Bannon's War Room - Episode 4617: Over 160 Missing In Texas; Trump's Tariffs

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July 9, 2025 - Bannon's War Room

54:46

Episode 4617: Over 160 Missing In Texas; Trump's Tariffs

Participants

Main voices

augustus doricko

12:07

greg abbot

06:22

steve bannon

17:12

Appearances

dave brat

01:06

joseph a lavorgna

03:45

phillip patrick

01:52

Clips

dustin burrows

00:48

w nim kidd

00:58

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Show episode speakers

Speaker	Time	Text
greg abbot ▲ ● ▼		I'm going to talk about two different things.
		The first part of your question, and that is an investigation.
		We know a special session is coming in about 10 days.
		That's where, I would say, where it begins.
		Kenley, those investigations will begin by both the House and Senate before we go into session.
		So, probably beginning later this week or the early part of next week, there'll be committees formed that are already kind of working on ideas about ways to address this.
		Second part of the question needs to be addressed.
		You ask, I'm going to use your words.
		Who's to blame?
		Know this.
		That's the word choice of losers.
		Let me explain one thing about Texas, and that is Texas, every square inch of our state, cares about football.
		You could be in Hunt, Texas, Huntsville, Texas, Houston, Texas, any size community that care about football.
		High school, Friday Night Lights, college football, or pro.
		And know this.
		Every football team makes mistakes.
		The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who's to blame.
		The championship teams are the ones that say, don't worry about it, man.
		We got this.
		We're going to make sure that we go score again that we're going to win this game.
		The way winners talk is not to point fingers.
		They talk about solutions.
		What Texas is all about is solutions.
		In fact, I want to read you something that I received last night that's worth emphasizing to put this in context.
unidentified		Thank you.
greg abbot ▲ ● ▼		Tragedy has come.
		That part is done.
		What we do now, who we are now, that's what the story is still being written.
		Let it be one of grace, of grit, of fierce love in the face of grief.
		Let it be the kind of story that proves that the Hill Country may flood, but it does not fail.
		Say what you will about Texas, but when the rivers rise, so do we.
		Not with blame, not with bitterness, but with boots on the ground, arms around strangers, and hearts wide open.
		That's the Texas I know, and that's the America that I believe in.
		What this person wrote is what I know is true for all Texas and what we will achieve every single day.
unidentified		What kind of legislation do you hope to see come from this special session?
dustin burrows ▲ ● ▼		You know, part of the legislative process is policy is not made in a vacuum.
		We have ideas.
		I've served on two investigatory committees out of the House before I was Speaker, both Uvalde and Panhandle Wildfires.
		There are things and things that we can talk about, but it is too early to commit to know the specifics until we actually talk to the members of the community and hear what they think.
		Talk to the experts in the field.
		Talk to the first responders.
		That's what legislative hearings are for.
		We are ready to get started.
		The legislators I talk to, the members of the House, and I know the Senate are very interested in finding solutions to not accept that we can't do better.
		But we will have those hearings.
		We will synthesize what we get and we will come up with legislation that I believe will make it to the governor's desk and make us a stronger, better, more resilient Texas.
greg abbot ▲ ● ▼		Governor, what do you say to these families that say these solutions may be a little too Well, so one thing that we're focused on is making sure that we deliver the right solutions.
		One thing the Speaker just said is worth emphasizing, and that is that for us to provide real solutions, we actually need to hear from the people who are the ones most affected.
		The ones most affected, they're dealing with the grievance of having lost a child or lost a business or otherwise have their lives turned upside down.
		They don't have the capability right now providing that information.
		We'll talk to local leaders, importantly, not just here, but across the state.
		And we want to make sure that we address what happened here.
		But at the same time, we want to make sure that we are able to implement measures that are going to be able to prevent loss in other regions going forward.
		So we have our work cut out for us.
		I know the members of the House and members of the Senate, I know we'll work and get some meaningful things done.
		So again, my focus isn't on trying to say, oh, you did wrong or you should have done better there.
		My job is to bring Texas and Texans together and make sure that we immediately start delivering on solutions.
		You talk about the heroic effort, and no one has seen the level of response as what Texas has provided over the past four days or so.
		And we continue to maintain that response here while also going to the state capitol and working on around-the-clock responses there to make sure that we do deliver real solutions for these people sitting right behind you.
		Sure.
		So your question is about what local officials knew, you'd have to ask them.
		Now, what the state was aware of, the state was aware that there was a possible serious flooding event days in advance, and we pre-positioned assets and resources and personnel.
		And remember, the flood began on Friday morning.
		We originally positioned those assets, resources, and personnel on Wednesday.
		Then when greater clarity was discerned on Thursday, we moved them closer, added, and made sure that we had adequate supply going into Friday.
		So we were ready with the resources on the ground to be able to quickly respond.
		Some people say, well, we responded so fast.
		One reason we did respond fast is because we had assets here already.
		That said, we didn't know the magnitude of the storm.
		We knew that there was a flash flood warning.
		And if you heard a flash flood warning, no one would know that that would be a 30-foot-high tsunami wall of water, I don't think.
		But all I can tell you is what we, the information we had, the state had, and that we acted on, was information that catalyzed us to begin putting assets resources in place two days before the event happened.
unidentified		We have time for two more votes.
		Yep.
		Thank you.
		I was a couple days ago, there was a vineyard, no one tested, it looked clear.
