The breaking news Thursday is the departure of National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. Charlie explains how this news story relates to a much bigger one: The slow, behind-the-scenes push for America to begin a new war with Iran. Charlie explains in detail why this would be an utter disaster, and responds to emails from listeners on both sides of the debate. Nate Morris discusses America's rogue group of district judges and a possible run to replace Mitch McConnell in the Senate.Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: Who is Mike Waltz and why is his departure significant?
The National Security Advisor exists as the top national security point of contact for between the president and what is called the NSC, the National Security Council. The National Security Council partially is housed actually in the White House, but mostly is actually in the Eisenhower Executive Office building, which is technically on White House grounds.
Chapter 2: What is the role of the National Security Advisor in U.S. foreign policy?
It's that ugly, monolithic, big building right next to the White House. Michael Waltz, being the National Security Advisor, he did last longer than Michael Flynn, but of course Michael Flynn was taken out by our own government. Now, there's always been, let's just say, upheaval when it comes to the national security position, when it comes to President Trump. Famously, he had H.R.
McMaster or John Bolton. President Trump likes to put people in that role that are sometimes more hawkish, more aggressive than he is as a way of kind of a negotiating tactic is that when you walk into a room with John Bolton with Iran, they think, my goodness, that guy's a lunatic. He might bomb us. And President Trump can kind of use that as a tactic.
let's just say, a leveraging tactic as a negotiating tool. Now, understand, the National Security Advisor is one of the first faces the president sees every single morning when it comes from a work context. Every morning, the president receives his daily briefing. The person who administers that daily briefing is the National Security Advisor.
So all night into the early hours of the morning, the National Security Council is compiling, let's just say, five to six bullet points what the president needs to know. Here's what's happening in Iran. Here's what's happening with Russia. Here's the threats from China. Here's what's happening cyber.
The National Security Advisor puts all of that together, goes straight up to the president after he consolidates what is the hub in the National Security Council and presents it to the president. Mr. President, here's what's going on. Here is your daily confidential classified, I should say. presidential briefing. That person needs to get along very well with the president.
That person needs to have a good vibe and a good energy with the president because they spend a lot of time together. Now, Mike Waltz, of course, famously added Jeffrey Goldberg to the signal chat. The Signal Chat, of course, is one thing that was probably one of the more annoying developments of this administration so far.
Mike Waltz added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, and we never got a really good answer of how that happened. One of the excuses was, well, he saved his contacts with Jeffrey Goldberg, and then he wasn't sure who he was adding and why he was there and what was going on. And it's just we're not exactly completely clear or clear. let's just say, you know, certain why that happened.
Now, Mike Waltz, after the attacks that happened in Yemen, the Houthi attacks, he famously sent the knuckle and emoji with the American flag and the fire symbol. Now, Mike Waltz and I had a fine relationship. He knew that we had significant disagreements.
And that's what I really want to emphasize and mention here is that Mike Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, represented a neoconservative view of foreign policy. Now, what is a neoconservative view of foreign policy?
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Chapter 3: What is neoconservatism and how does it relate to war with Iran?
Military strikes against Iran would be war against Iran, period. And I want someone to make the argument why that is a good idea. I've heard all the arguments. And Mike Waltz represented a coalition of people in Washington, D.C. that were largely sympathetic to that. Oh, it's just a couple military strikes. Again, when have any of these people ever proven that it's just a couple military strikes?
It's always a further quagmire that gets us involved in these unnecessarily conflicts. And then finally, let's just take a step back. Iran, of course, the idols of Iran are terrible. Nobody likes them. You must remember they're only in power because of America, because of us. We put them in power. We displaced the Shah.
We displaced the democratically elected leader, Mossadegh, and put in the Shah, which then, of course, led to... the Ayatollahs of Iran. And then finally, is a nuclear weapon against Iran a threat to America? Probably could be a threat to Israel, but is it a threat to America? I mean, India has nuclear weapons. Pakistan has nuclear weapons. So is it worth a potential another war with Iran?
And the people that are let's just say advocates for preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon by all means necessary, they're the same architects that were perfectly fine with the Iraq War, the same designers of the Iraq War. The primary way Iran can hurt this country is by sucking us into another Middle East quagmire, and they know it.
Chapter 4: Why does Charlie Kirk oppose bombing Iran?
