- 6/20/2025
The MAGA movement is facing a major identity crisis, as Donald Trump’s recent support for Israel’s unprovoked war on Iran leaves his base confused, divided, and angry 😠⚠️. For years, Trump branded himself as antiwar, a leader who would end foreign entanglements — but now, critics say he's walking the path of John McCain-style interventionism.
On this explosive episode of CrossTalk, Michael Scheuer, Gerald Celente, and Ron Placone unpack the backlash within the MAGA community, explore Trump’s shift in foreign policy, and ask whether his base will stay loyal or fracture as war rhetoric grows louder 🇮🇷🇮🇱🛑.
Is Trump abandoning the America First doctrine — or playing a deeper geopolitical game?
#CrossTalk #MAGAInCrisis #TrumpWarShift #IranIsraelWar #AntiWarMovement #GeraldCelente #MichaelScheuer #RonPlacone #ForbiddenNews #TrumpBacklash #MiddleEastTensions #MAGAUnrest #NeoconPolicy #McCainDoctrine #AmericaFirst #WarFatigue #USForeignPolicy #BreakingNews #UnfilteredTruth #StayInformed #GeopoliticalShift
On this explosive episode of CrossTalk, Michael Scheuer, Gerald Celente, and Ron Placone unpack the backlash within the MAGA community, explore Trump’s shift in foreign policy, and ask whether his base will stay loyal or fracture as war rhetoric grows louder 🇮🇷🇮🇱🛑.
Is Trump abandoning the America First doctrine — or playing a deeper geopolitical game?
#CrossTalk #MAGAInCrisis #TrumpWarShift #IranIsraelWar #AntiWarMovement #GeraldCelente #MichaelScheuer #RonPlacone #ForbiddenNews #TrumpBacklash #MiddleEastTensions #MAGAUnrest #NeoconPolicy #McCainDoctrine #AmericaFirst #WarFatigue #USForeignPolicy #BreakingNews #UnfilteredTruth #StayInformed #GeopoliticalShift
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Crosstalk, where all things are considered. I'm Peter Lavelle.
00:26There's big trouble in MAGA world. Donald Trump's changing positions on Israel's unprovoked war on Iran has many of the president's supporters confused, despondent and even furious.
00:37For a decade now, Trump has claimed to be anti-war and a peacemaker. Then why is he following in the footsteps of John McCain?
00:45Crosstalking MAGA.
00:55I'm joined by my guest Michael Scheuer in Virginia. He is the former head of the Bin Laden issue station at the CIA.
01:02In Kingston, we have Gerald Salenti. He is founder and director of the Trends Research Institute.
01:07And in Los Angeles, we crossed the Ron Placone. He is a comedian and filmmaker.
01:11All right, gentlemen, Crosstalk rules in effect. That means you can jump anytime you want. And I always appreciate it.
01:16Michael, I really need help in making sense of what's going on around us at this very dangerous time.
01:22Let's start out with the Economist YouGov poll of Americans. Just 16 percent of Americans want U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran war, which Israel started.
01:36Also in the same poll, there is no, not one single U.S. demographic that supports war with Iran.
01:45That means men, women, old, young, all the different races, everything. There's not one single demographic here that is in support of this.
01:55So what is Donald Trump deciding, as he keeps telling us? Michael.
01:59Well, it shows you the very strong erosion of the U.S. Constitution because he believes he's a warlord, as have all of our presidents since Harry Truman.
02:09And they think wars are something they decide and we don't ask the Congress about it.
02:13But I think it also disturbingly, most disturbingly, shows the power of the Israeli lobby in the United States and of the Israeli government.
02:23And probably mixed in here somewhere is some of the compromising materials that were filmed by Jeffrey Epstein.
02:31So this is an enormous stupidity. Iran is 6,000 miles away from us. It's not coming here.
02:38Whether Israel survives or not has always been its own business.
