🚨WAR: Trump Breaks Silence After OBLITERATING Iran Leader | Islamic Terror Attack Hits America…
Benny Johnson dissects Operation Epic Fury, where U.S.-Israel strikes obliterated Iran’s Ayatollah, Revolutionary Guard bunkers, and nine ships, framing it as a "grudge match" after decades of Iranian attacks—from 9/11 to Austin’s refugee-linked terror. Trump’s "no mercy for terrorists" stance contrasts with past failures like Libya, while critics warn of sleeper cells among 30M undocumented immigrants. Geopolitically, the move targets China’s oil dependence, but internal chaos risks destabilizing the Middle East. Johnson ties distrust in government to Iraq WMDs, COVID lies, and Epstein cover-ups, demanding transparency—yet Trump’s swift execution (leadership neutralized in hours) underscores a shift from "trust us" to decisive action. [Automatically generated summary]
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Iran's largest proxy, getting directly involved in the war, launching rockets over the border at the northern Israeli city of Haifa, sending people into bomb shelters.
The Israelis immediately responding, issuing evacuation orders for more than 50 Lebanese villages.
They are now striking Hezbollah very heavily across the country.
We have a new statement from Israel's international spokesman of the IDF.
Overnight, the IDF carried out retaliatory strikes against several Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including command and control centers, launch sites, and senior terrorists.
We are ready for this.
As part of the preparations for our operation in Iran, the IDF prepared for an attack from Hezbollah, allowing us to carry out a swift response.
As I'm speaking right now, our aircraft are striking targets in Iran, including Tehran, such as underground bunkers of the terror regime.
We are operating to eliminate any threats to our civilians and will continue doing so.
Israel has announced a widespread operation against Hezbollah.
They are not ruling out using ground forces in the near future.
They're also striking the Lebanese capital of Beirut, saying that they are willing.
And we're getting an alert right now, just as we are talking, that Israel expects to come under Iranian ballistic missile fire likely in the next 10 minutes.
So we'll certainly keep you posted on that.
But you hear those notifications that have been going off as the Iranians are continuing their strikes against Israel.
But as it relates to Hezbollah, we do know that the Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz says that Naeem Qasim, the current leader of Hezbollah, who replaced Hassan Nasrallah, is considered a legitimate target.
Now, residents in Beirut following the strikes in the Dakha neighborhood in other locations are responding with this.
Take a listen.
At first, there were three explosions.
They were a bit far.
We went up to the roof and saw that the explosions were behind us.
We could only see the smoke.
After about 10 minutes, there was another strike right behind us.
We all fled.
And after another 10 minutes was the last strike.
It was three consecutive strikes.
We came here, and thank God we are okay now.
A heavily populated city, but we do know in the southern part of Beirut, it is a Hezbollah stronghold in the Dakya neighborhood.
Likely, many strikes will focus on that area.
The Israelis are also continuing their campaign against Iran, launching new strikes against the country overnight.
We do have some fresh video showing how the Israelis are systematically taking out the ballistic missile launchers that are threatening major population centers here.
But again, with that alert coming in just now, it's an indication that the Iranians still have the capability to launch these large barrages of ballistic missiles.
And according to the IDF, they're starting to space out their launches in order to fire dozens of missiles in a single barrage and try to overwhelm Israel's air defense systems.
Did anybody else just like sit there and refresh, monitor, monitor, monitor, situation, situation, situation, situations, situations?
I certainly did.
And here's the one thing that I am missing.
And the one thing that I would advise on this beautiful Monday, March 2nd, 2026, welcome to March.
We told you it was going to be an absolutely banger of a 2026.
We predicted this.
In January, we got Maduro.
In February, we got Elimensho.
And in March, we got Ayatollah Khomeini.
Whoa.
Okay.
Ayatollah Khomeini killed in massive American and Israeli strikes.
This weekend, why did they have to do it?
That's the question, ladies and gentlemen.
Why?
And it's a question that we're going to wrestle with on this program.
We have a stat show.
There's no shortage of people that want to pop off on this subject and talk about it.
And I don't pretend to be some military expert, nor am I going to sit there and wag my finger because I haven't served in the military.
And let me make that very clear.
I think there is like a major distinction.
Pro-war, anti-war, whatever, like there is a distinction.
And it's important for me to like sit back and to recognize at the top of the show here that there's many things that I don't know.
And I think that's a level of humility that I wish more people took to subjects like this.
Whether you are pro bombing of Iran, whether you are against the bombing of Iran.
Can we show some humility and recognize that President Trump has intel and has an understanding about what is actually happening around the world and that we elected him to this position in order to take what is at this point probably extremely classified and extremely complicated global situation and give like a little bit of breath to.
let things play out?
And I'm cautioning out of experience.
Yeah, I was sitting there like quite alarmed when I woke up on one Saturday morning and saw we had black bagged Nicholas Maduro.
And it's the same thing when I saw that we had bombed Iran's nuclear program last summer.
I've learned to like take a deep breath and to let things play out.
And I have a couple of snap judgments, things that I believe are critical in understanding the world around you and that things that have changed forever since the first Iraq war that I hope the administration gets.
And so that's what we're going to spend the show wrestling with today.
Approaching these kind of situations with humility, understanding that now the fourth American life has been announced lost in a devastating series of attacks on U.S. air and naval stations.
The U.S. base is being attacked at a rate and at a clip that we've never seen in our lifetimes.
Certainly not since the GWAT wars.
And I lived through those, and I think we've learned a lot.
And I think the major thing, and I just want to like announce off the top line, the approach that this show is going to take to situations of grandiose consequence, it's what we're living through right now, which is this.
That's how we've approached pretty much everything on this program.
The world has changed.
It's not just because we have Grok, it's not just because we have Chat GPT, it's not just because we have satellite real-time access to information.
I mean, you could watch this war take place as though it was all happening live in front of you.
I mean, there were disciplines and there were portals where you could see every flight, every bomb drop is happening like a risk board right in front of us.
It's not just because we have all that information, but because the system broke itself is a top-line thought on today's program.
The system has been broken.
And this is a warning to the Trump administration.
I'm not going to sit there and rip up or burn my MAGA hats like some idiots online.
I'm not going to sit there and cry and scream and rend my garments.
Okay.
We're going to let this thing play out.
And I've been wrong before on this stuff and my gut instinct.
And Trump has been right on these things.
And I think that there's a massive play that's going on right now that is meant to strangle China.
Obviously, like China got 70% of the oil out of Venezuela.
China got 80% of Iranian oil.
By taking out these two countries, you could put China back into the dark ages.
China, of course, is our number one geopolitical foe.
This is actually a China and Russia play.
It's meant to break, actually, the sort of axis, what you would call the modern day axis of evil there.
You could very easily fold Russia back in through using global trade, using the dollar, using military strength.
You could make Russia a like tentative ally, actually, in this geopolitical landscape.
I think this is what Marco Rubio is talking about when he talks about like the old order is dead.
The old order of the world is gone.
There's a new order and you're watching it happen.
And it's going to be ugly.
It's going to get hard and uncomfortable to watch as you watch these new things be created.
Trump talking about obviously why he went to war with Iran.
Two, you know, two main issues.
Again, we're going to talk about that in a second, but I just want to set the entire tenor of the program up on one incredibly important pedestal, one keystone that is utterly critical in a moment like this and in major moments of import for this administration, which is the system was broken.
I'm not sure it was broken by you guys, meaning the Trump administration.
Like, it's not your fault exactly.
Like, again, you guys weren't the ones who let Epstein off.
You know, Epstein was let off by the Bush administration, then the Biden administration, the Obama administration.
They didn't do Jack.
In fact, they helped Epstein.
But the Trump administration has already learned that they can be kneecapped By the inefficiencies, indolence, crimes of other administrations and systems that have been broken.
You can lose your credit with the American people with the sins of the past and not making them right.
And what does making them right look like?
Well, it's probably the most common thing that we say in this program.
The era of, trust me, bro, it's going to be good.
It's going to be okay.
Okay.
It's all secret, but shut up and stop asking questions.
Move along.
You're good, we're good, we're all gonna be good, okay?
I've eaten crow on this program because I had a mini freak out last time they bombed Iran.
And I had a mini freak out when they blackbagged Nicolas Maduro.
I just, I worried.
You know, you blackbag Nicolas Maduro, you get civil war in Venezuela, that creates a refugee crisis.
Like 20 million refugees wash America, you know?
Like I was worried about that.
I really was.
Didn't happen.
So again, I'm approaching this from humility, but I'm approaching this nonetheless from reality.
And the reality is that you must make the case.
I do not personally believe that the case has been made to the American people.
It has to be made.
I'm going to use Epstein as an example.
It's not the Trump administration that broke Iran.
Yes, Iran is the number one state sponsor of terror.
Yes, Iran has killed a lot of Americans.
Are you dumb?
Did you live through GWAT?
Did you have friends who served there?
Sons, daughters, brothers, uncles?
Do you have guys who do you know people who died in the war in Iraq?
A lot of people do know people who died in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
99% of deaths were caused by Iran.
Yes, they've killed Americans.
Yes, they continue to fund terror.
Yes, they are evil.
Yes, the people of Iran actually hate them.
Do you know any Iranians here stateside, perhaps?
Those people are cheering, celebrating, literally doing parades through the streets.
Yes, they are extremely happy and all this.
There is good to come of this, and good can come of this.
But it won't happen unless you make the case to the American people.
Something that didn't happen, I'm just using this as an example.
I'm not saying they're related, although I'm sure we can get Mike Benz on here or Alex Jones, and they could talk about how they're all related.
Certainly, there are some threads between like Epstein and Iran.
There's a thread between Epstein and everything, seemingly.
But I'm just going to like talk about this in a vacuum here.
All that needed to be done, I mean, you've released the Epstein list.
You were forced to release the Epstein list anyway.
All that needed to be done is like a full-throated, good faith explanation to the American people about what you knew about Epstein, what was going on.
Like the people who've been taken down by this Epstein trash have been like the worst leftist: Bill Gates, Reed Hoffman, Kathy Rummler, Obama's inner circle, Larry Summers.
