Trumps Middle East Trip | EYES ON GEOPOLITICS

Today we’re joined by Marc Polyneropoulos former Senior CIA Officer to talk about Trump’s Middle East trip. Support the show on Patreon:⬇️ https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouse New merch, patches, and stickers! ⬇️ https://theteamhouse-shop.fourthwall.com Find Marc Polymer here: ⬇️ https://x.com/Mpolymer?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor https://bsky.app/profile/mpolymer1.bsky.social Find Mick Mulroy here: Fogbow ⬇️ https://fogbow.com/ Lobo Institute ⬇️ https://www.loboinstitute.org/ Twitter ⬇️ https://x.com/mickmulroy?s=21&t=-Ze3F_Ix2vlJ18KFvORTCA LinkedIn ⬇️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-patrick-mulroy-31198b52/ Bluesky ⬇️ https://bsky.app/profile/mickmulroy.bsky.social Mick’s publications ⬇️ https://www.loboinstitute.org/publications/publications-of-michael-mick-patrick-mulroy/ Find Andy Milburn here: Twitter ⬇️ https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2Fandymilburn8 LinkedIn ⬇️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmilburn2023 Substack ⬇️ https://amilburn.substack.com/ Andy’s book ⬇️ https://www.amazon.com/When-Tempest-Gathers-Mogadishu-Operations Bluesky ⬇️ https://bsky.app/profile/andy-milburn.bsky.social Find Jason Lyons here: LinkedIn ⬇️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-lyons-666873316?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app Bluesky ⬇️ https://bsky.app/profile/bgsilverback73.bsky.soci Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss.

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• 1:39Speaker 03

  Hey, guys. Welcome to another episode of Eyes on Geopolitics, a very special one with Mark Palimoropoulos and myself, Dimitri Kontakos, all Greeks today. So, no outsiders. Mark, of course, former CIA officer, frequent guest of the Team House, frequent guest of Eyes on Geopolitics, MSM, MSNBC correspondent. Sorry, I can never get that right. Uh, Mark, what's up, man? How are you? Good to see you again.

• 2:06Speaker 04

  Good to be here. It's been a wild week in the, in the Middle East, a place where I spent most of my career and um, I mean, so many things to talk about from, you know, Iran nuclear talks to uh, the, the new Air Force One, I guess. Um, Israel being sidelined, Syria back into

• 2:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:25Speaker 04

  Uh, uh, you know, the, the world arena. Uh, and you know, if, if people who know me, I think probably your audience does. Um, some of these moves the US is doing in the Trump administration, I actually support, which uh, which I'll probably be stricken down for, for saying that, but

• 2:41Speaker 03

  Dare you.

• 2:41Speaker 04

  Uh, but, but ultimately a wild, wild week. Um, and uh, yeah, let's, uh, let's talk about it.

• 2:48Speaker 03

  Yeah. All right. So we kicked off, uh, Trump's doing a Middle East, uh, visit. He's visited, uh, Saudi Arabia. He's going to Qatar?

• 2:57Speaker 04

  He's in Qatar, he's, he's left Qatar, now he's in the UAE.

• 2:59Speaker 03

  Okay. So he's doing like the rounds. Um, interestingly enough, and people I've seen it in the news a bit, like couple, some ruffled feathers that he's not visiting Israel. Uh, and this comes at the heels of, um, the American Israeli hostage that was released last week or this week. Um, that was kind of done seems outside of Israel, like just by largely with the US and Hamas. So you know, I'm sure Israel's kind of bristling at the seams because they have, let's be honest, they don't really, outside of the Trump administration or America as a whole, they don't really have many allies in terms of what's going on in, in Gaza generally. Um,

• 3:41Speaker 03

  so yeah, I mean, there's so many places to start. I mean, the thing that just broke right now while Trump's in the Middle East is, um, I'm gonna mess up his name, Barack Ravid from Axios had a scoop about, um, the Jipoa, the, our, the nuclear deal 2.0, because it's essentially a carbon copy of Obama's back in 2015, uh, 15 or 17, one of those.

• 4:07Speaker 03

  Uh, so there's been a lot of talk. We've had Mick Mick's been on. He's been talking about it too. Like at some point, the Trump administration was gonna have to give up some ground in terms of whether it's enrichment or what, you know, whatever the deal points were to get an actual deal. And I'm sure it's not sitting great with Israel.

• 4:25Speaker 04

  Right. So this this thing is is so interesting because you have to remember, you know, Republican foreign policy orthodoxy was at the JCPOA Obama's agreement with Iran. That was, you know, the worst deal in US diplomatic history. Um, Republicans on the Hill, both the House and the Senate, every Republican presidential candidate, and of course, even President Trump railed against the deal and Trump then pulled us out of it. Uh, uh, so now it comes under the new, you know, the the Trump 2.0, the Trump administration. Um, we where the last several months, they've been a lot of tough talk about potential strikes on uh, the the Iranian nuclear facilities where we moved, what, a third of our B2 fleet, F-35 squadrons, there's two carrier battle groups in the Red Sea there were.

• 5:09Speaker 04

  And and so it looked like we were gearing up for a strike and the Israelis, of course, um, uh, believe this is uh, something cer- seriously to consider because, you know, Iran has been so weakened, the Iranian air defenses, their S, uh, I think their S400 systems um, were uh, were disabled, were greatly degraded from previous Israeli strikes. And of course Hezbollah, which is the Iranian proxy, which in essence was an aircraft carrier sitting on Israelis border, uh, on Israel's border, that has been uh, degraded as well. So the time was right to take a shot at the Iranian nuclear program, which is an existential threat to to Israel. But then all of a sudden, we have to remember that Donald Trump during the campaign and the MAGA base really was very vocal about no more Middle East wars,

• 5:54Speaker 04

  no more never ending wars. Um, the Tucker Carlsons, the JD Vances of the world were absolutely opposed, Tulsi Gabbard as well, absolutely opposed to US military action in Iran. And so Trump now has decided to go forward with the nuclear talks um, with the with the Iranians to the absolute horror of the Israelis uh, against all kind of the kind of the Iran Hawks in Congress, to many of the think tanks in Washington DC, um, kind of the pro-Israel think tanks. And so ultimately, you have this kind of mind boggling moment in which it looks like, and NBC reported it today as did the Wall Street Journal, that we might be getting close to an agreement. Which does, D, as you said, very much resemble the original JCPOA. This is causing, you know, my head to explode a little bit, but again,

• 6:37Speaker 04

  if you think back, uh, forget Trump's rhetoric during the campaign, just think about the MAGA base and the desire uh for no more never-ending Middle East commitments and wars. And so we're at a point now where uh, uh, and this is gonna, you know, uh, probably enraged some of the listeners here. Our viewers here, and certainly I said it the other day, I think on social media, I don't know if I did it on MSNBC hit, but Trump's kind of following the Biden foreign policy. When it comes to Iran.

