
Episode 4926: Fighting For Everyday Americans; Sleepwalking Into 2026...
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A
Congressman Swalwell, thank you for joining us. You put out a statement shortly after this, after this was made public, saying, of course I will not end my lawsuit against him. You also, your statement seemed defiant. You were resolute that you are not afraid. You have no fear. And I know earlier this year you noted that you knew you could be a target. Now that this is out there and it's been out for a couple of hours. Just take us inside your strategy going forward, sir. And have you actually heard heard from the Justice Department?
B
Well, first, of course, these allegations are false, just like the allegations against Adam Schiff are false and Letitia James are false and Lisa Cook are false. And a spoiler alert for you. There will be allegations next week against somebody that'll be false. No, the Justice Department has not said anything, just through leaked media reporting. But this is really about Donald Trump going after his political enemies. And no one has been a more vocal criticism than me. And as you mentioned, I have one of the only remaining lawsuits against Donald Trump for his role on January 6. I don't wake up every day going to work to fight Donald Trump. I fight for Californians. He just happens to get in the way.
C
All he had to do was smash the oligarchy. He's become the oligarchy. And all Trump has done this week is basically shill for the government and for big business.
A
Let me tell you something, baby. If somebody used to work for me, get a podcast and they let people get on there and bash the hell out of me to talk about a oligarch and whatnot, I would have a problem. But Steve Bannon sat there, didn't say anything because he agrees with what his guest was saying. If you remember earlier in the administration, it seems like eons ago, but remember when Elon Musk said, we got to support the H1B1, the H. What is it? The H1B visa program. Because we do need to bring in that talent. And Steve Bannon took Elon Musk to task and the president to task and said, the president, you're walking away from what you said you wanted to do for us. What are you saying? Donald Trump saying, we don't got to tell talent. Sounds un American, sounds unpatriotic. Why does he hate America? Why does the president hate Americans? I need the president to speak up. Mr. President, why do you hate hardworking Americans in this country? Folks from where I'm from the Midwest. What's going on?
D
Trump has been briefed on military options for inside Venezuela. That's on top of strikes against what the administration says are boats carrying drugs in the region. Additionally, the Defense Department is using very specific language while talking about this action with which is raising a lot of eyebrows.
E
Put up our full screen on what the H1B visa program actually is. The top applicants come from India and China. It was established in the 90s to encourage talented people from around the world to come here to the United States. You can see the Number of new visas, 65,000 each year, 20,000 additional visas available for workers with master's degree or higher. He has cross pressures now, Vaughn, which is, yes, he has the nativist wing of his party, but he also has all the tech bros who are saying, hey, I need these workers.
D
We're learning that President Trump just this week was briefed on a range of military options that, as you mentioned, include conducting military strikes inside Venezuela itself. Now, obviously, if the president decides to move forward with an option that includes military strikes inside Venezuela, that would be a dramatic escalation of the ongoing military campaign in Latin America. Our understanding is at this stage, Donald Trump has not made a decision though how he intends to proceed. We also know that in the past, he has voiced some reservations about conducting strikes with the intention of ousting Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. At the same time, the Trump administration has gone to great lengths to try to connect Maduro to drug trafficking and drug traffickers that they have since declared to be enemy combatants and terrorists. And those have been the targets of these 20 strikes, these 20 military strikes that we've seen in international water to date. And those strikes continue even as Trump is mulling military options potentially for Venezuela itself. And we're also learning that behind closed doors, the Pentagon and military officials are really going to great lengths to try to connect these drug traffickers to this theory that they are effectively the same as terrorists and thus can be summarily killed without legal review. In a recent classified briefing, they were using phrases like enemy KIA to describe the some 80 individuals who have been killed in these strikes. And as you mentioned, that's really raising some eyebrows with lawmakers who remember that phrase being used repeatedly in the war on terror to describe those individuals and terrorists describe killed in airstrikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Obviously, some lawmakers wary of conducting an operation under a similar pretense. But still, that does seem to be the way the Trump administration is couching and casting this ongoing military operation in Latin America.
F
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies, because we're going medieval on these people. There's not got a free shot. All these networks lying about the people, the people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen.
D
And where do people like that go.
F
To share the big lie?
D
MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul.
F
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. Banner. Friday, 14th November in the year of early 2025. Want to start off by signal, not noise. Let's go to the Treasury Department, Joe Lavonier, one of the special assistants to the Secretary of Treasury. Everything is about we're going to have some folks on later, Raheem Kassam, Roger Kimball, two of the towering public intellectuals of the MAGA movement to talk about where we are right now as a movement and kind of looking down range to the talking about our institutions, how we're doing on seizing them and looking downrange to the midterms. But all of this is going to revolve around the bets we made earlier in the year. The big beautiful bill. As Scott Bessant, Secretary of Treasury now has said on this show for years, it's the last chance for a supply side tax cut that really focuses on bringing in capital to manufacturing. The entire trade policy, commercial relationships with the world. The tariff policy now before the Supreme Court is also based upon bringing manufacturing jobs back here to the United States. The entire thrust President Trump's second term is returning America as a manufacturing hegemon. Joe give us treasury because everybody's talking about affordability, affordability and affordability obviously important, but growth, jobs, GDP growth, all of it's the most important. What's your perspective from treasury, sir?