		I just, I was like, look, I'm posting, I'm going to pull this out and I'll post a video.
		I hope that was John and your vineyard.
		Within 10 minutes, we had 20 people in eight students.
		It was going crazy.
		That whole vineyard, over 100 acres, taking you there for three days.
		God bless all the people that showed up.
		We had people who are not certified probably condone and treat about 90% of the recovery up to see.
		We are so grateful for everyone that has been sick.
		But we were strong and we came together and all of a sudden we got infiltrated with visitors, we got infiltrated newspaper, and we were sold out with certifications because my only certification that I've chased every summer almost since 2017 that's taken quite someone I saw their clock.
		Yesterday I was driving up about 15 hours a week.
		I took three sources driving around my family.
		And I accepted the driving and then some lady sales walked out favorite guests right up to my stick.
		I took their nights.
		I asked what they were doing and they said, we went down there.
		They pretty much excited help me that they so helped me work several, several days.
		They completely wiped out.
		They would so appreciate you.
		I can say for myself, I know people who are covered.
		They help those families that now have answers because they were out there.
		They said, man, I'm ready.
		What do you want?
		I said, I got two plates.
		He started up to the steps.
		About five steps of us in the last one minute.
		He got word that there was a smell.
		He stopped.
		He spaced my text land.
		Completely my text land.
		It's basically ten feet from the feet.
		They went back and stuffed the night.
		I now need to back 46.
		Now I'm about to do it last night.
		So I took some volunteers coming up for two and a half hours last night.
		At 8 a.m. today, 82 morning.
		Myself, a 28 year old.
		Just got some constraints in my city.
		I don't need to get there.
		2005.
		I'm just pretty costume.
		I've been here with the monster bar.
		You got all the guys.
		We already had an ex-fibisher out there of three different ex-fibators.
		We already had about 15 skins.
		We had one thing like this.
		We were ready to go.
		We were working hard.
		Please do this.
		I had one person on the machine that had authorized their ex-fibers.
		We were ready to go.
		Oh, wait, anybody else?
		Can't miss it.
		We are just crew coming across the door and that's gross.
		Look at this 60-foot drop down.
		That degree is at maybe like a 60-degree angle.
		But it's all the way on the ground.
		We had it really.
		People working on it properly.
		They show up with property everywhere.
		Interveners, not going to say what they said.
		They said very well now Jason Seals get the F offer.
	I know that.
	I feel quite sick.
	I know that's how sick.
	I've been working 15 hours a day because I was on the mountain 64 the other day, sitting in people never coming along the same way.
	I'm personal certified.
	5939.
	I'm in the shops by the end of the rest that I go town meeting at night.
	And I said, 15 seconds.
	I was going to have a lot of sector.
	so They tell us to leave.
	They say, hey, we're going to work on your workout.
	Very much later.
	Hey, no, y'all are going to work back here.
	Yes, sir.
	I think there you go.
	Right there.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		They're in Kirkville, Texas.
		Keep that sound up.
		He's getting, I guess, an absolute frontal assault.
		I appear as maybe a parent or something like that.
		The governor's sitting there.
		I think we're going on seven minutes.
		I know it's tough to hear, but we're going to cut back to it and just watch until the government responds.
unidentified		You're in the war room.
		We don't have people coming in and engaged in our communities.
		been Well, so if I could say this, sure.
		My question is: we appreciate everything.
		We're the backbone of this community disappointed to have justice to have a control over the fact that we have no control.
		Okay.
greg abbot ▲ ● ▼		I'm going to stay with this.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		It's a minute.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Well, it's a member of the community and the government is not answering.
greg abbot ▲ ● ▼		I'm going to connect it with someone.
unidentified		Right.
unidentified		Right.
greg abbot ▲ ● ▼		And I've got the person for you.
		I'm going to give you her name, her number, let you connect with her.
		But let me say this.
		You know, people talk about how strong Texas is.
		People talk about how strong Texas is just because of people like you.
		People who don't wait around for orders and instructions.
		Yeah, so like not just you, but like you.
		We saw the exact same response in Hurricane Harvey.
		People didn't wait for a boss to tell them what to do.
		There was no time clock to check in or check out.
		They said they're getting out their own canoe, their own kayak, and they're going to start helping neighbors before the sun rose up until after the sun set.
		But all I wanted to let you know is the spirit that lies within your heart.
		And use the word blood in your bloodstream.
		have in your blood what Texas is all about.
		And...
unidentified		Okay.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		This is a press conference that's just kind of devolved into a, I think, some accusations or some personal thoughts.
		It looks like somebody involved.
		They've been on for about 10 or 12 minutes.
		Let's cut back.
		Please.
		Okay.
		Don't need me, guys.
		Please keep the camera.
		Thank you.
		There we go.
		There we go.
		I think we got some.
		Let's get into it.
		I'd rather have movement than look at a night.
		Let's get over that see if we can get some okay.
		Folks, the biggest reveal today, and we got a pack show, but the biggest reveal, I think a few minutes ago, is that they have now said the missing is 161.
		This was Ben Berquam.
		I got to give a hat tip to Ben Berquam's question the other day.
		How many are really missing?
		Is it dozens?
		And you haven't put a number up.
		Is it dozens or hundreds?
		And the guy I remember answered a lot.
		Didn't take the dozens, and now you know why.
		161.
		They're also from tomorrow's press conference.
		There has not been a rescue of a living human being since Friday.
		And I think he said Friday afternoon.
		Which it hit at, what, 4 o'clock in the morning or 3.30, 4 o'clock, 4.30 in the morning.
		Governor Abbott looks like they may be praying over there.