• 7:04Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 7:05Speaker 04

  Pretty extraordinary. Uh, my friends in Israel and the Israeli intelligence community, uh, their heads are about to explode. I think again, some of the pro-Israel folks in Congress are on suicide watch right now because.

• 7:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, I could just imagine what's going on in Lindsey Graham's office.

• 7:18Speaker 04

  I mean, that's so and and but you know what? Um, you know, uh, uh, Trump, I think is not only so again, he's, you know, I think he wants a Nobel Prize. He thinks this is, uh, you know, this is, this is what he craves the most. And it's interesting, he does have the ability to go against many people, uh, uh, in his orbit, although not, of course, the MAGA base. And so, um, we'll see. The question will be, will the Republicans rally around? I mean, it's gonna be funny, the hippo. So there's two parts of this, D. One is the substance of it. Should we actually uh, commit to a strike on the Iranian facilities or do a deal? And we can debate that all day. The other is the hypocrisy on the Republican side, which is, which I find, I want to pop, you know, popcorn and crack a beer open because it's such utter bullshit. If any Republican is gonna back this

• 8:03Speaker 04

  um, uh, diplomatic agreement because it is a Obama slash Biden policy. Um, uh, in my view, I'm actually one of the Iran hawks. I don't have, can't remember where, where, uh, where Mick Mulroy is in this too, but I think this would be a good time to take a shot at the Iranian nuclear, um, uh, uh, program because I think this is not only an existential threat uh, uh, to Israel, but also the United States as well. You've got to remember that the Iranians have been the responsible for the deaths of numerous Americans and we're trying to kill former Trump administration officials and Trump himself. Yeah, he's going to sign a deal. So really kind of head spinning stuff going on. Um, when it comes to this and I I find it hard sometimes as a commentator to separate. But I want to point out the hypocrisy all the time.

• 8:46Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 8:46Speaker 04

  The Republican on this with actually then let's debate the merits of should there be? A nuclear deal or not? I was all I've been a hawk all the time. I think that we should consider a a strike. It should be a US, a joint US Israeli strike. But let me tell you, that's off the table now. So the Israelis just have to consider are they going to take a crack at it on their own, risk infuriating Trump? Or just deal with the bad situation like they did uh uh under the Obama administration, but um pretty amazing uh uh change of events.

• 9:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, I disagree with you in terms of like, let's smoke Iran, because number one, what does it really do, even if we hit him with our big boy bunker busters? Like the whatever the mop fifty seven, the GBU fifty seven. Like they said, like it probably only bring back the program three to six months, right? And Israel Israel kind of needs us because they don't have that. Um. If they could make it like a perfect scenario for me would be like in the deal, there's some kind of language for proxy forces. That can be monitored and like that'll be a step up from the first agreement. Um. I don't know about like what's bombing Iran gonna do for us?

• 9:54Speaker 04

  Well, it's not by I mean, it's it's hitting the.

• 9:56Speaker 03

  Strikes, I'm sorry, yeah.

• 9:57Speaker 04

  We're not going to war with Iran. It would be it would be kind of very pinpointed strikes. But you raise a good point is there's other parts of what a deal could uh uh uh include, which would be? Um, the Iranian support to their proxy forces, the region Iranian missile production. In what in the reporting that I've seen, I don't know if that's included again, which is gonna make one's kind of head explode if.

• 10:18Speaker 03

  I didn't see it either.

• 10:19Speaker 04

  Iran hawk. Um, I think that ultimately Trump wants a deal enough in which he's going to agree to something which is gonna look very similar to.

• 10:27Speaker 03

  Right, and he's gonna take credit and say it's way better and he didn't.

• 10:30Speaker 04

  And Democrats are gonna have the the Democrat, so he's gonna get some Democratic support for this too. The irony, of course, is that this is the Democratic. Party would have supported a President Kamala Harris, for example, if she had gone down this road.

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• 13:42Speaker 04

  So it's really, it's really- Yeah, but you think Republicans would? No, yeah, right. Impossible. No shot. It would be Armageddon right now. And you have Netanyahu, you know, addressing Congress again, screaming about a nuclear deal. So this really throws everything up in the air. But you also have to think, think about what's happened. For example, now it's turned to Yemen. General Corolla, you know, the head of Central Command, laid out about, what, a 10-month plan to severely degrade and perhaps just try to destroy the Houthis. And after a month, Trump got bored. Because we burned through a billion dollars of ordinance. We lost three F-18s and a whole bunch of MQ-9 Reapers. And so literally, against, again, it just said, "Now we're done."

• 14:24Speaker 04

  And declared a ceasefire with the Houthis and leaving everybody hanging out to dry. Other, you know, Israel, again, the Houthis are still shooting stuff off at the Israelis. And we don't even know if this kind of ceasefire between the US and the Houthis also applies to other kind of international- I don't think it does. I think it's just American assets. And so, so again, Trump going against kind of every advice of certainly the US military.

• 14:51Speaker 04

  And ultimately, kind of, kind of going back to that MAGA notion of never, of no more never-ending wars in the region. And and what is interesting to see is kind of the foreign policy blob, you know, which I'm kind of a part of here in DC. You're in New York, so you're a little separate, but you know, you're kind of an adjunct.

• 15:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:12Speaker 04

  Up there in Brooklyn or Queens. Uh, but but ultimately, uh, you know, people are people, you know, so so as literally CENTCOM on their social media. And all everybody was saying, you know, we this is a this is where is this a campaign against the kind of the homicidal Houthi terrorists. Now we just pack up and leave. Okay, we're done. So how do you I mean, you know, it's hard, it's hard for someone to support these. These policies in which Trump just seemingly on a dime just flips, switches. Um, and then and then let's also throw in what you mentioned before. Okay, so now the war in Gaza. Well, Trump seems to be getting sick of Bibi Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. Um, somehow someone has gotten to him finally with the notion about the horrific humanitarian conditions there.

• 15:56Speaker 04

  Um, which is actually a fact. I mean, there's a strange kind of current in Washington that's that that kind of defends the Israeli behavior there, which is indefensible. In terms of civilian casualties, I think they've gone way overboard. I've been a friend of Israel my whole career. We're closely with them, but um, yeah, the idea of killing fifty thousand Palestinians uh, is a is is a bit extreme.

• 16:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:17Speaker 04

  And then then ultimately, the the, you know, not solving the Gaza issue, which well, Trump is now annoyed. You know, we had five American hostages that presumably one has just been the the one living one has been released, but we did it by going behind the Israelis back. The Israelis found about it from their own intel collection, and so they're furious about that, too. Um, uh, again, because I think what um, Trump sees dangling in front of him, you know, the the. The the way to describe Trump now is he's doing some some right, some of the right things for all the wrong reasons. It's not because of.

