All Episodes
March 3, 2026 - Bannon's War Room
48:51
Episode 5183: Next Steps With The War In Iran

Stephen K. Bannon dissects the U.S.-led February 28, 2026, strikes on Iran—sparked by Israel’s Tehran assaults—where six U.S. troops died in Kuwait amid unanswered questions about coordination and congressional bypassing. General Kane’s multi-domain campaign crippled Iranian naval/missile assets but faces prolonged retaliation, while Marco Rubio’s preemptive claims clash with skepticism over "imminent threats." Geopolitical fallout includes Gulf states’ fury and Saudi retaliation talks, framed as a CCP warning by Jan Yekalik, who ties Iran’s strikes to China’s Taiwan ambitions. Gold surges amid chaos, yet Bannon demands clearer war goals, echoing Iraq-era transparency failures. [Automatically generated summary]

Participants
Main
g
gen dan caine
06:18
j
jan jekielek
05:08
s
steve bannon
r 19:06
Appearances
b
brian glenn
04:33
c
col peter mansoor
00:39
d
david rohde
nbc 00:49
e
erin burnett
cnn 00:53
m
marco rubio
admin 03:52
m
mike lindell
r 01:21
Clips
d
donald j trump
admin 00:27
j
jake tapper
cnn 00:09
m
martha maccallum
fox 00:05
|

Speaker Time Text
Iranian Regime Threat 00:03:51
donald j trump
Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat to the Middle East, but also to the American people.
Our country itself would be under threat, and it was very nearly under threat.
I was very proud to have knocked out the Iran nuclear deal by President Barack Hussein Obama.
That was a horrible, horrible, dangerous document.
They would have had nuclear weapons.
erin burnett
We're just getting this information from the Israeli military right now.
They say that they have hit, their words, dozens of targets belonging to the Iranian regime and its intelligence services in Tehran.
So they're putting that out there.
Now, we've seen evidence, right?
As I mentioned, Colonel, we've seen some of the images, but they're now saying specifically dozens, and they're giving a bit more detail as I'm speaking here.
They're saying that those dozens of strikes specifically targeted headquarters, bases, and regional command centers of, and I'm quoting them, the Iranian terrorist regime's internal security bodies.
Now, that's coming from a statement that the IDF has just put out.
david rohde
He never talked about the goal being getting rid of just the ruler, Ali Khamenei.
He talked about the Iranian regime regime.
He mentioned it nine times.
He called for members of the Revolutionary Guard and the Army and all of the police to lay down their weapons or face certain death.
And he called for the Iranian people to take over your government.
That is regime change.
This morning, Pete Hegset says this isn't about regime change.
And then the president at the Medal of Honor ceremonies you just played, he's saying, oh, this is about reducing their ballistic missile capabilities, their nuclear things, and they sort of exaggerated the missile capabilities.
So it's all very confusing.
And then in the middle of those two events on Sunday, the president spoke with the New York Times and talked about how the Venezuela situation, which was just the ruler Maduro and his wife being ousted, how that was a perfect solution.
So it's all very jumbled at this point.
unidentified
That is a discussion that has not been had because he bypassed Congress.
The accountability mechanism.
martha maccallum
A president has the right to take military action for 60 days.
unidentified
If there's an imminent threat.
And there is no imminent threat.
martha maccallum
Well, that might be your opinion.
That's your opinion.
unidentified
I sit on the armed services and the intelligence committee.
If there are imminent threats, they have an obligation to tell us about it.
I have seen no imminent threat.
And even people within the administration have denied that there's an imminent threat.
So, listen, I think eventually there'll be a need for boots on the ground.
I would not exclude it for those reasons or other, but we'll have to see how it goes forward.
And will that include Israeli boots on the ground, do you think?
I exclude nothing.
We've been waiting for 47 years, and we came to a point where every necessary means should be taken in order to achieve our goals.
erin burnett
Yeah, it certainly appeared, at least from what we understand from the reporting, that the human intelligence so central to the initial strike here actually came from possibly a CIA intelligence agent on the ground, as opposed to Israeli, which we know obviously they have a deep network within Iran, but that that was a CIA specifically.
col peter mansoor
Well, let's take two of the objectives off the table: that would be regime change and Iran support from militias around the region.
That leaves three goals, which is their nuclear program, their missile capabilities, and their Navy.
And to destroy all the targets associated with those three areas, I think would take four to six weeks at a minimum.
And then, of course, we'll have to get the battle damage assessment and re-engage those that either we missed or that new targets pop up.
But it's going to be an extensive campaign.
This is not going to be over in a matter of days.
Extensive Campaign Ahead 00:08:06
steve bannon
This is the primal scream of a dying regime.
Pray for our enemies because we're going to medieval on these people.
You're going to have 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.
It's going to happen.
jake tapper
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.
steve bannon
Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?
If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
unidentified
Here's your host, Stephen K. Vance.
steve bannon
It's Monday, the 2nd of March in the year of our Lord, 2026.
