Larry Johnson: EU Joins US Sanctions on Iran - NATO Faces Collapse

0:00Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. A missed call doesn't feel like anything. No red flag, no notification screaming at you, it just disappears into your call log. And nine times out of ten, that was someone ready to hand you money. That's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled Q-U-O. The business phone system built so you never miss a call. Here's what I like about it. All your calls, texts, and voice mails live in one place, so anyone on your team can pick up a conversation, see the full history, and respond fast. No more, wait, who talked to this customer last? And if you're worried about after hours lead slipping through, Quo's optional built-in AI agent can answer questions and even book appointments while your team's offline. It's the number one rated business phone system on G2, and over 90,000 businesses already trust it to stay reachable. Money is on the line. Always say hello with Quo. Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to Quo.com slash tech.

1:01That's Q-U-O.com slash tech. We're already wearing at least 10 hats. You shouldn't have to be your own IT department as well. That's why I rely on AT&T business. They keep your connectivity reliable, so you have one less thing to worry about. Powered by AT&T Business, built to work. Get AT&T Business at business.ATT.com. In a world where AI is changing every role and every industry, knowing who actually has deep expertise matters more than ever. Upwork connects you with the highly skilled freelance professionals with proven track records, so you can hire with confidence. Upwork gives your business fast access to highly skilled specialists with deep expertise,

2:03so you can fill critical skill gaps, launch projects faster, and scale support up or down without committing to full-time headcount. With Business Plus, you can access the top 1% of talent on Upwork. AI-powered shortlisting delivers a curated shortlist of top freelancers matched to your goals, and under six hours. No endless searching required. Thousands of growing businesses already trust Upwork to hire highly skilled freelance professionals for everything from one-off projects to ongoing support. It's free to sign up and posting a job is easy. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That is Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's UPWORK.com. Upwork.com. I already today is Friday September 4th, 2026, and our dear friend, Larry Johnson, is here with us, but he's not in his headquarters.

3:05Yeah, I don't know how to add. No cigar. Good God, I'm having a... Nothing. I'm having a meltdown in emotional crisis. Yeah, just... Larry, let me start with what Scott Pesson said that the Europe is joining the United States in these sanctions against Iran. Oh my God, yeah, he's working on a second career as a comedian. Yeah, go ahead. I, as far as I know, there is no economic ties between Iran and Europe. I don't know what Europe would do. Well, if this was 10 years ago, that would be important because about 10 years ago, 20% of Iran's trade was with Europe.

4:06And it would have made it a fact. But not now, I take it, you didn't read my piece at sonar21.com last night, did you? No. I lay it out in detail, the actual numbers. Now pull it up, look at it. Yeah, let me bring that up. Yeah. It's here. It's right here. Yeah. See what it says? Yeah, it's one of our friends in 2025. The whole of the European Union trade about 3.5 billion euros in good, yeah. And roughly $4 billion against Iran's total foreign trade of some

5:12in 182.6, you're therefore accounts for about 2% of Iran's commerce. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a nothing burger. Plus, plus Europe across the board, they are in desperate economic conditions. They're not good shape at all. They're. Is that, is it some sort of move to psychologically satisfied all Trump? I can't say, best since an idiot. I mean, I really, this is a man that has gotten through life pretending to be a highly intelligent and he's anything but, you know, he's he's turning into just a buffoon. I mean, he is completely detached from reality with the things he's saying.

6:15It seems that Donald Trump is himself. There is something to it when it comes to the public opinion in the United States. I think they're trying to say to the American people that we're doing the best. And is that functioning for Donald Trump domestically? No, no, not at all. In fact, there's growing indications that you even had like Senator John Kennedy yesterday. Come out and basically call for Trump to get the hell out of Iran. I mean, he didn't, you know, he was pretty. He's got folksy humor and maybe, you know, he's not really the brightest light bulb in the tanning bed when it comes to foreign policy issues. But he essentially acknowledged that time to declare victory and come home has arrived because it is a situation that if it that it's hurting the Republicans and their reelection campaign, they, they're doing internal

7:20polling and they're getting the Republicans on the Senate side and the House side are getting increasingly nervous. They recognize they're going to get their ass handed to them. Have you heard about South Korea is planning to deploy forces in the trade of hormones? South Korea. Oh, really? It's South Korean media. It says, side in officials from the country's Ministry of Defense. It says reported that Seoul is considering deploying naval forces to the trade of hormones to support the United States. Yeah, so they're going to deploy in the United States isn't that makes sense. I mean, yeah, they're they're foolish. Okay, let's see if any South Korean ships want to sell into the straight of hormones and get blown to hell. Today, there were multiple reports that Iran is using cruise missiles, anti-ship cruise

