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June 23, 2025 - The Charlie Kirk Show

01:17:21

The Iran Off-Ramp? — LIVE Reaction to Middle East Missile Strikes

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	Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here live from the Bitcoin.com studio.
	Okay everybody, it is official.
	Iran has launched ballistic missiles at the United States at troops throughout the region.
	We recap all of this as we were reporting this live.
	That's right, live.
	You're going to love our analysis as we talk about it as it happened.
	But right now, no U.S. troops have been killed, no casualties on this very historic day.
	President Trump has an opportunity to have an off-ramp, declare victory, and to consider this a major win.
	Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com, and subscribe to our podcast.
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	Buckle up, everybody.
	Here we go.
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	Joining us now is Mark Halperin, editor-in-chief of Tu-Way, host of Next Up on the Megan Kelly Network.
	Mark, great to see you.
	I hope you had a restful and peaceful Saturday night.
	Nothing really happened this weekend.
	Yeah, we did a special report on Tuay, had a big audience.
	And I think it's, you know, we hear a lot of negative stuff about America, American people media.
	I think people are really engaged in this in a substantive way.
	I know you hear it when you talk to people.
	I know I regularly flatter you, but it's all heartfelt.
	I think you've been so thoughtful about this as an analyst, but also as someone who's a player involved here, because this can be treated superficially.
	It can be treated as a red-blue divide.
	And these are serious issues.
	And people should not be treating it like politics.
	They should be treating it like what's America's role going to be in the world?
	And what do we think of what President Trump has done?
	And again, I think you've been extremely thoughtful as an analyst and as a participant in saying there's a way to do this.
	It's in America's interest.
	And there are ways that history suggests aren't.
	And I think I applaud you and everyone else, including my colleagues on Tuway, who are treating this like a serious thing rather than a political thing or a frivolous thing.
	Well, thank you, Mark.
	That means a lot.
	And we've been attacked by both sides.
	We've been called a warmonger and we've been called an isolationist.
	And then I look around and I say, well, you know what?
	The show's doing better than ever.
	So it turns out the American people actually want a straight, fact-first, non-ideological take on this.
	So, Mark, let me ask some of the harder questions.
	First of all, our eyes right now, we're monitoring the situation.
	Any moment right now, Iran could strike and hit a U.S. base.
	So I don't want to get too much into that because that's speculative.
	But based on your reporting, Mark, was this strike in Iran successful?
	Did it take out Iran's nuclear capability?
	There's a lot of debate about that.
	The New York Times is trying to cast a little bit of doubt regarding that.
	What is your reporting showing regarding the success of this strike?
	Well, it was at least somewhat successful on two levels.
	Number one, or I'd say three levels.
	Number one, it certainly set back Iran's nuclear program.
	We don't know yet.
	No one knows if it eliminated it.
	Number two, it sent Iran and Israel both a message that the United States is, as Israel is doing, is seizing this opportunity, an unprecedented opportunity where Iran is as weak as it's been in quite some time, to show that the United States is going to partner with Israel.
	And then, number three, it showed America's technological superiority over every military in the world.
	And that means that not just Iran, but the folks in Beijing and elsewhere can be reminded that if the United States decides to use its military power, it's going to bring it to bear in a way with a technological and human proficiency that's unmatched by everybody else on the planet.
	That's an asymmetrical advantage for the United States.
	None of that means, though, that anybody knows, including the New York Times, including the administration, just how far back this has set the program.
	And I think it's going to take a lot of human intelligence and electronic surveillance to try to figure it out.
	There's no doubt that Iran did not go from being able to build a nuclear device and deliver it to being unable, completely unable to deliver it.
	And we need to figure that out as a news story.
	But the policymakers need to understand because that goes to the next moves for both Israel and the United States, whose stated goal is to remove that capability, at least for the time being.
	Breaking news, by the way, Axios is saying, we could put this up on screen.
	Israeli official says that Iran has now fired towards Qatar and Iraq.
	Mark, what is the significance of this?
	We're going to know a lot very quickly of the payload and the intent of the Iranian military.
	A lot of our troops are sitting ducks in the region.
	Kind of walk our audience through.
	We've seen this similar in 2020 with the taking out of Soleimani.
	So please educate our audience on this as we see this develop in real time.
	Well, we saw it then.
	We also saw it when Israel and Iran fought a few months ago.
	I think there's a good possibility.
	I'm not predicting it.
	I'm not saying it's the only possible outcome, but I think there's a good possibility that Iran will do something like what they've just reportedly done, tell their people it was a huge success and the full retaliation, and stand down.
	I think that's a possibility.
	And I know there are people in the administration who are familiar with that possibility as well.
	They may also decide to activate whatever remaining forces they have, both on their own and through proxies, To try to harm the United States and United States allies.
	And that'll put a lot of pressure on President Trump to decide what he wants to do.
	His rhetoric suggests that if Iran does that, the U.S. will respond quite forcefully.
	But Israel's taking out a lot of targets now.
	So I'm not sure what's left for the U.S. to hit, but there's certainly ways to ratchet this up.
	So if a single American life is lost, I think the president will act quite in quite full force.
	If it's just property, maybe not.
	Yeah, and so this has been a little bit telegraphed, though.
	We've kind of heard this for the last hour or two hours.
	I'm texting with a reporter right now who's just about, I'd say you're a better reporter, Mark, but he's almost at the Helperin League of Excellence.
	He says, quote, it sounds like based on what our reporting, this was telegraphed and designed to avoid casualties.
	Why would Iran do that?
	Why would Iran telegraph and design a military attack to avoid casualties?
	Well, along the lines of what I said, they have to appease their people.
	Their whole premise of governance has been on the military front, the geopolitical front, we're going to stand up to the big Satan and the little Satan.
	And people in Iran know that the United States and Israel both have now attacked the Iranian assets.
	And I think, again, they've done this at least twice now, where they don't want to bring the full measure of the United States force upon them.
	But they need to tell their people they've done something.
	And they can tell the Iranian people they did respond.
	And they can exaggerate the degree of success and the tit for tat nature of the response.
	And that's what many people think they'll do.
	And this could be a sign of that.
	But this is not a closed thing.
	It's not like they get one chance to respond.
	They may respond that way and then respond a different way.
	Charlie, I think the biggest variable in all of this is the Iranian people and what the government feels they need to do to appease them or keep them from demanding a change in government or have a perception that they're a failed regime.
	And we don't know most of the reporting out of Iran, and I'm unfortunately not in a position to do much reporting there directly, but most of the reporting suggests that they're rallying around the government.
	They're reacting negatively to Israel and the United States.
	And that's good for the government because that means they've got more leeway in how they respond without having to worry about losing face with their own people.
	Okay, six missiles launched so far by Iran right now as we're here on air towards Qatar.
	I'm told many have been intercepted.
	There are multiple explosions over Doha, and those interceptions are ongoing right now.
	So it's conceivable that Iran kind of, hey, it's coming.
	It's coming.
	And they didn't like quite want to kill Americans, but they wanted to show face domestically.
	And they said, hey, we did this thing.
	It's over.
	And I mean, I could see it.
	If these missiles are successfully intercepted and no U.S. troops die, what does your reporting show, Mark, about how President Trump would respond?
	Do you think he will take an off-ramp and then kind of just put this thing, consider it done if no U.S. troops die?
	In the short term, I do think that's what the president would do if it's just some buildings hit.
	However, there's an ongoing issue, right?
	The president, you know, to the extent, and again, you've taken heat, as you said, both, you know, called an isolationist and called a warmonger.
	The president is committed to not letting Iran develop a nuclear capability or intercontinental ballistic capability.
	The Israelis seem to be on this and they continue to not only hit our targets in Iran, but with a great deal of confidence.
