Ep. 1332: The Worst Mistake of 2026

0:00Nicky Glazer, this stunning tour. The thoughts of death I don't like to dwell on them for longer than like 10 or 15 hours a day, so... November 19th, Yamabah Theater No wonder women rushed to have kids were being trained for it since we were kids. They're like, here's a baby doll. Here's an easy-bait coffin! I got one of those, I stuck my head in it. I was like, I want out of this narrowness. Tickets on sale now at Yamabah Theater.com Don't miss Nicky Glazer, Yamabah Theater! At Zock-Dock, we know you care about your health. You wouldn't do that early morning cardio if you didn't. So the fact that your annual physical is overdue just shows how hard it can be to get seen by a doctor. Sorry, that doctor's not a network. Press one for more options. You've reached us outside your whole business hours. The next availability is in three months. But Zock-Dock makes finding the right doctor easy. Download the app and search by specialty, insurance, and availability. Read real-patient reviews. Then book instantly. Zock-Dock, ready to be seen?

1:00A ClanahanAcademy.com is your gateway to a real history education. Go to McClanahanAcademy.com, use the coupon code podcast, and take 25% off every class every day at McClanahanAcademy. Get a real history education, I'll see you in class. If you like this podcast and you want it without advertisements, head over to patreon.com and become a member of the Brian McClanahan Show for 10 bucks a month. You get all the podcast ad free, including video, and you also get a special Q&A podcast. I'm only going to answer your questions, your listener-generated episodes, through those Q&A. So head over to patreon.com, get this podcast ad free. No ads, not even things like this. And you really do help support the Brian McClanahan Show with really cool stuff on the back end. The essential originalist paper is a 77 public documents in favor of ratification of the Constitution. It is the book if you want to understand originalism.

2:01Yet at wherever books are sold online, I guarantee you'll love it. What's been the greatest political mistake of 2026? We'll talk about that on this episode of the Brian McClanahan Show. It's time to think locally and act locally. Welcome to the Brian McClanahan Show. Welcome back to the Brian McClanahan Show. Glad to be back on the program. Very glad to be here. We're wrapping up the week with current events. We haven't talked about that in a little while. I've been doing a whole lot of historical stuff. But really current events are something I enjoy doing. And since we'll get back into it here with the Trump administration. And some people have questioned why I have been very critical of Donald Trump and the Trump administration. Considering the alternative, which was Kamala Harris, which would have been really bad as well.

3:01But I think that people don't realize when someone like me criticizes Trump, it's really coming from a place where we expected more. We expected better. And if you go back to the early 19th century in the Jefferson administration, this was the same position that the old Republicans took. They expected more than they expected better. Let's just back up to that point and then we'll go forward to Trump and we'll talk about some of the things happening, some of the political mistakes that he's made in the last year, really the last two years of his administration. But I'll answer one criticism of Trump and then move on to another. But you go back to the 1800 election. Right? So 1800 election, Jefferson and Aaron Burr are deadlocked. And James Byrd of Delaware decides to give the election to Jefferson. And he does so because of course people feared Aaron Burr more than they did Thomas Jefferson Jefferson was in known quantity.

4:04And Alexander Hamilton had reassured Federalist at look. I know we don't like Jefferson. I know he's kind of a knucklehead on a lot of things. But let me tell you something. Aaron Burr will be worse. We at least can predict what Jefferson is going to do and we can work from there. But we cannot do that with Aaron Burr. Unpredictable. Someone who I think would be dangerous in the presidency. Jefferson is not going to rip everything down. Now think about that. Jefferson wasn't going to tear the federal government down to the studs. Now Burr probably wouldn't have either. But again, Jefferson was a known quantity. So when Jefferson assumes office in 1801 and he makes the most important political speech of the 19th century. Till maybe the middle of the 19th century. The most important political speech you could say till 1863. I know I mean there are many others that were important, but I'm just talking about lasting impact. His inaugural dress.