• 16:47Speaker 03

  Sure, yeah.

• 16:48Speaker 04

  Love of the Palestine.

• 16:49Speaker 03

  Right.

• 16:49Speaker 04

  Fans, I think he wants a Nobel Prize. Um, uh, and so.

• 16:52Speaker 03

  I would agree with you.

• 16:53Speaker 04

  Uh, again, so some some daylight there. And then the final piece is on Syria. On on normalization, a country which I know really well. I've lived there, I've served there. Um, uh, there was a huge argument to be made that we have to have to reengage with Syria to drop these, drop these sanctions. These were third-party sanctions, so ultimately, uh, the US by doing this will allow Syria to reintegrate into the kind of the global financial system. Um, with aid reconstruction, uh, uh, coming in, you know. Right now, ninety percent of Syrians live below the poverty line. Damascus has about an hour of electricity every day, and if you want to. Syria, if you want to ensure Syria become another state sponsor of terrorism, another safe haven, you do this.

• 17:34Speaker 04

  You let them become a failed state. So this is obvious. And I think what I read in the National Review the other day, I do read conservative publications. Um, is that the CIA, my old, uh, that was really pushing for engagement. There's people in the National Security Council, Seb Gorka, who's certainly an extremist, I think. Um, uh, was pushing against this and Trump overruled his own NSC. And on this trip said, I'm giving a favor to Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi ruler of shore, dropping all sanctions. Again, everyone's head in DC exploded.

• 18:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. There really wasn't much like lead up to it, right?

• 18:07Speaker 04

  What?

• 18:08Speaker 03

  And it was also like, oh yeah, I'm gonna meet Al Shara too. In Saudi Arabia.

• 18:13Speaker 04

  Unbelievable. And then he says, you know, Al Shara was someone who, you know, I call him Al Qaeda curious, but he was a member of a Hayat Tahrir Shamm. You know, certainly an Al Qaeda affiliate, um, imprisoned, uh, by us, released, fought US forces. And Trump on Air Force One the other day, I said something like, yeah, he was a tough guy, a strong fighter. Like, imagine Joe Biden saying that.

• 18:34Speaker 03

  No, forget it, bro.

• 18:36Speaker 04

  But, but again, I think it's the right policy. Uh, I get it for the wrong reasons, but the right policy. So, you know, and again, that is something the Israelis were not pushing. They were very suspicious. And in fact, there's been incredible Israeli military activity.

• 18:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, which we haven't really spoken about much. You see a couple blurbs here and there on Twitter and stuff like that, but it's not really reported that, that frequently.

• 18:56Speaker 04

  So, so again, this, maybe I should have said this in the beginning of my theme on this, this is like a strangely Biden-esque foreign policy, you know? Um, caution in Yemen, re-engaging with Syria, pushing Bibi for a settlement in Gaza, getting a hostage home. By the way, Biden administration. Uh, throughout there, kind of into the, into the wind, the notion of, of direct dialogue with Hamas and all the Republicans went crazy. So they didn't do it. And then finally got JCPOA. So all of a sudden Trump is pursuing policies which. On every single level are against traditional, you know, Republican orthodoxy. But you can also make the argument, uh, uh, uh, it does fall in line with that MAGA notion of, of isolationism.

• 19:38Speaker 04

  Um, you know, uh, getting out of the Middle East. And in fact, Trump's speech in Saudi Arabia was pretty extraordinary because it was definitely an isolationist.

• 19:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, he was talking shit about our intervention and interventionist. Yeah, I mean.

• 19:52Speaker 04

  So it's pretty wild.

• 19:53Speaker 03

  Listen, I kind of understand that a little bit. I'm not saying like, oh, we remove all presence of like set special operations and CIA, obviously. Like, we're gonna do what we're gonna do. And that's, that's just how it goes. And if people think differently, they're fucking naive, right? Like, that's the business. That's what we do, right? That's what every country really does. Um. So, yeah, but it was pretty hardcore, like anti-interventionist and like. Foreign wars, which I can kind of get behind, but like, I think there's a balance to be struck. There, that I think we can get to, I hope, anyway.

• 20:28Speaker 04

  I think there's a difference between the rhetoric of that speech and then what he's doing, actually, in the region. Because you can make an argument that, that we actually are, uh, a present.

• 20:37Speaker 03

  I mean, we're bombing the Houthis for 51, you know, some odd days.

• 20:41Speaker 04

  But, but, you know, there is engagement. So into, you know, isolationist means non-engagement. So, but we are.

• 20:47Speaker 03

  Right.

• 20:47Speaker 04

  Uh, it's just with kind of following the old democratic playbook.

• 20:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 20:52Speaker 04

  So it's, uh, it's a, it's fascinating. I think that one of the things, and this is, it's, you know, it's worth discussing. I'm, I thought, you know, we were talking about this morning on MSNBC as well as, you know, for those of us who've been big critics of the Trump administration. Um, you know, you are now faced with some things that he's doing that you actually might support. So you gotta kind of put that aside. You, so what I have to do is call balls and strikes the way I see it. And when he does something that I think is right, I gotta say that.

• 21:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:17Speaker 04

  Uh, uh, you have to dissect why he did that. So again, maybe for the wrong reasons, he's doing the right things. But some of these policies, um, I think are, uh, are, are smart. And, you know, in particular, uh, on, uh, on Syria and also on Gaza as well. I mean, the, the war in Gaza's got to end.

• 21:33Speaker 03

  It's, yeah, bro, it's like, it's.

• 21:35Speaker 04

  Ridiculous.

• 21:36Speaker 03

  It's, I mean, bro, it's genocide. Let's be real. Like, there's elements of Bibi's government that want to wipe it all out, right? Let's be honest.

• 21:45Speaker 04

  It's, this, it's, it's getting to the point now where, and, and again, I think President Trump has recognized that, you know, enough already that humanitarian suffering. There was an article, I think, yesterday in the New York Times. quoting four senior Israeli intelligence or the military officials talking about pending famine in Gaza like this just can't happen anymore.

• 22:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 22:02Speaker 04

  Again, to to I think we're coming to a point where there's going to be a break on Gaza, a full break with Israel on this and then uh the Israelis are gonna have to decide what to do now to the credit of my Israeli friends. Um they want this thing to end as well. Uh there is no, you know, because there is no end game in Gaza and here's here D is the is something that I think that that listeners will will uh certainly understand. You know, you see President Trump with Mohammed bin Salman and with Ahmed Shada, this new Syrian president. In such an easy kind of next frame, you could also have seen President Netanyahu there. Uh, a Prime Minister Netanyahu, sorry, Prime Minister Netanyahu there because if

• 22:43Speaker 04

  the Israelis had agreed to any type of day after in Gaza, any type of future Palestinian entity and call it a state or not, but something. Um, uh, there's so much push for this normalization, um, uh, uh, agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Uh, and the Saudis want it, uh, and and but they need progress in the Palestinian issue, but but Netanyahu's intransigence on this. And the crazies on the right who who kind of thwart him from doing anything on the Palestinians. Um, he could have been there and I think that missed opportunity is now dawning on Israelis. If you read the Israeli press, which I certainly do, and I have friends again in the Israeli security establishment. They all they're looking at this and saying, holy shit, we missed out. And I think it's a spectacular opportunity.

