AMB Chas Freeman : Will China Dump Trump?

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1:03Undeclared wars are commonplace. Gradually, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression with no complaints from the American people. Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected. What if sometimes, to love your country, you had to alter or abolish the government? What if Jefferson was right? What if that government is best which governs least? What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong? What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave? What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now? Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom today is Tuesday, March 17th, 2026 St.

2:10Patrick's Day here in the West, and especially in the United States, and particularly in New York City. Ambassador Chaz Freeman joins us now. Ambassador, thank you very much for your time this morning. I want to spend some time with you on one of your fields of expertise, which is China, and how you expect the Chinese will deal with President Trump in late of the war in Iran. But before we get there on Iran, how do you suppose US officials, intelligence, military, and political could have so underestimated the resilience of the Iranian people and the asymmetric strategy of the Iranian military? Well, I think the administration ignored predictions that the depletion of US munitions in Israel's war with Iran would impair our own military capabilities on a global level.

3:12The exhaustion of our weapons stocks would deprive Ukraine of them and fatally weaken it. The closure of the straight of our moves, which Iran clearly signaled, would cause a global economic crisis. Iran would attack US bases throughout West Asia, which again, it said it would do. And the US would have no allies in this war of choice on behalf of the genocidal state of Israel. And there were a lot of things wrong with this war from the beginning. There was no strategy, only a campaign plan. It was a global hubris, but strategic connectitude, coupled with unilateral diplomatic disarmament, have put us where we are. This is an illegitimate war, authorized by Benjamin Not Netanyahu. Not the US Congress as the Constitution requires. It was supported, it is supported by the Zionist lobby, not by the American people. It's being conducted with brutal savagery, without regard to the Constitution of the law

4:16or international norms. And the troops are being told that it's in the name of some kind of a Christian nationalist objective of bringing on the apocalypse, or no clear, constant, or feasible objectives. There has been no marshland or husbanding of resources. There's no plan for war termination. So this is a classic forever war, exactly what President Trump promised us. He would not produce. There are no rules of engagement, thanks to Secretary Hedgeson, no respect for international law, no apology from mass murder, for example, the sweet John girls of Minab, who were murdered by us, the biggest massacre we've conducted, and it's been conducted by our troops, it's me-line. We've suffered severe reputational damage, both political and military, and if the purpose of a war is, as William T. Kuhn's assurance said, to produce a better peace, there is

5:21no no process in place to gain such a peace, or Israel, the Gulf Arabs, the United States, or Iran. And no one now trusts Washington, Russia, and I suspect China, as well as Iran, have clearly joined us in reliance solely on the facts that the US of force can produce, no diplomacy. The world is becoming a more dangerous, not a more safe place. So this is a disaster, and the administration is characteristically meeting it with a combination of bombastic bluster and bellicose rhetoric and declarations of victory that have no basis. I wonder if there's anybody in his inner circle who truly wonder about this, it appears that someone in the Pentagon, certainly not the hexeth crew, released the General Cain,

6:23the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned about this, then the president on his truth social denied it, was released via the Washington Post, which means it probably made its way from the Pentagon through the CIA to the Washington Post. Well, I think General Cain did warn him, regardless of his denial, so there's an old adage, I never believe anything until it's been officially denied, and this certainly fits that pattern. And I know, we all know that the intelligence community did warn, as I found in the record we did warn, in writing that the probability of regime change, except in the direction that has occurred, which is for the harder line regime would be the likely outcome. So here we are, we're back in this crazy fallacy that if you murder senior leaders, that

7:26somehow produces moderate successives. We're told that Ali Rinaldi-Jani, the head of security in Iran has just been set by Israel, or killed by and somehow. I wonder why we think that when we are normalizing such murders, the other side will not eventually copy us, overcoming it, religious group of struples to do so. We don't seem to have any struples these days. I think that the message that my former friend and former Fox colleague, who's now the Secretary of Defense, and calls himself the Secretary of War, sends to the troops, is immoral, illegal, unconstitutional, and reprehensible that there are no longer any rules, combined that ambassador with the president saying, I don't need international law, my own morality

