Trump Bullies FIFA, NATO

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Welcome back to Podsave the World on Tommy Vittor and I am joined today by a very, very special guest co-host. He's the founder of Zateo News, which just launched Zateo UK. Medihacin, I believe congrats on the launch of both. I think you're the fastest-growing sub-tech in the United Kingdom at the moment, is that right? Thank you very much, Thomas. Appreciate the endorsement. Yeah, we launched Zateo UK in London in June of soft launch, it's our first international expansion since we launched Zateo here in the U.S. in 2024, and yeah, we're the fastest growing. We've had a great launch. Guess what? The British media needed to be disrupted. We shook to here. So we're happy to provide that disruption, but it's great to be back on the show with you. It's great to have you back. The British media really does need some disruption and needs a little, some punches from the left, shake things up a bit. I do like, it's a little more rough and tumble over there than the U.S., that's why I like talking to you so much, because you come out of that tradition. By the way, if folks want to support independent media, become a subscriber to Zateo news, they're doing amazing coverage of all kinds of stuff, foreign policy, domestic policy, there's great opinion coverage. It is really essential reading. Also, if you like what we're doing here at Crooked Media, go to Crooked.com/Friends, consider being a paid subscriber. Running ads and reading ads is great, and one way to build a business, but the single best thing you can do to help independent media companies like ours is to become subscribers. You get ad free episodes, bonus content, and lots more. 100%. End of the plug. Medi, we got a lot of serious news to come today. So there's the NATO summit. There's the growing split between the U.S. and Europe, thanks to Donald Trump. There's a related conversation about Turkey's place in NATO and in Europe, and why Donald Trump is such good friends with Taiyab Erdogan, the president of Turkey. We got updates from Iran, the spring leader's funeral, more signs at the ceasefire is kind of a mess. I also want to get your take on all things British politics because we've been covering the mess that is the labor party. But then there's some news today about far right leader Nigel Farage and some of his corruption scandals that's just fun and worth digging into. But first, we have to talk about the biggest story in the world, the FIFA World Cup. We've got nations competing, we've got unbelievable drama on the field. We've got Lionel Messi, just being like a superhuman, and of course politics ruining all of it. Medi, we're recording this Tuesday, 207 PM, July 7th. We both just watched Egypt, first at Argentina, heartbreaking end for the Egypt's guide. Are you addicted to watching these games as I am? 100%. It's what I look forward to every four years since I was a kid. My first World Cup that I have a vague memory of is 1986, when England heartbreak went out in Mexico and he has tech to Diego Maradona's infamous hand of God and then his other amazing goal. And then the first World Cup I really got into, I was 11 years old, it was the 1990 World Cup. Again, heartbreak for England. We went out on penalties to Germany or West Germany as I were then. So I've been following this. I love the fact that it came back to me. I remember watching the 94 World Cup top two. I went to the game. I was 15. I had to get permission from my mum to wake up like crazy hours because of time difference to watch the games in England. I'm England in qualify for the 94 World Cup in the US and no one cared about the World Cup in America in those days. The stadiums were empty. Obviously, everything's changed now with MLS and with Beckham and Messi. So such a great atmosphere. I went to one of the games last week. The atmosphere in the stadium is amazing. And it's just a joy to watch football at its best, although it's being ruined a bit by VAR. I think it's better. Yeah, we should talk about VAR incident replay basically for the for the layman, Donald Trump. But also, I mean, like you and I, so we were just watching this game between Egypt and Argentina. There is a feeling that Egypt was robbed because they called back a goal. Argentina made this unbelievable comeback. And after the final whistle, Egypt's coach said, I'm going to say what I think, regardless of the consequences, this was clearly a manipulated match in the whole world sought. I want to say one more thing. If they want Argentina to win so badly, why do they invite everyone to come and participate? What'd you think of that quote? It's a powerful quote from a guy who's been giving some great quotes in this tournament. He's also been very pro Palestine at this tournament. He's been talking about Palestine bringing that into the news conferences, which is obviously bothered a lot of people. Look, a lot of people are thinking it. I happened to be a great Messi fan. I was at the World Cup Final in 2022 in Doha, where he performed just miracles in that game to stop Mbappe from taking it back. And it's amazing to watch him play, but let's be clear. They definitely give Argentina and him a pass. He clearly, almost clearly red carded an Algerian player in the group stages, got away with it. A lot of Americans, a lot of Trump supporters pointed this out when he came in, when Trump came in a couple of days back to rescue Balagan from his red card. They said, what about Messi? And it's a fair point. Messi got away with that. There was no var on that. Today, they disallowed an Egypt goal because of a tackle that they claimed was a foul on the other end of the pitch, under var, which is not the purpose of var, but they didn't do anything when most soloing down at the end when they scored. So the whole thing was just the double standards are insane and people are frustrated with this World Cup. Some of the football has been amazing. I'm an England fan. The England Mexico game was one of the great games in all time, but at the same time, people are just fed up with FIFA. They're fed up with some of the ways that they run this place. They're fed up with Gianni Infantino. And they're certainly fed up after Donald Trump's intervention where he tainted the U.S. men's nationality, and they had a great tournament until Trump came along, stuck himself into the middle of it as usual, screwed up, maybe screwed with their heads. Balagan had a great, had an awful match after coming back after Trump's intervention. And you just think, I keep telling people, remember the Rick Wilson book from the first term? Everything Trump touches dies. That is the line. That is everything. Everything he goes near. And by the way, guys, congratulations. We've got the Olympics coming our way soon too. I didn't LA. Yeah. There were a lot of jokes being made about Trump going to game three of the next series, which is the only one that they lost in the NBA Finals. Let's talk about the politics. So I'm sure by now everyone has heard about Trump's intervention to get FIFA to suspend this red card to get to one of America's best players, Flo Balagan. Balagan got a red card. So does him. Oh, yes. Yes, he has. He got a red card in the U.S. game against Bosnia, Herzegovina. Under FIFA rules, if you get a red card, you're out for the rest of that game. Your team has to play a man down, and then you're suspended for the next game. So I think it was a questionable call for reasons we can get into many about whether there was a red card or should have been a yellow card. But all the reporting afterwards said, you know what? It is what it is. There's no way to appeal this decision, however, that apparently was not true. Donald Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino, asked him to reconsider. Here he is talking about all this on Monday, showing his soccer expertise. Let's watch. I think the referee's call was horrible, and nobody talks about that. They talk about the red card. Like it's fine. Nobody talks. The referee's decision to red card. I didn't know what the hell a red card was. But I found out I said, you got to be kidding. This guy just hands up. Okay, your best player is not going to play next week or in the next game. I said, wow, that's a lot of power. That's terrible. So, yes, I asked for a review by FIFA. I had nothing to do with the decision. What