Bannon's War Room - Episode 5278: President Trump Delivers Another Ultimatum For Iran, Deadline April 7th At 8pm
Aired: 2026-04-07
Duration: 48:56


=== Dealing With A New Regime (04:09) ===

[00:00:00]  To open it immediately, but there has to be a mechanism between CENTCOM, the Revolutionary Guard, what's left the Iranian government, and President Trump's government to make sure that there's some sort of mechanism to work towards a full opening.
[00:00:15]  It may not happen right away because this thing could take a week or so to actually do it, to actually get the straight open, but I think that has to be part of it.
[00:00:25]  If not, you know, you've put, here's the thing, you've put a deadline, like the president said, let's not lose track of what he said, he said, They asked for seven days.
[00:00:34]  And I'm just going on with what the president says.
[00:00:36]  He says, They asked for seven.
[00:00:37]  I gave them 10.
[00:00:39]  And by the way, since I didn't want to do anything on the day after Easter, I threw in another day, a bonus day.
[00:00:44]  It's 11.
[00:00:45]  That's enough.
[00:00:46]  If you do more, I think you're sending a wrong signal.
[00:00:48]  As much as people are looking for an off ramp here, you may have to drop a hammer on these people because right now they believe, and I think Treaty Parsier is right, in their mind, they feel they have the initiative.
[00:01:02]  They feel they've shifted the center of gravity of this war to the Persian Gulf.
[00:01:07]  Given the magnificent result we had on this operation to get the pilot back, I think the president now is in a situation that if they try to play games, he drops a hammer again, and then we see where we are.
[00:01:23]  Otherwise, this thing's a drag after all.
[00:01:24]  I'm going to throw it to you very quickly, though.
[00:01:26]  I was in the trading pits when the Gulf Desert Storm happened.
[00:01:30]  I'll never forget, right the day of the Desert Storm, the night of oil had just run up from $25 to $40 a barrel in anticipation of a A massive drawn out war with a Middle Eastern country, producing country, oil producing country.
[00:01:42]  By morning, it had shot back down because we obliterated them in the air.
[00:01:47]  And the point is, this time's different, Steve, because we did the same thing.
[00:01:51]  We took out their defenses, but oil, the traders, for whatever reason, aren't seeing this as an opportunity to bring it back down yet.
[00:01:58]  They need more.
[00:01:58]  Steve, I'll let you go.
[00:02:00]  Have a great show.
[00:02:02]  Hang on, real quickly.
[00:02:03]  How was the afternoon?
[00:02:05]  How was the afternoon?
[00:02:06]  What's the market telling us as we go into the morning?
[00:02:08]  It's ominously quiet.
[00:02:09]  It's stated 112, which is wildly quiet.
[00:02:11]  Crazy with what's going on.
[00:02:12]  Stayed at 112 all day.
[00:02:14]  The stock market was up a touch.
[00:02:16]  Everyone's holding their breath right now.
[00:02:20]  Okay, Eric, we'll see you in the morning on the morning show.
[00:02:23]  Always good stuff.
[00:02:24]  I'll talk to you tonight.
[00:02:24]  Absolutely.
[00:02:25]  Thank you, brother.
[00:02:25]  See you tomorrow.
[00:02:26]  Thank you, sir.
[00:02:27]  Okay, we've got a quite intense cold open for this audience.
[00:02:30]  Let's go ahead and play it.
[00:02:31]  The show is packed for the next two hours.
[00:02:33]  Let's go ahead and let it rip.
[00:02:35]  We can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
[00:02:38]  You know, we got regime change, we do.
[00:02:41]  We're dealing with a much different regime than before.
[00:02:43]  We're dealing with different people.
[00:02:46]  They're smarter.
[00:02:48]  I think they're sharper and far less radical.
[00:02:52]  We have regime change.
[00:02:54]  We didn't do this for regime change.
[00:02:55]  We did it for the fact, and my view was very simple.
[00:02:59]  I saw somebody who said, Oh, he doesn't have a plan.
[00:03:01]  I have the best plan of all, but I'm not going to tell you what my plan is.
[00:03:04]  You know, they want me to say, Here's my plan.
[00:03:07]  We're going to attack at 9 47 in the morning, and then we're going to do this, and then we're going to.
[00:03:11]  And if you don't do that, they say, I have a plan.
[00:03:14]  These people know what the plan is.
[00:03:16]  Everybody here knows what the plan is.
[00:03:18]  But it's very unfair to say, because I don't mind being insulted.
[00:03:23]  I've been insulted for many years by the fake news.
[00:03:26]  You can't.
[00:03:28]  It's so bad for the people that are so pro.
[00:03:31]  You just saw two great and John Ratcliffe, three unbelievable people.
[00:03:35]  They have a plan.
[00:03:37]  Every single thing has been thought out by all of us.
[00:03:41]  But I can't reveal the plan to the media.
[00:03:44]  So, you know.
[00:03:45]  His command, America projects power with confidence and brings our people home with victory.
[00:03:51]  And that continues today, by the way.
[00:03:53]  Per the president's direction, today will be the largest volume of strikes since day one of this operation.
[00:03:59]  Tomorrow, Even more than today.
[00:04:02]  And then Iran has a choice choose wisely.
[00:04:06]  Because this president does not play around.

=== Bringing Our People Home (02:37) ===

[00:04:09]  You can ask Soleimani, you can ask Maduro, you can ask Khomeini.
[00:04:16]  The entire country could be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.
