O'Round the World - February 22, 2026

Bill O'Reilly here. Let's get started. So I've got a lot of mail about why was Hillary Clinton in Munich at the security conference there. She's not a member of the U.S. government and all that. Well, it was a private thing. It was just like this whistling economic conference. And she was invited. So she's a free person. She can go wherever she wants to go. And in the process, of course, she's going to be asked political questions and certainly about Donald Trump, whom she loathes. And, you know, I wrote the book United States of Trump and the back and forth that happened on election night where Trump defeated Hillary is unbelievable. It is unbelievable. She thought she had it. And so there is this deep seated animus. So anyway, Hillary Clinton shows up in Munich and they have a roundtable discussion about security matters, including Ukraine. So enter the Czech foreign minister, a man named Peter Matsinka. I've never heard of him before, but he apparently is a fan of President Trump. OK, and he and Hillary Clinton go at it. Roll the tape. What I think Trump Trump is doing in America, I think it is reaction, reaction, reaction for citizens. something that some for some policies that really went too far too far from the regular people to what to do from reality so you know we saw the the cancel culture that's that we saw the the woke revolution we we don't agree with the gender revolution the climate alarm is under women have their rights I think there are two genders, but some of us think that there is more than one or more than two, sorry, more than two genders. I think there is male and female, and the rest probably is a social construct. So this is something that went too far. But does that justify selling out the people of Ukraine who are on the front lines dying to save their freedom and their two genders, if that's what you're worried about? Can I please finish my points? I'm sorry that it makes you nervous. I'm really sorry for that. Okay, the guy gives it right back to her. But that caught my eye. So Hillary Clinton is accusing President Trump of, quote, selling out the people of Ukraine. How? I'm sitting here and I'm going, we have given about $175 billion to Ukraine, American taxpayers. That's not all under Donald Trump. Some of that came under Biden. OK, but one hundred seventy five billion. And Trump engineered a weapons transfer. OK, so it goes USA, NATO to Ukraine. He has slapped onerous sanctions on Putin. What else do you want him to do? Do you want to go in with military? So I'm sitting there going, selling out the people of Ukraine. How many times has the Trump administration tried to engage Putin, who's the real villain here, in peace talks? How many? I mean, what do you want, lady? Sorry to be disrespectful, but you deserve it. This is crazy. So we searched around. I said, look, find me a soundbite from Hillary Clinton where she puts forth her vision of what should happen in Ukraine. Go. I think that the Trump administration's position toward Ukraine is disgraceful. I think the effort to force Ukraine into a surrender deal with Putin is shameful. I think the effort that Putin and Trump are making to profit off the misery and death of the Ukrainian people is a historic error and corrupt to the nth degree. Okay, but how is Trump trying to profit off the misery of the Ukrainian people? That's defamation. That's a smear. and there's no upside for President Trump. And let me be very clear, the Democratic Party doesn't make that accusation. They're not running around saying that the United States and President Trump is selling out the people in Ukraine. They're not making accusations that there's some kind profit motive. I mean, this is just nuts. Now, what's the genesis of it? She's obviously an angry woman, Hillary Clinton. I've met her a couple of times and had respectful conversation with her. She'd never sit. Well, I mean, did she sit with me for an interview? I can't even remember. but I did off the air. I met her a few times. Bill Clinton sat a number of times with me, but Hillary Clinton's a bitter, bitter woman. And she now is making these irresponsible accusations that the United States, President Trump, is somehow corrupt in his dealings in Ukraine. Now, I've been involved with this. Trump is trying his hardest to try to get Putin to be reasonable. And it looks like Putin is in so much trouble now, economically, with his own people, a million casualties, Russian casualties, that Putin may go, which would be the best thing that could happen for the world, that's for sure. But I'm sitting there going, you can't make these accusations and retain any credibility, you should back them up. What are you talking about? Profiting from Putin and Trump are profiting from the Ukrainian war. That's just vile. With a capital V. Profiting? How? How? Now, Hillary Clinton's allowed to say stuff like that. Private citizen got invited. Went over to Munich. They had her on a panel. I'm glad the Czech guy gave her a hard time. I'm thrilled that he did because the press won't. As soon as Hillary Clinton came back to the USA, he should have been lined up. What are you talking about? Because not only does she demean President Trump, she demeans this whole country. All right. She demeans her own party, The Democratic Party, if there was some kind of profit motive, believe me, CNN would lead with it, the New York Times, the Washington Post. They'd have it all over the front page. What are you talking about? So to me, I understand exactly what's happening here. Trump would love to have the Ukraine war stop. He's trying to convince Zelensky that you might have to concede some territory. Zelensky has come to that realization himself. Meanwhile, Putin continues to kill women and children. And it's to Trump's benefit to stop it with this Nobel Peace Prize stuff, right? Anyway, not a good look for Hillary Clinton. That's for sure. It's Black History Month, and on Tuesday, President Trump held a ceremony in the White House, as he should have, honoring black history. And the Trump haters did not like that. In fact, they continue to call the president of the United States a racist. Now, CBS's White House correspondent, a man named Ed O'Keefe, he apparently objected to White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt saying, you got to knock it off. You got to knock it off that this is not right to call the president of the United States a racist. Roll tape. In his statement about Jesse Jackson, the president said, despite the fact that I'm falsely and consistently called a racist by the scoundrels and lunatics on the radical left, Democrats all. It was always my pleasure to help Jesse along the way. Where or when does the president believe he's been falsely called racist? You're kidding, right? I will pull you plethora of examples. I'm going to get my team in that room to start