Dr. Mohammad Marandi Exposes Trump and Truth of Iran War

So probably the biggest news is that we are entering a stage which could be even more dangerous. I believe that if the United States launches another assault, it will lose. I believe that we are already heading towards a great recession, and if this is prolonged, it will lead to a great depression.

But if there is another wave of military attacks on Iran, uh, like during the 39-day war, since I think it was April 1st, what kind of uh, the needs of the agricultural industry, uh, that have to be included alongside that. Um, I think that, um, we are in a very dangerous situation.

Quantities including aluminum and and other products. Uh, these are going to... me because I see one part, me because I see one part of the American banking industry. I mean, I was speaking, I mean, I was speaking with a, uh, an important, uh, Indian journalist this morning, and he was telling me that, uh, the shortage of fertilizer, the shortage of fuel and other products, as well as the fact that millions of Indians who are going to work in the Persian Gulf are now effectively probably going to be unemployed.

Um, he said that this will lead to starvation in the subcontinent, and, uh, that is something that, you know, I think should shock us all. And the Indian subcontinent is not the most vulnerable place in the world. If there's going to be potentially starvation in the Indian subcontinent, then imagine that, uh, probably on all continents, there's going to be more or less the same.

Um, and then alongside that, of course, as, uh, our lifestyles collapse, uh, we're going to be seeing millions of people, maybe tens of millions of people on the move, and they will be moving to places, uh, that were better off, um, but now those places are collapsing economically as well. You know, there are so many things that we can imagine, uh, happening, but, uh, still, it's just so mind-boggling that it's really difficult for me to truly comprehend.

Societies will become unsafe because poverty will rise, and security for families, for for ordinary people will decline. Tensions between countries will increase. Uh, there's, and I'm not talking about the tensions that we're seeing today. New tensions will build up because, um, because life will become a greater struggle for the communities, and it's going to be very bad. And, uh, the choice is between bad and worse, and much worse now.

And, uh, it would, to me, based on what I've been hearing from Iranian officials who are monitoring US and, uh, Israeli troop movements across West Asia, that, uh, the Americans are choosing, the Americans and the Israeli regime are choosing perhaps the worst option. Maybe there are ways to look at this, either or four ways. Let's say, either the United States walks away and things will be bad, or the United States continues with this siege warfare and, uh, things will get worse, and as the longer it lasts, it'll get increasingly worse.

>> An attack, my apologies, um, Mr. The >> Yeah, let's just say, or it carries out an assault, and an assault will be a catastrophe.

>> Try to give our viewers the type of destruction that has happened in your country, a visual, and how long and how much that would take to rebuild Iran.

Well, actually, I think that in the long run, if this continues, countries like Iran will be less affected on the whole, because Iran has been under siege and sanctions for decades, and it is used to dealing with difficulty and hardship. And a lot of Iranian products and needs are made at home because of the sanctions. But other countries which have never experienced sanctions, they are part of different supply chains. Uh, they're not self-sufficient. Only a handful of countries, I, I assume, can, uh, can be, uh, put in that category. So I think the vulnerability of countries across the world are much greater than we think.

But in the case of Iran, um, the United States and the Israeli regime, they've bombed petrochemical plants. Uh, they've bombed pharmaceutical plants. They've bombed many, many apartment blocks, destroying them completely, slaughtering thousands of... They bombed schools. They bombed many universities. Many, many faculty buildings have been destroyed across the country. They want to destroy the future of our youth. And, uh, as you know, on day one, they slaughtered 168 little elementary school children, almost all girls, predominantly girls, and they never acknowledged it. They never apologized for it. And in my opinion, in the opinion of almost all Iranians, it was intentional because day one of any major operation is a day in which all the targets are very carefully vetted. It's the subsequent weeks in war where mistakes are more likely, but on day one, targets are very, very carefully chosen because you want maximum effect.

On day, uh, a lot of damage has been done. In this siege, the damage is growing, of course. Iran is not, I mean, we've seen American senators and leaders gloating over and claiming that the Iranians are starving and they have no food, and taking great pleasure in saying this, showing their, uh, barbarism. But that's not true. Iran obviously has, uh, many borders. It has, it borders 15 different countries. It has the Caspian Sea. It has, uh, Central Asian countries. Has neighbors. It has Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Caucasus, uh, Iraq, and Turkey as neighbors. So, uh, the siege is only going to be partial, but still, it is going to make, uh, it's going to increase inflation and make life more difficult, much significantly more difficult.

But >> The Iranians victim, um, are going to be more resilient, and they know that this is a fight for their survival. And of course, the Iranian, you know, it is a civilizational state, and its religious ideology, Islam, Shia Islam in particular, which is very defiant against, uh, despots and oppressors, and supportive of the oppressed. All of these combined give the Iranians a high degree of resilience and resistance. Whereas for the United States, it's a war of choice. So I believe that the Iranians will outlast the Americans, whether they take this back to the hot war or they continue with siege warfare. But it is going to be increasingly destructive for Iranians. But I think the destruction across the globe is going to be much more, uh, much greater than we think.

I'm going to bring up an image here, and, uh, I'm not sure if you're going to be able to see it. Uh, it's going to be this image, um, coming up on the screen here. It shows Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and it shows the impact. It shows the impact. I'm just looking on the side of my screen here, but it shows the impact. The average American, the average Westerner, is absolutely clueless on how much of an impact it is. And when you see countries like Kuwait that exports have been halted, you see, uh, Iraq, uh, the southern terminal exports have been stranded. We get to Saudi Arabia, the primary eastern hubs are blocked, and we're hearing that, yeah, they had other ways to export oil, but that's been also blocked, uh, because Iran has managed to, uh, hit that systemically. And we go over to the UAE, but everyone continues to think it's business as usual and it's not going to affect them. But we are at a shortage of anywhere from, we're hearing 10 to 15 to 20 million barrels of oil a day. You know, there's only so much reserves coming in, and I don't know if we've seen this type of, uh, shock to the system before.

>> Yes. And you're, you're absolutely correct. And it's not just oil, it's LNG, it's, uh, all chemicals that have been produced in this region. And as, as I said earlier, fertilizers, helium, uh, the shortages are going to affect all supply chains of all sorts. And, uh, many production lines simply halt, or they will at least slow down, and inflation is going to skyrocket. This is just the beginning, and this is a man-made disaster. This is not, uh, anything that is beyond the control of human beings. This is a decision taken by Trump, Netanyahu, and of course, the Zionist lobby and the Israeli regime that has been imposed upon us and the entire international community.

Uh, my, you know, one of the things that I fail to comprehend is that, uh, the United States even now refuses to take an off-ramp. They have done so when the Iranians and the, uh, agreed to a ceasefire, and when Netanyahu tried to break, broke that ceasefire by carpet bombing Lebanon, Trump, instead of insisting on abiding by the ceasefire, he sided with Netanyahu, uh, because he was a part of the, uh, brought the, the ceasefire agreement. And then when Netanyahu, after 10 days of slaughtering women and children in Lebanon, he agreed to the ceasefire, briefly, of course, he then continued the slaughter later. Uh, the Iranians allowed, uh, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement, ships from the five countries, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain, the five countries that assisted the United States against Iran, to leave the strait through the Strait of Hormuz. But then Trump insisted on preserving a siege on Iranian ports, and that again, because it was a violation of the, another violation of the deal, the ceasefire deal. The Iranians said, then those ships cannot leave. We have to keep in mind, Iran has shut down the Strait of Hormuz. It has only shut it down for ships that are affiliated to countries that are hostile to Iran, that have been participants in the war. Otherwise, Russian ships, Chinese ships, Iraqi ships, ships from Oman and other countries, India and Pakistan, they've been, they've been passing through. Of course, ships that are linked to countries that are not hostile, but they come from one of these fights, that's a problem. Uh, but in any case, uh, the strait has never been shut down. But now Trump has actually more or less, um, intensified, uh, the, uh, the pace of shortages across the world by violating the ceasefire that, uh, could have given him an off-ramp.