[00:04:22]  You called the, yesterday in your Truth Social, you called the Iranians crazy bastards.
[00:04:27]  True.
[00:04:28]  What is your response to critics?
[00:04:33]  Who say that it is your mental health that should perhaps be examined as this war continues?
[00:04:36]  I haven't heard that.
[00:04:38]  But if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people like me because our country was being ripped off on trade and everything for many years until I came along.
[00:04:48]  So if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people to get into the objective area.
[00:04:54]  During this engagement, one of the Sandy aircraft, the one primarily responsible for communicating with the downed pilot, was hit by enemy fire.
[00:05:04]  This pilot continued to fight, continued the mission, and then upon exit, flew his aircraft into another country and determined that the airplane was not landable.
[00:05:16]  This was one of our A 10 Sandy aircraft.
[00:05:19]  The pilot then made the decision to eject over friendly territory and was quickly and safely recovered and is doing fine.
[00:05:28]  After picking up Dude 44 Alpha, the HH 60 Jolly Green Fight, Was engaged by every single person in Iran who had a small arms weapon.
[00:05:40]  And one of the aircraft, the trailing aircraft, took several hits.
[00:05:44]  The crew sustained minor injury and they are going to be fine.
[00:05:49]  When he was finally able to activate his emergency transponder, his first message was simple and it was powerful.
[00:05:58]  He sent a message God is good.
[00:06:02]  In that moment of isolation and danger, his faith and fighting spirit shone through.
[00:06:08]  You see, shot down on a Friday, Good Friday, hidden in a cave, a crevice all of Saturday, and rescued on Sunday, flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday.
[00:06:27]  A pilot reborn, all home and accounted for, a nation rejoicing.
[00:06:34]  God is good.
[00:06:37]  Go ahead, please.
[00:06:38]  Thank you, Mr. President.
[00:06:39]  You said earlier today during the egg roll that you would like to take Iran's oil, but Americans want U.S. forces home.
[00:06:46]  Correct.

=== The Cost Of War (07:52) ===

[00:06:47]  What's that trade off?
[00:06:48]  If I had my choice, if I had my choice, yeah, because I'm a businessman first.
[00:06:53]  With Venezuela, as you know, the war was over in about 45 minutes, and we have great people running Venezuela, very good people.
[00:07:03]  I mean, the relationship is good.
[00:07:05]  And we are a partner with Venezuela.
[00:07:08]  And we've taken hundreds of millions of barrels, hundreds of millions.
[00:07:14]  Over 100 million barrels already is in Houston, refined, and out.
[00:07:20]  And paid for that war many, many times over.
[00:07:23]  Many times.
[00:07:23]  And you know the old days, to the victim.
[00:07:27]  Okay, you know that.
[00:07:31]  To the winner belong the spoils, go the spoils.
[00:07:34]  And I've said, why don't we use it?
[00:07:36]  To the victor.
[00:07:37]  Go the spoils, and we don't have that.
[00:07:40]  We haven't had that in this country probably in 100 years because even the Second World War, you look at the Second World War, we didn't have it with the Second World War.
[00:07:47]  We helped rebuild all those countries.
[00:07:49]  We rebuilt Germany.
[00:07:50]  How about Germany telling us that, well, it's not their war.
[00:07:56]  We had nothing to do with it.
[00:07:58]  They wanted me to go and tell them everything I was doing.
[00:08:01]  We didn't know anything about it.
[00:08:03]  Well, if I would have told them, they would have leaked it and we wouldn't have been nearly as successful, possibly, right?
[00:08:09]  But to the victor belong the spoils.
[00:08:11]  So we haven't heard that in, I think, maybe hundreds of years.
[00:08:17]  Mr. President, are you willing to end this conflict with Iran charging tolls for passage through the strait?
[00:08:26]  Us charging tolls?
[00:08:27]  Iran.
[00:08:28]  What about us charging tolls?
[00:08:30]  Is that something you're considering?
[00:08:31]  I'd rather do that than let them have them run.
[00:08:34]  Why shouldn't we?
[00:08:34]  We're the winner.
[00:08:36]  We won, okay?
[00:08:38]  They are militarily defeated.
[00:08:40]  The only thing they have is the psychology of, oh, we're going to drop a couple of mines in the water, all right?
[00:08:46]  No, I mean, we have a concept where we'll charge tolls, okay?
[00:08:49]  I thought you meant us.
[00:08:54]  Your question would have been more accurate if you said us.
[00:08:57]  Your messaging on the war has moved from the war is coming to an end to we're going to be bombing Iran to the Stone Ages.
[00:09:04]  And we've heard a range of those kind of messages.
[00:09:08]  So which is it?
[00:09:09]  Are you winding this down?
[00:09:11]  I can't tell you.
[00:09:12]  I don't know.
[00:09:13]  I can't tell you.
[00:09:13]  It depends what they do.
[00:09:14]  This is a critical period.
[00:09:16]  They have a period of, well, till tomorrow at 8 o'clock.
[00:09:21]  I gave them an extension.
[00:09:22]  They asked for an extension of seven days, right?
[00:09:25]  I said, Steve, give them 10 days.
[00:09:30]  10 days is up actually today, so I gave them 11, I guess, indirectly.
[00:09:34]  I thought it was inappropriate the day after Easter.
[00:09:37]  I want to be a nice person.
[00:09:40]  They have till tomorrow.
[00:09:42]  Now we'll see what happens.
[00:09:44]  I can tell you they're negotiating, we think, in good faith.
