
Episode 4445: The Elite Watch As You Flounder Financially; Electrical Blackout In Europe ...
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Steve Bannon
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. Reasons I got a free shot on all these networks lying about the people. The people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen. 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 had a conscience. Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
Stephen K. Bannon
War Room here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
Steve Bannon
Okay, it's Monday 28th April. Your valor 2025. Welcome. We were going to go to Rome, but we have Ben Harwell, head of our international bureau, working on something. He'll be with us momentarily. Here's what I would like to do. I would like to. If we can do this, I want to play Fareed Zakara and Ray Dalio from yesterday. Let me tee this up because I played as a court open last time. Who is Ray Dalio? Ray Dalio runs the largest hedge fund in the world. Bridgewater. His deputy McCormick brother, Dave McCormick, West Point grid. Dave McCormick is now the United States. Is now in the United States Senate for. Is now in the United States Senate for. For. From Pennsylvania. Can we get this organized? Is it going to get. Okay, the. Well, hangover second I played yet. Dalio was on yesterday with Freed Zakara, Free Zakar, you know, comes out with his whole point of view on gps and they're talking about the economy and the stock market, all this stuff. He's got Zandy on who's the head of the Economist and she's going in with her things, the tariffs and trade, everything. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And this is kind of. When I talked to the World Economic Conference, the new Davos in D.C. put on by Summerford last week, I was in front of those folks and Ben Smith asked me the first question. Well, all this turbulence in the stock market. I said, dude, it's a casino. However, the casino moves in the next roll of the roulette table. Doesn't matter. And the media gets so obsessed with this because now this is their new thing. They got to get something else. The signal chat doesn't work. They all got to go. So Ray Dalio is on there and we're going to play it again. You'll hear what Ray has to say he completely rips on Freed Zakar's question. He says, you're missing point, kid. Boom. It's all about debt. He preaches the gospel of the worm. And this guy is not a fan of Stephen K. Bannon and certainly not a fan of the worm. Let's go ahead and play it again.
Fareed Zakaria
It reflects what Zanny was saying and says that all of this produces huge risks. We expect a policy induced slowdown, including a probability of a recession. The Fed is going to be less able to handle this. And so there are risks of stagflation, combination of slow growth and inflation. US Corporates are under threat. They see exceptional risk to US Assets. Would you agree with that?
Stephen K. Bannon
By and large, I'd agree with that. I don't think it covers what's going on. So let me just clarify. We have a problem with the debt. We have a problem with internal order, democracy as we know it, the system. We have a problem of a geopolitical order, rising power challenging an existing power in that global environment. These things exist as the backdrop of this set of circumstances. Now, there's been volatility. There's been. Yes, in my opinion.
Fareed Zakaria
I guess what I'm trying to get at is you seem to be reluctant to comment directly.
Stephen K. Bannon
No, I'll comment directly.
Fareed Zakaria
What are the effects of the Trump administration's policies in the last hundred days, economically?
Stephen K. Bannon
The effects of those policies, economically, is to bring to the surface issues about the polarity that exists. And at the same time, it's doing it in a volatile way that is causing, that is causing trouble in terms of the volatility of that. So it is dealing with problems and at the same time, it is the way it is dealing with problems could be done more smoothly, more cooperatively to produce a less volatile result.
Fareed Zakaria
Zanny, let me ask you, you said we're still. Let me ask you about something you know a lot about because we are right now, the deadlock. The most important deadlock is a US China deadlock where in order to get the world economy to a second, this.
Steve Bannon
One'S so good I want to play it separately. I don't think that gets to the, to the problem. He tells a guy on his own show that is not supposed to happen. And Free tees it up with that whole, the whole, oh, you got the trade, tariffs and trade. It's everything they can see of the moment. Let me give you some stats. Anytime like Zandy starts up. So the economy is doing so good. As Ray Dalio just said, it's a debt financed economy on federal spending. The model we're on right now is not sustainable, full stop. I want to know what everybody off of that model is because this is what's killing the working class. This is what's killing the middle class. This is why 9 million people have two jobs. This is why the $1.4 trillion of credit card debt, 10% of it's non performing. This is why you haven't had a wage increase. Dave Brett just went to the twos. Next 30 years projected growth United States of America Economy by cbo Congressional Budget Office 2%. That 2% also includes the federal spending. If you took the federal spending out the last five years, you have negative growth, you're in a recession. The recession started years ago and now it's getting to the point that it can't sustain itself. Why would these crooks over here on Capitol Hill and the Federal Reserve, would they continue to print money? Hell, all day long they jam it down. Who's resisting it? The BRICS nations. Remember the greatest export that the country has is the dollar. We're the prime reserve currency. If you want to give to a convent in Sub Saharan Africa or do a drug deal in Thailand, you convert it into dollars and everything in between, it's the greatest export we have. The entire post war international rules based order is predicated upon Bretton Woods. Yes, a ton of institutions, right, that are set up. International Monetary Fund, World bank trade deals, all of it, but all predicated upon the US dollar. It's the US dollar's purchasing power that continues to drop that has the nations of the world, the brics, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, plus now Saudi Arabia, everybody else. All those people, every one of those central banks. You know what? They got plenty of young people that went to Harvard Business School and can work an HP12C computer and can do discounted cash flow and say, hey guess what? The Americans are screwing us. The American elite are screwing us because they continue to run these massive budget deficits to cover themselves. You also simultaneously have the greatest concentration of wealth in mankind's history starting in 2008 in the financial collapse under the most progressive president in American history, Barack Obama, who was convinced by Geithner and Bernanke and of course all of his sponsors on Wall street, the lords of easy money. Oh, you gotta bail it out that way. Hell, he's a constitutional lawyer. You read David Susskind's book Confidence Men. Obama tried to make the best decisions he could, but he was overwhelmed by neoliberal, neocons who said, guess what? We need to do this. We need to bail out