• 23:23Speaker 03

  I'm sure there are sensible Israelis in the national security apparatus and stuff like that, but from my sense, and I have nobody on the inside, it's just from what I read and what I see. Is that the war cabinet and Netanyahu specifically are extremely belligerent. They don't care about starving two million plus people at all. They're using it as a tactic and which is a fucking war crime, however you slice it. We've been into a couple of wars the last 20 years. Do we use starvation as a tactic? Not really.

• 23:54Speaker 03

  Right, right. I mean, like, I know war is disgusting no matter what, but like there is some, there are some rules and like starving 10 year old people, kids. Maybe, maybe not do that.

• 24:06Speaker 04

  Right, the mon- the, the, the, the monstrosity of, of October 7th. Um, and I think I told you all before, I, I went a couple of years ago.

• 24:14Speaker 03

  You saw the forty-five minute thing.

• 24:16Speaker 04

  I saw, I saw the raw footage at the Israeli embassy. I was invited there and it was, it's, it's, it's heart wrenching. Um, that said, killing fifty thousand Palestinians in return and trying to starve them is not the right answer.

• 24:26Speaker 03

  Right.

• 24:27Speaker 04

  Uh, and you know, it is, it, so it is what it is. It's happened now. That sounds horrible, but it can also end.

• 24:32Speaker 03

  Right.

• 24:33Speaker 04

  Um, and now it's time for the war in Gaza to end and for there to be some type of future Palestinian entity. Um, you know, there, there's some, the signs that encourage me a little bit, I've been wrong all the time is the Israelis took a shot at Mohammed Sinwar. That's the new, kind of the military leader of Hamas.

• 24:49Speaker 03

  The brother of Yahya Sinwar, right?

• 24:51Speaker 04

  Uh, so there's, we're still waiting for the kind of the BDA on this, the, the bomb damage assessment. Um, uh, you could conceivably see that as kind of the excuse or the reason why the Israelis say, okay, we can wind this down. Um, uh, and then again, the, the pressure that, that Steve Witkoff, the US envoy is, is placing on the Israelis. I think he talked to Netanyahu several times even yesterday. Trump wants this, the, the, that wants this thing to, to, to wrap up. And again, is it for the right reasons? Maybe not. He wants a Nobel. He wants, and he wants to see kind of, you know, this, you know, kind of the, the, a, a, a more, a, a region in which, you know, we, you can have a lot more, you know, international trade and investment.

• 25:30Speaker 04

  Um, but again, you know, we might come to the point where, where the US, and it's, and it's unique because it's a Republican administration.

• 25:37Speaker 03

  Right.

• 25:38Speaker 04

  Who are more closely aligned with, uh, with the current Israeli government. But pressure from Trump on Netanyahu certainly is more effective than pressure from Biden on Netanyahu.

• 25:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, there was no pressure, Mark. There was no pressure from Biden.

• 25:51Speaker 04

  Well, there, there was, uh, but he's hamstrung by the Republican Congress. Mike Johnson then asks, Speaker of the House Johnson asked Bibi to come address Congress. So.

• 26:00Speaker 03

  Right.

• 26:00Speaker 04

  Time the US tried to do anything, the Republicans in Congress howled that we were banning Is- Israel. Now that Netanyahu, uh, now that Trump is doing all these things that Biden wanted to do. Um, there's, there's a relative silence from the Republicans. So maybe you go down the theory with, of the notion that, hey, Trump is the one who could actually.

• 26:18Speaker 03

  Yeah. There's no question, right? He's not gonna face the double standard that like a Democratic administration would face dealing with the Republicans and stuff like that. Even with the, and the same thing goes for the Japoa, right? If he were to sign an exact carbon copy, he's not getting as much shit.

• 26:36Speaker 04

  Not even close.

• 26:37Speaker 03

  Not even close, like probably not even like, there might be a quote here and there, but like, John Bolton might show up on Fox News, fine.

• 26:44Speaker 04

  Right.

• 26:45Speaker 03

  But it's not gonna be from inside the party.

• 26:47Speaker 04

  Republicans are cowards when it comes to Trump.

• 26:49Speaker 03

  I agree.

• 26:50Speaker 04

  I realize, I think this is, you know, and so, so, but of course, they know better, but um, this will, because, because Trump will also see this as his crowning achievement diplomatically, his road to a Nobel, and he will, I'm sure that it will be messages sent that you oppose me on this will primary you.

• 27:06Speaker 03

  Sure. Yeah, I believe that too.

• 27:08Speaker 04

  But, but what all this means, Dee, is that the Middle East is

• 27:11Speaker 03

  A fucking mess.

• 27:12Speaker 04

  But it's a radically different place than literally the last time I came on this show.

• 27:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:17Speaker 04

  Pretty amazing because, you know, every once in a while, something extraordinary happens, and in this case, it's in multiple arenas. It's in Gaza, maybe, definitely in Syria, and Yemen a hundred percent, because we took our toys and are going home. Um, and on Iran, in a, on steroids. I mean, this is literally today, you read the Washington Post or New York Times, it says, Trump says Iran nearing diplomatic agreement with Iran on nuclear weapons. And if you had put that in front of someone, you know, six months ago, they would have thought you were, you know.

• 27:47Speaker 03

  No way, yeah.

• 27:48Speaker 04

  You were, you were, you know, doing some, uh.

• 27:51Speaker 03

  The interesting thing about the messaging for the, the Iran deal, especially initially, was like, it was mixed messaging, because Rubio had started talking about like, enrichment, and whether they're be able to enrich and not able to enrich, and then the, the administration came out and said, no, they wouldn't be able to, and all that stuff. There was like a lot of mixed messages going on, um, which, I mean, I'm, it confuses most, I mean, most Americans don't know what the fuck's going on, let's be real, like, right, like, they don't care, um, unfortunately, but, uh. It's just like, I don't know, like, I feel like one side of the administration doesn't know what the other side is doing.

• 28:30Speaker 04

  Oh, they don't, right. So, D, you bring up an awesome, awesome point. And so, this is so, such an unorthodox place. There's no inter, in my view, there's no interagency process. So ordinarily, what you do is, is the National Security Council.

• 28:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 28:43Speaker 04

  Would, uh, over time, conduct a series of meetings, starting at mid-level, then going up to the senior levels, eventually, what's called a deputies committee, and then a principals committee. And these are decision points.

