War with Iran? “90% Chance” of Military Action in Weeks

From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead. Hi, everyone.

So glad you're here. We're moving through in the Thursday edition big hour. Josh Crash Howell brings us inside politics, inside D.C. We'll be coming from DC next week, State of the Union Tuesday. We'll do the aftermath on Wednesday.

So, Josh is going to be with us now talking about the president's big message today, and that is he's in Georgia. Marjorie Taylor Greene decided she doesn't want to be in Congress anymore, doesn't like Trump anymore.

So, she resigned. They're going to have a special election. He's going to talk to a few businesses, and he's going to give a speech. He's going to be laser-focused on the economy, but there's a lot of other things on his mind, including the Board of Peace today, first ever meeting with his. There's 40 members, 20 are supposed to be in attendance, a lot at stake.

I'll go over it, so let's get to the big three. Number three. And watch the State of the Union. We're going to be talking about the economy. We inherited a mess.

And now we have prices way down, we have energy way down, gasoline is now breaking $2 a gallon, and it's been actually amazing. In some states, but in red states, in blue states, the taxes are folded into Folded into gas and the price remains high. That is a little deceptive amongst those state governors. All about the economy. For Trump, he takes his act on the road.

We'll see, and I want to know what you want to hear from him. Number two. Since social media has come about, the rates of anxiety, depression, and self-harm are through the roof.

So yes, it is the job of Zuckerberg and others who create these apps to make sure that there are guardrails. Yes, that is true.

Social media on trial. We look at Zuckerberg on the stand and what it means for your kids. Question is, the worst offender is really TikTok and they settled out of court. Number one. President Trump has laid out what a deal looks like, what our expectations would be to take this to a diplomatic solution.

And then the ball is in the Iranian court to answer what is pretty clear from his perspective. NATO Ambassador Matt Whitaker, it's going to happen sooner or later. War in Iran. I know some roll their eyes, but what I think they should, what they think they should be doing is high-fiving despite the risks. Our greatest ally, Israel, will be by our side.

There's no better friend. There's no better fighting force to have as a partner. Yeah, it's kind of weird not having Europe there, but we've basically knocked them out of the Ukraine-Russia talks too because they've been. Uh I I guess Invisible. They really don't have a role.

I mean, just like me, I'm firmly in Ukraine's camp. But what Trump has done by giving Russia A seat at the table is give a shot at least at ending this war. even though not much progress has been made, the good news is for the Ukrainians, as much damage and heat they've been taking and they're not getting much heat because their energy sector has been on target, the Russians are also basically going through a draft. They're out of people, dragging in candidates from Africa, North Korea, They're out of people, and now for the first time, they're losing more than they can replace, and let alone some of the damage that they've been done. They're having trouble keeping the lid on this and also stopping communication.

They're trying to get rid of Telegram because it gives people an outside perspective on what's really happening with that war. But let's fast forward over to Iran, an ally of Russia, an ally of China, who gets a lot of their oil discounted, even though it's sanctioned oil. We look the other way. We're now blowing up a lot of those ghost ships, so they're not allowed to do that. But they have actually pushed us to the edge.

We really have no choice. We got the firepower there, Gerald R. Ford, the aircraft carrier will be in place within a week. And I just don't see a way in which it's in our interest to look the other way. Here's the ambassador to NATO: cut one.

We're going to have two carrier strike groups and a lot of assets in the region. But that is a place from strength. And again, that's leverage. President Trump wrote a whole book on the art of the deal. And one of the things he talks about is gaining leverage in a negotiation.

And certainly American firepower, which is unmatched across the globe, is great leverage. But we will expect that President Trump has laid out what a deal looks like, what our expectations would be to take this to a diplomatic solution. And the ball is in the Iranian court to answer what is pretty clear from his perspective. Is a buildup. for a sustained attack.

Because they do have assets, they do have ballistic missiles, we have to destroy them, we have to destroy the rebuilding of their nuclear program, what's left of it. And then we got to take out their military leaders and then leave it to the Iranians.

Now you could the risk is, of course, you play into there could be chaos in that country. There's different ethnic groups with different goals. But one thing is clear. That government and their oppressive, belligerent Ways around the globe and the way they treat their people, shooting them in their hospital beds, killing them in cold blood, running over them in cars for protesting. They've had it.

They have no water. They have a currency that's virtually worthless. And they've had it with the way they're forced to live their lives and the way the women are treated specifically. They know better. They're well educated.

Meanwhile, according to Axios, according to one closed source close to Donald Trump, The boss is getting fed up.

Some people around him warn him against going to war with Iran, but I think there's a 90% chance we see kinetic action in the next few weeks. The source had also noticed it would like, this is Axios, it will likely be a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign and more existential for the regime than the Israelis' 12-day war last June, which the U.S. eventually. Eventually joined to take out Iran's nuclear program. They're not going to be allowed to use, I guess, we wouldn't have no way of knowing if they changed their mind.

Saudi Arabia, UAE's airspace, we're going to be based out of Jordan and from the seas. We got bases in Iraq. We have bases in Qatar. I think we're going to be fine. I did not know this, but.

In two thousand three, we had five aircraft carriers there, but you got in the last twenty four hours fifty fighter jets, five F thirty five's, F twenty two s, F sixteen s they're heading to the region. The standover with Iran has gone so long that many Americans are likely numb to it. They're waiting for us to maybe pull back. I don't think it's going to happen. The Israeli Government says this.

They're pushing for a maximal scenario, targeting the regime's change as well as Iran's nuclear and missile programs. And here's what's significant: play that into the Board of Peace meeting today. You've got about 20 nations, and they're trying to rebuild Gaza. And Hamas in phase two is supposed to disarm. They're not doing it.

Well guess who arms them? Guess who pays them? Ninety percent of their money comes from Iran. Guess who pays them? Guess who arms them?

The Houthis. Iran. Guess who pays them? Guess who uh supplies Hezbollah with arms? It is Iran.

Syria stopped. It's Iran.

So, if you want Lebanon to be left to the Lebanese, if you want the Palestinians to be to get Gaza and not Hamas. You would want This I had told the regime to no longer be in power. Here's Carol Ann Levitt, Cut Four. I think you heard from the Administration and the State Department yesterday that there was a little bit of progress made, but we're still very far apart on some issues. I believe the Iranians are expected to come back to us with some more detail in the next couple of weeks, and so the President will continue to watch how this plays out.

Yeah, I think talks are ridiculous. I mean, they're a total waste of time. And the great Ayatollah, I'll just paraphrase. He says we're not we're always going to have a nuclear program.

Okay. What are we even talking about? But as usual, the problem with the President There's not only people that think it may be on the right that say we don't want any foreign wars, they don't understand we have foreign enemies. Number two is Democrats. Even though they know Iran and Venezuela are two enemies of the state for the last Four administrations.

When the President takes action, like in Venezuela, he's about to bring Cuba to its knees, that's been an enemy to our state since the 1960s. It's Donald Trump, so we got to be against it. You senator Mark Warner cut five. Our ability to really put pressure on the regime, and the regime is awful, is really going to be undercut by the fact that our Europeans who have diplomatic relations with Iran, I'm not sure they're going to be fully there because of their uncertainty about the president's overall foreign policy approach. You know, the idea that he is going to launch a war with just Israel at our side.

Is not in the best interest of the United States at this point. What do you know? Does he even believe that? I mean, would you would you want to do you want to get France, you want to get England in there? They could do it.

They could help out. We don't really need them. We're not looking to stay on the ground. were looking to take out their assets, diminish the threat. because they are a legitimate threat to all our assets in the region.

Now I think this is going to be hard to not have any casualties. It's going to be really hard because we have bases in Iraq, bases in J Jordan, bases in Qatar. Here's Dan Hoffman, cut ten. Yeah, I think we've made it clear that we have the military assets in the region to strike Iran if necessary. And the key thing is that we're messaging Iran very bluntly that if Iran doesn't come to the negotiating table in good faith to negotiate, then we are prepared to launch kinetic strikes.

I think that's the purpose of all of this public discussion. And if the Iranians are wondering whether President Trump will follow through, they can just rewind the tape and look back to the strike against IRGC Commander Soleimani or the strikes against Iran's nuclear program, their facilities back in June of 2025. There you go. I mean, the President doesn't like doing this because when Iran when the war where the action's over, if you destroy all their refineries and oil wells, that's how they're going to stand themselves up again. But if you do want to do some damage to them, where the sanctions have already done significant damage, You take out their ability.

To drill To refine Oil. They have no other industry. What other industry do they have? They don't have it. Um Real quick on social media, there's a big trial today, and people are saying, Why does it matter?

It matters a lot. Because, can you, as a social media platform, be able to addict kids and keep them involved in your product, whether it's Instagram, whether it's Snapchat, not so much anymore, Facebook, anything? Are you allowed to do that? TikTok realized they were financially susceptible because with their algorithms, it's designed to keep you addicted, keep you doom scrolling. Same thing with Instagram, and they found internal memos that show we have to up the amount of time people are using our device by 12%.

They have memos going back and forth. One executive says, I'm getting concerned that younger people are using our product.

Now, to the point where 12 separate states, countries, have banned social media for people under 18 years or under 16 years old, beginning in Australia. It's being enjoined by India. I think we're not far from there. We have Florida and other states doing the same thing. But at the same time, there's a whole generation that were caught up in addictive behavior, negative behavior.

Some people, some kids killed themselves. Question is. Is Mark Zuckerberg? Responsible. You know, is the Former head of Twitter, whose name eludes me right now, is he responsible?

And that's what these lawsuits are about. He is Matthew Bergman. Uh he's one of the parents of a teen. That took their life, cut seventeen. Four years ago, Tammy Rodriguez brought the first case involving a child who lost their life through defective social media platforms.

Today marked the culmination of this effort, a time when no one said that these cases could even see the light of day. They did. More from him in a moment. We're going to take a time out and leave some air at the other side to continue to talk about social media and we'll continue to follow the story. The border peace is meeting for the first time.

President of the United States, a pledge of $8 billion already to rebuild Gaza. That's good. We have news about an international force that's supposed to allow the Israelis to pull out of Gaza. Are they ready to take over if Hamas is not disarmed? I don't think so, but at least we're getting the numbers together.

We'll discuss it all in the Brian Kilmead show. Don't move. Politics, current events, and news that affects you. Brian's got a lot more to say. Stay with Brian Kilmead.

This is Ainslie 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. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it.

You're with Brian Kilmead. Thank God for this president. I am filled. My cup runneth over. Because he allowed his constituents, his people to come to my house to interview me, to talk about the murder of my grandson.

