You want to know what really changes the world? Here's what Glenn discovered

When the doctors told Glenn he couldn't speak for thirty days, he was scared that he could return to the microphone with nothing. But it turns out the isolation from work, friends, and family gave Glenn a new perspective on what really changes the world. Here's a hint - it doesn't involve merely going to church every Sunday.

Listen to a portion of this segment below:

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it may contain errors:

I'm not going to start with the problems. You know what the problems in this country are. You know what the problems of the world are. You see them every day. You talk about them with your friends. You can't make sense of what's going on. Honestly, I don't even recognize my country anymore. Common sense is truly dead in America.

Let me ask you what is it that you do believe in? What are the things that you say, yes, I believe in this? Do you believe in the office of the presidency anymore? Do you believe in Congress? Do you believe the Supreme Court will actually issue justice? Our court system? Do you believe in our cops? Do you believe in the military?

Military actually has the highest score out of all of these things. But even that is falling. What is it that you really believe in now? Do you believe in the media? In Hollywood? You believe in the government of Detroit or the government of Philadelphia or the government of New York? I think if you're like most people, you probably don't believe in religion anymore.

You probably are waffling a little bit on belief in God. You're concerned about your family. Can I trust my family? Can I trust my children? I hope so. But I don't know. They're under attack every day. I trust my spouse. I hope so. So many of us -- so many of us I think aren't even sure we can trust ourselves. We've dropped the ball so many times in so many ways. If people just knew what I really think or who I really am or the mistakes that I've made. What is it that you trust?

I've never asked for your trust. And I'm amazed at how many people in this country for the pummeling that this show has taken over the years, I'm really shocked that so many people still trust us. But I will tell you this: We work hard to try to get things right. We don't always succeed. But we do work hard.

I've been gone for 30 days. The doctor has ordered that I stop using my voice for 30 days. And the people on left cheered. Yeah! Can it be longer than 30 days?

Last night, I wrote on Facebook, I'm not even sure if I can do this job anymore. I don't -- I have butterflies in my stomach today trying to come back. I don't know how to do this job, as if I've lost 38 years of experience. This is more time off than I've had since I was 14 years old. I've been away from this microphone longer than any other period in my life since 14.

But it has given me real clarity on a few things. Being forced to be quiet. And I can literally say, I've been to the mountaintop to reflect, to listen.

You surprisingly, and not all the way along, but you have weathered this storm with me. And you have given me the benefit of the doubt on things like Benghazi, when I came out three days later and said they're running guns. Year and a half later, it comes out that they're running guns. You gave me your trust in that, something I don't ask for.

You stuck with me when I said, there's a banking crisis coming. In 2006 and '7, there's a collapse coming. So many people gave me the benefit of the doubt.

The first thing anybody gave me the benefit of the doubt was, was 9/11. In 1999, I said, there's going to be bodies and buildings in the streets of New York. And it will be perpetrated by Osama bin Laden. It will happen before the end of the decade. Happened a lot sooner than I thought. It happened in 2001.

You stuck with me through the caliphate. The rise of Iran. The abandonment of Israel. Which was crazy when I said it under George W. Bush. That this country will turn against Israel. And we will abandon Israel. When I said there would be riots in the streets of Europe and America, you gave me the benefit of the doubt. The collapse of Greece, the rise of the Nazi parties in Europe, you gave me the benefit of the doubt, when there was no reason to.

When I said, there will come a time that you will no longer recognize your country and it will happen sooner than you think, the Bubba Effect. The dedollarization of the world. The rise of Russian fascism. The stopping of the purchasing of American bonds. When I said that, it was insane to think that. And you gave me the benefit of the doubt.

Recently, I have said, beware of artificial intelligence because there's no oversight there. Latest story I saw on this was over the weekend now. Fifty of the greatest minds on planet earth have just said, we need to ban any kind of killer AI.

We've been fortune enough to be ahead on a few of the stories. And you've given me the benefit of the doubt when it was crazy to. People have asked me for a solution. And I've told you before, I don't have a solution. I'm not the guy to come to for a solution. I don't know the solutions to these things.

We've looked to leaders: Presidents, congressmen, senators, elections. And all down the line, over and over again, those people and those parties have let us down, some more than others.

I talked to somebody in Congress last week. He reached out to see how I was doing. And I said, how are you doing? He said, I'm not -- I'm not sure I can do this much longer. He said, it was worse than I thought it was. He said, but, Glenn, now with the G.O.P. in control, it's worse than it ever has been.