8:22missiles in the straight of hormones. Yeah, did the United States, I heard someone say the United States fired back, but I haven't seen anything about that. No, I haven't seen. No, no firing back. No, nothing. There were some reports and Iranian ballistic missiles going to Jordan, but it wasn't confirmed. And that that's all. But we haven't seen any any reaction, any retaliation from the United States. Donald Trump today talked, he said that we're winning. We're in a good shape in the straight of hormones. Everything is under the control. We don't need to escalate. But the problem is the the market is not following Donald Trump. The price of the oil and gas would force him to do something. Well, yeah, I think that's, look, I think that was the principal reason they basically put a halt to the kinetic strikes the other day.

9:25So the the price of diesel is continues to climb. And that's because there is a global shortage. And as I wrote now four days ago, my piece showed that actually the United States itself is not short of diesel if it was simply taking everything that the refineries produce and using it domestically. But that's not what they're doing. They're taking 40% of it or more shipping it overseas. It's going to Israel. It's going to the US military. So they've created a domestic shortage in the United States that is going along with the global shortage that actually exists because of the oil that was cut off out of the Persian Gulf. I'm going to be publishing an article later tonight based upon the latest analysis by an energy analyst Carl Miller. And what he's got

10:29the numbers that even if they open the state of Hormuz tomorrow, the oil production is not coming back online. The entire line from the oil, the well head to the pumps to the terminals to the ship, that entire strength. A lot of parts are broken and they're not going to be quickly repaired. So Trump is looking at some very, very serious economic challenges right now. And the more they blockade, he keeps up the blockade of the strainer Hormuz, the worst the oil situation gets. And it was up until about two weeks ago that they could get away with pretending that there wasn't a shortage because they were drawing off of their petroleum reserves. Those reserves are now almost empty. And so now the reality of the actual shortage in the market is coming to into play. Do you think that would force him to do something with Canada to improve

11:37the situation with Canada or is going to double down? Oh no, he's going to have to, he's going to have to eat some crow and go back and kiss some Canadian ass. How about the situation between Ukraine and Russia? We know that recently, Ukraine and the attack on Russian oil facilities somehow made some sort of problem to Russian export of oil. No, no, no, no, no, that's just what that's just Western propaganda. As Putin said yesterday, it only affected about 10% of the refineries and they're almost all repaired now and back operating. But the Russia did curtail export of diesel, which is adding to the global crisis. So right now you've got Iran threatening to attack civil aviation.

12:39Which is Ukraine. Ukraine, you can't excuse me, Ukraine, not Iran. Ukraine is attacking civil aviation in Russia, which is a clear act of terrorism. And Russia is threatened to, you know, this, if if if Ukraine goes through with that, then you're going to see, you know, each, each day, each passing week, there's more and more escalation from Russia. Right now they're taking out every warehouse that exists in Ukraine. And Ukraine stores are the shelves are empty. And they've just now issued a decree that anybody that takes a picture of the empty shelves is going to go to jail, you're going to be arrested. So, you know, it's, it's, it, things are great. They wouldn't have to take those steps, but they, that's exactly what they're doing. Yeah, they resolved the issue by removing the question. Yeah.

13:41Yeah, don't ask questions. Don't seek answers. Yeah, then Larry, how is the situation in Europe with the case of energy? It has the difficulties with this rate of foremost and Yeah, there's there they're running on empty. You know, that was, remember the old Eagles, there's a song by the group, the Eagles running on empty. That's, that's, that's now Europe's national anthem, the UK, France and Germany in particular. And Italy, those four countries, uh, their, their economies are a total disaster. The problem for them is if, if they're joining right now with the United States, with the case of sanctions, it would bring the repercussions because Iran would do everything, just not let a drop of oil getting to Europe. Right. Right. Right. Well, you know, in the past, Europe was a trading

14:46partner with Iran, but you know, as a result of the sanctions under JCPOA and subsequent sanctions that cut themselves off, I've never seen an entire continent commit suicide like this, economic suicide. That's exactly what they're doing. And they, they think they can fight Russia. Uh, I, I, I confess, there's a part of me that just wants them to do it. Go ahead, please do it. Make our day so we can watch you get your ass kicked, get humiliated, get defeated. And then maybe you shut up and go away because the, the, the, the European, their, their, their arrogance after, you know, five centuries of colonial rule, you know, they're not used to not being in charge anymore. It seems that they're trying to say to the United States that we are part of NATO. That's why we're joining you with the sanctions. But where is NATO lary today considering

