All Episodes Plain Text
April 16, 2026 - Bannon's War Room
48:53
Episode 5305: TDS Is On The Ballot In November

Stephen K. Bass and guests dissect a 2026 U.S. naval blockade of Iran, framing it as a strategic "game of chicken" where American and Russian oil reserves could force a global condominium. The episode shifts to political warfare, analyzing how Democrats fund efforts to keep Trump on the ballot while Republicans face challenges regarding immigration and NATO spending. Legal experts discuss a "30-front war" involving lawfare against allies like John Eastman and propose "Operation Hypersonic Clarity" to declassify 2020 election documents. Ultimately, the discussion portrays a deep state cabal utilizing judicial corruption, suggesting only an aggressive, centralized transparency operation can dismantle these entrenched power structures before November's elections. [Automatically generated summary]

Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
Participants
Main
e
eric schmitt
sen/r 05:54
j
james rickards
05:53
j
john solomon
05:18
s
steve bannon
r 19:10
Appearances
d
david zere
02:27
d
dr john eastman
02:35
g
gen dan caine
01:34
m
markwayne mullin
sen/r 00:40
p
pete hegseth
admin 01:24
Clips
j
jake tapper
cnn 00:09
|

Speaker Time Text
Precision Blockade Against Iran 00:13:52
gen dan caine
On Monday, 13 April at 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, at the direction of the President, America's Joint Force began implementing a blockade against Iran under the leadership of Admiral Cooper and the team at CENTCOM.
Let me be clear this blockade applies to all ships, regardless of nationality, heading into or from Iranian ports.
The U.S. action is a blockade of Iran's ports and coastline.
Not a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Enforcement will occur inside Iran's territorial seas and in international waters.
In addition to this blockade, the joint force, through operations and activities in other areas of responsibility, like the Pacific area of responsibility under the command of Admiral Paparo, will actively pursue any Iranian flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide.
Material support to Iran.
This includes Dark Fleet vessels carrying Iranian oil.
As most of you know, Dark Fleet vessels are those illicit or illegal ships evading international regulations, sanctions, or insurance requirements.
More than 10,000 sailors, Marines, and airmen, over a dozen ships and dozens of aircraft, are executing this mission.
steve bannon
This is the primal scream of a dying regime.
Pray for our enemies, because we're going to medieval on these people.
You're just not going to free shot all these networks lying about the people.
The people have had a belly full of it.
I know you don't like hearing that.
I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it.
It's going to happen.
jake tapper
And where do people like that go to share the big lie?
MAGA Media.
I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
steve bannon
Ask yourself.
What is my task and what is my purpose?
If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
unidentified
War Room.
Here's your host, Stephen K. Bass.
steve bannon
It's Thursday, 16 April in the year of 2026.
We've got an absolute jam show today.
Senator Smith's going to join us here in the next block.
I've got Jim Rickards up now.
Solomon's here.
Joe Allen's going to be back in studio on AI.
A lot going on in Florida.
Amy Kramer, Ron DeSantis calling a special session on AI.
We've got the situation with Live Nation.
Bobby Kennedy's testifying live.
He's going to get chopped up today.
He's testifying live on Capitol Hill.
I think he's in front of Ways and Means about the budget.
Anyway, we'll.
Get to all that, trying to get Mary Holland on here also.
And John Eastman was disbarred yesterday in California.
John's on the road speaking, but we're going to get John Eastman up.
So we are absolutely jammed.
I got records to start off with.
I have a larger package.
If we can get to it, I'm going to get to it.
Let me say this about the first of all, I think the blockade is one of the smartest things, not the smartest thing they've done in this war.
It's actually working incredibly well.
General Kane gave a, and I don't think people got a lot of heads up on that.
We had David Zier there.
And David did a fantastic job and asked a great question about the Allied navies.
We're going to get to all that somehow.
An observation to Pete, as you know, we think the world of Pete Hegseth and doing a great job.
And this audience was absolutely essential to his confirmation because they got wobbly there for a moment.
I will make an observation.
If your issue, and of course, the mainstream media is never going to cut you a break, that's just.
No, there's no whining in the war room, but they're never going to cut your break.
And they are looking at their own lens and own slant.
But on a day like today, when I think this has been kind of what we've been waiting for, details, operational details, unlike some of the bombing runs and bombing campaigns, which I realized were fairly classified.
Today, General Kane and Admiral Cooper were there also live, did a magnificent job of going through exactly what a blockade is, what it's supposed to accomplish, and then actually gave you the mechanics and showed.
And showed how bad guys, particularly the Iranians, these dark fleets are trying to avoid it.
But no, we have a systematic, no hair on fire way to turn the vessels around and send them back into the Persian Gulf.
It was a briefing of precision.
My observation or recommendation I don't think I would start that with some reference to the New Testament as much as we love the gospel according to Mark, as we tell people that's the one to read.
I think you just, because that's all the mainstream media is covering right now, is Pete's opening remark.
About the gospel according to Mark and the reference to the Pharisees, which is, I think, great.
It's just when are you going to do it?
I would not do it because it steps on what's important.
The signal is what General Kane did in Admiral Cooper, which is magnificent.
Anyway, my two cents we ought to tone that down and focus.
When we got the Pentagon, let's have a military briefing and we had it today and it was magnificent.
And I think it shows you not just the.
