August 19th, 2026

Rough transcription of Hour 1

Segment 1
Hello, America. Mark Levin here.  Our number 877-381-3811. 877-381-3811. You know, when I was a teenager, we had a jump in gasoline prices, much bigger than you see now. In fact, it makes the price of gasoline now inflation adjusted very low. What happened was we rely so heavily on foreign oil from the Arab countries. OPEC was their cartel. That they decided they were going to punish us and our position on Israel. They decided that after Israel won the 67 war and the Yom Kippur War, that they would put pressure on the United States. Now, back then, we were united against this sort of thing. The Democrat Party and the Republican Party, there was not widespread anti-Semitism. There was not widespread Israel hating. Of course, back then we didn’t have as many. Immigrants from the Middle East, as we have today, among other things. We didn’t have such a. And enshrined Marxist ideology in our schools. They were liberal, but not like this. And yet. That’s what OPEC did. They turned the screws on us. And the price of gasoline really went significantly high. Fact. There was a point at which it went so high that Nixon and then Ford were struggling with this. Ford had a button, they put a whip inflation now. Irwin I remember that. And during the latter part of the. Maybe in the Nixon administration, we had hard days and even days for people to get gasoline. That’s how short we were. We have none of those problems today. None. None. But I remember that people were complaining about the oil companies. They were blaming the oil companies. They were blaming the oil companies for profiteering, even though it was opaque and was the Arab states. They’re profiteering. And there was calls to nationalize the oil companies. There were calls to break them up even further than they were broken up a hundred years ago. Even though our oil companies actually control a very small percentage of the world production of oil. But I remember the focus was on oil companies. We needed to hate oil companies. And I was a a rare voice, a young guy. In high school and then college defending the oil companies. Defending the oil companies. Against the lies and the smears and against what OPEC was doing. And quite frankly, our own politicians. So now the this subject is. Hey, I Data centers. We’re all supposed to have a data center. So we literally have governors who are banning them. Or are making the approval process so impossible. That they are going to. Greatly lengthen the amount of time it takes to build them because they can’t get approved and all the rest of it. And what’s the problem? Well, yeah, the same problem out there that they talked about with fracking, which is a lie, that they’re polluting our water. They’re not polluting our water, okay? Fracking doesn’t pollute our water. Air data centers don’t pollute our water. Then we get to the energy issue. Now, what’s interesting about this, I’ve been talking about our electrical grid for decades now. I’ve had experts on this show. I’ve had experts on my FOX show. About how we need to build up our our infrastructure and protect the precious little has been done. Part of the reason, again is states, particularly blue states, the regulations, their hate for energy companies, their hate for capitalism. And these politicians have sabotaged and obstructed. The upgrading. Of our electrical grid. Now they’re complaining. That these. These data centers will suck up too much of our electricity, too much of our energy. While there are two solutions for that, aren’t there? Stop obstructing and sabotaging efforts to strengthen and expand our electrical grid, which needs to be done anyway. And support the move by the president of the United States. That would allow these data center companies to build their own energy sources. It could be a number of energy sources, including many nuclear energy sources. But the same people. The same people who attack the electrical grid and won’t allow it to expand the same people who attacked. Oil and gas production are attacking nuclear energy. And so when you don’t have energy in a modern industrial society, you can’t build things, let alone expand things. That’s the truth. Now, the funny thing is. Our competitors, some of whom are our enemies. They’re not so constrained. They’re not constrained by Josh SHAPIRO in Pennsylvania or a local in New York or News.com in California or a Pritzker in Illinois. They’re not constrained by any of that. And so they’re plowing ahead, especially China. And if they get ahead of us, not because they’re better than us, smarter than us, they’re more resources than us, but because we have this problem where we like to commit economic and military suicide. Then they will control the future. They will control the future of technological advancements of computerization. And all that comes with it. Military cutting edge technologies, space cutting edge technologies. Health care cutting edge technologies. The communist Chinese will well leapfrog us and leave us in the dust because we won’t be able to catch up. And so I hear well. They’re very unattractive. I can imagine that was sad. Before the skyscrapers were built in many of our cities. Mr. Bridges. 