Author Wajahat Ali: Iran Deal is Israel's Worst Nightmare

[00:00:00]Hello everyone. I'm very honored to welcome into the studio Waj Ali. He's an author, columnist, and political commentator who has spent years analyzing the forces shaping American politics, media, and society as the Iran conflict continued to raise questions about America's role in the world. We're going to discuss what this moment reveals, not just about Iran, but about the United States itself. Mr. Ali, welcome to the channel.

[00:00:20]>> Cyrus, thank you so much for having me.

[00:00:22]Uh hopefully I'll become YouTube famous as a result of uh finally getting to talk to you.

[00:00:27]>> Oh, absolutely. Well, we're going to definitely promote your YouTube channel because you're doing fantastic work. I just got a chance to see your interview on Piers Morgan, which was really good.

[00:00:35]And, you know, I just want to jump right into it. Baj, I want to talk about this potential deal that we're seeing between Iran and the United States. You know, kind of give us some truth about this because I think, you know, we're looking at the right side. They're trying to claim this massive victory from Donald Trump, but it just seems like nothing is actually going well for the United States. Am I wrong on that?

[00:00:54]>> Let's just use facts. About three and a half months ago, before this illegal, unilateral, unwinable war was started jointly by the United States and Israel against Iran, the Strait of Hormuz was open. Now the Straight of Hormuz is closed. 4,000 Iranians and 4,000 Lebanese were alive. Now they are dead.

[00:01:13]And those are the numbers that we have right now. 1 million Lebanese individuals were in their home. Now they have been ethnically displaced by Israel which is occupying not just southern Lebanon but also Gaza and also Syria. As you know cuz you travel a lot the Asia-Pacific region has been completely rocked by the closure of the straight of Hermoose. So we've seen food shortages, energy shortages, helium shortages.

[00:01:37]What's happened in the as a result here in the United States of America? Gas used to be cheaper. Now as a result of this completely avoidable, unwinable war, gas here is $4.50, 50 cents, five bucks in some places in California, $6.

[00:01:50]Americans are complaining because Donald Trump promised to lower inflation.

[00:01:54]Inflation now, I'm sure you've heard, has reached about 4.3% here in America.

[00:01:58]Grocery prices, right? That's why he cost of living. Cost of living, he blamed Joe Biden. Well, grocery prices have got gone up due to another avoidable war that Donald Trump started, which was the trade war. He promised a lot of deals. Cyrus, no deals have come.

[00:02:13]So what we're looking at right now is the United States has spent and it's what the number they gave last month is a low ball number of $29 billion. It's about a billion dollars a day. So I think when all is said and done, it's probably going to be 50 to 60 billion.

[00:02:27]Just wasted in a war in which the world's greatest superpower could not force Iran to open up the straight of Hormuz. What did Donald Trump do with his tail tucked between his legs? He went to China. President Xiinping said, "Nope, we won't help you do this, but we'll make some deals with the tech bros and billionaires." And then Donald Trump kind of mocked and ridiculed the European allies and kind of forced them via social media. They said, "Nah, we're not going to join you as well." So, innocent people have died. Let's not never forget that, Cyrus. People have died. This is a war, right? I don't I never want to, you know, people always talk about cost in terms of like money, but people have died. war crimes, including the 170 school girls that the United States doubletapped with the faulty AI on the opening day of the war.

[00:03:11]And then they kept telling us, by they I mean United States and Israel. This is about regime change. We've decapitated Iran's totalitarian regime. Well, what's happened? They replaced the older dying kamune with a younger more militant Kamune. And so Iran has actually emerged younger. I Iran despite the losses it has suffered it has emerged with a little bit more swagger. Iran has emerged as a more powerful player. The Gulf allies of the United States of America this includes Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, they have been weakened. They were thinking to themselves their theirelves the entire time if we were to house US bases and US companies we'd be protected, right?

[00:03:52]Instead, they became what, Cyrus?

[00:03:54]Targets. And now they're reconsidering their alliance with the United States of America. And who has this really helped on on a geopolitical scale? China.