02:44There's no such thing as the right to survive as a nation or a right to exist, rather.
02:50You exist if you have an economy that works, a kind of a sociable or at least friendly domestic population, and you're strong enough to defend yourselves.
03:00If you're not, you die. That's the way history goes.
03:03Well, Gerald, you know, to add on to this, you know, Trump's own intel community keeps telling him that there is no evidence Iran is chasing the bomb, creating all the requirements to create a nuclear deterrent.
03:20I mean, there's no—and then Tulsi Gabbard, why—he doesn't want to listen to his own intel people.
03:25I mean, she should either resign or be fired or something.
03:29I mean, she's irrelevant in all of this.
03:31The IAEA, as compromised as it is, has said exactly the same thing in the last news cycle.
03:37So, again, what is there to decide, Gerald?
03:41And all you remember were Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction.
03:47And all the proof was there that he never had them.
03:50I'm the president. What are you talking about, all right?
03:53Yeah, I'm in charge. I'm running this country.
03:56I'll tell you what to do.
03:59That's all it is.
04:00He could care less about anything.
04:03But I do believe that this is going to be very serious.
04:08And the question is, will the United States get involved in this and support Israel,
04:14continue to support Israel's attack on Iran and get militarily involved in it?
04:19And that's where I think the agencies are coming into this, particularly the military,
04:26and say, listen, we get involved in this.
04:29We're going to get—it's going to really hurt us.
04:31I think that might be the only thing slowing him down.
04:35But other than that, he could care less about what anybody says, what anybody wants.
04:41He's an egotist.
04:43He's a narcissist.
04:44I'm the same age as Trump.
04:46One of the greatest threats when I was a kid, grew up in the Bronx.
04:50Your little SOB, we had enough of your crap.
04:53You're going to military school.
04:55Yeah, I remember that.
04:56Yeah, yeah.
04:57Right?
04:57Trump was so arrogant.
05:00This little spoiled daddy's boy, born on third base, hit a home run.
05:05They sent him to military school in Cornwall, New York.
05:10It's just about 30 minutes south of where I am, in the middle of nowhere.
05:15Now, imagine yourself as a teenager, dressed up in this stupid drag, time to get up, time
05:22to go to bed.
05:22Eat this, do that, do this.
05:24All you want to think about are chicks, cars, sports, and you're in military school.
05:29I'm mentioning this because he was so narcissistic, he's out of control.
05:35And he's only concerned about himself.
05:39Well, out of control or he being controlled?
05:42That is the question here.
05:43You know, Ron, I haven't disagreed with anything said here so far.
05:48But, I mean, this is a process of self-destruction.
05:52I mean, his own base.
05:54And we can go through the names.
05:56I mean, Tucker Carlson is a very good example.
05:59Steve Bannon, what is he saying here?
06:02Trump's enemies are working to destroy MAGA with their war on Iran.
06:07That's hard to disagree with as well here.
06:09So, I mean, if he destroys his base, he's destroying his presidency, essentially.
06:14Does he care?
06:15Ron?
06:16I don't know if he does care, Peter.
06:19I mean, this is a guy who, yeah, his own base is pretty divided on this because you have a lot of people who are looking around going, wait a second.
06:29This is not what we thought we were voting for.
06:32You have other people who are quite literally following the cult because they drank the Kool-Aid a long time ago.
06:38The whole concept of MAGA was just a bogus thing out the gate, has been the case for many, many years.
06:45The whole idea, if you look into the real history of populism, the whole idea of right-wing populism is an oxymoron.
06:51It makes no sense.
06:52It's like saying wet fire.
06:54It's basically nothing.
06:55It's just a branding shtick.
06:58And about nine years ago, the American people were ready for a real populist turn.
07:03That was denied to them, so they got a fake one instead.
07:07Okay, Ron, let's mention what the populist alternative was.
07:11You didn't name names.
07:13Bernie Sanders.
07:14Bernie Sanders.
