Episode 4844: Rise Of The Economic Trade War With China

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: Bannon's War Room
Episode: 4844: Rise Of The Economic Trade War With China
Date: October 11, 2025
Host: Stephen K. Bannon

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Main Theme and Purpose

This episode centers on the rapidly escalating economic conflict between the United States and China, contextualized within sweeping political, legal, and global developments during President Trump’s second term. The show features a range of political commentators and strategic experts, notably Captain Jim Fennell (naval/China expert) and Brian Costello (venture capitalist, economic warfare specialist), who dissect the nature and stakes of the new economic war, Chinese actions on rare earths, U.S. tariff responses, and how economic policy is entwined with broader geopolitics and domestic unrest.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Recent U.S. Political Developments

• Government Shutdown and Worker Firings
  • The House is out of session.
  • President Trump following through on threats to fire federal workers (Russell Vogt, OMB Dir., announcing layoffs).
  • The Justice Department is pursuing charges against Trump critics, including John Bolton, James Comey, and NY AG Letitia James (00:00–03:00).
  • Right-wing media and influencers are celebrating the government shutdown and layoffs, while Bannon and panel question whether right-wing commentators understand the realities of public service and political representation (03:00–04:43).
• “Retribution Presidency”
  • Concerns raised about Trump using the Justice Department against critics, described as “retribution,” and likened to a “self-coup” undermining rule of law and independence of legal institutions (04:43–07:11).

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2. Middle East Hostage Crisis and U.S. Foreign Policy

• Updates on a major U.S.-brokered Israel/Arab peace deal, scheduled hostage releases, and President Trump’s plans to visit Israel and Egypt (01:40–03:00, 10:55–16:00).
• Description of the Middle East as a “sideshow” compared to the rising threat from China (17:09–18:40).

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3. Economic Escalation: Tariffs and China Trade War

• Markets plunge following Trump’s announcement of new tariffs (100%) and export controls on Chinese goods after China restricted rare earth exports critical for tech/defense (00:00–01:40, 08:40–10:55).
• Bannon frames Trump’s tariffs as retaliation against China’s “hostile” resource policy and asserts the U.S. is now in “full out economic war” with the CCP (10:55–16:00, 18:40–21:49).
• The episode underlines the strategic importance and vulnerability of U.S. supply chains regarding rare earths and critical minerals (“American industry can grind to a halt in maybe three or four or five weeks…” — Bannon, 24:33).
• Discussion of China’s effort to force de-dollarization and their moves to trade only in RMB with partners like Australia, squeeze rare earth supplies, and institute large-scale export controls starting November 1, 2025 (21:49–24:33, 34:50–41:35).

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4. Strategic Analysis: China’s Economic Doctrine and U.S. Response

a. China’s Calculus

• Captain Jim Fennell argues that China acts when its adversaries are distracted, referencing current U.S. distractions (Ukraine, Middle East, domestic unrest) (21:49–27:23).
• The CCP is following its long-term “Great Rejuvenation” strategy, which includes economic and eventual military dominance – especially critical in the 2020s “decade of concern” (26:25–27:23).

b. The Dangers of Supply Chain Dependence

• CCP's leverage over rare earths and industrial supply chains is a legacy of successive U.S. policy failures and Wall Street’s short-termism (24:33–26:25).
• Explicit acknowledgment that U.S. policies have allowed China to gain a “knife to our throat, both economically and increasingly militarily” (21:49–24:33).

c. U.S. Retaliation and Options

• Trump’s 100% tariffs are described as the initial shot in a broader campaign; more measures expected (“My understanding is a lot more coming next week…” — Host, 48:43).
• The administration is actively working to decouple technologically and financially from China, including new export controls and support for FCC action against Chinese tech in U.S. commerce (48:43–49:20).

d. Potential for Escalation to Military Conflict

• Captain Fennell warns that Chinese state messaging is hinting at going “kinetic”—that is, moving from an economic to a military confrontation, possibly in areas like Taiwan, the South China Sea, or even indirectly in Latin America (49:20–51:13).

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5. American Response: Economic Patriotism and Civic Action

• Captain Fennell encourages individual Americans to boycott Chinese-made goods as a patriotic measure to weaken the CCP’s economic base (45:59–48:43).
• References to FCC actions to remove Chinese products from U.S. e-commerce platforms.

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6. Broader Geopolitical Context

• The panel ties Chinese maneuvers to associated global alignments—e.g., engagement with Russia, undermining of U.S. allies, and infiltration of U.S. institutions.
• Reference to “unrestricted warfare”—a strategy where China uses economic, psychological, and political tactics, not just direct military means (32:00–34:50).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the seriousness of the economic trade war:

  “We are in an economic war right now with the People’s Republic of China…they have gone through the numbers…they think they can throw down with the United States in the economic arena.”
  — Captain Jim Fennell, 21:49

• On American vulnerability and decoupling:

  “For years our betters on Wall Street and our betters in Silicon Valley said we didn’t need this type of heavy industrial parts of the production process... Now American industry can grind to a halt in maybe three or four or five weeks.”
  — Stephen K. Bannon, 24:33

• On China’s intentions:

  “The Chinese Communist Party… declared people’s war against us openly in 2019, and they have been at war with us since 1949 and they want to destroy capitalism. They are hardcore Marxist Leninist Communists and they despise our system of government.”
  — Captain Jim Fennell, 45:59

• On the future risk of military escalation:

  “Let's not forget that China has some other desires and they could use the military lever to invade Taiwan... We have to be on alert. This is like when I came into the U.S. Navy in 1986 against the Soviet Union.”
  — Captain Jim Fennell, 49:20

• On what Americans can do:

  “Stop buying things from China. If we stop buying things from China, we will bring down the Chinese Communist Party. So that's something every American patriot can do…”
  — Captain Jim Fennell, 45:59