It seemed like nobody cared. I'm an advocate for murder. I marched, I rallied, I pulled out other families in the District of Columbia that had murders and did not have answers. Yeah. We marched and we rally and nobody heard me Democrats get mad at me Until this Republican.

Seeing his constituents, his people out there. To interview me in my home, have you ever heard of a thing?

So that is one of the big events for Black History Month. The President of the United States looked really moved. And, you know, one thing, too, I know the rest of the networks were waiting for the president to say something about Jesse Jackson was negative. No, he liked him. They got along great.

Whatever you think of Jesse Jackson, love him, not. Trump liked him. And I think he got an award from the Rainbow Coalition, which is the group he ran. And on top of that, he'd give a nice tribute to him, put things on public because, as you know, he passed away a couple of days ago. And that was for Leisha Cook.

The grandmother, after her grandson was killed, he wants to crack down on crime in every place. And when you know when crime dropped 50% across the country and no one reports it, and even if these governors in cities just say, oh, well, we've got to take credit for it, but they know illegal immigration has a lot to do with it. And then with these murders going up in horrible places like Memphis and like New Orleans, and they aren't horrible places, great potential, but crime-ridden, he sent in teams: the FBI, ICE. The National Guard in some cases, and they worked. Where it didn't work was as effective as Los Angeles and Chicago because these people play politics and they care about sanctuary cities and they push back.

But at the You know, I was just watching reading the story yesterday in the New York Times how Trump basically lost the black vote after he got it most since I think Lincoln, maybe Eisenhower. And he started growing in that area. And they say, well, everyone's disappointed. Not in that room last night. I mean You saw Dr.

Ben Corson there. Yeah, you saw Uh a lot of familiar faces. And they were happy the President's here. Here's some of the speakers that got up there. Scott Turner.

Alice Johnson. Henrietta Branford, small business owner, followed by Felicia again.

So here it is, Cup 47. And to be able to stand on the shoulders of Dr. Ben Carson and for the President to trust Dr. Carson at his word. It's truly humbling for me.

Don't let anyone tell you that this president. Right here, Donald Trump is not for black America. No text on tips has been an amazing blessing for me. President Trump has been an amazing blessing for me. I don't want to hear nothing you got to say about that racist.

This stuff and don't be looking at me on the news, hating on me because I'm standing up for somebody. Get off the man's back, let him do his job. That is so funny. And the president looked really moved by the support. He really did.

But of course, Democrats, and by the way, there was this other story. Oh, well, the president says everyone calls him a racist. They go, Well, when have we ever called you a racist? Here's an example: Cut 48. How many times can the President say or do something racist?

And elected Republicans continued to insist that he is not racist. He has repeatedly made bigoted and racist attacks on Somali immigrants. Donald Trump. And his vile, racist, and malignant behavior. A couple of things.

First off, the mid one, Dick Durbin.

Somalis could be. Any culture. What we're saying is in Somalia, the Somali community, 74 of 82 from Somalia, millions of dollars left this country, billions is missing, and many of it's in Somalia. It might even be to a terrorist group. That's not bigoted.

That's cold reporting, you idiot, Senator Dick Durbin. And number three, Hakeem Jeffries, I think, was responding to the president's, I think, you know, carelessly putting forward that meme that had a negative connotation with Barack and Michelle Obama. That's bad. But The meme was about all the people that he believes meddled with the election and heard his chance of re-election in 2020 and heard it from 2016 to 2020. But they had everyone depicted in different various animals, and the president didn't see it all the way through.

Tim Scott said, take it down. He understood it. They took it down. But these got to all these guys say, and to the point where we're almost numb to it. When we come back inside politics, what the president's message is going to be today as he starts his he says relatively consistent appearances, trumpeting the economy, as well as.

We're admitting that we're probably going to be hitting a Middle Eastern nation that's been a nemesis, and a rival to us, and a terrorist to us for the last 47 years. More on that. Brian Kill Me Channel. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show.

I hope makes you think. Hi, Brian. Welcome back. Donald Trump is opening up the first ever Board of Peace meeting. This was his brandchild, his idea.

And he's got about 40 members. He's got invitations out to Japan, out to South Korea. They have not come back to him and said we're in or out yet, but they want, I guess, to wait and see. I think those two will eventually join. It looks like Europe has decided to skip it because they feel as though this could be a rival.

Could be a rival. Two. UN. But guess who's at this meeting? Ambassador the UN Ambassador Michael Wals.

I saw him sitting there next to Carol Ann Levitt. Also there is Marco Rubio, Jared Kushner, Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the UK. I think he's going to be in charge essentially of the rebuilding of Gaza, which is something he's always had a passion for. Um so Yes, invitations out to China and Russia. That ticked off Europe.

They said you shouldn't invite China and Russia. I agree. The President says, but they're a major power. How could they not play a role? And basically, they need money, and these guys have money.

Let's bring in Josh Crash Hour. Josh, kind of a historic moment, board of piece. It's going to be around for at least three more years. If a Democrat wins, they'll probably say how bad it is. But they have a mission.

And their first mission is rebuilding Gaza, right? Yeah, that is the goal. That is why you have all these heads of state and foreign ministers here in Washington this morning.

Now, it is an odd juxtaposition in that we're having the meeting about Gaza and other projects perhaps on the agenda, but we're also hearing the sterns of war. And as U.S. military assets build up in the Middle East, and there's increased talk that Trump may well pull the trigger in a military operation against the Iranian regime.

So you have the Board of Peace meeting, but you also have the sterns of war in the same region dealing with one of the worst actors on the international stage. And Trump seems to be increasingly eager and willing to take military action when peace and diplomacy doesn't pan out. Which it never pans out with Iran, as you know. But, Josh, I don't have to connect the dots. The group that will not disarm, even though phase two says it would disarm, and told their allies in Qatar they would disarm.

Others is Hamas. But who finances and who supplies arms to Hamas? Iran. Yeah, the connection. The remarkable story, frankly, we've talked about this a lot, Brian, over the last.

Two years, is that since October 7th? Israel, with the help of the United States, has systematically taken away all the threatening tentacles from terrorist groups, from rogue regimes against Israel and the peace-loving countries in the Middle East, whether it was Hezbollah, the war against Hamas, also the 12-day war and striking Iran's nuclear facilities. All the threats that Israel was facing a couple years ago have been deteriorated and degraded. Iran is still around. It's much, much weakened from where it was a few years ago.

I think this is a strategic moment. Iran's defenses are very much weakened. They still are as threatening as ever. The Ayatollah doesn't want to even negotiate to get rid of its nuclear program and to rid itself of these ballistic missiles that threat a lot of the countries in the region. And then murdering thousands of their own civilians.

I mean, just disgusting when you see what's going on internally in Iran.

So, you know, Trump made. That red line said that the buck stops here after seeing those horrible images of slaughter in the streets of Tehran and other parts of the country. And I think we are at the verge of a possible military action, U.S. military action against Iran. I mean, I thought that Gerald R.

Ford was already in place, but it's not. It'll take another few days. And once that gets in place, we would have what we need for a sustained attack.

Now, the president wants to focus on the economy. He says that's what the American people want him to do. And some I was watching some of the reports last night. Even Republicans say he's too focused on world affairs. Venezuela has been a problem for 20 years.

Cuba is The Secretary of State was meeting with Cuban officials or had some meeting. I mean, there might be an exit strategy on Cuba. That's been a problem to America since the 1960s. The president recognized and seems to have solved the problem with Panama and giving China control of the canal. He seems to have fixed that too.

As well as you have Argentina, now Bolivia, you have an ally in El Salvador, and now in Venezuela seems to be getting on the right track. Can you fall to president? For attacking problems? I mean, literally attacking the problem since 1979? I was going to say, on Iran, it was a president's weakness back then, Jimmy Carter's weakness, and not not backing the shah and and being kind of Mealy mouthed about our foreign policy towards Iran that allowed the Ayatollah to take over, take American hostages, to create the crises that we've seen over decades since then.

If Trump Successfully took out the regime, and I think that's a big if. And we don't fully know how extended and what the specific mission would be if we engage in military activity against Iran. But if that was on his resume, that would be a world-leading accomplishment. That would be something that a lot of presidents were afraid to even touch. And if that was on the Trump ledger as an accomplishment, it would be a huge one to rid the regime, rid the country of a tyrannical regime, and also rid the region of a destabilizing force for many, many decades.

As we work our way back to politics, we have Roe Conner and Tom Massey who are going to come together to basically offer legislation to stop the president from attacking Iran without congressional permission. We have Mark Warner acting concerned as well.

So, your thoughts about politically, how does it do in Congress?

Well, look, I mean there's the horse well what I call the horseshoe theory where you have the far left and the far right kind of uh aligning themselves with each other. And and I don't think that there is going to be a whole lot of support. Uh even though there I think there is a lot of reticence. I mean, the the Fox poll asked about That just came out and asked about sort of the support for military engagement against Iran, and there was a lot of skepticism. And I think one thing the Trump administration would be well served to do is, like in many past administrations, speak to the country, give an address to the American people, explaining the stakes, explaining the mission.

I think it's kind of remarkable that we are perhaps on the verge of a major military operation that isn't just going to be a one or two day operation. Given the military assets that are building up in the region, there's certainly the possibility this could be a full-on war for an extended amount of time. And I think the one thing that the administration could be doing better is explaining the stakes and explaining the mission. I think we've seen in the past when a president and his team goes to the public and makes the argument, public opinion does shift pretty quickly. But there's been sort of a weird vacuum in that there had, you know, a lot of A lot of this military activity has been taking place over the last few weeks, but it just hasn't gotten the tension, I think, that a lot of people in the region have seen.

I know. It's the biggest buildup since 2003, I believe.

So, your column is about APAC, and you know, that's that powerful Jewish group in America. And their super PAC went after Tom Melanowski over in New Jersey and was successful. But what we got in return was a socialist. Uh to as a nominee uh for the Democrats.

So your thoughts about AIPAC and maybe hitting the wrong target or maybe knowing when not to take action?

Well, yeah, I mean, this is a story of how far to the left the Democratic Party has gotten to the point where, you know, they spent money against former Congressman Tom Malinowski, who, well, you know, I think was critical of Israel, was not the most anti-Israel candidate in that Democratic field. And they had hopes that a more moderate candidate that reflected the district would be the beneficiary of the attacks against Malinowski. As it turned out, there was a socialist running in that field, Mahia, who ended up, because she had that hardcore socialist base. And this is, by the way, Brian, this is a district that's in Morris County. It's right outside New York City, one of the richest districts in the country.

