezuela. Uh and that, you know, probably led Trump to think it would work in Iran, but Iran is not Venezuela.

[00:07:41]Iran's a huge country, 92 million people. It's the size of Western Europe.

[00:07:45]I mean, it's not Iraq even. Um, so, uh, I I don't think that I I think a lot of it and also how, you know, having lived overseas for two decades, when you say things like that, what do the people of Oman think? What do the people of Iran think when he says, "I'm going to obliterate your civilization or some, you know, some such." What how do you think that plays out? you know, these are these may be, you know, how does it play out with people? I mean, the Iranian regime is very repressive and >> and a lot of people don't like them. Uh, but how do you you know, I think we saw how it played out in that it actually gave the Iranian regime a kind of credibility it didn't have before the war. And you saw large numbers of Iranians, and I think it was spontaneous, surrounding their infrastructure, their bridges, everything else to protect them. uh you know so uh it's com it for for in terms of American interests and even in terms of the interests of uh you know for instance in the Iranian people themselves everything Trump does is completely counterproductive. I mean they want to they want to they want to uh install the shaw's son.

[00:08:57]I mean look uh the Savak was one of those the secret police network under the shore was which was trained by the Israelis and the CIA is was one of the most brutal in the Middle East. People have not forgotten.

[00:09:11]>> And then we also can't forget that Iranians are very aware that in the 8-year war with Iraq the United States uh backed Saddam Hussein who was dropping chemical weapons uh the use of sarin and all sorts of other gas. uh we kept giving him money and support and the French kept giving him jets uh because they wanted to defeat the Iranians. So um this is you know that gets into that call it of cultural understanding historical understanding which of course Trump is completely oblivious to uh but you know once you're dealing with other countries and that's what a good diplomat has in terms of in including of course linguistic facility the empire has and it's gotten worse under Trump but it it was already happening before Trump the empire has uh essentially you know plucked out its eyes and it's rendered itself deaf dumb come and blind. And we didn't talk about Blinken, but I mean, look, Blinken was almost as perfidious as Rubio as a Secretary of State.

[00:10:10]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:10:11]>> So, um, do you have >> They're all If you ever want to find them, Jimmy, they're all at the Kennedy School at Harvard training the new generation.

[00:10:21]>> Where's Petraeus? He's teaching. Is it at the City College? Where is he?

[00:10:25]Uh, I think Petraeus is just sitting on a bunch of boards getting rich and then, you know, going on TV and >> Okay.

[00:10:33]>> Uh, I I didn't I don't know if he's still teaching there. I think he just taught one course. I think he was just trying to clean up his image.

[00:10:39]>> Okay.

[00:10:40]>> Uh, you know, for his affair, his his affair.

[00:10:44]>> That's right.

[00:10:45]>> Remember?

[00:10:46]>> Yeah, I remember. Yeah. And he g he gave the top secret info to his uh his lover.

[00:10:50]>> Yeah.

[00:10:50]>> Everybody, come see me on tour. I'll be in Spokane, Tacoma, Los Angeles, special video panel show with special celebrities. And then we'll be in Levittown, New York, Rosemont, Illinois, and Chicago. Go to jimmyo.com for a link for tickets.