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Aug. 26, 2025 - Bannon's War Room
56:48
Episode 4734: War On The Rise In Iran
Participants
Main voices
b
ben harnwell
10:03
b
brandon weichert
05:22
l
l todd wood
05:17
s
steve bannon
24:30
Appearances
f
frederik pleitgen
02:28
t
trevor comstock
02:03
t
trita parsi
04:51
Clips
a
admiral james stavridis
00:52
j
jake tapper
00:10
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Speaker Time Text
steve bannon
This is the primal scream of a dying regime.
unidentified
Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people.
Here's not got a free shot on all these networks lying about the people.
The people have had a belly full of it.
I know you don't like hearing that.
I know you're trying to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it.
steve bannon
It's going to happen.
unidentified
And where do people like that go to share the big line?
MAGA Media.
I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?
If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
Waru, here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
Tuesday, 26 August, in the year of our Lord 2025, it's commemoration of the fourth anniversary of the tragedy at Abbeygate.
It's a tragedy.
I think it's important for us to remember this and to remember it always because it speaks so much to the bravery of the people that we asked to fight that war, young people in their 20s and many times teens in early 20s, and gave them justifications that people at the time knew were lies, right, for all their different agendas,
and the fecklessness and unseriousness of how we handled that as a great power.
Say what you want about the Russians and the CCP.
And we pride ourselves on being the leaders of the anti-CCP movement.
And you saw Lavrov with Kristen Welker on Meet the Press on Sunday.
As bad as the KGB is in that gang of criminals that runs Russia, and as bad as the CCP is and the brutal dictatorship they have, they're serious people.
Look at Lavrov with her.
It was embarrassing.
It was embarrassing.
They're serious people and we're not serious people.
steve bannon
President Trump's trying to come in and change this and sort it out, but you still have these massive forces inside the United States that are not America first.
unidentified
What they want to do is use the blood and treasure of the United States to push their agendas.
That's my problem with this.
If we're going to be America first, we have to put the country first and the citizens in that country first.
steve bannon
It's the sovereignty of this nation as a nation and the sovereignty of its people as embodied in the consent of the governed.
And to have consent of the governed, the governed have to have real information, not be spun and not be misled and not be lied to.
And this is why I went off when we got in this latest escapade in Persia because these were bald-faced lies.
unidentified
And until you're prepared to understand that and to see all the other guys around here, they're all Israel first, right?
Bald-faced lies.
And this is dangerous.
This is very dangerous stuff.
As you guys know, as a young naval officer in late 79, after the embassy was taken on a destroyer going over with a carrier, as everybody was hurtling towards the Middle East and a whole new adventure for the United States.
steve bannon
We had never been there.
A Navy had never really been there.
We had a small, I think what they called the White Fleet, just a couple of ships, old ships in Bahrain.
unidentified
So we've been there since 79.
steve bannon
We've actually been there much longer than that as Iran became a regional power, predicated upon their very smart moves about oil and the arable embargo and all that.
unidentified
Brandon, in your book, I mean, your book makes the case of what Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham, because these guys say, hey, this has been a long war.
It's been a shadow war with the United States for a long time, with the Ayatollah and these radical Islamists that run this country.
And they use that as justification of why we should be there.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
steve bannon
I mean, I'd love your book, but you can, the logical conclusion of your book could be what Tom Cotton and Lindsey.
unidentified
Go ahead.
brandon weichert
Yeah, no, of course.
unidentified
And I make it clear, though, in the book that the conclusion is to build the Abraham Accords, which was supposed to be the way that we would extricate ourselves without getting involved in a new war in the Middle East and still hand off the region to our allies, and we would become what John Mearsheimer would call an offshore balancer.
And that is the role that traditionally America has always played in various parts of the world, you know, where we basically just stay out of it.
And if some power really, like the Soviets come in, then we get involved.
brandon weichert
But the problem is, is the Tom Cotton wing has taken the shadow war narrative and they've spun it to say that is why we must do Iraq 3.0.
unidentified
And the whole reason I wrote the book, Steve, was to say we cannot get involved in another war in the Middle East, but we also really can't trust the Persians, the current regime, to do business with the third way is the Abraham Accords.
That is the way forward.
brandon weichert
Unfortunately, it seems like the neocons have convinced the Trump administration to sort of undermine the Abraham Accords by doing the attacks that they did.
unidentified
And also now the Arabs are a little understandably reticent to do business with the Israelis because of how they're acting in Gaza and the West Bank.
So my book did offer a third way, and unfortunately, I don't think anybody listened.
Well, hang over a second.
steve bannon
It's very impressive.
unidentified
Trita, are the Arabs?
Could the Arabs, I mean, essentially, the Arabs use us as a vassal state, also.
steve bannon
I mean, people, they're all on the Israelis.
unidentified
We're doing the Israelis' bidding.
steve bannon
We're doing the bidding of the Gulf Emirates and the Saudis, also, are we not?
Because they don't have any interest in taking on the Persians, do they?
trita parsi
Absolutely.
unidentified
At the end of the day, unfortunately, we ourselves have set up an opportunity for countries to take advantage of America's military might for their own purposes.
trita parsi
I completely agree with Brandon's instinct, which is we need to get out.
This region is not that important to the United States any longer.
We certainly shouldn't be going to any more wars there.
We should avoid getting entangled in all of their conflicts.
unidentified
I'm skeptical, however, about the Abram Accord, because from the Israeli and Saudi perspective, it was actually designed to keep the United States more committed to the region.
I think the instinct is right, and I think there's ways to do so.
trita parsi
But I think at this point, the Ibram Accord is more or less dead.
unidentified
The Saudis are not going to normalize with Israel.
And we should go back to that instinct and figure out a way that we can get out and recognize that because of the fact that the region doesn't matter that much to us, we should not get tempted to get involved in whatever it is.