going through the Internet of radical Democrats throughout the years, Ed, who have accused this president falsely of being a racist. And I'm sure there's many people in this room and on network television across the country who have accused him of the same. In fact, I know that because I've seen it with my own eyes. Now, I'm a little flabbergasted, word of the day, by Ed O'Keefe. So he doesn't know that President Trump has been called a racist from pretty much the moment he entered politics in 2015. He doesn't know that. So I'm going to give you three examples of very high profile people who use the R word when referring to Donald Trump. Number one, go. Do you believe President Trump is a racist? Yeah. No question. How can you say that? When you look at the words that he uses, which are historic dog whistles of white supremacy. Like what? Dog whistles? What does that mean? Like what? See, this is what I, it's, but no, he's a racist. According to Ocasio-Cortez, there's no doubt, no doubt. So unfair, so ridiculous. one is our pal bernie sanders we now have a president of the united states who is a racist president of the united states who has done something that no other president in modern history has done no we don't know what that is because that speech was given commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Columbus, South Carolina in 2019. What are you talking about? So we looked, what is he talking about? So Santa, he's a racist. Now, these are two socialists right there. So maybe that has something to do with the socialist credo. I don't know. But AOC saying, oh, he's a racist. No backup at all. Third one is former President Joe Biden. Abraham Lincoln here is one of the most racist presidents we've had in modern history. He pours fuel on every single racist fire. Every single one. Started off his campaign coming down the escalator saying he's going to get rid of those Mexican rapists. Okay, so that's politics as usual. At least Biden provided a context. and then, of course, let in the Mexican rapists. Now, maybe I'm a racist for saying that, but it's true. The estimate is that President Biden allowed more than one million violent criminals, foreign nationals, into the country. Okay? So, I don't know. Hillary Clinton routinely calls Trump a racist. Everybody at MS, Maxine Waters, you know, the usual suspects. So I've known Donald Trump for 35 years and I wrote a book on the United States of Trump. And his father, Fred Trump, he wasn't a friend to the African-American community. He wasn't. Now, was he a racist? That's not for me to say, because I don't know, didn't know Fred Trump or anything like that. But I do know that he set his business up, Trump did, to avoid selling to African Americans. It's documented in the book United States of Trump. But his son, Donald Trump, OK, never subscribed to that. And we looked. We searched. There was a controversy in Cincinnati with some Trump owned properties, but it was he didn't he wasn't even in Cincinnati. daddy trump the president okay so i've known the man and i've been to social engagements to ball games i know his business i know who works for him i know all of that i have never one time never one and i've heard him disparage people like you know we all do in our casual conversations i've never heard him go after a person based on skin color ever now it's easy to say that donald trump's a racist because he doesn't want unregulated migration from anywhere, not just third world countries. So that's what they do. But if you look at his associations over the year, Donald Trump is just like any other business person. He does business with everybody who can help him. All right. So if it were the latter, if he were like his father, I would report that. But he isn't in a lot of different ways. In fact, he rebelled against his father. The president did. And when I sit there and I watch this, because I've been accused of being a racist in insane ways. ways. And I was going, what are you talking about? If you could see the records of my charitable foundation and how much money we've given to help minorities in this country, of all persuasions, I mean, why would I do that? So it's cheap. And here's a kicker. So the Associated Press is now a left-wing organization. It's not a news agency anymore. Trump holds a Black History Month confab in the White House. She should. And it all comes out. It's a nice event. And then the AP, their lead is, oh, well, he doesn't believe in DEI. He doesn't believe in diversity or inclusion. It's like what? He's not supposed to have honored Black History Month because you disagree with him? That's the mentality. Bill, we live in a cable news world every moment now. We live in a Twitter world It every second you seeing poll numbers in news and everything else You went back and looked at this from a historical perspective If we looked at Lincoln poll numbers in 62 and 63 would we have ever thought that he would be remembered the way he was? No. And people should ignore the polls until late September because so many things are going to happen. But there's no doubt in my mind that the Trump administration has a messaging problem and that they should have a SWAT team that comes out when there's a controversy and just gives the facts. Let me give you an example. So the big thing in Minnesota, which drove down the president's poll numbers, was the violence with the ICE agents that people could see on TV. And then they walk away and they say, that's wrong. We don't like that. We don't want that. But there was no explanation at all about what ICE was actually doing. And if you look at the raw data, 60% of the people that ICE took into custody were somewhat involved or deeply involved with criminal activity. And that message never got out. It never got out. It was the hotel maid, the farmer, the people who have been here 85 years, a dragon grandpa out. And here's an interesting thing for the News Nation audience. A lot of the migrants that are taken into custody by ICE have not shown up for their asylum hearings. You never hear that reported ever. Once you are mandated to appear for a hearing and you're in the country on an asylum basis and you don't show up, then you're immediately designated for deportation. Never been reported. OK, I'm not sure how we got back. Why couldn't the Trump administration? Why couldn't the Trump administration report that? See, that's what I don't understand. Well, they had Kristina and everybody else out there. But I want to get away from immigration. What does Trump have to do now? You've said it on this program. He's obsessed with his legacy. He wants to be remembered as a great president. You've studied the presidents. What does he have to do now to get that reputation solidified? Well, he's got to have some wins and he's got to explain the losses and he's got to cut down on the feuding. You know, Teddy Roosevelt, who