You have Hakeem Jeffries begging him for money.
You have Whoopi Goldberg begging to be on his jet.
You have Prince Andrew going to jail.
You know, the Mount Battens, right?
Peter Mendelsohn.
These are the people that have been like completely destroyed.
The World Economic Forum president.
Like, yo, why try and run the old playbook back?
The old playbook is shut up, stop asking questions.
Now, I think that actually that's given birth to something much better, which is the way we used to do things or should do things, which is our leaders walk out and explain what's going on.
So explain it slowly and carefully and in a way that we can understand and in a way that people get.
And like, it's a very forgiving and very intelligent American population.
We would very high IQ in this nation on average.
It's true.
People pay attention.
People monitor the situation.
And I think they'll get on board if you give them the, if you give them information and if you're earnest about it, if you're operating in good faith, not lying like a bunch of bastards in the Bush administration, it's like sitting there weapons of mass destruction.
Like, you know, if you're actually operating in good faith, people will be like, okay, cool.
Trump's explaining a little bit now, like on the background.
We'll get to that in just a second.
But the world has been broken.
Now, again, was it broken by Trump?
Dude, I would argue that the last gasp, dying gasp of all this, it started during, of course, everything from JFK assassination, Nixon impeachment, all of the ops that have been run for the last 50 years in this country by the deep state.
You take giant chunks of credibility from our government institutions every single time.
You have a J. Edgar Hoover.
Every single time the government kills NLK, every single time they kill the entire Kennedy family, RFK and JFK.
You have this big chunk.
Think of it as like a big blindstone building, like the institution, you know, the trust in federal government and law enforcement.
You have big pieces of the facade come crumbling down every time you do that.
You lose more and more people.
You can throw UFOs in there.
You can throw Iraq War One.
You can really, I mean, you knock down half the building with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the weapons of mass destruction lie.
And then, well, 9-11.
You take 9-11, you take the Patriot Act, you put it all together, you've like demolished half the building.
So the building's like literally teetering.
It's just a hollow shell.
The integrity of the federal government, the institutional trust in the federal government, it's just like on its last dying game.
It's like barely able to be held together.
The facade is just barely able.
You don't even want to walk underneath it.
And then COVID hits.
And that just COVID hits in the 2020 election.
And that bulldozed the entire thing.
Now it's in the ground.
The credibility of our federal government is through the surface crust of the earth.
It's been bulldozed to nothing.
There is no more.
Trust us, bro.
We're good.
Move along.
The experts are on it.
The final experts that were able to pull that off off, they did during COVID.
They lied.
They poisoned people.
It led to millions of deaths.
Yes, the four American deaths are an absolute tragedy.
I mourn for them.
We pray for them.
It's awful.
There have been four Americans that have been killed in this open front against Iran.
But how many Americans were killed during COVID by our federal government?
Millions?
Millions.
Millions.
It's like the single deadliest thing our federal government's ever done.
You know, if you add up World War II and World War, and the Civil War, you don't even get to a million dead bodies.
No, our federal government killed millions during COVID.
And so, like, you want to talk about credibility gone?
That's it.
You'll never get it back.
You'll never get it back.
And so the only way to get a structure that anyone can live in now, because you're going to need to have some faith in the federal government.
No one's going to pay taxes anymore.
All right.
Is you're going to have to rebuild something.
And the only way to rebuild it is to be like extremely honest and open with the American people, to like just look down the barrel like I do every single day and have an honest conversation with people in plain language that they understand.
They didn't do that with Epstein.
They didn't.
They lied.
It's true.
Look at the memo.
Look at the memo.
The memo said there's nothing in these files.
That's false.
There's a lot in these files.
I mean, there's so much.
And then the memo also says that there was no evidence of Jeffrey Epstein blackmailing anyone.
Dude, I can name a lot of different circumstances, but just the Bill Gates circumstance alone is an obvious, obvious blackmail operation.
And so you got to like straight up explain this to people.
Why you can't just like, why you couldn't just, and again, I'm not, I'm not trying to be some obsessive here, and there's a lot of stuff going on, but you can just, you can see it as an Achilles heel for the Trump administration, whom I support, many of whom I know personally.
I've known them for a long time.
They've been live on this program.
I love them.
I care about them.
I say this out of love, the same way that I correct my children.
And maybe it's not my role or position to do that, but you know, that's it.
This is my household.
And I correct my children in my home.
That means I love them.
And so this is my correction.
The correction vector is you cannot operate the way that an entire generation, I would argue, like my grandparents, right, and parents, there was like an entire generation of like trust the experts.
And that is gone.
It's gone.
Maybe some people still like it, but the vast majority of Americans and especially young people don't and can't live under that style of rule any longer.
And so this is my main criticism here, which is you have to make the case to the American people why bombing Iran is necessary.
And that is the thing that concerns me the very most is I don't believe that that case has been made.
I don't.
And I would like to see it made.
I can come up with a lot of good reasons as to why this is actually a major good.
And I am going to be humble enough to say that I don't know everything.
Perhaps there is a lot of classified stuff that I have no idea about.
There's a lot of geopolitical stuff.
So I'm humble enough to know, like, I'm not, nobody elected me president, right?
And I voted for Donald Trump to make these kind of decisions.
And, you know, would I have made the Maduro decision, right?
Trump did.
It's worked out.
I think it's worked out great.
And so again, I'm going to reserve judgment and we're going to like take the blows as they come.
We're going to roll with the new cycle.
We're going to talk through what's actually happening here.
And this is how we're going to operate on this channel.
This is how we're going to approach this.
So, if you're looking for unhinged hot takes in one direction or the other, if you're looking for me to cry and to scream and to throw things or set my MAGA hat on fire or to like, you know, suddenly become like the biggest pro-war guy in the world, you've come to the wrong place.
But we can, at the very least, approach these things with humility and with some clarity about how the world that we're operating in today.
The world we're operating in today is you have to show your work.
You cannot just trust that everyone's just going to be like to show your work, right?
I say it out of love.
If that administration, there would be no Epstein question if the administration had just shown their work, right?
On that front, there wouldn't be.
And so, this is this is going to be the stature, the positioning of the program when it comes to questions like this.
We think that it's honest in its good faith.
We think it is also like entrusting, like you have entrusted us to be level-headed and to not be humiliating and to not melt down like children in times like this is the way that men and like stable people operate.
So, that's where we're going to be, obviously.
God help us.
So help us, God.
Okay, we got so much, so much to get to.
There is some major consequences, and they have been deadly on American soil.
American soil that is represented by some of our guests today.
Wesley Hunt will be on the program, Mike Cernovich on the program.
Admiral Robert Hayward also on the show, a stacked show.
My name is Benny Johnson, and this is the Benny Show.
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Okay.
I want to, you know, I can't sit here and complain all day about how nobody's made an explanation without like going over the explanations that have been given, which are, which are obviously, and again, I preface this by saying that Iran is a bad actor.
I'm not in favor of Iran.
I'm not sitting there saying that this is like a great regime and we should, I'm going to wrap my head in a turban and, you know, hold up a photo of the Ayatollah.
That's a different conversation for a different time.
We're happy to have that conversation.
But let's just carve that out and say since 9-11, there have been a lot of terrorist attacks on our nation.
There's been a lot of homegrown domestic terrorism.
All of it.
All of it.
We're just paid with broad, bold brush shirt.
All of it could have been halted.
And virtually every society crippling attack on who we are as Americans could have been ended if we just closed the border after 9-11.
If we would have a hard shutdown of criminal migration and then third world migration, Ilhan Omar, see Ilhan Omar, style migration, chain migration, refugees.
This guy was a refugee.
This guy put up the a la.
This guy was the refugee.
He's the guy saying, please, America, save me, save me.
Strap on his Allah shirt and go kill a bunch of Americans whenever he gets a chance.
As soon as he gets the signal.
We have a country filled with people like this.
We checked before the show.
18,000 criminal aliens on the terrorist watch list residing in our home right now in America.
We have captured and deported 1,800 of them.
So only 10%.
So 90% of the known terrorists that are currently here, not just the sleeper cells, I mean, a lot of these people are sleeper cells, right?
Because there's no way to track them.
They don't have birth certificates.
We don't know who they really are.
They lie.
They hop on up.
They hop on one of those C-17 globe masters that are taken off on the runway.
They hang out of the wing in Afghanistan.
They come here.
They plead that they're under threat.
And they create a terror cell and they wait.
Very patient people and the ancient people.
And then they go kill.
This is the single most important thing I will say on this broadcast.
There is no explanation, defense of third world migration that will ever happen in the public space ever again in this nation.
It is a sin, a blight, a scar on our people.
It must be undone by any means necessary.
I am not only talking the deportation of 100% of the people who are here illegally.
I am talking a structural remigration plan for peoples who are here that are incompatible with the West.
I mean, if you cut off the welfare benefits, actually, if you cut the fraud, then a lot of people just want to go home.
And that's just a matter of fact.
This is an economic play for all these people.
They don't actually like it here.
They don't actually like American.
They don't like America.
Then I think that there would be like, there's actually the vast majority of deportations that have happened under Trump have been voluntary.
You can check the HHS numbers.
People saying, actually, if you're going to make it really hard to get welfare here, you're going to pay for my ticket.
I think I'm going to head home.
Like it's very expensive in America.
It's really hard to get started here.
And if all the goodies are gone, I'm leaving.
I think there's a way, there's a very smart way to do it, but it must be done.
America's always seen ourselves as a aircraft carrier, impenetrable by our enemies, because we sort of exist as an island, like really far away from a lot of conflict zones.
Really far away.
And First off, that's not true in a world of hypersonic missiles, missiles that travel to space can be here in 30 minutes if fired from China.
Ballistic missiles, ICBMs that go over the Arctic and can reach America, those can take 20 minutes.
I mean, so technologically, it's just not true.
But it's also not true from a biological weapon standpoint.
And what I mean by that is human beings.
Because our imbecilic leadership after 9-11 decided that it was actually important for us to bring the unwashed masses of the third world by the boatload, train load, plane load, infinity onto our shores to change America forever.
