Rising Threats, Regime Instability & The Fight for Global Influence
Sean Hannity is joined by geopolitical experts to examine signs of instability inside China and Iran and what potential regime shifts could mean for global security and U.S. strategic positioning. The discussion covers economic pressure inside China, military leadership turmoil, and the long-term demographic challenges reshaping global power balance. The hour also looks at growing tensions between Western allies and China, NATO defense spending debates, and how U.S. policy decisions influence global security outcomes. Additional focus is placed on domestic law enforcement threats tied to extremist rhetoric and how policy and enforcement intersect. This hour connects global intelligence signals with real-world national security implications.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, if you look at long-term strategic national security interest of the United States, then you can see that it is, you know, our top geopolitical foes are China and Russia and Iran, although Iran seems to be teetering on the brink.
Marco Rubio said it yesterday.
And I don't think there's any doubt about that.
Now, interesting development as it relates to NATO, and they got all worked up over the fact that Donald Trump wants to put a golden dome that would protect not only the United States from any potential nuclear attack down the road as the technology becomes available, which it is, and it would also protect Europe now for whatever reason, European nations that have been weak and feckless.
And unfortunately, they have allowed unfettered immigration without assimilation.
They furthermore have let their guard down in terms of maintaining national security and defense.
It took a strong push from President Trump to up their contribution to NATO.
They more than doubled it.
But it's going to take years for them to catch up to any military capability that can even begin to think about keeping up with China and Russia.
But yet they think the United States is now somehow their enemy.
Now, if you look at Starmer, the British prime minister, he went to China again.
And welcome to China for cooperation with the new world order.
We saw the same thing with the prime minister or the governor, depending on what you prefer.
In Canada, Kearney, our partnership with China sets us up for the new world order.
I can't think of anything dumber or anything more naive, anything more strategically stupid in the long term and in the short term.
President Trump warning the UK yesterday morning against strengthening their ties with China hours after the prime minister.
Starmer met with Qi in Beijing to reset relations after a long period of strain.
Okay, you know, go ahead, go right into the arms.
Anyway, between the two of them, meaning Mark Carney and Prime Minister Starmer, they are making what might be long-term strategic mistakes that are the damage will be incalculable.
Here's Starmer flip-flopping on China, the threat, and here's what he said.
I think the biggest security threat to Canada is China.
We're heartened by the leadership of President Xi Jinping and the speed with which our relationship has progressed in recent months.
I believe the progress that we have made in the partnership sets us up well for the new world order.
All right, here to weigh in on all of this.
Now, we also saw in Venezuela the communist Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians, all exerting influence in our region.
They did it with Maduro, and they've done it in other Latin American countries.
That's now coming to an end.
Gordon Chang, author of The Coming Collapse of China, The Great U.S.-China Tech War, and former United States trade representative is here to unpack all of this.
Am I explaining it well, or does it go a lot deeper than, and I'm just touching the surface here?
Well, Sean, you've put it exactly right.
And by the way, you know, these countries, when they look at China and they say, oh, you know, the world's next hegemon, well, the Chinese regime is shaking as we've had the turmoil in the Chinese military, and the Chinese economy is spiraling downward.
It didn't grow at the 5.0% pace that it reported for last year.
It's probably 1 or 2%, maybe zero.
So they're betting on the wrong horse because the United States right now is booming.
It's getting stronger.
And one more thing, you mentioned Venezuela.
Well, in Venezuela, and President Trump showed the world that the United States, when it uses force, can get what it wants.
The Chinese were left on the sidelines whining and complaining, which is what they're doing with Iran right now.
They're whining and complaining, but they can't affect the outcomes when President Trump decides he wants to do something.
Well, now, the president can only warn them, and then it's really up to them.
I think the president is exactly right when he told the prime minister after he made his remarks in Davos, attacking the United States and attacking the president, that Canada doesn't survive but for the military might and protection we offer Canada.
That's why, you know, when the president challenged them on tariffs, you know, it was the right call on the president's part, considering all that we're offering them.
And the same with our European partners.
They were all taking advantage of us.
They were all ripping us off.
They were all putting tariffs on our goods, and they weren't offering free and fair trade.
They balked.
They moaned and groaned over contributions to NATO, but they gave in.
They balked.
They moaned and groaned when it came to their tariffs they were putting on U.S. products.
And now they're paying tariffs to us.
Now they're moaning and groaning over Greenland.
And it seems like we've now come to a deal with the United States.
We'll, in fact, be able to protect the entire free world with a golden dome, which the technology, according to my sources, is advancing very quickly.