everybody except the American working class in the American middle class. In fact, since I had Chris Lendert on, on Friday writing that new book about the Defense Department, Leonard went back. This is why he's so good. He went back to all the, all the inner workings of the Federal Reserve. Those notes from the governor's meetings are only put out 10 years after they happened. He went back and read all of them from 2008. It was the governor of Dallas, the Dallas Fed, who sat there and said, when you go to zero interest rates or negative interest rates, it's the working class and middle class going to get screwed. Because a little checking account in their savings account, the things that my dad had all his life, they have no interest. You have no, no ability to have capital formation as a, as a working class of middle class people. None. He says we're going to do this. He says we're going to bail out the entire system on the backs of the working class and middle class. You know what they said? They voted 11 to 1. Hey, thanks for your input. I think he actually voted for him a couple of times so they could show unanimity, but he fought it in these meetings. The entire financial system, the entire financial system rests on your shoulders. You're the full faith and credit of this. It ain't the Federal Reserve, it's not the sec, it's not Congress. When people say, well, why is the market here liquid? Why do people invest here? Hey, in the city of London, they got the same types of restrictions, basically we have here in the United States. You go to Singapore, basically the same type. Frankfurt, Tokyo, a little different, but about the same. The regulatory apparatus is about the same. Slightly different, but about the same. Here people put their money in, they know they're going to get their money back. Why? It's the little platoons. It's the little platoons of Burke. It's the associations, it's little league, it's the churches, it's the doctors, the nurses, the first responders. It's everything that makes small town America work. That is the backbone of the nation. That is the full faith and credit of the United States government. It's you. And let me give you another news flash. You get screwed every day of your life in broad daylight. Don't think they're not going up to Scott Bessant's office today to work out a deal that benefits you because they're not, okay, they're not making any real cuts to Federal spending, none. With everything. And here's, here's the tell. You know what the tell is? The debt ceiling.
Stephen K. Bannon
Wait.
Steve Bannon
To what they asked for in the debt ceiling. It's going to be $5 trillion. I'm picking a random number. It's going to be $5 trillion. It's going to be in two years. So if it's $5 trillion, understand, we're going to go from 37 to 42 pretty quickly. Okay. And they're not going to cut defense spending. We just passed an end a National Defense Authorization act at $900 billion. And in this reconciliation, the big beautiful bill, they're going to throw another $150 billion. That's over a trillion dollars. And I love Pete Hegseth, but when Pete Hegseth puts out a trillion dollar defense budget, all caps, I'm not feeling good. I'm not feeling like it got control of the building. Here's why has President Trump just not walked us through a complete reorganization. Geopolitical, geostrategic reorganization from Greenland to the Panama Canal, from the west central Pacific all the way to the three island chain leading up to East Asia. Is that not actually the hemispheric defense of the United States of America that we're finally off the Eurasian landmass. We don't have to get into these endless wars that we've been in that all of a sudden, hey, the Russian army is your problem. NATO, we're there to help, but that's your problem. Yes, we'll help sort out Ukraine. I think today just announced there's going to be, I think, May 8, which would be, I think, the 80th anniversary of what the Russians take as their victory in the Great war against the fascists, as they will do a ceasefire. I think that's what we're hearing right now. But that's all kind of the give and take of daily news. The important thing here is that for America to be safe and to get a defense budget that doesn't drive us into bankruptcy because you are not going to be able to touch social programs until you get cuts in defense. And people up there right now are selling you a bill of goods. Here's the way the math works and the only way the math works. Scott Besson laid it out six and a half percent, we're at 6.5 or 7% right now of budget deficits to GDP. It's not sustainable. The BRICS nations, the bond market is going to get a vote just like Lyft's trust got turfed out the bond market is going to reject Ray Dalio and others saying that you're going to have a bond auction. Remember two weeks ago we had this big freeze up. The bond market froze up one morning for a moment. Then Scott Bessen had to oversee an auction of treasuries. At these kind of debt figures, folks, we got to sell 10 to 12 trillion dollars a year to refinance that debt for years and years and years. Remember Dick Cheney deficits don't matter. Well, they don't matter. Those folks are running them at the beginning. But they certainly going to matter a lot. If you're under 40 years old, it's going to matter a whole lot. Because you know what? You're no different than a Russian serf, okay? You don't own anything and you're not going to own anything. You're being buried every day by federal spending that helps the oligarchs. This is why you've had this great concentration of wealth, right? It's as obvious, obvious, obvious to anybody sure as the turning of the earth. We're gonna take a short commercial break. Where have we taught this for four years? Birch Gold. Look, I was not a gold bug at all, but I could see this day coming. Four years ago started the end of the dollar empire. Sixth free installment is modern monetary theory. Now why would a working class, a middle class audience want to learn about modern monetary theory? Because it is the idea that broke the world. A radical idea coming from, wait for it France, but adopt it by Capitol Hill. Adopted by both parties. They're both guilty. And by Wall Street. Modern monetary theory. End of the dollar empire. Go to birchgold.com ben and also talk to Philip Patrick, his team. Short commercial break. Return in just a moment.
Mike Lindell
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Stephen K. Bannon
Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
Steve Bannon
Okay, we're gonna go to Rome. I get Dave Walsh up because there's a situation in Portugal and Spain, maybe part of France, about energy. I'm gonna get to in this. Electricity, I should say I'm gonna get to that in a second. Let's play the second part of this. Ray Dalio, let me ask you about.
Fareed Zakaria
Something you, you know a lot about because we are right now the deadlock. The most important deadlock is a US China deadlock where in order to get the world economy to a more stable place, and you wrote this in your post about a beautiful rebalancing between the US And China. You need the two sides to start talking. The US Says they were waiting for China to call. The Chinese say the U.S. started this. You put these tariffs on first. The U.S. has to reduce the tariffs, then we're willing to talk. How is this going to resolve itself? My sense is the Chinese are holding pretty firm.
