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Geopolitical analyst and host of Geopolitical Economy Report Ben Norton joins the show to discuss stunning intel revelations on Iran’s military capabilities as Iranian officials warn they are fully locked and loaded if Washington restarts the war. Trump has landed in China and has already suffered a very public humiliation in the face of China’s rise and Iran’s battlefield victory.
What this moment makes undeniable is that the war exposed the limits of U.S. power and the fantasies of the men who launched it. Iran didn’t just survive — it established deterrence. The Gulf monarchies didn’t just wobble — they fractured. And Trump’s bluster from Air Force One can’t hide the reality that the world just watched a multipolar order assert itself in real time.
Iran’s military has survived two months of U.S. and Israeli bombardment — and according to new U.S. intelligence leaks, it remains overwhelmingly intact. As Trump boards Air Force One for Beijing, Iran is warning that its missile and drone network is fully “locked and loaded” with U.S. naval targets already selected. Meanwhile, Trump’s China visit is off to a humiliating start, overshadowed by Iran’s battlefield victory and China’s rising global leverage. Today, geopolitical analyst Ben Norton breaks down the intel, the regional fractures, and why Washington’s own agencies are now admitting the war has backfired.
With newly leaked U.S. intelligence shows Iran has retained the majority of its missile and drone capabilities, with 30 of 33 Hormuz‑area sites still operational and more than 70% of its launchers ready to fire. Tehran says it has U.S. naval targets pre‑selected if Washington restarts the war. At the same time, Trump arrives in China under a cloud of strategic embarrassment, as Beijing and Tehran emerge stronger from a conflict the U.S. expected to dominate.
Ben Norton joins the program to unpack the intelligence, the Gulf split, and the geopolitical fallout now reshaping the region.
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