Transcription
This is crazy. Iranian state media has released a video indicating that they have an interest in killing Barron Trump and Melania Trump, and the Trump family is now on alert. And I am going to argue that even if it is extraordinarily unrealistic, that they could get to Melania and Barron, that this still has the very real possibility of ruining their lives. And of course, it is wildly triggering Donald Trump.
Iranian state media put out a video. It's a propaganda video, and it is a very detailed fantasy about murdering Melania Trump, followed by a threat against Barron Trump. The video is called "Where to Kill Melania." It was published by the Tasnim news agency. That's an outlet affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC. And it's not like anonymous making a troll video. This from the basement of their grandmothers. Whatever. This is a formerly listed group linked to the IRGC. It's one of the most powerful arms of the Iranian regime.
And the video uses maps. It uses AI imagery. It uses publicly available information to depict Melania Trump's movements through New York City. It points to locations she's known to visit. It talks about her protective arrangements and encourages freedom fighters to target her. And then it ends with five words: "Barron, Trump, wait for us." Think about that.
Trump. Barron Trump is an adult. He is involved in Trump's crypto stuff. He was involved in Trump's pre-election strategy of appearing on all of these bro podcasts. He's 20 years old now. He is not a military commander. He doesn't determine American foreign policy. He did not order strikes on Iran. And he is just the son of Donald Trump as far as Iran is concerned.
Melania Trump is being targeted because there's a psychologically devastating aspect to going after a president or a leader's spouse. This is a known thing meant to generate fear and terror, and that's really the point of this. The feeling that we could get your family, regardless of whether they have anything to do with the decisions you're making to attack us with Strait of Hormuz, with power plants or civilian infrastructure.
Now, the Secret Service has said, "We're aware of it. We're investigating anything that is perceived as a threat against one of our protectors. We are going to be taking very seriously." But for security reasons, the Secret Service doesn't want to talk about the specifics of that investigation.
Now, just like as a top-level gut check, is Iran likely to succeed in assassinating Melania or Barron Trump? I think the answer is no. Both are protected by the Secret Service. Like they say, credible threats are going to get a major law enforcement response. But can they ruin Barron and Melania's lives by making them afraid and making them choose to restrict their movements from here on out? 100%.
Imagine being Barron and knowing that a media organization aligned with a very hostile foreign government that's angry with your dad is saying, "Wait for us, Barron." Or imagine being Melania and wondering an unfamiliar face that you see your car moving strangely in traffic or whatever. Is that someone who is coming after me? It just makes your day-to-day life very difficult. And even if no attack comes, that fear can follow them everywhere.
Now, of course, I don't. I don't advocate for this sort of stuff. I don't want anybody killed. It's just not. I know that there are people in my audience who are like, "Good, go after this person." This is just not my nature. But I do think that the way that regimes like the Iranian regime can inflict this profound psychological harm without ever getting physically close to anybody is notable.
And when a media organization aligned with a foreign government starts circulating information about, "Listen, this is how the first lady could be attacked," inviting others to take action. We talk about stochastic terrorism, where if someone with a large audience focuses their ire or anger on someone long enough, statistically, given a period of time and a large enough audience, somebody in your audience might actually try to attack them. And we've seen this happen many times before, over the last decade, decade and a half here. It's actually telling people, "Consider going after this person." Now, it may just be primarily propaganda. It still can inspire these unstable people, and it can encourage extremists and kind of force the Secret Service to treat every single detail as a potential threat. And the trend here is increasingly explicit threats.
Now, let's be very frank. Donald Trump has made similar sorts of threats. And Donald Trump killed the father of the current leader of the Iranian regime. That's how he got into this position of power. So while on the one hand, this entire like, "I'll go after your family" stuff does not reflect my politics or sensibilities, we have to acknowledge that in a different way. Not with propaganda videos, but with Trump going, "Listen, we can find whoever it was like a video game. We just we got them. We dropped this bomb. We're going to kill the entire family." It's a version of the same thing. Arguably, the difference is that the family of the Iranian regime, I guess, or, you know, legitimate military targets in the context of a war, whereas Melania Trump really isn't.
Now, Donald Trump has responded by saying if they did that, or if they even try to go after Melania or Barron, they would be completely decimated and destroyed. And for each, there would be a thousand missiles sent at Iran for each attempt that they make on people associated or affiliated with Donald Trump. This is the escalation. And this is Iran knows as much as I despise that regime, and I'm against authoritarian theocratic regimes. Iran knows that Trump is very tricky, and they are now getting a rise out of Trump with the assassination propaganda about his family and an increasingly erratic Trump. Is a Trump more likely to make mistakes? And so they're not stupid. They're not stupid. I, I don't respect their way of government. But these are not stupid people.
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