Trump and Kushner’s Disastrous Iran War: What Comes Next?
Trump and Kushner chose a war they don’t understand, thinking they can use 20th-century "shock and awe" to topple a deeply entrenched terrorist state. The Iranian people are caught between two maniacal regimes and deserve our solidarity: an estimated 30,000 Iranians were just killed by their own government, and now they’re being bombed by a Fox News host.
Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman joins Gaslit Nation to discuss the surreal hallucinating AI simulation we’ve found ourselves in. Meanwhile, Trump and Vance need to thank Zelensky and Ukraine for their innovative drone-fighting technology–some of the best in the world. Has Vance even said thank you yet?
We also prepare Americans for the reality that the "moats" of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans no longer protect us. As drone technology becomes cheaper and more accessible, the same over-the-counter drones terrorizing Kherson, Ukraine are coming for American streets–thanks to Trump galvanizing terrorists, and opportunistic mafia states like Russia that empower groups like ISIS.
Like Russia, Trump thinks he can conquer a nation in three days.
Join us on April 13th at Powerhouse Books in Dumbo, Brooklyn for the launch of Andrea’s graphic novel, Mrs. Orwell. Olga Lautman will be there as we discuss how to survive the "Great Disillusionment" and protect our democracy from the opportunists selling us out for profit. Details here: https://powerhousearena.com/events/book-launch-mrs-orwell-by-andrea-chalupa-in-conversation-with-nomiki-konst/. Patreon supporters get in for free!
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Show Notes:
Opening clip: Trump: "Iran is just a military operation to me. Iran is something that was essentially largely over in two or three days." The war in Iran has already lasted 18 days. https://bsky.app/profile/thebulwark.com/post/3mhbhx7qfpn2l
Um, What Is Going on With Melania Trump in This Video?
https://www.vogue.com/article/melania-trump-vladimir-putin-helsinki-video
Andrea’s thread on the Melania propaganda film which you should not watch https://bsky.app/profile/andreachalupa.bsky.social/post/3mgqndjhz4k2b
This article is more than 1 month old Disappeared bodies, mass burials and ‘30,000 dead’: what is the truth of Iran’s death toll? https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/27/iran-protests-death-toll-disappeared-bodies-mass-burials-30000-dead
Warren Buffett’s parting gift to Berkshire Hathaway: a $2 billion Iran oil windfall https://www.marketwatch.com/story/warren-buffetts-parting-gift-to-berkshire-hathaway-a-2-billion-iran-oil-windfall-4daf28ba
Russia is aiding Iran’s war effort by providing intel on US military targets, sources say https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/06/politics/russia-aiding-iran-targeting
How Russian military intelligence used the Taliban to bleed U.S. forces at the end of America’s longest war https://theins.ru/en/politics/277723
Putin Is No Ally in the War on Terror in 2024 https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/putin-no-ally-war-terror-2024
Watch Zerina Zabrisky’s powerful film for free and spread the word about Russia’s human safaris in Ukraine https://khersonhumansafari.com/
Interview with Zerina Zabrisky: https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/episodes-transcripts-20/2025/11/4/is-donald-trump-dying-jd-vance-seems-to-think-so
Why are so many from this Russian republic fighting for ISIS? https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/many-russian-republic-fighting-isis
Putin is No Ally Against ISIS https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/putin-no-ally-against-isis-by-george-soros-2016-02
New York explosive incident highlights challenge for agencies in wake of Iran war https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/new-york-explosive-incident-highlights-challenge-for-agencies-in-wake-of-iran-war
Dubai financial district rattled by Iranian drones https://www.ft.com/content/2dddfaa2-a163-4e59-a6ef-7d9d6e334023?syn-25a6b1a6=1
Reporter (00:00:00):
Is Iran now a bigger foreign policy priority for you than China. And on Cuba. The Cuban Government.
Donald Trump (00:00:06):
Iran is just a military operation to me. Iran is something that was essentially largely over in two or three days.
Andrea Chalupa (00:00:26):
All right, everyone. Big announcement, world renowned Russian mafia expert. My sister from another mother and father, however you say it, Olga Lautman will be with me in New York City in one of the greatest neighborhoods in one of this greatest of all cities, Dumbo, Brooklyn, where you have a stunning view of the Brooklyn Bridge. And we're going to be at Powerhouse Books Arena on April 13th for the launch of my graphic novel, Mrs. Orwell, that I spent a million years on. It's been an idea in my head for so long and it finally is coming out. And Olga will be there supporting the launch and talking to you who attends about how important this book is, especially in understanding in the war we face today. Mrs. Orwell is the story of Eileen Blair, George Orwell's wife and Muse, who fought relentlessly for the future and helped shape Orwell's voice and saved his life on two different occasions.
(00:01:31):
There would've literally been no George Orwell if we're not for Mrs. Orwell. So come join us on Monday, April 13th, that evening at Powerhouse Books Arena. It's going to be Gaslit Nation Prom Night with some of my dearest friends, including Razom for Ukraine, an amazing group that is on the front lines fighting for Ukraine when so much of the world, especially here at home in the US has abandoned Ukraine, but not us because Ukraine is the frontline, the laboratory of Kremlin aggression as we've been warning you for so long now. Now in this conversation, we are going into Iran as an extraordinarily explosive frontline in this global war. And it's obviously both sides in this war suck. Let's just get that out of the ... It's like fighting tyrants, but so much has changed in warfare in the 21st century as the US is finding out and demanding, begging from Ukraine, because suddenly Zelenskyy has the cards because Ukraine is the number one innovator in drone warfare.
