Country Music Star Charlie Daniels Talks About His Faith in New Memoir

Country legend Charlie Daniels has had a long and storied career. He’s now about to turn 81 and set to release his memoir, “Never Look at the Empty Seats.”

“I’ve had a great life,” he said while chatting with Glenn on radio Monday. “I wouldn’t trade lives with anybody.”

Daniels is best known for his country hit, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” and he has been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame. On today’s show, he talked about some of the highs and lows from his more than 60 years in music.

Listen to the full clip to hear Daniels talk about meeting “larger than life” Johnny Cash and share more stories.

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

GLENN: Charlie Daniels is in the studio. And I just was having a chat with him. And I said, I can't believe I'm sitting with Charlie Daniels and he knows my name.

How are you, Charlie?

CHARLIE: I'm good, buddy. Good to be with you. It's an honor.

GLENN: Yeah, you haven't changed a bit. I can't believe you're 80.

CHARLIE: I'll be 81. Twenty-eighth of this month, I'll be 81.

GLENN: Unbelievable. You don't look it at all.

CHARLIE: Well, thank you very much.

GLENN: You have had a remarkable life.

CHARLIE: Oh, I have. I've had a great life. I wouldn't trade lives with anybody. I've done what I've wanted to do for a living for almost 60 years now, exactly what I wanted to do for a living. That's a blessing.

GLENN: And I will tell you -- your book is, by the way, really good.

CHARLIE: Thank you.

GLENN: And it's full of God and blessings, and I want to talk to you about it. But the one thing I didn't know is, at any point, did you think, maybe God doesn't want me to -- to play the fiddle or play the guitar, because you lost a finger.

CHARLIE: I did.

GLENN: Your arms were almost pulled off, from an auger.

CHARLIE: Yeah. You know, I never thought -- I wanted to get up and go on, you know, just beat it and get on with the program.

I did lose a finger in high school. But I lost it on my right hand. If it had been my left hand, it'd have been the end of my career, because that's the one I pushed the strings down, the chord with. But since I just use my other hand, my right hand to hold a fiddle bow and a guitar pick, I was okay.

My arm that got tangled in a post hole digger, it's like an auger that digs post holes in the ground. And my arm literally got wrapped up on it. I had the bone out through the skin in a couple of places, and it was broken completely in two and three places.

And I never went -- you know, a tractor, a lot of times, even after you turn it off, it will -- if it had done that, it would pull my arm off, probably.

And I remember being down on my knees, and I said, help me, Lord. And the guy that had the tractor, when the tractor -- he cut it up and stopped. And then wound my arm and took me to the hospital and get it put back together.

GLENN: And that was 1980. That was the height of your career.

CHARLIE: 1980. The hottest time of my year. Went down to Georgia. Took about four months off. Most frustrating time of my life.

GLENN: Oh, I bet it was.

CHARLIE: But I learned something. I learned during that four months, I did nothing. And when I got back on my feet again and really started to, you know, where I could move around, I was in such terrible condition, I could only walk about 100 yards. And I said, this ain't going to do. And I started walking 110 yards and 120 yards. Anyway, I worked up to where I was doing a good level of exercise. And I had maintained that ever since then.

So I think I needed -- I needed that time in my life to reassess taking care of myself.

GLENN: Yeah.

CHARLIE: And I've done it a lot better since then.

GLENN: So in 1980, you were at your height. Devil went down to Georgia. I mean, it's crazy. The record industry is still the record industry.

CHARLIE: Yeah.

GLENN: And then -- then things start to soften and your ticket prices go down.

CHARLIE: Right.

GLENN: And you realize, not only are we not rolling in the cash, I owe $2 million.

CHARLIE: That's right. I -- that's another lesson I learned. I kind of let that happen over a period of time.

And I got involved in a lot of businesses I shouldn't have been involved in. There were peripheral things to the music business, but -- that I knew nothing about. The first thing I knew, we were $2 million in debt. And I said, we have got to do something about this.

And we had to take -- we took a lot of dates back then. And every old smoky-type place you can find, just for a payday. Just to keep the payment settled. And I said my prayers -- and put on my hat and my boots and picked up my guitar and my fiddle. And we hit the road.

And the day that we got our debts paid off -- we have an annual Christmas party with our company, with our employees. And we took the notes out in the yard and burned them, which was very symbolic to me. I was so glad to get rid of them. But, yeah, that was another lesson I learned.

STU: It's a different way of looking at the world. Because now I feel like when people struggle and they have these problems, they're blaming other people for having -- they want other people to step in and cover their losses. You thought, maybe if I just work my butt off --

CHARLIE: Well, it was my fault. You know, I take responsibility for my actions. I have to.

STU: What language are you speaking?

GLENN: Again, you can tell how old he is just by that statement.

CHARLIE: Well, you know, I think you're a miserable person if you can't -- if you're going to blame everything on somebody else, you have no control over your life. That's ridiculous.

If you want to see your enemy, go look in the mirror. Start there. And then you kind of work your way around and find out what the rest of the problems are.

But basically, I take responsibility for most all the bad things that have happened to me. The good things are blessings of God. The bad things are my fault.

