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Jan. 25, 2025 - Bannon's War Room
59:45
WarRoom Battleground EP 694: President Trump Speaks With Newsom Continued
Participants
Main voices
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steve bannon
36:35
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Speaker Time Text
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
Continue on, Amanda.
We've got Air Force One.
We have Amanda Head.
That's the shot I want right there.
Thanks, guys.
Not that hard.
Amanda Head, continue on, ma'am.
unidentified
Sure.
Yeah.
So as far as what you're seeing visually, what President Trump is also going to observe.
Is the devastating nature of failed policies in California.
Steve, you have lived here plenty of times throughout your life.
And the ingenuity that exists in California, the way that this state and this city retrofits for earthquakes with coils and ball bearings retrofitted under buildings that are the size of smart cards, with these foundation isolators that shift with the earth.
We have so much ingenuity in this state, even with respect to rock slides, these gabion nets that they place on the side.
And yet something as simple as retaining water, something that is a natural resource that is right over there in the ocean.
Look, I understand that you can't put out fires traditionally, systematically with ocean water because of concerns about corrosion, but I'm pretty sure that someone would rather have the materials of their home corroding than they would to have it burned to ashes.
So I have a feeling that President Trump is going to have plenty to say and plenty of questions to ask of Mayor Karen Bass, who is supposedly going to be here, and also Governor Gavin Newsom.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
So, let me ask you, the tone, because this is the most liberal, one of the biggest progressive cities in the world, the part you're in right now is one of the progressive enclaves.
I know so many friends and folks I know from business and from Goldman Sachs and Harvard that are up there.
They're furious right now.
They're rethinking like Bill Maher is their political beliefs because just the incompetence.
Give us a feel for what's happened in the last couple weeks since the fire has ended.
unidentified
Yeah, you know, Steve, when you are a progressive Democrat and you can afford to care about social issues...
And environmental issues, then it makes it kind of easy to slide through life.
But when that ideology comes crashing to the ground and is met with the reality of everything you own being burned to ashes, then, of course, you're going to start rethinking things.
And just anecdotally, I live on the other side of L.A. I live in Burbank, but again, a very liberal area.
And there are plenty of people in that area as well, in all of these liberal enclaves across Southern California who are saying to themselves, if this happened this time and it happened four years ago, Amanda, can I do the split screen with the feed with the plane coming in?
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
It's not up?
Okay, fine.
Let's see if we can get that back up as soon as possible.
What are people saying the cause of this fire is right now?
I've heard homeless.
I've heard power lines.
I've heard there's no lightning.
I mean, as you read the LA Times every day and see the local news, where do we stand with people actually getting to the bottom of what caused it?
unidentified
You know, it depends who you're talking to.
When it comes to the news media, there seems to be an element of recognition that much of this has been manmade.
Obviously, anything that was manmade or nature made.
Was, you know, exacerbated by the initial winds that took place during those first three or four days.
But Steve, I gotta tell you, in places like the Hollywood Hills, where the Runyon Fire broke out, thankfully that one has been put out, there aren't power lines there.
And you look at, again, the sporadic nature of some of these fires, the Hearst Fire, some of the ones that are up northwest of Los Angeles, now in Castaic, you just have to wonder if now we're having a copycat scenario of arson.
Honestly, I would not be surprised if we found out a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now, sometimes it takes even longer for this information to come out.
But it wouldn't surprise me at all if we found out that there were some crazy environmentalists out there who were trying to force change in this city.
Because they'll certainly do it with anything else.
They'll block roads.
They will pour gasoline on paintings.
They'll do whatever it takes.
And it would not surprise me if we found out that they were willing to sacrifice an entire city, an entire area like Pacific Palisades, to make their point known in the state of California.
The unfortunate thing is that a lot of people in California are waking up to the fact that it is because of those precise policies that those people are pushing for that is the reason they're in this situation to begin with.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
I mean, isn't that, I think, homelessness, the homelessness also, but isn't the reason President Trump's going to have these conversations today is policies that were the predicate for this, but also, are people asking, one thing that was shocked to me, because there's a great little fire station right there in the Palisades, I know all throughout West L.A., where were the firemen?
Was it an organizational issue?
Were they given a command not to go?
And then President Trump, his number one question is going to be the water.
In North Carolina today.
He made a big deal about that leaving the White House.
He made another big deal about it twice in North Carolina.
Gavin Newsom or somebody better be there for an answer.
Maybe not a definitive answer, but it better not be like it's the first time anybody asks a question because Trump will be up in your grill on this.
He is obsessed by this issue.
Where is the media?
What are people in L.A. talking about?
unidentified
Did that freeze right there?
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
I think we froze.
Yeah, we just lost.
So let's get back.
We're going to get Amanda back up.
And if we can get...
We don't have LAX yet.
There's no feed?
Okay.
We're working on it, or is the feed working on it?
Okay, it's our feed?
People know this is...
Oh, man.
I love directing as we go about it.
Okay, Stephen came in.
Let's do a reset.
The President of the United States has landed.
He's in LAX. Got in, I think, about an hour.
Supposed to be there about 1 or 2 o'clock.
Got there about 3 o'clock.
I think he was an hour late in North Carolina.
I'm sure the headwinds.
There we go.
Let's cut right to this where President Trump's going to come out.
Let's cut, please.
There we go, boys.
That's the door right there.
The President's going to come out.
That's the front of Air Force One.
President and First Lady Melania Trump will be out momentarily.
Let's get a full shot at that.
People need to see me.
Seen enough of me.
Newsom's down the front.
There we go.
We're going to go back to directing school here.
People don't need to see me.
Seen enough of me.
Full shot right there.
That's the front door of Air Force One.
President will be out on the tarmac.
I've just been told by my crack production team that the governor of California, Newsom...
We'll be there.
This will be quite interesting of President Trump and Newsom.
Remember, the last time I think they were together was the Paradise Fire.
In the Paradise Fire, President Trump, and correct me if I'm wrong, crack production team who is actually from L.A., the President Newsom had not words, but the President was pretty adamant about, you've got to take care of this underbrush.
