Bannon's War Room - Episode 5297: Off Ramp For The Iran War; Immigration Protests Continue In Ireland
Aired: 2026-04-14
Duration: 48:53


=== Hungary's Landslide Victory (05:17) ===

[00:00:00]  We can't let a country blackmail or extort the world because that's what they're doing.
[00:00:07]  They're really blackmailing the world.
[00:00:09]  We're not going to let that happen.
[00:00:10]  And, you know, the amazing thing is we don't – can you believe this?
[00:00:15]  We don't use this rate.
[00:00:16]  We don't need this rate.
[00:00:17]  We have our own oil and gas, much more than we need.
[00:00:20]  We have more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia.
[00:00:23]  Think of this.
[00:00:24]  We produce more Saudi Arabia and add Russia to it, substantially more.
[00:00:29]  And by next year, we'll have double that amount.
[00:00:32]  So we don't need it, but the world needs it.
[00:00:35]  And many ships are heading to our country right now as we speak to load up with the best, really, I guess you could say, somebody said the best and sweetest.
[00:00:45]  I don't know exactly what sweet is, but when it relates to oil, it's a good thing.
[00:00:50]  But they're coming to our country right now.
[00:00:52]  There are many boats coming to our country.
[00:00:54]  Now, it could very well be this is going to be settled before that.
[00:00:58]  We've been called this morning by the right people, the appropriate people, and they want to work a deal.
[00:01:04]  I spoke yesterday with Vice President JD Vance.
[00:01:09]  He called me from his plane on the way back from Washington.
[00:01:14]  He reported to me in detail, as the people of this administration do every day, on the development of the negotiations.
[00:01:22]  In this case, the explosion in the negotiations.
[00:01:25]  The explosion came from the American side, which was not willing to tolerate the blatant violation of the agreement to enter negotiations by Iran.
[00:01:33]  Essentially, the agreement was that there would be a ceasefire and Iran would immediately open the crossings.
[00:01:39]  They didn't do that.
[00:01:40]  The Americans were not willing to accept it.
[00:01:44]  He also conveyed to me that the central issue on the table from the perspective of President Trump and the United States is the removal of all enriched material and ensuring that there is no more enrichment in the coming years, and this could be for decades.
[00:01:58]  To many Europeans, Orban represented the erosion of democracy and the elevation of a strong man autocrat leader.
[00:02:05]  To researchers, Hungary became a place to study democratic backsliding and rising authoritarianism.
[00:02:10]  To American conservatives in recent years, Hungary's been a place to celebrate.
[00:02:14]  It's been a place, a symbol of what they called populism, nationalism, and Christian values.
[00:02:19]  JD Vance was just there campaigning to keep Orban in power.
[00:02:22]  This morning, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted encouraging Hungarians to keep Orban in power.
[00:02:27]  So this is going to have shockwaves All around the world.
[00:02:31]  I've written quite a bit about, uh, urbanism, the idea in Hungary of, uh, state capture of the media, control of other institutions.
[00:02:39]  And yes, some of the corruption that has followed.
[00:02:41]  And corruption is a big theme in the news coverage out of Hungary tonight.
[00:02:46]  The idea that voters there are rejecting perceived corruption from the government that Orban was leading.
[00:02:51]  And you know, we're seeing American figures like Hillary Clinton celebrating Orban's fall.
[00:02:56]  Clinton writing on, on social media tonight, the end of Orban's autocratic regime is a victory for people who value democracy around the world.
[00:03:03]  Now, You can imagine she will say exactly the same thing if a Democrat wins in the US in 2020.
[00:03:09]  That's right.
[00:03:10]  They really come out onto the streets of Budapest to celebrate.
[00:03:13]  These are TISA supporters who understand now not only that Peter Magyar has won the election, becoming the new Hungarian prime minister, but also that the TISA party has achieved the two thirds majority in the parliament, giving it that super majority that Peter Magyar had promised he would use to return the rule of law to Hungary.
[00:03:34]  And as you can see, a lot of celebrations going on here in Budapest.
[00:03:38]  We've spoken to young people, sort of in their 20s, who've told us, look, Viktor Orban had been in government, in power, practically all of our lives.
[00:03:48]  They can't quite believe that it's finished.
[00:03:51]  And I think one of the most surprising things and what's at the heart of some of this disbelief here on the streets tonight and all of this enthusiasm is the fact that Viktor Orban conceded as quickly and as easily as he did.
[00:04:03]  And I think the theory is that it's proven such a landslide for Peter Magyar that really.
[00:04:09]  The numbers were simply against him and it was the only thing that he could do.
[00:04:13]  So, a fair amount of disbelief, a lot of joy, a great deal of excitement.
[00:04:19]  We've watched the growing men leading this party crying, hugging each other earlier on down by the Danube where they were holding their celebrations but, as you can see, it is uh, all of Budapest really that has come out now uh, to show their support, their enthusiasm and a certain disbelief that this is actually happening, happened in such a dramatic way.
[00:04:43]  The figures really are quite astonishing.
[00:04:44]  We've watched parliamentary seat after parliamentary seat held by some of the founders of Viktor Orban's party, Fidesz, people who've been European commissioners, people who are ministers lose their seats.
[00:04:56]  So it is an extraordinary landslide tonight for Tisa.
[00:05:01]  This is the primal scream of a dying regime.
[00:05:06]  Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on this people.
[00:05:11]  You're not got a free shot on all these networks lying about the people.
[00:05:16]  The people have had a belly full of it.

=== Orban's Dying Regime (12:21) ===

[00:05:17]  I know you don't like hearing that.
[00:05:19]  I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it.
[00:05:22]  It's going to happen.
[00:05:23]  And where do people like that go to share the big lie?
[00:05:26]  MAGA Media.
[00:05:28]  I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
[00:05:33]  Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?
[00:05:37]  If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
[00:05:43]  War room.
[00:05:44]  Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
[00:05:52]  Welcome to the war room.
[00:05:53]  It's Monday, April 13th in the year of our Lord, 2026.