We are in, we're in it now as this war starts to spread or this military operation starts to spread into other parts of the Middle East.
We've had many of the Gulf states start to participate in this.
And I understand that there's real anger from some of the Gulf states about the Persians hitting them during Ramadan.
So this, in fact, is a bunch of pieces of some reporting done that the Saudis are talking to the Americans right now, talking to us about actually doing their own independent strike.
So so much going on here.
Today, two things.
First of all, I had President Trump first time actually live to address this at the Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room.
Said some very powerful stuff about what drove him to do it and what we should look for.
Also, this morning at eight o'clock, we covered it here live in Rillemer's Voice, but we didn't have time to play the package.
We showed Pete Hegseth in the morning show, but we didn't have a chance to show a package on General Raisin Kane.
Remember, General Kane, just to put it in perspective, the ISIS campaign in President Trump's first term in 2017 that was so successful.
Remember, President Obama has said it would be a generational effort to take down ISIS.
When I talk about ISIS, I mean the caliphate, the physical caliphate of ISIS that was, I don't know, a third of Iraq and 50 percent of Syria, it seemed like at the time.
But it was quite large, had oil revenues, was recruiting 10,000 people a month, individual a month, principally from Europe, from the mass migrations in Europe and other converts.
President Trump committed on the campaign trail he was going to destroy ISIS.
I think it took four or five months.
Now, Jim Mattis, Mad Dog Mattis, or Chaos, as his call sign was, was the Secretary of Defense, but it was really Raisin Kane, General Kane, that ran the operations.
That's where President Trump first met him.
And he was so impressed with General Kane during the ISIS campaign of the first term that he brought him back as chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
General Kane has done the expeditionary hit that ended the 12-day war with total obliteration, at least at that time their assessment was total obliteration of Iran's nuclear program.
And then he led the expeditionary effort, this magnificent expeditionary effort to essentially decapitate Maduro and his wife as the head of the regime there.
They made a deal with the existing regime and seem to have at least built a working relationship.
President Trump, and President Trump likes optionality in a range of alternatives that he's not boxed in, that he can maneuver.
I think he's been talking about optionality.
He says, hey, this thing could take four or five weeks.
I don't know.
He's not going to put a time on it.
He's also talked to Brett Baer.
His paradigm here is Venezuela.
And he believes has already done Venezuela.
Also, they have not, I think for operational security and other reasons, given the in-depth briefing, which my understanding is maybe the Navy commander of the Naval Forces may give that tomorrow or the next day of how lethal some of this action has been.
My understanding is that they've gone down to very, very deep with the Revolutionary Guard, even down to the battalion level to decapitate not just the Mulas, not the Ayatollah and the Mulas and the next in line.
President Trump is pretty upfront.
He says, hey, we had two or three guys that were socially in line we thought we could deal with, but guess what?
They're all dead.
So there's been, I think, a deeper strike into their into their into the command structure.
I want to play Raisin Kane.
Can we go ahead and play?
We got Raisin Kane and we have Marco Ruby.
I want to break them both down.
We don't have Raisin Kane?
Terrific.
I'll tell you, let me go into the next hangar for Rubio for a second.
We can break that in pieces, I take it.
Thank you, sir.
Marco Rubio gave a, I think, I wouldn't say impromptu.
He was at the sticks, but he gave about a 12 or 13 minute.
I think it was one of the best explanations that we've had so far of what's going on.
General Kane gave a terrific briefing earlier today with Pete Hex that took a question or two from the reporters.
It was not Norman Schwarzkopf.
I think that the Pentagon may eventually go to that.
I think maybe the Navy Admiral, maybe General Kane, where you're going to see some video once they're confident about the operational security, I think you'll see some video.
I think you'll see some maps, some charts.
Maybe they have a ruler and point up at it and walk you through it.
Remember, if you're old enough to remember, I think you have to be a boomer to be that General Norman Schwarzkopf in the Gulf War really became an expert in these presentations.
It kind of galvanized the nations, made him a national hero, and garnered, I think, tremendous support for the military effort over there because people could understand it.
Also, a couple of things, housekeeping.
Number one, gold finished at what, 53.40.
It's not the price of gold.
It's the process that drives it.
We've talked a lot about financial risk, the risk of the dollar, these massive deficits under Biden, the drop in the purchasing power of the dollar that was going to get the BRICS nations going, the central banks buying gold.
We said, we'll lay that out for you.
You have to make your own decisions, but we want to make you as smart as possible.
Also, that geopolitics, a fancy term for, I don't know, war and peace, was also because the business community, financial community, markets like stability.
And obviously, when the balloon is up and people are shooting at each other, particularly in a region like the Gulf, where so much of the world's oil, I think 20% of the world's oil goes through the streets of Ramuse today, particularly to Asia and to parts of Europe, that that leads to instability.
And that's why gold has been a hedge.
When I say a hedge, it's something that can protect you against times of financial turbulence.
Birchgold.com, promo code banning, end of the dollar empire.