That has created the domestic urgency that requires us to act now on these pressing issues because it is a dangerous, dangerous time.
And this is what I fear the most.
You can see the signals from the FBI, obviously, the signals from DHS, the signals from the Department of War.
They're scared about this.
They're worried about sleeper cells in this country.
President Trump's worried about it.
President Trump told reporters this morning that the reason he killed the Ayatollah was because the Ayollah was going to kill him.
Trump breaks silence.
President gives bleak warning to Americans and reveals the four-week plan in candid interview with the Daily Mail.
President Trump said, I got him before he got me.
Now, what do we know about the Ayatollah and the Iranian regime?
We know that there have been two documented Iranian attempts on Trump's life.
We know that Ryan Ralph effectively was begging Iran to help him kill President Trump.
We have that in his own writings, his own federal documents.
That it was Ryan Ralph, this guy, again, has been sentenced to life in prison for trying to kill Donald Trump, was recruiting in Iran to try and get fighters, to try and get munitions.
Donald Trump's administration so feared that Iran would blow his plane out of the sky that they actually started using a decoy plane.
Obviously, the Supreme Leader of Iran's constantly threatened Donald Trump, including, but not limited to, releasing assassination porn about Donald Trump, where they kill Trump from the weeds of a golf course.
I know we've played this once or twice on the show, but the Iran created effectively a mock-up of what it would look like to kill Trump from the weeds of his golf course, from the bushes of the golf course.
This included a Small robo drone-like munition, but nonetheless, this was practically played out by Ryan Ralph.
How much does the federal government know?
A lot of this stuff is kept secret.
Who the hell was funding Matthew Thomas Crooks?
Who was helping him train?
I know this from the top levels of the federal government, the top levels of law enforcement inside of the federal government that President Trump has not released and has chosen to not release the true motive behind Ryan Ralph.
I know this.
I've been briefed, like I don't know what it is.
Was it Iran?
Was it Iranian actors pushing him to shoot Trump in the head, which he did?
I don't know.
But President Trump saying this morning, I got him before he got me.
They tried twice, and I just got him first.
Trump viewed this as a grudge match between him and the Ayatollah.
The Ayatollah is dead.
His entire family's dead.
The devastation, of course, for Iran has been apocalyptic.
And I believe that that really plays into a lot of this, quite frankly.
I see some people that are GWA veterans that are celebrating this because they know exactly what Iran did to them while they were over there.
There's a lot of people in the Mideast that do not like having Iran as a neighbor.
But again, I'm not going to sit here and cheerlead and say that it's all sunshine and gumdrop smiles and rivers of chocolate.
There are a lot of bad things, obviously, that are occurring in the region, including the four Americans that have lost their lives.
There have also been attacks on American embassies.
Expect to see this ratchet up.
A word of caution on this.
This is how they got Hillary.
I think that the reason Hillary's not president, arguably, maybe the number one reason she's not president, is because the American people saw the way that she behaved in her actions in Libya.
That's like sort of a footnote of history.
But Hillary Clinton, kind of famously and grotesquely, celebrated.
Hey, Alex, get me that.
This is the one thing I'm going to demand.
Get me that.
Give me Hillary Clinton.
We came.
They saw he died.
Oh, man.
Like, you know, careful about this stuff.
It's like a cautionary tale.
These are our embassies.
This is an embassy in Pakistan.
Two embassies in Pakistan got stormed and breached until the Marines started firing and then slaughtered the guys that were breaching the embassies.
Which, huh?
Let that be a warning.
I'm glad that happened.
32, at least 32 people dead when the Marines decided to be Marines and do exactly what the Obama administration refused to allow to happen, which is to have forces defend our embassies.
Well, they just straight up, I mean, it was just a straight up murder mystery at our embassies in the Mid East.
What happened in Libya next is the people who died were American soldiers, our ambassador to Libya.
American Navy SEALs died when a mob stormed the embassy.
And that's why this kind of stuff is really scary to watch clips of our embassies getting stormed because these kind of things can go sideways fast when you have the destabilization.
As you can see here, one of the embassies that were stormed was in Iraq.
This is a Pakistani embassy.
But inside of Iraq, they've used a bulldozer to try and blow through the blockade to crash through the door and to bulldoze, literally physically bulldoze and slaughter the embassy staff in Baghdad.
This kind of stuff can go south quickly.
That's why we're not going to be cheerleading.
Why you have to have a defensive posture and be extremely smart.
And, you know, obviously, these are the kind of like, these are the kind of moments where you can really lose.
Is Hillary not president because of Benghazi?
Come on, dude.
Like, I think so, yes.
More than the Bill Clinton stuff, more than like bringing Bill Clinton sexual assault accusers and stuff.
More than like, because you'd be in jail.
Like, I think it's Benghazi.
Like, people watched what happened in Benghazi and they said, I don't want that as commander in chief.
So if you want MAGA to rule, if you want America first to rule for the next 100 years, you better damn well not create a situation like that.
It's very scary yesterday.
Very tenuous yesterday.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, we'd be remiss without showing you, obviously, the Iranian people celebrating their parades.
There was like a parade of like a million people through LA.
This is in Australia.
There are wild scenes straight out of the future.
The Iron Beam deployed for the first time in history yesterday as effectively a directed energy weapon shooting munitions out of the sky.
You're seeing things that you've never seen before.
This is the first use of the Iron Beam.
So we'll see.
We'll see.
From this morning, Pete Hegseth briefing.
Let's go.
This is not an endless war.
Hagseth demanding and trying to draw the harsh outlines of the.
I can't sit there and screech and complain that the administration needs to explain themselves without showing some of the explanations.
Any concerns about Iranian sleeper cells and kind of what has the Trump administration been doing to kind of monitor these people across the internet agency in full coordination.
Of course, we're paying attention to any potentialities there.
This is a former regime, a regime that seeks to export that ideology and try to sow terror.
We're ready for that.
We've seen these types of folks before, and the American people can rest assured that we're vigilant on that.
On February 28th, the full strength of America's armed forces came together in a unified purpose against a capable and determined adversary.
The United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, and our reserve components integrated across our combatant commands and began coordinated operations with the Israeli armed forces of an unprecedented scale.
As the Secretary laid out, our military objectives are clear.
Our mission is to protect and defend ourselves and together with our regional partners, prevent Iran from the ability to project power outside of its borders and be ready for follow-on actions as appropriate.
Across every domain, land, air, sea, cyber, the U.S. Joint Force delivered synchronized and layered effects designed to disrupt, degrade, deny, and destroy Iran's ability to conduct and sustain combat operations.
On the U.S. side, this marked the culmination of months and, in some cases, years of deliberate planning and refinement against this particular target set.
From precision strikes against key military infrastructure to persistent intelligence and targeting integration to the close coordination of the components across vast distances, this operation again demonstrated America's reach, readiness, and professionalism and that of our joint United Force.
It was historic not only in the operational scope, but in the level of joint integration displayed across every element of the joint force.
And as I said earlier, this work is just beginning and will continue.
As the production team locks in with our honored guests that will be joining us to give some professional light on what is actually happening right now, just a reminder that President Trump is a man of his word.
He obviously said something on the eve of the bombing.
I talked on the eve of the bombing, saying that Iranian people have to go and to seize their nation and that this is something that, you know, he was wearing the white hat.
I think that it was like a little less fleshed out.
Here, ladies and gentlemen, a brand new, a brand new message from President Trump that dropped in the evening last night with an explanation as to what is happening in the operation and then what must happen next in Iran.
Last 36 hours, the United States and its partners have launched Operation Epic Fury, one of the largest, most complex, most overwhelming military offensives the world has ever seen.
Nobody's seen anything like it.
We have hit hundreds of targets in Iran, including Revolutionary Guard facilities, Iranian air defense systems.
Just now, it was announced that we knocked out nine ships plus their naval building, all in a matter of literally minutes.
Iran's formerly supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, is dead.
This wretched and vile man had the blood of hundreds and even thousands of Americans on his hands and was responsible for the slaughter of countless thousands of innocent people all across many countries.
Last night, all over Iran, the voices of the Iranian people could be heard cheering and celebrating in the streets when his death was announced.
The entire military command is gone as well, and many of them want to surrender into saving their lives.
They want immunity.
They're calling by the thousands.
Combat operations continue at this time in full force, and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved.
We have very strong objectives.
They could have done something two weeks ago, but they just couldn't get there.
It has 110,000 reposts, has millions and millions of views, and 335,000 likes.
So at the very least, like, don't say Trump didn't warn you.
I mean, again, at the very least, don't say Trump didn't warn you.
And more importantly, let's go talk to people that have actually fought in these wars.
Let's go.
Congressman Wesley Hunt is obviously one of the top people that we're going to call.
He flew Apache helicopters, took enemy fire.
He's lived and operated and fought in wars in this region of the world.
He supports President Trump and he's running for Senate in the great state of Texas.
join us live now wesley welcome back The world can change so quickly.
As I started off the top of the show, I've been fighting these wars.
And so I didn't enlist.
And so there's, you know, and also there's so much intel, there's so much information.
And I think that it's critical that people in the position of creating consensus, like approach these kind of situations with some humility and with a little bit of pause and letting some things play out because we just don't know everything.
But you know a lot more than I do about fighting wars in the Middle East.
So I'll get your initial snap takeaway of what's been happening over the last 48 hours in Iran.
This is the definition of when you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.
You have been warned.
These people have been warned.
The Ayatollah was warned.
Iran was warned.
Maduro was warned.
A year ago, we dropped bombs in Iran to ensure that they wouldn't have a nuclear weapon.
That was the warning.
We keep telling you over and over and over again that if you continue to fund terror, if you continue to be an enemy to our allies, that you are going to be an enemy to us.
There's blood on their hands.
There's blood on the Ayatollah's hands.
There are thousands of Americans alive that are no longer here because of Iran and because of what happened in the war that I fought in.
What people have got to understand is this is the quintessential definition of peace through strength, and it is on full display as we live and breathe.
When a line is drawn, we are not going to release your bank accounts.
We are not going to allow you to have pallets of cash.
We are going to send you pallets of missiles.