		He wheeled over after taking, it sounded like an onslaught of, I don't know if accusations or information or a point of view from a woman in the crowd that sounds like she's either a victim or knows the victims or somehow is talking about the community.
		And Governor Abbott eventually decided to go over and actually mingle with the crowd.
		He's got the kind of head of some of the leadership of the Texas Department.
		It looks like from this, there's a lot more involvement in the state, I think, taking control of if it's going to be a recovery effort.
		Looks like it had a lot more input from the state.
		This was supposed to take place at 6 o'clock our time.
		In fact, we had the whole show wrapped around doing that.
		We're going to continue with this picture.
		Let's bring in our, is Dave Bratt with me?
		Dave Bratt joins me, my co-host for today for a little while.
		Natalie's going to join me in a little while To take over the duty as co-host.
		Dave Bratt, your assessment, you were a professional politician.
		How do you think Governor Abbott handled that?
		Looked like an onslaught, sir.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, I mean, speaking as a politician, I went to seminary 30 years ago.
		And there's a time for rational analysis.
		Today's not that time.
		It's the time for pastoral care and to love the folks and to listen and to be at the bedside.
		And in the short term, I mean, the devastation is huge.
		The families are torn apart.
		The woman speaking was sharing her heart.
		And so, you know, he was just listening.
		And, you know, that's what you should do.
		There's plenty of time for analysis of all the public policy issues coming out.
		It's too bad people are taking pot shots in the short run already immediately after this.
		And, you know, people can make their analysis of who the fair players are.
		But it looked to me like he was just intently listening.
		And it looks like he's got, you know, people of compassion around him praying afterwards.
		And, you know, so that it's the toughest job in the world on a day like that.
		There's great days in politics when things are going great.
		And then there's the toughest days in the world.
unidentified		And he's in the middle of that.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		One of the women in the crowd, or a reporter, I think, not a woman in the crowd, said, who is to blame?
		And he said, look, we're not going to go there.
		going to do a complete assessment later now now is the time to actually uh Let's go back to Governor Abbott.
w nim kidd ▲ ● ▼		Nym, when I can't answer the whys.
		I'm not going to answer the whys.
		You asked when we were in contact.
		We started having calls and messages on Wednesday from an area of I-35, out I-10, all the way to where it touches I-20, all the way back over to where I-20 touches I-35 again.
		That is a large chunk of Texas that was anywhere in the potential area of where this kind of rain could have fallen.
		It picked this spot right here.
		All right.
greg abbot ▲ ● ▼		One more question.
unidentified		Go ahead.
unidentified		Yeah.
greg abbot ▲ ● ▼		The man who's in charge of that assistance is Chief Nimkid.
greg abbot ▲ ● ▼		She wants to know how long does it take to get assistance?
unidentified		How long does it take to get assistance?
w nim kidd ▲ ● ▼		It'll take a while, but we need to park like that.
		So the disaster recovery centers will be published in the morning of those locations.
		They can go to those locations and start getting aid.
		There are plenty of volunteers that are out there ready to offer aid right now in addition to the federal assistance.
greg abbot ▲ ● ▼		So you're saying that those centers will be open tomorrow morning?
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Yes, sir.
w nim kidd ▲ ● ▼		Soft.
		We have the addresses.
		I need to confirm them and then we'll put them out.
		They will be publicized.
		They will be publicized.
		Yes, ma'am.
greg abbot ▲ ● ▼		Thank you all.
greg abbot ▲ ● ▼		Thanks, everyone.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Okay, right there, the governor, and I don't think there's going to be a 6 o'clock press conference.
		I think they just started early.
		The governor stepping in and handling it today.
		The big news, I think we're going to get a count here, but the big news is that they have announced a number that they haven't had before of missing of 161 folks still down in this area.
		Do we have Augustus?
		Is he up?
		Let me go.
		I've got Augustus DiRico, CEO of Raymaker.
		Augustus, can you walk through, because there's been some controversy about seeding and geoengineering, can you take a minute and walk through just what your company is, what it does, and what have you been doing for the state of Texas?
		I take it by you've been retained.
		I take it by localities, local governments, individual agriculture businesses to do something about the lack of rain down there.
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		Sure.
		Yeah.
		Well, thank you for having me on for one.
		My heart and prayers are with everybody affected in Texas and the entire state.
		I'm going to be down there tomorrow trying to help as I can.
		I run a company called Rainmaker that conducts cloud seeding to make it rain more for farms, for ecosystem restoration, for residential reservoirs when they're suffering from drought.
		And we work with municipalities and farmers throughout Texas to, when there is a drought or there isn't enough water, make it rain more.
		We unequivocally had nothing to do with the flooding that was caused by the remnants of the tropical storm that blew in.
		And our biggest cloud seeding missions to date have only produced 10 million gallons of precipitation approximately.
		And that tropical storm dumped about 4 trillion over the course of two days.
		So the order of magnitude difference between what cloud seeding is even capable of and what happened is incomparable.
		And again, I truly am heartbroken about what has happened, but want to make it abundantly clear that cloud seeding was not involved in any capacity, and it's a technology that is used to help farmers when there isn't enough water.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Let me ask you, repeat that 4 trillion, you're saying 4 trillion gallons was dumped on that time.
		I think they said 10 inches in the, oh no, excuse me, the river rose 26 feet in 45 minutes.
		I guess you're saying in the entire time of this storm that hit, there was over 4 trillion gallons of water that was dumped onto the locale?
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		Correct.
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		Yeah.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		And cloud seeding, is cloud seeding is that small?