Stephen K. Bannon
The United States has too much debt. It cannot add to the debt. The way it is operating, it is the world's biggest consumer, largely financed by government debt. In the way that it's operating, China is the biggest producer. They produce a lot of goods, more than the United States, Japan and Germany combined and manufactured goods. And they put it out and they save too much and they buy the dollars. We cannot continue this debt money problem. We're at the end of a debt money world order.
Fareed Zakaria
So how are we going to get the negotiation?
Stephen K. Bannon
It is only through cooperation, calmness and analytical work in which we recognize that these imbalances are unsustainable. They're not just financially unsustainable, sustainable in a world that is near war, that there could be, there cannot be mutual dependencies. And so how that is done together is the most important thing.
Fareed Zakaria
Okay, let me Danny, ask you about another thing.
Steve Bannon
Ray Dalio is the apostle of coupling, right? Coupling. We here are the apostle of decoupling. And here's why. Let's go back was told this economic forum last week. Since we, the United States brought them and this after Tiananmen Square, since we brought them out of being a agrarian backward country and actually built their manufacturing capability, they have gamed The World Trade Organization, they have gamed most favored nation. They have game. Obama cut a deal with them on Cyber in 2015. They didn't live up to anything on that. Okay. Then the Hong Kong situation in early 19th, they totally walked away from that. And now they have Hong Kong totally under control as a colony. Broke the 70 year deal for two years. Two years, Bob Lighthizer, Peter Navarro sat and negotiated a deal that would have taken what we call the seven deadly sins with Le Ho, the vice premier for two years. And in May of 2019, after they had their first belt and Road conference, I think in Shanghai that Putin attended, Xi and Wan Shishan decided, if we do this deal, we're totally coupled both technologically and commercially to the foreign devils. And they will, and they will and they will never give us the technology we need. They'll always hold it back. So therefore no deal walked away. And then Wuhan the virus started, however you want to say it either started at the military games in August and September or it started the following or that December, in November. The skinny deal, by the way, they signed in 2020 didn't live up to anything like that. They have not lived up, whether it was Trump or Obama or Bush or Clinton. You pick them and you pick any one of the treaties they sign. Anyone. The agreements they signed, they've never lived up to anything. Why? They're at economic war with us. Remember, in the philosophy of Sun Tzu, if you have to go kinetic, you've already lost. It's like loss of face. They also know and they fear the foreign devil's ability with technology to fight. So unrestricted warfare is to defeat us every other way. Cyber, politically, psychologically, particularly economically. And how do they do that? They infiltrate our institutions. Hell, half the city's on the payroll. The universities are on the payroll. Total on the payroll. Here's what I would do with Harvard and I don't think President Trump's being hard enough. First off, I would have not focused on the Ivies. But since you did, you know, after Columbia, God bless you, I would have gone to the public Ivies. I would have gone to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and I'd gone to the University of Madison in Wisconsin. Here's the deal. And don't put it all on the Jewish kids and anti Semitism. Right? It's deeper than that. Yes, that's a huge problem, but it's deeper than that. It's neo Marxist anti Americans on the faculty that have tenure. And here's what I do. I give Them a list of 200 faculty members and 200 administrators. We're cutting off all federal money, all federal money until they're gone. Once they're gone, we'll start bleeding it back in. And oh, by the way, all 350,000 Chinese nationals, students that are here in the country got to leave immediately. The Chinese, the independent sources say $600 billion a year are stolen and or forced out of intellectual property through joint ventures every year. Our trade deficit's $25 trillion. They never want to talk about that. You know why? Oh, it's just an accounting, just a bookkeeping issue. That's not. It's not true. It's resources coming from this country to overseas to pay for the stuff we buy, okay? Because we don't manufacture anything anymore. China alone, the CCP alone, is $18 trillion. The deficit on intellectual property is $25 trillion. It's $600 billion a year. And every businessman will tell you that to get access to the Chinese market, you have to do a joint venture. And to join joint venture, you got to dump all your intellectual property into it, which they have free access. Much less would they take on industrial espionage. Chinese nationals are in the weapons labs, they're in the national labs, they're at all the research in the universities. Hey, how about very simple. You have to go home like today and you replace them with, okay, wait for it, US Citizens. How about that? You don't think you break the ivies. Right now the Ivy leagues, particularly Harvard. Harvard is a cesspool. There's a report out today, the Qatar and Qatar and the Chinese Communist Party put $29 billion into the top universities in the United States. $29 billion. Think about that for a second. Buy you a little access, maybe get you a couple of three students over here. The whole system is rigged. You pay for all of that. All of those universities you're paying for. They say, oh no, no, it's privately helped with this real simple. Take the. Take all the federal spending, not just a couple billion dollars, Marvin. Take it all. Let's see what big shots they are. They will fold quicker than the law firms. How big shots the law firms were that, you know, Paul Weiss and Karp, the chairman, and they're organizing all this anti Trump stuff and they're going to do this and they're going to do that. It took one letter. Now what did the letter say? The letter said your security clearance is going to be pulled. But that was just a predicate to say no more government work. And oh, by the Way they had a line in there. Oh by the way, any clients you have that retain you are going to have no access to government, to government programs either in 24 hours. The other law firms were like jackals on their clients. Not one partner at any major, any major law firm the country has resigned. Nobody at Scadden Arps, nobody Paul Weiss, all the big talk and how liberal they are. When it came down to hard money and getting their, getting the nose out of the government trough, they cratered in 24 hours. Just like Harvard, just like the other Ivies, just like Michigan will do, just like Madison will do. Let's go to Berkeley, let's go to ucla. Let's go to every public Ivy, let's go to North Carolina, Charlottesville. Let's do them all. You're all big talkers. You're all, you're all big, you know, huge woke dei, anti maga. Hey, that's fine, do that, be that. Go to your, in fact go to the state of Michigan, go