[00:09:48]  We're going to find out.
[00:09:48]  We're getting the help of some incredible countries that want this to be ended because it affects them also.
[00:09:56]  A lot of people are affected by this.
[00:09:58]  But we're giving them till tomorrow, 8 o'clock Eastern Time.
[00:10:04]  And after that, they're going to have no bridges.
[00:10:08]  They're going to have no power plants.
[00:10:11]  Stone Ages, yeah.
[00:10:13]  Stone Ages.
[00:10:15]  We're post these trespasses, right?
[00:10:19]  So these things have already happened.
[00:10:21]  People warned that they could happen during the election.
[00:10:24]  People warned that Hegseth might not be a good person to be on the wall for the rule of law inside the military.
[00:10:33]  He's there anyway.
[00:10:34]  And Trump is now threatening to bomb Iran to the Stone Ages.
[00:10:37]  And Pete Hegseth has said, That in his view, the theory of war in Iran is to give no quarter.
[00:10:44]  What does that mean inside the military, General?
[00:10:48]  It means you use any means possible to kill people.
[00:10:52]  You know, you're not going to let people escape.
[00:10:55]  You're not going to take any prisoners.
[00:10:57]  You're basically going to rape, pillage, and plunder, taking it back to the 17th century.
[00:11:02]  And Nicole, what we're talking about is behavior that modern societies have condemned and said we ought to at least.
[00:11:12]  Provide dead guidelines for those who have to execute violence.
[00:11:17]  Those are soldiers.
[00:11:18]  And, you know, I'm going to go back to something you said a minute ago because I've trained for 40 years as a soldier and as a commander.
[00:11:29]  And when you're an officer in the United States Army, you're loyal to a couple of things.
[00:11:33]  You're primarily loyal to the Constitution.
[00:11:37]  You are also loyal to your superiors if they give, as you said, Lawful orders.
[00:11:44]  When they start giving unlawful orders, you find a way to push back on them and to make sure they adjust their approach.
[00:11:52]  But you also are loyal to the soldiers that are under your command.
[00:11:56]  So those three loyalties sometimes are conflicting.
[00:11:58]  So I'm sure there's a lot of military commanders right now, a lot of senior officers who are saying to themselves, I can't obey an unlawful order.
[00:12:08]  I can't do things that I know are absolutely wrong.
[00:12:12]  But they also feel like they have to provide support for their soldiers who don't just get to quit.
[00:12:18]  They have to stay in the military and potentially see an uprising in all of these things.
[00:12:24]  So the senior military officers are in a real quandary on this one because they know they can't do some of the things that the president is asking them to do.
[00:12:35]  They have a secretary of defense who has continually said, lethality is better than legality or words to that effect.
[00:12:42]  So it's really causing some dynamics within those who are thinking soldiers saying, How do I continue to serve my Constitution and live by the rules that are in law and still conduct these kind of actions which are horribly immoral and illegal?
[00:13:05]  It is Easter Monday, 6 April in the year of our Lord, 2026, that you see what President Trump is up against.
[00:13:13]  They're going, oh, these are all war crimes.
[00:13:14]  They're not war crimes.
[00:13:15]  It's ridiculous.
[00:13:16]  And Pete is laying out what a battle strategy is.
[00:13:20]  He's not saying to kill surveillance.
[00:13:23]  Look at the number of sorties.
[00:13:24]  You can tell this.
[00:13:26]  There's some dispute whether it's 11,000 or 12,500, but there's a ton of combat missions and a ton of weapons that have been dropped.
[00:13:37]  And relatively few civilian casualties.
[00:13:40]  It's kind of shocking how low the civilian casualties are because people have gone out of their way to make sure they're hitting military targets about the electric grid and the oil resources.
[00:13:50]  They're inextricably linked with the war machine of the theocratic government.
[00:13:56]  Like I said, we're in this thing now.
[00:13:58]  You got to win it.
[00:13:59]  The President of the United States has said hey, they gave us a proposal.
[00:14:05]  It's significant, but it's not there, it's not enough.
[00:14:09]  And he doubled and tripled down today in the press conference with what he's going to do.
[00:14:18]  I think you see the valor of our arms in this amazing evolution that took place, this mission that took place to retrieve the pilot.
[00:14:27]  It ties in with what we did in the June 12 day war, what we've done so far.
[00:14:34]  The military is just doing an incredible job.

=== Fort Meade Data Centers (11:07) ===

[00:14:39]  Unbelievable, their proficiency, their professionalism, all incredible.
[00:14:44]  But now we're down to it, you know, what, just over 24 hours away of whether we're going to ramp this thing up or not.
[00:14:51]  We're going to break it all down for you, plus a lot about artificial intelligence today.
[00:14:56]  Short commercial break, back in a moment.
[00:14:59]  Your host, Stephen K. Bath.
[00:15:04]  We're doing a couple of more cuts from the press conference this afternoon, and Dr. Thayer is going to join us in a moment.
[00:15:11]  But I want to get to something because I want to put it at the top of mind here.
[00:15:14]  Raul Alfonso joins us, and you're from the Watchdogs of Fort Meade.
[00:15:20]  Is that correct?
[00:15:21]  Is that your group, Raul?
[00:15:23]  Correct.
[00:15:24]  Yes, it is.
[00:15:25]  And what are the Watchdogs of Fort Meade?
[00:15:28]  It sounds like a classic war room posse group.
[00:15:32]  What Watchdogs of Fort Meade?
[00:15:34]  Who and what are you?