		What's the purpose?
		What are farmers?
		They're doing it when they're that desperate, when there's been like a drought for a while?
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, yeah.
		They'll cloud seed either to try to fill up aquifers preemptively or when there is a drought.
		They not only use it for aquifer recharge and farming in Texas, but municipalities throughout Utah and Idaho also use it.
		This technology was invented in the United States in the 1940s, and only because of recent advents in radar technology are we able to measure exactly what the results from it are.
		And that's what Rainmaker has been doing for the state of Texas and other states throughout the country.
		It's also worth noting quickly that the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has criteria to authorize Cloud seeding operations in the state, where one, you have to have an approved concept of operations, approved materials, and also you have to have what are called suspension criteria.
		Meaning, if ever there's a risk of flooding, if reservoir spillage is a risk, then you have to stop operating.
		And a day before there was any flash flood warning, our meteorologists proactively suspended operations before even that regulatory threshold from the state of Texas.
		So again, all of our operations were well within bounds from the state regulations and also had nothing to do with the flooding there.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Is the aquifer situation I hear in Texas, Oklahoma, and other places, and maybe even Arizona, are kind of in a crisis, at least they were a couple of years ago.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		The droughts, different droughts have been so bad that the aquifers where most of the water is obviously people use and is stored in the wells because of real estate development and expansion, is that one of the issues here, why your service is used?
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, yeah, exactly.
		The aquifers, namely the Ogallala in Texas, are radically drawn down.
		The Colorado River is very much overallocated.
		And so now cities like Phoenix, Arizona are turning off water to residences periodically because they just don't have enough.
		Farms throughout Utah, Texas, New Mexico, et cetera, are actually being paid by the state to not farm because the state doesn't want them to consume the water.
		And so Rainmaker's mission is when there is need for water to produce it to stop the collapse of the American West, not just our environment, but also our agricultural interests and also to enable the growth or at least maintain the population of all of these Western cities and states.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		When you say the collapse of the West, too, I take it my understanding is fairly rudimentary, but agriculture is still right now the least efficient use of water.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		It's not that we don't need agriculture, we do, but when you look at industrial, we look at home, is it agriculture that's considered the least inefficient about how the agriculture community uses it?
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		You know, agriculture far and away is the biggest consumer of water, and that's absolutely true.
		Over time, they've become more efficient.
		I think that with things like drip irrigation, it's gotten a lot better.
		But I don't think that it's appropriate to think that agriculture is to blame for water scarcity in the American West, right?
		Like I am in favor of more American farms and more growing.
		And I think that we should have an abundance mindset and consider cloud seeding insofar as it is safely regulated and not just anybody can do it.
		I think that cloud seeding is one way to facilitate more abundant farming and more abundant cities in drought-ridden areas of the world.
		And also it's worth noting that it's not just the United States and it's not just Rainmaker that does this.
		I think it's in America's interest to continue doing it because other states around the world, like China, invest $1.4 billion a year into their program to produce more water for their farms, for their hydroelectric, to resupply their reservoirs.
		And if we don't do it, then not only will the United States not have the capacity for it, but China will have the biggest program in the world by orders of magnitude.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		If China is $1.4 billion, what's the equivalent of the U.S.?
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		What's our total, roughly?
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		The United States federal government spent $2.4 million last year on cloud seeing.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		On the cloud seeing, you said during the evolution itself, you guys, you have a regulatory apparatus of what it tells you you can do and monitors that.
		You said you guys voluntarily took down and stopped, because I think you were cloud seeing on the 2nd of July, right?
		You took it down and didn't do it on the 3rd.
		That's when the storm hit that night, I guess, overnight.
		No one in the regulatory apparatus came to you?
		Because one of the questions people have, and you can see it right there with the governor, what is the regulatory chain of command for this apparatus?
		You got National Weather Service, but you also have local, you got state.
		Who's in charge?
		Who is kind of watching it?
		I mean, did anybody come to you or did you guys just voluntarily say, this looks like it could be bad, no need to continue to cloud seed?
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, so Rainmaker acted proactively and suspended operations before the National Weather Service issued any warnings that would have constituted suspension criteria per the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations statutes.
		Now, that being said, I think that there ought to be more regulation on cloud seating to ensure that it's done safely.
		I think that there should be way more transparency in the industry.
		And I'm actively trying to, both on X right now and on platforms like yours, and thank you again for having me, advocate for more regulation so that people do know what's going on and so that people can trust that it's being done safely.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Well, that, you know, people, obviously, you've got the natural process and then once people say we're going to use technology.