(00:02:39):
And guess what? America with your big burly weapons, Iran and its proxies can do a lot of damage as you're seeing with their drones. So you need Ukraine to suddenly be there for you, don't you? It's not ironic. Trump and Vance. Let's hear you say thank you Vance for Ukraine's help. Okay, so Olga, come on in. What are you seeing in this war? What are you tracking with your Trump tyranny tracker?
Olga Lautman (00:03:08):
I can now wait till your launch. I'm so, so, so excited and I can't wait to be there and to support you. And it's going to be a wonderful night. And Razom, for people who don't know, they're amazing. They've been on the front lines in Ukraine, working with humanitarian stuff and doing pretty much everything. Since 2014 when the Russia's war and invasion started. Not one of these fly by night pop-ups that popped up in 22. They are there the real deal and they've been working on these issues and helping the defenders on the front line and doing everything since 2014. So that's excellent that they're coming to support you. That's going to be a lot of fun and to highlight Ukraine. And back to Iran, yeah, this is incredible what is happening with Iran because you have Trump. First of all, the Iranian regime, for people who do not know, they were the number one regime that jumped to assist Russia immediately, immediately after Russia's full scale invasion in 2022.
(00:04:25):
China took their time and they were kind of sitting in the background for a bit. North Korea took their time and we're sitting in the background, but Iran stepped in immediately. It wasn't even like a few months after the full scale invasion that Iran sent IRGC commanders to illegally occupy Crimea to train the Russians on their Shahed drones. And then they helped the Russians mass produce these drones. So basically all the drones that we see, hundreds per night. I laugh because the Middle East can't handle a few dozen drones. And I'm like, Ukraine, a few dozen is like no one even like people yawn about it. Everyone's like, "Oh, let me go get coffee." Because Ukraine has warms of five, 600, 700 drones, 400 drones on a slow night. So Iranians were the first to help. So no one is crying for this regime, good riddance, good riddance that Hameeni has been assassinated, although I'm not ... That we need to figure out because Trump and Israel are crossing so many lines with assassinating leaders.
(00:05:48):
And even though this moment it looks good because it is the Iranian regime and this is a very brutal regime who's killed hundreds of thousands of their own executed people on the street. The fact is that we still have international laws and once you open that door to taking out leaders and national security people and high level senior officials and governments, this can come and bite the United States later on down the line because this is something, once you open that door, you have to be prepared for the consequences and this can happen to United States and it can happen to any country. I mean, China can say, "You know what? I want Taiwan. I don't like their government. We're just going to assassinate them all. " So this is a dangerous road that we're going on, but Trump got pulled into something he has no blessed idea.
(00:06:47):
I mean, it is incredible watching that he got pulled in thinking that this was going to be Venezuela, that he's going to pop in, Israel's going to assassinate Khameneiand that's it. And they're going to put somebody in charge and that's it. He doesn't understand the Iranian mindset or the Middle Eastern mindset, and that absolutely no one is going to bend to Trump's will and that the Iranians will fight to the end. They have nothing to lose. This is a few thousand year old civilization. They're not going to say, "Oh, America is pushing us, therefore we must surrender." This is not their mindset. It will never be their mindset, nor is it the mindset of the Saudis or anyone in the region, and that's it. So Trump got pulled into something that he doesn't know how to get out of. And it's going to be interesting to see because the Iranians are playing the game, which is very predictable.
(00:07:54):
I mean, the fact that Trump sat there and admitted that he's shocked that the Iranians are hitting Dubai and hitting Saudi and Kuwait and Iraq and hitting all the Gulf countries. The fact he's shocked, I am not an Iranian expert and I could have laid out this game plan as a very normal scenario that the minute that they get attacked, that they will lash out at all their neighbors that host US bases and that they will close the straight of hormones. So I mean, this was all predictable. This is why 50 years, the United States hasn't done anything there because they didn't want to open up that hornet's nest and that's it. Here, Trump now is stuck because if he ends this, I can promise you the recruitment by Iran, the amount of terrorists they will be able to recruit will be through the roof.
(00:08:58):
People will be standing in line to join their movement, whether through Hezbollah, Houthis, Hamas, or just straightforward Iran, because they will say that we defeated the quote unquote, as they call the United States, the great Satan. So he cannot back out because if he backs out, this is going to make Iran even more dangerous than we've ever seen in the past five decades. And if he continues fighting, Iran can take this. They have no ... These are ruthless regimes. And the sad part is that you have a lot of Westerners who think with a Western mentality without realizing that these regimes will continue going on. They expect their people to sacrifice everything. I mean, there's a reason that the Soviets stood in line for breadcrumbs and that the Russians will have no internet and no food and nothing to sacrifice for their mother country. Same thing with Iranians, but they also know the weapon that in the West, people can sacrifice.
(00:10:20):
If we get to four or five, six, $7 gas prices per hay called gallon, if we get to inflation going through the roof, people are going to start pressuring their governments to say, "What are you doing enough? We don't care about Iran," which the majority of people in America really don't. They're worried how to pay their bills and how to put food on the table and pay the ridiculous utility bills are like going through the roof because for some reason we all have to pay for data centers. The majority of people don't care about Iran, wait till it goes up. So in a democracy, it's much harder, even though Trump is an autocrat. He still has pressure points. He still has billionaires and donors who are going to say, "We cannot function. Our companies are going to suffer severely." What about the Saudis who are funding lining Kushner's wallets for decades?