120 years ago. I can imagine that. Before the mass production of steel. Before a Carnegie. I can imagine that. I can imagine there may have been some opposition in parts of our country that weren’t fully developed or developed at all over having steel bridges built. Across creeks, across rivers, across waterways. I can imagine there was a lot of objection. I can imagine there was a lot of objection even before that. The Intercontinental Railway System. With those loud. Railroad engines and those loud, you know, tracks. And all the noises they come with in certainly back then the steam engine and all the pollution that came with that, I can imagine. That some people were adversely affected and they didn’t want that either. In other words, I can imagine. That in one place or another for one reason or another. If governors had had their way, if local councils had had their way, if a certain party, the Democrat Party back back then was like it is today, which it wasn’t. We would not have had an industrial revolution. And you wouldn’t have all the. Well, the incredible products that you have access to today, and not just products, conveniences of life. Things that sustain us today. Manufacturing. Of homes. Of automobiles, of refrigerators. I’m washers and dryers. And the list goes on and on and on and on. I can imagine. And if you think we outsource too much today, you just wait. I’d rather not. But you just wait. 20 years hence. So some of us are still around, but certainly our children and grandchildren will be. You just wait. And see what these. These grocers, as I call them, as I’ve written about them in American Marxism, an entire chapter. You just wait and watch how these grocers who’ve now seized on the data centers as they seized on the oil industry. As they used climate change. You just watch. And now we’re being told I just watch Brett Baer on Fox. He just said this is a campaign issue. And so you start to see Republicans running for the hills and they are backed. They are backed by some of these pseudo conservatives who do not believe in the market system, who believe in intervention by government. I don’t know how much more there can be at $40 trillion in the hole and $300 trillion in the hole when you count already entitlements. Socialist lite pseudo conservatives. They’re all in. Now it’s easy to find a farmer or maybe a small community and say, look at this, look what they’re doing to this, this farmer in their small community. I get it. But that can’t be permitted. To determine for the entire country and for the rest of time. Well, we’re going to be. But I get a sense. They would have you believe that they create poison. They don’t. They would have you believe that they suck up all the energy. They don’t. They would have you believe that they don’t create jobs. They do not just jobs in the data center. But may I say downstream in other businesses, and they pay enormous amount of taxes. I know this. And broadcasting to you right now from Loudoun County, Virginia, where there are more air data centers and anywhere else in the country. It’s not even close. 80% of them are right here in the eastern part of Loudoun County. Four of them. About two, three miles away. And they’re being constructed, three of them. One of them is already constructed from where our home is. And the. On a fairly busy road in a corner. Of course, we all have trees there and water there and so forth and so on. But we need. We need these cutting edge. You know, technologies for the brainpower, for the brainpower. And let me tell you, son, but I data centers, people keep saying they’re going to cost us all these jobs are going to cost us all these jobs. Can you imagine a hundred years ago yet again. We can’t have refrigerated trucks. They’re going to cost us all these jobs or even before that we can have the automobile. They’re going to put all the other horse driven wagons out of business. I mean, you can always. Talk that way because it’s true. As things move forward, they’ll be put out of business. Marx was the one who complained about that most. There is never ending revolution in capitalism, he said. Creating. Dislocation. But I look at it differently. There’s never ending revolution in capitalism that creates. Longer lives, better food. More homes. Safer cars. That’s the truth. These data centers and the data that comes with them. Maybe they’ll find a cure for cancer. Maybe they’ll find a cure for Alzheimer’s. Maybe they’ll find all these things. But if you. But if you embrace this regressive ism, this anti-capitalism, this degrowth stuff. There won’t be any of that. There won’t be any progress in the health field or any other field. There simply won’t. I’ll be right back.

