May 19th, 2026

Rough transcription of Hour 1

Segment 1
Hello America.  Mark Levin here. Our number 877-381-3811.  877-381-3811. Obviously, lots going on again today. And we’re going to keep an eye on this election. We’re rooting for a real hero. Gorham, running against Massey really turned out to be quite the slug. More on him later. I want your thoughts on this. Have you asked Mr. Produce or Mr. Call screener? To clear the call board for your for your input. I’m quite serious about this. 8773813811. When we suddenly hit the brakes and called off the plan military operation against the Iranian regime. We did that yesterday. It was clear to me that something was going on. We gave the regime 2 to 3 days to come to some arrangement that presumably includes no nukes. What does it mean when we say no nukes? Are there scientists going to forget what they developed? How long can we keep that in a box? What happens to the enriched uranium. We’re told first they have enough to make ten bombs in 11 days. And second, that it takes a matter of weeks to further enrich uranium from 60% to 90% nuclear grade. What about the plutonium? Which no one is talking about. And the ballistic missiles that were destroying targets throughout the Middle East. And the range of those missiles which can now hit Europe. We didn’t even know how far those missiles could reach. Will all of this change to? The Iranian regime. They kicked out inspectors, hid their activities and violated every single agreement it ever signed. Will it have changed because of our. Military actions. Honestly, does this actor sound like a regime that is defeated or cares about death? For some reason, the West cannot get its collective head around the fact that the Iranian regime’s mindset is not one of mutual existence. It is a religious extremist fundamentalist cult. That insists on conquering or destroying all those who do not bend to its ideology. They’ve told us this. They have written this. They preach this. It is in their books, pamphlets, sermons, etc.. It is a revolution without borders, not merely one nation among among others. Haven’t we learned this by now? Many Americans have been killed during the last 47 years as a result of the regime’s ambitions. My greatest concern has always been, as you know, enforcement, which has not been discussed very much after all this time. If there’s a deal, whatever the deal is perhaps the greatest deal in the history of deals. Again, the regime cheats, lies and hides what it’s doing. Our intel and satellites simply cannot catch all of it. And if we find violations, then what? Well, hit them again, Mark. Is that what we did before Trump? Does anyone believe that’s what we’ll do after Trump? Is that what a Gavin Newsom or Kamala Harris or the rest of the Democrats would do if, God forbid, one of them became president? And heck, even Republican presidents didn’t act. So for crying out loud. Look at all the noise, the appeasers, the pacifists, the isolationists, and so forth. These are loud movements in our politics and government. And look at the reaction to the temporary increase in a gallon of gasoline. Would we have the will even a few years from now? I don’t think so. And what of Hezbollah still a potent terrorist force? And what of Hamas? The Iranian regime will promise not to support them. Well, my response is, is the Brooklyn Bridge still for sale? And how do we stop the regime if it funds them anyway? What will we do? The Iranian people. What of them? They should rise up, they say. Well, they did. Without arms. They paid a horrendous price and still are. And I can only imagine what more would be done to them. Of course, the Europeans will be useless as they are now. Even with detente with China and something like it with Russia. They still will provide support to the Iranian regime. So on North Korea. We have no control over their sabotage of any deal. None. This must all be considered. And the Democrats are always desperate for a political opportunity, will ask rhetorically, Why did we go to war? This is Obama 2.0. We wasted billions for nothing. Trump has a taco. And on and on. I can hear it now. The truth won’t matter. The spin will be constant. Of course, if the Democrats had their way, the Iranian regime would already have nuclear weapons. But none of that will matter. This could be very damaging for the mid-term elections. Despite all the demands for off ramps. Yet. The problem is the regime itself, is it not? How do we contain it if it survives? How do we contain it? And to be absolutely clear. I have no inside information. In fact, as far as I know, at the end of another 2 to 3 days of negotiations, maybe military action against the regime will resume. But it’s very important to think about these issues and much more. And we have opened the phone lines. We’ll take a short break in a moment. If you’re not interested, I’ll know right away. We’ll take serious calls with people who have serious points to raise. Because I think this is very, very critical. And I think it’ll be, if not the marquee issue, one of the marquee issues of the Trump second term president. It’s a big deal, as you well know. Outside the ballroom construction site this morning. The president was asked and answered this. Cut three, Go. Are you striking around? I was. I was. I was an hour away. We were all sitting here talking about. Yes, we were going to be striking very. It would have been happening right now. Yeah, it was all done. The boats, the ships are all loaded. They’re loaded to the brim. And we were all set to start. They said that they feel they’ve had for the first time in almost 47 years, you know, Iran has been the bully of the Middle East for 47 years. I mean, literally the belly of the Venetian dynasty. Very nasty, very dangerous. They wanted a nuclear weapon. Had I not terminated Barack Hussein Obama, is Iran nuclear deal? Had I not terminated it? See, that’s the in. With the real structure. Hmm. One more clip before we take our break. President still outside the ballroom construction site cut for a go. How much did you think you were going? They called me over the last few days to say they made a lot of progress. And because we have them negotiating with us. And primarily Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait. A little bit in Bahrain and some of the others. And we have them negotiating with you. We’re all working together. It’s like a team. And Israel, of course. And there’s just been a great fight. And so we are. Negotiating together. I got a call from numerous of these people. They know the people in Iran, don’t forget. When you talk about regime change, I think it’s the ultimate regime change because the first level and the second level are no longer with us. There’s no place but you no longer with us. So we have real regime change. Mm hmm. I shall return. We’ll be right back.