8:31guides me, and it's no wonder that we have the largest U.S. slaughter of innocent since me lie. I hope I'm wrong, but probably more coming of these people are told no rules, and Trump said, I'll find it and run it, they told me it's, oh, here we go, it's fun to sink these ships. Watch this, ambassador, cut number two, Chris. The Navy has gone, it's all lying at the bottom of the ocean, 46 ships, can you believe it? In fact, I got a little upset with our people. I said, what quality of ship, excellent sir, top of the line, I said, why did we just capture the ship? We're going to use it. Why did we sink them? He said, it's more fun to sink them, but he said, it's a, and they left. The ship about to which he was referring was not a ship equipped for battle.

9:33It was a training ship, and the people killed were cadets and their teachers, and they were nowhere near, nowhere near the Straits of Hormuz, and he left, and the audience left, and he used the word fun. Well, this is reminiscent of a disgraceful comment by Hillary Clinton now, when Colonel Calafi, the ruler of Libya, was soldimized and murdered in a train pipe. We came, we saw he died. This is despicable. But I think there's a fundamental issue here, Judge, and that is, what does winning mean? Death and destruction are not the ends of warfare. They are what happens during warfare, but in either subjugation, nor humiliation, which is what we're aiming at with regard to Iran, equates to peace, and Iran will accept neither subjugation nor humiliation.

10:36First don't end until the defeated admit defeat, and worst don't end when one side proclaims mission accomplished, or portrays the death and destruction it has wreaked on another side as some sort of victory. Non-continues to pursue its regime, its objectives of removing Israel as a threat to it. And by the way, Israel has been a persistent threat to it, to what? To Israeli expansionism in the region. Iran has not directly threatened Israel, but it is now a threat to Israel, and Iran is intent on eliminating it as a threat as well as the American military presence in Persian Gulf, and it has, in my view, a fighting chance of doing so. Trump told NBC News on Saturday that Iran reached out to him a third party, as Foreign

11:39Ministry didn't say what party it was, seeking negotiations for ceasefire and offering terms. Iran's Foreign Minister said it never happened. I don't know if Trump's saying it to NBC News, but I have the Foreign Minister saying it never happened. At Verbo, we understand that even the best of plans sometimes need a little support, so we plan for the plot twists. Every booking is automatically backed by our Verbo care guarantee, giving you confidence from the very start. Whenever you need help, it's ready, before you stay through the moments in between and after your trip. Because a great trip starts with peace of mind, and maybe a good playlist, but we've got the peace of mind part covered. President Trump said this weekend he is not ready to make a deal with Iran because the terms aren't good enough yet. Has Iran asked for a ceasefire? No, we never asked for a ceasefire, and we have never asked even for negotiation.

12:46We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes, and this is what we have done so far, and we continue to do that until President Trump comes to the point that this is an illegal war with no victory, and there are people being killed only because President Trump wants to have fun. This is what he has said. That's fun. Yes, this is what he said, that they are thinking, you know, ships and targeting different places because it is fun. So who do you believe Trump's claim that the Iranians called and asked for a resumption of negotiations, or the Iranian foreign minister said, why should we negotiate with a country

13:46that kills us during the negotiations? I am sorry to say that I find or I see the Foreign Minister of Iran entirely credible, and the President not. And I have note that American diplomacy is not just missing an action. It is basically debt that has been killed by amateur envoys who engage in protection rackets and personal corruption rather than well prepared or good faith negotiations, so-called napkin agreements with no implementable details agreed that are entirely performative not real. One sided false assertions about what has been agreed or what has happened, which is just what we heard, and the repudiation of specific understandings or lack of follow-through on them when they are reached, but more than anything else, as you said, the use of negotiations as cover for surprise attacks. And we are isolated.

