Bombe e macarena, la guerra secondo Trump

·33 min·2 clips

The White House released a celebratory video of the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran set to the Macarena — while European stock markets fell 4% and oil prices surged.

1. Otto e mezzo (La7) convenes a panel to analyze the ongoing U.S.-Israel military campaign against Iran and its geopolitical and economic consequences. 2. Host Lilli Gruber is joined by journalist Gad Lerner, Corriere della Sera's New York correspondent Beppe Severgnini, philosopher Rosi Braidotti, and Al Jazeera correspondent Hoda Abdelhamid reporting from Doha, Qatar. 3. The episode's core question is whether the Iran strikes follow a coherent strategic logic or represent a dangerous improvisation dressed up as a video game by the White House's Macarena promotional video. 4. Gad Lerner opens by contrasting the White House's celebratory Iran-strike video set to the Macarena with the actual 'sound column of the day' — European stock markets down 4% (Milan, Madrid), Wall Street also falling, and oil and gas prices surging. 5. Trump told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at a press conference that 'everything is going very well' and that military capabilities have been destroyed; the panel notes Trump also claimed Iran would have had nuclear capability within one month, a claim they say has already been debunked. 6. Rosi Braidotti describes Trump's rhetorical vocabulary — bad, evil, crazy, sick — as psychosocially indicative of 'victimism, narcissism, cruelty, and a complete lack of empathy,' and singles out Peter Thiel's AI-guided weapons and Elon Musk as part of a governing class that treats 'break everything fast' as its only rule. 7. Hoda Abdelhamid reports from Doha that Iran struck the Ras Laffan gas complex (the world's largest, jointly owned by Iran and Qatar), another Qatari industrial complex, and Saudi Arabia's Rastanuf oil complex in the preceding days, effectively shutting all three sites. 8. Qatar intercepted more than 100 Iranian ballistic missiles in four days; the UAE intercepted 172 since the war began; Qatar stated that some missiles were aimed at Doha's airport and civilian centres and that Iran had 'crossed the red line not once but many times.' 9. Qatar has broken all contact with Tehran despite historically close ties as a co-owner of the North Field/South Pars gas field; the panel notes Qatar also hosts the U.S.'s largest Middle East military base with tens of thousands of troops. 10. Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly stated the U.S. was 'dragged into the war by Israel,' directly contradicting Trump's claim to Merz that he personally forced Netanyahu's hand. 11. Hoda Abdelhamid characterizes the campaign as the realization of Netanyahu's 15-to-20-year strategic goal, noting his repeated claims over the years that Iran was 'two weeks or six months from a nuclear bomb.' 12. Gad Lerner states Netanyahu's deeper aim is to draw Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar into direct war with Iran — what Lerner calls 'a nightmare,' though Abdelhamid suggests he is 'probably succeeding.' 13. One panelist (identified as Garland) confirms he personally witnessed Israel's civil-defence preparations — bomb shelters, civil protection organization — in the days before the strikes and changed his flight to leave Israel hours before airspace was closed, while Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto reportedly was not informed. 14. Benny Bennett, Netanyahu's domestic political rival ahead of autumn elections, has warned that the real future threat is the 'Sunni wall' of Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia — implying Netanyahu is setting up the next war. 15. The European response is fragmented: Macron condemned the strikes as violations of international law in a national address and accused both Trump and Netanyahu; Starmer and Sanchez also publicly distanced themselves; German Chancellor Merz was cautious at the press conference but brought up Ukraine. 16. Italian PM Giorgia Meloni has stayed silent, not gone to parliament, and issued no public statement; Trump did not mention Italy once in the 35-minute Merz press conference and apparently did not understand the abbreviation 'EU.' 17. The panel quotes Romano Prodi calling Meloni 'more than a vassal of Trump' and criticizes her for distracting Italians with Festival di Sanremo coverage while offering no information on the war. 18. A correspondent's report from Tehran traces the history of women's oppression under the 1979 ayatollah regime, citing Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, author Azar Nafisi (Reading Lolita in Tehran), graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis), and photographer Parisa Azadi, and notes that Trump's call for Iranians to rebel cannot realistically be fulfilled by women alone against the Pasdaran. 19. The panel discusses who might lead Iran post-regime: Abdelhamid notes Iran is deeply polarized — Khamenei had millions of supporters — and that even Trump today acknowledged 'maybe in five years someone worse will be there.' 20. This episode suits Italian-speaking news audiences interested in the Iran-Israel-U.S. conflict, EU foreign-policy debates, and Italian domestic politics under Meloni.

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