• 28:53Speaker 03

  About changing policy.

• 28:55Speaker 04

  Uh, and, and, and, and you have, and each, each relevant agency has a chance to weigh in. I don't think any of this happens now.

• 29:02Speaker 03

  No, no shock.

• 29:03Speaker 04

  I think stuff is done, literally, with, uh, uh, on a napkin in the Oval.

• 29:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:08Speaker 04

  Um, and, you know, one of the things that I think is, uh, it reflects that, is that you have different cabinet members, you know, espousing different positions all the time. So, you know, uh, at one point, and I know we're getting into the technical details, but, um, you know, Rubio, or someone would say, well, we need, we need to have full dismantlement of the Iranian program, including their civilian program. And then the next day, someone, Whitkoff, the envoy, says, no, no, we're good with low enrichment. Nobody, and then you have the DC think tanks, the Prozeral think tanks, howling all the time, that they need, you know, full dismantlement. No one really knows.

• 29:41Speaker 03

  Right.

• 29:42Speaker 04

  What this is. And I don't know, I don't think Trump really cares, actually. I think he wants a deal. So I think we're going to probably get a deal, which is much closer to the Iranian position than it would be to the hardcore position of full dismantlement.

• 29:55Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 29:56Speaker 04

  Of the entire program. Like, because that, that model is Libya, and Muhammed, uh, Muhammed Gaddafi gave up the Libyan program, Libyan nuclear program, at a, with a deal reached with the United States. And then later on, got deposed and killed.

• 30:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 30:09Speaker 04

  That, when you say the Libyan model, another country's like, oh, wait a second.

• 30:12Speaker 03

  I don't want that, yeah. That doesn't sound great.

• 30:17Speaker 04

  So, it's, um, but, but this, this lack of interagency.

• 30:22Speaker 04

  And I know this is, you know, kind of our world here geeking out on, on foreign policy, but that is, I think, really important because then there's no, but there seems to be never be a coordinated position. Let me just, just a little bit, I'll take one quick second to, to, to demonstrate this again. So, and we're not talking Russia, Ukraine today. We don't have time to do that. But, but right now in Turkey, there's a gathering of US officials, Ukrainian officials, and Russian officials. And there's all sorts of chatter on who would show up. And Putin was invited, but he's not showing up. He is showing up. We don't even know what's going to make come of these talks. There's threats if these talks don't, don't succeed, there'll be more sanctions.

• 31:04Speaker 04

  And then Trump in a truth, sorry, in a, in a statement in the UAE today, says, well, nothing's getting done on any of this stuff until I see Putin directly. And everyone's like, where'd that come from? So he just throws everything into disarray once again. And so, you know, again, that's, that's based on very unorthodox decision making. Now, I will say that, that this craziness, which, you know, foreign governments hate, I think we don't like it as well because US is not reliable or predictable. It probably does lead to some of these wild swings in policy, like Trump literally talking to the Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman and says, fuck it, we'll, we'll relax sanctions, which the NSC, their staff, their heads blew off.

• 31:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:47Speaker 04

  So, so you are able as a king to, to make these pronouncements when you don't have a process in which, you know, your advisors come to in a kind of a concerted policy.

• 31:58Speaker 03

  Right.

• 31:59Speaker 04

  Making positions. And so I think, you know, I guess the best, why do you think Trump is so happy in the Gulf now? He wants to be the emir.

• 32:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:07Speaker 04

  Or the crown, or the king. He loves this. And that's.

• 32:09Speaker 03

  I just kind of wish there was a little bit of, I just wish there was kind of a little bit of like. Strategy. A little bit. Yeah, I know. That's like the crazy thing. It's just like every day it might be.

• 32:21Speaker 04

  And everyone's supposed to fall in line. Hey, we're doing this, fall in line. And everyone's like, what? We, we, our whole policy was. Um, uh, to, uh, to, to frankly, uh, uh, try to entice. Behavior change with this, with the Syrians based on a slow process of removing sanctions. Uh, no, they're just.

• 32:43Speaker 03

  Yeah. Which is, that's what I thought too initially. I'm like, wait, they're removing sanctions that have been around for 40 years or whatever. Shouldn't it be like?

• 32:51Speaker 04

  All of them.

• 32:52Speaker 03

  Yeah. Shouldn't it be like, like you said, in increments? Like, I don't know if like he should just open the fucking deluge and, you know?

• 32:58Speaker 04

  Done. Yep. And because, because he doesn't care. Yeah. Now, I still think it's the right move, but it is kind of funny that there's no, there's no process. Now, you know, the, the, what, what this makes is. Fun for us to talk about.

• 33:10Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 33:11Speaker 04

  There's really serious stuff on this, but if you're either an ally or an adversary, the U S is so wildly unpredictable right now. I think. You know, there's, you literally as an intelligence officer. From a foreign country cannot make any kind of. Analytic judgments because.

• 33:27Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 33:28Speaker 04

  Trump is just, is so unpredictable and can swing so wildly, uh, maybe based on the last person he talked to.

• 33:34Speaker 03

  If you're the S D F, are you worried?

• 33:38Speaker 04

  Well, yeah, particularly because we have, you know, we, we, uh, Trump's kind of close relationship with, uh, with, uh, with Turkey.

• 33:44Speaker 03

  Right.

• 33:45Speaker 04

  It's rare to want. Uh, now I think there are, that, you know, there are kind of pieces of this, which perhaps are going to be okay. If, if there can be some kind of rapport between the S D F and the Turks. I mean, things are changing in Turkey as well. The P K K leader now decided that the arms struggle, uh, is, is over. Um, uh, but yeah, I mean, so, but I do, you, you, I mean, that's, that's the perfect, that's what would happen in a policy paper.

• 34:08Speaker 03

  Right, right, right.

• 34:09Speaker 04

  What happens to the S D F?

• 34:10Speaker 03

  Right.

• 34:11Speaker 04

  You're doing, what happens here and, and there and you kind of maneuver around instead of, but now it's like, okay. And by the way, every ally of ours is saying, what does this mean? Hold on a sec. Yeah, wait, wait. What just

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• 35:49Speaker 04

  Happened. And the prime example, of course, being the Israelis.

• 35:55Speaker 03

  Sure. Listen, I'm going to be completely honest. I think God, there needs to be ceasefire yesterday in Gaza. What's going on is a fucking travesty. And like, Israel's, I've said it before, Israel's really good at like targeted assassination and intelligence. That's the route they should have took with dealing with Hamas in Gaza, instead of like just wiping out the whole place. Because what'd we say? There was 30, 40,000 Gaza fighters, Hamas fighters, in a city of 2.3 million people, right?