GLENN: Yeah.

If there's one person I could go back in time and meet, they would be the -- the only man I ever saw my grandfather stand up and give a standing ovation to, when he walked out on stage. And it was Johnny Cash.

CHARLIE: Wow. Yeah. Johnny Cash was bigger than life. And when he walked in a room, I mean, he just -- you just could not ignore him.

I -- when I first went to Nashville in '67. I was just another young man with a guitar that showed up the music business and tried to make it in the business. Music City, tried to make it in the business.

And you don't run into many superstars at this stage of your career. But I did run into him, several times around town. And he didn't know who I was. It didn't make any difference who you were. It was like every time you would see him, it was a handshake. And how are you doing? How is it going?

Back and forth. I'm standing there with my mouth open, said, I'm talking to Johnny Cash. I worked for a guy that used to produce Johnny Cash. This guy named Bob Johnson. And I'd run an errand for him once in a while. I'd take a tape to Johnny or something, you know. And usually all he had to do was walk on up, but he didn't do that. He always took time to be a conversational. I never in my life forget what that meant to me and what an encouragement it was. And your granddad had good taste.

GLENN: He did.

CHARLIE: He honored a great man. No doubt about it.

GLENN: I remember being up to his knee. And I remember seeing -- it was at a state fair.

CHARLIE: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And I remember seeing the bus pull up to the back. And this guy in black get out. And he walked out. And my grandfather stood up.

CHARLIE: Yeah.

GLENN: Erect. And gave him a standing ovation. And I remember not looking up at the stage. I remember looking up at my grandfather of seeing his face of admiration of him.

CHARLIE: Oh, he was a great man, no doubt about it. Great artist. Great man. You know, they did a thing. It's called the Top 40 all time country music men or something like that. I can't remember the exact title of it. But I thought Hank Williams would come in at number one. Number one was Johnny Cash. Yeah.

GLENN: Yeah. Who out of all the people -- I mean, you've worked with everyone. And you've been around with everyone. You were in, what? 1973, you were with Ringo Starr, they're joking about, you want to be in the Beatles. I mean, what are the -- who made the lasting impression on you? Who is the one you learned the most from?

CHARLIE: You know, I -- go back to the Johnny Cashes and those -- of course, Johnny had -- I admired Johnny Cash. He had overcome so many adversities in his life, and he just kept going.

And the greatest thing that ever happened to Johnny Cash was June Carter, because she was such an influence on his life.

But as far as who impressed me was concerned, I came along -- when I came along as Bluegrass, it was Flat & Scrubs (phonetic) and Bill Monroe. And Reno and Smiley. And I didn't even want to hear nothing else. That's all I wanted to hear. And about the time Elvis came along, he made it possible for country boys to play rock music. Before then, it was bighorn sections. And, you know, the -- that kind of thing.

GLENN: Yeah.

CHARLIE: And Elvis would come up with two guitars and a bass and drums and started playing rock music.

And everybody said, I want to do that, you know. I remember, Glenn, when I was in -- I think I was a senior in high school, and we had taken a trip down to Silver Springs, Florida. We were touring around on a school trip.

I remember seeing a great big placard. And it was a big country music package show, and it was The Louvin Brothers, Hank Snow. And down at the bottom, in type about the size of almost like typewriter print, it said Jimmie Rodgers Snow and Elvis Presley. And nobody knew who he was. First time I ever heard him, I hated him. He was on the Midnight Jamboree. The Jamboree that comes on after the Grand Ole Opry. And he sang Blue Moon of Kentucky. And it was -- I was a Bill Monroe fanatic, and this guy sang one of Bill Monroe's signature songs. And he sang -- you know how he sang it.

And I thought, who the hell -- I'll never hear from him again. That's the last thing he'll ever do.

It took him on that tour -- it took him all about two weeks to become the most popular thing on the tour. Everybody -- nobody could follow him. It got to where everybody would go in, everyone would start hollering, Elvis, Elvis.

And, you know, Hank Snow, he was a great big artist at the time. The Louvin Brothers were big artists at the time, and everybody wanted to hear him. This new guy that nobody had ever heard of, named Elvis.

GLENN: We're with Charlie.

CHARLIE: He was a big influence on me. I just wanted to say.

GLENN: We're talking to Charlie Daniels. The name of the book is Never Look at the Empty Seats. A couple of other things I want to talk him about. We'll continue our conversation here in a second.

GLENN: The legendary Charlie Daniels is with us. The name of his book, Never Look at the Empty Seats.

If we have time, I got to get him to tell that story in the book, on why he named it that. It's a great, great lesson.

Charlie, I was -- I was impressed by what you talked about with your dad.

CHARLIE: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And describing your dad.

CHARLIE: Yeah.

GLENN: In some ways, I'm an alcoholic. And you described me in many ways.

Your dad was not a wino. When you think of alcoholic, you think of a washed-up --

CHARLIE: Yeah. My dad was probably one of the top five people in pine timber in the southeast. He could look at a pine tree and he could you what kind of pole or piling it would make. How many feet of lumber it would make. And his millions of dollars changed hands on nothing more than his word. He would go cruise attractive timber. He would come back and say, this is worth so many thousands of dollars. They just paid it for him, because they knew his word was good. He had this problem with alcohol, and it truly is a sickness.