hated to be called Teddy, by the way, Theodore Roosevelt, he was a king of feuds. He had feuds all day long, but he didn't make them public. They were intense, but behind the scenes. Seems every day President Trump is feuding with someone else. Does not help him anymore. It did help him and absolutely helped him in the beginning when he was looked about as a avenger, a crusader. But now it's wearing down a little bit. So my advice to President Trump is, A, I think he has done very well on the economy. And I think when the people get their refund checks from the big bill, they're going to be happy with those. He's got to get insurance prices down. I actually suggested to him that there be a summit of insurance CEOs at the White House. That's got to come down because that's just killing working people. And then, as I said, he doesn't have to do all the messaging. You know, get authoritative people to put out what is actually happening. Donald Trump is allowing the media that hates him. It's a great point, though. It's so easy, though, to book any of his people on cable news, right? During the whole Minnesota thing, there was – Kristi Noem was out there all the time. Bovino was everywhere explaining themselves. May not be the message you wanted them to spread, but it was the message that they wanted to spread. When it comes to the economy, I think Besson's extraordinarily good. You got Howard Lutnick trying to do stuff on the economy. When it comes to national security, Rubio's incredibly articulate. what Hegseth people can make their own decisions about. Does he have the right people around him right now to do what you're talking about? Some of them. But the essential point is this. He is allowing his enemies to define him and reacting to the definition. That has to change if President Trump wants to be considered a great president. And all you have to do is go back to Ronald Reagan. You never saw Reagan lash out, ever. But he, behind the scenes, was ferocious. But he trot out Baker. He trot out another one. And they'd have a whole thing prepared to rebut the attacks. But Reagan didn't do it. He could have done it. He was very skilled at being an actor. He could have done anything he wanted. but Reagan basically had a disciplined approach to reacting to criticism. Okay. Well, let me give you something. That is what the Trump administration needs. Okay. Let me give you something though. Shoes don't stretch, men don't change. As you said, Donald Trump hasn't changed in the 30 years you've known him, but this is an article written by George W. Bush for the free press. George W. Bush, what I learned from George Washington, Our first leader helped define not only the character of the presidency, but the character of the country. Washington modeled what it means to put the good of the nation over self-interest and selfish ambition. He embodied integrity and modeled why it is worth inspiring to. And he carried himself with dignity and self-restraint, honoring the office without allowing to become invested with near mythical powers. Is that kind of attitude what is required for greatness? No. That was Washington's skill, and he really didn't want to be president anymore because Martha was killing him. He better get back here. And George said, okay, but he didn't really want it. Now, if John Adams were in the same position, the second president, Adams would have stayed there for 40 years. Okay, so it depends on the individual. Yeah, but we don't think of Adams as a great president. history. I don't. I think he was OK. I wouldn't say he was great. When you're reconfronting the presidents, he lost control of the government a few times. People, the voters didn't like him, which is why Jefferson beat him. He was OK. I'm a brave man, a patriot, but not a great administrator. But Donald Trump has a vision and the vision is good for the American people is what I keep telling everybody. I said, strip away your emotion and look what the man is trying to do. And he's being successful. He brought down a deficit enormously in the first fiscal quarter. And the whole thing came down. I think he got 30 seconds of airtime on television. And he did that by using tariff money to pay off some debts for the federal government. So what I'm saying to you is Donald Trump is a very skilled communicator, but he's not a disciplined communicator. Do you get my point there? No, look, you make a great point, no pun intended, of what it requires to be great as a president. There's so many different skills. Yeah, he goes into areas that hurt him. I mean, nobody cares about Marjorie Taylor Greene. Nobody gives a fig about her. Why give her air time? You know, I mean, I'm just going, And, you know. Yeah. I think there's a lot of people who do that. And that's what the press latches on to. Yeah, that's true. All right, Bill, we got to run. Thank you very much. Happy President's Day. Thanks for having me. Bill O'Reilly, how you doing? I'm doing all right, Mark. How about you? I'm good. I'm good. Hey, you must have encountered Jesse Jackson a number of times through the years. I had him on once on the factor, but I ran into him a whole bunch of times. And I had mixed feelings about Reverend Jackson. So you've got to admire his commitment to his people. You know, I traveled with Martin Luther King. Was there any assassination? And I do. The history of Mr. Jackson was, I think, a positive for the country. But as an older guy, he veered into victimization, as Sharpton does, and, you know, the high-profile black people who are trying to get change, better change for African Americans. And this is Black History Month in February. And victimization, trying to persuade younger blacks that the deck is stacked and they'll never get equal treatment. I don't subscribe to that at all. I think it's a destructive thing. So that was my mixed feeling about Jackson. He did go into that area. And I thought that he was wrong for doing that. You kind of have to do that. If your game is battling racism, if you eliminate it, you put yourself out of work. So doesn't he have to kind of keep the thing going a little? Well, his fortune printed today, I don't know if it's true, is $4 million. That's not a lot of money for an 85-year-old who is that high profile and could charge a substantial fee for speaking engagements and things like that. So it wasn't like Sharpton, who was a money guy. I don't think Jackson was in it for the money, but he certainly was in it for the adulation. And when you do the victim thing, you get a lot more applause than when you do, look, we know we've gotten hosed here in America. African-Americans have a legacy that they have to overcome, slavery and all that. But there is opportunity, and you should go out and try to seize it. That's not a big applause line. While the, hey, you're getting screwed, you'll always get screwed, so let's get angry. That's a much