Loading summary
Transcript61 lines
- [00:00]
Steve Bannon
It.
- [00:30]
Andy Biggs
It'S, it's, it.
- [02:02]
Jim Rickards
It'S Sam.
- [03:19]
Andy Biggs
Long.
- [03:20]
Mika Brzezinski
Receiving line of frankly, rich guys coming to get their 30 seconds with President Trump and with the Crown Prince. Crown Prince greeted President Trump at the airport a short time ago, an honor he did not offer President Biden in 2022 when he arrived the limousine, the beast was escorted to the royal court by Arabian horses. The Saudis know how to put on a show. They know how to welcome President Trump. Remember in that visit in 2017 when they projected his face onto the side of the Ritz Carlton hotel there?
- [03:53]
Jim Rickards
Yeah.
- [03:53]
Dave Brat
The Saudis created a template that was his. Trump's first trip was May 2017. I was on that trip traveling with the presidential pool. The images of the president and the king were draped on every building as the motorcade went down the highway on his hotel, the Ritz Carlton, they put up his is faced, as you say, with digital imagery. The same hotel, by the way, that Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince usually later used to detain his political prisoners. That was the trip of the orb where the President and the king and the head of Egypt all stood with it. Yes, they created the Saudis figured out early. The trick for President Trump is to flatter him, to treat him like royalty, which is what he wanted. And we saw that on that trip. We are seeing it again now. And yes, the White House has said, look, this is about business. We're trying to get deals, the trillion dollar mark, although that seem unlikely, but of course there are geopolitics that are going to creep in here. The situation in Gaza, the Gulf states will push him to come up with some sort of plan there for the Palestinians, the Iran deal as well. They're going to want some sort of solution there. But right now, as we're seeing the president a short time ago with, with the Crown Prince, he's strengthening ties to the region and it's really about economic and business development rather than strategy.
- [05:08]
Andy Biggs
Mika.
- [05:11]
Jim Rickards
This is the primal scre of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. Reasons I 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 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 people 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. War ROOM here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. It's Tuesday the 13th of May, year of our Lord 2025. Okay, we're going to get into the geopolitics, talk about the pageantry, the businessmen, what the purpose of this. The great Jim Rickards, as only he can explain to you, is going to is up on deck, going to join us momentarily. Get Dave Brat to walk through because this afternoon the huge markups and three big committees, particularly about Medicaid and about taxes, are going to take place. We're going to prep you for all of that. But I want to start we're very lucky to have Andy Biggs for a few minutes here before he gets on other activities up on the Hill. So, Congressman Biggs, here's the thing. We're trying to break this whole thing down, the big beautiful bill, both the cost side and the tax side. But let's let's go to cost first because you've clarified something to me I think is quite important and I believe the audience understand this. Senator Johnson's got an amazing piece in the Wall Street Journal and we're trying to get Johnson on in Hawley, Hawley's piece about Medicaid. But Johnson talks about, as we talk about on the show, the discretionary budget. You got to get here. You can't, you can't get a debt ceiling increase and then blow through it. And I keep saying, hey, we got to get off talking about the 10 years. But the 10 year does have a logic to in that the guys talking about 10 years are talking about some of the mandatory cuts. Walk me through right now your assessment, because the big beautiful bill seems to me it's kind of slapped together. It's very hard to get your hands around. I don't see a lot of cuts coming out of here. I see a $2 trillion minimum deficit this fiscal year, the ends of September 30th, and back of an envelope, we're at two, two and a half for next fiscal year. So the $4 trillion lift we get on the debt ceiling, I think we blow through before the 26th midterm. Congressman Biggs, you've been the biggest deficit hawk in Congress. Your thoughts, sir?
- [07:52]
Andy Biggs
Yeah, you're exactly right, Steve. That's so when you take the the big beautiful bill is focusing on what we call mandatory spending, and that's that's a whole tranche of things that we can touch. We can't really get into discretionary Spending too much on that. But you cannot touch Social Security. Everybody says, oh, we're getting Social Security. No, you can't touch Social Security. And this is all by rule, by the way, Steve. This isn't law. This is rule. And so you have this mandatory side and then you have the discretionary side. And Ron, Ron and I love Ron and I'm working with Ron. We meet fairly regularly, talk about these things. He's right. And I've been advocating to get back to the pre2019 levels. Get back to the pre2019 levels. On the discretionary side, you actually take a substantial chunk and you bend the spending curve down. On the other hand, you're talking about people that they don't want to cut the Green New Deal stuff. So we're going to get only about 85% of green new Deal cut. That's on the mandatory side. You're going to get these folks from these California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, these high property tax rate states. They want the rest of America to subsidize their high property tax as a deduction. So they said now they're not going to vote for this because they didn't get a big enough deduction. But that's a $250 billion hit over 10 years. What's the big nut? The big nut here, Steve, is that we're going to be cutting less than 10% of, of our annual structural deficit of, as you say, $2.25 trillion. You'll be cutting somewhere in the neighborhood of about $140 billion. So your deficit will continue to grow and exist. And the other part is in 10 years from now, you'll be sitting at $60 trillion in national debt unless you do more than what we're doing, what's been proposed. And at that $60 trillion, that doesn't include any kind of wildfires, catastrophes, hurricanes, flooding that, that'll need supplementals. It doesn't include any military action or wars that get in there. It doesn't include spikes in interest rates. And it also, a lot of people aren't talking about this. It also makes assumptions on the growth rate of the gdp. So while we want to get this done and we want it to be nice and big and beautiful and there's some great things in this bill and there's some nods in the right direction, you still end up in a very untenable situation. Ten years.