07:15It was Bernie Sanders.
07:15It was Bernie Sanders.
07:17And those voters, they went for Trump later, okay?
07:20Some of them did.
07:21Some of them did, yes.
07:22Yeah, some of them did.
07:22I mean, a lot of people, that was their first, a lot of people in the Bernie movement in 2016, that was kind of their first intro to American politics.
07:30And, you know, a lot of them, yeah, did get sucked into MAGA.
07:34Not all, but, yeah, some did.
07:36And it was a shame.
07:37I mean, a lot of us on the left who kind of finally felt like we had a chance at some electoral representation for the first time ever, were looking around going,
07:46ah, jeez, how did this happen?
07:48And we're still kind of doing the autopsy.
07:50Ah, domestically, he's been an absolute disaster, and he doesn't care about anything.
07:55I live in Los Angeles.
07:57He ordered an illegal attack on Los Angeles a little over a week ago.
08:02We had our own situation because ICE is just going crazy here, and they're just pulling families away from each other.
08:10They're invading schools.
08:12They're in disguises.
08:13This whole atmosphere has allowed for literal political assassinations like we saw in Minnesota, and there's just no accountability.
08:22One thing we've learned from all this, the law doesn't matter much if you don't have anybody who's going to enforce it.
08:28This guy breaks the law on the daily, and no one does anything about it.
08:33The pushback is little to nil.
08:35This is basically the same playbook that happened in Mussolini's Italy.
08:41So that's what we're going through right now.
08:43Go ahead, Michael.
08:44Jump in, Michael.
08:45It's basically the same book that Biden taught us, if that's your position.
08:50That's an idiot position.
08:51Sanders would have ruined this whole country even faster than Biden because he's an idiot.
08:56He might be a popular idiot, but he's still an idiot.
08:59Yeah, but the point—
09:00Okay, we're not going to debate Bernie Sanders on this part, but my point—
09:05Michael, all I want to say to you, which is really important, is that the population, the voters, were denied that choice.
09:13That's what I think we would all agree with, okay?
09:16Would he have been a good president or a bad president?
09:17I don't know, because he wasn't allowed to get the nomination.
09:20It was rigged against him.
09:22The election against Donald Trump in 2020 was rigged in many aspects as well, okay?
09:28Again, my major point is here, starting out with these polls, is that popular consent is not involved here, Michael.
09:36Take it away.
09:36Go ahead.
09:37Absolutely not.
09:38Absolutely not.
09:40We don't have any representatives.
09:43That's right.
09:44In Washington, speaking for the people.
09:46They're paid by the Israelis.
09:48They're paid by other people constantly.
09:51There's no such thing as representatives.
09:53And look at our Constitution.
09:56Each—I read the other day that each representative now represents about 740,000 people.
10:02And since 9-11, you can't get through on the phone.
10:05This is an idiot situation.
10:07Nobody is perfect.
10:09But in terms of what was done to the country in the last four years, why would anybody on earth ever vote for a Democrat?
10:16Okay.
10:16All right.
10:17Okay.
10:17But let's stick with—you know, let me go to Gerald here.
10:20Donald Trump said he was not going to start any new war.
10:23Let's go empirically here.
10:25Okay.
10:25And what happened?
10:26It happened about two—two and a half weeks ago.
10:30He flipped.
10:30Why?
10:32Well, he flipped before that.
10:33Matter of fact, you know, we have a magazine, The Trends Journal.
10:36And the cover was, Donald Trump, a man of peace or a piece of SHI.
10:42You know what?
10:44And we had his quotes about what he said about when he was running for president and how he was going to be a peace candidate when he got inaugurated, on and on and on.
10:55And then the first thing he came out with, I'm going to annihilate those Houthis.
10:59And one thing after another.
11:01He's a liar.
11:03He just does what he says he's going to do.
11:06He's a liar, or does he believe in anything, Gerald?
11:10He believes in himself, wherever his mind goes, and who knows where it goes.