>> Yeah, absolutely. Um, everybody, uh, first of all, I just want to address, uh, we've had some, uh, a lot of technical issues this morning. Just trust, uh, our team is working very hard. Just so everybody knows the logistics here, we've got, uh, three people in three different countries. Um, you know, we're going over Chinese, uh, Iranian, and USA servers, trying to, you know, bring it in. So a huge effort from our team on the back end, just trying to sort this out. Uh, we know some of the audio is a little bit low. Uh, sometimes the video is lagging. I just know it's very difficult to kind of bring this stream, you know, to you guys. We're trying our best. So hopefully everybody can hear me now.

And professor, I, I thank you for bringing up Netanyahu and the Israeli regime and, you know, what they've done. It's, what's interesting is when Donald Trump was conducting a lot of interviews this week in Beijing, you know, he brought the entire Fox News crew with him. Uh, of course, the Fox News is obviously the mouthpiece for the Trump administration. Uh, you know, they're trying to project this power. You know, it's, it's very, it's very funny to observe this because, for example, um, you know, the interesting thing is when Donald Trump arrived in Beijing, you know, they rolled out the red carpet for him. They had hundreds of Chinese kids on the sidelines waving USA and Chinese flags. And, you know, for the Fox News, you know, their perspective is, wow, look at America, we're so great again, we are, you know, now respected on the international stage. I actually look at it the opposite. I look at Xi Jinping knowing that, you know, Donald Trump is the world's biggest narcissist, and he knows exactly what Trump wants to see. You know, he basically flatters him, you know, and basically gives him, you know, all this praise. And Donald Trump, you know, immediately is smiling and thinking, "Wow, I'm so great. I'm so awesome. You know, Xi Jinping's a great guy." So, he basically neutralizes Trump very easily just by using some very good psychology there.

Um, but then of course, Trump, the one thing I think the biggest problem for Trump is that he can't keep his mouth shut. So immediately he, he just admits on Fox News, you know, "We started this war for Israel," you know, "and we are doing this to kind of strengthen Israel." Um, you know, what about the, what about the gas? You know, what about Americans can't afford life right now? Um, you know, the price of gas is going through the roof. Um, you know, people who can't afford, uh, you know, the daily living. And, you know, Donald Trump's only response is, "Well, look at the stock market. It's at an all-time high." Of course, we see, you know, for example, just look at Nvidia. I think it's responsible for 40% or 50% of the United States stock market value now. It's just absurd how one company is inflating things. But yet, you go out for a sandwich and a bottle of water, it's going to cost you $25 here in the United States. I mean, it's just absurd the inflation and how things are really going.

Um, professor, I got an interesting, uh, take because I did have a chance to talk to, uh, Professor Robert Pape, who has made a lot of headlines recently. His, his whole thesis is a thing called the escalation trap. For those of you that are not familiar with Professor Pape's insights, I think it's fascinating because what he's saying right now is that Donald Trump has really opened the door to Iran becoming the fourth superpower, the fourth kind of, you know, major power in the world. You know, we look at the United States, we certainly look at China, we look at Russia, and we look at these as kind of the three main countries that are able to exert a lot of power, whether it be economic, political, um, you know, or, um, you know, basically economically, politically, um, or militarily, you know, can use their force. But he said now, you know, you know, before, again, we have to remember, uh, the Strait of Hormuz was open, you know, for, it was completely open on February 27th. Uh, you know, commerce was going, oil ships were sailing through, no problem at all. But now Iran has a lot of leverage. You know, they have a tremendous amount of leverage. They've shown to the world that they can influence the world economy. My question to you, professor, is what is the kind of the, you know, I want to get the insight into the Iranian people and what's going on on the ground there, because that's where I think your greatest insights come from, because you're there in Tehran, you're there on the ground in Iran. Um, has that kind of been shown? You know, are a lot of Iranian people seeing this new power that they have, you know, that they've been able to really influence the world economy over the last three months? That, you know, Iran has been able to withstand, you know, not one but two nuclear powers. Obviously, the United States and Israel have teamed up. Um, and but again, you know, we know that Donald Trump launched this war on behalf of Netanyahu. It was Netanyahu that traveled to Washington DC on February 11th, basically telling Trump, "This is going to be a quick thing. You know, we're thinking maybe seven days, 10 days. I mean, you can knock out Iran very quickly." And kind of Trump took the bait. He thought, he thought, "All right, you know, Venezuela was pretty successful. We basically wrapped that up in about 72 hours. I think Iran, maybe a little bit longer, maybe a week, maybe give it two weeks, but we'll basically neutralize them. We'll be able to overthrow the government. We'll be able to control everything." Um, but now, you know, 90 days later or whatever, however many days it is now, I mean, we're nowhere close to that. As you said, Donald Trump refuses to take this off-ramp. He's just going further and further down this rabbit hole that's just going to lead to chaos, as we've pointed out. But I'd like to know what is the perspective going on in Iranian society? What are people talking about on the streets of Iran? How are they talking about this situation? Um, are they, you know, optimistic that they've been able to last this long and that they have this new leverage? I'd like you to share that perspective.

Yes, I, I think it's quite clear that when you speak to Iranians, of course, it is all anecdotal on my part, but also polls do indicate that there is a strong sense of empowerment among ordinary Iranians, and that they were able to defeat the superpower. Of course, the regime was defeated in the 12-day war pretty easily by the Iranians. And after, even though they carried out a blitzkrieg attack and had the full logistical support of the United States, after eight, seven, eight days, it was the Israeli regime that was seeking a ceasefire. But in this war, you had a broad coalition. It was not just the United States and the Israeli regime. It was these countries in the Persian Gulf. It was Jordan. It was even countries like the Republic of Azerbaijan and Turkey that were assisting directly and indirectly. And of course, the collective West, the Europeans through their indirect support, maximum pressure, sanctions. All of these combined failed, and that gave the Iranians a strong sense of empowerment. Of course, there are concerns about the economy, about inflation, uh, which is hitting ordinary Iranians, factory workers who've lost their jobs, or factories that have been destroyed. Uh, there has been significant damage done as well. But I think on the whole, the Iranians feel, they feel, uh, confident about their future, with apprehensions as well.

Um, I think though, perhaps, I, it's hard to say for me, but I think a lot of Iranians perhaps feel that, um, the second wave of the second assault by the Americans will be, uh, more severe. That there will be possibly accompanied by a land offensive, but also support for terrorist groups in Iraqi Kurdistan, northern Iraq, and on, and on Takiri Salafi groups on the border of Pakistan in the no-man's-land inside Pakistan where it's not well-governed by the Pakistani government, and terror groups in, in Iran that they've been training, preparing. But ultimately, the Iranians are confident that they will, uh, they will overcome.

I, I see a very, um, the younger generation has changed a lot over the past two and a half, three months. My own students that I'm in contact with have changed a lot. Their worldview has changed. Their self-confidence has changed. They, uh, they've seen, they, they've, before, I think they never really imagined Iran to have these many of them, at least, have the capability that it has shown today. But I believe that we still have, uh, tough weeks and months ahead, not just for Iran, the entire world.

One thing that I think, um, has led us here is not just hubris and arrogance, but also, um, the narrative that has been dominant for 47 years, uh, you know, this orientalist worldview of a backward Iran. And that's the same is true about China. And, you know, the city, uh, that you're in, I, I visited once, and even visiting there was so eye-opening. Even though I visited China many times in many different cities, but when I went there, I was so shocked to see how across China, the country had advanced so much. It was not just Shanghai, we hear about Shanghai or Guangzhou or Beijing. And then there are cities that people have never heard of, but when you go there, you, you're just in total shock as to how, uh, clean those cities are, how advanced they are, how beautiful they are. Uh, and the same is true about Iran.

So, because we get our information about the world largely from the West still, uh, so we, I learn about China. Even though I've traveled to China often, I still throughout my life have been hearing news from China from Western sources. And news about Iran also comes from Western sources. Iran is a backward country. It is medieval. It's run by mad mullahs, whatever that means. It's corrupt. It's falling apart. It's unpopular. The people hate it. And then, if that's the case, then of course, it makes sense to just give it a little, and then it's like a house of cards. That's it makes sense. So they create this narrative using these Iranian expats who are on the payroll and these Iran experts who are linked to corporations and the Zionist lobby, who will repeat what needs to be said. But then when they implement that policy, they hit a brick wall because the narrative is completely detached from reality. The same is true with China. The same is true with Russia. The same is true anywhere where the gap between reality and narrative is enormous, and the other side is powerful. And I think that, uh, Iran is probably now, uh, I, I don't know if one can say the fourth most powerful or not, but it is a, it is a superpower of sorts, and it has shown itself to be so.