How great armed forces we have and able to do things and accomplish things, but also that this is very well thought through in the president's strategy as forcing functions, forcing people.
The Chinese Communist Party to flip their cards over.
The Pakistan's now back in Iran.
Field Marshal Munray is over there having diplomacy to get them back to the table.
And it looks like everything's coming together.
Jim Rickertz, your thoughts.
You're a geopolitician.
Your thoughts about the blockade and where it fits in in this strategic plan and what do you think it's accomplishing, sir?
james rickards
Well, you know, Steve, last time I was on, I said, why don't we stop?
We can win this, but why don't we stop just blowing things up and do something that's a lot smarter in asymmetric financial warfare, et cetera?
And that's what we're doing.
I think take General Kane's briefing at total face value.
The blockade is effective, it is turning the vessels around.
We're not sinking them.
You don't want to do that.
But then I was very impressed with the way he described the depth of this.
It's like, you know, even if you pass one ship, there are other ships waiting out there all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
So it's going to work and it's going to be effective.
That's not the end of the story.
You have to say to yourself, okay, what is Iran thinking?
And where's the US going with this?
The way to think about this, Steve, I think the best way this is a gigantic global game of chicken between Iran and the United States.
So they choked the Straits of Hormuz.
They had let some vessels through, but not very many.
We put a blockade around the blockade.
Okay, very little doubt that that'll work effectively.
So who loses in this?
And as a war between the two parties, the world loses.
You're talking about potentially sooner than later.
Shutting down South Korea, Japan, China will be badly affected, India, you can get down the list, but around the world.
And by the way, not the United States.
We got plenty of oil and natural gas.
The price will go up, but we're not going to have a supply problem.
We'll have a price problem.
But having said that, you're talking about shutting down big chunks of the world economy.
Now, Iran is betting that even though they're suffering financially, which they are, that the world will suffer to a much greater extent.
And that will cause the United States to call it up.
The United States is betting.
That Iran's going to get choked off.
They're going to economically collapse before, say, the world does.
And that will help us win the war.
But my point is, it's hard.
You don't really know who's right, but it is a game of chicken with the global economy held hostage.
Now, just to add to that, Iran has a secret weapon, thanks to Obama and other sources, which no one's talking about, which is gold.
Okay, you're going to run out of dollars.
They can't really use their dollars very easily anyway, but they've got an enormous amount of gold.
Which is money good.
And that can keep them going.
By the way, the gold is what got Russia through the early stage of the sanctions, their sanctions in 2022.
They had 25% of their reserves in gold bullion, which is actually going up more than what the West has frozen in their assets.
So the blockade would be effective.
I think General Kane had it right.
But I wouldn't sell Iran short.
They do have some resources.
And meanwhile, what the world needs to know is the global economy is being held hostage.
steve bannon
Talk to me about the Chinese Communist Party.
This is because Bloomberg's got a, which will get you back at another time, got a fascinating article today that basically is our thesis.
They said, hey, if you think Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz and the blockade in the Gulf of Oman is a big deal, that's nothing compared if something happens, if the United States Navy blocks the Strait of Taiwan.
China, the CCP, how do they play?
President Trump kind of had, you know, President Trump, he's never going to allow any enemy.
To get too stable.
He said yesterday, hey, he's going to open it up for everybody, and she's going to give him a big hug when he gets to Beijing in mid May.
Your thoughts, sir?
james rickards
Well, there's another strait before you get to the Strait of Taiwan.
I'll talk about that.
It's called the Strait of Malacca.
And the United States just struck a very high level joint security deal with Indonesia, which controls the Strait of Malacca.
I know Singapore's on the other side, but basically, Indonesia can shut that.
So we've basically got all of the choke points that China utterly relies on.
Beginning with the Strait of Hormuz, but Strait of Malacca, and then ultimately the Taiwan Strait.
So China knows it.
China is, they've got a lot of coal.
They're keeping their economy going.
They do depend on imported oil.
Xi Jinping has serious problems, independent of everything we're talking about.
The Chinese Communist Party is very brittle at this stage.
Now, they're ruthless.
They're still in charge.
I'm not suggesting it's going to collapse.
But Xi has sidelined, arrested, and killed so many of his enemies and rivals.
Is he the top guy?
Yeah, he is.
But he's pretty isolated.
You know, the problem with being in a bubble is you don't know you're in the bubble.
You're in it, but you don't know it.
That's what a bubble is.
And Xi Jinping has created a bubble.
So I don't think the Chinese Communist Party, well, put differently, they're a little brittle at the moment and they're going to be very vulnerable to this.
But I think the Strait of Malacca is even a tighter choke point.
We can basically cut off energy to China.
We've always been able to do that.
Now, Steve, you touched on something that's a lot bigger than everything we've been discussing.
And this is a thesis.
It's out there.
It's not the kind of thing you can easily prove or disprove, but it's at least possible that what Trump is doing, you know, the rap is, you know, he's crazy, unpredictable, irrational, et cetera, et cetera.
There's another view, which is that he's trying to do something that has only been done probably since Genghis Khan, which is create a global condominium with Russia.
The United States and Russia could control the global economy and by extension, the global politics.
And if you say, okay, I want to take over the world, how would I do that?
Two words money and oil.
And that my U.S. has the money, Russia and the U.S. combined have the oil and have an enormous amount of gold between them.
That could be something that would explain everything why we're looking at Malacca, why we're looking at why we closed the Strait of Hormuz with the blockade, et cetera.