to the state of Wisconsin and ask them to put up to two or three billion dollars the federal government's putting up every year. See how far that takes you. See how far it takes you. This entire thing is on your shoulders. All of it. Now you get zero respect. You get zero respect. You get shafted every day. Shaft every day. If in this tax bill, let me be blunt about this, the math cannot begin to work unless the upper bracket has a, not a tax increase. They just don't get extended the tax cuts. They got what this, this is going to be the most, this will be the mass, most massive tax cut for working class and middle class people in the history of the country. Extend the Trump tax cuts of 17 + cut no tax on tips, no tax on overtimes, no tax on Social Security. A massive tax cut. And President Trump said the other day haven't get tariffs rolling no tax on anybody on 200,000. That's aspirational. I'm talking about the here and now. To do that. What do we do? We just, we don't extend the tax cuts to the upper bracket. In fact you could actually say just create a new bracket at a million because the upper bracket now thinks 600,000 bucks. Just create a new bracket. That new bracket at a million dollars goes to, let's round up 40%. That begins to bridge the gap that you have then with some defense cuts you can go to Medicaid and smartly restructure that. You can go to some of these social programs like SNAP and others and start to restructure and get cuts. That's the way you get from the 6 1/2% deficit percentage of GDP down to Scott Bessens 3 1/2%. There's not another choice. This orgy they're going to lay on you has defense spending is going to be 1.5 excuse me, $1.1 trillion. They're increasing spending and the games are going to play as oh, Steve, understand these conservative wins because over the 10 year cycle there's one point I don't want to hear about 10 year cycles. I don't hear that's required. You have to do that's all completely and totally phony. I care about this fiscal year and I care about next fiscal year and oh, by the way, I want to see where the Doge numbers are. I'm begging for it to be $150 billion. That's fantastic. They're using that as a magic wand to avoid making tough decisions programmatically. The cuts are going to have to come and they're going to have to start in the Defense Department or it's never going to happen. Appropriate defense cuts and here's all you have to do. Match President Trump's hemispheric defense. Really a naval strategy with the existing Pentagon budget. They're going in two different directions. One's about big land armies on the Eurasian land mass for fighting the 20th century's wars or unfortunately, the early 21st century. That day is over. President Trump's telling you right now he's going to get a negotiated deal in Persia. Not going to be any bombing there, no new Middle east wars. Short commercial break we're going to go to Spain, Portugal and France next. Health isn't just a personal issue. It's a family issue, a community issue. We're living in unpredictable times. Supply chains can break down, hospitals can get overwhelmed. And let's not even start on the natural disasters. These aren't hypotheticals.
Mike Lindell
They're happening.
Steve Bannon
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Stephen K. Bannon
Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
Steve Bannon
Okay, President just put out a new truth social. When tariffs cut in many people's income tax will be substantially reduced, maybe even completely eliminated. Focus being on making people making less than 200,000 a year. Also massive number of jobs already being created with new plants, factories currently being built or planned. It will be a bonanza for America. The External Revenue Service is happening. Remember folks, it was John Gardner, an expert in small manufacturing and bringing small manufacturing back here to the United States that named the External Revenue Service. What about two months ago? Three months ago actually might have been during even before inauguration. Might have been during the Mar a Lago time. He's from Laguna beach, an expert. External revenue is going to be very important aspirationally to get to no taxes under 200,000. That's fantastic and that's aspirational. What's happening in the Secretary of Treasury's Office today at 4:00 when John Thune and the speaker of the House show up. That's reality the here and now. Here's the way the math works. If you take that you have to get from 6.5 to 3.5% and you have to if you don't do that, the BRICS nations in the global bond market are just going to reject you. And this shows you you have a limited your have less and less room for maneuver every day because your debts increasing so quickly. Okay, remember it's got to be finance. Somebody else has got to buy this or we end up buying it ourselves. There's another trick the Fed does right now. You have to have the back of the people up there that want to cut and cut spending. Spending has to be cut and we can't have any happy talk over 10 years we're going to cut $2 trillion. Forget the 10 years, I don't want to hear about it because it's always in the out years and never happens. I want to know what you're cutting this year and next year. Okay, I want to know how we're going to get from the six and a half down to I don't know. Let's pick a number. Five, four and a half. Pick something that's got to come from cutting federal spending. Let's assume for purposes this discussion that the numbers that Doge is reporting is the numbers they report $150 billion. I doubt that's real, but let's say it is. That's great. That's a great start. Then where do I go in discretionary spending? I go to the Defense Department. I go to the social programs and that means Medicaid. And Medicaid. You got to be very smart about how you do it. Why? Well, there's a lot of MAGA on Medicaid. That's reality. Why is that the case? Because there's no manufacturing jobs in this country. They all went to China. And don't sit there and tell me all the happy talkers on Cuomo the other night. Oh, 80% of the the nation is service. You ask any worker in a service gig at any media company right now and you see how secure they feel. You see how they're putting their heads on their pillow every night. They're nervous. It's all a gig economy. They don't have any 401k. They have no retirement plan. They can be laid off next week. The service economy is not stable. It moves and shifts by the economy. Manufacturing is stable. Manufacturing, the backbone of this country. As Chris Leonard told you on Friday, we gave it all away. We gave it all away. The sociopathic overlords on Wall street, the global corporatists in the apartheid state of Silicon Valley gave it away. Okay, now it's President Trump is trying to get it back two prongs that number one, tariffs mean more external revenue for people who don't shift their manufacturing here and the others will shift their manufacturing here and you'll get higher, better paying, more stable jobs that you actually build a family around. Going to be tough. Didn't say it was going to be easy. Ray Dalio laid it out right there. It's all about the debt. Anybody to start off by talking about the debt in the big beautiful