e it turns out that Iran in terms of the Iranian population are fairly pro-American. American people, American culture. They're not pro-American government but you know half of the country the United States you know the majority of the United States is not in favor of our own government. It probably never will be. It's that we roll. So the fact that you know there are some Iranians who don't like our government isn't terribly important because they like us and they like the American culture and people. And likewise if you haven't spent time around a lot of people who have been born in Iran they're pretty awesome people. They're pretty awesome. I see a lot of them around here and to a person they're just they're pretty awesome people.

So here's what I would suggest but not in a serious way. You know when people suggest what the president should say or do I always say don't suggest what a president should do. I don't know. It just always feels wrong on several levels to say oh here's what the president should do. So instead I'm going to put this as a thought experiment. So the thought experiment is suppose the president does this. What if the president did this? Because it'll help you understand what's going on here. The thought experiment. So this is not a suggestion. It's a thought experiment that goes like this. What if President Trump started saying hey Iran what would you gain by being our enemy? What do you have to gain? That's it. That's the powerful part. Can you tell us what you want to gain? Because we might be able to help. That's the second part. Tell us what you want because if you work with us you might be able to get it.

Now they might say we would like to spread Islam around the world to which we say okay we don't think that's the best idea but we'll still help you. Here's how. We'll give you full access to the internet. We'll make sure that every person in your country has freedom of speech. Because if you want to spread an idea killing isn't really an efficient way to do it in 2019. We saw that ISIS tried to do that. Didn't work out. Did not work out for ISIS. But the internet is really good at spreading ideas. So if Iran wants to spread their idea we will help them take their idea into the marketplace of ideas which is the internet. We will help you build out your internet. We'll do what we can to be supportive of every citizen in Iran getting on the internet and having full access so we can help you if you would like to spread your beliefs. We'll give you the tool, the only tool, the only tool that's effective to do that. And we are confident that in the marketplace of ideas it might find its place as will others and we'll work it out.

So then what else does Iran want? They want to survive and we'll say that's fine. We don't care if you survive. I mean we'd like you to survive and even you could even keep your form of government because we don't care about that. That's between you and the citizens. So we're not going to fight them on who's in charge so long as you know they're not a problem to us. What if they say we want to overthrow Israel? Well they don't really say that publicly and I don't believe that they think it could really happen. Do you think there's anybody in Iran who in a private conversation that nobody will ever hear do you think that anybody at any level in Iran says you know I think we've got a real good shot of taking Israel back for Islam? I'll bet no. I'll bet there are zero people who actually think that's going to happen. And I don't think they say it out loud currently. What they say out loud is that they would like Israel as a government entity to go away. They can want that all they want. And in fact the best way to do that would be to make peace with Israel. Can you think of a faster way to destroy in quotes the nation of Israel than by making peace in the Middle East? It would effectively force Israel in the long run to have a more diverse population. And if they have a more diverse population eventually it's going to have to become not exactly the Jewish state. And they didn't long but the only way you get there is through peace. Israel would just have pressure to be more inclusive and eventually you would get that way.

Suppose Iran wants a better economy. Of course we can help. Suppose they want more energy and nuclear power not nuclear weapons nuclear power. Well Lindsey Graham has already offered to help. We just want some control on the weaponized part. And if they get those parts I guess the fuel rods if they get that from China and Russia the United States would say okay China and Russia can keep them from getting the nuclear weapon parts as long as Iran wants to get their source from those two countries. So almost everything that Iran at least publicly would ask for we would be willing to help. We're not only not their obstacle we're begging them to help with everything they want.

Now we don't think of it that way because we're just sort of locked into the news coverage of us against them and will there be a war and you just think of two teams against each other. I think the president could and again this is just a thought experiment I don't expect him to do this in any way. I think the president could say here's the deal Iran we don't understand what you want because everything that we know you want we want to and we would actively help you. We want you to communicate better. We want you to have a better economy. We don't want any risk. We want you to have nuclear energy. Israel has already offered to help with desalinization. We probably have a mutual interest in controlling al Qaeda. We kind of have so much in common it's crazy that we're even talking as some kind of nemesis when it's so clear that we would work better together for everything.

Now you might say to yourself I don't know there must be something we disagree with and that's worth having a war over but I don't know what it is. If you and I don't know what that is I don't think anybody knows what it is. Yeah I think the giving them tons of cash idea was probably not your best one. I think you have to do what Trump has successfully done with North Korea which is paint a picture of cooperation and a picture of the future that is clearly a good one and it involves us being helpful instead of us being on the other side. We started that a little bit with Iran but I think that picture could be completed. It could be that you know the president is constrained by the members of the administration who want to see some missiles fly so that may be part of the constraint. I don't know.

Somebody says that Kim Jong-un is different because he's not religious therefore you can work a deal with him. I would say that that would be a problem except that everything Iran wants we would be willing to help them with because they can spread their ideology anywhere they want. It's just that the internet is how you spread the ideology. Spr