	But if there's another element of the mission, like we saw over the weekend, where the United States capability can get it done and Israel can't, they don't have the B-2s and the bunker busters, then I think the president would go back for more.
	But I think the goal is to say, deter Iran from striking American forces around the world, deter them from hitting American forces in the United States, and hope that Israel can do what both the United States and Israel say they want, which is to eliminate that missile capability and that nuclear capability.
	We're getting some of the video now that we're going to put up.
	Sorry, Mark, this is all just breaking news in real time here.
	I'm a breaking news guy, fella.
	No, I know.
	So, and by the way, feel free to check your phone, Mark, if you're getting sources and you're getting information too live on air.
	The skies of Qatar are lighting up right now as interceptions seem to be occurring, and we're going to try to load up those videos.
	Mark, what does this say for the MAGA doctrine, for the Trump doctrine?
	If there is an off-ramp, President Trump has kind of created a third way.
	We've kind of always existed in, hey, either you're a dove or you're a hawk.
	President Trump has always existed kind of in between those two modalities.
	What does this mean for the Trump doctrine and the Trump foreign policy worldview?
	Speak loudly, carry a big stick, use it when necessary, and no boots on the ground.
	I find people who are surprised by how President Trump is handling this to be guilty of not paying attention.
	He's doing exactly what he said he would do.
	People say, well, this is a slippery slope.
	No, he's not going to put boots on the ground.
	They're not going to be American forces on the ground.
	There's going to be no nation building.
	There's going to be no attempt to win the hearts and minds of the Iranian people.
	There'll be a lot of rhetoric about how the Iranian people, as the president put on Truth Social yesterday, how the Iranian people should consider changing their government because their government has not performed in their best interest.
	I think you'll continue to see that.
	And I think you'll continue to see overwhelming forced use to take out whatever needs to be taken out to make sure that Iran cannot be a nuclear power.
	Other than that, I think it's up to the Iranian government.
	If they kill an American, one single American, then I think you'll see massive retaliation.
	And the president made that clear to them.
	That doesn't mean boots on the ground.
	We've got extraordinary air power.
	The Israelis have helped clear the way by making the Iranian Air Force and anti-air capacity quite limited.
	And so I think the president, as he said over the weekend, and the experts I talked to concur, the mission that was carried out over the weekend is the tough one.
	The ability of the United States to destroy government buildings, political things, bases, the Navy, that's fishing a barrel for the U.S. military.
	All right, we have some visuals.
	I just want to put this up on screen of some of the interceptions that are happening over Qatar.
	Now, remember, this is very ballsy for Iran to do because Qatar and Iran, I don't want to say they're allies, but there's definitely something that's been going on there with oil.
	And they're closer than Saudi Arabia and Iran.
	So this is quite a maneuver for Iran to do.
	But look at that, those interceptions happening over the skies of Qatar right now.
	That is real stuff.
	I mean, those ballistic missiles could take out hundreds of people if it hits a certain target.
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	Right now, it looks like initial reports show that all missiles were intercepted so far.
	We need triple confirmation on that.
	I don't know what your reporting is showing as well.
	But that could be another victory for President Trump to show the capacity for the U.S. military to intercept these missiles.
	There's also alarms that are ringing in Iraq and Bahrain.
	And the source of the interception is probably aerial interception and also Patriot missiles from the bases.
	Again, we need triple confirmation on that.
	So, Mark, really quick, what do you make of the politics of all this and kind of the response that you've seen from MAGA Faithful over the last couple of days?
	You're very uniquely positioned as a reporter to comment on this.
	As we get more information about this aerial attack against U.S. bases, what do you make of the politics of all this?
	Well, on the Republican side, I think the stories about MAGA meltdown are exaggerated.
	There's a few people like Marjorie Taylor Greene who are on principle opposed to this.
	I hear it on two-way from MAGA folks who say this is a violation of what the president has stood for.
	But most people, and I put you and Professor Bannon in this category, I think have participated in the debate in a responsible way.
	Most members of Republicans in Congress saying, let's make sure that this is done consistent, not with just American principles, but consistent with the principles learned over the last several decades, maybe from Vietnam onward, saying America cannot win these wars and America shouldn't get into wars that they can't win.
	But at the same time, using air power and superiority to achieve a specific objective, one that the president has talked about for such a long time, making sure they're not a nuclear power is a big one.
	I think the Democratic Party, perhaps not surprisingly, is just a mess on this.
	There's 17 different positions.
	I've yet to hear any Democrat enunciate what seems to be the obvious position, which is support our troops, demand that the Iranian government not have nuclear capability or intercontinental ballistic missiles, and say that the president's obligated to work with Congress whenever he's going to put American forces in harm's way.
	That's like the easy, sensible position that's patriotic and rational and doesn't give Donald Trump everything he wants.
	And yet, like I said, I've heard almost no Democrat talk about it.
	I'll be super curious to see if the president's poll numbers go up because normally that would happen.
	Oh, I think they will.
	Just really quick.
	It looks like there's more ballistic missiles right now launched at Bahrain.
	So it looks as if they're going after multiple targets.
	Based on reporting happening real time here on the program, it looks like the Qatar missile strikes were intercepted and all six headed to Doha were neutralized, intercepted.
	Huge victory for the U.S. military and for the Saudis and the Qataris and the British.
	So basically, how I, again, as a very layman understanding, but basically we fly a bunch of fighter jets and we try to send out a bunch of flares and disruptors that try to make the missiles explode in air.
	There are sirens right now in Kuwait.
	So we are not out of the woods yet.
	Bahrain and Kuwait and Iraq are probably the next three targets right here on the program as Iran looks to retaliate from the U.S. bombing on nuclear sites.
	Mark Calpern is with us.
	Okay, alarms are ringing right now in Kuwait.
	They are ringing in Bahrain.
	So eyes are now on those two countries.
	Can we put up a Middle Eastern map, please?
	So Qatar is the juiciest of all the targets.
	It's the largest U.S. base.
	It's in a desert and it's the closest proximity.
	I think Bahrain actually might be a little bit closer, but we also have Blake here who's going to help with this.
	Go ahead, Marks.
	You got to worry about Iraq, too, because there's a history there of not through the air, but just human assets on the ground who have the capacity to attack American forces.
	Those bases, of course, over years now have been fortified and they're pretty well secured.
	But you never know if this is a desperate time for the Iranians when they may start to activate long-held assets who are in a position to do harm to America.
	The air defenses, as Israel has shown in this part of the world, are very good.
	Israel shoots down a very high percentage of attacks on them from all quarters.
	And you mentioned a list of countries for whom this is a victory.
	I know you didn't do it on purpose, but just to live rattle, Israel, a big part of this as well, in terms of intelligence sharing, in terms of technology.
	So, Mark, right now, again, reports are showing French, British, and American fighter Jets are all over the Persian Gulf, just kind of going nuts.
	I want you to remind the audience, though, when we took out Soleimani, we were able to get out with zero U.S. troops.
	So, this would not be unprecedented where we do something with a lot of chutzpah, where we do something where President Trump really acts with decisiveness, with violence, but then we're able to get out without a single U.S. troop dead.
	To do that twice, Mark, would be a rather phenomenal accomplishment in the modern era, Mark Halprin.
	Well, it has to do with the extraordinary capabilities of the Pentagon, right?
	They're following the orders of the commander-in-chief, the Secretary of Defense, and the president puts a premium on that.
	He doesn't want a single casualty, but it also has to do with his attitude.
	His attitude is, again, speak loudly, carry a big stick, only use it when absolutely essential, and he doesn't want Americans to die.
	This continues to be the less failure to understand Donald Trump when they call him a warmonger.
	He's the opposite of that.
	He's extremely aware of the cost, not just for American families, but for American prestige and the military's capacity when America suffers casualties.