Why are we not having controlled burns?
Remember the time the President was saying, hey, we've got to have controlled burns.
The environmentalists have a whole different theory of that.
Josh Pettit, the golf course architect, was on here two weeks ago.
He really laid out the interconnective tissue of all these coastal commissions, all these environmental commissions.
The president is quite obsessed with the smell and the water.
We've got a second.
Let's go back to Amanda.
Do we have Amanda head up?
If we got her, let's bring her back up.
I have a question.
If not, we'll just watch the president.
Just split screen with Amanda.
Not full screen.
Just split screen.
Thank you.
That's perfect.
There we go, boys.
Amanda had the question about water.
President Trump's going to come off that ramp.
He's going to walk down those stairs.
The governor of California is there.
He's going to be up and he's going to ask a question.
Where the hell was the water?
What's going to be Newsom's response, ma'am?
unidentified
Yeah, the problem, and this is the problem with practically every defunct policy here in California, Steve, as you know, is that many of the problems here, Democrat politicians, especially Gavin Newsom, they don't actually see as a problem.
And that's the biggest issue here.
If you don't see something as a problem, you have no impetus to actually fix it.
So it's going to be an interesting conversation between those two men.
I also wonder if Gavin Newsom is aware that some of his top donors in the state of California have been to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President Trump.
I'm not going to out him because I know he does still have a relationship with Gavin Newsom.
But there are changemakers and problem solvers in the state of California who, despite their Democrat leanings, are ready to come to the table and find solutions.
And they're doing that with Donald Trump and not Gavin Newsom.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
Amanda, this brings up the point of, I don't know the technicalities of it, but the recall effort for Mayor Bass, the recall effort for Newsom, I think is technically already underway, haven't they formed committees and people made announcements and they're starting to try to raise money?
unidentified
Yeah, of course, in California, and especially since we've had a few recalls, they have made the process a little bit harder, but it first starts with the petition.
You have to get a certain amount of signatures depending on the level of that office, if it's a local or a state-level office.
You've got to get the signatures on a petition to actually roll into a recall situation.
I don't know if it's going to make it that far with Mayor Karen Bass because I know people are angry, but I'm not completely sure that people have connected the dots yet between Karen Bass.
Amanda, here we go.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
The President of the United States and Melania Trump, the First Lady, are coming down full shot.
Perfect.
Look at that.
They're coming down the ramp now to meet the dignitaries including Governor Newsom at Los Angeles International Airport.
unidentified
Look at that right there.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
President Trump, very magnanimous, pulls Newsom close to him.
Looks like they're having some kind words.
Empathetic.
Newsom, who is not quiet about the fact that he's going to be running in 2028. First Lady Melania Trump.
There's the president coming over.
I think the president's going to say a few words.
Let's go to the tarmac of Los Angeles.
International Airport LAX, the President, Governor Newsom, the First Lady, approaching the microphones.
unidentified
So we just left North Carolina a little while ago.
We have that in very good shape.
We have the congressman in charge and Michael Watley, and we're going to do a lot of work.
We have the Army Corps of Engineers working as they are here.
And I think you're going to see some very big progress.
They left them high and dry.
And now we're going to be taking a little tour with some of the people from the area.
I appreciate the governor coming out and meeting me, Devin, very much.
And we'll be talking a little bit.
We want to get it fixed.
We want to get the problem fixed.
And there'll be some ways.
It's like you got hit by a bomb, right?
Yeah.
Like you got hit by a bomb.
Would you like to say something?
Most importantly, thank you for being here.
It means a great deal to all of us.
Not just the folks in Palisades, the folks in Altadena that were devastated.
We're going to need your support.
We're going to need your help.
You were there for us during COVID. I don't forget that.
And I have all the expectations that we'll be able to work together to get this speedy recovery.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
We will.
unidentified
We've got to get it done.
Tremendous numbers of lives have been affected.
A lot of real estate's been affected.
Nobody's ever probably seen anything like this.
You can almost say since the Second World War, when you think of it.
I mean, nothing like this has happened.
And we're going to get it fixed.
So we'll get it permanently fixed so it can't happen again.
That, again, we'll be talking a little bit later, and we're going to work out, okay?
I appreciate it, Mr. President.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. President, both of you have disagreed a lot over the past week over what has happened in this state.
How do you plan to put your differences aside?
We've got to get it finished.
We're looking to get something completed, and the way you get it completed is to work together.
He's the governor of the state, and we're going to get it completed.
They're going to need a lot of federal help.
Unless you don't need any, we should be okay.
We're going to need a lot of federal help.
So, we're going to take care of things, okay?
I have all the confidence the world will work that out.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I guess some of you are coming with us and some of you not.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
I'll see you.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
There's the governor and the president of the United States, the first lady, very friendly, said we're going to work it out.
President Trump being magnanimous.
They're going over to that Marine helicopter.
I'm sure it's from the Tustin.
I think it's from Tustin.
I think still Tustin's got the Marine Corps base.
I don't know if it's totally been shut down, the airbase there.
That's one of the special helicopters just for the commander-in-chief.
The governor is going to fly on the helicopter with...
Is that the pool feed or our feed?
The pool feed stick on the helicopter pool feed.
I'm going to start directing the pool here in a minute, too.
The Real America's Voice guys get off the hook, so I start screaming at somebody else.
Right there is Air Force One.
You see the Marine helicopter.
Let's watch this thing take off.
Not get too crazy.
I think the news is that the president is a leader of all people.
He doesn't represent MAGA. He doesn't represent the Republican Party.
He doesn't represent conservatives or the populist nationalist movement.
He's the president of the United States for everybody.
And man, is he stepping into this role.
Okay, we can go ahead and cut that.
There has to be another shot of that.
Whatever the shot is, let's pick it up.
Okay, guys, I know there's another shot of that, of the helicopter.
Let's go ahead and do it.
Amanda Head, the president is heading to you.
We're going to go back to his shot in a minute.
Talk to me about what he's going to see.
He and Governor Newsom had very kind words for each other, going to work together, going to need federal funds.
Tell me what the president's going to...
