Israel’s HIDDEN War: Charlie Kirk BOMBSHELL Shocks the World (Transcript)

So then there’s the circumstantial case. Now this is about politics. This is what we can comment on for certain. We can talk about the circumstantial case, the circumstantial evidence, the inference that Charlie Kirk, that he would definitely committed Zionist from the get go, but he was wavering on the Israeli issue, especially in the last six or eight weeks.

Why is that? You saw a number of people break ranks within MAGA, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Charlie Kirk asking questions, maybe approaching the Israel issue little more objectively. And that will certainly raise a lot of eyebrows.

ALEX KRAINER: Why?

The Turning Point USA Financial Empire

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: Because if you look at the donor class that have been pumping money into Turning Point USA, we’re talking about Charlie Kirk was not just some obscure podcaster. This is an organization with revenues of upwards of $100 million in 2024. I don’t know about 2025. They haven’t filed yet as a not for profit.

But Turning Point USA is a massive political action committee under the guise of a not for profit with a media arm, with an events arm. And they’re a force in US politics. But they’re only a force because of the billionaire donor class and the multimillionaire donor class that have pumped money into that organization since its founding in 2012.

So it’s important to, I’m just giving you a real politic assessment here. Charlie Kirk is, his views over the last few years most likely are a reflection of the views of the donor class that have financed Turning Point and made it the political powerhouse that it is. It’s not a grassroots organization. It’s backed by the richest people in the United States of America, oligarchs.

And many of these oligarchs and the foundations, the family foundations that they run that put money into Turning Point are also committed Zionists. And a few of these foundations are exclusively financing Jewish interests or Jewish causes.

So that’s something. Now, when you have an organization like this and you’re taking billions of dollars and putting aside the Netanyahu allegations of him wanting to finance Turning Point in the latter days of this situation, when you start pivoting away from this issue or you start wavering on this issue, that’s a serious thing because the money comes with expectations, not necessarily with strings, but with some heavy expectations.

You’re talking about a high stakes game here. And if you think of Turning Point being the most influential conservative libertarian, Christian conservative organization targeting 18 to 35 year olds, that’s the future electorate. So that’s where the US will go on the issue of Israel will go generally in the direction that Turning Point USA is steering it.

So if you’re Israel in the Israeli lobby and you’re looking at this situation and they’re turning away from Israel, even veering a little bit like MAGA is, then this is a major existential threat to the lobby and to the state of Israel.

Now how this would play out in terms of the physical world is anybody’s guess. And we can only speculate as Max has laid out a circumstantial case here to basically raise the question, is there more behind the scenes going on here regarding Israeli power politics and Charlie Kirk and Turning Point and the Trump administration?

Now, where did the Trump administration start to break on Israel? One is just the groundswell of public pressure that’s now appearing as a result of this ungodly genocide being carried out by the Israelis with US support, with the support of Donald Trump. The unconditional support that’s fractured MAGA.

And what I think is the key mechanism in this discussion is the cover up of the Epstein issue. That’s when more people have basically bolted from MAGA in the last two or three months on that specific issue. So you have a crisis right now in the Trump administration. He doesn’t have the commanding all seeing mandate that he had over his base when he came into office at the end of January. It’s very different now.

And so when you add Charlie Kirk and Turning Point to that equation, then, you know, I can see this is a cause for concern for a lot of people, not just now, but for the future of young America, conservative support for Israel. And Charlie Kirk’s a committed Christian. And so, you know, there’s already a break with the Catholic conservatives on this issue that’s separate from the Protestant evangelicals.

And certain individuals we’ve just mentioned are very prominent in the Catholic conservative conversation, including Candace Owens, who is very close friend of Charlie Kirk for over a decade. So there’s a lot to discuss here, Danny, and a lot to look at. And a lot of questions are rightly, I think, being raised along these lines. I think it’s a legitimate line of inquiry.

The Dangerous Shift in Conservative Opinion

DANNY HAIPHONG: Yeah. And Alex, I want your thoughts. You know, this July, as the Gray Zone piece outlines, there was this TPUSA Student Action Summit, a huge gathering that had people like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, these types, Dave Smith, a libertarian comedian, where they denounced, many of them denounced Israel’s assault on Gaza, its genocide on Gaza, and they talked about Jeffrey Epstein as an Israeli intelligence asset.

And according to this source, Charlie Kirk, and he confirms this actually in an interview with Megyn Kelly. He said he was receiving lots of harassment for this from what he called “stakeholders.” So what are your thoughts about this, Alex, given what you’ve been following regarding this situation and where it fits into the broader world situation?

ALEX KRAINER: Well, I kind of parted ways with Charlie Kirk probably close to the beginning of the genocide in Gaza. So I haven’t followed him closely because I saw him as an apologist for Israel when there shouldn’t have been apology. And so I haven’t followed Charlie Kirk very much.

But you know, this is exactly where maybe from the point of view of the Israel lobby, the danger lies. Because if you were a true believer, if you were a committed supporter of Israel, then that’s a certain type of crowd that you drew around yourself who look to you for as a leader and a role model.

And so if you start to lose faith, you start to become very dangerous because then all of those people who were taking the cue from you, who are following you like a herd, are going to start lose faith again. And Israel has been exactly losing the young cohort in the United States.

We know that from Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir, who was saying, “If we lose this intellectual debate, there’s nothing left we can do. We will not be able to mobilize any army to anywhere in the world.” So we know that this was hugely important to them.

And so Charlie Kirk losing faith was probably seen as a threat and perhaps somebody decided to nip it all in the bud. Was it the Israelis? I think there are enough people in the United States who will do Israel’s bidding, even if it comes to assassinating other leaders. And so it’ll be very difficult to know who actually orchestrated the killing.

I’ve seen some videos today where people went over the footage that was available from different angles and they make it look like the shot came from the crowd.

DANNY HAIPHONG: Crowd.

ALEX KRAINER: To Charlie Kirk’s right hand side. And you know, the men who are standing directly behind him seems, seem to have been or could have been part of the plot because they, you know, they make some strange movement that appear to be giving signals and so the guy they have in custody now is probably a patsy, but he could be a convenient patsy because then everything could be swept under the carpet as a, you know, lone LGBT, trans, disgruntled gunman who was mentally unstable, and that’s the end of the story.

But I think that the Israeli angle is very, very much worth exploring.

Netanyahu’s Response

DANNY HAIPHONG: Yeah, and there was so much firestorm over this, Patrick, that Benjamin Netanyahu had to answer this to this question himself in an interview very close following the murder of Charlie Kirk. This is Netanyahu’s words about that.

Netanyahu’s Defensive Response

Netanyahu: They go, you know, they have no limits. When you hate Jews, when you hate the Jewish state, they’re willing to say anything and promote all these absurd theories. By the way, they’re willing to kill it all the time. I mean, that’s what they’re doing. You know, over the centuries, when Jews, especially in the Middle Ages, the horrific Middle Ages, the worst things were said about Jews, you couldn’t possibly believe. “We were poisoning the wells, we were drinking the blood of Christian children,” you name it. I mean, these things that continued actually, through the Holocaust.

DANNY HAIPHONG: So that was Netanyahu’s take on the matter, Patrick. But as you said, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence pointing to Israel’s very reasonable suspicions that people have of it, given its history. What’s your reaction to Netanyahu’s response?

