March 24, 2026 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
27:05
Pepe Escobar : How Iran is Beating Trump
Judge Andrew Napolitano and Pepe Escobar dissect a collapsed Mossad-backed revolt in Tehran allegedly orchestrated by David Barnea and Jared Kushner, alongside uninvestigated insider trading involving $1.5 billion in SP 500 bets. They analyze Iran's strategic pivot using the "petrol Yuan" to nationalize the Strait of Hormuz while Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman threatens oil infrastructure. Escobar condemns potential U.S. troop deployments in Sistan Balochistan as a suicidal "Bay of Pigs multiplied by 10,000," contrasting this with Iran's resilience against Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership. Ultimately, the episode reveals an emerging multipolar dynamic where BRICS remains paralyzed, leaving Russia, Iran, and China to reshape global power while sidelining Gulf states like Qatar and Kuwait. [Automatically generated summary]
Tragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression, with no complaints from the American people.
Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government.
To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected.
What if sometimes to love your country, you had to alter or abolish the government?
What if Jefferson was right?
What if that government is best which governs least?
What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong?
What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave?
What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now?
Hi, everyone.
Excuse me, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Tuesday, March 24th, 2026.
Pepe Escobar joins us in Thailand.
Pepe, it's a pleasure, my dear friend.
My pleasure, Judge.
Thank you for accommodating our schedule.
Whatever became of the Mossad-originated plan to sow dissent and chaos in the streets in Tehran and have the Iranian people revolt and overthrow their government.
Whatever happened to that plan?
It collapsed on day one, and there was never a plan B.
And they're still trying to provoke unrest.
They are still bombing civilian targets, not only in Greater Tehran, but in major cities, especially Isfahan.
But the whole thing collapsed, and now they're desperate.
Wow.
Professor Ambassador Freeman tells us that that plan was concocted by, and Professor Sachs confirms this as well from his sources.
That plan was concocted by the current head of Mossad, David Barney, who persuaded Niranyahu of it, who persuaded Trump of it, even though the former head of Mossad and American intelligence said it wouldn't work.
Absolutely.
And of course, and the relayer in the White House was Jared Kushner.
And that's an enormous problem because he also profited from the Trump reneging on the ultimatum.
This story of this bets that were placed in the SP 500 five minutes before the order came to cancel the ultimatum, people who were in the room profited from it.
And there were not many people in the room, Judge, at the time.
Maybe four or five.
Tell us what you're talking about.
Well, there was a major play on the SP 500 of $1.5 billion and another one to sell oil for another few million.
And obviously, this order was relayed to a trader from somebody who was in the room five minutes before Trump said, I'm postponing the whole thing for five days.
So this is exciting.
This is insider trading.
This is extremely serious.
And obviously, it's not being investigated by investigative journalism in SMM, USA.
Nor is it being investigated by the FBI or the Justice Department.
Not yet.
No, no.
This is what people go to jail for.
What has been the international reaction to Trump's claim yesterday that his two real estate agents, his self-dealing real estate agents, have been secretly negotiating with a high-ranking and as yet unnamed Iranian official?
Well, there's an explosion of memes all over every continent, in every language.
Some of them are absolutely riotous, funny.
What it's really happening, it's something that has already been announced by Pakistan.
Pakistani government is posing as the top media.
They are already positioned as the top mediator.
Sharif, the prime minister, already wrote on X a few hours ago, volunteering Pakistan.
And in fact, it's a triad.
It's Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan.
They are working together.
But Pakistan now is a front line, positioning themselves to be the mediator between a possible mediator between Washington and Tehran.
Well, it's a very complex story.
Okay, I'll try to break it down in 30 seconds.
They have very good relations with both, with the Trump White House and with the leadership in Tehran.
They are neighbors of Iran.
Pakistani Balochistan, Sister Balochistan.
They have infiltrators on both sides, infiltrators inside Pakistan and infiltrators inside Iran.
But at the same time, they have defense back to Saudi Arabia.
And that complicates things enormously because MBS, who was lobbying for the US to get into this war, now is openly considering entering the war.
So if Saudi Arabia enters the war, the Iranian reaction is going to be devastating.
