Sean Hannity and Ambassador Nathan Sales analyze the U.S. Navy's escort mission through the Strait of Hormuz, aiming to coerce Iran into nuclear negotiations by exploiting internal factional disputes and economic strain like unpaid Revolutionary Guard salaries. While Sales criticizes European allies for missing NATO spending targets and China for defying sanctions, the episode pivots to domestic politics where Hannity attacks Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and NYC Council member Zohran Mamdani over wealth taxes that could drive capital to Florida, alongside Dr. Oz's fraud allegations against state governments. Ultimately, the show frames these global and local conflicts as evidence of a broader strategy to dismantle opposition through economic pressure and political realignment. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Economic Pressure on Tehran00:12:18
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All right, News Roundup and Information Overload Hour.
Here's our toll free telephone number this Monday.
It is 800 941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
All right, the president now is taking the events in Iran to the next level.
The U.S. Navy escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
Is it risky?
Yes.
Do I think the president's plan B is to obliterate them?
I do.
Will the Iranians fall into the trap?
We'll see.
Only time will tell.
But as the president rightly has been saying, the Iranians are fighting themselves more than they're fighting anybody else.
And there has not been one group of leadership to emerge to actually have a real negotiation with.
Here's what he said We're doing everything in terms of negotiation right now, in terms of the negotiation telephonically.
They've made strides, but I'm not sure if they ever get there.
There's tremendous discord.
There's tremendous.
They're having a tremendous problem getting along with each other in Iran.
The leadership is very disjointed.
It's got two to three groups, maybe four, and it's a very disjointed leadership.
And with that being said, they all want to make a deal, but they're all messed up.
It's pretty messed up.
Anyway, here to analyze what's going to happen next, we have Ambassador Nathan Sales.
Now, he did serve in the first Trump administration as the ambassador at large for counterterrorism and acting undersecretary of state.
I understand what the president is doing.
I understand the situation he's dealing with.
I understand also, because I had the conversation with him, that he can obliterate them in 15 minutes or less.
So that option always remains on the table.
However, I get a little nervous when American ships are escorting other ships through the Strait of Hormuz, knowing the short distance at its narrowest point is what, 20, 24 miles, something like that.
Yes, thanks for having me on.
The situation today is obviously very fluid.
The U.S. announced that we were going to be reopening the strait and working with commercial shipping companies to reduce the risk that their cargoes and crews face.
We're also seeing Iran lashing out.
Who in Iran?
It's actually not clear who's responsible for making these decisions to attack ships in the Gulf and to launch drones at the United Arab Emirates.
Are these rogue commanders on the front lines who have taken matters into their own hands, or is this a strategic decision that's made by leadership?
Such as it is, leadership that's remaining in Tehran.
So we've got to watch the situation very, very closely.
I think the overall picture here, what the president is trying to do is maximize his leverage over the Iranian regime using all of the instruments of American power, diplomatic, economic, and military, to coerce the mullahs to the table to get a good deal.
It looked yesterday as though we were starting to see some progress.
The Iranians were starting to say, okay, well, maybe we'll give up nuclear enrichment for 15 years.
Previously, they only said five.
Now, 15 is still way too short, but the fact that they were willing to move a little bit in the right direction suggests that they were starting to feel the heat of the economic blockade.
So there's a lot of moving parts here.
Let's watch the situation very carefully.
All right.
Scott Besson said we're suffocating them economically, and they're not able to pay their soldiers.
He's also saying that Iran has gotten a pittance of Hormuz tolls.
They're losing, we're told, between $400 and $500 million a day.
And their ability to store the oil that they are currently pumping is running out very quickly, which would mean they'd have to cap those oil wells, which would mean if they ever do reopen them, probably they'd be at best 50, 60% capacity of where they are today.
Not a good option for them.
No, not at all.
And that's really the economic leverage that the United States has over Iran right now.
We have their economy in a vice grip.
So much of their economic strength, or such as it is, is dependent on oil revenues.
If you turn that off, their economy craters.
And their economy is not in great shape to begin with.