Segment 2
You know, ladies and gentlemen, I declared months ago, months ago, that the woke right was pretty much dead. They were busy online. I told you that. It’s toxic there. It’s toxic on ex. It’s toxic on Facebook. It’s just toxic on the Internet. It’s a cesspool. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some good people, but the vast majority are not. And only we’re not. The vast majority are actually people. Most of it is, but the lowest of the low lives. They’re there all day long, all day long, because that’s where they get to be seen and heard. Is moronic and vile, as so many of them are. Tucker Carlson has done. All the rest of these people are done. Matt Gates is done. They’re all done. They live online. Again, there is some good people you might want to follow online, but there’s some people you might want to block because they’re not good for your mental health or anything else. That’s what was demonstrated in part in Florida last night. As people have picked up on. And I’m glad they have. That is real Americans, normal Americans, patriotic Americans, all Republicans for the most part. And conservatives are not interested in what’s going on with the woke right and the anti Semitism. They are patriots. I’ll be right back.

Segment 3
Can anybody think of any industry Democrats have been in favor of Mr. Producer? I can’t off the top of my head. I cannot off the top of my head. I can’t think of any government program they’ve been opposed to either. In a recent industry survey. Pure Talk. My favorite wireless company was the only wireless company in America. This is important to receive five stars in every single category and the only one. Coverage and support and value and data. World class customer service team. You deserve five star wireless service and it is available. It’s available on one place. Pure talk. And now pure talk is going to do something very special. They’re going to provide you with an exclusive invitation. Switch to pure talk for just 15 bucks a month for the first three months for a limited time, any plan, including their top shelf unlimited data plans. Just $15 a month for your first three months. No contract needed, just an insanely low offer to switch to a top rated company. And you know how you get five stars for support? A dedicated U.S. customer service team. You know, they get five stars for value. You save the average family of four over $1,000 compared to big wireless. And that’s just for a year. Who’s big Wireless? The Big three, T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon, That’s who. There’s a better wireless choice out there, folks. It’s a much better value. It’s cutting edge. And at just 15 bucks a month for your first three months on any plan. Excuse me. Now’s a great time to choose my favorite. And that’s pure talk. Simply dial LB to 50. It’s bound to find, say, Mark Levin. And left that U.S. customer service team five star team, Make your switch easy again. That’s pound to five zero, say Mark Levin. You’re off to the races. You want to keep your phone, you keep your phone. If you want to keep your phone number, you keep your phone number. I have found, ladies and gentlemen, that to be patriotically in support of a president who has decided that we needed to go to war with Iran to stop them from getting nuclear warheads to blocks of the face of the earth, the same Iran that has killed and maimed thousands of American military personnel and civilians that is spreading terrorism throughout not just the Middle East, but the world. Apparently that’s controversial with some people. Including a man by the name of John Schindler. Schindler. Excuse me. I never heard of this guy before. He claims he was on the NSA. So I guess he was he claims he was a counterintelligence officer. I guess he was. I look further into his background. It’s pretty sleazy, in my humble opinion. If it’s the same John Schindler, and you can look yourselves. But in any event, all of a sudden minding my own business, The Washington Examiner, which used to really be a great publication for decades, for decades. And now it has really become a lousy, lousy publication. It’s part of this isolationist mentality. And so they run this guy’s piece called Mark Levin Strategic Folly on Iran. Nobody asked me for my input. Nobody asked me for my opinion. Nobody. So he writes in part. Things aren’t going well with the war on Iran. Six months after President Trump commenced Operation Epic Fury, he opposed the war at the urging of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Now, that’s an interesting sentence. Now, the president has said over and over again that he made the decision, according to this guy in the very first surge, and he did it sentence at the urging of Netanyahu. Netanyahu and his Mossad director painted a rosy scenario in which a combined U.S. Israeli air campaign would quickly topple the weakened Iranian regime. How do we know that? There’s been some