5:07Really defined the next 60 years of American history. And even Lincoln would call himself a Jeffersonian more than a Lincoln than a Hamiltonian. I mean that's what Lincoln would say. He was more of a Jeffersonian than a Hamiltonian. But 1863 with the Gettysburg address then puts the United States on a different path. I mean unjustifiably so. But certainly it's a transformative period. So Jefferson makes that inaugural dress, which is beautiful. It's a beautiful inaugural dress. It highlights the positions of the Republicans. And for a couple of years to three years. You could say that that Jefferson followed through with that. That Jefferson was really good in office. And this is the case I've made in my book, 9 Presidents, you screwed up America and 4, you tried to saver.

6:12And I include Jefferson in the 4 who tried to saver because that first term in office was really good. And then you get the second term. And the second term moves in a different kind of direction. And the purists among the Republicans lost their minds. And for good reason because Jefferson wasn't acting like Jefferson. You had the foreign policy to balka with the British. You had the embargo. You had non-intercourse. You had his promotion of, in some ways, the Hamiltonian economic agenda. And people like John Randolph-A-Rohne called him out on this. He wasn't being a good Republican. He was being something else, but it wasn't a Republican. In fact, if you read people like Drew McCoy or others, they'll say that when you look at the origins of the Wig Party, Michael Holt will say these same things. If you look at the origins of the Wig Party, it is to be found in people like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

7:14In fact, Henry Clay called himself a Madisonian Republican. That was the national Republicans. And Madison was just taking some things from Jefferson in Jefferson's second term. But there were critics of Thomas Jefferson, people that were really dedicated to the principles that brought Jefferson to power, the old Republicans, the principles of 98. The principles of 76, they talked about these things. And it was thought that Thomas Jefferson betrayed all of those things while President of the United States and certainly James Madison did. Maybe not all of them, but a lot of them. Nick E. Glazer, this stunning tour. The thoughts of death I don't like to dwell on them for longer than like 10 or 15 hours a day. So... November 19th, Yamabah Theater. No wonder women rushed to have kids were being trained for it since we were kids. They're like, here's a baby doll. Here's an easy-bake oven.

8:14I got one of those. I stuck my head in it. I was like, I want out of this narrative. Tickets on sale now at Yamabah Theater.com. Don't miss Nick E. Glazer. Yamabah Theater. Finding a doctor is hard enough. Finding the right doctor even harder. Someone who takes your insurance has an available appointment when you need one and feels like someone you can actually open up to. That's where Zock.com's in. Download the Zock.com app to search and compare doctors by specialty, insurance, and availability. Read real-patient reviews, find the right fit for you, and book instantly. Because getting seen by the right doctor matters. Zock.com, ready to be seen? Download the Zock.com app today. And so that's instructive. You fast forward to 2016, 2020, 2024. Right? Trump selected in 2016. His pledges are pretty simple. No foreign wars. No new foreign wars. Drain the swamp. Take care of some real big ticket issues in Washington, D.C.

9:20Doesn't really happen while he's in office the first time. And you can blame the Republican party in Congress for much of that. Because the Republican party in Congress was controlled by a bunch of establishment hacks who were dragging their feet. There were opportunities that they didn't capitalize on. And it was Congress not Trump that was causing the problem there. But at the end of his first term in office, you get COVID and Trump expands the power of the general government. I mean, Trump gave a stoutche. So you have that issue going on. Of course, of course, Trump loses in 2020. You get Biden for four years. And then you have 2024. And what does Trump do? He promises much of the same. Look, we're going to drain the swamp. We're going to have no new foreign wars. We're going to, you know, really curtail illegal immigration. We're going to go after Wilkin D.I. and all this stuff.

10:21And so people believe him. And his first, you know, a little over approaching now two years in office. It'll be two years in January. He's done some of the things he promised to do. Look, he did go after Wilkin D.I. He had the doge cuts, but those weren't permanent in lasting. Again, you got to work with Congress. Trump can only do so much in Congress. The Republicans in Congress have been just as disappointing as anyone would predict. But the issue that really has hurt Trump. And it's not something that he wants to admit or other people want to admit. It's been foreign policy. Now, again, I talked about this yesterday, but I saw a post where the blame was put on tariffs because Trump didn't market those properly. Trump didn't do the right things. And of course tariffs have increased prices. And it's hurt American consumers. And all that's true. I mean, we've seen, you know, some really negative effects of the tariffs that Trump unilaterally impose without congressional approval.

