WTH Is Going On with Iran? General Jack Keane Explains.
What the Hell Is Going On
AEI Podcasts
4.4 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 4 June 2026
⏱️ 81 minutes
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Summary
We’re now in the eighth week of a two-week ceasefire with Iran. The Trump Administration is stuck in a holding pattern as Iranian negotiators continue to ignore US redlines and both sides insist on their own superior leverage. The unfortunate reality is that many in the Trump Administration are being fed a false calculus and discredit the ability of the US military to maintain the blockade, open the Strait, and destroy and extract nuclear material. To entertain such Iranian wishes as a billion-dollar reconstruction fund ignores the fact that CENTCOM Commander Bradley Cooper has confirmed: it would take 10-14 days to accomplish the full breadth of our military objectives in Iran. Yet, the Trump Administration is committed to making a deal, with Secretary Rubio echoing the same commitment to the negotiation seesaw. But Iran is an inherently bad faith actor. And it is using the upcoming midterms to its advantage. What now? How will we break the cycle? Thankfully we have General Jack Keane, who provides a clear-eyed strategy for victory against Iran.
General Keane is widely recognized as one of America’s most respected authorities on foreign policy and national security. He is a retired four-star Army general, former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army having served our nation in uniform for 37 years. He is Fox News senior strategic analyst and is the chairman of the Institute for the Study of War.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is brought to you by the American Enterprise Institute. |
| 0:03.1 | If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, review, and share. |
| 0:07.1 | Thanks for listening. Here's our show. |
| 0:08.7 | What the hell is going on? |
| 0:10.5 | What's really going on? |
| 0:12.0 | We said, what the hell happened? |
| 0:13.5 | You don't have to know what the hell is on it. |
| 0:15.6 | They see what's going on. |
| 0:16.7 | I don't know what's going on. |
| 0:18.0 | What is going on? |
| 0:20.0 | We must find out what's going on. What is going on? We must find out what is going on. |
| 0:30.0 | Hi, I'm Danielle Pletka. |
| 0:31.8 | And I'm Mark Tiesen. |
| 0:32.9 | Welcome to our podcast. |
| 0:35.1 | What the hell is going on, ever more aptly named. Mark, what the hell? |
| 0:41.3 | What the hell is going on is we're in a holding pattern on Iran. We're now in, what, eight weeks into this two-week ceasefire. |
| 0:53.3 | We gave the Iranians a two-week deadline to, we stopped combat operations, |
| 0:59.2 | we gave the Iranians a two-week deadline to make progress in the negotiations, and the progress |
| 1:04.6 | isn't there, and the combat operations haven't started. We have the allies in the region who are opposed to a resumption of combat operations. |
| 1:14.5 | We've got a president who believes in his ability to get the Iranians to make a deal, who has |
| 1:20.8 | some red lines that I think are inviolable. I think he needs to get that nuclear dust. He needs to get the Iranians to give up their nuclear program. But the longer this takes, the less likely they are to do that, give him what he wants because they don't think that he's willing to. Trump believes he has all the leverage, and the Iranians believe that they have all to leverage. |
| 1:44.8 | And that is not the recipe for a good deal. And then on top of that, we have the added question, |
... |
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