Did Trump just TRICK Russia into revealing its TRUE intentions?

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on a recent incident involving tankers, particularly one linked to Iran that was headed towards Venezuela amidst the geopolitical tension. The conversation highlights the challenges faced by military authorities in tracking and intercepting multiple tankers, as well as speculates on the true contents of the Iranian tanker, raising questions about its implications for U.S.-Russia relations and intelligence strategy.

Key takeaways

• In a high-seas drama, 16 tankers flee like rats on a sinking ship—too bad the military couldn't keep up!
• Shadow shipping: the underbelly of international trade where even a rusty old tanker can evade the law.
• Forget spies; it’s paint and flags! Russia just re-flagged a ship mid-ocean like a budget spy thriller.
• International waters or a movie set? This covert operation could give 'Lord of War' a run for its money.
• UK pulls intel on Caribbean tankers, but suddenly becomes the star player in an unexpected naval cameo.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Glenn Beck (Guest) · 8 min speaking
• Jason Butrol (Guest) · 5 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Aaron Glenn, Jason Butrol, Oil, Iran
2. 3:00 – 6:00: international maritime law, UK, North Atlantic, Jason Butrol
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Aaron Glenn, Iran
4. 9:00 – 12:00: War, Fabian Socialists
5. 12:00 – 13:22: Iran, submarine, digital sovereignty

Notable quotes from "Did Trump just TRICK Russia into revealing its TRUE intentions?"

• Want to bring Jason Butrol in. He is our chief researcher and in charge of military u intelligence for us. He was a military intelligence guy. I don't know how he got that job, but he's with us.

  about Jason Butrol · at 0:00

• Two of them yesterday. One of them was actually was going towards Venezuela, but it was from Iran, wasn't it? Wasn't it in Iran?

  about Iran · at 1:12

• Just wondering what the heck's going on because this is not how shadow shipping works. Now, shadow shipping is how you get around international sanctions. So, if you're one, if…

  about shadow shipping · at 2:09

• Have to have the Russian flag. You're a fl a Russian flagship. It is illegal against international maritime law to change flags once under once underway.

  about international maritime law · at 3:13

• Movie script being written. So meanwhile, some of the other drama is the UK did they stopped providing intel and any kind of corporation as far as these ship tankers go in the…

  about UK · at 4:46

• Okay, so Glenn has made a incredibly risky chess move. So, he's either checkmated me or I've checkmated him. So, you are you're exactly right.

  about Aaron Glenn · at 8:27

• I hesitate to get into this maybe we should do this tomorrow or Monday but there is this desire for war around the world and it's coming a lot of it's coming from NATO and I…

  about War · at 9:58

• Otherwise, I don't know. I don't know the answer why Russia would claim that ship and send subs out and threaten to sink our military ships if we approached that ship. It was…

  about submarine · at 12:55

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Aaron Glenn — Person · Host / primary speaker · 3 mentions · first at 0:00
  Leads the discussion, challenges Jason’s theory, and broadens the tanker incident into a wider argument about war, NATO, and European politics.
• Jason Butrol — Person · Guest / in-episode analyst (chief researcher) · 3 mentions · first at 0:00
  Provides the core analysis of the tanker story, explains shadow shipping norms, and proposes theories about what the tanker might have carried and why Russia reacted.
• Celia Maduro — Person · Referenced political figure · 1 mention · first at 0:49
  Used as a marker for the Venezuela timeline ('once Maduro fell') that triggered tanker movements; not otherwise developed.
  Were I think it was 16 tankers in port in Venezuela or somewhere in the world that once Maduro fell, these tankers just fled like rats. They just they and they the reason why…
• Nicholas Cage — Person · Referenced actor (analogy) · 1 mention · first at 4:35
  Mentioned only to anchor the 'Lord of War' comparison for the tanker reflagging drama.
  This is like a so painting the repainting and reflging the ship. That's straight out of Lord of War with Nicholas Cage. There's your movie there.

Companies & orgs

• Fabian Socialists — Company · Historical reference group · 2 mentions · first at 11:22
  Glenn cites them as an example of elites allegedly wanting WWI to reset Europe, drawing a parallel to modern European motivations for war and control.
  They miscalculated on how long and how many dead, but they there was a group, the Fabian Socialists. They wanted that war to reset all of Europe.

Products & tech

• submarine — Product · Escalation symbol / military asset · 2 mentions · first at 4:28
  Russia allegedly dispatches a submarine to protect the tanker, used to emphasize the abnormality and seriousness of the incident.

