Episode 5543: No Policy Changes On Border Migration; Stopping Biden Era Welfare

Summary

Bannon’s War Room: Episode 5543 — No Policy Changes On Border Migration; Stopping Biden Era Welfare

Date: July 25, 2026
Host: Stephen K. Bannon
Key Guests: Political Analyst, Foreign Correspondent, Military Expert, Economist E.J. Antoni, Todd Bensman (Heritage Foundation, former DHS advisor)

---

Episode Overview

This episode of Bannon’s War Room takes a dual focus: the ongoing U.S.–Iran conflict’s stalemate and its costs, and a deep dive into U.S. domestic policy failures, especially on border security, welfare, and workforce participation. Stephen K. Bannon, with a panel of experts, argues that the Biden administration’s border and welfare policies created a crisis of mass migration, declining labor force participation (especially among men), and perpetuated government spending with little hope of Congressional correction or real policy change. The episode also highlights what the MAGA movement believes are necessary policy reversals for stabilizing the economy and reasserting U.S. sovereignty.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. U.S.–Iran Conflict: Escalation or Stalemate?

(00:00–08:18, 18:00–21:00)

• Trump’s Dilemma:
  The panel discusses President Trump's frustration with the lack of decisive success in the conflict with Iran, noting his reluctance to escalate further and his attempts to avoid a drawn-out ground war.

  "This is a President who has won two elections in part on the commitment not to start any new wars. And he has now been maximally distracted by this war of choice for nearly the last six months." — Political Analyst (00:31)

• Three Options Facing the U.S.:

  1. No viable military targets left in Iran
  2. Possible (but unlikely) diplomatic off-ramp
  3. A “massive attack” potentially imminent

  "There has been 13 nights of US attacks on Iran ... last night, overnight there was no fighting ... Is there a diplomatic off ramp? It feels unlikely." — Foreign Correspondent (02:29)

• Nationalism as a Force:
  Discussion on how U.S. intervention has unwittingly unified the Iranian public against America, even among regime opponents.

  "One of the most powerful forces in the world is called nationalism ... even many individuals that hate the Islamic theocratic regime ... are now kind of bound together more or less in support of the regime..." — Stephen K. Bannon (09:20)

• Military Expert Assessment:

  "It pains me to say this is an unwinnable war for the United States ... There needs to be some way out of this that's going to be through negotiations." — Military Expert (05:04)

• U.S. “Forever Wars” Warning:
  Bannon cautions about the dangers of long-term entanglements in the Middle East.

  "Every plan should be around extracting themselves. ... What we want to avoid is a 10 or 20 year commitment in Persia. That would be the last thing." — Bannon (10:45)

Notable Quotes:

• "Nationalism is a powerful, powerful force and maybe we ought to take the lessons from this." — Stephen K. Bannon (10:45)
• "If we were to put troops on the ground in Iran, it would be a bloodbath. ... What are we expecting to accomplish there?" — Military Expert (06:20)

Timestamps:

• U.S.–Iran scenario breakdown: 00:00–08:18
• Bannon on “extracting” from the Middle East: 09:18–13:00

---

2. The Border Crisis & Mass Migration

(39:19–52:00)

• Bensman’s Return & Assessment:
  Todd Bensman (Heritage Foundation, ex-DHS) details his work welding the southern border “permanently shut” and describes the border influx as “the hugest, greatest, worst mass migration crisis ... in world history.”

  "The Biden administration years was the hugest, greatest, worst mass migration crisis I think in world history." — Todd Bensman (42:05)

• Scale & Organization of Migration:
  Bensman emphasizes that the influx (estimated 8–22 million people) was enabled by policy, supported by NGOs, and highly coordinated.

  "You do not get 20 million illegal alien invaders into a country unless it’s highly organized..." — Stephen K. Bannon (41:00)
  "It was organized by the migrant resettlement and aid industrial complex ... hundreds of millions of dollars flowed into that industrial complex..." — Todd Bensman (42:05)

• Impact on Urban Centers:
  The panel highlights sanctuary cities (NYC, LA, Chicago) as havens for illegal immigrants, with local leaders opposing federal enforcement.

• Activist Interference:

  "There is an organized nationwide campaign to undermine U.S. support ... ruckus groups attacking in an organized way, physically attacking ICE agents and interfering with ICE operations in all these big cities..." — Todd Bensman (50:07)

• No Tolerance for Amnesty:

  "Any inkling of amnesty ... is unacceptable to the American people. Mass deportations are acceptable to the American people." — Stephen K. Bannon (51:36)

Timestamps:

• Bensman’s border recap: 39:19–43:28
• Sanctuary city pushback & activism: 48:00–52:00

---

3. The U.S. Welfare State & Labor Market Dysfunction

(16:33–39:13)

• Workforce Participation Crisis:
  Economist E.J. Antoni joins to discuss the sharp post-COVID drop in labor force participation, focusing on missing millions of men in their prime working years.

  "Literally millions of people who left the labor force during COVID ... never came back." — E.J. Antoni (23:10)

• Disincentives to Work:
  Antoni argues that Biden-era border policies increased low-wage labor supply, driving down wages, while expanded welfare benefits (and looser disability criteria) created “huge incentive not to work and a big disincentive for working.”

  "If you increase supply, you’re going to put downward pressure on prices. Well, what happens when you increase the supply of low skill work? You put downward pressure on the wages of that cohort." — E.J. Antoni (23:52)

• Cultural Factors:
  He traces part of male workforce nonparticipation to cultural shifts—declining marriage and family formation—undermining economic ambition.

  "If you stop men from actually getting married and having kids in the first place ... they instead decide to just basically be self sufficient." — E.J. Antoni (26:32)

• Partial Policy Rollbacks:
  Recent efforts (e.g., reinstating work requirements for food stamps) are acknowledged but deemed insufficient.

  "The short answer is some, not all. And some of the things that we’ve rolled back have only been done very, very recently, just within the last few weeks or months." — E.J. Antoni (26:05)

---

4. Congressional Inaction & Policy Gridlock

(32:14–39:13; 30:00–32:14)

• Republican “Controlled Opposition”:
  Bannon unleashes criticism against GOP leadership—especially Mitch McConnell and John Thune—for failing to deliver spending cuts and opposing Trump’s reform agenda.