bigger applause line in some precincts. Speaking of getting angry, these Democrats today, and Bill Maher made this point Friday night, that it's like a game with them, like a childish game. They just want to get angry. They want to get themselves riled up. It's emotional. It's childish. It's got them championing the most crazy stuff. They want to convince themselves they're social justice warriors. How do you ever cure a thing like that? Well, the only thing the Democrats really have now is emotion. So they're on the wrong side of pretty much every issue. Look at the IDs to vote. Yeah. I mean, it opposes 75-25 that American people believe it's reasonable to produce an ID before you catch the ballot. Well, the Democratic Party's on a 25% band. And when you look at the states run by Democrats, California, Minnesota, Illinois, New York, they're all fiscal disasters. Every one of them. All going down the drain financially. So what do they have? they don't have anything but emotion and the emotion is trump's the devil anybody supports them as uh you know demons and they'll pound that and pound that and pound that um because if they didn't do that then what do they have to sell global warming is that is that what you got it's not gonna work hey i'm watching that munich conference and i'm watching aoc give the dumbest answer on Taiwan. And I'm thinking, if you're China and you're watching this, you're now going to want to do everything you can. You're going to want to get AOC elected because she's so weak. Do you think that's one reason the Chinese are funding all these crazies here? I would say no. I know the Chinese pretty well. And the money coming out of Shanghai into the United States is designed to cause mayhem. They don't really care who's in charge. They want to break this society down and create strife. That's the Chinese strategies, you know, get them from within. And that's why this big money is coming. Now, as far as Congressman Casio Cortez is concerned, I went to Boston U, where she attended as well. You can coast through that place. I'm sorry, B.U. I know there's a lot of people. I enjoyed it. I got a master's degree in broadcast journalism, and I was on the newspaper, and BU offered me a lot of opportunity, which I seized. But as far as academics is concerned, this is not MIT. Okay? So I don't expect anything from her at all. I know she doesn't know history or geography or geopolitics, and I know she doesn't understand even what socialism is. She's a socialist. She doesn't even know what it is. And so if people are going to vote for her, you are voting for a vapid person as far as knowledge is concerned. Yeah. Vapid is being generous. I think it's even worse than that. I mean, just really. Well, you know me. I'm a kind, compassionate guy. You know that. Hey, you were at the Super Bowl. Well, a week and a half later, looking back on this, this old bad bunny, all this stuff, what do you think is the final fallout? You know, there's always this saying, go woke, go broke. Is the NFL going to do better next year or worse because of this? Well, we broke this story, and it didn't get a lot of pickup. I was very surprised. Thought it would get a lot more pickup. The reason that the devious rabbit was on the stage was money. So Apple, which controls the downloads of his music, contributed, I don't know exactly, but it's between $50 and $100 million to the NFL this season alone. They paid the entire freight for the halftime show. Apple did. And in return, Apple said to the National Football League, you've got to put our guy Bad Bunny in the halftime show. And if you do, we'll buy all this advertising and we'll finance the halftime show. And so they made a deal. It was all about money. It wasn't about culture. It wasn't about Jay-Z. It wasn't about Roc Nation. It was all about cold, hard cash. And it's paid off for Apple. Because worldwide, the Apple music has surged, particularly bad money, which always happens when you have a forum like that. So I broke the story and I expected people to pick it up, but nobody did because that's not as sexy in this journalistic parlance as a culture war over Bad Bunny and what is Bad Bunny saying and why is he grabbing his crotch And you know I told Bad Bunny people they a powder for that You know if you want to lessen that you can there a whole bunch of product for that That's a much bigger draw, the culture war, than the financial thing. That's fascinating stuff. You can learn things like that if you go to BillOReilly.com. Gentlemen, thank you both for being with us. It's good to have you. And we'll talk around. You got two Christian warriors up against you tonight, Stephen A., so it's a little different. I'm used to it with you guys. Let's contextualize a couple of things. Les Wexner, OK, a shocker to me today. First of all, no real GOP lawmakers at the deposition. This guy was named a co-conspirator by the feds, then redacted by the Trump administration. He's the Victoria's Secret guy. He was Epstein's money train early on. He's the guy who put Epstein in business. Now, this was done in private, which was a mistake. No word on what readout we're going to get. Democrats present, say Wexner, again, named a co-conspirator in the files, said he was never asked to be questioned by the government until now. Hmm. This happened the same time as Bongino and Kash Patel on his podcast talking about the success of the FBI. Never mentioned Epstein raises the question. Does the right really think they can ignore Epstein out of relevance? That's our first topic. Second topic is going to be the big concern that Bill has been reporting on for the last couple of days. you know, there's so much asset movement around Iran. It does seem highly suggestive that the regime may be in for some hellfire from Uncle Sam. So let's start with your take on the Wexner situation, how it's being played by the GOP here and what you think happens. Stephen A. Well, I definitely think there's no question they've tried to throw this on the back burner. And you know what? The reason why it's such a big deal is because you had the president campaigning on this issue, talking about how he was going to release the files. And you had people like Pam Bondi and Bongino and others hell-bent on the files being released. And then Pam Bondi, if I recall correctly, was in front of the camera once he had won the presidency, saying, I have the files on my desk. I've seen them and all of that stuff. And then when it was time to show something, she had nothing to show. She didn't want to show anything. and Trump was back in front of the camera saying, what's the big deal? And so remember, he's apolitical. He's not your typical politician, doesn't really consider himself a politician. And the level of transparency, his followers, his supporters believed that he would always do or provide without hesitancy. It was a reversal to some