[00:15:36]  Well, we started as just a group of people that were trying to get information to our city commissioners and representatives because all they were hearing.
[00:15:45]  About hyperscale data centers was all the glorious things that the money was going to be able to bring to the city.
[00:15:52]  And what we were seeing definitely showed a lot of negative sides that are being affected to every other data center in the areas that are being thrust upon by these things.
[00:16:06]  And we needed to give the other side of what was happening a voice because right now, All of our representatives are hearing and seeing is the money that they will be getting from tax dollars from this big development coming into our area.
[00:16:24]  And they're not listening to the people of the area who are saying they don't want this here in our city limits.
[00:16:34]  Hang on for one second.
[00:16:35]  When you say this Fort Meade is in the greater, what would you call it, Tampa, St. Pete, largely defined area, correct?
[00:16:46]  We're right in the middle of the state.
[00:16:47]  We're actually south of Lakeland.
[00:16:49]  We're in a very rural area.
[00:16:51]  We're south of Bartow.
[00:16:56]  So, what would you say is the problem?
[00:17:00]  What's the problem overall?
[00:17:01]  You said there's other, are there other in the center part of the state?
[00:17:07]  Down south of Tampa, are you saying that there are a lot of these data centers that are coming up or going before town councils now?
[00:17:15]  There are smaller data centers that already exist in the area, but this hyperscale one is enormous 4.4 million square feet.
[00:17:25]  And we still haven't gotten anything nailed down on exactly what equipment they're going to be putting in, in the way of generators and so forth, because as we understand it, they're going to have to build a power plant to support this in particular so that.
[00:17:40]  All of the area grids don't have too much of a pull on them, and it doesn't affect our prices of our electricity, as the commissioners seem to think it won't happen.
[00:17:55]  So, talk to us about this one specifically.
[00:17:57]  When did they come to the community?
[00:17:59]  I understand they try to do this earlier, kind of surreptitiously, not above board.
[00:18:08]  Now, you force them out to see it.
[00:18:09]  So, walk us through what the process has been here.
[00:18:14]  They were trying to slip this all through.
[00:18:16]  They got a lot of the zoning changes done without the community really having a clue as to what was happening.
[00:18:23]  But as soon as we started finding out about it and we started doing the research on how large this thing was and all the water usage and the power that it was going to be pulling and the noise it was going to be making, we started putting up a little more of a fight, and more and more people will keep coming into the fight.
[00:18:45]  And it got to the point where We had to organize formally because our representatives don't seem to be listening to us.
[00:18:52]  All they're looking at is the money that they're going to get.
[00:18:55]  They're actually going to be getting a loan from the developer when this is all approved for $10 million to improve the infrastructure of the city.
[00:19:06]  So they're getting paid so that they can make City Hall bigger.
[00:19:10]  It's not going to do much for the residents.
[00:19:13]  Job wise, we're not going to see any permanent jobs because the 50.
[00:19:18]  Or so, people that are going to be working in this 4.4 million square foot area are going to be coming from other places because they're going to have to be specialists in the computer technologies, AI technology, the hardware that's in, and even the construction jobs are specialty jobs.
[00:19:35]  I was in highway construction for 20 years, and I can tell you that this is not going to be the local contractor that's going to come in here and lay the concrete for this.
[00:19:45]  This is going to be specialists from all over the country that are building these things all over the country, bouncing in to Do the work and bouncing back out with their help.
[00:19:58]  Well, at 4.4 million square feet, it's only 50 permanent jobs.
[00:20:04]  Is that what's going to staff this?
[00:20:06]  50 to 75.
[00:20:08]  They're claiming they're going to be 465 employees, but they will not give us a separation on how many employees are going to be offsite employees.
[00:20:22]  Because they can have somebody in the Philippines or India doing all of the data entry and programming.
[00:20:30]  And getting paid from this facility.
[00:20:32]  But on site, none of these data centers have very many people manning them at all.
[00:20:39]  As a matter of fact, the more technology that they come up with, the fewer jobs in the data centers themselves are available because they're using AI to take their own jobs.
[00:20:52]  So, where does this stand now?
[00:20:54]  I think you have a meeting of the town commission tomorrow.
[00:20:57]  You believe your elected representatives have not stood up.
[00:21:01]  For the town?
[00:21:02]  Is that one of your complaints?
[00:21:03]  Is that these guys have been too accommodating?
[00:21:06]  And by the way, is this company Anthropic?
[00:21:08]  Is this Elon Musk?
[00:21:12]  Is it Google?
[00:21:13]  Is it Meta?
[00:21:13]  Who is actually the company that's building this?
[00:21:17]  That's a very good question.
[00:21:18]  And we've put this question to the developers.
[00:21:21]  The developers refuse to tell us who's going to be running this facility.
[00:21:25]  They have refused to confirm or deny that this may even be a Chinese group that buys it up and operates it.
[00:21:36]  We had a large meeting where the developer did a nice little presentation, and he was asked point blank if he could guarantee that it wouldn't be a foreign nation that bought and ran this hyperscale data center.
[00:21:50]  He would have refused.
[00:21:51]  He just straight out refused.
[00:21:53]  He won't say who's coming in.
[00:21:54]  We don't know who's going to be running it.
[00:21:59]  So, what happens tomorrow night, and what is your group proposing?
[00:22:02]  I take it you're going to get people to turn out for this.
[00:22:06]  What is your policy on this?
[00:22:08]  Well, our plan is it's planning and zoning is the meeting tomorrow night.