- [10:29]
Jim Rickards
Look, I love Hawley and Johnson. They're great guys, but Hawley's the lone populace and Johnson's like a Former business guy, talks like an entrepreneur. We love him. But they're not exactly. And they would admit they don't have a lot of stroke in the Senate. You. And you're certain you're leaving here shortly to go run for governor of Arizona. And you're like the leader of the deficit hawks. This is like the last hurrah for Andy Biggs. When are we going to start feeling that there's some organized effort here of smart people that understand this deficit? Because, correct me if I'm wrong, the whole purpose. And this is Bessens plant, which he sold in the campaign. He sold to make himself Secretary of Treasury. It's Trump's plan is brilliant. Take the, take the percentage deficit from 6 and a half or 7%, which is not sustainable. Take it down fairly rapidly to three and a half percent, which we don't love. But he says you're never going to get to balance. But we can live with that. I can finance that. This program. Let's talk about the growth rates. I don't see us even making a dent in that. I still think we're back up north of 5%, 6% a percentage. When you talk about real spending, not the gimmicks that are in there, you talk about that. So this doesn't execute on the President's principal plan to get the country's finances in order. Andy Biggs, your thoughts?
- [11:45]
Andy Biggs
Yeah, I think that's right. I think President Trump is really emphasizing the tax plan. So you got the tax plan, but you got, you know, some of that needs to be paid for, right? I mean, how do you pay for it? Some, because some of it is a straight up. And by the way, I love the tax, the tax plan, but some of it just, you're not actually, you got to have some money to pay for it somehow and you should be using trade offs in other areas. I mean, so last week, my understanding is last week we were going to vote on some bills that would codify the Doge cuts, but we ended up not voting on them. Now why is that, Steve? It's because we have people in this body that won't do it. So when we start talking about Medicaid, Medicaid's really important because you have two basic fundamental groups. You have the original Medicaid, which is to take care of the disabled, the elderly, pregnant women and children, indigent children. Right. Then you had the Obamacare side of it, which was the expansion population, which is the able bodied adults. And then you have the matching rates that are very different. You don't have work requirements. This bill has very modest work requirements. 20 hours a week. Come on, Steve. I mean that's just crazy to get all your medical care if you're a, an able bodied adult. There are some states that are reimbursing at Medicaid rates that are multiple times Medicare reimbursement rates. Why are those different? Well, the, the number one growing area is the Medicaid and that is our biggest growing program and our biggest growing financial danger that we have. So you've got to, you've got a whole host of things. Why are we, why are Republicans now who, who when I first ran nine years ago we were running on the notion of eliminating Obamacare and now we're basically embracing Obamacare because of Medicaid.
- [13:42]
Jim Rickards
Can you hang through the break? I think we have a few, we have you for a few more minutes after a break. Okay, I got Annie Biggs, Jim Rickards going to explain what's happening in, in the Gulf right now. A lot going on, not just pageantry. Also President Trump's going to address these business leaders and they're all over their kowtowatoin, Larry Fink, Schwarzman, the whole pack. Katz, Matitis. It's a, it's a, it's quite a collection, right? Brat Bratz here with charts. Brat's got charts. I would say to Andy Biggs, I think it's because we don't have great jobs and that's why there's a lot of maggots on, on Medicaid. But I agree, able bodies. An able bodied semen ought to be putting in, I don't know, 40, 60 hours. If it's a month, they ought to just rack it up. You can't get it if you're able bodied. You got to show that you, that you got work required minimum. Anyway, we'll get to all of this. The big beautiful bill got to have cuts. We're going to ask Andy Biggs why the Doge cuts have not been codified. First of all we want to know what the numbers are. Number two, why didn't people step up and codified in the war room? Short break. This July there is a global summit of BRICS nations in Rio de Janeiro. The block of emerging superpowers including China, Russia, India and Persia are meeting with the goal of displacing the United States dollar as the global currency. They're calling this the Rio reset. As BRICS nations push forward with their plans, global demand for US Dollars will decrease, bringing down the value of the dollar in Your savings. While this transition won't not happen overnight, but trust me, it's going to start in Rio. The Rio reset in July marks a pivotal moment when BRICS objectives move decisively from a theoretical possibility towards inevitable reality. Learn if diversifying your savings into gold is right for you. Birch Gold Group can help you move your hard earned savings into a tax sheltered IRA and precious metals claim. Your free info kit on gold by texting my name Bannon. That's B A N N O N to 989-898 with an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau and tens of thousands of happy customers led Birchgold army with a free no obligation info kit on owning gold before July and the Rio reset. Text Bannon B A N N O N 298-9898 do it today. That's the Rio reset. Text Bannon at 989-898 and do it today. Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon. Andy Biggs is with. Jim Rickards with us. Dave Brett with us. Congressman Big first off, when you go about pre 2019 or get to the pre pandemic budget with the revenues we got coming in, we could sort this thing out. We would be back in something. We go level set and make this, you know, get our arms. What is the problem with going back to the pre pandemic numbers, sir?
- [16:58]
Andy Biggs
All these constituencies that happen every time that the federal government spends money, they're fighting it. And many of my colleagues get very nervous about that. Now I'm advocating, I'm not touching the, you know, like traditional Medicaid population or even no benefits in Medicaid whatsoever because we're including inflation. That's happened. I mean you gotta acknowledge that. But that doesn't mean that you can't take down say some, some other areas within this, the spending spree. Because if you take that down, that wipes out, that wipes out about one and a half trillion dollars just like that. And then you have the additional things that were that are being proposed. You have massive amounts of fraud and waste and duplication in every program. Every program.
