Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” from Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to Victor Davis Hanson’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes.
Jack Fowler: Let’s talk one other—since we were just talking about Fort Hood, keep on the Islamic, Islamicism, if that’s a word, track here.
The U.S. has removed its bombers from that Royal Air Force Base Fairford. That was where five or so suspected Islamic terrorists wanted to blow up some planes, etc.—and now they’re out on bail. But Victor, I think this is more than just a little story.
I would think, if I’m the U.S. government or military, Pete Hegseth, I’m saying, What the hell has become of our—
Victor Davis Hanson: I think that’s what it is. I mean, I’ve been watching some of the British news action, and they’re confined to one topic.
Do you think, do you think, do you think that this means they’re not going to bomb Iran because they don’t find our bases conducive, so they’re pulling back? Or do you think this means they will be bombing Iran because we will not be able to place constraints and say they can only use it for defensive purposes?
No and no. The reason, and Jack talked about it right now, is if you have an ally that is essentially unarmed, which Britain is, and you have these multibillion-dollar fleet of B-1 bombers and B-52s, and they have all strategic capability, and they deter people from attacking Britain. And terrorists apparently had a dry run. They wanted to see how it would go. And they got pretty close. Had a female farmer had not spotted them.
But the message to the United States government was there’s no security at this shared RAF-U.S. base, we think. And then, a few days later, two things happened. One, that was announced that one was an Iranian British subject, and people had suggested, the prime minister had suggested, Mr. [Andy] Burnham had said that he had ties to the Iranian theocracy. OK, that was … The second was they let them out.
So what was America to do? They’re gonna say, you can’t trust these people because they have such a large Muslim constituency in their cities that either you don’t have security around bases, or, in a democracy, they have such political clout they will elect leaders that will leak security to jihadists, or they don’t care about our security and they don’t like us. So let’s get away.
And I think this, if you look at very carefully about what [Donald] Trump is doing, everybody says he shouldn’t be pulling … He’s basically saying this: There’s a pattern to all of this.
South Korea has a very left-wing government. It’s been very critical of us and Iran. So he said, well, I don’t know why we have 50,000 troops there. I don’t understand—35,000 maybe now. Maybe we should take some out.
Germany has been very critical of us and wouldn’t … And so he said, Wwell, in Poland, let’s take, start with five and put them in Poland.
Spain has been very critical. Well, we’ve helped, we poured billions of dollars in this base, but maybe we should just get out of there.
Same thing with Britain, whether it’s [Keir] Starmer or Burnham. That’s the same left-wing socialists on reliability, and you can’t deal with that government. And there’s no sign yet that that government’s gonna be gone.
Maybe if they want to invite us back in. But Trump’s attitude is that we don’t want to spend billions of dollars and take criticism to protecting people who won’t protect themselves. And it’s, it’s got Europe in a tizzy.
If I were the Australian government, left-wing though it is, I would be very worried because they emanate a lot of anti-Americanism, and they are as vulnerable as you could be. They’re right next to China.
I went to Australia once, for about 12 days on a tour. I was debating a good friend of mine, Joe Joffe, at the time, and it was during the Iraq War. And a defense intelligence person in Canberra came over to me, and he said, I just last year was on a flight with a Chinese person.
And as we were flying across the continent to Perth, he said, every time, you know, on the outback they have sea of this, kind of like the sea of the moon, they’re dry in their depressions in the terrain. The Chinese didn’t really know that yet with their cell. He said, Where’s the water here? He had memorized the map. And where’s this? And where’s the tungsten? And where’s this? Where’s the oil deposits?
And it was just an inability to hide their conclusion that Australia was huge, full of things that China could benefit from, and had very little people. And that was before 10% of the population, or 15%, is immigrants, mostly from Asia.
So all of these countries are in dire need. They either have to rearm or they have to have better relations with the United States.
But I think what their attitude is: We’re waiting for another [Barack] Obama or [Joe] Biden, because what we like about them is we criticize the United States. They pay all this money and defend us. And then we schmooze up because we’re both leftists. And we tell them, when we don’t like the United States, it’s not you. You’re the exception, not the rule.
And Trump says no more. He’s not going to do that anymore. And I hope Britain understands.
In those debates, that little debate we saw with Tucker [Carlson] and Jacob Rees-Mogg, one of the things that came up about it is that Rees-Mogg was explaining to Tucker how undefended Britain was.
And he said, I think at one point, and correct me if I’m wrong, readers, that the NYPD had about twice a number of combat-readiness-ready troops that you could send anywhere at the moment. NYPD did. And he was basically saying we can’t defend ourselves.
So I think this is a reaction to all these people. It really applies to Canada. I’m going to do a podcast with a Canadian this week about this issue.