And then you're going to have to make a decision as to how you want to proceed.
For those people that think that this is the beginning of the endless war, let's talk about this.
Trump is the harbinger of never having endless wars.
He is the one that wants to protect our treasure.
He is the one that thinks it's ridiculous to get in 10-year wars that cost $3 trillion and thousands of American lives for what?
And in fact, he is the one that for his first presidency, we literally had world peace.
And he is trying to establish that again by the mantra of peace through strength.
When you draw a red line and you cross it, there are consequences.
I appreciate Secretary Hegseth for what he said about this not being an endless war.
Here are our objectives.
Here's what we are going to accomplish.
And then we're going to move our chess pieces in the right position.
And then now it's going to be their move.
And they're going to have a choice.
But again, I hope next time they don't play stupid games so they don't win stupid prizes.
And no, when the left was clamoring about us getting into World War III after the first time we bombed them a year ago, clamoring about World War III after we captured Maduro, last I checked, fourth ID, a second airborne, first calf, no one's deployed, which is preparing for strength just in case we need us.
At the end of the day, this is peace through strength.
Well, keep in mind, we signed up to put ourselves in harm's way.
I mean, we are less than 1% of the population that said we're going to defend this country against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, even if it means our lives.
We signed up for that.
And we have a president and a commander in chief who is a strong man, who understands what's going on and is projecting strength.
And sometimes it's going to cost us lives, unfortunately.
I am terrified and devastated to hear about those four servicemen that are no longer with us.
Trust me, I understand that more than anybody can ever imagine.
I've lost many classmates, but also this is what we sign up for.
And this is what makes this country so special.
At the end of the day, we have to continue to show American resolve.
We cannot relent.
We cannot give an inch.
And eventually, they're going to break because they're just going to have to, and then they're going to have to make a decision.
But again, what I do not want to see, and I think the president has been clear about this for his first presidency and this one, I think Secretary Hegset made this very clear.
I think General Kaine made this very clear.
This isn't about occupation.
In fact, he said that the Iranian people are going to have an opportunity should they choose to seize it.
And when you look at the celebration that's happening all over the world based on what we've just done by killing Ayatollah, I think that these people have been looking for some reprieve for quite some time now, but it's going to be up to them.
In terms of nation building, that's not what our military does.
We tried that before.
We tried it multiple times.
That ain't it.
It's up to the people of Iran.
And I want to ensure that we support them in any way that we can, but it's going to be their choice.
But at the end of the day, we've drawn a red line.
Do not cross it.
And if you do, there's going to be further consequences.
Of course there is, but that's also going to be up to them.
That's going to be up to Axis versus allies of power, but you know what I'm getting at with that.
They're going to have to decide that.
I think Secretary Hegseth was very clear.
Well, we're going to destroy their missile defense systems and their missile systems.
We're going to destroy their aircraft.
We're going to destroy their navy.
We're going to leave them powerless.
Then once we do that, now they're going to have a choice.
And again, that's not anything that the American military or that the American government that we can do really anything about, whatever they choose or however they choose to move forward.
If I were them, I wouldn't mess with President Trump.
If I were them, I would wait till we had a leader like Kambla Harris or Joe Biden before I started doing this stuff again.
I think a lot of people are wondering what's going to happen if I'm going to wake up in the morning and if I'm going to eat a missile for breakfast because I didn't adhere to the negotiation process of this administration.
And unfortunately, as mean as that sounds and as crass as that may sound, there are people in this world that want to see the end of this nation as we know it, just because we are Americans.
People need to wake up.
This is not the time to sing kumbaya.
People want us dead.
There are dictators.
There are leaders that want to see the end of this great nation.
And if we are not vigilant and if we are not aware and if we are not proactive at stopping it, they are going to harm us and they are going to murder and they are going to kill us.
It's just that simple.
And so the people that are being critics of what we are trying to accomplish by, again, displaying peace through strength, we rid the world of another dictator.
But at the end of the day, it's up to the people of that country to decide how they would like to proceed.
And I do believe that we're on the right side of history.
The president is operating in the best interest of America and the president is operating in its best interest of the people to keep us safe.
This is actually what I was kind of referring to earlier.
This is not their first rodeo.
It's not the Ayatollah's first rodeo.
This is rodeo.
This has been happening for decades.
I mean, people don't understand that these people have been funding terrorist organizations.
They have been attacking United States embassies.
They've been attacking United States vessels for decades.
They've taken hostages.
This is not new.
So the fact that now we have a president that's going to actually do something about it, this just goes to show you that there's going to be consequences for your actions and your behavior.
He called his cowards and he said, come and get me.
Okay.
Well, we did.
And then we gave you a nice flight ride right over the Statue of Liberty and then perk walked you right down Madison Avenue.
Congratulations.
You got a nice tour of America.
Now, everybody watches that.
Even these dictators, even some of these strong men nations, they're watching that.
And they're on notice.
They have to be very careful with how they proceed moving forward.
And President Trump doesn't just talk a big game.
He proves it.
He backs it.
And I think that when you look at what happened with Solomoni, you look at what happened with Maduro, look at what happened with the Ayatollah, this is peace through strength.
I'm in a person that has been fired at and been shot at in the patch helicopter.
I understand what it means to be in a land and to have people that hate your guts because you're there and hate your guts because you are an American.
I understand these things.
And so if we are not vigilant and if we don't deal with the number one role of the federal government is, and that is to protect the American citizen, these are the acts that protect American citizens.
And when you do sign up to fight in the war, when you do sign up to defend this country, as somebody like me did, and you're put in harm's way, brother, that's a part of it.
That's a part of it.
I've been on the campaigns around talking about the 55 combat air missions that I flew in back that 55 times I said the Lord's prayer to get right with Jesus just in case I didn't make it back home alive.
That's what it takes.
And when somebody sends you, when the government sends you, it doesn't matter what the conflict is.
When you're in harm's way, it doesn't matter what the conflict is.
It doesn't matter who the president is.
It doesn't matter who's in charge.
We signed an oath to defend this country.
That's what we did.
We signed an oath to do the biddings of our commander in chief.
That's what we did.
And so if it means our life, well, then so be it.
But thank God that we do have a president that if we are going to be in harm's way, it's going to be for a reasonable cause.
Now, this is a remarkable sort of pivot here because now it seems like, Congressman, there are Texans in harm's way.
Again, for decisions that were made by imbeciles that was not the Trump administration, we talked so much about like how the Trump administration is having to clean up the messes of generations of cowards and cowardly leadership and suicidal policies, whether it be, you know, obviously open borders or letting 18,000 people on the terrorist watch list in here.
We saw one of those refugees, asylum seekers, shoot up a Texas bar, a bar in Austin, kill some Texans.
It's tragic.
Can you talk us through how should Texas secure itself?
I saw a lot of people in my timeline talking about the Islamification of Texas and saying that, you know, listen, the enemy is already here.
The DHS has not been able to deport those 18,000 people.
In fact, they've only been able to deport 10% of the 18,000 terrorists that we know are here in America.
We also know that there's millions and millions of other unvetted criminal aliens that are residing here.
These are the consequences of having 20 million people in our country over the four years.
And we have no idea who they are.
We have no idea where they went.
We have no idea what their intentions are in this country, which is why having a secure border is very important.
As I've been traveling all over the state running for Senate, I was in El Paso a couple of weeks ago, and I was talking to some border patrol agents at the border.
And I asked him, I said, how many people have tried to come into the country illegally yesterday?
He looked at me and said, yesterday, none.
I said, what about last week?
He goes, maybe like one or two.
Our border is not secure.
We didn't even need any more laws, no resolutions.
We simply needed a new president to enforce the laws on the books.
Well, now we are now in a different phase of this.
This is why we have to empower ICE so they could do their jobs, so they could find these people and send them and get them the hell out of this country and send them back home.
And quite frankly, this is why President Trump won.
He ran on this.
You talked about me flying around the country with him and traveling on his plane.
He ran on this.
He talked about this at every stop, at every rally.
He talked about correcting this wrong.
This is the only way to keep American citizens safe.
We had a derelict of duty for four years from the Biden administration.
And then now he left the mess for us to clean up.
And thank God that President Trump is actually willing to do that.
But what we have to do is also have strong leaders.
And I know we're going to get called bad names.
We're going to get called xenophobic.
We're going to be called racist.
I understand all that.
But at the end of the day, I am none of the above.
What I am is I'm an American that has babies here.
Sir, you have babies here.
And I want to make sure that we keep our citizens safe.
You shouldn't be at a bar in Austin and be worried about getting shot up by a terrorist in the first place.
What are we talking about here?
This shouldn't be a serious conversation.
Also, this is Texas.
You talked about open care.
You talked about concealed carry and the ability for us to defend ourselves and the strong Second Amendment rights that we have here.
Yes, sir.
That is correct.
Be vigilant.
Be aware.
For those that have trained, for those who are, they do have a military background or a law enforcement background.
We got to keep our eyes open because they are here and they've been here and we let them in the country in the last administration.
It's a shame.
When I was stationed in Saudi Arabia as a diplomatic liaison officer for two years, do you know that in order to even enter Saudi airspace, I had to have a diplomatic passport?
When I left in and out of that country, I had to get a colonoscopy, basically.
It was unbelievable.
And you mean to tell me that Saudi has that kind of structure and we in this country don't?
We should know every single person who is here.
We should know every single terrorist that enters our country.
We need to find them, we need to round them up, and we need to send them back.
And if they want to harm Americans, or if they do, they need to die.
That's it.
And for those people that don't understand that, you are being very Pollyannianist in the way that you live your lives.
This is the reality of life.
And I understand why only 1% of us raises our hand to defend that.
I get it, but we do it because we understand exactly how important it is.
And we are the ones that are willing to take the fire.
I was so relieved because oftentimes, and a good example of this is Parkland shooting here in Florida, where the police officer hid, in fact, and didn't engage the shooter.
And I was reading about what happened in Texas.
It's like 57 seconds.
They were able to take this guy out in 57 seconds.
Not a full minute passed before this man was sent straight to hell.
This guy with his property of Allah shirt on with his refugee card right here in America.