MBS will not know what will beat him, but he's on the brink.
Same thing with MBZ in the UAE, which is already at war with Iran, and Iran considers itself already at war with the UAE.
Why would so?
How can I?
Yes yes, just why would MBS Mohammed Bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, want to enter the war?
Well, first of all, because of all those uh, absolutely stratospheric deals that he promised uh Trump.
Of course, he believes that uh, in the new Middle East, Saudi Arabia is going to be the major power.
He's uh, uh.
His relationship with the IRGC is absolutely incompatible.
It's a desire for total power in West Asia, his relationship with the international Zionist Axis, all those investments in the U.S. economy, and a close relationship once again with Trump via Jared Kushner.
Jared Kushner is the messenger for the UAE, but mostly for Saudi Arabia.
So this complicates things immensely for Pakistan.
Pakistan, now it's an absolutely ghastly government.
When I write about this, I get torrents of mail from Pakistanis, but it's true.
But in terms of maneuvering between Iran and the Trump White House, you cannot find a better position player at the moment, much better than Egypt and much better than Turkey.
So, but how they're going to manage Saudi Arabia if Saudi Arabia enters the war.
If Saudi Arabia enters the war within the next day or two, the whole mediation thing collapses because the Iranian reaction is going to be, okay, they're going for all, not only for their bases, but for Saudi oil infrastructure.
Please, Judge, please.
Does anybody take Trump seriously that Kushner and Witkoff are secretly talking to somebody in the Iranian government?
Nobody does.
If they were talking to somebody, it would be Galiba, the leader of the parliament.
He already said many, many times over and over again, there are no conversations whatsoever.
Exactly what you're showing now.
No conversations and no negotiations whatsoever.
I'll read this aloud.
Iranian people demand.
This is from the speaker of the Iranian parliament, the one the Israelis claim is secretly negotiating with Witkoff and Kushner.
Here's what he says on his ex.
Iranian people demand complete and remorseful punishment of the aggressors.
All Iranian officials stand firmly behind their supreme leader and people until this goal is achieved.
Now, this next line is underlined.
No negotiations have been held with the U.S. and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the U.S. and Israel are trapped.
That's exactly what the press is saying here.
This was a stunt by Trump to manipulate the financial and oil markets.
And at least for a day, it worked.
Exactly, but it's not working anymore, Judge.
The yields on the 10-year U.S. treasure bonds are up again, and they have reached 5% again.
They were reaching 5% before the announcement of the ultimatum.
They went down to 4.4, 4.5.
And now they are at 5 again.
This is the bond market basically saying this war is unsustainable and unpayable.
Is Trump listening?
Apparently not.
Because the bond market is listening to everything.
And they knew that this was a fraud from the beginning.
So that's once again where Pakistan jumps in.
Because Pakistan is looking at all that.
Okay, maybe this is our chance to be the heal Mary of the day.
But considering that this is going down by the hour, in fact, considering what the UAE is actually doing and what Saudi Arabia is actually announcing.
The only one among the Gulf who is going against this Qatar, Qatar, now officially is calling for some sort of understanding because they already suffered heavily because of the bombing that they suffered from Iran in consequence of the bombing of the South Sparse gas field in Iran.
So Qatar now is out of the game.
The only play that they have at the moment is to call for some sort of understanding, but now it's too late.
And now their role as an LNG provider for Asia and for Europe is totally compromised for at least the next five years.
And that's where Europe comes in.
Europe doesn't have a plan A plus or A minus.
Europe now has no gas from Qatar and no gas from Russia.
In the meantime, Russia and Iran are making a fortune on oil.
Oh, yes.
The Russian budget is increasing by the minute, non-stop.
And Iran.
Wow.
That's the, I would say, the beauty of it all.
Iran, just coming back to BRICS, I'm sure our audience remembers how these past two, three years, the endless talk about BRICS organizing the coming of the new movement.
You were not very optimistic about the BRICS as we know it when we spoke last.
Exactly.
And now, the facts seem to support this point of view, Judge.
With one move, Iran established an alternative payment system in the most important choke point on the planet.
Iran institutionalized the petrol Yuan as the currency to cross the Strait of Hormuz.