The Manipulation of Political Capital

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: I think he’s completely over the top response and a little bit too quick off the draw as well, from his office, the statements, et cetera. I mean, it’s almost like he was trying a little bit too hard. And the argument he’s making there is he’s done this in another statement as well, is merging the radical left with radical Islam and somehow that’s responsible for the killing of Charlie Kirk.

So he’s completely projecting a specific narrative on top of this situation without any evidence. And so, you know, obviously irresponsible of a head of state, but we are talking about a wanted war criminal, he’s indicted by the ICC, et cetera. So we have to make that caveat.

I think much to the chagrin of Fox News viewers and Israeli loyalists, but it’s a fact. So he’s trying a little bit too hard, a little bit too much. And the statements are a little bit too. It’s almost like he is trying to manipulate the situation and create some kind of political capital out of it.

And I see other people who are Israeli allies doing exactly the same and really trying to gin up a Civil War type vibe in the United States and other high profile media commentators, including, quote, alternative media commentators basically calling this war, declaring war and using that term. “We’re at war now with the radical left.”

Elon Musk, okay, richest man in the world, went on a video call at the Tommy Robinson rally or whatever it was, Day of Rage, Day of Freedom or whatever they called it in London, and basically said he’s almost insinuating that the left killed Charlie Kirk and the left is the party of murder. That’s the, those are the words Musk used, which, let’s just be honest, that’s a little bit irresponsible for somebody of his status to make that statement. Basically brand half the United States as murderers.

And this is. So there’s an agenda here. And I do wonder whether those are his thoughts and his words or if he’s being fed those words and thoughts by the people who are. Who knows? He’s definitely changed his tune.

Elon Musk’s Transformation

I’ll mention something else which I had on my podcast on Sunday, is that both Elon Musk and Charlie Kirk were dabbling in a certain area of discussion before October 7, when Elon Musk started this hashtag campaign called “Ban the ADL.” You remember that he was upset, having just purchased Twitter, that the ADL was pressuring his advertisers because of, quote, anti-Semitism on the platform.

And so Elon Musk then hit out against the cancellation machine of the ADL and he was also dabbling, as Charlie Kirk was at the time, saying that Jewish money is promoting cultural Marxism in America. There’s plenty of clips. It’s all online, okay, you can search it on X. That Cultural Marxism and open borders. So Elon dabbled in this talking point and so did Charlie Kirk.

Elon Musk then got collared by Ben Shapiro and Rabbi Shmuley and dragged to Auschwitz to do a struggle session on camera and then dragged to Israel for the October 7th Kibbutz Propaganda Tour led by Netanyahu himself. Okay, Musk, Elon Musk. And after that, he’s completely changed his position.

And he doesn’t mention October 7th, he doesn’t mention Gaza. It’s the most important geopolitical flashpoint on the planet, arguably. And Musk since that time does not comment on it. He did before. He did have an opinion before. So one can only conclude that he is being pressured or handled by forces of nature that may even be above his own pay grade, if that’s possible.

So let’s be. We’re being realistic and also I believe that secured his position in the Trump administration. His line on that issue and lack of commentary publicly on the issue itself guaranteed him a chance to do the DOGE pantomime, which is no longer happening and he’s out of government now.

And yet he still maintained his quiet silence on the issue and is backing Tommy Robinson, backing race baiting white supremacist, open narratives, trolling the South African government, claiming there’s a white genocide in South Africa, embarrassing the Trump administration on the global stage. Okay, that’s what Musk is up to.

The Bigger Picture

So is this normal? What are we looking at here? This is not normal politics. There’s a lot going on here and I think there’s external forces at play here. And certainly the Israeli lobby, the Israeli government and all of its assets have been mobilized in order to somehow legitimize their position in the international community and as an ally of the Trump administration so that they can continue doing what they’re doing right now, which is exterminating the native Palestinian population in Gaza and full on ethnic cleansing them openly right now without any pushback from the US government, the British government, the French government, or the European Union, and no pushback from the US Media for the most part. A little bit now.

So under that environment, and then we inject this Charlie Kirk story here, this is a high stakes game of power politics that’s being played out. Charlie Kirk is just a political tool. He was used as a political tool by the billionaire class for it with Turning Point USA. And after he’s dead, he’s still being used by the same forces as a political tool.

That’s the important point that people need to understand. There’s big money and big, big power, powerful interests at play here. It’s not just one man and his opinions, it’s much bigger than that.

DANNY HAIPHONG: Yeah, and I definitely want to get to the political fallout after your comments, Alex, you know, on this because, you know, Netanyahu was tweeting a lot. He in the first 24 hours during the post murder of Charlie Kirk, he posted several times, actually four times. I think one of them was deleted.

And not only this, but I just want to pull up what Patrick was referring to. His comments regarding who’s to blame. Netanyahu was very defensive and say Kirk was a defender of this common Judeo Christian civilization. He said people on the extremes, Islamists, radical Islamists and their union with ultra progressives, they often speak about human rights, free speech, but they use violence to take down their enemies, insinuating that it was these forces that did it.

The Telling Absence of Denial

ALEX KRAINER: Your reaction to this violence to take down enemies? Who would do that? I mean. Well, you know, one thing that’s interesting about Netanyahu’s response and all these comments is, well, a, he’s already reaching for the victimhood card. You know, everybody hates us. And so everybody’s reaching for these completely unreasonable conspiracy theories just because they hate us. That’s all there is to it.

But secondly, notice he’s not denying it. At no point did he say, “No, we are not behind Charlie Kirk’s assassination. That’s not us. It wasn’t us. We didn’t do it. We have nothing to do with it.” He never said such a thing. He could have, but he didn’t.

And I don’t know what’s the deal with that, because I’ve never seen Benjamin Netanyahu shrink from lying. But for some reason, you know, some of these big things, they have to own them. They have to. How do you say, there’s this thing with the disclosure, you know, you can’t deny it. You can’t violate the truth past some point.

So what do you do? Instead of lying? He deflects and he reaches for the victimhood card. But it’s not, it has nothing to do with hatred. If you were investigating any crime, you’d ask yourself, who has the means, who has the motive, who had the opportunity? And Israel comes up as a suspect. So it’s completely legitimate for people to discuss this.

Political Fallout and Legislative Response

DANNY HAIPHONG: Yeah, yeah. And I wanted to get to the fallout regarding this, Patrick, because there’s already a lot of activity going on. So, you know, after Charlie Kirk was killed, you had Marco Rubio in Israel. Right away, he travels to Israel to do a lot of damage control. And this is a photo of him during the whole Wailing Wall ceremony that they do out there for all politicians who are supposed to kiss the ring of Israel.

But it’s bigger than this, Patrick. There is a huge bill on the floor right now that Maxwell Matal shared from Common Dreams, reporting on a bill that’s making its way through the chambers of Congress regarding taking away passports of US Citizens should they be deemed of supporting, quote unquote, terrorism when it comes to Israel.

And it’s a huge chilling move that builds upon especially the anti BDS moves that have been made in recent weeks in the United States. So many are pointing to this as a possible follow up because as you have commented, Patrick, there is an environment being ginned up not only in terms of trying to push this left, right, divide.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: Oh, it’s the woke people who are.