[00:22:15]  And we'd like to convince that board that it doesn't fit in with our community.
[00:22:23]  It shouldn't fit in with our community with the way that our charter is already written up.
[00:22:30]  It should not fit in.
[00:22:32]  And we're going to be speaking, trying to reach them because, unlike our commissioners, we'll be spending the money that they get from the taxes that this will.
[00:22:43]  Bring in this board won't be enticed, hopefully, by that money that's going to be coming in.
[00:22:51]  They won't let that blur their idea of what the plan for the future of our city is.
[00:23:00]  Is this going to be a vote tomorrow night by the planning and zoning commissioner?
[00:23:04]  They're actually going to vote, or is this just some sort of consulting where they just want to have a public hearing to hear what the public thinks?
[00:23:12]  Or are they going to vote at the end of it?
[00:23:14]  They're going to vote on changes to the agreements that they've already made for the changes on the planning, the PUD development zoning that they've given this.
[00:23:28]  It's currently not set up for industrial.
[00:23:33]  The build that this will be, and they're making those changes.
[00:23:39]  Our main fight's going to be on the 14th when the commission themselves are voting on the contract.
[00:23:46]  The third contract they've been handed by the developers.
[00:23:51]  That I've gotten a look at the contract that they put in in the agenda today for next week's meeting, and it doesn't say anything about what they're putting into this building.
[00:24:04]  They've got a lot of contractual.
[00:24:06]  Information, but no details on equipment or anything like that.
[00:24:10]  And that's one of the selling points that the developers are using with our commissioners saying that they're using the newest technology that won't have any of the problems that other data centers are having.
[00:24:22]  Yeah, the promises.
[00:24:24]  Where do people go, Raul, right now to find out more about what this fight's about?
[00:24:30]  And what phone number should they call if people want to weigh in here to one of these zoning officials?
[00:24:36]  Now, for us, we've got the watch, it's watchdogsoffortmead.com is an address to check out.
[00:24:47]  And we also have a Facebook page, and the pinned post at the top of our page has details on our commissioners and who to speak with to give your opinion and voice your voice.
[00:25:09]  So, you go to watchdogsoffortmead.com.
[00:25:12]  That's your website?
[00:25:16]  Yes.
[00:25:17]  Yes.
[00:25:18]  And the Facebook page is also Watchdogs of Fort Meade?
[00:25:24]  The Facebook page is concerning the Fort Meade data center.
[00:25:30]  Watchdogs of Fort Meade developed from the concerning the Fort Meade data center page.
[00:25:37]  We didn't plan on becoming a formal group until our representatives.
[00:25:43]  Basically, we were blinded by the light of the money.

=== Attriting Economic Targets (16:01) ===

[00:25:47]  Yeah.
[00:25:48]  You got blown off and you decided to fight back.
[00:25:50]  We hear that a lot here in the war room.
[00:25:52]  Trust me.
[00:25:53]  People in the Commonwealth of Virginia are doing the same thing.
[00:25:56]  Do you have social media?
[00:25:57]  Do you have a personal Twitter account or where people can follow you?
[00:26:01]  I do not have Twitter, but they can find me on Facebook there.
[00:26:07]  I'm all over it.
[00:26:11]  At the same thing, or concerning at the same Facebook?
[00:26:15]  Yeah.
[00:26:15]  Okay, sir.
[00:26:16]  Raul Alfonso, otherwise.
[00:26:20]  Raul, thank you so much.
[00:26:23]  Look forward to being back on this tomorrow and see what happens tomorrow night.
[00:26:26]  These data centers are a scourge in this country, a scourge.
[00:26:33]  All of AI right now is a scourge, just is.
[00:26:36]  Devouring jobs, trying to devour your humanity.
[00:26:40]  Joanna's going to join us on the wall.
[00:26:42]  Short commercial break.
[00:26:43]  Dr. Thayer and I are going to break down the president's press conference and what it means.
[00:26:48]  About war and the rumors of war.
[00:26:50]  Next in the war room.
[00:26:59]  A plan because of the power of our military where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again.
[00:27:18]  I mean, complete demolition by 12 o'clock, and it'll happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to.
[00:27:25]  We don't want that to happen.
[00:27:27]  We may even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation.
[00:27:31]  And you know what?
[00:27:32]  If that's the case, the last thing we want to do is start with power plants, which are among the most expensive things, and bridges.
[00:27:38]  You saw the bridge.
[00:27:39]  The bridge went.
[00:27:40]  We were very close to a deal.
[00:27:43]  And then I got a call from Mr. Whitcoff, Mr. Kushner, and JD saying, I think they're breaking the deal.
[00:27:53]  I said, tell them that's okay.
[00:27:55]  Don't worry about it.
[00:27:56]  But tell them to look out their window and watch.
[00:27:59]  And within 45 minutes, I gave the order to knock out the biggest bridge.
[00:28:05]  I gave the order to knock out the biggest bridge in, I believe, the Middle East, but the biggest bridge in Iran.
[00:28:11]  And within 10 minutes after I gave that order, that bridge was over.
[00:28:18]  So, do I want to do that?
[00:28:20]  No.
[00:28:20]  Do I want to destroy their infrastructure?
[00:28:23]  No.
[00:28:23]  It will take them 100 years to rebuild.
[00:28:26]  Right now, if we left today, it would take them 20 years to rebuild their country, and it would never be as good as it was.
[00:28:34]  And the only way they're going to be able to rebuild their country.
[00:28:37]  It is to utilize the genius of the United States of America.