(00:11:29):
How long can they go on? How long can Qatar go on? So we'll see. We'll see. It'll be interesting to see, but Trump really got himself into something that I don't even know if he understands what deep shit he got into. I'm not sure he does.
Andrea Chalupa (00:11:52):
You are exactly right. And I have so many things to say based on what you're saying. And I'll start with this. For years, the Pentagon has been salivating over signs of regime change in Iran. It is true that there were massive protests. The Iranian regime overplayed its hand with its abusive corrupt morality police. There were several victims, women that were beaten, tortured to death, and that rallied, galvanized the people. We saw viral videos more and more of not just these protests, but everyday Iranians in the street singing, dancing to pop music, which would normally get you arrested, beaten, tortured. And the regime couldn't do anything because they were being punished for having overplayed their hand. And on top of that, they knew they were fragile because the economy in Iran has collapsed. There's been a massive drought, massive inflation. The people are pissed. They're rising up across society, taking great personal risk to do so.
(00:13:05):
And so the Pentagon became overconfident with their Christian nationalist doctrine thinking, "This is our time finally to strike." And they were convinced that they could do it. And obviously they had the Israeli lobby represented by Kushner, who's closely tied with Netanyahu. Netanyahu is an old family friend of the Kushners. Netanyahu has stayed in the Kushner's home over the years visiting the US. When the hostages were finally freed, it was Kushner and Ivanka who were putting in their facetime in Tel Aviv addressing the sea of protestors against Netanyahu being this sort of moderating force representing Israel's interests in the US and Israeli relationship. And so they're striking because they thought now after, like you said, 50 years, Iran is finally ready. It's our chance. And the Iranian regime obviously saw that coming because what they did was they unleashed their own terror and they rounded up, arrested, killed high estimates of around 30,000 people just this year alone, 30,000 people.
(00:14:23):
And that is the heart of civil society. Civil society isn't a lot of people typically, right? 30,000 people is massive. Just to put that in perspective, during Euromadan where you had the Trumpian Yanukovich, Russian backed oligarch, unleashing riot police and snipers backed by Russian special ops, shooting Ukrainian protestors in Euromadan in their popular uprising in 2014, that was around a hundred that were killed, around 100. The Iranian regime killed up to 30,000, that's the highest estimate, but 7,000 to 30,000. That's massive. Those people are traumatized. And now you have the might of a drunken US military and a vengeful Kushner Israeli military coming in and just reigning hell on them and expecting the Iranian people to then rise up and finish the job and complete US and Israeli-driven regime change. How do you expect them to do that when you're bombing their children and their schools?
(00:15:36):
And so the whole in playbook, and I know the news is reporting that Trump and the Israelis, they managed to kill some of these ruthless Iranian terror squads, the people that have Iranian blood, their own people's blood on their hands. And so some of those assholes have been taken out. That's great. But war is trauma. War is terror. War kills children. War kills pregnant women. That is what the United States government and Israel are doing to the Iranian people who in their equation, in their wishful thinking, they are depending on to finish the job of completing this conflict and stabilizing it and ushering in a new government. The whole thing is cuckoo. What are your thoughts on that?
Olga Lautman (00:16:34):
Well, for starters, change of a regime has to come from in. It's from inside. It's never worked from outside. Outside, other countries can provide support, arm protestors for starters, provide money, and help covertly. But to bomb regimes, you cannot change a regime from the sky. You could bomb to a kingdom come. You cannot change a regime. And a true regime change, one that really is effective, has to come from inside, from the people. And with this bombing, even if they bomb everyone and kill everyone, this is a different system that they set up. The IRGC, the Supreme leader, this is a different system. This is not like in the United States or in France or in Germany. This is a whole rotted system. It's the same thing. If you kill Putin, even with that, with Russia, if you kill Putin, it'll temporarily disrupt and give everyone ... They can breathe for a second, but the rot runs through the security services.
(00:18:05):
The rod runs through the National Security Council. The rot runs through all the agencies. There is no way that you can eliminate all of that as an outsider. This has to come from people inside who are done with it, who want change. And I used to laugh when US and other governments used to say, "Oh yeah, yeah, support Navalny." And I'm like, "First of all, if Nivani ever walked into Russia, even if Putin somehow got killed and whatnot, and the regime was overthrown, if he walked in, you'd really have to have US military, like babysitting him, even when he's going to the bathroom, because he wouldn't survive even an hour in power because this is not one, the will of the people. " Even though for the West, he was very popular inside. I think his approval rating was what, 5%, 10.This has to come from inside.
(00:19:09):
And yes, this regime is brutal and everything you said is correct. I mean, the fact that they're so brutal that they use rape as a weapon. The fact, I mean, they work closely. I have horror stories. I worked with the Syrians. I have horror stories of what the IRGC did jointly with Russia, with Assad forces, with Hezbollah, to the Syrians. I mean, upwards of 750,000, 750,000 were killed. The mass graves, they're still discovering. They've had their country back already for a few years. They're still discovering mass graves. I mean, the amount of trauma and torture and death in Syria over a decade, this was all done at the hands of the IRGC and Hezbollah and Russia and Asad forces, but Iran played probably the number two role because there was obviously Asad's forces. Iran sent reinforcement from the minute Arab Springs started and then Russia entered later first through Chechens and then eventually officially they entered in 2015.