It used to be a Republican district. It's a moderate district, even now. But because of that hardcore kind of Mamdani base, 30% of the Democratic Party voted for the socialists. And I think APAC was a little bit blindsided that they expect that these districts and the Democratic Party is still the same Democratic Party, that still has a majority of kind of left-of-center, moderate type of voters, especially in a district like that. It turns out that.

The socialist wing, the resistance wing, if you will, is everywhere. It's not just in New York City. It's not just in the deep blue areas. It's in the suburbs. It's in swing states across the country.

So, I mean, this is what we're seeing. The Democratic Party, and we've been talking about this a lot, but the party, the energy in the party has gone far to the left. They're nominating candidates that are well out of the mainstream in a lot of these districts. But, you know, it may not matter. And that's, I mean, there's going to be a special election.

The district is somewhat competitive, so a Republican who was a pretty good candidate actually has a chance to win, but it's still a Democratic district. And Democrats may well elect a socialist. They don't even care who they're electing as long as they don't have an R by their name. They're basically willing to bring in people who normally wouldn't pass the smell test just a few years ago.

So we're looking at a few things. We watched some presidential candidates go over to Munich a few days ago and come back. Governor Whitmore got exposed, really looked out of her depth. And AOC is probably, there's a good thought. I believe she'll never fully recover from.

What you look total ignorance, whether didn't know where the equator was, where horses came from, and also was not familiar, also looked at right-wing governments or conservative governments as the enemy, whether it's Malay over in Argentina, or I guess they don't like Victor Orban. He's got some dictator qualities, but for the most part, democratically elected.

So she looked at that as the main problem, not a main problem with China and Taiwan.

So she had an opportunity there to point out that the president's holding up aid to Taiwan, and she wouldn't do it. But instead, she was unable to answer that question. What would you do? She made the trip to Munich because she was trying to burnish her foreign policy credentials. This wasn't like everyone is going.

This was like a chance for her to show that she was a serious player in foreign policy conversations. And she flunked the first tas badly. I mean, I don't know where to start. Number one, she couldn't give any coherent answer on what we would do as the United States would do if China attacked Taiwan. That's a fundamental basic foreign policy 101 question that she just totally bombed on the international stage.

Number two, her answers on other questions were just word-salad. You couldn't make heads or tails of what she was trying to say. Even her intended message to help democracies, to oppose right-wing movements in other parts of the world, it was very incoherent. I couldn't even make heads or tails of what her essential argument would be. And that was something she had time to practice and work on in the run-up to the trip.

Number three, the one thing she did say clearly is her opposition to Israel and calling Israel's war against Hamas a genocide in an international audience in Germany, by the way, in Munich. Munich, where the center where the Nazis first rose in the 1920s. I mean, to talk about a flub and an embarrassment, I mean, Jewish Democrats were aghast at her comments and an inability to even speak diplomatically in front of that international stage.

So, I mean, those are the three big, big, big blunders. But I think, you know, you talk to Europeans, and I heard from some sources that were just in private conversations with her, were not impressed and were kind of not even paying attention after a certain point because she just didn't have the credibility and the knowledge to talk about these serious issues. One of the cockiest politicians for no reason. He's done a terrible job, in my view, in eight years as governor, lieutenant governor, other years, and then he was San Francisco's mayor, is Gavin Newsom. And he goes over there like he's in domestic politics, just saying, Cole and the president doubling down on stupid on climate change, and then said this about ICE agents in Germany.

But I want to remember all those images of masked men, the secret police, something. familiar in Germany. Those first images came out of my state. The second largest city in the United States of America. We saw 4,000 National Guard federalized, first time.

We've never seen anything like this. And 700 active duty Marines sent not overseas, but to the second largest city in the United States of America, militarizing the streets of my city. Masked men, masked men showing up, unaccountable, no idea, IDs. What is he I mean he's saying this to Germans? ICE agents, mass secret police, Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit quaint now, but the notion that politics stops at the water's edge.

I mean, and to be fair, Republicans and Democrats both have not abided by that rule in recent years. But it used to be that when you travel abroad, you represent your country. You speak, you know, even though you have your partisan disagreements, policy disagreements, you keep them aside when you're speaking to an international audience. That's clearly no longer the case. And actually, these issues are taking an international divide or an international component to them.

Look, I knew some. I think, you know, did better than AOC, but the notion that climate change is the top issue at a time of great global instability, I think is maybe the Europeans still feel that way, but that's certainly not the view of the United States and probably is something that could get you in political trouble back here if you run for president. And look, I think, you know, the other governors who were there, Gretchen Wimber was actually on the same panel as AOC. She's more moderate, but she got flummoxed on a question about basic question about Ukraine, which I found shocking. Like about Democrats have been very strongly supportive of taking on Russia and spending military means.

And she actually asked AOC for help on the question because he couldn't answer it. I was stunned.

So, I mean, Newsom, I thought, you know, could you grade on a curve, did adequate. But the other presidential candidates who were there just totally bombed. And I don't know why. If you're going to Munich to talk about foreign policy, you better know a little something about foreign policy. And I think that's going to be a big vulnerability for the party.

I mean, Josh, you just got to put your work in. For example, Congress. Harrisman Waltz had the same job. He just would take every Codell. He would have burnished relationships with congressmen and people around the world.

He's got great knowledge to the point where he's UN Ambassador and National Security Advisor, Lindsey Graham, Congressman, Senator. He would go, every time there was a break, he'd go travel to other capitals, get to know the people, find out what the issues are from them, let alone the studying you do on the side.

Now, I know you can't do everything. Remember, famously, Senator John McCain wasn't a great economy guy. But he wouldn't have gone to an economic forum and said, I have no idea what these numbers mean. You know, so it's just like there was Al Gore was not incompetent. I just disagreed with his foreign policy.

John Kerry was not incompetent. He was experienced. I just didn't like the JCPOA and a lot of his policies.

So I could disagree policy-wise. But to not know is inexcusable. That's my final thought on that.

Well, yeah, and the reality is Democrats have a very thin bench when it comes to foreign policy. And even in these big think tank sessions of leading Democratic figures, foreign policy is not on the agenda. They don't think, like, they look at the polls and they don't think foreign policy registers to their voters. Problem is that to pass the commander-in-chief test, if you're running for president, you have to have that stature to speak authoritatively about international affairs. That is actually a test that every candidate has to at least pass.

And I've been stunned that Democrats, the only thing that they feel comfortable with these days is attacking Israel. That's the one political partisan bit of red meat they give to their base, and they can't speak authoritatively, even on issues that you would think would be in their wheelhouse, like defending Ukraine and NATO and so on.

So it is striking. It's a very thin bench of people like John Kerry, like Hillary Clinton, who had that international experience.

Now they have other political issues, but that was not an issue for those policies. There's no one like that in this emerging field, except maybe Ramaney. The Jazz Crash Hour. Thanks so much. Back in a moment.

Both sides, all opinions. It's Brian Gilmead. Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Joe. Disney has a program called The View, and they've been asserting the position that The View is what's known as bona fide news in the statute.

If you're bona fide news, you don't have to give candidates equal airtime. But Disney and The View have not established that that program is in fact bona fide news. We've started an enforcement proceeding, taking a look at that. And again, we're going to hold broadcasters accountable. The days that these legacy media broadcasters get to decide what we can say, what we can think, who we can vote for are over.

And I think President Trump played a key role in just smashing the facade that they still get to decide the narrative. That's Brendan Carr talking about the FCC and saying what a joke it was that CBS blamed them and Colbert blamed the FCC for coming down on his interview with Tel Credo, the guy running for the Senate, the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat in Texas. He had nothing to do with it. And then you know you had Crockett on three months prior. They could have put this guy on, but instead, I can't figure out.

CBS management said we didn't say one word to Colbert about not airing. And Colbert says, you lie. You know that you okayed this interview and then you took it back. And then we find out the FCC is getting to blame by both sides, and Donald Trump, of course, say, what are you talking about? But when it comes to the view, I don't think they're in the news division.

I think they're in the entertainment division. I don't think ABC News is doing the deal anymore. When Barbara Walters was there, it was part of the news, not anymore. From High Atop, Fox. News headquarters in New York City.

Always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead.

So glad you're there. It's the Brian Kilmead show coming your direction. Bottom of the hour, we're going to be greeted by General Phil Breedlove. He's a retired four-star general of the United States Air Force, served as a commander of U.S. European Command, as well as the 17th Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.

As NATO, better than ever or more challenged than ever, depending on where you're going to, who you're going to be talking to, that's going to be the conclusion because they are more formidable. They are being forced to bulk up their militaries, but some of them are a little angry at us about the whole Greenland situation. Let's see what happens from that. Also, Prince Andrew, stunning news. Prince Andrew, who got his title revoked because of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and underage girls, it turns out he's in jail right now.

And this is stunning, especially to the people of Britain, because trading, get this. Uh giving trade secrets to Jeffrey Epstein.

So it's not so much that we understand it as of now, what he did with teenage girls. but is what he did for selling out his country. Stormer is hanging by a thread because of Jeffrey Epstein. This chief of staff recommended the ambassador. The ambassador linked with Jeffrey Epstein.

So the chief of staff resigns. The ambassador is gone, Mendelsohn. And now Stormer is hanging by a thread. And now a member of the royal family symbolically means a lot to the British people. They are reeling.

So before we get to your calls and other things, let's get to the big three. Number three. And watch the state of the union. We're going to be talking about the economy. We inherited a mess.

And now we have prices way down. We have energy way down. Gasoline is now breaking $2 a gallon, and it's been actually amazing. All about the economy, as Donald Trump takes to the road this afternoon to Georgia, five days from the State of the Union, as he mentioned. And now there's a special election there to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene.

What do you want to hear? Number two, since social media has come about, the rates of anxiety, depression, and self-harm are through the roof.

So yes, it is the job of Zuckerberg and others who create these apps to make sure that there are guardrails. Yeah, no doubt about it. And that was one of the moms who lost their daughter about, and the social media trial is on, is taking place right now in Los Angeles. Mark Zuckerberg yesterday was on the stand. What did he accomplish?

Is he saving Meta? Is he explaining it effectively? Is this bad parenting? Or is social media too tempting? Nothing will be the same after this trial is done.

Number one. President Trump has laid out what a deal looks like, what our expectations would be to take this to a diplomatic solution. And then the ball is in the Iranian court to answer what is pretty clear from his perspective. Right, Matt Whitaker, the ambassador to NATO, it's going to happen sooner or later. War in Iran.

I know some roll their eyes, but why I think. They should be high-fiving despite the risk. Our guests, our greatest ally, Israel, will be our side. They're not only our best friend in the area, they're no better fighting force. I mean, maybe pound for pound or period after us.

