Victor Davis Hanson: Iran Is Desperate—and Trump Can’t Let Up

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Welcome to the Daily Signal Podcast, where we provide intelligence for the intelligent. Now, without further ado, here's today's take.

Victor Davis Hanson (0:08)

There is only one thing that can save the Iranian theocratic terrorist regime. And that is, if for some reason, popular opinion is such, or the Trump administration loses its nerve, and they begin another month-long cycle of negotiations, and they allow that regime certain exemptions, then all of this will be for naught.

Hello, everybody. This is the first week of October, and the Iran war conflict, whatever term we want to call it, is coming to a denouement, whether we like it or not. We've had seven months of conflict, but that's the wrong word. We had 38 to 40 days of actual kinetic action, and then on and off negotiations, all overshadowed by the tick, tick, tick, tick to the US midterm elections on November 3rd, as well as the Israeli elections in late October, as well as the elections in Europe, all over Europe as well. So, what I'm getting at is, this conflict was always framed in political terms. Donald Trump did not have to try to force the issue during the midterms. He did because, remember, seven other presidents said they could not have a bomb. Information came to him after he tried to stop that in June of 2025 that, yes, they still could get a bomb, but more worrisome, they also were developing missiles that could hit cities in Europe and would soon have intercontinental ability to the Western Hemisphere. So he decided to act.

Where are we now? We're in the last stage. We are bringing over a third carrier group, the USS Roosevelt. That means that we will have all of the resources of our land-based airplanes, jet fighters and bombers, but we'll have three large carriers. In other words, we'll probably have four or five, six hundred at our disposal. If the Israelis find out that this Dubai hijacking, and there is more information that's coming out every moment, had anything to do with Iranian agents, then they will probably join in. And if we find out that the RAF American Joint Base in Britain was the object of a terrorist attack by British subjects who were influenced or paid for or trained by Iran, that will add a different dimension as well. But for now, Iran is desperate. How do we know that? Because we don't have any news people in there. We don't have any embedded troops as I keep saying. We only have people calling out. And usually when they call out to their relatives or friends to assess them of the terrible conditions, the next thing they knew, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is at their door.

So you have to gauge it by the attitude of Iran. They're doing two or three things right now. Number one, they wrote a letter. It's 25 pages long. You should all read it to the American people. But it isn't really to the American people. It's to half the American people. It's to the left. They have gleaned and absorbed the message from the left, in the Senate, in the House, in popular culture, that this is a illegal, immoral war that we've already lost, the Strait is hopelessly closed, and that has emboldened them. So they're now saying, why don't you people take it to the next step and join us and vote in the midterms to get rid of this horrific, war-mongering, evil Donald Trump regime? They feel, and they don't understand American politics, obviously, because whatever happens in the midterms, whatever happens in the midterms, the Democratic Party is not going to get 60 seats and get a veto-proof Congress. It's not gonna happen. So that's not going to stop Donald Trump, they think it is. The second thing they've done is that they have said, now we want to negotiate with Donald Trump. We want to negotiate, which means we want to, we've been at this at seven months. They want another two, three, four months, while they try to figure out how they reclose the rates of hermaphrodites. Or three, they have threatened us with new weapons. We have new weapons. We have new ways of killing you. We're gonna unleash them. I don't know if that was referring to the terrorist attacks in Britain and in the air over Dubai, but we'll see.

What's the actual status?

For some reason, we only belatedly started to really crush Iran. I don't know why we didn't have a complete banking boycott, freezing of all assets, a secondary boycott of anybody who trades with Iran or enters financial transactions with them. We would also boycott. I don't know why we didn't have a complete embargo on their airspaces, but we didn't. Now we do. They are getting no income, but 90 to 95 percent of other country ships who want to get Gulf oil are now coming in. They can't stop them. And now we're going to have more assets. So one way or another, this regime is going to implode. It may implode after the midterms. It may implode in three or four months. There is only one thing that can save the Iranian theocratic terrorist regime. One thing, and that is if for some reason, a popular opinion as such, or the Trump administration loses its nerve, and they begin another month-long cycle of negotiations, and they allow that regime certain exemptions, then all of this will be for naught. We are very, very close.