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–03:00: U.S. domestic political upheaval, firings, DOJ actions, government shutdown
• 03:00–04:43: Conservative celebration of shutdown, right-wing influencers vs. lawmakers
• 04:43–07:11: Legal/analytical breakdown—“retribution presidency,” self-coup themes
• 07:11–08:12: Middle East hostage deal logistics and timeline
• 08:40–10:55: Economic pain from tariffs just beginning, impact on U.S. companies and workers
• 10:55–16:00: War Room opening monologue, case for focusing on China over other crisis
• 17:09–18:40: “Middle East as sideshow”—how China is the “main thing”
• 21:49–24:33: Captain Fennell on China’s economic-war calculus, ties to U.S. policy failures
• 24:33–27:23: Chinese doctrine: striking when U.S. distracted, risk to U.S. industry
• 34:50–41:35: Brian Costello on China’s supply chain moves, US dollar devaluation
• 45:59–48:43: Captain Fennell on anti-CCP action, boycott of Chinese goods
• 49:20–51:13: Warning of potential military escalation, need for vigilance

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Conclusion

This episode delivers an urgent message: the U.S. and China are in the throes of an active economic war, which could easily escalate further given the intertwined risks of trade, technology, and geopolitics. The hosts and guests warn that this is the likely culmination of decades of engagement policy and supply chain shortsightedness, now colliding with a newly assertive U.S. protectionist response. Beyond policy, the episode appeals to listeners for economic patriotism and vigilance, suggesting both top-down (government) and bottom-up (consumer) action as crucial to countering the threat.

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Transcript

[Stephen K. Bannon]

It left town until Tuesday, and the House will not be in session all next week. In the meantime, the White House is following through with the president's threat to permanently fire some federal workers. Earlier today, OMB Director Russell Vogt, who has become one of the most powerful people in this administration, announced that the layoffs have begun. They're also appealing a judge's ruling that temporarily blocked Trump from sending the National Guard to the city of Chicago. Meanwhile, another one of the president's perceived enemies could could soon face charges. MSNBC reports that the acting U.S. attorney in Maryland is moving to seek charges against former National Security adviser Trump's former national Security Adviser, John Bolton. A complaint or an indictment could come as early as next week. The Justice Department has already charged New York Attorney General Tish James and former FBI Director Jim Comey after public pressure from Trump himself. The big question now on everyone's mind, who could be next? The dow plunged nearly 900 points on a Friday. The Nasdaq lost 3.5% in its total value in the S and P had its worst day since mid April. Mid April, that was back when Trump threatened a 145% tariff on China. Well, today's sell off immediately followed a Trump post on social media this morning threatening a new round of tariffs on China. He accused China of, quote, becoming very hostile with restrictions on on rare earth minerals, which are a key resource for tech and defense industries. Almost an hour after markets closed, the President announced that the United States would impose an extra 100% tariff on China and add export controls on critical software.

[Unidentified Guest (Middle East/Israel Expert)]

He wanted it. You know, it's been a long time. He's been fighting a long time. He's been fighting hard. He wanted it. It's a great deal for Israel, but it's a great deal for everybody, for Arabs, for Muslims, for everybody, for the world. And as you know, on Monday, the hostages come back. They're getting them now. I mean, they're getting them now. They're in some pretty rough places under earth. They're in some pretty rough places where only a few people know where they are in some cases. So they're getting them. And they're also getting the bodies, approximately 28 bodies. And some of those bodies are being unearthed right now as we speak. I mean, they're working on it right now as we speak. It's. It's a tragedy. It's a tragedy. No, he was very happy with it. And I can tell you that I saw Israel dancing in the streets, but they were dancing in Qatar and Saudi Arabia and UAE and many, many countries. I saw Egypt. They were dancing. I'll be going to Israel. I'll be speaking at the Knesset, I think early on. And then I'm also going to Egypt. They were terrific, but all of the countries were great. Indonesia was great. Jordan was great. They were all great. Everybody, everybody wants this deal to happen.

[Stephanie (Political Commentator)]

I think what's interesting about this shutdown, and as we get more used to these shutdowns, is that there is somewhat of a celebration on the right. Like they're kind of all for the shutdown. I mean, if you look at the tweet posted today about the impending slashing of the government, there are celebration memes posted in response to that by right wing influencers. They want to see the government shut down. They want to see people fired from their job.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Okay, but those are right wing influencers. You know what they've never had to do? Run for office.

[Unidentified Guest (Middle East/Israel Expert)]

Right.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

And this goes back to what Mark was saying a moment ago. That Mark, that Marjorie Taylor Greene is the canary in the coal mine. She knows whether it's Craven's self interest or not, she needs to run again.

[Mark (Political Commentator)]

Yeah.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Laura Loomer hasn't run on a treadmill. She doesn't know. I don't mean to. I guess that was sassy, but, I mean, she has no idea. Sorry. None of these people have any idea what it means to represent the American people who are simply looking for health care, for a good education, for a good job. So when you say the far right's happy, is it far right lawmakers or is it the far right media sphere?

[Stephanie (Political Commentator)]

I think it's both. I mean, I think they kind of fuse together. I think there are a lot of people that are feeding into this. And I also think too, Stephanie, you saw, I think, particularly during COVID where people were being completely misinformed about vaccines and still getting the virus and saying they wouldn't have got the vaccines because you know, for whatever reason, what a conspiracy theory they had been fed.

[Unidentified Legal/Political Analyst]

I.

[Stephanie (Political Commentator)]

Even though it's in against their self interest, I'm not convinced that a lot of people are not still celebrating this. I mean, I think it's. I think if you look at Breitbart two and you look at the Gateway pundit and all these far right websites or Benny Johnson's podcast, I think that there's a totally different firing case.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Or is that cringe? Because even when you think about it.