Make sure you get that.
Kane or Rubio?
Okay, fine.
Let's go ahead and play.
I tell you what.
Go to Birch Gold, get all the, and Birch Gold's got a website.
They put tons of information on Philip Patrick.
I think Philip Patrick's going to be with us tomorrow.
Natalie Winters are going to also join us tomorrow.
She's got an amazing piece up about open borders and going after Iran, the price you might have to pay.
Nina Rodriguez is going to be with us in the six o'clock hour.
Like I said, Nina really broke that story yesterday, but for operational security reason, we didn't talk about it because it had not been totally confirmed by the FBI.
Let's go ahead and play a couple minutes of General Kane and then I'll come back after the break.
Let's go ahead and let it rip.
gen dan caine
On Saturday, 28th February at 0115 Eastern Standard Time, 9.45 a.m. local Tehran time, on the orders of the President of the United States, U.S. Central Command under the command of United States Navy Admiral Brad Cooper commenced Operation Epic Fury.
As I said, I'm going to walk you through the initial phases of the operation.
Operation Epic Fury Commences 00:02:32
gen dan caine
But first, I want to express my deep condolences and the condolences of the Joint Force to the Department of War personnel killed and wounded in action thus far.
As the Secretary said, they're heroes and represent the best of our nation has to offer.
They're true examples of what selfless service means.
Our deepest and heartfelt condolences are with their families, their friends, and their units.
We grieve with you and we will never forget you.
Additionally, I stand here before you today grateful for each service member, planner, logistician operator across our joint force, for our Department of War civilians, our intelligence community teammates, our interagency teammates who continue to stand in harm's way alongside us.
I am proud of all of you as you take the fight to the enemy, and we are the best in the world at integrating, period.
I want to extend my personal gratitude to the dedicated commanders and senior enlisted leaders and the enlisted members of the Joint Force who are fighting this fight across the CENTCOM AOR.
In addition to Admiral Cooper and Fleet Master Chief Compton, I want to highlight a few today.
U.S. Army Central Command Commander Lieutenant General Pat Frank, who along with his team are fighting the counter-missile and counter-drone fight.
United States Navy Central Command Commander Vice Admiral Kurt Renshaw and his team who are engaged with the Iranian Navy and projecting American naval combat power from the seas.
And United States Air Force Central Command Commander Lieutenant General Derek France and his leadership team who are crushing Iranian targets from the air.
I want to highlight the support to the CENTCOM fight from other combatant commands who are directly involved with this effort to include U.S. Spacecom, U.S. Cybercom, and U.S. UCOM.
I also want to specifically call out United States Transportation Command and U.S. STRATCOM for their contributions to this fight.
We cannot project American combat power at the time and place of our choosing without both.
And finally, I want to express how deeply thankful I am for the continued service and sacrifice of the entire Joint Force and their families.
Their unwavering commitment and dedication are the cornerstones of this effort.
Congress Weighs Radical Theology 00:15:26
steve bannon
Okay, we're going to take a short break and we're going to come back after a commercial break and continue on with General Kane.
As I said, the president holds him in the highest regard.
And you see right there, he talks about the unified command and power projection.
Also, as an update, six members of the United States military are now killed in action, 18 wounded, 18 casualties.
We'll return after a short commercial break to the old room.
unidentified
Here's your host, Stephen K. Babb.
steve bannon
Okay, welcome back.
Brian Glenn's going to join me right now.
Brian, thank you for coming, for stepping in here.
I want to break down this game film.
We did Pete Hegseth this morning, and I want to break down for the audience General Raisin Kane, who is really the chief, obviously the chief military advisor, but I would tell you, someone that President Trump puts a lot of trust in, given his track record against ISIS, his track record against the 12 in the 12-day war, and also in the Venezuelan situation.
Let's go ahead and play the rest of his briefing, and I think he also throws in a question there.
Let's go ahead and hear it.
gen dan caine
So let me start with a few details.
First, to be clear, as the Secretary said, this is not a single overnight operation.
The military objectives that CENCOM and the joint force have been tasked with will take some time to achieve, and in some cases, will be difficult and gritty work.
We expect to take additional losses.
And as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses.
But as the Secretary said, this is major combat operations.
So let me talk about the preparation and the planning.
On February 28th, the full strength of America's armed forces came together in a unified purpose against a capable and determined adversary.
The United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, and our reserve components integrated across our combatant commands and began coordinated operations with the Israeli armed forces of an unprecedented scale.
As the Secretary laid out, our military objectives are clear.
Our mission is to protect and defend ourselves and together with our regional partners, prevent Iran from the ability to project power outside of its borders and be ready for follow-on actions as appropriate.
Across every domain, land, air, sea, cyber, the U.S. Joint Force delivered synchronized and layered effects designed to disrupt, degrade, deny, and destroy Iran's ability to conduct and sustain combat operations.
On the U.S. side, this marked the culmination of months and in some cases years of deliberate planning and refinement against this particular target set.