[00:05:56]  Natalie Winters hosting today, but of course, we always have packed shows for you, but especially packed when the news cycle is raging on all cylinders as it is today.
[00:06:07]  Got Kurt Mills, Dr. Bradley Thayer, Sam Faddis.
[00:06:12]  We're going to go from Iran to China, what's going on in Ireland.
[00:06:16]  But real quick, I just want to make a very significant point with everything that is going on in Hungary.
[00:06:21]  You're seeing the media embrace this story nonstop, 24 seven coverage, this idea.
[00:06:27]  That Orban really is sort of President Trump a few years from now.
[00:06:31]  You guys know Norm Eisen, all of the color revolution apparatchiks and extraordinaires that we've spent a lot of time covering on this show.
[00:06:40]  Chapter and verse, when you read their literature, though, you know, calling them probably blueprints for revolution and guidebooks, handbooks for tactical protests is a more accurate term.
[00:06:51]  They've always referred to this concept of democratic backsliding, using Orban as a perfect example of President Trump on steroids.
[00:06:59]  So, the fact that they're gravitating so strongly to this is not just, frankly, evidence of their kind of confirmation bias.
[00:07:05]  They want to say, oh, look, autocrats, you know, authoritarianism, take your pick of however they want to spin it.
[00:07:11]  It's not popular, right?
[00:07:12]  It just suffered a massive defeat.
[00:07:13]  So, that's why you're seeing this nonstop coverage of it.
[00:07:16]  Otherwise, they wouldn't even care.
[00:07:19]  But just, I think that's important framing.
[00:07:21]  I want to bring in Kurt Mill, as usually we go, all things are wrong.
[00:07:24]  But before we pivot there, I would love to just get your thoughts on what went down in Hungary with Orban losing the election, the kind of You know, compounding influencing factors, but also just in general, the Western media is almost like gleeful obsession with it.
[00:07:39]  Yeah, I think number one, 16 years is a long time.
[00:07:42]  And, you know, it's an anti incumbent mood globally, I would say, in most democracies.
[00:07:47]  And Hungary, despite all the gnashing and wailing of teeth to the contrary, is democracy, obviously.
[00:07:53]  The man conceded immediately and a free and fair election was held.
[00:07:58]  I think the Iran war is bad for the right wing in Europe.
[00:08:03]  Fuel prices are being attributed to Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump, and the hawks in the United States.
[00:08:10]  And I think Orban suffered.
[00:08:12]  I think additionally, Orban's rule of Hungary, while interesting, also lapsed into corruption.
[00:08:21]  And corruption is a bipartisan, non ideological problem when it gets too bad.
[00:08:27]  And so, something obviously Republicans should look out for heading into the rest of the 2020s.
[00:08:33]  Well, and speaking of polls, maybe we can start our Iran discussion there.
[00:08:37]  But there's been some, I think, concerning polls.
[00:08:40]  We know we don't believe the polls here in the war room, but directionally, I think, concerning.
[00:08:44]  For the president, particularly among white working class voters, especially younger voters.
[00:08:49]  Can you sort of give us your assessment of the battlefield when it comes to those recent polls?
[00:08:54]  Yeah, no, I think the Iran war is problematic on two axes.
[00:08:58]  Number one, the fulcrum of Trump's support, the white working class, this sort of, again, Trump can highlight and his allies and the Hawks can highlight their support among Republicans all they like.
[00:09:09]  But the reality is, Donald Trump became president because he assembled a unique coalition, a bunch of people who either didn't vote.
[00:09:16]  Or actually, frankly, voted third party in the past, voted for Barack Obama.
[00:09:21]  Donald Trump himself, not a career Republican.
[00:09:24]  This is somebody who promised a turn of the page from the Reagan and Bush years.
[00:09:29]  And so to see the sort of, you know, that's how he attracted the white working class, how he attracted the Rust Belt voter, the voter that didn't finish college, to see that collapse of support is a concern.
[00:09:41]  And then secondarily, how did he come back to power?
[00:09:43]  Young voters, enough young voters, which seemed unimaginable in 2019, 2020, 2021.
[00:09:49]  Uh, they are disgusted, uh, by the Iran war and justifiably so.
[00:09:53]  And so this is just, you know, uh, presidents always think they can do a lot.
[00:09:57]  And I think the reality is they can only do a few things.
[00:10:00]  And, uh, Donald Trump, the president is unfortunately sacrificing a ton of political capital to get Israel's war in Iran done.
[00:10:08]  And I, I just, I urge him to, uh, to at minimum walk away from this.
[00:10:14]  Walk us through a little more on the why.
[00:10:16]  It seems like President Trump almost knows that this is not the most politically powerful thing to do.
[00:10:22]  I think he's admitted that in press gaggles.
[00:10:24]  But do you think this is a function, for example, some polls have shown that it's really more the variable of time, right?
[00:10:29]  He would enjoy four to eight weeks of support if something was successful and we got out quickly.
[00:10:34]  But if it drags on, then you start to hemorrhage support.
[00:10:37]  If it's something where we're discussing boots on the ground or other tactics that are a little less popular, is it a function of age?
[00:10:45]  What do you think is, or is it just that this is fundamentally, in your perspective, irreconcilable with the promises that were made on the campaign trail?
[00:10:55]  Yeah, I think the Iran war is irreconcilable with the promises made on the campaign trail.
[00:11:00]  But I think not to go back to the campaign trail, actually, I think the concern here is that the management of this crisis is actually COVID esque.
[00:11:09]  I mean, it started the exact same time of year, late February, early March, and the promises were we would be home by Easter.
[00:11:16]  You know, we're already.
[00:11:17]  We're already past this.
[00:11:18]  And I think it's just, you know, week after week after week, this is just dragging on.
[00:11:22]  And as you remember, Natalie, in 2020, yeah, the president did other things, including the Abraham Accords, which I think sowed the seeds for this conflict today.
[00:11:31]  Only thing people could focus on, the only thing people could remember was COVID.