bill right now, I haven't heard anybody except for Chip Roy and these guys talking about you got to make cuts, you have to make cuts. And how is it going to be paid for? It's going to be the, the massive tax cut. This is the most, the biggest tax cut for working class and middle class people in the history of this country. The extension of the 2017 tax cuts for the middle class and working class, plus no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. Add those three, that's a start to getting no taxes for folks under $150,000. But the upper brackets have to go Up. I don't care about the happy talk you hear from Speaker Johnson and all these other Grover Norcrest. It's not relevant because my math is the math that makes sense. They have you notice, they never talk about mathematics, they never talk about debt, they never talk about percentage of GDP deficits are. They never talk about the increase to national debt. They never talk about the interest expense. They just kind of think that that all goes away. It is crushing you right now. That is why inflation is embedded into the system. The more you have to refinance a bigger number of debt at higher interest rates, that crowds out other money and that's this embedded inflation. That's not going to go away. We don't have a supply chain problem. We have a too much spending, too big a debt problem. If you're under 40 and by the way, you're the lucky beneficiaries of, on top of all that, the $1.7 trillion of student debt, which is these loans are exploding loans. I hate to say it, tough break for a swell guy. And gal, you're completely screwed. I would love to give you some happy talk, but it's just if you're under 40 years old, given the economic situation today, the lack of capital formation, the lack of your ability to get into a real asset, right, like real estate, the ability to have any kind of savings or have any kind of capital formation, to have any kind of job that has any kind of stability to it and not just some glorified gig economy, right? You add on top of that in the increased debt payments. Think of when this thing hits $50 trillion, when the debt's two and a half trillion dollars. Excuse me, the interest expense. Two and a half trillion dollars. Is Dave Walsh up? Dave Walsh, talk to me about one way we get out of this. The bedrock for it is energy. Sir, talk to me. What happened in Portugal and Spain today, is that a foreshadowing what's going to happen in the United States of America? Well, it is.
Dave Walsh
You have you fear to have about 6 million people in key cities in Spain, Portugal and now France out of power for an elongated period. We're not quite sure why. There's some rumors about a spatial event with solar flares. But you know what? That doesn't affect just a tiny weeny area like Spain and Portugal. If that were true, that would broadcast over a very large area. Well, it hasn't. It looks like this is about their generation system. How does this affect us here? Spain over time has accepted the notion for the whole Iberian Peninsula of all solar, all windows, there are about 50% of their electricity is now produced that way. 65% of their installed capacity. It doesn't work at night, it doesn't work at night, it doesn't work when it's cloudy. So therefore you've got like capacity factors, maybe 25% meaning 75% of the time that doesn't work. They've now announced the shutdown of their last two coal plants and all seven of their nuclear power plants over the next 10 years they will have no nighttime power. Effectively, batteries don't solve that. By the way, all of the battery power and solar panels come from, guess who? From China. They're very committed to that. This is what you wind up with. Translate this to the United States of America. In 2012, electricity reserve margins here averaged 25%. We produced more than we needed to take care of the peak times of summer and winter when it's hottest and coldest. Reserve margins have collapsed to 14 and a half percent now only, only in about 18 years because of the mass adoption of these part time technologies that cost three times the money. And yeah, batteries are great, but they all come from China. Solar panels all come from China. We're taking in power generation resources that cost 11 times more than basic gas fired electric power in solar about 3 times more costly. Battery storage, about 11 times more costly. And it all comes from China. And we're incentivizing that. 42 billion a year Biden IRA incentives that continue to this day and are not being attacked in this version of the budget. And then B makers inside the IRS tax code, accelerated depreciation on this stuff. Five year lives, massively accelerated depreciation schedules. Another 11 billion of subsidies that way. Or Chinese sourced solar panels, 87% of those in the world are made in China. 87% of batteries in the world are made in China.
Steve Bannon
Storage. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you saying that we the taxpayer subsidizing that? That's not subsidy coming from us?
Dave Walsh
Yes, yes, we're subsidizing companies like Sarah. Yes.
Steve Bannon
Slow down, slow down, hit rewind. I want to make sure there's, I want to make sure this flows over people on a Monday morning. Give me that again.
Dave Walsh
The ITC investment tax credit, production tax credit and accelerated depreciation subsidies to wind, solar and battery storage extended in the Biden IRA that were existent all the last 12 years, including this same administration last time. Those incentives were all there then continue and cost taxpayers 42 billion a year. The Tax subsidy portion in depreciation schedules. Accelerating depreciation for tax on this stuff allows another 10 billion a year. So 52 billion a year in subsidizing part time, massively, massively expensive energy sources for electricity that come from China. Battery storage and solar panels.
Steve Bannon
But also not just, not just the, it's not part of the baseload, but the manufacturing takes place in China. So it's $52 billion we're not getting in tax revenues because we're given a subsidy to support manufacturing jobs in China. Correct?
Dave Walsh
Correct, Correct. Now the way forward to slow this down was the tariffs. Unfortunately, two Saturdays ago we let China off the hook on battery storage and thin film PV and batteries were exempted from the tariffs for the time being. A timeout. Timeout was declared. That was a huge mistake because that was the only way forward.
Steve Bannon
It wasn't a blank, it wasn't a blink. But maybe it was a wink, right? No, we got to get that whole thing sorted because that's the counter to the. No rare earths, no magnets, no ball bearings, all that. Correct. That was kind of a wink. That's going to get sorted.
Dave Walsh
But the energy cost that that kind of equipment produces here, Spain, for example, 32 cents a kilowatt hour, 2.2 times more costly electricity than here. All because they've decided over time to build this second system, new system on top of the existing one you must have run at night and when it's cloudy, called solar and battery storage. That basically doubles the cost of electricity at 35 cents a kilowatt hour. You won't have any reshored manufacturing here. It won't happen.