Yes.
And when you look at Europe, it took decades of American presidents who were sort of pleading, cajoling the Europeans to spend more on defense.
It took actually President Trump to threaten to break the relationship to get Europe to make that commitment to spend 5% of their gross domestic product on defense.
Now, by the way, there were two countries that didn't meet that 5% pledge.
And by the way, one of them was Spain and the other was Canada.
Canada has been a noticeable laggard because you've had Canadian prime ministers, not only the current one, but also his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, have relied on the United States to defend them.
And they felt that they didn't need to spend anything on defense.
Well, in Canada, you've got the Arctic.
There's almost no Canadian military in the Arctic except for 5,000 semi-paramilitary Rangers who've got antiquated rifles and are on snowmobiles.
So, you know, essentially, the United States defends Canada.
We defend Europe.
And now I think that they're starting to understand how critical we are to their national security.
Are they or are they racing into the arms of President Xi in China?
Well, it clearly got Starmer there.
He followed De Carney, who followed Macron, the French president.
And, you know, they will go over and then do that.
But really, they have found two things.
One of them is that the Chinese won't treat them fairly.
Matter of fact, the Chinese actually humiliated Starmer.
But the other thing is that they realize they need the U.S. economy because we account for something like 33, 34% of global consumer spending.
And the Chinese are not buying the products of other countries, as we saw last year.
They increased their exports by 5.5%, but they did not increase their imports at all.
And that's a real indication of predatory and criminal trade practices on the part of the Chinese.
Well, I mean, I just think, yeah, it's going to be interesting.
In April, President Trump is going to go to Beijing himself.
The president has said often that he has a good relationship with President Xi.
He obviously understands the military might of Russia, or he probably would be more heavy-handed as it relates to Putin.
But they are a nuclear threat to the entire world.
And Donald Trump just simply has to respect the weapons, not necessarily the country, not necessarily the president.
But with that said, I mean, he's trying to make progress so we can once again have peace in Europe.
But, you know, that's a great example that Vladimir Putin didn't give a flying rip what the rest of Europe thought as he was amassing troops and military might along the border with Ukraine prior to the invasion.
And here we are four years later, and they've done little to really help Ukraine in that conflict.
And if it but for the United States, I think Ukraine would now be Russia at this point.
Yes, I think that that's certainly right.
President Trump was dealt a very bad hand by President Biden as Biden left office.
There was a catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, August 2021, which was soon followed by Putin's invasion of Ukraine, February 2022.
And Putin basically did not respect the United States.
You know, Biden said, well, maybe a small incursion would be okay.
Well, Putin took that as a green light to invade the rest of Ukraine.
And that's what President Trump got when he took office.
So really, it's been very, very difficult for Trump to rescue that situation, which was really almost catastrophic.
And I think Trump's done a great job.
I'd like to see Trump a little bit more vigorous in defense of Ukraine because I think that the Chinese are looking at what happens in Ukraine to figure out whether they should invade Taiwan.
But, you know, our president has taken a situation and done the best he possibly can.
Why do you believe China's on the verge of collapse?
And where are we with this great U.S.-China tech war that you talk about all the time?
We see in China right now the disarray at the top of the Communist Party with the firing of the number one uniformed officer, General Chang Yao Xiao.
There's apparently no high command left in China.
The Chinese economy is spiraling downward.
The people are unhappy.
And when you look at the long-term factors, which is demography, China, which is now 1.4 billion people, will probably lose somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of its people by the turn of the century.
So we're looking at a country that has very limited prospects and is facing challenges that no other country in the world has ever faced.
What do you think is now, obviously the president said help is on the way, told the people of Iran that they should continue protesting.
Marco Rubio has revoked Iranian officials' U.S. travel privileges because of the crackdown killing thousands.
It seems like help has arrived and we're really officially on military watch.
What do you see happening there?
Do you think these mullahs end up surviving or do you see regime change in the future?
I see regime change.
And the reason is that although President Trump has offered them an off-ramp, they're not going to take it and they're leaving us no choice.
Remember, regardless of what's occurring in Iran right now, we have in the United States Iranian hit squads that have tried to kill President Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as well as other former senior State Department officials.
So really, this is a situation where Iran poses a clear and immediate danger to the United States.
Well, I mean, it seems rather imminent.
Are you getting the same sense that I am?
You know, now there's been reports that the Ayatollah planes, you know, I'm sure they're probably, well, there's been reports that they have been transferring massive amounts of money, hundreds and hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars outside the country.