[00:11:35]  And I think economically, if the war drags on, it's going to have actual similar economic effects heading into the summer.
[00:11:43]  A war that goes till July is one thing, another war that goes until, let's say, six months, as long as the 1973 war for Israel.
[00:11:51]  Um, that's another thing.
[00:11:52]  And I think, you know, this is, this is what's going to be voters on.
[00:11:56]  This is what is going to be on voters' minds.
[00:11:58]  And, you know, gas is already above $4 a gallon average in the United States, approaching $10 in places like San Francisco and LA.
[00:12:06]  If it gets above $5, I think you're going to see the bond markets revolt and we'll see what Scott Bessett and others in the administration, what their stomach is for a conflict there.
[00:12:15]  But again, I think, you know, that there is a very sustainable way to handle the Iranian nuclear threat.
[00:12:21]  You can get a better deal.
[00:12:23]  than Barack Obama ever got in the 2010s, even now.
[00:12:26]  And, uh, the, in America can come home and focus on, uh, the domestic, uh, ruin, uh, that the president, uh, uh, pledged and promised over 10 years, uh, to, to, to rectify.
[00:12:38]  So, what do you think a feasible off ramp looks like?
[00:12:41]  And what do you think are some of the potential obstructions that we could see come up in the way that'll make it less likely that those actually materialize?
[00:12:49]  Yeah, in my assessment, I think the Iranians would accept one of two deals.
[00:12:53]  Deal number one, you give them control of the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:12:57]  I know that sounds scary, but basically, they've telegraphed what they want, which is basically a dollar per every barrel of oil that goes through the Strait of Hormuz as economic relief to rebuild their country.
[00:13:09]  Given that we are allowing vacillations in the price of crude in the 10s, 20s, 30s, 40s, with wind one week at times, $1 on $100 barrel of oil is not that big of a deal.
[00:13:22]  Or I think we can reopen straight at Hormuz and accept a nuclear enrichment level, 1, 2, 3%, even potentially a pause throughout Donald Trump's term, and just allow them to have the right, in theory, to enrichment.
[00:13:36]  That is still better than JCPOA.
[00:13:38]  And I think there is a willful conflation.
[00:13:41]  Among hawks in the administration, and I'll just say it among the Israelis, of no nuclear enrichment and no nuclear weapon.
[00:13:48]  Just for your audience, I can understand the Iranians are nowhere near at this point nuclear weapons, great.
[00:13:55]  They would need 90%.
[00:13:56]  So the kind of deal that we're talking here is one, two, 3%.
[00:13:59]  It's a pittance.
[00:14:01]  It allows them to say that they weren't humiliated to their own people and it allows them that option if they wanted to quickly lunge for a bomb.
[00:14:09]  They don't dismantle all of their material.
[00:14:11]  It's not perfect.
[00:14:12]  But the Islamic Republic isn't perfect.
[00:14:14]  And the reality is, there's a lot of problems in the world.
[00:14:16]  And we don't, you know, the 2024 election, the 2016 election wasn't waged on Iran.
[00:14:23]  The Iran Hawk Crusade is a fanatic movement.
[00:14:26]  It's a radical movement within Washington, D.C., and elite corridors of power.
[00:14:30]  And it should be rejected.
[00:14:33]  If you can hang with us through the break, I've got a few more questions I want.
[00:14:36]  Then we got Dr. Thayer, Sam Faddis.
[00:14:39]  Don't go anywhere.
[00:14:40]  We got the Pact Show and some good cold opens.
[00:14:43]  Although, when I say good, they might make you triggered.
[00:14:46]  So I guess I'll, uh, Give you a true warning in advance.
[00:14:48]  We'll be right back after this short break.
[00:15:01]  Your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
[00:15:05]  Gotta make sure you're checking out birchgold.comslash Bannon or texting Bannon to 989898.
[00:15:12]  You know, Philip Patrick and the team, they love to hear from you guys.
[00:15:15]  Always have a bunch of great deals and offers and special informational packages going on.
[00:15:20]  So you got to make sure you're checking them out, the team over at Birch Gold.
[00:15:25]  Welcome back to the war room.
[00:15:27]  We still have Kurt with us from the American Conservative.
[00:15:29]  Kurt, before I let you go, Your latest thoughts on everything going on with the Strait of Hormuz, what you think the future of that very important passageway looks like in the near term and long term?
[00:15:42]  Look, it's entirely possible the Iranians maintain control of it.
[00:15:46]  This is, I think, we poke the bear.
[00:15:49]  I think this is something the administration should have taken more seriously the fact that they would be able to easily close the Strait.
[00:15:55]  There's going to be an attempted blockade on a blockade.
[00:15:58]  But the reality is, I think that the Chinese are going to cash in their chips with President Trump and complain about it.
[00:16:04]  And so I don't know what the long term there is.
[00:16:08]  The blockade has been championed by sort of uber hawks such as John Bolton.
[00:16:13]  But the reality is that the president isn't John Bolton.
[00:16:15]  He is not a doctrinaire Ron Hawk.
[00:16:18]  This is not someone I don't believe who wants to use every last scintilla of his political capital to do a regime change war for Israel.
[00:16:26]  And so I think you're going to see another half measure.
[00:16:29]  But the problem with half measures is they often don't solve anything.
[00:16:32]  And so I still believe that the president should either just walk away now, that is not the worst outcome possible.
[00:16:39]  Or do a responsible deal with the Iranians.
[00:16:42]  There's mixed reporting about whether or not the negotiating table is still open, whether or not they're going to resume talks in Islamabad or Geneva or Vienna later this week.
[00:16:52]  We shall see.
[00:16:53]  There's a ton of smoke and mirrors on that, even more than normal.
[00:16:58]  But I urge the administration to make a deal.
[00:17:00]  You can still get a better deal than JCPOA, better than the Obama Iran deal, and that's much better than an Iran war.
[00:17:07]  I think it's pretty simple.
[00:17:09]  If people want to read the magazine, stay up to date with everything you're working on, where can they go to do that?