Um, Professor Miranda, I just want to let you, I don't know if you know much about me, but I do live in one of those unknown cities in China, about five or six years ago, called Chongqing. And I've made it my >> Yes. Yes. A beautiful city. >> Thank you. I, I came here in, in 2020 to promote the city, and I just want to once again commend you for the voice that you give Iran. Uh, if it wasn't for channels like Danny Haiphong, Dialogue Works, The Duran, Cyrus Jansen, my good friend here, the Katie Harper Show, I mean, your voice is so important. And what he has done to, at least people in my community, people around my friendship circle, the first nation we want to go to when everything calms down is Iran, because we've been lied to about Iran. We've been told a story that it's this nation, big bad Iran, by all these major news outlets and across the, you know, the collective West. And it really, from a Westerner, Western-educated guy, I have to tell you, I am so disappointed, um, with my country. So embarrassed, uh, about our countries that don't understand the catastrophe that we have unleashed. Canada is not a country that can go unchecked. We have done some very horrible things. I was one of the, you know, when I was older, one of the first countries I went to was the former Yugoslavian nation and visited Belgrade, saw the destruction with my own eyes there. A year and a half ago, I went to the front line of the Donbass conflict, and again, what we heard in the Western media was something completely different going on in that area. So again, I'm going to pass it back over to Cyrus because you guys have an outstanding dialogue going. But I just wanted to say from all of us, this entire content creator community, YouTuber community, I don't know what we call ourselves, but geopolitical analysts or whatever, but again, your voice is so important to our community and our friends, and people need to hear it. And again, we commend you so much for, uh, sharing your time with us.

>> You're very kind, and thank you again for your kind words. Um, I am very honored to be on your show and to have been on the show of all of these friends and all of these people and their viewers, and those in this broad network of people who are part of these communities. They're all heroic in the sense that they're all resisting injustice and trying to bring about greater sanity. And, uh, I hope that after the war, more people do come to Iran, and all of you and your viewers would be welcome in Iran. There are actually a couple of good books that I have been speaking about on some of these shows that, at least for the time being, would be good for some of your viewers to read. One is called "Going to Tehran" by Flint and Hillary Mann Leverett. They were two White House officials who wrote this book. I think it's a very good book. Another by Alistair Crooke, who is now on many of these shows, a former British senior official. He wrote a book on resistance, the Axis of Resistance, but it's called "Resistance: The Essence of the Islamic Revolution." And for some people who are interested in the nuclear program, because that has been the excuse, or at least one of the excuses, for Trump to begin this slaughter and this global crisis, a very brief book, actually, called, I think, "A Dangerous Delusion" by Peter Eyre, who's also an excellent writer and commentator in the UK.

But, um, but, you know, just being in your city for me was an eye-opener, right? Just walking at night, uh, alongside the river and just looking around, it, by itself, destroys so many of those stereotypes that we're brought. And I think that, uh, the more we learn about one another, the more these narratives shatter, and the better it is for the world. What we are experiencing today is an empire that is using false narratives to justify oppression and oppression. And many people believing those narratives, used whether they watch Fox or CNN, the rest of them are not much better. They're the same, or perhaps less more subtle and more sophisticated, but they are still, uh, tools of the Epstein class, the empire. But we are reaching a point where many young people are waking up. And I am, I, even though there's no doubt that there are dark days ahead, but I, I think that things will ultimately change for the better.

Well, thank you. And I'll hand it over to Cyrus. Just my last comment was, uh, at the start of the show, I think you made a comment about us covering maybe the financial and derivatives market. We do that to really expose, uh, some of the market manipulation that has been going on and orchestrated by individuals of, we'll call it the Epstein class, where this goes unchecked. They know that the only authorities that can pretty much clamp down on them only have civil powers to do that, whether it's the Securities and Exchange Commission, so on and so forth. So we continue to see, not only do the Americans get lied to, but they also get ripped off by an administration that is stealing billions from these people. So there are victims everywhere here. But I'm going to hand it to Cyrus. But anyway, thanks again for, uh, giving me, uh, the explanation about our great city here, Chongqing. I'll pass it back to you, Cyrus.

>> Yeah. No, uh, Professor and Alex, I, I just say, um, you know, I want to just add a little bit of commentary there. You know, one of the things that, you know, how we started these YouTube channels was a few years ago. Um, you know, during the COVID time when we were very frustrated about how China was being presented. And I mean, I know for myself, I actually started this YouTube channel by accident. You know, I have, I have lived many years in China. You know, was very frustrated with the narrative that was coming out of Western media. And, you know, just simply started to make some YouTube videos sharing my perspective as an American citizen that has lived in China for many years, you know, have worked there for many years, speak the language, um, you know, have really assimilated to the Chinese society, and just realized that there's a lot of things that are not presented very fairly or accurately, um, in China.

Uh, you know, for example, I mean, again, I like to talk about this Fox News crew that was in Beijing. Uh, there was a, you know, an interesting news clip where, um, you know, the Fox reporter was literally trying to record a video in the middle of the bike lane and just trying to kind of say, "Oh, look at all the chaos around here. Uh, you know, you can't even walk across the street, uh, you know, properly because, you know, the, you know, the traffic management is so bad here." And that's like, well, you're walking in the middle of the bike lane, you know, like this is the lane for motorbikes. You know, the sidewalk is to the left. You could easily walk on the sidewalk to record your video. But, you know, and so a lot of, you know, saying, "Look, what are you doing? Get out of the way and stop complaining about that." But that's such a great example of the narrative, of how they're trying to spin things. And immediately was exposed. You know, obviously these Chinese, uh, netizens were, um, you know, immediately taking their cell phones out, recording that. And I think, you know, I love the fact that you've been there. I've loved the fact that you've been to Chongqing. You know, and Alex, you know, he basically went there, you know, five, six years ago and has really put that city on the map, you know, with his, uh, you know, media team and really being able to showcase this. And again, I'm very, I'm very optimistic about the future because if you're on Instagram and TikTok, there is a whole new younger generation that are traveling to China, that are seeing it with their own eyes. And there's even, for example, CNBC is now highlighting Americans that have relocated. And, you know, they, you know, just this past week, they re-showcased an American that is living in Shenzhen. He's earning around $3,500 a month, and just saying, "Look, you know, this is, I live a fantastic quality of life. Um, I'm making, you know, a very modest salary for US standards, but with that salary, I'm able to live a very high quality of life, much better than I could in the United States. I have better healthcare. We have safer cities, uh, you know, no crime, cleaner streets, better quality of food, much cheaper quality of life." And again, I mean, this is this is a trend that has really been happening over the last 18 to 24 months with China, you know, now opening up to 85 countries visa-free to China. And I would imagine that that will happen in Iran as well, where more people are going to travel there in the future.

Uh, I, I've shared this before with many people. I think it's always worth, you know, resharing this story because, you know, we always have new people on the stream. But I went to get a haircut a few months ago, and it was actually an Iranian woman that cut my hair here in America. And I just asked her perspective. You know, tell me more about your country. And the biggest thing that I got from that is she said, you know, Cyrus, the people, what I want people to understand is that we're a civilization of many thousand years. You know, we're the Persian Empire. You know, we're very proud of our culture, our history, and, you know, even if, even in the darkest days, um, or economic strain, you know, there is a sense of community. There is, there is this willingness for us to keep fighting because, you know, this is not something new, right? Iran has been under US sanctions for 47 years. So, and she also said a different interesting perspective because she said, you know, "I'm here in America, you know, I'm working as a hairdresser, you know, cutting hair, you know, earning a modest salary here, but I kind of look at American people stuck in this rat race trying to look for happiness." And she said, "I actually find a lot more happiness in Iran, just people enjoying the simple things in life, whether that be a family gathering, you know, celebrating a religious holiday, you know, gathering for a meal together." You know, this is something that you cannot take away from Iranian people. And, you know, we have that ability to fight and to keep going forward. And she said, you know, "Honestly, I would actually, I would actually say there's more happiness and more joy in Iran amongst the common people than you would find here in the United States where people are struggling so hard to get by." And, you know, you only know what you know, right? You know, people are stuck, you know, living in a city like Los Angeles, you know, where poverty is around, cost of living's through the roof. You're working a minimum wage job and you're just living paycheck to paycheck. You're trying to make it to next Friday when that paycheck comes in so that you can maybe pay your bills, hopefully break even, and you're surviving. You're not saving money. You're not going on a holiday. You're literally trying to pay your bills. So, I just think that's an important perspective to understand.