  "The gutless, feckless, controlled opposition Republicans that go along with Biden. ... They're cheering Biden and loving up on Biden because he’d been with him for all the time, rubbing up on Biden..." — Stephen K. Bannon (32:36)

• Budget Crisis:
  Current deficits are pegged at $1.8–$2 trillion per year, with continuing resolutions locking in “Biden and Pelosi spending.”

  "That's why you got $1.4 trillion deficit in the first nine months... This is why they're already working on a CR to ... continue on with Biden and Pelosi spending." — Stephen K. Bannon (30:00)

• Missed Opportunity:

  "Where are the spending cuts? Where is the tax relief? Where is the rollback of the Biden and Pelosi era nonsense...?” — E.J. Antoni (34:34)

---

5. H-1B Visas and STEM Workforce Underutilization

(36:29–38:56)

• Flooding the STEM Market:
  Bannon and Antoni argue that H-1B visa policy is used to suppress American wages and undercut U.S. STEM graduates.

  "We have 12 million STEM workers that are not fully occupied. ... we continue to have these H1B visas and flood the zone with foreign labor..." — Stephen K. Bannon (36:29)

• No Reforms in Sight:

  "I just don't see people taking a look at it right now." — E.J. Antoni (38:56)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On U.S.–Iran ('Unwinnable War'):

  "It pains me to say this is an unwinnable war for the United States..." — Military Expert (05:04)

• On Nationalism in Iran:

  "Nationalism is a powerful, powerful force and maybe we ought to take the lessons from this." — Stephen K. Bannon (10:45)

• On Welfare and Work Incentives:

  "You can't just be, as you rightly said, Steve, somebody who's just sitting at home like a lump on the log and it's just streaming Netflix or whatever the case may be." — E.J. Antoni (26:05)

• On Amnesty vs. Deportation:

  "There is not. There is. It’s totally unacceptable. Any inkling of amnesty ... Mass deportations are acceptable to the American people." — Stephen K. Bannon (51:36)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Time | |------------------------------------|---------------| | U.S.–Iran conflict analysis | 00:00–08:18 | | Nationalism & lessons from Iran | 09:20–13:00 | | Populist economic policy | 16:33–21:00 | | Workforce participation/welfare | 23:10–28:24 | | Congress & budget inaction | 30:00–34:34 | | H-1B visa & STEM workforce | 36:29–38:56 | | Border crisis & Bensman analysis | 39:19–52:00 |

---

Conclusion: Tone & Takeaway

Throughout the episode, the tone is urgent, combative, and deeply critical of both Democratic and establishment Republican leadership. Emphasis is placed on the need for robust border enforcement, welfare reform, and a focus on American workers. The message is clear: only a return to “America First” nationalist policies—on the border, in the economy, and in foreign affairs—can halt the supposed decline of the U.S. republic. The episode serves as a rallying cry for MAGA, presenting the border crisis and labor market dysfunction as existential threats requiring decisive corrective action.

Transcript

[Host]

And a week after he gave a primetime address talking about China when it comes to elections, only to then basically say he wasn't going to do anything about it. There are various, I think mixed messages on China for sure. U.S. and Iraqi officials are disputing reporting that Iran rejected a cease fire proposal from Trump conveyed to Tehran by Iraq's prime minister. And Iran also called the report completely diversionary and misleading. How are you reading all of that pushback?

[Political Analyst]

I think that President Trump is incredibly frustrated that he is not getting a better outcome out of the war with Iran. This is a President who has won two elections in part on the commitment not to start any new wars. And he has now been maximally distracted by this war of choice for nearly the last six months. And his popularity is taking a hit as a consequence. The US Economy and the global economy is taking a hit. He would like an off ramp. He has talked a lot about escalation, but in reality, what we've seen from Trump is a surprising amount of restraint, even in terms of the decision to hit Iranian infrastructure. And yes, he did hit a desalination plant. He did hit a couple of Iranian bridges after the 10th warning against Iran that he was going to blow up their infrastructure. The 10th. But what's more notable is how he has not engaged in strikes against Pickaxe Mount Pickaxe Mountain and the nuclear facilities. How he has not gone after broader infrastructure, including energy infrastructure. He's not taking on any more strikes at Iranian leadership, for example, decapitation strikes. He certainly knows where a lot of those people are. He's not using ground troops that have been in position for months now, nor is he taking the oil or Carg island as he's spoken on many times. So, I mean, overwhelmingly what the President has been showing the American people and the Iranian leadership is that he is extremely reluctant to escalate this war. And if you're Iran, if you're the mullahs, or more importantly the irgc, the military running that country, you believe that you can continue to engage in strikes against ships and, and disrupt the Strait of Hormuz and that the Americans aren't going to do very much against you because they don't want the consequences of all out war.

[Foreign Correspondent]

Well, look, what I think is fascinating is that firstly, there has been 13 nights of US attacks on Iran and then the Iranian retaliation towards the Gulf States. Now, last night, overnight there was no fighting. Yes, there was this incident in the, the waterway behind me where the US Blockade was in effect and there was an incident between US Marines and an Iranian flagged vessel. But in terms of the actual direct fighting that's not taking place and I think there are three reasons for that. One may be the fact that the US has effectively run out of military sites in Iran to target. And any other fighting would mean that they would be hitting potentially even civilian sites, but effectively sites which would cause disruption and damage to people away from military bases. The second could potentially be the fact that there is maybe a diplomatic off ramp taking place behind the scenes. To me though, that seems very unlikely from the conversations that I've had with my sources who are linked with negotiations, whether it's the Pakistanis, the Qataris or directly the Iranians, it feels like right now it doesn't seem a moment to de escalate and to get around the table. And I think that the third could be is this massive attack that the President is planning. He mentioned this a few days ago. And this break in the fighting that we saw last night could potentially mean that troops are getting their things together to plan this next phase of an attack which could come in the coming days. So there are three potential options. I've got no idea which route the President would take or which route in fact the Iranians want to take. What I will say though is that this waterway behind me, guys, is the real reason that we are in this situation right now. It's been at the very central of this whole conflict for the last five months. We know that as a result of the Iranians potentially blocking this waterway and effectively not allowing any vessels through or targeting vessels in recent days that do not follow their that regulated routes, we've seen that the levels of shipping has gone down for an all time low in two months. We've seen the price of oil has gone up to $100 a barrel earlier this week as well. And effectively the Iranians are having good control over the global energy supply by controlling this waterway, but also the one in the Red Sea too. And now there are huge question marks on how we move forward from this situation that we've been in for quite some time now.