(00:20:30):
So look, what Trump is doing, this is not going to work. I mean, this is not going to work. And there is a reason, again, I said that the United States never went this route because we don't have that threshold. Americans aren't prepared to say, "You know what? We're not going to drive. We're going to not going to do this. We will cut everything. We're not going to vacation." They don't have that threshold to stop and sacrifice everything. First of all, we don't even know why we're in war, first of all. With at least Afghanistan and Iraq, Afghanistan, we had nine eleven and that literally at that point, every American was like, "Whoever did this, go get them." Iraq was sold to us, but Bush, at least whatever you want to say, and I said it a few times, whatever you want to say about Cheney and Bush, at least they sold you a story of what-
Andrea Chalupa (00:21:39):
Lies. Yeah, at least they lied to you.
(00:21:41):
At least they put together- At least they lied in the UN.
Olga Lautman (00:21:45):
They lied. They made up a fabricated story about an imminent lie. Right.
Andrea Chalupa (00:21:49):
Trump's not even bothering to lie.
Olga Lautman (00:21:50):
He didn't bother. We don't even know why. One minute's regime change next minute. He has another reason. Oh, we're there for the nuclear, but we can't be there for the nuclear because you have to actually put boots on the ground and go, God knows how many hundred feet underground in mountains to find the nuclear. So with Trump, he didn't even bother selling it to the American people. Literally, the majority, you and I knew this war was coming, but the majority, probably 90% of American people woke up two weeks ago on a Saturday like, "What? We're bombing Iran. What? How did that happen?" Because the majority didn't know anything. They weren't being gaslit twenty four seven about weapons of mass destruction and nuclear and this and that. They weren't being gaslit about any of this. So here, you don't even know why we're in war.
(00:22:50):
So imagine, why would you sacrifice anything if you don't even know what you're sacrificing for?
Andrea Chalupa (00:22:56):
Well, that's what worries me, especially with the midterms coming up, especially with Trump trying to push the quote unquote Save Act more like the Destroy America Act, which would make it so difficult to vote, it would be just nationalizing, federalizing Jim Crow. And he's doing all this because he knows what's coming for him and all Republicans in these midterms if we are allowed free and fair elections. It will be a GOP MAGA bloodbath that's well deserved. Same for 2028. And so they need to do something to stay in power, something illegal, something shock and awe. And I do worry that there's going to be some manufactured terrorist event that's so going to shock Americans that it will create that horrifying conformity of nine eleven, where we were so overtaken by our grief. And of course, a manufactured war with lies and a mainstream media that was in the pocket of power that marched us into these forever wars that worked against our own interests and made the world unsafe and gave rise to ISIS and all of that.
(00:24:15):
So I do fear that nine eleven sort of Reichstag Fire event, because we're up against the Kushners, the Trumps, the Netanyahus, some of history's greatest criminals and they
Olga Lautman (00:24:29):
They're idiots. They're idiots.
Andrea Chalupa (00:24:31):
Yes, but they're relentless idiots. They have it in them to do this.
Olga Lautman (00:24:36):
I am not as worried. I do think that they would manufacture an attack, but I can say that nine eleven would have never ... There could never be a repeat of not nine eleven the attack, but everyone across the country falling in line because when nine eleven happened, there was no social media. That's true. Now, can you imagine if nine eleven, God forbid, God forbid? I remember that day. I remember what I was doing second by second during that day and the days after, but God forbid nine eleven happened now. You would have on social media, half of MAGA saying good New York deserves it. They're liptards. You would have half of the other half of MAGA, the antisemitic MAGA, saying that Israel's the one who did this and it's a false flag against the United States to drag us into a bigger war. You would have Democrats pushing back against all of this.
(00:25:31):
Right now, you wouldn't be able to even sell a narrative. And I said right before we came on, there is an explosion happening on Twitter right now, an explosion. Tulsi Gabbard's counter terrorism, right hand man who's a freaking antisemitic groper. I mean, that's the best way. He's a fan of Nick Fuentes and all the other experience...
Andrea Chalupa (00:25:57):
Nick Fuentes, who had dinner with Trump and said, "All women need to be imprisoned."
Olga Lautman (00:26:04):
Yeah, no, and that the Holocaust never happened. So this guy, Joe Kent, put his resignation letter on Twitter and said he's resigning effective immediately. So now we don't have a deputy director of counter-terrorism.
Andrea Chalupa (00:26:22):
But did it matter the way they're doing things?
Olga Lautman (00:26:25):
No, it didn't matter at all. Frankly, I feel safer now. But he put this letter on Twitter and with his resignation said that he cannot stand and support this war for Israel, but then he went further and then accused nine eleven of an Israeli manufactured war and whatnot, the usual antisemitic tropes from that Israel's behind everything, including nine eleven and whatnot. And right now, if you go online, you will see Laura Lumer and those are attacking him nonstop. And then you have the Marjorie Taylor Green wing of the party and all the others who supported Trump sitting there good for you. And I mean, right now there's like a big brawl on Maga. They're all amongst Maga. They're all fighting with each other over this resignation. So can you imagine if Trump attempted to do something right now, it would turn into a big fight.