And Europe are in complete vassalage.
They're shocked.
They don't even know what to do.
And of course, we took over the Venezuelan oil.
By extension, we got Guyana.
We took over the Panama Canal.
Now we've closed the Strait of Hormuz, which means that we basically cut off the competition.
Who's the competition for U.S. Russian oil?
Well, Persian Gulf oil.
Well, just cut it off.
So this is, I'm not saying, you know, Putin and Trump are huddling and discussing this in conspiratorial terms.
I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying that it explains the fact.
steve bannon
This is the reverse Nixon.
unidentified
Pivot.
steve bannon
This is what the first term we wanted to rob Prochamon with Russia in the deep state.
This is why you've got the Russia hoax, you got Crossfire Hurricane, the Russia hoax, all of what Comey and company did to impeach President Trump, all of which Solomon's going to be on here to stop the rob Prochamon between Russia and the United States.
Evident on the face of you, 100% correct.
Jim, you're in studio.
I know you got to bounce.
You stepped out to give us some heads up.
A strategic talk about your newsletter.
Where do people go?
We got our own landing site, and why should they secure it?
james rickards
Thanks, Steve.
We have a landing page, it's rickardswarroom.com.
It's rickardswarroom.com.
You can go there and subscribe to Strategic Intelligence.
We have a lot of publications, but Strategic Intelligence is our flagship newsletter, it comes out once a month.
We put an enormous amount of work into it, it's up to 25, 30 pages at this point.
And we, as I say, we don't tell you what happens.
We tell you what's going to happen.
We tell you what's happening next.
Our predictive analytic models, you know, I don't belabor it, but our track record on everything from Trump 2016, Brexit, COVID, the pandemic, 312 electoral votes in 2024.
Senate Leadership on Immigration 00:16:04
james rickards
We have a very good track record that speaks for itself.
So, Rickard's Warroom.com, Strategic Intelligence.
steve bannon
And I tell people this is a newsletter, 25 or 30 pages.
It's a quick read, it's an intense read.
But as chairman and CEOs and major money managers all over the globe, read this.
If you want to get And see what they've got.
Watch the war room and get strategic intelligence.
Rickardswarroom.com is a landing page.
Go check it out.
And he throws in a free book on Money GPT about artificial intelligence and fiat currency that'll keep you up at night.
Jim Rickards, thank you so much for stepping out of the studio.
Join us here to kick things off on a Thursday morning in April, sir.
unidentified
Thanks.
steve bannon
Okay, we're going to juggle it.
By the way, that comment about gold, about how Russia got through it, end of the dollar empire.
Go to birchgold.com, promo code BANNIN.
Make sure you get it.
It's all free.
Eight free installments, including the last one, the latest, number eight.
Get to Philip Patrick and the team.
He's absolutely 100% about the hoarding of gold by these central banks.
Anyway, short commercial.
markwayne mullin
We want immigration.
We want legal immigration, people that want to make the country stronger.
We're a nation of immigrants.
We understand that.
The right kind of immigrants.
But the right kind of immigrants.
unidentified
That's right.
markwayne mullin
We want mass deportations.
That's what the Americans want.
We want to deport all those individuals that came in illegally.
Here's the catcher.
How much does it cost to deport individuals?
$18,225 on average to go through the prosecution to deport individuals.
Now, if you think about it, underneath the Biden administration, 20 million individuals came here illegally.
If we go through the process on every single one of those, do the math on that, at $18,225 per person.
Why does it cost that much?
Because of the way the laws are written and the way that they can claim asylum and the way that we have.
steve bannon
Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen, if you hadn't said in your confirmation that you got to get a judicial warrant for everyone you're going to send home, maybe it wouldn't cost so much.
Anyway, that's the Secretary of DHS.
And I hate that phrase.
We're a nation of immigrants, we're a nation of American citizens.
We're honored to have on this morning Senator Eric Schmidt of the great state of Missouri, but also, I think it's pretty self evident, one of the leaders in the MAGA and America First movement, and one of the leaders in the Senate, one of the few voices of reason there.
Senator Schmidt, I want to talk to you while we got you in a minute about the briefing this morning at the Pentagon.
But I know you're all over this immigration situation.
In fact, can we put up last night they put up the first quarter raise for the Democrats in the Senate?
And I think people were shocked of the money they've raised.
And it's basically $100 million, including like $9 million in Alaska, certain states people didn't think would be in play that the Democrats are focused on.
Now, this is just a proxy for their intensity.
But Your response, I mean, because right now you're struggling in the Senate, you personally trying to be a leader and trying to get this thing focused.
But the Senate, the United States Senate, run by the Republicans, controlled by the Republicans, I believe are treating President Trump right now as a lame duck president.
Your thoughts, sir?
eric schmitt
Well, I mean, I know I'm not.
He's, listen, as you know, you were there at the very beginning.
I think that what President Trump has given us is an opportunity to have a majority for a long time if we actually show action and we play offense.
I do think that some people are comfortable not being as active as we should be, and I don't agree with that.
I think we should be constantly playing offense.
Immigration is one of those things.
I think this is a winning issue for us, Steve.
And you look at it, it's not just an illegal immigration problem, we have a legal immigration problem in this country.
You look at the H 1B visa program, it's been a scam for a long time.
Those numbers are way down.
I think that's a success.
There's 90% fewer of those.