15:52the war in the West Asia, considering the war in Ukraine that somehow is escalating? There's dead. Absolutely dead. Europe, Europe has no effective military capability right now. So Germany's supposedly building some long range, jet-powered drones that are going to reach into the depths of Moscow. If they do, if they build one or two and launch those into the depths of Russia, Germany's going to get attacked and that factory will be destroyed. And Germany will then be faced with, you want to go to war with Russia again? Didn't work out well for you the last time and it won't work out well this time. Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. A missed call doesn't feel like anything. No red flag, no notification screaming at you.

16:54It just disappears into your call log. And nine times out of ten, that was someone ready to hand you money. That's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled Q-U-O. The business phone system built so you never miss a call. Here's what I like about it. All your calls, texts, and voice mails live in one place. So anyone on your team can pick up a conversation, see the full history, and respond fast. No more, wait, who talked to this customer last? And if you're worried about after hours leads slipping through, Quo's optional built-in AI agent can answer questions and even book appointments while your team's offline. It's the number one rated business phone system on G2 and over 90,000 businesses already trusted to stay reachable. Money is on the line. Always say hello with Quo. Try Quo for free. Plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to Quo.com slash tech. That's Q-U-O.com slash tech. This is the story of the one. As a shipping manager, he's running the dock, stocking supplies, and making sure every order goes out on time.

17:58And Granger helps him stay prepared. From shipping supplies to PPE to hand tools, he counts on Granger to keep products moving and trucks rolling. So his operation runs smoothly, no matter the shift. Call 1-800-GRANJURE. Click ranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. That makes total sense when it comes to the Russian, the so-called Russian drone attack on livesick in Germany. How the hell did the drone get there? I mean, it flew in and just landed and sat there and said, okay, we're not going to blow ourselves up. Let me please. I think they're making the case for their drones to send them to Ukraine. Then Ukraine attacking Russia because Russian drones, you know, the attacking Germany. Merced wants to talk with Donald

19:01Trump. I assume he's going to be in the United States talking with Donald Trump in the near future. This is going to be in two weeks if I'm not mistaken. He's going to be in the United States. But what does he want from Donald Trump? Is he going to discuss the escalation with Russia providing new drones to Ukraine? Is that going to be acceptable for Donald Trump? Oh, no. Look, the problem with Merced right now, he's so unpopular. If you had a choice between getting skin cancer or having dinner or lunch with Merced, you'd go for the skin cancer. I mean, he's considered toxic. His party is going to go down to defeat in a dramatic faction by the opposition, the so-called right wing party, IFD. So, or AFD for English speakers.

20:10But, you know, I don't know what he wants out of Trump. Validation, money, a pat on the back, you know, a shoulder to cry on. Again, Germany, Germany, France, England, they think they're relevant and they are not. They just see a yesterday word came out. Volkswagen's going to lay off another 60,000 workers. This was one of the, you know, it was a fellow named Hitler that first had Volkswagen as a car company and that became the embodiment of Germany. Now look at him. It's just come in a symbol of their decline. Maybe he wants to get the license to produce patriots' missiles. Yeah. Validation, they've always got to do his convince the Chinese who he is,

21:13they're going to give him the rare earth minerals so they can put the magnets in there to guide the pack threes to their target. You don't have those. You don't have a functioning missile. The production of these missiles, Larry, despite, as you mentioned, one of the main elements that you mentioned over and over is the rare earth minerals that they can, they have to get it from China. But putting that aside, they need the energy as well. They need the, you know, they don't have the jet fuel, they don't have diesel that much, you know. Right. And they want to produce more arms for Ukraine in Europe today. Right. Plan is that. Yeah. No, I mean, it's the aspirations don't match the capabilities. That's, you've got a real golf there, a real division.

22:20So the Arabia, it was mentioned that so the Arabia is buying more weapons, Larry, from the United States. I don't know if how many five billion something like that. And what is the function? Are they going to use them against who these, what is the function of these weapons that they're using? Because they're defense, you know, budget is nine, ten times the Iranian defense budget. What are they buying? And it was reported then. Let me just check it out here. I'm going to find it here. They're buying factories, factories, fads, and jasms, and tummahawks. They're going to be waiting a little bit like three or four years maybe at the earliest. But then they also have to come up with the money.