Whether it's the Iranians dominating or the Saudis or the Emiratis, frankly, doesn't impact our interests that much.
trita parsi
Certainly, I don't think the Iranians are in a position.
unidentified
They're in a much weaker position than they were in before.
trita parsi
All of the talk about them becoming some sort of a hegemon, that instinct may exist there.
unidentified
The capability does not.
So that argument that we have to do this, otherwise the Iranians get hegemony in the region, which has been used for the last three decades at this point, in my view, is not only mute because of their lack of capability, but also because of the fact it does not matter that much to us who is dominating the region.
trita parsi
In my own view, none of these countries have the capacity to actually dominate.
unidentified
They may have all kinds of grandeur instincts and desires.
None of them, even Turkey, do not have the capability of dominating.
So our best way is actually to let them balance each other and stay out of it, just like the Chinese have.
What is your recommendation, Dor?
steve bannon
Because one of the underlying issues here is this concept of greater Israel, right?
unidentified
So you say no one has the actual military capability or economic coupled with military ability to actually put lead on targets to dominate the region.
steve bannon
But you have maybe the Persians are not as expansionist as they used to be, given the debacle that Hezbollah has turned into and this continual war they've got on the Arabian Peninsula with the Houthis.
unidentified
It looks like it's a standstill.
But the Israelis, certain elements, I shouldn't say this, but what's fascinating to me is the internal politics of Israel, because I think you can make the argument that Netanyahu and the ultra-Orthodox are rapidly trying to turn Israel into a Jewish version of Pakistan and that you have forces opposed to them of which not all those forces are MAGA, love MAGA.
In fact, many of them are quite progressive and despise MAGA.
But they're trying to fight to, I think, get Israel back to the original concept that it was.
And that fight is quite impressive.
steve bannon
But as long as there's a faction in Israel that believes in this concept of greater Israel and controls the political apparatus, and that's what I'm saying, this rift between the IDF, look, it was Netanyahu's own son who's living in Miami that tweeted out four weeks ago that he thought there was a mutiny and a coup d'état underway against his father's government by the IDF because the IDF commanders said, yo, we do not support this occupation of Gaza.
unidentified
We don't have the troops.
We don't have the reservists.
We're beaten up.
steve bannon
Maybe we got the ability to go get the dead enders, but that's where it stops.
So how do you, what's your solution to this as long as you have at least one faction that believes in an expansionist agenda for Israel and are supported by some of the biggest voices and the wealthiest people and most powerful politicians in the United States of America?
unidentified
You put your finger on something extremely important that almost never is addressed in mainstream media, which is that there is a significant faction in Israel that actually is expansionist.
trita parsi
It's almost hereditary to say this.
unidentified
But here's the thing.
Israel actually doesn't have the ability to be expansionist because the United States, according to CRS's latest analysis, is paying for more than 30% of Israel's military budget.
Israel actually doesn't have the capability of even attacking Iran without that support from the United States.
So absent U.S. support, all kinds of aspirations for greater Israel or Israeli hegemony completely falls apart, which means that we have leverage.
trita parsi
If we don't want them to be expansionists, we can simply say no.
unidentified
Stop the flow of money, stop the flow of arms, stop the flow of defensive support, which actually fuels their desire to go on reckless offensive approaches because they know that the United States is going to come in and protect them.
If we do none of that, I don't think the desire for greater Israel actually ever can be manifested because Israel doesn't have that capability.
steve bannon
I would actually argue there are aspects there, there are elements of the IDF that would fully support that.
unidentified
They're saying, hey, we're tapped out or close to being tapped out and we should not have an expansionist agenda.
Hang for a second.
I want to ask you guys both this question about our NDA.
steve bannon
Let me start with Brandon.
unidentified
Brandon, I'm kind of on the warpath now because President Trump has outlined what I call hemispheric defense.
It's not isolationist, it's not a retreat from the world, but basically saying from Greenland and the Arctic all the way down to the Panama Canal and then the whole vast Western Pacific, which becomes our kind of you know the McKinder pivot to the first and second third island chain, all of that with Argentina and Brazil, and to clearly clean up some of the mess in Latin America.
That the Monroe Doctrine 2.0 with Alaska as a strategic asset, that is the and we keep expeditionary type forces that can go anywhere in the world when we need it.
And obviously, you got to defend Taiwan.
But the NDAA that we're about to debate and pass is not, has none of that.
It is still this mindset that we're a global empire, we're a global power, we're a policeman.
And CENTCOM, as I say, the three most powerful institutions in Washington, D.C. are the CIA, the Federal Reserve, and CENTCOM.
steve bannon
It's still CENTCOM-centric.
unidentified
Your thoughts, sir?
Well, and CENTCOM hasn't had an impressive CO probably since Schwarzkopf was there 30 years ago.
So there's a problem right there.
And don't even get me started on CIA and some of these other ones.
brandon weichert
Ultimately, look, this is the basis of my next book project, which is Hemispheric Defense.
The problem is Washington, D.C., Congress, and the Senate still perceive the world as a unipolar world.
unidentified
It is not.
It is a tripolar world shifting toward a multipolar one.
brandon weichert
The tripolar is U.S., Russia, and China.
Those are the three bigs, and that needs to be how we inform our foreign policy.
unidentified
And that means we need to worry about our sphere of influence, which is the Western Hemisphere, and as you note, the island chains in the Indo-Pacific as well.
Europe and the Middle East are simply not essential to us anymore.
brandon weichert
We have all the resources we need in our hemisphere.
We have everything we need right here.
We should be developing them and partnering with Russia when we can to develop rare earth minerals.
unidentified
But that's not how our Congress thinks.
And, you know, we have a lot of problems with special interests influencing our Congress.