The madness has to end, Congressman.
I'll give you the last word here because, of course, you are running.
You have a critical election that starts tomorrow.
Is that correct?
That would be the date tomorrow.
Perhaps a message to the law enforcement in Austin, Texas law enforcement that took out the shooter in 57 seconds.
And even as their next senator, I can assure you that I will support every law enforcement officer to the best of my ability because without them, you are correct.
There would have been more deaths.
God bless them and thank them so much.
Tomorrow's a big day for me for the United States Senate, obviously.
Please come out, turn out, vote for here in Texas.
Lord knows we need you.
It's for the Republican primary.
I've been working my butt off.
I've done over 50 stops all over this great state.
Texas is a big state.
It's kind of more like the country of Texas, but it's been great to look at voters in their eyes.
It's been great campaigning.
And I think we should, we've got to finish up strong tomorrow.
When we open up a job application, we get a lot of resumes.
Sometimes these resumes come from out of the country.
We're going to hire Americans, right?
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All right, ladies and gentlemen.
This is exactly what was said at the White House seconds ago.
This is on CNN.
Jake Tapper saying, it's going to get less safe.
I'm sorry, not Jake Tapper.
Donald Trump.
This is a quote from Donald Trump.
The quote is, it's going to get less safe.
We haven't even started to hit them hard, meaning I ran.
The big wave hasn't happened yet.
The big one is coming soon.
Okay, you ready to cook?
Ladies and gentlemen, the great Mike Cernovich joining the show live right now for his take.
I love your, I just, it's so comforting, Cerno, to like open up my XFeed in all of my situation monitoring.
And if there was a situation monitoring, you know, gold medal, I'd be looking like the Russian general, right?
Zukov, you know, is what it'd look like for situation monitoring.
But to see the top of your feed, and just be like, just calling out people that are like losing their minds one way or the other, making fools of themselves, quite frankly.
People that didn't sign up to go fight in wars, people that don't have the credentials to be melting down right now.
And I think it's really good to have a calm head in moments like this and to take the blows and like accept the news cycles as they are developing.
And we're trying to do that on this program.
But nonetheless, I defer to you, sort of the OG godfather of MAGA.
It's a good question what's happening because the situation in Iran is a complicated one.
People don't want to hear it.
They mix up the politics with the morality, with the truth of it.
I understand why, because we've lied to so much.
So when I talk about Iran, I always start with the position that would knowing what I know, would I have done these airstrikes?
Almost certainly not.
Trump perhaps knows things that we do know, but I don't think you have to trust a plan.
And somebody should wag their finger and say, how dare you not trust a plan?
But it's also frustrating when people wind up almost defending the mullahs, right?
And denying that the mullahs have killed 30,000 of their own people.
Anyone who is in touch with the Iranian diaspora can see video after video, whole streets lined up where everyone in that street has lost a child.
It's a horrible regime.
Now, it does not mean that it's the duty of the American people to go in and take out the mullahs and do regime change.
And that's an open debate.
And I'm glad to see it.
And unfortunately, most of what I'm seeing is we have to do regime change.
And if you oppose it, then you're a terrible person.
And then from way too many people that I like, they're questioning me.
They're saying, well, how do you know that 30,000 people died?
And go to a hookah bar in OC or LA, right?
I don't mean to be glib about it, but this information is ascertainable with a reasonable amount of diligence.
So then why not just work with the facts?
So there are reasons.
There are reasons to do this.
There are reasons to take out the mulas in this way to exercise the military might.
It could work.
Again, would I do it?
That's a whole different conversation, but I think that people, especially as you get older, I understand why the young men are angry, but especially as you get older, my age, I try not to pick a hard line. and zoom in on it.
I try to synthesize what everyone else is saying and then offer my own analysis, which is usually, I think, circumspect.
So can you talk about where I think probably 90% of the people are in?
It's amazing what a, like probably the best example, it's probably the best metaphor I've ever heard.
Somebody called X the smoking section of the internet the other day.
And I was like, yeah, man, that's perfect, man.
That's perfect.
Most people are just inside the restaurant.
They're not in the smoking section.
The smoking section is just like rowdy and it's a lot of degenerates and it's a lot of alcoholics and it's a lot of people that are like a bit spaced.
And so I think that there's a middle way here where the vast majority of Americans align, where we're suspicious of our government because we've been lied to so much.
But we're also not going to sit there and say that it's, you know, it's good, like we're not going to defend the Ayatollah and we're not going to defend this regime.
And I think what they're looking for is permission and an explanation, like a calm explanation in plain English about what's actually going on.
And I think that the American people are very open, quite frankly, to good faith explanations and to having the world sort of presented to them in a way that they can understand and not being lied to about weapons of mass destruction, but being given like the hard evidence.
And we're an intelligent people.
We'll come, I think, to the right conclusion given the right evidence.
Maybe I have a little too much hope for that, but I think that's where most people are.
I think the conversation on X is obviously spiraled between camps that you don't even know if half these accounts are in America.
Most of them aren't.
You don't know who's being paid.
And I think there's a lot of like deep inauthenticity and like psycho babble.
And most people are kind of in the middle.
It's kind of like waiting for a like rock solid explanation to like come up, you know, to determine like where we should, where they should stand on this issue.
I don't believe that Trump administration has given that explanation.
I don't think this is a popular measure.
I don't think it's what people want.
I think people want the Save America Act.
My hope is that this was part of a broader deal for the Save America Act.
So the way that I've made a lot of people upset is people think it's an insult to claim that, well, you're just a political, political calculation.
And I said, I don't know what to tell you, man.
Yesterday was Sunday.
That's church for Christians.
Temple, you go to temple.
There's a lot of places to go moralize and wag your fingers and talk about this and that.
But the reality is that we need political outcomes.
And if we don't get the SAVE Act, if we don't get results, if this doesn't compel John Curtis from Utah and other people, if this wasn't what was holding them back, because of course, John Curtis viciously went after Jeremy Carl, very kind and thoughtful man who had to take a struggle session, essentially from a Republican, which was repulsive, a Republican in the West.
If this doesn't lead to something more, then I view it as politically damaging because Charlie Kirk, the work of so many other people like you, Turning Point, they got young men who it's almost impossible to get young men to vote.
Young men will argue all day on Twitter.
They'll argue all day on Instagram.
I watch their channels.
I always see what the Jimbros are up to.
And they are mad.
And we need to vote in the midterm.
So the politics of the Iran thing, I'm really frustrated with and I'm bothered by.
Killing the Mullahs, I think, is amazing.
I could hold all of these in my own head.
The Mullahs deserves to get murked.
The Iranian people are not tribalistic the way they are in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They have a national identity.
I could bore people to tears on Iran and how it was the Islamic Revolutionary Guard that elevates Islam above Iranian nationalism.
So you have Islamic nationalism and then you have Iranian nationalism.
The people, the high Q productive people are Iranian.
They see themselves as Iranian, right?
The Mullahs and others see themselves as Islamist globalists.
So when we talk about globalists, people always say, oh, that's a cobra for the Jews.
Islamic jihad is globalist.
That's why the mullahs could have just lived in Iran.
And I'm not saying you or I would live this way, but you could be a Mullah.
You have money, beautiful women.
Why don't you just sit in your country and be rich like the sheikhs do, right?
Well, because the Iranians are globalists and they want to export terrorism and jihad.
This is just objectively true.
So then the question becomes, is it a good thing that they were murdered, murdered, right?
Killed?
Because people are calling it murder and illegal war.
And I'm just thinking, what in the world am I reading here?
The answer is, I was thrilled.
I'm happy for the Iranian people, the people of Iran.
I'm happy for the diaspora.
I know a lot of them do want to go back.
I know a lot of people who want to go back to Iran.
It's not an insult because I've seen some videos and they're saying, well, those people are protesting or dancing in the American streets are so happy.
What if they go back to Iran?
They want to go back to Iran.
They didn't want to come over here.
A lot of the people came over, they came over after the revolution.
That's something that people misunderstand.
They're extremely productive.
Persian Jews in Beverly Hills, they're high income.
Iranians, secular Iranians are, they have um, they're still very traditional.
I call them secular Muslims, which is a contradiction.
But the idea is that they're very traditional people, very productive people economically.
They're not welfare drains.
They want to go back.
So it isn't even a good comment to say, well, if you're so happy, go back to Iran.
They're thinking, we want to.
We want to.
I hear this all the time at the cigar lounge that I operate.
You know, I always hear from a lot of people.
And I was talking to a wonderful Persian woman.
She goes, We can't wait.
We can't wait to go back.
We want to go back.
We weren't hearing that with Iraq and Afghanistan.
So it is different.
Again, people listening who want to argue and say, well, I don't, that doesn't mean we should do it.
I started the top of the show talking about how there is no more, it's not the Trump administration's fault because they weren't in power.
But over the last 40 years, or the last 60 years, actually, since the JFK assassination, like entire wings of the superstructure facade of the federal government's credibility have been demolished.
And through the assassinations, through multiple lies, Iraq War One, Iraq War II, weapons of mass destruction, COVID, now the building has been demolished into the earth.
And there is no more credibility for the federal government.
And so you have to show your work and you have to explain.
You know, there's going to be no more people.
There's going to be no more people that are like going to just say straight up believe you just because you're the federal government.
And so that, like, I guess that would be my simple warning.
And we found that out during the Epstein saga is like the shut up, move along, that doesn't work anymore, right?
Like shut up, stop asking questions, move along.
That will backfire worse than it's ever backfired because the last shreds of credibility have been bulldozed into the ground.
And so you have to build back up and you have to do that by telling people the truth and explaining your moves, honestly.
Well, the way the outcome could be the messaging and everything I agree with.
The thing that I've noticed is that the neocons think it's 2003 and you can just say, oh, Benny Johnson, you oppose this.
You're a coward.
That's what they did.
The National Review expelled every war skeptic and they even called everybody cowards.
But it's been 20 years.
Everybody under 50, they all could have gone and they didn't want to go.
So that, of course, is right.
And that's why they're flailing around.