[00:17:14]  Yeah, so the magazine was founded in 2002 by Pat Buchanan and friends against the Iraq war.
[00:17:18]  It's www.theamericanconservative.com.
[00:17:22]  My own personal work is at C U R T M I L L S on X, and we're doing our best against, I think, what is a highly misguided and potentially ruinous Iran war.
[00:17:32]  Thank you, Natalie.
[00:17:34]  Thank you so much for joining.
[00:17:35]  We'll have you back on soon.

=== EU vs Democratic Protesters (15:06) ===

[00:17:39]  Justin, full meltdown in Ireland.
[00:17:44]  People are protesting.
[00:17:45]  The radical left government.
[00:17:47]  I want to play a clip from there before we bring on our next guest, Dr. Bradley Thayer, also getting into China.
[00:17:53]  I guess Kurt beat me to it.
[00:17:55]  But let's play that clip real quick just to give the audience a sense of what's going on.
[00:17:59]  See the tractors, see the haulers, and you see all the people.
[00:18:06]  This shows, right?
[00:18:10]  Who the people stand with.
[00:18:12]  And it's not with the government.
[00:18:14]  Get that smelly Mr. Burns looking out of office now.
[00:18:22]  Dr. Thayer, I want to bring you on and help us understand what we're seeing and what it means kind of here at home, but also if it's related to what's going on in the Middle East.
[00:18:33]  Give us your assessment.
[00:18:34]  Well, Natalie, great to join you.
[00:18:37]  It is related to the Middle East.
[00:18:39]  Rising fuel prices.
[00:18:41]  Provoked a reaction in Ireland among drivers and farmers, everyone who's using, of course, the fuel intensively.
[00:18:49]  Last Tuesday, really protests started again by the drivers and by farmers, and that's escalated through the weekend, where the individuals are using their trucks and farm equipment to cause road closures and slowdown on many of Ireland's motorways.
[00:19:12]  As well as O'Connell Street in Dublin, of course, one of the most famous streets there, historic street.
[00:19:19]  This is being driven not really by the higher fuel costs, but it's caused by immigration.
[00:19:26]  Most folks don't know that over one out of five people living in Ireland is not native born, as a foreigner living in Ireland.
[00:19:37]  And more accurate estimates are that one out of four people living in Ireland.
[00:19:43]  Actually, it fits that category.
[00:19:45]  So, you've seen incredible population change in the Emerald Isle over the last 15 years or so.
[00:19:53]  And that has all sorts of ancillary effects, right?
[00:19:58]  The lack of housing, which upsets so many individuals, they're not able to buy a home because they aren't available, or they're given to migrants, as they're called, or they're given to the equivalent of H 1B workers.
[00:20:13]  This is going to accelerate as a result of the EU's agreement reached in January with India, where the EU is going to facilitate more Indians moving to Europe.
[00:20:26]  Many of those, of course, are going to go to Ireland, which has lax immigration policies, and you've got good, easy access to the UK.
[00:20:34]  So these protests are driven by immigration fundamentally, and it really illuminates the problem.
[00:20:42]  You have an earthquake in Ireland, essentially, with these protests, and you have on the other end of the continent in Hungary.
[00:20:48]  Really, another earthquake with Orban's defeat.
[00:20:52]  And it illustrates a fundamental problem with states in the EU.
[00:20:57]  The Irish case illustrates that you can have a popular protest, you can have a popular uprising, grassroots level, but it's very difficult to connect to any political change, of course, because the political parties across the board, the major political parties are all in the EU camp, right?
[00:21:15]  They're all bought and paid for by the European Union.
[00:21:19]  So, the elite aren't going to tolerate, they're not going to allow any change.
[00:21:23]  You've got a big disconnect then between what's happening at the grassroots, where people want change, and the elite who put their fingers in their ears and pretend they can't hear and are just going to ride out or attempt to ride out the protest.
[00:21:40]  There'll be a no confidence motion tomorrow, Tuesday, in the Dale.
[00:21:44]  And so, what we would expect, of course, is perhaps the government's going to fall, but that's twiddly dumb and twiddly d.
[00:21:51]  You're going to replace one.
[00:21:54]  Pro EU government with another.
[00:21:57]  With Orban's election, you see the reverse, where you did have, in fact, a popular leader was elected, Viktor Orban, of course, for 16 years in power, but the EU would hammer tongs at him every year.
[00:22:12]  He was attacked as being anti democratic, of course.
[00:22:16]  We're familiar, of course, with all the slurs and the defamation that was directed his way.
[00:22:24]  So you have a different set of problems.
[00:22:26]  There, that even if you are able to elect a populist, he's isolated by the EU.
[00:22:32]  And ultimately, they're greatly celebrating his defeat, as the Cold Open demonstrated.
[00:22:38]  So, big problems in the EU with the democratic deficit, right?
[00:22:42]  You have an EU which is fundamentally anti democratic, and it's going to use its might either to ignore or to crush, undermine protesters in Ireland, or in the case of Hungary, isolate that leader.
[00:22:59]  In an effort to do their utmost to get rid of them, of course, as they did this weekend.
[00:23:06]  So, a lot of unrest in the continent.
[00:23:08]  And guess what's to blame?
[00:23:09]  Brussels is to blame in their policies of endless immigration, right?
[00:23:13]  The fact that the 11th commandment is that you can never have too many immigrants.
[00:23:18]  And that's the answer to all of the problems that the EU faces to bring in more and more immigrants, facilitating, of course, the decline of Western civilization.
[00:23:31]  Which isn't theirs to destroy, of course, belongs to all of us.
[00:23:36]  So, big problems in Europe, and Ireland and Hungary are demonstrating some of the depth of that problem.
[00:23:46]  I'm curious your thoughts on the projections of how what is going down in Iran and surrounding countries could potentially trigger a whole new, probably considerably more sizable refugee wave into Europe, certainly, hopefully not the United States.
[00:24:00]  But do you think that that has the potential to exacerbate what you're talking about even more?
