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Mark Carney China Ties and the Iran Endgame: Jim Pfaff on Rush to Reason | Aug 25, 2026

Published: August 25, 2026
Network: KLZ 560 (Denver)
Analysis: Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff

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Sanctions rather than more kinetic action are the instrument Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff prefers against Iran, he told host John Rush — but the retaliation risk, he said, does not stop with Tehran. On the August 25 edition of Rush to Reason on KLZ 560 in Denver, Pfaff moved from the Iran endgame to Canada, arguing that Mark Carney and his China ties are part of the same risk: a prime minister who has called for a strong relationship with China in his meetings with Xi Jinping, and a Royal Canadian Mounted Police memorandum of understanding with the Chinese government that Carney will not disclose because it is not a formal treaty. From there the conversation ran through General Milley’s call to his Chinese counterpart, Justin Trudeau’s admiration for the Chinese model, why America’s adversaries want Democrats to win the midterms, and the Caucus’s plans for the Republican National Committee convention in Dallas.

Topics Covered

• Sanctions Over Kinetic Action: Pfaff on the Iran Endgame
• Why Iran Is Holding Out for the American Midterms
• Mark Carney China Ties and the RCMP’s Undisclosed MOU
• Milley, Trudeau, and Admiration for Beijing
• The RNC Convention in Dallas — and a Republican Congress That Won’t Help
• Key Takeaways

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Sanctions Over Kinetic Action: Pfaff on the Iran Endgame

Rush opened by asking Pfaff where he wanted to start, and Pfaff took the Iran sanctions. He qualified it up front: he said he does not know the actual mechanisms well enough, but that from what he can see the sanctions will be pretty extensive. What he was clear about was the instrument he prefers.

“I prefer we stop kinetic action, and if we’re going to finish it off, do it with things like this.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

The cost side, Pfaff said, is that sanctions are not a two-country transaction. Other countries may be subject to retaliation, and some of them will look for ways to answer back at the United States. That is the thread that took him to Canada for most of the rest of the segment. The benefit side is the one that matters strategically, and it follows directly from what sanctions actually do to a regime that has no other way to fund its reach — a point we covered in our reporting on the economic pressure campaign against Iran:

“there’s just not the ability anymore of Iran to continue to cause suffering and harm around the world as it’s been doing.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Pfaff put Iran’s actual weight in proportion. It is not a big country. It has no ability to project power in any way, he said — not even economic power. What it has done is punch far past its size:

“it has swung way above its average in the harm that it’s caused around the world”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

That mismatch, in Pfaff’s account, is a good reason President Donald Trump wants to oppose the regime, and it is why he thinks Trump wins in the end even though the sanctions will reset the international order. What he would not claim is a finish line. He said he still has not seen the path to finalizing what is going on in Iran, because the regime is intransigent — its whole methodology is bound up in an eschatology that requires the destruction of Israel, and that is hard to break down by any practical means. If anything can do it practically, he said, this might be one of the things that could.

Why Iran Is Holding Out for the American Midterms

The show’s cohost added the piece Pfaff called absolutely true: part of Iran’s eschatology now runs through the U.S. midterms. The biggest thing in the world for Iran — and for anyone in the world who hates America — is for Democrats to win the midterms, and there are likely forces around the world in the ear of the Iranians telling them to hold out and cause more damage because it helps Democrats.

Pfaff picked it up from there. There are a lot of people and a lot of countries around the world that want the United States destroyed, he said, and they have that passion and are seeking to do whatever they can. That is why so many of them are cheering on a terrorist regime, which he called insane and crazy. When Rush said he has never understood why anyone would help people who eventually want to see their death, the cohost answered that it is because they are going to help Democrats win in America — having Democrats in power does not just mean winning in sociological ways, it means money. Pfaff added the rest: it also means the ability to control what happens inside the United States. Our analysis of whether Republicans can hold Congress in the 2026 midterms lays out the domestic side of the same fight.

Mark Carney China Ties and the RCMP’s Undisclosed MOU

Pfaff explained why he keeps pushing on Canada. He credited Ezra Levant and Rebel News for the reporting, saying everyone needs to follow them and that Levant laid it out on Glenn Beck’s show and a couple of other places. Pfaff said he had been making the same argument in other interviews earlier in the week before he heard Levant’s version. The claim is straightforward: Prime Minister Mark Carney is working to build a strong relationship with China, and has called for one in his meetings with Xi Jinping in recent years.