Steve Bannon
They're all in the cult. They're all in the cult of decarbonization. And you know how funny that cult is? I'm going to show you how funny that cult is. Do you hear any mention of that green New deal here? Green thing? Oh no. Once the Oligarch Tech Bros. The progressive Oligarch Tech Bros. Realize they need power to the 10th degree in the United States, you don't hear anything else about climate change or global warming. It's all about AI and we got it. We got to do the full muscle, right? The western approach. Not the deep, not the deep sea. Am I correct in that? Dave Walsh? You don't have much talk about decarbonization anymore.
Dave Walsh
Yes, yes, but Steve, the people, the people in the populist movement need their fridges on at night. They need their air conditioning on it. They need their computers on. Mine didn't work this morning, at night.
Steve Bannon
And in the day. And in the day.
Dave Walsh
It's the same for them too. Not just the text oligarchs. We all need baseload continuous duty, abundantly low cost electricity.
Steve Bannon
Oh no, I'm not saying we don't need it. I'm saying they knew it. When it came to something, they had to have all suddenly they became they left the cult of decarbonization. Dave, we got a bounce. This is amazing. I'm gonna try to get you back on this 100 day things got me jammed up. But we gotta get you back on this week to go through all of it. Where's your social media in the interim?
Dave Walsh
Thank you Avewalsh energy on X TrueSocial and get her. Thank you Steve.
Steve Bannon
Incredible. Everything that guy says comes true. You notice that over the last four or five years and guess it's not it's not a solar flare. No way. Impossible. It would have taken a much bigger section of the world anyway. Hometown, we need you up on the ramparts. As you can tell from this morning, they're going to start negotiating. So Scott Besson's got two things going on. Number one, he's leading the charge in the process, particularly with the East Asian companies with Japan and Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, India. He's got these deals stacked up over over treasury like flights over LaGuardia on a Friday night. Okay. They're trying to bring him in this week. I think you may have a couple of terms agreed. It'll take months to paper them, but I think you have a couple of terms agreed. You'll see the architecture of these deals and we'll get down to remember I've been showing you this thing about Beijing warns of retaliation against nations doing US Deals. That's because the center of gravity deals there'll be some sort of, I don't know, basic understanding you're in the American trading block or words that affect Beijing is going to fight this hard also. 4pm today John Thune and the speaker of the House are in the Treasury Department's office are going to start negotiating on the big beautiful bill short Commercial break Back in the Warm in a moment.
Mike Lindell
The April 15 tax deadline is coming and it's coming fast. Do you have unfiled tax returns? Can't pay the irs. The IRS is more than aggressive and the more aggressive than ever. And the longer you wait, the worse it gets. Wage garnishments, bank levies, even property seizures are all on the table. You need to get ahead of this. You need to get ahead of it today. But going up against the IRS alone is a big time mistake. Take my advice. Call the experts at Tax Network usa. They know the system. They have an edge, a preferred direct line to the irs. They know which agents to deal with and which ones to avoid. Whether you owe $10,000 or $10,000,000. Their genius strategies are designed to quickly settle your tax problems in your favor. Tax Network USA's attorneys and negotiators have already resolved over $1 billion in tax debt. Let me repeat that. They've already resolved over $1 billion in tax debt. Tax Network USA can help you too, but you need to move. You need to move fast because April 15th is already here. Remember, if you get that letter, don't put it in the drawer. It just metastasizes. Talk with one of our strategist today. It's totally free. Stop looking over your shoulder. Stop the anxiety. Stop the worry. Put it all behind you. Call Tax Network USA at 1-800-958-1000 that's 800-958-1000 or visit tnusa.com Bannon that's Tax Network USA. Go to tnusa.com Bannon here's your host, Stephen K. Band.
Steve Bannon
Okay, folks, you can see that we're going to eat at the ramparts later in the week because a lot's going to be going on. Make sure that don't have the anxiety or angst of having somebody mess with your title. The only piece of paper that shows that you have ownership of that thing you called your home, your real asset, which is, I don't know, 80 or 90 of your net worth if you're lucky enough to own one. Because if you're under 40, you probably don't. You want to make sure no AI cyber, a stray lawyer, a rogue accountant can get to it. Home title lock, $1 million triple lock protection. What do you get? 24 hour, seven day a week coverage in the middle of the night. If anything happens, boom, you get an alert. If all else fails, you have $1 million restoration program, $1 million lawyers, all of it to make sure you can get your title back. Go Talk. Go to hometitlelock.com promo code Steve and talk to Natalie Dominguez and the team there. This is an extraord. Make sure you get it home title lock promo code Steve. Let's go to Rome. Ben Harnwell. A lot happened over the weekend besides the funeral. A lot of activity. Getting ready for the conclave. I think it's been designated as May 7th. That'll be a pretty big weekend. May 7th, which is the 80th anniversary of the victory in Europe from the Western American and British side. I think May 8th is the, is the Russian side. May 8th is supposed to when, when the ceasefire supposed to start in Ukraine. We'll get you on that tomorrow, Ben. But in the Vatican, what is this I'm hearing that a group of cardinals, not all just conservatives or traditionalists, are actually sitting there and making an argument that Francis was actually not legitimate given the, the, the retirement of Benedict and many things that happened on that transition. And so therefore no cardinals that were ordained by Francis should be included in this conclave. Any truth to this rumor there is?