But really, I think that the coalition that we have now, which is this working class coalition, it is the ascending viewpoint, it is our future.
And those people, the people that I grew up around in my family, those jobs, the blue collar jobs, were shipped overseas.
And then the great betrayal was when they were looking for new jobs, we flooded this country with people who are here illegally.
But the other thing that's happening to white collar workers now is, We're displacing white collar workers with cheaper foreign labor through the H 1B program.
They're more loyal, they're more compliant because they're sponsored by those companies.
It's not because we don't have the people to do those jobs.
They're just cheaper and more compliant from another place.
And then you also have the OPT program, which is this foreign visa program.
The universities like it, Steve, because they get full freight on tuition.
But they also get a tax break to hire them as opposed to American workers.
So I think we've got to get serious about it.
We should be on offense about it.
This is a winning issue for us as a country.
Strong borders are.
And also, I think.
Meeting mass migration with mass deportations is a winner.
steve bannon
If you go back to that chart on the small dollar side, the Democrats have got their folks fired up because this election for them, Trump's on the ballot, is Trump derangement syndrome.
And they think if they can feed Trump now in the House and the Senate, Senate's now in play, that they can destroy the last two years of President Trump's this term and eventually send him back, send him to prison.
You say going on offense, the gap that will be made up will be.
Big donors and corporations.
And they stand 100% everything you stand for, I stand for, and the president stands for MAGA and America First.
They're the ones that are driving.
You just had this Dignity Act.
If you look at this phony group they put up, the Americans, you know, American business for, you know, better wages or something, it's all the same guys are in the Chamber of Commerce.
They're sitting there.
Now, on the other side, Mike Howe has got, and others have started this coalition for mass deportations.
You say going on offense.
We know that you're on offense, but it seems like your colleagues, many of your colleagues, not all of them, you got the Mike Lees and some other guys that are there to fight.
Senator Scott down in Florida, he's talking about OPT.
But it seems like not enough of your colleagues in that caucus, when you guys had that, was it a Wednesday or Thursday lunch, are on board with you going on offense, sir.
eric schmitt
Well, you know, it's a challenge.
And all I can do, I guess, Steve, is just try to lead.
You know what I mean?
Like to try to make the arguments and try to make the case and show that you can go out there, you can articulate a case, the American people are with us.
I will say that even some people who are like skeptical of President Trump, I mean, I've always been there.
But when he came back in this historic comeback, something no one alive has ever seen, where a president who was in office came back in non consecutive terms, I think people were convinced, even if they weren't on board with the ideology.
That the people understood how important it was, the agenda.
And it was, immigration was front and center.
I mean, President Trump didn't run from it, it was center stage in his campaign in 2024.
And so I think that we just continue to have to lead.
I think we're making the right arguments.
You know, obviously, Save America Act and making sure only Americans can vote in American elections.
I mean, these are all things that I think we need to continue to push.
And, you know, it may not be.
And by the way, like, you know, it was a small group of us when we opposed, you know, continuing to send billions and billions to.
Ukraine, right?
That was a smaller group that got bigger.
The Senate turns over just the way it by design.
It sort of turns over slower because of six year terms.
So I do think we're making progress.
I think we have more believers, but we certainly have more work to do.
steve bannon
You know, Missouri, if you look throughout American history, Missouri's been a bellwether.
It's the central part of the country.
It's very, you know, based on patriots and working class people, entrepreneurs, right?
There's some tremendous companies built by entrepreneurs.
What are the folks, because I tell people this all panicking and people running right now, what are people in Missouri telling you?
That are the things they want us to focus on.
They want the president to focus on that can lead us to victory in November.
And I mean, hold the House to maybe pick up a seat or two and hold the Senate, sir.
eric schmitt
Look, what President Trump, I think the greatest gift he has is he is authenticity.
And he speaks to the concerns of just regular, normal people.
And we can't lose sight of that.
And I think what happens sometimes, Steve, in Washington, the conversations here are so different than they are back home.
And, you know, I go back and forth every week and stay connected.
That's my, I'm a sixth generation Missourian.
So I feel like if you look at Missouri, look, it wasn't that long ago, Claire McCaskill was representing the state of Missouri.
Missouri understood the challenges.
They understood the betrayal of the elites a long time ago and have different senators now in office to articulate that vision and be leaders on these points.
And so I think we have to stay focused on the needs and the concerns of working families.
So, you know, making things more affordable.
I think, by the way, finally having a president, Steve, we've been ripped off for far too long.
The whole premise of NATO, you know, at the end of World War II was for these European countries to rebuild, get back on their feet, so they got these.
Sweetheart trade deals, and they had this defense umbrella they never really paid for, and they subsidized their social welfare programs.
What President Trump is saying, you know what?
The rest of the world, we're tired of getting ripped off.
We're going to renegotiate these trade deals.
And these NATO countries need to pay for their own defense and be, you know, engaged more in their defense of their own continent.
These are the kind of things they want somebody to stick up for the American worker and bring those jobs back home.
And I think if we stay focused on that, and by the way, immigration touches this too, they are tired of other people from other places taking their jobs and getting, you know, companies getting tax breaks to do it.
So, I think if we stay on point and we stay aggressive, we can win.
Now, I will say this the blessing of all of it is we have a broader base now.
We have a broad sort of working class party that's a broader base.
The Democrats have a shrinking base.
But so I'd rather have our problem than their problem, but we have more lower propensity voters.