[Mark (Political Commentator)]

With breaking news from Donald Trump's relentless retribution campaign, MSNBC reports that criminal charges against former Trump National Security adviser John Bolton could come as soon as next week. Sources tell msnbc A grand jury in Maryland has been hearing evidence for several weeks now, but the pace of the case has recently sped up. Back in August, FBI agents searched bolton's house and D.C. office as part of a classified records investigation. Look at the pattern here, folks. Look at what we've seen from Trump's Justice Department. Just this week, Trump critic James Comey was arraigned. Trump critic Letitia James was indicted. And now Trump critic John Bolton could be facing similar punishment. Bolton even warned once that Trump's return to power would be a, quote, retribution. Presidency also breaking tonight in lower Manhattan, New Yorkers protested the charges against AG James. As MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire warns in the Atlantic, quote, trump's threats that are no longer bluster. The guardrails of his first term are gone. He is instead surrounded by enablers. The federal government is taking legal action against those whom Trump wants punished. Retribution is here.

[Unidentified Legal/Political Analyst]

But I've been calling what's going on a self coup, an attempt to destroy the other branches of government, to destroy the Congress, to destroy the judiciary. And each of these prosecutions that we're talking about has an element of destroying democracy. So think about the significance, the symbol of going after a state Attorney general. What it's about is destroying the independence of the law. What Attorney General James did was enforce the law. Trump is trying to destroy the law. How do you do that? You go after a law enforcement official. Take Comey after Nixon. There was an independence of the FBI that was established, Norms were established, policies were changed. Trump wants to destroy all of that. Part of the way that you do it is you go after a symbol of the independent FBI. And Comey certainly was that. And even if you think of the Bolton accusations and that prosecution, it's about destroying the independence of the intelligence and foreign policy apparatus of the United States. This is nothing less than a self coup. And it isn't something that's just being attempted. It is in progress and the alarm bells should be going.

[CNN Correspondent]

Yeah, well, time is of the essence. We're firmly into the second day of that 72 hour deadline that ends on midday Israel time or 5am Eastern. And here's where we stand right now. According to sources which we spoke to, they tell CNN that it will likely happen overnight, Sunday into Monday. That's for the 48 hostages to be released, 20 of whom we believe are alive and the other 28 deceased. Now, locating the deceased and the remains of the deceased is a logistical challenge. We know that the International community of the Red Cross is going to be assisting and facilitating locating the remains. But also echoed by Benjamin Netanyahu saying that they probably not going to be able to locate all the deceased within that 72 hour window. It is not a deal breaker, however. But the 20 point plan, phase one is firmly gaining momentum and it seems that both sides have now agreed to this framework and are willing to, to see it through.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

Victor, at the end of the day, this is not a shutdown. It's an engineered hostage crisis. They had the leaked memo saying that federal workers are not necessarily entitled to back pay when this is done. They're already trying to find a way because they have to give tax breaks to billionaires who don't need them to find ways to not pay the federal workers who are still showing up every day when this whole thing is over. Why working people still fall for this party that worships golden toilets but hates the people that clean them. At what point do they feel like.

[Captain Jim Fennell]

Those have fully kicked in to the economy?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Not yet. We are still very early in the game that big, big companies are either eating the costs or if they're big importers, they were able to buy tons of supplies, buy products in the beginning of the year. But, but as this year is going on, so many small and medium sized companies are struggling. We're seeing bankruptcies go up and you're going to see prices start to go up and up as we head into the year. And when the likes of Scott Besson says, well, the companies can choose to eat the cost even if they're eating the costs. And you know what they're not doing? Giving raises, they're not expanding, they're not hiring anyone, which has our economy in this precarious place. But it's funny because today Trump accused China of holding the globe captive with these resources that they have. But is that not the same thing Trump is doing? Holding the world captive with his tariffs?

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

It's Saturday. Saturday, the 11th of October, year of alert 2025. We curated the Cold Open. Could have been 30 minutes of straight news on other topics. Just as major. I mean the news cycle, you know, we say that apocryphal saying there are decades in which nothing happens and there are weeks in which decades happen. With President Trump's second term, it's week after week after week. It kind of builds a crescendo. Remember, the President has openly said now that he is planning on heading to Israel to greet the hostages. There's also talk he's going to go to Egypt and Maybe assign some sort of pact on the end of the, of the Hamas war. And then Charlie Kirk gets the Medal of Freedom on his birthday on Tuesday and President Trump is committed to be there. So you do the math. We'll be covering all of it, wall to wall. Whenever it kind of shakes out at the, at the White House with all that's happening, putting down a, a revolt in the streets by violent and narcissistic and dangerous left that is trying to make sure that we cannot unwind the invasion of our country by the deep state and the Biden and the radical Democrats. Why? So they get illegal aliens in here? Because they can't win, they cannot win elections without them. That's where everything they do revolves around illegal aliens, whether it's shutting down the governments, gun, decking the census, fighting us on redistricting, having antifa in Portland and the mayor and these absolutely crazed progressives who they're starting to arrest in Chicago. The reason that we have troops in Memphis, troops in Chicago, troops in Portland, Oregon, with everything's going on in this amazing peace deal that President Trump is working on to pull off in the next 48 to 72 hours. Looks like everything's in place. As Captain Fennell has often told us, you got to keep your eye on the main thing. And what is the main thing, as we have argued here for years and years and years. And I'm proud to be the leader of the anti CCP movement in the United States. And remember, as leader of the anti CCP movement, we have advocated from the beginning to decoupling. You cannot trust these people. It's the most evil dictatorship in the modern world. And I'm including the Nazis, the Soviets, Imperial Japan, the fascists, all of it. Throw in Pol Pot, throw in North Korea. This is a group that's killed hundreds of, bragged about it killed hundreds of millions of Lao Beijing of its own people. Well folks, in the last 24, 48 hours, the president has put us on notice. We're at full out economic war with the Chinese Communist Party. Full on economic war. Why? Because in trying to work with them and trying to accommodate them, they double crossed the President states, the United States of America and the industrial West. And as you can tell with Netanyahu, when he sent a missile into Qatar to kill the Hamas negotiating team to make sure there would never be peace. You got to go pretty far in the woods to really hit President Trump's tripwire. I can tell you that there's some bluster at the beginning and negotiating tactics and talk Hot talk. But you got to go pretty far to hit his tripwire. But when you hit his tripwire, ask Bibi Netanyahu had that turned out for him. Well, we've got two experts. Brian Custo seller, our venture capitalist and economic warfare expert. And Captain Fennell, who knows the CCP better than anybody's, dedicated his life to understanding the strategic direction of the Chinese Communist Party. They're coming up next. It's warfare, unrestricted warfare. Saturday in the war room. Short in America's heart. Have you looked at your power bill lately? Electricity prices are at all time highs and they're only going up even worse. Power outages are becoming more and more common. In fact, according to the Department of Energy, Blackouts could increase 10,000% over the next few years. If you don't have a backup generator for your home, it's time to get one. The one I Recommend is the Grid Dr. 3300 solar generator with from our friends at my Patriot Supply. Unlike gas generators, it's quiet, fume free and safe to use indoors. Yet it's powerful enough to run almost everything in your home. And with the free solar panel included, you'll have unlimited off grid power to outlast any storm, blackout or grid failure. Best of all, you can get the grid Dr. 3300 for zero down and as little as 104 bucks a month when you shop at my patriotsupply.com Bannon. That's right, 3300 watts of backup power delivered to your door for zero dollars down. See the page for more details at my patriotsupply.combannon that's my patriotsupply.comb Bannon this electricity issue is huge. Deal with it today with the Grid Dr. 3300 from my patriotsupply.com Bannon America's Voice family. Are you on Getter yet?