What should you anticipate coming out there, Amanda?
unidentified
Yeah, Steve, I have to say, just an initial observation.
Obviously, I'm used to seeing Governor Gavin Newsom gives...
And he is always very slick.
I gotta say, he seemed a little bit nervous there.
And I don't know if that was the exposure of having President Trump here or the...
Possibility that there might be a contentious conversation to come, but it certainly seemed congenial.
And look, I mean, as you said, this is a president of all people.
This is a president who, Steve, he was officially in office four days ago.
He placed his hand on the Bible four days ago, and he has been practically in constant conversation with the American people early in the morning until late at night, signing executive orders, doing press conferences, speaking to the media everywhere across the White House grounds.
This guy has been in constant conversation.
It's the same thing with his executive orders.
There is a common theme and a common thread with all of them.
And that is the common sense element, Steve.
It's not an executive order for Democrats.
It's not an executive order for Republicans.
These are executive orders and policies that President Trump is trying to encourage deep blue states like California to enact that just makes sense.
Understand that there are environmentalists out there and they care about the smelts and they care about this and that in California.
That's fine.
You can still care about that.
But the smelts are not more important than the people of California and the homes that they live in, the cars that they drive, the family members they live with, and the school.
That is not more important than these people's livelihood and the policies that have been enacted here.
That have had a stranglehold on the state for the better part of two decades, as far as environmentally at least, that's what's killing the population here.
And there is a reason that you cannot find U-Haul trucks in California to go out of state.
And, you know, you can find all the ones in the world if you need to actually come to California.
It's the reason they've lost a congressional seat.
People are leaving the state because of the policies.
Look, Democrats have ruled the state for a very long time, but the outflow of the population of California has really only The president,
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
do we have a shot of the Marine helicopter leaving?
That's actually...
Mathematically impossible, but I'll live with that.
Let's do the split screen.
I think he's going to go, just like in the evolution of these events.
Let's go right there.
Do a split screen with Amanda.
You can drop me, please.
Standing order.
You don't need to do a box with me.
Dang, there we go, guys.
Eventually, take a number two pencil and write that down.
Maybe we'll make it stick.
Right there.
Here's what happens to the President of Rice.
President of Rice met by officials.
I think it's quite important.
The only official there to meet the president of the United States was the governor, Gavin Newsom.
No mayor, no other officials.
The first lady, Melania, came down.
The president came down the ramp, came down the steps.
The governor was there.
They looked like they had a very pleasant chat.
They walked over to the microphones.
The president didn't take the number of questions.
He normally does.
He said some very kind things.
We're going to work together.
The governor was very, Amanda, the governor was very open to say, we really appreciate the help.
We need your help.
They had a few moments, kind of light moments.
The president just answered one question and said, we are going to work together.
The first lady was actually quiet.
They then walked.
No staff.
No even military escorts.
The president and the governor walked to the Marine helicopter with the First Lady.
It appeared to me that they're the only ones that got on board.
Now, what happens the next of these, you go to these roundtables.
You go to a briefing with more local officials.
Amanda, we have a split screen right now.
It looks like a roundtable being set up right now for the president and the governor, Newsom, to attend.
And then the president's going to come out.
Amanda, near where you are, and actually going to tour the Palisades.
What will he hear in this roundtable?
What has been going on, and what's the feedback in Southern California about what caused this, where people are, the types of response that people have?
What is he going to hear in this roundtable, Amanda Head?
unidentified
You know, Steve, I consider myself to be someone who's pretty good at messaging and can spin pretty much anything.
And I don't know if that's something that I should admit to, but I don't know how you spin this.
I don't know how, as Gavin Newsom or Karen Bass or any of the folks who have succumbed to the radical environmental policies here, explain it.
I don't know if they come at the president from the angle of, hey, we made mistakes and now we want to fix it.
Or we don't even consider these things mistakes.
This is just an occupational hazard of caring about the environment.
But Steve, they are still smacked in the face with reality that in a state that has instituted, pre-instituted green policies before practically any other state in the country.
So we are further down the road of green energy and green policies in this state.
Policies that they claim affects climate change, which I would argue that there is nothing you can do to affect it.
But this is...
It's a state that claims that they are the most progressive in this area, and yet they couldn't prevent this.
And there are a lot of natural disasters out there that you can't stop.
You couldn't have stopped the tornadoes or Hurricane Helene running through Georgia and North Carolina and Kentucky and Tennessee.
You can't stop that.
But what you can prevent is the entire destruction of a community.
And you do that with something that the good Lord also gave us in addition to fire, and that is water.
And there happens to be a lot of that in this state.
I know people think of California.
California is sunny.
California, a lot of desert regions.
But there's plenty of water.
There are plenty of retention ponds that sat empty.
There are plenty of water towers that sat empty.
And it's because of the failed policies.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
So you have these policies, these environmental policies.
I understand that.
But also the organization.
Why went the fire department there?
Why did the fire hydrants not have water?
Why did it seem like there was no, for the first couple of nights of looting, there were not enough police?
Just the organization.
Does that come from woke?
In DEI, that they don't have the right leadership.
They have the right leadership, but they're just not organized.
Not what set up the potential for this fire and the spread, but the ability.
People in the Palisades still complain to me.
They were shocked.
There was never any firemen there.
And people know that the firemen in L.A. County and L.A. City are among some of the bravest and really supposed to be the best in the nation.
What happened?
And what are they going to hear?
Like you said, you're great at spinning, but you say this is not spinnable.
What's the president going to hear today?
unidentified
You know, Steve, it's not unlike...
A business or an organization that, because of the woke nature of modern economy, has started focusing on the wrong things.
When you have a city council, when you have fire departments, when you have the Capitol in Sacramento that is placing more importance on DEI measures than they are the practicality of making sure we have the resources to fight things like firefighters, then things are going to have to get sacrificed.
And Kristen Crowley, the fire chief, to her credit, I know that they say, oh, we hired a female.
Great.
Rah, rah, rah.
You know, she is the one who, beginning of December, I think it was December 5th, sent out a memo and said, hey, guys, we need help.