And that's why they still keep acting like the Middle East and Europe are the primary battlefields.
brandon weichert
We've got to change our Congress, Steve.
unidentified
We've got to change our Congress.
Hang on one second.
The cabinet meeting has not stopped.
I still got Trita and Brandon.
May add a couple other voices.
I'm going to ask Trita the question that what they're going to say is that to go to that and to recognize that Russia does have a regional geopolitical center of gravity and that the CCP is going to be quite strong in East Asia is to be defeatist.
That you're retreating from America the all-powerful, America the global power, Pax Americana.
Short commercial break.
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steve bannon
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How about that?
Trita, you know, you and Kurt Mills in that crowd are just a bunch of Coke brother-sponsored libertarians, open borders, want to retreat, isolationists, defeatists.
The greatest generation gave us the platform for Pax Americana, and now you're putting your tail between your legs and retreating back to basically isolationist future of what the dark forces of the world will then surround America, encapsulate America, and eventually destroy America.
Your response, sir.
I think this whole thing about isolationism is just ready hearing.
At the end of the day, those who are favoring realism and restraint actually want to have interaction with the entire world, trade with everyone, have decent relations with everyone.
It's just that we don't want to bomb everyone.
We don't find it necessary to send out American troops to die and kill for meaningless causes.
How can that possibly be interpreted as isolationism?
The other side essentially defines American engagement by a metric of seeing how many countries are we bombing.
That's, I think, what is really wrong here.
Our engagement is not based on how many countries we're bombing, is how we're doing ourselves at home and how we're managing to live in peace with everyone else.
Obviously, we're going to have challengers and enemies, and we have to, of course, address those.
But that doesn't mean that we have to be everywhere all the time, dominating militarily with 750 bases around the world.
trita parsi
When you are trying to dominate every corner of the world all the time, you will be at war somewhere all the time.
unidentified
And that is the history of the United States for the last couple of decades.
trita parsi
Saying that we need to put an end to that is as pro-American as it possibly can get, in my view.
unidentified
Trita, where do people go get your content?
steve bannon
Where do they find out your writings, your organization, your social media?
unidentified
Where do they go?
trita parsi
You should go to my Twitter, which is TParsi, or you should go to our website, which is QuincyInstitute, quincyinst.org.
We're named, of course, after John Quincy Adams, who gave that speech on July 4th, 1821, saying, America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.
unidentified
That's our namesake, precisely for the thinking behind his speech there, where he warned that even if we were to do this, we might become the dictresses of the world, but it will come at the expense of the American people's own liberty, dignity, and freedoms, which is exactly what I think has happened, unfortunately.
Trita, thank you for joining us this morning.
Appreciate you.
trita parsi
Thank you so much for having me.
steve bannon
Pam Bondi, the Attorney General of the United States, just, I think, had a meeting with the New York Police Commissioner.
I believe I'm reading this correctly.
unidentified
And the police commissioner is told, hey, we don't, no problem.
No problem with crime in New York.
Don't need any of the military.
Don't need the National Guard.
steve bannon
Well, look, that's coming.
unidentified
We're a maximalist in this arena.
We'll try to have John Laud on the next couple of days.
President Trump has cleaned up D.C. or begun the process of cleaning up D.C. from crime and filth and what's happened to our beloved capital just in, I don't know, under two weeks.
Next stop, Chicago, next stop, New York.
LA is coming.
I would right now pull the 2024 games from Los Angeles until Newsom and the mayor convinced me that they were not neo-Confederates and it was not a sanctuary state and a sanctuary city and just a mess.
I'd pull it and I'd divide it up.
I'd give it to Atlanta that's had games before and Dallas.
You could break this thing up right now and you wouldn't have to build one new venue.
You would not.
You can make do with what you got with the transportation systems and the can-do attitude of the folks in Georgia and the folks in Texas.
It would be a burden on them, but I think for the good of the country, they would do it.
steve bannon
But I would pull it from Los Angeles.
unidentified
100%.
steve bannon
Not even a question.
unidentified
Brandon, your thoughts?
Why, you know, this hemispheric defense, President Trump talks about it.
steve bannon
Do you actually think it's a strategy?
Do you think it works?
unidentified
Or is this just a cover for America's retreat home and we're defeated?
The CCP and the Russians are going to control the Eurasian landmass, and we're going to come back here like whip dogs, sir.
Well, look, the Russians and Chinese hate each other historically.
brandon weichert
The only reason they're working together is because of what we're doing primarily in Ukraine.
unidentified
And so this is why we should have been ending the Ukraine war on day one of Trump's second term.
Hopefully it comes to be soon, because I think those natural contradictions between Russia and China will arise once the war is over.
We're talking about hemispheric defense because for 30 plus years, every American president since probably Bill Clinton has basically allowed for China and Russia and local actors like Cuba and Venezuela to totally destabilize our own backyard.
Meanwhile, the Canadians have basically let slip the Arctic, which is why, by the way, we should be taking Alberta and Saskatchewan into our union and why we should be absorbing Greenland, which is a European issue.
But Europe and Canada have allowed our Arctic to go to Russia and China.
And we can't do anything around the world that we want to if our own home is being besieged.
This is why we have the Monroe Doctrine.
And every American president has ignored it until Trump.
And that is malpractice on the part of those former presidents and the Congresses that allowed for that to happen.
And I'm hopeful that we can get to a Western hemispheric defense.
brandon weichert
It's Western hemispheric defense, Steve, plus space dominance.
Those are the two things.
unidentified
Brandon, you were on last week.
steve bannon
We broke this all down during the historic meeting at the White House.
unidentified
But correct me if I'm wrong, because you're the expert here.
The Europeans have basically done exactly what they said they're going to do.
steve bannon
They go back.
unidentified
They don't have the troops.
They don't have the arms and they don't have the money.