23:24The Saudis are getting ready to take out a loan because of the cash flow that they've not getting anymore from the sell of oil. They're hurting financially. They're not in a position. Remember they pledged? Was it one trillion or two trillion dollars to Donald Trump for his, whatever this Trump plan was out of the middle out of West Asia? They haven't paid that money yet and they can't because they don't have it. I'm trying to find it but I just read it. You know, if they're buying, you know, if they're buying just basic ammunition, okay, we got that big deal. That's just that stuff. But if they're trying to buy F-35s or any of these offensive missiles, good luck because the US corporations can't produce them right now.

24:28That's what made it. This is just so bizarre. Ooh, Larry, the escalation is happening in the southern part of Lebanon and it was reported for the first time since June and Israel is attacking some areas that, you know, they were not, before, if I'm not mistaken, it was in the back of Valley. This is the region that they didn't attack since June. They were getting back attacking for the first time. Where do you see that? Do you think that is it going to get to the point that finally you see some sort of confrontation between Iran and Israel? Oh, no. Well, you're going to see first the attack between Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah, I think, is going to start retaliating and retaliating in force

25:29in a very significant way. And you can't rule out that the militias in Iraq that are close to Iran and they'll start organizing. They could be in a position, they could go into Jordan. It literally challenged Jordan. Then all of a sudden Israel's got a big problem with that the Palestinians in Jordan rise up. And I'm hearing from some experts in that area that are saying exactly that. They think they're saying that can't rule that out. It's a definite possibility. How powerful is the government in Jordan in Europe? And if these people somehow try to Oh, you know, government of Jordan now this week Abdullah is weak. Do you, Larry, Russia is trying to, we've learned from Washington that they're sending

26:32Steve Whitcombe and George Kushner to Russia to talk with Russians. Do you see any sort of hope or maybe sign that something would happen between the United States and Russia by you know, against them? No, nothing. With the Russians, what Putin will probably tell, what Kofin Kushner is, go home, tell your boy, Don, stop supporting Ukraine, cut off the intelligence, cut off the financial aid and tell them they've got to deal with us. No conditions. They don't get to set the conditions. We set the conditions. And if they don't, we're going to destroy them. Have a nice day. This is the story of the one as a shipping manager. He's running the dock, stocking supplies, and making sure every order goes out on time. And Granger helps him stay prepared. From shipping supplies to PPE to hand tools, he counts on Granger to keep products moving

27:37and trucks rolling. So his operation runs smoothly, no matter the shift, call 1-800-GRAENGER. Click ranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. A missed call doesn't feel like anything. No red flag, no notification screaming at you, it just disappears into your call log. And 9 times out of 10, that was someone ready to hand you money. That's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled Q-U-O. The business phone system built so you never miss a call. Here's what I like about it. All your calls, texts, and voicemails live in one place. So anyone on your team can pick up a conversation, see the full history and respond fast. No more, wait, who talked to this customer last? And if you're worried about after hours leads slipping through, Quo's optional built-in AI agent can answer questions and even book appointments while your team's offline. It's the number one rated business phone

28:37system on G2, and over 90,000 businesses already trust it to stay reachable. Money is on the line. Always say hello with Quo. Try Quo for free. Plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to Quo.com slash tech. That's q-u-o.com slash tech. You know, this, this would be as if the CIA and the FBI got into a shooting battle with each other. Yeah. Where do you see the government, the United Kingdom? Because they're the main supporters

29:40of Zelensky and his administration. That's all I said, they're economically devastated, and they continue to spend money on a project that doesn't provide any financial return to the United Kingdom. And it's, you know, now the United States is making noise that hey, we're going to back Argentina's claim on the Falkland Islands with Argentina, caused them the Malvinas. And the expression, I mean, hell, when I was living there, 40, you know, good, 45 years ago, let's say Las Malvinas sonoestras, Malvinas are ours. And so now the US is hinting that it may do that and that'll really screw Britain. Where is the situation? Larry, how do you see the connection between Donald Trump and the government in the United Kingdom? Which, that could be the key for the issue of Ukraine?