And so again, I think this is why YouTube channels and independent media has risen so much. There's a reason why you are in such high demand and why, you know, many geopolitical channels, probably 30 or 40 at this point, have asked you to come on their show, possibly more, and why I know you're doing, you know, you spend your days every day doing amazing interviews like this to give us the insights.

Um, I do want to bring it back to the nuclear program because this is something that I think the Trump administration is going to want to go after, right? Is the enriched uranium. This is obviously a talking point that we hear in the United States. Um, I think an interesting thing that you can that we can talk about is the fact that, um, remember a couple months ago now, we talked about this, um, you know, this fighter pilot that was stranded in Iran. And in the United States has made this amazing, incredible mission. It actually happened around Easter Sunday. So, you know, Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War, as he's now calls himself, instead of Secretary of Defense, I think Secretary of War is a much more accurate. Secretary of War, certainly.

>> Yeah. Basically. But he basically said, "Guys, it's an Easter miracle. You know, we've been able to launch the most amazing mission." But interesting enough, we have not heard the name of this, this officer. We have not seen him in any type of media. There's not been a single article written about him as far as this mission. And it just kind of strikes me as being very odd because I was talking to some Americans here a couple weeks ago, and they said, "You know, Cyrus, we're just doing so amazing in Iran. Look at that guy that we rescued." And I said, "Isn't it interesting that we haven't seen a photo of him? I mean, we actually don't even know his name. I just think that wouldn't we have like a parade for him? Wouldn't he be interviewed by the New York Times? Wouldn't he be on the front, you know, wouldn't he sit down with CNN for an exclusive interview?" And they're like, "Well, maybe it's just kind of, um, you know, it's probably top secret, you know, that's probably why." And I'm thinking, is it though? I, I'm like, I, I'm under the impression that that didn't actually even happen. And, and, uh, I mean, prove me wrong, but I think the, I think what the United States tried to do was launch a secret operation, you know, maybe trying to get that, you know, enriched uranium because that would potentially be a win that Donald Trump could say, "Hey, we went into Iran, we got the uranium, now the war is over because, you know, Iran has been stopped." And I mean, even now, you know, he talked about saying, you know, he's like, "Hey, I met with Xi Jinping and I told him, you know, you know, we're doing you a favor because we don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon." And then, and then even Fox News, they couldn't, they couldn't spin that. They're like, "So what did Xi Jinping say?" And he said, "He didn't respond to me." I think he was probably just grateful though. You know, he was probably just grateful because we're helping China out a lot. I mean, it's just, it's just hilarious to see Trump kind of, you know, make these mistakes and kind of pencil himself in the corner just by opening his mouth.

But kind of give us some perspective on the nuclear program or, you know, or lack thereof of a nuclear program. What is going on with the enriched uranium? Is that something that Iran will continue to possess in the future? Um, I just like to get your perspective. Again, you're the expert and on the ground in, in, uh, in Iran.

Well, I, I would advise your audience to read that book, "Dangerous Delusion" by Peter Eyre, or there's another one by Gareth Porter called "Manufactured Crisis." The history of the Iranian nuclear program shows very clearly that this is indeed a manufactured crisis, and that the United States has used the Iranian nuclear program as an excuse to demonize the country because that's what the Israeli regime wants. It's been an excuse used in order to target Iran so that we could get where we are today. Just as the armed insurrection that we saw a few months ago, that they pretended was Iranian police forces massacring, I don't know, 50,000, 100,000, 200,000 people in like two days. I don't know if that's even physically possible, but or 40,000 or whatever number it is nowadays. All that nonsense was basically to prepare the grounds for war. There was an armed insurrection funded by the American CIA and the Mossad. They brought in the weapons. They admit that. But Western media doesn't want you to know that. They don't want people to know that. Channel 14, which is linked to Netanyahu, said weapons were brought in that killed hundreds of police officers, by their own admission. And Trump has more recently admitted that they sent weapons for these people. So these weren't peaceful protesters. They killed hundreds of police officers. In all, 3,117 people died, most of them ordinary people who were caught in the crossfire between these terrorists and police forces in different cities. And this, along with the nuclear program, this atrocity that they are responsible for, this armed insurrection that they are responsible for, these terrorists that they are responsible for, this was carried out. And the excuses about the Iranian nuclear program or the lies about the Iranian nuclear program are the two key propaganda tools that are now used by the bombing of schools and universities, cities and hospitals and ambulances. So whenever Trump speaks, he's either speaking about the nuclear program or he's saying that the Iranians killed tens of thousands of their own people in a couple of days or whatever.

The nuclear program, by American admission, is peaceful. Uh, the head of US counterterrorism, Joe Kent, who resigned recently at the beginning of the war, said that Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon and that this is all about the Zionist lobby and the Israeli regime's war. Tulsi Gabbard said under oath that Iran was not pursuing. The International Atomic Energy Agency also said that there's never been evidence that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapon at any point. But again, when you want to destroy a country, you need an excuse. The United States, when it wanted to invade, attack Iraq, they used, if you recall, they said that, uh, I mean, your younger audience wouldn't know this, possibly, but they were saying that they, in Kuwait, they threw babies out of incubators and took the incubators in hospitals, and then the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador, no one knew at the time, but she made a name in the United States, and the media went with it to demonize Iraq. Of course, Saddam Hussein illegally invaded Kuwait. But the point is that they use this lie, this false story to mobilize American public opinion because half of America was opposed to the war. But ironically, ironically, in Gaza, the Israeli regime forces, they actually did unplug incubators in a hospital and leave the infants to die. But that was not, that was completely ignored in the Western media. It was probably one of the most disturbing atrocities of this whole episode, to just let those children gradually die and get away with it, and Western media ignore it totally.

So, uh, the nuclear program is a tool. But, you know, we've seen that before, like just in Libya and Viagra, remember the claims about Viagra, or in Venezuela, it's drugs. It, there's always a reason, there's always a reason to justify death and destruction and oppression and empire. But I think it's, uh, in the case of Iran, they've hit a brick wall, and this is going to be a turning point. I think, um, Robert Kagan, this godfather of the neocon movement, and someone who just hates Iran immensely, he was right. This is the greatest defeat of the United States militarily, and it is going to be a turning point, and hopefully, it will lead to, in the distant future, less imperialism, and it will allow countries across the world to breathe more easily, and I think that's to the benefit of the people as well. The decline of the US empire is a good thing for ordinary Americans, not for those people who you've been speaking about who have been making their billions by manipulating the markets, but it's going to be much better for the ordinary people in the United States and across the world. And hopefully, one day we'll get there.