And most importantly, they don't have the political will to do this.
So right now, as Lavro says, there's no agenda.
And without an agenda, there's no meeting.
Without a meeting, there's no ceasefire and no peace treaty.
The reason there's no agenda, there's not, they're winning.
As brutal as that sounds, as brutal as it is in reality, they're winning, and there's no need for them to stop because the Europeans have proven how feckless and hapless they are, sir.
Well, the Europeans are marching headlong into a war.
They're celebrating and readying it.
And they're readying it by, of course, trying to ensnare us.
brandon weichert
It's very similar to what we were talking about with Israel, where our allies have really gotten ahead of their skis because they think Big Brother is going to have their back and they can take on whoever they want.
unidentified
But guess what?
We can't afford to have their back.
And it's not in our interest, by the way, to be picking fights with nuclear-armed Russia.
brandon weichert
Russia today is not the Soviet Union, no matter what John Oliver on HBO jokes about.
unidentified
It's not.
brandon weichert
They are very different, and we can do business with them.
unidentified
And you brought up Lavrov, and I would just say Lavrov is probably, objectively speaking, the most impressive diplomat in the world right now because he's the only adult in the room.
And you don't negotiate away your position of strength when you're winning.
And so we need to remember that we have lost Ukraine, and we do need to get a negotiated settlement.
But we need to understand we're not going to be able to dictate terms to the Russians anymore.
Brandon, where do people go for your writings?
Pretty impressive.
steve bannon
You make things very accessible, very complex.
unidentified
Issues are accessible.
Where do folks go?
You can go to nationalinterest.org.
brandon weichert
I'm a senior national security editor there.
unidentified
You can hear me at AmericaOutLoud.news, the National Security Hour every Wednesday at 8 p.m. Eastern, syndicated on iHeart.
And also my Twitter at WeTheBrandon.
And you can see all of my rantings there.
Thank you, brother.
Appreciate that.
Thank you, sir.
I'll talk to you soon.
steve bannon
Thank you.
unidentified
We've got our own.
Do we have our own Ben Harnwell from the Eternal City in Rome?
Ben, we're going to blow this break, I think.
Is that correct?
We're going to blow the break through the good offices of Real America's Voice because we're awaiting momentarily the cabinet meeting to start, which President Trump will preside over, and I'm sure he'll say a few words as he always does, maybe go around the table, and I think maybe take a question or two, an incoming or two.
Ben, as bad as the KGB that run the deal, I'm going to say the quiet part out loud.
steve bannon
The reason that the United States, Russia was our biggest ally in the Second World War and shed all that blood when they were run by Marxists and communists and these demons is that Russia is a Christian nation.
unidentified
And there's a lot of affinity between the Russian people and the American people.
And that's what the globalists hate.
steve bannon
These secularists, atheists detest Russia, and they do not want the United States.
unidentified
They don't want to rob Prochman at all.
I know you disagree with a little bit of this going on with its conversation today.
Give us your perspective from Rome and particularly where we are in this fiasco as Lavrov's giving lessons to the infantile American media on what the reality of geopolitics is, sir.
Steve, good morning.
ben harnwell
Well, you don't have to be a fully signed up member of the Third Rome Brigade to realize that Russia is a natural ally of the West.
unidentified
I do have a great sympathy, by the way, with the Third Rome concept.
But you don't have to be all the way in on that to realize that President Putin shares a huge common ground with a lot of what MAGA stands for.
In fact, Steve, over 10 years ago, there was a conference in the Vatican at which you spoke on precisely this point.
And you wouldn't be able to date that as 10 years ago because your position has been so coherent in that Putin could be a bad guy, could be a bit of a thug, but on the world stage, he's a natural ally as a nationalist of many things that MAGA wants.
ben harnwell
And this is 2014.
This is a full year before President Trump even declared his candidacy.
unidentified
I think that, Steve, that's a very reasonable thing to say, right?
So look, it was a very interesting debate, conversation that I just had.
I agreed with pretty much, I didn't really disagree with very much.
I agreed with everything that Brandon was saying.
The only thing I would add, which you would, I 100%, I think, agree with, is that the other thing in Russia's favor here with regards to the ending of this war, however it works itself out, is that this war is existential for Russia and it's not for the West, not for the U.S., not for Europe.
ben harnwell
That is obviously also another thing going in Russia's favor.
And it's why Lavrov, Sergei Lavrov, is holding the line, effectively saying exactly now what he was saying three and a half years ago.
unidentified
Steve, there are things coming out of Europe over the last 240 hours.
The last time I was on the show a couple of days ago, I mentioned the position sponsored by Phoney Maloney that most of Europe seemed to be coalescing behind.
ben harnwell
This was the idea of NATO light, which the war room posse will remember her pitch there being that we're going to give the EU NATO members will give outside of the NATO infrastructure Article 5 type protections to Ukraine as part of the security guarantees without actually inviting formally or formally making Ukraine a member of NATO.
unidentified
Strange enough, now Germany seems to be pushing forward with a slightly different concept.
And you can see the division now that's spitting right down the middle of Germany's political class because a few days ago we heard the foreign minister Johann Varderfool his surname is actually Vaderfoole and he is saying that we really didn't have troops to be able to commit to the security guarantees.
ben harnwell
Well now the vice-chancellor, that is to say the deputy prime minister and finance minister last Klingby said that there will be Germany will be committing security and committing to the security guarantees.
unidentified
However, he said in what Russia was what Germany was going to be pledging, the way he seemed to frame it was that these will come into place, the security guarantees will come into place after a ceasefire is reached rather than as a precondition for the ceasefire.
ben harnwell
The important thing there, Steve, and you can see this from his own remarks, that he's saying that the idea of Putin and Zelensky sitting down with one another is still so far off, it's a bit early to be talking about this.
unidentified
So what he's obviously doing is performative.