	And that's why, again, I just, people who worry about him saying, well, we're going to go in and start building firehouses and parks and schools in Iran.
	It's not going to happen.
	Final thoughts here, Mark.
	And Mark, by the way, you're welcome to hang with us as we kind of do breaking news.
	We're just going to roll through this, but I know you have a busy schedule.
	It sounds as if, and we need to get this verified.
	There is explosions at the Al-Assad air base in Iraq.
	That does not mean that anybody necessarily died.
	There were explosions at these bases back in 2020.
	It does not mean that any U.S. troops died.
	10 missiles were launched targeting U.S. bases in Qatar.
	I think that those U.S. bases, that was a successful interception.
	The Iraqi one is an open question.
	As you astutely mentioned, Mark, the Iraq one is very close geographically.
	There's a ton of Iraqi bases.
	In some ways, they were kind of sitting ducks.
	So it sounds like there might be a successful missile launch, successful in the worst possible way, to say those words, on a U.S. base in Iraq.
	Also, sirens at U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia.
	This looks like they're doing a major volley here, Mark.
	Yeah.
	And look, this is one of the many things that people worried about, people who did not think the U.S. attack on the nuclear program was a good idea for worried about just this.
	And now there's going to be a question of how long do they keep it up?
	Do they kill any Americans?
	And if they do, what is President Trump's response?
	There's also a possibility of force of communication and to say to the Iranians, okay, you got your measure of revenge.
	Now let's negotiate or we will reply in greater force.
	That will, I predict, be what the president does.
	I think he will make one more effort to get them to the table.
	And if they don't come promptly to the table in a realistic way, I think you will see, as he suggested over the weekend, overwhelming force.
	And that's if a single American dies.
	And Mark, just to repeat a point that we've made over the last couple of weeks, and this is not in any way, and I told you so, this was just a cautionary element.
	When we get into these situations, you don't know what's going to happen.
	You don't.
	No one could die.
	100 people could die.
	And that risk has always been the root of my caution.
	When you get in these situations, there's a thousand different ways this stuff can fall apart.
	100%.
	And the rejoinder, as you know, and which you've also given voice to, is the status quo ain't great.
	We have a country vowing to destroy Israel, a country vowing to do harm to the United States.
	And this is an opportunity the president's taking.
	It might not work out well.
	And I know full well the president went into it asking questions about and knowing full well all the things that could go wrong and still decided it was worth it.
	And the American people are going to continue to debate no matter what happens, whether it was the right choice or not.
	And that's as it should be in a democracy of robust freedom.
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	Blake, how you doing?
	Doing great, Charlie.
	Okay, what are we hearing?
	I'm seeing.
	Well, I mean, hopefully we're doing great.
	Exactly.
	So no visual reports or missiles over Kuwait and Bahrain.
	So we have reports of, you know, sirens going off, scrambling.
	So that is what preceded the stuff in Qatar.
	But we haven't seen any video of missiles coming in over there.
	There are reports of explosions at Al-Assad Air Base in Iraq.
	There's no footage of that.
	Al-Assad is in the western desert of Iraq.
	So there wouldn't be, you know, in Qatar, any random person might see missiles coming in.
	It's not a big country.
	It's all right by Doha.
	Very similar.
	So we'll be probably waiting for reports To come in.
	So, Mark, we have Mark Halperin with us.
	By the way, I want you guys to email us, freedom at charliekirk.com as we are monitoring this situation live as it is unfolding in front of us.
	Coalition of jets, this is breaking news, coalition of jets intercepting Iranian drones over Qatar, Iraq, Saudi, and UAE airspaces.
	So, looks, can we get the map break up again?
	Let's get that Middle East map up.
	So, if they're going to Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and UAE, they are flushing out in many different directions.
	I want just a quick Middle Eastern geopolitical lesson for those of you that are tuning in.
	A lot of you are.
	Iran is at odds, very much at odds with the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
	There's a Sunni-Shia split.
	They just don't like each other.
	They haven't for quite some time, especially Saudi Arabia and Iran.
	Airstrikes in Iraq are now being reported.
	And so the jets, by the way, pray for our service members right now that are in jets intercepting drones, they're intercepting missiles.
	This seems to be a pretty serious salvo by Iran.
	Whether it is somewhat performative or theatrical, we will see.
	We know it's real, but what do I mean by performative and theatrical, there has been a little bit of a wind-up to this.
	Close the airspace, you know, a little bit of a, hey, we're coming, because does Iran want to see this escalate?
	Blake, what are we seeing?
	So there's definitely the belief, the big worry is, if they hit us, are they going to actually try to cause as much damage as they can?
	Or is it they need to show that they're willing to fight, much like we did, you remember this in Trump's first term, where when we took out Soleimani, they shot missiles at us to sort of impress their own domestic political base, but they weren't really attempting to do as much damage as they could.
	They were not going to all-out war over this.
	And we might see a similar strategy here.
	On the other hand, it could also be they're testing it, probing it, seeing what might be vulnerable, or just trying to deplete our stockpile of interceptor missiles.
	Yes.
	Okay, so breaking news.
	Iran says it has now launched what is called Operation Bakarat Al-Fatah against the U.S.-led coalition of the air base in Al-Uyded in Qatar.
	The IRGC is to release a statement shortly, which means that this is probably coming to a conclusion, to an end.
	So this is the question, everybody.
	Is this a real escalation?
	Does Iran want to escalate this?
	Or is this kind of a domestic show of political force that they could check the box?
	Is it a one and done?
	And so initial reports right now show three reports of impact at the U.S. base in Al-Yudid.
	This is Fog of War stuff, guys.
	So we have to like triple confirm all of this.
	So there are additional attacks happening right now in Iraq.
	Can we show the Kuwait?
	I just, this Kuwait is the most Middle Eastern picture.
	I'm sorry, this is the most Middle Eastern video ever.
	It literally shows missiles being intercepted and a bunch of yachts.
	No, no, no, you got to show the Kuwait one I just sent.
	It's literally a bunch of yachts and then a bunch of yachts on the bottoms part in water and then a bunch of missiles being intercepted above and a bunch of like four season like luxury condominiums.
	That is the most Middle Eastern video you'll ever see.
	You just need like a guy to be like going through with like an AK-47 that's gold plated or something that he just like sprays in the air.
	Exactly.
	President Donald Trump right now is arrived in the situation room.
	Those optics right now, just show it one more time.
	That is Kuwait.
	You've got missiles being intercepted up top.
	You've got luxury condos in the middle.
	And you've got yachts on the bottom.
	Welcome to Kuwait, everybody.
	Yeah, I think it's Kuwait.
	By the way, right now, U.S. generals are meeting with President Trump in the situation room.
	We are looking at all of our sources.
	We have the best sources.
	I would say outside.
	We're texting a lot of the stakeholders.
	Those that are not currently in skips right now, we're texting.
	We're getting information in real time.
	Okay, so Iranian missiles are being intercepted, but it looks as if, unfortunately, there have been three successful strikes in bases in Iraq.
	But we don't know if those are intercepted missiles that maybe made their way through.
	Are they fragments?
	Are they direct hits?
	And if they hit, did they hit anything with people in it?
	Yes.
	And so, by the way, this why every minute matters.
	The fact that there was almost an hour and a half or two hour heads up means that everybody could have gotten in vehicles and drove off base.
	They could get planes up in the air.
	They could get into bunkers.
	And by the way, the U.S. drew down their presence at a lot of these bases from 10,000 to 5,000.
	There's been a significant drawdown to try to limit some of the casualties and limit this response.
	There's no yet indication that Iran is going to close the Strait of Hormuz.
	That would be a serious escalation, one that would actually also hurt China.
	So I think that is probably unlikely that'll happen.
	We now have footage that we're about to put up that the base being struck.
	The report is this, quote, it appears that there have been three direct hits on the large American base in Qatar.