So, in a midterm like we have right now, where President Trump isn't on the ballot, we got to make sure people are energized.
And I think that's where we come in.
We have to show real leadership.
They have to know there are people fighting for them here in Washington.
To go out.
But you're right.
Missourians have always been skeptical of a federal government a thousand miles away telling them how to live their lives.
I think if we keep that in mind, we'll keep winning.
steve bannon
By the way, Zero's going to be up next.
He asked that very question about NATO and about the NATO navies not being there in the blockade.
We'll get to that in a moment.
Very perceptive, Senator Schmidt.
Last question.
By the way, the reason they're raising so much money, the Democrats have put Trump on the ballot in the midterms.
It's all Trump derangement syndrome.
He's got to go.
We've got to put Trump and his policies on the ballot.
On that policy, before he goes, We got about 90 seconds.
When you talk to the president about the war, what is your overall advice, Senator?
eric schmitt
I think that the objectives have been clearly articulated.
We're ahead of schedule.
And that when it happens, I think there does need to be a pivot to what it looks like after the fact.
And the president's been very clear about what he wants to see.
They cannot have a nuclear weapon.
And I think their missile defense that protected those ambitions has been severely degraded.
And I know the president's very serious about this.
He is not interested in a forever war in the Middle East, and I'm not.
I think we've learned those lessons, but I think what he's trying to carry out here is to take out their capabilities, their nuclear capabilities.
And when that is accomplished, I think there'll be a pivot.
steve bannon
As Missouri goes, so goes the nation.
Senator Schmidt, people want to follow you on social media and your website.
They want to know more about you and how you're leading in the Senate.
Where do they go?
eric schmitt
Yeah, on x, eric underscore Schmidt with two T's on Facebook, on Instagram.
We're pretty active, and we try to have a little fun with it too, Steve.
steve bannon
Thank you, sir.
Appreciate you coming on today.
eric schmitt
All right, partner.
unidentified
Take care.
steve bannon
This fight, we're down for a dogfight on this midterm.
There's no doubt about it.
And they put Trump on the ballot in the Trump derangement syndrome.
And they're coming at it from every different way.
Now, we can focus on the signal and what we need to do to hold this situation.
And actually, I understand there may be a couple of three policies that need to be refined.
Is that what we've got to say?
Needs to be refined.
And we're going to be in the refinement business of making sure these policies are the ones that can draw the MAGA voter out.
Senator Schmidt's absolutely correct.
And I think there was some, how do I say this, misunderstanding by certain political types and the consultants.
All this thing about drug prices and transparency of drug prices.
No, this is a base election.
To get the base out, you need to go back to the policies that the base will come out for.
Short break.
unidentified
Back in a moment.
Thank you.
david zere
Good morning, Mr. Secretary, gentlemen.
David Zia, Real America's Voice.
As commercial shipping ramps up, you know, there were 130 ships a day going through.
As that happens, ships have to anchor up, right, and wait to pass through the narrow strait.
Is there any progress with an international force to phase out U.S. military led escorts or other?
Is anyone stepping up to do that?
pete hegseth
It's a great question.
unidentified
Long term.
pete hegseth
They should be.
There's a lot of talk, and what we've seen in this conflict from allies and those.
There's a lot of talk, except for the ones that were mentioned by Admiral Cooper in the region who have been phenomenal.
Other allies have talked a lot and haven't done anything.
And as the president has pointed out, this is a waterway that the American commerce doesn't use all that much.
We don't rely on the energy coming out of the Strait of Hormuz, but Asia does, and Europe does, and large parts of the rest of the world do.
And so their ability to muster a collective defense or a clearing of the Straits would be a wonderful thing.
talk about it.
But when the shots were fired and those countries were needed the most, they weren't there.
They weren't in the straight.
They weren't alongside us.
Their leaders weren't rallying what they have of their navies.
If they decide after CENTCOM does the heavy lifting, which again, they should be able to do, we should live in a world where other countries can defend waterways, not just the United States Navy.
Should that conclude, which we believe it will, then we would welcome other countries coming in after the fact.
But you can't live in a world in perpetuity And this is a message to the rest of the world and our allies where you just rely on America to continually do the heavy lifting.
Oh, Iran might get a nuclear bomb.
Who's going to do something about it?
unidentified
America.
pete hegseth
And America only.
Other allies need to invest in their capabilities so they can project power and do basic tasks like clearing a strait.
So we're not counting on it, but it would be wonderful to see it if it ever materialized.
unidentified
Yes.
Thank you, Mr. Sevier.
Okay.
steve bannon
I want to go to David Zier.
David, magnificent question.
Dead spot on.
I also want to just go back.
The General Kane's briefing, Emerald Cooper's briefing was great.
Pete right there, fantastic, showing you that nobody's picking up the slack.
What inspired you to do that, Zier?
Because I think that cut to the chain.
Given the operational briefing they gave us on the blockade, you basically cut to the heart of it.
Once again, it's all the United States.
And like Pete said, it's nothing but talk coming out from the other side.
david zere
Yes, good morning, Steve.
And thank God we control, you know, not only the Strait of Hermuz, the Strait of Malacca and others.
So we can go to these theaters.
Minesweepers passing through Indonesia the other day, you know, I think on the way over there.
But supposedly 22 countries signed on to help efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait.
Breaking the Conspiracy Case 00:15:09
david zere
And what happened to this combined maritime forces?