Concepts & topics

• War — Concept · Core topic / framing concept · 3 mentions · first at 10:04
  Used to interpret the tanker incident as part of escalating global tensions; Glenn argues some actors 'want war' and warns of miscalculation-driven conflict.
• shadow shipping — Concept · Core explanatory concept · 1 mention · first at 2:11
  Jason uses it to explain sanctions evasion norms and argues the tanker behavior deviated from typical shadow shipping patterns, implying unusual cargo or stakes.
• international maritime law — Concept · Legal framework invoked · 2 mentions · first at 3:17
  Used to argue that changing a ship’s flag while underway is illegal, supporting the claim that the tanker was not legitimately Russian when boarded.
• Oil — Concept · Suspected cargo / sanctions commodity · 2 mentions · first at 1:36
  Mentioned as a typical cargo in sanctioned shipping, but the speakers emphasize uncertainty about whether the tanker actually carried oil.
  Works. Now, shadow shipping is how you get around international sanctions. So, if you're one, if you're Venezuela and you're sanctioned and you need oil or if you're Cuba or…
• digital sovereignty — Concept · Political-control concept (claimed) · 1 mention · first at 12:04
  Glenn frames it as a policy agenda populations are 'on to,' suggesting elites might seek war to reset governance and reassert control.
  Population now is educated much more than they were 5 years ago. They're on to us. They know about this digital sovereignty crap and they are not going to put up with it. How do we do it? We need a war and that will reset everything.

Places & events

• Iran — Place · Origin country referenced · 3 mentions · first at 1:19
  Described as the tanker’s origin and tied to speculation about covert cargo/personnel and broader geopolitical pressure alongside Russia and China.
• UK — Place · Partner government referenced · 2 mentions · first at 4:49
  Discussed as initially withholding intel cooperation in the Caribbean but making an exception to assist in the North Atlantic incident.
• North Atlantic — Place · Operational geography · 2 mentions · first at 5:34
  The tanker incident is positioned as occurring in international waters within a UK protection zone in the North Atlantic, near Scotland.
  Call us and ask us to be involved in this because it is in our part of the North Atlantic. That's part of our job is to protect that part of the North Atlantic. But you don't buy into that.
• Scotland — Place · Geographic reference point · 1 mention · first at 5:41
  Cited as the nearby coastline to where the incident occurred in the North Atlantic, supporting the UK-protection-zone argument.
  Atlantic, which is was right off the coast again in international waters, but right off the coast of I think Scotland.

Media & podcasts

• Lord of War — Media · Pop-culture analogy · 1 mention · first at 4:35
  Used to illustrate the alleged illegal reflagging/painting as something 'straight out of' a movie, reinforcing the episode’s 'movie-like' framing.
  This is like a so painting the repainting and reflging the ship. That's straight out of Lord of War with Nicholas Cage. There's your movie there.
• Humphre October — Media · Pop-culture analogy (submarine drama) · 1 mention · first at 4:41
  Invoked to compare Russia sending a submarine to a scripted thriller; likely intended as 'The Hunt for Red October.'
  Meanwhile, the Russian Navy goes into overdrive to try and get out there and protect the ship. That's Humphre October. It's like it's a script. It's a movie script being…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 want to bring Jason Butrol in. He is our chief researcher and uh in charge of uh military u intelligence for us. He was a military intelligence guy. I don't know how he got that job, but uh he's with us now. And uh and Jason, I want to bring you in because didn't you think the tanker thing when you came in this morning? Didn't you tell me the first the big story is the tanker story? Can't hear him.

0:26 It's like a movie Glenn. really is the tanker story. You thought that was the biggest story?

0:31 Yes. That's why he's not in charge of picking stories. Um and and the one thing that I agree with is this story is like a movie. Um you know, there there were I think it was 16 tankers in port in Venezuela or somewhere in the world that once Maduro uh fell, these tankers just fled like rats. They just they and they the reason why they got past many of them got past our military and the blockade is because there were 16 of them and we just didn't have enough people to pursue all 16 of them. Uh and so they've been chasing.

1:09 But this one particular tanker, we got two of them yesterday. One of them uh was was actually was going towards Venezuela, but it was from Iran, wasn't it? Wasn't it in Iran?

1:23 Yeah, it originated in Iran. It it published its uh its its shipping path beforehand. So that was out that information was out there. It had nothing on board. Air quoted nothing on board. We don't even really know. But they don't think that it actually had oil or anything like like that on board.

1:40 Okay. So wait a minute. Hang on just a second. When you say air quoted, who's doing the air quotes?

1:46 I got theories. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. So it's no official. It's Jason air quotes. Nothing on it. Okay. You know, and then go ahead and share this theory because I think that's a possibility.

