Tucker Carlson's documentary on broken promises, war with Iran, and the Epstein files
Tucker Carlson presents a documentary-style video examining a series of major political developments during Donald Trump's second term.
Summary
The Great Betrayal juxtaposes Donald Trump's campaign promises against what Tucker Carlson presents as their outcomes. The video covers three major areas: Trump's promises to end wars and avoid new ones, which Carlson argues were broken by a military campaign against Iran that drove up gas prices and resulted in civilian casualties; Trump's pledge to expose Jeffrey Epstein's client list, which the DOJ ultimately declared did not exist; and the broader theme of voters feeling deceived by a president they elected on specific commitments. The video uses Trump's own words — campaign speeches, press conferences, and Oval Office remarks — alongside news footage, voter interviews, and congressional testimony to build its case. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's congressional testimony about his own connections to Epstein is presented as a significant moment, with a congressman accusing him of lying about the extent of his relationship with Epstein.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Trump's Campaign Promises on War and Peace
Tucker Carlson: "I will govern by a simple motto. Promises made, promises kept. We're going to keep our promises. Nothing will stop me from keeping my word to you, the people."
News footage plays of Trump making campaign declarations: "History unfolding in the Middle East. The US and Israel carrying out an unprecedented military operation."
Donald Trump: Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, I will have the disastrous war between Russia and Ukraine settled. It will be settled quickly and it will take me no longer than one day.
Interviewer: But as a candidate, you said you would have this war settled in 24 hours.
Trump: Well, I was being a little bit sarcastic when I said that.
Trump: With our victory in November, the years of war, weakness, and chaos will be over. I don't have wars. I had no wars. I could stop wars with a telephone call. Kamala Harris is a train wreck who has destroyed everything in her path. She would get us into World War III — guaranteed — because she is too grossly incompetent to do the job. And then all of your sons and daughters will end up getting drafted to go fight for a war in a country that you've never heard of. We go to war. We bomb the crap out of it. Then we leave. We bombed the whole Middle East and then we left. What did we get? We got nothing.
Operation Epic Fury and the War with Iran
Trump: Now, regime change was not one of the things I had as a goal. I had one goal. They will have no nuclear weapon. And that goal has been attained. They will not have nuclear weapons. But we're finishing the job. And I think within maybe two weeks — maybe a couple of days longer — to do the job.
A news anchor reports: It's been just one month since the United States military began Operation Epic Fury, targeting the world's number one state sponsor of terror, Iran.
Trump: I'd like to say I'm in a hurry because, you know, gasoline prices are going to come tumbling down. And if we don't get what we want, we're going to end it a different way. Well, we're very close to a deal — or I'm going to blow the hell out of them. I didn't promise anything. I don't like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We've been doing this for three months.
Reporter: Mr. President, just not Iran — you have said now to Congress that we are back at war. How long do you expect this to take? And what's the legal —
Trump: Take what? Take what?
Reporter: The war.
Trump: Well, I think it's going very fast. We've demolished their military. We're hitting them very hard. We had a deal yesterday, or the day before. Yesterday it was all done and then they broke up that deal. We're not going to put up with it. We are just going forward. We're attacking them tonight. The strait's going to be open very soon, or they're going to get hit very hard, and then the strait's going to be open. And we were going to a tremendous attack — the biggest since World War II.
Reporter: Any movement on Iran?
Trump: We're going to win. As far as I'm concerned, it's going to be one way or the other. It's going to go pretty quickly.
The School Bombing Allegation
Reporter: Did the United States bomb a girls' elementary school in southern Iran on the first day of the war and kill 175 people?
Trump: Based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran.
A news anchor then reports: Two sources briefed on the preliminary findings of an ongoing military investigation tell CNN the US military accidentally hit the school. The sources say the mistake likely occurred because of outdated information about a nearby Iranian naval base.
The Drift Toward Global Conflict
Tucker Carlson: How close is this country to being dragged into some sort of global conflict? We now have troops from North Korea side by side with Russians on the ground in Ukraine. We're edging closer every single month to some broader global conflict that could involve the United States. And guess who's going to have to go fight in those wars? The sons and the daughters and the children of the people who are going to decide this election.
Trump: We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties — and perhaps even higher killed. President Trump dismissing the idea in the Oval Office Tuesday. If anything, I might have forced Israel's hand.