I think there's 47 nations that are part of this out of Bahrain.
I think it's run by the U.S. military.
Where are all these nations and what are we going to do?
Are we going to be there in perpetuity?
Are we going to be there for three years?
And it's very crowded over there, right?
And General Kane was really brilliant in laying out all our young guys on these DDGs, right?
On these guided missile destroyers with the Aegis class and all that.
These young guys making these decisions.
And he compared it to racing a sports car through a supermarket parking lot, the traffic going on there.
And I don't think any other country is capable of doing that.
And that's probably part of the problem here.
You know, where is the support?
Where are these other countries outside of some of the Gulf states?
Because, you know, it's going to get to the point where I think 20 ships or so passed yesterday or the day before.
But if you have 129 a day, they all anchor up waiting to pass through the straits.
It's narrow, from what I understand.
And are they sitting ducks?
You know, someone pops out of a cave or on a cliff and shoots an anti ship missile.
You know, who's going to be there?
unidentified
Yeah.
steve bannon
But the point you made is that, hey, on an average day, a normal day, 134 ships come in and out.
That's it's down to a handful, a dozen now.
But he also, I thought in the briefing, we've got the clip.
I'm kind of jammed for time because we're going to get Solomon up here.
Is Solomon, we got Solomon yet?
As soon as we get Solomon.
He talked about how they're actually turning them back around and telling them, you know, particularly these gray, this gray shadow fleet, this ghost fleet, which has been breaking the sanctions and selling oil, taking loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, and the mullahs get the money.
I just thought the operational side shows that we've locked it down.
Only people that come in and out of there are what the United States Navy allows.
Now, David, obviously, no other nation on earth can do that, but you've got the Royal Navy, you have the French Navy, you got the Italian Navy, and others in NATO, but those three alone are supposed to, they are also theoretically naval powers.
It just shows you what President Trump's continued to hammer that NATO is never there when you need them.
They want us to underwrite.
You know, a war against Russia in both Ukraine and anything happened in Europe.
But when we're down on an area where Hormuz, it's all either going to Asia or Europe, the Red Sea that leads into the Suez Canal is 100%.
Weren't you kind of shocked even when Pete said, I think they've had discussions, but nobody, you know, as he says, they have conferences, they keep talking about it, but so far, no commitments to assist the Americans here.
david zere
It didn't sound like great news all around.
And I know Hegseth is committed, and I think these guys are doing a really good job.
I really believe that.
But policy wise, I think they will come around these other countries at some point.
But the question is when?
And will these ships be exposed going forward?
It's really a concern.
steve bannon
David Zier, great job over the Pentagon.
There's going to be a lot more presidents.
The president is going to Vegas this afternoon and then to Arizona tomorrow.
He's going to do a turning point event tomorrow.
He's out there today.
With the no tax on tips.
Secretary Besson's with him.
Our own Brian Glenn is out there, so we're going to go get a snapshot from Brian Glenn.
David Zier, where do people keep up with you?
I notice you're getting called on virtually every press conference.
The reason is you've got great questions that are fair questions.
They're tough, but fair.
And today I thought was a great one.
And we appreciate you sticking around to come on.
Where do people go, David, to follow you on social media?
david zere
Yeah, and I think people are fed up with the garbage that they're trying to bring down Hegseth on every little thing here.
They can follow me at Dave Zier on X and David Zier on all the other platforms.
By the way, we're at the State Department.
We're here for a signing with Finland and the Philippines.
We're going to go inside to secure silicon supply chains.
steve bannon
David Zier's on it.
David gave me a heads up the other day.
He said, Hey, Indonesia's here, and it's not just for a photo op.
We're actually going to sign something that's going to give us Tanama to control the Straits of Malacca, which is strategically, as you heard Jim Rickards in the first block.
Tell you is a major strategic thing, so zero.
You're always uh, your news knows for news, and I agree, I understand the frustration.
What I was saying about Pete is given the fact that this is going to be the most detailed briefing, I think, of any of our military operations so far, and particularly how effective this blockade has been, you might not want to stop because, as you can imagine, David, the media is running with the Pharisee quote, uh, and uh, because it was so electric, right?
Uh, and it's pretty obvious, but uh, no, Pete.
Is uh, Pete is uh, is well within his bounds because of the unfairness that they come after him, it's just ridiculous.
Anyway, David's here, thank you, sir.
unidentified
See you.
steve bannon
Good, uh, good job of the State Department, yes, sir.
Real America's voice all over this morning.
We're gonna get to Brian Glint here in a moment.
John Eastman, you're one of the hearers.
You know, Solomon's gonna come up and we're gonna talk about everything's breaking now.
You know, Todd Blanch and the and that this crew over at Maine Justice now has a program that's pretty organized about getting to the bottom of the Russia collusion hoax, the stealing of the 2020 election, the.
The impeachment, the phone impeachment, 2020 election, all of it.
And we get news in the middle of this that one of our heroes, and I think we can say the greatest constitutional lawyer we have on the right, just had your case argued at the Supreme Court on birthright citizenship, which you've been working on for 25 years.
You're disbarred.
How does that work, sir?
Is John on mute?
Hey, do we have John?
We don't?
unidentified
Okay.
steve bannon
Okay, fine.
We're going to get John Eastman.
Big news coming out of California.
John Eastman was disbarred last night, he was disbarred in California.