G
Thank you Steve, for having me. You know, you let up, you had a perfect lead in because what you want to do is create a supply side productivity boom and because that does a few things which address head on the affordability issue, which number one is if you get a productivity led supply side boom because you have 100% expensing of capex and you've got this innovative novel 100% expensing for factories which is going to be for the next three plus years that is going to encourage tremendous investment. With that investment become encouraged is rising productivity. When you have rising productivity, profits go up. And what we learned from the first Trump administration and from the Reagan era is that when you have that capex boom occur, you get rising wages. So nominal wages are going to surge as they were surging this year and as they surged under Trump's president, under President Trump's first term. Also Steve, because you're increasing the supply side capacity of the economy, not only is your nominal wage rate going to rise, but you're going to lower the cost of living because the economy can produce more with the same resources it had before. So you get a supply side capex disinflationary boom. That's the key part. That's how you're going to improve affordability. Workers are going to get paid more nominally because of higher productivity and then inflation is going to come down. So the real wage is going to increase and then the icing on the cake is workers after tax wages are going to surge next year because of the one big beautiful bill which has substantial tax cuts for middle and lower income households. Upwards of $200 billion in tax refunds is going to hit working class Americans accounts next year. That's going to make things more afford. It's, it's great, it's just absolutely great news.
F
See, I don't think people and I my strongest recommendation is treasury ought to be out just banging on this every day. Like for instance, the, the tax refunds that happen around, you know, up and you know, around from the beginning of the year to April. Want me to again, what kind of, what kind of infusion into Americans pockets will that be?
G
And this was, and I give President Trump with obviously Secretary Besson's help, tremendous credit to getting that bill done on July 4th because you have write these guidelines so that the policies can be in place so that we're everyday working Americans can benefit from it. So this past fall the IRS wrote the guidelines for who is responsible for getting these no tax on tips. And it's really 21st century stuff. So it's not just hardworking waiters and waitresses and bartenders and people who get tips. But it refers to podcasters, social influencers, you know, these newfangled jobs that have been created. They are not going to be paying tax on, on their tips effectively. Additionally, over time you talk about a reindustrial manufacturing boom. Why are we taxing that extra marginal dollar that people want to work for overtime? So when you add this all up, there are many private sector estimates that say we could have upwards of $200 billion in refunds because the people who are going to benefit from this clearly have you know, they don't know the guidelines, they weren't sure the rules but now that it's in place they're going to get a big refund when they file their taxes next year then they'll change their withholding. But we're talking potentially 710 of GDP just from this one policy alone. And again Steve, as you know that's money that goes directly into these hard working Americans pocketbooks.
F
The supply side tax cut on the, on the capital expensing that drives investment in plant and equipment to return us to be a manufacturing superpower with all those high value added jobs, good paying jobs that then drive in communities all the services, the coffee shop, the dress shop, you know, the store where you get the gifts for the children, sporting goods, all of it, the real estate prices. Then in addition you have your, the commercial relationships which President Trump is redoing all the commercial relationships around the world to make sure that people have an option. You can either move your manufacturing here to the United States which we saw last Friday when we had the secretary on in Sumter South Carolina at the Magnets plant with the rare earths or you can pay a fee, you can pay a tolling fee. Now the Supreme Court is going to have something to say about that. But do you believe right now because you're seeing the beginning of the Capex, the capital expenditure in the big beautiful bill, are you concomitantly seeing that at least the factories come back from this international investment? I see a lot of headlines about international investment but is treasury confident that that's happening and happening at the pace that eventually will have some sort of positive political impact, Sir?
G
Yes, Steve, we're confident it's starting to happen on the Capex side. It's important because it's not everybody thinks it's just AI. It's not transit equipment, business equipment, industrial equipment. This transcends this incipient Capex boom, transcends the AI story. So that's already occurred. The factory building will occur. And coming back to the affordability issue, the fact that we've secured our borders and removed illegal immigrant, illegal immigrants will help affordability in two profound ways, Steve. Number one, market wages will not be substandard, they will not be below market because this artificial depressant on the wage rate. So wages will also rise because of that, that will help affordability, but also because there was self deporting and illegal immigrants removed because the President secured the border. You are getting rents, rents are collapsing in price so shelter costs next year will come down. You Take the tariffs which are in place and we believe that the Supreme Court rule in our favor. You are going to get all of that capital to come in. It's going to take some time because these trade deals were just written. But everything is informed to make it work in a holistic, robust way. And 26 should be a very strong year for growth.
F
Joe, thank you for coming on. As I tell people, affordability is key. You've got to focus on it. But one of the ways you focus on affordability is you continue to focus on growth and particularly growth in, in jobs and growth in wages. I know this is one of the top priorities for Scott Besson, Secretary of the Treasury. Joe, social media, where do people track.
G
You at Lavornianomics and the secretary could be found at Sec. Scott Besson and of course at U.S. treasury. Thank you again, Steve.