But I would imagine that these reports didn't come out of thin air, and that is that there are planes on a tarmac to take these mullahs and Ayatollahs to Russia, and they would seek, I guess, you know, some type of political alliance with Vladimir Putin, who would, I guess, you know, open the door and they could pay a big check and walk into Russia and live out the rest of their lives.
Yes.
I mean, and that's what Assad did in Syria.
He took the plane to Moscow.
You know, there are those reports that the Supreme Leader has a plane ready.
You know, we've also, there are also those reports that there were 16 Chinese cargo planes that landed in Iran.
And people are asking, what were the Chinese bringing into Iran?
I think you're asking the better question, Sean, and that is what are they.
I think what they're taking out of Iran.
I think it's probably money, gold, silver.
They're going to pillage the country as much as they can.
Absolutely.
And so I think that the regime knows that its days are numbered.
They're just trying to hang on, but I don't think that they are going to do what is necessary to save themselves.
And President Trump is going to defend American interests.
We are going to have a I don't know if they can save themselves.
I don't think the people want this regime any longer.
And I think that's the reason when even spite of reports, 35,000 plus people may have been killed in all of this.
That's the reason they're still protesting, isn't it?
Yes.
And I agree with you.
I think that whether it occurs this month or next month or maybe later in this year, I think the regime is gone because it has lost popular support and it is also not doing those things that are necessary, which would be to come to a reasonable arrangement with President Trump.
They're not going to do it.
So I see that we're going to have some sort of new form of government in Iran.
And it's probably going to end up eventually as a democracy.
And it's going to be a strong and prosperous country.
And it's going to have great relations with the U.S.
And people are going to say, my gosh, what did President Trump do?
Because he's done that, for instance, in Syria.
Perfect Candidate for Daughter's Date00:05:56
And we're well on the road to progress.
We've got much better relations in the Gulf.
We've taken out the regime in Venezuela, which is now much more compliant.
And Cuba is next.
This is going to be a golden age for America, Sean.
I believe all of it's happening, and it's happening at a record pace.
And it's amazing to watch this transformation before our eyes.
Gordon Chang, always appreciate having you on the program, my friend.
Happy Friday to you.
Have a great weekend, okay?
Happy Friday, Sean, and thank you so much.
I got to tell you, Tom Holman, by the way, he will be on Hannity tonight, his first interview since he's taken over the work on the ground in Minnesota.
This is him.
He predicted that heated rhetoric, and this was on my TV show, and he did it on this radio show, that heated rhetoric against ICE is going to lead to a disaster.
Here's what he said.
I said in March, Sean, back in March, I said, if this hateful rhetoric doesn't stop, there's going to be bloodshed.
Somebody's going to die.
I've seen this movie before.
I've been doing this for 41 years.
It's never been this bad.
And of course, the left said I was crazy.
But there's already been three shootings just in Texas.
There's a shooting at a CBP facility trying to kill a border patrol agent.
She picked the wrong facility.
That was a SWAT training facility and they killed him.
Then there was another thing just south of Dallas where they attacked an ICE facility and an officer got shot in the neck.
Now we have this, another assassination, and where an alien died.
And it's just, and I'm telling you, I'll say it again.
Unless the rhetoric stops, it's not over.
And it's just, it's scary.
I'm afraid for the men and women of ICE every night.
Every night I go to bed.
And I pray for the men and women of Borato and ICE that they go home safe to their families.
They're American patriots.
They're enforcing the law.
And it's just, I've never seen anything like this in my entire career.
And that's 41 years.
By the way, we happen to be saying the same thing for a long time also.
Gestapo, Nazi, fascist.
It is incitement.
It is dehumanizing.
Then Holman vowed to stay in Minnesota.
He's not leaving.
It doesn't matter what Mayor Small Fry or Tampon Tim have to say.
He stayed in Minnesota until the problem is gone.
He's not leaving.
Listen.
President of the United States called me Monday morning and asked me to deploy here.
Got here Monday evening and I'm staying for the problem's gone.
But we've made a lot of progress, a lot of progress in the last three days.
And then he says justice is coming for those that are funding, organizing attacks on ICE, but he's not going to telegraph what he's doing.
Here's what he said also.
Well, first of all, about the organization and the funding of the attacks on ICE.
I'm not going to answer a lot about that because I'm not going to show her hand, but they'll be held accountable.
Justice is coming.
All right.
So Tom Holman's on the job, by the way.
He'll be on Hannity tonight and we'll have a comprehensive interview with him.
All right.