Unidentified speaker: I've been a recovering neocon for six years now. The foolishness with which we ricocheted around the world intervening — thinking it was in our best interest when really we just overturned the table and created something worse.
A clip plays of an official declaration: Welcome to the War Department, because the era of the Department of Defense is over. The only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this: war fighting. Preparing for war and preparing to win.
Intelligence Community Assessment on Iran's Nuclear Program
Official testimony: The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.
Commentator: He testified in March that the intelligence community said Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon.
Trump: I don't care what you said. And I think that we're very close to — you know —
Trump: For too long, our nation has settled for too little. We settle for too little. You've given everything to other nations, to other people. You have been told to lower your expectations and to accept less for your families. I am here tonight with the opposite message. Your expectations are not big enough.
Trump: We had a war with Iran. We won. We had a war — and you know, I don't know if you even call it a war, because we haven't been doing any fighting for months.
A news anchor reports: The US carried out limited strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island on Monday. The attacks come despite President Trump saying the US would not launch strikes on Iran before the midterms.
Gas Prices and the Cost of War
Trump: Starting on day one, we will end inflation. Your groceries will be cheaper. My plan will cut energy prices in half. It will be an economic revival. Young people will be able to buy a home again. So tonight I make this pledge to the great people of America: I will end the devastating inflation crisis immediately. Bring down interest rates and lower the cost of energy. We are going to drill, baby, drill. We're going to bring down the cost of energy. Energy is what caused the worst inflation, I think, in the history of our country. Food prices are up 50%, sometimes more. You look at bacon — bacon is quadrupled. You can't order bacon. You can't order anything.
Trump: Oil is down to $65 a barrel, and that's faster than I would have — we stepped on the gas in order to get oil. And with what's happening, we're getting that down. When energy comes down, prices are going to be coming down.
A news anchor reports: For a growing number of Americans, filling up the tank is now breaking the bank. The national average for a gallon of regular is almost $4.50. That's up five cents from last week, according to GasBuddy. After months of the war with Iran, many Americans say they're struggling with the record rise in gas prices.
Financial analyst: Americans are still collectively spending $500 million more on gasoline today than they did last year. So even if we do see some relief, Americans are still paying far more as a result of all of these geopolitical tensions that are ongoing.
Voter on the street: I'm pissed off about the gas prices, the food prices, everything. It's affected everything. You got to feel sorry for the truck drivers that are trying to make a living.
Reporter: Are you regretting your vote for him in 2024?
Voter: Yeah, a lot of people I believe are.
Reporter: Why?
Voter: Because he tells you one thing and does just the opposite.
Another voter: America's not great again.
Reporter: No?
Voter: No. They've run it to the ground.
Trump: Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward. They're going to be tumbling down. And we'll get them down — I think for gasoline, we'll get them below $2 a gallon. I think most people, if they had a vote on lower gas prices or letting Iran have a nuclear weapon, I'd be willing to bet it would be a massive landslide. People don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. And you know what? They won't.
For you to pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline — just remember, you're doing it so that a very evil country — a country that really is the number one state sponsor of terror in the world — cannot have a nuclear weapon. So remember that when you have to pay a little bit more. You're at $4. It's okay. I'm not going to apologize. I did the right thing.
Official: And this is peanuts. And I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while.
Trump: It's a very inexpensive price to pay for what we've done. Remember that. It's a little more — and even if it was, frankly, even if it was a lot more. But that's going to come tumbling down. That's going to be like a rocket ship in reverse. It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay and it's going to be over with very soon. But the only caveat is that the Trump dividend — you have to spend the money in the United States. You could even come to Mar-a-Lago. I said it the other night. The problem is that for $5,000, the most you'll be able to buy is a hamburger and maybe a small dessert.
The Jeffrey Epstein Files
NBC News anchor: NBC News has learned that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein is dead.
ABC News anchor: Sources tell ABC News that Epstein, who was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, hanged himself with a bed sheet.
Reporter: Tonight, we have learned that jail guards were supposed to check on him every 30 minutes, but that didn't happen the night he died. But how does someone previously on suicide watch — accused of what Epstein was accused of — end up killing himself in federal custody?
Commentator: People are still trying to figure out: how did it happen? Was it suicide? Was he killed?