[00:04:03]Because what we've seen so far with the reporting is that our allies are looking at stable nation states. And they're like, you know what? We don't like China's government. We don't like China's uh authoritarian regime, but you know what? It's more reliable and more stable than the United States of America. So, it's her global standing.

[00:04:21]And I'm speaking now as an American.

[00:04:23]It's uh made us weaker. We've wasted billions of dollars. The the goal to replace the regime failed. The goal to open up the straight of Hormuz and get better deals failed. The the goal to bring down prices failed. And now let's see because as of this recording uh there's a G7 summit and we're going to see most likely it's Wednesday as of this recording in 2 days Donald Trump is going to meet with Iran and also some other Muslim majority allies in Geneva to finalize the the terms of the ceasefire. And what we're seeing here also and the last thing I'll say is a really fascinating fight happening. And this fight is kind of simmering because Israel has openly said we don't abide by this deal. Israel has openly said, "We're going to continue occupying Gaza.

[00:05:08]We're going to continue occupying Lebanon. We're going to continue occupying Syria." You've seen not just Netanyahu, but also the opposition, Nafali Ben Gans and others be just as hardline and hawkish on this issue. So, this is also an opportunity, Cyrus, and I hope Trump takes it where he says, "Okay, Israel, we're done. We've used up our money. We've used up our goodwill.

[00:05:26]We used up our munitions. I'm the first president in 47 years to do something as disastrous as join you in this failed war. You're on your own. You do what you want with uh Iran. But guess what? Iran and United States new terms, you know, will be out of each other's hair. And if he does that, if he does that, Cyrus, Israel, max maybe two weeks, 3 weeks.

[00:05:49]That's how long they'll last because they need the United States of America's help cuz Iran will retaliate. And I don't think Israel has the appetite for this multifront war. I hope I was able to give you a good cliff notes there.

[00:06:01]No, you did a fantastic recap. That's why I want you on the show cuz you just speak so elegantly and just right to the point. Uh but my my worry with this uh Maj is is Israel because I mean I I'm almost certain that this plan is going to get derailed because am I not right?

[00:06:15]Do I not understand this right? That basically the Iranians have said that if Israel continues to occupy Lebanon that that's going to be, you know, a red flag for them. That's basically that the deal's off. And so, I mean, we just know Netanyahu is going to double down. And also, do you think that Donald Trump could actually stand up against the Israeli lobby considering that they have been so helpful for him in actually getting into that presidency?

[00:06:36]>> Yeah. So, let's look at the terms of the deal, right? What we know because we haven't actually seen the text. What was gained? I mean, it goes back to your first question. I mean, it makes it so much more painful, Cyrus, right? Cuz I want to actually, if I can, there's there's a data point that most people don't talk about. You go back about three and a half months, the day of the war, the day the United States and Israel jointly announced that they were engaging in that decapitation strike that killed Ayat and Donald Trump said regime change and he told the people of Iran to rise up. None of that happened.

[00:07:04]The Omani foreign minister flew all the way to DC, begged to meet uh JD Vance and Donald Trump and told JD Vance, the vice president, please, please, please tell Donald Trump not to start this war.

[00:07:16]In fact, through diplomacy, Iran has gone further and agreed to more than what uh Obama got them to agree with with the JCPOA, the US Iran deal, which Donald Trump blew up, which means they like which that and that deal now everyone's saying was a diplomatic coup and a success. I always thought it was a diplomatic coup. Even war hawks were opposed uh against that deal with Iran.

[00:07:36]How could you? You can't trust Iran.

[00:07:38]We're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. That that was good. Donald Trump, please don't blow it up. Who blows it up? Donald Trump in his first administration. He gets dogwalked by Netanyao, right? So the Omani uh foreign minister said Iran has actually agreed through diplomacy and mediation to go further than the JCPOA which was seen as a huge success.

[00:07:55]Had Donald Trump Cyrus simply walked out and said I've done more than Obama.

[00:08:01]They've agreed to more. Even me a huge critic of Donald Trump would be forced Cyrus to go on Pierce Morgan and say this is a diplomatic diplomatic uh feather in the cap of Donald Trump. He's actually correct. He has stumbled onto something that is that is even better than the JCPOA. What does he do instead?