• 36:27Speaker 03

  The the ca- the civilian casualty to a combatant casualty rate is like out of control. It's just a- a- and it's it's sad, man, like it's a it's I it's a real bummer and I have no faith in Netanyahu and his war cabinet. I think me Netanyahu wants to keep a perpetual war going because you know he's gonna have to face the corruption charges if and when it's over. Because there was also reports about even if they do deals for for hostages, we're still going into Gaza.

• 36:57Speaker 04

  Right, and so again, that that's gonna be against the wishes of President Trump. So then we are coming in the daylight now is is is getting to be so great. And there's a lot of Israelis I talked to who are actually very supportive of Trump giving, you know, being tough with Netanyahu. Um, because nothing else has worked.

• 37:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 37:14Speaker 04

  Uh, and so so you know, now it's gonna be kind of a crunch time, you know, what's gonna happen uh uh here when? Um, and and you know, you know, uh, Steve Witkoff, the the envoy has been very critical um uh Israelis. And so I mean, the the so you know, again, it's you I wake up and it's Thursday and you're like, okay, what's happening today? So he's in the UAE. Um, but then there's but there's also these meetings going on in Istanbul with Russia, Ukraine. But then you think about, okay, what are the next steps? Um, uh, you know, particularly with the with Gaza, because and again, all this is is kind of lost in all this noise. Netanyahu said they would uh they would actually start their offensive at the end of Trump's trip to the Middle East. Um, if though, but Trump said, oh, I want a hostage deal and a ceasefire.

• 38:00Speaker 04

  That's tomorrow, like here, I mean, maybe not tomorrow because it's a religious holiday, you know, it's it's Friday in Israel. But we're talking that we're talking every day you wake up and say, this is a significant day.

• 38:09Speaker 03

  Every day, yeah, it's it's nuts. And it's also a little uh nerve wracking because every day the administration could change his poly- policy position one eight.

• 38:20Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 38:21Speaker 03

  Which is nuts. I'm not saying like.

• 38:23Speaker 04

  Right, yeah. Uh, uh, it's like this, so so the you know, accepting this this uh Cudbury Air Force seven forty uh Cudbury seven forty seven is such a stupid own goal. By by Trump now, you know, the Qataris never should have offered um uh they kind of own half the town already. I mean, it's ridiculous. So this is.

• 38:40Speaker 03

  They dropping a ton of money and like lobbying and stuff?

• 38:43Speaker 04

  They do and everything, you know, they're they're they funded university and all this is kind of up and up. But they funded universities, think tanks, DC, they spend a ton of money, their influence is massive here. And that's just the way Washington works.

• 38:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:54Speaker 04

  Um, uh, the Israelis do the same, the Saudis do the same, the Greek lobby is very active. I mean, everybody lobbies here.

• 39:00Speaker 03

  Greek lobby, send me some fucking money, man.

• 39:02Speaker 04

  Right, but but ultimately, uh, uh, this was a real, it's a huge own goal because it distracts from. You can argue was a successful trip. Uh, but everyone is talking about this because the corruption is so blatant and disgusting and and you know, I mean. Uh, you know, uh, Senator Kennedy from Louisiana, uh, uh, said he trusts the Qataris as he as much as he trusts a bathroom rest stop. Which then on MSNBC yesterday, I commented on air, that gives me memories of New Jersey turnpike rest stops and.

• 39:33Speaker 04

  Uh, but but ultimately, um, uh, the the Trump administration also has a uh, a a kind of this self defeat mechanism. That they seem to hit every once in a while, whether it's Signal Gate. Uh, uh, or you know, some kind of just ridiculous, like the the the the plane fiasco is just totally unnecessary.

• 39:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:50Speaker 04

  Took away from uh, and that's what everyone's talking about on the trip.

• 39:53Speaker 03

  And also think about it, like you said, it's going to cost hundreds of millions or a billion dollars to retrofit Air Force One to become. Secure, right? Because it's an Air Force jet that the president rides on.

• 40:04Speaker 04

  Because it's a nuclear command post.

• 40:05Speaker 03

  Right, uh, so like, how is that helping us? It's you're getting a four hundred million dollar gift, but you have to pay another billion to make it work. Also, Pam Bondi, I'm going to get a little partisan here, Pam Bondi is a rat. She was a Qatari lobbyist, making a hundred fifteen thousand dollars a month from the Qatari government to lobby for them. She okayed this as if it's as if it's. Normal like meanwhile.

• 40:28Speaker 04

  Republican circles, right. But the D when I talk privately to any Republican, they're just like, oh, my God.

• 40:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, how can you not? How can you? It's just so.

• 40:37Speaker 04

  And and it's Qatar, which is kryptonite here in DC too, because of their role in in as me is a mediator with the Taliban, with Hamas.

• 40:45Speaker 03

  Right.

• 40:45Speaker 04

  Um, now, El Uday Air Force Base is the biggest US military base in the region. So the Qataris are an ally. Uh, but there's there's some dark side to Qatari stuff. Um, and so it's probably, you know, I mean, I don't know if if if Trump went to France and President Macron gave him an, you know, an Airbus jet.

• 41:01Speaker 03

  Right.

• 41:02Speaker 04

  It happened because it's a European company, but I don't think anyone would care as much. Um, the fact it came from Qatar.

• 41:08Speaker 03

  I don't know about that. You think so?

• 41:11Speaker 04

  If the French gave us a jet, I don't know, it'd be like the Statue of Liberty. I don't know.

• 41:14Speaker 03

  I don't know, man. I think it's like that. I mean, listen, I get like the connotations that Qatar has where they are deeply involved in.

• 41:22Speaker 04

  No, you can't have Air Force One be from a foreign government. That's.

• 41:25Speaker 03

  At all. Yeah, you can't do it.

• 41:28Speaker 04

  French intelligence would have a field day with this, but I guess, you know, they they chose, they certainly chose the wrong country. I mean, I don't know. Get a jet Canada or something.

• 41:36Speaker 03

  They should have done. They should have done what the Saudi government did and just buy like $500 million worth of Trump's Trump meme coin.

• 41:43Speaker 04

  What they probably have done.

• 41:44Speaker 03

  That's what they should have done. That's what's going on right now.

• 41:46Speaker 04

  Yeah. And and now that there's another, you know, whole, whole discussion here is how screwed up Boeing is. That these these Air Force One jets are so, um, uh, the cost overruns are massive. They're they're certainly delayed. Uh, Boeing is at a rough time, although Boeing had a great trip. The irony of this is Trump is pissed at Boeing because they've screwed up the whole Air Force One procurement. Yet, yet Boeing had, uh, just made, you know.

• 42:09Speaker 03

  90 billion dollars.

• 42:10Speaker 04

  Yeah, uh, on this trip. And so, you know.

• 42:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, there's no real clear strategy. And if someone tries to tell me he's playing five D, four D chess, I'm like, no, he doesn't probably know how to play regular chess. Let's be honest.