From precision strikes against key military infrastructure to persistent intelligence and targeting integration to the close coordination of the components across vast distances, this operation again demonstrated America's reach, readiness, and professionalism and that of our joint United Force.
It was historic not only in the operational scope, but in the level of joint integration displayed across every element of the joint force.
And as I said earlier, this work is just beginning and will continue.
So now to talk a little bit about setting the force and setting the theater.
On the order of the Secretary of War over the last 30 days to reinforce deterrence and provide the president with credible options should action be required, the joint force began to systematically reposition assets and personnel across the region.
These movements ensured that U.S. forces remained postured, protected, and ready to respond decisively for any emerging threat.
This deployment included thousands of service members from all branches, hundreds of advanced fourth and fifth generation fighters, dozens of refueling tankers, the Lincoln and Ford carrier strike group and their embarked air wings, sustained flow of munitions, fuel, supplies, all supported with command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance network.
And the flow of forces continues today.
In fact, Admiral Cooper will receive additional forces even today.
This rapid buildup of forces demonstrated the joint forces' ability to adapt and project power at the time and place of our nation's choosing.
steve bannon
So Brian Glenn, there you saw, and that was a very big overview of what they set in place.
It was not a Schwarzkopf-type briefing with grainy gun camera video blowing up some stuff.
You don't have big maps of where the deployments are, don't have charts.
They've been very limited in what they've given reporters because of Operation Security.
Do you think it's some time to get the American people more to understand what's going on?
The briefings, and they talk about Admiral Cooper.
A-R-R-A-O-R means area of responsibility.
That's kind of the combatant commander.
I think the Naval Forces are under Admiral Cooper.
Maybe he does it tomorrow the next day.
Do you think we're getting on the clock that we've got to cut to the chase and make sure people understand what's going on?
brian glenn
Yes, sir, Steve.
I think we really do need to update the American people, not only why we're doing this, but a little bit of the thought process in building up to this.
I do believe, and he said it, that this has been planned for months, if not years.
And I'll go back, and maybe this is going down a rabbit hole here, but I think when we changed it from Secretary of Defense to Secretary of War, Department of Defense, Department of War, that was proactively getting the American mindset in the right frame of mind, rather, that we are going to be proactive in defending this country.
We're going to go to war.
So maybe there's nothing there.
I don't know.
But I do think, however, this was planned for months.
I think the negotiation obviously was still being in the process.
They still wanted to maybe find an alternative to taking kinetic action.
But I think today's press conference and Secretary of War Pete Hetzeth did an amazing job as well.
Look, he's very articulate.
He's a good-looking guy.
He's charismatic, comes from Fox News.
He is the point person you want in the Department of War to convey messages to the media.
I think he's perfect with that.
And then I think General Raisin Kane is the perfect person to explain just what he laid out kind of strategically.
What's going to happen next?
This needs to happen more than often right now because Steve, when you get on social media, and I know social media a lot of times is not the real world, but right now it's not good as far as getting the public to support what we just got.
steve bannon
I think you got to explain.
You just got to put a little more detail on this and explain to folks what's going on, what the target package was, all that.
I'm sure that's going to be in the next 20, 24 hours.
Rubio took a crack at this a little bit about the effort here, the focus, the objectives.
Let's go and put, we're going to break it down twice as we go to commercial break.
Let's go into Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
Brian Glenn will come back in.
marco rubio
Drones that they also have.
They've been doing this for a very long time.
And by the way, they've been doing it under sanction.
You see the attacks they're conducting right now?
They're attacking airports.
They're attacking hotels.
They're hitting not just military bases.
They're attacking our embassies directly.
They're attacking facilities that have nothing to do with war or with military.
And that's a weak end Iran.
That's in Iran despite years of sanction.
Imagine a year from now or a year and a half from now the capabilities they would have to inflict damage on us.
It's an unacceptable risk, especially in the hands of a regime that's run by radical clerics.
The Ayatollah is a radical, was a radical cleric.
That entire regime is led by radical clerics who don't make geopolitical decisions.
They make decisions on the basis of theology, their view of theology, which is an apocalyptic one.
That has to be taken very seriously as well.
So that was the purpose for what this operation is all about.
That's what it's focused on.
As the president said earlier today, it is on or ahead of schedule.
I will defer to the Department of War to discuss the progress being made at a tactical level.
but it was the right decision and an important decision for the safety and security of the world.
unidentified
Does Congress have to weigh in?
Is the President declaring war, and does Congress have to weigh in?
And there are an imminent threat.
Did you tell lawmakers that there was an imminent threat?
marco rubio
There absolutely was an imminent threat, and the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us.
And we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded.
Because the Department of War assessed that if we did that, if we waited for them to hit us first after they were attacked, and by someone else, Israel attacked them, they hit us first, and we waited for them to hit us, we would suffer more casualties and more deaths.
We went proactively in a defensive way to prevent them from inflicting higher damage.