[00:08:17]Cyrus, he's the only president, and this is for your global audience. There's a reason why no other president in 47 years, Republican or Democrat, has done this because they war game this. They knew it'd be a disaster. Even George W.

[00:08:28]Bush, who did the disastrous war on terror, right, Iraq and Afghanistan, and also the drone strikes in Somalia and Pakistan, Yemen, even he's like, "Nah, no, no, we won't go into uh Iran." And if you recall, Netanyahu even then came to the United States of America and made the pitch celebrating the war on terror and said, "Go get Iran. Go get Iran."

[00:08:47]But even George W. Bush and the neocon warhawks said, "Nah, nah, that's a bridge too far." So Donald Trump, according to the good reporting that we have, everyone around him, even Rubio, JD Vance, and others did not buy Netanyahu's sales pitch. This would be easy. Don't worry, we'll get rid of it.

[00:09:03]They'll love you. They'll celebrate you.

[00:09:04]Right? But Donald Trump, I always use the word dogwalked, was dogwalked by Netanyahu. All the reporting shows that uh you know, at the end of the day, he's his own man. And he made the disastrous decision. And he was on a high at that time because the high was, oh, look what we did in Venezuela. People kind of are forgetting what happened in Venezuela.

[00:09:22]This illegal regime change, kidnapping Maduro, it's all illegal. And he's like, look how easy that was. No one stopped me. And according to the reporting that we have, he thought, oh, this will be easy peasy. I'll be on a roll. And if you remember Cyrus, he then talked about Cuba, right? The next day he goes, "Cuba's next." So he literally thought this would be easy peasy and that the people would rise up and there would be regime change and we'd probably give him garland of flowers. But again, even in the United States, they had war game this, which is why no other president had done it. So for Israel, for Netanyahu in particular, Netanyahu is a belleaguered leader right now. He's a man who needs forever war. Why? Because much like Donald Trump, he also has massive corruption charges. A forever war will keep the eyes on this war on a foreign enemy. It won't keep the eyes on him. You you remember Israeli public was protesting against him. He is very disliked. So the war ends and he will have to answer for his many sins and also for the sins of how could you allow October 7th to happen. Most likely he would resign and or go to jail. So elections are coming up in Israel, right? So everyone in Israel right now, Israel has become a hardline society.

[00:10:27]I'm sure you've gone. Have you ever gone there? Yeah, I I've gone. Oh, you've never gone? They've never had >> I would you know I've gone three times and when I went about 10 years ago I'm like wow this is the society is going right and even then 10 years ago I was like wow it's gone really rightwing it's gone so so far to the right and I I just want people to sit with this that Netanyahu's governing coalition is comprised of individuals who are essentially criminals it's like as someone has said in America an Israeli journalist told me this imagine if a leader of the KKK was in the government that's bengavir the national security minister and just to give Give you a taste, folks. The national security minister, I mean, he's not like a fringe character. The the national security minister, Immar Beng, just two weeks ago re-shared that controversial video of Israel berating and humiliating Europeans who went there with the flotilla. He reshared it. Furthermore, he celebrated the Israeli Knesset of passing a law, an apartheid law that will hang Palestinian prisoners. He popped champagne. He wore a golden noose for his 50th birthday party. This was just last month. His wife gives them a birthday cake with the golden noose on the cake. Another individual, Bizallo Smootrich, the uh the finance minister.

[00:11:36]Again, these are part and parcel of Netanyahu's government. These aren't French characters. Two weeks ago, he came to United States of America where he marched in the Israel Day parade. Um next to our officials, which goes goes back to the the flex that uh the question he asked about Israel trying to flex with his partners. Visal Smootz has openly said and described himself as a proud Jewish fascist and a proud homophobe. These are the characters that make up Israel. Just to give you an example of where Israel is right now, genocidal ethnosremacist. It's not just my words. That's Amnesty International, United Nations. And I'm pretty sure Cyrus, you're going around the world.

[00:12:10]You're seeing that the world sees Israel much differently than the way the Republican party does. Yeah. And so now speaking about why the Republican party sees Israel much differently. And to answer your second question, Israel has already said they're going to blow up this deal. They're going to do everything they can to try to blow up this deal. They're not a party of this deal. They don't abide by this deal.