(00:27:33):
There will be no one lining up like penguins and saying, "Oh, dear leader, please protect America." Those days are over. Once social media came, nine eleven, that type of falling behind Bush, that's out the window. Everything's too split here, polarized. Everyone falls into their camp. MAGA is breaking into several camps and that's it. Then as far as him creating a terrorist attack, I am with you. They will do everything and anything. But honestly, what was it? January, I don't even know what month we're in, January. I was actually very relieved, and that was the first time I said, "You know what? That's it. Trump will never, no matter how much he wants to be a dictator, he doesn't have the stomach for it and he's done. He will destroy us. He'll humiliate us. There'll be a lot of pain and suffering for people here with no health insurance and benefits and food and everything else, but he doesn't have it in him to be a Putin or an Erdogan or Hameni or any of these dictators.
(00:28:46):
And what convinced me was after the murder of Parti and Renee Goode, the fact that Americans didn't run away from it and say, Oh my God, ICE is shooting Americans. We are scared. It was opposite. They came out. They came out in even more full force. You are not going to kill us on our streets. You are going to get out of here. They came out across the whole country. And I mean, it literally had the same spirit as Yormaydan because here people took it into their hands and said, no, no, no, no, no. Especially the people of Minneapolis. I mean, they are amazing. Like this is our city. You can take your thugs and get out. And what happened? Trump blinked. He literally blinked. He recalled no matter there and Bovino sent in Homan, which by no means is any better, but at least Homan isn't publicly running around antagonizing people calling protestors terrorists.
(00:29:51):
And Homan has a different way of cruelty of sweeping up people, but it's not the house to house to house, knocking on people's houses. Can I see your paper style?
Andrea Chalupa (00:30:01):
Yeah, It's Not the Storm Trooper Cosplay.
Olga Lautman (00:30:03):
Exactly. So here, and then Trump pulled it out and that's it. In Minneapolis, by the beginning of February, pretty much everyone got pulled out. There's a few hundred agents and that's it. So after this, now mind you, this is before things are getting even more insane. This is before. So after this, if Trump attempts to stay in power, Americans in general are so pissed and wound up. I mean, he literally won't leave us the fuck alone. Every day is a new thing. Every day it's a war in Iran. He hasn't even stopped the war in Iran. He's stuck there. And he's already now ... Oh, Cuba is mine. Cuba's.
Andrea Chalupa (00:30:52):
He's laying siege to Cuba. He's already at war with Cuba. Cuba's in the dark. The hospitals, people are unplugged from the machines they need to live. It's a humanitarian disaster that is manmade.
Olga Lautman (00:31:06):
Yep. So he's-
Andrea Chalupa (00:31:08):
I want Florida. I want Florida voters to remember that. This is not liberation for their family and friends in Cuba. This is mass murder. This is Soviet style mass murder by Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner. Marco Rubio, who wants to be President of the United States so badly that he's going to try to get this feather in his cap of liberating the land of his heritage. These people are just so ego driven and psychopathic. Go on.
Olga Lautman (00:31:36):
And by the way, you mentioned Marco Rubio. Just a reminder, his grandfather came here illegally. And he literally came here. Got, if I am correct, got pushed out. And I don't like to use the word illegally. I'm using it back at him. But he was undocumented. He came here, I think, got thrown out and then came back and basically lived underground until one of the presidents had an amnesty program to give people who were here undocumented papers. So Rubio would have never, ever been Secretary of State or a Senator or anything. He would have been growing up, not in the United States if he followed the same policies he is now championing and enforcing. His grandfather would have never had a chance. And this is what's heartbreaking because someone who became Secretary of State, because his grandfather escaped cruelty and took the chance for his family to come to America, deal with the legal repercussions.
(00:32:51):
Got lucky because one of the presidents understand that we have a broken immigration system and said, "You know what? We're offering you papers and everyone who came in, whatever this X amount can get their legal status." Someone like this to turn around and watch the same Cubans, the same Venezuelans, the same, hey, call it Ecuadorians and Guatemalans and anyone brown being picked up, being called Berman. I don't know how he sleeps at night. I mean, frankly, this man is sick in the head for that, just for that purpose, because he himself came through this route. And if anything, if anyone should have empathy, it is him who says, "Oh, come on, look, my granddad was undocumented and it produced the future Secretary of State and a future Senator."
Andrea Chalupa (00:33:53):
Marco Rubio was live tweeting lines from the Bible during Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. He kept quoting scripture in rallying Americans to see Ukraine's cause as good versus evil. He was a honorary Ukrainian champion through and through. And then he was always, little by little, selling his soul to please the cult leader and the look on his face of his soul leaving his body, as he sunk into that couch being fucked by J.D. Vance as Zelesky was just sitting there in the middle of that fracture.
Olga Lautman (00:34:38):
All the memes that came from that couch, all the memes every day I see a new meme.
Andrea Chalupa (00:34:43):
And I have to tell you, Marco Rubio is the classic example of what Dr. Douglas Kelly, the young American psychologist who was tasked by the US military to go into Nuremberg and get into the minds of those Nazis, including Goring, who are on trial for the Holocaust, and get into their minds to make sure that they were legally fit to stand trial. And what they found, it was the stunning fact that these men were pretty normal. Some were smarter than others. Many of them were narcissists and such, but what united them all, they were opportunists. They were opportunists, and that's what Marco Rubio is. He is a classic opportunist that helps dictatorships come to power and mass murder the innocent. There have been Marco Rubios throughout history. I want to ask you about Russia because Putin's friend in the White House, I should say friends, dropped sanctions, some sanctions on Russia to help Russia with oil.