>> Yes, Professor. I, I'm really glad that you brought up Robert Kagan because, um, he just wrote an incredible article in The Atlantic. And for you, for those of you our viewers out there, I'd like you to check out this article. You can just simply put in, "Checkmate in Iran." It is a, um, you know, article from The Atlantic. It says, "Washington Can't Reverse or Control the Consequences of Losing This War." I think the professor said this very well. I mean, this is kind of the godfather of, you know, I mean, he is a neocon at heart. He is, uh, you know, been very adamant about the United States and our military movements. And, you know, even for him to come out and write an article stating that Trump is checkmated in Iran is quite remarkable. It just shows a reverse, you know, of, of kind of US thinking. And again, I mean, I think right now for the United States, it's becoming very interesting here, professor and Alex. I mean, what we're seeing here on the ground is we're seeing that the, you know, as we call it, the Epstein class, or, you know, this MAGA environment, uh, you know, they're just losing a tremendous amount of steam. Um, you know, you just basically have your die-hards left, the people that are so brainwashed that they are just going to keep following Donald Trump. But, you know, essentially, the Trump and the MAGA movement is the Titanic sailing on a ship, you know, in the middle of the ocean, and it just struck a massive iceberg. And so we know how this story ends. You know, this ship will be on the bottom of the ocean at the end. You know, um, it's, it's certainly going that way. So, you know, you can choose to be on the boat and, you know, pretend that your ship is sailing towards New York City and that everything's great, or you can, you know, realize this and and get off. And that's, I think, a lot of, a lot of the Republicans that have been supportive of Donald Trump have made that pivot. And that's a very encouraging thing, I think, for the United States because we've seen a tremendous amount of videos, people saying, "Look, I voted for Trump not once, not twice, but three times, and I realize what an absolute bunch of nonsense this is." And that I was tricked. You know, I've been fooled for far too long. And, um, you know, a lot of people give them flak saying, you know, "Look, you voted for Trump three times. This is what you get." But I commend those people for at least recognizing they've made a mistake. I mean, you know, it's a little late, obviously voted for Trump three times, but, you know, I guess better late than never. You know, now they're, they're pivoting. I think it's going to lead to a complete, uh, you know, collapse of the MAGA movement. I think that the midterm elections, which are coming in November, you know, will result in an overwhelming victory for the Democrats. I would not be surprised if Donald Trump faces an impeachment, you know, as soon as the Democrats gain control of both the.

House and the Senate. But again, we're just seeing Donald Trump, uh, you know, as a narcissist. I mean, he kind of does what he does is just to double down. To double down. Like you, like you had mentioned earlier in the stream, there were offramps provided. There have been opportunities for Trump to somehow pivot from this disaster, but the longer it goes on, the more chaos that will be unleashed. And like you said, I think we are looking at a potential point where there might be an increased escalation because, you know, if you're losing, maybe then you launch the military offensive saying, "Okay, we somehow need to get this victory." Uh, but again, I, I would imagine that Iran is, uh, actually looking optimistic to that. I mean, if there is a ground invasion, that will only result in, um, you know, probably casualties for the United States forces. It's certainly not going to provide a victory.

I, I think the interesting thing I also want to talk about, um, you mentioned how the mood for the youth in Iran has changed, and this is something that I find so strange. You know, over the last hundred years, the United States has launched so many air campaigns. Not one has been successful in actually deterring people and actually changing. And it's kind of funny when you think about it. You know, we're going to bomb your country. We're going to sanction you. We're going to cause all this chaos, and somehow the local people are going to rise up and be like, "Hey, thanks for bombing me. I support America. You know, I really respect what you're doing." Where, in actuality, like you said, Professor, it actually galvanizes the people and it makes them change. And like you said, I remember on one of our one-on-one interviews a couple weeks ago, he had said that, you know, at the beginning, you know, a lot of the younger Iranians, you know, they were influenced by Western media. You know, they certainly, you know, believed a lot of the things from Western media, but now that has been proven to be false. And so now they're changing their tune, you know, and things are changing. You know, this fourth power is emerging. Iran continues to control the Strait of Hormuz. Interesting enough, you know, close allies like China are able to continue to go through. You know, oil tankers are leaving, you know, with Chinese oil. Um, you know, the United States blockade has not been successful in that regard. Um, it's, we're just setting ourselves up for a very interesting few months as again, we continue to see this war, you know, continue to escalate and be drawn out much longer than anyone in the Trump administration believed.

>> Cyrus, I got one comment I want to just kind of bring up here. You know, we talk about the US political system, the Democrats, okay, they're going to get the lead in the midterms. To me, lately, the United States government is starting to feel like a uni-party. I can't tell the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans at all. It's like they're converging together. I don't know about you, but four years ago, the Democratic Party was completely different than what it is now. The Republican Party has completely shifted the other way. So, I'm quite confused on what is real US politics, or are they making it up as they go along? I mean, Professor Morandi, am I talking nonsense here?

No, I, I agree completely. I think that this whole concept of the Epstein class really goes above and beyond political parties in the United States. This is a ruling class that is not affiliated to either party. But what is I think happening is that a greater awakening, especially among the youth, is emerging, and not just in the United States but across the West and across the world. But in the United States, in particular, I think it's going to be a huge challenge for the ruling class because the demands of ordinary people are a complete shift in policy and a focus on the needs of Americans and an end to the endless wars. And that brings greater conflict between the bulk of American society and the oligarchs, the ruling elites, the Epstein class, which we're going to see the infighting within the parties themselves. You see that on the right, you have the Tucker Carlsons and the Candace Owens and the others. And then in the Democratic Party, you see open rebellion as well. This is not something that's going to be resolved easily. But I think becoming clear is that the Israeli regime and Zionism are going to suffer immensely because for over two and a half years, people have been watching genocide, and now they're seeing that their world is being damaged, their lifestyles are being wrecked because of this very same regime. Not just in the United States, but across the world. People are seeing that Trump, Netanyahu, and the Israeli regime and Zionism are bringing about misery everywhere. Whereas people across the world say, "This is not our fight."

Cyrus, I'm going to hand it over to you. Um, we just wanted to also say thank you to the audience that is waiting over, I believe, on Nema's channel. Um, we're going to wrap this up. Let the doctor get to his next interview.

>> Uh, is that Dialogues Work? Is that where you're heading next?

>> Yeah, Dialogues Work. And Nema has been waiting for about 15 minutes. Right.

>> Anyway, I didn't know. Uh, conflict of schedules. No problem. Again, you're a man that is in great demand. But Nema, to your audience, I suggest everybody that's watching the stream to head over to Nema after they're done and Dialogues Work. If somebody could put the link in the chat, that would be helpful. Thanks again, guys. We're all a big community, and I'm going to leave it to Cyrus and Dr. Again, thank you so much for spending time with me and Cyrus here today for having me on the program.

Thanks.

>> Thank you both. Bye-bye.

>> Thank you.

>> Bye for now.

>> Well, that was amazing, Cyrus. You know, that is >> probably one of the deepest geopolitical chats we've had on Let's Talk Geopolitics here.

>> Again, guys, >> this can be very tricky here when we got three countries that were trying to get together. Sometimes the signal from Iran is a bit tricky, mixed in with the Chinese signal and the American signal. Well, who knows? But, uh, Cyrus, what's your take from that last hour here with Professor Mandi?

>> Yeah, I, I do. I've had a lot of questions on my chat, people asking about, you know, if Iran will let fertilizer out so the poor people won't starve. Um, you know, what I want people to understand in that regard is that you have to, you know, Iran is letting certain things go through the Strait of Hormuz. Uh, there are shipments, you know, again, if you're a Russian or a Chinese ally, and you're certainly, you know, those container ships are getting through the strait. Uh, but again, you know, this is a point where, you know, Iran is fighting for its survival right now. And, and, and I, and again, I really like Professor Pap's introduction into the escalation trap here because his theory from day one has been proven correct again and again, Alex. And the big thing here, guys, is that Iran is emerging as a new fourth center of power in this world. Um, up until, you know, February 27th, there were only three countries, the United States, Russia, and China, that could influence the world and other regions of the world, you know, economically, politically, or militarily. Now, Iran is not considered a huge economic power. Um, it's not considered a huge geopolitical power, but it does have the economic leverage, and we've seen that in how it's been able to control the global economy. Now, Iran, you know, again, we have to remember, you know, from their perspective, is that, you know, they are fighting for survival. So, we look at the Iranian currency has, uh, you know, really lost a tremendous amount of value over the last few weeks specifically. Um, you know, we're seeing the cost of daily goods has increased tremendously for them.

>> But, but, but it's also, Alex, I think it's important for people to understand is that this is not something new, right? You know, we can't think of Iranian people as like, "Oh my god, they've been struggling for three months." No, they've been struggling for 47 years under the sanctions. And so they've been surviving for 47 years. This is something, this is not something new that they've been having to deal with.

>> And we have an embargo with Cuba in 2026.