So then you go to Ana Navarro, fake news, CNN.
Now, Linda, you have how many daughters do you have?
I don't know how many, you have like 400 children now.
How many kids do you have?
I just have one daughter.
Okay.
You have a daughter and you could love your daughter, right?
Yes.
Okay, I love my daughter.
Now, Ana Navarro, this guy, Alex Predi, the guy that we saw 10 days prior to the shooting.
This is the guy that was cursing out law enforcement.
I mean, just screaming and cursing and carrying on and middle fingers, spitting at officers and then kicking the car and knocking the taillight off the car, then saying, come effing, get me.
And, but Ana Navarro praises him as the perfect guy.
Any, any, any mom and dad would want their child to, you know, marry this guy.
They chose to, they killed the wrong guy, right?
Because this is the, this is like the perfect guy.
Alex Predty is the guy you would want to date your daughter.
The guy you'd want your son to grow up to be a decent human being who was serving humanity, serving sick veterans who is, you know, there is nothing that has been said about that man that isn't wonderful.
And so they can't malign him.
They can't malign him because we have the videos.
Now, Linda, you would love your daughter to date this guy, you know, wouldn't you?
He's like the perfect person, right?
I mean, in a perfect world, she would just become a nun and just cut it all out.
That would be perfect, but no, definitely not.
Oh, you would prefer your daughter to become a nun?
Absolutely.
And you want little Liam and you want your sons.
You want them to grow up and you want them to spit at cops and curse at cops and say, come get me and kick cop cars and knock off their taillights all while being armed in the process.
You're perfectly okay with that behavior.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I mean, you'd be raised the right way to be a nice little leftist.
This is the crazy thing.
I mean, my daughter hit me yesterday and she sent me a flyer and she's like, this is going around school.
And it was for the ice out that they were having.
Your daughter hit you.
Why did your daughter hurt you?
What did you do to your daughter that caused her to hit you?
Listen, we're not a hitting kind of family.
We got enough with our mouths.
But I mean, she just, she texted me.
She said, I can, because obviously, you know, we work at news.
Our kids don't really pay attention to what's happening.
But she came to me and she's like, this is like in my school.
Like kids are not coming to school.
Their parents aren't going to work.
I said, you're going to school.
Your ass is going to be in that seat.
And so is everybody else in this house.
And I'm going to work and your father's going to work.
It's a bunch of nonsense, but the parents are the problem.
I mean, the whole culture of this, I want to be my kid's friend thing.
And I think it's cool.
Like Ana Navarro is like that perfect example of that.
Instead of saying, listen, I don't know this guy, Alex Predty from Adam.
I don't.
Kids Not Coming to School00:07:27
But if we look at the video of him, he's clearly unhinged.
There's something wrong.
Maybe he was a good nurse.
Maybe he wasn't.
I don't really know.
And there's mixed reviews on him when you look on the social media boards of people who knew him that practiced with him.
Putting that to the side, if I'm just looking at this, he doesn't look so, you know, like he's having the best days of his life.
He looks really nuts.
Listen, and I'll concede the point of the family attorney.
What happened 10 days prior is not relevant to what happened the day he was shot.
And but with all that said, it seems to me when we get to the bottom of this, if I had to predict, we're going to find he was part of that signal app.
It's interesting.
Nobody's been able to find social media on this guy.
I've not seen one report on that.
That makes me suspicious.
Yeah, it's going to be the same thing as Thomas Crooks.
It's all going to disappear.
We're never going to learn about it.
We're never going to see it.
I mean, every single one of these people, if they are of the left and they are out to hurt us, we will never ever find it.
It will suddenly disappear and nobody's going to be able to ever see what he wrote before this.
And I disagree with the attorney.
When you look at behavior like that 10 days prior, it shows a pattern of behavior.
It shows that he may have been saying things similar to that, similar to like that, like he did 10 days prior.
So I don't see how that's not relevant.
Well, I would say, obviously, I would imagine if there are other instances as well, that in fact, even if it's just these two, it does show, I mean, remarkable hostility, shocking hostility towards law enforcement.
All right, let's go to Tony in Seattle.
Tony, how are you?
Hey, really good, Sean.
What's going on?
The call is from yesterday.
I'm talking, I want to talk to Linda, Linda, Linda with no middle name.
I think we should give her a middle name, like newbie from yesterday.
Newbie.
The rents go.
Newbie.
Yeah.
Or maybe Karen.
Maybe Friday.
Pick on Friday.
Pick on Linda.
Definitely not Karen.
Okay, not Karen.