And he would go for as long as five years, never touch a drop of liquor. But he always said, I'm one drink away from a drunk. If I take the first one, I'm finished. And somehow, some way, he would take that first one. It was like several weeks to get straightened out. He would lose jobs. But he would always -- he always had a job waiting for him, because he's just that good. Even people that he had worked for before, that fired him, would hire him back again.

So my point was -- I was trying to get the point across, and that was the hard thing for me to talk about. Because usually when you say alcoholic, somebody thinks about something, stumble upon -- you know, walking around, looking for money to -- somebody get him a drink. But dad wasn't that way at all.

He was always loving. He always took care of his family. He was very responsible.

You know, something, Glenn, I used to go to AAA meetings with him. And I met a lot of alcoholics. I have never seen one sorry alcoholic. I saw a lot of sorry old drunks. But literally, the people that I met in his meetings, I mean, they were businessmen. They were responsible people that had that problem.

GLENN: Yeah. Oh, yeah.

CHARLIE: You know, that had that alcoholic problem.

GLENN: If you can beat it, you -- it gives you quite perspective on life. I mean, some of the best people I've ever met are alcoholics.

CHARLIE: Yeah. Yeah. I've been surprised at some people that told me they're alcoholics.

GLENN: So, Charlie, the thing that I'm searching for right now in my own life is what matters most. You know, with all of the stuff that is going on in the world and all of the things we're arguing on and bickering on and everything else, as you look back, out of all the things that you have done and seen and learned, what matters most to you?

CHARLIE: There's four things that rule my life. God, first of all. Family, secondly. My nation, my country, the way I feel about it, the way I want it to be, and my work.

That's the four things -- I try to concentrate on those four things. And as long as I do that, I keep a good perspective. I start getting sidelined by something that somebody else is doing, or something that really agitates me. It takes time away -- I found out it takes just as much time to think a negative as it is to think a positive thought.

GLENN: Yeah. And I tried to live in a positive world.

I got a lot of things that I really enjoy doing. This writing is something I didn't even know I could do.

GLENN: Yeah, it's really good.

CHARLIE: You know, I didn't know I could do it. It's just another talent God gave me, that it took me a long time to discover.

I wrote on this book for 20 years. And I was just making notes and stuff.

And all of a sudden, I said, well, I'm going to make a book out of this. And I could never find a place to end it, because my life wasn't -- I didn't get invited to join the Grand Ole Opry until I was in my 70s. So interesting things kept happening, and I kept writing.

And I could never find a place to end it, until I was told, I was going to be inducted into the country music Hall of Fame. And I thought, what a great place to end it. So the night I was inducted, the next morning, I sat down. I wrote the ending. And I kind of backfilled where I was. And I had the book. And you asked me about the title.

The title -- if you're a young musician, if you're serious about it, and I was. You will play anywhere you can for anybody that's there for anything they'll give you. And you're going to see a lot of empty seats, because nobody knows who you are.

But if you please those people, you forget the empty seats. You concentrate on the ones -- you accentuate the positive, as the old song says. If you concentrate on them, the next time you go back to town, those people are going to say, hey, that guy is pretty good. Hey, let's go see him.

And they'll bring somebody with them. That's how you build a following. And I keep trying to tell these young guys this, you know. All the time.

When you walk on that stage, you give it the best you've got. If your dog died, if your girlfriend left you, whatever the heck happened, that's not the ticket price. They deserve a show. Go give them a show. So that's what the title is about.

GLENN: You -- my father was about your age. He's -- he would be probably 85 or 86 now if he were alive. And he said to me, you know, I've seen a lot of things in my life. Didn't expect that we would ever go to the moon, when I was growing up.

CHARLIE: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And he said, I'm glad my time is past because I -- I worry about how you're going to navigate the future.

Do you worry that?

CHARLIE: Well, I have a son. I only got one boy. He's 53 years old. And he's got a pretty good handle on it. Now, the grandkids, I don't know how they -- I would literally hate to grow up in a world nowadays. Because it's a world -- Glenn, I don't understand the world anymore. I don't understand how it works. I don't understand what motivates people.

I feel that a lot of people in this country either don't know or don't care where we came from and how we got here.

GLENN: Yeah.

CHARLIE: And the blood that was shed and the sacrifices that were made to get us where we are. And I'm an old World War II guy. I remember the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. My city that I came from, Wilmington, North Carolina, is a seaboard town. We had oil tankers and cargo boats that went across the ocean. You know, to service our troops. And there were some -- several of them, just off our beaches by German U-boats that were out there. So we took the war very seriously. And I learned -- and I say this on stage every night, two things protecting America is the grace of the Almighty God and the United States military. And --

GLENN: Charlie, I love you. Thank you so much.

CHARLIE: Love you too, my friend.

GLENN: The name of the book is Never Look at the Empty Seats. Well worth the price of admission. Charlie Daniels.

CHARLIE: Thank you.

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

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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?

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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!

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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

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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

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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.