[Unidentified Guest (Middle East/Israel Expert)]

No.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

What are you waiting for?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

It's free, it's uncensored, and it's where all the biggest voices in conservative media are speaking out.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

Download the Getter app right now. It's totally free. It's where I put up exclusively all of my content 24 hours a day. You want to know what Steve Bannon's thinking? Go to get her.

[Captain Jim Fennell]

That's right. You can follow all of your favorites.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk, Jack Posobi and so many more.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

Download the Getter app now.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Sign up for free and be part of the movement.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

You know, the Daily Telegraph is doing a big story in this Mideast peace deal. Rob Crilley and the team over There I've got a quote in this that Trump has united the Arabs probably better than T.E.

[Brian Costello]

Lawrence.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

I gave this National Conservative Conference speech, I don't know, it's about a month ago now, five weeks ago. And I shocked the audience because it's a big neocon audience, although it tries to purport itself to be populous, nationalist, super neocon, good folks, but neocons. And I said that scene in Lawrence of Arabia, in the movie, you've seen it. Or in the Seven Pillars of Wisdom where it's written, his memoir of the Arab revolt. He goes into British intelligence, they're trying to transfer him to the Arab Bureau. And the general in charge just goes, he says, I don't know why we're doing all this. I don't know why we're seconding you to the Arabs. He said the Middle east is a sideshow to the main thing, which is the Western front. And he said the Arab revolt is a sideshow to a sideshow. And what I said is that the Middle east today is a sideshow to the main, the main thing, although it does prop it up, it's got economic relationships that be taken care of, but it's a sideshow in the Israel, Gaza war is a sideshow to a sideshow. Not that it's not important, not that it's not bloody, not that we have to, we have to kind of figure it out. But we're being sucked in every day, particularly the mind share of the country, the media and particularly the White House, the President, United States national security apparatus and it's just not that big a deal. And people were shocked. Well, President Trump is long way in the last, I don't know, week, ever since Netanyahu showed he was uncontrollable and trying to drag us into a deeper war by going after Qatar. And hey, don't get me wrong, I'm the biggest advocate that Qatar is the Muslim Brotherhood. And there's a lot of guys in Qatar that deserve to go to the dress reward. Okay, it's the railhead of the Muslim Brotherhood, full stop. And I'll talk about this proposed base which we're not going to allow Pete Hexith these guys to do it. No, we're not going to go to the Christian Redoubt of Idaho and put a Qatari base. And now they're walking back. Oh, it's just a facility. They don't need a facility. You trade what they need. Let them do the air rework over there. We got a huge Air force base. Do it there if not, they got a ton of air rework facilities here to take care of those jets with the 15 echoes or whatever that we're selling them. And they can train the pilots. We have plenty of places to train the pilots. Hell, we trained the Persians, we've trained the Saudis, we've trained the uae, we trained the Israelis. That's fine. Don't need a base. And you certainly don't need a base in the heart of the Christian redoubt right up in Idaho. That is outrageous. And there's something going on here with the administration. Love the fact that Qatar's, you know, trying to play nice. All good. You're going to take it. Get this deal. They're going to be in Israel with a major foothold and writing big checks. Okay, I got it, I got it. And this thing came to a head because Netanyahu tried to drag them in to take them out. I got it. But we got an Article 5 guarantee on their defense and we've got. And now a air rework facility or pilot training in Idaho. Are you kidding me? It's outrageous. Captain Fennell. The main thing people should understand, and if you watch this show, you know, the seriousness that we take this. I was the only civilian in the history of the country fully sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party at one minute after high noon on the 21st, on the 20th of January of 2021, when Biden took office. It was Pompeo, myself, Peter Navarro. Right, were immediately. And that's fine, I got it. But Fennell, you've told you over and over again, you hammer every day, you must keep the main thing, the main thing. You must keep the main thing, the main thing. And of all the epic, massive events that took place this week, this by a factor of 10 is the most important. Because this is what happens when the globalists and the financiers of Wall street and the big tech guys and Elon Musk and the, and the little CCP agent of influence in Nvidia and all these guys making all this money on Wall street have led us down the primrose path to not decouple from these savages, these barbarians. And now we're in it. Now we're in the double cross Trump. So, Captain Fennell, give me the overall strategic. And I'm going to get Brian Castello's talk about the economic. But do you agree that what's happened in the last 24 to 48 hours is a pretty serious shift in attitude?