I did have to do is I said, I think it should be reviewed because I watched the play. And he didn't do anything wrong. Yes. So when the president of the United States calls, he's just asking questions about the process, no pressure there on FIFA or John. Don't know whether to laugh or cry when you watch these clips. If you were in the Netflix writers room, you could not write that scene. No. We're like, he's going to call out the red card, and then he's going to admit he doesn't know what a red card is. And be like, no one's blaming the ref for giving the red card. The ref gives the red card, buddy. What are you talking about? First, he goes off to red card, and then he admits he didn't know what a red card was. Then he goes, I called him up, and then he goes, I didn't have anything to do with the decision. But you called him up. I mean, that goes against FIFA rules as well, any kind of political government involvement interference. It's just, I mean, he is a mob boss. That is how he approaches every problem of life, bullying, intimidation, threats, corruption, bribery, transactional relationships. Clearly he's built a very close relationship with Inventino over the years. Inventino invented a peace prize to make this man-child president of ours feel good about himself after he's rejected again for a Nobel Peace Prize. And it's just, I know Ben wrote a great piece on a subset that I saw making this exact point that it is a metaphor for international relations right now. the stuff we're seeing right now. around the world, the destruction of the quote unquote rules based order, American hegemony, talking about a don row doctrine, regime change, wherever he feels like. And now you bring that to the World Cup. - Yeah, I mean, there's like a little piece of me that doesn't begrudge Trump for like advocating on behalf of his country, but it is impossible to kind of disaggregate the corruption here. Because you said, you know, Trump operates like a mob boss. I mean, FIFA's basically a criminal organization. I mean, 2015, we all got to see, I think it was seven FIFA officials dragged out of a hotel in Zurich, prosecuted by DOJ. I think for about $150 million worth of privacy. - Yeah, massive correction. - In crime scandals involved with FIFA. In fact, I'm gonna do a shameless plug. - Please tell me. - And say, I just finished recording. We're about to put out part three. We did a three part series called The Dark Side of the World Cup. Well, we looked at some of those corruption stories. And we looked at the relationship between FIFA over 100 years with authoritarian leaders, Mussolini in the 1930s, the Vadella regime in Argentina in the 1970s, Putin, all of these controversial world cups. The difference here is in all of those previous tournaments, there's been all sorts of dodginess, but it happened behind the scene. - Yeah. - The thing about Trump is he just does it brazenly and plain sight just brags about it. - Yeah, that's a very good point. It's also, you know, like just back to FIFA forever. I mean, the process for even like the host selection for the country selection is sketchy as hell, right? I mean, DOJ alleged that Russia and Qatar had bribed FIFA officials to secure hosting rights. And then this last time, like not to get into all the details of how the selection process works, but FIFA basically compressed the process and made it really short. And they have this sort of informal continental rotation rule that made it so only the Saudis really had time to bid or the ability to bid. They also ignored their own rules around human rights. And I don't know about you, Metty, but I've been not that surprised to see all the Saudi Aramco signage around all the venues, right? I mean, there's clearly like a financial. - Get ready for 20, 34 in the kingdom. - FIFA 23-4. - That's gonna be an interesting one. Look, Inventino is so, is so mired in scandal and corruption that set blatter, his predecessor, the guy who was in charge when you mentioned what happened in 2015. The guy who was, he's literally banned, the former president FIFA set blatter, is so corrupt that he was, but he's been banned from attending a World Cup game till 2028. - Set blatter comes out on Twitter and says, what is going on here? This is too much. Like when set blatter says you've gone too far in football corruption and rule bending, that's bad. - That's shocking. (upbeat music) This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. It's finally socially acceptable to talk about mental health, but actually reaching out for help when you need it is a different story. 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Yeah, I mean, because they lost and they lost so badly, it'll probably be kind of a footnote in history. But do you think that the rest of Europe sees what's happening here, and thinks this is a big deal, or is this FIFA being FIFA? Like an organization they have always known is corrupt, doing corrupt things for people in power. But it's never done anything like this. That's the point, right? It's never done, you know, it's different. I don't want to say that's some kind of lesser crime. But like, bribes, venue, changes, country selections. That's one thing. Getting involved in a game, right? Literally, the eve of the game. Belgium, right to US, and the president of the United States and the head of FIFA, allegedly conspiring to get America's top player back on the pitch. Clearly, you know, absurdly, when after they said there was no appeal for them. I think that again tells you a lot about what is happening in the world with the quote, unquote, rules-based order. And the Europeans, I mean, the Europeans, I have a very low view of all the European governments because, you know, they bitch and whine. In private, they mock Trump behind his back. But to his face, they suck up to him. They think that sucking up to him is the way forward. I don't know if you saw this astonishing piece in the Wall Street Journal today about how European governments have started texting Trump in language that he recognized using our caps. They do all caps in their tweet, in their text. They use short staccato sentences, Mark Rooter, the NATO Secretary General, who's a big Trump sicker fan. He talks so much like Trump that his friends think he's in character and hasn't broken character. You have the Norwegians afraid to text Trump because they didn't give him the Nobel Peace Prize. So the finished president texts on behalf of Norway. Like, this is embarrassing for us as a nation that our president is treated like this across the, I don't know how rigorous our proud of Donald Trump got this done. He is a joke on the international stage. In the first term, the United Nations General Assembly literally laughed out loud as he was speaking at the UN Trump had to stop and kind of, he couldn't believe that they were laughing to his face. We've had multiple hot mic moments where Western leaders are mocking Trump, not realizing that they're on tape, they're on mic. And now you have this situation where he's abusing European teams at the World Cup by acting in this manner. And then he goes to NATO. I know we're going to talk about NATO. And then he attacks European countries again. And again says, I'm going to take Greenland. Yeah, so let's talk about NATO because whether the rules based international order and all the sucking up you mentioned. So Trump is there now as we're recording this for the NATO Summit. His first meeting is with Turkish President Tyap Erdogan. There's a big dinner on Tuesday with the 30-some odd leaders. I'm sure that'll be a blast. Then Wednesday, I think it's the summit itself. Trump has meetings with Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky and then Syrian leader Amid al-Sharah. Yeah, another fun one. So there's a lot of stuff to discuss, a lot of the big ticket items here. Let's just start with sort of the broader US NATO alliance. Because for years, Trump has attacked NATO as an institution. He has at times, he's refused to reaffirm the principle of collective defense, the Article V commitments where attack upon one is an attack upon all. He browbeats NATO allies to spend more, which was not unreasonable at first, but now we are demanding 5% of GDP on defense or defense related infrastructure, which is the ridiculous amount of money. Trump is threatened to remove troops from Europe because he's mad that