And then you got the great fighting force over in Ukraine. And then, of course, there are talks right now in Ukraine where Russia is running out of people. They might have a draft at this point, but at the same time, they're not legitimately taking, in my view, taking part in the peace process. And they should. And I think the President's just trying to hit both sides, but I wish he would lay off Ukraine because they've done everything necessary, in my view.

So, a couple of things with the president and the economy, what's going to be his message? I'd come out and say, you know, they've got more good news on the economy today.

Now, it's probably the fourth story in the Wall Street Journal. when it comes to housing.

So if you look at the economy, you saw the GDP is up. You saw it's going to be even more in June, projected, barring any unforeseen circumstances. Like you see jobs more than up, and then you see inflation down. You see core inflation down to a 10-year low.

Now we have housing starts up 6.2%. They also have You also have They call it the housing starts are up three point nine percent in November, and we have six point two percent over in December.

So now we're starting to see housing get unstuck. Listen to in Virginia, an interesting story is They're about to build all these houses, and in come these major corporations who are building the data centers. And because you need the data centers for AI and all the power, the more data centers you bring in, the more power you need.

So you got to get power for the data centers, and hopefully that is they go hand in hand. The president might do an executive order that says if you build a data center, you got to bring some power with you. And the money flows into the state coffers. That's great, but it's knocking off. Construction companies who want to start building track housing, maybe affordable housing, maybe mansions.

But you can't do it. You can't outbid Boeing if they want to move. By the way, Boeing moving out of Virginia into St. Louis.

So that's pretty good news for that for that uh for St. Louis, of course, that can use the industry.

So the President is going to be speaking, going to a local business in Rome, Georgia. He's going to be participating in a podcast interview, and then he participates in a local factory tour, and then at about four o'clock, he's going to be right before Will Kane show, he'll be delivering remarks on the economy. What I would do with the President, I'd say, here's where I'm happy. Here's what's got to get better, and here's what I can control, and this is what's going to take another six months, and here is why. The whole thing, the president prides himself on being transparent, but if you say everything's great across the board, And I heard it in a mess is right.

But everything great across the board is not. It never is in the history of our country. But here's what I'm doing to get it there.

Now we hear that Japan is ready now that the deal is done to put something like five hundred billion into our energy sector. Where is it going exactly? Show me the tell me the city, tell me the place. That's what I would do. And if they had emergency meetings this week, how to talk about affordability and what they're doing.

I'd love to know what Democrats are going to do besides raising taxes. Do you know any plan? They still are into their green economy, which is never going to be affordable. And because the innovation is not there, And you want to do it in your state, go do it, but it's not going to be good nationally.

So if you're going to continue to push for that, you're going to push for that.

So on the economy, the President's got a message. I think he's going to be up every ten days, maybe even more. You're going to see him talking about the economy. But if you want to make progress, You don't want to just tell the people that already are going to be voting for you or the candidates what they want to hear. I think you got to say, here's what bothers me: coffee is way too high.

Here's what bothers me. Things like bananas are way too high. Here's what bothers me when it comes to construction costs and steel. I worked on something with bringing steel companies back, but unfortunately, we're still buying too much from Canada. Whatever it is.

That's the type of thing. I think people can appreciate. And I hope that the President doesn't mind saying some things aren't where they want them to be right now. Just like he comes out and says, I thought it would be easier to fix the Ukraine-Russia war. I thought that uh Putin wanted to stop.

The guy doesn't want to stop.

So here is Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Cut Thirty four.

So we are all in on energy and we want to partner with our friends all across Europe on some individual specific deals, but ultimately on building the infrastructure so we can move energy more cheaply. Like I would love nothing more than to see the price of electricity in Western Europe come down. I would love to see Germany and the United Kingdom and Belgium reindustrialize. These were awesome, proud industrial nations, because it makes the economy stronger, it makes the defense industry stronger, it makes stronger partners with us in the U.S. Here's J.D.

Vance on what he told Martha that he wants people to understand, and maybe this will get into the president's speech. I hope so, cut 33. Here's the fundamental issue in the midterms. And I think we're going to make this argument to the American people, and the American people are obviously going to be the ones who make this decision. Is look, if you go back to the Biden administration, the average American lost about $3,000 in take-home pay during the four years that Democrats were in charge.

In the first year of the Trump administration, they've gained, average Americans have gained about $1,200.

Now, there's kind of a good news, bad news dynamic there. If you're looking at it from the perspective of the last year, Americans have done better. If you're looking at it from the perspective of the Biden administration, we're still digging out of the hole the Democrats put us in. And that's what you should say. Tell me the policies that you miss.

They were once in place. If you're talking about electric car subsidies, that's not happening.

Some states are going to do it. Colorado is going to do that. California is going to do that. But I don't know. What do you miss?

Do you miss the open border? Do you miss the higher gas prices? You know the only reason gas prices came down, he did something insidious, I think terrible. He actually drained the oil reserve. Are you kidding me?

That was for in case of a war or a 1972 oil shock. It's not because you don't want to drill. And then he cut a deal with the devil, Maduro, in order to get their oil. Do you miss that? Are those the good old days?

I don't see it. We come back. I'm going to talk a little bit about Iran, the President's speech in the Board of Peace today, and I'm going to take your calls. We'll begin with you, Jerry, and Georgia, one eight six six four o eight seven six six six six six six six nine. You'll listen to Brian Kilmeet Show.

From breaking news to big name guests, Brian brings you insight you won't hear anywhere else. You're listening to the Brian Kill Meat Show. Mm. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead.

Pretty clear, Brett, they realize that the economy is just going to decide the election, and that all the things the president has done on foreign policy and other areas have to take a back seat, and that people are not going to vote on that basis, and that the economy is the thing. And the president tells us a lot all the time about how well he's doing on the economy, but the polling suggests that people aren't feeling it. And as long as that's the case, you've got to come up with something to change their mind. What the Republicans really need, yeah, they need a unified message and all that. But what they really need is some better results.

They need some growth in the economy, some further wage growth. Inflation needs to stay muted and so on. That could save the day, but there's not a lot of time now. We're into this election year, and the people are not happy. Yes, they're not happy as they could be.

The other thing is, I don't think it has a lot to do with marketing and sales. If the media is constantly going to say things aren't affordable and give Democrats 70% of the coverage, you've got to find a way to overcome that, and that's through social media, which Republicans are better at. Jerry in Georgia. Hey, Jerry. Hey hey Brian, how's it going?

What's on your mind? Man, I'm just I'm a slat fed trucker. The uh business is good. The economy is getting better. But I also understand why everybody is willing to go back to the Democrats.

after what they've done to us, it just doesn't make any sense.

Well, some of it is ambivalent.

Some of it's ambivalent.

Some of its ambivalence, Republicans haven't been going to the polls in the special elections. and the off-year election, and they got to get motivated to do that. I mean, they just lost a key district in Texas that is I think Trump won by seventeen points. They say Republicans didn't even bother to show up. It's not like they voted for Democrats, but that's like voting for Democrats, Jerry.

So people got to get motivated without Trump on the ticket. Here's Larry Kudlow on the economy, CUP 36. Certainly he'll use the State of the Union message next Tuesday to sell the Trump boom. And you know what? The numbers are on his side.

Stock markets are hovering near record highs, and roughly 135 million Americans are benefiting. I bet you didn't know that household net wealth in this country. Is around $180 trillion. That's right, $180 trillion. That's all your stocks and bonds, your homes, your bank accounts, your brokerage, 401ks, IRAs, less your liabilities.

So he's looking at the numbers. He's still a key advisor to the President. Anytime the President wants some clarity for people, they will just tell him the truth. That's where they go. Tony in Montreal.

Hey, Tony. How are you? Nice to talk to you, Brian. I followed you for a long time since Fox, and I love your perspective. I just want to say Maybe someday I'll be I'll I I just what I wanted to say to you is that uh the Trump administration to me is uh sadly constantly being attacked for ridiculous uh characterizations such as uh uh calling calling people racist, calling Trump a racist, even though he's done magnificent things for the black colleges of the United States.

He's you know promoted uh almost every type of uh uh Let's say advantage for all Americans. He doesn't distinguish. He wants all Americans to be wealthier, better, and safer. And as a Canadian up here in Canada, a lot of people criticize me for supporting Trump. I support his economic policies.

The stronger America is, both militarily and economically, the stronger people in Canada will be. People in Canada have to understand that we are symbiotically linked to your country. The benefits that you have in your country also flow to us. And we are both great partners in many, many multiple industries. How do you feel like your prime minister making alliances with China?

He's looking to basically get a free trade deal with China. How do you feel about that? Brian, let me tell you something. This guy, I call him a circus clown. I call him Carney the huckster.

Anybody that goes and deals with communist China and buys 800,000 EV vehicles, if you gave me one for free, I would burn it. I will never drive anything from China. China is a country that has the Belt and Road program that is trying to defeat us by putting surreptitious people in our universities, stealing our great secrets in Quebec. They went and used our technology in Hydro-Quebec and tried to steal the battery technology that they're using to put into their cars to sell us back cars at a discounted rate. Carney is a traitor to my country.

He is a liberal. He's a person that wants to tax, over-tax us. It's always constant overreach. When are we going to wake up in this country of Canada? We need a conservative government like the Trump government.

Trump is interested in the military strength. He wants to right the world. He's the only person that protects. Christians in Nigeria before even the Pope said anything about Christians in Nigeria. And he's also protecting the Iranian people.

I know. Come on. Tony, I see it, and you see it too. And of course, in Montreal, I always think it's very French, too, correct? It's a very French city, but I like your Christmas party because I was hearing that you're Italian.

You predominantly have an Italian dinner for Christmas. And up in Canada, we do the same thing. The Italians, I'm Italian. Yeah, the Italians take over, but I'm also half Irish.

So together, you and I have split the difference. Tony, I want you to move to America. We need you on our side. But this whole make Canada great again, I hope it takes root. Just like in UK, it is this guy.

Listen to Rupert Lowe, he's a conservative. I don't particularly care if we're liked by the rest of the world. I care if we're respected. Because right now, Britain is a joke and it has been for some time. I want the British Government to put the British people at the top of the agenda.

We should make no apologies for that. Learn from Trump. Let's be unapologetically patriotic. Slash tax across the board. Enforce the border.

Deport those with no right to be here. and plenty more. Let's make Great Britain great again. How great is that?

Now, I think Trump would, I don't even know if Trump has commented on this, but this is the type of attitude he believes nations should have. It doesn't mean you're selfish. You do things in your self-interest and you negotiate. And he feels as though if we're not getting things from other countries that benefit the American people, that's who he was hired for. And he believes a lot of other presidents were too worried about international relationships and not enough about the relationship with the American people.

