Rubin Report - Dave Rubin - I Spoke to Trump & His Final Plan for Iran Will Shock Everyone | Bill O’Reilly
Aired: 2026-04-07
Duration: 24:42


=== Strategic Infrastructure Targets (14:22) ===

[00:00:00]  I think he's got to take out some kinds of bases or trains or infrastructure that could harm the Persian people.
[00:00:18]  I see it from a historical lens.
[00:00:22]  So the only reason the Japanese surrendered was Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a firebombing at Tokyo.
[00:00:30]  They weren't going to surrender.
[00:00:32]  Is that that would have been hundreds of thousands of more casualties there?
[00:00:38]  So I think the president does rely on history a bit.
[00:00:42]  And if he's got to use U.S. military power to damage the country and believes that there will be a payoff to that, a positive payoff, then that's what he'll do.
[00:01:05]  I'm Dave Rubin and joining me tonight is one of the last guys making sense and host of the no spin news, Bill O'Reilly.
[00:01:14]  Bill, good to see you.
[00:01:16]  Dave, thanks for having me in.
[00:01:18]  Bill, uh, I've played a lot of clips of you over the last couple of weeks because I think you've been a very fair arbiter about what's going on with this war, about what the intentions have been, about, uh, that we don't always know all of the pieces before Trump does things.
[00:01:33]  I think you've analyzed his tweets well, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:01:36]  Uh, we are Taping this now.
[00:01:37]  It is 3 50 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7th.
[00:01:40]  We're going to air this at 7 15.
[00:01:42]  Supposedly at 8 p.m., something is going to happen.
[00:01:48]  Where are you at with all of this at the moment?
[00:01:51]  You know, it's a guess, but I think there is a chance that there'll be an extension because I know talks are going on through Pakistan and I don't.
[00:02:07]  Believe that Donald Trump wants to kill civilians.
[00:02:10]  In fact, I know that because about four weeks ago, Dave, I had an extensive conversation on the phone with the president about the whole situation and how to bring it into the realm of reality without massive destruction.
[00:02:27]  And he was absolutely convinced that he could get a deal from the Mullins.
[00:02:34]  And that's what he wanted, didn't want to use heavy military action.
[00:02:39]  So, I can report that as fact.
[00:02:42]  And then he and I went over what a deal might comprise.
[00:02:45]  The main component, obviously, is the Mohs would have to allow weapons inspectors in to monitor their uranium situation.
[00:02:55]  The fact that they won't do that should tell everybody in the world of their ill intent.
[00:03:01]  Why wouldn't you do that?
[00:03:04]  If the whole thing would stop and then you could rebuild your country and all you have to do.
[00:03:13]  You say, no, we're going to give up our nuclear arsenal.
[00:03:17]  Why wouldn't you do it?
[00:03:18]  Right.
[00:03:19]  And why wouldn't you even just lie about it right now if you're facing eminent destruction?
[00:03:24]  But they can't really do that because they'd have to sign something and then we would go out.
[00:03:32]  And the mullahs are very interested in saving face, particularly to the Muslim world.
[00:03:38]  They're Shia.
[00:03:39]  And they don't want to send any weakness.
[00:03:42]  But what people don't understand is.
[00:03:46]  They don't care about their own people, and that is the problem with the negotiation.
[00:03:51]  Right.
[00:03:51]  It's almost like Putin.
[00:03:53]  You think Putin cares about how many Russians are killed in Ukraine?
[00:03:58]  He doesn't.
[00:03:59]  He doesn't care about the Ukrainians at all, but Putin cares about his own life.
[00:04:06]  These crazy mullahs think they're going to heaven or something, whatever.
[00:04:12]  Some of them don't even care about their own life.
[00:04:15]  Very difficult.
[00:04:16]  Difficult negotiation.
[00:04:19]  When you saw Trump's tweet on Easter and it had the F bomb and then the subsequent tweet where it seemed that everybody was hung up on the word civilizational, what do you make of the rhetoric?
[00:04:32]  I'm, you know, 10 years into this thing.
[00:04:35]  I just think he is what he is.
[00:04:37]  He likes to surprise people, he uses colorful language.
[00:04:39]  I don't read into it too much other than it's exactly what the art of the deal is, which is you say some crazy things and see what happens.
[00:04:45]  But I see a lot of people, even on the right, freaking out over some of the rhetoric right now.
[00:04:52]  I wouldn't have put that out.
[00:04:55]  And I don't really know why the president thought it was necessary to be that bombastic.
[00:05:04]  I haven't talked to him about it.
[00:05:07]  But I think it's small ball, Dave.