European countries didn't want to go to war with Iran. Again, because that went great. And then there's the whole Greenland thing, the whole invading Greenland thing. The whole stealing a European country is very true. But so to your point about the kind of the ass kissing approach, here's NATO Secretary General Mark Ruta, trying to put a good spin on some of these disputes. Look at President Trump and the G7. It was a big success that meeting. I had a fair good visit with him last two weeks ago in the White House. So I have every confidence in this summit. If you've been credited as sort of being the Trump whisperer on behalf of this alliance, you're shaking your head. The point is this, I just liked him then. I think what he is doing for NATO is great news. When it comes to the straight of a moves, when it comes to Iran, first of all, all NATO allies agree it was crucial that Trump degraded the nuclear capability of Iran. I think this is massively good news for Israel, for the Middle East, for Europe, for the whole world. The center of this is the NATO allies committing to an increase of defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. This was, of course, a major priority for President Trump. You've said that the goals of this summit are delivery and implementation of that commitment. This is President Trump basically achieving what since Eisenhower American presidents tried to achieve, which is to equalize the defense spending between the US and Europe. Trump is now achieving the success story is That for you combined 22 in 2025 and 2026, Canadians in European spending more than $250 billion extra compared to 2024. This is amazing. So that was Ruta speaking with Dasha Burns from Politico. Maddie, it's hard to tell what's real here and what's the Trump being just an asshole. Do you think that the US is actually on the cusp of a split from Europe and NATO or is this just like the constant posturing he does? Yeah, it's hard to say because I don't want to ascribe some kind of strategy to a man who doesn't have strategy. A man who changes his mind based on what's out of bed he got out of, what he saw on TV, what he saw on Twitter, the last person who spoke in his ear. Like too many smart people, Tommy, have spent years trying to come up with like, oh, but Trump means this. And you know, I get it. You and I, we move in foreign policy circles, we read long essays and foreign affairs. People, it's their jobs. They have to get paid. They write these things. They're Trump doctrine. The Trump. There is nothing. Treat him as he is, right? Treat him as the idiot, village idiot that he is that he couldn't find Greenland on a map if his life depended on it. He lied today and said it's surrounded by Chinese and Russian ships. It is not surrounded by Chinese and Russian ships. And this idea that, oh, NATO, he doesn't even understand the NATO budget, right? He thinks that people pay the United States. Right. The style works. Nobody pays anyone. It's your own proportion of your own defense spending as a proportion of GDP. Rooter there, you know, first of all, salivating over the idea of $250 billion extra for defense at a time when people are going through an affordability crisis, when people can't afford to put food on the table, when there's still child poverty across Western Europe. For me, on the left, I'm disgusted by that kind of attitude towards defense spending. He's not just saying it's a necessity. He's excited about it. And number two, the guy was Prime Minister of the Netherlands, right? He was the leader of his country. He was a powerful man. Look at him now. How does he look his wife and kids in the eye? Like complete sicker fan lives up Trump's backside. Like what? How do people like this? I just wonder about these people who suck up to Trump. Do they have no self respect? What do they do? How do they go to bed at night? It's just in the mind boggles. And look, that's their strategy to try and suck up to Trump, not piss him off. How do you think it works? This will always come back to bite you in the ass. You either stand up to the bully together or he picks you off one by one. I mean, that is something we learned in the playground as children. At one point, the Danish government, Tommy, saw that reporting a few months ago. They had like troops ready to mind the runways, they had blood supply. That's insane that a European government was preparing for a US invasion and we're all supposed to pretend that everything's fine. And then this guy turns up today, by the way, he turns up in Turkey. He says, I only came because my friend Erdogan invited me. Then he berates Germany, France and Italy for not supporting the war in Iran. Hold on. Last time I checked Turkey didn't support the war in Iran. Good point. Funny. Funny you didn't criticize Turkey while you were sitting in Turkey. And by the way, Erdogan took him straight to his white palace. This massive complex filled with Ottoman-like soldiers with Turkish soldiers on horseback, taking Trump's love in it. Can you imagine how much he's going to talk about the bullroom when he gets back from Turkey? Oh yeah. You're going to have to build two of them. Yeah. There's sort of the Mark Ruta approach to the ass kissing versus the Mark Karni approach, the Prime Minister of Canada, who is arguing we got to stop appeasing this guy. We got to bring together the sort of so-called middle powers to forge our own alliances and move forward. I personally would find myself more in the Karni camp, but I don't know how much progress he's made on that yet. On the spending thing, look, I'm with you, 5% is crazy. It's worth just saying two things about that number. First of all, it is plucked out of thin air. It's not based on any kind of defense analysis or need. Second, it's not going to happen even if all the NATO allies agree to what, because the target is 2035, when Trump, we all hope, will be long gone as well many of these leaders. And then third, within that 5%, like 3.5% of the money is supposed to go to military spending. 3.5 is defined as security-related investments, which could be like roads, bridges, cyber security. Anything you want it to be, so you could just re-categorize shit. 100%. They're going to play with the numbers. Fast and loose. And get Trump off their back in the short term. They want to get Trump to win, right? They understand this guy doesn't do detail. He doesn't do substance. He doesn't understand anything. You give him quick wins. You send them a text with cap sliders. Do you see that story? One of the stories in the Wall Street Journal that the EU Foreign Policy Chief, once she saw Trump got mad that they were talking about sanctions on Russia, she started calling sanctions. Right. That story's incredible. There's an anecdote in there about like an all European member head of state meeting that turned into a therapy session. There's a story in there about Trump trying to do a video call with a manual Macron of France in Justin Trudeau of Canada, and he couldn't get the thing to unmute so we threw the tablet across the table of the awful lot. I mean, I'm telling you, it's so embarrassing, like we can laugh about this, but it really is. You know, I know a lot of Americans don't travel abroad, but for those of us who do travel abroad, the image of this country is such a joke. I mean, people talk about patriotism, you and I, and people on the left are lectured by MAGA about you. Love your country. Are you proud of your country on the 250th on 4th of July? Yeah. I'm an American citizen. I love this country. I'm proud of this country. That's why I can't stand what's going on. Right. You think it makes me feel good as an American to go visit the UK or visit Europe or go to India and have people just laughing about your country that you elected this fool for a second time. That he's doing this crazy stuff that the American people are tolerating it. It's bad for our country when you become an international laughing stuff. Yeah. And look, the elephant in the room on this defense spending is going to go to a bunch of US defense contractors, probably, right? Which is why Trump, I'm sure loves it, and is getting donations. What is trying to increase our own defense budget by insane amounts? Yeah. One point five trillion. That's insane. And also, you know, on your point about the double standard around patriotism, I mean, it was very glaring