[00:12:27]Hezbollah Hezbollah Hezbollah they're even during the alle ceasefire they were already bombing. They're still occupying. Uh it's not in their interest, their long-term expansionist interest to actually have this deal. For Netanyahu, he needs complete regime change in Iran. It seems like he's not going to get it. So now we're at loggerheads between United States and Israel. And if you've seen in the G7, it's really interesting. Uh Donald Trump, you know, is using a little bit more harsh language against Netanyahu.

[00:12:53]He saw it on Sunday.

[00:12:55]>> Yeah.

[00:12:55]>> In the in the morning he he did the post were like come on now you know we can't blow it up and then and then he heard reports that uh which were leaked that Donald Trump picked up the phone was very like you know stern against Nya.

[00:13:07]And then what happened a few hours after Donald Trump and then later Iran talk about this deal which was essentially him saying to Israel I don't care what you say I'm going to move forward. Then at G7, you've seen him openly kind of praise the deal, praise the Iranian leadership for being rational and openly say, you know, Israel needs United States of America. Now, the same day that Donald Trump says Israel needs the United States of America, Mike Huckabe, who is the United States ambassador to Israel, says the complete opposite and said, "Without Israel, there'd be no United States of America." And for your audience, the question would be, why is the United States ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabe, chosen by Donald Trump, essentially praising Israel, a foreign country, and saying that is without Israel, there would be no United States of America. It's because, to your point, Mike Huckabe represents Netanyahu's base. And his base in America is not Jews. His base are, wait for it, Christian Zionists. The largest Zionist group in America is Christians United for Israel. These are a bunch of white evangelical Christians who also make up a large part the most loyal part of Trump's space. About 75% of white evangelical Christians have been with Trump no matter what. No matter what scandal, you know, he's a rapist, convicted criminal, a violent insurrection, they're they're with Trump. But the reason why they love Israel, and this is really important, they don't really care for Jews that much, but they love Israel because they believe that Jesus needs to uh they believe that Jews need to control Jerusalem as a necessary precondition for the return of Jesus. So for them, like Israel and Jews is just like a a tool, a chess, a pawn. So that's why Mike Huckabe is more pro-Israel than like most Jews in America. And then you're seeing him kind of criticize this. You've seen Lindsey Graham, a neocon warhawk, kind of criticize this.

[00:14:49]You've seen the, if you will, the Israel first Republicans lose their minds, like just going apoplelectic. And you're seeing the cosplay crusaders go apoplelectic. So now you have a loggerheads with the Christian Zionists, the evangelical Christians, the apef funded uh candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, the neocon wars, and Donald Trump. It's Wednesday. Let's see what happens by Friday. Pardon me for going doing a deep dive. No, no, I love the deep dives. I mean, that's why we want to have these conversations. This is what our guests love because, you know, we get down to the facts and just the real raw truth and that's what I I really love about your journalism and just everything that you're doing. And I guess, you know, you know, you painted such a clear picture here. You know, I I just I find it very hard now to really look at the Republican party and kind of when you talked about, you know, these evangelical Christians and just the the the Christian Zionists, you know, I I grew up in Central Florida in a very conservative uh community. U I know this very well and it's amazing because you know when I would would go back home you know I remember you know going to church or to other you know people that were very very hardcore Donald Trump they just said you know we need to have a person that's led by God you know it has to have the Holy Spirit inside of him.

[00:15:57]I'm so glad that I'm that I voted for Trump and I'm like I'm sorry what where where was that where did you go with that? Like that that's the furthest thing that Donald Trump represents. And so I know exactly what you're talking about though is that this extremist, you know, belief that no matter what, you know, they're always going to vote Republican. They're going to always stand with their president and, you know, no matter what scandal he's involved in, they're always going to support it. And that's I think is a really dangerous thing for America because if you if you know, I mean, even if you know, if you believe in God in the Bible, it says that you know, beware of these false prophets that are, you know, like like wolves, you know, that are, you know, that look kind, but they're going to devour you at the end.