They know they're not going to be called on to commit.
So they're doing it.
But hang on, let me tell you what, we got these beauties that got us into this thing at Chirladon, Stavreedus in this crowd.
steve bannon
Let's play a short clip of this, and I want to come back because here's my problem.
unidentified
Or here's reality.
steve bannon
Reality is that anything that has to happen on guarantees, security guarantee, economic guarantees, has to be multi-year and actually will be multi-decade.
unidentified
What they're talking about now barely is anything that even consider us opening a conversation about and they're not going to be around in a couple of years.
I hate to say this.
I think that somebody smart has got to start thinking about what the end game is.
steve bannon
President Trump just reiterated yesterday in the Oval Office that we're not putting up any more money.
He would sell arms to people.
unidentified
And the big arms deal they're talking about in the BBC in the Guardian this morning is a billion dollars a month of financed by the Europeans and purchased the Americans, although we don't have the arms right now.
steve bannon
But the Europeans aren't going to stick around and put up a billion dollars.
unidentified
And that's nothing.
That's just a drop in the bucket.
Number one, also they don't have any more manpower.
This is why they're allowing 60-year-olds.
How many of the audience are 60 years old?
You feel like picking up a weapon and going to the Eastern Front in Ukraine and fighting the Russian army in that environment in that cold or the heat in an environment that looks like the Western front in World War I?
Is that what you want to do?
Do we have the clip we can play?
steve bannon
I kind of lost my monitor here.
Let's play the clip.
unidentified
It's taking all this very seriously.
They say they're taking it very seriously, and they understand, of course, that that threat, not just of sanctions, but of course also of secondary tariffs against countries that buy Russian oil is still very much out there by the U.S. president.
At the same time, it really appears as though the Kremlin believes that time is on their side.
Some of the things that we've heard here in Moscow over the past couple of days, especially from Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, saying that Vladimir Putin, on the whole, is ready and is willing to have a summit, a direct meeting with Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine, but that something like that needs to be accurately prepared, as he put it, and needs to be prepared in a way that actual progress can be achieved.
And the Russians, at least for their part, are saying they believe that things are still very far away from that being the case.
They certainly aren't talking about this two-week deadline or whether or not there's going to be a summit in those two weeks.
They are saying that it is still very much a long road ahead before a summit like that could take place.
And there's really two things that the Russians are focusing on.
frederik pleitgen
One of them is those security guarantees for Ukraine that, of course, the Ukrainians and their European allies keep talking about.
unidentified
And of course, the White House as well, possible Western troops on the ground in Ukraine, possibly the U.S. also chipping in, for instance, with air power.
frederik pleitgen
The Russians are saying that they don't want Western troops on the ground.
unidentified
They are saying that that would be detrimental to Russian security.
frederik pleitgen
They, in fact, want to have a say in Ukraine's future security as well.
That's something that, of course, could be very difficult to breach.
unidentified
And then, as far as territories are concerned, the Russians still saying that they believe the Ukrainians are going to have to give up territory, and that's something that, of course, needs to be discussed.
So, right now, the Russians are saying that from their vantage point, Vladimir Putin is ready to meet with Vladimir Zelensky, but it certainly doesn't appear from the Russians that all of that is in the cards anytime soon or possibly anytime soon.
The next thing on Vladimir Putin's agenda is, of course, his big trip to China that he's going to be holding at the end of this week, where he's going to meet with Xi Jinping.
frederik pleitgen
The relations between Russia and China, of course, are very important.
unidentified
And one of the things that we've seen the Russians do in the run-up to that big visit by Vladimir Putin in China is that the speaker of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Voludin, is already on the ground in China, meeting with senior Chinese officials, including Xi Jinping, and saying that those bilateral relations, if anything, are going to become even more important than before.
What we can see right now is China and Russia moving closer together, also in the face, of course, of pressure from the Trump administration, Danny.
admiral james stavridis
Number one, financial secondary sanctions on those who purchase Russian oil.
Hit Putin where it hurts, his economy.
Number two, military.
unidentified
Fred mentioned it a moment ago.
Let's get serious about putting Western troops into Ukraine.
Make them trainers, advisors.
Don't have to be American boots on the ground, but show that plan to Putin.
There is a military component.
And then, third, politically, we talked right after the summit, President Trump did, with a lot of European leaders about the idea of giving diplomatic security guarantees NATO-like.
An attack on one, an attack on all, Article 5-like.
I think it's time to roll those three Trump cards out and start playing them because until you do.
Stavoritis ought to be put on trial.
What he's done is so destructive.
steve bannon
This clown has been, and I knew this guy back in the Navy.
This clown has been dead wrong about everything.
The blood on his hands and the other punks like him.
unidentified
And now, having lost everywhere, having been misled everybody, having lied about things and been wrong, right?
Now their whole thing, you need boots on the ground.
But hey, we're just going to start with advisors and trainers.
steve bannon
You hear that pitch before?
Was that not back in the early 1960s as Vietnam?
unidentified
This is how you get involved in everything.
We're just going to have a couple of advisors, just advisors, and a couple trainers.
We're going to train some people.
It doesn't have to be boots on the ground.
It's going to be tennis shoe sneakers on the ground, just sneakers.
steve bannon
They won't give it up.
unidentified
You lost.
This war is over.
The Ukrainian people have been destroyed.
1.8 million casualties, dead or one of Ukrainians, a million over a million Russians.
Suck on that for a minute.
Those are casuals bigger than the start of World War II until they went in, and I'm talking about the fall of Western Europe and North Africa.
Until they went into Russia, I mean, these are horrific numbers.