- [17:50]
Jim Rickards
Okay, hang on, full stop, full stop, full stop. I want to go back to Doge because this is my big problem with Elon when they came in because it was like a magic wand. We're going to find a tree and we're going to find this of the codification on the Doge cuts. Because I'm sitting there going Medicaid in the Defense Department. Come on man, that's fraud central. Let's go back. You Say they were going to codify, they were going to codify the Doge cuts and I don't want the programmatic cuts. But fraud, waste and abuse. Not, not usaid, not Department of Education. We understand that. Right, that's coming programmatically. But when you talk about waste, fraud and abuse, the trillion dollars you're supposed to find, how much have you seen actually? Because I keep asking and I don't get a firm number from anybody. So when you say codification of Doge cuts last week, what were you trying to codify? USAID and the programmatic stuff out of education or actually like fraud from Medicaid?
- [18:43]
Andy Biggs
It was, it was going to be largely what you described as programmatic. We're talking usaid, other programs that are duplicative. Wasted.
- [18:51]
Jim Rickards
Full stop, Full stop, full stop, full stop. I got that. I'm glad they sent the kids over. And they were like a hammer. But you know, eli Crane and mtg and Andy Biggs, you know, 2 and 23 in the frickin middle of the summer, at 2 o' clock in the morning you guys are up there on the house floor arguing, you know, and trying to get these cuts. This has all been identified. I'm glad Elon came in as an auxiliary force to do it. But that's something we knew about and something's gotta be done and must be done. But that's programmatic. Why, this is my question. Why have we not found actual fraud? Not a train does a couple hundred billion dollars. Where is that?
- [19:31]
Andy Biggs
If they have found it, they haven't given me the receipts. Okay, that's my, that's, I'm where you are. It's like, okay, I keep hearing these numbers, where are the receipts? I've got to prove it. Because it isn't just about, if it's fraud, it isn't just about Steve cutting that, that wasteful spending out. It's about prosecuting people. So if you have, if you have people that have fraudulently sent in Social Security numbers, by the way. Yes, I, I can just tell you that under previous programs before, under Obama, for instance, you could go to the, these child tax credits and you could actually find literally where hundreds and hundreds and thousands of illegal aliens were getting those benefits using loopholes in our law. But they were fraudulent and there were, there were accountants that actually, and this is what I mean when you get to the fraud, they were actually prosecuted for filing those false claims. And that's, and that's, that's when I say show me the receipts. Because then I'll know how much is there? I want to know who we're prosecuting or who we're investigating. At least we're investigating. And if we have that, then, then I can. Then I can get a number. But right now I have no number.
- [20:57]
Jim Rickards
Okay. By the way, on the codification, I'd like to do that in the appropriations process anyway, but that's. I'll talk to you about that later. I want to go to two things. Number one, Medicaid. We talk about expansion. Here's the problem. We've shipped all the great jobs over, so you get maga. I mean, in Arizona, I think there's a ton of MAGA that are kind of working class. That the way they make it meet is they're using Medicaid to have babies and to meet medical. Am I? Am I. Because Medicaid's not this urban, you know, legend anymore. It's actually out there in that the Medicaid expansion. Don't we have. Isn't Josh Hawley right. That we're going to have to deal with this. And Biggs, you're the biggest deficit hawk I know. So what? Your people will listen to you about your solution.
- [21:40]
Andy Biggs
Yeah. So here's the deal. If you're working eligible. The expansion population, there's 100,000 people in the expansion population in Arizona. 100,000. There's more than 2 million people in Arizona now, Steve. We have a population of 7 million in Arizona. There's more than 2 million People that are on what's called Medicaid. We call it access in Arizona. Whether it's expansion or the traditional, we spend from all sources more than $20 billion a year. And that means for every man, woman and child in Arizona, we allocate essentially $3,000. You are helping pay $3,000 for the 2 million-plus on Medicaid in Arizona. That's an interesting thing for me. And the other thing is there's if. If folks were on the expansion population and. And they're incapable of working, they're also capable of getting on the ACA's silver plan, the lowest plan. And so they're not going to be without care. The question is, how are you going to fund that care? How are you going to pay for that care?
- [22:54]
Jim Rickards
Well, the state can't do it. The state. You're gonna be governor. This is my point. You're gonna be governor. Governor Biggs, what do you think this is in this kind of the thing, hey, we want to double back to the states. But the reality is, and these are. And I'm saying worker garments should be tough. There should be not one illegal alien on this. I heard there's still that problem. But how do you do it? How do you do it? How do you do it and make sure working class people got a shot here?
- [23:23]
Andy Biggs
Well, you have to, you have to do a number of things. And one, not the least of which is, is refine the medical care. Now, when we start talking about fraud in Medicaid, I'm going to tell you that we have found providers that are defrauding the federal government in order to get higher reimbursement. That's real. And so, hell yeah. So you have to do that in Arizona. So you're gonna have to basically do a doge on that in Arizona and actually prosecute. You're gonna actually get reimbursements and those.
- [23:53]
Jim Rickards
This is why I want to see the doge and I want to see the doge at the federal level. Anyway, we'll get to last thing because I got to. I know you get a punch on the tax bill. What, what I look, I'm all for the upper bracket. Somebody's got to pay this and not have carried interest is a slap in the face to working class people. It's outrageous. But the business cuts are not permanent. They're just going to be with us for a couple of years. Isn't important to get. If we're going to do the, you know, the advanced write offs of, of, of capital expenditures of R and D, which we want particularly help entrepreneurs. Don't we want to make those permanent? They're just kind of thrown in there and as soon as Trump's gone, they're gone. Sir.