	There are no yet reported casualties at the base as it was evacuated several days ago, but damage has been caused.
	Pray that remains, everybody.
	If it's just building damage and it's just equipment damage, remember, President Donald Trump exercised restraint.
	Again, President has a lot of history and drama with Iran.
	Do you remember when Iran they struck down one of American drones?
	Yeah, they shot our robot down.
	Can we get that clip of Trump being like, I'm not going to strike Iran and kill 100 Iranians because they just struck down a robot?
	And so, by the way, if this response is limited to a few missiles, let's put 357 up.
	President Donald Trump will be able to declare an unbelievable military victory.
	We take out a nuclear capability.
	No Americans die.
	Okay, so let me just repeat.
	There are reports of three direct hits on U.S. bases in Qatar.
	No reports of U.S. casualties.
	No reports of U.S. casualties.
	The Iranian operation called the Annunciation of Victory.
	Again, these guys are a bunch of, they're just a bunch of talkers.
	They got a big mouth in Iran.
	Launched against U.S. bases in Iraq, Qatar, and Iran is confirming, of course, they're doing it.
	We know that.
	So Lindsey Graham is now saying now it's time to end this madness in Iran.
	He's just calling for absolute regime change.
	Mr. President, please, I will call you later with this message, but please resist Lindsey Graham.
	Please.
	If they do not kill an American and they just bomb a bunch of our equipment, take the W. Take the W. You will be able to say you did the most successful military operation in history, taking out a nuclear program with no U.S. troops dies.
	If that ends up bearing out, we do not know that is true.
	Blake, can you comment on that?
	That would be phenomenal.
	It would be by far the biggest win for, I think, the way trump sees his own military stuff of i will act decisively but without you know with a clear objective without any open-ended commitment if he's able to even you know even temporarily or significantly set back the nuclear program let alone destroy it if he can say i blew this 20-year threat to some marines and all they did was they shot some bottle rockets at us and killed nobody that is a big win for us and we don't we don't want to we don't want to get that americans
	might be dying right now so we want to say that with humility this is big breaking news the Qatari Ministry of Defense reports that Qatari air defenses intercepted a missile attack aimed at the Ayued airbase and so by the way thank you Qatar I know that there's been a lot of anti-Qatari language and we haven't really gotten into that but if it's true that Qatari air defenses intercepted a missile then they might have saved American lives so you have to there has to be definitely some moral clarity there and
	again there's a lot of language that okay Qatar funds the pro-Hamas crowd that seems to also be true but it might be a very complicated actor the Strait of Hormuz has not been closed down any reports that demonstrate that really quick Blake I'm going to test you in 30 seconds what is the Strait of Hormuz what would it mean if they close it so that's the Hormuz all right the Persian Gulf is that little body of water that you imagine going up to Iraq and then past that is the Arabian Sea that's the Indian Ocean the Strait of Hormuz is the narrow body of water that goes through it I believe it's named after
	an island that the Portuguese owned and that is the narrowest part so Iran could mine it they could shoot missiles at it and ships would not want to go in there because they don't want to get hit and price would go way up a huge amount of the world's oil passes through that strait on its way to global markets email us freedom at charliekirk.com I want to know what you are thinking about all this whyrefi.com private student loan debt in America totals about $300 billion whyRefi has been an amazing partner of us and it's only getting started they were a huge supporter
	of our young women's leadership summit game changer largest ever go to yrefi.com that is why com you don't have to ignore that mountain of student loan statements on your kitchen table anymore why refi offers a three-minute rate check without any credit impact go to whyrefi.com let's face it if you have distressed or defaulted private student loans nobody is coming to bail you out and bankruptcy is not an option but you could take charge of your situation by contacting why refi go to yrefi.com that is yrefy.com that is whyrefi.com
	many clients are not able to even make the first monthly payment on their private student loans when they contact why refi go to yrefi.com again they don't care what your credit score is you got to check it out right now at yrefi.com whyrefi is not a debt settlement company and they work with each borrower individually tailoring each loan to each borrower's specific situation you will not be calling a faceless call center go to yrefi.com that is yrefy.com alex marlow joins us editor-in-chief of breitbart news
	okay this we want to we want to proceed with a lot of humility and caution i do want to say though that i have a great deal of of relief that at least the attacks on qar seem to have not killed any americans that is the most target rich of all the targets it's the biggest base it's geographically one of the closest and if it's true that all those were intercepted that would be a major major victory cnn said that 10 missiles were fired into qatar one into iraq and
	we will now stay live here and analyze in real time alex marlow what are we seeing potentially alex marlow it looks like president trump could walk away with one of the most remarkable u.s foreign policy victories if all if all continues as it is right now which would be taking out the nuclear capability while also no u.s troops potentially being killed alex marlow again i put a major asterisk on that it's really important about what's happening with qatar because this is a point i wanted to make to you today is
	that the coalitions here around the world trump has brought in a broader coalition on his side and on america's side america is the alpha here absolutely and i know there's some misconceptions about that but trump is playing this perfectly and one of the things is qatar was seen as adversarial a few years ago now they're seen as largely cooperative and they want to get closer to us look what's happening on the other side with iran right now one of iran's biggest backers russia russia is trying everything they can not to help them why is this it's because of trump and they don't want to cause any more problems
	with trump right now and this is a big deal so who's going to come in on iran's behalf on behalf of this unpopular regime uh probably no one maybe the venezuelans which is what are they going to do there it's it's seriously the thinnest coalition imaginable which is i think why trump and israel moved the way they've moved but the qatar incident that you've highlighted is so crucial because it shows you the broadening coalition in the middle east for peace and against war that they think this is the quickest path to a path to a more peaceful region as led by trump two
	things number one i'm going to give aguila a shout out on telegram their reporting has been actually very very good the last couple days um and so thank you to aguila on telegram you guys give him a follow secondly um iran is now saying that they fired a missile at for every bomb that was dropped on us this seems very theatrical like again i don't want to laugh did they really say that yeah they did i do not want to laugh because americans actually might be dead right now we do not have the full casualty report but i just want to just take a big sigh
	of relief it looks like in qar the most target rich of all the targets the one that we were worried about the most because they fired 10 missiles at Qatar and one into Iraq that that looks to be no casualties so far and so we just want to kind of take a deep breath and say thank you Lord for protecting our U.S. troops in Qatar because that is the biggest U.S. base in the entire region and so Alex what do you make of this and Alex I apologize I might interrupt you at any moment here because there's so much breaking news here for
	example the Iranian National Security Council stated the missile strike on the American al-Uded base in Qatar does not pose a threat to the brotherly nation of Qatar whatever that means okay so but Alex is it possible that Iran was just kind of doing international theater here check the box kind of show their domestic strength while not trying to further provoke the American military might as I say that Buran has just urged all of its citizens to
	seek immediate shelter but Alex Marlowe comment on that.
	Yeah, they've taken a very aggressive rhetorical approach, and they're obviously trying to fight back with whatever they can, but their missile capabilities are drastically weakened, and they have almost no ability to quickly generate more because Israel has targeted a lot of the sites from where they fire the ballistic missiles.
	But also, no nation wants to come in on their behalf because they're in a losing proposition.
	Now, what does the endgame look like?
	What does the full loss look like?
	Is their regime change?
	Those are all really compelling and mysterious questions at the moment, Charlie.
	But overall, we know Iran is losing and no one wants to come in on their behalf.
	Who would want to come in, contra Donald Trump from the position of strength that he is?
	Not to mention, Israel has been very impressive in the war in terms of their ability to take out military targets.
	And to come in on Iran's behalf is not going to happen.
	So I think they're desperately trying to get some level of momentum as fast as they can to maybe recruit some ally to their side.
	But it's probably not going to work.