And the amount of money, the blood and treasure, and it was the blood of the Ukrainian people, as Mersheimer said, and Jack Pasobic said, and Ben Harnwell said from Rome, and Stephen K. Bannon from the Imperial Capitol.
steve bannon
Over and over and over again, over three years ago.
unidentified
And these people are still at it.
I mean, the chutzpah is just mine.
Here's why they can do it because nobody holds them accountable.
MSNBC is a disgrace.
When you guys are, when you're spun off into your new company and your new name, you're going to collapse.
steve bannon
You don't have the viewership.
unidentified
You don't have boy, if Bobby Kennedy, if we were ever able to get ever able to get ads being taken out, if we're ever able to be getting pharmaceutical ads taken out, it'd be over.
steve bannon
Ben Harnwell, your thoughts after you heard the overall vision?
Because this is not happening.
unidentified
Salvini kind of undercut Maloney yesterday.
He's screaming at on Twitter, he's screaming at Macrone, who's still talking about putting troops he doesn't have in Ukraine.
And Salvini says it'll never happen.
No Italian troops.
Did he and Maloney ever talk to each other, sir?
It's just performative as far as Italian politics goes.
And whilst we're talking about Pony Maloney, I have to bring out the fact, as I, thanks for giving me the intro for this, right?
Because it is astonishing.
ben harnwell
Here's a person who is claiming that Russia represents an existential threat to Italy.
unidentified
And she's spending $16 trillion on a bridge to connect the mainland with the island of Sicily.
The point is obvious, right?
Which, by the way, she's going to count using the Italian genius for dodgy accounting, creative accounting.
She's going to detract that from her 5% commitment that she looked at President Trump in the eye and said she would do.
If Phoney Maloney really thought that Russia represented an existential threat to Italy, she'd be putting that $16 trillion, which is a lot of money for Italy.
It's a tenth of the size of the U.S. economy, right?
So just times it by 10 to get that in U.S. terms.
If she really thought that Russia was an existential threat, she'd be piling that money, believe me, into tanks and airplanes.
Okay, to go back a little bit to the questions that you asked me, however, before we had that CNN clip and the ridiculousness from Admiral Stavridas, about this billion dollars per month, which Zelensky said on Monday yesterday, he thinks he's going to get from his European allies.
Firstly, whether he gets that money or whether he doesn't, you can bet your bottom dollar, folks, as Steve, as you would say, as sure as the turning of the earth.
As sure as the turning of the earth, that money, if it comes, that $1 billion per month, that will be detracted from the member states' 5% NATO pledge.
And I want to make this point, okay?
President Trump, when he s pushed his European so-called allies, his NATO allies, into committing to boosting their defense expenditure from 2% to 5%, he did that because he wants peace.
He wants these European countries to be able to defend themselves because strong secure nation states create peaceful neighborhoods.
He underestimated, Steve, how wily, however, how wily and corrupt these nations are.
He's telling them to increase their expenditure, and that money that he was hoping was going to go into tanks and aeroplanes, largely I guess produced by the U.S., they're going to funnel that money instead of buying tanks and airplanes, they're going to funnel that money into Zelensky.
ben harnwell
This 5%, which is a disaster, that's not what President Trump wants.
President Trump wants peace.
He didn't want to force these European nations into the very mechanism that's going to keep this war going.
unidentified
I'll give back to you on this point, Steve.
For this 5%, which is a good idea in principle, for that to really deliver what President Trump is hoping for, he really needs to appoint like an envoy, special envoy, I don't know,
of ambassador rank or cabinet rank or something like that, that spends their time, someone who understands the military, someone who understands a balance sheet, and then goes around all the European capitals and makes sure that they spend their increased defense expenditure on legitimate expenditure, not on bridges to nowhere.
Because at the moment, they're just taking what President Trump has insisted on and they're creating the environment for further chaos and their long-term strategy, Steve, to come back to the point you asked me about this $1 billion per month being a long-term thing.
ben harnwell
They are trying to see Trump out and in the meantime, create the pretext to drag the United States into this conflict.
unidentified
Hang on for a second.
I want to have you stick there.
steve bannon
We got L. Todd Wood is with us over at CDM Media, Creative Destruction Media.
unidentified
Todd, and you're joining us from an undisclosed, I guess, still location in the Middle East.
Talk to me about, you wrote this provocative piece the other day up on CDM about the formation of a Christian state.
We have a Jewish state called Israel, but the formation, potential formation of a Christian state in areas of the Middle East.
What do you mean by that?
Well, Steve, thanks for having me on.
I have been meeting for the last two weeks with religious, military, and political leaders here in Lebanon.
And you talked about pattern recognition.
l todd wood
The pattern in Lebanon has been a slow but steady and intentional, in my point, in my view, destruction of the Christian population in Lebanon.
unidentified
In 1970, it was close to 70% of the country.
It's down below 40 now.
And why is that?
l todd wood
Because they brought in Palestinians in the start of a 15-year civil war.
They brought in the Syrians.
unidentified
George Bush, Daddy Bush allowed Syrians to take over Lebanon so they would join him in the Gulf War.
And it was very destructive to the Christian power centers, economy, and everything.
And now you've got 2 million Sunnis who have been let in fleeing the Assad regime, which are not going back now that the regime is over.
l todd wood
These Christians are terrified.
unidentified
I met with some Christian leaders who evaded Syria a few days ago for hours.
I'm telling you, they're in hiding.
They're terrified.
They think there are Sunni terror cells throughout the country.
l todd wood
There's 50,000 militants that we trained, the U.S. trained, mercenaries, Azeris, Uzbeks, Chechens on the border.
unidentified
They're worried about what Galani is going to do.
And the big thing that always happens here is nobody, they talk about Israeli security, which is legitimate.
l todd wood
They talk about the new government in Syria.
Nobody talks about the welfare of the Christians.
Nobody.
unidentified
Even today, nobody is talking about this.