		What is it either about your competitors, the industry overall, that you're concerned about, either processes that you're concerned about and or transparency?
		What are you pushing for?
		That certain processes shouldn't be done in cloud seating or there should be more transparency about how everybody does this?
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		So, yeah, I think there absolutely should be more transparency.
		And one way in which we could do that is expand upon the Weather Modification Reporting Act of 1972.
		So right now, if you want to conduct a cloud seeding operation, the only federal oversight for it is a notification to NOAA that you're going to conduct weather modification and then also a report on what your operations consisted of.
		But I think there needs to be much more rigorous analyses of the effect of cloud seeding from NOAA or some institution like the Bureau of Reclamation, which is responsible for water in the West, because there should be accountability and a manner by which people can scrutinize what the effects have been.
		Right now, there's no process like that in the federal government to enable scrutiny and oversight.
		And if there was, I think people would rightfully feel more trusting of it.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Let me go back just to the term weather modification.
		You have this issue of transhumanism, and you have a different technologies, artificial general intelligence, regenerative robotics, quantum computing, CRISPR, all these things are people are saying we're heading towards a point called the singularity.
		And that's kind of man taking an active role in what heretofore has been a natural process.
		And clearly, there's big advantages, huge, great things of AI, but there's also downside, the same with chipping people.
		There's moral questions, ethical questions.
		As someone that's dedicated his life, not just to the industry, but then to go out to investors and say, hey, this is a smart thing to do.
		We need to do this.
		Do you have qualms?
		Or is there issues when you talk about weather modification?
		Like, for instance, why should the weather be, why should you have modifications?
		Why is just the weather?
		Just let it happen.
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		Totally hear where you're coming from.
		Do you remember that Ross Dufat, Peter Thiel, interview that blew up recently where Ross asked him, like, do you believe that the human race should persist?
		And Peter paused and waited to respond to that?
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, I do.
		But Peter's got a deep moral compass on certain things, other things, like particularly on technocracy, we don't totally agree.
		Is that your pause?
		Is this your pregnant pause?
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		No, not at all.
		I want to say unequivocally, I'm interested in the persistence of humanity.
		And not only that, I'm a Christian.
		I was lucky enough to be saved when I was 20 years old while I was living in Fort Worth.
		I didn't grow up a Christian.
		I grew up an atheist, but the guiding principle at Rainmaker is stewardship, right?
		In Genesis 1, 26 through 28, and then also throughout the Psalms, one of the very first commandments that God ever gave us in the Garden of Eden before the fall was to take dominion and steward the earth, the seas, the skies, and everything therein.
		And so I think that there is an aspect of human nature which is both inclined to and responsible to, responsible for making nature, or rather working with nature to steward it for our interest and creations itself to honor God.
		And so I think not only is it something good to do, is cloud seeding something good to do because it can help us produce water for farms in need, but as long as there are droughts, as long as there is severe weather, as long as there is hail that does damage, and we have the technology to manage it, to mitigate the damage done by it, if we're not deploying it, then we're actually abdicating our responsibility to God to steward the creation that he gave us.
		And that's the perspective that I have as a Christian when I think about weather modification and whether we should be doing it.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		I'm more of a New Testament guy.
		So in the New Testament in Mark, I think it's 13, when the disciples and apostles come back, Christ has sent them out to teach and to heal.
		And they come back and they say, hey, we've healed these people.
		We've done this.
		And he says, oh, that sounds great.
		He says, no, they say it comes from Beelzebub and that your power comes from that.
		And he makes a comment to him.
		He said, there's only one unforgivable sin, and that is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
		There's only one mortal sin, and that is to basically, you know, blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
		People would say the Holy Spirit is what enervates, is what the energy or the Spirit that came through Christ, you know, from from the from the time he was baptized by John the Baptist, and that that's the guiding principle.
		We talk about this in transhumanism.
		Would that make you rethink it if you felt you were going against the tenets of the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit works through the world, particularly the natural world?
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		If someone were to present to me theological arguments as to why this was not in God's interest or why this was wrong and blaspheming God in some manner, I would stop immediately.
		I would shut the doors of my company.
		I would want to participate in that in no way, right?
		Like I'm very concerned with heaven and hell and living a life that is to the extent possible without sin.
		And so, you know, I'm always open to discourse about it.
		I haven't yet been convinced that it's against God's interest to try to make creation better.
		But I also think the Tower of Babel is a story we should consider very seriously and cautiously, right?
		Whenever man is inclined to make himself God or make himself too much like God without the humility that we're supposed to have, there can be bad outcomes.
		And so I try to manage this company and this technology very prayerfully.
		And that's why I proactively, as a business owner, am advocating for more regulation on the technology in the industry so that we can ensure it's done safely and so that we can ensure it's done in the interests of both our country, our farmers in our country, God and all of his creation.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		You have a control of your company.