[Captain Jim Fennell]

Sir? Steve, first, thanks for having me on. Yeah, there's no question, you said it earlier, we are in an economic war right now with the People's Republic of China. And the tit for tat actions that have been going on over the last 48 hours, or you could even say since the end of September, are all an indicator that Xi and the Chinese Communist Party have decided, they've done their calculations, what they call their comprehensive national defense planning and their scientific development. They have gone through the numbers and they think that they can throw down with the United States and the economic arena. And so they've made these moves to tell Australia, you have to buy our ore, we'll buy your ore, but we're only going to pay you in our currency, rmb, the yuan. We're only going to, you know, we're going to ban these rare earths to the United States and all of this, which you will get into later. But they're taking these very pointed and direct actions against the United States economy to break us. And Xi has calculated that he can achieve a victory on this. And I think it's really important because you talked about Wall street and the people that have caused us to engage and to invest in the Chinese market and the Chinese economy over these last many years. But it's also the people that are in our foreign policy and national security establishment in Washington, the people that preached engagement for the last 30 years that told us we must engage with China. And then they said, don't worry about it. There's no threat. The threat's not real. They're never going to be close to us economically or militarily. We don't have to worry. We just keep engaging with them and they'll become more like us. And now we're in this position where they've got a knife to our throat, both economically and increasingly militarily, and we're in a tough position right now. And fortunately, President Trump is now responding appropriately to say, hey, I still have tools. I have economic escalation dominance in certain areas, semiconductors and in financial services, that I can push back and not take this from Xi. And so unlike what happened in 2012 with Barack Obama in the South China Sea when China seized Scarborough Shoal, and then he built those islands and we did nothing. And we, you know, we kind of cowered and looked the other way, and the Chinese Communist Party recognized there's nothing there. What's the old saying from Lenin? You know, you put a. Put a bayonet in and if you don't feel anything, you keep pushing. Well, that's what happened in 2012, they put the bayonet in, in the South China Sea and there was no resistance from the United States of America. Well, now our president is resisting.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

I want to go. Yeah, yes, sir, but I want to go to something. I want to go to their strategic doctrine. We get Costello in here a second. One of the things they have a tell and that tell. If you go back and look at the war with India, if you look at certain military engagements, you even look at economic, they have one thing that they're always searching for. When they think an adversary is totally engaged in something else and their mind is off the ball, like in the Cuban Missile Crisis, when they think their opponent is maniacally focused and completely caught up in another either geopolitical or economic event and they can't have the mind share, that's when they strike. This is the policy and particularly the rare earths. Remember, we're talking about the magnets and the heavy rare earths. And people should understand the playing footsie with Lula is the reverse side of the coin here because Brazil's got the heavy rare earths. Of course, he's a Marxist and totally in business with the Chinese Communist Party and a horrible guy. But everybody that was shocked last week about, oh, we're not throwing Bolsonaro over the side, but there's a serious problem here. I mean, American industry can grind to a halt in maybe three or four or five weeks because for years our betters on Wall street and our betters in Silicon Valley said we didn't need this type of heavy industrial parts of the production process. The environmentalists, the climate change, oh, it's too dirty, you can't process it here. There's a company in Ohio that the CCP bought, I think back in 2012, 2013, bought and took, took the thing and took it all down and took it to China, which is one of the big processing entities. Xi makes these moves when he thinks he's got the high ground. He's got a distracted enemy. Is that part of their doctrine?

[Captain Jim Fennell]

Sir, there's no question that's part of their doctrine. And we've seen them do that, as you mentioned, in India, in the war in 60 and with Vietnam. They've done it in the South China Sea in 2012 time frame, 2015 time frame. We see them do this, but it's also part of. They're on their, what they call their great, their strategy of, called the Great Rejuvenation of China. So they're on a timeline. I've talked for the last two decades. About this decade of 2020-2030 is the key decade, the decade of concern, where they're going to make a decision on what to do to achieve their national reunification. And that means moving into, not just take Taiwan and other places geographically, but also to dominate the world in the economic arena. And they've decided right now that, hey, America's distracted. They've got all these other things that you open the show with, and therefore they can't possibly deal with us in this economic trade war right now.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

Exactly.

[Captain Jim Fennell]

And it's really important.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

Hang on one second.

[Captain Jim Fennell]

To demonstrate to them that they're able to do it.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

And Trump came out. We'll put the tweet up. This is also like, we love, we love us some Bridge Colby. We kind of love what Pete and Bridge Colby are doing over there. However, this is our complaint about the new defense strategy where they kind of walk back. What we had done in the first term is as we're in a great power struggle with the Chinese Communist Party, not the Russians, the Chinese Communist Party. My understanding this, Bridge, the team are trying to dial that back, that they only want to be dominant in East Asia and maybe the west and Pacific. That is just not the case. That is not the case. This is a global. This is the long twilight struggle that President Kennedy warned about. The bastion of Marxism in the world, the bastion of evil, the railhead of evil in the world. And trust me, they're all over the streets of America and in the universities.

[Captain Jim Fennell]