And yes, a Christian state has been reported to be being discussed in the White House and in the Trump administration.
We'll see where that takes us.
l todd wood
But right now, we need people to stand up for the Christians here.
unidentified
This is where Jesus walked on these lands.
l todd wood
The Christian apostles went up through Lebanon, up through Syria and into Turkey and Armenia.
unidentified
And then during the Armenian genocide, they marched millions of them into the Syrian desert.
l todd wood
So there's a lot of Armenians here now.
unidentified
They're worried about an October 7th-style attack on Christians here in Lebanon.
l todd wood
And that's what I wish the Trump administration would focus on.
unidentified
Well, look, the Syria, Jordan, parts of Lebanon, even Turkey, that's the, and you had Egypt and they're the desert fathers.
steve bannon
That's the, you know, that's the beginning of the church.
unidentified
That's first century Christianity.
But aren't we past that?
I mean, hasn't the church essentially been obliterated since the beginning of the 20th century, sir?
Well, in the Middle East, it has.
Iraq, there were millions there that have been essentially wiped out.
Close to 2 million Syrians, Christians, which have mostly been destroyed.
l todd wood
I spoke with some people from the village where they still speak Aramaic, which was the language of Christ.
unidentified
I mean, it's being disappeared.
And my point is we need a Christian stronghold in the Middle East.
I mean, this is where, as you said, the faith started.
But another thing is they're looking to disarm Hezbollah, which is, you know, probably for Tel Aviv in order to remove that threat, which I understand their worry about that.
But Hezbollah is only the only group that actually was taking care in protecting the Christians in the Syrian civil war.
l todd wood
So there's a lot of intertwining, I guess, allegiances here.
unidentified
And what we need is the decision process to focus on the Christian faith in the Middle East.
And last time I checked, we were about 70% Christians still in the U.S.
And the Shias control 40% of the Lebanese military.
Are they going to disarm Hezbollah?
I mean, it's a big question.
And where will that lead?
l todd wood
Will it lead to a war?
unidentified
I mean, Tom Barrett's here now.
He made a comment today, which lit up Lebanon.
He called the journalists in the newsroom animals and par for the region, he said.
And the Middle East is the Twitter sphere is blowing up.
So it's a mess, Steve.
l todd wood
And we need, my point is, we focus on the Christian people here and then go from there.
unidentified
We'll be a lot better off.
But haven't we, in our management, right, of the American global empire, one of the biggest disasters is American, which is supposed to be a Christian nation.
Its management of this region, as far as Christians goes.
I mean, we've overseen, correct me if I'm wrong, we've overseen the wholesale slaughter and really genocide of Christians in Mesopotamia, you know, all the way up to Syria, Lebanon, the whole Levant, right?
steve bannon
I mean, this is on our watch of Bush and these guys are supposed to be evangelical Christians, correct?
unidentified
Well, you put your finger on it.
In the first Gulf War, you know, you and I were around that time in the military, and Bush made a deal with the Syrians.
He said, if you join our effort against Saddam Hussein, you can have your way with Syria.
And that was a really destructive time, a 15-year period for the Christians in Lebanon.
So H.W. Bush has blood on his hands for that.
And it's been the United States that has intentionally pushed this destructive force on Lebanon.
l todd wood
It used to be the Paris of the Middle East.
unidentified
It used to be a very lovely location.
l todd wood
It's not that way anymore.
unidentified
Although there are people here fighting for it.
You know, there was an American journalist abducted here a few days ago, and so they brought me to the Lady of Our Well convent in the hills above Beirut for safety reasons.
l todd wood
They threw me in a bunch of nuns.
unidentified
I guess they figured nobody could get me here.
l todd wood
But this is an extremely Christian area.
unidentified
You could come here, and they don't care if you're Catholic, Maronite, Orthodox, Protestant.
So you're Christian.
steve bannon
Todd, I want people to go to read this thing because in a time where we're saying, hey, we got to get out of this region of the world and downplay CENCOM, you're actually arguing there's a reason for us to actually double or triple down, which is the Christian community.
unidentified
So I want to, first off, there's some people that support that.
There's a lot of people who heads are blown up and going, what are we talking about, right?
This is counter to what has to be reality, that we've just made a mess of the area.
steve bannon
The more we're involved, the worse it gets.
unidentified
Now the Israelis are trying to, you know, Netanyahu's trying to suck us into a regime change war in Persia.
So where do people go first off for your content?
Social media, all of it while you're over there, also CDM media.
Well, real quick, I'm not advocating military action.
l todd wood
I just want to focus on the bully pulpit on the Christian community in Lebanon.
unidentified
But you can go to CDM.press.
l todd wood
If you put us in your daily scan, you'll get a lot of news.
You're not getting anywhere else across the world.
unidentified
My ex is real L. Todd Wood, and would appreciate a follow-up.
Thanks, Steve.
Let's go to social media and follow Todd.
By the way, Tom Barrick is a breath of fresh air, a very close friend of President Trump's and very close to the president.
Todd, thank you so much.
steve bannon
We're going to go to the as soon as the cabinet starts, as soon as they walk in, we're going to go.
unidentified
Todd, thank you so much.
Ben Harnwell, you've actually, people should know, Ben texted me during Todd's presentation and said he would volunteer to lead part of the European.
You would actually leave from Rome on part of this crusade to build a Christian state in the Levant, sir?
No, Steve, I wouldn't.
Nice try, nice ploy.
I know you're hoping that this segment is going to get taken over by the cut to the cabinet.
But whilst the camera is still focused on me, no, folks.
ben harnwell
Look, I want to pay tribute to Todd, Todd Rodania, and CDM Media for getting hold of that story.
unidentified
They're the only guys who did.
Credit to them.
That's really what sort of citizen-based journalism is all about.