We don't have the resources in place.
And lo and behold, look what happened.
And I know that there is plenty of blame to go around, but she sure seems to be emphasizing the fact that she asked for the resources and she was either met with silence or a closed door.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
Amanda, you know, Bill Maher, and I think we'll try to play that, if not tomorrow, I'll try to get that in next week.
Bill Maher went off on, I think on his podcast, oh no, it was on the show the other night, last Friday night.
You pay 13% state taxes here at the top bracket, and that didn't include L.A. and all the fees, all the local sales taxes.
I mean, L.A., I believe, right there, you're seeing from the helicopter, that's a beautiful shot.
Let's stick with that.
Love that shot.
Leaving LAX on the Marine helicopter.
Heading towards you, Amanda.
What are people going to say, Amanda, about the taxes and just the burden on things that have led to this absolute disaster?
Amanda's doing some...
She's calling in the early shots on the...
So, Amanda, tell me about...
What are people feeling that they're overpaid, they're overregulated, yet they don't even have the basic services to keep them free?
Right there is coming up.
That's a drone in the back, I think.
No, that's the...
Oh, no, it's the Marine Corps.
That's the plane that can land on the helicopter, does a helicopter, and also land on the LPHs and on the ANFIPs.
Pretty extraordinary.
Amanda, what do people think about the number of taxes they pay, the amount of tax they pay?
unidentified
Yeah, I think that overhead shot you were getting was right near us.
You know, there's been a lot of complaints about What you pay for in this state and what you get, or rather, what you don't get.
And I know that there's a lot of focus on insurance companies.
This has been a huge element of this and a big part of the devastation that people are experiencing in anticipation of having claims denied.
But you have to think, an insurance business is a business.
You can't expect them to just eat the cost.
And when you have insurance regulations, insurance regulators in this state who are telling these insurance companies that they can't raise their rates a certain amount for an area of this country that has such a heightened concern for forest buyers, if you're telling them that they can't raise their rates for that, insurance regulators in this state who are telling these insurance companies that they can't raise their rates a certain So these people, not only did they not get support from their state government, who they pay these exorbitant taxes to, but they also aren't getting the support from their insurance companies.
And there's plenty of demonization to go towards insurance companies, but this is not actually the folks to blame in this are the people who are reaping in millions and billions of dollars from the people of California and getting nothing in return.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
Amanda, hand her one second.
That's the Osprey.
Quite controversial.
That's what I thought.
Boy, when I saw that, I'd hope the President was not in that one.
That's a very controversial aircraft.
That's the President's Marine Corps helicopter right to the right as you're watching on the screen.
As what we saw, I believe it's just Governor Newsom, the First Lady, and the President in that, and those are the best Marine Corps helicopter pilots, probably best in the world.
My kid brother, who was a Navy helicopter pilot, might question that, but these are really true.
Right to the left of that is that very controversial, the Osprey was the plane that can actually take off vertical lift and then become actually a plane and both a helicopter.
Very controversial.
Another helicopter right up here.
You're seeing a shot from the back.
Now, what you're coming up right there, you see LAX in the background.
To the right is the Pacific Ocean, and what you're going over is Santa Monica.
This is kind of the north part of the bay, the Santa Monica Bay.
The south part of that's called South Bay.
That would be the South Bay beaches beyond.
South of Marina del Rey, right down there, that mountain, that's Palos Verdes.
And so you have Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach all together.
It's Palos Verdes down there.
There's the helicopter.
Looks like that's the one carrying the president and the governor.
They're helicoptering in.
It's about 20 minutes, 30 minutes with light or no traffic from LAX to the Palisades.
On a Friday afternoon, it might take you two hours.
The President's helicoptering in is daylight.
We're about 3.30.
The President's got a couple hours of daylight, and I know he's going to want to see as much as possible.
Amanda had shown you, and Ben, the photographer, and for people, what I love is people that are out there and familiar with it have really not seen that kind of footage just walking around the neighborhoods.
The neighborhoods have been very restrictive.
They let some media in.
Right there, they're coming across.
That's Santa Monica, that tall building.
There you see the South Bay.
The tall building to your right is the highest building right on Ocean Boulevard or Ocean Avenue right there in Santa Monica.
And here we come in.
You have an Osprey, which is a Marine Corps plane, both an aircraft and a helicopter combined.
You have the Marine helicopter to the left.
There's another Marine Helicopters to the right.
They're both coming in.
Now they're coming over Santa Monica.
You'll be over Pacific Palisades in a moment.
It's Palisades right next to it.
I believe I've got a bet with my young producer here who's also L.A.-based.
I think probably the only place they could land is down by Pali High, which left of Pali High, unless he's betting on Sunset Boulevard or Snuts Boulevard.
I guess it's Sunset, just called Sunset at that part of town.
Right before it goes to the ocean.
The president will be landing in a moment.
There will be a roundtable.
Amanda Head, back there, I think you're looking at, I think that's Los Angeles Country Club where the U.S. Open was played, right?
Right back there towards Wilshire.
Magnificent view.
The president's getting a great view of Los Angeles today.
Another beautiful, you know, Amanda dropped.
We'll try to get Amanda back up in a second.
It's going to be kind of tough as more pool coverage comes up there.
Amanda's very well positioned.
I want to thank Ben, the photographer.
He just put the camera on his shoulder and hoofed it in and just walked it in as he had to.
I think the president has been very smart to take the helicopter today and not try to fight the traffic, even when they clear it all out.
Governor Newsom, I'm sure he and the president are exchanging pleasantries right now.
They are very, I think...
Tremendous on the tarmac.
President Trump, very magnanimous.
As President Trump's really stepping into the role, our shot there is freezing.
We'll get that rebooted in a second.
These shots have been fantastic.
This is all the pull feed from the major networks.
You remember this morning we had our own camera.
We had Brian Glenn.
There we go, right there.
We're at the...
That's the location where they're going to have the...
The roundtable, you see these roundtables are, you know, you try to do as many things that kind of have an order or functionality to it so you can do it and replicate it over and over again.
And clearly you do.