And it just shows you the degree, and I keep saying this, that that's why we have to be fully, fully aggressive on every point.
John Solomon's going to have breaking news on this.
On the plot against the president.
This plot, it's one continuous conspiracy.
Don't look at it as pieces.
Remember, we started the show during impeachment.
In fact, the very beginning, I got the idea.
I was in New York City.
We were having meetings up there, and Nancy Pelosi was there for the United Nations in September of 2019.
And she stepped up.
This is about this phony call about Ukraine.
And she said, This requires immediately a preliminary investigation.
We're going to see about what went on in this call.
And whether it leads to impeachment.
I told people right then, I said, you see their strategy.
The economy is now hitting on all cylinders.
President Trump is really rocking and rolling when it comes to the economy.
Things are on fire.
The fourth quarter is going to be amazing.
And they're going to try to chop blocking with an impeachment.
And that's what happened.
We started the show, I think, around the 1st of October to get on top of that.
It's our first show to focus just on the impeachment.
So I've got John Eastman now.
John Eastman.
John, and all the good news we've got coming out on breaking down the conspiracy.
To have a coup against President Trump, including as part of the continuum, the stealing of the 2020 election.
In the middle of this, now that we're on offense, we get word that you've been disbarred.
How does that work?
dr john eastman
Well, you know, California has a unique system, it's got a separate bar court.
All of the judges have been appointed by Democrats.
We had a pretty vigorous Democrat activist as our trial judge.
She continues to make donations to Democrat candidates, even while she was hearing my case.
And they recommended disbarment, both the trial court and the review department.
That went up to the California Supreme Court, which is the only body that can impose such a sanction.
But if they deny my petition, then they adopt the lower court decision as their own.
And that's what they did yesterday in a short two word order denied, colon, disbarred.
And so we now take it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
There are egregious violations of my First Amendment rights to speech and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, but also due process concerns.
One of the cornerstones of the requirement of due process is a fair and neutral adjudicator, and we clearly did not have that.
So we'll be taking this to the U.S. Supreme Court.
But look, this is a About much more than my particular bar license.
I mean, I'm close to retirement age.
That doesn't matter so much to me.
What matters is the weaponization of our bar disciplinary proceedings, and it is metastasizing.
You now get these groups.
Hamilton Fox in the DC bar is kind of leading the charge there, going after current lawyers at the Department of Justice who are doing their jobs defending the executive branch and President Trump's executive orders and executive actions.
And they're being threatened with disbarment.
And I've had several people tell me that Department of Justice lawyers are afraid of taking on these cases for fear that if they do, their bar licenses will be challenged and maybe even subject to criminal prosecution if a more radical, you know, it's hard to imagine more radical than Joe Biden, but a more radical president comes in in 2029.
In other words, they are already accomplishing a good part of their mission, which is to silence opposition by threatening them with future bar disciplinary proceedings or criminal prosecutions.
And they've not hidden that this is their goal.
David Brock, the head of one of the founders of the 65 Project, said as much.
He said, Our goal is not just to get these lawyers disbarred, but to make them so toxic in their firms and their communities that lawyers won't take on these kinds of cases ever again.
That's going to destroy our adversarial system of justice.
And those are the stakes that are involved here, obviously much, much bigger than my own bar license, although that's fairly significant.
steve bannon
John, hang on for one second.
I'm just holding you to the break.
This is one of the central, on the 30 front war, this may be one of our most important.
And this is where they have controlled the commanding heights.
Short break.
Eastman on the other side.
unidentified
Here's your host, Stephen K. Bann.
steve bannon
Okay, I've got John Solomon for a few minutes.
Let's take John and Eastman's going to join me.
Stick around and join me on the other side.
We've got, so John, we've got Eastman up because they disbarred him last night in California, but it's part of this process.
We have a 30-front war where one of the biggest, and this is what Todd Blanch and these guys, the struggle they've got at Maine Justice is to take on this conspiracy all the way from Crossfire Hurricane through what they try to do to stop Trump from winning to then what they tried, the coup they tried to have against President Trump, which led to the.
To the commission to try to, you know, to try to throw him out.
Then you've got the impeachment.
Then you've got Steeler 2020.
It's all continued.
Then you've got what Biden did in the Biden years.
It's all one continuous piece for like nine or 10 years.
And Eastman's right.
They're going after the Jeff Clarks, the Rudys, the Eastmen, anybody involved, and threatening now people at justice.
This is what Todd and these guys are struggling with.
They're coming after the law firms.
They're coming after the lawyers.
Where do we stand?
And because now the revelations are coming hot and heavy every day through Tulsi Gabbard and others, much of it.
Coming through your reporting, where do we stand?
john solomon
Well, first, I think the president will be taking some action in the next couple of weeks to create.
I think we could give it a code name.
The FBI liked code names when they went after the president.
I like a code name.
I think I would call this Operation Hypersonic Clarity.
I think what will happen is, you know, these documents, I took me eight months to get these documents out of ODNI.
I want to thank Director Gabbard for having the courage to fight with the deep state to get them out.
But it shouldn't take eight months in an administration that's committed to getting this information out to do it.
I think the president's going to create a process.
To get a mass avalanche of what we need to know, what truths we were denied the last 10 years out.
It also will benefit the prosecutors in Florida who can get tied up with the deep state or procedures like SEPA, State Secrets Act hearings, which can tie you down for months.
Get everything declassified quickly.