Segment 2
All right. Let’s take some calls. We have a lot of interest, apparently, about Iran. Let’s go to George. Atlantic City, New Jersey. Atlantic City. New Jersey is one of my favorite places. It still is. My wife and I love going there every now and then quietly without telling people we love Atlantic City and Ventnor and Margate and Ocean City. It’s all just so fantastic. It’s been so much of our childhood I did there during the summers. The great W, P.G. George, how are you? I’m doing great. And I love your show. I always did. Thank you. My suggestion is that we take the easiest and fastest approach. Take a 50 mile circumference around Kaji Island. And blow up every single pipeline, just the pipelines, and let that oil pour into the sand. Hmm. You know, General Kellogg has come close to that point. He says, take them. Take that island over. Control it. And then you literally have your hand around their throat because 90% of the economy depends on that little island, doesn’t it, George? Yes, it does. Hmm. Can you tell me why you think we don’t seem to want to have a military or economic victory? Your mind misreading this? No, you got it right. But don’t take out the infrastructure because the Iranian people are going to need that to rebuild their future. Right. All right, George, thank you, buddy. Appreciate your man. Let’s go to David. Palm Beach, Florida, another beautiful area that we like, the great WGN. Oh, great station. David, how are you? I’m doing Fantastic. How are you? Okay, buddy. So I am irate. Iran’s been at war with us for 47 years. We finally have an opportunity that is a once in a lifetime opportunity to take them out, to take control, to finally sever this ridiculous, you know, where we’re constantly responding to their outrage. Israel, if we don’t want to finish the job, allow Israel to finish the job. I don’t think we will. I just. I just don’t. You know, I used to. I was saying. Give. Give Trump time. Give Trump time. He must know something we don’t. But we have a military that is sitting. Why do we have a military? Why do we spend $1,000,000,000,000 a year on a military that is just standing by and we have them around? You know, it’s kind of like someone burned your house down. And we’re asking the person that just burned down our home to put out the fire. How is that going to be in any way, shape or form productive? You now have the Revolutionary Guards that are in control, clearly. And they’re even they’re just as bad, if not worse, than the ayatollahs. And we’re negotiating against ourselves. You know, I know Donald Trump is is the art of the deal. But one thing I’m sure he knows is you don’t negotiate against yourself. All right. We’ll see how low rolls, I guess one on a few days, right? Presumably. All right, great. Cause I’m going to keep going to the calls, except my screen is all screwed up, Mr. Producer. Everybody hold on one second, please. Okay. I think I got it back. All right. Let’s go to Jim Front Royal, Virginia, the great w mail. How are you? I’m doing great, Mark. Thanks for taking my call. Thank you. I think we need to I hate to say this, but I think a land war is the only way we’re going to win this thing there. The attitude of our enemy and this is death or die, you know, kill or be killed. They they’re not worried about bombs dropping on their heads. They just create new foxholes for them to jump into. We need to send in the Marines and the Army and just march them to the sea. And they just don’t see that happening. I think the American people. And I’m just not ready to do that. What about arming the people of Iran? Why don’t we do that? Reagan used to do that. He did it in Afghanistan. He did it in Nicaragua. He did it in Angola. He did it in other places. And it was very effective. I agree. In fact, I’ve said for six years that what we all do with all the illegal immigrants in our country has to teach them how to shoot a gun, give them a gun, sell them back to their countries and take over their own government. All right. But I’m talking about Iran right now. No, I understand. I agree with you to arm the Persians and have them come in right behind our soldiers. They’re not. They haven’t been. We’re not going to send soldiers. I’m just telling you we’re not going to do it. Yeah. Does it sound like we’re going to do. No, but, you know, we have to learn the lessons of, you know, 1500 years of fighting with these people. What did what did the Crusaders do? They marched them out. Bothers me is we have effectively taken out their air force and their navy. They still have missiles and they stopped technology in their brains between their ears. And you have a situation here like you don’t have in many countries. You have a population of 92 million, 80 million of whom hate the government. And so this is this is very ripe for arming the people to take over the government to destroy the regime. I think part of the problem is with these isolationists, these Tucker Carlson types who are rooting against us, who are undermining our armed forces. He’s not alone, of course, And they are more in bed with the Democrats and the Marxists and the Islamists than they are, you know, America first. And in promoting our victory here, I mean, this is a forever war. If we don’t defeat them, we’re going to have a forever war on our hands. And I don’t understand why so many of these buffoons don’t understand that. Great cause. We’re going to continue to take some. We’ll be right back.

