The Michael Knowles Show
Friendly Fire: Iran Ceasefire, INDIGNIDAD Amnesty & A.I. Supermodel Gone Rogue
09 Apr 2026
Chapter 1: What are the implications of the Iran ceasefire?
Welcome gentlemen and lady coming on later to Friendly Fire. We didn't know if we were gonna have this show today because the world was supposed to end last night in nuclear holocaust and there was gonna be a genocide perpetrated against the Persian people and Trump, you know, I supported him for three elections but this is too far.
The left was freaking out about it, but there was a hysterical part of the right that was freaking out. And now it's fine. We might have a ceasefire. The Iran war might be over. The Strait of Hormuz might be open. We might actually be taking tacks with the Iranians on the Strait of Hormuz. And in any case, there's a lot of dignity in establishing peace.
There's also a lot of dignity in Congress, where a Republican Congress lady thinks it's a really good idea to give amnesty to basically all the illegal aliens in the country. Threats from AI that could take us all down. There's so much to get to. But before we get to any of it, I want you to buy stuff from me. Spring cleaning is almost over at the Daily Wire shop.
You can save up to 50% off for just a few more days. Conservative gear that doesn't bend the knee, that tells the truth, that loves America are brand new. Terrorist Tears Tumblers comes with a side of Freedom Fries. You're either with us or you're with the terrorists. We have George Bush coming on the show actually later to pitch it.
It's in honor of Easter weekend's incredibly daring mission to rescue the American Air Force officer from behind Iranian lines. Ben's latest New York Times bestseller, Lions and Scavengers, has a special deal on signed copies only available at the Daily Wire shop. More important than that, my blank book, Reasons to Vote for Democrats, also available at the shop.
A generous discount on my best-selling party game, Yes or No. Up to 50% off spring cleaning collection. We have got Daily Wire t-shirts, truth bombs, hats, so much more. Don't miss out. Go to dailywire.com slash shop and save up to 50% today. We have a special guest also coming on.
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Are you... Just excuse me. Are you really not going to plug my book that is only up for an Edgar for two more weeks before I lose?
Wait, hold on. You write books?
You write books? No, that's true. Can you get it at the Daily Wire shop? Edgar-nominated critical book. It's... And a New York Times bestseller as well.
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Chapter 2: Why are Republicans proposing a new amnesty plan?
Yeah, I mean, it's my favorite show to do, so how could I not be? You wouldn't miss it. Yeah, no, and this is where I find out about a new merch drop, which is great, Terrorist Tears. I mean, whose idea was that? Do we know whose idea that was?
I think it was Donald Rumsfeld's idea. Actually, I know he's dead, but I think we got through some kind of advanced CIA technology. He came up with the new terrorist tears Tumblr. It is the kind of idea you would get from a dead man.
Chapter 3: What are the potential risks of AI technology?
I cannot think of, if you're looking for merchandise that's just pure, like, boomer baits, Pure Fox News boomer bait merchandise. Terrorist Tears Tumblr. I mean, yeah. Beat Mondale.
We've got our new Beat Mondale Tumblr coming out next week, too.
So that one will be great.
Don't be sure to admit that will be full price. So that won't be 50 percent off. We are back in the Middle East, though, sort of. Maybe, maybe not. There was this amazing, daring rescue mission where the CIA was using crazy advanced technology and Sutterfuge to pull this guy out. He went down on Good Friday. He hid in a crevice in a mountain, and then he was rescued on Easter Sunday.
It's amazing. It's wonderful. Thank God. What's more interesting to me, did you guys see the New York Times piece on the internal deliberations about whether or not to go to war with Iran in the White House?
The Maggie Haberman piece, yeah?
Yeah, Haberman. So according to it, the guy arguing most vociferously against the strikes was the vice president, J.D. Vance, who, as far as I can tell, has exactly my position on the Iran war. He said, look, I don't think this is a good idea. I don't think it's going to work. In terms of actual regime change, I think we're being oversold here.