DANNY HAIPHONG: Who are doing these violent acts versus, you know, we’re at war. We saw a lot of MAGA acolytes talking about this, but not a lot of talk about how not only is Israel’s transgressions, let’s say in Gaza, et cetera, not being talked about anymore, but they’re literally, the US is pushing legislation to take away more rights from people in order to preserve and protect Israel’s status. What’s your assessment of this?

The True Death Toll and Political Desperation

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: Yes, coincidentally, I think the day before Kirk’s killing, he was interviewing Ben Shapiro, asking him about the attack on Qatar, on Doha, to try to assassinate the Hamas political wing negotiation team. That came up the day before and Shapiro was seething during Charlie Kirk was asking all these difficult questions regarding Israel. I mean, it’s kind of harrowing looking back at it, but I just want to put that on record there.

But in terms of the overreach by the Trump administration, specifically Marco Rubio, I mean, it’s just an act of massive desperation because they have painted themselves into such a corner, an ungodly corner on this, with this undying loyalty to the state of Israel, no matter what they do, no matter how many people they slaughter.

You know what else came out this week which got covered up, which is multiple reports from different organizations about the true death toll in Gaza. And one of those reports putting the true number of casualties that’s dead and missing up to 680,000, over half a million. That should be a global story. That should be a game changer.

There’s other reports as well that are releasing figures in the last two weeks well above the frozen number of 60,000, which has been frozen since the spring of 2024, roughly. So there’s clearly a cover up going on there. They’ve destroyed the Gaza Ministry of Health, so there’s no ability to do record keeping, not in any accurate and comprehensive way in Gaza.

The Irony of Trump’s Authoritarian Turn

So just putting that in perspective because that’s the horror, that’s the background of this discussion. The foreground is the politicians in the US that are desperate to shut down criticism. And the ironic thing is here, and I will say many of us defended Donald Trump when he was the victim of lawfare in his first term, through all the bogus impeachment trials on Russiagate, which was just beyond ridiculous and really screwed up the American political system for at least a decade on that issue.

And then afterwards, during the Biden administration, they engaged in vexatious lawfare against Trump for just about everything to try to keep him out of the 2024 election. But the left, the Trump derangement syndrome phenomenon that a lot of people pointed to, which I think was very real, calling him a fascist before he actually did anything that was fascistic in his first term, and then when he was out of office in 2020.

The irony here is that now the Trump administration is engaged in heavily fascistic policy making, authoritarian abuse of the federal government in order to crush the First Amendment, to crush free speech, threatening people, deporting legal residents, jailing, abducting and jailing and deporting people for writing op eds who are foreign students, canceling student visas out of just a mass paranoia that somehow they’re threatening America.

This wasn’t a problem before, and it shouldn’t be a problem now if the Trump administration actually believes in the U.S. constitution and the Bill of Rights, free speech, freedom of assembly, etc.

The Mahmoud Khalil Case and Student Protesters

So the Mahmoud Khalil case at Columbia University is a perfect example. They jumped the gun. Rubio led the charge to try to get this young man deported. Why? Because he was acting as an intermediary on the campus protests. And so they targeted him, and then he won his appeal, and now he’s embarrassing the Trump administration. They can’t do anything about it.

And they painted all of these student protestors as pro Hamas. A total lie, a complete fabrication. And the media ran with it, and everyone repeated it, and that helped to polarize left and right in America, calling Democrats pro Hamas, which is ridiculous.

These were anti genocide, anti war student protesters that came out in the millions, and they’re trying to downplay that, to defame that, to smear that effort to stop crimes against humanity being conducted by Israel with US Weapons, and try to smear all of those students as terrorists or terrorist sympathizers, and then destroying Harvard University in the process.

They’re trying to attack all of these university presidents for not cracking down on what they claim is anti Semitic protests. Totally disingenuous, a total lie. And the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves, as should the Trump administration, as should Donald Trump himself, because he’s a Republican, he has campaigned as a conservative, and he is basically stamping on the U.S. constitution in the most shameful way.

Sacrificing Institutions for One Country

And blatantly all for to protect Israel and what Israel’s doing and what the defense industry is doing to support it. So all of these institutions, including the US Constitution is being basically undermined, undercut, in danger of being completely run over.

International institutions, the Geneva Convention, the Genocide Convention, the United nations, the International Courts of Justice, the International Criminal Court, all of these multilateral international agreements, treaties, institutions, are all being basically shafted to protect this one country who is committing, blatantly committing, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

And the United States is willing to sacrifice all that, the legitimacy of the US Government. The Trump administration is putting the legitimacy of the US Government at stake to protect one foreign country. That does not make any logical sense at all, but it speaks to a very deep and profound crisis in the United States of America and globally right now, today, as we speak.

And people need to wake up and address this from a point of from a realist position and an honest position and stop lying about. Tom Cotton is someone caught him on a hot mic with a camera. I don’t know if you saw that clip, Danny. It was embarrassing. He’s basically saying, “There’s no famine in Gaza. The Palestinians are not starving, they’re faking it. The Gaza Ministry of Health’s death figures are a lie. Nothing’s happening there. It’s all lies. It’s all Hamas propaganda.”

I mean, it’s the most craven, most inhumane and just shameless display of an elected official that many of us have seen ever. And just to what’s going on here in America, this is deep, deep, deep corruption in Washington, D.C. and I think it really has the potential to severely damage the legitimacy of the US Government and the country permanently. I really believe that. And that is not a good thing for the US or the world.

ALEX KRAINER: Yeah.

More Fallout: Bills and Cover-ups

DANNY HAIPHONG: And, Alex, I didn’t even have the ability to go through all of the fallout, so I’m just going to point out some of the things I missed. There’s another bill punishing politically motivated boycotts of Israel that was pushed through right after Charlie Kirk’s murder. And then it says the Senate GOP narrowly defeats an amendment directing the Justice Department to release the Epstein file. So now that has been quashed another time. So, Alex, your comments on the fallout from all of this.

A Complex Situation: Multiple Angles

ALEX KRAINER: You see, it’s interesting because I do not disagree with anything Patrick just said, but I think that this is such a complex issue that it has more than one angle to look at it from. Like if you looked at a cylinder from one angle, it looks like a square, like a rectangle. And if you look at from a different angle, looks like a circle. And so I’ll try to lay out the way I see this situation.

I’ll start with what I think is Trump’s agenda. And I think that Trump’s agenda really is to overturn the post World War II order and to steer the course of the United States foreign policy in a fairly radical way. Now, the question of Israel is absolutely horrid. It’s a moral and political cesspool. But I wouldn’t lay it down at Trump’s feet, because this situation has been created over decades and today you have a situation where out of 535 members of US Congress, only 10 rejected AIPAC money. So only 10 of them aren’t on the leash to the Israel lobby.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: And so.

Trump’s Constrained Position

ALEX KRAINER: If you have a hugely ambitious agenda and Trump constantly, well, constantly I’ve heard him more than once, I’ve heard him say, “Yeah, that would be great, but we don’t have 60 votes. We don’t have 60 votes.” He’s just talking about the U.S. senate. And that means that he’s, to a significant extent, his hands are tied. But nothing is quite as radioactive as the issue of Israel.

