He is a fellow at the AEI and he's a Fox News contributor. You also see him at the Big Weekend Show a lot. Mark, welcome back. Your thoughts, number one, about A possible DHS shutdown. I mean, and so because of that, they will stop the Code El going to the Munich Security Conference.
Maybe the Senate holds people here all over an appropriations bill that was already agreed upon. Why can't Democrats take the win? They've already got a lot of concessions. Yeah, I don't understand it. And it's also really dumb strategy.
So what they did, what was their leverage over Donald Trump? Their leverage was that they were going to shut down the government and that that would shave a couple of points off of GDP growth or the economy, which would hurt him in the midterm elections. And so if they had shut down the entire government, that would be a problem for Donald Trump. But then they let all the other appropriations bills go through except for DHS funding, which means that that leverage is gone. And also, they're not even taking ICE hostage, which is their problem, because ICE funding has been funded through 2029 as part of the One Big Beautiful bill.
So what are they taking hostage? They're taking hostage FEMA in the midst of all these storms that we've been having. They're taking hostage TSA, the security screening in our airport. They're taking hostage funding for the Coast Guard. I mean, what leverage do they have?
I don't understand it. It's actually, you know, the the first shutdown I thought was pretty stupid, but it cut Trump believes that it hurt him because it cut some GDP growth. But now they're not going to affect GDP. They're just going to affect services that people care about and not affect the service that they're trying to stop. But you know what they're saying.
We have to show our base. We can fight. We'll push back against Trump and the Gestapo, better known as ICE, from destroying and capturing children and ripping women from their cars by their hair.
So to do that and for Schumer to hold his job, he has to get things like judicial warrants to go after illegal immigrant criminals. Are you crazy? Get rid of the masks and put names on uniforms. Why?
So you could just allow the would-be Antifa ITES to go out to their homes and houses? This is the same party that made you wear a mask or else you were anti-American? Yeah, this is what they what the Democrats don't seem to understand is that they they they think that because people turn got upset about the about the shootings in Minnesota that therefore they are now backing them on the whole panoply of issues related to ICE and deportation. And that's not true. If you look at the polling, six in ten Americans on almost every poll still believe we should deport illegal migrants, and nine in ten want to deport everyone with a criminal record.
So what they didn't like was the execution. They thought that all the polls show that people thought Trump was being too tough.
So he's now taken steps to scale back some of the what people would consider excesses. He's put body cams on ICE agents and customs and border patrol agents.
So he's addressing the operational issues that people have. But the Democrats are, you know, the Americans still back him and gave him a mandate to do what he's trying to do. didn't like the way he was doing it. But if he fixes the operational issues, Americans' supermajorities are with him on deporting every criminal alien in this country who has a who has been charged with a or convicted of a crime. I want to pivot.
Listen, it's very frustrating. It makes us look terrible on the world stage because they did get the appropriations bills done. Democrats were citing how good the process went. They evidently, you know, I didn't look at the details of what each committee emerged with, but evidently, Democrats go, yeah, I thought they were very fair. And I'm thinking to myself, wow.
That's going to be an underreported great story until the shooting of the second shooting in Minneapolis. And by the way, speaking of that, Tom Holman talking now yesterday, last week, he pulled out 700 ISIS and Border Patrol officials. I think he's pulling another hundreds more out and talking about how many arrests they've made and clarifying their policy. And I think Tom Holman's been a godsend for here and hopefully in future situations when it comes to the crackdown and what I should be doing. He's much more suited for this, don't you think?
Oh, I belie Tom Holman is great. And Tom Holman is, you know, what he's doing is he's going out and focusing on starting with the criminal elements. And so people, look, if you look at the poll in the New York Times poll in January of last year as Trump was taking office, New York Times, so this is not like some MAGA poll or Republican pollster. Nine in ten Americans want to deport everyone with a criminal record. Almost seven in 10 want to deport everyone who came in during Biden's four years in office.
And a 56% majority want to deport everyone who's here illegally. The exception is the DACA kids, kids who came here illegally when they were young, right? And that's Trump's mandate. And so what Tom Holman has done is looks like, okay, let's start with the consensus issue. Let's focus on the people with criminal records, which 9 in 10 Americans, how do the Democrats get on the wrong side of a 90-10 issue?
You know, it's insane. And Tom is right to focus on those people first. Let's get all the criminal elements. And by the way, why do you think the murder rate has gone down in the country? Maybe it's because we've deported the, you know, hundreds of thousands of gang members who were killing people in the cities.
You know, so Tom is an outstanding, both an outstanding operational head of this operation, and he's also the right face for the operation. Overall, murders are down in this country 19%. Robberies are down 20%. Aggravated assaults, 10%. 40 large American cities found homicides down 21%, so even more.
Also, a major shift in these cities in a 30% decrease in Chicago in homicides and Baltimore, Memphis down 25%, in Orlando, 50%.
So this is a great story that people, this is a quality of life story, but I'm going to go back to what you said. Yes, your stats are right. And anecdotally, I think they're right too, just by people I talk to. But in a way, Republicans have given back this issue. And Democrats are overplaying their hand now, but by going out, not communicating, I believe, and possibly not understanding the mandate.
I think they've ham-handed a few situations in Minneapolis and Chicago. Where I think they could have back. I know the mayors and governors made everything horrendous. But they Tom Holman wouldn't have let it get this bad is what Is what I think. 100%.