They've been mismanaged for 40 years, 50 years.
They faced decades of American sanctions pressure.
The war has completely obliterated their industrial base.
And so their ability to weather economic storms like we unleashed with this blockade is very, very limited.
And so it's ultimately a question of who's going to blink first.
The Iranians think they can outlast the United States.
And President Trump is looking at their fragile economy and saying, I've got all the cards.
I've got all the time.
So that's the question over the next couple of weeks, is the Iranian regime going to continue to feel that economic pressure and ultimately blink and come to the table for a good deal?
What is your best guess?
I mean, at this point, we don't even know who's in charge.
I know that they are fighting for that leadership role.
They seem to have no concern at all about any impact on the Iranian people.
The one thing that I wish has happened and they've not been able to accomplish at this point, and maybe they will be able to accomplish it, is arming the Iranian people.
Yeah, the Iranian regime has no regard for the Iranian people.
The Iranian people have been victimized by this regime for the past 50-some years.
And most recently, they killed about 40,000 of them.
So American pressure on the regime has to be to impose costs that actually matter to the regime, not costs that are going to be borne by the Iranian people.
And that's why I'm glad that the president moved off of his earlier threats to target a lot of Iranian energy infrastructure and transportation infrastructure.
That's going to disproportionately hurt the People of Iran.
And if you ask the leaders in Tehran whether they care, the answer is going to be a big fat no.
What they care about is regime continuity.
They care about their ability.
But they can say they don't care, but at that point, then their days are numbered.
I mean, things are already bad enough.
Half their workforce is out of work.
Reports are that the IRGC is not getting paid.
Reports are their currency is down to zero.
Reports of a 200% inflation rate.
Reports of food and shortages of other goods and services.
So, the Iranian people, and if they're not paying the Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces, they're going to start to rebel too.
Yeah, that's a real risk that the leaders have to worry about in Tehran because the economic pressure we're applying, directed at regime targets, can create fissures within the regime, can create factions.
It's a smart way to exploit divisions within the regime and cause them to turn against one another.
And another thing that happens is if you're squeezing the pocketbooks of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and they're not getting paid, Sean, as you said, Maybe they start to consider alternatives.
Maybe not the leaders who are super ideological and committed to Shia revolutionaryism around the world, but what about the rank and file who saw, you know, this might be a good way to get ahead in life and make a good buck?
Those folks who are more monetarily motivated, maybe the loss of a paycheck causes them to consider alternatives.
What about these other countries that are way more dependent on the Strait of Hormuz than we are?
We're not dependent on the Strait being open at all.
I mean, why doesn't France and Western European countries that do rely on energy coming out of the strait, why don't they get involved?
Yeah, I'd like to see more from our European friends.
They get about 25% of their energy, I think, from the Strait of Hormuz.
We get about 10 or less.
So the Europeans certainly have skin in the game.
Now, the Brits have talked about a maritime coalition to keep the Strait open.
I think that's valuable.
I think we should encourage that and be grateful for it.
All that said, it would be nice to see more effort and to see it sooner so that it comes at a time when it actually matters the most, which is right now when the Iranians are taking shots at a Korean ship, an Emirati ship.
And it's not just the Europeans who we'd like to see stand up and be counted.
The Gulf partners of ours have a huge economic interest in continuing to be able to export through the Strait.
And our Asian friends, South Korea, Japan, and others, have a huge interest in being able to import oil.
So we'd like to see some help from those guys as well.
Where's China in all of this?
Because they get a lot of their oil through that Strait.
Yeah, and China has really been a huge beneficiary of Iranian oil over the past number of years because the Iranians have a hard time selling it on the open market thanks to American sanctions.
But the Chinese Communist Party is perfectly happy to take a discount.
China and Iran are inexpensive.
They have economic ties.
They increasingly have military ties.
A lot of the military equipment that our forces were able to go in and destroy during the opening hours and days of the campaign were Chinese.
So we have to wonder whether Xi Jinping has a lot of confidence in the ability of his equipment to withstand American military might.