to me the way the Zora and Mamdani's sort of 4th of July speech was covered, compared to things that Trump says all the time, like, this was a dead country until I came back. Right. Like, knowledge can for the world. No one runs down America more than Trump. One sort of last subject to point about this Europe stuff. I mean, Trump is out there musing about whether he's going to remove US troops from Europe. The CNN had a report that Trump has considered. They said he mused about cutting the level of US forces in Europe by a third. Earlier this spring, the US halted some troop deployments in Europe, including 5,000 to Germany after Friedrich Merz, the chancellor, said that US was being humiliated by the world with Iran. There has been reports that the New York Times reported that the US is going to cut aircraft and warships that they made available to NATO, including F-16s and F-15 jets and reallocate other resources. This all becomes more significant in the context of the war in Ukraine and this Selensky meeting. And, you know, Europe's future, if the US backs away from NATO, I think the thing that it confuses me, Mehdi, is NATO basically exists to deter a Russian invasion of the NATO allies. Trump clearly doesn't give a shit about Europe, or so why does he care so much about demanding that they all spend more money? It doesn't really logically make sense. No, not so. He says logically makes sense. Think about it this way. Trump loves, who are the two leaders he loves? He loves Vladimir Putin. He loves Xi Jinping, right? He loves the leaders of China and Russia. He goes out of his way to say, we shouldn't have war. I want to be friendly with Russia. You know, he's talking, he always says, why did Russia get kicked out of the G7 and why did it become G8? He's obsessed with these guys. And yet, today, his argument is, I need to take Greenland because it's surrounded by Chinese and Russian ships. Well, that's fine, isn't it? Aren't there your pals? Like, there's no logical consistency to this guy's arguments ever, especially in international affairs. Where he's all over the place. I just mentioned. He attacked France and Germany for not supporting the war in Iran while he prays Erdogan, who also didn't support the war in Iran, who also didn't open Turkish airspace to American jets. And now he's offering Turkey F-35s, even though his own first term administration, Mike Pompeo and Co put sanctions on Turkey because you're using Russian military hardware, which undermines American military force projection. So there's, you know, looking for consistency with Trump is insane. Yeah, it's a force. There it is. It's a force drive you mad. Pazieva world is brought to you by Haya. We're only beginning to understand the impact ultra-process foods have on our health, and especially on the health of our kids. It's exactly why Haya exists to give parents a real solution in a market flooded with kids vitamins that prioritize candy like appeal over actual nutrition. 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Calls, texts, voicemails, transcripts and contact details all in one clean view so your team always has the full picture, it can show up for every customer conversation, ensuring seamless and more personalized experience. Your business is on the line, always say hello with Quo. Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to Quo.com/World, that's qu.com/World. So let's talk about the Zerdog piece, because you're political at a great break time, I've kind of why they get along. The Trump apparently says whatever he asks Erdogan for something, he delivers. So, sure. Not true. Not true as I just mentioned with the Iran. You did mention the Iran, yeah. Also both, they fancy themselves indispensable strong men, they both have a contempt for democracy, the rule of law, the press, so I'm sure that gives them something to talk about. As you said though, this was not always the case. They were not always buddies. Back in 2017, Turkey agreed to buy this Russian air defense system called the S 400. The deliveries of the components of that system started in 2019, at which time the Trump administration said, hey guys, you can't have this S 400 system going and purchase and operate American F 35 jets because the Russians could use the S 400 infrastructure, the radars, etc., to gain a bunch of intelligence about its stealth capabilities, its vulnerabilities, and then use it against us in battle. So Trump cuts Turkey off from the F 35 program, that cost Turkey billions of dollars, pissed off Erdogan in 2020, Congress passed a law that prevented the U.S. from providing Turkey with F 35s as long as they have the S 400 system. And then, fast-forward to today, Medi, another person who opposes the U.S. living Turkey have the F 35 is Israeli Prime Minister, BB Netanyahu. Here he is, I know you're a big fan of his, here he is on Fox News recently. I think that everybody understands that notwithstanding the personal friendship that President Trump has with Erdogan, it doesn't make Turkey a friendly or a friendly state to the United States, to the country. It's a regime that's infected with the Muslim Brotherhood, which hates the United States. He harbors Hamas, the Hamas terrors, he supports them, he finances them, he's thrown his opponents in jail, all of them. He throws more journalists in jail than anyone can understand. So he's not exactly a model ally of the United States. This is not a force for peace and stability. And if you give this kind of radical regime that admittedly smiles to America when it is necessary or smiles to the President of the United States when it's necessary, when you given that power, you're going to see aggression in its wake. I wouldn't do that. The Hutzpah, a Benjamin Netanyahu, saying Erdogan throws journalists in jail, meanwhile Netanyahu is the number one killer of journalists on planet Earth today, according to every study done. I mean, I'm not defending Erdogan in prison journalists. In fact, I wrote a piece for the Guardian, maybe 15 years ago, pointing out that Turkey was one of the top jailers of journalists in the world. But in the last two and a half years, we've seen what Benjamin Netanyahu has done to journalists in Gaza. There's a couple of things here with Erdogan. I mean, one is, you're right, that in the first term, there was this clash over the Russian military hardware. But I don't think that was Trump. I don't think he involved himself, I think that was my Pompeo. Yeah. I think that was the hawkish ring of the part. That was Jim Matis. That was my Pompeo. That was John Kelly. He was a Republican hawks, the NATO hawks, the anti-Russia, I think Trump gives it down. In fact, he said today, yeah, I'm fine with giving the plate. They asked him today in Turkey. What about the Russia angle? Yeah. Doesn't care. Doesn't bother him. So I don't think Trump, that was not a Trump decision, I suspect. I think that was one of the many things happened in the first time that he didn't really pay attention to or will try and stop. He's always been powers with Erdogan. In fact, I check before we're coming on the show, 2012. He travels to Istanbul with Ivanka to open the Trump towers in Istanbul and then Prime Minister Erdogan turns up as the guest of honor, the VIP, to cut the ribbon at the opening of Trump towers. Ivanka puts a post on social media, thanking then Prime Minister Erdogan for supporting Trump towers in Istanbul. So they go way back. Trump loves these transactional relationships. He loves Erdogan for the money and he loves Erdogan for the power he said today. He's a strong leader. He said, twice Tommy. When Donald Trump repeats himself, pay attention. He's a strong leader, strong leader. He loves this idea of strong men, right, because he wants to be one. He envies them. He came back from North Korean his first time and he said, everyone stands to attention when Kim Jong-un speaks. Why don't my people do that? He said on Fox with Peter Ducey at the time. So this is, he loves him for his power. He loves the money relationships. I've always said for years, if you want Trump to get off your back. If I, to Lakhamanai, had wanted to avoid the Iran war and stay alive, all he had to do was build a Trump tower in terror. Or some Trump coin. That is the simplest. And you think I'm joking? No. Ahmad Shahra, president of Syria, former al-Qaeda leader, has been in talks reportedly to