Now, me, speaking for myself and the way I view the situation, the way it could be different is think about it like this: spiritually or energetically.
We have never in our lifetimes seen a war executed in a manner of the right-wing masculine.
We always got this hodgepodge of compassionate conservative coalition of the willing, or we had the toxic feminine Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton allowing Benghazi to happen, right?
Yesterday, a bunch of Pakistani lunatics tried to invade the seeing what happened.
And the toxic feminine on my timeline, the Twitter is, this is so bad.
And we're all saying, no, no, we're not living.
And by toxic feminine, I don't mean feminine is toxic.
I mean the version of that, the smothering mother, the boss you have who will give you an instruction and then an hour later tell you it's a different thing and why are you working on that project?
And you go, well, you told me to work on this project.
And well, well, you wouldn't need to work on this other thing now.
And you're going, where do I stand?
You don't know where you stand, right?
So the loving feminine, the embracing feminine, of course, is a loving mother.
It's Mary.
The toxic feminine doesn't mean feminine is toxic.
It's a toxic form of the energy, just like toxic masculinity can be too callous and toxic, right?
So we've never had, I'll be right off, guys.
So we never had a situation where we're just going to say, Mulah one, you're up.
Mullah five, can you and your five friends run the government?
Yes, sir.
We're willing to do it.
Okay, here's what you're going to do.
You're not going to murder your citizens in the street.
You're not going to keep doing the nuclear enrichment.
You're not going to keep using proxies to commit terrorism.
We know that you can't democratic elections within the next year.
Everybody knows that.
The people of Iran do not expect elections this year, but you're going to run a stable government and you're going to do it the way that you're supposed to do it, or we're just going to kill you.
That's the masculine.
The right wing is, here's a line.
Remember, Obama would draw these red lines and then he wouldn't follow him.
That's again, that's not right wing, right?
So you just say, you know, Trump even said the people I was going to put to replace Kamini, we killed them too.
We've killed so many.
So eventually you will get a coalition that's willing to play ball.
Then you regulate them in the way that I think most people respond.
Well, to especially in the Middle East.
In the Middle East, there's an expression that says, a thousand years of tyranny is better than the day of anarchy.
Libya is anarchy.
The tyranny of Qaddafi was far preferable to the anarchy now of Libya.
So, in Iran, it's going to, of course, be a different form of government than maybe we're used to, but it isn't going to be the mullahs.
They're not going to be murdering people in the streets.
And there's a way to pull that off, which is, again, you're next man up.
So, I was talking to a first-time Trump voter who is a part Iranian, but also American.
And he said, Well, he said, Well, Trump needs to bomb the mulahs.
This was weeks back.
I mean, I mean, I've been hearing this for months.
And I said, Well, what would you say to the people who claim that this is just being done for Israel?
This guy is not a Zionist.
He's very much, he's not an anti-Zionist, but this guy's not a Zionist.
And he said, Why does everybody think if it helps Israel, then it's for Israel?
Right?
And that helped me shape a lot of my thinking about this.
He goes, Sure, it'll help Israel, but that doesn't mean it's for Israel.
And then he went on to talk about the mulahs, the murders, that the 30,000 were true.
And I, of course, had heard that before and knew that was true.
And then there is the China angle where we need to, China is a geopolitical threat and rival.
And the more oil and natural reserves we can contain is in our benefit.
Russia, which I think that we should see differently, but if you look at the current map, and I think Trump sees it more realistically the way I do, he would say, like as follows: We didn't want to do anything with Iran years ago because China and Russia were seen as more powerful.
And we did have a, there was a risk of World War III.
But I think a lot of people don't understand that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has jammed it up.
China, they have their own problems back home.
Their economy isn't what it is.
There's now some claims that their population is not even what it is, and that a lot of things we don't believe about China are true.
A lot of things that we do believe about China are not true.
And this might be the time to strike because you notice China hasn't done anything.
The war game scenario was if the U.S. does anything with Iran, China's coming in, Russia's coming in, hostilities could break out worldwide.
And now we're seeing, no, no, the tech is just too good.
Our American tech is just too good.
And anybody, like the Venezuela raid, they went in.
That was unreal.
And we have tech.
We just have, you know, people call it the alien technology.
We have alien technology and we can pull things off that we couldn't pull off 20 years ago.
And that, again, is why I think this time might be different.
And if we can control more natural resources and control more oil, the future is energy.
We're behind China on energy.
Why not do that, right?
Why not do that?
That's the way I look at it.
And Tucker and I talked a lot about this within the context of Venezuela.
And he obviously disagreed with me on Venezuela.
But philosophically, I just think that international law is all fake.
And if we are able to pull off regime change and make it work, I'm not against regime change on a moral basis, right?
Oh, the Pope told me war is bad.
That's not why I'm against it.
I'm against it because it's always been done badly and it's led to more human suffering.
It's led to Libya, a human rights travesty.
And then, of course, all the migrants and the Libya fall of Libya is tied to mass migration of Europe and the Islamization of Europe.
That's why I'm against it.
But if we could pull off regime change and it would work, why wouldn't we install our vassal?
Why wouldn't we be Rome?
Why wouldn't we?
We're the most moral people in the world.
The American people, the American Christian is the most moral people that have ever, not that we're perfect, but has ever walked the face of the earth.
Why wouldn't we go in and run it and control the energy and govern people justly?
Ladies and gentlemen, please bow with me as I ask God's blessings upon this ceremony.
Almighty God, your steady hand has guided this republic for nearly 250 years.
From its birth in the wilderness to this very hour, we come to you now with grateful hearts.
We assemble here today to honor men who, when the test came, were steadfast and unmovable.
We thank you for the unyielding conviction of Master Sergeant Roderick Edmonds, who looked evil in the eyes and did not flinch.
And we thank you for the battlefield grit of Command Sergeant Major Terry Richardson, courage that saved lives in Vietnam, and courage that stands before us today.
And Lord, we thank you for Staff Sergeant Michael Aulis, who in a final selfless act made his own body a shield for a friend.
Bless the family and friends of these great men of honor, O Lord, and forbid that we leave this place as mere admirers of their heroic deeds.
Plant in our hearts a measure of their courage that we might prove worthy of the freedom for which they and generations before them defended.
Lord, now let the light of liberty continue to shine on our great nation.
We pray in the strong name of the one who guides us, this will defend.
So before we begin this important ceremony, and there's no ceremony that can be much more important than this, let me provide a brief update on Operation Epic Fury.
Today, the United States military continues to carry out large-scale combat operations in Iran to eliminate the grave threats posed to America by this terrible terrorist regime.
Following our obliteration of Iran's nuclear program in Operation Midnight Hammer a short while ago, we warned Iran not to make any attempt to rebuild at a different location because they weren't able to use the ones we so powerfully blew up.
But they ignored those warnings and refused to cease their pursuit of nuclear weapons.
In addition, the regime's conventional ballistic missile program was growing rapidly and dramatically, and this posed a very clear, colossal threat to America and our forces stationed overseas.
The regime already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and our bases both local and overseas and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America.
The purpose of this fast-growing missile program was to shield their nuclear weapon development and make it extraordinarily difficult for anyone to stop them from making these highly forbidden by us nuclear weapons.
We were the ones that were complaining.
We were the ones that wanted it stopped.
But everybody was behind us.
They just didn't have the courage to say so.
An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat to the Middle East, but also to the American people.
Our country itself would be under threat, and it was very nearly under threat.
I was very proud to have knocked out the Iran nuclear deal by President Barack Hussein Obama.
That was a horrible, horrible, dangerous document.
They would have had nuclear weapons three years ago, and they would have used them.
But I'll not let that happen.
For almost 47 years, this regime has been attacking the United States and killing Americans.
Every time you see someone with missing arms and legs or a face that's been absolutely shattered violently, it was almost certainly caused by an Iran roadside bomb.
They were put there by General Salome, who was the father of the roadside bomb, very proudly, he thought.
But I terminated him in my first term.
This was our last best chance to strike what we're doing right now and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime.
And they are indeed sick and sinister.
Our objectives are clear.
First, we're destroying Iran's missile capabilities, and you see that happening on an hourly basis on their capacity to produce brand new ones and pretty good ones they make.
Second, we're annihilating their Navy.
We've knocked out already 10 ships.
They're at the bottom of the sea.
Third, we're ensuring that the world's number one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon, never going to have a nuclear weapon.
I said that from the beginning.
They're never going to have a nuclear weapon.
They were on the road to getting one legitimately through a deal that was signed foolishly by our country.
And finally, we're ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund, and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.
And we thought we had a deal, but then they backed out and they came back and we thought we had a deal and they backed out.
I said, you can't deal with these people.
You've got to do it the right way.
Today, we grieve for the four heroic American service members who have been killed in action and send our love and support to their families.
In their memory, we continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people.
And a threat indeed it is.
We have the strongest and most powerful by far military in the world, and we will easily prevail.
We're already substantially ahead of our time projections, but whatever the time is, it's okay.
Whatever it takes, we will always, and we have right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that.
We'll do it.
Whatever somebody said today, they said, oh, well, if the president wants to do it really quickly after that, he'll get bored.
I don't get bored.
There's nothing boring about this.
Do you agree with that, Pete?
I don't think there's anything, Mr. General.
There's nothing boring about it.
Somebody actually said from the media, I think he'll get bored after about a week or two.
No, we don't get bored.
I never get bored.
If I got bored, I wouldn't be standing here right now, I guarantee you that, to go through what I had to go through.
We also projected four weeks to terminate the military leadership.
And as you know, that was done in about an hour.
So we're ahead of schedule there by a lot.
But please join me in thanking every American service member who bravely is standing in harm's way.
To me, other than here, because we're donating it, not a penny to the taxpayer.
It'll be under budget, ahead of schedule.
It'll be 400 million or less.
Most people say 400 million or more.
No, it'll be less.
But when I hear that sound, that beautiful sound behind me, it means money.
So I like it.
But my wife isn't thrilled.
She said, this is getting crazy.
I said, don't worry about it.
We'll be all finished up in a few months.
But now, for the reason that we're gathered this morning to recognize the unsurpassed courage of three really incredible American heroes, one living and two no longer with us.