11:17And I agree with Michael a thousand percent.
11:20It's not a political system.
11:23It's a crime syndicate.
11:24They're murderers and thieves.
11:26They steal your money.
11:28Hey, I'm Jamie Dimon.
11:29I only got convicted of five felonies.
11:32I'm JPMorgan Chase.
11:33What happened when the markets busted in 2007, 2008?
11:39Ah, the Federal Reserve only gave the banksters, what, $29 trillion?
11:43Murders and thieves.
11:46How many more wars do we have to go through?
11:49Again, look what's going on.
11:51Well, the way things are going here, this might be the last one here.
11:56I mean, you don't have to be a geopolitical strategist to understand the implications,
12:02the cascade effect.
12:04If Donald Trump greenlights active American involvement in this war.
12:09All right, I'm going to interrupt myself, gentlemen.
12:11We're going to go to a short break.
12:12And after that short break, we'll continue our discussion on what's going on with MAGA.
12:16Stay with our team.
12:23Welcome back to Crosstalk, where all things are considered.
12:26I'm Peter LaBelle.
12:27To remind you, we're discussing the situation within MAGA.
12:29Okay, let's go back to Ron in Los Angeles.
12:41I said in my introduction, highly critical of Trump's so-called decision-making process,
12:47which is so opaque, it's startling.
12:50Where is the national address?
12:53Where is the national emergency here?
12:56Why is the United States getting involved when a third country attacked another country?
13:02The United States has not been attacked.
13:04The United States actually was involved in the attack on Iran on the side of Israel.
13:10Where is the emergency?
13:12Where is the national address?
13:14Which leads me to say, as I said in my introduction,
13:17why do we always end up with John McCain?
13:20Yeah, I mean, Peter, when it comes to foreign policy especially,
13:27public opinion is not even an afterthought.
13:31And they don't even pretend.
13:33And you have seen it time and time again.
13:35You've seen it with George W. Bush when Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
13:41You saw it with Barack Obama when he was just a smooth-talking guy,
13:46but he was still bombing nine countries.
13:48You saw it with Joe Biden when he led us into a foreign policy disaster
13:54while falling short on domestic promises at home.
13:58And now you're seeing it with Donald Trump.
14:00And in many ways, this is the fruition of what he wanted to do the first time.
14:04See, the first Trump administration was pretty much chaos
14:07because it was just a bunch of narcissists going at each other's throats.
14:10And then, of course, the pandemic happened.
14:12So he wanted his war with Iran.
14:14He didn't get it the first time.
14:15So now he's going after it now.
14:18And public opinion isn't even thought of.
14:21That's been United States foreign policy for as long as I've been alive and counting.
14:27That's just the way it's been.
14:29You brought up Tulsi Gabbard in this whole thing.
14:31Tulsi Gabbard changes her political opinions the same way someone else changes a pair of socks.
14:37What will she do at the end of this?
14:39Will she step down and resign?
14:40I think out of principle she should.
14:42Will she?
14:42I have no idea.
14:44She'll do whatever makes the most sense for her politically because that's all she ever does,
14:49which is basically what ninety nine point nine percent of politicians in the United States do.
14:55It is just a Wall Street sponsored scam.
14:58And we're really seeing it in full play here.
15:01This is one of those things my entire lifetime.
15:02We have just been living in a ping pong volley between neoliberalism and straight up fascism.
15:09And one leads to the other one hundred percent of the time.
15:13And now we're in a pretty sharp fascist wave.
15:16And it just increases in severity with each passing cycle.
15:20You know, Michael, it seems patently obvious to me.
15:24Please feel free to disagree if you wish.
15:26But Israel started this war with the belief that the Americans would finish it, finish it.
15:31I say in air quotes, what does that mean?
15:34When do these wars ever end?
15:36But that was the calculus that the United States, irrespective of public opinion, irrespective of Trump's public announcements,
15:43the United States is going to swoop in and save Israel's bacon, as it were.