degree. And so it was inconsistent with who they knew Trump to be in their eyes. and obviously those working under him with his administration. And that had a lot to do with the level of trepidation and cynicism that people have been walking around with. And we've seen evidence about that, whether it's Marjorie Taylor Greene or various others who have supported him throughout the years. They certainly seem to be turning in a different direction because of that. So that's where we get all of that from. Hey, Bill, do you think that this stays for the midterms or no? this story will stay forever just like the Kennedy assassination story it'll never go away never and the only way it gets resolved is if a alleged victim comes up and says Wexner did this to me on this day in this place Epstein was there that's the only way And I just, Stephen A., you know, there are three million pieces of paper, and I don't think Pam Bynum could find a desk big enough to have all of that paper, and that's why she didn't put it out. She shouldn't have said it. Three million. That's true. She shouldn't have said it. She said it, though. I mean, look, we understand what this is. It's a political witch hunt to try to find stuff that would damage Donald Trump. In the process, they've damaged Bill and Hillary Clinton, who will testify next week. And thousands, literally thousands of other people whose names have been linked to Epstein. Maybe it was a DoorDash guy. It's in the files. Yeah, he got a burger at this time and Bart delivered it. I mean, it comes to a point where a victim has to emerge in order for this story to move forward. And no such victim has emerged. Well, the survivors have come out over the years again and again. They say they gave DOJ a list of people who knew or should have known. You're going to do Wexner? It's got to be Wexner. Well, look, we'll see. I can't believe they never talked to him before now. All right. So let's pivot to this other one. Iran. I thought at first, I'll be honest, Bill, I don't know how you do regime change remotely. And I do not to get too into the weeds of the history. But as Stephen and Stephen A. and I both know, you know, you are the historian. You could make the case that the United States owes Iran for what happened around the events of the Shah and bringing in these ayatollahs and how that happened and that the United States may have some type of responsibility to help these people get their country back. But do you believe that the U.S. is seriously going to bomb remotely? And do you think that's enough to move the needle? Well, number one, you make a good point, Cuomo, that we do owe the Persian people because the United States and Great Britain was responsible for the Shah. The Shah transferred all oil assets to the USA and Great Britain, the biggest asset transfer in the history of the world. And then they propped up the Shah when he abused his own people. So that is absolutely true. So I talked to President Trump directly about this. The president would like a deal. This is like Maduro. So Mr. Trump offered Maduro a deal. You can go to Cuba. You can go to Paraguay. You can take some money. You can take your family. Maduro gave him the middle finger. And now Maduro will never get out of prison in his entire life. The Ayatollah Comini, the second Ayatollah, is doing the same thing. We're going to do this. We're going to do that. Hey, listen, pal. And I'm talking to you now. OK, you are toast after the Olympics. OK, you are cinder. You are gone. No one is going to help you. No one. Deals are being made with China to supply oil outside of Iran at this moment. So if this guy with his little hat wants to be bellicose, word of the day, OK. But the over under is two days after the Olympics, he's gone. Bellicose, warlike, bellum, Latin. Stephen A., how would you feel in the poll position of having to make a decision like this? We have the might, but can you do it in a way that makes the difference that they need in Iran, or are you starting to descend down mission creep? Well, here's what I would tell you. We all know how tight President Trump is with Benjamin Netanyahu. We all know that Netanyahu and Israel's primary objective is to make sure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. And so Trump has already bombed him once. I don't think he would hesitate to do so again on behalf of Israel if Netanyahu and Israel wanted him to do such a thing again. And Iran wasn't cooperative. So I don't put anything past Trump when it comes to that in terms of his support, his unwavering support to Israel and the Jewish community. And I think because of that reality alone, we can't rule out the possibility of a second strike against Iran. If you are its leaders, you're of the mindset that he'll never take you alive. And we've seen them being proxies for terrorists in the past. We know how they operate, and they have absolutely no problem whatsoever, you know, dying for their cause. This is the impression that they've given. Trump has been adroit, at least from appearances' sake, in terms of ingratiating himself with folks in the Middle East. So he has some support, at least in his eyes, as some support, rather, that he could garner, and it could offset the negative momentum that is perceived to come his way in the event that he would bomb Iran for a second time. But we can't say that for sure because the Muslim world probably would be up in arms and who knows what would happen. But I'm just guessing. I don't know. And that's why I'll give it back to Bill. All right. As Stephen A., Secretary of State, which I'm sure he'll appoint me. OK, I'm going to say to him right now, not about Israel. Israel is a small component. Saudi Arabia has more influence in what's going to happen in Iran than Israel. because Saudi Arabia is Iran's terrible enemy, all right, and wants Iran neutralized. You may have noticed, Stephen A., in between the Detroit Pistons being in first place, that the EU has now classified Iran as a terrorist state. So everybody is aligned against Iran. The question is, if the United States and others bomb that country, will it be enough to take the power people out? Will it be enough for the Persian people to rise up? It's a 50-50 proposition. The Revolutionary Guard will be first target. They're done. Mossad is deep in Iran. And as your secretary of state, I would tell you classified, of course, where exactly Mossad is. They know where the mullahs go. They know what they do. So it's not hard to remove them. permanently, but nobody wants, and I mean that literally, the innocent Persian civilians to be killed in bombings. So this becomes a very, very difficult logistical operation. Final point, as Secretary of State to President Smith, the mullahs have already made a deal with Putin and given Putin cash, so he'll take them if they have to flee at the last minute like Assad did in Syria. That's