leaks, but he doesn’t even know that. Enamored by the success of the January raid to capture Venezuela dictator Nicolas Maduro, Trump decided to roll the dice. Is that what he did? Mr.. After 40 years of talking about this, he decided to roll the dice because of Venezuela. So that entire first paragraph is B.S. It’s this guy’s opinion based on nothing. While it hasn’t worked out, instead the war has been stuck in a strange stalemate. What happens next? Well, Trump’s constant refrain that Iran had been defeated militarily, that Iran has no Navy or Air force left may be true in a technical sense. Iran indeed has hardly any air and naval power remaining. After months of precision, US military strikes in which the regime now dominated by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hard liners. Iran has revealed, reveled rather, in holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage. This outcome, which was anticipated by every Iran war game the Pentagon held over the last couple of decades. I participated in several of them somehow surprised Trump, who said it surprised Trump. This guy keeps talking about like he’s been involved in everything. But he doesn’t tell you in his byline some of the other things he’s been involved in. But you go ahead and look on the Internet. Because you’ll see. Ready? Here we go. Along comes Mark Levin, Fox News Super Hawk, to tell the president what needs to be done. On Tuesday, Levin posted a screed. A screed you see on X, offering his usual talking points. So there you go again. The screed, his usual talking points, a super hawk. So you can see the guy’s a whack job. But let’s go on. He reads, what I wrote was inevitable. I writes. More and more people are coming around to my position regarding the Iranian regime. Finished the military operation that was spectacular in the early weeks of the war. Stop sidelining our best and most loyal ally, Israel, which is a lethal military and intelligence service. Destroy Kharg Island and all other critical economic infrastructure and vital targets. Let’s see here. They can be rebuilt over time. Once the regime is eliminated and train and arm the Iranian people is one of the most effective means for overthrowing the Islamist terrorist regime. The Reagan doctrine. Well, this apparently upset this isolationist. From their live in ranch now, Mr. Producer. Screeds and rants. You know, we used to call this in college when we took these courses. Devil terms. See, they use devil terms revenge in a screed. And he’s ranting and he’s, you know. So this is this is the guy, the PSYOP guy who’s playing these games from there. And Levin rants about the perfidy of the Islamist terrorist regime in Tehran and the moral imperative of defeating it while stating duh a lot and lambasting the woke right for not wanting total war in the Middle East. Is that when I wrote Most of it is. Total war in the Middle East. Levine concludes, We need to finish this and we have the enemy just where we want them. Now, ladies and gentlemen, total war in the Middle East. That’s what Iran wants. That’s not what we want. I want you to think about something, and then I’ll continue with this guy and slice and dice this further. Right now. If the president hadn’t hit those nuclear sites over a year ago. And didn’t. Would the Israelis hit them again in February, a half a year ago? Is there any doubt that they would have a nuclear weapon? And is there any doubt? That their ballistic missiles, their intercontinental ballistic missiles would have been perfected with the help of the communist Chinese. In other words, this clown. On the taxpayer dime on the NSA must have been horrendous, horrendous claims to have been in intelligence and counterintelligence. There’s really smart people in counterintelligence, and then there’s really stupid people like this guy. Not anticipating anything. This enemy is hell bent on getting nuclear weapons with ballistic missiles to hit the United States of America. And what does he do? He attacks me and he attacks Trump. Because he’s a moron. This is strategic equivalence of more, more cowbell. All right. That’s the last latest phrase. We’ve got all the other phrases. Levin’s council so detached from geopolitical reality that it’s tempting to dismiss it as mere ravings. Didn’t you already use that word? Levine, a lawyer turned pundit, inexplicably has Trump’s ear. I did not have trumps here for this. For this attack at all. Inexplicably. Can you believe this jackass was on the National Security Agency? On their council? Can you believe that? This load who clearly doesn’t even understand who this enemy is. I’m sick and tired of these guys that have been on the payroll, whether in the NSA, the CIA, the Pentagon. Who are constantly diminishing the capacity of the United States for victory. People are upset about forever wars. You’re looking at it. You’re looking at a word, John. They held his name again. John Schindler of all names. John