Looks like the chairman of the Joint Chiefs agreed with that. Looks like Marco Rubio agreed with that. People are trying to drive divisions between Vance and Rubio. Looks like they were totally on the same page here. Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, was on board, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. According to the reporting, Pete Hegseth was more in favor of the strikes.
In any case, though, we were supposed to get nuclear disaster last night, and instead... I guess we have a ceasefire. None of us know anything about actual news reporting. So we have Cabot Phillips, who does our actual hard news show, Wired and Live. He's joining us too. Do we have a ceasefire?
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Chapter 4: How did the Iran bombing campaign affect U.S. foreign policy?
Or in this case, he takes out the Ayatollah, the most senior Muslim leader in the world. And he does these things that allow him to maintain some unpredictability. So with that tweet that he sent out, he goes, open the effing straits or you'll all be living in hell. Praise be to Allah. To me, what I really liked about that tweet is it seemed very disciplined.
It seemed reckless at first, but when you read that dry humor line at the end, all praise to Allah, you can see he's being disciplined here and he's mocking the way that they speak. The Iranians are the ones who I say- The great Satan will go down in a ball of fire, you know, ah la la la, whatever. And so he's kind of mocking the way that they speak.
My argument for what he's doing, just in a short way, a concise way, is there was good to be achieved here. I never thought the Iranian regime was going to fall. I always thought that those kinds of comments were way overselling the war. The goods that are achieved are you further weaken their nuclear program, which they're going to continue to pursue.
You really mess up their ballistics missiles program, which was being used to defend the nuclear program.
Chapter 5: What are the arguments for and against the amnesty proposal?
You sink their military. You kill the top like 15 layers of their government. But the regime remains in place in a similar way that we saw in Venezuela. And especially if you can make sure the Strait of Hormuz remains open so that the best card that the Iranians have to play doesn't actually redound to their benefit, then you have achieved some strategic objectives that the U.S.
has had for 47 years. Again, I'm very skeptical of the whole thing, but it doesn't mean you don't accomplish nothing.
I want to break in here on two points. You know, first of all, Pete Hexeth, the God of War, said that, or Secretary of War, whatever they call him, he said that the Iranians knew exactly what Trump was talking about, that they knew exactly what he was going to hit.
Chapter 6: How does the Dignidad Act impact immigration policy?
There was nothing they could do about it. I think that that is probably exactly accurate. So Trump was making a big fuss for the press and driving the press insane, as he loves to do. But in fact, the Iranians knew exactly what was coming, and it was bad. You know, it was stuff they were going to get hit on Cargill Island, they were going to get hit in their infrastructure.
And I think that he was making a deal insofar as it goes. But the other thing about this, and look, my point about this war from the very beginning was if it ends well, it'll be good. If it doesn't end well, it'll be bad, like every war, essentially. But I thought that there was a good reason for doing it, although whether we should be doing it now or not is a fair question.
All kinds of questions are fair. I agree with Matt. These people who say there's no downside to a war are out of their freaking minds. That's ridiculous. A war, we call it kinetic for a reason. We are fighting to build a country. Trump is fighting to build a country and a North America that can stand up to the onslaught from China that is coming, I would say, in approximately 15 minutes.
And I think that one of the things that he has done, when he went into Venezuela, a lot of the people running out of that country were suspiciously yellow, you know, suspiciously look like Chinese people. When he went into Iran, a lot of that oil coming through the strait is going to China. Something like 40 percent of their oil is. is for China. And that's stuff that China needs.
And as they go forward, and as Donald Trump sits down with Xi and says, oh, my friend, my good friend, we get along so well, it would be a shame if you couldn't get your oil. It's going to matter who is in charge of the Strait of Hormuz. And so I think that this is all about
I mean, Trump is actually doing a visionary thing, which in America is forbidden because we live from not just election to election. We live from poll to poll. But I think he actually is doing a visionary thing. I think it is a good thing.
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Chapter 7: What are the consequences of mass deportations in America?
I don't think it has to involve us changing the regime in Iran. I think it has to do with our crippling them, which he seems to have done almost completely, as far as I can tell. And yeah, you know, Matt is right again about that. We didn't obliterate their nuclear program before.