open a Trump tower in Damascus. And Trump now sends him cologne, as we know, their pals, their buddies, right? So we can laugh about, oh, this sounds crazy, but that is how Trump runs United States foreign policy. Let us be clear about that. Oh, no. The people he loves are all once with transactional relationships. Like he loves, you know, the, whatever that field marshal of Pakistan, you know, like, loves it. He loves news of extraditional killing and, you know, horrible, you know, war crimes. You put a strong man in front of Trump and Trump goes, we get the knees. Yeah. Very quickly on Turkey and Israel, though, yes, I've been saying for a while, a lot of us have been saying Turkey is next in terms of Israel's crosshairs, the Israeli leadership. And I'm not just talking about Netanyahu, Tommy, and Naftali Bennett, who's one of the opposition leaders, former prime minister, could be the next prime minister of Israel, has said Turkey, watch out, right? They've all targeted Turkey, the leaders of Israel, the military leadership. There is a lot of chatter in Israeli national security circles. It's something has to be done about Turkey, quote unquote, the Muslim brotherhood, as you said, Netanyahu. Say, remember, Israel's greater Israel vision is to be the top dog in the neighborhood, to control as much territories it can with as little resistance as there is. It is tried to do that in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Iran, to varying degrees of success and failure. And having taken out Iran or in their eyes, taken out, I tell you how many Iran is still obviously still a powerful player in the Middle East, as we've seen. And for them now, Turkey is the next regional hedgehog on that has to go. And that's why Netanyahu is pissed off today. That's why he's put out a statement saying this upsets the balance of power in the Middle East. Yeah, no shit. It upsets the balance of power. And a lot of people, the Turks are talking openly about the possibility of there being a war between Israel and Turkey, the Israelis are saying it. It's something we, and I hope your listeners and viewers are paying attention to. It could be the next big God forbid hotspot in the Middle East. Can you imagine? And Israel, Turkey is a member of NATO. So what side would the United States be on that? It would be an absolute nightmare. Yeah, right. And that's why he doesn't want the step 35 transfer because they want to maintain their qualitative military edge in the region and the ability to act with impunity. Which just quickly before we move on, I mean, it's just worth noting like what you mentioned that Trump repeatedly called Erdogan a strong leader. What does that mean in practice? Well, ahead of the summit, the NATO summit, Turkey's authorities arrested opposition members of a couple journalists, even a stand-up comedian, I think 200 people in total according to the party. And insulting the president to the crime in Turkey. They Turkey blocked a gay friendly cruise from docking because apparently that would send the wrong message. And then, you know, not as recently, but you know, Erdogan has jailed his main political rival, the mayor of Istanbul. They sent police to storm the party's headquarters, basically sort of dismantling with force his office is a Stephen Miller wet dream. That's exactly right. All right. So you mentioned Iran a couple of times there. So let's turn to Iran. In Iran, proper, the Islamic Republic is holding the Supreme Leader. I totally al-Hamanez historic funeral ceremonies. He obviously was killed many months ago, but his body has been waiting for a safe moment when they could bury him and do all the pomp and circumstances. This is going to be a week-long event. There have been a bunch of dramatic images in the media of like tens of thousands of mourners in the streets of Tehran. There have been also reports about Iranian citizens furious about all the pomp and circumstance given the way he cracked down on protesters. The ceremony started last Friday. His body was laid in state for public viewing. There was a long funeral procession that started Monday. It's going to set to continue into gome where his body will be flown. The ceremonies, I just saw this. I don't know if you saw this, Betty. The ceremonies also included Hamanez relatives who were killed in that initial U.S. in Israeli air strike, including a coffin for his 14-month-old granddaughter, which really just, I think, cameras home the impact this war had on innocent civilians and kids. Not seen at any of this is his son, the new Supreme Leader in Moushtaba, Hamanez. He's not been president at any of his events, raising questions about his fitness as ability to lead his health. Police of the 175 people in school girls killed in the U.S. strike in Minab on the same day that Hamanez was assassinated, attended the funeral at the Grand Masala in Tehran over the weekend. They traveled about 800 miles to be there. And then speaking of that horrible air strike on that girl's school metty, CNN reported today, Tuesday, that U.S. military committee. ignored warnings that their intelligence on military targets in Iran without a date and they approved strikes on years old intelligence that had not been updated or corrected before the war had started. That included this airstrike on the girl's school. I know full well that the US military has a long and troubling record to say the least when it comes to civilian casualties, but what message do you think it sends the world that in this case the Trump administration will not even admit? What is so obvious that this was a US missile that hit this cross-school? Not just won't admit, but when Donald Trump was asked recently at the Evian G7 summit, I think it was in France, at a press conference he was asked about this by a reporter, and he got annoyed because I don't know why you're asking me that question. It's old news. And whenever he's asked about it, he always diverts it to Pete Hicksett. He's like, "I asked to Pentagon." He's happy to throw someone else under the bus because he even he knows killing 120 school kids is not something you want to try and justify. Yeah, I mean, the American military chief has been on Capitol Hill saying there's investigation. We've been hearing words about investigation for a while. They're not going to take responsibility. They're going to hope that people just move on and forget about it. Obviously the rest of the world is not. It was a crime, I believe, especially we don't know what the role of the AI was involved in. This has been a lot of reporting about whether AI was involved in the decision to do this. This was a girl's school. Next to a former military compound, it wasn't part of the compound. It was separate. People could see it from Google images at one point being part of it, but wasn't now. And as I pointed out recently on an Al Jazeera show, I did, do you know how many schools there are on US military bases across this country? I was saying now that that's okay now to bomb. Would we be okay with a foreign adversary of the United States bombing school school and say, well, it was on a military base. It's kind of our fault. No, no one would say that. So let's not say it about the Iranians. And ask for a harmonized granddaughter. I mean, look, whatever you think about, I had to look how many, and people are right to be critical. And there's been, you know, people in Iran, a lot of people around don't like him, but clearly from the funeral, a lot of people do like him. Whatever you think about Hamay, just like whatever you think about Gaddafi, whatever you think about Saddam Hussein, whatever you think about whoever enemy Dujur is, you cannot just go around killing people because you don't agree with them. Don't like them. They're not listening to you. Again, I said Donald Trump's a mob boss that started this show. Just recently, he threatened the Iranian negotiators who were in Europe for this signing ceremony. He said, you could get killed on the way home. I mean, who talks like that? Which world leader? American presidents have killed a lot of people, but who's spoken like that? I don't remember even George Bush who spoke like a cowboy and threatened people and talked about crusades, but telling negotiators in the middle of a diplomatic negotiation, do what we say or will murder you before you leave the negotiations. That language, that approach