- [24:31]
Andy Biggs
Yeah, you do want to make that. I mean, because an entrepreneur will adjust to the field of play. They always do. And but what you want to do is give them predictability. If you don't give them predictability, they get skittish and they withhold capital investment. And that's really what you're trying to do because capital investment creates jobs, they expand the employment, they expand the economy. And so these are good, these are good provisions there. They just need to be lengthened out. But the problem is, Steve, somebody's got to pay for them. So the other thing is when we start making the reductions like we're doing for middle class folks in multiple areas and senior citizens and all that, there won't be capital investment because of that. So you have to just say that's foregone investment. That's not coming in. But you have to, you're going to have to deal with that in Arizona. What, what, what's going to have to take place, Steve, is we're going to have to acknowledge that Arizona needs to open up its natural resources because it's got incredible minerals, including critical minerals. And if we can open those up, we can, we can survive on the extraction fees that the same that you see from places that like Texas or North Dakota where they had the, those fees for exploration and taking out oil and gas. We could do the same in Arizona.
- [25:56]
Jim Rickards
So Congressman, Congressman Biggs, people are looking at you this next couple of weeks and it's going to be the grinder we're going to go through. So what's your social media? Where do people go? We look forward to having you back.
- [26:07]
Andy Biggs
Go to Azure. Rep. ANDY biggs, AZ that's it. Rep. ANDY Big says you gotcha. I never go there myself.
- [26:17]
Steve Bannon
STEVE.
- [26:20]
Jim Rickards
We need people, we need, we need tons of people to go there because you're, you're absolutely, you're absolutely essential this so we, we appreciate you, sir.
- [26:28]
Andy Biggs
Thanks, Steve Take care, man.
- [26:30]
Jim Rickards
Congressman Andy Biggs Congressman Biggs, Capital investment leads to jobs. President Trump is over there and it's national security. Normally you always go over there. We started the first trip is all national security right now. This is, this is all about capital investment leads to jobs. The biggest players in the world are there with the Emiratis, the Saudis. It's quite a, quite a group. Jim Rickards, who's a specialist, understands this neighborhood perfectly, is going to join us here in a moment. We're gonna take a short commercial break Mount now you need since all the forecasts except for the war room have been wrong by all the mainstream media and the business press. Remember the sky's not falling. Remember in mid April, it's the worst stock market in April and the history since 1929, 1932 wrong and we'll talk about that. By the way we're gonna get the reshoring our reshoring guy on if not this morning and we can't do it this afternoon and I'm gonna have Eli Crane and Burkitt both Burchett on in the 6 o' clock hour to talk about what's going on. Capital investment leads to jobs. That's why President Donald John Trump is getting the royal treatment in Saudi Arabia today. In in Riyadh, Jim Rickards is going to join us. Birchgold.com End of the Dollar Empire the Rio Reset July 6 this is the road to Rio every day to talk about what the BRICS nations remember. She and she and Putin were like 2, 2 high school kids, 216 year olds on their first date last week in Moscow. Guess where she, guess who she's having as a guest today in Beijing. If you said Lula Brazil, you would be right. Bricks that Bannon. Okay, short break. Jim Rickards on the other side, there's something happening with our farmland here in the United States that isn't getting enough attention. The Chinese have been buying up hundreds of thousands of acres of U.S. farmland. They're also taking control over critical supply chains, things like fertilizer, animal feed and farming equipment. Why? It's not clear. They're tightening their grip on global food production. That is clear. And if things go south and it could happen quickly, we need to be ready. That's why I trust my Patriot Supply. They're America's largest emergency preparedness company. And right now when you get there, four week emergency food supply, you'll get a free 4, 24, 7 food kits, an extra 12 days of food absolutely free, full stop. But you're going to have to insert this. Okay. And right now when you get their four week emergency food supply, you'll get four free 72 hour food kits, an extra 12 days of food absolutely free. Let me repeat that. You're going to get four free 72 hour food kits. That's an extra 12 days of food and it's absolutely free. That's four weeks of delicious meals that last up to 25 years delivering 2,000 plus calories per day. It's shipped fast and it's shipped free. We can't control what the Chinese Communist Party does. You can't control what China does. But we can control how prepared we are. Go to my patriotsupply.com today to claim your 12 days of free food. Shop my patriotsupply.com my patriotsupply.com do it today. Do not let this thing get ahead of you. Here's your host, Stephen K. Band. Okay, Jim, by the way, we may cut to President Trump as soon as he starts speaking at this conference if it's streamed or we go live. Jim Rickards joins us. Jim, I got a lot of questions after Biggs discussion here, but I want to go back to capital investment leads to jobs. Why is the President United States being feted like a royalty in the even more so than looks like a traditional president in the Middle east right now in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, sir.
- [30:46]
Steve Bannon
Well, it's a, it's a two way relationship, Steve. Of course they're, you know, the Fed and FMC wants to Say they're sucking up to him, whatever. It's just a sign of respect. I would, I would leave it at that but, but it's a two way relationship. It's a good time to remember the Petrodollar Accord which is still in place. It was put in place in 1974 but it's still active today. And I was actually part of the, the team that put that together. We had a carrot and stick approach. So the carrot was Bill Simon who is Secretary of the Treasury Jerry Parski and they went to the Saudis and they said look, everybody in the world needs oil. So if you price oil in dollars, everybody needs dollars because they got to buy the oil. And that basically underpins the role of the dollar is the global reserve currency more to it. But that's, that's the key thing and by the way sorry is when you get your dollars for the oil, deposit them in US banks. I was General Tax Council, the Citibank actually and the banks will lend it to South America and they'll buy our stuff. We'll get out of the ditch. Which it was in 1974. So that was the carrot but there was a stick. And I worked with Helmut Sonnenfeld who was the deputy national Security adviser in the White House under Henry Kissinger. And the stick was if you don't do it we're going to invade Saudi Arabia. Not the whole place, it's mostly Sam but the eastern provinces take over the oil production. We will produce as much as we want. We will price it wherever we want. We'll hold the money and trust for the Saudi people. But basically we're going to run the oil market combined with.