[Military Expert]

Clearly I think he's flailing right now because point out he doesn't really have a good plan or way ahead. We've launched massive attacks repeatedly against Iran and they've not capitulated. They're not going to give up. It pains me to say this is an unwinnable war for the United States. There's just no way that this regime in Iran, which is now controlled by the irgc, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, is going to relent and give up because they're determined to oppose a foreign force in an intervention. So, you know, I think he's threatening, just like he does in the domestic political scene. He tries to threaten and intimidate. It doesn't work with the Iranians, and it's not going to work. You just said this is an unwinnable war.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

That's a pretty bold statement.

[Military Expert]

Yeah, that's what I certainly believe. From the standpoint of getting the Iranians to surrender or to give up, there's no way that's going to happen. You know, there needs to be some type of negotiated way forward to open up the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before this conflict, to be able to get the Iranians on some type of path so that there's not going to be a nuclear weapon. And, you know, Trump keeps talking about the nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapon. That's sort of a red herring. The Iranians never made a decision to actually fabricate a nuclear weapon. Yes, they were doing things that gave them the capability in the future, but there was no decision to do that. So on your question about boots on the ground, you know, when I think about conflicts, we had over 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. We had over 170,000 troops in Iraq. We had over a half million US troops in Vietnam. None of those conflicts really turned out all that well. If we were to put troops on the ground in Iran, it would be a bloodbath. It really would. It's a country of 94 million people. What are we expecting to accomplish there? You know, he's talking about taking over Kharg Island. That's within range, a missile range of the Iranian mainland. So he doesn't have good option. He keeps hoping, hoping that by intimidating, trying to intimidate the Iranians, they're going to give up. They're not going to. There needs to be some way out of this that's going to be through negotiations. But look at the correspondents in last night. This is a very nasty, unserious, mentally unstable individual. And this is the person that the Iranians are going to negotiate with. No wonder why they're looking at us and saying, you know, keep coming at us, we're not going to give up. And, you know, unfortunately, now more Iranian people are supportive of the regime than were before the conflict even started.

[Advertiser/Promoter]

This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies, because we're going

[Stephen K. Bannon]

medieval on these people.

[Advertiser/Promoter]

You're just not got a 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

[Stephen K. Bannon]

in the world to stop that, but

[Advertiser/Promoter]

you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen.

[Political Analyst]

And where do people like that go

[Stephen K. Bannon]

to share the big lie?

[Foreign Correspondent]

MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul,

[Political Analyst]

I wish that any of these people had a conscience.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my

[Military Expert]

country, this country will be saved.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

WAR ROOM here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. It's Saturday at 25, July in the year of our Lord 2026. Of course, this weekend the president is looking at a range of options you have and we're going to break this down in the second hour in more detail. But there is a the Hill newspaper, I think has got a good piece from administration sources and from the military, centcom that there is a alternative. They're looking at alternative that calls for a massive strikes. And of course, we are feeding assets into the region to if the president so wants to have massive strikes. The key to that in this article is that you've got to take control. In fact, the intelligence apparatus, remember what Brennan is saying now, you know, and all these guys are exactly opposite what the Mossad and the CIA collectively, the exquisite intelligence of the beginning of this war. They were all pushing a decapitation strike. All of them were pushing the president to a decapitation strike that had the Iranian people, had the Persians in the streets overthrowing their government. What we realized is one of the most powerful forces in the world is called nationalism. I'm not a big fan of the World cup, as you guys know, but if you see in the World cup you've got the inklings of real nationalism, their cultural nationalism. What has happened to the Persians since these strikes have happened is even many individuals that hate the Islamic theocratic regime, I think many of those practice other religions, including some of maybe the ancient religions of ancient Persia are now kind of bound together more or less in support of the of the regime or at least the Revolutionary Guard. That does seem to me even though their command structure has been eviscerated with younger commanders in charge have even a stronger sense of nationalism. Nationalism is a powerful, powerful force and maybe we ought to take the lessons from this. If you look at the other alternative, there's the New York Post has an exclusive and we're going to have Tasia up here. Break it down a little bit later of a quite massive ground exercise to go in and get all the nuclear material and the scope of that and the breadth of that is pretty breathtaking. And what that would mean for. Because I think one thing that people around the President are not advising him enough about is how each of these steps only increases the time you're going to be there. You know, the, the, the, the correlation of time with action. Because like the massive bombing campaign, I keep saying, hey, you're still in Germany, you're still in Japan, right? We're still in South Korea. You, you start taking these things on and you end up with long term commitments. What we want to avoid is a 10 or 20 year commitment in Persia. That would be the last thing. The Middle east is a sideshow to a sideshow. The Israel situation is a sideshow to the sideshow. And it's time that we got to extract ourselves. And every plan should be around extracting themselves. Also the Galileo, Panetta and others talking about the Straits of Hormuz. It's all down to the Straits of Hormuz. And as you remember with Captain Fennell on the mou, when the MOU came out and it had this thing about they're going to have discussions with, they're bringing Oman into the situation to talk to the Persians and that the Iranians, Oman are going to work out, you know, some sort of, they had a subsection on that. We said, what are we doing here? Why are we bringing more guys in this conversation? It's a free waterway with free navigation. The Iranians shouldn't have, if you, if you agree up front in your MOU at the very start in a ceasefire, that they're going to have a role in saying, guess what? The pirates down there in the coast are going to use that as justification for the guys that can't control them for Tehran and say, hey, look, even the Americans are saying, we got to have, you know, we got to have discussions, then maybe we bring it Oman and let's discuss with them the pirates on that side. So every step that we're taking has implications for how long we're going to be there. America first in American nationalism says, hey, I look around and I see that we have an open Marxist jihadist revolt in this country that has seized control, seized control of the major cities of this country. And people don't want to address that. That's the clear and present danger we have inside the wire right now. And it's metastasizing every day and getting more arrogant every day. How arrogant? Regardless whether you love Netanyahu or you despise Netanyahu, we can't have mayors of cities saying, oh, I'm going to arrest this international leader. I'm arrest this international leader. You get Mandami in his arrogance and he's saying, hey, look, people, my city, my, my, all these foreigners that are here that illegitimately, illegally voted for me, support this. It's a third world position. We support it. Sorry if you don't like it. We now have to focus on exactly what's going to move us forward and continue in victory. You saw the meeting they had the other day about Congress. By the way, the House is gone. They're not coming back to Labor Day or after Labor Day. Think about that for a second. Everything we have on the table, everything we have to do about the Save America act, everything we have to do about the authorizations and debt and just having adult conversations and maybe debates on these topics, like a debate on section 219. We have some experts on that. That's where they got out of town. They don't want to they don't want to be around here, don't want to answer questions. And trust me, they check your calendar. How many of them are going back home and setting up a series of town halls in your community? None. They're in hiding. In a moment of national crisis, they are in hiding. Short commercial break we're packed this morning on a Saturday in the war room.