You put different people there.
Normally you have local authorities.
The president can meet them, get a briefing, hear what they want.
I don't think the president will stay there that long given that it's 3.30 in the afternoon.
He's only got a couple hours of daylight.
I would strongly recommend, if I was Governor Newsom and the others, to give the president as much time as possible to just walk around and see the Palisades.
The only way to really understand the devastation, I think, is to actually go there.
The president's very familiar with the Pacific Palisades.
I know he has friends up there.
He has a lot of friends in L.A. He owns a home in Beverly Hills.
We've had a number of fundraisers there over the years.
His president hasn't spent a lot of time there, given the fact he's had commitments, both media and otherwise, and been running and or the president for the last 10 years or so.
Of course, he has the magnificent Mar-a-Lago, which is a historic landmark that he spends so much time in in South Florida.
But like I said, he does have a home in L.A., and he's obviously so many friends and so many acquaintances.
So does Melania.
The first lady has been with him today.
I think it's...
Very symbolic of her commitment to the American people for her to make this trip today.
Because Melania does not go on a lot of trips.
She goes to some of the rallies, but she's very selective of where she goes.
I think it's very symbolic today that she's there.
Do we have Amanda?
Is Amanda Head back up?
Yeah, let's go back to Amanda Head.
Amanda, what do you think the impact of Melania, the first ladies out there?
You know, she's all about home and family.
She has many friends in the Palisades and in LA overall.
What's the impact going to be on her?
unidentified
You know, she has such a calming effect everywhere she is.
She's so gracious, and she has such a wonderful, compassionate side of her that I think, you know, when President Trump comes to a disaster area, it is so desperately needed.
Because President Trump, despite the fact that he, you know, has $10,000 suits, he's also the guy who has a symbolic blue collar, who rolls up his sleeves, and he goes into the areas like North Carolina to talk to the people to survey the damage.
And she's right there along with him.
It is such a wonderful thing to see in a First Lady, and yet she It also has that soft side that is so desperately needed for people who have lost everything.
And Steve, I've gotta say, I imagine that there are gonna be people there who didn't vote for Donald Trump.
And Donald Trump is going to tell them that's perfectly fine.
But for the people who didn't vote for him, I imagine that they are seeing the coordination of President Trump, hopefully with Gavin Newsom and other state leaders who can affect change here.
They are seeing the communication of President Trump to the American people, this ongoing dialogue of problem-solving that President Trump is doing from the Oval Office and right now doing from Southern California.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
Right there to your right, you just saw the beautiful Pacific Ocean there of Santa Monica Bay.
And most days, you know, 300 days of the year, it's like this.
Beautiful, moderate temperatures.
A Mediterranean has a Mediterranean feel to it, a Mediterranean climate.
The bay is absolutely magnificent, always very calm.
You see this today, it looks like light winds.
The beaches right there of Santa Monica, magnificent beaches of Santa Monica.
Right in for the Palisades.
I think actually they may be doing a little touring.
I think they're taking President Trump around so he can see some of the detail from the air.
And then he will be in Palisades in a moment or two, get a briefing, and then go out and actually see it with Governor Newsom.
A very calming effect.
Amanda Head is correct.
And I tell you, he went out of his way to be calming.
No controversy.
President Trump obviously has very strong opinions and ideas.
Concepts about the water situation.
There's one of the helicopters right there.
I think that's the one that the president's in.
You have an Osprey.
You have two marine helicopters.
And, of course, this plane in the front that we're getting the pool feed out of.
It's just really fantastic.
They're flying over Santa Monica from LAX. And they will be in the Palisades area in a moment.
This horrible devastation that Amanda Head and her photographer...
Walked us through over the last hour just absolutely stunning of what's happened.
I know it's going to have a big impact on the First Lady because you can see someone who's such a strong believer in family and in hearth and the nurturing nature of a home is going to be actually blown away when you see what's happening.
President Trump sat on the tarmac.
He hasn't seen destruction like that since the Second World War.
President Trump...
Really spends a lot of time.
My relationship with him is a lot about military history.
He's read a lot of military history.
He's watched a lot of documents on military history.
Right there, I think, are we on the...
That's the bluffs right towards the Pacific, I think, as we get a little bit farther down, close to the Pacific.
It gets a little hilly in this area, in the canyon area off of Malibu.
For those who haven't been there, when you're at Malibu, when you've gone just north of Santa Monica, the mountains come right down and these canyons come right down to the sea.
I mean, Malibu is just a small strip of land.
It's Pacific Coast Highway.
There's a little strip of stores and houses on the right as you go north and then the beach houses on the left.
All of those have burned down.
unidentified
Are they landing by the beach?
They're there.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
I don't know if they're landing.
I think he's taking a tour so he can see the destruction of Malibu.
I think they're taking the president around there so he can actually see the houses that were destroyed in Malibu.
Because the president is very familiar with the real estate there.
I think he has a lot of friends that have those houses.
And for all of us that have lived in Los Angeles to have that strip, you had some classic places.
My young charge producer here, the real end, one of the classics was burned to the ground.
Moon Shadows, one of the famous bars right there, right on thing, burned to the ground.
So many classic structures.
And they're really clapboard.
They're very beachy up there, all burned to the ground.
I think they're taking the president around.
I'm sure he wants to see that.
And Gavin Newsom, the governor, I'm sure, is giving him a tour.
And I can tell you right now, I'm sure the president's pretty gobsmacked.
When you see Malibu and you see that strip going all the way south of the colony and north of Santa Monica, kind of that classic stretch of what people think of as Malibu, right, from the TV series and from what you felt.
These are the houses that are right on the stilts.
Right there on the water, most of them with no beach, with stones underneath.
Virtually all those.
So for that one big, I don't want to call it monstrosity, but there's like a three-story building that sticks out, not beachy at all.
I think that's the only one that survived.
So there you see the Pacific.
That's a typical day in Southern California.
That is a typical Friday with a very calm breeze off the ocean and just beautiful Mediterranean temperatures.
Here it is in January, and it's the envy of the world.
But when you had these Santa Ana winds, you had an inferno.