And he's a Republican.

Do you see a political solution, honestly? Elect whoever it is in your mind. Do you see a political solution? Because I don't. One man can't make the difference.

Do you see a financial solution, with everything -- the greatest minds on earth get together and say, okay, here's what we'll do with all these bonds? Do you see a financial solution? Or do you see a reset? It's going to have to reset? How about a military solution? Yeah, well, here's what we'll do with ISIS and the rest of the Middle East. And then it's fixed. Because I don't see one.

Out of all the things that you could possibly believe in, is there anything -- anything left that has enough power to solve this?

I say there is. But my guess is, even in this audience, the majority disagrees with me. They might -- they might even intellectually say, yeah, okay. But when it really comes down to it, no, not really.

Gandhi said, about Christians, Gandhi said, there is more dynamite in that New Testament. It could shake the foundations of the western world, if not the entire world. There's enough dynamite in those words to revolutionize everything, but Christians just don't see it or just won't do it.

Maybe the solution is so easy that we either fail to recognize it or we fail to see that it actually has power. Because we've become disillusioned. But it's the only thing that you can actually change. And that is you. You can't control others. I can elect somebody. But I can't control what's going to happen. I can't control the situation. I'm a raging alcoholic. I'm recovering. But still there's an alcoholic in me just crying to get out. You give me one snifter of whisky, and I'll drink the whole bottle. I'm an all-or-nothing kind of guy.

I can't even control myself alone.

I want to talk to you about a solution. And it doesn't involve going to church. Because going to church, it does nothing. Honestly. Going to church does not change the world.

Living a set of principles does change the world. And changing you as an individual changes the world. And I know this sounds stupid. But let me give you a piece of history. Ancient Israel. They come in. They attack. They kill everybody in Jerusalem. And they tear down the walls. Anybody who is left, they enslave. All the walls, all the gates, destroyed. Now if you back in the day didn't have a city with walls around it, you're done.

How are they going to rebuild these walls? Enemies are everywhere. How are they going to possibly rebuild the walls when they're not really even in charge? One guy has an idea. He says to one guy who has a house right there by the wall, would you do me a favor? Can you just -- you and your sons, you just rebuild this part of the wall. Just the part that's in your backyard. And I'll go to Phil who is your neighbor, and I'll ask him just to rebuild what's in his backyard. And he goes around the city to all of the people that live right there by the wall. And everybody is responsible for just rebuilding that part of the wall. That's it.

Not the whole wall. Because if you go to everybody and say, we're going to rebuild the wall. Everybody says that's nuts. We can't do it. But if he goes to individuals and says, you just do your part. You just build your part of the wall.

They rebuilt the wall.

See, the only thing we can control is us. That's it. And looking at this as a massive problem, we're never going to be able to solve it. We'll never solve it.

I took my American flag down. I don't fly the 50-star banner anymore, and I do it for a myriad of reasons. But I replaced it with a Bennington banner. The Bennington flag.

The Bennington flag is the -- you've seen it a million times. It's the United States flag, except the stars are arranged differently. They're the ones that have the half arc. Thirteen stars. And then it says "76" on it. You've seen it a million times.

But I started flying that, and underneath it, I flew the first American flag, which eventually became George Washington's Navy. His cruisers. It's just the one with the cypress tree on it that says an appeal to heaven. And I took the flag down, and I posted it up on Facebook. And so many people came out of the woodwork and said, how dare you, Glenn. That flag represents the American people, not the government. You may not understand what the government is doing, but that doesn't -- that doesn't mean that you take down the flag because that represents the people.

Okay. I'm going to take you at your word on that. If that's what that flag means, I still am going to take it down. Because I've seen the outpouring of love and the outpouring of action for Cecil the lion from the American people. And then I saw what happened, where they are crushing babies' skulls with Planned Parenthood and the outcry there.

They are like a quarter of a million -- how many names here? I think it's like a quarter of a million names. Yeah, 229,783 names. People that want to extradite Minnesota dentist, Walter Palmer. They want to extradite him and send him to Zimbabwe to face a court over there. There's 229,783 people that signed a petition. To defund Planned Parenthood, there's a petition going around that has 21,560 signatures. We are a group of people that worship the creation, and not the Creator. We will follow man's laws, not God's laws.