So together, we recognize the exceptional valor of Master Sergeant Roderick Edmonds.
And maybe I could ask your families to stand because they're beautiful families.
I got to meet them.
Please.
So Staff Sergeant Michael Wallace and Command Sergeant Major Terry Richardson, as they receive our nation's highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor.
And we're pleased to be joined by Secretary of War Pete Hegset.
He's busy.
He's busy.
Very busy guy.
In fact, I said, if you want, Pete, you can avoid it.
General Raisin Kane also.
And they said, we don't avoid this one.
This is one you wouldn't avoid for anything, right?
So we appreciate that you're here.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs, who's doing an incredible job, Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins.
Doug, thank you.
You stand up, Doug.
You're doing such a good job.
92% approval rating.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Kane, who's known as Raisin Kane.
I liked him when I heard that name, Raisin Kane.
I said, if it's true, you're my guy.
And it's true.
It's turned out.
It's very true.
He's a great guy and a great general.
Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, and Army Chief of Staff, Randy George.
Thank you.
Thank you both, Dan.
As well as Senators Tom Cotton, Bill Haggerty.
You guys were great on television this weekend.
And I'll tell you what, can't have a better representative than both of you.
Thank you very much.
And Representatives Tim Burchett, Jack Bergman, and Nicole Maliatakis.
So we have a few others sitting here, but I'm not going to go through it because we have far more important people to honor today.
Oh, we have Tom Holman.
I got to at least mention Tom Holman.
I would be a stand-up, Tom.
What a job.
Zero, zero people coming in.
We had millions and millions of people pouring into our country now.
I mean, I'm not even sure.
I can believe this number, it's zero, but it is given out by Democrats, Democrats from the West.
And they're rated for the last nine months, we had zero people come illegally through our border, right, Tom?
So I want to thank you very much.
And I also want to salute six former Medal of Honor recipients, William Swenson, Jim McLunan, Walter Marm, Thomas Payne, Sammy Davis.
Otherwise, the press will come out with it, which they actually did once.
Donald Trump wants the Congressional Medal of Honor, but he's been shut down.
But now you are brave, amazing people.
And I want to thank you all.
In 1941, Roddy Edmonds of Knoxville, Tennessee enlisted in the U.S. Army and soon rose to one of the youngest master sergeants in the military.
In 1944, he sailed to Europe to fight in World War II.
And he was so enthusiastic and young and full of vim and vigor.
Roddy soon found himself on the front lines of the Battle of the Bulls.
That was a big one.
Massively outnumbered by enemy forces, his 1,200 soldier unit fought valiantly until they were completely overrun.
The force was massive on the other side, many times the number.
After a four-day death march, one that was covered very well. by the history books through bitter cold, they were put into a German POW camp.
Roddy was the top-ranking infantryman in the camp.
He was number one, meaning he was responsible for the lives of his fellow service members.
On July 26, 1945, a Nazi SS officer issued an order over the camp loudspeaker, loud and strong.
He said that only American Jews were to show up to roll call following this morning.
He added, all who disobey this order will be shot immediately.
There were more than 200 Jewish American soldiers in the camp, and Roddy knew their separation from the group would mean certain death.
So that night he summoned his team and devised a plan.
The next morning, all 1,200 American men fell in line together, shoulder to shoulder.
Enraged, the Nazi commandant rushed forward, drew his Luger pistol, and pressed the barrel between Sergeant Edmonds' eyes.
He barked at Roddy.
They cannot all be Jews, he screamed loud and again and again, and staring straight back into the raging face of evil.
Sergeant Edmonds replied fearlessly, We are all Jews here.
The Nazi officer lowered his weapon and the soldiers erupted in cheers.
With total disregard for his own life, Roddy had saved over 200 of his fellow service members.
Their camp was liberated two months later.
We're honored to be joined today by Roddy's son, Chris.
Please stand up.
Thank you, Chris.
Today, your father gets the honor he so courageously earned.
And really amazing, right?
It's an amazing story.
Congratulations to the family of Master Sergeant Roddy Edmonds.
The next two we recognize today served in the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division, better known as Big Red One.
Do you know about that, Pete?
Right?
Command Sergeant Major Terry Richardson, we are honored to have you with us.
On September 12th, 1968, 102 brave men of Terry's Alpha Company were asked with securing Hill 222 deep behind the enemy's line in Vietnam.
They didn't know it at the time, had no idea, but the area was totally infested with nearly 300 enemy bunkers and many, many enemy soldiers, far outnumbering them by at least four, five, even six to one.
As Terry led Lima Platoon up Hill 222, the enemy launched an ambitious and violent attack, unleashing a withering fire of machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Just didn't stop, just kept coming.
Pinned down in Hell on Earth, Terry summoned unimaginable courage.
Three times he exposed himself to enemy fire to rescue severely wounded comrades, and three times he dragged them back to the group.
Terry soon realized that the 82 remaining men had one chance of survival.
That was air support.
Acting without regard of his own life, he grabbed a radio and charged up Hill 222 alone.
He needed to be there.
It was the only place you'd get reception.
He withstood a storm of enemy bullets, eventually reaching the top where he spent the next eight hours calling in tactical strikes completely exposed.
An hour in, an enemy sniper shot rang out and the bullet tore through his right leg violently.
He was in bad shape, but Terry disregarded that and pushed through.
And after seven more hours of calling in American fire from above, the enemy retreated.
Later that day, his team found him with both eardrums totally ruptured and a mangled right leg and foot, but still barely living, but living, nevertheless.
Due to Terry's actions above and beyond the call of duty, 82 men, Alpha Company, survived this battle, including two in this room, Norm Meyer and Dave Himmer.
After 9-11, Michael enlisted in the Army, and by 24 years old, he was in.
He was locked in.
He loved it.
He wanted it so badly.
He was a squad leader serving in Afghanistan with the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team of the legendary 10th Mountain Division.
On August 28th, 2013, terrorists detonated a 400-pound car bomb on the east wall of the forward operating base, Gansi, ripping open a 60-foot-wide breach into a compound that housed NATO coalition forces, a lot of them.
Ten Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests swarmed through.
From across the compound, Michael saw the pillar of white smoke rising and ran to join the fight, rushing without his gear, wearing almost no gear, no Kevlar helmet, no body armor, just one magazine in his rifle.
Along the way, he encountered a Polish soldier, and together they advanced under heavy fire, very, very heavy fire.
At one point, shrapnel ripped through the Polish soldier's legs, rendering him unable to walk, very, very severely hurt.
In that chaos of gunfire explosions and charred human remains, a terrorist insurgent appeared rounding a corner with his suicide vest, fully armed, and you could see it.
It was going to happen.
He charged the wounded Polish soldier without hesitation.
Michael raised his gun and forced himself between the insurgent and the man he just met, shielding him with his own body.
You never really know who's brave, who's not until they're really tested.
We think some people are brave, Pete, and they're not.
We think others aren't, and they are.
You never know.
But he was tested.
That's called the ultimate test, right?
And at perhaps his final heartbeat, Michael fired his weapon, and the terrorists detonated his vest simultaneously.
Staff Sergeant Ollis was killed just weeks before his 25th birthday, and nobody was any more brave than that.
In his final act on earth, Michael absorbed the blast, sparing the life of that Polish warrior, who we are grateful to have in the room with us today, Second Lieutenant Carol Siropica.
Mr. President, Minister of War, I'm Minister Polish of National Defense, distinguished West, everyone gathered here today.
Do you, Maiel?
Basha, Michael and Jacob, especially Dorlinda and Robert and the entire OIS family.
What do you have that you did not receive?
This is how I would like to begin these few words to speak to you all here in the special place and on the occasion of this incredibly important ceremony, one that is significant for many, but truly especially exceptional for me.
It's a particular privilege and a great honor.
Above all, however, it is my commitment.
It is part of my new mission, which began 13 years ago.
A soldier is not something you are from time to time.
It is who you are forever.
It is just like you are not a mother, a father, a sister, and brother, or only for a moment.
These are not rules given to us for a while.
They are a great gift, but also a great lifelong commitment.
Yes, today my commitment and my greatest gift is to cultivate the memory of true heroic act of courage that I witnessed performed by your beloved son, Michael.
Please forgive me if my words have not fully captured what I truly feel today.
However, sometimes words are simply not enough.
I'm deeply moved, happy, and grateful to God for my service, for my parents, for my family, for my beloved homeland, Poland, for my second family from Stated Island, and for my second homeland, America.
God bless you all.
Michael, thank you for your service, and I will see you in our heavenly homeland.
And Carol is joined by his wife and their two wonderful sons, Jacob and Michael.
Michael is named after the American hero who saved his father's life.
So say it up, Michael.
Still Pleased to be joined by several members of the Polish government, including representatives of the president, who I think is a fantastic man, by the way.
I must be honest with you.
I endorsed him and he won, and he came from behind.
He won, and he was the biggest story in Europe.
He's going to be a great president.
He already is.
But as well as Poland's minister of defense, to honor the blood and sacrifice that has helped seal the Polish-American bond.
We have a great bond.
We have a great relationship with your country.
And I just want to thank you to Michael's parents, Bob and Linda.
Your son's selflessness in the face of real evil reminds us of the courage that keeps our country free.
And I just said the genetics in that family are very strong, right?
I said that before.
All three families, I said, good.
I see some of the young ones today.
And I said, you have good genes.
They were asking me, what does that mean?
I said, don't worry about it.
You'll figure it out.
But you have the best genes you can have, actually.
So thank you for giving America your beloved son.
And now I would like to ask the military aide to come forward and read the citations, and then we will do the honors.
Chris Edmonds, accepting on behalf of his father, Master Sergeant Roderick W. Edmonds.
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, March 3rd, 1863, has posthumously awarded in the name of Congress the Medal of Honor to Master Sergeant Roderick W. Edmonds, United States Army.
Master Sergeant Roderick W. Edmonds distinguished himself by acts of gallantry above and beyond the call of duty from January 27, 1945, to March 30th, 1945, as a prisoner of war in Germany.