14:47President Trump's call for our naval support from other countries who opened the Strait of Parmuz has been met with firm refusals by everybody. Chinese did not respond, but their press made fun of us for making that request. So we are laughing stock. We have not made America great again. We have done the opposite. What happens if the Strait of Parmuz stays closed for a couple of weeks or months to Iran's enemies, which of course would mean the U.S.? Well, we will see the price of a while ago to press around $140 a barrel and eventually over $200 very likely. Iran, you know, there is one big missing point in the media coverage of this war, and therefore our knowledge of what is going on in it. And that is there is a big blank where Israel is, Israeli military censorship and the difference of our press to that censorship to their disgrace, mean that we do not know

15:53how much damage Israel is suffering. The little news that comes out suggests that it is suffering a great deal of damage. So claims it has destroyed most of Iran's missile launchers, but the missiles keep coming. And so who are you going to believe, the Israeli government or your lying eyes? Right. Isn't that thing now who alive? I have no idea. I know that he hasn't appeared for a long time. And there was a film put out, supposedly, but it looks to me like a deep fake. Israel is really good at that kind of thing. There is a lot of false flag stuff going on in the region. And I fear we may get it here because we are not winning this war. And we are basically, as had been predicted, running low on interceptors and other defense capabilities.

16:54We are acting with a bit of desperation, moving Marines from Okinawa to the Strait of Hormuz, where if they do go ashore, it may resemble Gallipoli more than Normandy. So this is not going well, and there comes a moment when the effort to portray reality in false terms is overcome by the fact that reality persists. And that's where we are. We are proclaiming victory, but there is no victory. We are proclaiming military success on the basis of wreaking a lot of destruction. We clearly have done that. We have not broken the will of the Iranian regime, the Iranian people. Those who thought that our intervention might help them secure greater rights in a post-Islamic republic Iran, are now turning against us because you've bombed someone, that's not

17:58a good way to endure yourself to them. And of course, all of the insults and the contact we've shown toward our allies, the wild gyrations of our trade policies, the belittlement of their performance in past wars, all mean that they have absolutely no desire to come to our aid. Even the British have said, it's your war, not ours. Can you talk to us, please, about China? Did Trump dump China or did China dump Trump? The Trump G meeting is now officially off. My own view is the president, she didn't want a picture in the front page of the financial times of himself shaking hands with the world's most despised head of state. I think Xi Jinping was, in fact, prepared to go ahead with it with that meeting. I'm sure he's relieved that it's not going to happen under these circumstances.

19:00It was very clearly President Trump, who has a tremendous set of problems domestically, politically and internationally, of course. Because what's been revealed is he's essentially dissolved our alliances. Our partnerships are not there. There are scazing comments out of the Europeans now who had told their fire earlier in an effort to appease him. They've stopped trying to do that. And they're talking, honestly, about the end of the Atlantic Alliance. I think there's a real question Prime Minister Takaichi of Japan is supposed to be here this week, I believe, in a couple of days, I don't know if she's coming or not. But of course, Japan has just declined to provide naval support for anything that we might do in the state of Ramos. By the way, I don't believe I'd defer to a military expert to a homest. But I don't believe that naval support could, in fact, overcome the blockade.

20:04The only way the blockade can be overcome is the way the Chinese, the Indians, the Turks have done it, namely through diplomacy. They've reached agreements with Iran. They've reached out to Iran and their ships are now exempted from being shot at. So they're coming through the strait. Iran's own ships are going through the strait. And the strait is not a problem. Iran controls who goes through it, when they go through it, how they go through it. And there's not much we can do about that because Iran's military is land-based. They are, like the Houthis in the Red Sea, demonstrating that you can block a sea from the land. This is why presumably the Marines are being moved over toward the state of Ramos. But as I said, the Iranians are dug in and we should remember Gallipoli. What are the Marines going to do?