[00:05:10]  I don't think it matters.
[00:05:12]  What really matters is whether the mullahs are going to draw back from their insistence that they have a weapon that could destroy half the globe.
[00:05:25]  That's really what it's all about.
[00:05:26]  So forgive me if I don't pay close attention to the F bomb or whatever.
[00:05:31]  I'm paying close attention to the real bombs.
[00:05:34]  Yeah.
[00:05:35]  No, no, no.
[00:05:36]  I'm completely with you on that.
[00:05:38]  So it does sound like, and again, we're taping this just a couple hours before 8 p.m., that suddenly some talks restarted involving Pakistan.
[00:05:47]  If Iran walks in these last few hours, or if whatever they respond with is not what Trump is interested in, What do you think he would do?
[00:05:58]  I mean, what do you?
[00:05:58]  I know you don't want to be in the prediction game.
[00:06:00]  Nobody does right now.
[00:06:01]  But I mean, is there much more damage we can do to their infrastructure without harming the people of Iran, who I'm completely in agreement with you?
[00:06:08]  He does not want to harm the people of Iran.
[00:06:10]  It's about the regime.
[00:06:12]  I think he's got to take out some kinds of bases or trains or infrastructure that could harm the Persian people.
[00:06:31]  I see it from a historical lens.
[00:06:34]  So, the only reason the Japanese surrendered was Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a firebombing at Tokyo.
[00:06:41]  Then they weren't going to surrender.
[00:06:44]  So, that would have been hundreds of thousands of more casualties there.
[00:06:50]  So, I think the president does rely on history a bit.
[00:06:55]  And if he's got to use U.S. military power, To damage the country and believes that there will be a payoff to that, a positive payoff, then that's what he'll do.
[00:07:11]  What do you make of the set of people on the right that are more from the isolationist wing or now what Tucker seems to be part of?
[00:07:19]  That no matter what Trump does here, they're going to try to take him out or go after him or not be happy, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:07:27]  I'm putting it like that.
[00:07:33]  He's a loser.
[00:07:36]  He lost the Iranian conflict.
[00:07:39]  If he doesn't, then he's a war criminal.
[00:07:42]  So you got him in a vise.
[00:07:44]  And that was devised by the think tanks in D.C. that work with the Democratic Party.
[00:07:52]  We're going to put him in this situation where he can't win.
[00:07:57]  Okay?
[00:07:58]  Whatever he does is going to be bad.
[00:08:00]  And so that's in play.
[00:08:02]  As far as the.
[00:08:05]  People who make a living on social media, Dave, that's your world more than mine.
[00:08:12]  Don't mock me on my own show, Bill.
[00:08:14]  No, no, I'm not, but I'm saying there's always a financial component involved with this.
[00:08:19]  Yeah, yeah.
[00:08:21]  And attention getting is definitely necessary.
[00:08:26]  If you're going to live in social media, you got to get attention.
[00:08:30]  So I don't really analyze what these people do or say unless.
[00:08:37]  I feel it's harming the American people.
[00:08:39]  I think at this point, the folks know who these people are.
[00:08:46]  If they want to listen to them, fine.
[00:08:49]  No problem with me.
[00:08:51]  What do you think Trump could walk away with right now that would be a full win for America?
[00:09:00]  Well, it's the nuke thing.
[00:09:02]  I mean, that's everything.
[00:09:04]  So it's a domino.
[00:09:06]  Once the mullahs say, okay, you can have the weapons inspectors come in on a regular basis, we're not going to enrich uranium to weapons grade, then what happens is the Strait of Hormuz opens, all the oil comes in.
[00:09:22]  And remember, China gets 80% of its oil from Iran, and China.
[00:09:26]  Is a major player in this.
[00:09:28]  Okay, so that happens.
[00:09:31]  And then knowing Trump, part of the deal would be okay, we'll help you put back Humpty Dumpty.
[00:09:44]  Okay, and we'll help you in the economic range if you don't misbehave.
[00:09:51]  So that's the carrot.
[00:09:56]  To help terrorists.
[00:09:59]  So he's got to walk that line in a very, very methodical way.
[00:10:04]  Remember, the Iranian government is really on, if you look at everybody on the planet, they're the worst.
[00:10:14]  They're the worst.
[00:10:16]  They kill more people, finance more terrorism, do more things to make instability in the Middle East a reality than anybody does.
[00:10:29]  They're worse than Putin.
[00:10:30]  They're worse than the Chinese.
[00:10:32]  They're horrible.
[00:10:34]  So, to deal with them in a constructive way, it would take the nukes.