- [32:11]
Jim Rickards
Slow down, slow down. Full stop, full stop. This is by the way I'm gonna have Ed loose on later in the week about the new book zig about Dr. Brzezinski as the national Security advisor. It's amazing, it's like Shakespearean for half of it between Kissinger and Brzezinski. But hit me what we threatened to do when was this? We threatened to do What?
- [32:30]
Steve Bannon
This was 1974. So the carrot was price it in dollars. Everybody needs oil therefore everybody needs dollars and we'll get, we give you a security umbrella as well. That was the, that was the carrot. That was the approach. That's what happened.
- [32:43]
Jim Rickards
Hold it.
- [32:43]
Steve Bannon
We had just records, records.
- [32:45]
Jim Rickards
We had just screwed these guys ahead and we just gone off the gold standard and this is the Arab oil embargo. All, all is because of this. Because they realized hey they're going to start paying us in, wait for it, fiat currency, sir.
- [32:58]
Steve Bannon
Well, but that, you're right, Steve. That was 1971. But that was exactly the point, which is, hey, if you're Saudis, why not just pump oil, you know, dump the dollars and buy gold and you know, put the gold in the vault. How do you get the dollars in circulation? It's not just about the quantity of dollars, dollars, it's about the circulation of dollars. And that was the key. Everybody in the world was going to need dollars. You couldn't buy oil and gold. Now that was a possibility. By the way, the Saudis could have said, hey, give us gold, we'll sell you the oil. They didn't. They said, we'll sell you the oil for dollars. And that was the Petrodollar Accord. Now, by weight of gold, the dollar dropped 95% from 1971 to 1980. Gold went from $35 an ounce to $800 an ounce. So if you use gold as your yardstick, it was a 95% devaluation of the dollar. And the moral of the story is have some gold, but you also need oil and you also needed dollars. So we took the plan, basically the invasion plan, and we leaked it to the Chicago Tribune and the Saudis read both sides of the equation and they said, okay, we'll do the Petrodollar court. But my point is it's still in place. Now, we may be getting close to PetroDollar 2.0 and obviously Scott Best.
- [34:05]
Jim Rickards
But hang on, slow down. I want to make sure. I want to make sure. Hang on, hang on. I want to make sure. Steve Bannon, Kansas. You say it's in place, but the Saudis cut an output deal with the Chinese to take it and you know, to take the currency risk and figure it out. The Persians did it with the Chinese, not the petrodollar. The Saudis court me if wrong, done a 40 year deal with them. Not in the petrodollar. I think the uae, our good buddies there, did one with Modi in India, our good buddy there also not. I mean, away from the petrodollar. Am I wrong there? Haven't you always started seeing the cracks in the system?
- [34:42]
Steve Bannon
Well, you're right, but they are cracks. But that's the point. That's why it's time for Petrodollar Accord 2.0. Let's get back to where we were. And that's one of the reasons the President is in Saudi Arabia meeting with, with nbf. So yeah, but you're right, Steve. But the amount of Chinese yuan that the Saudis took for oil is minuscule relative to the overall market. And they don't want the one like, what, what are you going to do with the yuan? I mean, you know, buy some Chinese manufactured goods finally. They don't even need that many. But this is the Saudi's way, the Emirates way of signaling the United States, hey, you know, you better get back to being our friend. You better get back to giving a security umbrella and you better get back to, you know, maintaining the value of the dollar and then we'll, you know, as I say, that's why I call PetroDollar 2.0. It does, it does need refreshment. It was never a treaty, by the way, it was a memo which at least at the time was, it was classified. I don't think that's ever been revealed. But you don't need a treaty, you just need a firm handshake. And they can trust Trump, but that's one of the reasons he's there. And the idea that, oh, this is just a business trip or whatever. Well, well, yeah, but it's all dollar based, that's the thing. So the Saudis will still sell oil to the Chinese, but they'll tell the Chinese you have to pay in dollars. That puts the pressure on the Chinese because how do they get dollars? They sell stuff to the United States. What are the tariffs? Well, they were 150% two days ago. Maybe they're 30% for the next 90 days. But this is all, this is a very complex game and the Russians are involved. But the US by strengthening the relationship with Saudi, Saudi Arabia going to PetroDollar 2.0 puts the pressure on China to basically reduce their tariffs and meet some of Trump's requirements. Otherwise they don't have a source of dollars.
- [36:25]
Jim Rickards
The geopolitics here, there's actual discussions behind the scenes in Turkey, I think in Istanbul on Thursday. This supposedly is Zelensky potential Putin meeting. Trump's kind of dropped it. I know people are actually thinking this through, that Trump may actually go by, which would be historic. Walk me through the geopolitics. We've got the Larry Finks, we've got the investments and we'll come back to that in a second. But the geopolitics all, you know, they had the, they had the pomp and circumstance of meeting the President. You had the beast surrounded by the cavalry of the Saudi rural Saudi army. I also want to tell Mr. Hollins of Mr. Hollands opus, I think there's a Job opening this afternoon for a band leader in Saudi Arabia. Probably looking for somebody from an American high school to go over and teach the guys. Let's take another crack at that national anthem. Good effort. No, it's hot and the instruments are hot, but got to do better. What's the geopolitics of this, Rickards?