[Advertiser/Promoter]

If you're 65 or already on Medicare, listen up, folks, and grab a pen, maybe even a number two pencil, call 845-war room. That's 845-war-room. Call it right now.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

I'm serious.

[Advertiser/Promoter]

Call it now. Here's why. The insurance companies and their lackeys in the Washington swamp have built a Medicare system designed to confuse you and rip you off. Rising premiums, denied claims, fine print. Nobody but a lobbyist understands. Millions of American seniors are paying too

[Stephen K. Bannon]

much and getting too little.

[Advertiser/Promoter]

And worst of all, most don't even know it.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Hey, that could be you.

[Advertiser/Promoter]

That's why if you're already on Medicare or will be soon, you need to talk to our friends at chapter. They have a team of advisors trained to serve American seniors, not the insurance companies. In under 20 minutes, they can find you the best plan for your needs at the lowest cost. Why? They're a data company. They have all the data on every plan. It's totally free. There's no pressure, no bs just straightforward, honest help from fellow patriots. So don't wait. Call 845 war room right now. That's 845 war room, tell them Bannon sent you. Now, listen, in the first couple of

[Stephen K. Bannon]

days of the launch of this company

[Advertiser/Promoter]

with the Warren Posse, posse members saved tens and up to hundreds of thousands collectively of dollars in these fees. Go check it out today. That's chapter call eight four, five War Room. Do it today.

[Military Expert]

War room.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. Okay, we're gonna bring Bensman on in a second and then we're gonna get back around to the war and make this so it all makes sense at the end. But one of the building blocks I want to talk about is domestic policy here, and particularly what ties international policy, what it means for actually this concept, a wild concept, putting men to work. Putting men to work that can have jobs and careers and positions over time, that they can support a family, and if their spouse wants to work, fine, go for it. But that you can actually have jobs, careers, etc, that on one salary. Is that, Is that like quantum mechanics? Are you telling me that's too hard to solve? No, it's not too hard. It's. It's not a natural property of physics or the universe that says that you have to have the mother and father both working all the time, and the kids raised by either this public daycare or whatever the folks can put together for private daycare with their family or whatever. It's not. It's not an immutable law of the universe. And that has as it's jammed down your throat just like it's not a natural law of the universe that we would be in the Middle east now for going on when Lieutenant J.G. bannon was the office officer of the deck of the USS Paul as Foster. I don't know. In late 1979 or 1980. We've been there since 79, all the way till today, down to the current time, we're talking about the exact same thing. The straits are Hormuz, the North Arabian Sea. Come on, man. Any serious country would move on, fix the problem, and let's move on. And you have to have. If you're a great power, you have to act like a great power. And part acting like a great power is knowing when it's in your strategic interest or you're just going to hang around forever. And those decision decisions, I argue, have to be made, and they have to be made now because we can't afford this anymore. Number one, the people that supply it and the people supply the young men and women there, the backbone of this country, this audience and. And people like this audience to raise your kids upright. That understand the lessons of the American Revolution and the American experience and want to put their shoulder to the wheel, as young as they are in defense of their country are the ones that I think are having the biggest questions right now. And once they start questioning, it's over. And that's what we got to get to. We're going to get to all of it, I just might add. You know, had this big meeting with all the great brains and the political operatives, President Trump, and they came out and they said they tweeted this out. The thing we're going to push, we're really going to push is the big beautiful bill aspect of the populist economic policy. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, which are all kind of concepts President Trump came up with and there weren't enough of it. It should have been more but it was thwarted by the exact lobbyist and political consultants there. So now what are they running on? Not the big beautiful bill was the supply side tax cut that started to bring back provided capital or access to capital or advantages to capital that brought jobs back. Oh, no, no. That would be too much work not doing that. They're going to emphasize the populace. Talk about the hypocrisy. E.J. antoni, you've been, you've been such a straight shooter and so correct. As you know, we've lost so many of our colleagues and our co anchors right over to the, to the administration. In fact, Dave Bratt, who's been silent for about a year, I think will be confirmed next week and be headed to Australia as the ambassador in a long line. EJ Was nominated to take over the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but it was the Republican Party, the Republican Party that stopped that. Todd Bensman is going to join us in a moment. He's back after a year in administration.