	And because almost everything is getting, the retaliatory strikes are just so devastating to them at every turn.
	Qatar has officially said no casualties and no damage from the attack.
	Praise the Lord.
	That's a big deal.
	That was the biggest threat of them all.
	But right now, it's not over.
	Bahrain is the sirens are going off in Bahrain right now, and they urge all citizens to seek immediate shelter.
	That is happening in Bahrain right now.
	Iran's top security council tells Qatar its attack poses no threat to its friendly and brotherly neighbors.
	So basically, Iran is like, hey, Qatar, we're your friend.
	So we're learning a lot about Qatar in the midst of all this.
	So let's just kind of put a little bit of a – we'll talk about that.
	We're all quick studies now.
	Yeah, we're all very quick studies now.
	But Bahrain, we got to keep all eyes on Bahrain right now.
	All eyes on Bahrain.
	By the way, before, Blake, I want to throw to you for a second.
	Everybody, I want to hear from you, freedom at charliekirk.com.
	That is freedom at charliekirk.com.
	Iran has filed 10 missiles at Qatar, one at Iraq, and it looks like something is happening towards Bahrain.
	I'm by no means a military expert, but here's my rule when it comes to all military things, is if you as an American citizen can't understand it, then they have not done a good enough job explaining it because that stuff's actually not as complicated.
	Would you agree, Blake?
	Like, oh, you know, this is just for military minds.
	Actually, no, you're a U.S. citizen.
	You deserve a right to understand it.
	You're a stakeholder.
	This is your government.
	U.S. base in Qatar reports no casualties and minimal damage.
	Praise God.
	And now all eyes are on the Bahrain attack.
	The Iranian state TV is now trying to pound the chest.
	They're trying to get, oh, look at us.
	We responded back to all these Americans.
	Missiles launched at Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait.
	Can we contrast this for a second, Blake, with what they did with Israel?
	Israel, they actually wanted to kill Jews.
	That was not performative.
	That was real.
	That was aggressive.
	With America, it looks as if it's a little bit of a different of a calculation.
	Explain.
	Yeah, so first of all, they shot more missiles because Israel has the Iron Dome.
	They can shoot quite a few incoming projectiles down.
	So a lot of them got shot down, but some got through.
	They've hit a decent number of buildings.
	I think the total death toll is 24. And really, it could be higher, except Israel has prepared so much for this.
	They have bunkers for everybody.
	They're very well drilled on how to avoid them.
	So you'd almost certainly have far more deaths if they were any less prepared.
	There have been major strikes in Tel Aviv with really big missiles.
	So that they were clearly actually going for doing some damage.
	Yeah, with this, if we're stuck at 11 or 12 missiles, largely intercepted.
	Intercepted, or the ones that landed did no damage and may not even have been seriously intending to do damage.
	And they're already proclaiming victory and saying, Qatar, we're still buds with you.
	Don't worry about it.
	That is a very positive sign.
	Guys, can I add something?
	Yeah, please.
	Alex, chime in really quick about it.
	I was thinking about someone you guys were talking.
	How many days has it been since Trump's attack?
	It's been two days.
	This is all they got?
	Two days, and this is it?
	Well, we don't want to overly talk about it.
	It's not the show of force.
	No, I know.
	I agree.
	Again, we don't know.
	I get it.
	I'm just, it's an observation.
	Take it in a vacuum, Charlie.
	No, I agree.
	In Iraq, reports are being made of a drone attack against American air bases.
	Guys, drones are much easier to shoot down than ballistic missiles, just so we are clear, okay?
	Drones do not, right, Blake?
	I mean, drones do not move at hypersonic speeds.
	Now, drones should not be minimalized, but we have technology to shoot down drones.
	Let's just be very clear.
	Okay, email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
	Again, there will be a time for a victory lap.
	I just want to say, if President Trump is able to come out of this with no U.S. troops, with a performative response, U.S. troops died, a performative response, with incredible display of U.S. military might against Fordeau and against Istafan, against Natans, this could be one of the most clear military victories that we've seen in quite some time.
	And by the way, keeping the entire Middle East coalition together.
	That would be another win for the MAGA Doctrine.
	I literally wrote the book, The MAGA Doctrine, a couple years ago, and keeping all these international and regional partners together.
	And we don't know what kind of drones these are, but it just seems right now, the indication so far is that this has been somewhat of a theatrical response on behalf of Iran.
	I'm not saying ballistic missiles aren't real, but they kind of gave us a two to three hour heads up, which, by the way, shows that President Trump is winning here and they fear America and they want America to kind of back off and everybody's kind of seeking an off-ramp here.
	Right now, breaking news, U.S. aircraft takes off from the Saudi Arabia airbase.
	So we have air bases in Saudi Arabia.
	We got air bases in Qatar.
	We got air bases all over the place.
	And God bless our service members right now.
	What they're doing is they're flying at, boy, how fast they fly, 800, 900 miles an hour.
	I mean, they fly almost the speed of sound.
	That's over the speed of sound.
	They can break.
	Over the speed of sound, 700.
	I can't remember the exact amount, but about 700.
	I mean, they're flying super fast across the Gulf, trying to find these missiles, shoot disruptors and eruptors.
	And so far, they've been doing a phenomenal job.
	So God bless our troops that are doing this right now.
	And President Donald Trump right now is in the situation room.
	In front of him is potentially a major U.S. victory.
	No regime change, no boots on the ground.
	You took out the nuclear program.
	You took out the nuclear capability, I should say.
	It's actually a big difference.
	And you might be able to say no U.S. troops died in response.
	What a triumph that President Trump very well might have been able to engineer.
	Email usfreedom at charliekirk.com.
	Subscribe to the Charlie Kirk Show podcast page.
	Iran is just running their mouth.
	They said, We just launched a very devastating and powerful missile attack.
	By the way, we should never trust anything the Iranian social media ever says again.
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	So we've got Alex Marlow with us.
	Iran is kind of saying this was devastating and powerful.
	It was devastating what President Trump did to you, just for the record.
	I want to just ask a question here really quick, Alex.
	If we are able to get this to a settlement, declare victory, which is legitimate, will this go a long way to making sure the MAGA coalition stays unified?
	Alex Marla.
	Yeah, I think the timing of it for the MAGA coalition, Charlie, it's high stakes.
	I know you've been hyper-conscious of this, and it's really wise to be this way.
	This is one where if this is a clear, decisive victory, and it takes place in the next week or two, which I think that is exactly where we're on track, it could go wrong at any minute.
	You've been cautious about that.
	That's correct.
	But if this happens in the next week or two, a clear, decisive victory, where you've got a situation where Israel Netanyahu's been a fixture of public life for 30 years and his main goal has been to protect Israel from Iran.
	That's been his stated mission.
	And Iran has done numerous devastating things to America, including shooting at our Navy fighters with the Houthis, et cetera, funding all sorts of terror proxies all around the world and pursuing the destruction of America.
	They would love to do it.
	If Trump could devastate their nuclear facilities the way he's done apparently, from what we've been told, and he can pull out of the region without American casualties, without any further wars, without any ground troops going in, I think he could reassure the entire MAGA base that this is the way forward.
	This is the peace through strength approach.
	This is what America First is all about.
	There are many places where things can get fractured along the way.
	But if that happens clearly and decisively, I think he's going to start restoring trust in a lot of Americans who do not trust our leadership and our government.
	And it could be a huge moment for the future of the country.
	Very quick, Blake, just from a, it looks like some of the Jets are now returning.
	It seems as if the attack is simmering down.
	There could have been one impact in Iraq al-Assad airbase.
	So we want to have a caveat on this.
	We don't know Americans could have died.
	And so we don't want to have a preemptive celebration.
	But what are we reading and seeing, Blake, very quick?
	I mean, it's looking like now we're seeing reports that, you know, if anything, stakes are going down.