11:27And again, that's, I mean, we can talk about that all day. That's something that should never happen. The president doesn't have tariff power. The founding generation never thought the president should have tariff power. But on the other hand, the president does things now that the founding generation never would have wanted the executive to do. And that doesn't, that's, that's regardless of party. I mean, whether it's Trump or Biden or Obama or whoever, take your pick. Right, George W. Bush. I mean, just go back. This is why in nine presidents who screwed up America, I have the last several presidents just lumped into together. Because I mean, you could just do that. But it's also why I have the essential originalist papers because I show you what the arguments were for the executive branch in that book, but regardless. So Trump did some things that, you know, people with critics would say have caused serious economic harm for most Americans or many Americans.

12:27Maybe not most, but many. But I think you can make a case of some majority. They don't want to say anything negative about the foreign policy issue because they're on board with it. You see, that's the issue, the establishment Republicans, the Neil Conservatives in particular, but even people that are generally good on many things have decided to rally around the Iran War. And as this piece of the American conservative points up by Andrew Day, the Iran War has destroyed Trump's presidency. I think there's no question you can say this. The Iran War has been an objective disaster for Trump and it's causing many of the problems that Trump is facing going into this, quote, unquote midterm election season. Now, even calling it midterm would point to the presidency being the only thing people care about. But the Republicans in Congress are going to get destroyed by the Democrats potentially.

13:32And now again, as I said yesterday, I don't think it's going to be as big of a blue wave as people think because of the structural situation. I don't think Republicans are going to get completely wiped out. I think it's going to be a little closer than people think, but it's really, I mean, conceivable that they'll lose the house in the Senate. And if that happens, we're going to see things differently. But Trump doesn't care about the Congress. I mean, never really has not particularly not in this term. But those structural issues go back to the economic situation in the United States. And what's driving that? What do people see on a regular basis? Well, their gas prices are going up now. In the last few days, they started to come down. And there's reports now that more oil is coming out to the straight of hormones and it has in months. And it's basically almost back up to levels that were there before the war. Now, how much of this we can believe? I don't know. I mean, it's really hard to tell these things a lot of times. So you just got to kind of read stuff and think, okay, is this happening or not? It's hard to sift through those things.

14:41But you certainly have some economic indicators that are hard on people. Trump promised to tackle the inflationary problem, to tackle the cost problem. None of that's happened. People are upset about the interest rates in the United States. Well, some of that is fueled, of course, by inflation. You got to control it. And how do you do that? You raise interest rates. Now, the interest rates we're seeing are really no higher than they were, you know, 25 years ago, or even before that, we were sitting for mortgages. This is what people often focus on. Well, we're in a mortgage interest rates. Well, there's 7%, 8%, maybe good sixes. This is what they were in the early 2000s. This is what they were in the 1990s. That's about where they stay generally. Except for this very low interest rate appeal, a period which, of course, contributed to massive government spending and inflation. Now, the other issue with the interest rates being that high, of course, is that the government is spending more money now that it ever has before is borrowing more.

15:48And so that's going to put a real pinch on the American economy. They're going to have to cut things. And everybody has, you know, that has a house is thinking, well, my gosh, I'm going to have to cut the price of my house because interest rates are up. And people can only afford so much. That is an issue. So you can look at the economic factors that are weighing down the Republican Party right now, and they're weighing down the Trump administration. But what's also contributed to this? And that would be the war in Iran. This is promised to be a quick war. We were going to go in and bomb them. And then it was going to be over in the United States. It was going to win. It was going to be mission accomplished. And we've destroyed the Iranian government, the Iranian Navy, the Iranian military, whatever it is. And the thing still isn't over yet. Essentially what you're looking at is a 1968 situation here with the Ted Offensive. The reason that the Vietnam War got bogged down so badly in the public mind was because of the information coming out of the US government leading into 1968. So the United States of course became much more involved in Vietnam once John F. Kennedy was assassinated and Lyndon Johnson takes over. And Kennedy, of course, it already put some of these things in motion. You can, there's a lot of dispute whether that was willingly or not. But regardless, the United States gets much more involved in Vietnam in 1964 and 65.