[00:16:32]And I think that's unfortunately what's happening in the United States right now. But my next question, well, his spiritual adviser, you know, his spiritual adviser, Paula White, literally said, "If you uh disobey Trump, it's like disobeying God."

[00:16:44]>> Yeah. She's just a fanatic. I mean, she's just crazy. And >> did you see Did you see the literally now that you're quoting the Bible, you know, the first commandment? I went to All Boys Jesuit Catholic High School.

[00:16:55]The first commandment is thou th that will worship no other gods aside from me. And you and you cannot engage in idolatry. And you saw that massive golden statue that was unveiled at a Trump property. And who were the people unveiling it? He got pastors and rabbis.

[00:17:10]>> Yeah. I just I just find it really hard to to witness that, you know, going on in the United States. But it just shows, you know, this decline that has happened so much, you know, under Donald Trump and and certainly with this this big loss that we're now looking at. Uh my next question here you know for you AJ is you know we we always heard that the United States you know we have the most powerful military in the world undisputed you know it's we're the biggest we're the best uh but with this defeat in Iran has America's ability to lead globally uh weakened is it now weakened I I I think so now of course uh people who are fans of Donald Trump will respond with look at the you know look at Donald Trump at the G7 and look at the fact that these European leaders praise him and look at how they're differential and um just today there was a joint statement with Trump and world leaders praising Trump's quote strong leadership in securing a quote breakthrough with uh Iran right and they also said that the preliminary deal between the United States and Iran provided a quote historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapons so you might see that and spin it and say ah of course United States of America is still the top dog and in a strange way it still might be due to its vast best nuclear arsenal and our military-industrial complex and the fact that you know we spend an obscene amount of money on weapons uh but we can't find money for women infant and children or the CDC. But I digress. However, America's weakened. How can it not be weakened? Because the United States of America like you mentioned the world's biggest super military power has just suffered in obscenely huge devastating loss. This is loss after loss after los.

[00:18:47]There are no wins here for the United States of America. We've already recaped it. Just let's do a quick recap.

[00:18:51]Straight of Hormuz was open, now closed, thousands of people dead, billions of dollars wasted. The United States with all its military might could not and still cannot get Iran to open up the Straight of Hormuz went to China, went to our allies, they didn't get involved.

[00:19:04]So if you are a foreign country, you sit there and say, "Oh, wow. The invincibility of the United States of America, the alleged inevitability of United States of America. Oh, wait a second. They don't look that invincible anymore. Iran was able to beat them.

[00:19:19]Iran wargamed it. Iran suffered casualties, but Iran actually came out the winner. And then you see the American public, this is the first time in my lifetime, Cyrus, you know, I'm 45 years old. Anytime United States has bombed brown people or Muslims, unfortunately, the American public initially has been rah rah rah. From the get-go, the American public was against this war. And with each month, more and more Americans have opposed it to the tune of now 75 to 80%. So, you have disscent here at home. You've seen Americans actually respond to Iranian propaganda using Lego and hip hop. I've never thought that. And you see young people say, "All right, you know, I don't like the Iranian regime, but I'm empathetic to them because we United States of America and Israel, the ones that attacked them, right?" So to see even any any empathy or sympathy towards Iran and and sympathy towards the United States of America within America would have been unheard of. That's what's happening. And then abroad, people are saying, well, wow, America is really really uh gosh, it's it's it has suffered uh and has weakened. And look at this degradation in the past year and a half. And you you you just take the losses, right? Donald Trump said he was going to help the economy, hurt the economy. His trade war has alienated allies for no reason whatsoever. He's imposed these tariffs. At the end of the day, who ate most of the tariffs? As predicted, Americans, right? Our allies are then creating new economic partnerships. You've seen Canada and others trying to reach out to China and Europe. Also, the belligerance. It's not just uh Iran, but look what he's done to Venezuela. The threats against Cuba, the threats against Mexico, the threats against Canada openly saying 51st state, 51st state, and Canada's literally the Liberals won as a result of the United States's belligerance. It literally resuscitated the Liberals and gave the victory to Carney. And now you see Carney flexing, right? And then let's not forget he's also very serious about Greenland. And so Denmark did not take that as a joke. Denmark literally as we know from reporting prepared it prepared that you know what United States is actually quite serious about this and we might have to defend it. Not to mention him you know continuously mocking and ridiculing uh the European uh the EU and also NATO. So what what the world has seen is an unreliable, untrustworthy, unpredictable United States of America that has unleashed a trade war against its allies that has joined Israel and dis disastrous war with Iran which has had terrible consequences as you know this better than anyone especially in the Asia-Pacific region. And with all its military might, it still couldn't win. And the reporting has shown that our allies, especially in the past three months, are as I said before, looking to new leadership. Who are they looking to?