F
Thank you, brother. Appreciate you always like starting off Friday with something very serious. We have two of our best are going to follow. We got Roger Kimball, we got Raheem Kassam, and look, I'm very proud over the last couple of days that we've had people like Richard Barris and people like Mark Mitchell and others that are on here saying, hey, something looks like we're a little off track here. But this is, this, this is the platform for the leadership of the MAGA movement. This is a platform for the grassroots. This is a platform for the vanguard of this populist, nationalist, traditionalist revolution. That's why people listen, that's why people take action, because we allow the folks that drive this and quite frankly, you can't sugarcoat it. It's easily correctable. Number one is just messaging. Some of the hardest work has been done. It's just not talked about. It's lost in some of the, you know, maybe some of the foreign issues, some of where the focus has been, etc. But we've made some bets here, folks, and these Becks cannot be unwound. Now. They're working. You've got to show people how they're working. Not promote them, but show them how they're working. The supply side tax cut in this massive, massive reorientation of the world's commercial relationships around the United States as a manufacturing superpower. Short break. Let me be blunt. Gold is up around 40% this year. That's not speculation, that's reality. And if a portion of your safety savings isn't diversified into gold, you're missing the boat. Now here's the facts. Inflation is still too high. The US Dollar is still too weak. And the government debt is insurmountable. That is why central banks are flocking to gold. They're the ones driving up the prices now to record highs. But it's not too late to buy gold from Birch Gold Group and get in the door now. Birch Gold will help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered IRA. In gold, you don't pay a dime out of pocket. Just text ban in the 989-898 and claim your free info kit. There's no obligation, just useful information. The best indicator of the future is the past. And gold has historically been a safe haven for a millennia. What else can you say? Text Bannon to 989-898 right now to claim your free info kit on gold. That's Bannon to 989-898. Protect your future today with Birch Gold. America's Voice Family Are you on Getter yet?
C
No. What are you waiting for? It's free, it's uncensored and it's where.
F
All the biggest voices in conservative media are speaking out. 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. Want to know what Steve Bannon's thinking? Go together.
G
That's right.
F
You can follow all of your favorites. Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk, Jack Posobi and so many more.
D
Download the Getter app now.
F
Sign up for free and be part of the movement. Okay, welcome back. We are fortunate enough we're going to have Sam Tanenhaus actually in studio at the War Room. I'm going to try to do it so we can show it tomorrow a part of it tomorrow. Hope to do it for a couple hours because it's his new book on Buckley, the life and the Revolution that changed America. So we're going to talk about the revolution. Also he wrote an incredible book on Whitaker Chambers and starting in 2009 when I first because he's a, he's I think I would say a liberal Democrat who used to, I think it was New York Review of Books. He was the editor. He wrote the Death of conservatism back in 2008 or 9, which was really a book that got me thinking about very much how the Republican Party had been an absolute total failure after the financial implosion and of course the Iraq, Afghan wars and the other disasters of standard stock Republicans. So Tenon House will be here and we're looking forward to that. I think he can explain a lot. Books are magnificent. The Buckley Book is great, although it weighs in at 1,000 pages. The Whitaker Chambers book. Best biography of Whitaker Chambers ever. And if you have a deep rooted Christian faith and you're always concerned about atheistic communism or atheistic Marxism, it's a fantastic book to reinforce your beliefs. And Death of Conservatism I think is one of the most brilliant books written about conservative politics. So Sam Tanenhaus, in that same we talk Buckley, Roger Kimball. Roger, you're one of the smartest guys I think around and certainly the MAGA movement, one of our top public intellectuals. The pieces you have on, we have you on all the time. But you wrote something that I think gets to the moment where we are. It was about heritage. I would like you to take the floor and walk me through the argument of one Roger Kimball.
C
Sir. Well, a few weeks ago, Kevin Roberts caused a storm when a very short video that he taped was released. He was supporting Tucker Carlson, saying, heritage is and will always be a friend of Tucker Carlson. And this caused great unhappiness. Personally, I've written this. I think that video was ill judged whoever wrote it. I think I know who wrote it, but I think he should have, as I put it, run a kind of rhetorical Geiger counter over that, the script of that, that brief video, because it offended a lot of people. And I don't think Kevin, who's a friend of mine, has done as well as he might have done in cleaning it up. That said, the attack on him has been, I think, really unhinged. The Wall Street Journal, I've lost count of how many pieces against Kevin they've written. Initially I thought it was fine. Everybody is susceptible to criticism. Nobody's perfect. And another friend of mine, Dominic Green, wrote a robust critical piece about Kevin, I thought, although I didn't agree with every single thing he had to say. I thought that was, it was, that was okay. But then it's just piece after piece after piece. And it occurred to me that actually the issue is not Kevin Roberts or Tucker Carlson or Nick Fuentes, somebody who I only recently became aware of. The issue is Donald Trump's agenda, the Make America Great Again agenda. Heritage under Kevin Roberts has been pretty closely aligned with that agenda on trade, on foreign policy, on social issues, really pretty much across the board. And I think that what we're watching now is a kind of proxy war where Kevin Roberts and Tucker and others are just kind of cutouts for the unhappy denizens of what people call Conservative Inc. And they are hoping to stage a comeback by using, using the rhetorical moral cover of anti Semitism to further their own anti maga agenda. The idea that Kevin Roberts is somehow anti Semitic is colony, really. I mean, immediately after October 7, after the Hamas massacre in Israel, he established a, a task force to battle anti Semitism. Victoria Coates, a scholar at Heritage, has been leading some of those efforts. It's very robust, and I would say that it's a kind of gigantic misunderstanding. But it's not a misunderstanding. This is the next brunch of the battle between the deep state and the Donald Trump agenda, the Make America Great Again agenda. It's someone, someone during Trump's first term talked about the need to deconstruct the administrative state. I believe it was one S. Bannon. And that indeed is the, that indeed is the task before us. But when I read things like I read just the other day that Mike Pence is considering a 2028 run, now, that's not going to happen, I believe. But that just tells you what we're up against. And the real battle here is not between Kevin Roberts and his support for Tucker. The real battle is between the Make America Great Again agenda. I'd like to spell out the acronym because often these days people use the term, the acronym MAGA as a term of abuse. But if you think about it, if you say the whole thing Make America Great Again, then it sounds a little different, doesn't it? So that's sort of my. In brief, that's my take on the issue.