to politics, that's what we have to call out. Yeah, that was a shocking comment, but speaking of killing negotiators, I mean, there was this jaw-dropping report in New York Times last week that I wanted to ask you about, which said that the Trump administration was so concerned that Israel was going to assassinate Iranian officials involved in peace talks with the US, that the US asked other countries to warn Iran that this could happen. No, the two officials were Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Rachi, and the speaker of parliament, Mohammad Ghalibov. Both of them had been on the Israeli target list since the beginning of the war. We know that there was basically a decapitation effort early on in the war, but the US had asked Israel to hold back once in negotiations. We're ongoing, but we're so concerned that they would not, that they had to warn them. What do you think this says about the divergence and strategy in the lack of trust between the two sides of the US and Israel that the US is warning Iran via intermediary? This is a New York Times reporting, which Netanyahu got very upset about, of course. I mean, look, some of us have been saying this for a while. You don't have to be on the left. You don't have to be anti-war. You don't have to be pro-Palestine to say that Israel is not an ally of the United States. It has its own interests, and I get why people now, some people, some people, on the mega-right are making this point. You know, Joe Kent, quit the administration, the former director for counterterrorism, for Donald Trump, and he's made this point. He's made the point that even if you supported this war, the American goal was to get regime change done quickly and replaced with a quote unquote moderate leader. The Israelis killed all of those people in the first strikes. They were in the next door building apparently. I mean, Trump admitted this, right? He went out, he went on camera and said, "Oh, yeah, we had all these number 2s and they got killed by accident." That's how in either A, incompetent, the US and Israel are, or B, the Israelis, Israelis are, of course, screwing the US over because the Trump administration agenda is not the Netanyahu agenda. We know that Trump wants a quick war in and out, glory, rar, rar, maduro style, get the oil prices back down, get the straight-of-home moves open. That's what he wants. The Israelis want the complete enough destruction of Iran. They want a failed state that can never, ever pose any kind of threat to them or support any groups that fight them. So that is a big divergence in strategy there. And yeah, the Israeli assassination policy has been going on for years, Tommy. It went on under the Obama administration and your administration, unfortunately, the government you were part of didn't do anything about it when they were blowing up nuclear scientists in the middle of negotiations. That was a problem back then. This has been going on for a long time. When there were negotiations going on in Gaza with Hamas, the Israelis blew up Hamas, in 2012, I think it was. They blew up the top Hamas guy who had just signed on to a truce and the Israelis murdered him before the truce could go into action because the Israelis have a long history of killing negotiators in the middle of negotiations. That is why some of us say they are a rogue state. It's not just they do bad things, human rights abuses, everyone does human rights abuses. It's the way they behave on the international state openly. Now you know, who is openly saying, if an Iranian leader pops their head up, we will kill you. Again, that is a mob bus attitude. In the post-war period, we've not allowed leaders to say stuff like that. The UN doesn't allow you. The UN charter doesn't say, I could just threaten to kill whoever I like in a foreign country because I don't like the look of that, the kind of that jib. There's actually, there's a great book about Israel's historic use of targeted assassination called Ryzenkill first by Ronan Bergman, a great Israeli journalist that's worth reading if you want to expand upon this. Last but not least, there is this cease-fire. There have been peace talks. They're hoping to get a nuclear deal done. I've almost zero hope that that will ever happen, but I'm hoping that the cease-fire holds together and the straitle from who's remains open because we want oil and gas to flow through. Speaking on a day where some tankers have come under attack with the US's rescinded waivers on Iranian oil sales. Everyone's pretty pissed off now. This is the question, right? Like earlier this week, once again, there were attacks on tankers in the straitle removers. I assume it's because these tankers were not going via the Iranian designated route, which is the way that they're going to try to control passage to the straitle removers going forward. Reuters reported that the US is going to revoke the general license authorizing the sale of Iranian oil. They also threatened additional consequences. We don't know what that means, but in the past, it has meant sort of, quote, unquote, targeted air strikes. I mean, it just feels like this thing is being like this cease-fire is being held together by duct tape. And the only thing preventing it from returning to war is Trump just wanting to keep gas prices low. But I mean, what's your level of anxiety about resuming conflict? I think post-November, we're going to be in a lot of trouble. I think my colleague, Swin Soup, saying it's a tear reported several months ago, or several weeks ago, excuse me, that US intelligence believes that the Iranians know they can hold out till the midterms. They know that they have this oil weapon that can cause severe harm to the Republican Party and their prospects in these elections, and they know that's why Donald Trump's holding off. When I hear Mark Levin and all those other hawks who are mad at Trump for doing any kind of deal with Iran, when I hear them say, well, you know what? Best case scenario, he's just replenishing our munitions, rebuilding our stockpiles. So that post-November, we can go back in and finish the job. And JD Vance kind of hinted at that recently in an interview he did. So it is a very cynical position. I wouldn't put it past this administration that that might be the ultimate end goal if they see all other things failing. But look, we have a fake ceasefire in Gaza. We have a fake ceasefire in Lebanon. We have a fake ceasefire in Iran. And in least two of those three theaters, Israel is the one basically undermining those ceasefire. In Gaza, we've had a thousand people killed in this ceasefire. We've had 200 kids. It's insane how many people have been killed in a so-called ceasefire. We shouldn't forget about that in Gaza. Or Gaza is over. No, it's not over. People have been killed every day. Kids have been killed every day in Gaza. So it's only that over, which is that people living there are just in a sort of constant state of hell. You know, they can't get the infrastructure they need. They can't rebuild home. AIDS not going in for the deal. I mean, the board of peace has just been immuno. If you see in that, Tommy, that they've given themselves criminal immunity from any kind of lawsuits or criminal complaints for their actions in Gaza. But just on this specific deal, yeah, I don't think we're going to see a deal any time soon. Because remember, Tommy, it was ceasefire and then it was 60 days. We'll do some nuclear negotiations. You know this better than me. It took Barack Obama, what for five years to get the JCPOA up and done. The idea that you can do any kind of deal similar to that in 60 days is insane, especially when you have Steve Wickoff and Jared Kushner, Dhamman Dhamma leading your negotiations. Obama said, "Earnest monies, an actual nuclear scientist to negotiate with the Iranians, we send the property developers from Manhattan." Who just want to cut some deals? I'm sure they're scoping out some future ways to get rich people to sell property. Jared's always obsessed with that. Yeah, someone to sell crypto too. Pazet the world is brought to you by three-day blinds. If keeping up with the news lately, as you're wishing you could just pull the shades in two-not-first-second, we get it. Honestly, it's exactly why we installed three-day blinds at the crooked offices. We all need a little extra privacy these days. There's a better way to buy blinds, shades, shutters, and drapery. It's called three-day blinds. They are the leading manufacturer of high-quality custom window treatments in the U.S. And right now, if you use my URL, threedayblinds.com/world. They're running a buy-one, get one 50% off deal. 