Then came the detail Pfaff said most people do not know:

“the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have an MOU with the Chinese government to in effect be Chinese police stations”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

What makes this more than a Canadian domestic dispute, in Pfaff’s telling, is geography. This is really serious, he said, because of where the harm would land:

“the one thing that China can do to cause us the most harm is to get a foothold on the North American continent. And Mark Carney’s paving the path for that.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

It also loops back to the sanctions question he started with. When Pfaff warned that other countries could retaliate against the United States, Carney was the name he reached for first — a leader he described as Chinese-loving and Chinese-pursuing, and one who he believes is setting the stage for other countries to take similar action against America.

Milley, Trudeau, and Admiration for Beijing

Pfaff argued that the pull toward Beijing is not confined to Ottawa. There are many people in the federal government, he said — and we know this — who have been strongly connected to China in what he called treasonous fashion. The example he expects most people to remember is General Milley as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calling his counterpart in China while Trump was still president to say the United States would take care of the Trump situation and that his Chinese peer should not worry about it. That, Pfaff said, is just the tip of the iceberg.

Back in Canada, he pointed to Justin Trudeau, who as prime minister said he admired what China was doing and wished Canada could duplicate it. The kind of control the Chinese state holds over its own economy and government is, in Pfaff’s description, the globalist ideal — the kind of control over economies and governments that globalists want.

The RNC Convention in Dallas — and a Republican Congress That Won’t Help

Rush turned to the Republican National Committee convention in Dallas. The Conservative Caucus will be there with a suite on what is called the Platinum level, broadcasting from the floor and doing video and interviews. Pfaff was candid that it is not cheap and that the Caucus is doing it anyway, because of what he believes is at stake in the message.

His reasoning was less about the convention than about who is left to carry the argument. Pfaff said he and Rush have had their disagreements on this or that one thing over the years, but that Trump has done so much to advance an American agenda that restores the country to the greatness it can provide. Then the harder half:

“Donald Trump is literally doing in the federal government what needs to be done to reduce its hold, its stranglehold on Americans, and the Republican Congress has done very little to try to help him.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

It has not been perfect, he added, and there are things that could have been done better — but Republicans will not carry the message of the good things that have happened, so the president has to carry it himself. That is part of why the Caucus is spending to be in the room.

On the convention itself, Pfaff had just been on the phone with one of the organizers while planning the Caucus suite, and he came away impressed. They are throwing together something that in presidential years literally takes a year to do, sometimes up to two years of planning, strategizing, and organizing; they are under the gun, and while it has not been perfect, they are getting it done. The timing, he said, is right: people start paying attention to an election past Labor Day, and this lands right after Labor Day weekend. Rush noted that this convention is more open than a presidential-year convention, where only delegates and certain people can attend — regular Joes can show up and go. Pfaff did not know whether it had sold out and suspected it probably had, but told listeners to get on the RNC website and find out, because he expects a fabulous event. Asked where people can find his work, he pointed them to theconservativecaucus.com.

Key Takeaways

1. Sanctions, not more kinetic action – Pfaff said he does not know the mechanisms well enough but expects the Iran sanctions to be extensive, and he would rather stop kinetic action and finish the confrontation with instruments like these.
2. The win is Iran’s lost reach – Iran is not a big country and cannot project power, even economically, but it has swung far above its average in the harm it has caused. Sanctions take away its ability to keep doing it.
3. The risk is third-country retaliation – Sanctions expose other countries to retaliation, and Pfaff said Mark Carney is already setting the stage for other governments to take similar action against the United States.
4. The RCMP’s MOU with Beijing – Pfaff said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese government to in effect operate as Chinese police stations, and because it is not a treaty, Carney refuses to disclose its construct.
5. A Chinese foothold in North America is the real threat – The single most harmful thing China can do to the United States, Pfaff said, is get a foothold on the North American continent — and Carney is paving the path for it.
6. Congress is the weak link, and TCC is going to Dallas – Trump is doing what needs to be done to reduce the federal government’s stranglehold on Americans while the Republican Congress has done very little to help, so the Caucus will broadcast from a Platinum-level suite at the RNC convention right after Labor Day.

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About The Conservative Caucus:
The Conservative Caucus is a grassroots public policy action organization, formed in 1974. Headed by President Jim Pfaff, the Caucus is committed to advancing free enterprise, limited government, and traditional values.

Originally broadcast Aug 25, 2026 on KLZ 560’s Rush to Reason with John Rush.