		Are you certain there weren't other people cloud seating, particularly some of maybe these methods that you question or with lack of transparency?
		Do you think anybody is, because here's what happened.
		You had this horrific thing on Friday, July 4th in the hill country of Texas.
		Then on Sunday, down in Southern Pines, North Carolina, Pinehurst, and all the way up to Chapel Hill, you really had a biblical, in fact, people in the Southern Pines, Pinehurst area and central North Carolina were saying people had been there for 30 years, had never seen rain like this.
		It just seems odd that within 48 hours, right, and we don't believe in coincidence here, you had these two kind of biblical downpourings.
		Do you think in any way could be associated with people doing geoengineering?
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		I have, as yet, not seen any evidence to suggest that any flooding in North Carolina or again, Texas had to do with cloud seeding or geoengineering.
		Now, that said, I think that if we as a country, be it through NOAA, the National Weather Service, private institutions or otherwise, have a better forecasting capacity, if we invest in researching the atmosphere more so that we can forecast farther into the future, warn people sooner, then we'll be able to alert people at the very least of these impending calamities and then potentially mitigate them in the future.
		Now, that being said, as well, there should be more federal oversight.
		Absolutely.
		Because if there is something going on that is nefarious or that's just grossly negligent, it should stop and be held to account.
		And, you know, again, a lot of people, maybe my lawyers would scrutinize me for saying that people contributing to calamities like this should be held to account.
		But I earnestly believe that and I'm willing to say it because I know that Rainmaker, and to my knowledge, no other cloud-seeking companies are responsible for those floods.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Last question.
		Since you mentioned the lawyers, you saw the raw emotion.
		You were here.
		We had you up.
		You saw the raw emotion with Governor Abbott.
		And it happened earlier today in the other press conference.
		And people, you know, because look, it's been since Friday morning.
		People are tired.
		This is a horrific, not just event, but the recovery process is horrific.
		I mean, do you worry that as this thing goes, investigations and lawsuits, that everything that you wanted to do and felt you were doing altruistically for the betterment of mankind, you may end up in depositions and hearings, commissions, all of it, as they try to get to, and as you know, they're bad actors.
		In fact, they said the other day in one of the press conferences, they're not giving the names of the victims, particularly the little girls at Mystic, because, and this is one of the director operations said, people were actually calling the parents and saying, I have your child here, but you got to send me, you got to wire me money.
		Or people were saying, I've had a vision, or I'm a Mystic, and I can tell you exactly where they're calling out for you.
		Horrific things like this that no parent should have visited on them.
		So my point is there's demonic people out there.
		They're bad actors out there.
		Are you concerned that everything you've tried to do altruistically for the betterment of mankind, in your view, may turn out to be something that just keeps you tied up for years walking through the events of July 2nd, 3rd, 4th of 2025?
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, I can't imagine what the people of Texas are feeling, particularly the parents and those that lost family members or friends in the floods.
		And so I'm sympathetic, obviously, again, still can't understand, but I'm sympathetic to how emotions are running high right now, how people are looking for a scapegoat or someone to blame.
		Of that, I'm understanding.
		And again, even though we didn't have anything to do with it, I understand where people might be coming from in this moment.
		And I'm trying to transparently and honestly and quickly answer as many questions from the public as I can about this.
		Now, that said, it would be a tragedy as well if farmers and people were deprived of water that they could have otherwise from cloud seeding because people want to capitalize politically on this tragedy to rally their base around some sort of legislation or investigation that would ban cloud seeding entirely.
		And so even though I think that that would be a bad outcome, I trust in the United States, in people's ability to scrutinize evidence.
		I trust in probably not our government writ large, but in the best possible outcome over the course of time.
		And so though there is a lot of controversy about this right now, though I think some people are trying to politically capitalize on the tragedy with unfounded claims and accusations, I think that the truth will always come to light and that cloud seeding will be a technology that we can use cautiously and for the benefit of all mankind.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		And last thing, Tuesday, 8th of July in the year of our Lord 2025 at 5.40 in the evening, you still believe in your heart and in your soul that weather modification and geoengineering are something that we should pursue as a country?
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		Weather modification and cloud seeding, yes, in my heart and my soul, I do.
		Geoengineering, dimming the sun, things with global climatic implications, I think deserve a lot more caution and scrutiny because we don't have 80 years of data on what their effects would be.
		But cloud seeding itself, yes, in my heart and in my soul, absolutely.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Augustus Dorici, thank you so much for coming on.
		Where do people follow you?
		I know you want to get your message out.
		The best way to do that, obviously, is social media and coming on shows like this.
		Where do people follow you, sir?
		And where do they go?
		I want to make sure they go to your company site and check it out.
		So where do they go?
		Sure.
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		They can go to rainmaker.com for more information on our company.
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		And then also on X, A DeRico.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		That's at A D O R I C K O. Augustus DeRico, thank you very much for joining us in the Warroom on a very intense afternoon.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, sir.
