Victor Davis Hanson: DHS Shutdown Is All About the Economy, Not ICE

Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words

Jennifer Hayne

News, News Commentary

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2026

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this Friday news roundup, Victor Davis Hanson argues Iran is unlikely to strike the U.S. homeland with drones but could use proxies or influenced naturalized citizens, while discussing Trump’s potential escalation options in the region and Europe’s reluctance to help despite benefiting from reduced Iranian power. The discussion then centers on Washington’s fight over a DHS-related shutdown: Hanson claims Democrats are using DHS as a pretext while aiming to damage the economy by disrupting airport security and broader DHS operations, forcing Trump to negotiate, and avoiding any discussion of ICE because parts of the party oppose deportations. He also criticizes Democrat leaders for lacking a governing agenda beyond opposition to Trump and notes debates over voter ID legislation and threats of future prosecutions from figures like Susan Rice. (00:00) Iran Homeland Threats (04:56) War Plans and Allies (27:27) Cuba and Capitol Battles (36:23) Voter ID and Base Shrinkage (40:14) DHS Shutdown and No Agenda (50:10) Chavez Scandal and California Wrap PROMOTIONS: 👉Watch The Tony Kinnett Cast NOW! LIVE weekdays at The Daily Signal and wherever you get podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjMHBev3NsoV3kHckydY58R7TaYsizl45v 👉America is worth preserving. Do your part and act now by going to https://www.heritage.org/beautiful 👉Claim your liberty offer of up to $5,000 in free metals with allegiance gold by going to https://www.ProtectWithVictor.com 👉Go to My Patriot Supply to see exclusive deals before offers end! https://www.mypatriotsupply.com/ HOW TO WATCH: 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest editions of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words” by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1 👉 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2iOoN0xoOoSNvDFlpLLYGY?si=5a9f369acc874c6e 👉 Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/victor-davis-hanson-in-his-own-words/id1566731706 👉 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1 👉 Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/VictorDavisHansonInHisOwnWords?e9s=src_v1_sa%2Csrc_v1_sa_o 👉 Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Now, are all the traitors present? Let's get started, shall we?
0:04.5	From rags to riches. I'm so sick of this. Working like a dog and being treated worse.
0:09.1	Yorkshire to New York. Poor climbers, you and me.
0:12.4	A life dedicated to revenge. Let's make this an occasion to remember.
0:16.9	A woman of substance on Channel 4, stream now.
0:19.8	Do you think that Iran will strike the U.S. homeland?
0:23.6	That seems to be a concern with those drones.
0:26.3	Oh, drones, no.
0:28.2	How would they be launched?
0:29.6	Even if they had a range of four or five hundred miles,
0:32.2	they would be tracked by U.S. Navy and destroyed.
0:36.4	Any ship that got between Hawaii and the United States would be destroyed.
0:40.3	But they've had an attack. We've had four attacks by naturalized citizens.
0:43.3	And we have no idea to what degree they were influenced by Iranian people on the Internet.
0:49.3	They looked at the fourth quarter of shutdown, longest in our history,
0:53.3	last three months, September,
0:55.7	October, November, and they said to themselves, we reduced GDP by two or three points and
1:01.4	stall the economy, and Trump was going to have this great fourth quarter and then roar into
1:05.6	2006. So then they said, we're going to shut down the government unless you do the following to DHS.
1:12.3	So you have the Congress going into an administrative cabinet and telling them what they can and can't do, which is an executive branch.
1:19.8	They're saying to them, we knew you were going to do this, so we've already funded it than the big beautiful bill.
1:25.6	They're funded. It has nothing to do with DHS. And they said, OK, but we're going to hurt you in a different way. We're going to stop all the security at all the airports. We're going to not pay these people for over a month. And we're not going to pay anybody else in D.H. It does all this stuff. And then the Republicans said, well, why don't we just talk about ice?
	...

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