The problem isn't in Washington. The problem is us. There are breaches in our own walls. Too many of us have too much stuff going on in our own lives, that we're barely in control of our own lives. We just have to shuttle everything off to somebody else. And the reason why, and I say this from experience, I used to be a liberal.

I was very liberal. I would have absolutely supported Planned Parenthood. I did support abortion. You know why? I wanted to keep some options open for me. Why -- why would you condemn somebody because, you know what, you might want to use that one yourself?

There were breaches in my wall. So how do we fix this?

[Break]

GLENN: I want to play Hillary Clinton speaking on Planned Parenthood. This is her recently now. This is her new stand on Planned Parenthood. Listen.

HILLARY: Republicans like Scott Walker and Jeb Bush are calling to defund Planned Parenthood, the country's leading provider of reproductive health care. And they are joined by Republicans in Congress who will not waste a minute in voting to make that happen. If this feels like a full-on assault on women's health, that's because it is.

When politicians talk about defunding Planned Parenthood, they're talking about blocking millions of women, men, and young people from lifesaving preventive care. Cancer screenings. Breast exams. Birth control. They're talking about cutting people off from the health care provider they know and trust.

Unfortunately, these attacks aren't new. They're more of the same. We've seen them in Wisconsin, where Governor Walker defunded Planned Parenthood and left women across the state stranded with nowhere else to turn.

We've seen them in Florida, where Jeb Bush funneled millions of taxpayer dollars into abstinence-only programs, while gutting funds for crucial family planning programs.

And we've seen them in Texas where Governor Perry drastically cut funding for breast and cervical cancer screenings, and then signed legislation that forced health centers across the state to close their doors in an attempt to wipe out access to safe and legal abortion altogether.

GLENN: Now, listen to what she says here.

HILLARY: When they attack women's health, they attack America's health. And it's wrong. And we're not going to let them get away with it. We're not going back. We're going to fight back. I'm proud to stand with Planned Parenthood. I'll never stop fighting to protect the ability and right of every woman in this country to make her own --

GLENN: Okay. Enough.

So I want to ask you. She has accepted the award, the Margaret Sanger Award. And if you know anything about Margaret Sanger, Margaret Sanger was flat-out evil. She's the closest thing we've had to Joseph Mengele in our country. She is flat-out evil. And Hillary accepted that and gave a speech on how great Margaret Sanger was. Closest thing in this country to Joseph Mengele.

So what are you fighting here? Are you fighting politics? Because if you're fighting politics -- the Senate failed to pass the bill to defund Planned Parenthood last night. Rand Paul will be on television with me tonight to talk about it.

So what are you really fighting? I contend if you're fighting politics with politics, you're bringing a slingshot to a nuke fight. Because you're not fighting politics or politicians here. When you're talking about taking the limbs off of babies, taking the livers and the hearts and not wanting to crush their skull because you want to have some of their brain tissue, you're talking evil. No ifs, ands, or buts. Call it what it is: It is flat-out Joseph Mengele evil. And we have a large number of people in this country that don't see it.

I don't know how -- I don't know how to fight that. You can't fight that with politics. You can't fight that with focus groups. You can't fight that. You're fighting evil. And you're not going to win fighting evil with more evil. You're not going to win fighting hate with more hate.

Only light conquers darkness. And this is darkness. Profound spiritual darkness.

Are we going to -- are we going to -- are we going to get everybody to go to church? No. Would that solve anything? No. Church is not the answer.

A personal relationship is. Trying to find those universal long-time eternal principles, that is the answer. And people will say, oh, enough with the God thing. I get it. I want you to understand, I am prepared to lose my audience. I am prepared to lose my position on radio. I'm prepared to lose my position on anything. I'm prepared to do this in an open field someplace. But you have trusted me with so many things that were insane before. All of these predictions that I've made that were insane, you've trusted me. Please, please, I do ask you this one time for trust.

We don't believe in anything anymore. In fact, we're to the point to where we don't believe that God is powerful enough to do it or even concerned. First of all, he's powerful enough to set up the system that keeps us from spiraling into the sun every single day.

But he couldn't handle this?

I don't care what you say, even if God is a fantasy, it changes people. That's not me. That's Ben Franklin talking to Thomas Paine. You may not believe. Fine. But look at the good that has been done by people who are trying to serve him. All we concentrate on are all the bad things that happen. The Westboro Baptist Church or the killers in the Middle East.

Let's look at all of the good things. Man never ruled himself until we came here as a people and freed ourselves from the king. And said, there is no king, but God. We will serve no man. We will serve God.