But if you think about it very quickly, Canada keeps doubling down. [Mark] Carney just won’t stop. And now he’s announced that he’s going to … The 5% trade partner is the EU, and he’s gonna have a special relationship with it, a special relationship with China that’s about, I guess, 15% or 20% of its trade, which is … We know how China treats inferior powers militarily and economically.
So he’s signed a pact with a devil that is going to exploit … It already is. It’s sending aluminum and metal below the cost of production into Canada to get around our tariffs so that Canada will keep buying it, buying it, buying it, buying it, with an artificial product of vehicles that are dumped in our markets.
In Britain, you know what the best-selling car, I think, is? It’s a Chinese knockoff EV of a Range Rover. And everybody wants them because they look just like Range Rovers, and they’re EVs, etc., etc.
But the British auto industry, especially after you saw that Jaguar commercial not too long ago, is in—
Jack Fowler: Oh my gosh.
Victor Davis Hanson: Yes, it’s kind of like the Nike commercial. It’s kind of like the Bud Light.
Jack Fowler: Yeah.
Victor Davis Hanson: The Left destroys everything it touches with its own Midas touch.
But anyway, the point I’m making is Canada. I’ve never seen this in my entire life, a prime minister who thought up more self-destructive policies and won’t even listen.
So now they have a steel company, and he says, “It’s the tariffs.” No, it’s not the tariffs. That steel company in Canada cannot compete with companies that are importing Chinese steel below the cost of production and using it instead of Canadian steel.
And then he said, “Once we have this relationship with Europe, we’re going to lead.” America will not lead.
So they’re going to lead.
Can I ask him a question? Mr. Carney, I’m nobody, but I would like you to reply, if you would ever reply. So you’re going to lead, and America will not lead. I suggest the following, then. You should say, “We want to lead.”
And he’s very angry because if you are a resident of Florida with a condo, or you’re an owner of property for vacation purposes, and you’re not an in-state resident, you’re not an in-state resident. And [Ron] DeSantis doesn’t care whether you’re an American or Canadian, but that’s the desired destination of Canadian snowbirds.
So DeSantis passed a law that increases markedly the property taxes of out-of-state homes, and he did it for one purpose: to relieve or eliminate the property tax for in-state residents.
I’m not sure this is a good example because it’ll start a chain reaction, kind of like redistricting or every … So if you, I guess they’re going to say that every single person in America shouldn’t own a condo or a house in another state. We’ll see what happens.
But he passed it off as this was against us. This is another war of aggression against Canada so that they can help Americans. And no, it wasn’t. It was against anybody who wasn’t an in-state, Americans included, resident owner, dash, whatever.
And then I was just asking him: So you want to lead, and the United States doesn’t lead. You want to divorce and couple with the EU. OK.
You have these fantastic claims to the Arctic. I mean, they make sense geographically, but you have 80 jets, and they’re 45 years old. So tomorrow, if, I don’t know, China or Russia takes a little icebreaker and puts a flag on your possessions, “It’s ours,” or if they just steam through the Northwest Passage and start putting—
Jack Fowler: What are they going to do about it?
Victor Davis Hanson: Right … putting flags on the northern shore, who are you going to call? Who are you going to call? Ghostbusters, maybe.
Ghostbusters.
Are you going to call the United States and say, “I didn’t mean it. Would you please send a carrier task force? Would you send about, I don’t know, 500 F-35s, F-18s, F-15s, F-16s? Please, please.”
No, you don’t even think. And then you’re talking about, “Well, we’re going to retaliate if he does this.”
Well, why don’t you retaliate? Why don’t you say, “We’re going to take all 1 million Canadians home. We don’t like your work-free, visa-free residents for six months?” Or why doesn’t he say, “Well, we’re gonna apply the same things to you that DeSantis did to us?”
Oh, wait. You already do do that. If you’re not a resident of most Canadian provinces, and you’re an American, and you own a home in, let’s say, Toronto or Montreal, you pay a markedly higher property tax than does a Canadian. So what DeSantis was doing was copying your program.
But he is so dependent, and he’s so a beneficiary of this unique relationship. 85%, 75% of his trade comes in, 98% of it almost tariff-free. He gets free defense coverage of all North America. He gets free six-month visa where you can work. He didn’t, it’s not the same as what American going.
He’s got a million of his own people living happily in America. His kids live there. His portfolio is here. He went to school here. And suddenly he’s demonizing us as worse than communist China.
And he’s got these … He’s not even gonna win this by whipping up national sentiment and, “We all hate Americans, you in Alberta and you in Quebec. You remember, you’re more Canadian now. You might not have been a little while ago, but you hate America as much as I do.”
They don’t. They’re still going to vote for an autonomous trajectory, not full autonomy, but a trajectory that will go there.