Schindler. These are the cannot do guys. That apparently are lining the hallways, too many of them in so many of our national security buildings. My God, how do they ever expect us to deal with communist China? We can’t deal with Iran. Raving and less. And not only that, I support a broader war in the Middle East. What a dumb ass. Take Levine’s opening broadside. First, if Operation Epic Fury was truly spectacular at the outset, why didn’t it work out his plan? Because they didn’t finish, moron. Apparently you don’t listen or read well. It was Netanyahu’s delusions grounded in the ardent desire to get the major war against Iran. All right, there’s the giveaway. He’s another Israel hater. Netanyahu’s for Israel’s for president doesn’t have independent agency. He doesn’t have the ability to think for himself. His advisers don’t have the ability to think for themselves. If only Israel and the Mossad hadn’t forced us into this. Now, how many times we heard this from the bigots and the morons? Doubling down on Netanyahu’s leadership is a poor recipe for extricating America from this war. Well, that’s his goal. Surrender. That is his goal. Surrender. Similarly, Israeli espionage targeting the United States, which Levin denies even occurs. But every US counterintelligence officer knows Israel contradicts Jerusalem status as our most loyal ally. I honestly have no idea what this man is talking about. The last time this allegation was made, our government and the White House denied it. But everybody listens to everybody’s intelligence. He’s saying, okay, so why is that a problem? So Israel is not our most loyal ally. Who is? So in other words, he’s an Israel hater. He’s an isolationist. He’s a phony and a fraud, in my humble opinion. Moreover, while the Israeli military is superb in many areas, it’s very modest in its capability compared to the U.S. military. Who said it wasn’t? It’s a nation of 9 million people. But it’s a lot more powerful. And every single one of those Arab countries and the Iranian regime. And that’s saying a lot because when you add up the population of all those countries in the area, you’re talking about over 200 million people. Mossad’s once stellar reputation has been tarnished by empty promises that the Tehran regime would quickly collapse. I haven’t heard from Mossad that that was its position. But I do know that Mossad is superb because we and they wouldn’t have been able to knock out their nuclear scientists and engineers. We wouldn’t have been able to knock out their top first and second tier of leadership. But for the Mossad, working with the CIA. So as is typical, you’ve got to diminish. And talk down. The United States, Intel and of course, Israel and Israel’s intel. Netanyahu apparently didn’t tell Trump this in their fateful February meeting in the White House situation. What’s sad, assessing that part of that, it would take one year, perhaps three. Where is this guy getting this stuff? Would take one year, perhaps three. But let’s go on. What does this have to do with my proposal anyway? Mr. Producer, arming the Iranian people and taking out their major infrastructure, I don’t know. I’m like two thirds of the way through. I’ve got to take a break, but we’ll finish with this guy just to show this is this is the regurgitation of crap that’s been out there. So what he did is he basically cut and paste. He went through and he saw chaos. Israel’s being accused of this. Netanyahu is accused of this. Mossad’s accused of that. This one’s accused of this. This is accused of that. And he kind of cut and pasted together. This isn’t a smart guy. This is an independent thinking. Your analysis, you can get this from Tucker Carlson. You can get this from Matt Gage. You can get this from the dumbest people out there. And now he’s among them. But it’s worse than that. He’s the same John Schindler, who I saw as I was trying to figure out who this guy is. He’s got a problem. If it’s the same John Schindler. Of course, if it’s not, then he doesn’t. Perhaps he’s got the problem of this, what he wrote, barely, but it’s barely coherent. It’s not coherent, it’s barely literate. And this guy was on our payroll and was at the NSA. I’ll be right back.

Segment 4
All right. I’ve given this peace enough attention. You get the drift? He ends by saying there’s no military solution. That’s why Abraham Lincoln had to fire so many generals. That’s why other presidents have had to work around other generals. And that’s why we don’t win wars as often as we should anymore because of people like. Like this. Their houses. Name again Rich John Schindler, who’s been in the intelligence bureaucracy most of his life. Who’s been in the national security bureaucracy most of his life. Not as a winner. Not during times when we won wars. But as a man who believes we need to manage our decline and military decline, our geopolitical decline, our decline, and how dare I speak out and stand up against low lives like him?