[00:28:43]  Let's leave the nation building topic for a different day.
[00:28:46]  Let's get through this ultimatum.
[00:28:50]  Dr. Thayer, we had Trita Parsi on a day, and I do think that there are elements of the Republican Guard, and I think a lot of the elements that are running the show right now that think they're winning.
[00:29:03]  They think that the initiative has shifted ever since the Israelis.
[00:29:07]  Bombed the gas field with the Qatar.
[00:29:12]  You can see that shifted the center of gravity of this war, this battle, down to the Gulf, made the Strait of Hormuz a major strategic entity in this, even more so than it normally would be.
[00:29:27]  They think they've got the initiative.
[00:29:28]  They think they're winning.
[00:29:30]  And so the president's given an ultimatum and he's pardoned more forces in the area.
[00:29:37]  And he's saying, hey, look, if I don't feel that I've got at least the movement or some sort of deal that looks like it's real, and I think somebody to actually enforce the deal on your side starting at 8 o'clock tomorrow, we're going to take this thing up a notch.
[00:29:55]  Your thoughts?
[00:29:57]  Yeah, it was an important press conference, I think, for several reasons.
[00:30:02]  First, he illuminated the diplomatic track.
[00:30:04]  So the diplomatic track is active.
[00:30:07]  And, Steve, we could see a breakthrough.
[00:30:10]  At some point in time, right?
[00:30:12]  You never want to box Trump in, of course, and surprise is something that goes hand in glove with President Trump.
[00:30:21]  Second, the military track is proceeding exceptionally well ahead of schedule.
[00:30:29]  Thirdly, he's broadening the target set tomorrow, right?
[00:30:32]  So we're going to go after the infrastructure target, economic and infrastructure targets explicitly.
[00:30:38]  All three of those.
[00:30:40]  Reinforce one another, the diplomatic track, the military track, and then broadening that target set to put more pain on the Iranians.
[00:30:50]  You're right, there's certainly going to be a coterie of Iranians who believe that they're winning this and that they need to stick through to the bitter end.
[00:31:00]  And if they just endure more pain, endure another day, another week, et cetera, they're going to come out with a semblance of victory.
[00:31:12]  The last point I would make again is that.
[00:31:15]  We should expect this to go on for weeks.
[00:31:17]  As Secretary Rubio and President Trump himself have said multiple times now, that this is going to be going on for another two weeks or another four weeks, right, through April, at least.
[00:31:34]  So, unless there's a break on the diplomatic track, which could certainly happen, this is going to be going on for some time.
[00:31:43]  More pain is going to be applied on the Iranians with the expectation.
[00:31:48]  That they do have a breaking point, and that is going to be reached when the economic target set is similarly attraded, the way the military target set is greatly attraded, obviously.
[00:32:05]  Dr. Thayer, hang on a second.
[00:32:07]  So, this whole initial idea of essentially state collapse, because you're seeing from some of the top economic papers around the world that their economy now, a big part of it has gone to barter because they've been cut off in many different areas, although not totally cut off with getting money because I don't think Dubai has done that yet.
[00:32:30]  If you're talking about state collapse, how much intent?
[00:32:34]  I mean, look, we've had 12,000, 13,000 sorties already.
[00:32:38]  On these people.
[00:32:40]  How much do you think you continue to go to get actually?
[00:32:43]  Because this gets beyond, I want people to understand, this is beyond the original Captain Fennell and CENCOM, Admiral Cooper's presentation of defanging and decline.
[00:32:55]  You're basically saying we got through pretty much the defanging and decline.
[00:33:01]  Now we've got to make these people aren't paying attention to the guys that run it.
[00:33:05]  We've got to get state collapse on top of them.
[00:33:08]  And we do that by a, as you call it, different target set.
[00:33:14]  Right.
[00:33:14]  So he's gone after the military target set, it is getting near completed, the 13,000, and we're well into that, obviously, north of 11,000 targets hit.
[00:33:28]  But those are going to be precision targets directed against, if you will, military command and control, other military targets, the missiles, the Air Force, the Navy, et cetera.
[00:33:40]  The damage to the economic target set is going to become, is In a military sense, easier to inflict.
[00:33:46]  They're softer targets, right?
[00:33:49]  They're countervalue targets.
[00:33:51]  And the effect on the economy, of course, is explicit, right?
[00:33:54]  That's the point of targeting them.
[00:33:56]  They're going to do great damage to the Iranian economy.
[00:34:02]  And that's going to facilitate, as you said, perhaps, you know, it's going to generate instability in the regime.
[00:34:09]  It's going to lengthen the time that Iran needs to rebuild.
[00:34:13]  And it's going to inflict more pain on the Iranian government.
[00:34:18]  As well.
[00:34:20]  So the diplomatic track is moving, the military track is continuing, and now President Trump has said we're broadening on the economic target set.
[00:34:31]  You're right.
[00:34:31]  The Iranians are certainly, again, a group of them that are going to see this through the bitter end.
[00:34:37]  And it's a question of whether this pain, right?
[00:34:40]  This is the application of pain, after all, to coerce Iran to come around our way of seeing things, whether that's going to be sufficient or not.
[00:34:51]  We should expect that Iran is still capable of complex military operations and surprise.
[00:34:58]  So I go back to the Diego Garcia attack, right, with the IRBMs, intermediate ranges.
[00:35:05]  Ballistic missiles.
[00:35:08]  We should expect that the Iranians are going to have some tricks up their sleeve, and they're not anticipating that, whether that's in the Gulf or elsewhere, Steve, I think is important to bear in mind.