And I kind of blame the Canadian—I love the Canadian people—but if he’s their president and he’s got a 72% approval rating, and you can see this as plain as day, and you’re already $35,000 less per family per capita income, and of the 30-plus industrial Westernized nations in the world, you have the lowest GDP.
And in the last 26 years, the United States’ GDP and per capita income has gone up about 38,000 more than a Canadian. It’s not working. It is not working. And your dollar is weak, and everything about them is weak.
And yet they want to dig—
Jack Fowler: Except their housing seems outrageously expensive. Mrs. Fowler and I sometimes watch the—
Victor Davis Hanson: They let in a million—yeah, they let in a million immigrants. Where are we going to put them?
A million point two every year. Where do you put them?
And the government’s spending billions of dollars on healthcare and housing for people who hate them. They’re coming in from the Middle East and Asia, and they have two things that characterize them, because we know that from the United States and we know it from Europe:
“I hate my homeland. There was no freedom, prosperity, or security, so I want into your Western country. No, I don’t speak your language very well. No, I have no skills. I have no capital. But I am DEI according to your own rules. Now, when I set one inch into your country, I demand the following: I want a house or housing. I want legal counsel for immigration. I want food support. I want healthcare. I want educational subsidies. Got it?”
And then, once I get all of this, I’m going to riot, demonstrate on behalf of Gaza or the West Bank or any Arab country, Muslim country, I will not go back to.
And if you say to them, “Well, if you love these countries so much that you’ve left, whether it’s India or any of them in the Middle East, and then you criticize the country you come to … You know, do you see two, two fallacies? One, why don’t you go back, since you love it so much a distance? Or is it you only love it when you’re away from it?
“And then, number two, if you don’t assimilate and culturate and integrate, and you come to these places that you, by your own feet, have voted as culturally, economically, politically, and socially superior, then why wouldn’t it turn into the country that you left behind? And not, and then where would you go? To the United States?”
So if you want to leave the Middle East, or you want to leave the system in India or communist China, and you want to come to Canada, but you do not want to embrace Canadian values, but you want to embrace the ones that you romanticize in your own enclaves, and that enclave is gonna function as you did there, and you’re not gonna like it. I guess you’re not gonna like it because you left it.
Jack Fowler: Mm-hmm.
Victor Davis Hanson: I think I’ve mentioned that before. I had a very good friend. I’ll just say his name was Raul. In fact, that was his first name. And I went to, I went from grade two, Jack, to grade 12 with him.
And when he came from Mexico in grade two, we were 7, and he was 11. And so, he was the greatest athlete in the world. Everybody thought he was a god.
Jack Fowler: Are you kidding?
Victor Davis Hanson: No.
Jack Fowler: Wow.
Victor Davis Hanson: But he was four years older than everybody. He was shaving, yeah.
He was very proud, and I saw him the last year that I was teaching at Cal State Fresno. I went to a baseball game that my son was playing in, and his son was playing on the opposite team. And he saw me, and he came over, and we talked.
I said, “I thought you lived in this one town,” which is notoriously gang, full of gangs, and it’s not diverse. It’s about 95% Hispanic.
And he said, “I moved.”
And, and I said, “Well, where did you move?”
And he said, “I moved to this other town.” I won’t mention the name, which is 70%. “And then I moved.”
I said, “Why did you move?”
“I moved because of the schools and because of gangs and because of crime.”
I said, “Yeah, but don’t you feel more culturally sensitive and at home?”
“No, I don’t.”
And then he said, “California is going down the tubes, and I’m gonna move to Oregon.”
And I said, “Well, what if Oregon go—”
“Then I’m gonna go to Washington. But I will move because of the same reasons my parents came to the United States.”
Jack Fowler: Wow.
Victor Davis Hanson: “I want security, and I want freedom, and I want prosperity, and all of these people want handouts, and they’re destroying that …”
He was the most articulate guy that I’d ever talked about.
Jack Fowler: Raul’s northward trajectory is not encouraging, but—
Victor Davis Hanson: Well, that was in the days 24 years ago when those states, Oregon was a … I used to have a, I have a syndicated column, but it’s kind of moribund now because there are no syndicated column print much.
But that was when Bend, Oregon, and all those loggers, you know, they, they would subscribe to my column. It was very conservative, rural Oregon. And Washington, we used to brag that it had no state income tax, and they weren’t like what they are now.
Jack Fowler: Yeah, the eastern part of that state’s very conservative.
Victor Davis Hanson: But Oregon always had what, Packwood, that senator, remember him? And the other—
Jack Fowler: Yeah, and Hatfield.
Victor Davis Hanson: … and Hatfield. I mean, it was always a conservative timber state.
Jack Fowler: Pinot noir.
Victor Davis Hanson: The pinot noir. And then it got gentrified.