(00:36:03):
What the hell? I mean, obviously we all should have seen this coming. We're all expecting this and now the price of oil is skyrocketing. American billionaires are making a windfall off of this. I just read an article how Warren Buffet, the Oracle of Omaha, who declined to endorse anyone conveniently in the 2024 election, just made $2 billion off of Trump's Iran invasion. And now Russia, which sets its budget according to the price of oil, is also raking in a windfall and eased sanctions thanks to Trump's invasion of Iran. Where does Russia fit into this calculation? Because the irony is, like you outlined perfectly, Iran is a close ally of Russia. Iran was right by Russia's side in assisting with the invasion of Ukraine. It was practically ... Ukraine was invaded by Russia and Iran with all of the Shihad drones that were bombarded against civilians every day.
(00:37:06):
So where does Russia fit into this factor? Because it's losing potentially its friends in Tran, but it's also gaining so much, not that Russia really cares, because at the end of the day, all of these tyrants are just scorpions and a jar are fighting each other. But how do you see the Russia equation and all this?
Olga Lautman (00:37:25):
So Russia being Russia is helping Iran and this is incredible. Russia is helping Iran, providing them with targeting information, satellite information to kill Americans. So the 13 dead that we have right now who were killed in action, chances are that Russia was part of this, involved in giving Iran such accurate targeting information. This is why you see such targeted, accurate targeted strikes across the Middle East and against US bases and US embassies and everything else. So Russia has been assisting Iran with that. Now, mind you, Russia in around 2015 to ... It came out in 2020 when Trump was in office, Russia was paying, paying Taliban militants to snipe Americans to kill American military. Okay? Trump was given this intelligence because New York Times broke the story at the time. Trump was asked about this intelligence, that this intelligence shows Russia has been killing American military in Afghanistan, what are you going to do?
(00:38:52):
His answer, "Oh no, no, this is all fake news." He never brought it up with Putin, not in 2020, and that was it. So Russia got away with killing people in Afghanistan. Then we have the Havana syndrome where you have right now this whole big hoopla over the CIA and others and the government, and this goes to Biden too, covering up this energy weapon that was used against CIA, against others that really created long-term damage. I mean, there are former CIA people who were hit with this weapon and are still suffering. And this is being covered up. Trump is doing nothing about it. Interestingly enough, I read a report that Tulsi wants to declassify all of this and let people see what is happening with this Havana syndrome and the weapon used and everything, because apparently the US sees the weapon or a weapon and are studying and so that it goes back to Russia after denying and saying that it has nothing to do with Russia.
(00:40:01):
Now Russia is helping Iran to kill Americans. And this is so messed up because you have Russia helping kill Americans. You have Ukraine who is offering to help Americans and has sent engineers, drone engineers to the Middle East and is doing everything that they can to try to help with these counter drones that push back against the Shahed drones because you could imagine with 600, imagine all of them exploded in Ukraine every night. They have technology to shoot down 90 plus percent of these shrones. So they are helping Americans. Trump is saying, no, we don't need their help. And they're useless and Zelensky's blocking peace, not Russia that invaded and is carrying out a full scale genocide, not that. It's Zelensky who's protecting his country that is a block to peace. So you have Trump attacking Zelenskyy, you have Trump praising Putin. And then to put the, what is it, the nail in the coffin, Trump lifted oil sanctions for one month on Russia.
(00:41:23):
What does that equate to? $150 million, 150 million per day to their war chest to continue funding their genocide. So calculate 150 million times 30 days. I don't think it's probably going to be extended because once you loosen these sanctions, I don't foresee April 12th or 13th that that's it. Sanctions are right back, but even calculate $150 million per day times 30 days. This is how much more money Russia will have to fight its genocidal war inside of Ukraine while Ukrainians are trying to save American lives. So this is where we are. And then this I think needs to be brought up. Out of all the irony and the audacity and I mean, it's frankly, it's like literally all of this is like watching some kind of like a weird movie of someone in like Looney Tunes.
Andrea Chalupa (00:42:36):
That's exactly what our Gaslit Nation listeners were saying when we had a gathering at our Monday salon, a couple of them were like, "I feel like this isn't reality. This doesn't feel real. I feel like I'm in some weird simulation by sociopaths. What is going on?
Olga Lautman (00:42:52):
" Yeah, a hundred percent. It feels like all of this is just so absurd and so insane that if someone ever attempted to pitch even one thing for a book or a movie, they would say, "This is too farfetched and never mind putting all of it together." They'd be like, "You really need to go and get her brain medicine and stay on it at the highest doses of everything."
Andrea Chalupa (00:43:15):
The AI of reality is hallucinating.
Olga Lautman (00:43:18):
Yeah. It's crazy. But to make things even more absurd, Trump fucks up the Straight of Hormuz. No one can pass through. 20% of shipments go through that and we all see what's happening at our gas station. And then he has the nerve after 10 years of attacking NATO. 10 years, he called them freeloaders and they're worthless and they're this and they shouldn't exist. And Russia is right. This is a ridiculous alliance. We don't need this alliance. He has done everything. He threatened to invade Canada, a NATO founder. He threatened to invade Greenland to the point that literally other NATO countries had to send their military to start protecting potential American troops like landing to steal Greenland. So after all of this, he has the nerve to say, "Where are our NATO allies? They need to come and open this straight." What? After all of this, right now, Russia is fighting a shenicidal war in Ukraine.