This is something that a zillion BRICS summits would never achieve.
They achieved it with one move.
This is the real game changer.
This toll booth, the whole process, we prefer that you settle the oil and gas that you are exporting in petrol Yuan.
If it's in other currencies, we might consider as long as you pay the toll.
The toll is $2 million for each tanker.
If you satisfy conditions one and two, condition three is very simple.
You can cross the strait close to our close down inside our maritime territorial waters between the islands of Kashmir and Larak, and you're free to go.
And this applies to virtually everybody except tankers directly linked to U.S. and Israel interests.
And for the moment as well, Japan and South Korea.
We wonder if Japan is going to negotiate.
South Korea will, because they need it.
They depend on energy from crossing from the Strait of Hormuz for their high-tech industry.
So they need to find a way out.
But the most important thing is the toll booth, an alternative payment system in the most important choke point on the planet established by Iran.
Iran nationalized the Strait of Hormuz.
And there's nothing the United States can do about that.
What do you think Trump will try to accomplish with 5,000 or 10,000 troops?
Wow.
And what will await those troops?
This is going to be a bay of pigs multiplied by 10,000.
It's going to be a horror story.
The latest echoes that we have is that they might disembark in southeastern Iran in Sistan Balochistan province.
I was there last year when we were shooting our documentary on the North-South Transportation Corridor.
The locals themselves, not only IRGC everywhere, not only all the underground missile cities who are many of them are in Sistan Balochistan province, but the locals as well, wow, the Americans are in for a mega rough ride.
It's going to be a disaster if that happens.
Horror Story in Sistan Balochistan00:04:03
Obviously, because they cannot land near the Persian Gulf in the Sea of Oman, in the Persian Gulf, and no, there's nowhere else for them to land.
Are they going to cross the Persian Gulf from UAE or Qatar?
No, they cannot do that.
So the only possible place would be southeastern Iran.
Wow.
But what is their goal to take over Karg Island, to take over the toll booth?
It's on the other side.
Carg Island is on the other side.
And taking Karg Island doesn't change anything at all.
And most of what is important in Karg Island has been evacuated as well.
And Iran can use other terminals to export energy.
And of course, Karg Island will be a total Bay of Pigs operation.
No question.
So this is the question that anyone in the US in a position of power should be asking the White House: Do you actually have a plan?
Have you gained this with the Pentagon?
What did the Pentagon General say?
Anyone with a brain, anyone with an IQ over 10 in the Pentagon knows that this is suicidal?
How is it that Trump has lost control of this war?
Well, that's the thesis of our friend Alistair Crook.
It's fundamentally correct.
Yes.
Well, he never had control of this war in the first place, except if his weakened war idea would work.
And the idea, as now we all know, coming from Barney, Mossad, and Tel Aviv, which is essentially an Israeli idea, was decapitation strike, the regime collapses, and on Monday you can have your mission accomplished flag.
Obviously, this proves that they don't know or they didn't do their homework on anything about Iran.
They can't even agree on whether or not this is a war.
Watch this.
Democrats are putting our country at great risk during this period of time, a period that they call a war.
They call it a war.
We call it a military operation.
Two days ago, under the direction and direct orders of President Donald J. Trump, the Department of War launched Operation Epic Fury.
We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it.
We will hunt you down without apology and without hesitation, and we will kill you.
Where does language like that get him as an individual, the Defense Department he leads, or the American government?
Judge, the low level of it all is indescribable.
We have on one side the assassinated leader of the secretary of the National Security Council of Iran, who wrote books on mathematics and Kant, who could do a dissertation in Kant in German for a few hours.
And on the other side, we have the push-up clown, Secretary of Forever Wars, who doesn't even know, who thinks Kant is probably a hockey player.
It's pathetic.
It's absolutely pathetic.
It's very, very serious in terms of the level on one side of people who actually fought in the Iran-Iraq war.
Almost all of them were in the trenches during the Iran-Iraq war in the 80s.
Dire Prospects for BRICS00:06:22
They all have PhDs.
And it's fascinating.
Some Russian analysts are making wonderful jokes about it.
Like, you know, in Iran, you have people who fought in trenches and a leader that the PhDs in Kant.