[00:10:40]  Do you have a sense of who even we're negotiating with right now?
[00:10:44]  Meaning, we took out the top layer.
[00:10:46]  It doesn't matter, you don't think?
[00:10:48]  No.
[00:10:48]  As long as it's someone that has some authority, basically.
[00:10:52]  It doesn't even look.
[00:10:54]  It's a theocracy, Dave.
[00:10:57]  That means whoever bows the lowest to Allah.
[00:11:01]  Could be the guy that is sending the messages.
[00:11:05]  What they usually do in these countries is they all sit around, okay?
[00:11:10]  And then they go, ah, yeah, yeah, you know, and then maybe five or six of them, maybe more.
[00:11:17]  And they come to some kind of consensus what Allah wants or whatever, and then they put it out.
[00:11:24]  There's no real central person like Putin or Xi or Trump.
[00:11:31]  They don't govern that way.
[00:11:33]  Even the Ayatollah Khomeini, and he is on the cover of my book Confronting Evil because that man was so evil.
[00:11:41]  And the Shah was evil too.
[00:11:43]  They replaced one evil with another.
[00:11:46]  He was utterly dependent on the Revolutionary Guard for his power.
[00:11:51]  And he better not get on the wrong side of those guys.
[00:11:57]  So it's usually a consensus, and there are theocrats all over the place.
[00:12:05]  In Iran, no shortage of them.
[00:12:09]  What do you make of the fact that so many of our allies in Europe, particularly Western Europe, seem to be unwilling to confront evil?
[00:12:16]  I mean, even if you look at some of the plane routes we've had to use to rescue our guys over the last couple of days, you know, we couldn't go over Spain, for example.
[00:12:24]  That confronting evil seems very low on the list that these countries are concerned with right now.
[00:12:29]  And that's a problem with not only Europe and NATO, but with the Democratic Party as well in the United States.
[00:12:38]  Democrats never would have done this in a million years.
[00:12:41]  Never.
[00:12:42]  I mean, Obama tried to bribe them.
[00:12:44]  Yeah.
[00:12:44]  Okay.
[00:12:45]  Didn't work.
[00:12:46]  Biden didn't even know where Iran was.
[00:12:49]  Okay.
[00:12:50]  And I say that literally, he was so detached from reality those four years that you couldn't have possibly gotten any kind of trenchant analysis from him.
[00:13:02]  Couldn't.
[00:13:03]  He was incapacitated.
[00:13:06]  But the Democratic Party, they're the same as Spain.
[00:13:13]  Okay, if they could, they would cripple the U.S. military activity.
[00:13:19]  They don't seem to care whether the mullahs have a nuclear weapon capacity, do they?
[00:13:25]  That's my question to everybody who dissents.
[00:13:28]  Are you okay with the mullahs having this nuke?
[00:13:33]  I mean, that would be my first question to Pope Leo.
[00:13:36]  And I'm a real loyal Catholic and I'm not being disrespectful.
[00:13:41]  I'm a simple man, Dave, you know that.
[00:13:44]  My question is are you okay with it?
[00:13:46]  What do you think his answer would be?
[00:13:48]  I saw the statement.
[00:13:49]  I mean, what do you think his answer would be?
[00:13:51]  There's never an answer because I have posed that question on and off the air.
[00:13:57]  There's never an answer.
[00:13:59]  It's a pivot back to, well, Trump said this.
[00:14:02]  There's no mission away.
[00:14:04]  We don't know what he's doing.
[00:14:05]  It's all about him.
[00:14:07]  So when you ask the fundamental question about theocracy having nuclear capacity to kill people, they don't want to answer that.
[00:14:16]  They go right back to Trump's the devil.
[00:14:18]  You know, that's the deflection because they can't answer it.

=== Trump's Unhinged Executive Orders (05:09) ===

[00:14:22]  They can't.
[00:14:23]  Who's going to say, yeah, I want Iran to have a nuke?
[00:14:26]  No one.
[00:14:28]  But when you sit it out, as NATO has done, then you're making a statement.
[00:14:36]  We're okay with it because we're not going to do anything about it.
[00:14:40]  We're not even going to help the people who are heavy lifting the Israelis and Americans.
[00:14:44]  We're not even going to help them.
[00:14:46]  So that's a statement in itself.
[00:14:49]  So, one way or another, regardless of what happens tonight or tomorrow, do you think this is the end of the sort of post World War II order of things in that America has now realized, at least under this administration, that NATO will not be a help anymore?
[00:15:04]  That we really have allies who, you know, as long as we give them money and protection, they'll basically be quiet.