Short break.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

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Check out the university study. I want you all to read it and get 20% off when you use promo code bannonfieldofgreens.com that's fieldofgreens.com promo code Bannon. Read the university study. Find out how you can slow down your internal biological clock by using this amazing formula, which you just add to your favorite drink. Art of Water, what you do at the Worm every day. And in addition, you will get an energy boost. That's fieldofgreens.com promo code Bannon. You get 20% off. Do it today. The phrase, and I didn't hear about this phrase until just a few years ago, China hawks. Yes. And apparently if you're a China hawk, you get to wear that label with pride. It's almost like a badge of honor, right? It's a badge of shame. There's no question. It's a badge of shame. There's no question that although they want what's in the best interest of our country, and we all want what's in the best interest of our country, destroying that pipeline of the American dream is not patriotic. They think they're doing the right thing for our country, but it's not patriotic. Not even a little bit. I think it's the wealthiest or second wealthiest guy in the world having dinner with Trump all the time, glazing President Trump. That guy's a agent of influence, at minimum, of the Chinese Communist Party. And he talks about our country. He's talking about China. He's talking about China. That was a week ago. And hawks. And when he's talking about hawks, he's talking about you. He's not talking just about Jim Fennell and Steve Bannon and Brian Costello and other guys. Been warned about this and working on this and fighting this every day. He's talking about you. That you know you're bad. That's a badge of shame because you're stopping the American dream because you're trying to thwart the Chinese Communist Party. Think about that for a second. Think how twisted that is. That's a psyop right there. On a guy that we give every break in the world to. Okay, which has to stop. He should be investigated immediately today, because I'm a reader. From a guy. This ain't from Jim Fennell and this ain't from Brian Costello, and this ain't from Peter Navarro or Frank Gaffney or Brian Kennedy. All of us whack jobs over the Committee on the Present Danger, China, where we set up years ago for just this moment. This is from a guy called the Commander in Chief of the United States of America, a guy that's Gone out of his way for world peace to try to work something out with China. It's not. Trump's played smash mouth with them. He's tried to work, he's tried to work with them. And this is a group he negotiated for two years. Navarro and Lighthizer negotiate for two years into May of 2019. We had an entire deal which take care of the seven original sins of the Chinese Communist Party and integrate them fully into the world economy. And after meeting with Putin, having their first one belt, one road, big confab, they turned around, tore it up and spit in our face and oh, by the way, declared a people's war in May of 2019. They've been at. When people said, why are we going to economic war? They've been at war with us. They have been at war with us for decades and decades and decades. War, unrestricted war, which is modern warfare. Because what did they say coming out of the Gulf War? They wrote the book. They said, hey, foreign devils have amazing equipment and foreign devils know how to fight on a kinetic battlefield. So we must beat foreign devils. Something else. Economic warfare, psychological warfare, political warfare. And the people that warned against it and said, here's what they're doing and are proud to wear the label China hawks the wealthiest guy in the world. I just heard this phrase, you know, that's not a badge of honor. It's a badge of saying, screw you, dude, you should be in a prison. Pardon the F bomb on a Saturday morning for the kids. It's outrageous. This guy's in the White House. He's done it. All those tech bros, all of them to a person, have sold you out, sold this country out, sold it out, full stop. And President Trump, and I quote, it has just been learned that China has taken an extraordinary aggressive position on trade and spent in sending an extremely hostile letter to the world stating that they were going to, effective 1 November 2025, impose large scale export controls on virtually every product they make. And some now you made by them, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Brian Costello, as we've been talking about Birch gold for four years. Why? Because we've been talking about the dollars of prime reserve currency and what was happening. And part of what just happened is they're telling, you know, India and other trading partners in Australia, we're only, we're not, you can't convert into dollars. We're not doing this in dollars, we're going to do it in ours. And you're going to have to take the currency risk because they're in a massive effort for de dollarization try to destroy the US Dollar. You've been on this show, I don't know, for four years warning about this day coming. Explain to us your warning and explain to us what's happened and become evident to the President, United States and the Secretary treasury in the last 48 hours. Sir.

[Brian Costello]

You know, Steve, it's funny. Most of the people that wear that China hawk badge, they believe a couple things different. They don't believe, you know, being an American patriot runs through Beijing, that you have to support that. And I, most of the people I know that wear that China hawk badge have actually served the country. They've seen what war does. They've had friends who've died and been injured and they're actually anti war. They're very peace. So the reason for being China Hawks is they see the obvious, right? They're China realists. They see the military being built up. And now, you know, Xi might have done us a favor this week by reneging on what sounds like some of his agreements with Xi to just, with President Trump to just have a meeting, dial things back and look at the relationships. You know, I remind people that when Xi took office back in 2013, one of the first things he did was in 2015 was a program called Maiden Made in China 2025. And basically all the things he's doing now were to end, you know, end their dependencies on people in the world and build everything domestically so that they could control supply chains. Guess what year we're in, Steve?

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

2025.

[Brian Costello]

Yeah. So it should be obvious, like let me, let me.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

Well, let me just. Yeah, they want it. And by the way, in 2019 they came up with made in China 2025. In 15. It was a 10 year plan. As I've said on the show before, this is how strategically they think. I'm going to give you the top five artificial intelligence and artificial. This is industries that they will dominate by 2025. Okay. And they're going to decouple from the West. They made this decision in 2019 when they tore up the trade deal that they're going to start to decouple technology. They have to have their own champions, they have to have their own, you know, they have to have TikTok. They have to have the best chips. They have to have. Was it the top artificial intelligence company. Deep was a deep mind. But let me go to the top five. The top five. And they came up with this over a decade ago, folks. Just some Random. Just some random industries. I'm a star at the top. Artificial intelligence and artificial general intelligence, robotics and regenerative robotics, quantum computing, advanced chip design, and just to top it off, biotechnology, crispr, all of that. That's the top five. The convergence of those five, their top five, gets you to the singularity. They understand totally what they're doing. This is when Xi and Putin are having the thing at the Shanghai, and they're walking down and they're having a sidebar and chatting. They're talking about living to 125 years old. They're so focused on this, and they're doing stuff inside of Russia and inside of China. You have no earthly idea what they're doing in their labs. But what they've brazenly done now is challenge President Trump on the C Company. They're trying to tell people in the world, you're going to decouple from the United States of America. We're going to run a reverse. Trump thinks he's such a big shot. Peter Navarro thinks he's such a big shot. Bannon and these guys are a war room. These China hawks, they're running their mouths. We're going to. And we're going to use. We're going to use rare earths. They're going to use the magnets. They're going to use the most critical part of the rare earths, which President Trump and Besson had an agreement with. And they said, you know, upon further review. Yeah, yeah, we got to think that. I don't think it's going to work. This is where they're trying to grab total control. They're trying to use a leverage, what we call leverageable moment. A leverageable moment, why The United States is distracted in Ukraine and Gaza and the streets of the streets of North America. And trust me, they are in back of, to a large extent, what's happening in the streets of America. On the economic side, being as bold as they are, Trump hit him with 100% tariff. Right? So it's going to be. This is going to be hardball. 100% tariff on their situation. We know they were hurting, but I think Xi is saying, hey, I can take the pain. Fennell, what did they say they'll eat? They'll eat grass for a year. You know, they don't care about Lao Bajing. Lao Bajing's got a tough life. Hey, this is the way it is, man. They killed hundreds of millions of Lao Beijing before they got no problem. Mao used to brag. He says, hey, I don't Know what? The west is talking about this, you know, nuclear threat and terror of nuclear weapons. He said, hey, if we get hit with a couple of nuclear weapons, we'll lose a couple hundred million people. Big deal. We'll recreate that in a decade. It's no big deal. They could care less if their people have some hardship. The total control, particularly with the surveillance state they have now. So, Brian, walk us through how this has evolved over time and what your warning's been.