And they know also about quantum physics and how to build hypersonic missiles.
And on the other side, you have Peter Hexet.
There you go.
How precarious is the U.S. position right now?
It's precarious in the sense that they have no tactics, no strategy, no vision, no feasible plan.
And at the same time, they are desperately looking for an off-ramp without saying so.
And everybody already, everybody in the global south knows it.
And some actors among the petrol monarchies also know it, apart from the gangsterish MBS and MBZ.
But these are two gangster families.
What do you expect?
And with interests closely linked with the Zionist axis and with the American government.
But everybody else in Qatar, in Kuwait, in Bahrain, in Jordan, in Egypt, in Lebanon, everybody knows what's going on.
And everybody looks at the Empire of Chaos.
They said, they put themselves into this position.
And it's no wonder they didn't even know where they're getting into.
And no wonder they cannot get out of it.
Let's, before we finish, go back to BRICS for a minute.
Is India in or is India out?
For the moment, the only ones who are actually talking to India are the Russians.
The Russians, who they are extreme Taoist patients, they think that they can salvage all the disasters that India inflicted on, I would say, the badly burned BRICS brand.
And we wonder if it's going to recover in the next few months when the Sharpas start to meet to prepare the summit in New Delhi in next November.
But it's going to be extremely difficult.
And if Pakistan starts succeeding as the broker of a possible mediation between Iran and the US, the Modic government is going to freak out like, you know, to Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto and beyond.
So the perspectives are dire for BRICS, Judge, at the moment.
BRICS is in deep coma at the moment.
But China is not, Russia is not, and Iran is not.
That's it.
So it's the return of the Primacov, the updated Primacov triangle, which started at RIC, Russia, India, China, and now is RIC, Russia, Iran, China.
What about Brazil?
Dead.
I am very sorry to say that.
It pains me to recognize the facts.
Ineffective, irrelevant.
And with an election later this year between Lula and another member of the Bolsonaro family, all bets are off.
So the country is paralyzed.
Wow.
And without a foreign policy, Judge, which is even worse.
Here's a comment from Prime Minister Stormer, which I really didn't expect, but here he is.
Chris, cut number 11.
Any UK action, there must be a lawful basis and any UK action.
There must be a lawful basis and a viable and thought-through plan.
That is why we didn't join the original offensive strikes.
It is why we did take defensive action, collective self-defensive action on our own behalf when it came to the work that we're doing with our allies in the region, taking missiles out that are coming from Iran.
It's also why we allowed our bases to be used for the purposes of collective self-defense.
But that's an important divide.
So collective self-defense, yes, and we've taken appropriate action.
But this is not our war and we are not getting dragged into this war.
Are you surprised that the British poodle is not following its American master?
But Judge, when he talks about collective self-defense, he's talking about NATO.
He's not talking about the UK.
So this is a NATO argument.
And for the moment, NATO, they may be invoking a collective self-defense, but they are doing nothing.
And they know that if they get into this war, if the proxy war against Russia is going bad, can you imagine if NATO gets on board of this war against Iran?
At least some in Europe have, once again, an IQ over 10 to do.
Pepe, thank you very much, my dear friend.
If you allow me 10 seconds, if you allow me 10 seconds.
Of course.
I would like to restress the key point.
This is not the first multipolar war.
To quote Bob Dylan, always, there's somebody busy being born, which is the new multipolar warder.
And there's somebody busy dying, which is the old war epitomized by the United States and the Empire of Chaos.
This is where we are now.
The first multipolar war is actually the war in Ukraine, which is the U.S. and NATO against Russia.
This is the second one.
And they are intertwined, as we all know.
But if Iran resists, the beginning of a new system of international relations is not going to be in a summit.
It will be in a battlefield under fire.
There's no other way.
Wow.
Battlefield Birth of New Order00:01:01
Thank you, Pepe.
Great, great analysis.
We'll post this piece there, Judge Knapp.
Thank you very much.
The infernal escalation machine.
There are some fabulous, I don't even want to repeat them, but there are some fabulous one-liners in there that are typically Escobarian.
Thank you, Judge.
That's very kind.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Pepe.
All the best, my dear friend.
All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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