F
It's brilliant. I'm not sure let's put a pin in the deep state part of it, because I think it's just the neoliberal, neocon mentality of the Murdochs in the Wall Street Journal. Those pieces in the Wall Street Journal, you're right. Paul Gigio every other day has some peace. That's not for the masses. Those are for the donors. They're telling the donors that you donors have to move on. Kevin Raheem, I want your comments. Listen, when it wasn't this, it wasn't the length of the video. The video had a phrase. He said the quiet part out loud. The venomous coalition. Let me repeat that. The venomous coalition that drives so many decisions and is so toxic. Right. And we're going to have Laura Loomer on 11 o'. Clock and her courage and what she's done this week in Israel about the sovereignty of Israel is quite remarkable. And this is why I've always been a big fan of Laura Loomers. We'll get to that in a moment. The Venomous coalition. And then what you saw, and I think the people at Heritage will never wash this shame off because the camera was on you. The struggle session they put Kevin Roberts through was revolting. Was revolting and disgusting. And I say this as someone who volunteered. I volunteered with Kurt Mills to go debate these guys, Victoria Coats and whoever they had. Bring the best you got. They chickened out. They backed off because they can't sit, and they can't sit in front on an open stage and debate. Debate. The Israel First Movement. It's obscene. It's ridiculous. It's not even at a level that adults should consider it. The evidence that backs up, oh, no, it's not Israel First. It's a joke. And for Corey quotes, who I think is dumb as a brick. I thought she was dumb as a brick. And the first thing she just. Ted Cruz's lackey. So, Raheem, your thoughts on Roger Kimball in his piece today?
H
Yeah, well, you know, Roger is a. A very kind person. And, And Roger is also far more polite than I am. I have had my times going to war with Heritage over the last decade or so. Specifically, I think they. They actually refused to allow me in the building for reporting on the fact that they were taking a lot of money from the big tech firms some years ago. So. So I have long standing animosity with them. But, but on the other hand, as people know, you know, I was. I was a vocal supporter of. Of their Project 2025 effort. I'm a vocal supporter of Paul Dan's and the effort he is currently undertaking in South Carolina, by the way. And everybody should get behind him there against Lady Lindsay. So, so, you know, swings and roundabouts for me on Heritage right now. The, the underlying part of this for me, which I cannot stand, you know, I was walking by their building the day before yesterday, and there are leftists just clad like homeless people shouting through megaphones at anybody that they perceive to be a Heritage staff or a Heritage visitor or a Heritage guest or somebody who's in the neighborhood who happens to be a conservative. And I look at that happening on their doorstep, and I look at the way that they allow their staff to be under siege and allow anybody who is a conservative in the neighborhood to be under siege. We know who these people are. We know who these protesters are. We know who's paying them. And yet we spend all of this time doing what? Forcing the president of the organization to look down the barrel of a camera and atone for a sin that he never committed in the first instance this is, this is the remarkable thing about the conservative incorporated movement that you and I and Roger and so many others, we have witnessed firsthand, you guys, unfortunately for a little longer than I have, but, but I have been there with you as long as I could have been.