Transparency is the first shot of the cannon.
Then I think you'll see the decisions made by the end of this month on Brennan.
It sounds like that's where they're headed towards there.
And then Comey maybe in May, and then some others after that.
If you're going to get a grand conspiracy case, you've got to start.
We all need to think about what we learned when we watched the mob movies, right?
The Godfather or other great mob movies.
The FBI and the IRS, they never get the mobster unless they flip someone high up in the family, right?
The capo, the turncoat.
When they got, I think you have to look at this Democrat slash intelligence cabal as an organized crime organization.
That's what a conspiracy case usually is.
You're going to have to flip someone big, someone that knows what went up above them and down them.
Or hurt, maybe for that matter.
So, somewhere there'll have to be a major person that flips.
The Sammy the Bull.
When Sammy the Bull turned on Gambino family, the Gambino family went down.
They're going to have to do that.
So, these things are happening.
What you're seeing is the deep state and the.
Democrats know that they are impotent in Washington right now.
They can't get anything done.
So they're using the state systems to continue that lawfare.
That's what John Eastman's getting punished for.
There's going to be a trial in Wisconsin soon of a very respected judge, Judge Jim Troupas, for something that probably is not even a state matter.
I think the Justice Department has a really significant opportunity.
It is clear that a matter of certifying the election is not a state matter, it is a federal matter.
It has confused me.
That during the Pam Bondi years, the Justice Department didn't go into that Wisconsin case or the Georgia case or other ones and say, hey, we're invoking the Supremacy Clause.
This is a federal matter.
The state has nothing to do with this.
Get the hell out.
I wonder if Todd Blanche takes that strike in the next few weeks and saves a Jim Drupus, maybe goes to the bar and says, this wasn't a matter of adjudication for the California bar, and takes that Supremacy Clause for the tool that the founding fathers intended it to be, which is for states not to meddle.
Federalizing Election Certification 00:03:03
john solomon
In federal central government business, I think that's something to watch for.
The other thing to watch for is I do think that Alan Dershowitz's idea on our show on Tuesday night has caught fire.
I think in Congress and maybe in a court filing, you'll soon see a request to expunge President Trump's impeachment from the congressional record.
Never happened in our history.
It'd be a big deal.
I don't know how it'll end up, but that'll be a big deal.
And then, of course, what happened last night?
Tulsi Gabbard not only made something public, she put in process a motion to create accountability.
The inspector general, former inspector general, Of the United States, and that whistleblower now been referred for criminal investigation at the Justice Department.
That is a big deal.
And, you know, normally this would be outside the statute of limitations, but the statute reboots if something was hidden.
And in this case, the bias, the falsehoods, and the hearsay nature of this complaint was hidden from prosecutors, the American public, the impeachment proceedings.
The clock restarts on that, which means it's in statute.
So Tulsi Gabbard just put something in motion that could also create some accountability.
steve bannon
You said, just for clarity, you said there's going to be some sort of operation.
Are they going to try to combine this all under one process?
And that's what's going to be some centralized thing like a task force that people assign to it, some operation?
john solomon
Let's see what the president does.
I mean, I think the president understands how hard it is to get truth out, even when you're in charge.
I mean, think about the things that his own administration, the first administration, didn't get out.
And by the way, we're still, we don't know half of Arctic Frost yet.
We don't know anything about Round River.
And we just learned something about impeachment that occurred seven years ago.
I think the president understands.
That the system is broken, that the deep state can clog up the pipelines.
And I think he's going to do a one time unclogging of the arteries, maybe a little open heart surgery on the transparency system and do it.
Let's see what he comes up with.
But I think that's the key point.
If we can accelerate transparency, the prosecutors can accelerate accountability decisions.
And I think that's the next big move here.
And by the way, bravo, Tulsi Gabbard.
Thank you for fighting for the truth.
Thank you for taking our request.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe is doing some amazing work right now.
To help get us answers about China meddling in the 2020 election.
I think that's going to be a bombshell.
I'm going to have some new documents on Monday.
You're going to definitely all want to read.
The people around the president are working really hard.
I think if the highway system gets rerouted so that the deep state can't stick its hand out and pull it into a closet and hide it for six months, we're all going to be better served.
unidentified
Wow.
steve bannon
John Salomon, where do people go for all this content?
The show, the news site, all of it, social media.
john solomon
Now, the easiest one is I get to follow you every day on this great network.
I'm really proud of that.
Just the news, no noise at six o'clock.
John Jay Solomon reports on all social media platforms and justanews.com.
That's our website where we put all our news.
And by the way, when we put our news up, we put all our documents up because we trust you to make up your own mind.
You don't have to take our word for it.
We're really proud of that as well.
steve bannon
John Solomon, thank you so much.
john solomon
Thank you, Rob.
Piercing the Corporate Shell 00:00:42
steve bannon
Many years in the making, this whole process.
Many years in the making.
Eastman's going to join us.
Joe Allen.
Eastman is absolutely correct.
The biggest hurdle we've got is a justice system that is totally, absolutely corrupt and they control.
From the top to the bottom, from the law schools to the professors in the law schools to the law firms, the young lawyers, the federal judges, state judges, California Supreme Court.
Just absolutely, absolutely a grind.
But in the 30-front war, you can't shy away.
You've got to win this one.
We need an armor-piercing shell.
unidentified
I think we may have one.
steve bannon
Short break, Eastman on the other side.
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