When we opened the show with the woman newscaster driving north on the thing, and she said, this is like you're driving through hell.
That is that strip of land that President Trump just went over.
That's what it looks like.
I want to thank Real America's Voice for our coverage here.
With no commercial interruptions, the President of the United States is not going to get a chance to stay there that long.
He's just there for a couple hours.
I believe he is decamping.
He's going to go to Las Vegas tonight to stay in his hotel in Las Vegas.
Don't think he's staying in his house in Beverly Hills.
I think he's going to Las Vegas.
And then tomorrow, we'll do coverage all day about his rally, big rally.
Thank you for really a quite...
We were confident.
I know he was, but...
The rest of the media was shocked that he won Nevada, and particularly the Biggie did.
Amanda, can you hear, are they inbound to you?
Can you hear the incoming helicopters in Osprey?
unidentified
Absolutely.
So they...
Let me get my direction right.
They came from the east and flew right over us towards the ocean.
That's when I was wondering if they were going to land somewhere near.
That is Will Rogers State Beach, effectively.
And then they flew back over us, just a little south of us, but back in an eastward direction.
It seems like they are maybe doing some circles, just trying to make sure that they are able to see all of this area.
For those who don't live in California, Steve, as you were saying, we've got Malibu, North Santa Monica, Malibu, and then up to Zuma.
And I've heard from some folks that even as far north as Zuma, that there's still some destruction.
So it's horrible.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
Looks like they're landing right now.
And by the way, you say Will Rogers State Beach and Will Rogers Park, the famous 125-year-old Will Rogers house, which is absolutely magnificent.
Kind of the Old West meets California.
Burned to the ground.
The only thing left was the chimney.
As many of these houses, Amanda.
There we have the pool feed.
We're watching that right now.
In Pacific Palisades, the president has landed.
Amanda, they're going to go to a...
They're going to have...
Just keep that right there.
It's quite interesting.
They're going to go to a briefing.
What we call roundtables.
This is the normal evolution of these events where the president gets off.
He then meets more local officials, more people who are closer to whatever the problem is.
The president gets a short briefing.
He normally asks a couple of questions.
He gets a feel for things before he goes out in the field.
The same kind of structure of his visit this morning to North Carolina came off.
The tarmac, you meet some officials.
In that case, he met Watley, the chairman of the Republican National Committee.
He's from North Carolina.
He met Governor Stein, the Democrat that just won.
And he met some other officials.
Said a few words in the tarmac.
Goes to the roundtable.
Gets a further briefing.
Says some comments.
Takes some questions.
Makes some inquiries.
And then he goes out.
Saw that horrible destruction today in Swannanoa, North Carolina, outside of Asheville.
I know he was quite shocked about what he saw.
They're going up to the vehicles right now.
They will have a motorcade, Secret Service, and otherwise.
The pool feed is taking us up there right now.
The president's going to land here in a moment.
There you see the media.
What you have when you're in the White House staff, you have what's called a wrangler.
The media has got to be wrangled because, as Amanda knows, they're quite here.
Here comes the president of the United States on the Marine helicopter.
Those of you that are listening to this on podcast, please get the footage.
Very, very impressive.
The president's going to exit in a moment with the first lady in Governor Newsom of California.
I think maybe they had one or two staffers in there, but it looked like on the tarmac in LAX it was just them.
They were about to touch down.
People should know these are some of those experienced combat pilots in the World Marine Corps, the top.
My brother can tell you that Navy helicopter pilots and Marine Corps helicopter pilots are just incredible.
Let's listen in.
take the live feed of the audio.
unidentified
I believe that's that little park right there in the Palisades.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
There's a little I think that little park is with some ball diamonds over there.
That's where the kids play the Little League.
I think that's that.
Is that right there?
I don't think so.
Okay.
It can't be too far away.
He's going to be in the Palisades.
He's going to get the briefing, and then you see right there all the backup vehicles.
You have the medical vehicles.
You have the Secret Service.
You have the communication personnel.
The president's never far away.
They carry the football, what they call it.
The president's never far away from the nuclear codes, never far away from essentially a rolling military.
Command Center, particularly information and communication.
The White House Communication Office is the biggest part of the White House.
I think it has 2,000 or 3,000 people.
Massive operation to make sure that the President 24-7 is always connected, totally hooked in to whatever he needs to be Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Pacific Palisades, the President is touring.
It's about 3.30 out there, about 3.45 local.
Got a couple hours of...
The second helicopter might be the present.
I don't know if it's the back or not, but we've got two.
One is a...
unidentified
Here we're coming in right now.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
Just magnificent.
The precision of these Marine Corps pilots second to none.
From LAX, it's only a couple of minutes, but I think, I don't know, my kid brother can tell me, five minutes by helicopter, but the president took a Tory car.
You can see they did a tour over Malibu.
Don't think they're going to have a chance to go down there today on a Friday afternoon, but he took it from air, and it's still shocking.
As you saw in our footage earlier, where Amanda Head and our photographer is, still burned out hulks of cars.
I mean, it doesn't look like a lot of stuff.
It doesn't look like a lot of remediation.
I know there's some discussion about how that's all going to be done.
It's Will Rogers State Park right there, of course.
Will Rogers State Park is actually down the hill in Sunset.
You come up a rise, you go to Sunset.
I might know a lodge.
If he goes by car from there, we'll pass a very familiar, in the Bannon household, very familiar location.
The tragedy of Will Rogers State Park is Will Rogers had a magnificent home.
I think it was 125 years old.
Kind of had the best of the Old West in this just amazing, authentic structure burned to the ground.
Only thing remaining is the chimney.
That's one lost to history.
Many historic, people wouldn't think of history when you think of Los Angeles, but it's got a tremendous history to it.
I was reading the other day, so many historical structures in Altadena.
And in the Pacific Palisades have just been turned to ash.
Cannot be replaced.
The things that were lost in Will Rogers State Park is just amazing at Will Rogers' house.
Landing at Will Rogers State Park, this is right down.
They'll have a briefing there, it looks like, and then you get into a motorcade.