So I think it’s quite possible that he chose to not challenge that part of the American political system. Where he is challenging the American political system is the US Relation with Russia. And I think that if you want to attack the Western empire, global world, global rules based order, or however we want to call it post World War II global order, the epicenter of that is the city of London.

So you have to break with the city of London. And I guarantee you, if you broke with the city of London and you quarantined it, the Israel issue would disappear. The British never catch any flak over the issue of the State of Israel, but I think that they are bigger and more important supporters of Israel than the United States is. The United States provides the weaponry and the money and so forth, but the strategy, the agenda, that’s all coming from London.

Questioning the Qatar Attack Narrative

And I have to wonder that all the vitriol is directed at Donald Trump. Even let’s say, let’s say this last incident, the attempted assassination of Hamas negotiation team in Qatar. So immediately people reached the conclusion that Trump, in cahoots with Benjamin Netanyahu, drew them out in order to kill them and that he pretended that he wanted to negotiate. That’s one interpretation.

However, everybody that I listen to, people who understand foreign policy, Patrick included, Larry Johnson, Lawrence Wilkerson, Colonel Douglas MacGregor, Scott Ritter, all of these people agree that this was so exceptionally moronic and idiotic that I have to ask myself, would a statesman like Donald Trump, even if he’s on drugs, even he’s high, would he do this?

I mean, that is so severely damaging to the reputation of the United States and to their ability to conduct foreign policy. Because at this point, if they wanted to negotiate with somebody, people have to say to themselves, am I going to survive these negotiations? Are they going to kill me? So immediately you’ve pushed everybody away from yourself and you push them into the arms of BRICS, of Russia and China and so forth.

So on that count, I’m not convinced that he should be treated as the only suspect in this situation.

The British Connection

Second, and I don’t even understand why nobody mentions this, but at the time when the missiles were fired, where they thought that the Hamas negotiators were located, there was a British Royal Air Force surveillance aircraft circling for several hours. And this fact alone should say, oh, Great Britain should be at the top of the list of suspects.

Qatar has very, very close intelligence and military cooperation with Great Britain. Qatar has two military bases in the UK I think the only country in the world that shares two air bases with Royal Air Force in Great Britain. So this is a very, very extensive and very close relationship on the military and intelligence level.

So would it be beyond them to coordinate to do this? Because remember, the Brits are terrified of Donald Trump. And so if they can undermine him, if they can destroy his reputation, if they can destroy his ability to conduct foreign policy, what a wonderful opportunity. It’s Trump’s damn fault that he fell into it twice, because it wasn’t just the Hamas in Qatar, it was also the Iranian negotiators in July.

DANNY HAIPHONG: Same thing.

Trump’s Foreign Policy: Authoritarian Measures and Middle East Contradictions

ALEX KRAINER: We negotiate and then the Israelis attempt to assassinate. Well, they did assassinate a lot of Iranians. But anyway, you know, I think that Trump made a number of very serious mistakes, but I don’t think that he deserves all the blame. And then the political situation in the United States is such that he can’t change it. He’s the president. He’s not the dictator.

But then, last point, if you want to steer the course of US policy away from the post World War II order, you’re going to have to go authoritarian. There’s just no way to do it otherwise because the system has been set up. You make an executive decision, some junior judge without a bar exam in Alabama can overturn your decision. Not in Alabama, but the whole country. So you’re already, day one, you’re a lame duck.

If you want to challenge the system, if you want to go along with the system, like Biden, like Obama, like Clinton’s and so forth, then you’re going to be great. But if you want to change policy, if you want to return the United States to its Republican roots, you’re going to have to go authoritarian. And there’s been open talk about this, and it’s clear why he needs to do that.

Positive Developments in US-Russia Relations

And on the plus side, let me just put a few facts. On the plus side, Trump did call Vladimir Putin, and now US Russian relationship is, let’s say, being cultivated in a constructive and cooperative manner. And this is by far the most important bilateral relationship in the world because we’re talking about two nuclear superpowers. So I think that under Trump, we’ve moved the Doomsday clock a few minutes backwards. That’s hugely important.

Second, he declined to give Ukraine a security guarantee, which is massive, which is that fact alone was the trigger point for World War Three. And by declining the security guarantee to Ukraine, Trump has taken like a light year step away from that precipice.

Then just, you know, the Tulsi Gabbard two, three weeks ago said, “Okay, we no longer share intelligence about our dealings with Russians with the five eyes.” So the Brits, the Canadians, the Australians, the New Zealanders, they’re cut out of the loop of US Discussions with Russia.

Then just last week, he announced he’d be phasing out military aid to NATO member countries bordering Russia. And then I think this just happened today or yesterday, new president of Poland now was in Washington. And almost immediately after meeting Trump, guess what happened? RT got unblocked in Poland, which I think is a huge deal to help diffuse the tensions because the whole ruling nomenclature of the Polish political class is gung ho on escalating this drones nonsense towards World War Three.

So I see, with the exception of the Middle East, I see reason after reason after reason to give benefit of the doubt to Trump that he really is trying to change things. But there’s going to be some eggshells broken in the process.

Allegations Against Mahmoud Khalil

And, you know, last thing, last thing, Mahmoud Khalil, let’s remember where he comes from. He’s a British asset. He used to work at the British Embassy in Lebanon and he used to coordinate, you know, in advance of the British assault on Bashar Al Assad’s regime in Syria. Mahmoud Khalil was involved in coordinating between British Embassy and the jihadi factions that were being cultivated in Turkey for that assault. So I’m not convinced that he is an innocent victim in this. I think he has a role. He’s an intelligence asset.

DANNY HAIPHONG: I mean, those are certainly strong claims, Alex. I wanted your response, Patrick, because Alex brought up the exception of the Middle East. As someone in the United States, an American, these kind of exceptions came be quite troubling because what they ultimately point to is potential inconsistencies that could eventually reflect and draw on the conclusions of the other side of the coins that Alex talks about. But I want your take on what Alex just said. And before we move on. Oh, sorry, hold on.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: Seeing any evidence that he was.

DANNY HAIPHONG: Hold on one second. Start again, Patrick, because you were muted.

Patrick’s Response on Khalil Allegations

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: I’ll just respond on this. The allegations made about Mahmoud Khalil, I’ve not seen any evidence and I’ve studied this very closely of him being involved in coordinating jihadis in Syria. I have seen people posit those rumors on Twitter when he was with the, I think the Syrian or Lebanese at the Syrian Embassy was moved to Beirut, obviously when they kicked out the Americans and the British, the Assad government.

And so if he was with the Lebanese or the Syrian Embassy, I think it was the British Embassy, Syrian Embassy in Beirut, if I’m not mistaken. But the only role that he has that’s documented is he was a coordinator with the Chevroning scholarship program, which is very similar to the British Council where they give grants and scholarships to young talent or political influencers and so forth. You could say that’s a soft power USAID type tool by the British and it certainly probably is. But that’s the only extent I’ve seen his role in the British Embassy there while he was in Lebanon. He’s Palestinian.

And whatever the case may be, if that accusations Alex has made is true or not, it’s materially separate from the precedent case in the United States of him being targeted and deported by the Trump administration. For as a legal resident with a green card, I believe, for exercising his First Amendment rights on a college campus. So the two, I don’t think you can conflate the two things. Even if it were true, those allegations, it doesn’t discount the significance of the precedent case, First Amendment case that is attached to Mahmoud Khalil. I just want to make, that’s my understanding broadly of the issue. So I just want to put that out there.