[00:21:52]Who are the other two quoteunquote superpowers? China and even Russia. So, they're moving to the east and away from America. Tell me how this is a win for uh the United States.

[00:22:02]>> Oh, definitely. And that's something that we cover a lot on this channel. I used to live in China for 10 years and so I I study a lot of this and focus of the channel is a lot on China and and we've made a lot of videos on that. You know, why Canada is shifting, why the United Kingdom, you know, is shifting over to China. And like you mentioned earlier, it's that stability, right? You know, you can you maybe have comments or thoughts on China's government, but there's one thing you can definitely argue is that when it comes to stability, you know, China really focuses on that and that's what a lot of these partners want because right when you talk about tariffs and and trade wars, it's like, yeah, we don't need that. You know, we we need to have, you know, and if you know China, they all they want to do is do business, right?

[00:22:37]It's all about the business and it's, you know, let's do I I'll give you A for B. Let's make a deal and, you know, we'll keep it simple. Let's try to make money.

[00:22:45]>> You know, and also think about if you're if you're a foreign country, right? Like you said, China with the authoritarian regime, they're like, "This this regime will probably be around for 1015 years."

[00:22:53]All right? So, we could do business with them and the terms of conditions won't arbitrarily change. Now, think about if you're a foreign country. You saw what happened with US and Iran where Trump comes in after Obama just blows up the US Iran deal and they're like, "Wait a second. That was dipl diplomacy. Iran trusted them. Iran didn't in any way, shape, or form." And look, I'm very critical of the Iranian regime, but in this case, that that diplomatic deal was working. and then Donald Trump unilaterally just decides to blow it up.

[00:23:18]So if you're if you're just watching as another country like I can't trust this country because in four years maybe a Democrat will win and then they'll re-engage and then Donald Trump will win and he'll blow it up and then Israel will tell him to do something and he'll do that thing. Oh wow, that is not worth it. Okay, who is more stable? And to your point, all right, China. They want to do a deal. That regime will probably stay in power for 15 20 years. I don't have to worry about the, you know, this country unilaterally blowing this up with a new leader who's completely reckless and irrational. China, let's do business.

[00:23:47]>> Yeah, absolutely. Well, you brought up a really interesting point though that is that, you know, when we look at wars, typically they unite people. You know, that's that's, you know, that's certainly, you know, what you mentioned in Israel that, you know, people are united and, you know, they've got a distraction for Netanyahu because he's facing these corruption charges. But, you know, from the get-go, we've seen the majority of Americans have opposed this war. It's never been close to to to uh even a 50%. I mean, it's always the minority that has been supporting this.

[00:24:13]Uh but does this conflict reveal something deeper about the state of this country, the United States, uh than it does about Iran itself? Are we kind of looking at this huge problem internally, you know, amongst our own society?

[00:24:25]>> Yeah. So, for your global audience, Donald Trump promised his base three major promises and he's betrayed them on all three promises. Number one, I alone know how to fix the economy. I'm going to bring down the cost of living as the rest of the world, including America, was reeling from a once in a-lifetime pandemic. Right? And people were impatient. And Joe Biden said, "Listen, listen. The economy is doing better.

[00:24:46]We're doing much better than other countries. You have to be patient." But people are like, "I know what's in my wallet and I don't believe you." All right, let's be reckless again and let's roll the dice for Donald Trump. And and and what we have to know is it's not that people love Trump. I mean, yes, he has his core base, but a lot of folks who went for him, the independents, young voters, Latinos, they just wanted a change. They literally just wanted anyone who would help their life, right?