30:45Well, they're not great friends. You know, I mean, there's not a, you know, we're not looking at a good, close, cooperative working relationship as I just pointed out that the Brits are starting to react that the United States is making noise of selling them out to the Argentines. So this is, you know, it's, the United States cannot, there's not a lot of direct pressure can put on the UK to tell them to stop, but all of the United States can do is pull its own support and then leave the Brits out there all by themselves isolated. Is, is there any possibility to see some sort of escalation between Europe and Russia? I'm talking about basically, you know, I had King them, Germany and France. Oh, yes, yes, no, I think it's, I think it's highly likely before the end of the year

31:50that Europeans refuse to take any of the off ramps. And so there's going to be, at some point, there's going to be a direct Russian attack on the military industries in those countries because of their role in involvement in attacks in Russia. There's already companies that, you know, factories and such that are catching fire and burning. I think the Russians have decided to use covert techniques to go out and sabotage. But this could, this could still escalate beyond what it is already. There is a new report showing that there are a lot of Colombian mercenaries in Ukraine. A lot, like a lot. And Brazilian too. Yeah, and Brazilian, I haven't heard about Brazil. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the onto telegram is called Traca Nazi, T-R-A-C, a Nazi. And they list the names of Colombians,

32:56as predominantly Colombians and Brazilians. That's what I find amazing. Who spain them, Larry? Who spain these people? Well, CIA. I mean, it's a cutout, but you know, the money goes to Ukraine and then they, they're supposed to pay them. A lot of times they'll, they don't get paid. They get screwed. They get lied to. They sign up, they get over there. Then the passports confiscated and all of a sudden they're on the front lines. And they don't last too long. It's really, it's really awful. How about the French forces, the United Kingdom, German? Not that many. The biggest ones in Europe previously were the Poles, but the number, the number of Europeans fighting, I think after the Poles, the Brits were probably the largest contingent. But the Colombians and Brazilians, they really were the dominant ones

34:06in terms of foreign mercenaries. It's been a while that we haven't heard about the tanks. What are the combination of the tanks that Ukraine is using today? It's mostly from Germany, from the United Kingdom? I don't think they've, I don't know. You probably see them because whatever's left is very, very sparse. The Russians, they continue to put out their tanks and they've, they've put new, what's called, reactive armor on them. So they can fight off about 20 drones, which is a pretty remarkable system. But the tanks are, the tanks still have a role to play, but they're not critical. It's the artillery and the fab bombs, the glide bombs. Those are the ones making a difference. Yeah. There was a report today that the United States wants to replace MQ-9 reapers because they're

35:06saying so far they have lost 45 of them with the war in the Persian Gulf and they have to do something about it. They have to replace them. I don't know if they're going to replace them with the cheaper one or with the most sophisticated one. Well, any of these drones, they're all going to be, they're all vulnerable to being shot down. But it's also a question. Do they have the actual components they need to build those drones because of what China is withholding? That's a whole another question. Yeah. Thank you so much, Larry. I know that you're busy today and, sorry, couldn't, couldn't give you more than 30 minutes, but you know, great, great as always to talk. Probably we'll probably be able to talk Sunday night. Yeah, exactly. Sunday night by time. I'll be, I'll be someplace where it's Sunday night. Well, you're, you're sending, you know, six hours

36:09behind me. Yeah. All right, my friend. We'll talk. Thank you, Larry. See you soon. Bye. Bye. Right now, AI agents are altering the course of business, automating processes and streamlining the way we work. You can create these agents of change quickly and easily with the agentic system platform from out systems because out systems is all about outcomes. Like streamlining the loan process in the financial sector, giving insurance brokers a way to grow policy sales, and clearing production bottlenecks for a global beer brewery out systems, build for a agentic future. This is the story of the one. As a shipping manager, he's running the dock, stocking supplies, and making sure every order goes out on time and Granger helps him stay prepared.

37:11From shipping supplies to PPE to hand tools, he counts on Granger to keep products moving and trucks rolling. So his operation runs smoothly, no matter the shift, call 1-800-GRAENGER. Click ranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. Hey everyone, it's Chris Kalebout here, host of the Side Hustle School podcast. This episode is powered by AT&T Business. In my early days, I did some of my best work in parked cars or coffee shops. But when I landed my first big contract, I realized I couldn't bet my future on a public connection that cuts out if someone turns on a blender. As a small business owner, you're already wearing at least 10 hats. You shouldn't have to be your own IT department as well. That's why I rely on AT&T Business. They keep your connectivity reliable, so you have one less thing to worry about. Powered by AT&T Business, built to work. Get AT&T Business at business.att.com.