Although I have seen people make accusations, but I’ve not seen anything rise above the level of rumor on that issue. Sadly, some of my colleagues were also traffic in some of these allegations. Unfounded. I did look into them, as I hope everybody would, and see, unless Alex has any evidence of that, because that’s a serious allegation that he was involved in the dirty war, that he was involved in the dirty war in Syria. That’s a serious allegation.

DANNY HAIPHONG: I don’t want to get too much into it, but, Alex, maybe a minute or two.

Alex’s Clarification on British Council Operations

ALEX KRAINER: Yeah, I’ll respond. Patrick. I don’t have any evidence. These are allegations. I don’t have any evidence. And they are heavy allegations. But, you know, the British Council has a very long, very honored track record of undermining regimes, destabilizing governments. And they had a very extensive program in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Syria aimed at that. So I wouldn’t assume that they hired him just to do Xerox copy. You know, you hire somebody who speaks Arabic for a reason.

It’s not so much that I have anything against Mahmoud Khalil as much as I have very, very heavy suspicion over the British Council and all the NGOs and all the charities and all the private contractors that they coordinate. Many people who work in that universe don’t really even know what they’re doing because they’re all compartmentalized and they think they’re doing maybe something good. Maybe you think you’re saving Haitian children who are now orphans, and you do your best not knowing that these children then end up being trafficked in the United States for Hillary Clinton and other people. So that happens, fine.

But I did pay attention to some of these ugly things that Trump administration has been doing. And, you know, they. I think they hit out at Harvard University. I can’t say I have a problem with this because I’ve paid attention to Harvard University a lot, and their hands are bloody up to their elbows with what they do around the world. Columbia University, it was USAID central. So a lot of programs that USAID was funding were being coordinated from out of Columbia University.

And so, I don’t know. You know, this is one of those things where I have to say it doesn’t look good, but, you know, maybe. Maybe they’re doing something that if you went the legal route, you wouldn’t get anywhere at all.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: Well, canceling federal grants. Canceling federal grants for Harvard, canceling federal grants for medical research, you know, that type of thing.

ALEX KRAINER: And it sounds bad, except it sounds bad at these.

The Nature of Intelligence Operations

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: And you said something, Alex, let me just say you said something very true, is that not everybody working for USAID and the British Council and contractors thereof know, believe or know that they’re involved in anything nefarious. Okay. That’s a fact. And I know people who work, it’s designed that way. I know people work for both organizations. I’ve met them, I’ve come across them in my travels in the Middle East. Okay. And some of it is very innocuous and harmless. Some of the stuff and other stuff. It’s known that USAID, CIA cutout and the British Council is involved in all sorts of similar activities as USAID. Okay. But not everybody that works in there is a criminal, I can tell you.

ALEX KRAINER: No, no, no, that’s, no, no, I couldn’t agree more, Patrick. It’s designed that way because, you know, most of the people who work there are well meaning people. They’re competent and they’re professional and they think they’re doing a good thing, but they’re being manipulated towards doing a very.

DANNY HAIPHONG: Very bad thing sometimes.

ALEX KRAINER: And then, you know, also medical research, you know, we always think about medical research. Yeah. What could possibly be more innocent and good for the society than medical research? But we know that a lot of that medical research coming out of Harvard has been extremely deadly around the world. And not all of it, but not.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: All of it happened.

ALEX KRAINER: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. Not all of it. But you know, somebody’s going to have to. Systems have been paused. They’ve not been entirely cancelled. And I think that it’s going to go on a case by case basis.

Federal Government vs. Academic Institutions

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: It’s not just Harvard. It’s a precedent of the federal government basically declaring war on academic institutions based on an Israeli issue. That problem is a huge problem. And that’s what I’m talking about. Right.

DANNY HAIPHONG: And the students, the way that Consider this, consider this.

ALEX KRAINER: I’m not sure that it’s based on an Israeli issue.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: I think that they’re Bill Ackman, Alan Dershowitz, that they lobbied for this, for Harvard to be taken down and for multiple presidents from other Ivy League schools to be sacked. University of Pennsylvania or Penn State, a bunch of other institutions.

ALEX KRAINER: Let me just finish this thought.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: It’s like it is Israel.

DANNY HAIPHONG: All right, go ahead, Alex.

The Israel Wrapper Strategy

ALEX KRAINER: If you do something and you say it’s for Israel, it costs. If you say we’re going to cut medical grants, we’re going to cut research grants, we’re going to cut freedom of speech, we’re going to, it doesn’t work if you say it’s for Israel because these people are “Enemies of Israel,” then it all works. So if you put the wrapper of Israel over anything, it passes, it coasts in the United States political system. That’s all I’m saying is I’ve got.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: No skin in the game. I didn’t go to an Ivy League school. But it’s about higher education and the federal government. That’s the way I look at it. I’m arguing on the principle of it, not the individual. Whatever way we might think is good or bad about these specific institutions.

ALEX KRAINER: Yeah.

Student Repression and Deportations

DANNY HAIPHONG: And then we can. You know, before we move on, I want to also say that, you know, Alex, you mentioned that putting a wrapper on it being about Israel could get things done. Even if we tabled the funding question, the way that students were treated, Smash. I mean, they were disastrously repressed in a complete. You know, we’re talking about people who are just sitting outside their campuses being expelled, suspended. And then, of course, some of them were targeted for, like, literal deportation, you know, if they were green card holders.

ALEX KRAINER: I mean, this.

DANNY HAIPHONG: This kind of behavior is directly about Israel because it was a response to getting these students to stop protesting a genocide. So that’s one thing that is in.

Trump’s Motivations and Israel Policy

ALEX KRAINER: Yeah, I’m not defending that at all. I’m just suggesting that there’s a different angle to look at that. And I wonder if that angle needs to be considered, because, again, my perspective is that Trump has an extraordinarily ambitious agenda that he has set for himself.

And if your agenda is that important to you, and I believe that he’s sincere about that agenda, then what means are you willing to use to get to that agenda? You know, in 2016, he tried some of those things. He tried to pull the troops from Syria. He tried to pull the troops out from Iraq and Afghanistan. He was even talking about pulling troops from Germany. Nothing happened. Nothing at all happened.

So, you know, Trump 2.0, maybe he’s taken his gloves off and he’s doing it in a way that’s ugly and that creates a lot of collateral damage. But I don’t see that he has this undying loyalty to Israel. In fact, I am very convinced that he actually hates Benjamin Netanyahu and that the sentiment is mutual.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: Yeah, well, it’s not having any effect on policy, if that’s his private view. That’s the problem.

ALEX KRAINER: Well, he didn’t go to war against Iran, and he didn’t.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: Well, we did attack Iran. We did attack Iran.

ALEX KRAINER: You know, that was a World Wrestling Federation conflict.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: Well, not really completely fake. That’s debatable.

Fear and Israeli Influence on US Leadership

DANNY HAIPHONG: Well, let’s talk about this, because we can continue this conversation in response to a comment that Max Blumenthal made. And we can start with you, Patrick, after we hear what he has to say about potentially not only Charlie Kirk having been afraid of Israeli stakeholders, but perhaps Donald Trump, too. And this is where I guess we can continue this conversation. Definitely.