already a done deal. So my prediction is that there will be military action against Iran. And I don't know if the Persians will be able to overthrow, but there is a good chance they will. Well, I appreciate the education. I appreciate the education. I receive it all the time when I'm on with you, too. I have no aversion to that whatsoever. What I would say, however, is that while I don't because I'm in no position to disagree with anything that you just said, Bill, I can't ignore the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu. I can't ignore how Israel repeatedly takes the position that the last thing on Earth that they would want is Iran having a nuclear weapon. And I'm not saying that that is the primary thing, but it is always a relevant thing that can't be ignored, particularly with Donald Trump. It's a factor. What Bill is flagging is that where we are right now, the last thing Donald Trump can say is, I'm doing this for Bibi. Or we got to take care of Israel. Like right now, nobody wants to be in that position because of the state of play on the right and the left. Yes. You know, true. I'll say I'll save it for another platform on another day. President Trump says affordability is a made up word. Now, let's forget about the fact that it's been in the dictionary for centuries. It is the number one concern for Americans. It's shaping up as a battle of the two forks in what I keep explaining to you as the K-shaped economy, which is those benefiting from the investor economy, which is doing well, which is why the administration keeps talking to you about Wall Street. And then there's everybody else whose pay is not keeping up with prices. Healthcare is a surging expense. It's moved up from number like four or five to number two in most people's preference list of what are they worried about. Four out of five Americans in a recent poll say they do not believe economic conditions are going to get any better anytime soon. So the president is going to resume an economy tour in Georgia. What must he say and do? Stephen A. is here with Big Bill. Stephen A., all this talk, you were just on Fox News during my show. Stephen A. is a threat to the Dems. So, where is Stephen A. Smith's head in terms of what affordability means and doesn't mean and what needs to be said and done? I can appreciate the fact that numbers show that things aren't nearly as bad as the Dems try to say they are. And in that regard, you have to look at President Trump with some fairness. But here's the reality. Housing, a lot of people can't afford a home. Rent has increased by over 50 percent over the years. You think about the cost of health care, which is expected to skyrocket, along with other things. And you're not thinking about the practical things that everyday American citizens are concerned about, which is something, to Bill O'Reilly's credit, he has brought up on many occasions. When Trump says stuff like, you know, affordability, it's made up, it's fake news, it's a fake word or whatever, it's literally one of the dumbest things that have ever come out of his mouth. because he's showing the one thing that people have marveled at about him in terms of him being somebody who's rich and has wealth, but still relatable to the common individual. When those words come out of his mouth, he shows there's no relatability at all. He ain't pumping his gas in a long time. He hasn't gone to the grocery store in a long time. He hasn't had to worry about mortgage payments or rent or anything like that in quite a long time. It shows how detached he is, which allows you to focus on some of the more alarming things that have occurred in terms of people accusing him of patting his own wallet and that of family members and all of this other stuff while he's back in the White House. So these kind of things bring attention to that kind of stuff because you spew out ignorant verbiage like that. You can't tell people who have a problem paying their bills, worried about health care, rent, you know, mortgage and all of this other stuff. You can't tell them it's fake. It's not real. Things are really, really better. Who the hell are you to say that? You have to know better. He hasn't known better than allowing that verbiage to come out of his mouth. And the reason I bring up Bill O'Reilly is because I've seen Bill O'Reilly speak about this in the past, where Bill has said there's certain things you just can't say to the American people. And that is one of them. So I'm giving him credit for that. Bill, hold on to it. I don't give you credit for much. Gas and groceries, gas and groceries. Bill was beating me over the head with that phrase the entire campaign. Gas and groceries, gas and groceries. So, Bill, he's going back to Georgia. What does he need to say? But more importantly, what has to go along with it when he gets back? Well, as Stephen A's Treasury Secretary, in addition to Secretary of State, I'm going to handle both jobs. I am basically a realist about the presidential power influencing the economy. So if you look at the macro numbers, Trump's done a great job. Okay, inflation is contained after the worst inflation we had under Biden. Unemployment is low. You can get a job. Working wages are going up. Gas prices are going down. The man has done a good job as far as macro Now micro is the problem So in one of my conversations this year with the president I said if I were you because he asked me I would have a summit at the White House with all of the CEOs of American insurance companies that all gather and you would browbeat them politely, as you always do, into making a deal that they wouldn't raise premiums a certain over a certain point, that they would look for a way to ensure people that it's less painful. You can get that. Trump could get that. And that would be a show that the president is concerned about the American people and what kind of bills they are paying. Now, on the grocery front, it's almost impossible. I mean, there's all kinds of stuff. Each state is different. Some states are under control. Some states aren't. Has to do with taxes. I mean, California, when I was in San Francisco for Super Bowl weekend, gas is $5.35 a gallon. In New York, on Long Island, where I live today, it was $2.70. cents. Trump can't do anything about that. California piles tax after tax after tax on the price of oil. And so it's a double. Other states do it in food costs, transportation costs. But I think that Stephen A. has a point when if you're a populist president, and Donald Trump certainly is, you can't go out and tell people that you're not suffering. Yeah. Look, I mean, I think they are. My father used to say, and I wish I wish you were here to kind of he loved talking with people who had big names and pedigrees and wanted to get into public service because he believed in it so deeply. Nobody will ever say to the American people, hey, listen, you don't