I tip my hat to them on that.
ben harnwell
The fact, however, that this Trump administration is supposedly considering setting up a Christian state in the Middle East.
Oh my God.
unidentified
You see, folks, your country is in the hands of the military-industrial complex.
ben harnwell
It's not a joke.
It's not like something that conspiracy theorists like to talk about.
They will take your, look, I'm talking to you largely in the evangelical audience, right?
unidentified
They will take your goodwill and your decency and your interest in protecting fellow believers.
And they will do the nation-building fiasco of the neocons 20, 30 years ago.
That will be a walk into the park, in the park behind what they are going to need to do to back up a Christian state of all places where in the Middle East, right?
You go down that line, folks, and forget it.
ben harnwell
Retracting yourselves and concentrating on your own country, which is the heart of the America First Movement.
That will never happen.
unidentified
You're going to get into this and you will never get out.
This would be the Christian equivalent of what Israel is for American Zionists, only with far more of a 70% electoral base.
ben harnwell
Absolute disaster, Steve.
Count me out.
unidentified
Ben Harnwell, social media, where do people get you?
And thank you for sticking around, being on the show this morning.
Thanks, Steve.
ben harnwell
God bless.
unidentified
Get to my social media platform of choice.
Tap in my surname, which is Harnwell, and you will find equally provocative things to what I just said there at the top of the feed, awaiting you.
ben harnwell
Thanks, Steve.
unidentified
God bless.
Thank you, brother.
Jim Rickert's one of the best geopolitical thinkers.
We have an arrangement with him, RickardsWarroom.com.
That's a landing page.
steve bannon
You can get access to his newsletter, Strategic Intelligence.
unidentified
You don't want to miss it.
steve bannon
This is what's read in C-suites and by sophisticated investors throughout the world.
unidentified
You get the inside baseball.
steve bannon
He's got a special deal for you over there on Strategic Intelligence.
unidentified
Also throws in a free book, Money GPT, which talks about fiat currency and artificial intelligence.
And it's a wake-up call.
steve bannon
Rickardswarroom.com.
unidentified
So go check it out today.
steve bannon
Trevor, Comstock, make us feel healthy, brother.
unidentified
About to cut to a cabinet meeting.
steve bannon
What do you got for us?
unidentified
Where do people go?
How they find out, get access to the products you're on, particularly this new product to make us all sharper and more focused, sir.
Yeah, Steve, great to see you.
So today I really just wanted to announce that we just launched another new product, which is our creatine powder.
And I'm really excited about this one just because it has a ton of benefits behind it.
But for those who don't know, creatine is really amazing because it's one of the most studied and effective nutrients available.
And it supports things like brain health, memory, as well as cognitive function.
And then also it helps your brain produce more energy, which can do things like improve focus and mental clarity, which just makes it great for anyone looking to stay sharp and alert, especially if you're sleep-deprived or fatigued.
Also, it's fantastic for physical performance.
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Now, compared to most other brain or performance supplements on the market, the issues with those is that, once again, they're typically filled with unnecessary fillers and preservatives.
And then also they have a lot of proprietary blends that are pretty diluted or just not very effective at all.
Whereas creatine is just clean and trusted and really does give your body and brain a natural boost in a form that's easy to mix into pretty much anything.
It doesn't have a taste, so you can put in coffee, you can put in water, smoothies, juices, wherever.
But yeah, once again, it's really just a great product for anyone looking to boost memory and focus while also supporting muscle strength and recovery.
And again, creatine is one of the most researched supplements in the world with decades of studies supporting its effectiveness.
trevor comstock
So I can't say enough about it.
unidentified
I've personally been taking creatine for years and I always feel amazing and really sharp on it.
So I'm excited that we have it on our stack now.
No, and particularly the fact that you guys don't roll one hit product after the next.
Where do people go to get the website, to look at the reviews, to find out all the information you guys put out and particularly get in contact with you?
Where do they go?
Yeah, you can go to sacredhumanhealth.com and then you can also use code Warroom for 10% off.
There's a ton of information under each product if you want to click on the creatine product or any of our other ones.
And then if you have any questions, just hit the contact us button.
You can shoot us a message and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
But yeah, sacredhumanhealth.com.
Thank you, sir.
Appreciate you.
Thank you.
I got that clock right there.
I got a small one right there.
steve bannon
Thank you.
unidentified
I tell you what, Charlie Kirk's going to follow us.
steve bannon
I think he's going to pick up the cabinet meeting.
It's running a little late.
I still think it's going to happen.
unidentified
Those cabinet meetings are always spectacular because president has an opening statement, sometimes goes a while, but you get his latest thinking.
Then he goes around the table, puts some questions, some folks, and then normally takes QA from the, what did Tom Barrick call the Middle East press today?
steve bannon
A pack of animals.
unidentified
Tom Barrick, a buddy of mine.
Good man.
steve bannon
See, he's the ambassador-at-large, I think, for the whole region.
unidentified
Special advisors, absolutely fantastic.
We need you at the ramparts.
You know, it's supposed to be the last week of August, traditionally one of the slowest times of the year, lead up to Labor Day weekend.
Well, folks, I would tell you, it's 24-7 here around the world.
steve bannon
So much going on.
We've got so many projects, and we're going to need people at the ramparts, particularly.
I'll break it down in more detail tomorrow, but this NDAA, why is this must-pass?
unidentified
It's must-pass for the military-industrial complex.
I think it's now time we got to tell them, yo, yo, it's supposed to be hemispheric defense.
steve bannon
What are you doing here?
unidentified
Why do we have over a trillion dollars?
And we're getting weaker all the time.
Just doesn't make sense.
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steve bannon
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unidentified
Don't let that happen.
Minstrel Boy from Blackhawk Down will take us out.
Back at 5 o'clock.
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