You'll come right up Sunset, and you're right in the Palisades.
I mean, it's right at the bottom of Sunset in the Palisades.
The President will have, you know, an hour or so of daylight, an hour and a half of daylight to be able to tour the Palisades if we continue on and keep quick time with this brief he's going to get at this roundtable.
You know, I'm really curious about how Ben, the photographer, and Amanda actually got into the Palisades as far as they got.
Because it's pretty cordoned off.
This whole area has essentially been condemned, and the president's going to be coming out in a moment.
There's part of the motorcade.
They'll take him.
The president decided not to go to Davos.
There was some talk early on of going to Davos in the first week so he could present to the globalists and really do the throwdown he did, but of course with the situation in California and because it came to his attention that In North Carolina, nothing had been done.
I think he actually went there in the pre-election.
He had a short visit.
There was a lot of concern those people wouldn't be able to vote, wouldn't be able to vote property, and that is Trump country.
But when the president understood that nothing had been done for his people, nothing had been done for these hardworking folks out in Appalachia, I know he made the first thing is that, hey, I'm going to North Carolina first, we're going to make a day of it.
It turns out they're going to make a weekend of it.
The President's going to be out.
There's the First Lady, the Governor, the President and the Governor still in a very engaged, I would say, in discussions.
Is that just me and my lying eyes?
Is Governor Newsom walking with a limp?
I can't tell.
Okay.
The president was very magnanimous when he first arrived.
He said, we're going to work together.
We're going to make this happen.
We're going to make it work.
He flew out with Governor Newsom, looked like, and looked like he had a very engaged conversation.
President, that's the secret service over there.
There's a press pool.
This is a standard stock, beautiful Friday afternoon in Los Angeles.
You think about it, when you sell those pictures of the Inferno, it all happened right around here.
Will Rogers State Park, Will Rogers' magnificent house.
Here we are right now.
Oh my lord, there's Mayor Bass.
Here we go.
Here we go, Mayor Bass.
Mayor Bass has been a big critic of the President of the United States.
There's Mayor Bass right there to the left.
So this ought to be quite interesting.
The President, look, he's...
So classy and such a good guy.
I tell people all the time, this guy's got a big heart.
Sometimes he comes off with a real bite, but President Trump's a people person.
He loves people.
You can see he comes out of the hotel industry.
He's magnanimous.
He's going to go to his hotel tonight, I think, in Vegas.
Beautiful hotel.
Before he got into media, from his father, the real estate business, he built some of the most magnificent buildings in New York.
Many of those are hotels.
Entertainment or leisure related.
He now has golf courses all over the world, some of the greatest golf courses in the world, including in Scotland, where he has courses that used to be on the Open Rota that should be on the Open Rota.
Turnberry, the classic Turnberry, the Duel in the Sun, he owns that.
They took it out of the Open Rota, one of the greatest courses in the world.
President Trump bought it basically pre-bankruptcy, turned it around.
That's his great love, but he's a people person.
He's been the concierge, you know, the business of like, you know, being a concierge for people coming in.
Magnanimous, some of the great resorts in the world.
Then in the media and entertainment business.
So he's a people person, big hearted.
And I think he saw today when he came to the tarmac, there was a lot of discussion whether it be confrontation or he couldn't have been.
More gracious.
He couldn't have been working with Newsom to say that we're going to work this out and we're going to figure this out together.
And we're there for you now that we got this.
This is the roundtable we're going to in the roundtable.
The mayor, Karen Bass, has been very critical of President Trump in the past.
She's there at the head of the table.
Looks like Newsom, the governor, will be on one side.
The president will be right there in the middle.
And then Mayor Bass to his right.
Screen left right now.
Amanda Head, the president's going to be there in a second from the motorcade.
Can I get Amanda a shirt thing?
Amanda, talk to me about, you've got this process.
Bass is going to be there.
And that may be even one notch more than Newsom.
The president's been pretty vocal about his thoughts about Mayor Bass.
Give me your thoughts.
unidentified
You know, the unfortunate thing about Mayor Karen Bass, and many of us witnessed this attitude from her when she was in Congress as well, I don't know if she feels like she has something to prove because she's a female in that mayoral seat in Los Angeles.
I imagine she's going to be...
Maybe a little bit more combative with President Trump after some initial niceties.
I think, of course, the same thing with Governor Newsom.
There are initial niceties, and then you have to get into the problem-solving portion of the conversation.
And that's when I think you're going to be faced with a pretty substantial amount of denial and maybe even doubling down on the part of the mayor and the governor.
And as we know, President Trump is not going to—he doesn't suffer fools well.
And when they are going to try to combat what he says are solutions for this state, they are going to say, well, you don't live here, you don't know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
They're going to have plenty of arguments that they're going to try to fly up against him, but we know President Trump is not going to stand for that.
So I hope that it is a light conversation as far as personalities, but I have a feeling that there might be some temper flaring, especially when...
It's highlighted in the conversation the deficit in policy and, frankly, progress for the state.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, that may be behind the scenes.
One thing he said in North Carolina today, they were getting him, are there any restrictions or constraints on federal aid?
And he says, listen, I just have two things.
I got to understand this water situation, and the water has to be cut on.
He's very specific about that.
The other is he says there's got to be voter ID, photo ID.
And this gets back to Rick Caruso.
There's a huge open controversy right now about how the votes were counted in LA.
You know this.
Just in November, Caruso.
Caruso would tell you today, I think he felt he won.
And there's this whole discussion about it being a sanctuary city, about being flooded with the illegal aliens, exactly who voted.
Caruso, I think, would tell you, he thinks the election was stolen from him.
He's going to be, I believe, a big part of this recall effort.
So talk to us about that.
When the president says, I've got two things.
One's the water we know about.
The other one, he says, it's got to be photo ID for voting.
What does that mean to people in Los Angeles like yourself?
unidentified
Yeah.
Depending on who you talk to in California, they will tell you that you do have to have an ID to vote in California.
And let me tell you from experience, that ain't true.
And Rick Caruso is very similar to Donald Trump in that, you know, he has a real estate empire.