>> Yeah.

>> Does that make any sense to you?

>> No, of course not. I mean, Alex, I mean, I, I mean, I'm from Florida originally, right? So that's my home state. I mean, I'm 90 miles from the Cuban coastline. And, and I have to remember, I mean, this is why it's so important for us to have these chats, Alex, because I remember growing up in Florida, attending a school there, and we studied Cuba, and the message that was told to us is that Cuba is a communist country. It is therefore evil, and America is a democracy, therefore we are good. And I, I remember this very clearly being a young schoolboy and seeing a graphic of just like, you know, democracy good, and it's kind of like a guy smiling, and then, you know, communism bad, and it's just like this evil dictator. And, and again, you know, there's always got to be some perspective to things because, you know, for example, you know, officially, you can say that China is a communist country, but in reality, you know, Alex, you and I know that China is the furthest thing from being communist. You know, and this is the biggest thing that, you know, when I talk to people on the ground here in the United States, you know, there is, for lack of a better definition here, Alex, most people in America, they think of China as North Korea. And when I think of like a true communist place, I think of like a North Korea where the people are not familiar with what's going on outside, right? North Koreans are not allowed to travel. They're not allowed to own things. They're not allowed to invest in the stock market. They're not allowed to travel abroad. They literally have no idea what's going on outside North Korea. And, you know, when Americans try to tell me that that's China, I say, "Guys, this is the most ridiculous thing ever. Chinese tourists are the number one tourists in the world. They travel everywhere." Um, you know, I mean, pre-COVID, I think we saw like 118 million trips done by Chinese individuals. And guess what? 118 million return trips back to China. And, you know, we kind of hear these common talking points, Alex, of, "Well, if China is so good, why do people immigrate to America then? You know, like obviously they think that our country is way better and that's what they want to be here." Again, you know, further that's not from the truth.

And the thing is, is I always say to people, you know, I lived in Thailand for a few years, and that became one of China's number one markets to travel pre-pandemic. There were millions of Chinese going there. Do you think the Chinese get off the airplane and they look at their phone and they say, "Okay, I can't wait to open Google. I can't wait to open up, I don't know, Facebook." They're not getting off the airplane and running to get a SIM card for their phone and say, "Okay, I have now unlocked the world." But that is what you're that's how you explain it to. And most people explain it to us still to this day. Even though there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of influential people that come over here now from North America, the cat's out of the bag. These channels that used to get millions of views taking shots at China and hit shots and hit pieces, they're just dying. They're dying off. They're falling off. They've actually become parody channels now.

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And, I mean, and I want to address something that's really interesting, Alex. I mean, we saw this, um, remember a couple, maybe about a year ago, uh, you know, you saw this story where there were a lot of Chinese immigrants that were coming across the border in Mexico.

And, you know, this is actually really interesting because, you know, what we what we had saw.

Yeah. I mean, and well, here I want to address that because what was really interesting, Alex, is that we saw, you know, we saw this whole message of like, "Look, you know, these Chinese people are paying tens of thousands of dollars. They're getting a flight to Peru. Then from Peru, they're going through these South and Central American countries. They're making their way across, you know, Mexico. They're paying thousands of dollars for guides to bring them to the Mexican border. They cross illegally into the United States and then off you go." There was a really famous clip of a Chinese guy that did this. And I have to be honest, these people have been victims of propaganda. You know, they've been, they've been thinking about this saying, um, and, and again, you know, some perspective here. There's 1.4 billion Chinese people. So, there's going to be people that are that think, "Okay, if I can get to America, it's going to be better. You know, maybe maybe I can live a better life there." But then all of a sudden, they realize, "Hey, I'm an illegal immigrant in the United States. I can't speak English. What is my opportunity here?" Where do they go? Well, they find a Chinese restaurant and they find a job, you know, working as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant. There was a viral video that said, you know, with a guy that said, "Look at me, you know, I am now living in some, you know, terrible, you know, POS, Texas city, you know, working as a dishwasher, making whatever, $10 an hour under the table. I can't afford anything here. It costs..." He's like, "I've been cheated. I've been cheated by the internet. I've been cheated by people telling me that life is better here in America." And I, I think there's some perspective there. You know, Alex, I was in Washington State this week. I was there on a business trip. I flew up to the city of Spokane, Washington. Very small little city. I was in the regional airport there.

Okay. Um, Alex, I got a, I went to, I'm trying to eat a little healthier these days. I got a Cobb salad, a bottle of water, and a coffee at the Spokane airport. Cost me $38. $38. And I'm not talking, you know, New York City airport, Los Angeles airport. This is Spokane, Washington. This is a regional, this is a small regional airport. I about, I about fell over when I saw $38. I said, "Did you combine my order with somebody else?"

Buddy, can I ask you a question?

Can I ask you a question?

Insane.

Is this photo real? Let me, let me just zoom it out a bit. I don't know if I can show it to you. Well, anyway, what I'm looking at here, this was sent to me by a vlogger named Mikuela Ponte. And, uh, I know the audience can't see it, but a Whopper with Coke and fries starting at €22. A double Whopper, €26. A triple Whopper, €30. Uh, or a Rodeo Whopper is one of their cheapest at €24.

Yeah, that's just, uh, it's just amazing. And, I mean, and that's, that's again, Alex, that's what we're seeing when, when, when you know, when Americans are going to China for the first time and they see the quality of food, they see the price to that food and what it actually costs them. Um, it is extremely expensive in the United States to live. I have a, um, I have a WhatsApp group, you know, for my Patreon members, and the chat this week was cost of living in the United States, and people just saying, you know, "I'm living in Boston. You know, I just, the ability to survive," and that's really what it comes down to is the ability to survive and just pay your basic bills. Uh, it's astronomical. You know, J-American, and I think since COVID, what we've seen here is obviously the rich getting richer. One of the things that we point out every single week on this stream, Alex, is the tremendous amount of insider trading that is happening because, you know, it's sad. It's sad because, you know, US politicians are able to make a tremendous amount of money. You, you talked about the uni-party. I mean, basically, Democrats and Republicans are insider trading out the yazu. Nancy Pelosi, best stock trader of all time. Uh, her ability to time the market is unlike anybody else where she can buy and sell shares at exactly the right time. Oh, she just sold 50,000 shares of this biotech company. Next day, FDA does not approve biotech company's new drug, stock craters by 40%. Oh, wow. What a great timing that Nancy Pelosi just sold 50,000 shares the day before that stock announcement goes. You, you can't tell. I mean, now, if it's one time, maybe we'll give her the benefit of the doubt. Uh, there has been an incredible trader named like the Nancy Pelosi stock trader where he's built an entire platform where you can sign up for a monthly subscription and basically stock trade, you know, alongside Nancy Pelosi because when she buys a stock, you know, it has to be publicly disclosed. So basically, people are saying, "Follow Nancy Pelosi because she has the inside information." You know, again, these politicians are earning salaries of something like $200,000 a year. I believe the president of the United States, his salary is around $416,000. Donald Trump, you know, he, he did this amazing thing. I don't know if you saw this a couple months ago where, you know, obviously Donald Trump, he doesn't take the salary, right? He says, "I'm the first president in history that has rejected the United States salary." Why? Because I am doing it for the people. Meanwhile, he's launching crypto schemes. Um, you know, we talked about this, the golden phone. I think we talked about this last week on our live stream. Um, he basically said, "We're launching a Trump phone. It's going to cost $600. Everybody put down a $100 deposit." He had 59,000 people deposit $100. And now, as of last week, the Trump website said, "We have now updated the terms that we might not actually produce a phone. TBD, TBD if we're actually going to bring this to market. We might not." That's that's now part of the disclosure that we've since updated after you've already put down $100. You know, TBD, you know, if we're actually going to bring this to market. So, thanks for your $100 contribution, all 59,000 people that seems to just be pocketing directly into Donald Trump's back pocket. And we've seen all of these deals. You know, we've seen a tremendous amount of corruption. And I think that's where, you know, China is winning a huge game. And I, I do want to talk about the Trump and Xi summit here because we've had a lot of comments on that. I think people were looking to our perspectives on that, Alex. And, you know, in my, I'm going to just give a quick little recap here. I know we're going on a very long stream here. It's been an amazing morning. Obviously, the professor is incredible. But guys, I mean, you have Donald Trump basically going to China and asking Xi Jinping for help in Iran. If that does not show you the power that China now has. And guess what? Who's the next person that's going to China right now, Alex? Who's the next world leader?