(00:44:33):
Russia is increasing its aggression against Baltic states, against frankly, all of Europe, NATO countries, all of Europe. You have drone incursions, fighter jets breaching airspace of sovereign countries, assassinations, arsons. I mean, I can go on and on and on and on. There's not one day that something is not happening that Russia hasn't ... They even sent a drone towards the ... You can say better. Charles de Gaule? Gil?
Andrea Chalupa (00:45:04):
Charles de Gaule. Charles de Gaule.
Olga Lautman (00:45:07):
Charles de Gaule.
Andrea Chalupa (00:45:09):
My husband critiques by Charles. Charles de Gaule, but yes.
Olga Lautman (00:45:13):
That ship was in Baltics for NATO exercises. And what does Russia ship do? They send a drone at it, and the Swedish had to shoot down the drone. So I mean, Russia is doing this. This just happened literally a few weeks ago. Russia is doing all of this. Trump expects NATO that is fending off their own freaking potential attack from Russia and dealing with all of this, cyber attacks, everything. You could think of Russia's throwing at Europe right now. He expects them to drop everything after he threatened to invade them. He's already pulled troops out of Europe and go in and open his state of hormones. Go ask the Russians to open it for you. He praises Russia for $450 million a day. Go tell the Russians to send warships. Let them go dig them out under the Black Sea from the bottom. Muskwa and the rest of them.
(00:46:13):
Let them go dig them out and go send them to the straight of Hormuz and open the straight.
Andrea Chalupa (00:46:19):
But that's the question because during the Obama years when Putin's invasion started in 2014, at the same time, Obama's foreign policy team was tied up with trying to get the Iran deal going, and they were working with Russia on that. And they were working with Russia, according to then Secretary of State, John Kerry, on climate change initiatives. And so there was this weird split brain of the Obama foreign policy team where they had to pass sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine. They had to drag Angela Merkel and Europe into that because Europe was so energy dependent on Russia and so much Russian oligarch money was buying up real estate in the West, in London and so on. And so Obama was sort of trying to set some boundaries for the Russians while also working with the Russians at the same time. And one of the things the Russians kept using as leverage over the West was we have to work together to contain the threat of ISIS.
(00:47:21):
Nevermind that there reports that Russia was allowing ... Russia has, it's 20 million Muslims. I'm not saying Muslims are terrorists. I'm saying, but they have hotbeds.
(00:47:36):
They have hotbeds of Islamic terrorists inside a country with a very large population of Muslims that are terrorized by the Russians themselves in Chechnya and so on. And there reports that Russia was allowing people to leave Russia and go fight for ISIS and Syria, allowing this because it was in their own interests, because the more ISIS was a threat for the West as a wedge issue for the West, the more Russia could use that excuse to the West, we have to work together to contain this threat that we are empowering. And so my concern now is that with America now learning the hard way, once again, under Trump, that warfare in the 21st century has changed drastically. And the number one leader in understanding that and leading the innovation is Ukraine. That is directly from a source of the Pentagon said that. And everyone knows that, who follows what's going on in the world today.
(00:48:42):
And with drone warfare, it's extremely cheap and easy to kill people now. We had Zurina Zabritsky, Ukrainian filmmaker on the show who did a stunning documentary called Heresan Safari on how the Russian military takes over the counter drones, makes some adjustments, and then sends them off to go hunt civilians on the street for fun. And they show social media videos of this to rally the Russian cause, the people back home. It is so intensive that in the streets of Herasan, they have to put a net across the lampposts and the trees to keep those drones out. So think of it here in America, we live with the menace of mass shooters because it's so incredibly easy, thanks to our gun lobby that owns the majority of the US Congress to buy an automatic weapon, a weapon of war and shoot up a school, shoot up a movie theater, shoot up a church, shoot up a mosque, shoot up a temple.
(00:49:47):
And so what I'm saying is, with ISIS coming back with this Iran Middle East regional war that Iran has promised in retaliation for Trump's recklessness, you're going to have a lot more ISIS type recruitment. We just had an attack, an explosion go off in front of Gracie Mansion in front of the home of the first Muslim mayor of New York City. And so I want to warn Americans that in the 21st century, it's not just going to be these mass shooters we have to now live with and go about our business thinking where the exits, fight or flight, fight or run, but also the drone warfare is absolutely coming for us because of Trump's new world order that he has unleashed. We no longer have the protection of the moats of the ocean and just like the war has come home for Russians, you have drones going off in major Russian cities, the war is going to come home for us here in America.
(00:50:53):
That's coming. And so all of these rambo types that can't wait to hunt down brown people because all of the ICE policy, all of the Department of Homeland Security policy, it's Nick Fuentes through and through. It's what Nick Fuentes says on whatever on his podcast. But all of that law enforcement that we desperately need to actually protect the American people, they're about to wake up to that reality of warfare in the 21st century. They're about to see those ISIS drones going off in communities across this country. That's where all of this is headed. And so what are your thoughts on that?