He is a businessman.
And that was why I think he came very close to, if not beating, Karen Bass.
And I would agree that when you consider the voting dynamics, the lack of integrity in the state.
Yeah, I agree.
I think that Rick Caruso probably won.
And I will say that because Anecdotally speaking, just from what I could see in Los Angeles, I would say I saw maybe one Karen Bass sign for every four Rick Caruso signs.
And Rick Caruso is very Trumpian.
He ran as a Democrat, but in the past he has been a Republican, and I think that there were people out there who were Democrats who said, I don't care what his political leanings are, I would rather vote for him.
And I'm sure you all have seen the viral pictures of Rick Caruso's real estate, his commercial development in Pacific Palisades, that wasn't touched, because he knew intimately the defunct policies of this state with respect to protecting against fire, and he knew what would happen to his own structures if he didn't take preemptive measures.
He did.
And the people of California are going to have a decision to make when it comes to the mayoral leadership of Los Angeles.
Do you want someone like Rick Caruso, who, even though he didn't win the mayoral race and he wasn't able to save Los Angeles, he at least, in a microcosm, was able to save his own business?
And wouldn't that have been nice to have someone like that in place when all this happened?
And I know one of the arguments that Gavin Newsom is going to give, and it's because he's done it in the past already, he talks about opening up the spigots and how, oh, you can't get the water from North Carolina.
It's in Southern California.
Oh, really?
Well, that's interesting because when you consider all of the corruption of the water board and all surrounding it, they're somehow able to take water from the Central Valley that desperately needs it.
Steve, you know what the Central Valley looks like.
It's all agriculture.
It's citrus, it's almond, it's garlic, a lot of dairy land.
They're able to take the water that those folks need and poured it down to Southern California to the city, so why on earth can't they go a little bit further and move the water through the pipes down to Southern California?
It is absolutely doable, but again, Steve, I go back to what I was saying earlier.
You have to see it as a problem before you can find a solution.
And I don't think they see it as a problem.
Did I lose them?
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
ahead Amanda Head is going to be Stick With Us.
This is her, Just The News.
She's going to stick with us.
Brother Stinchcomb is going to pick up coverage at 7 o'clock.
His show, he's going to take it live.
I'll do a handoff if the president hasn't started talking.
If the president's already started talking, that we'll just do a transition.
We'll punch out here.
We've been able to sit in here for John Solomon in Just The News Hour.
His co-anchor, his co-hand, Amanda Head, she's in Pacific Palisades.
She's been there for the last couple hours surveying the destruction and damage.
The president is at Will Rogers State Park.
It's just a few minutes away.
It's at the bottom of Sunset, right below Pacific Palisades.
He's about to get briefed.
By Mayor Bass and other local officials about what actually happened here, what's the current state of play, Governor Newsom will be with the president, it appears.
They flew in together in the helicopter from LAX, just the two of them.
The president will get a briefing.
I'm sure he'll ask a few questions, get a few answers, and then probably talk to the press.
Amanda will stick with us.
Grant Stinchcomb of the Grant Stinchcomb Show.
We'll pick up, and Grant knows Southern California about as well as anybody.
Amanda, how long have you been living in Southern California?
You're from Auburn.
You were Miss Auburn.
unidentified
How did an Auburn girl end up in L.A.? I don't know how on earth you remember that, Steve, and I also don't know who told you I was Miss Auburn, but I'm going to have to find them.
It is true, but it's not something I talk about a whole lot.
I've been in L.A. for 18 years, and I've lived in all parts of the city.
This is definitely...
It formerly was one of the most beautiful areas of this city, and it's devastating to see.
But there has definitely been a downward slide and a downward shift from when in 2006 and the progressive policies that have taken over since then.
It's really heartbreaking to see.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
Okay, let's do the handover right now.
Grant Stinchfield is here.
Grant, you know Southern California as well as anybody.
What do you expect is going to happen in this briefing?
You're going to take it home from here.
Brother, give me your perspective as we start tonight's broadcast.
unidentified
Grant, what do you got for us?
So it's good to see you, Steve.
I'll tell you what, it's going to be really interesting to see the dynamics between Newsom and President Trump.
My guess is that they will be cordial to each other, maybe even look like they're friends while they're going through this, but we know that the two of these guys throw barbs at each other.
I mean, Gavin Newsom is the poster child for liberal, radical lunacy.
I think President Trump, though, is going to give California another lesson in conservatism about what it means to streamline the permitting process.
You talked about this in North Carolina.
Do you know, I do radio in L.A. in the mornings, and they're talking about 120 days on a normal situation just to get a permit to start building a house, 120 days.
There's no need for that.
You talk about the environmental regulations, Steve, in California that hold up the rebuilding of these properties.
So I think in the end, what you're going to see, Steve, is Californians saying, you know what?
A lot of this stuff that President Trump is talking about makes sense.
They're mad, and I can tell you, they are steaming mad with leadership, specifically in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County.
And as I say, when Joe Biden was in office, the fish rots from the head.
In California, the head is Gavin Newsom, and the fish rots there as well, Steve.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼
Grant, we're going to turn it over to you right now.
Grant Stinchfield, who has a big radio show in L.A. in the morning, has obviously the Real America's Voice show.
It's one of the top shows in the country.
Right now, you're sitting there.
President Trump is going to get briefed in a moment.
Grant, we're going to turn it over to you.
I want to thank Amanda Head.
Everybody, it's been a fantastic day.
Real America's Voice has made history here.
We're going to pass it over to the man.
Grant Stinchfield is going to take you in from here.
Steve and Kay Bannon, we'll see you tomorrow morning live at 10 a.m.
We'll have Zier and Seagal Chatta in Las Vegas live tomorrow morning in the pregame of the rally.
Grant, take it away, brother.
Love you.
Have a good show.
unidentified
Steve, it's great to see you.
I appreciate it.
And what a lead-in for us to have Steve Bannon.
Handing it off to us as we continue our coverage here of, yes, President Trump expected in California, and as soon as he's talking, we will take that live for you.
We'll make sure we cover his comments there.
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