	Like they're not freaking out as much.
	They're dialing back their concern.
	We haven't had new reports of additional missiles coming in.
	And I feel like if this was going to get worse, it's basically early in the evening there.
	So in theory, this could be the opening wave, and you could see more stuff launched over the course of the night.
	They have many hours to do that before daylight arrives.
	But so far, it seems it might really just be one volley of missiles, declare victory, go home.
	Okay, so let me just kind of go to some of these reports here.
	It seems like there was a lot of talk from Iran.
	This seems to be largely a theatrical show.
	A lot of the parties, it seems like, knew the plot and the outcome in advance.
	And this was permitted largely to allow Iranians as a way to save face.
	So again, if that ends up being true and no Americans being killed, it is now an incredible victory.
	And we shouldn't have any focus on regime change or any of that, but we can now reconfigure our intent on the American homeland, on deportations, on the border.
	Again, we're looking at this right now.
	Israeli Jets are now moving into strike Iran.
	Okay, that's a whole separate dynamic here.
	But is it possible the American chapter of this might actually be closed?
	Yeah, it's possible.
	And I think the most likely and most favorable scenario, again, there's so many caveats I could add to this, but you guys will see where I'm going with this.
	Israel will continue to pummel Iran for the next week or two, continue to devastate them because they do not have any aerial defense right now, and Israel is going to take advantage.
	America should do nothing else.
	Both sides have said they want this war to end quickly, and we cannot be involved in any sort of regime change because regime change will go on and on and on.
	There's going to be a lot of people who are going to try to tempt us into some sort of regime change war.
	That is not our fight or that is not our fight.
	That's not our battle.
	We cannot do it.
	We cannot engage in it because we don't know what will happen next.
	But what we can do, go ahead.
	But Alex, I'll throw it back to you in a second.
	No problem.
	Let me just read here.
	Qatar's defense systems intercepted 9 out of 10 missiles launched by Iran with one missile landing in an open area.
	And so it looks like all the missiles to Qatar, nine out of 10, were intercepted.
	This is what happens when you kind of give a little bit of like an hour to two hour, hey, we're going to attack.
	We're going to attack.
	Alex, what does this say for the supreme leader?
	It seems that the head of Iran did not want to see an escalation with America.
	They did not, they truly fear President Trump as they should.
	So President Trump's words now have real meaning for what he did in Fordot.
	Could it be so that President Trump just set an entire message for the rest of the world that you better listen when I talk?
	Yeah, I think Charlie, you and I called this last week on your show.
	We talked about this exact thing, is that Trump's word matters.
	It always has.
	And he's always said that they are not going to be allowed to have nuclear capabilities.
	He's been saying this for a decade and a half.
	So obviously, if they're going to continue to flaunt him when he's in a position of deep power and they've been very much weakened by Israeli strikes over the last few weeks, of course, this was going to be something that Trump was going to do.
	He said he was going to wait two weeks, typical, Unpredictable Trump fashion.
	He only waited a couple days, dropped some devastating attacks, and now he's out.
	And the American public is on the side of aerial defense.
	They're not on the side of regime change.
	And my prediction is Trump will stick with that.
	Alex, stay right there.
	Blake, I'm going to throw it to you for a second.
	We do not know the extent of the attack at Iraq.
	The Bahrain sirens are still going off, so there could be an attack on Bahrain.
	Let's get the map back up here.
	Bahrain has closed its airspace, so it might, we are now seeing potentially another volley towards Bahrain.
	Bahrain is a very small country.
	This map is not helpful at all, but you see Saudi Arabia there.
	Super tiny.
	Yes, but there's two clusters.
	The two clusters on the eastern part of Saudi Arabia.
	The southernmost one is the Qatari.
	The northern one is Bahrain.
	Exactly.
	Literally, like the icons they're using on that are like larger than Bahrain.
	It's a tiny island.
	I doubt it's that much larger even than like.
	So I'm curious.
	Some people are emailing us saying, Charlie, even though they didn't kill any Americans, they want to see a huge response from America.
	Is that your position?
	Freedom at CharlieKirk.com.
	Should we now escalate this if no Americans die?
	I don't know if that's my position.
	I think President Trump could take a massive victory here, which is that we bombed them hard.
	No Americans died.
	And that's it.
	No regime change, no boots on the ground.
	By the way, this is factored in.
	This was a expected response.
	By the way, we know that Iran probably wanted an exit ramp.
	Take the win.
	That's my position.
	Email us freedom at charliekirk.com.
	Three different media outlets are now reporting no injuries.
	Not even injury, let alone a death.
	Praise the Lord.
	Again, this is the MAGA doctrine.
	This is the Trump doctrine.
	Force, exert the force, use it, be unapologetic in the use of it.
	Limited, decisive, aggressive, violent, prudent action.
	Blake, let's kind of go through the dynamics here.
	Why would we not respond even though that they sent missiles towards us and no one died?
	Why should we take the win here?
	Well, because when you think about like what were we hope, what are we hoping to get done here?
	The reason we got involved is hopefully to do as much damage to Iran's nuclear program as possible because that was what Trump's goal was.
	He says Iran will not get a nuclear weapon.
	And when we think, what are the bad outcomes that could happen here?
	The bad outcome is we get sucked into some sort of cycle of constant strike and retaliation and strike back.
	It would be a huge failure case if we end up with boots on the ground.
	And how do you end up in a situation with boots on the ground, even if you say you don't?
	If you're constantly having these strikes go back and forth, if, oh, we need to get back at them for something they did.
	And if this strike did in fact have no casualties, we kind of have the perfect excuse to go, all right, they made their response and it was totally impotent.
	We clearly don't even need to worry about what they have to shoot at us other than their nuclear program, which we just hit and did a bunch of damage to.
	It perfectly works out for us to be able to say, we win, we take our ball, we go home.
	No impacts at the Al-Uded air base in Qatar.
	And so that is from every source that we have as well.
	Okay, everybody, email us freedom at charliekirk.com.
	We are looking at this live.
	So right now, Iran coordinated attacks on the U.S. airbase in Qatar with Qatari officials, providing advance notice to minimize casualties.
	That is the New York Times.
	And so Iran has responded, and they responded with 11 ballistic missiles in the Mideast.
	No American troops seem to have died so far, God willing.
	New York Times is reporting, though, that Iran coordinated the American airbase attack, kind of just be theatrical and performative.
	Iran appears to coordinate a response as to what, not drag the United States more directly into the fight.
	What does that mean then, Blake?
	I mean, it almost makes this sound like pro wrestling or something.
	Like, you know, if you ever watch it, they have the whole like, you know, throw the punch, but the guy's ready for it and like pulls his head back.
	It's like, oh, we're going to strike at you guys to show we're serious, but we're going to announce it in advance.
	You're going to see everything coming and it's going to be aimed really badly.
	And yeah, then nobody dies.
	That is, if this is where we're able to get an off-ramp, it is a gigantic win for the United States.
	And I suppose a gigantic win for President Trump's judgment.
	Yeah, if we are able to navigate it and if we're able to kind of go through.
	So big it.
	Yes.
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	But honestly, this is a great story to tell.
	Are you kidding me?
	That you strike Iran, there is risk involved, no U.S. troops die in response.
	And end of story.
	This is a major victory.
	That's the story to tell.
	Just to be clear, though, U.S. officials are now saying, this is the U.S. officials are now saying that Iran, that, I'm trying to find this here.
	U.S. officials are now saying that this was largely symbolic.
	Trump has no intention of retaliation against Iran after its failed retaliation attempt.
	Alex Marlow, if that's true, is this not a very powerful narrative to be able to present to the American people that, look, there was risk involved, but there ended up being no casualties and no death to American troops?
	Yeah, I think that what we've seen here is Trump basically executing a plan that is very straightforward.