Had we not done so, there would have been hearings on Capitol Hill about how we knew that this was going to happen and we didn't act preemptively to prevent more casualties and more loss of life.
steve bannon
The U.S. was forced to strike because of an inventing Israeli action.
marco rubio
No, first of all, let me do two things I would say.
Number one is no matter what, ultimately this operation needed to happen.
That's the question of why now.
But this operation needed to happen because Iran in about a year or a year and a half would cross the line of immunity, meaning they would have so many short-range missiles, so many drones, that no one could do anything about it because they could hold the whole world hostage.
Look at the damage they're doing now.
And this is a week in Iran.
Imagine a year from now.
So that had to happen.
Obviously, we were aware of Israeli intentions and understood what that would mean for us, and we had to be prepared to act as a result of it.
But this had to happen no matter what.
unidentified
President Trump said overnight that his top choices to now were going to Iran were killed in the strikes.
Does the United States have a firm plan for how they intend to handle this power vacuum in Iran to ensure that an iron bombard liner does not take it?
marco rubio
So two things, and two things can be true.
Number one is our mission and our focus is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities and their ability to manufacture them, as well as the threat posed by their Navy to global shipping.
That's the objective.
That said, we would not mind, we would not be heartbroken, and we hope that the Iranian people can overthrow this government and establish a new future for that country.
We would love for that to be possible.
But the objective of this mission is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities and of their naval capabilities.
unidentified
How do you know?
Are you saying based on that?
Are you saying that there is no responsibility?
steve bannon
Okay, I'm going to come back to that.
Now I'm kind of confused, Brian Glenn.
Now it's the destruction of the ballistic missile and their naval capabilities.
And I think he said Israel is going to be first mover.
It's fine, but I think there has to be a sense of consistency here in kind of lining everything up because they've got many enemies on Capitol Hill that are coming for them with the knives out.
That's these Democrats.
And of course, we have huge primaries tomorrow in Texas and North Carolina.
Brian Glenn, give me 30 seconds before we go to break.
brian glenn
Well, I think Marco Rubio laid it out that if we didn't proactively do it now, I heard someone say, can you imagine, you know, five, six, seven years from now when we, God forbid, get a really liberal, left-ling president and get a congressional and senate.
And then if Iran was to all of a sudden think they got the military needs to do it, they go make an attack and we're sitting on our hills.
I like being proactive.
I like being on offense.
steve bannon
You're in the Department of Warrior.
I like that.
Stick right there, Brian Glenn.
We're going to play the rest of Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio.
unidentified
Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
steve bannon
Take your phone out.
Text Bannon, B-A-N-N-O-N-989898.
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Talk to Philip Patrick.
Philip's going to, obviously, it's crazy today with the markets where they are.
Philip's going to join us tomorrow.
Natalie's going to join us tomorrow.
She's written a brilliant piece on her substack about open borders and Iranian terrorists.
David Rodriguez is going to be on.
We're in Texas.
Like I told you, he really broke that story yesterday, but we decided to tamp it down because we didn't have all the verification we needed.
But David Rodriguez was on it about the situation in Austin, Texas.
I want to go back to the beginning and play this.
Maybe we'll do the whole thing tomorrow, but this is so important.
I got Brian Glenn.
Let's go ahead and play it from the top.
marco rubio
Drones that they also have.
They've been doing this for a very long time.
And by the way, they've been doing it under sanction.
You see the attacks they're conducting right now?
They're attacking airports.
They're attacking hotels.
They're hitting not just military bases.
They're attacking our embassies directly.
They're attacking facilities that have nothing to do with war or with military.
And that's a weak end Iran.
That's in Iran despite years of sanction.
Imagine a year from now or a year and a half from now the capabilities they would have to inflict damage on us.
It's an unacceptable risk, especially in the hands of a regime that's run by radical clerics.
The Ayatollah is a radical was a radical cleric.
That entire regime is led by radical clerics who don't make geopolitical decisions.
They make decisions on the basis of theology, their view of theology, which is an apocalyptic one.
That has to be taken very seriously as well.
So that was the purpose for what this operation is all about.
That's what it's focused on.
As the president said earlier today, it is on or ahead of schedule.
I will defer to the Department of War to discuss the progress being made at a tactical level, but it was the right decision and an important decision for the safety and security of the world.
unidentified
Does Congress have to weigh in?
Is the president declaring war and does Congress have to weigh in?
And is there an imminent threat?
Did you tell lawmakers that there was an imminent threat?
marco rubio
There absolutely was an imminent threat.
And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believe they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us.
And we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded because the Department of War assessed that if we did that, if we waited for them to hit us first after they were attacked and by someone else, Israel attacked them, they hit us.
Why We Need Explanation 00:12:42
steve bannon
If Iran was attacked, then we would be attacked.
Does that mean if Israel is going to attack, but that they're supposed to be allies?
They're just going to attack and not coordinate with us.
And that makes no sense at all.
That just doesn't make any sense.
I don't understand that.