F
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D
Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
F
Roger Kimball Dunn. One of the things that shows is that as much as the MAGA movement, we've brought new voters in, we've turned this to a working class, working class party, middle class party from the country club establishment it was. But that when you really look on Capitol Hill, there's really just a couple. I mean they fear Trump and they'll kowtow to Trump like Lindsey Graham will kowtow to Trump to get the endorsement. But he's the farthest thing from maga. He's a neoliberal, neocon to the ultimate extent. So that when you really look at people up here that are elected, you have very few. The RNC is not mag at all. I mean, it's a little more when Lara Trump is on top of things. But Whatley's not maga and one of the reasons he's running so poorly in North Carolina, if you talk to the MAGA folks down there, they're just not, they're just not enthusiastic about it. And you know, you do have these new institutions Kevin Roberts is trying to change heritage. He tried to do it in 2025, in the years in the wilderness. The reason they hate him is because of that. But Conservative Inc. In the Republican donor establishment think we're going to revert back to neoliberal, neocon. The Daily Telegraph and Robert Kreidly, who's one of the best reporters in D.C. he's a Brit who cover used to be the Daily Mails, now the Daily Telegraph. He had a brilliant piece. Ted Cruz kicked off his campaign a couple of weeks ago because he goes to rjc. He's going to get all the big Jewish donors in back of him. He's going to run as Israel first candidate. Mike Pence is kicking tires all the Republican establishment. You know, little Marco, we got this situation in Venezuela that, you know, everybody's trying to figure out exactly what we're doing. But the reality is they hate Trump, they hate maga, they hate populism, they hate economic nationalism, they hate every aspect of it. They'll give us a few things in the cultural side and pat you on the head. And they love the fact that you bring out working class voters that they can never get to. But they, they would rather, as they've done for years, they would rather be in the minority where they're feeding off the carcass in the managed decline of the country than to fight. These people don't want to fight. They don't want to be turfed out of their private clubs. They don't want to be not accepted to the literary societies they belong to. They don't. They don't want to be kicked out of the wit, the kids to be kicked out of the whiff and poofs at Yale. It's all of it, sir.
C
Yes. Yeah. Well, I think a little more highly of Ted Cruz than you do, but we'll leave that to one side. And Marco, Marco's been, you know, he has surprised me. I think he's been, he's been a good spokesman for Donald Trump.
F
All I'm saying about Ted Cruz, whether you think Ted Cruz is great, because the constitutional conservative guys are gonna get. Ted Cruz is not maga. Ted Cruz never lifted a finger on the invasion of the southern border. All my points, he's a classic. He's a classic Republican, but he's already started his 28 campaign because they know that, hey, once Trump's gone, you know, the Roger Kimballs and the Steve Bannon's, this is all, this is all floats them and jetsam.
C
Yeah, yeah, go ahead, sir. Yeah, I was talking to someone else recently. I don't think that's going to happen. Myself, ted Cruz in 28. But I think it's going to be J.D. vance or possibly Marco. Myself, I would prefer J.D. but we'll see. That's a lot. You know, Harold Wilson said a week is a long time in politics and three years is an eternity. So a lot can change.
F
About 28. First off, we have to get by 26, which Raheem's going to get on us.
C
Yes, absolutely.
F
But, however, I will tell anybody in that administration, J.D. marco, if you're not blowing the Tech Bros. Right now, they're owned by the Tech Bros. Bros. They're owned by the Burlegarchs and owned by David Sachs. In this crowd, the big fight coming for MAGA is not really conservative in because they're not as powerful they were, but the Tech Bros are. They believe they're dominant. They believe they're taking over the Maha movement. They're taking over the MAGA movement. They got guys, this guy Isaacman, whoever at the White House, and I know who you are, they got Isaacman back in his head of NASA, right, who's just going to give contracts to Elon Musk. That whole game of the Tech Bros. Is going to come to crashing down in an end. Okay? It's going to be brutal, but it's got to be done. We cannot allow these guys, who are all progressive Democrats. They're all progressive Democrats hiding. They're the wolves in sheep's clothing. So if you're in the White House not standing up to it, then you're part of the problem and that's all going to get exposed. But do you do agree that the conservative ink that you talk about, it's a long way from dead. They just, they just think we're a passing summer storm.
C
That's right. Well, they are hoping to wait Trump out. But three and a half years or a little less than that now, that's a long time. And the. I think everyone is even I was astonished at the alacrity with which Trump has moved. I mean, he's been a positive whirlwind of activity and he's gotten, you know, a lot done. There's a lot more to do. People are very impatient. Why, you know, why hasn't this person been indicted or why hasn't this promise been fulfilled? But Trump has actually fulfilled a lot of promises. And, you know, people say, well, if you get 70% of what you want, you should be happy. I think we're batting A little higher than that. And, you know, one of the things I worry about, frankly, is internecine squabbling. I think that for us to continue to win, we need as far as possible to be able to stick together. We're not going to agree on every issue, but, you know, we need each other and those people who are, who are on our side. And I think we want to have a, you know, pretty, pretty big tent as far as we can. And I'm, you know, I'm cautiously optimistic, but I'm. It wasn't just Heritage, by the way. There was a very similar event happened at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute a couple of days ago when their chairman of the board and I think president or some other board member suddenly resigned, saying, this is terrible. They've let in all of these post liberal people who are people like Steve Bannon. They're listening to Curtis Yarvin. That's terrible. We have to kick the current president out and start over again. I wondered, was that an accident that had happened just days after the Heritage blow up, or was it somehow coordinated? I don't know. Was it the invisible hand of the Zeitgeist moving so that the people who are on the board at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute somehow felt moved to make these objections? I don't know the answer to that, but I think it's kind of a bad sign. I think we should, insofar as it's possible, stick together. And we're going to have a lot of battles in front of us to maintain. Let's not even call it the Trump Agenda. Let's Make America Great Again agenda.
F
What is Trump Agenda anyway, Roger, where can people get you social media? You know, the new Criterion, the books.
C
Yeah, yeah. At. @rogerkimble.com As I think I said to you the last time we spoke, I'm just about to start a sub stack column, so. Wow. Shortly you'll be able to see that too. That'll be cool.