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Let them do the same for you. Right now get quality window treatments that fit your budget with 3-day blinds. Head to 3-dayblinds.com/world for their buy one get one 50% off deal on custom blinds, shades and drapery. For a free no charge no obligation consultation just head to 3-dayblinds.com/world. One more time that's buy one get one 50% off when you head to the number 3, DIY blinds.com/world. U.S. voters abroad. So if you want to vote this year you should request your ballot right away. Go to votefromabroad.org and click request my ballot as to receive it by email. Questions? Don't delay. Vote from abroad.org. I want to do a couple things on UK politics since you've covered these folks for a long time. It really is. So we've talked on the show a bunch about the kind of saga of Keir Starmer and the Labour Party and the rise of Andy Burnham who for folks who don't know he's the newly elected Labour MP who is likely to be the next Labour Party leader and thus the next Prime Minister of the UK. Keir Starmer is going to step down soon. Also today though on Tuesday the far right informed UK party leader Nigel Farage announced that he is going to resign from Parliament which will trigger a by-election and then he's going to go ahead and run again for that seat. We'll explain more in a second but let me play this clip from Farage before I explain why the hell you would want to do that. Today I will resign as a member of Parliament for Claxon on C thereby forcing a by-election which would happen I hope in short order. Now I've decided that the people of Claxon should be the judges of my actions. This will be a people versus the establishment by-election. It's a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment to frankly tell them where to go and that is why I will be putting my name forward to stand in this by-election. I will fight to win. I will fight to continue the political revolution that reform has started and I would say this to you the voters of Claxon. If I win you win because if I lose they win and we will never with the two old parties get the type of fundamental change that we need to fix broken Britain. Thank you. Okay so listeners might know that Farage is dealing with a bunch of corruption scandals. First we learned back in 2024 he received a five million pound gift from a crypto billionaire who lives in Thailand. No strings attached. No strings attached. It was just a gift. The times of London revealed that he also got a bunch more gifts from a wealthy benefactor including some fraudster from the US. He's also dealing with competition from a new far-right party called Restore Britain led by a creep who I'm sure you know named Rupert Lowe. They're trying to out. He was just on Joe Rogan I believe. Oh wonderful. I think Elon Musk is a big fan of Rupert Lowe. They're trying to take votes from reform by outflanking them on the right on immigration. So, buddy I reached out to a friend in the UK to say like why is Farage resigning to run again this person said quote to stop the investigation to parliament to try to do a Trumpian style. This is the establishment versus me for the people BS and because he is an attention seeking tosser I don't let totally know what tosser mean. I love that. It should start using it. It's a good word. I've lived in America too long. It's 12 years I've been. I don't think I've said tosser. That's a good reminder that's a good word to have. Did that sound like a good summary? I mean, and I saw like the Tories. Sounds like no other party's going to run this by election because they're trying to. Yeah, that's the best part of the story. So, this guy, Farage Dick has a biolic because he's under pressure like never before. So, just for people in the US watching, for liberals in the US who think the media has been soft on Trump. Trump has gotten away with softball questions and coverage for the last 10 years. Times that by a hundred. That is what Nigel Farage has gotten away with for the last 15, 20 years in UK. He has been treated as a guy you have a beer with and the pub. When he goes on TV, he's treated as a pundit. You know, you're every man, a voice of that working class even though he's a former city finance guy went to private school, gets millions of pounds and gifts from billionaire friends. And he's ever really soft-ride. And for the first time in his life, I think, now, as he's seen as a serious contender for Prime Minister, a bunch of newspapers in the UK, specifically The Guardian and the Sunday Times, have done some great investigative reporting and found out, number one, this crypto billionaire living in Thailand, Christopher Harbourn gave him a five million pound gift that he was supposed to declare. Whether with a gift then became a reward, then became security money. And then it turns out we find out that he also got security provided, housing provided, accommodation provided by Gakul George Kotrol, nicknamed Posh George. This American listener will love this. He's from aristocracy, he's like a character out of a TV show. His mother, I discovered, today used to date King Charles. What? His father went to school with Prince Andrew. Come on, George Kotrol. Wow. And listen to this. You want to hear the best bit? He's so close to Farage that he calls Farage daddy. So this guy has given stuff to Farage that again, Farage did not declare. These are, you know, the equivalents of money. And he's a convicted fraudster. He was prosecuted in the United States of America for wire fraud. Actually, indicted on 21 charges of money laundering extortion. He did a plea deal with the Justice Department went to prison for wire fraud. He's giving money, he's giving the equivalent of money to fraud. So Farage is under pressure. So what does he do? He does the most Trumpy thing you could ever do. Look over there. Give people a distraction. Flood the zone with shit. I'm going to do a by-election. The problem he has now is that all of the parties have called his bluff and said, we're not running against you. So he's running in this by-election that's going to cost a taxpayer or they're saying they're going to pay for it. We'll see. He's running in this by-election against one candidate called Count Binface, which is literally a man who has a bin on his face and a cloak around his arms. And he goes and stands in every by-election. I love that. Go Google it. Look on YouTube. We do a great interview with Sky News after the Andy Burnham by-election. So this is British politics. You've got the son of a woman who dated King Charles. You've got Count Binface. You've got one of the Trump Nigel Farage. And in the midst of that, the UK is about to have its seventh prime minister in a decade with Andy Burnham is about to take over from Keir Starmer, who is super unpopular. He's more unpopular than Liz Truss, the woman who couldn't outlast a lettuce. Starmer is more unpopular than her. It's a labourer deciding to switch gears middle of a parliament, bring in this guy Andy Burnham. We also want a by-election. He's coming in as Manchester Mayor. No one quite knows what he stands for, but he looks good in a black t-shirt. He's got nice eyelashes. He makes some good lefty sounding noises. He said some good things about why Israel should have done a ceasefire in Gaza. He's talked about raising taxes on the rich. We shall see. So I know like Andy Burnham been around for a while. He's been around for a while. I covered him when I was 15 years ago. What do you make of him? What should we know? Well, his is interesting. He ran for Labour leader in 2010, came last or second last. He ran for Labour leader again in 2015, came second to Jeremy Corbyn. That was a shock result. Corbyn wasn't supposed to win the left-wing candidate. Now he's running for a third time. I think of a guy in America who ran for president three times and finally got it. Joseph Robin at Biden, Jr. Although the analogy with Biden is really Starmer. So Starmer comes in. He comes in with no real love for him. He comes in because we wanted to get rid of the other lot. Tories were in power for 15 years. Get