This is why they're the greatest ally.
I don't understand that.
If we knew that Iran was going to be attacked and they would attack us, is there no coordination in this?
I think that has to be explained.
I think that has to be explained.
Brian Glenn, I think that one has to be explained.
I don't understand that.
That's the first we've heard of that.
I don't think that could just be up at the sticks.
Just toss it out there.
I think that has to be explained, sir.
brian glenn
Yeah, I agree.
Who's talking to who?
Don't you think if we should all be on the same page with this?
And I do like the proactive approach to this, though.
And he makes a good point.
They're attacking all of these sites now as a weakened Iran.
And imagine what they would do if they actually had more ballistic missiles, they had a little bit more firepower there.
They would maybe take it a little bit further.
But I do think that needs to be further explained.
And like I said in the previous segment, the American people want to hear this stuff.
They want to be explained why we are taking these steps and why we have lost six service members and maybe 18 or 19 injured, seriously injured right now.
They need to do more of this explanation on what's happening right now because this kind of started, you know, middle of the night there.
True social post.
Next time you wake up and we've got bombs flying.
And I think the American.
steve bannon
But I don't know if, look, this is a very serious military operation.
And we understand, particularly in the opening salvos, people's lives are at risk.
We now understand.
I think the six service members that died were in Kuwait trying to stand up some sort of either radar installation or something, but they were hit.
And there was no warning.
There was no, you know, they didn't hear anything.
Of course, the New York Post is breaking that, I think, as an exclusive.
We'll drill down on that more.
But when you put American prestige, you put American honor, and particularly you put the most precious resource we have, which is our servicemen and women, in harm's way, it's got to be really thought through.
I find that that has to be explained.
I just don't understand that we knew Israel was going to hit and that the Iranians would hit us.
Well, hang over a second.
They were going to hit without us saying, okay, we're all ready to go.
that they were just going to take it on their own.
If you're an ally, I don't think, particularly if you're, and I say they're a protectorate because we provide the air defense, principally.
We're providing the offense here, principally.
We provided the intelligence.
My understanding is we provided the CIA, provide the targeting package for the Ayatollah.
I think things just have to get sorted here.
And I think that has to be explained in detail to the American people so the American people fully understand.
It's like in the Iraq war, you know, the Iraq war, the first couple of days, everybody's cheerleading at Fox News is glazing everybody and got the pom-poms out.
Well, these are serious and these take a while.
And of course, the American public opinion, which is very important here to support these operations, has to be fully informed.
Even people of your, not your political party, have to be informed of exactly what went on because you need the support of the American people to make sure these operations are successful.
And let me add again, especially when you have service members in harm's way, and we're in a shooting war now.
And so I think this has to be explained.
And for Secretary Rubio to throw that out there, no, I don't understand that.
I just don't.
That has to be.
I got a couple of three questions, I think, about that one.
And I think a lot of people ought to have questions about that, particularly with everything on the internet, you know, who controls who.
If you want to put that to bed, you have to come out and make a case for exactly what was going on here, exactly what the thinking was and what's going on.
And then Rubio went, and I thought it was great.
He said, hey, we're going to take out their naval assets.
And President Trump said today, I believe we've taken 11 of their combatants, their vessels, and they're now at the bottom of either the North Arabian Sea or the Persian Gulf.
And I believe we've taken out their air defense or their air assets.
And to get air superiority in their naval assets, I think we've done an overwhelming job of it.
But that's more of the operational and tactical.
I think we need a full understanding of the strategic.
Brian Glenn, the White House, here's what's interesting.
Rubio really came out.
He had Pete in a very limited situation today.
General Kane in a very limited situation.
Marco really went up and took all questions.
Are they going to start, you think, being more aggressive on the, what I call the information warfare side here?
Because they've been very silent over the weekend.
Nobody did the Sunday shows yesterday.
It was pretty obvious.
Scott Besson was not out on squawk box or talking about oil or the capital markets, although I don't think the capital markets were in a horrible turmoil, as some people predicted.
Do you think the White House is going to get more proactive on the messaging side?
brian glenn
They should.
And I look, and I think that they will, because right now, all you have is some of those ultra MAGA social media accounts that you see on X and Getter just going hard in the paint.
You know, it's to America.
jan jekielek
It's like, yeah.
brian glenn
And all of a sudden, the reality comes in that this is a war and we have had casualties.
And this is a little bit more involved than what we thought it would be.
I heard some pundits, the commentary class, as I like to call them, before this started, saying it's going to be very precise, very precision.
We're going to go in there.
We're going to carve it out.
It's going to be just like Operation Midnight Hammer.
I said, you've got to be kidding me.
Look at all the assets they're putting in that area.
This is going to take a while.
So as long as they communicate this, Steve, to the American people on why they're there, what's going on, and be truthful with them.
I think the American people could take it because no one wants the Iranian regime to exist.
We do, I think, want evil people out of power.
steve bannon
But what I do go back to Trump saying, hey, we're going to go and decapitate and let the Iranian people.