[Brian Costello]

You know, Steve, it's worse than that, right? They're stockpiling food, you know, they're ending. And in the dependency, you know, they're not buying soybeans, everything from the U.S. so.

[Captain Jim Fennell]

So what? You basically.

[Brian Costello]

All you have to. You know, all you have to do is read what they're doing in China, right? So there's something that's really bad happening here too, Steve, that, you know, they're preparing for something much grander, right? So, you know, just in the last couple weeks, we've had this new Ministry of Foreign Commerce where they've now putting ceasing control over, you know, deciding who gets these rare earths, right? So it's not just the U.S. it's Japan, Taiwan. You know, they have their guy in South Korea now where a lot of the stuff we make is manufactured. And it requires refinement of these critical mineral and rare earths and the chemical processes to do that. They're putting complete control on that. But they're now, you know, going after our companies. They just launched an investigation into Qualcomm the other day. They launched an investigation into Nvidia before. They're actually now searching ships for the Nvidia gear is out. Out in the media. So they've told other people, don't buy anything from Nvidia. They're actually searching ships. So you see why Jensen's focused on this, right? He's not able to sell, you know, through other countries and put equipment into there anymore. But a lot of his equipment in these data centers being built require the refinement process of these critical minerals and rare earths and the magnets and the things that actually go into transformers for power. So you've seen all this stuff happen. You're also seeing propaganda left and right, right? As we bomb boats coming from Venezuela carrying drugs. They're reporting to their people that they're doing this for oil, right? So you just see the game when you've watched what they've done for a long time. You know, it's like when the TikTok Agreement Came out. It's a signed agreement. Isn't even an agreement with the Chinese Communist Party. Like, until it's actually done, you know, there's no rest, legal reciprocity. So, you know, I'm not surprised by this at all. Not surprised by this.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

There's no, if you sign a contract, you gotta understand something. With the Chinese, if you sign a contract, they have a phrase called circumstances changed. The contract's just a basis for future negotiation. This is why, you know, Adelson and the crowd in Vegas has a. It has these casinos in where the cash come from. Because they don't make money in Vegas. The cash comes from Macau because the Chinese, not as gamblers. You got money laundering going through. It's ridiculous. If you look at the documents, these are publicly traded companies. Look at the documents. They really have no agreement, the Chinese Communist Party, they're just kind of like, well, they run it for a while, they manage it and they make some money, but it's very ill defined and we can pull it at any time. This is what they've said right now. President Trump was working towards a deal. Remember, he was going to visit China. He's talking about visiting China as a sidebar to this meeting. He's going to this big economic meeting where he's going to go to. In fact, it's later this week, I think it's later this week or early the following week where he's going to go to Japan for a couple of days. He's talking about. He was talking about maybe going to China and the CCP pulled this. Xi and the Chinese Communist Party high command think that we're completely and totally occupied, right? We're completely and totally occupied with the Middle East. The sideshow in the Middle east, with the, with the war in Ukraine not being settled, with problems on the streets, and they're very focused. What's happening on the streets of New York, streets of America, in this insurrection that's going on with people that try to flood our country with illegal aliens. They are closely watching New York City and trust me, they're involved in the background in New York City, what's happening there with the Marxist jihadist taking over. These guys, they've infiltrated everywhere. They've infiltrated the universities, they've infiltrated Capitol Hill, they've infiltrated all the big companies, they've infiltrated the media. They are everywhere, as we have warned day in and day out. And now they're bold enough to be up in President Trump's grill and say, hey, tough guy, we're going to bring the American economy to a grinding halt. And President Trump hit him back with a blunt force instrument, 100% tariff. Pretty big deal. Okay, short commercial break. We're going to return. We got Costello and Captain Fennell. It's about the economic war that Beijing just dropped on the United States of America. Next, spread the word all through Hong Kong. When you're buried in credit card and loan debt, it's only human nature to put it off and say, hey, I'll deal with this later if that's you. Here's a hidden fact the debt strategy experts at Done With Debt shared with me. They discovered a little known strategy that works in your favor to dramatically reduce or even erase your debt altogether. They aggressively engage everyone you owe money to in September and here's why. They know which lenders and credit card companies are doing year end accounting and need to cut deals. They even know which ones have year end audits and need to get your debt off the books quickly. That means you need to get started with Done With Debt. Now. Done With Debt accomplishes this without bankruptcy or new loans. In fact, most clients end up with more money in their pocket the first month. Get started now while you still have time. Go to donewithdebt.com and talk with one of their specialists for free. Donewithdebt.com donewithdebt.com Take advantage of this. These people are aggressive, they're smart and they're tough. You want them on your side. Donewithdebt.com here's your host, Stephen K. Band. Captain Fennell and people should know that behind the scenes Captain Fennell is a huge organizer and kind of the leader of the, the people, the China Hawks, the one that Nvidia says, whereas do you wear China hawk? I mean, you gave up your career in the Navy to warn the country about this happening, which all your warnings turned out to be, Right? What do you think about the Nvidia guy? Am I wrong to see it? He's at minimum an agent of influence. I think he's much deeper than that. That right. I think he's a total CCP agent. But when he tells you, Captain Fennell, that China Hawk is a badge of shame, your thoughts?