F
We. The day you launch your substack, we want to have here. We want to drive a bunch of traffic to it. We think substack is fantastic. So there you do it. Let us know.
C
We'll do, brother.
F
Thank you.
C
Take care.
F
Raheem Kassam, your thoughts?
H
I have a sub stack also. Don't use it as much as I'm sure Roger will. He's.
F
No, I thought we're supposed to be dry. I thought we're supposed to be driving traffic to National Pulse. National Pulse is still one of the best reads out there.
H
It's all part of the same system wherever, wherever you sign up to your Raheem Kassam content, you'll get all of it, whether you want it or not. The national pulse.com and. And so forth.
F
Yep.
H
Now listen so seriously, the. The funny thing about all of this, as it occurs to me, and listening to Roger, and he's such a gentleman, but. And, and so are you, actually, people don't realize this about you.
F
I'm.
H
I'm. I'm kind of far more of a thug than you are. And I'll just, I'll. I'll say it outright. You know, the thing about this movement is so many people just don't even like it each other. I mean, I can count on kind of one hand how many people I actually enjoy spending time with in this movement. But we. We park our differences and we put them aside for the greater good. And it really sticks in my craw when, when these old stuffy fusty Con Inc. People who, you know, lost, they lost. Let me talk to them. You lost. You lost really bad. In fact, you lost with 17 candidates on that stage. You lost over and over again. You lost when you sided with the Democrats trying to get rid of Trump trying to stop maga. You lost when you were trying to perpetuate the Russia hoax. You lost after J6, when you were writing columns in CNN talking about how Trump needed to be removed from office immediately. You lost when you back Mike pence for the 50th time. You know, all of these things happened over and over again. And some of these people are just deciding in their late 70s and early 80s to take another run at stopping the MAGA movement in its tracks. And they will use whatever they can do. And, you know, credit to people like Nick Fuentes, because he's kind of a nobody from nowhere who's come along and has had this entire movement up in arms talking about him and worrying about him, and he's just this kind of performative theater guy who says stupid things on air for clicks, and he gets the attention of these people and they go, oh, my goodness, isn't this crazy that somebody might interview him and talk to him and whatever? And it's just absolute nonsense. And actually, I will say this as well. Robert Draper somebody, one of the very few people in this town who I can bear to spend time with over at the New York Times, wrote a very interesting profile piece about Nick Fuentes a couple of months ago. So, you know, if you want to control the narrative, if you want to control where politics goes, if you want to control the culture, then it is incumbent upon you to be interesting, to be a leader, to be thoughtful, to challenge the status quo. And the problem these people on Capitol Hill have and have always had is that they are vacuous. They are vacuous people. They are devoid of ideas, and they deserve the irrelevance in history that they are soon to find themselves with.
F
You know, Raheem, the first couple of years we work with each other, you were very much about Brexit. You talked about Brexit, Nigel talked about Brexit. You guys pulled it off. It was enormous. You were a critical factor here in the rise of MAGA in this country, kind of from the Tea Party. But I say about Fuentes, if you want to see the new versus the old and just see the facts, is watch. And I should play it here on word we got to figure out. I want to play in the 6 o' clock hour, Alex Jones had a debate with Nick Fuentes and Dinesh d'. Souza. And you cannot. You see right there the laziness, the lack of argument, the just their attitude that they just own this. Fuentes takes this guy apart brick by brick. It's a full takedown. It's a full takedown because the kid shows up, he's prepped, he's ready. Not only is he on point and he's always on attack, he happens to have something called facts. And he just overwhelms Dinesh. Dinesh goes back and it shows you this old guard who has nothing. None of their policies have worked. The policies that worked. Why do we have so much. Why do we have so much debt that's out of control? And they were part of the problem. Why we spread off hell's half acre and spent $9 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why we had a foreign policy and a commercial policy that allowed and paid for the rise of China. They were all part of that. They said they were Democrats. That's not just Democrats. It's the uniparty. And Conservative Inc. Is kind of the clapping seals of the uniparty. They did nothing. They had no fight. They never fought back. You go back to that stage where Raheem said at the beginning of the 16 or 17 candidates they had up there against Trump, none of those. You could combine all that and they couldn't have beaten Hillary Clinton. Their arguments are vacuous. It's really from a land that time forgot. This is the problems in New Jersey, in Youngkin's campaign for Sears, in Virginia, in the Commonwealth, in the governor's race in New Jersey. They're running on a playbook that's 1990s. It doesn't work anymore. The world has changed because they allowed it to change against America and American workers. Remember H1BS all this, everything we have up here. We had Natalie up last night about all the research is still being paid for by the United States and China. The Republicans know all that and they're good with it. Conservative Inc's good with it. They might write an editorial in the Wall Street Journal or talk about it in some salon in the Upper east side of New York, but that's all they're gonna do. They're gonna chit chat about it. Rahim, can you stick around for the next blockbuster? Brother, that's yours. I want to get into very specifically. This piece that you wrote is a warning. And remember, we need a mid course guidance here to get focus and to double down. We started with Treasure Day. Joe Lavornier. President Trump has done the hard work to date to make possible to return America to be a manufacturing superpower with high paying, high value, added jobs and economic growth. You just got to see it through. You got to hunker down. We have to finish what we started. If we do that, it's all going to be fine. Raheem Kassam's with us from the Daily Pulse. From the National Pulse.