[00:24:05]  Yes, certainly.
[00:24:05]  And Natalie, you called attention to this weeks ago when you recognized, of course, that one of the consequences of this war is that there will be migrant flows.
[00:24:16]  Or, likely to be in the case of the Iran war, where Afghan refugees living in Iran and Iranians themselves are going to make their way to Europe, to Canada, to Australia.
[00:24:29]  And folks don't really know the depth of the problem.
[00:24:31]  You know, that about one out of every three people living in Australia is foreign.
[00:24:37]  Folks don't realize that when they think of Australia, but that's the case.
[00:24:41]  About one out of five people living in Canada is foreign born.
[00:24:46]  So, you're seeing rapid change.
[00:24:49]  The conflict in Iran is going to drive that as it reaches, of course, its conclusion.
[00:24:55]  And you're going to see folks leaving, refugees leaving Iran, in addition to those, obviously, who can come continuously from Afghanistan, from Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere, obviously, Africa as well.
[00:25:14]  So, and that's, of course, by design.
[00:25:17]  The EU wants that, they're facilitating that, and they're doing their utmost again.
[00:25:24]  To bring about rapid population change on that continent, as the Canadian government is, as the Australian government is as well, which thankfully in the US, President Trump has largely stopped that, although not wholly stopped that, of course, with H1Bs, but still far better in the US than it was, obviously, under the Biden administration.
[00:25:49]  So the popular protests in Ireland, we should expect that's going to continue, and you're going to have.
[00:25:57]  Versions of that break out, of course, throughout Europe as immigrants continue to flow into that continent without end.
[00:26:08]  And as people recognize, as they have, Brussels doesn't care, right?
[00:26:15]  That's the design, that's the intent.
[00:26:18]  So the democratic deficit in the EU is massive and getting worse.
[00:26:25]  Dr. Thayer, if you can hang with us.
[00:26:27]  Through the break, I want to get your thoughts on the kind of China macro level, everything going on in Iran.
[00:26:34]  What's it got?
[00:26:35]  Sam Faddis for Oren Posse.
[00:26:36]  You know what I'm going to say?
[00:26:37]  Make sure you're checking out virtual.comslash Bannon, texting Bannon to 989898.
[00:26:42]  Give Philip Patrick and the team a call.
[00:26:44]  Our shows nowadays seem to just be about how crazy the world is, not an overstatement, if anything, an understatement.
[00:26:50]  So, you know, gold has always been a hedge.
[00:26:51]  That's virtual.comslash Bannon.
[00:26:53]  We'll be right back, more warm after this break.
[00:26:59]  As far as China is concerned, China can send their ships to us.
[00:27:03]  China can send their ships to Venezuela.
[00:27:05]  We told them, buy from Venezuela.
[00:27:07]  We have a lot of overcapacity.
[00:27:09]  We'll sell them and we'll probably sell it for even less money.
[00:27:13]  I have a very good relationship with President Xi of China.
[00:27:16]  We work together very well.
[00:27:18]  They're paying us substantial money, as you know.
[00:27:21]  We've never got money before.
[00:27:23]  You know, I listen to this Gordon Chang.
[00:27:25]  He has no idea what he's talking about.
[00:27:26]  We have been very tough on China, tough but fair.
[00:27:30]  And, uh, You know, it's an amazing place, but I have a very good relationship with China, and they've been doing my thing.
[00:27:37]  You know, I put tremendous tariffs.
[00:27:39]  I put 100% tariff on all Chinese cars coming in, and that's destroying Europe.
[00:27:45]  They're destroying Europe because they're taking away so much business from Mercedes and BMW, et cetera.
[00:27:50]  And we don't have any Chinese cars in our country because they would have destroyed General Motors, Ford.
[00:27:56]  They would have destroyed these companies if they did it.
[00:27:59]  So I put 100% tariff on, and in all fairness to Biden, he allowed it to stay on, which is shocking to me.
[00:28:05]  One of the things, it's about the only thing he did good, but he allowed it to say, so we don't have the problem that they have.
[00:28:11]  You know, they're having tremendous economic.
[00:28:14]  You're back in the war room.
[00:28:16]  Dr. Thayer, I want to bring you in on that.
[00:28:18]  That's obviously just one very small part of everything that's going on with what is, I think, a new conception of spheres of influence as the United States sort of regressing in the regions that they're focusing on.
[00:28:30]  I think you can see it in the realignment and orientation of virtually all of our military right out of the Indo Pacific.
[00:28:39]  But I'm curious to get your sort of nuanced perspective on how what is going down in Iran is kind of impacting PRC leadership, their thought calculus back at home when it comes to things that are probably more critical and crucial to them, things like Taiwan, their just conception of, you know, American power, the geopolitical realignment.
[00:29:01]  What's your sort of bird's eye view?
[00:29:04]  Well, Natalie, it's a great question.
[00:29:07]  To my mind, this gets down to deterrence.
[00:29:10]  We don't want communist China to aggress against Taiwan.
[00:29:15]  And deterrence is a function of political considerations and military capabilities.
[00:29:21]  The political considerations, to some degree, have been helped by Iran, right?
[00:29:27]  What has the PRC leadership seen?
[00:29:29]  They've seen President Trump use force in Venezuela, Nigeria, of course, in the course of since he's returned to office.
[00:29:39]  In Syria, President Trump is willing to employ US military power globally.
[00:29:46]  The Venezuelas, of course, potentially Cuba as well.
[00:29:53]  So, and President Trump, of course, is an individual who wants to maximize his freedom of action, his opportunities, and doesn't make him predictable in all circumstances.
[00:30:04]  That feeds into the political considerations about deterrence.
[00:30:09]  That's positive.
[00:30:10]  For thinking through what we need to do to deter communist China from attacking Taiwan.
[00:30:17]  On the debit side of the ledger, of course, conventional deterrence depends on capabilities, a defense industrial base that can produce the weaponry that we need to have to have a robust conventional deterrent in the Indo Pacific, in Japan, South Korea, in the Philippines, in the waters surrounding Taiwan.