17:11And by 1968, the government is telling everybody we're winning. We're winning the Vietnam War. And then the Ted Offensive happens. And you've got images on the television of the United States, not American soldiers getting killed and wounded. And it doesn't look like we're winning. And the tide turns. And I think that is what Trump is facing. So what they've tried to do is hide some of that stuff. They don't want to, you know, images of American either casualties or damage to American bases or equipment. This is things that they're trying to prevent from getting circulated too much. But it's clear because of the economic ramifications that the United States potentially is not winning this war. Or it's dragged the United States down and has caused real problems for the Trump administration politically. So I don't think it's really a stretch to say that the Iran War has destroyed Trump's presidency.

18:16If Trump wanted to expend this kind of capital, he should have used it on immigration or any other issue that he had a substantial backing from the base from his own constituents in doing. And this is not one of them. That's the issue. This is not the one thing that he had a lot of support from from the people that got him into office. He chose the wrong allies. That's why Trump's a minister of Trump's presidency is turned in a different kind of direction. It's foreign policy. Trump had a lot of support because he promised no more Americans, a new American wars. That was the issue. No more foreign wars, right? And we didn't get that. So this has really caused him some major political issues, some major political problems. And there's no way to extract himself from this now. And he's in it. He's going to have to go through it. And that's that.

19:17I mean, the United States has now got to see some of this through. If he doesn't, well, then you can say the Iranians win. If he goes through it. And there are some real back end issues, which we know. I mean, where do you go from here? Right? So there's, there's, are they going to try to, you know, do something to work around the straight of our moves? I mean, what are they going to do? We know the war is widened out a little bit. And so what's going to happen there? There's a lot going on here that's causing all kinds of problems, at least in terms of perception and public relations for the Trump administration. We're back to 1968. You see, we're also, and this is where people like myself were back to the early 19th century, which, the old Republicans predicted there'll be some problems if we kept getting involved with the British, potentially the French,

20:17and all the problems that were coming out of that. Eventually we got into the war of 1812. So let me read this piece again, is by Andrew Day at the American Conservative. Yes, the Iran war has destroyed the Trump presidency. That's, that's the headline. He says, no one would claim that the Iran war has been a political godsend for President Donald Trump in the Republican Party. But some Israel, Israel first conservatives are willing to say and lately have been incessently saying that the Iran war hasn't been a political scourge. Now, of course, what's going to happen here with this, with this piece and, and what Day is saying, he's going to be accused of all kinds of nasty things. But certainly, I mean, it's, it's a known fact that the United States and Israel have been working together on this. And even, you know, early on, the American American political leaders, you know, Marco Rubio, so that, you know, basically Israel called the shots at least early on.

21:24And that Trump had a hard time raining them in and pulling them back and doing things. So, it's still, I mean, look, Israel is our number one ally in the Middle East. And without question, that's really what's going on here, the United States and Israel working together. And I mean, this is, this is not scandalous stuff. Nicky Glazer, this stunning tour. The thoughts of death, I don't like to dwell on them for longer than like 10 or 15 hours a day, so... November 19th, Yama Vaugh Theater. No wonder women rushed to have kids were being trained for it since we were kids. They're like, here's a baby doll. Here's an easy-bake oven. I got one of those. I stuck my head in it. I was like, I want out of this narrative. Tickets on sale now at Yama Vaugh Theater.com. Don't miss Nicky Glazer. Yama Vaugh Theater. Finding a doctor is hard enough. Finding the right doctor even harder. Someone who takes your insurance has an available appointment when you need one and feels like someone you can actually open up to.

22:25That's where Zock.com's in. Download the Zock.com app to search and compare doctors by specialty, insurance, and availability. Read real-patient reviews, find the right fit for you, and book instantly. Because getting seen by the right doctor matters. Zock.com. Ready to be seen? Download the Zock.com app today. So, this is the spin now. It's not the war that's causing the problems. It's not it. It's tariffs. It's tariffs. That's the issue. Now, American conservative, American conservative, I should say, was founded as a paleoconservative magazine. Early on, Papi Kenan was involved. And America first was a principal position for their foreign policy. And that would involve getting out of these entangling alliances with countries all over the world. Not just Israel, but also in NATO and other things.