H
Excuse me.
F
It is daily, but it's also national. Short break, back in a moment. You know, I didn't know this until the guys at Field of Greens, the doctors and the experts told me about it and then gave me information. It was fascinating. We have two ages, our actual age and our body's internal biological age. Additionally, what I didn't know is I've likely lowered my biological age without even knowing it. Here's the thing. Because Americans eat so many processed and ultra processed foods and not enough fruits and vegetables, many, perhaps most, are 10 years older on the inside than their actual their actual age. They're ticking time bombs. A major university study suggests how to slow aging and diffuse that biological time bomb. Participants slowed their aging by drinking Field of Greens. That's all. They didn't change their eating, drinking or exercise, just Field of Greens. I feel great knowing Field of Greens can slow how quickly I'm aging. And I encourage you to join me. Swap your untested fruit, vegetable or green drink for Field of Greens while there's time. 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 BEN and you get 20% off. Do it today. Here's your host, Stephen K. Bann Raheem, you wrote this amazing piece over at National Pulse. Walker Stewart, sir.
H
STEVE so, yeah, let me, let me conclude on the last segment as well, for people, based on what we were saying, because, you know, I don't want people getting the wrong idea either. You know, all of this, all of this performative Nazi and neo Nazi stuff that these guys are doing online, like, obviously, we don't care about that, but here's the thing. And, and we know this because we were the guys once and still are really, that were decried as the fascists and the extremists and the crazies and the nut jobs and, you know, whatever, is that there's a reason that people, and, you know, I'm aware that people are put off by a lot of the performative elements of this stuff. I am, too. And by the same with Tucker, by the way, a lot of the stuff that is purely performative. And he goes, oh, I never knew about that. And, you know, he knows about it. And they go, you know, that's, that's, that's their little shtick. You got to look past the shtick, and you've got to understand why these people have the audiences they have. And that's because there are still so many people out there who are left behind, who are feeling more left behind than ever. And that brings me on to my piece because we are now a decade in to this populist nationalist project proper, right? The, the, the things, the balls that we started rolling back in 2012 and 2013 through, you know, from, from your side of the pond here, Steve, to mine over in the United Kingdom, when we went around to the little town halls and the little seaside towns all across the United Kingdom, and we looked at what people were going through and we talked to understand, not to talk to create content, but to actually understand and to create a policy platform based on the struggles of these ordinary people's lives. And not just ordinary people, right, but people whose families and whose grandparents and great grandparents and great, great grandparents and whose entire family lineages have been sacrificed day upon day Whether it's in the mines, whether it's in the wars, you know, wherever it was and whenever it was that have created the world that we live in today and that we take for granted every day. And what happened was we saw that they had been shunned, disparaged, spat upon by an establishment who said, yeah, thanks, we'll take it from here, you know, thanks for all the hard work of your bloodline, but we'll take it from here. We got this now. We don't need you, you know, retire out to your little terrace somewhere off, you know, in some Newcastle suburb. We don't need you. And along with the information age came this ability for people like you and I and for those. To engage with those people. We did it every single morning, remember, for three hours on the old Breitbart news radio show, where we had a cross section of society, a cross section of America calling in. And they still remember it off the top of my head. Line one, Lewin, Connecticut. Line two, Vinnie in New York. Line three, Marianne in Delaware. You know, all of these people, and they stick in your mind. And there's a reason they do, because. Because they told us their ordinary stories of their ordinary lives and how much trouble they were being put in because of the factlessness and the carelessness and the wastefulness of the people who were supposed to be not just their elected representatives, but their leaders, too. The people, whether they will admit it openly or not, want leadership. And as we walk and stagger in to the midterms next year, I'm afraid that we are lacking in this leadership now. Well, there is leadership in America. In fact, that leadership is coming from a corporate class that have managed to capture so much of what I call MAGA Inc. Now, people who are not involved in this movement, who weren't there, by the way, when we were in 2013 and 14 building this thing from the ground up, let alone 2016. Right? Let alone the Brexit movement, let alone going through what you went through, let alone people who have not been, you know, they've not been persecuted for what they've done and what they believe, but they're here now. And what are they doing with the power that they have? Whether they're working in the administration or whether the consultants or whatever it is, they are just making moolah. They're just in it for the big bucks. And believe me, the bucks are big. You know, every single day on Capitol Hill, I go through several different phone calls of people just trying to throw cash around. Oh, we need the support for this. You know, we're trying to stop the antitrust people at the DOJ from looking into this, that and the other. And they take the cash and they run. And they run for the movement. They sell out the people who started this movement. And I'm not talking about you and I here, I'm talking about ordinary people again, right? Who really started this movement. They are really the true inheritors of the Make America Great Again