- [37:19]
Steve Bannon
Well, basically, the meeting you said supposedly a meeting. Yeah, I think that's the right adjective. Zelensky, you know, threw down the stair while I'll go to Istanbul and Putin shows up. Putin's not going to show up if, now, if Putin shows up, Trump may go. That's correct. But Putin's not going to show up because Putin. Because what Zelensky wants is an unconditional cease fire. Show me a party. Show me a case in the history of the world where the side that's winning the war, winning the war, which Russia is. Agrees to an unconditional cease fire. Putin has made his terms clear. Putin laid down terms before the special military operation in 2022. He laid them down again, same terms, at a speech to the Russian Foreign Ministry last summer, summer 2024. And he'll repeat them whenever you like. Denazification, demilitarization. No Naito. Russia takes the four provinces east of the neighboring river, basically, plus Crimea. And, and that's it. That's basically the deal. Trump could have that deal tomorrow. You know, maybe Putin will throw in a couple of sweeteners just to save face. But why should Putin agree to anything less? And what strikes me is that the west, the collective west, basically, NATO and the United States are very good at talking to each other. You know, the other day, was it Starmer and Macron and Mertz of German, chancellor of Germany met with Zelensky. So what, we're talking to each other. Who's talking to Putin? Who's talking to Lavrov? Now, I know Wyckoff has been out there. He's met with Putin. That's, that's very constructive. But they cook up all these plans. They lead them to the, you know, the Financial Times, the New York Times. They create a narrative. It amounts to nothing because no one's addressing Putin's points now. But here's the importance of it. If we, if we could end the war pretty much on Putin's terms. Because he won the war. That's the point. You win the wars, you get to keep stuff. But if we could get that behind us, then Russia is instrumental in helping with Iran.
- [39:12]
Jim Rickards
Yeah.
- [39:13]
Steve Bannon
And who wants, no one wants a war in Iran except, you know, Lindsey Graham and a few other warmongers. But, well, we could do it.
- [39:20]
Jim Rickards
We had Frank on, we had Frank Gaffney on your say, making the case for unilateral Israeli, which I love, Frank, but the audience wasn't buying it would make less sense. But that group that's meeting today, because this is the world's, you got Larry Fink, you got Schwarzman, you got every big, you know, swinging whatever from, from New York down there. You got everybody from the Gulf Emirates, they're talking about trillion dollars coming here, investments, which, look, as you know, I don't love these sovereign wealth funds putting money into the United States companies are bad enough, but the foreign capital, But President Trump's focus on a trillion dollars, that group, and they, and the Emiratis and the Saudis hate the Persians. But I don't see any group over there that has any interest even in thinking about or talking about the Israelis going to take a, take a bombing run on the, on these, on the, on the nuclear, on the sites. They're working on this, on the nuclear program. Do you, Jim Rickards?
- [40:19]
Steve Bannon
I don't think that group expects that. I agree with that. Now, if you ask, will the Israelis do it when the Iranians get to the point where they have not just a nuclear device, you can blow something up, that's a big deal, by the way. But it's not just a nuclear advice. You have to weaponize it, you got to get it on a warhead, the missiles have to work, etc. But when the Iranians get close to that point, the Israelis will attack Iran because it's existential. It's, you know, they have no strategic depth. You could basically wipe out all the Israelis and affect most of the Jews in the world if that happens. So they're not going to let it happen. So the question is, how do you avoid that? Well, you avoid it by getting the Iranians to agree to verifiably hold off on any further development of Iranian enrichment. How do you do that? You get the Russians involved. And so, but that's where this whole thing falls down over Zelensky, who is, you know, people say, why does Putin kill Zelensky? Why would you, if you're, if you're, if you're in a war and your enemy is being run by an idiot, why would you kill him? You want the idiot to be in charge. But Trump is, you know, kind of maybe at the end of his rope with this whole thing, but you have to basically settle the war on Russia's terms. That's not a cave in. It doesn't make Trump a puppet. None of that's true. Read the history of Venice 900 years.
- [41:32]
Jim Rickards
Okay, hang on. Stop. Hang on for a second. Hang on a second. Because they're going to be blowing us up on social media. Rickards is just another running dog for, for Putin. And this is all the Tucker Carlson, Kurt Mills, Steve Bannon, you know, love, love Russia crowd. Make your justification. Why is that not. Why is that not just kowtow. Why is that the President United States just kowtowing to the Russian demands?
- [41:55]
Steve Bannon
Sir, two reasons. Number one, Russia is winning the war. They're going to win the war. It's not over. But they've decisively won the war. Ukraine, Ukrainian armed forces are in full retreat. They've been decimated. Look, the Bradley fighting vehicles, the Leopard tanks, the Challenger tanks, the Abrams tanks, they've all been left burning on the battlefield. Why don't you hear about the F16 flying around? Because they get shot down by the 400 Russian anti missiles was one of Rushnik. Did you not get the message? The Rushnik missile has made tactical nuclear weapons obsolete because you can do just as much damage without the radiation. Russia not only won the war, they're going to stop at the Dnipro river, but there's nothing stopping them from going to the English Channel. Basically because NATO has shown that their weapons don't work. It's not even a question of how many weapons you give them. They don't work. They're obsolete. We're selling them stuff.