I think now we may have buried a lot of their nuclear goods underground such that it will be tough for them to get it out without our seeing them and going after them again. So I don't know. I think he has accomplished something. And I think that he would like to get out. I've been, you know, for the last two friendly fires, I've been saying time is running out.
And I think there are a lot of people who are, you know, thinking that we have to go in and destroy everything in Iran or to get rid of the leadership or change the regime. That's not going to happen. Hold on.
Before Matt starts to just scream his rebuttal to that, I want you all to realize out there that a lot is happening and it's hitting everything from your paycheck to your freedoms. So you can either guess or you can know. The Daily Wire gives you live breaking news, investigative reporting, ad-free daily shows, and experts who are actually part of the story, especially on Cabot's show.
Join now at dailywire.com slash subscribe. Before we get to Cabot, Matt.
Yeah, I think, look, there's this weird thing we do now with wars where we talk about them very theoretically, especially this latest one where we're sort of theorizing about, well, maybe we're doing it for this reason. Maybe this is the reason. As though we don't have leaders who are running the country whose responsibility is not to actually tell us this stuff.
You know, it used to be that for most of American history, when we went to war, it was like kind of a big deal. And so the American people had to know why we're doing it. That doesn't mean that the generals have to sit down at your kitchen table and lay out all the blueprints and lay out all the battle plans for you. OK, some things are confidential.
We get that you want the element of surprise, but a basic conversation about why are we doing this? Why now? What you as Americans are going to pay the price for this one way or another. you're going to pay a financial, at least there's a risk.
There's a risk if we, if America goes to war in any part of the world, there is a serious risk to American people, to American livelihood, to American lives. No one can deny that. And so for that reason alone, we have a right to know why are we doing this? Why was this necessary right now? And well, what happens is that, is that, you know, Trump, Trump says things,
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Chapter 8: How can AI technology be regulated for safety?
And I'm saying that that situation is untenable. Matt, listen, I think all of these complaints are absolutely good, But at the same time, I do think that something's happened that has been really good for America. I think what he has done in Iran has already been good for us and will appear to be good for us pretty quickly in the course of history. But you're absolutely right.
He doesn't explain anything. And the the pundits have been awful about this. I mean, there have been so many pundits on the left, I guess we'll call them whatever the anti-American pundits who are most pundits who have played this thing as if we were somehow, you know, our cities were being bombed. You know, you read the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. It sounds like.
You know, a rise in gas, which is bad, it's bad, but it sounds like Hiroshima in America, the way they play it. The Wall Street Journal in one of the funniest, you know, headlines I'd seen saying if Trump ups this war, then it might strengthen Iranian resolve. I thought, like the Black Knight in a Monty Python movie, how much stronger can their resolve be?
Nothing seems to convince them that they've been beaten. So I praise them for their resolve. However, stepping back from all of that stuff, which is all true, I do look at this and I think we're in a better position now than we were six weeks ago. And I think all the hand wringing has also been wrong. I think the hand wringing is wrong. And I think you're absolutely right about this, Walter.
It's been driving me nuts, too. These people say, oh, it's great. It's all right. There's not even a risk. It's not even a problem. It drives me nuts. But on the other hand, I think the hand wringing is equally wrong. I think we are actually in a better place today than we were when the bombing started. And I think if he can get out of it.
Right about now, which is what I've been saying since for the last two friendly fires, right about now is when I think he should get out of it and make sure the Strait is open if he can. And that, I think we'll be in a better position.
Are we in a better place right now than we were five weeks ago?
I think it's easy to say if things hold, if the ceasefire holds, then yeah. And if we're able to get anything to the Strait, then yeah, we're in a better place. The big question though is, can you actually get out right now?
I mean, yeah, Trump can say, well, it's a ceasefire, but if it's a one-sided ceasefire, if all that means is that we're no longer bombing them, if the straight, if you're having to pay $2 million to get a tanker through the straight, if the Iranians are still holding the energy economy globally
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