15:48Is that correct?
15:49In my experience, when I worked at the agency for over 20 years, absolutely.
15:58If the Israelis didn't get what they wanted from the agency, they called the White House,
16:02and the White House ordered us to do what the Israelis wanted.
16:06I think one issue we haven't hit on is why would Trump trust the military to win?
16:13We haven't won a war since 1945.
16:16We've been beaten by everybody on Earth.
16:20We've proven in Iraq and Afghanistan you can't bomb a country to death unless you use atomic weapons.
16:28So within the government, he doesn't even command the government, as far as I can tell.
16:34The bureaucracy still does what it does.
16:37The punishable haven't been punished.
16:38And he doesn't seem to have a knack for understanding that America first does not mean isolation.
16:46It means minding our own business.
16:49He's had 120 days to dump the Israelis and to dump the Zelensky mob, and he hasn't done it.
16:56And to my mind, that's a terrible indictment of this administration right off the bat.
17:02And if you add a war to it, you know, the Iranians are tough people.
17:09You're not going to beat them by aircraft.
17:10You're going to have to beat them on the ground.
17:12And we haven't beaten anyone on the ground, Peter.
17:15Well, Michael, if I can stay with you, if Trump gives the go to start direct hostilities.
17:23The U.S. is already indirectly at war with Iran.
17:26It has been for decades.
17:28But everyone knows, I mean, American fighter jets with Americans flying them over Iran.
17:34That kind of direct.
17:36Yes.
17:36The number 50,000, 60,000 troops, American troops in the region, well, they could be eviscerated very quickly, very easily.
17:47Does that weigh on the mind of Donald Trump?
17:51Oh, I'm sure it does, but not to the extent of undermining the warlord nature of the presidency.
17:59Trying to figure out, Peter, more simply, what threat does Iran pose to us?
18:04None.
18:05And it had it not been for open borders.
18:10Now, everybody has a fighting unit in the United States.
18:13But on the whole, it's 6,300 miles from Washington, D.C.
18:18What are the Iranians going to do with us?
18:20They're going to float over here on inner tubes or what?
18:24And to count on our ground forces outside of the Marines is insane.
18:29Well, I mean, it begs the question, Gerald, what is the strategy?
18:34What is how is victory defined?
18:38I mean, the victory for if things go as bad as we think they may victory for Iran is to survive.
18:46And I think it will.
18:47In what shape?
18:48We have no idea.
18:50Will Israel survive in the current form that it's in?
18:53That's a big question right now.
18:55And then does the region just and then let's talk about oil prices, everyone.
19:00Let's talk about what you pay at the pump here.
19:03I mean, we could spend hours on this program talking about the knock on effect of what could happen.
19:10And you know what, gentlemen?
19:11A lot of people already know that.
19:13That's why the United States, even though with the the wishing of Israel, has not attacked Iran because of the consequences.
19:22Gerald.
19:24Well, I agree that that again, I believe that the military is telling Trump that's just I don't know.
19:32But I believe that they're telling him don't don't get involved in this militarily because it's going to be a disaster.
19:39Again, as Michael said, we have not won a war since World War Two.
19:44And I just want to make it clear about the hypocrisy of Trump.
19:47And you said, you know, said this is just some of his quotes.
19:51We want to have peace on Earth all over.
19:54This was in September last year.
19:56We are going to have peace through strength.
19:58We will not have to fight.
20:00I'm not going to start a war.
20:02I'm going to stop wars.
20:04I want immediate peace.
20:07I'm moving to end wars.
20:08The planet to peace.
20:10I want peace.
20:11It goes on and on.
20:13I mean, he says this stuff.
20:14He does what he wants.
20:15And by the way, he doesn't care about the people that are against him in the administration or anything.
20:22He's only in office for five months.
20:25What does he have, three years, seven months left?
20:28He could care less.