Ben Harnwell
Well, the rumor definitely exists, that's for sure. There's truth that the rumor exists. And I don't want to leak any of the names that I've heard on this show until I've been able to confirm, either with their cooperation or without it, that their presence in these meetings. But essentially the context is this. It's a statement that was released. I think Liz your might have it up on her, on her getter and on her Twitter by a guy called Professor Joseph Diefer. Now, he was actually a leading member of the Academy for Pontifical Academy for Life, which is a great institution founded by Pope John Paul II and then undermined and almost liquidated by Pope Francis. This guy went off and created a rival academy, sort of a principled, coherent person and unusual for Vatican conciliator. He's absolutely insistent on the non negotiable of the principles. He's released this document and it's exactly as you say the thesis is. And here's the argument without going in on this show, in the two minutes I've got, the thesis is this. And it's been rumbling along, not just by the way, Steve, in the Francis pontificate, but it's basically been rumbling along since the Second Vatican Counts itself. The argument is this, that heresy forfeit the ecclesiastical office. That includes popes. So if Pope Francis has been guilty of heresy, either before his election, during his election as pope or afterward, he immediately forfeits his papal office. That's the thesis. In which case his pontifical acts are therefore illegitimate because they weren't made by a pope. Now, there are counter arguments to this. We won't go into them. Now the important thing is that Professor Ziefert, one of the most respected theologians living on the planet today, has called on the cardinal specifically citing Archbishop Vigano's research on this. And he's called on the conclave of cardinals before it meets, as you said, on the 7th of May to thrash out this issue of France's legitimacy because 80% of this conclave was appointed by Francis. If he is illegitimate, his appointments are illegitimate. And then those cardinals cannot be voting in the conclave.
Steve Bannon
Okay, we're going to get you on tomorrow. You were tied up doing some research for us this morning and I appreciate that. I will get you back on the morning. I do want to say one thing. This is the annual it turns out it's America Week. I think it's that the papal foundation meets once a year to go and meet all the grandees in the Vatican. It just turned out that Pope Francis passed away, died and then had the funeral. They're there this week. I'm hearing from sources close to some of these cardinals that some of the biggest American donors say, hey, look, you can't give us another Francis. If you do, the money from the United States is going to I think it's already dropped 50%. It's going to drop worse. Remember, the Vatican is not bankrupt because they have so many assets, but they have a massive liquidity crisis. They're kind of insolvent. So they need cash money. And that cash money comes from the Americans. Ben Harnwell, where do folks go? We'll delve into all this tomorrow morning in depth. Where do folks go to get you in the meantime?
Ben Harnwell
Thanks, Steve. Thanks so much on Get Arnwell. And I have some particularly provocative posts waiting for your perusal, folks, at the top of my feed. Thanks Steve, so much. God bless. Catch you tomorrow.
Steve Bannon
Very provocative. Remember, the conclaves on the 7th, but all the deals will be cut, I'm sure, before then. And we'll be in the middle of all that, folks. Mike Lindell, tomorrow we're doing five hours. Okay? So first off, Charlie Kirk follows us. Jack Posobic after that, Steve Gruber, then Eric Bolling. We'll do the hard handover from bowling to ourselves back here at 5:00 live tomorrow. Eric Bolling will be right here in studio. We're gonna have a five hour special, a lead above a couple of hours. Why? Because Steve Gruber's going to be actually, Gruber is going to be actually the master of ceremonies are at the rally in Michigan and our own Brian Glenn is going to be on Air Force One going out there with the president. So the wall to wall coverage, we're going to do a couple hours pre game and then, and then we'll do the rally itself. Mike Lindell, you'll Be in Michigan tomorrow. We'll be interviewing you live. You'll also be with the president. After that, sell me a set of sheets. Before we, before we. I want to end. I want to end up Monday. I want to end up Monday on an uptick. Give me some sheets.
Michael Lindell
Right, right, right. Now, everybody, I'm in Minnesota. Shockby, Minnesota. This is my shipping department. In my pillow we have over 100 employees just in this department this morning working because you make it all possible. War room posse. So we're going to continue the sale of the sheets that were earmarked for the box stores. They cancel it. Wholesale price, any size, any color, $25. There's no limit. You guys get as many as you want. Once they're gone, they're gone.
Steve Bannon
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Michael Lindell
That's the split kings. Cal kings. King size. Queen size doesn't matter. Go to the website and scroll down. Click on Steve. You're also going to get our towel special as low as $9.99. Our clothes out event where it's running and the micro is to save 30%. Or you can call 800-873-1062. Remember, moms and dads working from home across the country. So when you guys hear that my pillow that they're attacking and attacking. That part's true. But we're not going anywhere, Steve. We're not going anywhere.
Steve Bannon
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Michael Lindell
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Steve Bannon
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Bannon’s War Room: Episode 4445 Summary
Title: The Elite Watch As You Flounder Financially; Electrical Blackout In Europe
Host: Stephen K. Bannon
Release Date: April 28, 2025
1. Introduction
In Episode 4445 of Bannon’s War Room, host Stephen K. Bannon delves deep into the multifaceted crises plaguing the United States and the broader global landscape. The episode addresses severe economic instability, deteriorating US-China relations, energy challenges in Europe, and intriguing developments within the Vatican. Through incisive discussions with experts and critical analysis, Bannon highlights the systemic issues undermining American prosperity and sovereignty.
2. Economic Overview and Analysis
Bannon opens the episode by critiquing the current economic paradigm, emphasizing unsustainable debt levels and the detrimental impact on the working and middle classes.
Debt and Deficit Concerns:
“The model we're on right now is not sustainable, full stop.” ([09:54])
Bannon underscores the alarming rise in national debt, projecting deficits to escalate from 37% to 42% of GDP within two years. He argues that continual money printing by Capitol Hill elites will eventually lead to a bond market rejection, diminishing the US dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency.
Ray Dalio and Fareed Zakaria’s Insights:
The episode features a replay and analysis of a conversation between Ray Dalio, head of Bridgewater Associates, and Fareed Zakaria, a renowned economist. Dalio critiques Zakaria’s focus on tariffs and trade, asserting that the real issue is the overwhelming national debt.