[Political Analyst]

E.J.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

one of the beating hearts of the problem here. And Victor Davis Hansen was on some show the other day, I don't know, Megan Kelly or something. They played a clip. The die was sitting there railing on the the particip, the workforce participation and talk about he had to have economies for family. Of course, he's a neoliberal, neocon, nice guy, but wrong on everything. You know, thinks deep thoughts, but was one of the intellectual architects of the fiasco in Iraq and Afghanistan and is now one of the leading voices with Tel Aviv Levin for oh, we got to put troops on the ground and let's march to Tehran. So another third strike, you're out. Vdh but he took umbrage oh, Bannon don't understand the Chinese Communist Party. I say kept dude, I forgot more about the Chinese Communist Party than you will ever know. He particularly was about the workforce participation. We have a problem and help me out here. We don't have, we have millions of men of able bodied seamen, as we used to say, that are eligible to work, that are not working. And we particularly have a problem with STEM workers, people trained because we got all these phony legal immigration plans that adhere to. And all of them, whether it's illegal immigration or it's illegal immigration plans, they're all focused on one thing, for the corporations to drive down wages among workers. So help me out, how big a problem is workforce participation and particularly the fact that you have men in the prime of life. And if our theory, the case here is that we want to build families and the family is the center of the economic unit of a MAGA economy and you want to have a particularly that can be a cultural dynamic that both don't have to go out and be quasi slave labor or modern economic serfs, but that the mom, if so chooses, can actually stay home and run the household, raise the kids and maybe even have a couple of more kids. How do we get around this? Because it seems like I believe we're going in the wrong direction, sir.

[Economist]

Steve, a lot of really, really great questions there. I think the most important piece of kind of context here is the fact that the economy really changed drastically during COVID and still hasn't gotten back to normal, I guess you would call it. So with that being said, you had literally millions of people who left the labor force during COVID understandably, but then they never came back. And you have to ask, okay, why does that include such a large number of men, literally millions of men, well over 5 million who are now missing from the labor force again left during COVID but then never came back afterwards. And I think a lot of that has to do with what followed Covid, the responses seen during the Biden administration. You can put this into, I think, two broad categories. One was a huge incentive not to work and the other was a big disincentive for working. What was the disincentive for working? Well, it was the fact that Biden threw open the border, imported all of this low skill, low wage labor, which really cut out the first rung on the ladder of success for a lot of men and essentially disincentivized them from working. Because look, the labor market is a market. It's right there in the name. Okay, if you increase supply, you're going to put downward pressure on prices. Well, what happens when you increase the supply of low skilled work? You put downward pressure on the wages of that cohort. That's exactly what we have seen over the last several years. So there's your disincentive for working, but what about your incentive to not work? Again, I think you have to lay a lot of blame at the feet of the Biden administration here because they greatly expanded a lot of different welfare benefits. And not only Steve, did they increase how much you could get on these different welfare programs, but they also reduced the requirements, not just work requirements, but the different thresholds you had to meet in order to actually be considered disabled. For example, this is why there was a surge by millions in terms of the number of people who are considered disabled when it comes to these labor market statistics. And also again the benefits that you can get from different programs. So once more huge disincentive for working, but then also an incentive to not work. Because why would I go to work when I can sit at home on disability or a host of other different welfare programs and get paid?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Have we, has, has the Trump administration? Because no President Trump, this drives him crazy. Have we gone in and taken out all of those incentives, these kind of phony incentives not to work? They all been or are the requirements tougher? Is the reporting tougher? Have they raised the threshold on all of us so that we get tell guys, hey look, you know, it's on us to stop the illegal immigration and the in the quote unquote legal to suppress your wages. But yo, the American people are not going to be paying for able bodied semen to sit on a sofa and just stream Netflix.

[Todd Bensman]

Sir.

[Economist]

Steve, the short answer is some, not all. And some of the things that we've rolled back have only been done very, very recently, just within the last few weeks or months. Food stamps I think is a good example of that. Where we are finally putting back into place the work requirements which are basically just saying, look, if you are an able bodied man, you either need to be going to school or you need to be looking for work, you need to be volunteering something. You can't just be, as you rightly said, Steve, somebody who's just sitting at home like a lump on the log and it's just streaming Netflix or whatever the case may be. Now look, most of what's going on here I do firmly believe is economic. That's just what the data are telling us. But I think it's also the case that There are a lot of cultural issues at play here as well. Feminism for example. You know, a big, a big reason why men decide to advance in their careers, why they decide to work harder to earn more money, et cetera, is the fact that they get married and have children and now they have a responsibility. There are people dependent on them to actually go out there and work and earn more and be successful. But if you short circuit that whole process, if you stop men from actually getting married and having kids in the first place, which is what has happened to a lot of young men today, then they decide to not go out there and to be achievers. They instead decide to just basically be self sufficient.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Was the delay in getting these Biden level incentives, is that a Department of labor problem or is it blocked on the Hill? Because I've noticed these, the reason they don't want to have appropriation thing is that they get into these fights. The media says you're a bunch of cruel, white, racist, nativist, xenophobic Republicans and people crater. What happened here, Steve, It's a mix.

[Economist]

The administration I think has taken good steps to actually handle the things that are, you know, the different levers, let's say that are within their reach. We, we've seen that now with the Department of Agriculture, Brook Rawlins taking on the problem with food stamps. So that was good. You have other issues that it would have to be resolved at labor, some at hhs. So it really, really varies. But to your point, there are plenty of these things that were done by law and would now have to be undone by law. That's on Congress.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Yeah, hang on for one second. Hold you through the break.

[Todd Bensman]

E.J.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

antonio's with us. You know, just a few years ago if you told someone you were stocking up on emergency food, they would have called you a tinfoil hatch conspiracy theorist. Not anymore. We've all seen supply chain chaos, devastating natural disasters, inflation, war, civil run rest and preparedness has gone mainstream. That's why we're so excited to partner with my Patriot Supply, America's original Patriot preparedness company. Right now they're celebrating America's America's 250 with one of the best deals they've ever offered. $250 off their best selling six month food supply available now at preparewithbannon.com that is a homepage gave us just for the war and posse. Preparewith bandit.com this is the exact same survival brand trusted by over 3 million American families. Now why is that? Because they deliver 2,000 calories a day. Their food lasts up to 25 years without refrigeration and it contains no, I repeat, no GMOs or artificial colors or artificial flavors. And you can count on it to keep your family fed no matter what the emergency is. Even at full price, it's still the best decision you'll make for your family with a $250 discount. It's a no brainer. Go to our own homepage with my patriot supply that is preparewithbannon.com to get your emergency food kit today. That's preparewithbannon.com do it and do it today.