20:29And there's a lot.
20:31And again, I believe there's going to be, if United States get involved in this, there's going to be, Israel's going to launch the Samson option.
20:41Well, I'm glad, Gerald, I'm glad you brought that up because let me, because rapidly running out of time.
20:46But, Ron, I mean, the use of, let's say, the claim that Iran wants the bomb.
20:52Well, the country in the region that does have the bomb is Israel.
20:56And again, I was saying with Michael here, what is victory?
21:00What is the endgame here?
21:01I mean, if it's to be or not to be, then Israel has the nuclear stockpile, not Iran.
21:09Yeah, I don't think there is an endgame, much like there wasn't an endgame to the, quote, unquote, war on terror, much like there isn't an endgame to basically any of our foreign policy pursuits.
21:22Smedley Butler wrote the book a long time ago, War is a Racket.
21:25The endgame is increasing the stocks for the war machine and benefiting the elite few who get rich off of the war machine.
21:34This is just another chapter of all of that.
21:37Meanwhile, we will suffer immensely all around the world and especially domestically.
21:42I mean, you mentioned the price of gas.
21:45I mean, here in California, they're estimating it could go up to $8 at some point around 2026.
21:51So this is an absolute disaster.
21:55And this is we've heard this playbook before.
21:58We've seen this movie before.
22:00We know how it ends.
22:01It doesn't go well.
22:03But here we are again.
22:05And the people are just looking around going, what do we do?
22:09You know, we did have historic levels of protest here in the United States just a week ago.
22:14That is encouraging.
22:16People are kind of paying attention, but that needs to lead to something a little more than we'll show up and vote or something like that.
22:23It needs to lead to true systemic change, which I think you can only get that through a general strike.
22:31So I think we're in a very, very, very climatic time as a country.
22:37We have all of these issues facing us all at once.
22:43No solutions in sight.
22:45Meanwhile, our social systems, which were not great to begin with, are being eroded further.
22:52And United States politics is just so vapid in the messaging sense that you have people on both sides of the aisle, whether it's for Wall Street sponsor Team D or Wall Street sponsor Team R,
23:05who engage in this political fan fiction telling you, oh, yeah, no, Trump's going to be a peacemaker or, oh, yeah, no, the Democrats are never at fault for anything.
23:15It's always somebody else's fault, but them just shut up and vote for them again.
23:19Don't ask questions.
23:20There's no progressives.
23:21And, Peter, I will humbly mention that for anyone in Los Angeles, I do have a play running as part of the Hollywood Fringe.
23:28You can get information at my website, ronflacone.com, and my movie, Left at Wall, is out now.
23:32Thank you for having me.
23:33No problem.
23:34Michael, why should citizens vote anymore?
23:38Well, that's beginning to be a very good question, Peter.
23:40I think you have to continue to play the process and to push it as hard as you can.
23:45What's the option?
23:46And I think one more thing I'd just like to say is part of the problem we have in the United States is our educational system.
23:52Oh, yeah.
23:54Osama bin Laden was the best teacher for the United States in terms of foreign policy that you could imagine.
24:01And he basically said you're not hated because of what you do at home, whether it's X movies or alcohol or all the other things Obama and Clinton and the rest of them came up with.
24:12He said you're hated because you're here.
24:15And our policy in the Middle East makes no sense with that rock solid belief in that region that the only place for us is in North America.
24:25And so we take these things and we keep going just ignorant of the enemy.
24:31Yeah.
24:32You know, I was brought up on Indiana Jones that that was and Leon Uris that that's what they taught us.
24:39OK, and this is what it's brought.
24:41OK, gentlemen, fascinating discussion.
24:43We've run out of time.
24:44I want to thank my guests in Virginia, Los Angeles and in Kingston.
24:47And of course, I want to thank our viewers for watching us here at RT.
24:50See you next time.
24:51Remember, crosstalk rules.
24:55We'll see you next time.
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