ALEX KRAINER: Does the president of the United States fear for his life? Yes. Yes.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: I mean, obviously he fears for his life.

ALEX KRAINER: And I was told that he feared for his life before the two assassination attempts, one coming within a millimeter of striking his head.

DANNY HAIPHONG: I mean, let’s not forget about that.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: I mean, just to clarify, he doesn’t fear for his life because of Ireland.

ALEX KRAINER: I mean, I’ve been told, yes, that Israel is a major source of concern for Trump. I mean, think about it. What would happen if he suspended arms to a country that carries out assassinations all across the globe, that specializes in assassinations, that has an entire wing of its intelligence services that conducts assassinations, including with household goods like pagers? Would you not be scared?

So, yes, Trump is scared. And what I learned from the source, who is a Trump insider, someone who talks to people in the Oval Office, people close to Trump, is that during one of Netanyahu’s many visits to the US this year, some figures in his retinue, Israeli agents placed electronic devices on emergency response Secret Service vehicles. The Secret Service found them and they reported this to the White House. You know, these would be emergency response vehicles that would respond to an incident potentially involving the president.

The Israel-US Power Dynamic

DANNY HAIPHONG: Patrick, your comments on this, because this is a narrative we hear a lot, not just with Trump, but with just US Politics in general, that, you know, the connection with Israel, the support of Israel, is even deeper than just the US being the dog wagging the tail, that there is a real fear of going against Israel because of the consequences that some are pointing out, Charlie Kirk bore out. But what’s your reaction to that?

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: Well, we can give some grounding to Max Blumenthal’s statement there. John Kiriakou, CIA veteran who was imprisoned as a whistleblower, is also on record stating that the Israelis used to give gifts all the time to the US Intelligence counterparts. And then John Kiriakou said they would, when the Israelis left, they would take them apart and always find listening devices.

And so if you remember, Benjamin Netanyahu presented Donald Trump with a golden pager mounted on what looked like a cross section of a Palestinian olive tree or a Lebanese olive tree and gave that to the president, publicly presented it to him. It was a very gaudy and embarrassing moment and Trump unfortunately accepted it. But I would think that I would hope that the Trump administration had taken that apart and if that was to be displayed in the Oval Office, that they would see if there was a listening device or worse implanted in that gift. I’m just putting that out there based on what John Kiriakou said, who I believe is very credible commentator.

But yeah, I mean, I think Donald Trump has been disciplined through these events that preceded his inauguration, assassination attempts and so forth. And I agree with Max on that. And I would add, and Larry Wilkinson and others have said the same thing, and I’ve also tried to articulate this is that there’s often this binary question raised of whether Israel is the tail that wags the US Dog or whether Israel is a beachhead for Anglo American imperialism.

Israel as a Criminal Enterprise

I’ll say, obviously agreeing with Alex on this is that it’s Anglo American imperialism. Israel is a beachhead of Western imperial interests in the Middle East that serves their interests in terms of destabilization, taking out governments, attacking the enemies of the US and the British so that they can remain the hegemons on the world island, which is Eurasia, and control the sea routes and so forth, the classical historic maritime trade and commerce routes and so forth. So that’s geopolitics.

So I believe that it’s a combination of both. It’s a modulating symbiotic relationship that I believe is out of balance and heavily out of balance in favor of the Zionist Israeli interest. And I think that’s just an accumulated fact that’s happened over time. And I think also you have to, and Max kind of alluded to this there, Israel’s a mafia state. It’s a giant organized crime syndicate hub, and that’s what they do.

And you could look at a lot of events going right back to even JFK’s term and the issue of Israel’s nuclear program. And there’s a lot of legitimate questions that have been raised that are actually in the US national Security Archives on that issue of intimidation and global racketeering on the part of Israel against the US administration. We’ve published the analysis for that at 21st Century Wire, straight out of George Washington University’s archives.

So if you want to extend that further and speculate who killed JFK, that’s another discussion. But, you know, we are just look at what’s happening in Gaza. Look at what the Israelis are doing to the native Palestinian population. And can you then ask yourself, is that a criminal enterprise, the state of Israel? Look at what it’s doing. Look at what it’s doing in full view with nobody willing to restrain it, nobody wanting to stop it. The question answers itself. That’s what you’re dealing with here.

Trump’s Responsibility for Gaza

And I believe that’s what the Trump administration are dealing with. And I believe he is as an individual. He’s captured. He’s a captured politician. And the Israeli interest in Netanyahu don’t care about Trump. He’ll be out of there. You know, Max, three years, he’s gone. Next guy comes in, they got what they wanted from him in his first term. They got the embassy in Jerusalem, got recognition of the Golan Heights, got recognition of occupied West Bank. And basically in his second term, an egregious continuation of the genocide.

And not only that, the United States is backing a famine and we’re witnessing the extermination of a whole people. And that’s at the feet of Donald Trump. Forget about Biden. It’s over. We’re dealing with the present now. And Donald Trump is completely responsible. Now, he’s had umpteen opportunities to put an end to this or at least let UNRWA back in or aid through the Rafah crossing.

Instead, what we’re getting is the annihilation of Gaza. They’re going to kill and push out every last human being in the Gaza Strip, and it’s going to be done under Donald Trump’s watch. And so he gets credit for that historically. And I don’t think there’s people can make excuses all day long that he doesn’t want to do it, that he just feels that he has to do it. And he’s caught in a bind and, you know, the US just has to stop weapons. Exactly. Like Ukraine.

He couldn’t stop the Ukrainian war in 24 hours as he campaigned on. Many of us voted for him on that basis, and he didn’t do that. Could have turned off the tap for Ukraine, but the tap is still on effectively, or it has been on for the most part of this year. The same with Israel. So we’re going to deal with the consequences of this, unfortunately, the world will deal with the consequences of it.

Russian Perspective on Trump

DANNY HAIPHONG: Yeah. I just want to add, they also got Israel, also got the assassination of Qassem Soleimani in his first administration. But Alex, to you.

ALEX KRAINER: Yeah, I think that was a massive cock up. And I think that whether he meant it or not, the assassinations of Iranian negotiators and the attempted assassination of the Hamas team was a massive cock up. I don’t know if he meant to do that. I kind of don’t think so. But they could have, should have prevented it from happening.

So anyway, you know, I take my cues partly from the British press, partly from the Russians on how to judge Donald Trump. And first of all, I can’t exonerate the US Congress. You know, all but 10 are owned by Israel, by AIPAC, all but 10. So, you know, I asked myself, how much can Trump change there without risking loss of midterm elections in 2026. And if you have an ambitious agenda for change in the United States, then that election is absolutely pivotal for you. You don’t want to risk it. Right.

So in the last two weeks since late August, Kirill Dimitriev posted a few things on X. And one of them was saying that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will prevent World War III from breaking out. He didn’t say could or should or might. He said will. I think, you know, Russians choose their words, their language very, very carefully and they’re not into bluster and trash talk. So that statement was very important to me, an important indication that certain discussions, a certain policy coordination between Russia and the United States is advanced.