	He's a man of his word, and Iran has not shown any willingness to be cooperative in the slightest.
	And I think that, you know, it's just not true.
	The facts are on Trump's side that he was not manipulated into This.
	I know there's a perception online that Israel somehow coaxed Trump into war.
	Israel was freaking out that Trump could throw them under the bus.
	We, of course, have a lot of sources in Israel, and there's a lot of people who are deeply concerned that Trump is not a fan of Netanyahu, does not want to fight wars on his behalf.
	But Iran went right after Trump by continuing to enrich and continuing to fund those proxies, despite him pleading with them, please stop.
	Let's be diplomatic.
	And they would not do it.
	And this fits very clearly with Trump's narrative of taking out Baghdadi.
	You remember Charlie with all those beautiful dogs going through the wall?
	They could have gone through the door.
	They went through the wall.
	All that great stuff with him.
	Soleimani, the taking out the Wagner troops in Syria, pro-arming, pro-actively arming Ukraine, cutting out Nord Stream 2 to affect the Russians.
	Trump has been highly aggressive when people are not cooperative with him.
	And then he does a one-off move, maybe two or three moves at the most, and then he backs off.
	He's a peacetime president, but he understands being unpredictable is the quickest way to peace.
	If he stops here where he's at now, that will be the narrative and it will be a winning narrative over time.
	Yeah.
	And Alex, let's just kind of reiterate this point, though, that, hey, for low propensity voters, they don't like the foreign intervention and all this.
	Do you think the way that this is concluding could maybe remedy some of that?
	Yeah, it has to.
	We need to be deeply cautious of every political coalition in this country is tenuous, and it is very important that when you're in charge and you have to do stuff, there's nothing that's a hundred to zero issue.
	So every time Trump makes a move, there's always a risk that some of the base, some of the movement is not going to understand it.
	It's imperative on the messengers and on Trump himself and on his administration to make that case to the public in an effective way.
	And I trust these guys to do it.
	But there are a lot of people who are new to the movement who do not understand why some of us like Israel so much and understand that deep history.
	And they don't want to feel like Trump got manipulated into war.
	I know for a fact that's not why Trump did this, but that is on the people who want to see this movement to be strong to make that case to the people who are skeptical of everything.
	Charlie, they're skeptical of everything for good reason.
	After all the COVID stuff and after all the lying, after the 2020 election, people are skeptical of the government, and it is imperative upon us to make that case to them.
	Blake, do you have a comment here on kind of news that we're seeing?
	Well, so, I mean, there's not much news right now.
	One of the funny things about this is just you get war has like long lulls in it, and then you just have these shows where you react.
	For now, nothing new is happening on the strikes front.
	This may be the end of things.
	That could always change at any time.
	I suppose a big open question is what will happen if we get this off-ramp to get out of things, but if just the war continues?
	If Israel keeps bombing Iran, Iran keeps shooting missiles back at Israel.
	Will that cause any pressure for us to get involved again at any point?
	Or are we able to stand aside with just the role we've played so far?
	So there are explosions in Tehran right now, which is likely Israeli jets.
	And so Israel and Iran are going to keep on going back at it.
	But this is probably and likely a closure to the American involvement here.
	And by the way, don't take my word for it.
	Oil prices are going down.
	Oil prices are plummeting right now because the markets, they're like, okay, we know what this is.
	This was theatrical.
	This was performative.
	This was kind of check the box.
	And President Donald Trump is able to act in a decisive way.
	You don't have to agree with it, but I'm going to ask the question, though, okay, if no U.S. troops die, and this is the end of the chapter, hasn't he yet, again, earned your trust on this stuff?
	Syria, Soleimani, al-Baghdadi, American troops have not died in these situations.
	Oil is collapsing right now.
	And air defenses are activated all over Tehran.
	That is not American jets from our knowledge, our understanding.
	U.S. officials are saying that was a failed response.
	We don't plan a response.
	So it is conceivable then, Alex, that we can say that this chapter is closed.
	Is that right?
	Yeah, I think we're hovering around something really important here is that this needs to end.
	The war needs to end.
	It needs to come to a close.
	We need to not be involved in regime change.
	Go back and get that domestic agenda going.
	We have 700 illegal immigration arrests yesterday.
	We barely have time to talk about it.
	I mean, that's stuff I want to talk about.
	I want to get back to that agenda.
	I want those maha moms reached out to.
	It is the Epstein files are not going to, no one's going to be happy about that stuff.
	And that continues to erode the trust in the people, the normal people, the new people in Trump's coalition.
	And those people need to be focused on starting with the immigration agenda, getting those tax cuts going, all the things that Trump had promised.
	That needs to get done next in order to solidify that he's a man of his word, which I think he is.
	So I'm very optimistic today.
	And Blake, the Iranian response being theatrical is very good for us, especially if we want, like they gave us an off-ramp.
	And it looks like President Trump is going to take it.
	It's conceivable that a week from now, we're going to be all back to deportation talk.
	Yeah, that's one of the great things.
	If we get the successful off-ramp, this just becomes, I mean, how many details do you remember about the Soleimani thing?
	How many details do you remember about the Iran drone crisis?
	Can you remember the month either of those things happened?
	Probably at this point, some of us could, but I bet most people, they couldn't tell you the exact number of, you know, war crises we had with Iran in the first Trump term or when they happened.
	And I think the biggest win for Trump would be if in a year from now, people can't even quite remember exactly when this happened.
	President Donald Trump, this is breaking news from Axios, his administration was aware of the Iranian attack in advance.
	So pretty amazing.
	So, all right, email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com and subscribe to our podcast.
	Alex Marlow, what else are you seeing and hearing?
	Yeah, I think that, Charlie, you're talking about the right stuff.
	The urgency to end this thing and to move on is the right thing, but it is incredible.
	Display of weakness by Iran that this is all they could summon after two days.
	And it shows you that they're deeply vulnerable.
	And I'm not rooting for or against regime change there, but what I am rooting for is for America not to be a part of it.
	And Israel has to have, they've said they've wanted the war to end as well.
	They can keep bombing for another week or so.
	And then after that, you know, wind this thing down and start focusing on those deportations and the rest of the domestic agenda.
	If that happens, Trump is going to look like just a historic figure with historic wisdom.
	He continues to play this thing right.
	And I continue to stay optimistic.
	I'm trying to find one thing here, but Blake, What does this then mean for the broader foreign policy project, China, Ukraine, Russia?
	Does this have other implications?
	Well, if we get out of it, I think it's probably mostly positive.
	I think our adversaries, if they had a hope, you know, what could happen to America, they would be thinking, oh, could America get into another conflict that will deplete them and distract them?
	I imagine Russia would love it if we got in an Iranian quagmire because that would probably mean the end to any significant support to Ukraine.
	China might see, oh, this is going to slow down their pivot to Asia.
	Maybe that's our chance to go for Taiwan.
	If we get out of this quickly, I think that might make them think, well, one, they're not distracted.
	And two, we saw U.S. military hardware on display.
	It seems to be working properly.
	It seems any talk about America's armed forces being, you know, a paper tiger might be overblown.
	And that could assist us in a lot of our international relations.
	And also, if we're able to successfully kind of put Iran in a corner, that can definitely improve the relationships we've been building in the Middle East.
	Can I chime in on that?
	Yes, please.
	Charlie, because I was thinking about what you guys talked about earlier about the Strait of Hormuz and how that's not shut down yet.
	And I was thinking if Iran really thought they were in a position of strength, it would have been shut down by now.
	But I know that there's people in the area who are more aligned with them who are saying, absolutely not.
	Do not shut this down.
	You can't do it or else we're going to throw you under the bus too.
	So it just speaks to the vulnerability that they have right now.
	And I think that that is another sign that Trump is acting very prudently here by doing something.
