“It's An Act Of WAR!” Professor Jiang vs Gordon Chang On China, Iran & Trump | Plus Robert Pape

Piers Morgan Uncensored

Sports, News, Society & Culture

3.7 • 651 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2026

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Keep protesting,” Donald Trump told the Iranian people earlier this year—promising that “help is on its way.” In cities like London, Washington DC and Los Angeles, some in the Iranian diaspora rallied behind that message, calling for action and, in some cases, for war. More than six weeks later, with conflict grinding on and no clear resolution in sight, serious questions are emerging. Has any of this actually helped the people inside Iran? While parts of the regime’s military capability have been damaged, its grip on power—and its ability to suppress its own population—appears unchanged. Claims of a potential uprising, championed by figures including Benjamin Netanyahu and echoed in Washington, have yet to materialise. Meanwhile, reports of attempts to arm protesters—allegedly via Kurdish groups—raise further controversy and unanswered questions. As the war drags on and the human cost mounts, one central question remains: who has this conflict actually helped? Piers Morgan is joined by Iranian-American actor Sam Asghari, Iranian-American journalist & US Editor of Unherd, Sohrab Ahmari, international affairs scholar Professor Robert Pape (1:1) Plus: Bafel Talabani - President, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	China is very happy that I'm permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz.
0:04.0	When you threaten a ship that's flagged by China,
0:07.0	this is effectively an act of war on China.
0:10.0	China's got 600 nuclear weapons here.
0:13.0	Is there a concern that President Xi starts looking like the real adult in the room?
0:19.0	I can see a situation in which the Europeans see China as a diplomatic savior.
0:24.9	The question is, how long can President Trump keep this up?
0:28.4	What is this?
0:31.6	Pope Leo has a plus 34 popularity rating in the United States.
0:36.5	Trump has a negative 12.
0:37.9	It's here to take a fight like that.
0:39.9	We sent them a lot of guns.
0:41.5	We sent them through the Kurds,
0:42.8	and the president says he thinks the Kurds kept them.
0:45.9	Did you steal them?
0:47.2	What a people stolen?
0:48.5	Can't speak for the other side.
0:51.6	Keep on protesting,
0:53.1	the US president told the Iranian people in January, help is on its way.
0:57.4	Well, many Iranians in the diaspora held pictures and banners of Trump as they protested in London, Washington, D.C., and even L.A.
1:04.7	Others appeared frequently in the media, including on the show, to make the case for war.
1:09.0	The people in Iran are suffering, they said. The time to act is now. After more than six weeks of war and with the president scrambling from the escape route, it's fair to ask whether acting now help the Iranian people at all. The faces in some of the names have changed, but the regime has not. A lot of its military power has been destroyed, but none of the power it used to beat down its own people.
	...

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