2:00 Yeah. So, I mean, so I I know how and when I say it's just me, there's a lot of other like open- source intelligence uh like accounts, organizations that are just wondering what the heck's going on because this is not how shadow shipping works. Now, shadow shipping is how you get around international sanctions. So, if you're one, if you're Venezuela and you're sanctioned and you need oil or if you're Cuba or Russia or whatever, you use this system. So, you get a really crappy oil tanker, it um is rusted out, it sucks, uh they don't care what happens to it. So, if it ends up getting interdicted and taken in the middle of the ocean,

2:38 never lost anything. Yeah, it didn't lost anything. It doesn't matter. And if there's anything on it that you don't want it there to be, you know, caught or whatever and it's not that valuable, you just throw it over the over the side and who cares? you factor that into the loss. That is not how this situation played out as per the norm. Now, this immediately the the ship altered course. Russia said, "Hey, I'll take responsibility for this." Like, yeah, paint the flag, which I think is exactly what they did.

3:06 Yeah, they did. This is, by the way, once you if you're a flagship, if you're a Russian ship, when you're in port, you have to have the Russian flag. You're a fl a Russian flagship. It is illegal against international maritime law to change flags once under once underway. You can't do that. And so this ship is underway and you know they get into trouble with America and they put out a call and this is the strange part of this. They put out a call and Russia says uh you can flag it with a Russian flag. So they they literally on the side somebody took, you know, three colors of paint, shimmyed down, I don't know, the anchor chain and painted the Russian flag while they were sailing, while they were out in the middle of the ocean and painted the Russian flag on it. So when when people say we we boarded a Russian ship, no, we didn't. No, we didn't. No, we didn't. Not not in any way, shape, or

4:03 form did we take a Russian ship. Yeah. It's like almost backwards, right? We It was a kind of a Russian ship that was hiding it and then they painted it illegally on there. Correct. Which then they called it a Russian ship. So whatever they needed to serve their needs, that was what they're going to say. Right.

4:20 Exactly right. Exactly. Right. Okay. So go ahead and tell the rest of the story.

4:23 Oh, so the drama continues and the irregular irregularities continue. So Russia sends out a submarine. Again, this is like a so painting the repainting and reflging the ship. That's straight out of Lord of War with Nicholas Cage. There's your movie there. Meanwhile, the Russian Navy goes into overdrive to try and get out there and protect the ship. That's Humphre October. It's like it's a script. It's a movie script being written. So meanwhile, some of the other drama is the UK did they stopped providing intel and any kind of corporation as far as these ship uh tankers go in the Caribbean because they didn't know if their laws kind of jive with our laws, international shipping and everything.

5:01 So they said, "You guys are on your own doing that stuff." Well, they made an exception here. They said, and they made it very very public that they helped providing intelligence, whatever else we needed. They were like, "Go after that ship."

5:13 I think we will help you. I think you're reading too much in it. They're staying out of the Caribbean and Venezuela because a we have a blockade. Why get involved in something like that? We're not going to get involved. We're not going to share information or anything. We're not doing any of that. That's in the Caribbean. That's Venezuela. This was it was not in their waters, but it is in their protected or protection zone. It was in the North Atlantic, which is was right off the coast again in international waters, but right off the coast of I think Scotland.

5:44 And so because I saw a British official say yesterday, "No, it was absolutely the right thing for the United States to call us and ask us to be involved in this because it is in our part of the North Atlantic. That's part of our job is to protect that part of the North Atlantic." But you don't buy into that.

6:00 Well, I mean, I think your theory could be correct. It could be how it just lines up with both countries national security. So they

6:07 That's not my theory. That's what the British government said. I mean, it could be wrong, but I want you to know it's not my theory is what they said

6:14 when I So, my counter would be if this was just a normal shadow, you know, sanctioned ship that happens every single day. Yeah.

6:23 They don't make a public statement of this. They don't even get involved. They don't care because it happens every single day. But this seems to be the one exception. it. It just seems to be

6:33 So, what is your what is your theory that why is this why is this bothering you?

6:39 So, I guess I'm curious and you can counter this. I think I I think I know what your counter would be to this. Um,

6:45 come on. We played chess for a very long time. Go ahead, make your move. Put your pawn there.

6:51 My opening move is that you don't do So, this had this must have had something on it that it must have had something. Now, if it was just something inconsequential, you throw it over the side. It it doesn't matter. Now, you don't just throw it over the side if there's personnel because they're not just going to throw people personnel over the side. Uh they're going to they're these are despotic regimes, but they're going to respect that. They're also going to have, you know, if if they are these people that were on board, they would have specific knowledge of something. Now, if they did, they're not going to want us to know or have the capabil or not not want to interrogate them to know exactly what, you know, their full intentions are. This is just a theory. It's some things throwing.