But what we need to do is try and separate China as much as we can from Iran.
Don't provide them intelligence information.
Don't provide them with dual use capabilities that could be used for military purposes in Iran.
Certainly don't provide them with weapons.
I have to imagine that that's a key message that the president and his team are delivering to Xi Jinping in advance of a meeting in the upcoming weeks or months.
I think it's probably next week.
I'm scheduled to go myself, so I might be there.
Wish me luck getting in and out of China if I go.
Well, I am on Air Force One, so I should be fairly protected, I'm hoping.
But you never know.
But it is China.
But the Iranians have been getting help from the Chinese, from the Russians, and the North Koreans.
That's where a lot of their weaponry came from.
Now, If I'm China and I'm Russia and I'm North Korea and I watch the obliteration of all of our missile defense system, ballistic missile defense system, air defense systems, and nuclear systems that I'm sure they assisted with, what are they thinking at this point?
Are they thinking, wow, we underestimated America's military might?
I think the overwhelming dominance of the American military in this campaign is going to send a clear deterrent signal to Russia and a clear deterrent signal to China.
How confident is Russia about, in the future, God forbid, Taking a fight with NATO, not just Ukraine, but actually fighting against NATO when he's seen what American military capabilities look like in Iran.
I'm not sure NATO is going to exist when this is all said and done.
Right.
Well, you know, the Eastern Front countries, Poland, the Balts, the Romanians, these guys are super committed to the alliance and they're putting their money where their mouth is because they realize that it's on them, first and foremost, to defend their homelands against the Russian threat.
And so.
See, but I could see us going into bilateral negotiations and agreements with those.
Countries that have been loyal and have been supportive, and basically saying goodbye to Spain and France, maybe even Great Britain, Italy, that have not been supportive, that have frankly undermined our efforts.
Yeah, there's a lot of Western European countries that have yet to get true religion.
Spain is at the top of the list.
Spain has said they're not going to spend the requisite 5% of gross domestic product on military spending.
And the reason is because we choose not to make this sacrifice.
I think that's a direct.
Quote from Pedro Sanchez, the leader of Spain.
And when an American hears that, what they think is, well, why should we make a sacrifice for Spain if the Spanish are not going to make a sacrifice to defend their own country?
Now, that's not.
I don't think we should, do you?
Yeah.
Well, no.
I mean, NATO is, before you get to Article 5, collective self defense, you have Article 2, and that talks about readiness and preparedness.
And if you're not prepared to invest in your own capabilities and your own defense, it's not reasonable to expect other countries to make up that slack.
So, Clearly, one of the key things that's come out of President Trump's two terms is more and more NATO allies stepping up.
Not everybody is stepping up, and we need to see more of it.
NATO Allies Stepping Up00:02:26
Oh, it's going to be interesting to watch this play out.
We appreciate your time.
Ambassador Nathan Sales, thank you.
Thank you, Sean.
All right, let's get back to our busy phones.
800 941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
Stacey, my free state of Florida.
Stacey, how are you?
Glad you called.
I am great.
How are you, Sean?
I'm good.
Thank you.
I have a two part question.
The first one is why are we knee deep in the strait?
Why, when we know once we open it up, Iran will be continuing its business with China?
Iran's a huge supplier of China and oil.
My other one is.
Is if we're only, if the strait isn't that important to the United States as getting our crude oil so forth, why is our oil and our gas prices so high?
Well, it is temporarily because world markets do impact local markets, and that's just simple economics.
But once this is over, and I do believe it will come to an end sooner than later, I think that those prices will come down rather.
And I think it's going to happen quickly, and I think it'll be good for everybody.
And the reality is that we're impacted by the price of oil worldwide, regardless of our ability to be energy dominant, energy independent.
And look, the president is trying to accomplish something here without using the nuclear option.
And I'm not talking about nuclear weapons, without going scorched earth on Iran.
That option remains on the table, it's always remained on the table.
But the president, and he even said so last week, for humanitarian purposes, he's not chosen that route yet, but it may come down to that.