[Captain Jim Fennell]

Well, that's a classic tactic of the Communist Party. They try to divide and conquer and they label people and they use the labels to marginalize people. And that's exactly what's happened over the last 35 years. When you're labeled a China Hawk, you get painted with that indelible paint. Then you are marginalized and pushed out of the polite society by the elite circles in D.C. so that's why he's saying that he's trying to marginalize people and make them seem foolish and untrustworthy. So I don't like the labels. I don't use the labels. The fact of the matter is the Chinese Communist Party, as you said, declared people's war against us openly in 2019, and they have been at war with us since 1949 and they want to destroy capitalism. They are hardcore Marxist Leninist communists and they despise our system of government. They despise the way we do things, and they want to take us down. And they have a long term strategic plan. They would prefer not to use military force. They're now openly using the economic levers of power to try to, you know, take us on. Right now they've rolled the dice and think that they can take us and we need to stand up and fight back. I was very encouraged to see the FCC chairman Brendan Carr's announcement in the last 24 hours announcing operation Clean Cards, where he's recommending or not recommending. He's saying, hey, everything that's on these online e commerce platforms in America that sell Chinese products from Huawei and ZTE and other things like that have to come off. And so what I would recommend to the American people is, you know, we can ask our government to do a lot of things and President Trump is doing it, thankfully, but the American people can do something. When you go into a store and you buy something and you pull it off the rack. I was in a store this weekend, I saw a shirt I wanted. It was, you know, something nice being sold as supporting, you know, the ecology and all that. And then I looked at it and I asked the person, well, where is this made? They said it was a Spanish company. And then I said, oh, that's good. Then they said, where's it made? Oh, it's made in China. I gave it back to them, said, I'm not buying it. Stop buying things from China. We stopped buying things from China. We will bring down the Chinese Communist Party. So that's something that every American patriot can do that's listening right now and tell your friends and family to do it. I was surprised. I have family members that buy stuff on temu and I had to tell them, you know, what you're doing, you're providing the money and the wherewithal for the Chinese Communist Party to destroy us. Whether it's buying missiles or doing what they're doing right now. In the economic arena. So we need to, we need to be serious about this. Go ahead.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

President Trump went up the escalatory ladder pretty quickly, 100% tariff, everything. My understanding is a lot more coming next week. Bessant Navarro, the president on the economic warfare side, basically going to say, you guys think you're tough guys. Here's what you're going to have to deal with. And we have many tools. If we have the, if we have the guts to use them, we have many tools. But in going up the escalatory ladder, they're just not going to sit there. They've thought this thing through four and five moves ahead. So what do you anticipate the next couple of weeks are going to look like?

[Captain Jim Fennell]

Well, we got a little bit of a signal of that today on the People's Armed Police Twitter feed. They showed a picture of the PLA soldiers marching with the big Chinese flag. And the recommendation was let's go kinetic. So while we're watching the economic arena and that's what we're talking about on today's show, let's not forget that China has some other desires and they could use the military lever to invade Taiwan. I don't see an invasion in the next 24 hours or 48 hours. But the point is they may take and use a military maneuver, maybe in the South China Sea against our ally in the Philippines or some other place. So we need to be watching across the scope and breadth of national power, the comprehensive national power that they call it, or we call it whole of government. And as you said, they're planning three or four or five moves ahead, and we should be anticipating those things and not being caught off guard. And that means our military forces out in the Far east and back in conus have to be up on alert to watch and be prepared for some kind of action from the Chinese, maybe even in the Caribbean with our operations in and around Venezuela against the drug cartels. So we have to be on alert. This is like when I came into the U.S. navy in 1986 against the Soviet Union. We were a nation that was on guard against the predations of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party that was running Russia. Now we have the Communist Party that's running China. They have the same strategic objective to destroy us. It sounds over the top. And the Nvidia CEO can say we're China hawks, but that is a reality. That's their words, that's their actions. And we're seeing it come to fruition, despite what all the threat deflators and the engagers told us for the last 25, 30 years.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

Remember, they're egging on, they're saying let's go kinetic, don't put that pass that they think, just like in the Cuban missile crisis and the Indian, what they did in India, they thrive off a distracted enemy. They consider us an enemy. They don't consider us a pure rival. All that crap you hear and you watch msnbc, you watch cnn, all these guys from the think tanks thinking great thoughts. Just like the great thoughts they thought in the Ukraine war to drive that. Just like the great thoughts they thought in Israel and the Middle East. All the great thinkers, all the great thoughts, you know they're going to think great thoughts about China. The CCP is out to destroy us full stop. And they don't care what they have to do and they don't care how many lao baijing, they don't care how many Chinese citizens they kill in the, in the interim. And trust me, they are looking at Taiwan big time. Captain Fennell, you don't do social media. I know you put stuff up on American greatness. As soon as you get something, we push it out. Look forward to having you back on next week. Thank you for taking time on your Saturday to join us.

[Captain Jim Fennell]

Thank you, Steve.

[Unidentified Host/Commentator (War Room)]

Captain. Captain Jim Fennell. By the way, because of inclement weather and planning the event, we were going to cover for Marine Corps 250. Not going to be today. We're going to do a full coverage wall to wall next Saturday the 18th. I think we're start at 10 o' clock in the morning with the war room and just bring it all to you at Camp Pendleton, the amazing base out on the, on the west coast of, in California, just north of San Diego where The fleet is, 32nd Street. Okay, we're going to take a short break at. Brian Costello with us is going to go through a little deeper dive in the economics. Plus, gotta talk about Idaho, gotta talk about Qatar. Really? A Qatar, an air base? They're gonna have a military base in the United States of America on the sacred soil of this nation. This nation's soil is sacred, sacred ground. No Qatars next. 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 to Rickards War room dot com. That's all one word. Rickards War Rooms records with an S. Go now and claim your free book. That's Rickards War room dot com. Do it today.