	Don't do too much.
	No ground troops at all.
	I know Bannon's warned about the ground troops.
	He's right to warn people about it.
	But overall, it feels like we're in very strong footing at the moment.
	Yes.
	And sorry, I was just double checking right now.
	So it looks as if the attack is over.
	U.S. officials told Fox News that no American soldiers were killed or injured in the Iranian attack.
	Praise the Lord.
	Beautiful.
	That's huge, everybody.
	Beautiful.
	Praise the Lord.
	It is really big.
	So the American official says, quote, the U.S. is not expected to respond to Iran's failed attack.
	And so the U.S. official, we'll see what happens.
	And we need to double and triple confirm that.
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	Okay, Blake, what are we seeing as far as the reaction online from folks?
	I mean, the reaction online, what's funny is, you know, this is all so immediate.
	I'm not even sure if everyone's seen it.
	They're at work or whatever.
	But the initial stuff from people who are hyper online, I think is optimistic.
	I think there's some gloating.
	A lot of people at this point are really just in the phase of making fun of Iran.
	I was messaging you earlier.
	It's almost like this is the moment where you remember that Iran is a regime founded by college professors.
	Like, they just talk a little game, kind of inept, kind of incompetent, aren't really good at the real world stuff.
	And, you know, that's good to the extent that it's true.
	And I think further reactions will depend greatly on what actually happens.
	We live in a very, you know, ADD society.
	So some people are already spiking the football, declaring total victory, declaring everything's worked out exactly as we wanted.
	We will see what happens.
	Things change a lot.
	We'll even have to see.
	One thing we were discussing this morning, we still don't know for sure how much damage was actually done to Iran's nuclear program.
	Did they get their uranium out?
	That's still an open question.
	It could turn out maybe Iran did a minor response because they already know a lot of their nuclear material is fine.
	And so they just don't want to antagonize the U.S. because they can just get right back to getting that underway again.
	So I don't think we should overreact to things, but I think the reaction, to the extent it exists, is a mixture of cautious optimism and making fun of Iran.
	Okay, I agree with that.
	So the response seems to be largely theatrical, but it looks as if based on all reporting, and we're going to hear from the U.S. officials and the U.S. administration sometime soon, doesn't look like the United States is going to respond.
	Again, there's a lot of fog of war going on.
	Can you talk about the fog of war?
	Where does that phrase come from, Blake?
	The fog of war, I think it originally comes from Klausvitz.
	Have you ever heard of that guy?
	No.
	Klausewitz was a Prussian.
	It might even be older than that, but I think it's from him.
	He was a Prussian military theorist in the 1800s.
	He wrote a book on war, and it was kind of the first modern analysis of war that wasn't just old-fashioned, like medieval or ancient text.
	It was a guy in the 1800s.
	He was German, so of course the book had to be like a thousand pages long.
	And he would write, and I think he also was the source of kind of the concept of no plan survives first contact with the enemy.
	So he's like, in warfare, you design plans, but as soon as you actually get into combat, those plans break down.
	You have uncertainty about what's unfolding around you.
	That's the fog of war.
	And so from a diplomatic standpoint, and now a U.S. domestic one, what would you say, Blake, is the lesson or the takeaway if no U.S. troops die?
	If no U.S. troops die, I would actually like to caveat, there can be worries about that.
	A worry that you might have is if we're able to do this, blow up a lot of Iran's nuclear program and get out without any casualties, that could make us overconfident that that can be replicated.
	You might think, oh, well, we can apply the same lessons to this other country, and they'll probably not hit back at us either, and you make that mistake.
	I would like to caveat that that could happen.
	That said, I think a lesson we could take is President Trump has, at that point, a very clear track record of having good instincts on what he's able to do force-wise without causing things to spiral out of control.
	So it would be a strong win for President Trump's personal instincts in that realm.
	And it's a display that it is, in fact, possible to do limited war, that we can get America back to this attitude of we can do military ventures with clear objectives rather than open-ended nationbuilding.
	I think a reason so many of our wars became these nation-building fiascos is because there was a mental tendency in America, in Washington, that our interventions had to go that way, that we couldn't just say, we're going to beat up on this country.
	It was almost, we got too moralizing about our wars, that every war had to be to like rescue an entire country and bring them freedom and democracy.
	Whereas Trump, because he comes from a more realpolitic school of thought, he thinks I wage war for America's interests.
	And even if it'd be great if Iran was free, that is not why America goes to war.
	Totally.
	And it's just, so just we're clear, third verification now from a U.S. official, no casualties reported in Iran missile attack on U.S. base.
	Blake, some people in our audience are saying, still, we have to respond with force.
	Come on, guys, take the win.
	Yeah.
	I mean, they just did a whole theatrical response.
	You think our enemies are just going to not do something at least theatrical in response?
	It's like if you're like, if you have this annoying neighbor or something and he's doing, I don't know, if he's doing something, if he has something really aggravating on his property and you go over and you like smash it to bits or whatever because it's bad.
	And then he comes over and he's like, you're big and strong and he's this little twink and he like punches you right in the chest and like it doesn't even hurt you and you're completely unharmed.
	Do you then like respond by like grabbing him and breaking his arm?
	No, you just you laugh at him and you walk away.
	I want you guys to email us freedom at charliekirk.com.
	Someone says, some people say the chapter is not closed.
	We should send boots on the ground.
	Some people are saying that.
	Email us freedom at charliekirk.com.
	I think that's kind of wild, to be really honest.
	Oil prices, though, are falling 5% after the Iranian attack on a U.S. military base.
	The whole world knows what this is.
	And I fully anticipate President Donald Trump.
	Here's what President Trump should do, if you want to ask my two cents.
	President Donald Trump should do a primetime evening address tonight with more specificity about what we did, why it was in American interest to strike Iran, why it was not done lightly, the amazing military accomplishment, and how Iran responded and no American troops died.
	And then say that this, you know, we're going to stay engaged and involved.
	And if Iran dares perks up, we will respond even more.
	But for all intents and purposes, we don't have any further military action.
	I think that would be a great response.
	Okay, everybody, just to recap today.
	So we started the day kind of talking about the political fallout.
	And Iranian missiles were launched.
	10 of them were launched at U.S. base in Qatar, one in Iraq, and no casualties reported.
	If this ends up being the case with this fast-moving breaking news day, President Donald Trump will have pulled off a phenomenal success, a legendary success, textbook, a masterclass, in a way that none of us could have ever potentially dreamed.
	We're very worried about escalation, as we should be.
	These things can still escalate from this point forward.
	These things can still go to levels that we do not anticipate and that we cannot always predict.
	But I could tell you right now that President Donald Trump is putting on a foreign policy masterclass.
	And I believe that President Trump will now exercise restraint.
	This is how strong nations exercise military power.
	You don't have to agree with it, but how could you be against the result, though?
	If the result ends up being a nuclear program that is severely put back and capability that is jeopardized and no U.S. troops and no foreign war, no regime change, how could you be against the result?
	So I encourage you to enter into this discussion with a fair amount of honesty and integrity.
	So the takeaway for me, and I think for a lot of people, is President Donald Trump has navigated this beautifully.
	Again, there's still a lot of situational awareness we must have here.
	There is still a lot of blowback that can still occur.
	But look, what Iran did here is very simple.
	Iran is very worried about what an American response would potentially be.
	30 seconds, final thoughts, Blake?
	You know, I think we talked about why we were worried about this at the outset, the ways it could spiral out of control.
	So far, it is not spiraling, and I think we would both agree it'd be great for us to seize that opportunity, take the win, say, we did what we came here to do, and we're getting out.
	We are setting a new template for U.S. military action.
	Limited, restrained, clear objectives, brief.
	And that's an asset that we have, and we should be grateful for it.
	Very good.
	Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
	Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
	Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.

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