[00:35:27]  Have strategic bombing look, you take three separate time frames Japan in World War II, Vietnam in the Vietnam War in the 60s, early 70s, and the Persians today.
[00:35:41]  Did we understand their cultures well enough?
[00:35:43]  Because, look, in Japan, I mean, we firebombed Tokyo.
[00:35:50]  We firebombed virtually every industrial city in mainland Japan.
[00:35:58]  We were getting ready for a four million man invasion, and we were looking at a million casualties.
[00:36:06]  And the people didn't, in the military, I don't think LeMay even knew about it.
[00:36:10]  Or wasn't very familiar with the atomic weapon.
[00:36:12]  We dropped two atomic weapons.
[00:36:13]  Remember, we had to drop two atomic weapons on them.
[00:36:16]  The first one didn't get their attention enough.
[00:36:19]  My point is that the strategic bombing in 1944 and 45 didn't break the Japanese.
[00:36:26]  Vietnam, I was reading the other day, I think it was something, I don't think I got this number wrong.
[00:36:31]  It was 5 million sorties or something over the entire length of the war, right?
[00:36:37]  And they still fought on to the end.
[00:36:39]  The Persians here, it doesn't seem like, and here's the thing I'm not saying they are winning.
[00:36:45]  But you can tell their belief is that they're winning.
[00:36:49]  Is this strategic bombing, which we'll go to, on not directly military targets, but the infrastructure, the power grids, the oil, the things that provide the wherewithal for their military complex?
[00:37:02]  So it's certainly not a war crime.
[00:37:06]  That's ridiculous.
[00:37:07]  But do you think that brings them, do you think that gets their attention?
[00:37:10]  Or are these folks in this asymmetric war they're fighting just going to hunker down more?
[00:37:16]  Yeah, I think that at this stage, Iran does have a breaking point as Japan had a breaking point, as the North Vietnamese had a breaking point.
[00:37:26]  And when we think about those campaigns, we recognize, of course, they're joint campaigns.
[00:37:31]  It was the Navy blockade, the submarines had cut Japan off, the mining of Japanese ports.
[00:37:38]  And then, of course, between really March and July of 1945, Curtis LeMay had run out of Japanese cities to destroy.
[00:37:47]  He was so effective at firebombing them.
[00:37:49]  They put Japan in a position where the atomic bombs provided a shock, right?
[00:37:54]  An external shock that gave the group within the Japanese government that wanted to surrender the excuse to surrender.
[00:38:04]  And they were obviously able to get the emperor on board despite resistance in the Japanese military.
[00:38:10]  In Vietnam in 72, we want to remember that Operation Freedom Train and Linebacker One and then Linebacker Two.
[00:38:19]  Broke linebacker two in particular broke the North Vietnamese, right?
[00:38:24]  They had run out of SAMs.
[00:38:26]  We were reaching air superiority.
[00:38:28]  We had mined their harbors.
[00:38:30]  We had destroyed the rail lines and the roads coming in from China, which meant that they couldn't resupply their surface to air missiles.
[00:38:39]  So they were in a position of great vulnerability.
[00:38:43]  So these joint operations can be extremely effective.
[00:38:50]  Bringing the Iranians to the point where they're going to concede, right?
[00:38:54]  Whether that's going to be limited concessions or total concessions, of course, it's going to be a matter for diplomacy.
[00:39:00]  But there are going to be just Japanese government.
[00:39:03]  But hang on.
[00:39:06]  That's my point.
[00:39:07]  It took two atomic weapons, two atomic weapons to get Hirohito against the military.
[00:39:14]  And by the way, the military junta, the military guys didn't want to surrender after two.
[00:39:18]  They were ready to say, drop them.
[00:39:19]  We don't care.
[00:39:19]  We don't care how many civilians you kill.
[00:39:22]  We'll kill the Americans.
[00:39:23]  Americans will never take us over because we'll defeat them on the landing.
[00:39:27]  The Vietnamese, we might have broken their back, but they fought on in August.
[00:39:33]  The helicopters on the roof were the Americans taking the South Vietnamese out, not the Viet Cong or the North Vietnamese.
[00:39:41]  So starting tomorrow night, President Trump has been pretty adamant.
[00:39:45]  He's saying, hey, if I start at eight o'clock with the target sets we got by midnight, they're finished.
[00:39:50]  Your response to that?
[00:39:53]  Well, we want to keep in mind, of course, that what the military won in North Vietnam with those campaigns, again, joint campaigns, the Navy, Army, Air Force working together, the Marines, Henry Kissinger gave away in the accord, right?
[00:40:10]  He wanted out of Vietnam and put the North Vietnamese in a position where they were going to be able to conquer South Vietnam two years later.
[00:40:21]  By March 73, of course, in April 75, North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam.
[00:40:27]  The military can win conflicts, but the civilians can give it away, right?
[00:40:32]  The diplomats can give it away.
[00:40:33]  So they have to work hand in glove.
[00:40:35]  What the military is achieving in Iran, right, the diplomats are going to have to secure.
[00:40:42]  Hang on one second.
[00:40:43]  Hang on one second.
[00:40:44]  We're going to take a short break.
[00:40:45]  Dr. Thayer, Joe Allen's up with us also.
[00:40:48]  Mark Beal, you heard about the data center.
[00:40:53]  Joe's going to give us the bigger picture when he joins us.
[00:40:56]  Short break.