If the Iranians, whoever may be in charge, whatever fourth, fifth tier layer of leadership that is calling the shots there, if they're stupid enough to take us on in the Strait of Hormuz, I think they will seal their own fate, and then I think this will come to a quick end.
Wealth Tax and Exit Fees00:12:35
Very well, very well.
And you had also mentioned during your show, is arming the people might be the answer for them to fix their own.
Country is what I believe is maybe we should look at that when all this.
Well, they have been looking at it.
There have been attempts to make it happen.
Unfortunately, you're dealing with a lot of unsavory characters.
And my understanding is that, you know, for example, working with the Kurds, they were stealing 90% of the weapons.
So that's not helpful.
Whether we can find a different path to get arms into the hands of the Iranian people and they can be the masters of their own destiny, it's proven difficult, but I'm sure we could probably come up with a.
An alternative plan, and I would expect that to happen.
You can't win a revolution with a slingshot.
Not.
I do appreciate your time and have a great day.
I appreciate your call.
800 941.
Sean is on number this Monday.
Quick break, right back, and more of your calls coming up straight ahead.
Solid as a rock.
Honest.
Truthful.
This is the Sean Hannity Show.
Remember last week we played this idiot mayor in Seattle.
Her name is Katie Wilson, you know, telling wealthy people.
And by the way, the former head of Starbucks, Howard, whatever his name is, moved to my free state of Florida, just like Mark Zuckerberg moved to Florida, just like all the co founders of Google moved to Florida, just like Larry Ellison of Oracle moved to Florida, just like all of the private equity firms, big banks.
Investment firms in New York are all moving to Florida and Wall Street South because of the oppressive taxation.
And she just mocked people.
She said, you know, basically get lost because she's putting in place in her city of Seattle a wealth tax.
Listen.
I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are like super overblown.
And if, you know, the ones that leave, like, bye.
So.
Now, I mean, if you go back in time, New York is way ahead of where they are in Seattle.
And you can go back, for example, and you have Andrew Cuomo.
If you're pro assault weapon and you're pro life, you're not a New Yorker and there's no place for you in the state of New York.
And he said that.
And I'm like, okay, that's when, that was in 2014, I believe.
And all these governors, I said, well, if I'm not wanted, I'm going to leave.
And I just couldn't leave at that time.
I'm now three years gone.
And now the current governor, Kathy Hochul, remember she was telling Lee Zeldin, President Trump, other conservatives, get on a bus, go down to Florida.
Remember Bruce?
And we're here to say that the era of Trump and Zeldin and Molinaro, just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, okay?
Get out of town.
Get out of town.
Because you don't represent our values.
You are not New Yorkers.
I got out of town because I agree with them.
I like them.
Well, now Bruce Blakeman, who's running against her, uses that and then concludes it with her now backtracking and saying that we've got to go down to Palm Beach and beg people to come back to New York.
Listen to this ad.
Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong.
Okay?
Get out of town.
Get out of town.
Dolly, you've got to let me know.
Should I stay or should I go?
If you say that you are mine, I'll be here till the end of time.
So you've got to let me know.
Should I stay or should I go?
It's always tease, tease, tease.
First step should be go down to Palm Beach and see what we can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded.
Now, I've reached out to Kathy Hochul's office.
Did you know that, Linda?
I did not know that.
I want to invite her on my shows.
I'll invite her down to Palm Beach.
I'll have a conversation with her.
And I'm going to tell her exactly why I don't feel that I want to go back to New York.
And maybe she should listen to people like me.
Now, Ken Griffin, who was used by Mamdani, Marxist commie Mamdani, in that ad saying he doesn't even live here.
Well, he's scheduled to invest.
He's the head of Citadel, which is a big investment firm.
They now are, their home base is in Wall Street South and in South Florida.
He owns a ton of property all the way from Miami to Palm Beach and very, very wealthy billionaire.
And he had planned to spend $6 billion.
Mamdani, that dope, does this ad attacking Ken Griffin that he wants to tax him even more.
And now Ken Griffin is saying, I'm not sure I'm going to spend the $6 billion in New York.