Ironically, people are mad at him now for spending too much time. I guess overseas, but it's all in our self-interest in our hemisphere and our one enemy in the Middle East that remains Gino in St. Louis.

Gino, real quick. Hey, Brian, I am uh I I love you guys I love you, your show, and I I love I love Trump. Trump's a good guy. Look, two things. First of all, I I then they have to go through Congress in order to to do anything in Iran.

But the second thing is it has to do with taxes. If he made taxes, half taxes on 401ks for everyone that's over 65, everybody would come out and vote for him in this. Wait, how would it work, Gino? What are you requesting? What are you saying?

I'm saying that if you're over 65 and you have a 401k and you want to take money out, half the tax, not the whole tax set, has to be taken off. That's a good idea. And he also wants to let people in their 30s and 40s who have a 401k be able to get the money tax-free in order to buy that house, help put a down payment down, or maybe buy a car, which is also tax-deductible now, too. It's there. The mechanics are there.

You got to get aggressive. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead. President Trump is not an isolationist, but he's also not an interventionist. We are not going to see a ground invasion of Iran.

We're not going to see hundreds of thousands of troops on the ground. We're not going to see massive American casualties. But the president is willing to defend American national security interests. He ordered the B-2s to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. That was the single most important national security decision of the first term.

And I gotta say, i i i i the isolationists are wrong.

So center Ted Cruz Really believes that hitting Iran, not occupying Iran, is in our best interest. I see all the calls up there. We'll get to them shortly. But right now, it's my privilege to bring on to the show General Philip Reedlove, now retired, four-star general in the U.S. Air Force, served as commander of a U.S.

European command as well as the seventeenth Supreme Allied Commander of Europe of NATO Allied Command operations. General, is it your sense that we'll almost have the assets in place to effectively take out Iran's ballistic missiles and finish off their nuclear program?

Well, first of all, Brian, thanks for having me on this morning. I think we've had enough force in place for some time to make a major strike. Into those target sets you mentioned. I think what the President is doing now is bringing forward a force that could sustain an attack on those target sets that you talked about. But you used a pretty absolute term: can we take out?

Their ballistic missile capabilities and programs. That's a tall task and starts with knowing where all of them are. We have a pretty good idea, and I think that with what we're bringing into place in the Middle East, we could do severe damage to their capabilities. What would that do for national security if Iran was no longer a threat?

Well, it's a big change to what goes on in the world. You know, I know that many of our documents label Iran as the number one exporter of terrorism around the world. And if you cut the snake's head off, the rest of the snake quits swiggling. And there's a lot of black flags in the Middle East, around Israel and other places that would then not have the supply lines, the support, et cetera, et cetera.

So it would make a big difference.

So, right now, they're having nuclear talks. They say they have a framework, but. Are we really, is that really the primary responsibility? I sense that we did a great job setting them back. And I sense that if they start building it up again, Israel will be the one taking them out.

So, without any air defense, too. This is this seems to be the moment, but it's more than building a nuclear weapons program, isn't it? Hmm. It is. And Brian, if you just remember this conversation, as little as a couple of weeks ago, the whole conversation was about stopping the murder of civilians and Christians in Iran.

And then that narrative morphed into going after stopping their nuclear programs.

So I think that our president and the administration has a broad set of objectives in Iran, and therefore, there's a lot writing on this. And frankly, One would hope that Iran watches the second carrier battle group sailing towards them. And the world doesn't know all of the force that's moved in on the ground, the normal Air Forces land-based, including two different stealth platforms that have moved into the area. There is an immense amount of firepower that's being assembled. General, does it bother you if you're sketching out a battle plan that the UAE in Saudi Arabia says you can't use our airspace?

Well, that will severely complicate things, but let's just wait and see how this all shakes out. That might be what they're saying publicly, but it might be different. Who knows? You know, these things happen all the time where there's public posturing. To try to keep everything tamped down.

But then, when the day comes or the hour comes, we'll see what really is enforced in the Middle East. People in general are friends. Right. You know, Saudi Arabia and Iran are not friends. That's not a friendly regime, but they just don't like the idea of anarchy on the ground, which there are risks, right, General Breedlove?

I mean, there are risks to taking this action. There is. There always is risk. There never is a zero risk approach. And here's the bottom line: these countries, this is their backyard.

And what they don't want to see is a conflagration start in their backyard. And we do know. I think the scariest scenario is that Iran finally sees that they're going to lose it. And so they use it before they lose it. And I think this is on the mind.

I just came back from a trip to the Middle East, and I'll not share exactly who I met with, but one of their greatest fears is that Iran sees if we don't use our missiles now, we'll lose them in this strike. And then they sort of fire their entire salvo to get what they can out of them. And that is a concern to our friends and allies in the region. Here's what Ted Cruz said: Cut 6. We are at an extraordinary moment in history.

It is entirely possible, Sean, that in the next six months we will see the regimes fall in Iran. In Venezuela. and in Cuba. And we could also see governments replace them that want to be friends with the United States of America.

Now, let me be clear. I'm not being pollyannish about this. There are a thousand things that can go wrong. But if that happens This would be the most consequential geopolitical shift Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, since America won the Cold War without firing a shot. I spoke with President Trump the day before yesterday.

And we talked in particular about Iran. And I said, this moment, the regime is teetering. The Ayatollah is in his last days. And I said, do not let this opportunity pass. Would you have advised the same thing, and do you do you agree with this analysis?

Well, let me say I agree with almost everything the senator said. I do believe there is opportunity here. But he was also very quick to point out there is opportunity for things to go badly. And so, this is a risk-benefit calculation that has to be made. And as a military guy, our job is to point up to our leadership.

We firmly believe in civilian control of the military. We point up to our leadership and say, here are the risks that are involved in this. And then the leaders, the political leaders, make these decisions. The one place that I disagree a tiny bit with the senator is getting it right with Iran is an incredibly big deal. But I would offer that we are not.

not getting it right with Russia right now, and it would be a bigger deal if we could get things right with Russia. I agree. I want to give it to there, too, before I move on, though. It looks like the President says there is a 90% chance he is getting impatient, 90% chance we do things. I would just like to know.

For you in particular, we took out the general, excuse me, Israel took out the generals. Uh we knew there are a lot of them in bed. Do you believe we also know the politicians? And then, what do you aim for on the ground? The IRGC, is there somebody less?

A little bit more attractive that we could deal with? Do you think we've identified people like Rowani or somebody else that we might be able to work with in Israel for that transition? Excuse not Israel, Iran. I knew what you were talking about.

So. I would like to think that all of the things you put out there are correct. I do believe we have incredible intelligence there. I believe the Israelis have immaculate intelligence there. I think we're sharing with the Israelis, and I think there is a plan.

on how to shape and maybe take advantage of people that would be more open to the whole West, not just to the United States or Israel, but someone that might be more cooperative. And I certainly hope when you talk about the IRGC and others, we do need to remember that this all started with a conversation about stop killing your civilians. And we need to shape that too. We need to make sure that the people that are responsible for that meet their Maker. I hear you.

And General, does it bother you that maybe the UK and France, who have been with us in the past on these airstrikes, will not be there, it seems, this time. It seems, but we're partnering directly with Israel, which that has not been the case. in the past. Yeah, this is more for representational than anything else. Having the military cooperation of Israel is paramount.

They have great capability. You saw how they shut down the air defenses of Iran in about 36 hours.

Some say two days. But in about 36 hours, Iran was laid bare. And so it's important that we have a military cooperation with Israel. As far as our European allies, it's hard to ask a SACIR and get any other answer other than it's good to have their support and cooperation, and we should keep working towards that. Do you think NATO is stronger or weaker today?

It's getting stronger day by day, and people either fault or love President Trump based on how he's treated NATO. Whether you like his tactics, techniques, and procedures or not, here's a fact. He's the first president since the creation of NATO to get NATO to invest more in itself, and that's important. And that investment is improving NATO. I agree.

And it looks like we're working out the trouble with Greenland there. General Breedlove, our guest.

So, General. I could not be more impressed four years in with the Ukrainian army, the way they performed, impossible circumstances. And now we have for the first time the Russians losing more than they were able to replace. There's talk about a situational draft, people drafted against their will. Could you talk about how that's playing out in the trilateral talks?

So here's the disappointing thing is Russia is trying to project that it's winning. You know and I know that in the last three days because of the cut of the starlink and the inability to command and control their own troops, Ukraine and three different axes have regained months worth of territory. That's good. They have. And so Russia is backing up in three different places.

And what is not out there, unless you read certain like The Economist and a few other, three of the largest enterprises in Russia are in insolvable problems financially. I know the facts on two, so I'll mention them. The third one I won't mention because I won't until I have facts, but Roseneff. Their oil industry is almost insoluble at this moment. Their debt is so high, and it is in hard currency, not rubles, that they're in debt, that they are really in trouble.

And the railroads, which are the lifeblood not only of Russia, but of the Russian army, they're almost insoluble. It is real problems for them right now. And so Russia is trying to present this big proud face that we're winning. I would tell you, this is not the picture of a nation that's winning. But I would say this, and I know I think you're based in reality.

The president's tactics are unique to any president. They'll be writing about it for years. What worked? What was off the seat of the pants? And what was scripted?

We'll find out later.

However, if he did not come in And have a relationship with Putin, nobody would be talking right now because we clearly know who the good guys are. But the president said, listen, I got a message, we got to get you to talk. And if he came in and said, you're a brutal dictator and an autocrat, you poison and kill your enemies, how dare you? We wouldn't be talking.

So, what we'll be doing is going for the complete victory. But as you know, NATO wasn't giving them enough to give them a complete victory. Joe Biden wasn't doing that. No high Mars, here's High Mars. No Patriots, here's Patriots.

No F-16s, here's F-16s. Right? We saw this: no ATTA'ems, here's ATTAC'ems. They weren't letting him win, but they weren't finding a way to get him off, you know, and off-ramp.

So, whatever you think how we got there, there's only one country that could bring three together. Am I overstating it?

Well, I take umbrage with a few things you said, but in general, your tact is correct. It is good that we're talking. When this war, and here's one place I do differ with you: you talked about four years. This war is 12 years long. Oh, yeah.

It started when I was the second. This is the third phase of a 12-year-long war. And so back then, they cut me off from talking to Valerie Garazimov, who I had a conversation, a steady conversation. That's the military commander of Russia's forces, General Valery Gerazimov. And I was told to stop talking to him first by NATO, and then second by my boss, President Obama.

And I think that was a mistake. When we are about to have problems, we need to talk more, not less.

So I endorse the things you were saying. But I must say this. We are dealing from a position of strength with Iran, with Venezuela, with everybody in the world. But in Russia, we are trying to find peace through weakness. Mr.