Olga Lautman (00:51:34):
Well, first to get back to ISIS, it's more than they sent people to fight with ISIS. They potentially could have been responsible for helping ISIS organize and be funded in the early days. Russia? Yeah, Russia. And I have several sources who had told me that there were Russian fingerprints in 2012 when ISIS was being formed, that they were providing very logistical support and money and everything in order to kind of organize and whatnot. So Russia might actually be behind ISIS and the fact that they gaslit Obama and told them, "Oh yeah, we're working together in Syria on ISIS as they were helping Assad use chemical weapons against Syrians as they were helping working and had literally, I'm not kidding, they had joint command centers with the IRGC and with Hezbollah." In Syria, they had two joint command centers in Syria, one or two in Iraq.
(00:52:47):
So you had literally high level commanders from the Russian side, from the Hezbollah militants and from IRGC working together, sharing sensitive intelligence and whatnot. This is how intertwined Russia was. So that's just something like Russia is, they've provided weapons. They were the pipeline, so it's not only Iran, they were providing weapons for Hezbollah, they were providing weapons for Hamas. And as a matter of fact, even with October 7th, there are reports that like a few months prior to October 7th that you had money being moved crypto through Russia's Garantex crypto platform that's sanctioned by the US that went to Hamas where it potentially funded the October 7th operation. So I mean, Russia is in deep with terrorists. They have been. I mean, this is something so old. This has nothing to do with Putin. This is part of the Soviet Union. This is what they did in the 1950s and '60s and '70s.
(00:54:00):
And then with Putin, he just reformed these relationships when he came back and strengthened these relationships. Even I remember when Hamas, the leader was, they won the election, I think it was what, 2008 or something, somewhere around there. Russia was one of the first to welcome them to Moscow to say and call and congratulate them. So this is a very long relationship. As far as drone warfare, I agree with you 100% that we really need to get prepared for this because we look out the window. We have this safety of knowing that intercontinental missiles, the chances of them coming to the US are slim, obviously nuclear weapons, the chances are slim. We do have higher threats of terrorist attacks, these lone wolf, like with what happened in the synagogue, what happened at the rally here. And actually that rally was against a far right extremist rally.
(00:55:08):
So it was in New York. It was the people responding-
Andrea Chalupa (00:55:14):
A bunch of White racists try to bring a pig, a cooked pig to Mamdani during Ramadan.
Olga Lautman (00:55:24):
But this was planned prior because clearly these people, you don't just say, "Oh, look, there's a protest in Manhattan. Let me go put together a few bombs." And these were more sophisticated bombs and go to drive to Manhattan and throw them. This obviously was planned prior for a few weeks. You need to buy the material, you need to make the bombs and whatnot. But drone warfare is next. And you know who got a very good lesson? And frankly, I'm not crying for them. If anything, I hate to say it, but it's karma coming very quickly and immediate rebound of karma, Dubai. You have Dubai, the perfect, perfect, perfect-
Andrea Chalupa (00:56:13):
Hotbed of Russian oligarchs or mistresses.
Olga Lautman (00:56:16):
And it's like the perfect fantasy world. You have everything. It's like this simulated fantasy world of everything, the best of restaurants, the best of shopping, the best of hotels, things that you won't see anywhere around the world. And I mean, this is like the paradise of the Middle East, and here they woke up to drones smacking into hotels and drones smacking across Dubai. The reason I say karma is because, hey, Cord, you have a lot of the Gulf countries, frankly, all of them, who assisted Russia not only in moving to use military components, which I was working on for a few years through the Middle East. Also, they had a route through Asia, then to China and to Russia's military, and they were evading sanctions and moving money and absolutely not the Saudis, not the Qataris, and no one thought anything about the full scale invasion, the fact that Ukrainians are being massacred across the whole country.
(00:57:26):
They're like, "Nope, this is money, this is business and whatnot." So you know what? The fact that it took the Middle East so long to create this paradise and the fact that it got erased, literally that whole image got erased. And I don't think anyone going forward is going to feel so safe laying down at a beach in Dubai or Abu Dhabi because they're going to have like, "Oh my God, is the drone going to come back pass by or strike at any moment?" Because it's not even about the active war. After all of this and after all the assassinations and after Hameni's assassination, I mean, he was also a spiritual leader to the Shia movement. So there will be terrorist attacks regardless after. Even when the war physical war stops, you're still going to have cells of terrorists who are going to be striking back, whether it's against the Gulf countries, US, Europe, whoever was involved and whoever helped facilitate this war.
(00:58:34):
They got a good lesson, how you could take a perfect, beautiful, expensive paradise, turn it into drone warfare and empty beaches. And sadly, same thing can happen to us.
Andrea Chalupa (00:58:49):
Our discussion continues, and you can get access to that by signing up at the truth teller level or higher on Patreon. Discounted annual memberships are available and you can give the gift of membership. Get bonus shows, invites to exclusive events, all our shows at free, and more at patreon.com/gaslit. That's patreon.com/gaslit. Thank you to everyone who supports the show.
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Gaslit Nation is produced by Andrea Chalupa. Our associate producer is Karlyn Daigle. And our founding production manager is Nicholas Torres. If you like what we do, please leave us a review on iTunes. It helps us reach more listeners.
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Original Music on Gaslit Nation is produced by David Whitehead. Martin Bensenberg, Nick Barr, Damien Arriaga, and Karlyn Daigle. Our logo design was generously donated by Hamish Smyth of the New York-based firm Order. Thank you so much, Hamish.
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