23:29Remember, Trump promised to do some of that too. We haven't done it. So, the foreign policy issue was huge for a lot of people in supporting Donald Trump. And this is why people feel betrayed. And they're looking at the gas pump, and they're looking at costs of things, and they're looking at all the real problems. And they're saying, what's causing it? Is it the war? Is it something else? What's going on here? So, Dave says those Israeli first conservatives are wrong, even if the devil is at least partly hidden in the details. The Iran, whereas damaged Trump's approval ratings, consumed his presidency, and darkened the GOP's prospects in the upcoming midterm elections. Again, I agree with all of that. It really is the turning point. If he wanted to expend this kind of political capital, he should have done something differently. A chief proponent of the argument that Trump hasn't suffered all that much from the Iran War has been Shapiro of the Daily Wire.

24:34Shapiro's political analysis is plainly motivated by the fact that he was a loud and influential proponent of the war who promised falsely as it turned out, that Iran couldn't close a straight of war moves, a choke point for the global energy trade. So, again, these people are invested. They're going to have to push forward. Now that things have gone sideways, and not necessarily what they wanted, they really have to push through the war. But people predicted these things happening from the beginning. I was saying this was a bad idea to do. And of course, there are people that I like, and on our own side saying, well, you're wrong about this. This is going to be, we're going to, now, I did predict boots on the ground. That hasn't happened. Hopefully it never will. Okay. At least, you know, officially, we don't have any boots on the ground. But we'll see what happens. Day says these days, Shapiro seems to be implicitly acknowledging the war is very unpopular while trying to argue this fact has nothing to do with the declining approval ratings of the president who launched it.

25:38We should thank Shapiro for he has expressed his new argument in such a way as to help us uncover those devilish details that make the Iran War a not entirely straightforward story of political calamity. So it's the war is unpopular implicitly while he's implying that. But it has nothing to do with Trump going down. It's tariffs. It's tariffs. This is what's causing the problem. It's tariffs. It's Trump over reliance on tariffs and these kinds of things. That's the issue. Quote, there's an op right now to pretend that the real reason for president Trump's unpopularity is foreign policy. But that's not true. The polling data. It's not true. Such a peril on a recent episode of his podcast. The reality is that Americans have affordability concerns. President Trump came at office saying was going to alleviate the affordability concerns. He has in fact, he has not in fact alleviated the affordability concerns. And therefore his polling numbers have consistently slid since liberation day.

26:42So they says this is a bit like me saying my wife isn't mad at me because of the drinking, but because I drunkenly crashed the car, right. This is true. So the affordability crisis is here. People are are really upset about the affordability crisis. This is the problem is the affordability crisis and the affordability crisis. Not putting two and two together. So this is where they go back to the tariffs. It's just it's the tariffs. It's the tariffs. Now there are some other things, you know, some really weird things that are going on with this. You know, oil was higher per barrel at one point, but gas prices were lower. So are there some manipulation things going on? I don't know. Again, these are not things that I it's hard to find data and information on this kind of stuff. But certainly. The affordability crisis is partly caused by the Iran war as they says. He says the Iran war as everyone now knows is driven up prices at the pump. Prices which unfortunately for Trump are prominently displayed on every major street across the country.

27:48On the eve of the war, regular gasoline average $2.98 per gallon today at the time of writing the average prices $4.48 a gallon. Americans are notoriously averse to high gasoline prices and tend to punish presidents over the issue. Sometimes even when the president can't justifiably be blamed. That's all true. Right. So what do you see? Okay, gas prices are up. It costs, you know, another couple of bucks per gallon. So, you know, at the end of the day. Prices per gallon if it's if I got to put 20 gas $40 a tank and if I got to do that once a week, well, I'm up to, you know, $160 a month. And that's just one vehicle. Let's say you have two or three vehicles to do this way. You got, you know, two people driving in the family, maybe got a kid or whatever it is. You're up. You've seen your prices increase hundreds of dollars. And of course, that's just what you see. The prices that we see on goods and, you know, grocery stores and everything else. So people are looking at this and saying, oh my gosh. This is all from the war. Now, whether it's justified or not, doesn't really matter. But they're pointing to the war. This is where the spin comes in. Hey, it's the tariffs. It's the tariffs. We messed up with the tariffs. It's the war. Right.