Fareed Zakaria on Economic Risks:
“We expect a policy induced slowdown, including a probability of a recession. The Fed is going to be less able to handle this. And so there are risks of stagflation, combination of slow growth and inflation.” ([03:01])
Bannon’s Response:
“We have a problem with the debt. We have a problem with internal order, democracy as we know it... These things exist as the backdrop of this set of circumstances.” ([04:00])
Bannon criticizes both Dalio and Zakaria for not fully addressing the debt crisis, highlighting how excessive federal spending is crippling the American middle class through stagnant wages and rising personal debt.
Systemic Failures:
Bannon details how systemic failures in financial policies have led to a concentration of wealth among elites, citing the disabling of inflation control mechanisms and the unsustainable nature of continuous budget deficits.
“This is why inflation is embedded into the system. The more you have to refinance a bigger number of debt at higher interest rates, that crowds out other money and that's this embedded inflation.” ([52:38])
3. US-China Relations and Economic Decoupling
A significant portion of the episode focuses on the tense US-China relationship, emphasizing the unsustainable nature of the current economic interdependence.
Trade Deficits and Intellectual Property:
Bannon highlights the massive US trade deficit with China, particularly in intellectual property, amounting to $25 trillion. He contends that the necessity of joint ventures forces American businesses to relinquish valuable intellectual property to Chinese partners, exacerbating the economic imbalance.
“China alone, the CCP alone, is $18 trillion. The deficit on intellectual property is $25 trillion. It's $600 billion a year.” ([17:12])
Decoupling vs. Coupling:
Contrasting Dalio’s advocacy for coupling, Bannon champions decoupling as the only viable strategy to restore economic sovereignty.
“Ray Dalio is the apostle of coupling, right? We here are the apostle of decoupling.” ([18:17])
He outlines the historical context of US-China agreements, such as those on cyber security and trade, asserting that China has consistently failed to uphold these agreements. Bannon advocates for severing economic ties to prevent further exploitation of American resources and intellectual property.
“We cannot continue this debt money problem. We're at the end of a debt money world order.” ([17:45])
4. Energy Crisis in Europe
Bannon addresses the recent electrical blackouts in Europe, particularly in Spain, Portugal, and parts of France, attributing these issues to flawed energy policies focused on renewable sources.
Failures of Renewable Energy:
Dave Walsh, an energy expert, explains that the overreliance on solar and wind power, predominantly manufactured in China, has led to inadequate energy reserves and skyrocketing electricity costs.
“They've now announced the shutdown of their last two coal plants and all seven of their nuclear power plants over the next 10 years they will have no nighttime power.” ([35:28])
Bannon criticizes these policies as not only economically inefficient but also strategically harmful, as dependency on Chinese-manufactured energy solutions undermines national security.
“Solar panels all come from China. We're taking in power generation resources that cost 11 times more than basic gas-fired electric power.” ([37:56])
Economic Implications:
The shift to renewable energy has led to increased electricity prices for consumers, with European countries experiencing rates up to 35 cents per kilowatt-hour. Bannon warns that adopting similar policies in the United States would cripple the economy by making energy unaffordable and unreliable.
“Storage... It’s 5... Apple may have you got it sorted because that was the only way forward.” ([38:20])
5. Vatican Conclave and Francis Legitimacy
In a surprising turn, Bannon discusses internal conflicts within the Vatican concerning Pope Francis's legitimacy, suggesting that a faction of cardinals disputes his authority based on accusations of heresy.
Allegations Against Pope Francis:
Ben Harwell, head of the international bureau, reveals rumors that a group of traditionalist cardinals argue Pope Francis forfeited his papal office due to alleged heresy, rendering his actions and appointments illegitimate.
“He's insisted on the non-negotiable of the principles. He's released this document and it's exactly as you say the thesis is.” ([47:01])
Impact on the Conclave:
If these claims hold, the conclave scheduled for May 7th may face unprecedented turmoil, potentially leading to a contested papal succession and further instability within the Catholic Church.
“The conclave of cardinals before it meets, as you said, on the 7th of May to thrash out this issue of Francis's legitimacy...” ([47:01])
6. Future Outlook and Concluding Remarks
Bannon concludes the episode by reiterating the urgency of addressing the intertwined crises of national debt, economic instability, and geopolitical tensions. He calls for immediate fiscal reforms, including significant tax cuts for the middle and working classes and substantial defense spending reductions to achieve a sustainable budget deficit.
Fiscal Reforms:
“The only way the math works. ... You have to have that the upper bracket has to not have a tax increase.” ([50:30])
Bannon emphasizes the necessity of extending tax cuts to reduce the financial burdens on average Americans while imposing higher taxes on the affluent to bridge the fiscal gap.
Defense Spending:
Advocating for a strategic realignment of defense priorities, Bannon suggests focusing on hemispheric defense and reducing involvement in outdated land-based military engagements.
“The only way you get from the six and a half down to I don't know. Let's pick a number. Five, four and a half. Pick something that's got to come from cutting federal spending.” ([29:24])
Finally, Bannon outlines upcoming segments and interviews, promising in-depth coverage of ongoing political and economic developments, including live interviews and special reports.
Notable Quotes
“The model we're on right now is not sustainable, full stop.” – Steve Bannon ([09:54])
“We cannot continue this debt money problem. We're at the end of a debt money world order.” – Steve Bannon ([17:45])
“Solar panels all come from China. We're taking in power generation resources that cost 11 times more than basic gas-fired electric power.” – Dave Walsh ([37:56])
“If Pope Francis has been guilty of heresy... he immediately forfeits his papal office.” – Ben Harwell ([49:25])
Conclusion
Episode 4445 of Bannon’s War Room provides a comprehensive critique of the current economic and geopolitical challenges facing the United States. Through incisive analysis and expert insights, Stephen K. Bannon underscores the urgent need for systemic reforms to avert financial collapse and restore national sovereignty. The discussions on debt management, US-China relations, energy policies, and internal Vatican conflicts paint a stark picture of the obstacles ahead, urging immediate and decisive action to secure a stable future for America.