augustus doricko ▲ ● ▼		Thank you so much.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Do I have Natalie?
		We had to change shift because Dave Bratt's going to do the Matt Gates show.
		Okay, we'll get Natalie up in a second.
		Do I have Philip Patrick?
unidentified		Yes.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		We're kind of juggling here because we took long for the Abbott conference, but I thought it was very illustrative of the raw emotions that are now starting to come to the surface.
		Philip Patrick joins us from Rio.
		Philip, he wrote me a long memo this afternoon.
		We got some time.
		Why don't you break it down as we leave here?
		You know, you leave this conference.
		Bolsonaro, President Trump threw down hard on Bolsonaro yesterday about the political situation, the law first situation.
		Lula's at the center of this, although it's the judge, Maurices, that's doing it.
		But tell me about his handling of the BRICS conference and your thoughts as you get ready to leave where we are on all this.
phillip patrick ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, I mean, last time, I think it was Monday I was on last, and we were talking about how the entire conference at that point was covert, right?
		It was de-dollarization without mentioning the dollar explicitly.
		It was trade security without talking about tariffs.
		And then I think it was an hour after our last interview, everything changed, right?
		Obviously, President Trump came out overnight and posted a warning to BRICS nations, 10% tariffs on any nation if they continue to bypass the dollar.
		And Lula's response was swift and it was unusually direct, I would say.
		But the verbiage was interesting.
		He said that President Trump's message was very mistaken and irresponsible.
		And then he went on to say, and I thought this was telling, he said, look, the world has changed.
		We don't want an emperor.
		We are sovereign countries.
		And he said, there is no going back.
		Reducing dependence on the dollar will happen step by step until it's consolidated.
		So what was perhaps covert before is now in the open.
		The BRICS have made their intentions clear And they sort of brought it to the forefront.
		And we've been seeing it: China and Russia striking deals in Yuan and rubles, Brazil and Venezuela bypassing the dollar for regional commerce.
		So it's happening and it's at the forefront.
		You know, the message I sent you, I spent a lot of time thinking last night: what do we do about this?
		How do we fix the situation?
		And I think the answer is not to panic, but rather to prepare, right?
		We have to remember the dollar remains the global reserve currency for a reason, right?
		And that is trust, it's depth, it's credibility.
		What we've been seeing out here is that trust is eroding, not just because of our rivals, but because of what we've done domestically as well, right?
		So in terms of a plan, I don't know how much time I have here, Steve.
		So I'll sort of cut it.
		Hang on.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		You're going to have all the time.
		This is incredibly important.
		We're going to take a short commercial break and bring you back.
		We don't have to cover.
		We're trying to get you in before the press conference is going to take place in Kerrville, but the governor stepped up and did one that took place earlier.
		So we got the six o'clock hour.
		Philip Patrick is with us from Rio.
		Folks, very big deal down there.
		And they kind of laid their cards on the table.
		It ain't going to happen overnight, but they're saying it's going to happen.
		The end of the dollar empire, according to them.
		Philip Patrick next.
		Also, Joe Lavania trying to get Joe in from Treasury.
		Talk all about this.
		next in the world.
unidentified		Here's your host, Stephen K. Mann.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Okay, Philip Patrick's going to stick with us in into the six o'clock hour.
		Natalie's also here.
		We're going to get her comments on the Rainmaker situation.
		I want to go to Joe Lavernier now over at Treasury Council, special counsel to the Secretary of Treasury.
		You've had the tariff situation, President Trump, you know, you had this two and a half hour, I think, cabinet meeting today.
		The whole cabinet meeting, most of it was done publicly.
		President Trump's talking about tariffs.
		We got letters going out to Korea, South to Japan.
		You guys now at Treasury are executing on the big, beautiful bill, right?
		The tax cuts, all the industrial side of it for the supply side.
		Where are the tariffs fit into this entire strategy, sir?
		Because I think there's a little confusion.
		But look, we love tariffs.
		We're the tariff guys.
		We love it, what President Trump's doing.
unidentified		But we're a little, is it on the stage?
joseph a lavorgna ▲ ● ▼		Sure, Steve.
		Thank you again for having me.
		It's a very integrated, holistic approach.
		So the tariffs are used as an incentive to bring capital and monies back to the U.S. And as you know from all the deals that have been announced all over the world, there's trillions of dollars that are coming in.
		So the tariffs are an incentive to get capital to the U.S. But when you bring that capital to the U.S., you're also going to benefit from low corporate rates, cheap and abundant energy, and very pro-growth tax policy.
		So everything kind of works together, and that's how you're going to reindustrialize.
		On the tariffs, what we could say are two things very important.
		Number one, Steve, we could raise upwards of $300 billion.
		I mean, the numbers keep going up every month, like around the third week of the month.
		You get the customs payment that tends to be the biggest.
		So we're ratcheting higher.
		I mean, we may have 300 billion in calendar year revenues this year, which is massive.
		CBO has scored potentially getting $2.8 trillion over the next 10 years.
		That's not part of their official scoring.
		So the tariffs right now, we know, are raising tremendous amounts of money.
		The other point, which is very important, is that my colleagues over at Council Economic Advisors have done incredible work that shows actually if you look at the price of imported goods, those prices have actually declined, which is remarkable, declined in both the personal consumption expenditures deflator, which is what the Fed follows, or the more popular, at least in the Main Street Consumer Price Index, where imported goods prices not only haven't risen, they've actually declined.