29:08So, Dave says, but may no mistake. Virtually every sentient adult understands that one oil comes from Middle East, two Trump started a big war in the region and three gas prices shot up right right afterwards. And again, even if Americans didn't grok the connection between the war and the gas price spike, the latter would still have hurt Trump politically. And it would still be a knock on effect of the former, right? Even if it wasn't that. So even if you could say it wasn't the war, it would still be blamed on Trump. If he wanted to expend this kind of political capital, he should have done something else. But Dave says it's not just prices at the pump that have gone up because of the war. Groceries and other consumer goods travel across this vast land on tractor trailers that run on diesel and get a lot fewer miles per gallon than your Uncle Larry's F 350. Diesel prices have smashed records and now set it around $6.50 a gallon up from $3.76 gallons before the war per gallon before the war. I mean, it's huge. No wonder truckers are furious prompting rumors of an imminent strike.

30:20Now if that happens, it's really going to mess everything up. You're going to start seeing shortages at the grocery store. You're going to see all kinds of problems. All this goes back to the war. No wonder the Iran war has contributed to general inflation in America. Anyone who's been reading the official economic reports knows the war is responsible for more than a third of recent inflation. Now inflation. So let's this idea of inflation. So is it inflation or prices? These are two different things. So inflation comes when you pump money into the economy and you devalue the dollar. Now the United States does this on a regular basis. Consumer price index is something else. And prices are up. That doesn't mean that inflation is up. It means that prices are up. So if it wasn't for the price spike caused by commodity shortages and other things, what we be seeing these prices inflation is going to be gradual anyways.

31:25We're going to pay more for stuff next year than we did this year because well, we have two to three percent inflation all the time. It's price increases. What's causing. If they're printing more money, that's going to be an issue. And if the war is causing them to print more money, well, that's causing inflation. That's not a price increase. This are two different things. Okay, so we are seeing higher prices and that's caused by commodity trading and how much these things cost. I mean, it's like when you go to the gas pump and today it's 389, they haven't filled up those tanks, but tomorrow, you know, just a few hours later. Now it's $4. Well, that's because they've been told from the suppliers. Hey, gas is going to cost you this much when you get your next tank. You should next tanker truck in there is going to be this price. So they just jack the price up. I remember this was, I mean, this this happened, you know, 20 years ago. And you'd go to the, you know, go to the pump when we had some some real issues.

32:28You know, and it was, you know, at that time, it was in the $3. So it was like $3.30 and then you go back the next day and it's 360. You go back the next day is $3.90. This happened. Right. And it was only because suppliers are telling you this is how much it's going to be. And when you, where I live, you see this when you have hurricanes. You see it when you have hurricanes, the price of gas hasn't gone up necessarily in terms of the refining costs or anything else. But this is what the supplier say is going to cost. So the gas station is just headed on the back end because they know this is what they're going to have to pay for the gas when it gets there out of the trucks. So these are price increases not necessarily inflation or shrinkflation what we're seeing in other things. These are price increases. But day says before the war inflation was trending down only a couple takes away from the Federal Reserve's target of 2%. It seems like it lit the Trump if he hadn't started his dumb war in the Middle East would have garnered praise for presiding over declining inflation and that the Fed would have cut interest rates, juicing economic growth. Instead inflation now sits at 3.4%. Now 3.4% was acceptable inflation for a long period of time. That's not the issue.

33:39I think 3.4% inflation is awful. Any kind of inflation like that. It's a 3.4% tax that hits you every single year. It's a tax increase of 3.4% every year. Even 2% inflation is a tax increase every single year. Your dollars were a 2% less this year and 2% less the next year and 10 years this were 10% less and unless you've made a 10% increase in your salary you are hurting. That's the problem. So day says as an aside this week and I travel to Istanbul where many Middle Easterners of various nationalities complained to me that Americans only oppose the war because of gas prices. That's simply not true. The war has been on popular since day one when all the Americans that Americans knew was the American Israeli strikes had killed Iranian leaders including the supreme leader. Shapiro ever the neoconservative insinuated the quote above that the decline in Trump's approval rating owes more to his tariffs than to his war. Again this is this is it. This is this is what I've said. The data doesn't back that up as a conservative commentator and election analyst Ryan Gerdeski noted on X and respond.