Putin has rebuffed our president over and over as we try to find peaceful ways ahead. And then he punctuates his rebuffing by slamming into Kyiv after the talks that fail every time. And I think we need to show Mr. Putin that we want to talk, we want to cooperate, but we also. Are going to drive this narrative?

Because right now, Mr. Putin feels like he's absolutely in charge of this narrative. Number one, I wouldn't, but I can't challenge any of your facts. But I would say, understand too, we're blowing up the ghost ships or taking them, and we also convince India. convince India to stop buying oil.

So what he's doing is not doing it loudly. But he is really putting the pressure on Russia. But I am somewhat frustrated when he tells Zelensky to get going. And I'm thinking to myself, he's already going.

So, and he knows that. We don't need to ask the victim to give up more. I hear you. We need to ask the aggressor, the bad guy. Let's just put it in cowboy terms.

We need to ask the bad guy to give something up now. And I think maybe delivering tomahawks would be the message that Putin would understand. General Philip Breedlove, thanks so much. Always great. Great to talk to you, Brian.

Back in a moment. Where big stories meet bigger conversations. Stay informed and energized with the Brian Kilmead Show. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmead.

Uh I think you heard from the administration and the State Department yesterday that there was a little bit of progress made, but we're still very far apart on some issues. I believe the Iranians are expected to come back to us with some more detail in the next couple of weeks, and so the President will continue to watch how this plays out. Caroline Levitt, playing coy and smart, understands that while she's been here, been her job. The president's already taken massive action. She took those masses.

Midnight Hammer over in Iran knows how to play it smart. We know about the capture of Maduro and the replacement of that government. She knows how to play it smart. We know about the consistent pounding of the Houthi rebels. We opened up all the waterways in the region.

She knows how to play it smart. And she knows, too, if Syria tries to kill two of our guys and an interpreter, she knows the military is going to take action and make them pay. Do you know they got hit again over the weekend? That's ISIS. What else happened?

We pulled out of Syria.

So the president wanted to do that initially too early because they were playing such a vital role, we would have abandoned the Kurds. And General Mattis, he says, if you pull out, I leave. And he did leave. I love General Mattis, by the way. And he said, I can't support that.

The president got convinced just to scale down, not to pull out. Here we are in 2026. And he said, we're ready. Why? This guy, I'm my fingers across, this new guy is consolidating power, continuing to have relations with Israel and with us, even though he's got an Al Qaeda background.

And he's taking on ISIS. Removed the prison full of ISIS characters into Iraq. And he's got the Kurds folded in to the Syrian armed forces. It's a pretty good transition. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show.

Brian Kilmead. Hi, everyone.

So glad you're there. The Brian Kilman Show coming your direction this hour. We're going to be joined by Michael Mazdowski. He's the president and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and a leading Washington, D.C.-based policy and educational organization. He's going to be talking about U.S.

defense. Do we have what's necessary if we decide to go into Iran? Not go in, but I would say take out Iran's nuclear arsenal as well as their ballistic missiles and hopefully a lot of the IRGC who are just pure evil. Nate Foy is in the studio. If you're watching the stream, Fox News national correspondent heading over to London, doing a lot of reporting about the craziness with our socialist, anti-capitalist mayor.

But before we get to Nate, let's get to the big three. Number three. And watch the State of the Union. We're going to be talking about the economy. We inherited a mess, and now we have prices way down.

We have energy way down. Gasoline is now breaking $2 a gallon, and it's been actually amazing. All about the economy. As Donald Trump takes to the road and goes to Georgia five days from the State of the Union, what do you want to hear? What should he actually say?

Number two. Since social media has come about, the rates of anxiety, depression, and self-harm are through the roof.

So yes, it is the job of Zuckerberg and others who create these apps to make sure that there are guardrails. Yeah, that is the story in the Los Angeles courtroom today and on trial is social media. Yesterday was Zuckerberg. Did he, when he took the stand, did he effectively say, I'm not trying to make social media addicting. I'm not trying to hurt or harm our teens, but some internal memos will make that sell pretty tough.

By the way, the worst offender, TikTok, settled out of court. Number one. President Trump has laid out what a deal looks like, what our expectations would be to take this to a diplomatic solution. And then the ball is in the Iranian court to answer what is pretty clear from his perspective. Yup, Ambassador Matt Whitaker laying it out.

For NATO, I should say, it's going to happen sooner or later, war in Iran. I know some roll their eyes, but why I think they should be high-fiving, despite the risks, our greatest ally, Israel, is ready to fight by our side. And by the way, a greater fighting force, pound for a pound, there is none better than that in the world. The other big story happening today in almost every off-year election, in almost every primary, you have a socialist against a Democrat, a liberal Democrat. And we saw in New Jersey the socialists won the primary.

We saw in New York City a socialist won over an established liberal like Andrew Cuomo. We saw that same thing in Seattle. And you almost had a socialist win in Minneapolis with that Somali who came out of nowhere to give Fry a run for his money, who's a terrible mayor. With us right now is Nate Foy. Nate, yesterday you spent a lot of your time trying to make sense of Mondami's policies.

He laid out his budget almost in a PowerPoint presentation and said, there's not enough money. I got to raise taxes. Not understanding that we're already 49th in terms of per capita tax taxed in the area. It doesn't seem to bother him. Yeah, a lot of people are saying, you know, why don't you look for areas to cut spending rather than find more tax revenue when you're already taxing the hell out of everybody in New York.

A 9.5% property tax increase would really hit a lot of millions of Middle-class earners, which a lot of people would say is exactly the opposite of why they voted for Mom Donnie. He's supposed to help people who are struggling financially. And this would hit not only homeowners, but also renters because the cost gets passed down.

So, really, everybody thinks of New York and the Uber-rich in New York, which, by the way, people making over a million dollars pay like half of the income tax in New York. They're going to leave, which is going to dry up the tax revenue, which is going to create a bigger problem. We already have a $5.4 billion deficit over the next two years, and that's what Mom Donnie is trying to fix. A lot of people say that this is not the way to go about it. And that's not a Republican criticism.

That's bipartisan because he needs city council to actually do this. This is the only major tax that he can increase without state approval. And Hochul's in an election year. She's pushing back on raising income taxes and corporate taxes.

So this is the only thing that he feels he can do to gain leverage. But even Democrats on city council came out and they're like, this is a non-starter for us. We can't support this.

Well, yeah, because you're already losing everyone to Texas and now Florida. And on a separate note, I know I'd say Boeing is now moving out of Virginia because their taxes are going up. They're going to St. Louis.

And then you hear about Elon Musk has already left California. And the Wonder J.P. Morgan has more of their employees in Dallas than they do in New York City with this brand new building right on 47th Street. But I want you to hear Kathy Hochul yesterday to the question, are you going to raise taxes? She's the terrible governor here in New York.

CUP 51. My position is clear. My position is very clear. Um I have said that I am a partner of the mayor's. We just allocated $1.5 billion to help them with their financial struggles.

This is early in the process. It is his preliminary budget. And what I would say is there's other recourses to follow. I don't support a property tax increase on New Yorkers, and I'm not wavering from my position that I don't want to drive more people out of our state by increasing taxes from what is already a high-tax state. I'm the one who's trying to cut taxes.

But you saw AOC overseas in Munich. She said we have to have a wealth tax. She goes, there's no even debate about it. And you see what's happening in California. They're going to vote on a billionaires tax.

So the billionaires are leaving. Zuckerberg just went to Miami two weeks ago. This is a fascinating issue. Yeah, and I think it was maybe 10 days ago or so that I covered a Carnegie Mellon study or a professor at Carnegie Mellon put out this study through the Redistrict Network where based on the projections with the population trends and how they've been going in 2030. If people keep leaving New York and California, I believe California will lose four congressional seats, New York will lose two.

I saw that. And Texas and Florida will be picking them up.

So, this would only exacerbate that phenomenon that we're seeing.

So, yeah, I mean, it's just common sense, right? The people who have the greatest ability to leave and to move somewhere else are the super affluent people and the people who have the means to do it.

So, if you're going to. Tax the people who are already, you know, providing fifty percent of the income tax in New York City, even more. They're going to say, I'm leaving. And it's worse in Massachusetts because they're saying the weather's even worse. They said where you're from, right?

Yeah. People are getting out of there. The weather's terrible. The Red Sox, I guess, aren't even that good anymore. The Patriots came back, but you know, the Red Sox aren't even spending anymore.

We're acting like a mid-market team. That's crazy. I know what's going on, but look at the Yankees in the offseason. They did almost nothing. But then you, and then you have the Patriots who are coming back.

So, I mean, that's good. But for the most part, you have a situation where people are like, why do I want to deal with this? In Boston, you just re-elected extremely liberal mayor wants nothing to do with cracking down illegal immigration. But back to New York for a second. They thought, even though crime is down, Mondami now will say he's proposing cutting the NYP budget, canceling 5,000 new officer hires.

Even though they just lost 300 last month, they continue to face officer shortfalls. And now, instead of having 35,000 offers, They wanted to grow to 40,000 officers. They're dropping to 33,000.

So again, let's cut the cops. And when it comes to the homeless encampments, Mondami realizing when 19 or 20 people die of hypothermia, that he's now allowing encampments to get cleared. But you know who's going to do it? The social services. Good luck with that.

Have you seen how violent some of those homeless are? You don't want cops doing that?

Well, and you saw the story of the guy who was suffering from schizophrenia, who charged at the NYPD officer with a knife. And then the NYPD officer backs up, closes a door in between him and the guy with the knife. He pushes through the door the whole time. The officer is yelling, drop the knife. He doesn't.

He shoots him four times. The guy's recovering in the hospital. He's being charged with assault. And Mamdani came out and was like, he shouldn't be.

So apparently, Mom Donnie is saying charging at a police officer with a knife, there's no crime there. Because he had a psychological problem. You need a social worker. And that's the thing he wants the Department of Community Safety to handle these calls. Nate, do you think that they're getting, do you think these guys become social workers to stop people to take knives away from six foot four inch angry schizophrenics?

Yeah. It is a recipe for failure. Yeah. Do you know where Madami did? He visited the attacker in the hospital.

Have you ever heard of that in your life? Yeah. As mayor, you visit the attacker. You don't visit the cops. Yeah.

Yeah, so you have the public safety issue, and then, you know, there's been some bad incidents on the subway in the past few weeks, and it's early in the year. Anti-Semitism, when this one kid with a yarmulke got attacked by three guys because he's Jewish. Yeah. I didn't hear anything from him on that. Yeah.

Yeah. The NYPD said it's early in the year to be, you know, really reading into trends, but it's starting. And I've, what, to eight weeks? of Mom Dani, so we'll keep watching it.

