They're Lying To You About Everything | Victor Davis Hanson
What this video covers
Victor Davis Hanson returns to Keeping It Real for a second appearance — this time weeks before the 2026 midterms, and the conversation is pure political forecasting rather than the history masterclass of his first visit. The episode is built around Hanson’s book The Counter-Revolution, described here as the #1 book in America, and his thesis that a leftward transformation of the country is meeting a Trump-led counter-movement.
Hanson lays out his 2026 midterm predictions, including what he describes as the single November outcome that would kill the counter-revolution overnight. He discusses what he characterizes as Trump’s new strategy for the Iran war, arguing it works nothing like what the networks report. Other stops on the tour: the real reason Canada picked a tariff war with Trump that it can’t win, in his telling; what Zohran Mamdani’s 9/11 memorial appearance was designed to signal and to whom; why leaders in Canada and Europe are permitting mass migration — the plan behind it “has a name,” he claims; how the DSA overthrew the Democratic Party without most Democrats noticing; the play he says China is running on America through its closest allies; and what really happened at Davos, which he presents as the globalist project destroying the West.
The episode closes on an unusually personal note for a Hanson appearance: a segment on politics dividing families, and his portrait of Trump as a “tragic hero” figure.
Key points
- Hanson offers his 2026 midterm predictions and identifies one November outcome he says would end the counter-revolution overnight — per the transcript, he notes that 39 of the last 41 midterms were won by the out-of-power party, so statistically Democrats should pick up both the House and Senate given the close margins.
- He describes Trump’s Iran war strategy as fundamentally different from network coverage — his characterization.
- He argues Canada’s tariff war with Trump is unwinnable for Canada and analyzes what he says is really driving it.
- He interprets Zohran Mamdani’s 9/11 memorial appearance as a deliberate signal, and names its intended audience.
- He claims the DSA effectively captured the Democratic Party without most Democrats noticing — his framing.
- He describes a Chinese strategy being run against America through its closest allies, and presents Davos as the face of a globalist project harming the West.
- The episode includes a segment on political violence’s trajectory and another on politics dividing families.
- Hanson closes with a “tragic hero” framing of Trump and a six-part account of Trump’s political strategy.