		So we're not seeing any inflation to this point, which tells us that foreign producers are absorbing it in their margins, which makes sense because the U.S. is the world's largest and most important consumer.
		We're about 35% of global consumption or somewhere around there.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		I think the Secretary also said I think $100 bayon has already been collected, which is just absolutely stunning.
joseph a lavorgna ▲ ● ▼		That's correct.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		I want to pivot.
		We got Philip Patrick and our team from Birch Gold have covered for four or five days the RIA reset.
		And initially, they were trying to hide it.
		They didn't want to talk de-dollarization.
		They were doing these bilateral deals and saying it's all for free trade.
		President Trump came out as President Trump's wanted to do and said, yo, if you don't sign up for any of this BRICS nonsense, I'm going to add another 10% or more to the tariffs already.
		And that chilled things.
		But I think Lula came out and made a statement and said, hey, it's not going to happen overnight, but it's happening.
		We're moving away from this.
		We don't believe that one system for currency is good for our nations.
		Any initial response to that?
		First off, do you believe that the BRICS nation can actually move off the dollar as the prime reserve currency?
joseph a lavorgna ▲ ● ▼		No, certainly not.
		And President Trump, as you know, Steve, is a tremendous negotiator.
		You saw what happened with Canada with the digital tax they wanted to impose.
		And also when the president has threatened significant tariffs on the EU, they quickly backed away.
		The fact is, when you look at the data, it shows that demand for U.S. assets has never been higher.
		That's in our own official data that we put out every month.
		And it's in various private sector reports that show tremendous capital inflows to the U.S. It's still the world's reserve currency.
		As Secretary Besson has said many times, the dollar's demise has been greatly exaggerated.
		People have been saying this since right after the Second World War.
		We've got the reserve currency.
		We're going to have the strongest, most dynamic economy in the world with the fastest growth rate among all the industrialized countries.
		Inflation's falling.
		As I mentioned earlier, you've got all these huge capital commitments that are coming in.
		I mean, that's a sign of dollar strength that will persist as long as President Trump's policies are in place.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Joe, last question.
		You're one of the guys brought in to help forecast this, put together the dashboard, monitor it, and help execute it with the Secretary of Treasury for the President.
		Do you feel better, you know, four or five days into this than you did last week when it was up in the air what was actually we were going to close on?
		Or are you feeling concerned?
joseph a lavorgna ▲ ● ▼		Steve, I'm an optimist.
		I learned that from my old boss in Trump 1.0, Larry Kudlow.
		I'm an optimist.
		I was always, I was kind of backing the president.
		He wanted it July 4th into Speaker Thune and Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson.
		They've been great working with Treasury Secretary Besson and moving the ball down the field.
		So I was optimistic.
		I thought it was going to get done on July 4th and just as the president wanted it got done.
		And it makes me more confident because, you know, people talk about all the uncertainty of the tariffs.
		What I think they missed, or they missed now, is the uncertainty the tax policy had posed.
		Companies not been able to plan for the outlook because they didn't know if they're going to get a huge tax hike next year with the biggest ever.
		Now that we've got that certainty, yes, I'm much more confident now that it's done, that there are going to be a second half growth boom.
		And I'm expecting to see that in the data.
		We're going to get more CapEx.
		CapEx is going to give you faster productivity.
		Faster wages.
		This blue-collar wage boom that we've been talking about persists.
		And it's going to be great news for Americans all alike.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		By the way, Larry Kudlow has preached this for decades, and he finally got it.
		This is a massive supply site tax cut that's really going to drive things.
		I'm glad to know one of his, someone that was mentored by him, is here in the war room.
		I know it hurts you guys sometimes to talk about tariffs, but President Trump is the tariff guy.
		I tell Larry all that all the time.
		Joe, social media, where do people go to keep up with your analysis, forecast, all of it?
joseph a lavorgna ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Steve.
joseph a lavorgna ▲ ● ▼		At Lavornionomics.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Joe, thank you so much.
		I'm so glad you're over Treasury.
		Love having you on the show.
joseph a lavorgna ▲ ● ▼		Steve, always a pleasure.
		Thank you.
		Always a pleasure.
unidentified		Thank you.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		My Patriot Supply still got today's the last day for their July 4th.
		I think you've seen, and by the way, the Imperial Capital here is about to get a massive thunderstorm, Right, massive thunderstorm.
		You never know when one of these things are going to sneak up on you.
		There used to be regular thunderstorms, but man, that thing in Texas, in the Hill Country, and also down in central North Carolina.
		I don't know, man.
		Different deal.
		Felt like a different deal.
		But there'll be people to go through this in quite a bit of detail.
		My Patriot Supply, they kind of invented the industry, but now it's everything.
		So just be prepared.
		Get prepared.
		Get ahead of the curve.
		You're smart enough on everything else we talk about.
		Get smart on this.
		My Patriot Supply, it's the end of the July 4th.
		Tonight is the end of the July 4th sale.
		Virtually everything's on sale.
		So go check it out.
		MyPatriotSupply.com.
		Use promo code BANN.
		Best thing they've got is advisors and consultants.
		Get on there.
		If you've never done this before, make sure you get all the information.
		Every time we have a sponsor, we want to make sure that the war room posse can make contact because not only do you like the receipts, you'd like to talk to a human being.
		Maybe ask a couple of three questions like we do here in the war room.
		Short commercial break.
		Take you out with the right stuff.

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