And Iran would have the potential to be the worst Middle East quagmire of all time. Iran has 90 million people. That's more than three times as big as Iraq was when we invaded 22 years ago. It's larger than both Afghanistan and Iraq combined, both in population and in area. Iraq was at least mostly a flat country. It's a bunch of cities along a couple rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Iran isn't like that. It's almost all mountains. Iran has spent decades preparing specifically for war with the United States. Their military has lots of weapons designed for fighting a much stronger adversary. They have a lot of drones, a lot of speedboats, a lot of cheap expendable weapons. They're far more formidable than Iraq or the Taliban were. And I seriously want your thoughts.
Email me freedom at charliekirk.com. Would you say it's a good idea to use military force to strike potential Iranian nuclear targets. My whole life, I've been told that Iran is getting a bomb. Iran is getting a bomb. Iran is getting a bomb. Iran is getting a nuclear bomb. And yet here in 2025, they do not have a nuclear bomb. So why should we trust the American intelligence without verifying it?
Now, the other side of the argument is, you know, kind of, oh, Iran is this big threat. Same people that told us that Iraq was a big threat. The same people that told us that Taliban was a big threat. I'll be honest, fine. I mean, I don't like Iran, but...
The evidence shows that every single one of these people, the last couple of decades, that is pushing for a conflict of the run has not just failed miserably, has been one of the greatest catastrophes in American foreign policy ever. Thousands of lives needlessly lost of Americans, millions of people displaced, trillions of dollars spent.
And let's be honest, at this particular moment, we cannot afford this war. We are economically vulnerable. There is massive de-dollarization happening. We're trying a difficult manufacturing pivot with tariffs. We've seen the rise of the Chinese Communist Party. We blew our military reserves in Ukraine.
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Chapter 5: What are the risks and consequences of military strikes against Iran?
And now is the time that all of a sudden we want to try to get involved in another endless conflict. Let me be clear. It will not end with just military strikes. If you strike Iran on the interior, you will have a war. That is an act of war. And if that's what you want, that's fine. Make your case. Email me, freedom at charliekirk.com. I come from a generation where we've seen nothing but...
Quagmire, controversy, toil. It's worth thinking. Email us, freedom at charliekirk.com. There's a national focus on eating all the healthiest of foods, and that's great news for Balance of Nature. Their method of producing a vibrant nutritional supplement is second to none. While so many others use chemicals and additives, Balance of Nature is made solely from whole food ingredients.
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Use discount code Charlie to get 35% off plus free shipping. Have the people that are clamoring for military strikes, do they have any credibility of the last 20 years? Tell me how they've earned any credibility. Even the strikes that Trump did against Syria were actually not very good for the region. It was really bad, actually. Caused a lot of problems.
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Chapter 6: How has past U.S. foreign policy influenced the current situation with Iran?
So if our military-industrial complex has earned any credibility since 9-11, show me that example. Oh, it's just a small incursion. Oh, against Persia. Got it. I want to hear from you on this. I'm very interested. Where is the Trump base? Where are you on this? And look, I'm not saying that if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, it's a good thing. I mean, they're a bunch of maniacs.
Of course, they could deploy it to a drone and they could detonate it over America. For the record, though, Pakistan could do the same thing. Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And Pakistan harbored bin Laden. Russia could do the same thing. We're firing weapons into the interior of Russia.
And so if we were to strike Iran or if we were to support Israel to support Iran, it is very tempting to view this like it's just a game of risk. Ooh, I struck them. We won. No, that's an escalation. Is them getting a nuclear weapon good? No, we're not making that argument. No one here is making that argument. Of course not.
But lots of things are bad that we shouldn't risk destroying America to stop. Let me say that again. There's lots of bad things that we should not risk destroying America to stop. And for me, this is a hard and fast red line. We did not run on war with Iran. We did not run on striking Iran. And I know the president agrees.
I know the president agrees with this, which is why he's trying to actually talk to Iran. The situation we're looking at right now is invading Iran losing the global dollar. How about this? I will be more open. Here's my open challenge. I will be more open to someone striking Iran if you could tell me how their government works. Can anyone tell me how their government works?
Do you know that no one actually knows how their government works? We have like a vague idea. Even Blake, the smartest person I know, he's like, yeah, we kind of have an idea, but it's really kind of strange. And you go around D.C., the people that want to strike Iran, and we're told that they're nothing but an irrational actor. Of course they're evil. We did a whole show against Islam yesterday.
Got it. But if you listen to the president's words on Iran, it's very telling. I want Iran to have a great future, and they have an opportunity to have a great and prosperous future. And let me just reiterate this. Reject the premise. You have to prove it to us. The neoconservatives have not earned our trust.