Segment 3
Well, overwhelmingly so far in one form or another. The live in audience here wants us to defeat this regime. Let’s see how it goes. I’m taking them one at a time when I want one person at a time. Let’s go to Louis Pembroke Pines on Sirius XM satellite. Yes. Louis, what do you think? Hey, Marc, Thank you for taking my call. Yeah, my, my. You know, I just put gas to my car. I’m in South Florida and $4.59, man, that’s a lot of money for me. And I understand the Iran conflict. And and three years ago, it was costing in $5.11. But I understand. And listen, I’m okay with paying it for a couple, maybe a few more weeks, but it’s going to start to hurt inflation. It’s going to start to, you know. Here’s my question. Have you ever read about the greatest Generation and what they put up in World War Two, what they put up with? Yes. Yes. Listen, I grew up. Hold on. Let me just. You’re really suffering that badly, Louis. Is that it? I endured. I endured a civil war. I lived through a civil war. Okay. Where are you from? I was born in Nicaragua. My father was a lawyer. But hold on. Slow down a second. So even before the Civil War and we’re talking about the price of a gallon of gasoline, right? Yeah. But, Mark, but. But let me make my point. Go ahead. Look, my my issue with this is I’m concerned that this is going to destroy Trump’s presidency and the following people. The people. Well, let’s let out a second. Because you’re moving too fast for me. Because I want to. I want to pin you down on a few things so you can explain yourself. Destroy the Trump presidency. So that’s it. Let’s say this ends with a deal. How are the Democrats going to treat that deal? What are they going to say about the deal? Whatever the deal is, what are they going to say? Yeah. Listen. The Democrats are crazy. You’re never okay. You got to play along so we can do this. So they’re going to attack it if there is a deal. What if he literally defeats them in the next 60 days? I mean, we’ve already been. What? Cease fire for two weeks. For six weeks now and defeats them. What are the Democrats going to say that? They’re never going to agree with it. Correct. Credit. Because the fact that he decided to stop them from having nuclear weapons was all they needed. So if you really want to win the midterm elections. What is the best outcome? In Iran. Look, Mark, if they make a deal, do you really think that these people, these crazy people in Iran or do I. Not for a minute. No, I don’t think they’ll honor it for a minute. No, I don’t. Okay. So what are we. So they need to be defeated as your point. Well put. They need. When are you going to. How many Islamists are we? Do we have to kill? We don’t have to kill any. Oh. What do you mean? Oh, Dad, how. How are we going to win this? We said you’re in a civil war in Nicaragua, weren’t you? How many troops did we have in Nicaragua from the United States? Let me tell you something. Reagan armed these Contras, right? These people were drunk. They couldn’t fight. They didn’t want to fight. You can tell you’re absolutely right that maybe some of the ones you knew were drunk, but he armed the Contras and they did a hell of a job, actually. And then when Reagan left. Noriega is back because the Democrats wouldn’t do a damn thing about him. He’s got an iron iron grip on Nicaragua right now. But look, then your position is, okay, let him get nuclear weapons, because what was your response to this? Mark, if Trump loses, will you answer a question? I asked you a question. What would you have done? If you’re Trump and you think you need to deal with this because they’re getting a nuclear weapon? Listen. If they get a nuclear weapon, we die. I die. We all die. Okay, so he had to do something about it, right? Eat this. Christ, we die. We all die. Okay. I said, okay. So he had to do something about it, right? Okay, but he is doing something about it. But politically, there is it there is an election that we’re going to have and he’s going to lose. We’re all aware of this. And I said to you, All right, thanks for your call. Mr. Peterson, am I missing something? Gone in circles here, man. I’m not trying to be rude. But we’re going out of left field and we’re go to the right field bleachers. I’m trying to bring you back. You and I agree that he needed to deal with it. And now we’re talking about how do you end this and you don’t have an answer or I can’t figure it out. So I got to move on. I got a full board here. So nothing personal, Luis. Let’s go to Scott, Colorado Springs, Colorado, on a Sirius XM satellite. How are you? Yes, sir, I’m doing great. Thanks for taking my call. You two quick points. One, I think President Trump has