Upon arrival at Stalag 9A in Siedenheim, Germany, on the evening of January 26, 1945, the Germans announced that only Jewish American prisoners would fall out for roll call the following morning at the threat of execution.
Master Sergeant Edmonds directed his senior leaders to have all 1,200 American prisoners present themselves for roll call.
The Nazi Commandant became incredulous after realizing that so many Americans were standing in formation.
The Commandant removed his pistol, pressed it hard against Master Sergeant Edmonds' forehead between his eyes, and demanded that he order all Jewish American prisoners to step forward or he would be shot.
Master Sergeant Edmonds fearlessly held his ground, refusing to concede.
The Commandant lowered his weapon without further attempts to segregate the Jewish American prisoners.
Several weeks later, in March 1945, the Germans ordered all prisoners to assemble outside the barracks for evacuation.
Master Sergeant Edmonds ordered all American prisoners to form in front of the barracks, and when the enemy transports arrived, they would break ranks and rush back to the barracks.
Master Sergeant Edmonds gallantly led these prisoners in a relentless pursuit of opposition and resistance, forcing the Germans to abandon the camp, leaving the 1,200 American prisoners behind.
Master Sergeant Edmonds' conspicuous gallantry above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
Command Sergeant Major Terry P Richardson.
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress March 3rd, 1863, has awarded in the name of Congress the Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant Terry P. Richardson, United States Army.
Staff Sergeant Terry P. Richardson distinguished himself by acts of gallantry above and beyond the call of duty on September 14th, 1968, in the vicinity of Loch Ning, Republic of Vietnam.
On this date, his company was tasked with the mission of securing Hill 222 in hostile enemy territory near the Cambodian border.
Staff Sergeant Richardson directed one of his squads to be the point element leading the way.
Shortly after the assault began, three of the squad members became severely wounded and pinned down between three enemy machine gun bunkers.
Staff Sergeant Richardson advanced forward under heavy enemy fire and recovered his wounded soldiers between heavy machine gun fire.
By the time he was able to make it back to join his unit, his entire company had been completely surrounded by the enemy.
Staff Sergeant Richardson recognized that the only way to keep his company from being overrun was with accurate tactical airstrikes.
Staff Sergeant Richardson advanced to the top of Hill 222 under heavy enemy fire for better sight lines to direct the tactical airstrikes.
He began to direct the tactical airstrikes and shortly thereafter became wounded by an enemy sniper.
Staff Sergeant Richardson continued directing the tactical airstrikes for seven more hours before the enemy broke contact.
Six soldiers from his platoon found him still alive.
Staff Sergeant Richardson declined medical evaluation for his gunshot wound and requested that he be allowed to stay to lead his soldiers.
Altogether, his actions directly resulted in 85 lives being spared on that fateful day.
Staff Sergeant Richardson's conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary heroism at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
Robert and Linda Aulis accepting on behalf of their son, Staff Sergeant Michael H. Aulis.
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress March 3rd, 1863, has posthumously awarded in the name of Congress the Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant Michael H. Aulis, United States Army.
Staff Sergeant Michael H. Aulis distinguished himself by acts of gallantry above and beyond the call of duty on 28 August 2013 in Afghanistan.
On this date, a complex enemy attack involving multiple vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, suicide vests, indirect fire, and small arms fire was launched against Ford Operating Base Hansi.
Staff Sergeant Aulis ordered his fellow soldiers to move to bunkers to shield themselves from enemy fire.
After accounting for his soldiers, he moved toward the enemy force that had penetrated the perimeter of the forward operating base.
Staff Sergeant Aulis located a coalition forces officer and together they moved toward the point of attack, armed with only their rifles.
Upon reaching the attack point, they linked up with other friendly forces and began a coordinated effort to repulse the enemy.
While under continuous fire, Staff Sergeant Aulis moved from position to position, engaging the enemy with accurate and effective fire.
While fighting along the perimeter, an insurgent came around the corner.
Staff Sergeant Aulis fired on the insurgent and incapacitated him, but as he approached the downed insurgent, the insurgent suicide vest detonated and mortally wounded him.
Staff Sergeant Aulis's exceptional courage and complete disregard for personal safety were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit, and the United States Army.
Ladies and gentlemen, please bow with me as we give the benediction.
Eternal God, our unfailing light in every darkness, the rock on which we stand, as we depart this place of honor, may the courage of these heroes be our example, righteousness our choice, and hope in you our guiding light.
We especially ask for your protection over our military service members who are protecting the interests of our nation at this very moment.
And Heavenly Father, grant us the will to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before you.
as he describes that it was imperative to rip the mullahs of Iran from power and leadership.
that they are ahead of schedule when it comes to their military bombing, that they were looking effectively for an off-ramp with the Iranian people and a new leader for Iran.
Some of the major takeaways, but Donald Trump saying that America is willing to go as far as is necessary in order to finish the job here.
PTEXEF clapping backs with one of the Medal of Honor winners.
Obviously, an incredible opportunity to showcase American bravery, stature, love of country, in a moment where a lot of that is going to be required.
What will be the political ramifications of strikes on Iran?
More importantly, what will happen globally in this region?
Will it descend into madness, chaos, sectarian violence?
Or is this the 4D chess from a global perspective to isolate China, to rip China asunder by taking away all of their capacity to deliver energy to their failing economy and dying population so that they wouldn't be able to fight a war for Taiwan?
That's the dog that hasn't barked in all this is what's happening right now with China and Russia.
I personally believe what I've seen from this administration, you know, Jared Kushner's in Russia like most weekends doing negotiations inside the Kremlin.
Trump administration agents like Steve Witkoff have had open dialogues and traveled to Russia.
I think that the goal here is to bring Russia back into the fold, sell gasoline to Europe, sell gasoline to America, become tentative icebreaker allies with Russia, isolate entirely China.
China and Russia hate each other.
Take away China's capacity for energy and to eliminate our greatest global threat, which of course is China.
And something that my wife and I announced this past weekend.
That's something I don't really know how to put to words.
But we announced that my wife and I were pregnant with our fifth child, and we went in for a 10-week ultrasound, and there was no heartbeat.
And sometimes God puts you to the test.
That's what faith is.
It's very easy to have faith when everything is sunshine on your shoulders, but when you're facing extreme loss, as they say, there are no atheists in the foxholes.
I have long said, the last few months, certainly, since we all watched, since we've all been able to see death up close, whether it is poor service members that died over the weekend, we pray for them.
Or whether it is all of us watching in 4K as Charlie Kirk is killed, that I just don't.
I don't know if people will ever get over.
I'm not sure there's any way to process this.
That I am a simple Christian and that I believe that God is the author of life and death.
God's spirit, he creates them.
And by his spirit, they are created.
And then God returns us to himself, says the Psalms.
And who am I to argue with God's Spirit?
This has been difficult for us.
So I would ask for your prayers.
There's an opportunity to lean on the perfect will of our Lord and Savior and our Christ.
And it is only, frankly, in the times when you have no explanation for what life throws at you that your faith is made real.
And so this is a moment for our family that our faith is made real.
God is in fact, our God is in fact the author of life and death.
And that the miracle of our four children can only be explained through God's mercy and love, Giving them to us, and we see this as the world's greatest blessing.
And we will proudly stand on what we know is the truth, and the truth is the light.
then the truth is that God loves us, and Jesus loves you.
And in times of loss and struggle, that is guaranteed.
Read through every single passage of scripture is guaranteed in your life that that is what your relationship with Christ is all about.
God lost a son, God lost a child, and then he saved the world.
And so, as a simple Christian, we have bowed our heads to God's providence in this moment with renewed faith in our Creator.
And we praise God through it all.
And that's all you can do.
A final word to whatever you might be going through, because it's been, my wife announced this on Saturday.
The outpouring has been incredible, but I just wanted to tell this audience: obviously, we care about you and we have a community here.
You know, everyone's going through something really tough.
And a lot of people have had miscarriages or have lost children or are estranged from their children or have suffered unimaginable tragedy.
It is remarkable how that is just the way of the world.
That is just the way of life.
And there are only you are only given two options.
Whatever situation that is life-altering and painful that is currently happening with you right now, you are given two options.
Because let me tell you something: God did create the world.
And Christ is real.
And He lived and He is the Savior.
And those are facts.
That's real.
The Bible is real.
The truth is the light.
And if you're dealing with an Almighty Creator, which you are, Then you either fight God.
Talked a lot about battles today.
You either fight the most unwinnable battle imaginable, which is you versus God and God's will in your life.
Or you accept that a loving God created you and that your life isn't a mistake.
And that you're not some ant on an anthill with a magnifying glass burning you.
This isn't some sick joke.
That God made and designed this world and all of the beauty in it.
The air that you breathe, the water you swim in.
Everyone can enjoy a sunset or a sunrise.
Everyone can go out and get a jog.
Everyone can feel the sun on their face.
Everyone can experience God's design for your life and his gifts unto all of us.
You accept that you're not a mistake, that God loves you, and that he has a purpose for your life because he doesn't actually need one of you, right?
Like, God doesn't need a Benny.
He didn't need me.
He's God.
He created me for a purpose.
And he created you for a purpose.
You're part of a master design by an intelligent creator.
And so you either fight God or you roll in these moments.
And then it draws you nearer to God and nearer to his purpose if you choose that.
What does the Apostle Paul say?
All things happen for the good of those who love the Lord.
There's a time for everything.
To live and to die and to celebrate, fight.
Joy, peace, love, understanding.
There's a time for all of it.
And this is just one of those seasons in life.
So I would ask for a simple thing, which is your prayers for my family and my wife and I.
And that's it.
God's got us.
God's got us all.
Our verse of the day from 1 Peter 5:7, Cast all your anxiety on him, for he cares for you.
Don't fight God.
Life's not supposed to be perfect.
It can't be perfect.
The nature of living in a fallen world.
The nature of living in the world with free will, honestly.
But you can depend and lean upon your perfect creator, casting all of your anxiety, all of your cares on your creator.
And that makes for a good life, not a perfect life.
It could make for a good life.
Join us in this good life.
March with us on to victory that is assured.
How many sure things in life that is Chris is King?