• 42:22Speaker 04

  I can't, you know, again, that that's and every once in a while, you'll see a MAGA foreign policy person pop up and say, look at the genius of Trump.

• 42:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, I can't. I'm sorry. It's like at the same level, like people talking about how Putin's a strategic genius. Yeah, like, yeah. Putin, because Putin thought this would be over in a week in Ukraine, and he's three years in, so. Uh, man, it's crazy cuz it's like there's so much happening and I guess this is part of their, you know, the flood the zone thing, but to like pinpoint stuff of what's going on, i- i- it's really wild. And to me, I mean, if I'm a foreign government, I'm i- it's transactional, we're all right with the with Trump specifically in the administration. So I'm, if I really wanna curry favor, I'm making things transactional, just like Saudi Arabia, Qatar does, UAE does. Um,

• 43:10Speaker 03

  yeah, I don't know what the fuck's gonna happen tomorrow. Gonna be honest. I mean, it's good for us.

• 43:15Speaker 04

  If you're smart, you would say, you're like, you're living in Brooklyn or Queens.

• 43:18Speaker 03

  Brooklyn.

• 43:19Speaker 04

  If you're smart, you would, you would tomorrow come to the administration with a proposal to build a Trump Tower in Brooklyn.

• 43:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, I know. Right. I would get probably paid.

• 43:28Speaker 04

  That's, that's it. That's it. Uh, and so, you know, and, and so everyone has that playbook. You know, one of the things that I think would be fun to see, um, which would probably be very brief, would be the leadership, the leadership profile that intelligence services always do on foreign leaders, on foreign heads of state. The one on Trump is probably a paragraph. You know, the one on, uh, on, on, uh, you know, on Biden or Obama was probably five pages.

• 43:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:55Speaker 04

  All the, but Trump is pretty easy.

• 43:57Speaker 03

  Right.

• 43:58Speaker 04

  How to, how to examine, manipulate, deal with. Um, you know, everyone loves getting on their hands and knees. It seems to work. Now it works for a short period of time.

• 44:07Speaker 03

  Right.

• 44:07Speaker 04

  You know, what I always tell people is, you know, gotta be careful if you're gonna go blow Trump cuz he's gonna, you know, he's gonna give you something right after that, but you know, three hours later.

• 44:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, he's like a goldfish.

• 44:17Speaker 04

  Um, and so, but, but that's what works. And so you see, you know, flattery seems to work. The Brits have seemed to have mastered this because Trump is enamored with the British royal family. So Starmer, the, the British Prime Minister comes with an invite to see King Charles and Trump's like, great, I love you.

• 44:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 44:35Speaker 04

  There's little pieces like that, that, you know, the, the Gulf Arabs know that Trump loves pomp and circumstances is wowed by wealth. And so when he goes there, he sees, you know, wealth on steroids.

• 44:46Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:46Speaker 04

  Um, that, that gets to him. Uh, you know, everybody kind of has that, you know, what is that one key thing that's gonna, that's gonna kind of pique his interest? Um, uh, and so those leadership profiles are probably not that, uh, that complex.

• 44:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's not super in-depth cited. Yeah, it's just like, give him a carrot, give him something shiny and he'll do almost anything you want.

• 45:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, uh, investment Trump Tower or something. I mean, Ahmed Shada said, I want to build a Trump Tower in Damascus.

• 45:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, I saw that.

• 45:12Speaker 04

  Music. And in fact, the matter is, I've lived in Damascus. You could do it. There's a Four Seasons there.

• 45:17Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 45:17Speaker 04

  Oh, and so, you know, there, it, it, and, and it's, it's a, it's a, it's a magical city. That's the oldest city on the planet. You could think of a thousand reasons why this could actually happen.

• 45:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:27Speaker 04

  So.

• 45:28Speaker 03

  Are you, are you worried at all that this guy's a former jihadi?

• 45:32Speaker 04

  Uh, I mean, you know, uh, uh, uh, sure. I mean, it's, it's a data point, but you also have to understand he's got, you know, the Turks, um, uh, you know, behind him in the sense of as probably a modulating force. And but most importantly, um, it's trust in, you know, uh, uh, uh, you know, you don't trust, you, you, whatever, trust but verify.

• 45:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 45:51Speaker 04

  Um, so, you know, though everyone's watching, you know, is he going to have an inclusive government? So far, sort of. Um, you know, uh, is he, you know, is he going to kick out the Iranians? He says he's going to. Is he going to kick out the Palestinian rejectionist groups? He says he's going to. Let's see. Um, and so, uh, uh, along with, there's going to be stumbles along the way, but I guess the opposite is that you can't leave someone like that. Without, you know, you know, in, in a, in a state of kind of desperation and poverty.

• 46:20Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 46:20Speaker 04

  Um, and so, and this is, this is completely different than the Taliban. You know, Damascus is a place where, you know, people can walk out in the streets, you know, free. There's alcohol, women go to schools. It's, it's not, I mean, it's not draconian at all.

• 46:33Speaker 03

  Right.

• 46:33Speaker 04

  Um, and so, uh, you know, is there reason to be to, to, to, to monitor? Sure.

• 46:38Speaker 03

  Um, so I, I know SDF is like the real, like the main force driving the fight against ISIS in the area, but I.

• 46:45Speaker 04

  They're going to as well.

• 46:46Speaker 03

  That's what I was gonna, that's my question.

• 46:47Speaker 04

  Hundred percent. Yeah. And, and if you, if you think about that as well, um, uh, not only is, is he, he, he apparently, uh, Shada, they have helped, uh, in the counter ISIS fight. But of course Al Qaeda and ISIS are enemies.

• 46:59Speaker 03

  Right.

• 46:59Speaker 04

  So, so, you know, ideologically, uh, Shada doesn't like ISIS to begin with, e- even if you say he's never changed from an AQ guy.

• 47:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 47:07Speaker 04

  But again, but I think that there's, there's enough evidence out there to show that he has reformed enough and you just gotta keep on.

• 47:13Speaker 03

  Plus, he's the, he's the boss now, so he's there, right? Like you gotta deal with whoever's there, right? And it's better than Assad as of right now.

• 47:22Speaker 04

  I mean, it's not even close. So that to me, that's a, that's a no brainer, you know? Uh, you know, uh, Bashar al-Assad killed half a million Syrians, six million refugees is a war.

• 47:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:33Speaker 04

  Saddam might be an old, old kind of terrorist asshole, but he seems to have performed enough for us to deal with him.

• 47:39Speaker 03

  Is Russia, is Russia angling to get back in there?

• 47:42Speaker 04

  Yes, that's a key point. And so that's another thing is that we're going to want to keep Russia out. Now that's a big question. Um, but that's another thing that we can monitor.

• 47:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:50Speaker 04

  And so that, that, you know, the, the, the Russian influence, um, there, that's, I'm sure is a point of discussion between uh, US and Syrian officials. And of course, the Turks are going to want to keep the Russians out as well.