[00:15:10]  But when we need them, they don't do much.
[00:15:11]  That seems to be unraveling.
[00:15:13]  We are seeing new alliances in the Middle East now that Iran has attacked about 30 Of its neighbors.
[00:15:18]  They're kind of realizing Israel is not the enemy.
[00:15:21]  Do you sense we're going to see a whole shift on what that looks like over the next couple of years?
[00:15:26]  There will be a shift in the geopolitical world.
[00:15:30]  But tomorrow, the head of NATO is going to visit Trump in Washington at his request, not Trump's.
[00:15:39]  So he's coming in and he's going to bring something.
[00:15:42]  Now, Spain, forget it.
[00:15:44]  I mean, Spain's a socialist country bordering on communism, they are anti American.
[00:15:50]  They shouldn't even be in NATO, and you could boot them out easy because they don't pay their dues, their full share.
[00:15:56]  So you should.
[00:15:57]  Why are we having these people?
[00:15:59]  Why do we need them?
[00:16:00]  We don't need them.
[00:16:01]  All right.
[00:16:02]  As you pointed out, they won't even let our military planes refuel on their soil.
[00:16:09]  I mean, that's a total violation of what NATO is an alliance.
[00:16:16]  As Trump said, we could do it, they can't stop us, but he didn't want to throw it in their face.
[00:16:20]  Yeah, but that doesn't matter.
[00:16:22]  Right.
[00:16:22]  I mean, the fact that they.
[00:16:24]  Are doing it or want to do it is enough for them to be expelled, in my opinion.
[00:16:31]  The rest of them are very weak.
[00:16:34]  And the reason is this mass migration that have come into Britain and France and Germany.
[00:16:42]  And basically, the politicians fear that these people will commit acts of terrorism.
[00:16:51]  Number one, they fear terrorism.
[00:16:54]  And number two, there are a lot of them.
[00:16:58]  And so you have a whole different dynamic than you had after World War II when you didn't have this mass migration of Islamic people into Europe.
[00:17:08]  And Europe can't assimilate them because they don't want to be assimilated.
[00:17:12]  They live separately.
[00:17:14]  And it's a real problem.
[00:17:17]  So, but I don't expect the NATO alliance to evaporate.
[00:17:22]  That would harm the United States.
[00:17:24]  We still need accessibility.
[00:17:29]  To bases and things like that over there, particularly with Putin.
[00:17:33]  He's got his eye on the Baltic states, Moldova.
[00:17:36]  I mean, this guy, he's the big winner, by the way, in the Iranian situation.
[00:17:42]  Putin's the big winner.
[00:17:44]  What do you think Trump needs outside of some quote unquote win here as it involves Iran?
[00:17:52]  What else do you think Trump needs to happen before the midterms?
[00:17:56]  Because if they don't go the Republican way, I think you would agree with me, but I don't want to put words in your mouth.
[00:18:02]  In essence, his presidency will be over.
[00:18:04]  They'll impeach him.
[00:18:05]  The Republicans will start jumping ship.
[00:18:07]  It'll be a free for all.
[00:18:08]  So, what does he need to happen so that he still gets those two years?
[00:18:12]  Well, he's got to snap back on all of the prices have to start to drop significantly.
[00:18:18]  And I think, particularly, oil will, because there is a glut of oil in the world market.
[00:18:25]  But he needs that to happen fast so that people can say, all right, we won.
[00:18:30]  And look at this, it's back down.
[00:18:33]  He's got a little bit of a more complicated problem with the food, but he's got to address that.
[00:18:38]  He's got to address the insurance craziness.
[00:18:42]  So, all of his energy after this is over, all of it has got to be in getting the prices under control.
[00:18:52]  But if he gets a win in Iran, that will help him dramatically.
[00:18:58]  If he doesn't, then he's going to be a lame duck.
[00:19:02]  But remember, he's got the executive order.
[00:19:06]  Power and he'll use it like crazy.
[00:19:11]  I mean, do you think he would just be unhinged with executive orders at that point?
[00:19:14]  Like, why not, right?
[00:19:16]  Yeah.
[00:19:17]  I mean, they all do it.
[00:19:19]  But certainly, the executive order will be how Trump governs the last two years if he loses the midterms.
[00:19:29]  How are you finding navigating?

=== Power and Corporate Obligations (05:11) ===

[00:19:31]  You know, I've asked you a version of this a couple times, but going from mainstream to the online world.
[00:19:37]  Navigating between the new voices, the older voices, the journalistic rules that existed in the old world versus the free fall or the sort of open ended world that we're in right now and doing what you've always done.