- [42:45]
Jim Rickards
We said this from day one when Zelensky is trying to get some security guarantee. I kept hammering. I go on British TV and say, yo, you guys combined are not going to be able to put up 25 or 30,000 combat troops. And guess what? Because they're talking 100,000, 50,000, they finally passed the hat around. They can't. They come up with a security force at most 25,000, which is a joke. NATO is not real. It's, it's, it's totally performative. And when you talk about those three guys in the train and what they were doing with the little bag of who knows, right? That's another whole separate issue. But, but Rickards, I'm gonna hold you. Can we, can you stick around for one more, one more block? I've also got the great Dave brat with us. Brad's up in the bullpen. He's got charts. Today Brad does as he usually does. John Solomon's on Tulsi Gabbard is giving an exclusive comment statement to John Solomon over just the news that is going to start setting things right about the domestic surveillance of United States citizens who they consider extremists. Yes, that would be maga. So we got that all coming. President Trump, if we get this business, I think it's not a lunch now, I guess it's a dinner. Only records to remember that Ritz Carlton is where they where MBS put all the Saudi sheiks that have been shaking down people and not giving a little something for the effort back to the royal family. Short commercial break Back in a moment. What if he had the brightest mind in the war room delivering critical financial research every month? Steve Bannon here. War Room listeners know Jim Rickards. I love this guy. He's our wise man. A former CIA, Pentagon and White House advisor with an unmatched grasp of geopolitics and capital markets, Jim predicted Trump's Electoral College victory exactly 312 to 226, down to the actual number itself. Now he's issuing a dire warning about April 11, a moment that could define Trump's presidency and your financial future. His latest book, MoneyGPT, exposes how AI is setting the stage for financial chaos, bank runs at lightning speeds, algorithm driven crashes and even threats to national security. Right now, War Room members get a free copy of MoneyGPT when they sign up for Strategic Intelligence. This is Jim's flagship financial newsletter, Strategic Intelligence. I read it. You should read it. Time is running out. Go torickards war room dot com. That's all one word. Rickards War Rooms. Rickards with an S. Go now and claim your free book. That's Rickards War room dot com. Do it today. Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon. Okay, take your phone out. Birchgold. Just go. Bannon B A N N O N 989898. You get the ultimate guide, totally free of how to invest in gold and precious metals in the era. Let's change that. The Age of Trump. Do it today. Talk to Philip Patrick and the team. Also, we're going to need you at the ramparts. Not today because we got to figure this out. There can be a markup of ways and means on the tax side. There's going to be a markup over at Energy and Commerce, I think on Medicaid. We're all over this, but we're trying to figure this thing out. So make sure that you're smart and weaponized when you get up on the ramparts. But we'll be you don't need is you occupied by Having a hard money lender like either own your house or have a big old second mortgage because somebody got into your. Got into your title. Home title lock dot com. Triple lock. $1 million protection. What is it, 24 7? They're watching it. If anything happens at like 2 o' clock in the morning, boom, you get an alert. If all else fails, $1 million restoration program. You got Natalie and Dominguez and the team over there. Hometitle lock.com promo code. Wait for it. Steve. Pretty simple. Check it out. Today, just go check it out. All we ask you just go check it out. Talk to Natalie Dominguez. See if it makes sense for you. You cannot be occupied. That happens. Your life changes, folks, because 90% of your net worth is tied up in that title for your real asset called your home. Jim Rickards brother Thoughts? There's so much going on. Not a better time to have a guy like you around. What are your thoughts on what's happening?
- [47:00]
Steve Bannon
Yeah, you mentioned Tulsi Garbage. She did something a few days ago that was momentous. She declassified a document that was designed to identify and deal with domestic terrorism. By the way, this document was created under the Biden administration would make that clear. She declassified it. By the way, I live in New Hampshire and I became a Tulsi fan. And when she ran in 2020 for president, you get to meet all the candidates up in New Hampshire. It's all retail. She went. She went surfing in New Hampshire on New Year's Day. The water temperature was like 50 degrees in a dry suit. So I said, that's bad. So I am a big fan of Tulsi and I did meet her and spend some time with her. So she declassified as this document. And I have a lot of experience with classified documents. They use like a black magic marker to cross out some of this stuff. But I could read right through it. It would just kind of see what it was. It was classified secret. It wasn't top secret, but it was secret. No foreign. Which means no foreigners. Don't share this intelligence for foreign intelligence services such as the Five Eyes. So what was it? It was a blueprint for dealing with domestic terrorism. And I'm like, okay, that's, that's important. I'll read that. Who are they? Well, Ms. 13, I know they're from El Salvador, but they're here. Trend. I know they're from Venezuela, but they're here. Isis, you know, Biden opened the border, let everybody. So these are all top organized domestic terrorist, not to mention antifa. And blm. So as I'm reading through, it doesn't mention any of them, not one. Who do they target yet? You got to tell page 20 in the fine print, the military, enlisted military, didn't say, you know, convicted of a court martial or just enlisted military, government contractors. That's probably 20 million people. It talks about the need to enforce social cohesion. Those are the exact words. What is social cohesion? Which means if you're maga, you're not socially cohesive in the eyes of Merrick Garland or Joe Biden. And it talks about gun control. You know, the Supreme Court's been pretty clear on second Amendment. So I'm like, okay, this is a document to basically mobilize, take an all of a government approach. Mobilize the FBI and the intelligence community and other resources to identify anyone who disagrees with the Biden administration. And if you just happen to be in the military, moms protesting at school board meetings, parts of the Catholic Church, if, you know, I've been to Mass all over the world, 20 different languages, but if you happen to go to a Latin mass, which is popular, somehow that marks you down. So this was, this was despicable. That's the best word for it. But I applaud Tulsi for declassifying it, making it available. And I think we're going to see more like that.