As I've been saying, hey, no offense, they brought the Islamic Republic on, right?
And I realize this was their parents and their grandparents, most of them, but they wanted the Islamic Republic.
They kicked a shot, they kicked us out.
They brought it on them.
And now they don't want it.
That's fine.
Then step up, like President Trump's been saying, step up and take it out.
Brian Glenn, social media, we'll get you back on tomorrow because there's a lot going on.
I agree with you.
I do think they're doing systematic takedown of air and naval assets and Revolutionary Guard.
I think they've done a lot deeper in the command structure than they've let on, but we'll see all that, I'm sure, over the next couple of days.
Where do people get you, Brian Glenn?
brian glenn
Steve, you can follow me at Brian Glenn TV on Twitter, at Brian Glenn, on Instagram, at Brian on True Social and Getter.
I pray for this country, Steve.
You know, this is war, and I am no expert by any means, but I do know the realities of losing men and women in the battlefield and what that means to this country.
And I want us to make sure when this is all said and done, that we close a chapter on this whole narrative that we've got to stop the Iranian regime from getting a nuclear weapon.
Let's put this to rest, Steve.
I'm done with this crap.
unidentified
Let's put it to rest.
steve bannon
Brian Glenn, thank you so much, sir.
brian glenn
Thank you.
steve bannon
Pray for our young men and women that are in harm's way right now.
Jan Yekalik, my favorite, Epic Times, your great show, American Thought Leaders.
First, I'm going to get to the Chinese Communist Party in a second because they look like they're taking some heavy hits here, both in Venezuela and here, and you're an expert.
But just your overall assessment with the information we're getting and where do you think we stand on this in the first couple of days of this of this war?
jan jekielek
Well, Steve, I can't help but think about this from the broader geopolitical context.
You know, I saw this like amazing commentary yesterday, which has basically mirrored my exact thinking.
The way, how do we communicate with the communist Chinese leaders?
How do we communicate them?
Well, the commentator said a horse's head in the bed is really the only way to do that.
So as you pointed out, we've got Venezuela, and this is what can happen, right?
We've got Iran now.
This is what can happen.
And you can understand that Xi Jinping is getting a message, don't screw around with us.
I think this is, you know, I don't know if this is the key reason for these attacks.
I don't think it's the only reason, but it's a very important, let's call it side benefit to what has happened because the only thing they really understand is sheer exertion of force.
Or as this commentator pointed out, it's kind of like a mafia message, right?
This is what's going to happen if you don't play with us.
And then, of course, we've got the tariffs on the other side restricting the one pillar of their economy that they have left, which is really their export.
So I think for me, I'll roll to China.
steve bannon
If they've taken it on, they've had two allies.
They got a couple of three, but they got two big ones, Venezuela and the Mulas.
Both of them, one's in American jail or American federal prison awaiting trial.
The other is graveyard dead.
How does she keep face there?
He's purging the military every other week.
How does he keep face among the power brokers in the Chinese Communist Party?
So we got about a minute.
jan jekielek
He's not keeping face at all, I think.
And he's actually, I think, very, very worried.
And he's getting a lot of questions are being asked.
And he can't even really do his power play on Taiwan at the moment because he doesn't have the military capability to do so.
And, you know, this is actually something that I, this whole concept of how the CCP actually operates in a very extreme way, I document this very well.
And thank you for carrying killed to order and having me on about this.
This is my new book.
But it's not just about this forced, shocking forced organ harvesting industry.
It's how it's the perfect lens to understand how the CCP actually operates.
We get into all this stuff in the book explaining that.
steve bannon
Well, we're going to take a short break.
We're going to get into it.
If you know, you can see Maduro, the Mulas, the Ayatollah, and the heads of the Chinese Communist Party.
Bad, bad, bad actors.
But as bad as the Mulas in Maduro is, what Jan exposes with the Chinese Communist Party will rock your world.
We're going to take a short commercial break.
We're going to return in the war room in just a moment.
unidentified
Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
steve bannon
I do believe that President Trump's overall strategic thrust is to make sure the Chinese Communist Party, our greatest existential threat, understands that, hey, we can do with your allies what we want to do with them.
And you've got nothing to say about it.
That's why I'm taking the under on whether there's going to be a state visit in April.
Now, they could still surprise me.
I just don't see it right now.
Jan, talk to the audience about what your book and your 20 years of research that you're finally able to bring forward shows what monsters these people are.
jan jekielek
Well, the book talks about Kill to Order, which is this forced organ harvesting industry kind of unique in the world, an evil yet to be seen on this planet, described by one of the researchers, David Matis.
And I go into exactly how it works and how it's different than your basically your typical run-of-the-mill, also horrible organ trafficking.
But more importantly, actually, now to the topic of today, is that it actually is a lens into understanding how communist China actually works at a deeper level, right?
The stuff in this book will shock you to the core.
It shocked me as I was doing the research.