of the America first movement. And so I started to talk in the last couple of days to friends of mine back in Europe, and I said, look, we know we went through 2016 together. We're coming onto a decade of this. Are you watching the midterms? And I think I spoke to like 15, 16 people at length about this. You know, political practitioners, reporters, smart people who have been there a long time, who I've known for a decade plus. Almost every single one of them, I think only one of them told me, ah, not really, I'm not really concerned about this. Almost to a man, every single one of them said, hey, listen, as goes America next year, as goes the MAGA movement, as goes the Republican Party's successes or failures in the midterms. So goes Europe. You know, when I spoke to people from France, I spoke to people from Hungary, I spoke to people from Italy, I spoke to people from the United Kingdom, people all across the continent, they all said the same. Thing is, we are very worried that you guys are sleepwalking into a shellacking and that as 2016, maybe you began with Brexit in a pure sense, in a pure electoral sense with Brexit, and then bounced over and you got the Trump wave over here, they're now worried about it bouncing back over in a negative sense. And the problem with it is that whether it's the 50 year mortgages or the $2,000 checks, or the bankers, the bank bosses, or the big pharma bosses hanging out in the Oval Office. People just don't feel like that we're walking into next year in a position of strength. And I happen to agree with them. People who have followed us for a long time and have followed my work for a long time will probably realize much, perhaps to Roger Kimball chagrin, is that I actually do like internecine warfare. I actually shine when it comes to pointing the light on our side and saying, we're getting this wrong, we're getting this wrong, we need to smarten up, we need to sharpen up on these things. And that's where we are now. I rarely make an appearance on this show anymore for a very good reason, is because I'm particularly focused on what we're doing wrong. Everybody can criticize the left. It's very easy. They make it easy for us. Yeah, we take the fight to them every single day. But the fight against the negative elements and the nefarious elements on our side is something that I will always be proud to fly the flag for. And this, this is what this piece is really about. They have, they have almost taken over the whole thing. And it is upon us to grasp it back, to wrestle it back.
F
We're gonna push it.
H
Otherwise we're gonna get killed next year.
F
Raheem Social media. Where do people go? National Pulse. Your substack, your all your social media. So we're pushing this article out hard today from the National Pulse.
H
Yeah, everything is at Raheem Kassam on social media. I have a new YouTube channel channel as well. You can find it there. The sub stack and thenationalpulse.com we are 100 member funded. 9 bucks a month is all we ask to support our work to reach people with this message. TheNationalPulse.com forward slash war room. TheNationalPulse.com Forward/Warham is where you go.
F
Thank you, brother. 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 adviser 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 in your financial future. His latest book, Money GPT, 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 rickardswarroom.com do it today.
Title: Fighting For Everyday Americans; Sleepwalking Into 2026
Date: November 14, 2025
Host: Stephen K. Bannon
Notable Guests: Rep. Eric Swalwell, Joe Lavornier (Treasury Dept.), Roger Kimball, Raheem Kassam
This episode focuses on the state of the MAGA movement approaching the crucial 2026 midterms, the economic policies impacting everyday Americans, ongoing intra-conservative disputes, and concerns about the direction and messaging of Trump's second-term administration. Bannon, alongside guests, explores challenges from within the conservative movement and external elite opposition, highlighting new legislation, conservative institutional power struggles, and the risk of losing touch with their base.
Foreign Policy:
Immigration & Economic Nationalism:
Guest: Joe Lavornier, Special Assistant to the Treasury Secretary
Guests: Roger Kimball, Raheem Kassam
Heritage Foundation Controversy:
GOP Establishment vs. MAGA:
Swalwell’s Defiance:
"I don't wake up every day going to work to fight Donald Trump. I fight for Californians. He just happens to get in the way." — Rep. Swalwell [01:00]
On Supply Side Tax Policy:
"That’s the key part. That's how you're going to improve affordability. ... The real wage is going to increase, and then the icing on the cake is workers after-tax wages are going to surge next year..." — Joe Lavornier [07:49]
Bannon on Conservative Establishment:
"They would rather... be in the minority where they're feeding off the carcass in the managed decline of the country than to fight." — Steve Bannon [29:21]
Roger Kimball on the Real MAGA Fight:
"The real battle here is not between Kevin Roberts and his support for Tucker. The real battle is between the Make America Great Again agenda..." — Roger Kimball [21:50]
Kassam on Movement Drift:
"The movement’s new elite have forgotten their core task—representing the interests of 'everyday Americans.'" [Summarizing Kassam’s essay, 44:39–51:53]
| Segment | Timestamps | |-----------------------------------------------|-------------| | Swalwell Interview, Lawsuit Discussion | 00:00–01:15 | | Venezuela Policy Briefing | 02:18–04:54 | | Treasury Tax Policy, CapEx, Manufacturing | 07:06–13:26 | | Heritage Foundation/MAGA tension (Kimball) | 18:29–31:10 | | Tech Bros’ Influence (Bannon, Kimball) | 32:27–36:11 | | Movement’s Cultural/Leadership Problems | 37:10–44:39 | | Raheem Kassam: 'Sleepwalking Into 2026' | 44:39–51:53 |
The discussion was sharp, direct, and combative, mixing high-level policy analysis with pointed attacks on both establishment Republicans and perceived “sellouts” in the populist camp. Bannon and Kassam in particular used blunt, urgent language—portraying the episode’s purpose as a call to arms to refocus the movement, close ranks, and beware both external and internal threats.