- [49:30]
Jim Rickards
This is. Jim, because Solomon's going to come on. He broke and then they gave.
- [49:36]
Steve Bannon
Special.
- [49:36]
Jim Rickards
Access to him on this. He's going to walk us all through this. This is my point. Where's the investigation on this thing? I mean, this has got to be. We got to get. You know, they're going to have this big book coming out by Jake Tapper and I think Tomlinson over at Axios now, he was at Politico, Thompson, the two guys that, that wrote this big expose, massive expose on Biden today, they dropped it. You know, Biden, they were thinking about putting Biden in a wheelchair for the second term. You saw him at the Vatican for the posting. I mean, he's a. Looks like he's 100 years old. Why is there not. This should be such a public massive outcry and such a huge investigation. Where is it? Rickards?
- [50:16]
Steve Bannon
Well, I mean, it's a good question. You have familiarity with the intelligence community, Steve. The one thing they drill into is we're not law enforcement, we're intelligence, you know, so. Okay, well, who is law enforcement? Well, it's the FBI, Department of Justice, Pam Bondi now, and Cash Patel. Now they've Got a pretty full plate. I take the point. But yeah, somebody was behind it. And when you have a 25.
- [50:38]
Jim Rickards
Hang on, Jim. They got a hell of a full play. I'm not talking, but shouldn't this be a priority? Look, it's hard. You got to go pretty deep in the woods to hit your tripwire to get you to say, hey, this is outrageous. Given your 40 years or 50 years experience in this, and you've said it's one of the most outrageous, if not the most outrageous thing you've seen on domestic spying on American citizens, isn't this a priority to make sure this can never happen again and hold accountable those that did it?
- [51:06]
Steve Bannon
Yes. This was a blueprint for mobilizing the intelligence community and the FBI, which is part of the Intelligence Committee and law enforcement, to basically attack a large segment, maybe more than half of the American population. Again, you got to be a bit of a geek. You got to read all 25 pages, but it's there. So, you know, they use jargon, they obscure it, they have statutory references. But yeah, let's have a congressional hearing. Let's find out who wrote it. If it's declassified, then the person who wrote it doesn't have any particular protection. Who put that together? Who is behind it? We know, we sort of know it wasn't Biden. I mean, Biden was president, he's responsible. But he was, you know, I don't know why everyone said, gee, we knew by 2024 that he wasn't all there. I mean, what was the in 2020?
- [51:49]
Jim Rickards
It's the, it's the Praetorian Guard that put him in. That's Jim. Where do people go to get to the strategic intelligence and the free offer of the book Money. GPT. Where they go today?
- [51:59]
Steve Bannon
Yeah. Thank you, Steve. We have our own landing pages. Rickards War Room dot com. That's Rickards War Room dot com. You go there, you'll find we got recordings. We can subscribe to our flagship newsletter, Strategic Intelligence. A lot of the issues that you and I discuss on War Room we cover in in great depth in our strategic intelligence publication. So Rickards War Room, this is something.
- [52:22]
Jim Rickards
Read BY chairman and CEOs all over the world. It's like the Financial Times. You want to read with decision makers are reading. Get Strategic Intelligence. Jim, I'm going to publicly now bug you to come back on later in the week because there's so much going on. President Trump's historic four day trip to the Middle east and maybe even topped off with a trip to Turkey, sit down with Putin. Never know. Jim Rickards Social media Where do they go to get you on social media, sir?
- [52:45]
Steve Bannon
On X at real Jim Rickards at real Jim Rickards.
- [52:50]
Jim Rickards
Love you brother. Thanks for taking time today. Historic day in the Trump second term. We got Dave Bratt. John Solomon's gonna be here, folks. This thing that Tulsi did and unleashed or put out for the people to see, it's got to be a priority. This is we cannot have a constitutional republic if you have the praetorian guard, the deep state that can do this. Short commercial break Take you out with the right stuff. John Solomon, Dave Bratt Next in the worst are you a yo yo dieter? You diet, lose weight, but gain it all back plus a few extra pounds for the effort. Then later you lose it again and regain it again. And on and on and on. I think I resemble this. It's dangerous. Studies show that you can increase your risk of heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes and other health problems. Breaking free of your yo yo diet pattern is a main reason doctors created Lean. Lean is a supplement, not an injection and you don't need a prescription. The science behind Lean is impressive. It studied natural ingredients target weight loss in three powerful ways. Lean helps maintain healthy blood sugar, it helps control appetite and cravings, and it helps burn fat by converting fat into energy. Listen, if you're tired of losing weight and gaining it back, if you want to lose meaningful weight at a healthy pace, Lean was created for you. Let me get you started with 20% off when you enter Bannon 20 that's B A N N O N 20@takelen.com that's code Bannon 20akelean.com Bannon 20 that's two zero@takelean.com lose it and keep it off.
- [54:41]
Tulsi Gabbard
But about six months ago, we decided to launch Sacred Human with with really the simple mission being to provide American made natural supplements without all the artificial nonsense. So unfortunately, as many of you know, a lot of these big corporate supplements will include things like preservatives, artificial ingredients and other additives that really aren't benefiting your health. So that's why we created Sacred Human, really trying to fill this gap of quality supplements and of course the beef liver being our flagship product. For those who don't know, beef liver is loaded with highly bioavailable ingredients such as vitamin A, B12, zinc, CoQ10, etc. And because it is 100% grass fed and natural, your body is able to absorb these nutrients far better than taking any other synthetic multivitamin or any other synthetic vitamin in general. So we have some other amazing products, but if you'd like to check us out, you can go to sacredhumanhealth.com and cheers to your health.