Now, Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, they didn't see the difference between the American Revolution and the French Revolution. And the only difference was: God. They didn't see the difference until the end.

That ended in -- first the guillotines, then a dictatorship. Why did we -- why were we different? For the first time, why were we different? What stopped the Civil War? What started it, to end slavery, were God-fearing people.

What stopped the Salem witch trials? God-fearing people. It went on for centuries over in Europe. It lasted less than three years here. Why?

Because people actually as individuals read the Bible, understood it, and then stood with it. And it -- it's changed the world.

Ask Gandhi. He wasn't even a Christian. He used that book. In his own words, that's what he said he was doing. He didn't even look at -- every place look at Jesus as God or the Son of God. He looked at Jesus as a revolutionary. You don't have to buy into it. Just understand the position. Understand what the system that he used works.

When the people will not stand against a nuclear Iran, when the people won't stand up and say, we're giving nukes to crazy people? We're negotiating with crazy people that are on an evil side? When they're stoning homosexuals, when they're stoning women, when they're crucifying children, I'm sorry, I don't think you get a play in the nuke drawer. But is that rising to Facebook status so I can get my news on what's happening -- nope. Is that a problem with the system or is that a problem with us? That's a problem with us, my friend. That's a problem with us.

When we can't defund people who are crushing the skulls of babies and selling their body parts, Mengele. When our country is engaged in Mengele-style experiments, we can't defund it? That's not a problem with the government. That's a problem with us.

I talked about Donald Trump today. A guy willing to take the blows. You may not agree with him. I don't agree with him. But he's willing to take the blows. Are we?

Too many of us are curled up into a fetal position. And I understand it. Glenn, my family is falling apart. I can barely hold on to my kids. I get it.

I tell my son, no, you're not playing video games today. Oh, my gosh, it's World War III.

Glenn, I can barely make my car payment. I know. I've been there. Our families are on the verge of getting lost because of drugs. The culture. Pornography. Friends.

If you're lucky, you have friends. Some people are just completely alone. Help! That's what the average person is feeling. Help! Help! Help me!

We're so worried about ourselves that we can't see others. That's why we want to hire somebody in Washington to take care of this for us because I got other stuff I'm dealing with. Can I just hire somebody that will just do this for me? It's too complex. That's a lie.

We're not going to find the solution in another man. We have to trust one power to be strong enough to do it. We ask him for the little things. Why don't we ask him to heal our land?

Here's why: Because it requires us to do things we don't really want to do. And the reason why we don't want to do those things is because it's been so perverted. It's been, let's just go to church and be a church person. Who wants to be a church person? I want to actually do things.

I do want to change the world. I think you do too. Going to church doesn't change the world. Actually living those principles, that changes the world.

We need to get our own lives in order. There are so many of us that are hiding things from ourselves. We're lying to ourselves about things that are happening in our own lives. We're hiding from ourselves. And that makes us a target.

There's a breach in our wall. Enemies look for breaches in walls. There are so many breaches in our own walls. Our own personal walls. The walls of our family.

People are the weak link. They always are. There has to be 10 percent of this nation, 5 percent of this nation, that is willing to stand up and say, I'm going to repair my wall. My portion of the wall. I'm not going to worry about somebody else's portion. I'm repairing my part of the wall. I'm not going to -- I'm not going to sit here and take my time. And waste my time on how somebody else is repairing their wall. I'm going to take care of my part and I'm going to make sure my part is right. We need to be strong enough to stand up and stand up together.

They can't come through all of us. If we've all replaced and repaired our part of the wall. We need to be whole enough to be able to stand in the gap and stand against evil and say, you shall not pass.

Make no mistake, what we are facing is not a problem with politicians. Hillary Clinton saying I am proud to stand with Planned Parenthood is not a problem of Hillary Clinton's. It's a problem with us.

That someone can say after videotape showing them selling body parts, it's a problem with us that there's enough of us that say, yeah, I proudly stand with them too. Good God Almighty, help us. You cannot change her. You cannot change the parties. You cannot change anything. We cannot build -- rebuild the wall around our country, unless we do it like Nehemiah.

Just focus on the breach of the wall in your backyard. That will work.

Is the U.N. plotting to control 30% of U.S. land by 2030?

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

A reliable conservative senator faces cancellation for listening to voters. But the real threat to public lands comes from the last president’s backdoor globalist agenda.