like your tax rates. Make more money. Be more valuable to the economy. You won't have to worry about it. Exactly. Nobody says that because politics is about taking common problems and giving people someone else to blame for them, sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly. Let me ask you something. How comfortable do you think you would be? You know, you're not 25. You've got a lot of energy and gas in the tank. But do you really want to be a part of what it takes to succeed in politics in America today? I don't know. I would tell you that once upon a time, it was emphatically no. That has quelled to some degree. I would tell you that I'm living a very, very good life. I like the money I've earned. I've earned it. I want to keep on earning it. And I'm not interested in interrupting my quality of life. But when people talk to you about the difference that you could possibly make, and then I think about the friends that I've made along the way and the level of guidance that I can receive from the people that I know who I'm confident can assist in making a difference for the better men of this country, it is something I entertain. I believe I'm talking to two of those people right now. I can sincerely doubt I will ever be an elected official because, again, I ain't trying to give up my money. But I tell you something right now. If I was fortunate and blessed enough to be in the presidency, you think I'm not going to call Bill O'Reilly and listen to him? You think I'm not going to call Chris Cuomo and listen to him? I pick up the phone day or night. I want to say this on national TV to everybody. There isn't a time that I picked up the phone to call either one of y'all about something that I didn't know and something that I needed to be educated about that you guys didn't help me on. You're not the only ones. But the point is, you always do it. And I'm appreciative of that from the bottom of my heart because I like to learn. I like to get smarter. I like to educate myself. But I believe that when I'm blessed with knowledge, I have the ability to articulate myself and reach an audience like few others. And if you ever put me on that debate stage with some of these politicians aspiring for higher office, with the nonsense that they've engaged in, with the behavior they've exercised, with the tendencies that they've displayed and the lack of consideration to the American people going up against me, good luck. I would give anything to be on a debate stage with them just to show them, listen, we should be listening to people on both sides. Anybody that has America's best interest at heart is who we should care to listen to. I would be that guy. That's the reason why I leave the door open and entertain it, even though I sincerely doubt I will ever be willing to give up my money to run for office. Well, as Stephen A's spokesperson, I'll take that job too. That's three. You wouldn't have to call me. I'd be right there. And I think you should run. And I'm being serious It is now. And Trump opened the door for you. You should send Trump a big bouquet of flowers. He opened the door for you. He'd help you more if he gets you arrested. Trump needs to give me an interview. That's what Trump needs to do. He needs to give me an interview. But go ahead. Well, as your press secretary, I'll work on that for you. But you can run and you but don't have any expectation of winning. You see, what you're doing is you're taking a furlough from your dopey sports show and you're saying, I'll be back because I'm not going to win. But you're injecting yourself into the debate, the national debate, and you're exposing the charlatans, which would be an amazing historical achievement. You don't have to win. You can go back to the dopey show anytime. They don't have anybody to replace you. I don't even know who these people are. Bill O'Reilly. That's twice you called you Dopey. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, Chris. Hold on, Chris. Dopey show. That Dopey show, come April, will have been number one for 14 consecutive years in the morning. And you deserve it. Let's make sure we get that. But that doesn't mean it isn't Dopey. It's on at 5 a.m. in the morning. You're talking about bad things. It's not on 5 a.m. It's on at 10 o'clock. It's 10 to 12 noon. It's 10 to 12 noon, Bill O'Reilly. You watch it. Stop it. But here's the deal. One thing I want to say this one most importantly. Bill. So, Bill, you have to know this about me. You have to know this about me. And at this part, I mean seriously. Bill, I don't play to lose. If I decide to run, it's because I intend to win. That's what I'm talking about. It ain't to make noise and just to expose the charlatans. It's to win. And if I decide to do it, I'm telling you I intend to win. Make no mistake about it. I won't do it unless I believe I have a legitimate shot to win it. the president. All right, and that sounds very good. Just know that about me. But if you don't win, it's... If you don't win, it's still a win. And as your vice president, I'll do everything I can to try to ensure you win. It's four jobs, man. It's four jobs, man. It would be much more economical for people. If you just had, like, one, two guys do eight, nine jobs each, it'd be pretty good. I'd have the job, but I'd have a whole bunch of people that I leaned on that are far more smarter than me capable of me and you know a few of them that would help me run the government that's why i believe i'd be successful not because of me but because who i would surround myself with steven that's how i feel you know how it works you know you're my friend and if i can help you the it's already the answer is already yes you just tell me what you need absolutely all right fellas i got to appreciate y'all you know bill o'reilly good to see you steven a smith you're the man let me get to you about this um because i know you speak to the president more than you admit you do when you're kind of humble about it, but we're under the impression here from the latest news that I saw this morning that this attack on Iran will come before the State of the Union on Tuesday night, maybe even as soon as this weekend. You've got to feel Bill O'Reilly one way or the other when President Trump decides to attack? Two things on that. It's not going to happen before the Olympics are over. When is that? One of the closing ceremonies. Right. I think it's Sunday, right? Sunday. Okay. Okay. So the United States government doesn't want to interrupt the Olympics, and that's certainly valid. I don't know whether President Trump has made the final decision. My last conversation with him was two weeks ago. And he was still, he was asking me my opinion about it. And he was still uncertain. What's holding the United States back is that they don't want thousands of dead Persian civilians in the street. And when you do bombings, at the extent that they