>> Vladimir Putin.

Going to next week, and it's Vladimir Putin. And so, you know, when you're looking at China now really being the center of geopolitics, you know, you've got both sides, right? You've got Putin on one side and Trump on the other, both on opposite sides of the spectrum, both coming to Beijing. Uh, I mean, look at the roster that Donald Trump brought. You know, we're talking Jensen Huang, Elon Musk, you know, and, you know, CEOs of, you know, really the top, top, top, top, you know, Chinese, um, I'm sorry, top American firms all looking to do business deals in China. And that's the thing that I really want people to understand, you know, is that the rhetoric that comes out of the United States government's mouth is complete nonsense. There's this posturing that, you know, "America's the best. We don't need China. We need to decouple." And guess what? Donald Trump went there. He was flattered. Like I mentioned earlier, Xi Jinping played the geopolitical game to perfection. He flattered Donald Trump because this is what you do. This is what you do with the narcissist. Um, Alex, is that when Joe Biden sent his officials, China snubbed them, right? They didn't roll out the red carpet. They didn't send Xi Jinping. They didn't send their premier. They basically sent like a fourth or fifth tier level Chinese official basically saying, "Hey, look, we're not happy with the US. We're going to snub you." But China's too smart for that. They know that Donald Trump, you got to feed the ego. He's the world's biggest narcissist. So what do they do? They roll out the red carpet. Xi Jinping is right there to shake his hand. They get 500 Chinese kids with Chinese American flags jumping up and down, smiling, waving flags. All of a sudden, Donald Trump is completely neutralized because he says, "Wow, Xi Jinping sure, this guy's great. I love this guy. He's a great guy. Personal friend of mine, you know, love this guy." And, uh, then they say, "What about Jimmy Lai?" And he said, you know, "Jimmy Lai has done a lot of bad things to China." Uh, "What about Xinjiang?" Well, you know, "That's a region that's had a lot of chaos there." You know, we... And so immediately, um, you know, all of a sudden, Donald Trump, you know, every, I mean, it's amazing, Alex. I, I was on Twitter and every week, you know, you have all of these clueless people saying, "Well, I really hope that Donald Trump goes there and talks to Xi Jinping about Jimmy Lai. I hope that he talks to China about Taiwan." Um, I mean, you have this absolute brain-dead human rights advocate who's saying, "Well, I would like to see Donald Trump go on the streets of China and talk to the people about freedom and democracy because that's what they really want." No. Anytime a United States government official uses the word democracy in regards to your country, Alex, we know what's coming next. We know that it's a government coup. We know that it's a military intervention. The last thing that Chinese people want, and I got to be honest, the last thing that anybody in the world wants is US-style democracy. It's an absolute gong show in the United States. There's not a country in the world, forget China. Show me. Show me Europe right now. Our European allies are looking at the United States saying, "This is a complete disaster. Look at the Epstein files that have not been released. Look at every single promise from the Trump administration. Where's your tariff refund checks, guys? Where's your Greenland? You know, uh, what was, what was we were going to send them a huge boat, you know, with like a hospital boat. Where's all of this stuff? You could just pinpoint it. I mean, there's 20 things you could list off that Donald Trump says. None of it has come to fruition for the United States people. And so, again, like I mentioned, it's the Titanic. The only people left on that ship is the captain himself, Donald Trump, and the people that are just absolute, you know, brainwashed. But that, Alex, is changing very quickly. Very few people are sold. He mentioned he brought, you know, some of the most powerful people over, which he did, in business, and I would too if you're bringing a market cap combined of about $14.7 trillion. But here's, I think, what our viewers are not aware of. Tesla's scale here in China. Their actual sales are dropping in China, but their exports are actually increasing in the world. Now, we hear all this chatter about America coming here, setting up companies, hurting jobs in the United States, but again, these gentlemen come here. They also sell their goods here. Tesla is for sale here on the streets. Yes, you can buy Tesla here in China, and it's actually made in China, but most of the automobiles made here are exported. Other companies that benefit here is Apple. Where do the profits go to Apple? They go to America. They don't sit here in Shenzhen in the manufacturing shops and given massive million-dollar bonuses to management here, but they go to the publicly traded company in Cupertino, California. Other companies that benefit here, there's lots of Walmarts. Pfizer is big in this country as well as Goldman Sachs. There's something that I want to just tell the audience that next week I'm going to be digging really deep into a company called Jane Street, and it's a company that is controlled by 40 people. It's one of the most powerful places, or powerful firms on Wall Street, bigger than JP Morgan profit-wise. People call them traders, I call them market makers. They've wreaked a lot of havoc here and they've got a lot of big bets on the market here. And we saw a sell-off late Friday, a very odd sell-off that normally the markets would rebound and support themselves mid-afternoon in the United States, but that didn't happen. We saw the S&P hit a 92 downhandle right in the close. Looked very weak in the close. But just to give you a little overview on Jane Street, and I will get heavily into it next time we have our live stream. But Jane Street is, they were the ultimate incubator for the crypto world. The disgrace FTX. I think a lot of people are aware of that. Founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his Alameda and Caroline Ellison both cut their teeth at Jane Street. Go figure with that. Jane Street's aggressive plays are making massive waves in commodities. They have a $1.3 billion position in physical silver ETFs. These guys have been charged with market manipulation in India by the regulators. Now, here's something interesting, Cyrus. How does this happen? You're a smart guy. Help me figure this out. Jane Street is run by 40 internal partners, no outside clients, no shareholders, and it's classified as a flat organization with no CEO, but it makes a bigger profit than JP Morgan.

Wow.

I'll leave that with everybody, and we're going to cover that next week. But Jane Street, everyone, yes, they have offices that take accounts, but when it comes to their big money, it's silence. And guess what they're doing? They're building mega data centers to help with their algorithmic trading. Mind-blowing.

I love that. Hey, hey, Alex, I want you to bring up to our team back there, bring up that graphic. I got one thing I want to share with everybody.

This one's coming on the screen now. Yeah, it's on the screen now, Cyrus.

So, yeah. So basically, guys, how important is China to American businesses in 2026? And guys, this is really interesting because when you look at the, the, I want you to look at this and just see, you know, who is with who. Who went to Beijing with President Trump? You got Jensen Huang from Nvidia, Musk from Tesla, Tim Cook from Apple, Larry Fink from BlackRock, Schwarzman from Blackstone, you've got the CEO of Boeing, Cargill, City Banks, GE Aerospace, Goldman Sachs, Micron, Qualcomm. I mean, you have got 12 of the biggest CEOs from America going hand-in-hand with Donald Trump. And, you know what? Why are they going? Well, it's the market scale, right? It's access to one of the world's largest and most dynamic markets. I don't care what anybody says about China in 2026. It is still one of the world's most important markets in the world. There is nothing that is going to change that. You've got the capabilities, innovation. This is why China is still moving forward. Deep engineering talent, advanced manufacturing, and the fast product iteration remains globally competitive. So, you might hear stories that, you know, factories are relocating. They're going to other locations. They're going to Vietnam. It's the hot spot. The problem here, Alex, is that yes, you can go make your t-shirts in Vietnam. But when it comes to actually having the best quality engineers, the best tooling engineers, the most advanced manufacturing in the world, when you want to make a t-shirt, you can go to 50 different countries in the world to get a t-shirt made. But when you're talking high-end consumer electronics, high-end things like, you know, we're talking the aerospace industry, things like that, there's nobody that can compete with China. That's why these companies' CEOs, the supply chain reality, established ecosystems, and supplier networks are deeply integrated. They are difficult to replicate, guys. That is why they're doing as well. And, you know what? At the end of the day, they want to stay close to their customers, their partners, and innovation is critical to long-term competitiveness. So, guys, I wanted to bring that up. I think it's a fascinating graph.