And that statement tells me that they understand who the enemy is, where the danger is emanating from, and that there’s at least some kind of a framework of strategy about how to confront it. You know, for your viewers, Kirill Dimitriev is not just some random Russian. He is the head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund, and he’s the key advisor to Vladimir Putin on questions of finance and economic development. And he was part of the delegation that was present in Alaska at the summit last month.

Putin’s Assessment of Trump

And then we also had Vladimir Putin’s report to the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, where he informed people at the SCO about his talks with Donald Trump in Alaska, and he was very positive about it. And he said that it was very well received and he said that not a word of criticism was uttered towards Donald Trump. So that, you know, that gives me a reassurance that on that level as well, at least, Trump administration is doing something positive for the world.

DANNY HAIPHONG: Because.

ALEX KRAINER: If it is true that they are aiming to prevent World War III from happening, and we should appreciate how seriously and badly certain structures of powers in the West want World War III, then I think from that aspect, from that point of view, Trump deserves support. I don’t know anybody who wants World War III to break out.

Netanyahu’s Defiant Stance

DANNY HAIPHONG: Right. And Patrick, you can definitely respond to that. I wanted to, you know, to continue with this conversation on the fallout too. Netanyahu during Rubio’s visit, you know, he talked about this Qatar strike and he’s been talking about a very, I mean, just really, I think, rubbing it in the nose of the United States about how this is going to, not only is it supported by Israel, what they did, but that they’re going to continue to do it.

ALEX KRAINER: Well, I don’t accept the premise in your question, which is that Hamas, that the raid failed, didn’t fail, because it had one central message and we considered it before we launched it, and that is you can hide, you can run, but we’ll get you. And this is important. I mean, terrorists enjoy, they think, they enjoy immunity. They’ll do it again and again and again, and if you deny them that immunity, they’ll think twice.

The US-Qatar-Israel Triangle and Trump’s Foreign Policy Challenges

DANNY HAIPHONG: So, I mean, this is, as the US is trying to do damage control because Qatar, despite the fact that we all know here on this panel that Israel is far more important to the United States than Qatar. Qatar is very critical still to the US’s overall position, not only in West Asia, but the world and how it is seeking to navigate the mess that is largely of the US’s creation.

Patrick, your reaction to this and anything Alex said?

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: Well, just for starters, the whole reason the Hamas political wing is in Doha is because that was arranged by the United States by previous administrations so that they wouldn’t be killed in Gaza by Netanyahu so that they could be alive to conduct negotiations. I mean, that should be the statement from President Trump’s mouth. Or if Donald Trump doesn’t know that bit of history, then maybe one of his more learned advisors could go to the press or God forbid, the Secretary of State knows about history and US policy and stuff. Maybe he could articulate that. That’s just a novel thought on my part.

And let’s be clear about one thing, and this is not a trivial issue. The detail I’m about to say might be controversial to some, but not to scholars of international law. The whole business of proscribing or designating Hamas’s political wing as a terrorist organization, that’s an Israeli creation. Israel lobbied the US to designate Hamas’s political wing as terrorists, ergo all of their government agencies that run Gaza as terrorists. And they lobbied the British to do the same, they lobbied the French and the European Union, main countries to do the same.

Why did they do that? So that they could have carte blanche to do exactly what they’ve been doing for the last two years. And so they have carte blanche to kill the counterparty so that they have nobody to negotiate with. Do you know how many Hamas negotiators Israel has murdered over the last 15 years? I mean, you can’t even count that high. There’s nobody left to negotiate. That’s the problem. That’s why these ones were sent to Doha, to have the protection, to be able to reside there just to conduct some kind of negotiations.

So the same with Hezbollah to designate the political wing as terrorists, so to delegitimize them as members of parliament in Lebanon, for instance, so that they could have a free license to kill and bomb any building with the suspicion that there’s a terrorist there. This whole thing, the whole abuse of the terrorist designation by Israel in the US and their allies is one of the fundamental problems underlying all of this that we’re seeing in the world right now, particularly regarding the Middle East. And it’s affecting them at home because they’re now, the British for instance, are designating British grassroots, direct action activist groups as terrorists. Like with regards to Palestine action, the United States would probably like to do the same thing so that is not a trivial issue.

US Control Over Qatar’s Airspace

The next thing is Qatar Al Udeid Air Force Base. The US have control over the airspace of Qatar and anti-aircraft air defense. So for an Israeli aircraft to even get in the vicinity of that country means there would have had to been a stand down order. The United States controls all of that. So I mean, the US and Trump administrations, even if Donald Trump himself was left out of the loop by his intelligence and military and his key advisors, even if that was the case, he should still understand that the US control that airspace, that battle space, and he should be pissed off about it and should publicly say something about it, but he’s not, because he’s completely kowtowing to the power of the Israeli interests in this case.

And that’s a huge humiliation on multiple levels for the U.S. So, I mean, I find that to be another national humiliation with this administration. And it’s a bad precedent to say the least. So that’s what I have to say on that issue. And this is just getting worse and worse. The law of entropy, geopolitical and political entropy is at play now. And we’re going from one bad situation to a worse situation.

Venezuela and Expanding Conflicts

Now, regarding Venezuela, you see what the United States is doing with Venezuela. They’re trying to start a war, trying to assassinate people in Venezuela. They’re sanctioning them and everybody else. So another front they’re trying to open up that’s bad precedent internationally. And if he’s just doing this for domestic politics to win the midterms or I don’t see any benefit in that.

But the problem with Trump is even if he had the intentions like he wanted to do the right thing, he lacks the capability and the intellectual wherewithal to. And so do his key advisors, Steve Witkoff, who can forget the interview with Tucker Carlson. He couldn’t name the Donbass republics. And this is the point man from the United States. So he clearly doesn’t care enough to learn just the basic geography of the thing that he’s supposedly managing and supposed to create a solution for the de facto Secretary of State, Trump’s buddy, Steve Witkoff.

Trump’s Vulnerability to Manipulation

So Trump doesn’t have the capability. The problem there is he can be easily outmaneuvered by the Europeans and the British and Zelensky. And that’s exactly what is happening. This is what the Poland drone farrago was about. And this is what Moldova is going to be about. They’re planning destabilization activities in Moldova, quite clearly United States. And the United States is involved in that as well. But France seems to be running point on that project. The British are involved, the Germans are involved, and Ursula von der Leyen is involved. And I think NATO is involved as well.

They would like to open up another front, Transnistria. Use Transnistria as the Casus Belli. And then Zelensky would use that as their excuse to demand more money and weapons from Trump. And Trump will deliver because there’ll be international pressure. And Trump has shown time and time again that he folds even if he says the right thing, like “I want to pull the troops out Syria,” he collapses with a little bit of pressure from Lindsey Graham, his daughter Ivanka, or whoever is in his ear last.

And the same thing would happen if something kicked off in Moldova, a false flag, or who knows? Anything’s possible. Would Trump be able to intellectually withstand the onslaught of media and political pressure and the war hawks in America pushing him towards escalation? And so far, I’m not confident that he could. Why? He doesn’t have the team around him.

He’s running this vertical management system, pyramid management system, where he doesn’t have anybody that could intellectually or popularly compete with him in the public eye. So he surrounded himself with grifters and Fox News hosts, and so nobody of any weight from the foreign policy community, just people from Newsmax and Fox mostly, and right wing talk radio and a few other strays from his first administration.

