Ben Shapiro

While the president is, it appears, getting more militant with the Iranians because I think that there's sort of a weird catch-22 that exists in foreign policy thought with regard to Iran right now.

On the one hand, there's the idea that there can be a deal, that the nuclear dust will be turned over in a deal.

And on the other hand, the idea is that the United States can stage some sort of operation to go get the nuclear dust.

There'll either be a deal or there'll be no deal, and we'll have to put boots on the ground.

There is, in fact, a third option here, and that is to chop off the arms of the Iranian regime, to chop them off, and basically leave them like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, as I say.

You cut off their entire economic future, barring a reintegration into the world economy and an end to sanctions, which could only come through a deal, and suddenly the math changes pretty radically.

It seems the president may be thinking in this direction increasingly.

Yesterday,

He talks about negotiating with the moderates versus the lunatics in Iran.

Here's what he had to say.

Well, President Trump also pointed out that the ceasefire is on life support at this point, which of course it is.

I mean, the Iranians are still firing and shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Well, again, the president is not wrong about this.

And as I say, this has impacts for China.

According to CBS News, Pakistan is quietly allowing Iranian military aircraft to park on its airfields, potentially shielding them from American airstrikes.

Iran also sent civilian aircraft to park in neighboring Afghanistan.

Pakistan's reliance on China for military assistance has risen dramatically over the past decade.

A Stockholm International Peace Research Institute study showed that China supplied about 80% of Pakistan's major arms between 2020 and 2024.

So this entire negotiation with Pakistan in which Iran and China are aligned, again, what President Trump is doing in Iran is in fact largely directed at China.

In fact, yesterday, the US Treasury cut off some 12 entities that were enabling IRGC sales to China