Yeah, very, it's awesome, you know, graph. That's that's a graphic that was shared by Zack Dykebald. Um, you know, uh, he is an American that's living in Shanghai. Fantastic guy that's doing amazing work there in China. You know, really serving as a bridge between the United States and China. And, you know, the interesting thing that he had said is that, um, you know, he said back in 2023, Alex, a lot of CEOs were saying, "Why, why are people talking about China? What is this reemergence of China?" And now in 2026, CEOs aren't asking that question anymore because it's already been the story again, the past, you know, in 2024, 2025, 2026. And this is something that again has been the cornerstone of my YouTube channel when I started this is that when the United States and China work together, the entire world wins. Alex, you often compliment me and say I'm the ambassador of peace. I mean, what I try to do in every situation is how do we find win-win situations, right? How do we find a win-win scenario? I believe that China is the best at that. This is why they're the top trading partner to over 120 countries around the world. This is why the Belt and Road Initiative has done over $11 trillion in transactions, which is incredible because over 150 countries around the world have been able to be a part of that. We even saw a country like Italy who basically said, "We are out of the BRI. We do not want to be in that." And then within two years, they said, "That was a mistake. We're going to walk that back. We want back into the Belt and Road Initiative." And again, I mean, this is something that there is, you cannot compete with China when it comes to the economics, when it comes to the ecosystem, the supply chains, the advanced manufacturing. Um, again, I, you know, my favorite video of all time that I've ever made on my YouTube channel is when I went to a little town called Tangin, and it was, I was able to go and tour a textile factory. It was built by a Norwegian entrepreneur and his Chinese business partner, two amazing men, you know, really changing how manufacturing is being done. And they're doing an amazing job because the Norwegian business partner, the way that they really do that business, Alex, is that he goes and establishes all the relationships throughout Europe. You know, he's very big, obviously, has a lot of Scandinavian customers. And then his Chinese business partner, you know, absolutely managing everything on the ground with his team. They run, you know, they have all of the advanced certifications. All the cotton is organic. All the cotton is sourced legally, ethically. They adhere to every single standard in the United States, in Europe. Their factory is spotless. You could eat off the floor. It is absolutely perfect. And they take great pride. You know, both Tommy and Andy, if they're watching this, you know, these guys are two amazing men. I had a chance to spend three days with them, you know, and their entire team. They have over, I think over 300 employees there at Kalito. You can look them up. It's an amazing company. It's one of my top 10 most viewed videos on my channel, but it's actually my personal favorite video that I've ever done because it was an opportunity for me to really showcase why companies are going to China, why China has that amazing advantage. And Alex, you know, there's nobody that does a better job than you, you know, going to these showcases, you know, where you're going to the Canton Fair, you know, you're interviewing foreigners from around the globe that are going to Guangzhou. And guys, I think, Alex, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe that's been going on for at least 75 years, maybe longer, something around those.

>> Yeah, they do it twice a year. Uh, it was the 139th Canton Fair, so I guess you divide that by two. But just, just to add to that story of what you're talking about, and I hope the Americans and Brett Bar when he was doing his stunt in Beijing, uh, in the middle of the street, had a good look at all the new energy vehicles that were around him. And I hope he was looking at some of the cars and identifying names like BYD or NIO or XPeng or Li Auto. These are coming to a country near you. I understand that people are angry they can't get their hands on them, but they are coming to countries like you. Canada's going to roll some out. It's going to, once again, when these cars get over there, and one of the interesting things is what I saw at the Beijing Auto Show just recently here was a British guy. He came up to me, and I asked him, you know, "What are you doing at the show?" He says, "Well, I'm with an insurance company." I said, "Okay, uh, I can't really get the connection here with the cars. Doesn't everybody just have insurance on their cars?" And he says, "Listen, these new energy vehicles are coming into the United Kingdom fast, and we want to know what type of liability we have when it comes to batteries, when it comes to, you know, lidar, all this technology. We want to know what we're insuring." So, we're going to, we're here to talk to some of the biggest battery manufacturers like CATL or BYD. The average person watching this program has heard of BYD, but BYD was in business in the 80s in battery technology. They evolved to automobiles, but they are still a huge brand as well. But CATL is a company. They're more of a non-competitive battery company. They're like this. Okay, you want to start a new energy vehicle company? We got your battery covered. Don't waste your money. We got all kinds that you want. Sodium ion, you know, NCM, whatever you need for your car, we have it. Now, this technology is getting better every year. It's going from a range of 600, 700, 900, 1,000 with range extension, 1,500. I mean, come on. I mean, that's incredible. So, when you see companies like this, these are not little baby companies that have 10,000 employees. BYD has over 1 million employees, and just in their R&D, they have 150,000 people just in R&D. So, we see this back and forth with our countries, especially Canada was very apprehensive to actually accept these cars. But hey, they're hitting at a very interesting time when gas is $4 or $5 a gallon or $2.20 a liter in Canada. What this hits the most, and I'm going to end my segment off on this, is my heart really goes out to the gig economy. The gig economy. Are your delivery drivers? Are your Uber drivers? Are your little miniature moving companies that are trying to make a buck because they're trying to keep up with inflation. The gig economy in North America has been absolutely decimated by what's gone on in Iran with the energy. This hits your average delivery driver, your average taxi driver. You know, I watched a program the other day, some guy was complaining about the price of an Uber driver called him and said, "Listen, I'm accepting the fare. I'll come and get you, but can I, can you spend just a little bit more? Can I, can you pay me just a little bit more?" And I stopped and I listened. I thought at that, and I thought, they can't actually manipulate the platform to keep up with the rising costs. So, if it's hitting Uber drivers, if it's hitting DoorDash, guys, I don't know what you have in North America there, but I can tell you these were the heroes that kept this economy going during the pandemic here.

>> Yeah, absolutely. Well, Alex, let's go ahead and close out today's live stream. So, guys, I, I did get some good comments from our fans, Alex. People said, "Hey guys, I was a little bit confused here. You guys are going on a Saturday instead of a Sunday." You know, so, Alex, I think what's really cool here is that, you know, we're building some good momentum here on Let's Talk Geopolitics. You know, this is, I believe, our eighth or ninth show in a row, but what we're trying to do, guys, is try to bring you... Yeah, this is number nine. So, um, we're trying to bring you the best geopolitical insights that we can. You know, try to bring you the best guests and really try to be that weekend fixture for you that you can count on us to bring you those insights. There's a specific reason that we moved it to Saturday, and that's because tomorrow I'm actually going to be traveling to Los Angeles and getting ready to fly to Hong Kong. So, we're actually going to be relocating for the summer back to China. So, the next live stream that you see, I will be on the ground, you know, in China. Very excited to get back, very excited to bring the YouTube channel back to China. So, we've got a lot of travels. Um, you know, Alex, just to give everybody a little preview, I'm going to be in Hong Kong for about four or five days. Uh, I'm going to Shanghai for a project. I'm going to be going to Quzhou to be visiting the world's tallest bridge. I'm going to film a video there. Uh, I'm then back to Guangzhou where I'm going to be basing. We're going to be traveling, you know, to Shanghai, Beijing. I mean, I've got a lot of travels, obviously where I'm going to come to Chongqing, the city that you're in, so that we can film more videos together. You know, and actually be in the same studio for once, which would be really fun. But guys, so basically for the next two months, I'm going to be traveling on the road. So, if you're watching my videos, you're going to see me in many different locations across China. But this is a perfect opportunity for those of you that know my wife and I, we bring our three children back to China. We base there every summer so that our kids can practice their Chinese, that we can be in touch with China. And, you know, for myself, you know, running a big channel that focuses on China, it's absolutely imperative that you spend time on the ground. So, I'm really looking forward to getting back. So, guys, thank you for being here on a Saturday. I know for our longtime viewers that it kind of switched you guys up that we're not on Sunday, but you know, there's a good reason for that, and the reason is is that tomorrow we're flying back to China. Can't wait to get back. Very honored, very blessed that we have this opportunity to go. And I just want to say thank you all for your super chats. You know, we are completely independent, self-funded. You know, we do work with sponsors on our channel that certainly fund our entire operations. A huge shout out to Alex and his...