[00:25:09]They're sick and tired of the establishment. So, they went with Trump uh 11 years ago. He failed. They went with Biden. They were still unhappy.

[00:25:17]Biden, you know, tried to guide us through the pandemic, but people are like, "I'm still not getting better. I'm still not getting enough. All right, let's give another chance to to Trump.

[00:25:25]Oh god, huge mistake." Right? What has happened? He's increased the cost of living, right? Literally because of this war like I was saying a gas was like around 3 320 330 now gas is $5 a gallon and the Trump administration has said that even if this trade of hormuz opens the consequences are going to last till 2027 price of groceries have gone up eggs bread because of his trade war because we're the ones eating the tariffs. So failure number one he betrayed his promise to lower the cost of living. In fact inflation has gone up cost of living has increased. Number two he promised he would release the Epstein files. the Epstein files were to be the Rosetta Stone that would prove the QAnon conspiracy that everyone who opposed him is part of this deep state being used by and this is where the anti-semitic conspiracies come, Jews and the liberals and foreign countries, right? Uh to infiltrate America and we're all part of an international cabal of sex traffickers. Well, what happened? Who is the person mentioned most Cyrus in the Epstein files? Donald Trump. Who are other people in the Epstein files?

[00:26:21]People in his administration, very powerful people internationally. So instead of releasing the Epstein files, what you're now witnessing is the largest political cover up in modern history. And a majority of Americans, around 75 to 80% are upset at him and disapprove of his handling, I would say, cover up of the Epstein files. All right, so that's broken promise number two. Now, what's a third broken promise?

[00:26:41]He promised no new wars. America first, no new wars. I'm not a wararmonger.

[00:26:47]We're going to bring American troops back home. What did he do? He literally betrayed his base. And it's wars every month. you know, u war with Venezuela.

[00:26:56]You don't want to call it a war. Okay.

[00:26:57]Uh we've killed what over 120 quoteunquote fisher uh drug traffickers, which are actually fishermen. They've never released the evidence. Uh kidnapped Maduro, did a regime change, threatened Canada, threatened Greenland, and then the actual war, this failed US Iran war, which has again led to higher cost of living, right? Absolute failure.

[00:27:17]So, three major broken promises. And this is I think important for your audience to understand the global audience. This is why you're seeing for the first time in 10 years, you know, the the cult is still with him, but the cult is shrinking. Let me repeat it. The MAGA cult is shrinking. You're seeing for the first time historic low approval rate with Latinos, historic low approval rate with independents. The young people who voted for him, a historic turnaround. He's negative 65 points.

[00:27:43]That was their first election. And then within a year, like, all right, this guy's a fraud. Even some Trump voters, some white Trump voters, some um non-oled educated uh white Trump voters and white men are actually leaving MAGA.

[00:27:56]That alone is disastrous for MAGA. He has the lowest approval rating in modern history. He's in the mid to low30s. And and this is still only a year and a half into his presidency. And and so this explains why so many people are against this war and why so many Republicans now and you're seeing even when the in the MAGA influencer space. He's broken ties with Tucker Carlson. He's broken ties with Megan Kelly who was against him.

[00:28:20]He's broken ties with Candace Owens.

[00:28:22]He's broken ties with Thomas Massie.

[00:28:24]He's gone against Nancy Mace. And these are many individuals who've called for the wait for it release of the Epstein files. Anyone who called for the release of the Epstein files who's a Republican, he's targeted. Um, and when it came to Thomas Massie real quick, Thomas Massie and Roana, Thomas Massie is a Republican, Roana is a Democrat. They were the ones who had this bipartisan union and said, "Let's get the release of the Epstein files." Donald Trump going back to Israel. And Apex spent a record amount of money just to get rid of Thomas Massie. $35 million, the most amount of money ever in a House primary race. Thomas Massie lost, but the majority of young Republicans supported Thomas Massie. and a majority of young Republicans are against this war and want a reset with Israel. So this the all the cracks are now going to show Cyrus in the next week or two. Very well said and it really gives us a good snapshot of where we are, you know, as a society here in the United States. W I feel like we could talk for hours here, but I I do want to just keep our our interview tight here for YouTube, but I do want to follow up with just one kind of interesting question here. You know, what would a successful American foreign policy towards Iran actually look like?