And actually, over the years, you know, what I've learned is kind of like it's actually really, really mind-blowing because for normal people, like we kind of always assume that we're dealing with a normal government or the kind of normal people on the other side that you can negotiate.
This is why I was talking about this horse's head communication as being kind of one of the ways to do it.
But another thing, you know, another thing that I talk about in the book is the utilitarianism being a function of the Chinese Communist Party and how it deals with everybody.
Rob's Shocking Revelation 00:03:37
jan jekielek
In fact, it's been using Iran the same way.
It's been, aside from being an ally, right?
It's been this massive source of distraction and instability in the Middle East.
So the American gaze, so to speak, keeps being focused in another direction and not where the biggest adversary, subtitle of my book, The True Nature of America's Biggest Adversary, that's Communist China.
And so, you know, right now, if this is successful, which I certainly hope it is, this operation and so forth, America can actually focus on dealing with its massive threat across the Pacific.
steve bannon
Okay, I want everybody to know: here's what we're doing.
This is through the good offices of Tony Lyons and War Room, many people.
We're going to have a very special event with you.
What's the date?
It's one of the last events, I believe, in the Trump Kennedy Center before it shuts down.
I think it's shutting down the spring.
So it's going to be the Trump Kennedy Center.
What night and how do people get tickets?
jan jekielek
It's actually incredible.
So the Trump Kennedy Center has decided to have an official event as part of its Millennium Stage series.
Thanks to Tony Lyons, what I thought initially was a crazy idea, but they're actually running this.
You can actually reach the RSVP for it at killedtoorder event.com, killed to order event.com.
It's March 16th, and it's a conversation between Rob Schneider, who's someone who's gotten behind this issue in a massive way.
God bless you, Rob.
Thank you so much for that.
And we're going to talk about some really hard questions and a little bit of dark humor.
We're still figuring that out because this is such a dark, extreme issue, but it's going to be an incredible evening to remember.
And we're also, there's also a VIP event afterwards for people that may want to participate in that as well.
But basically, we can get more than a thousand people in the door.
And the first thousand people that come in will actually get a book.
There's a really generous donor who decided to kind of, again, support this issue.
There's so many people that are getting behind this.
I'm really touched.
And thank you for your support, Steve.
unidentified
No.
steve bannon
Where do people go?
One more time.
Where do they go get the book?
Where they go.
For anybody in the greater Washington, D.C. area, it's really going to be a very special night.
So where do folks go?
jan jekielek
Well, the book, if you want to get it, killedtoorder.com.
That's the direct to the Amazon link.
We're trying to create a movement.
You know, get this book, share it with people, raise the level of awareness.
This explains how the Communist Party operates to people.
And not enough Americans know.
But for the event, it's killtoorder event.com.
And that's for that March 16th event, 6 p.m. Trump Kennedy Center.
It's going to be incredible.
steve bannon
You and Rob Schneider is going to, and Rob has really gotten it back at this.
By the way, very, very smart guy.
Talked at Turning Point.
You know, really smart guy.
If you want to understand the monsters that control so much power on this earth, get this book.
Jan, social media, where do people get you?
The Epoch Times and War Room are the tip of the spear in taking down the Chinese Communist Party.
Where do people go to get all your writings and over at the Epoch Times?
jan jekielek
Well, go to theepochtimes.com.
That's our main website.
There's always good stuff on China there right now.
Of course, we have the war at the top of the page.
And for myself, on X at Yanya Kellek on Truth the same way, please follow me on my social media.
And I'm actually covering all of this stuff as we speak.
And of course, different aspects of the book.
And we just had Gordon Chang on about Iran-China digging into this geopolitical aspect massively.
That's on American Thought Leaders.
That's on YouTube.
Sale Like No Other 00:02:35
jan jekielek
Check it out.
It's actually going viral.
He really knows what he's talking about.
steve bannon
Gordon's the best.
Thank you, Jan.
Fantastic book.
Harrowing.
That's why we're so strongly in back of this.
And I want to thank everybody who's associated with this, Kennedy Center.
If you're in the greater Washington area, you do not want to miss it.
I'm a great night and you get to see the Trump Kennedy Center.
One of the last times, I think, before it goes into refurbishment for a year or two.
Mike Lindell.
Okay, we're going to bifurcate this.
Mike, we had a lot to talk about about the executive order.
And, you know, we had about, we had Brian Kennedy on today, his magnificent piece about what we have to do to make sure the elections are secure in 2026.
President Trump just put up on True Social Free Tina Peters.
So it's never far from his mind.
We're going to get to that in the Warrum Texas is going to follow us.
Richard Barrett is going to join us.
David Nino Rodriguez.
Right now, sir, on what's been a very tough Monday on the eve of the Texas primary.
What the Warrum Posse wants to know about is what deal you got for us, Lindell.
unidentified
All right.
mike lindell
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steve bannon
Okay, stick around.
Warrum, Texas is next.
Mike Lindell is going to stick around.
Richard Barrett is going to join us about the numbers.
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