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Dean With Legendary Navy Vet Ken Harbaugh: Hospital Ships, Iran Is Happening and ICE Whistleblowers, Oh My!
Dean's latest Substack LIVE with Legendary Navy Vet/Film Maker/Author Ken Harbaugh details why you don't elect a moron as President.
Today’s interview with The Ken Harbaugh Show wasn’t a vibe check. It was a warning.
Ken isn’t some partisan flamethrower. He’s a decorated Navy vet. An author. A filmmaker. Founder of Valour Media. Host with the MeidasTouch Network. A guy who understands how the military actually moves when things are about to break bad.
And according to Ken, things are moving.
The Iran Buildup Is Not Subtle
We opened with what most Americans are not fully clocking: the scale of the military positioning happening right now ahead of Trump’s escalating rhetoric toward Iran.
Ken walked through it carefully. Carrier strike groups repositioned. Assets forward-deployed. Logistics chains are tightening. When the Pentagon moves equipment at this scale, it’s not for optics. It’s preparation.
Trump’s language toward Iran hasn’t just been aggressive. It’s been racially charged, historically inflammatory, and strategically reckless. Ken called it what it is: narrative conditioning. You don’t move steel unless you’re preparing to use it — or at least want the world to think you will.
And when you combine that with Trump’s pattern — manufacture chaos, claim victimhood, demand loyalty — it starts to look less like foreign policy and more like campaign theater with real-world consequences.
Ken’s point was blunt: once the military machinery starts humming at this level, miscalculation becomes more likely. Wars don’t always start with declarations. Sometimes they start with momentum.
Greenland Was the Tell
After Danish forces rescued a U.S. sailor off the coast of Nuuk — aboard a U.S. submarine, no less — what did Trump do?
He threatened to send a “hospital boat” to Greenland.
Denmark Rescues an American Sailor. Trump Responds by Threatening to Send a Hospital "Boat” to Greenland That is Currently In Pieces. | ||||||
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February 23, 2026 | ||||||
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Let’s pause there.
Denmark quietly saved an American sailor. Danish officials then leaked it. On purpose. Why? Because they were sending a message: we are the responsible ally here.
Trump’s response? Chest-thumping humanitarian cosplay.
Here’s the problem: the U.S. Navy hospital ships are in dry dock. They’ve been there. They will remain there for over a year. They are not deployable. The “hospital boat” line wasn’t strategy. It was optics.
Ken didn’t mince words. This wasn’t about care. It was about dominance signaling.
Greenland has become a fixation point in Trump-world — territory framed as transactional, sovereignty treated like a bargaining chip. So when Denmark demonstrates competence and alliance, Trump counters with spectacle.
But the spectacle fell apart under scrutiny. No ships. No mission. Just rhetoric.
And allies notice.
Ken’s larger point: when a president reacts to a humanitarian rescue with performative escalation, it tells you everything about priorities. It’s not about partnership. It’s about narrative control.
Inside ICE: The Whistleblower
The most disturbing part of today’s conversation, though, centered on Ryan Schwank — an ICE whistleblower alleging that internal training has veered into constitutional sabotage.
According to Schwank, senior figures, including Tom Homan, Stephen Miller, and Kristi Noem, pushed training protocols that encouraged:
Warrantless entry tactics.
Workarounds to suppress judicial oversight.
Methods to conceal use-of-force incidents from local officials.
Coaching on how to avoid documentation that could trigger civil rights investigations.
Let’s be clear: these are allegations. But they are detailed. And they are consistent with a broader ideological framework we’ve watched unfold for years — one that treats the Constitution as optional when politically inconvenient.
Ken contextualized this in military terms. When you start teaching operational units how to evade oversight rather than comply with law, you are no longer operating inside a democratic framework. You are preparing for impunity.
That word matters.
ICE is not the military. But when its training allegedly includes instruction on breaking and entering without warrants and hiding abuse, you are describing something closer to a paramilitary culture than a civil enforcement agency.
And the timing — amid aggressive deportation pledges and expanded detention rhetoric — isn’t accidental.
The Pattern
Here’s the through-line Ken kept returning to:
Military escalation abroad.
Performative sovereignty fights with allies.
Domestic enforcement agencies allegedly trained to sidestep constitutional guardrails.
It’s a triangulation of power.
Foreign brinkmanship.
Allied antagonism.
Internal enforcement hardening.
Each piece reinforces the other.
And when you overlay it with Trump’s repeated claims that he has “no support” while insisting on “silent support,” you get a leader simultaneously projecting strength and telegraphing siege mentality.
That combination is volatile.
Ken’s warning wasn’t hysterical. It was sober. He’s seen what escalation looks like. He’s worn the uniform. He understands command chains and operational tempo.
When he says the buildup ahead of Iran looks enormous, that’s not Twitter hyperbole. That’s someone who knows how war gets staged.
When he says Greenland messaging signals insecurity, that’s not partisan snark. That’s geopolitical reading.
And when he amplifies an ICE whistleblower alleging constitutional workarounds, it’s not because he wants chaos — it’s because institutions only survive sunlight.
Why This Matters Now
We are at a hinge moment.
If military escalation becomes normalized background noise, Americans stop asking questions.
If allied relationships become transactional props, democratic alliances erode.
If domestic enforcement agencies drift toward constitutional gray zones, civil liberties become theoretical.
Ken’s analysis connected those dots without theatrics. Just facts. Just patterns. Just trajectory.
And trajectory matters.
Go Subscribe to Ken
If you’re not following The Ken Harbaugh Show , fix that.
His show cuts through noise without sacrificing urgency. He brings veterans, experts, historians, and operators into real conversations about democracy, national security, and accountability.
Tonight he’s on with Scott Galloway — Prof G — and that’s a must-watch. Different worlds colliding. Strategy meets economics. Security meets systems.
Subscribe to the Ken Harbaugh Show wherever you get your podcasts.
Because informed citizens aren’t optional right now.
They’re necessary.
MASTER TAG LIST (Copy + Paste Ready)
#KenHarbaugh
#Iran
#Trump
#Greenland
#Denmark
#ICE
#WilliamSchwank
#TomHoman
#StephenMiller
#KristiNoem
#MilitaryBuildup
#NationalSecurity
#Authoritarianism
#Constitution
#Democracy
#CivilRights
#MeidasTouch
#ValourMedia
#USPolitics
#Geopolitics
Thank you Cheech Previti, Caro Henry, Environmental Coffeehouse, Nancy McAllister, Noble Blend, and many others for tuning into my live video with The Ken Harbaugh Show! Join me for my next live video in the app.
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—Dean
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