plan to do them, as Peter King pointed out earlier in your program, you're going to have that. I asked them if that was going to be the case, you know, because Bibi is being called all these ridiculous names by idiots talking about all that genocide happening in in Palestine, which doesn't exist. By the way, it's Gaza. And there's no way to, you know, to convince these people that they sound ridiculous, you know. And even my friend Megan moments ago, she may have done that once or twice. But when when you're at war and somebody messes with you and you retaliate, innocent people die. We saw that in Germany. We saw that in Japan. For some reason, people love to talk about Israel because we're surrounded by anti-Semites. And when they try to make it historic, they lose that argument. But, yeah, you're right. Civilians do die in a time of war. I don't know how we're going to prevent that if, in fact, we're using all this firepower in Iran. Well, you can't prevent it. So it has to be basically the Pentagon has already drawn up their war plan. Okay, that's already done. But there are options. There are different ways you can do this. So, for example, you can strangle Iran by taking out their four ports in the Gulf. You just level them. But people will be killed. Civilians will be killed when you do that. So Iran has no ability, then, if you destroy the ports, to do any commerce at all. It's like Cuba. It's like people are not going to have anything to eat over there. So you can do that. I do believe that the Revolutionary Guard, their headquarters is going to be flattened, but those people are probably out of there by now. Mossad knows where the mullets are, so you can target them, but they are like Hamas in Gaza. They hide behind civilians. Yes, they do. All right. So it's very, very, very difficult to basically launch a major military air operation without killing thousands of innocent people. And then there's a calculation. Even if we do that, will there be enough for the Persians to overthrow these mullahs? Because we're not going to put ground troops. No, no, no, we can't do. No. Right. So that calculation is a guess at this point. Nobody really knows what the army, the Iranian army. It's not like Venezuela where the army said, yeah, go get him. Right. You have 35 Cubans out there with pistols. Yeah. And the Venezuelan army, the CIA bought him off. And they said, yeah, he's over there. Go get him. Go get him. Yeah, they're going to happen here. No, this is going to be bloody. It's going to be rough. You know, it's interesting. I want to get another story in here. We can go on and on, Bill. I know you do this every night on BillArradi.com. You know, the news cycle is ridiculous. Nancy Guthrie and Stephen Colbert, that's censorship, and the Epstein files and the Olympics and trans shooters and Mamdani. There's 90 stories a day. I think that's part of the reason why this show and yours is so successful is because we find a way to get to all of them every day. We don't stop on one story and spend four hours there, which a lot of shows do do. We just don't do it. But I do want to get your opinion on AOC and the Democrats in Munich. I mean, Newsom or Newscom was embarrassing. He keeps going back to climate control. No, that's not going to win you an election. Let's stop with that nonsense, okay? But the real embarrassment was AOC. You know, Venezuela south of the equator couldn't answer China, Taiwan, credited the Mexicans with binding cowboys. I mean, every time AOC opened their mouth, she proved that I don't like this word. I'm going to use it. She's a moron. She may be cute, and she beat Crowley, and she's dangerous, and she is powerful in that party. She's a moron. So is Kamala Harris. She proved it every time she opened her mouth. How could you argue that? Well, who's saying she isn't? I don't know anybody who's saying, hey, she's going to get her Ph.D. in political science. I went to Boston University where she attended. Oh, my God. I went there. I got a master's in broadcast journalism from BU, and I loved it. But it is not exactly MIT, that school. No. Okay? You can go to that school and get a B average. And, you know, it's not like they're drilling you. They're not. And so she's got an education but no frame of reference. So she doesn't know the world. She doesn't know where things are. She doesn't know history. She doesn't know geography. It's like the Herman Sermon song or a Sam Cooke song, right? Don't know nothing about history. And I think she hums that every day in her office in Capitol Hill. I think she does, too. All right, listen, I'm going to see her. Well, I'm not going to see her, actually, because she's not going to be there next week. She's not dropping the puck at UBS with you? No, are you coming? I'm sure it was you and her. No, she's not even coming Tuesday to the State of the Union. She's one of the Democrats that are proudly boycotting the President's address. Are you coming Sunday? I didn't even know about it So I'm going to look into it though And if I do come I'm heckling you So you know I was a pretty good hockey player I know you were At Chaminade High School On Long Island And I'm not sure about your prowess On the ice Are you going to wear the double blades So what are you going to do I can't even lace up the shoes I got to be honest Can't even lace them up No, but what I want you to do is to come and come on the ice with me, stand next to me. I don't want to do that. No, no, no. You deserve the recognition you're going to get. You don't need me hanging around. And I'm, you know, look, I don't know of one other Jewish New Yorker who has had the guts to do what you've done. Oh, my God. Thank you. Now, I don't agree with everything that you say. Sure. Of course not. But you have absolutely the courage of your convictions. And you deserve all of this. Oh, Bill, thank you. I appreciate that. I mean, you know, I'm not going to do that. I am going to make fun of you if you fall down. Which may happen. All right, so you're going to come with a deckie? Who are you going to come with on Sunday? I don't know yet. I can't commit yet. I don't know. All right. But I'm going to give Bill Ledecky a shout, see what his schedule is. Bill, you were amazing as always. You're just so great. Seriously, just the way this whole thing started and the way you explained it into the political stuff as well. There's nobody better. I love you to pieces, Bill O'Reilly. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me, Sid. Have fun on Sunday. I will. Hopefully I'll see you there. That's the great Bill O'Reilly. They don't come better. The best in the history of this media. Thank you for listening. Remember to subscribe to my podcast feed. Also, consider becoming a BillOReilly.com Premium member. It will enhance your life. Sign up at BillOReilly.com slash membership. Get access to full episodes of the No Spin News.