[00:30:39]  And that arsenal is being used up.
[00:30:41]  A lot of it is being consumed, of course, in the war with Iran.
[00:30:47]  So the U.S. military presence in the Indo Pacific is not ideal from the standpoint of having a robust conventional deterrent to keep China, communist China, from attacking Taiwan.
[00:31:01]  We would like a defense industrial base that can produce weaponry in the size and scope that we need to have all of the time, whether that's the ships and the submarines, the aircraft.
[00:31:13]  But the weapon systems themselves that we need, so that if communist China is thinking about attacking Taiwan, they look at the size really of the U.S. arsenal and its deployment, and they think, not today, right?
[00:31:27]  We're not going to do this today because the U.S. has got too much power in the region.
[00:31:33]  So, Iran, the CENTCOM essentially orientation of so much of the U.S. military remains, and the military capabilities with respect to deterring an attack on Taiwan are not ideal.
[00:31:48]  From the standpoint of a robust conventional deterrent.
[00:31:52]  In the Cold War, we solved that by having tactical nuclear weapons and theater nuclear weapons, as well as strategic nuclear weapons.
[00:31:59]  In the post Cold War period, we greatly reduced our tactical nuclear weapons and essentially have eliminated our theater nuclear capabilities and even drawn down our strategic forces.
[00:32:12]  So a lot needs to be done at the nuclear level, too, in terms of our strategic forces, increasing tactical nuclear.
[00:32:19]  Capabilities and returning theater nuclear forces so that we can ensure that not only can we meet an invasion with conventional forces, but if communist China escalated, we'd be able to meet them at any level up the escalation rung, whether it be tactical nuclear weapons or theater or heaven forbid strategic.
[00:32:38]  So there's a lot of work that we need to do, and Iran is illuminating some of the problems that we have.

=== Nuclear Strategy Shifts (11:38) ===

[00:32:46]  China's also looking at what's going on in Iran and looking at.
[00:32:50]  Some of the vulnerabilities that we have, how we use force, and I'm sure they're learning lessons from the conflict as well.
[00:33:00]  Dr. Thayer, we always appreciate having you in the war room.
[00:33:03]  If people want to read all of your work, stay up to date with everything you're posting.
[00:33:09]  I see you've got a profile picture.
[00:33:10]  We're still working on getting a banner picture on your Twitter.
[00:33:14]  But where can people go to follow you?
[00:33:16]  Natalie, you've worked on me for years on that.
[00:33:19]  And so I'm a hard case, I suppose.
[00:33:24]  But great to join you.
[00:33:24]  I'm at Brad Theron X and Bradley Thayer at Getter and Truth.
[00:33:27]  Thanks very much, Natalie.
[00:33:29]  Thank you, Dr. Thayer.
[00:33:32]  I think the other key point here is a lot of the technological advantages that we have against the Chinese Communist Party in certain countries where we're going and doing these military excursions, right?
[00:33:42]  Venezuela, where they use Chinese air defense, we were able to go in unscathed.
[00:33:46]  But then all of a sudden, you see certain anomalies going on in Iran, which also uses Chinese air defense systems, we're hemorrhaging and sort of giving away a lot of, I think, tactics, covert, over, otherwise, that would matter a lot more, I think, if we were to see escalated confrontation in a kinetic style.
[00:34:05]  With China, whether it be Taiwan or who knows where.
[00:34:09]  I want to bring Sam Faddis on partly to talk about that.
[00:34:13]  Feel free to pick up where I left off with Dr. Thayer on the China front.
[00:34:16]  But I'm curious your thoughts too on sort of this story we've seen.
[00:34:21]  I like how the legacy media was treating it like it was this huge thing that nobody knew that China has been like arming Iran and sending them weapons.
[00:34:28]  It's like, well, their entire drone infrastructure and ecosystem is basically founded, if not buttressed, by Chinese Communist Party and Hong Kong linked entities.
[00:34:39]  But your thoughts on the sort of nexus there and just in general what we're seeing go down?
[00:34:47]  Well, I mean, look, the Chinese have been in bed with the Iranians for a long time and they assist them in all sorts of ways and have for a very long time.
[00:34:57]  And look, they're going to continue to assist them throughout this crisis at every opportunity they get, understanding that.
[00:35:09]  You know, this is real politics at its best, right?
[00:35:13]  And so the Chinese help the Iranians to the extent that it helps the Chinese.
[00:35:18]  And they will calculate at all times in very cold blooded fashion how they're going to assist them.
[00:35:26]  What it really involves is what's good for China.
[00:35:30]  And that will be a risk versus gain analysis.
[00:35:32]  So they're not going to say, hey, these are our blood brothers and come charging to their defense necessarily, nor are they going to walk away, nor are they going to do anything productive on our side.
[00:35:43]  And at every step of the way, they will repeat that calculus.
[00:35:49]  In terms of the broader picture, look, I think what people have to understand is we all hope there is a resolution soon.
[00:35:59]  First and foremost, me.
[00:36:00]  I'd love to wake up tomorrow morning and find that the Iranians have agreed to something we can live with and this is all over.
[00:36:08]  I don't think that's going to happen.
[00:36:10]  You know, we started a war that I guess we thought was going to be over very, very quickly.
[00:36:17]  It wasn't, and it never was going to be.
[00:36:19]  Now we're blockading the Straits.
[00:36:23]  And what I'm hearing from a lot of people is this expectation that this will be the move that ends it, that certainly the Iranians will quit now, become reasonable, however you want to characterize it.
[00:36:39]  And again, I will hope to God that that is true, but I'm not betting any money on it.
[00:36:46]  That is not my expectation.
[00:36:48]  I think we.
[00:36:49]  We are going to have to apply a lot more pressure to these guys.
[00:36:53]  Right now, they do not believe they are losing this war.
[00:36:56]  And that may frustrate us, but it is still true.
[00:37:00]  And in terms of what that pressure looks like, what do you think?