So Nate's covering a lot of this stuff in New York. You're going to be going off to London with the Prince Andrew. Before we get into the stunning news that he was arrested today, a member of the royal family, last thing is on Columbia University, they decided to have somewhat of a job fair, and ICE was coming on campus in order to say, hey, join ICE. And the students started protesting like crazy, and now they rescinded the invitation to bring ICE on an ICE recruiter on campus. Still left-wing bastion.

Yeah, I mean, we saw that time and time again. We've seen it for years now.

So honestly, that's not much of a surprise. With the protests that we've seen on campus and the encampment.

So, yeah, unfortunately, some progress has been made on that front, but not as much as we'd like to.

So, the stunning news this morning about 4:40, 5:45, it looks like, as you know, Prince Andrew, no longer Prince Andrew, was in all over the Epstein files. Why wouldn't he be? They were best friends, wingmen for each other. He was mentioned 76 times in the first release of Epstein files. He was arrested for suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Allegedly, this isn't even about the teen rape or sex or whatever it is. He allegedly forwarded trade documents to Jeffrey Epstein, an international financier. Do you believe this guy? Yeah, I mean, we'll have to see exactly what the allegation is because, as you mentioned, so far the details are reported, but not exactly confirmed with exactly what the allegations are against him. But it's supposedly about sharing information with Epstein.

As we were talking about, the fallout in Britain is much more than what we're seeing in the United States from the Epstein files. Yeah, I mean, that's just it. When Trump came out and said, you know, you release these files, there's a lot of people who are going to be hit by it, some of which are innocent. For example, Sarah Ferguson took a free plane ride with Epstein and her two kids and flew from London to Miami. She's all over the files.

So RFK said that he flew with his daughter to Utah on some environmental cause. He's in the files. People are going to go, RFK's in the. He's just taken this guy was in the international. He was a philanthropist to a degree.

He knew everybody everywhere, especially Florida and New York City. And now you have another million pages that are going to come out. The carnage is everywhere. Bill Gates has just been forced to pull back from an India AI conference. He got to India and they said, don't come.

Bill Gates is all over these files. Yeah. Yeah. You wonder, you know, I don't want to say that you wonder if it's intentional, but it's really difficult to understand what's real and what's fake because there definitely are real claims mixed in there, and then there are definitely false claims. And because you have these false claims mixed in, it's really hard to know exactly what to believe with these files.

So, you know, we need to do our job as journalists and reporters to keep digging and figure it out. And then also, you know, I think a lot of people here domestically would hope that the FBI is following up, if not with arrest, at least with interviews, just to, you know, certain people have been caught. lying about their affiliation with Epstein based off the Coward Luttnick? Yes. Just interview him.

Why? Why did you lie about it? And that doesn't mean that a crime was committed necessarily. But Interviews should be happening. And You know, I think some people would say that we're not getting at least the transparent interviews that a lot of people would want.

Yeah, it's going to drag on forever, but I just find it fascinating that nobody was asking for these files when Joe Biden was in office. They need the files when Trump's in office. Bottom line is, we all knew they knew each other. He was a finance guy in Palm Beach, and Trump was a real estate guy in Palm Beach. They went to the same parties.

We weren't invited, thankfully. We're not invited to the billionaire parties. But they hung out, then they invest, and then someone gets out, like William Burns, the CIA director. He's in the files. Why is he in the files?

Well, when he got out into the private sector, they said, you should meet with Jeffrey Epstein. He'll be able to connect you with a job.

Next thing you know, he pops up there having dinner with him and he's besmirched now.

So that's what Trump was talking about. Like, this has got to be, there's a sensitive side to this. For sure. And he knows all these guys, so I'm sure he has a good read on who didn't do anything criminal. And he's probably trying to.

To protect people that he knows are innocent.

So, Nate, you were perfectly happy in Fort Myers. Do you resent being brought into this dysfunctional vortex here in New York City in Fox News? You were so happy there with the beautiful weather. I'll tell you what, when I was in Fort Myers, and I hope someone in Fort Myers is listening now, I loved it when I was there, but I was looking at what's next the whole time, and I knew that I wanted to come here.

So, this is a dream come true. And no, I don't regret anything. I'm so blessed and grateful to be here. But I do regret not appreciating my time in Fort Myers more while I was there. Because now I look back on it, and it is such a great life down there.

I was at the beach every single weekend. Everything's so cheap. The people are great. It's such a great place. It's forever going to be like a second home for me.

But with my goals and wanting to grow as a person and a professional, coming here was always the plan. And I wouldn't trade it for that. Yeah, we were there over the weekend. The people at Fort Myers are fantastic. And the arena was great.

The theater, I should say, was great. But they just busting at the seams, but they're still suffering the after effects of that hurricane. Yeah. But honestly, they've done pretty well. I remember DeSantis put up that bridge that got taken out.

Within like 30 days. Yeah. Within 30 days. It was insane how quickly he put it up. Fort Myers Beach got crushed.

I actually haven't been back since I think September after the hurricane. But I think it's kind of sad because you lose a lot of the history. But it also does present an opportunity to sort of make it better. Yeah. And grid it out the right way.

Yeah. Gradual growth. A lot of times you really don't think big. You're just watching to see what's going to grow. But now you got a chance to start fresh.

Nate Foury, thanks so much. I know you're off to England.

Next time I hear your report, it'll be about Prince Andrew. I think I'll be on with you guys tomorrow morning. I'm going to okay that. Don't take it for granted until I see the paperwork and I make sure it's okay. All right, get on that bite.

Nate Foury, thanks so much. Back with your calls in a moment. Learning something new every day on the Brian Kill Me Show. Fuck. Information you want, truth you demand.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Amen, and I said, I don't care what happens, I'm going to a meeting every day. And I said, I'm not scared of a germ. You know, I used to snort cocaine off of toilets. And I know this disease will kill me, right?

If I don't treat it, which means going for me going to meetings every day, it's It's just bad for my life. And that is RFK Jr. admitting he was an addict, a drug addict. I did not know you can snort cocaine off a toilet seat. What makes that attractive?

I think you need to start using your imagination more, Brian. I do. I should, but not doing more cocaine. You would not recommend that. I would not recommend that.

But the good news is, RFK Jr. is going to be on with Kid Rock. They're going to be talking about eating real food. And they're going to be on Sunday, 10 o'clock on One Nation, Sunday at 10 Eastern Time.

So hopefully people will join us then. We'll find out the what is One Food. You know, what is good food. We you know, we think a lot of times I think it was so interesting when he said People always say, well, America got fat because uh we got lazy. Or we just eat crap food.

Well, a lot of it is not being lazy. You eat the same amount of calories, but they're the impossible to digest calories with material and with elements in it that are just terrible for you. And it happened over the course of 40, 50 years because nothing's been regulated. Food basically has been on their own. And that's what RFK has been brought in.

And in 60 Minutes, had the last FDA director on, who's a big critic of Trump, a big critic of our, I'm sure Trump too, of RFK Jr. He says when it comes to this, he's got to get it done. He's got to push back against the major food companies. He's got to get this done. I hope he does.

All right, when we come back, we talk about the dangers in the Middle East and then take your calls: 1-866-408-7669. You listen to the Brain Kill Me Chill. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmead. How should we make it clear that we are not pursuing and will not pursue a nuclear weapon? They can verify this in any way they choose.

If they genuinely want Iran to not have a nuclear weapon, we are ready to accept whatever verification measures they require.

So that is the president of Iran through an interpreter. We have a foreign minister who says they make great progress. We have an Ayatollah that says we're never going to stop nuclear energy program. That's not we're talking about. If you're going to do that, what you do is you enrich uranium outside the country because you can't be trusted.

Michael Markovsky joins us now, President and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and a leading Washington, D.C. based policy and educational organization looking at defense and national security. Michael, who do we believe, the Ayatollah who basically threatened to blow up one of our aircraft carriers? Or the foreign minister who says that we agreed on a framework? Yeah, I wouldn't believe either of them.

I don't believe anything the Iranians say. Right now, they have only really two main interests. One is to try to postpone a U.S. strike, and two, and most importantly and relatedly, to stay in power. That's what the regime cares about right now.

How worried are they? Do you think? Uh they have to be worried. One question I think Uh that's reasonable to ask. And I think we learned this from what happened in June when Israel and the U.S.

attacked their nuclear facilities: is how much honest. And candid information is the supreme leader of Iran actually getting from his own people. We can't assume that he's actually getting everything. We know that from the past, that he was misled by his own people, so we don't know. About what?

Tell me how he was misled.

Well, first of all, I think his people way overstated before the June war about what they thought the Israel could do. And a lot of those people then got killed by the Israelis.

So there was really no punishment that the Supreme Leader could inflict. But based on my understanding of speaking to the Israeli, the senior Israeli defense officials, and I've heard this a number of times over the years, they know for a fact. That his own people are not telling him the honest truth to cover themselves up. And to promote themselves. I mean, he hides in a bunker, right?

But yet I think Israel knows exactly where he is. I'm going to ask you, in your opinion, people say, well, the one thing you got to do is don't kill the Ayatollah, then it becomes a religious cause. But that's what they said about Nasarella. And the Israelis killed Nasarella. And I thought he was more popular, more vibrant than the Ayatollah, more of a regional personality.

I didn't hear anything, I didn't see anything. Look, you're 100% right. I mean, Nasrallah was, I mean, the supreme leader of Iran is in his 80s, he's sick, he's, you know, and so on. Nasrallah was, you know, completely different, as you correctly state. The only question is if what Israel could do is different than what the United States, a superpower, should do.

I think it's really an open question whether if we attack That we should go after him. I think it's fine. I think it's important that the Israelis did it, and they showed extremely effectively, as you point out with Nasrallah. And even with the Iranians, that when you kill senior leaders of your enemies, it really has a debilitating impact on them. They can't react quickly, and so on, and it severely weakens them.

I'm not sure here. I could see both sides, honestly, whether it's good to go after him or not. I think it's more important for the United States. To not only hit the key levers of power of Iran, I mean the missiles for sure, and the nuclear program. but also other levers that are keeping their people down and the regime alive.

And that could be the Islamic Revolutionary Guard leaders, the besieged leaders. It might also be maybe destroying a lot of their Navy. That would be a potent attack for the United States. And also it would really weaken the regime, I think. You know, the whole thing, Michael, the way Trump operates is that he doesn't want to occupy the country.

He doesn't want people on ground, right? You do what you want. He's not even pro. He's not necessarily looking to put democracies anywhere. He says, look, you get the buses to run on time.