Commentator: You now have the subject of a criminal case that could bring down some connected, high-profile elitists — many on the Democrat side of the aisle — and all of a sudden he shows up dead in a cell in one of the most secure facilities in the country.
Charlie Kirk: It's the same thing with Epstein's list. It's like, what the hell are these Republicans doing? They have the majority. You can't get the list. Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are. We have an election coming up and we need to adjudicate this matter at the polls. God knows the FBI and DOJ aren't going to do anything.
Commentator: You understand how many powerful people probably want this thing to desperately go away. How many people were interconnected with this Epstein sex ring operation? I'm not letting it go ever.
Reporter: You said Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide. People don't believe it.
Official: Well, I mean, listen, they have a right to their opinion. But as someone who has worked as a public defender, as a prosecutor, who's been in that prison system, who's been in the Metropolitan Detention Center, who's been in segregated housing — you know a suicide when you see one. And that's what that was. He killed himself.
Official on the Epstein files: Listen, I know this is a hot potato for folks. I totally understand. The evidence we have in our files clearly indicates that it was in fact a suicide.
Trump: We've reviewed all the information and the American public is going to get as much as we can release. He killed himself.
The Epstein Client List — Promise and Outcome
Reporter: The DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients. Will that really happen?
Attorney General Pam Bondi: It's sitting on my desk right now to review. That's been a directive by President Trump. I'm reviewing that. I'm reviewing JFK files, MLK files. That's all in the process of being reviewed because that was done at the directive of the president from all of these agencies.
Senator Dick Durbin: Attorney General Bondi, why did you publicly claim to have the Epstein client list waiting for your review and then produce nothing relevant to that claim?
Bondi: Senator Durbin, if you listen to my entire clip on that, I said I had not reviewed it yet. That it was sitting on my desk along with the JFK files, the Martin Luther King files, and I said I had not yet reviewed it. Our memo on Epstein clearly points out that there was no client list.
A news anchor reports: Now to the breaking news overnight about the Jeffrey Epstein files and the conspiracy theories officially being rejected. Perhaps the biggest bombshell: investigators say they found no incriminating client list of Epstein's, no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals, and no evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.
Bondi: If we had information — we meaning the Department of Justice — about men who abused women, we would prosecute them. There's this built-in assumption that somehow there's this hidden tranche of information about men that we know about that we're covering up, or that we're choosing not to prosecute. That is not the case.
Howard Lutnick's Congressional Testimony
News anchor: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is testifying about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein. The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Lutnick after documents indicated he visited Epstein's private island years after Epstein's conviction on prostitution charges.
Congressman: In October, you told the New York Post — with colorful narration — that the last time you saw Jeffrey Epstein was in 2005, when you took a tour of his house, which happened to be right next door to yours. You claimed you and your wife were so grossed out by this disgusting person that you swore you would never go back.
Howard Lutnick: He opens the door and there's a massage table in the middle of the room. I say to him, "Massage table in the middle of your house — how often do you have a massage?" And he says, "Every day." And then he gets weirdly close to me and says, "And the right kind of massage." And we left. And in the six or eight steps it takes to get from his house to my house, my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again.
Congressman: But when the Epstein files came out, it turned out that was a lie. You were forced to admit that you had visited Epstein's private island in 2012 — four years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and was labeled a sex offender. But that wasn't even the whole truth. It turns out that five days after visiting his island, you and Epstein signed a business deal together. Please answer the question: why did you lie to the Post?
Lutnick: I have voluntarily agreed to spend the time and talk about it. I reclaim the time.
Congressman: Let the record reflect you're dodging the question.
Trump Dismisses Voter Concern Over Epstein
Reporter: I know you've urged people to move on, but I'm curious — why do you think your supporters in particular have been so interested in the Epstein story and so upset about how it's been handled?
Trump: I don't understand why Jeffrey Epstein would be of interest to anybody. It's pretty boring stuff. It's sordid, but it's boring. So they're using Jeffrey Epstein as a deflection from the tremendous success that we're having as a party.
Trump: So this is a Democrat hoax that never ends. You know, it reminds me a little of the Kennedy situation. We gave him everything — over and over again, more and more and more — and nobody's ever satisfied. Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years. You're asking — we have Texas, we have this, we have all of these things.
Trump: And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.