Apparently, he was going to meet with Hokel.
My only advice to him is, I don't think you can trust Hokel.
I mean, there was one moment of clarity with Cuomo back when he was governor.
And he said, tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich.
We did.
God forbid the rich leave.
Listen.
Salt encourages high income New Yorkers to move to other states.
And what you have to remember is even if a small number of high income taxpayers leave, it has a dramatic effect on this tax base.
Tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich.
We did.
Now, God forbid the rich leave.
Well, the rich have been leaving in droves.
I know because I live in South Florida.
And in South Florida, there are plenty of people that once lived in New York that are far wealthier than Sean Hannity is, I promise you.
And those people are not going back.
They're not bringing their businesses back.
They're all predicting what I'm predicting.
They think a wealth tax will be put in place in New York and New York City.
Look at Mamdani's proposal, for example, on the death tax.
Now, New York State has a 10% death tax.
This is money you've already paid taxes on, and you die.
If you die in New York, my accountants, when I lived there, used to always say, Whatever you do, don't die in New York as a New York resident.
Well, I'm not a New York resident anymore, so I can die in peace because they don't have a death tax in Florida.
And I'd say, I'll talk to God about that.
I'll see what God has to say about that because I don't really have much say in the day that God calls me home.
And they would say, Don't die in New York.
I'm like, Okay, we have that conversation every year.
It sounds stupid, but I got it.
And so the federal death tax is 40%, which I'd like to see Trump get rid of because it's money you've already paid taxes on.
Why does the government get a part of your wealth, your savings that you would prefer?
Maybe you want to give it to charity.
Maybe you want to leave it for your children.
Maybe you want to leave it for relatives.
Maybe for people that have been nice to you in your life.
And by the way, I always suggest people have estate plans.
And so the federal government gets 40%.
In New York, New York State gets 10%.
That's 50%.
Now, Momdani is supporting, if you live in New York City, a 50% New York City death tax, which would mean 100% of your estate short of.
Now, right now, you don't start paying the estate tax.
Until you reach $7.5 million in wealth, it may sound like a lot of money for a lot of people in the country.
In New York City, that is not a lot of money.
Linda, am I overstating the case?
It just isn't.
No, not at all.
It's not.
It means you would probably have a decent apartment, maybe two or three bedrooms in a nice part of town, and send your kids to a private school if you want, probably afford to go out to dinner, but you're not saving a lot of money every year.
You're probably, you know, using your 401k, paying your retirement.
It's not making you filthy rich, I promise you, because the cost of living is so high.
And so now he wants to lower that threshold where you wouldn't start paying the death tax until you hit the deductible of $7.5 million.
Now he wants to lower it to $750,000.
That means nobody will ever, you will not be able to pass on a penny to people that you love in your life your children, your grandchildren, loved ones, friends, neighbors, charities, whatever you want to donate to when you die.
You won't be able to pay a thing.
Why does the government charge us for dying anyway?
I mean, after you pay taxes your whole life.
Well, I think to add a little bit of color to this conversation, we should remind the audience that Mayor Wilson was actually a recipient of revenue made in New York because both of her parents live here in New York State.
They're both in the education system, both professors, and they subsidized her and she lived off of them because they were wealthy and they had done so well.
And they were giving her upwards of $2,200 a month, which she said was totally relatable to the voters because she was working so hard on her campaign.
I'm like, are you for real?
Do I sound like a cheapskate when I say I don't want to give my kids a penny?
No.
You sound like a normal person.
In their adult life, I think God created in every person.
I think that we're not on this earth to be served.
We're not kings and queens.
We're not princes and princesses.
And I think that God designed us to serve other people in any capacity.
I don't, I've told my kids, I don't really care what you do, but you've got to pay your own way.
Doesn't mean I won't leave the money, but I don't want to create trust fund brats.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
And that's a real problem.
And look at this woman.
That's spoil tick.
This woman is out of her mind.
The I, first of all, she has absolutely no business background.
You know, her father's some kind of biology guy, you know, and they're rooted in this, you know, ideological socialism works.