[Military Expert]

War Room.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Here's your host, Stephen K. Band. What does this mean the the both war going on and the lack of ability of the Republicans to step in and by force political will start to cut the spending that got codified during the Biden administration. That means that's why you got $1.4 trillion deficit in the first nine months. As we said, this is why you're going to have a $1.8 to $2 trillion deficit by the end of the fiscal year. This is why they're already working on a CR to kick the can down the road to lead to an omnibus that continues on with Biden and Pelosi spending. When I say cr, just remember that's Biden and Pelosi spending levels. What does that mean for you? Go to this is why we did end of the dollar empire. Not that we want the end of the dollar empire. We don't want it all. Although there ought to be a national debate over should the dollar be the prime reserve currency because it does have obligations that maybe get you into places you don't want to be. But it's also got big benefits. Find out what they are. Find out what it means for you. Find out what it means for your family, your community, your nation. Birchgold.com Ban and End of the Dollar Empire Eight free installments. The ninth's on its way. Get it all. Immerse yourself. You get to fill a patron team and ask them the questions they make themselves available for this. So EJ before I go get on to the to the H1BS and by the way Todd Bensman joins us back to a huge day today for Todd coming back after being a year in the administration. Also if Denver could put up Sam Faddis, Sam has been medevac to I think the University of Pennsylvania for a for this surgery hasn't happened yet. But please, there's an update that Grace and Elizabeth have put up in mo. I want to make sure you have from, I think from the family, from Sam's wife and his daughter. And please keep Sam Fatis in your prayers. One of the, one of the greats. And it's been so helpful to understanding everything that's going on, particularly in Persia now, having dedicated I think 30 years of his life to defense of his country, the great Sam Fattest EJ

[Advertiser/Promoter]

Part

[Stephen K. Bannon]

let's just cut to the part of the reason here is that we got a bunch of squish Republicans that are all part of the unit party. They're all in the Georgetown cocktail circuit. And I'm talking this is McConnell. This is why I keep advocating for a throwdown with Thune right now for Senate leadership. Let's have the fight. Because it's not Thune. He just some, you know, guy from blowing in from the prairie.

[Political Analyst]

Right.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

We love the prairie. But he's blown into town. He's not exactly the strongest. He's just a cipher. This is McConnell ism. That is thorting Trump. Why are they thorning Trump? They're talking about going on a recess is going to be six weeks. Is one day of that recess one day an actual recess of President Trump can do some recess appointments since he's got ambassadors and others that have backed up for six months. They're telling guys, hey, we don't get to you next week, you know, it'll be after the election that this is all this is the Republican, the gutless, feckless, controlled opposition Republicans that go along with Biden. Remember, they're cheering Biden and loving up on Biden because he'd been with him for all the time, rubbing up on Biden, not questioning how he was illegitimate in destroying the country. The reason we start the end of the dollar empire was early in 2021 because we saw the spending bill when you didn't need it. Remember aggregate demand? Let's go back to the war room at the Warren pandemic. Aggregate demand drops, collapses. Yes, you do need to bridge that with extraordinary measures. President Trump took those extraordinary measures and guess what we had gotten over. The bridge had been built and we had gotten to the other side by 2021. But no, no, no, no, no, no. They had to have a massive spending bill that we said, hey was going to be a cajian infusion, it was going to drive inflation. And you had, you know, Klugman and all these guys mocking, oh my God, they don't know anything. Navarro banning a bunch of clowns. Turns out they were wrong. But we still got the problem. Why are we not. Because I understand biting these guys think did it during reconciliation. When I look at the punch list for our reconciliations, brother, I don't see cuts in there. I see more spending over and above the CR that's got the Biden number in it. This is why we're looking at $350 billion reconciliation. But bro, I do not see in that the cuts that you say have to be decodified, sir.

[Economist]

Steve, you're absolutely right. I mean this latest reconciliation package that was put forward just missed opportunity from beginning to end. Where are the spending cuts? Where is the tax relief? Where is the rollback of the Biden and Pelosi era nonsense that you were just talking about? Both the nonsense in terms of just the size of the spending which has gotten way out of control, but also the rollback of their agenda. What about rolling back all the woke DEI nonsense, the Green New Deal nonsense? Right. We still have some of that on the books. We still have not decodified that, if you will, or in other words removed it from statute. All of that good hard work still needs to be done. And it just really, again, missed opportunity is the phrase that comes to mind there. Because as we were just saying before the break, Steve, it is going to take Congress to undo a lot of this damage. Congress was part of the problem in the first place and now it can't just simply be done with executive order. It's going to require Congress to get that stuff off the books just like it required them to put it on there in the first place. But the problem is, you know, you have the Democrats which just always vote as a bloc for whatever reason. I'm not a political scientist, I'm a monetary scientist. I'll leave it to my betters to figure that one out. Republicans just never can vote as a block for some reason. But on top of that, you also have these swish Republicans like the McConnells, like the Murkowskis, who are always willing to cross the aisle and to vote on some of these big ticket items from the Democrats. The infrastructure bill comes to mind. Right. Which was, which was just a lot of waste. Maybe not all of it was bad, but a lot of it was just waste. And you can never find 10 Democrats to come across the aisle and to do the same thing when it comes to the Republican agenda items. That's a big, big problem in D.C.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

before I let you go now, there's all types of reports overnight that the my whole theory is that we have a highly leveraged bet, kind of double leverage, both corporately and As a nation on artificial intelligence providing immediate and mass productivity increases without concomitant layoffs. I think that the, the, the return on it we've had, you know, we had, we've had people on here talking about this non stop about how the return on equity, the return on investment's not there. They're finally waking up to it. It may be even too late given what they're, what they've committed to. But this gets the fact that American labor is not participating in all in this artificial intelligence. One is driving jobs out. But more importantly, I think we have 12 million STEM workers that are not fully occupied. And the reason is we continue to have these H1B visas and flood the zone with foreign labor that has no right to be here. They're not better educated and they don't have better training or better qualifications for the billets in, in whatever billet it is. You can't show us one person, not one that is in a billet that has better education or better on job, you know, expertise than an American worker. Sir, when is this going to get stopped?