absolutely earned the benefit of the doubt, so I’ll continue to extend that to him. Two, I can’t help but wonder, as you see what some described as a conciliatory tone over China. And now he’s seemingly pushing back another deadline for Iran. You know, people may question, okay, is he getting a little bit softer or backing away from his positions? And I just don’t see it that way. I think he is going over overboard in trying to demonstrate his willingness to, let’s say, we get a great deal. Is that okay? The point I’m trying to make is I think he knows we’re not going to get a good deal at this point. He’s setting the stage to just unleash. But I don’t disagree with I’m just saying, let’s say we get a great deal. Is that a good thing? You know, I think for ourselves, let’s put aside Trump. Let’s say we get a so-called great deal. Is that a good thing? It’s a problem, isn’t it? I, I don’t think that. I don’t think I don’t think that at this stage a great deal exists, nor does Trump believe a great deal exists. All right. You’re right. A great deal does not exist in my view either. All right. Thank you for your call as well, Scott. Appreciate it. Let’s go to Charles, Cleveland, Ohio. Sirius XM satellite. Charles, how are you? I’m very good and I really enjoyed listening to you the last 20 years and Victor Davis Hanson also. So I’m going to be very brief because I was told to be very brief in respect to your calls, the other callers. I’m African-American. The only reason I’m bringing that up is because if you listen to the mainstream media, they think that, you know, we’re all Democratic and anti-Trump and. Yep, But as far as the Iran war, I was 18 years old in 1979 when they when the ayatollah, you know, took the the prisoners, the hostages. And we should have been doing something about this for the past 47 years. So I wholly and wholeheartedly support Donald Trump. But one thing I would say is that and this may be going on, we need to actually find a way to communicate to the Iranian people directly. I know they shut down their Internet so that they couldn’t hear the truth, what was going on. But we need to somehow drop paraphernalia, documents or what should we tell be able to. Well, we need to tell them the truth. I mean, we need to tell them the fact that we are here to liberate them, to to help them. But are we there to liberate them? Yeah. I don’t hear anybody talking about that. Well, exactly. I mean, they’re because they’re afraid to say regime change. And I know because they’ll be attacked like I’m attacked, but I don’t really give a damn that I’m attacked, to be honest with you. Yeah, but yeah, go ahead. Is what what, what, what President Trump is doing. He’s trying to, you know, secure peace and security for our nation for the next hundred years. And people are, you know, worried about the price of gasoline. Yeah, it’s outrageous. But, you know, and the other thing I’ll just say and by the way, it’s a very temporary increase. We all know that. Go ahead. I’m sorry. Exactly. And no, I appreciate it. And I’ll say very briefly, Don, you know, President Trump, he got a lot of the black vote during the last election. We know he’s not up for re-election. But I think, you know, whether it’s J.D. Vance or Rubio, whoever it is, I think they need to focus on still trying to engage the black community. I’ve noticed that President Trump only has one African American in his cabinet. We’re here to support him. There’s a lot more that we can do if given the opportunity. So. But again, thank you for allowing me to have an audience with you. All right. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Let’s keep going, Jean. Bend, Oregon, Around here. My screen is all screwed up. Sirius XM satellite is wide awake tonight. Go right ahead, please. Yeah. So I’m a war hawk. I’ve been ever since the Shah was deposed. I spent two years in Germany on the Czech border, and our nation has never been designed to be a world power. Our political. Our political will changes every four years. Remember what Bush Silver said? We want to fight them over there so we don’t find them over here. And now we’re fighting them over here. Oh, I’m a war hawk. We should take that island. But what? Right. The world has been playing us for fools for over 100 years. We need to withdraw from Naito. Withdraw from. From the U.N.. Keep our big stick. Keep the biggest navy in the world. Keep us strong. Hard core Marine Corps. And if you mess with us, you get the war. And then we pull back. We need to pull all our troops back home and dominate this world economically, not militarily. All right, my friend. All right. I appreciate your call very much. We’ll be right back.