But you were asking why rents are going down.
There's Bendon Sean.
He's right.
It's not the interest rates.
It's the people moving back out of town.
And it's the, Sean, it goes a little deeper than that.
It's the Boeings, the T-Mobiles, the Amazons just laying off 30,000 people, and all the kids are going back home.
I'm just telling you right now that when you have millions of people, I mean, when you count all the people that have been deported and self-deported, you're talking about a couple of million people.
That's a couple of million apartments that are available.
That means supply and demand crisscrossed.
That dictates the price.
That means there's more availability of apartments and it's only going to get greater.
And thus, it has resulted in the lower cost of rent for Americans because there's less competition for the available units wherever you happen to live.
Now, it's, I mean, each market is unique.
I mean, with mass migration out of the blue states into places like the Carolinas and Tennessee and Texas and my state of Florida, it's a little bit different story because there is increasing demand because of the migration issue.
But, you know, I could tell you in my free state of Florida, Governor DeSantis, he doesn't take any crap.
If you are here illegally, every law enforcement official in this state is under a mandate to assist ICE and to turn over any illegals they may encounter.
That's just, that's the way it should be.
Anyway, appreciate the call, man.
800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
All right, let's hit our busy phones, 800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
Jeff in Minnesota.
Jeff, my heart goes out to my friends in Minnesota.
We've had a lot of good people this week, the entire week, calling in from Minnesota that are just aghast at what they're having to live through and the image that's being portrayed of their state.
Yeah.
I feel sorry for them.
It's something, it's something else.
But I'm in greater state Minnesota.
And on yesterday's program, you and Linda actually said that maybe Minnesota should become part of Canada.
And the greater state of Minnesota, I mean, we're as red as you can get.
It's just those few counties in the Twin Cities area that are pretty blue.
Granted, Canada is a great place to visit, go on vacation and everything.
But no, we don't want to become part of Canada, the greater state of Minnesota.
We like Minnesota, but things got to get straightened out and soon.
And I know there's a lot of people that are kind of thinking, I'd leave the state if it wasn't for greater state Minnesota.
And there's even people who kind of said, well, can we become maybe part of North Dakota or better yet, South Dakota?
But Canada is not the option, even though that's a nice country.
But we need to get this stuff figured out in the Twin Cities and hopefully move forward.
Well, you'll get it.
Eventually it's going to get figured out.
Here's the problem.
And I went into great specificity and detail.
I won't echo all my comments again.
But the problem is densely populated areas like in Minneapolis, St. Paul, the cities.
Unfortunately, there are so many more people there than there are on the outskirts of those cities.
And that represents a majority vote.
And these states are hardcore, radical left, just like New York City.
Most of New York is red, just like most of California is red.
It's the coastal areas that are deep blue, and they're densely populated.
And that's why I don't think a Republican can win in New York, Illinois, California.
I don't think in New Jersey anymore either.
Interestingly, they're all losing congressional seats come 2030 because people have decided to walk with their feet and they're leaving.
And I don't blame them.
Yeah.
All right, my friend.
Listen, you have a great weekend.
You have plans for the weekend?
Yeah, actually, this might sound funny, but I go ice fishing, and that's actual fishing on a lake of ice and not after people.
We actually try to catch fish, and we love ice fishing, and we love ice in greater state, Minnesota.
What kind of fish do you catch when you go ice fishing?
I've watched people do it, and they create their little huts where they can build, you know, put heat and be a little warmer.
Then you cut a hole in the ice and you put your fishing pole in there.
What kind of fish are you catch?
Well, last night, or actually when I was listening to your show yesterday, I was moving my fish house and I was after walleye and I got a couple walleye for dinner last night.
So life is good, and we bear this cold weather.
Yes, we got some heat in the houses.
Some people got TVs and the whole nine yards, watch football games.
Well, how does your fishing hut, how does that not, if you're putting heat in it, how does that not melt the ice below it?
Well, your floor could be anywhere from six inches to a foot above the ice and it's well insulated.
And of course, your floor is going to be the coldest part of the fish house, and then you know your warmer air will be up on top.
But it does, and it's usually, the ice is usually thick enough and cold enough where that won't happen.
Insulated Ice House00:00:39
Listen, I admire that you have a passion, Jeff.
The last thing I would ever want to do in my life is go ice fishing in the freezing, freezing cold and cutting a big hole in the ice and catching fish in the freezing cold.
That doesn't sound appealing to me.
But I admire that you have the passion for it.
I know people love it.
I've seen people.
I actually admire people that brave the elements and do that.