Something ugly is unfolding on social media, and most people aren’t seeing it clearly. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) — one of the most constitutionally grounded conservatives in Washington — is under fire for a housing provision he first proposed in 2022.

You wouldn’t know that from scrolling through X. According to the latest online frenzy, Lee wants to sell off national parks, bulldoze public lands, gut hunting and fishing rights, and hand America’s wilderness to Amazon, BlackRock, and the Chinese Communist Party. None of that is true.

Lee’s bill would have protected against the massive land-grab that’s already under way — courtesy of the Biden administration.

I covered this last month. Since then, the backlash has grown into something like a political witch hunt — not just from the left but from the right. Even Donald Trump Jr., someone I typically agree with, has attacked Lee’s proposal. He’s not alone.

Time to look at the facts the media refuses to cover about Lee’s federal land plan.

What Lee actually proposed

Over the weekend, Lee announced that he would withdraw the federal land sale provision from his housing bill. He said the decision was in response to “a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies,” but also acknowledged that many Americans brought forward sincere, thoughtful concerns.

Because of the strict rules surrounding the budget reconciliation process, Lee couldn’t secure legally enforceable protections to ensure that the land would be made available “only to American families — not to China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests.” Without those safeguards, he chose to walk it back.

That’s not selling out. That’s leadership.

It's what the legislative process is supposed to look like: A senator proposes a bill, the people respond, and the lawmaker listens. That was once known as representative democracy. These days, it gets you labeled a globalist sellout.

The Biden land-grab

To many Americans, “public land” brings to mind open spaces for hunting, fishing, hiking, and recreation. But that’s not what Sen. Mike Lee’s bill targeted.

His proposal would have protected against the real land-grab already under way — the one pushed by the Biden administration.

In 2021, Biden launched a plan to “conserve” 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030. This effort follows the United Nations-backed “30 by 30” initiative, which seeks to place one-third of all land and water under government control.

Ask yourself: Is the U.N. focused on preserving your right to hunt and fish? Or are radical environmentalists exploiting climate fears to restrict your access to American land?

  Smith Collection/Gado / Contributor | Getty Images

As it stands, the federal government already owns 640 million acres — nearly one-third of the entire country. At this rate, the government will hit that 30% benchmark with ease. But it doesn’t end there. The next phase is already in play: the “50 by 50” agenda.

That brings me to a piece of legislation most Americans haven’t even heard of: the Sustains Act.

Passed in 2023, the law allows the federal government to accept private funding from organizations, such as BlackRock or the Bill Gates Foundation, to support “conservation programs.” In practice, the law enables wealthy elites to buy influence over how American land is used and managed.

Moreover, the government doesn’t even need the landowner’s permission to declare that your property contributes to “pollination,” or “photosynthesis,” or “air quality” — and then regulate it accordingly. You could wake up one morning and find out that the land you own no longer belongs to you in any meaningful sense.

Where was the outrage then? Where were the online crusaders when private capital and federal bureaucrats teamed up to quietly erode private property rights across America?

American families pay the price

The real danger isn’t in Mike Lee’s attempt to offer more housing near population centers — land that would be limited, clarified, and safeguarded in the final bill. The real threat is the creeping partnership between unelected global elites and our own government, a partnership designed to consolidate land, control rural development, and keep Americans penned in so-called “15-minute cities.”

BlackRock buying entire neighborhoods and pricing out regular families isn’t by accident. It’s part of a larger strategy to centralize populations into manageable zones, where cars are unnecessary, rural living is unaffordable, and every facet of life is tracked, regulated, and optimized.

That’s the real agenda. And it’s already happening , and Mike Lee’s bill would have been an effort to ensure that you — not BlackRock, not China — get first dibs.

I live in a town of 451 people. Even here, in the middle of nowhere, housing is unaffordable. The American dream of owning a patch of land is slipping away, not because of one proposal from a constitutional conservative, but because global powers and their political allies are already devouring it.

Divide and conquer

This controversy isn’t really about Mike Lee. It’s about whether we, as a nation, are still capable of having honest debates about public policy — or whether the online mob now controls the narrative. It’s about whether conservatives will focus on facts or fall into the trap of friendly fire and circular firing squads.

More importantly, it’s about whether we’ll recognize the real land-grab happening in our country — and have the courage to fight back before it’s too late.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

MANAURE QUINTERO / Contributor | Getty Images

By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

  

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

Tasos Katopodis / Stringer | Getty Images

The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

   USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

   Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

 

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.