• 48:04Speaker 03

  Syria is like this fucking place, this menagerie of like mayhem, dude. Who's fighting who? Who's aligned with who? But they're also aligned with this other group. It is unbelievable, man.

• 48:18Speaker 03

  Mark, where can people find you? On Twitter, on Blue Sky, everywhere?

• 48:23Speaker 04

  At M Polymer on Blue Sky as well. I don't even know my Blue Sky thing, but you can find me on there. At M Polymer or something, Blue Sky. Um, uh, and, uh, and as, as I've hinted before, it's the, the long awaited uh, debut of a new kind of, uh, uh, podcast series I'm involved with is coming at the end of the month.

• 48:41Speaker 03

  Nice. Oh, good, good. That's awesome.

• 48:43Speaker 04

  Uh, overseas based, uh, uh, in a friendly country, but.

• 48:47Speaker 03

  I was gonna say not Qatari, right?

• 48:49Speaker 04

  Oh, God, no. But it's, it's gonna be, uh, it's gonna be fun and I will certainly let you all know. And I can still come on as a guest.

• 48:56Speaker 03

  We better come on, man. I'm gonna put all the links to Mark in the description. Check him out, uh, check him out on MSNBC and look out for his new podcast coming out.

• 49:06Speaker 06

  Hi, I'm Jenna Ashkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At The Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.

• 49:21Speaker 07

  People would always think I was lactose intolerant, so I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic. In a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.

• 49:31Speaker 06

  And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone.

• 49:37Speaker 08

  One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies.

• 49:43Speaker 06

  So join us and hear their stories and more because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat. It's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At The Table, the food allergy podcast on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At The Table and start listening on the free iHeart radio app today.

• 50:02Speaker 09

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• 50:33Speaker 03

  A couple, few weeks.

• 50:34Speaker 04

  And again, the big story here not only changes in the Middle East, but I've actually agreed with Trump administration policy. And I hope your listeners notice that because it doesn't happen often.

• 50:45Speaker 03

  Honestly, so have I. I'm telling you, if he's pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza, I'm in. If he's also pushing for an Iran nuclear, however it looks like, I would love some proxy force language in there. I'm in because I don't think bombing Iran is really, bombing Iranian nuclear facilities is really going to do anything to stop them. If I'm Iran, I would dig deeper and build it even deeper where no one can get it. And then like, hey, I have a nuclear weapon now. What are you guys going to do? Right? Because that's the ultimate regime security, right? Like we talked about with Libya. So yeah, I do agree with some of the stuff. Hopefully tomorrow or next week, it doesn't change completely.

• 51:22Speaker 04

  Probably will. This is fleeting.

• 51:24Speaker 03

  Right. Yeah. So guys, stay tuned because every day is a new adventure.

• 51:29Speaker 04

  And they'll screw something up in Russia, Ukraine too. So anyhow, but Dee, awesome, awesome to see you as always. Keep the faith. And as we've said before, you know, when we have the kind of the Greek mafia that taking over the team house, that's always a good thing.

• 51:43Speaker 03

  We're already running the CIA.

• 51:44Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 51:45Speaker 03

  Right? So guys, see you later, Mark. Thank you. I'm going to finish up.

• 51:51Speaker 03

  Guys, do me a favor. Don't forget to like and subscribe. Check out Mark, of course. His links are in the description. And the best way to support the show is patreon.com/the team house. You get both Eyes On and the Team House ad free if you join. And uh, yeah, thanks a lot. Mark, thanks again, man. Thanks, bud. See ya.

• 52:11Jack Murphy?

  Guys, it's Jack. I just want to talk to you for a moment about how you can support the show. If you've been watching it, enjoying it, but you'd like to get a little bit more involved and help us continue to do this, you can check out our Patreon. It is patreon.com/the team house. And for $5 a month, you can get access to all of these episodes of the Team House ad free. Uh, the same goes with our affiliated podcast Eyes On with Andy Milburn, Jason Lyons, McMulroy. Uh, that one, you will also get all of those episodes ad free. And uh, you support the channel and the show and we really appreciate it. The Patreon members are literally what has helped this company, this small business survive, um, especially during our early years.

• 52:56Jack Murphy?

  And you are what continues to help this thing going even as we navigate the turbulent world of YouTube advertising. So we really appreciate all of you guys. Um, there's going to be a link down in the description to that Patreon page. And there is also going to be a link to our new merch shop. Uh, so if you guys want to go and get some Team House merchandise, we got stickers. And we also have patches. And I should mention, if you sign up for Patreon at $10 a month, we will mail you this patch as well. So we really appreciate that. Um, but they're also for sale on the merch shop. And additionally, they got t-shirts up there, water bottles, a tote bag, coffee mugs, all that good stuff.

• 53:40Jack Murphy?

  Um, so please go and check them out and support the show. Uh, we really appreciate it, guys. Thank you.

• 53:48Speaker 06

  Hi, I'm Jenna Oshkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At the Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.

• 54:03Speaker 07

  People would always think I was lactose intolerant, so I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic, in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.

• 54:14Speaker 06

  And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone.

• 54:19Speaker 08

  One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies.

• 54:25Speaker 06

  So join us and hear their stories and more, because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat. It's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At the Table, the food allergy podcast, on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At the Table and start listening on the free iHeart Radio app today.

• 54:45Speaker 09

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 55:27Speaker 06

  Hi, I'm Jenna Oshkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At the Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.

• 55:42Speaker 07

  People would always think I was lactose intolerant, so I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic, in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.

• 55:53Speaker 06

  And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone.

• 55:58Speaker 08

  One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies.

• 56:04Speaker 06

  So join us and hear their stories and more, because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat. It's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At the Table, the food allergy podcast, on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At the Table and start listening on the free iHeart Radio app today.

• 56:24Speaker 10

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds, up to $200,000, right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 57:09Speaker 06

  Hi, I'm Jenna Ushkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At the Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.

• 57:24Speaker 07

  People would always think I was lactose intolerant, so I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic, in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.

• 57:35Speaker 06

  And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone.

• 57:40Speaker 08

  One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies.

• 57:46Speaker 06

  So join us and hear their stories and more, because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat. It's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At the Table, the food allergy podcast, on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At the Table and start listening on the free iHeart Radio app today.

• 58:06Speaker 10

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of 5-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 58:34Speaker 00

  She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.

• 58:47Speaker 01

  Zolair 150mg is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people one year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Zolair, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Zolair. Zolair may cause a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Zolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Zolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, while avoiding food allergens. Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection, or heart and circulation problems have been reported. Please see zolair.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist about Zolair.

• 59:30Speaker 01

  This is an advertisement for Zolair, paid for by Genentech and Novartis.

• 59:34Speaker 10

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds, up to $200,000, right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.