[Economist]

Steve? Unfortunately, I'm just not seeing any indication that that work is being done here to reform the, the H1B program. And we keep seeing stories time and time again where it's not just a matter of someone is being brought in because a company literally can't find an American with this precise skill set. But you keep finding these examples of businesses bringing in an H1B worker to be a secretary in an office. I mean, something where there is zero argument whatsoever that can be made to say that this is a role that could only be filled by this foreigner, that there are no Americans with the skill set again to do something like to be a secretary or a clerical worker, whatever the case may be. So it's not just a matter of a problem in STEM fields. Although you're absolutely right, you're seeing a lot of computer science graduates, for example, people with what used to be considered a very, very strong bachelor's degree obviously in the STEM field where they can't get jobs. But it's affecting a lot of other workers in other sectors too. So obviously the program is in desperate need of reform. I just don't see people taking a look at it right now.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

EJ where do people go to keep up with your, your Twitter feed is a constant. It's kind of like the sophisticated Bloomberg for the mega movement on finance and economics. Where do people go?

[Economist]

The best place to find me is there on X. The handle is@real EJ Antony, EJ thanks

[Stephen K. Bannon]

for taking time on Saturday. I know you had to change things around. So thank you for sharing this with the Warren Posse. Appreciate you.

[Economist]

Thank you for having me.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Steve Benzeman, man, oh man, welcome. But you're a sight for sore eyes. Your lovely visage. Thank you for, thank you for joining us. I guess your first week, your first week back, you're over at Heritage right now.

[Todd Bensman]

That's right. I'm with Heritage now doing the same thing, border security, immigration, national security talk.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Because you wrote and you were on for years on the show and were really the tip of the spear. You were the equivalent of what Russ Vogt was for the management of the country and Besson for capital markets. You were that voice, walk people through. You've been gone 14 months. What were the types of things Billets you had, types of things you worked on for the administration?

[Foreign Correspondent]

That's right.

[Todd Bensman]

I was assigned to the, I was a senior advisor assigned to the ICE office of Director and I worked often with Tom Homan and DHS leadership on the mass deportation project and on lots of kinds of policy issues that would result in permanently welding shut the border, permanently ending some of the loopholes that enabled that and caused us the kind of problem that we're trying to dig ourselves out of now.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Todd, the reason, if we can grab, if Cameron and the team, Brandon can grab the COVID of his book, the reason that your voice was so powerful is that you had a very sophisticated way, in fact, the COVID of your book and remember the intellectual property that you put out that came out through War Room, that came out through the cis, your site that was picked up by like Epoch Times, it fired the base up that finally there was somebody there explaining the details of what was happening with this really invasion and well thought through invasion. You would always tell me, don't say it's chaos on the border. Don't say this is very, that's that famous shot right there. You did more to explain that. But you also, your previous book, when we first started having the show years ago, was about jihadis and terrorists coming across. So you covered both aspects. One, how the system was totally gamed and very well thought through in working with Ng, that you do not get 20 million illegal alien invaders into a country unless it's highly organized and the judges know about it in the, in the left wing legal profession. But also you understood from the previous book that hey, this thing has been open for a long time and some very bad hombres are coming into the country. Give me a minute or Two on there before you go to break.

[Todd Bensman]

That's right. That was the Biden administration years was the hugest, greatest, worst mass migration crisis I think in world history. I'm unaware even during the world wars of any kind of numbers like that. And it was all by policy. It was organized, it was planned out very well by the migrant resettlement, an aid industrial complex that I call it. Hundreds of millions of dollars flowed into that industrial complex, into those nonprofit businesses in order to keep those people flowing over the border. All of them being let in all along the migrant trail from all over the world, 150plus countries coming through and, and they're still here. Donald Trump is trying to fix that, trying to dig us out of that. It's not easy, but that's the situation that we're still in. And so it still matters how that happened, why that happened, who profited so that accountability can finally be brought and also so that we can put policies in place to prevent it from happening. If you don't know why it happened, you can't fix it.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Okay, hang on for a second. I'm gonna hold you through the break. When people ask me about Bensman, Todd is a what we call a safe pair of hands. He's like a Scott Bessant type or a Russ Vogt type, right? Or Dave Walsh who's also working with the Department of War. Now these are safe pair of hands. These are not people. That hair is on fire. So when he tells you the biggest in world history, sit up and grab a number two pencil. Ben's been next in the war room. Who you trust with your health care matters. Too many companies have forgotten what customer service is supposed to look like. That's why I appreciate businesses that still put people first. All Family Pharmacy is a family owned and operated and it shows. When you call, you can speak with a real member of their team, including a licensed pharmacist, and get answers from

[Advertiser/Promoter]

people who actually care.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

They offer more than 400 medications and getting started is very simple. Complete a secure online medical questionnaire. A licensed physician reviews your information and if appropriate, writes your prescription. Then your medication is shipped directly to your door. If you're tired of big corporations and a healthcare system that treats you like a number, it's worth taking a look at All Family Pharmacy. They're focused on making the process straightforward and believe real customer service still matters, visit AllFamilyPharmacy.com that's one word. AllFamilyPharmacy.com Bannon and use promo code Bannon10 to save 10% on your order. That's all Family Pharmacy.com Bannon with code Bannon10. This is Family owned, family operated. These people, Michael Kunstner's team, are absolutely terrific. Take advantage of this today.