[00:40:58]  Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
[00:41:02]  Yeah, I think it's going to take something pretty dramatic by the Iranians to get President Trump's attention on this.
[00:41:09]  Otherwise, I think unless they stop playing games and deal directly, I see tomorrow night.
[00:41:17]  Being President Trump gave him 11 days, and hey, we didn't get anything put together.
[00:41:21]  Here we go.
[00:41:22]  Dr. Thayer, you're going to be with me again tomorrow morning, in the afternoon, also in the run up to this.
[00:41:27]  Where do people go to get your content, sir?
[00:41:31]  Steve, people can reach me at Brad Thayer at X and Bradley Thayer at Getter and on Truth.
[00:41:36]  So I think I'm very pleased to talk through this as we really look at the consequences of this war, how it's going to terminate, and to recognize that.

=== Wealth Redistribution Plans (03:14) ===

[00:41:49]  As we go into that economic target set, the infrastructure economic targets, it's going to take Iran years to rebuild from this, conceivably.
[00:41:59]  And it's not going to be a threat to regional hegemony.
[00:42:02]  If you recall, President Trump mentioned that near the outset of the war, where he talked about one of our aims here was to ensure that Iran does not stand any chance of being a regional hegemon.
[00:42:15]  Going after that economic target set is really going to damage the Iranian economy, clearly.
[00:42:21]  Yeah.
[00:42:22]  And coupled with the destruction, the defanging, decline, they will not be a hegemon regionally or otherwise for quite a while.
[00:42:29]  Dr. Thayer, we'll see you tomorrow.
[00:42:31]  Thank you for your time and attention on this matter, as the president says.
[00:42:35]  Joe, you're going to hold over until the next hour, but I got to ask you you've done a magnificent job, Humans First, all these different groups we're working with to really stop the AI amnesty the first time in the big, beautiful bill, stop it the second time in the.
[00:42:52]  NDAA, the must pass NDA.
[00:42:54]  They come up with a framework.
[00:42:56]  The framework's kind of shattered right now.
[00:42:58]  David Sachs has been relieved for cause.
[00:43:01]  He's gone, no longer.
[00:43:02]  AIs are.
[00:43:04]  I feel like we're winning, but now we got Sam Altman and others that are stepping forward.
[00:43:10]  Am I misreading this?
[00:43:11]  They're now coming forward and said, hey, we're the guys that can put this all together.
[00:43:16]  We're the good guys.
[00:43:17]  AI is coming faster than you think, harder than you think, bigger than you think.
[00:43:22]  And you better embrace us and you better embrace us today.
[00:43:26]  Joe Allen.
[00:43:29]  Well, Steve, the fight is never ending.
[00:43:31]  And today, OpenAI released their industrial policy for the intelligence age.
[00:43:37]  They subtitle it Ideas to Keep People First.
[00:43:42]  Basically, it's a very vague set of policy recommendations, everything from how to tax companies that are automating, redistribute the wealth, turn the entirety of the American society into cyborgs, and mitigate the risks that they say are imminent.
[00:44:01]  Of cyber attacks that are enabled by AI systems such as ChatGPT, bioweapon production, which would be enabled by systems like ChatGPT, and of course, loss of control.
[00:44:14]  What happens if the AI that they create goes rogue?
[00:44:18]  They suggest using government agencies to audit all AI companies.
[00:44:23]  But I thought it interesting.
[00:44:25]  They focus in on CASI, the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, which is really very much kind of a nascent organization still.
[00:44:34]  In the Trump administration.
[00:44:36]  It's very unclear exactly where it goes, but you can see that OpenAI is trying to position themselves as a partner with the Trump administration.
[00:44:47]  And also, the language about wealth redistribution makes me think that they are preparing perhaps for a change of guard after November.
[00:44:57]  And it's much more, I think, Democrat friendly than Republican or Trump friendly.

=== Free Shipping Day Deals (03:53) ===

[00:45:03]  It's worth noting, though, Steve, that the same day, actually, hours before.
[00:45:07]  They released this and the Mike Allen interview on Axios with Sam Altman.
[00:45:11]  Ronan Farrow at the New Yorker released a very long, in depth article painting Sam Altman in the worst possible light through the eyes of his peers as former executives at OpenAI.
[00:45:24]  It's entitled Sam Altman May Control Our Future.
[00:45:27]  Can he be trusted?
[00:45:29]  Interesting.
[00:45:30]  That was a question that Mike Allen asked Sam Altman directly.
[00:45:34]  And of course, he weaseled and waffled around it as Sam Altman is wont to do.
[00:45:40]  The answer is a resounding no.
[00:45:42]  Joe, hang on.
[00:45:43]  You're going to be back with me at the six o'clock hour.
[00:45:45]  Mike Lindell, long, tough day.
[00:45:49]  This war, it's going to be a couple of tough days.
[00:45:51]  Tomorrow night, President Trump's given a deadline.
[00:45:54]  The entire nation and the world is looking at that.
[00:45:57]  What the war in posse needs at the end of the day is deals.
[00:46:00]  What do you got for us?
[00:46:02]  Absolutely, Stephen.
[00:46:03]  I'm heading to Minnesota right now, so we're going to have a good report this week from our new factory.
[00:46:08]  But in the meantime, you guys, you know, we had over 20 semis.
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[00:48:23]  Thank you.
[00:48:24]  From Minneapolis.
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[00:48:28]  Want to see the semis and want to see the factory floor.
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[00:48:54]  Short commercial break back in the six o'clock hour in a moment.