[00:37:05]  Two kind of questions here.
[00:37:06]  One, what do you think the accurate and right ways to apply pressure would be?
[00:37:11]  And do you think that for the administration, the only real way to achieve the goals that they've outlined is by putting more conventional boots on the ground?
[00:37:20]  Or what are the other kinetic tactics?
[00:37:23]  Well, look, I'll start with the caveat that I've repeated on this program about 50 times by this point in the last few weeks.
[00:37:31]  If I had been advising the president before he made the decision to start the war, My advice would be don't start the war.
[00:37:39]  If his decision was we're going to start the war, it would have been don't do like the plan as it is laid out here will not work.
[00:37:47]  So if you're hard over that you have to do this, you need a different plan.
[00:37:53]  So that's just that's my caveat right now.
[00:37:57]  Unfortunately, we don't have a way back machine or a rewind button.
[00:38:00]  So we're now in it.
[00:38:03]  And as much as we'd love to just walk away, we can't just walk away.
[00:38:07]  We kind of broke it.
[00:38:11]  If we walk away and we leave the Iranians effectively having won and now dictating terms in the Middle East, the consequences are unthinkable.
[00:38:23]  So, in terms of pressure, closing the strait is a really good start.
[00:38:29]  You also got to close every land border.
[00:38:31]  And we can't do that with the U.S. Navy, obviously.
[00:38:34]  So, that means we have to apply pressure on all of the neighboring countries to seal them off.
[00:38:41]  They have a lot of funds, they being the Iranians.
[00:38:44]  Billions and billions of dollars sitting around the world in accounts, but most of which is frozen.
[00:38:52]  Give up on the whole, I mean, forget about the whole frozen thing.
[00:38:55]  Take the funds, take their money, seal them off from the world.
[00:39:00]  There are still cargo aircraft flying in and out of Tehran from a lot of places where you have no idea what's on those cargo planes.
[00:39:10]  If you're going to blockade the place, you need to seal off air travel as well.
[00:39:15]  And then obviously, You need to stop waiting for them to do something and then figuring out how to react to it.
[00:39:23]  You know, they're going to, they have already taken out the pipeline across Saudi Arabia by virtue of which the Saudis are moving oil to Yanbu on the Red Sea and getting oil out that way.
[00:39:35]  They've already taken it out once.
[00:39:37]  The Iranians are going to take it out again.
[00:39:39]  And they're going to hit it as many times as they can and cause damage that you can't fix in a day or two.
[00:39:44]  And they're going to start taking out at some point desalination plants and leaving 100 million people in the Gulf.
[00:39:52]  With no fresh water to drink, and they're going to start taking out oil production facilities.
[00:39:56]  It's going to go, I mean, assuming we allow them to do that.
[00:40:00]  And increasingly, this comes down to their capacity to use drones, right?
[00:40:05]  And people keep trying to give a count of how many drones they have.
[00:40:09]  There's no such thing as a count of how many drones they have.
[00:40:12]  They can make these drones in a garage.
[00:40:14]  They use motorcycle engines, they're mostly fiberglass.
[00:40:17]  They can make them for nothing.
[00:40:19]  So they literally, in any civilian residence, you could be making drones.
[00:40:25]  So We're shooting down 90, 95% of them.
[00:40:29]  That's great.
[00:40:30]  And all credit to the people that are doing that.
[00:40:32]  But if you fire a couple hundred of them at a big petrochemical plant and five, 10% of them get through, that's still a big problem.
[00:40:41]  Sam, if you can hang with us through the break, I've got a few more questions I want to ask you.
[00:40:45]  And I got a Hillary Clinton cold open for you.
[00:40:48]  So the audience is definitely going to hang around.
[00:40:50]  We're in Boston.
[00:40:51]  Don't go anywhere.
[00:40:52]  We'll be right back after this short break.
[00:40:59]  People around the world, you know, two of them, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkopf, you know, they're supposed to solve Ukraine, Iran, Gaza.
[00:41:08]  It's a joke because, from what I'm told and what I've read in public accounts, the offer that was made by the Iranians in Geneva was not adequate, but it served as a starting place beyond which, as Jonathan Powell, the British national security advisor, said, we expected the Iranians to start with.
[00:41:31]  But that would require sitting in a chair for hours as we did to get the first agreement.
[00:41:38]  That seems to be something that Trump and his people are unable to do.
[00:41:44]  So you would have to wipe the slate clean.
[00:41:47]  You would have to bring in people who actually know something about nuclear weapons.
[00:41:51]  We had physicists, nuclear weapons practitioners at the table when our administration was negotiating for the JPOA.
[00:42:02]  You need people who know something, who know the history.
[00:42:05]  It's shocking that Trump said nobody told him that Iran might close the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:42:11]  Every war game I was ever involved in, that was the first thing we assumed Iran would do.
[00:42:16]  So we're in a situation now where we are weak, where we essentially have lost the leverage and initiative that we had.
[00:42:27]  I supported Trump bombing the nuclear sites back in June.
[00:42:30]  I thought that was an appropriate and limited strategic.
[00:42:34]  And that's enough of that.
[00:42:36]  But I guess if that's the shot, then the chaser can be some good news.
[00:42:39]  Breaking news that Eric Swalwell of Chinese spy fame has also resigned from Congress.
[00:42:45]  Just some quick breaking news.
[00:42:47]  Go look it up.
[00:42:48]  But we've got Sam Battis only for a little bit longer.
[00:42:50]  I want to get on the real news of the day.
[00:42:52]  And I don't particularly like that shot of me next to Eric Swalwell.
[00:42:55]  So let's get that off the screen.
[00:42:57]  But Sam, I'm curious to get your thoughts on Hillary Clinton's take, this kind of recurring narrative that we've heard that.
[00:43:08]  You know, Netanyahu and the Israelis have been trying to get every president for a very long time to do this.
[00:43:14]  But it was President Trump who some would say, you know, Hillary, the idiocy, and others would say the courage to do it.