And there’s plenty of qualified people in Washington, many of whom are guests on your program, Danny, or Judge Napolitano’s program. They’re plenty qualified, more qualified and smarter and more capable than anybody in the Trump administration. And some of them speak multiple languages, unlike most people in the Trump administration.

So that doesn’t give me as an American a lot of confidence that he has the ability to withstand the chaos or to outmaneuver people who would like to do something to escalate the situation or drag Europe into a wider war. And I have concerns there and I think they’re legitimate concerns. And so I have to be critical about this. That’s my obligation, I have to hold the president to account on what he campaigned for, basically because he won on that basis, I think.

DANNY HAIPHONG: Alex, your comments.

Netanyahu’s Hamas Creation

ALEX KRAINER: Well, I’m, let’s say I’m very reticent about forming strong opinions in this sense. But I’ll go back to the recording of Netanyahu that you just saw. And I just like to remind people that Hamas is Netanyahu’s brainchild. He has been key in the creation of Hamas because he wanted to prevent the formation of Palestinian state. So he wanted to divide Palestinian political leadership and undermine PLO, Yasser Arafat’s PLO in this sense.

And then Qatar was getting queasy about hosting Hamas. Benjamin Netanyahu himself pressured Qatar to continue hosting them there and to continue funding them to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars every year. That was Benjamin Netanyahu. And now he’s fulminating there against Hamas and against Qatar for hosting them and so forth. It’s like the epitome of hypocrisy.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: Exactly.

Trump’s True Relationship with Israel

ALEX KRAINER: I wanted to go back to that thing you showed from Max Blumenthal, and I think that’s exactly speaking to a point that I tried to make, that I don’t believe for a second that Trump has a certain loyalty towards Israel or that he regards Benjamin Netanyahu as a friend. I think it’s exactly the opposite. So a lot of what we see isn’t what it seems. It doesn’t seem what it is, is what I’m trying to say. So there’s a lot of appearances created for public consumption, but below the surface, other currents are happening. And I think it’s very important to be careful about how we characterize them.

And I think that when it comes to Israel, we always have to remember that Israel was created by the British Empire and that to this day, Britain is secretly involved in supporting Israel by training their officers in England to this day, in the middle of the genocide, by flying almost daily surveillance flights over Gaza to share targeting information with the IDF in real time. Nobody talks about this. Everybody is “Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump.” We have to discern these issues.

And then the question remains, is Trump loyal to the special relationship with Great Britain or is he aiming to break it? Venezuela, he sent a small fleet with 4,000 troops on it, about of which probably half of them are crew. So that leaves 2,000 Marines as an invasion force. That’s worse than a joke. So that’s obviously not what he’s trying to do. It’s a distraction. What he is trying to do, I don’t know. But he’s not trying to invade Venezuela with 2,000 Marines.

Final Assessments

DANNY HAIPHONG: Since we are running out of time, I wanted to give both of you just an opportunity for anything that has not been mentioned here. I’ll start with you, Patrick, and then Alex.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: I’ll make one last comment. I mean, since on the Trump issue, he makes these offhanded comments. For instance, he said recently in an offhanded comment to the press, I think he said, “Why would we give Zelensky any more missiles? When you try to start a war with someone 10 times your size that you can’t possibly win and you’re still asking for more missiles,” I think Trump made that comment, sort of disparaging comment against Zelensky. And that sounds great. You’re like, “Wow, he said it, he really gets it.”

But the problem with Donald Trump, he’s so inconsistent that he will pivot in 24 or 48 hours and call Vladimir Putin a dictatorial thug or say the Russians did something or make some accusations against Moscow and offer some support for Ukraine. So whatever the case is, the problem is this Trump style of diplomacy, which is what his supporters call strategic ambiguity, which some other people believe he doesn’t actually know what he’s doing half the time. He doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going. It can be problematic. It can lead to some real bad situations.

And I think this is personally weak leadership. I think ultimately Trump puts on a strong front, but as an individual, he’s weak. And he’s often at the mercy of some of the charlatans that are surrounding him.

The Israeli Lobby’s Complete Control

And finally, I will say the biggest compromise that the Trump administration made was the original sin of when the government was sworn in. The entire Cabinet, everybody to do with foreign policy or national security was hand picked by the Israeli lobby, which is why they’ve been so ham fisted, in my opinion, on Ukraine and Russia, because that’s not their area of interest. And Marco Rubio is probably the biggest example of that. And all they care about is Israel. And look how that’s going. Not very well. It’s not going to be going well for Israel in the long run either. That’s the irony of it all. But not for the United States.

So this is a problem. We’ve never had a government like this in the United States in all of history that’s been completely at the mercy of a foreign lobby in terms of how it’s formulating policy and public statements it’s making. I mean, it’s quite shocking. And I thought I had seen a lot in my lifetime, but nobody could prepare us for what we’ve seen the last eight, nine months. It’s pretty breathtaking.

DANNY HAIPHONG: Alex, your final thoughts as we close up here?

ALEX KRAINER: Well, in a recent podcast I did with Susan Kokinda, she said something that she heard Trump say herself in the Michigan Republican caucus before the elections. I mean, 2020 elections. And she said that Trump invited the gathering there to join him in a struggle in a fight against the global financier oligarchy. I think I said that exactly correct.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: That’s the quote.

The Root of Global Problems

ALEX KRAINER: Now, if he’s real about that, and I don’t see why he would say such a thing if he wasn’t real about it. You know, you could move the Republican caucus on. I’m not a Democrat. I’m going to go against Obama and so forth. He wouldn’t have to mention the global financier class, right? He did mention it.

And to me, that suggests that that’s on his agenda. Now, if you read Financial Times, you will notice that he is in fact taking on the global financier class because they’re hysterical about it. In order to accomplish that, to be successful in that, you need to partner with Moscow, and he’s doing that too.

And so if he took on the global financier class and he prevailed in that fight with the help of Moscow and Beijing, then I think that fixes everything else, because Israel is downstream from there, Nepal is downstream from there, Venezuela is downstream from there. Everything is downstream from there.

The global financier class, headquartered in the city of London, with satellites on Wall Street and Stockholm and Paris and Tokyo and other, many, many other minor satellites, is exactly the epicenter of everything that is wrong in this world. That’s where the poison comes. The poison all relationships in our system. And so that’s the fight that needs to be fought.

Closing Remarks

DANNY HAIPHONG: Well, gentlemen, this was a great conversation. I want to point everyone to the video description where you can find Patrick’s substack as well as 21st Century Wire and you can also find Alex’s substack as well there. Everyone hit the like button before you go. That helps keep the stream going and YouTube’s algorithm.

I want to thank everyone who gave super chats. I put them up on the screen briefly. I want to also thank the moderators for all the work that you do. I’m back tomorrow, actually, with the folks at The Duran, Alexander Mercouris and Alex Christoforou 1pm Eastern Time, September 16th. I’ll see you then.

The video description also has all the places where you can support this work, Patreon substack and much more. Patrick, Alex, anything else that I forgot to plug? If you want to say anything about that before we go.

ALEX KRAINER: No, thank you.

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: Cheers, Danny.

DANNY HAIPHONG: All right, gentlemen, we’re going to leave here together.

ALEX KRAINER: Thank you. Bye bye, everyone.

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