7:32 So, why wouldn't the government because here's where I think your theory falls apart. By the way, you moved onto a space where my bishop is. So, let me take this piece away. Why um why would the government not immediately release the information of what Iran was doing? A it would only give us more power to collapse Iran faster. If they were sending, let's say, nuclear, you know, scientist or terrorists in the hold of this ship, the world would be uh for us and we would be able to say, see the connection between Iran and Russia.

8:11 Look what they're doing against the United States. It would be a card that would be too big to hold. It's It's like Donald Trump was in the Epste files. Why didn't they play that during the election? It would have taken him out. If they had that proof, they could have taken him out. Why wouldn't they?

8:27 Okay, so Glenn has made a incredibly risky chess move. So, he's either checkmated me or I've checkmated him. So, you are you're exactly right. If if we do not hear within the next I would say 48 to 72 hours, I think that I think we'll find out. So this game is not over, Glenn. We are still playing.

8:45 And you know what, and you could be right if the reason why I'm I'm pushing up against this is I don't want to be a broadcaster that's coming out with just theories without saying this is a theory and here's how we'll know. This is not an ongoing theory. You will know or you'll not know. Um, and I think it's probably in the next 72 hours, 48 to 72 hours, because our motivation to expose this would be too big. However, if that's true, that theory is true, they would be debriefing all those people right now. They wouldn't just come out and say, "Hey, we found Bob on the in the whole along with Habib, we'd need to interrogate them, know exactly who they are, know exactly what the intent is." I do think it's weird that Russia would all of a sudden step up and say, "That's our ship. We're sending a sub." That that doesn't make sense. Unless, another theory, unless Russia wants to uh sell to at least its people and

9:50 allies how evil the West and America is. because you know there's I hesitate to get into this maybe we should do this tomorrow or Monday but there is this desire for war around the world um and it's coming a lot of it's coming from NATO uh and I told you yesterday the way Donald Trump is just taking pieces off the board for China and Iran and Russia it's going to put them into a corner and you know people become very dangerous when their when their back is in in a corner. Uh and and and I also think Europe wants war. I really do. When they're talking about putting 2,000 NATO troops on the ground in Ukraine if Putin doesn't take this deal, that's insanity. It's insanity. You want war, that's a great way to get war. But I mean, we're not gonna I hope to God we're not part of that. That's your decision.

10:52 But I told you years ago that when when you get to the point we're at right now, where everything is on the verge of collapse, that's when you're you're historically when wars are started. Most, if not all, wars are started by a miscalculation. I should say most wars are because I don't believe World War I was a miscalculation. uh they miscalculated on how long and how many dead, but they there was a group, the Fabian Socialists. They wanted that war to reset all of Europe. They thought they could reset the boundaries and the kingdoms and everything else. Um and they did, but they their miscalculation was they thought it would be easy and over quickly. It didn't. It killed millions of people. Um, and I think there are those in Europe that are feeling exactly the same way the Fabian Socialists felt in, you know, 1913.

11:55 This will this won't be hard. We've got to control our population. Our population now is educated much more than they were 5 years ago. They they're on to us. They know about this digital sovereignty crap and they are not going to put up with it. How do we do it? We need a war and that will reset everything. I hope that's wrong. I hope that's wrong. And let me just say, you should bet that it is wrong because it's it's it's betting on the worst of people. And I don't want to even admit that there are people who are hungry for war. But life has shown us there are. Um Putin wants to tell his own people that uh we're bad and make that case uh that Europe is bad, England is bad because they're going to go into war.

12:51 Uh otherwise, I don't know. I don't know the answer why Russia would claim that ship and send subs out and threaten to sink our military ships if we approached that ship. It was from Iran. It had a painted flag on it. They painted it, you know, while after they launched. Makes no sense at all.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Did Trump just TRICK Russia into revealing its TRUE intentions?"?

Glenn Beck (Guest), Jason Butrol (Guest).

What is "Did Trump just TRICK Russia into revealing its TRUE intentions?" about?

The discussion centers on a recent incident involving tankers, particularly one linked to Iran that was headed towards Venezuela amidst the geopolitical tension. The conversation highlights the challenges faced by military authorities in tracking and intercepting multiple tankers, as well as speculates on the true contents of the Iranian tanker, raising questions about its implications for…

What is mentioned in this Glenn Beck episode?

17 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Aaron Glenn, Jason Butrol, War, Iran, shadow shipping, international maritime law. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Did Trump just TRICK Russia into revealing its TRUE intentions?"?

The episode runs 13 min; the transcript is about 2,410 words in 32 timestamped sections.

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