[00:43:19]  Your sort of assessment?
[00:43:23]  My dog knows more about national security than Hillary Clinton.
[00:43:26]  So look, I mean, for the love of God, what stuns you when the woman speaks is the audacity, the lack of self awareness, somebody with no record of accomplishment.
[00:43:42]  Ever in protecting this country and associated with policy that just gave away the farm to the Iranians who now wants to lecture us on how this should be conducted.
[00:43:54]  I mean, good God, that's just, that's obscene.
[00:43:58]  And, you know, as far as Swalwell, I'm sure Fang Fang or Ling Ling or whatever her name is, is waiting for him on the outside.
[00:44:04]  So I'm sure there's a happy ending there.
[00:44:08]  She's probably quite sad.
[00:44:10]  The Chinese, honestly, are the most heartbroken over this.
[00:44:12]  The person, the asset that they've been investing in for a very long time is suddenly, uh, Boom out of the, you know what?
[00:44:18]  We'll take that as a win against the PRC, a pure victory, but we'll take it.

=== Mike Lindell's Campaign (04:29) ===

[00:44:24]  Sam, if people want to follow you, get the magazine, stay up to date with everything you're working on.
[00:44:28]  Where can they go to do all that?
[00:44:31]  Go to Substack and Magazine, AND Magazine.Substack.com.
[00:44:35]  And I'm on X and Getter and every place else has Real Sam Faddis as well.
[00:44:41]  A must follow.
[00:44:42]  Sam, thank you so much for joining us.
[00:44:44]  I'll have you back on soon.
[00:44:45]  Thank you.
[00:44:48]  And we've got the one and only Mike Lindell who joins us now.
[00:44:52]  Mike, you've got a few minutes.
[00:44:53]  I know you always have updates from a campaign trail from election integrity world and of course my pillow world.
[00:45:00]  So lay it all out for us.
[00:45:03]  Right on, everybody.
[00:45:04]  Well, I just finished a week's worth of my own rallies and events and town halls in Minnesota for running for governor.
[00:45:13]  And it was pretty amazing.
[00:45:16]  I invited a bunch of people on the left to the one town hall, and I actually turned them by the time it was over to vote for me.
[00:45:25]  So that was kind of an experiment town hall we did with all the solutions I have to all the problems that we have in Minnesota.
[00:45:34]  Like you all out there, if you can get involved and and you want to help out by our campaign, it's MIKE Lindell gov.com, everybody.
[00:45:42]  It's Mike Lindell gov.com.
[00:45:44]  I'm doing.
[00:45:45]  I'm doing as many rallies and um and town halls as possible throughout the whole state non-stop, and uh, we need to.
[00:45:54]  Uh, as everyone knows, Minnesota is the tip of the spear.
[00:45:57]  I want to get Sharia Law banned and uh, get rid of the fraud and all kinds of other things we're going to do that affect the whole country and uh, so that's MIKE Lindell gov.com But, as y'all know, you guys have made it possible that I can even go 100, all in.
[00:46:13]  And that's your support of MyPillow, my employee-owned company.
[00:46:17]  You guys, we got our move complete.
[00:46:19]  We moved into our new factory early last week.
[00:46:24]  And we have, I believe it's almost three semis full of product that we're actually completely closing out.
[00:46:32]  And one of them is our slippers.
[00:46:33]  You save 80% on our slippers, $29.98 a pair.
[00:46:38]  Once they're gone, they're gone for good.
[00:46:40]  There they are, everybody.
[00:46:41]  And we have over, I think it's over 70 products on those three semis.
[00:46:46]  But this is the one you've all been loving.
[00:46:48]  And it's our My Slippers.
[00:46:51]  Remember, this is 80% off.
[00:46:52]  I think the original price was like $149.98.
[00:46:55]  But once they're gone, they're gone for good.
[00:46:57]  And if you go to mypillow.com forward slash war room, now you're going to see the slippers, but you see our flagship products, our Giza Dream Sheets.
[00:47:07]  And then you have our My Pillows.
[00:47:10]  We left it $49.98 for the War Room posse.
[00:47:16]  And then we have, you see, if you click on all of these, the outlet ones, the ones right in the middle there, those are the ones that we're closing out that are on those semis.
[00:47:26]  We have over 70 products there.
[00:47:27]  Check them all out.
[00:47:29]  And then also, let's not forget our big ticket items, the Made in the USA, the mattress toppers and the mattresses, you guys, ships free right to your front door with that promo code War Room.
[00:47:41]  And you guys call 800-873-1062.
[00:47:46]  It's 800-873-1062.
[00:47:49]  Talk to my employees.
[00:47:51]  They love when the War Room policy calls.
[00:47:53]  Get that greatest promo code ever, the promo code War Room.
[00:47:56]  And once again, I thank each and every one of you for your support of my employee-owned company as we get through.
[00:48:02]  And by the way, Natalie, they've started to attack me again now that I'm running for governor.
[00:48:08]  And they brought up the deposition with the machine companies, the fight that I'm in there.
[00:48:13]  And the machine companies, voting machines said, if you walk away, Mike, and never talk about us again, we'll do a walk away.
[00:48:19]  I said, I walk away from nothing.
[00:48:22]  We're still standing and we're still fighting and always will be.
[00:48:26]  Mike Lindell, thank you for the fight.
[00:48:27]  Thank you for joining us.
[00:48:28]  And Warren Posse, you also got to make sure you are checking out some breaking new declassifications from DNI Gabbard with regard to Ukraine, the impeachment hoax, Democrat whistleblowers.
[00:48:38]  And it's always making sure you're checking out virtual.com slash Bannon.
[00:48:41]  Texting Bannon to 9898.
[00:48:43]  98 Give Philip Patrick the team a call.
[00:48:46]  Get some really awesome free gifts, free info kits, all of that.
[00:48:49]  They love to hear from you guys.
[00:48:51]  Have a good one.
[00:48:51]  I will see you guys soon.
[00:48:52]  That's virtual.com/slash banner.