[00:19:53]  Well, we had an interview with Steve Croft last week.
[00:19:56]  Did you catch that?
[00:19:58]  I don't think so.
[00:19:59]  But I told you, we're playing a ton of your clips these days, man.
[00:20:03]  That would be very instructive for you to watch.
[00:20:06]  So that was on We'll Do It Live last week.
[00:20:09]  And Croft is like me.
[00:20:11]  He's an old time journalist who came up under the rule of you report honestly and you put aside your ideology when you're doing.
[00:20:25]  Hard news.
[00:20:26]  Now, I've been a commentator since 1996, so that was a long time.
[00:20:31]  But before then, I was a hard news reporter, as Croft was.
[00:20:34]  And we had a very interesting conversation about what happened at CBS, because he worked for 60 Minutes for 30 years.
[00:20:42]  And they just let the ideology overwhelm the hard news operation.
[00:20:49]  So, what we've decided to do here is that we have the No Spin News, which is a daily Uh, television, uh, presentation goes out on YouTube, goes out everywhere where I give you my take on what's happening and I back it up with facts.
[00:21:08]  It's a fact based but opinionated broadcast.
[00:21:12]  And then with the long form, we do one a week.
[00:21:16]  Uh, and I didn't want to do it, but the younger people on my staff demanded it and it's working out great.
[00:21:23]  Uh, we can get into a lot of things like you do, um, that you couldn't do in two or three minute sound bites.
[00:21:32]  So we have, I think, maximized our potential in the new journalistic order that really combines social media with, you know, we're on linear.
[00:21:47]  I mean, we're on direct TV.
[00:21:49]  We're on all of these outlets.
[00:21:51]  People all over the world watch us.
[00:21:53]  So we, we, we just don't work for a corporation.
[00:21:56]  Okay, so I'm the corporation.
[00:21:59]  I run three.
[00:22:01]  We don't have that hanging over our head.
[00:22:05]  And corporate America that runs the media companies is in absolute disarray.
[00:22:11]  And I know all these people, I know what they have to go through every day.
[00:22:16]  You don't want to be there.
[00:22:18]  I don't want to be there.
[00:22:20]  And the kicker is, I'm making just about as much money now as I did when I was working at Fox.
[00:22:26]  Oh, damn.
[00:22:27]  You're doing okay because I think I know what you were making at Fox.
[00:22:31]  Yeah, we're doing very well because there's a hunger for a direct presentation.
[00:22:38]  Even if you disagree with me, and I have no problem with that, okay, you know I'm coming at it from a historical or journalistic point of view.
[00:22:51]  Bill, my last question is this Although my parents enjoy seeing you at the beach in Long Island, Every now and again in the summer, when will the operation move to the free state of Florida?
[00:23:04]  You can't stay there much longer.
[00:23:05]  Come on.
[00:23:06]  Well, Hannity's on me all the time.
[00:23:08]  Yeah.
[00:23:08]  He's happy.
[00:23:09]  He's happy, man.
[00:23:10]  You see what he's doing down here.
[00:23:12]  And look, I worked at Florida twice.
[00:23:16]  I was a high school teacher for two years there in Miami.
[00:23:19]  And then I worked, that was my base when I covered the wars in Central and South America.
[00:23:25]  So I know Florida very, very well.
[00:23:28]  But as you know, I mean, I have obligations here.
[00:23:32]  You know, familial obligations, and there's a big apparatus.
[00:23:38]  It's just like I can't just throw the stuff in the station wagon and head south.
[00:23:44]  So, if they start seizing my property, which is next, that's coming, but it's unconstitutional.
[00:23:52]  If the New York authorities start to seize what I have, what I built, then I gotta go.
[00:24:02]  Well, as Mom Dami said today, he's just gonna ask people like you for a little bit more.
[00:24:07]  And he's going to get no from people like me.
[00:24:11]  He's going to get, you're a communist.
[00:24:13]  You waste money.
[00:24:15]  You shouldn't even be there.
[00:24:17]  I'm not even going to buy you an ice cream cone.
[00:24:22]  And he doesn't deserve an ice cream cone.
[00:24:24]  Bill, the first TV show I was ever on a lifetime ago.
[00:24:27]  It's always a pleasure, my friend.
[00:24:29]  Thanks for having me in, Dave.
[00:24:31]  Appreciate it.
[00:24:32]  If you're looking for thoughtful political conversations that won't raise your blood pressure too much, check out our politics playlist right here.
[00:24:38]  And if you don't want to miss any future videos, make sure to subscribe and hit that notification.
[00:24:42]  bell.