I think the mistake was not having Tom Homan in charge of this whole operation from the beginning, both public-facing and otherwise. But look, you can fix execution if Americans are back you on the underlying issue. The Americans backed Trump on the objective. They didn't like the way he was doing it, because no one wants to see an American killed. Even if it ends up being that it wasn't the officer's fault, it's just a tragic situation.
And people don't like it. And so they but as Trump fixes those issues and gets back to doing the what nine in ten Americans want him to do, then he's going to regain public support. This is Ainsley Earhart. Thank you for joining me for the 52-episode podcast series, The Life of Jesus. A listening experience that will provide hope, comfort, and understanding of the greatest story ever told.
Listen and follow now at FoxnewsPodcasts.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. Mark Teeson, our guest, Mark, tap into your foreign policy language. The president's got a big decision to make on Iran. He's got a, I guess, in another week they're going to meet again on their nuclear program. And we know that Netanyahu is here talking specifically about joining the peace council that he put together, Border Peace.
But he's also, I'm sure, talking tactics and strategy when it comes to hitting Iran. Should it come to that? Ari Fleischer on the risks, cut 18. This is exactly why the decisions presidents make are consequential and difficult. If this turns out to be if we use our military, just like when we did against Salamani, the previous Iranian military leader, or the snatching of Maduro, or the use of V-2s to take out the nuclear facilities.
This can be very successful for the President and for peace in the region. If, on the other hand, American pilots get shot down, we don't accomplish the mission, the Ayatollah stays in place, we're bombing for weeks. Then it's exactly what President Trump warned he would not do.
So it comes down to success. Can we carry out the mission militarily successfully, or will it become another quagmire for America? Very difficult call for the President. Pick it up from there, Mark. Yeah, so I think Ari is wrong that this is not what Donald Trump promised to do.
Donald Trump has never been an isolationist. Donald Trump has never said that he would not use military force. He said when he campaigned in 2016, what was his critique? We never win. We're always losing.
Our leaders are idiots. It's not that we shouldn't lead on the world stage. It's not that we shouldn't use military force. It's that we have to do it well.
So he has to do it well. And the America, look, MAGA voters. Back him to the hilt on this. The 61% in Morning Consult poll support a military strike on Iran of mega voters. And the problem is, is that the President of the United States went out and said to the Iranian regime: if you kill thousands of people, I'm coming after you.
He said to the Iranian people: rise up and take your institutions. Help is on the way. If he doesn't deliver, on that. Then it absolutely destroys all the credibility that he has rebuilt by taking down the Iranian nuclear program, by hitting the Houthis, by hitting the Nigerian terrorists, by taking down Maduro. It decimates his credibility on the world stage.
And it's exactly what Barack Obama did in Syria when he drew a red line and said, if you use chemical weapons on your people, that'll take military action. And instead, he didn't take military action and negotiated a chemical weapons disarmament deal with them. And they violated it. And that's what would happen here. If he negotiates a nuclear deal, as soon as the Armada is gone and Trump has left office, they'll cheat.
And not only that, he'll have to lift sanctions as part of the deal, which means he would financially reward the Iranian regime. For Killing thousands of people, carrying out some of the worst massacres we have seen in the 21st century, and give them a lifeline to rebuild and reconstitute their regime when they're at their weakest point since 1979.
So, a nuclear deal is a terrible idea, and I think Trump really doesn't have a choice but to follow through on his actions. I agree, and we have a pretty good source that says they've seen the battle, the attack plan, and it's somebody who I know is very hard to please was very impressed.
So, and the one thing Ari's right about is that this may be different than all the other operations because we may take some casualties, and some civilians may be killed, and they may hit some of our bases. And so, the president has to prepare the American people for this, and he needs to do something which he's not used to. He doesn't do very much, but he does it well when he does it. He needs to deliver when he decides to do this, he needs to deliver an address to the American people explaining why he's doing it, what the stakes are, and asking them for their support backing the U.S. military in this action and preparing them for the possibility that some American lives may be lost and some Israeli lives may be lost because he needs to explain why this is worth doing, why it's essential.
And, Mark, I hope that he calls on you to help write that speech when it happens. And lastly, the J.D. Vance was on the ground yesterday. Yeah, right. J.D.
Vance was on the ground yesterday in Azerbaijan, and he was asked about that. He says it's up to the Iranian people to decide on their government. We just want to make sure they don't have nuclear weapons. Is that on? message That is not on message.
You know, it's not simply that the Iranian regime can't have nuclear weapons. The president said that they can't massacre their people, and also they can't have ballistic weapons, they can't support terrorism. It's a comprehensive transformation of what the Iranian regime is going to do. And look, here's the thing also where I disagree with Ari. Let's say he launches this attack and the regime isn't toppled.
Well, the Maduro, the regime in Venezuela isn't toppled, but we own them. Because We killed their top leader. We we took out we didn't kill them. We we killed some of their top leaders, but we took their top leader and we told the the the the remnants, do what we tell you or we'll kill you too. Trump can do the same thing in Iran.
I hear you.
So it's the definition of success. It does not have to be the regime falls within days. Whew, Mark Thiessen. I mean, this has been an enemy since 1979. I mean, I remember being in 11th grade reading about Iran, you know, and this has been the problem.
So this is more Americans than any terrorist regime on earth. And they're trying to kill more. John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Brian Hook, and Trump.
So, how much more evidence do you need? Mark Thiessen, thanks so much. I appreciate it. Take care.
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