rid of them. Biden comes in really because of a pandemic and people want to get rid of Trump. Not because people with some people power revolution for Biden. And Starmer faces the same incumbent issues, the same lack of charisma, the same inability to communicate in an era where communication matters, the same right-wing press onslaught. And now they are switching mid-gear to another candidate who's being coronated, Tommy. There's not going to be a leadership election really. And I keep thinking, the American in me keeps thinking about the analogies here. We're calm. Harris taken over without a contest and people being really happy at the beginning, but the honeymoon could end very quickly for Andy Burnham. Right now he's very popular with the Labour Party. I think he's the most popular politician in the UK, but we know that can change fast. You and I've seen that would multiple leaders in multiple countries. That honeymoon can end very quickly. So I would like to see Andy Burnham put out a vision very quickly of what he stands for, what he's going to do. How he's going to be different to Starmer. Remember Kamala Harris' biggest problem? She never said how she would be different to Joe Biden. And I think Burnham's got to come in and say, I'm going to do these things differently. Because if he doesn't define himself, Rupert Murdoch will define him. Elon Musk will define him. Nigel Farage will define him. His own rebels will define him. I agree with you. Listen, I think Starmer heard himself by not kind of painting a vision for the future, by trying some big bold things, by doing something to get the UK out of this rut that it's been in really since Brexit a decade ago. And look, I think. I'm also trying to try to love bomb the right, right? You know my biggest objection to all central left parties. You know this is you cannot appease the right. Stop trying to appease the right. Be yourselves. Offer a positive program to your own base. That all that happens. We saw it with the Democrats and now we've seen it with the Labour Party, which is you chase after right wing voters. And all that happens is that right wing voters reject you because they go for the real stuff. And your own base then rejects you because they think you've betrayed them. And you're stuck in no man's land. And we've seen that in the United States with the Democratic Party. And we're seeing with the Labor Party in the UK. And then you got to deliver something on the economy or else people are just going to be ripshit. Speaking of the rise of the far right in Europe, Medi, I was not thrilled to see today that a Paris appeals court upheld far right leader Marine Le Pen's embezzlement conviction, but shortened the length of her ban from holding office, which effectively lets her run for President next year. For those who don't remember, Le Pen ran in 2022. She had 41% of the vote. This five year ban was put in place in 2025, it got shortened, shortened, shortened. And now she could run again. Now, in the past, the non-far right parties in France have come together to keep the far right national rally out of power, but that won't happen forever. Le Pen is certainly the front runner right now, and we're kind of staring down the barrel of a 2027 election that could lead to a far right president of France, which is a very powerful position. And over in the UK, we're pretty close to another election where we could see a Nigel Farage as Prime Minister, so a little nerve-wracking. It's not great for Europe or the United States, it's not great for the West. I think the Canadians dodged a bullet only because Trump intervened, otherwise they were on course for a hard right Prime Minister as well. Karne got lucky with Trump's intervention, but you look at the rest of Europe, it's not looking great at all. Labour did defeat the Tories in 2024, but now, you know, for the last year or so, Reform and Farage have led in the polls. There's not another election due for a couple of years, which is some good news. If there was an election tomorrow, they would be the single largest party in Parliament. They might not win a landslide, they might not win a majority, but they're the single largest party. Look at Germany, Tommy. I just did a show for Al Jazeera, my head to head show in London. I interviewed Maximilian Krah, who's a German AFD member, and I don't want to, I've refused to have AFD on my show for years because they're kind of so close to the neo-Nazi movement in Germany. They're a far right party in Germany, but they are now leading in the polls. They are the second biggest party in Parliament. They're about to win the state elections this year. You can't ignore them, right? These parties are heading for power in some cases, half power. You have the AFD in Germany backed by Elon Musk, surprise, surprise. You have restored backed by Elon Musk in the UK, another far right party. Reform we talked about. Then in France, Marine Le Pen, she, her party is leading in the polls. She's run for president three times, Tommy. The last two times she came second, as you rightly said, it's because the rest of the French political establishment got together and said, we just vote for the centre right guy or the centrist guy, anyone to stop Le Pen. Now that is becoming increasingly harder to do in France because the left is saying, well, why? What was the point of doing that when we got nothing, right? So you'll have a lot of left-wing voters who will refuse to turn out just like they did in 2024 and they'll say, well, what's the point of this? I don't like the choice I'm being offered. So there's a very good chance that she becomes president of France next year, which is a insane statement. You would have laughed at me if I'd said that 10 years ago, but that is where we are. And in Germany, there's a lot of pressure being applied to Frederick Mertz, who's the conservative chancellor of Germany, the centre right leader, to drop their firewall with the AFD. All the German parties say we will never get into a coalition with the AFD because of our Nazi history, but there's pressure coming from some parts of the political establishment in Germany. So you know what? We should drop that firewall. It's time to just mainstream the AFD. So it's very worrying across Europe. Obviously, Georgia Maloney is already prime minister in Italy. She's moderated herself since coming to Babut. She has a neo-fascist background. Her party does. It's not looking good. And that's why I'm saying the left has to offer a vision. I was reading a great book. I interviewed him recently at Omar Aziz, the Canadian author, Mark Carney speech writer, has a new book out called Shadow of the Republic. And he's all about fighting fascism. And he made the point to me that the left can't just come along and say, you know, fixed the economy. And here's some policies. The left has to offer a story, a story, a purpose, a community, a vision. Because that is what the right is offering. As dystopian as dark as it is, they are offering that story to their followers. And we can't just have bureaucrats and technocrats like Starma fiddling around the edges. We actually have to give something for people to believe in and for people to vote for. Otherwise, we are AFD across the West. And the story has to be hopeful and optimistic and patriotic and not just like, hey, remember that shit before Trump, 10 years ago, what if we went back to that, that period of time? What was the Hillary Clinton line? America is already great. That was our response to make America great again. Yeah, we can't just kind of run it back to the old establishment days. Many great talk with you. I'm sure we'll be covering all of this stuff on Zateo, on Zateo UK. Boy, you guys picked a pretty good time to launch. I know. I know. We know. We're trying to be the steel resignation, the return of Andy Birdham and now Nigel Farage resignation. Good timing. That is very good timing. Thank you so much for joining the show. Everyone, subscribe to Zateo. Go check out Zateo UK and talk to you soon. Thanks so much. Potsy of the world is a quick and media production. Our show is produced by Alona Minkowski, Michael Goldsmith and Inesha Bonnergy. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Heffko, Jordan Cantor, Kenny Moffitt, David Tolls, and Ryan Young. Her staff is proudly unionized with the writer's field of America East. (electronic beeping)