Now, interestingly, if we were to strike Iran, it would actually strengthen Islamic fundamentalism around the world. You would think that, well, striking Iran actually puts a step back against it. Now, the West striking the interior and the home of Shia Islam would actually only further terrorist attacks against us in the West. It would only strengthen their resolve.
And the other thing is this, is that Iran is actually getting weaker with time, actually. We have sanctions on them. I'm not even talking about removing sanctions. The government is unpopular.
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Chapter 7: What is the perspective on Iran's nuclear capabilities and threats?
When a country is attacked, you get blinded by everything. And then the most radical ideology is ascendant. We can and can continue weaken the government. We're bankrupting them like Trump did the first time. No one's debating any of that. And I want to just say this. I have a heart for the Persian people. The Persian people are some of the most industrious. They're some of the hardest working.
They're some of the highest IQ. But if you strike Iran, and this is my number one reason why I'm not a neoconservative, is that it's so prideful, as if you can map out every single action. and have every other predictive element. Oh, if we strike and then this will happen and this won't happen. No, it turns out that you can't predict the future.
And when you drop a bunch of bombs on a country and probably murder a bunch of kids and a bunch of women, because you know the Iranian government, they probably have a bunch of... schools right next to nuclear sites. So keep that in mind because they're not dumb. They probably built just the way Hamas does human shields right around these nuclear sites.
And you're going to go kill a bunch of their top scientists and a bunch of their infrastructure. How do you think they're going to respond? They'll respond with an actual declaration of war. They'll close the Strait of Hormuz. They'll start kidnapping Americans. And they did that, of course, in the Munich Olympics. It's not as simple as we're just going to strike them.
I'm not saying the situation is simple. This is a very, very high wire act. Incredibly so. And one of the reasons why Mike Waltz being gone is an interesting development is it's one less neoconservative that are pushing this. Now, of course, no one wants Iran to get nuclear weapons. But again, I love Israel, but let's be honest.
This is more of Israel pushing for Iran not to get Israel weapons, not America. And that's fine. I mean, Israel should do that. Israel should advocate for its own self-defense. And I love Israel and I advocate for Israel. Israel has done a poor job, by the way, in the PR war of actually telling us why this is bad for America. So maybe they need to do a better job of that.
But is that America's problem? That's a, I mean, maybe the answer is yes. Maybe the answer is, you know what? They were wrong about Iraq. They were wrong about Syria. They were wrong about Afghanistan. They were wrong about the Taliban. They were wrong about Libya. They were wrong about the Arab Spring. They were wrong about Yemen. They were wrong about the Arabian Peninsula.
They were wrong about the 9-11 hijackers being Saudi Arabian. But hey, 10th time's a charm. This time we're actually right. Yeah, you're going to have to earn our trust on this one. Charlie Kirk here. The spring home buying market is happening right now. And if you're getting ready to purchase your first home, welcome to the club.
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Chapter 8: How would a war with Iran impact America and global stability?
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I could have been more precise in how I said one of the things prior is that the American government did nothing to prevent the 9-11 hijackers from Saudi Arabia to gain access into the interior of the United States. So I listed that off as one of the failures, which of course is correct, that 9-11 was largely an immigration failure more than anything else.
It was an intelligence and immigration failure. It wasn't a we-did-not-invade-enough-countries failure. And so that was just one of the – make sure that was – I could have said that better in the prior segment. Okay. Joining us now is Nate Morris, a very successful businessman from Kentucky. And he's been on the program prior. Nate, great to see you. Thanks for taking the time.
Nate, I want to get your initial thought here about the immigration judges blocking Donald Trump. This is a major issue. And what do you think could be done about this?
Well, Charlie, I think it's absolutely crazy that we have these activist judges that are thwarting the rule of law and the Constitution. And if I were in the Senate today, I think one of the things that we should do is we should defund these judges. And if that's not effective, then they need to be impeached. They need to go.
And as you've seen, Charlie, we've got so many of these activist judges that are thwarting the rule of law that continue to cause chaos and continue to put these leftist agendas. The Senate and the people in Washington, we got to stand up, the people, the patriots that are there and fight this stuff once and for all.
So I want to dive deeper into that. Why do you think that Senate Republicans right now, I mean, Mitch McConnell being one of them from the state that you come from, Kentucky, are so unwilling to to stand up against this judicial despotism?
Well, Charlie, look, these are career politicians. And we know that career politicians protect the swamp at all costs. This is how their cronies, their lobbyists, this is how they make their money. They don't want to disrupt anything going on in Washington. They've had a good thing going because they've been up there forever. They've all gotten rich.
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