21:04Well, that's not clear. You know, Trump was idly talking about taking Farge Island. That's way, you know, 800 kilometers up the Gulf. It's not within easy reach. You don't have to fight your way through the Gulf under Iranian fire to get there. So I suspect it's probably something about trying to take out the land-based Iranian control of the strait of Ramos itself. And as I suggest, they've had 20 years to fortify that. I don't think that would be an easy task at all. I think our Marines are terrific, but I fear for them if they try that. Here's a new comment being anxious to hear your thoughts on this from President Trump. On who, how, why the strait of Ramos is closed, Chris? From Hormuz, this strait, Hormuz, a famous, wonderful, beautiful place, but you wouldn't

22:13want to be necessarily sailing about there right now. I would not. You know why? Not because of them, because of us. Because we've taken out their entire Navy. We've taken out every one of their drones, they call it a drone layer, a mine layer. Well, I'm encouraged that he's discovered the strait of Ramos, which he apparently didn't think about earlier, but the taking out of the Navy, first of all, that's not entirely true, but even if it worked through, it's irrelevant. The reference to mines is misguided or I know there is no mining. This strait is closed from the land, from the Iranian side of the strait of Ramos, by Iranian emplacements of weapons there. And it cannot be opened by the Navy for that reason. And whether the Iranian Navy is operating or not really isn't terribly relevant. By the way, tankers are being blown up by a small, guided unmanned speedboats and other

23:24techniques of drone warfare that Ukraine has pioneered in the Black Sea. Ironically, of course, we've had to call on ask the Ukrainians for help in terms of drone supplies and so on, and I gather they're not complying. Well, that is the world turned upside down that we're calling on Ukraine for help, and they don't have the ability to help us. So who or what can call Israel in the United States to account for this catastrophe? Well, of course, one of the features of this and the collapse of our diplomacy is that we have no credibility and indeed no real support at all in international organizations. We've threatened them, we've defunded them, we've alienated them, and we've eviscerated them, and not just the World Health Organization, but we've treated the Security Council in

24:26the general assembly of the UN with contempt, and they basically are not in a position to extricate us from this dreadful mistake we've made, even if they wanted to, but they don't really have any desire to do that. We don't have any allies, you know, but we have, there are bystanders who up to now have been muting their criticism of us in an effort to appease Donald Trump, but they're now openly criticizing us, and as I said, this is a reaction to the contempt and the verbal abuse to which we have subjected them, as well as our disregard of their interests by studying tariffs and other quotas and sanctions on them, they won't jump when we call them now. Right. Right. Right. Here's the Iranian foreign minister concludes with a very interesting line, the straight

25:31is only closed for our enemies, Chris Cut number 11. When our adversaries first began by insisting upon a total and unconditional surrender, and then after a period of 12 long days, they requested, please an unconditional ceasefire. This time they implemented the same scenario, but with even greater intensity and force. They mobilized all their forces so that this unconditional surrender would happen. This time they were determined to make it happen for sure. Well, the sheer scale of the attacks, the action they took on the very first day, you know all of this better than I do, and again, they started with the phrase unconditional surrender. And today, after almost 15 days have passed since the war began, for the security of the Strait of Hormuz, they are turning to those whom they considered enemies until just yesterday. They are asking other countries to come and help them so that the Strait of Hormuz remains

26:37open, which of course from our perspective, it is open. It is only closed to our enemies. It is only closed to our enemies. Well, it's very clear, I think that what we have done has greatly devalued, not just our reputation for sound policy making, alliance management and so forth, but our military reputation. We have pounded Iran terribly, and we have not broken its will. And I would say, you know, the question really is, have we defeated Iran or have we actually defeated ourselves? It's looking more and more like we've defeated ourselves. Thank you, Ambassador. A great, great conversation. Thank you for your insight. Be well, my dear friend. We'll look forward to seeing you next week. Hope so. Thank you. Coming up, if you're watching us live in 30 minutes, but at 9 o'clock Eastern on all

27:41of this Professor John Meersheimer, at 10 o'clock Eastern on all of this Scott Ritter, at 1 o'clock this afternoon, Aaron Mate, at 2 o'clock this afternoon, Matt Hull, at 3 o'clock this afternoon, a full day for you, Colonel Karen Kutkowski, Joseph Paul Townel for Judging Freedom.