[Military Expert]

War room.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. Remember, Birch Gold end of the Dollar Empire. Get it? Immerse yourself in it. The the ninth free editions coming out. Birchcore.com Bannon Endothel Empire. You get immediate access to Philip Patrick and his team to ask him all the questions you have about putting part of your retirement or part of your savings or part of your investment capital into physical gold. Talk to those guys today. You'll find out what's been a hedge for mankind. I don't know, a couple of thousand years. Good enough for you? Good enough track record. Because remember, like everything, we want to immerse you in information and make you. When you use your agency, it's to the max power. So Bensman, I think your quote was, this was the biggest organized kind of invasion of. Of migrants and foreigners and illegal aliens. A whole raft of them. All the way from good solid people. There were a lot of good solid people who came across there. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. There are good solid people that came here for a better life. That's not the way you do things. You get in line like everybody else did. All the way to some of the worst hombres in. In. In history. However, this was organized by people that want to destroy this country in this republic. You said it was the biggest in world history. You're not someone that overstates your case, sir. Make the case for that, please.

[Todd Bensman]

Well, the numbers alone, we were seeing 250 to 300,000. I mean, imagine super bowl stadium packed to the gills. 70,000. Three of those every single month at least, were coming in over the border and being let in to stay for years. We just have never seen anything like. Even in Europe, the numbers aren't anywhere like that. And they complain all the time about this. You know, the crisis over there. It's like a fraction of what we saw coming over the US border. We think somewhere in the order of at least 8 million just came over in that period. I think it's a lot more because of the gotaways. But in any case, let's just take the most conservative number. It's an unbelievable number of people that came in over the border and, you know, created a lot of very visible social problems, budget problems, fiscal problems, employment, labor market problems, highly to get 8

[Stephen K. Bannon]

to get 8 to 22 million people in. I'm a 13 million person person. But hey, I'll take the high, I'll take the. I'll take the over, I'll take the under. It's a monumental problem. You don't do that unless you're highly organized. Correct.

[Todd Bensman]

It was very well organized by policy for sure, and by the United nations and it's partnership with a big consortium of non governmental organizations that all profited from this through the.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

And we're funded and we're fussed. And those not for profits were funded by dark money. Most of them are funded by dark money. So the enemies of this country, both foreign and domestic, because we have domestic enemies, and that's the point we're going to get to, is identify who the domestic enemies are of this republic and take care of business. Now that we've. And so now we're in a situation. We have the John C. Calhoun's of the 21st century, because most of these illegal invaders have gone to the major cities because they're sanctuary cities. New York's a sanctuary state, New York City is a sanctuary city, Illinois, Chicago, Los Angeles. And we have these mayors that have essentially told the President of these United States and the Commander in Chief that, hey, ICE the internal enforcement apparatus, not the border, not the Coast Guard, not the great job the military is doing, not the great job the customs and border are doing. Magnificent. President Trump essentially sealed it when they said it couldn't be done. Oh, we have to just take 250,000amonth because that's just a natural law, a natural property of the universe. No, Trump shut it down in 60 to 90 days. But the internal enforcement, that stops the immediate problem. But to take care of the festering sword, that is the problem. We now have Mandami at the lead telling you, and by the way, in Minneapolis, in Los Angeles, screw you. No, you're not going to enforce any federal law about immigration. They in Mandami calls these people Americans. I'm protecting Americans. Your thoughts, sir?

[Todd Bensman]

Well, of course all of that is absurd. It's ideological or it's propagandistic. I think it's more propagandistic than anything else. They're open borders. They. It is the signature policy of the far left to just simply accept that there are no borders. Everybody has a right to go anywhere in the world that they want at any time, especially into the United States. I don't think that this is something that the American people writ large are interested in. However, there is an organized nationwide campaign to undermine U.S. support the people. Support for these deportations. And where you can really see that are these very organized ruckus groups that are attacking in an organized way, physically attacking ICE agents and interfering with ICE operations in all these big cities, black bloc, you can see them. They're not just protesters or demonstrators. And that produces a propaganda effect that I think is has undermined some US support for these operations. But I do think that there's still good support for these.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Oh, this is amazing. So, I mean, mass deportations, there's still amazing support over. They all have to go. All of them. There is not. There is. It's totally unacceptable. Any inkling of amnesty, there's not gonna be any amnesty. I don't care how you, you know how you put lipstick on that pig. We can always get back and show you its amnesty. Amnesty is unacceptable to the American people. Mass deportations are acceptable to the American people. Is it tough? Yes, it's tough. Why is that? Because you have many people in this country that are Marxist jihadist that hate this republic and are going to try to use the media and try to use scare tactics and try to use violence like in Minneapolis and other places to try to shut down Los Angeles, to try to shut down the internal enforcement of our immigration laws. You can't wish to this away. You can't whistle past the graveyard because this is the graveyard of this republic. The problems in this country, the crisis in this country of us as a nation and our sovereignty has nothing to do, nothing to do with what's going on in Tehran. And all the time and the opportunity cost and the money and the blood and the treasure and the focus is wasted. The problem, the beating heart on the problem is in the United States of America, in its largest and greatest cities. Todd Benzeman, Taj Gill and others after a short break.

[Advertiser/Promoter]

Most Americans are forced to spend too much money on health care and getting too little in return. If you're one of the millions frustrated by traditional health insurance, I want to tell you about America's Health Share. Go to Freedom for all health. That's freedomforallhealth.org Bannon now that's a mouthful. Freedom4health.org that's freedomforhealth.org Bannon and discover why tens of thousands of patriots are joining America's Health Share. America's Health Share reduces your health care costs by an average of 60% and it's accepted everywhere. In other words, say goodbye to out of network limitations. They make healthcare affordable, transparent and aligned with your values, free from surprise bills or skyrocketing premiums. For as low as 68 bucks a month, an individual can get great health care coverage minus the complications and price gouging from health care providers. You can completely scrap your current insurance or use America's healthcare to supplement your existing policy, even with Medicare. Simply go to freedomforhealth.org that's freedomforhealth.org Bannon to learn more. Right now, new members get their first month free with promo code Bannon it's time to make America healthy.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Join the community of patriots taking back

[Advertiser/Promoter]

control of their health care. That's freedomforhealth.org Bannon freedomforhealth.org Bannon promo code Bannon make sure you go check it out. Immerse yourself in the details of America's health share.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

You will not regret it.