[00:29:32]let's say five years from now, you know, if we're gonna go in the future kind of seeing like where where can we honestly go with Iran knowing that, you know, the regime change hasn't hasn't uh you worked, you know, we're gonna have to try to find a way to work with this, you know, current regime. What's that look like? You know, the the Iranian regime is oppressive. The Iranian regime was killing its own citizens, its own protesters before the war. The Iranian regime was unpopular. Unfortunately, because of the war, now it has what?

[00:29:57]Unified many of the people against a common threat, which is United States and Israel. The best way, and we already saw it with the JCPOA, was through diplomacy. They tried everything else.

[00:30:06]The sanctions made Iran more militant.

[00:30:09]It made Iran more isolated. It very much hurt Iran. So, you bring Iran to the table. You lure them with sanction relief. You say, "All right, we're going to release some of these assets, right?

[00:30:17]We'll we'll include you in conversation.

[00:30:20]We want to ensure that you're not on the road towards building a nuclear bomb. Uh we want to have some transparency when it comes to your uh uh uranium enrichment in exchange. Uh, here's sanction relief. In exchange, you open up also the Straight of Hormuz. Does this sound familiar? Oh, yeah. It was a US Iran deal, the JCPOA, which is essentially what we're going to go back to. But it's going to be even worse than that because Donald Trump, even though he said he's not going to do it, is going to most likely give up billions of dollars, much more than Obama did, right? But you now have to contend with the reality that this is a younger, more dynamic, in a way more powerful Iran that is going to emerge uh with this uh leadership this you know regime 2.0 I know which is going to flex its muscles and with this regime you try to engage with it diplomatically and then you try to keep helping the Iranian people and you keep supporting democratic efforts and the best goal right now realistically is that the people themselves slowly but surely hopefully quickly but surely rise up and show their discontent through protests through demands for reform and as we saw through in Hungary you know Victor Orban was inevitable until he wasn't. It took about two years and then Peter Majar who was a disaffected conservative. He's not a liberal by any stretch of the imagination. The corruption and the oppression became so much that Majar led the youth used social media and voila within two years built a coalition that not only took on Orban and the Fides party but defeated them and and a record amount of people came out since 1989 and said enough to Orban and Orban was seen by Steve Bannon as uh Trump before Trump. He was the model. So everything that is seen as inevitable we've seen in history Cyrus it it's it's nonsense right so unfortunately that's where we are right now you have to contend with a younger more dynamic in a way more powerful Iran despite the losses it has suffered you engage them through diplomacy war has failed you have to give the sanctions relief in exchange you ask for oversight and transparency you make sure it doesn't uh get uh its way towards a nuclear weapon I think you have to cut your ties with Israel will Democrats and it's both it's bipartisan will democratic and republic Republican leadership do that they they should.

[00:32:31]It's a slam dunk for uh you've seen it even in Democratic party. People are winning because they're saying we're not going to take money from Apac. You say Israel, you're on your own. We've wasted enough munitions. We've wasted enough goodwill. You want to fight, you fight.

[00:32:44]We're not you're not going to do with with uh with our money and munitions.

[00:32:48]You turn off the tap. Israel needs us to continue its occupation of Palestinians and to do this war. And that way you also reign in Israel. And then uh instead of I don't know engaging in coups and replacing democratic leaders with dictators, maybe the United States can actually invest in democracy uh freedom of expression, growth, and economy instead of bombs. Yeah, that's so well said. It's been an absolute pleasure. Everybody, we are going to drop all the links to his social media.

[00:33:15]He's got a fantastic ex channel, great substack called the left hook. We're going to drop links to that as well as his own YouTube channel. So we're going to put all those links down on there.

[00:33:23]Wash, thank you so much for your time today. It's been an absolute pleasure to connect and let's stay in touch. I'd love to have you back on the show at a future time. Yeah, it was a lot of fun, man.