Segment 4
I want to salute the administration, the president, and so forth. It’s just announced the Justice Department is going to be creating an anti-Semitism advisory committee to provide recommendations on strategies to counter rising anti-Semitism in schools and local communities. You’ll never get that out of a Democrat administration. Never. Never. So congratulations to the president, the attorney general. The whole kit and caboodle over there. It’ll be led by our friend Leo Terrell. It was a very good man. Now. Let me address this first here. All right. Let’s let’s go back to some callers here and get my call page back up here. All right. Let us go to Tony Clifton, New Jersey, the great WBC. Hi, Tony. Hi, Mark. Good, good, Good question tonight. My thought. Number one, I go I defer to William Tecumseh Sherman in total warfare. And if he studied the Civil War student of a student of West Point, both him and my favorite Ulysses. They believe in total warfare. Without that, they could have never move forward. In fact, even though they did have total warfare, there was still a lot of trouble down south that that Ulysses and other presidents had to deal with. You’re right. I insist on total war. Well, warfare number two is my most important. No deal should be made like the president deferred to the request for to stop the war when these countries that requested it, there was only one that was in the Abraham Accords and that was the UAE. The rest of them aren’t in Abraham Accords. So what’s going to happen and what needs to happen is that we don’t have Naito anymore, but what we need is the same kind of world order and control that we have with the Abraham Accords. In other words, if anyone wants to get in on what’s going on, the peace solution, the moneymaking solution, you need to go through a course. I mean, first, I think first we have to literally defeat Iran. The only way we can ensure that they won’t develop nuclear weapons in the future is to destroy the regime. Their scientists aren’t going to forget this stuff. Their knowledge base isn’t going to go away. And the only way to defeat the regime is for the people to rise up. And it is ridiculous. They ask the people to rise up with their bare hands. They’ve already been through hell on earth, and so they need to be armed. And there is some. Reason or some element that apparently doesn’t agree with that. And I’m sorry, but if you’re going to tell people, rise up and take our country back, you need to help them with arms. We don’t need to send in ground troops. You just don’t. Tony, don’t get mad. I got to go. Thanks for your call. Keep calling. All right. Let’s go to Mary Paducah, Kentucky, the great w k. Why X? Go ahead. Hey, Mark, Thanks for taking my call. You think we should continue the war? We should continue the war with Iran because we can’t afford for them to get nuclear weapons. And the isolationist. The isolationist. I mean, we don’t have the luxury we did in the Second World War of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean protectors, because an ocean does a ballistic missile doesn’t care how far the ocean is. You can still hit you. So you’re right. I think we should wipe out wipe out the regime and end, like you say, arm, arm the Iranian people. I mean, if there were ever people that wanted to rise up as those people, they’ve demonstrated it three times in this last time. They lost 50,000 people in a matter of days. It’s outrageous. It’s disgusting what happened to those people. Mary, I’m with you, brother. You take care of yourself. Let’s go to Bogota, Colombia, calling W Mayo on the map. How are you? Blase. I’m fine. Thank you, sir. Thank you for taking my call. Got it. I am. My point. My point was, is that President Trump is a person who has made his career around making deals. And I’m afraid I’m very much afraid. Concerned that I don’t that he does may not understand the nature of this Islamic regime. This Islamic regime operates on a religious imperative that they don’t make deals. They actually can’t make a deal If they think that Allah says they have to have nuclear weapons, then they have to have nuclear weapons. They can’t make a deal. And it’s it’s it’s an Islamic regime. And so. Well, I don’t know what President Trump thinks he’s accomplishing when he speaks to the foreign minister or the president or the press, because those guys, they have no power. It’s an Islamic regime. The power is the is the supreme leader. And I’m all right. You’re a law professor, too. Unfortunately, that music means we got to go. A hard heartbreak at the top of the hour. Thank you for calling, sir. Excellent call. Fact all the calls of an excellent. We’ll be right back.