You pick up the garbage. But I need somebody that's going to be in charge, which makes me think that he wouldn't necessarily blow up the refineries. And the oil fields, because he knows that country has got to stand up and those people are going to need some type of economy. Or do you think I'm wrong on that? No, it's a good point.

I would make a distinction between the oil facilities and the refineries because the oil, if we would do, I don't see as much advantage to hitting the export facilities because that just raises prices for Americans as well, because it will impact all what I'd rather do on that front is just make sure that no Iranian oil exports come out of that country for the reason you just stated.

So then if they have a better government, you know, then they'd be able to rehabilitate more quickly. The issue with the refinery I see is a little different because that does weaken the regime, I think, very clearly, because then it would really cause more unrest inside the country. I think for the president, and I agree with you, I don't think he's here to install a Democratic leader, although that sounds like a contradiction in terms. But what he's here to do, I think, or what I think he might do, we don't know for sure, is to weaken this regime, to punish them for slaughtering tens of thousands of people. Of their people and imprisoning even more, making sure that they can't terrorize our allies in the region, the Israelis, the Emiratis, and so on, and then really facilitate, make it easier for the people.

to take down the regime because it's ultimately going to be the Iranian people that do it, not the United States.

So Lisa Daftari, who has family still there, was born in Iran, is now out in California. She's the foreign desk editor-in-chief of our anti-Iranian publication, said this about what the Iranian people want, CUT 15. One thing that I want to remind people is that they are not suicidal. They have used their ideology to last, to sustain themselves, but they will not die for this ideology. And that is very important to remember.

And I think that is why we have seen the tactic or the strategy of patients here by the Trump administration. We need defense, missile defense systems in place. We need the proper strategy. This is not a Venezuela. This is not an in-and-out, this is not a slam-dunk effort.

The Iranian people know what it's going to take, and that's why tens of thousands of Iranians have surrendered their lives in the quest of freedom. They know what it's going to take. It's going to be a collaborative effort, and they're looking to Donald Trump to help them in that effort. And this is it. I mean, this is a window of opportunity for people to say for 47 years.

Why now? Their missile defense is down. Israel made them more vulnerable than ever. The people have risen up. The real is devalued.

Water is out in Tehran. This is the moment of unrest and a welcomeness among the population. Right. So exactly.

So what it does is it offers President Trump unusual, unique, historic opportunity to help bring this regime down, which is one of the biggest enemies of the United States since its inception in 1979, for all the reasons you just state.

So I think he has two options with a campaign. I think we all understand now it's not going to be a strike. It will be a campaign as we talked about together, I think, about a week ago. And I think he has two options. He could just go after the nuclear facilities, the missiles, and so on, or he could really go to try to weaken the regime.

My hope is that he does the latter. and that he capitalizes on this historic opportunity. Michael Makofsky is our guest.

So and of course, they say it's a 90% chance this is going to happen, and there's going to be in two weeks there's going to be another round of negotiations. How ready is Israel? We know a couple of weeks ago that he told the President, don't do it yet. And he made it public, and a lot of people were mad at Netanyahu, but he's got to worry about he didn't think the missile defense was there. What was the delay?

And do you think they're ready now? Yeah, I do. Obviously, you know, there's some line that generals never feel they're completely ready. They always want more, and you can understand that. By the way, I think we're blessed in the United States that the commander of our MIDI's forces is Admiral Brad Cooper.

I think he's an excellent commander. Everyone, he has a lot of respect, not only inside the U.S., but by our allies in the region. But I think the Israelis are ready. I think they needed to pause. There was an unfortunate cost to that pause, especially internally inside Iran.

How many more people were killed or arrested? On the other hand, I think the Israelis know that the time has come. Uh I don't know exactly what day. But they had to prepare and they had to coordinate with the United States to make sure that any campaign that happens is going to be meaningful.

Now, if I may, I think there's a question of how this is going to work out. If the U.S. does this, does Israel go in with them? Right away, or I think more logically, again, I don't know. but more logically could be the United States.

This is the American campaign, and if the Iranians then retaliate regionally, particularly against Israel, which is highly likely, then Israel gets in. Oh, is that how you see it? I see them launching together. Simultaneously. It's possible.

It's very possible. I don't know. I honestly don't know. I could see it both ways. Uh, you know, you could argue for the United States, it's a better optic to do this alone.

Uh, personally, I don't, I'm personally indifferent either way. because I think the Israelis are going to be highly involved no matter what. And I'm sure that whatever America does, Israel is supporting the United States as much as possible. And by the way, I may add, it's unfortunate that some of our Arab allies are not allowing us to use their airspace. To their campaign.

And it's something my organization, Jinsa, has argued. For based on a recommendation of a former CENTCOM commander, General McKenzie, which is that we should take more use of Israeli. There's an air base in southern Israel. Israel gives a complete freedom of action. I think these kinds of moments that are so important for the United States, it's good to look around at our allies.

Who's helping us? Who's not? The Israelis are clearly. With us completely, 100%. And I'd like to see some of our Airb allies do the same.

Jordan, Cutter, we have the big base there, right? They're helping out, and two aircraft carriers. We'll have to see. I know people rolling their eyes and saying, oh, another conflict, and President was going to keep us out of it. This was a 47-year problem.

And he's not looking to occupy, but he's not looking to run from any issue that's going to just be worse the longer you wait. I think there's a huge practical side to him. I think he's the president of cleaning up a lot of messes. And you're right. He's inherited this.

His predecessors ignored it. He's the first president to publicly stand by Iranian demonstrators against the regime. He's the first president then, of course, working with the Israelis to hit the Iranian nuclear facilities. I don't think. I certainly don't think President Obama or Biden would ever have done it.

Uh you know, if they were president today.

So, I give him a lot of credit for that. And I agree, he was compelled to do this. He didn't seek this out. He didn't, but he knew how bad the JCPOA is and that's it think about it. Think about the damage that the Iranian situation did to Carter.

The Iran-Contra with Bush, 41 and Reagan, got hurt by it, almost lost, you know, he won re-election, but it got pretty iffy for a while. And then Obama with the JCPOA, he could not get Democrats to vote for it. Remember, Chuck Schumer, Menendez, he couldn't get 50 votes and he had the Senate.

So, and the JCPOA was going to evaporate in 10 years anyway. It would have been done.

So, it was a bad deal. And I think all those legacies got hurt by it, Republicans and Democrats.

So, this would put an end to it. And waiting in the backdrop is Cuba. And we had Rubio meet with officials, and I think they see Maduro in a Brooklyn prison. And I think the offer was, do you want to go there? Or would you rather go to Turkey or somewhere else?

And I believe there might be a soft landing coming for Cuba. That would be a problem since it's been around since the 60s. It's an exciting time. Michael Makofsky, thanks so much. No, thank you for having me.

Nice to speak with you. You got it. Pack in a moment. It's Brian Kilmade. A talk show that's real.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Sponsored by Previgen. Previgin made for your brain.

Well, I think it'll be very interesting because Meta employees admitted in internal communications they referred to themselves as drug pushers. They compared their product to digital narcotics. And indeed, that's what Instagram and similar social media platforms are.

So, getting them on the stand, I think this is the first time that parents are going to see real accountability for how these platforms have harmed their children. It's really important. And that's what we're seeing now in Los Angeles take place as that trial moves forward, and Mark Zuckerberg is there, and they're going after all the social media companies. TikTok Plus settled out of court, so did a couple other big ones, and just paid the families. But what happens is, as this trial takes place, you're seeing the families, you're hearing about their deceased children, it's tragic.

The question is, who's to blame? People say, well, you know, this kid had problems. They looked into his background prior to social media. Really, at nine and 16 years old, I'm not sure that that's true. But I will say there's two tracks: number one, make the social media responsible for not making it accessible to kids under, I think it's 15.

And then you have countries like Australia, like India, I believe France is right there. States like Florida just banning it flat out. Can't use it. If you're caught on social media, you get fined or the parents get fined. And now we have all these schools saying before you walk in the classroom, put your phone in a locker.

So we're waking up to this right now. But now, if you make social media companies pay, For these algorithms that track you in your life. Nobody's more insidious than TikTok, right? Run by China. Nobody's been able to replicate it, including Instagram.

I believe they get the closest.

So, I think it's really got to be important for parents who say, look, I don't think any parents are to blame for their kids' entire behavior. You got to do the best you can. Every moment you can. For example, if you're a latchkey kid in the 70s and 80s, you go home, they could watch television all day and bad for that, or you could hang out with the wrong crowd, that was the danger.

Now when you come home, if both parents work, you got to tell your kid who's 13, 14, 15, don't use your phone. Please. Don't use your phone. I mean, you thought it was easy. Don't put it on the TV, just do your homework.

Don't use your phone. I mean, there's a way to track it. It's just got to be if software can do anything, AI can do anything.

So, why can't they make it impossible with the fingerprint? The only necessary in your house, the only one that can open up a certain amount of apps is the fingerprint of a parent. There are things that I'm not even thinking of that can be done, but there's a sentiment in this country that it's got to be done. You know, it's like walking the wrong way in traffic. Why would you let your kid do it?

That's how dangerous social media is going to turn out to be in a few years as people do these studies. I want you to hear from another parent. This is Juliana Arnold, a founding member of Parents Group. Uh parents rise, cut twenty-two. It was a very strong argument that he did not tell the truth.

In that congressional hearing, it does not match any of the internal documents that we are now seeing. And he's not able to answer those questions now either. And so he's fumbling over them. And we just see that as a sign of, you know, he knew perfectly well what was going on. The intention of the company was to prey on teens, use teens usage, exploit them so they can make greater profits.

And that was done intentionally, not by accident.

So when Mark Lanier, who's the plaintiff's lawyer, say lawyer he showed an email from 2015 in which Zuckerberg stated his goal for 2016 was to increase users' time by 12%. Woods' explanation for that?

Well, we used to give teams goals on time spent, and we don't do that anymore. This is his answer, because I don't think that that's the best way to do it, Zuckerberg said. Lunier also asked Zuckerberg about documents showing Meta employees were aware of children under 13 using Meta apps. Zuckerberg said the company's policies was that children under 13 aren't allowed on the platform and they are removed when they're identified. There was a follow-up meta email that says we're not doing enough.

That was one executive to another executive. And then you find out. That most of these executives don't even let their kids use social media.

So we didn't, we should have been talking about this 15 years ago. We're not. There's almost no regulation, but it's a big competition to match TikTok's attraction. And now, TikTok's technically an American company, although I still am skeptical. You'll listen to the Brian Kilmead Show.

Don't forget One Nation Sundays at 10. Watch Fox and Friends every day, 6 to 9. And of course, go to Brian Kilmead's YouTube page. Go to youtube.com/slash at the Brian Kilmead Show and be part of the action.