34:54The most eye-opening part of this poll is that Trump's approval rating on the strength of the economy went up right after liberation day. Fel slightly afterward and then plummeted at the start of the Iran war. Shapiro is unwittingly helped uncover another subtler way in which the Iran war is indirectly damaged Trump's approval ratings and by extension the Republican party brand. Shapiro recently went on Fox News to commiserate with the host Mark Levin another Israeli first and war monger over all these dastardly anti-war conservatives blaming the Iran war for everything. Quote Iran is a 4% issue with the American people of end said as Shapiro nodded in agreement. Levin was referring to Fox News polling that shows not many Americans named the Iran war as their top issue. So whatever happens in the midterms it doesn't appear that Iran's going to drive anything one way or another. I think that's exactly right Shapiro replied. But as day points out part of the problem with Levin's analysis has already been covered above and the Fox poll a plurality of Americans 34% named the cost of living as the most important issue in the Iran war has made living costlier.

36:05Yes, you see all no, no, it's not the war is the cost of living but with the cost of living be lower if we weren't in Iran absolutely. That's the issue. Nicky Glazer this stunning tour the thoughts of death I don't like to dwell on them for longer than like 10 or 15 hours a day. So November 19th Yamavath Theater no wonder women rush to have kids were being trained for it since we were kids. They're like here's a baby doll. Here's an easy bake oven. I got one of those I stuck my head in it. I was like I want out of this narrative tickets on sale now at Yamavath theater dot com. Don't miss Nicky Glazer Yamavath Theater at Zockdock. We know you care about your health. You wouldn't do that early morning cardio if you didn't so the fact that your annual physical is overdue just shows how hard it can be to get seen by a doctor. Sorry that doctor's not a network press one for more options you've reached us outside for whole business hours. The next availability is in three months.

37:10But Zockdock makes finding the right doctor easy download the app and search by specialty insurance and availability read real patient reviews then book instantly. Zockdock ready to be seen. But the southern problems perhaps even more illuminating simply put Americans believe Trump is too focused on foreign policy at the expense of the problem they really care about which in fact his Iran war has exacerbated. This is a PR disaster for the Trump administration the GOP Americans don't prioritize the war that is dominated the headlines and distracted the White House even as Trump claims to have boldly prevented Iran from unleashing nuclear apocalypse. So see again that's the other issue only 4% of the population cared about this to begin with. Everyone was focused we don't want any foreign wars we want to focus on costs we want things to get cheaper we want a better economy we want all these things and you're telling this is the biggest pressing issue out there going to war in Iran people don't believe it see all the world wars only 4% of the problem well that's because most people don't care about it.

38:16Even before it happened they didn't want to be any wrong they don't want any foreign wars but now that it's happened and it's driven up prices and costs and I would say there's again difference between inflation and prices inflation does drive prices. But inflation is printing money right prices can go up regardless of inflation if there's commodity shortages and other things that can be driven by that. But if the government is printing which we know they print money so that's going to happen regardless. But costs are up everything's up interest rates are now going up interest rates are going up it's more expensive to borrow money. And people are being hurt by all this and the war is at least partly if not you know majorly responsible for all of this. Not the tariffs but the war.

39:19So they can close by saying it may be grotesque to find silver linings in this dumb and deadly war but here's one. Americans no longer buy the war narratives. It's certainly not whoever is silver lining for Republican candidates in this year's election no matter how cynically they try to distance themselves from the war. In fact it's a good bet they'll do much worse than if Trump hadn't launched this unnecessary war despite what Shapiro and his ilk may tell you that's 100% true. You want to see what's going on here you want to you want to find the problem with Republicans it's foreign policy. Look you just go back to the Bush administration everyone was on board with what was happening right after 9-11 people were excited to go out and punish those who were responsible but they were not. Then what happened then we went into a rock and then it became a just this long drawn out situation the relies told there are all kinds of things with that.

40:19And it ruined the Republican party brand again these people don't ever learn why because they are fully invested in a Wilsonian progressive foreign policy which is perpetual war for perpetual peace. You see that's the issue alright good peace I think 100% right need to be said see you next week on the Brian McLean Hunch Show see you then.