That's their whole platform in their personal life.
So now they're trying to make it the platform for her city.
And unfortunately, it's not going to work.
In fact, it's not working.
And people are leaving and they're taking all of their money with them.
And she's an idiot.
I'm just telling you, Florida is full of people that have escaped New York.
Just tell them to leave their politics behind.
Leave your politics home.
That's number one.
That's the number one rule.
Number two rule is you better get out sooner than later because New York's going to have a wealth tax.
And then they're going to have an exit tax.
What is an exit tax?
That means, let's say you leave next January, then New York is going to claim and make as a matter of law that they still have the right to tax your income.
And this was proposed in California for up to 10 years.
Get out while you can because they want to pick your pocket.
And it's not just money, it's also quality of life.
I mean, did you see this zombie video of all these?
People on this new drug out in San Francisco.
Florida Fraud and Corruption00:04:08
I've never seen more.
It's like Dawn of the Dead.
Right, but that's what happens in that state.
They have absolutely no border control.
They've got a sanctuary state, and God knows what they're bringing across that border.
And remember, when we were doing those deep dives with Sarah Carter, a lot of the people that were along those borders across Texas and California weren't just from Central America and Mexico.
They were from China, and they were bringing with them all of these laced drugs.
They were bringing the methamphetamine, they were bringing the fentanyl, they were bringing the marijuana with the fentanyl, and these are lethal drugs.
Doses of fentanyl.
And people are out of their minds.
Sarah Carter's on TV tonight.
Did you know that?
I did not.
She's amazing.
I will watch.
Well, you should watch anyway.
So you're watching.
No, but now I'll watch and I might like rewind and watch it again just because she's great.
Woody in Gavin's Communist Utopia of California next.
What's up, Woody?
Hey, thank you for taking my call.
I listen and watch every day.
Thank you, my friend.
What's going on?
Yeah, I wanted to talk about fraud.
I know I'm off topic here, but I think President Trump and the whole Republican Party should be running those numbers on a loop, reminding people of the fraud because I know pissed off people vote.
And if the Democratic Party was in power right now, you wouldn't even know about that fraud.
Well, I've just got to tell you the fraud, waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, it's being exposed.
The person that's exposing the most is Dr. Oz.
And he's telling me it's hundreds of billions of dollars.
By the time we get through an audit of Minnesota and places like New York and New Jersey and your state of California, It's going to be hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud, waste, fraud, abuse, corruption.
Look at what Nick Shirley was able to expose in just a short period of time.
They're trying to outlaw the Nick Shirley's of even exposing anything.
Well, I mean, they have this law that they proposed out in your state, like the Silence Nick Shirley Act out there.
Right.
Unbelievable.
Crazy.
Crazy.
All right, my friend, we got very little time here.
Really quick.
Cool.
Say hi to Julio, who is in South Carolina.
Julio, you got less than a minute.
Go, sir.
Listen, I was in Colombia, South America, about three years ago.
Ivanka Trump was there, same place I was staying in the Grand Hyatt in Bogota, Colombia.
I went sightseeing with my distant family.
And by the time I get back, there are M16 guys all over the place, not allowed to go back in until I had credentials to get into my room and to the lobby.
And when I get up to my room, I felt as if somebody's been in my room or a dog's been in my room.
Why can't we do that here?
That's ridiculous that we can't do that here.
You know, I had the pleasure of meeting our president back when he was 45.
What a wonderful man.
We got to take care of him.
He is changing the world for the better.
Well, he's consequential.
And I think that's one of the reasons they hate him so much.
And all these attempts keep happening.
And we've got to protect our president, period.
And the sentence.
We appreciate you, Julio.
God bless you.
800.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
Looks like military action back on the table.
We'll check in with General Keith Kellogg, Lindsey Graham tonight.
Also, drug czars Sarah Carter, Greg Jarrett, Reince Priebus, Breonna Lyman.
That you DVR news you'll never get from the legacy media mob.
Also, a preview of my podcast with the one and only FBI director, Kash Patel.