
Episode 5181: Where The Next Few Weeks Go With The War With Iran ...
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Pete Hegseth
Formerly Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is dead. This wretched and vile man had the blood of hundreds and even thousands of Americans on his hands and was responsible for the slaughter of countless thousands of innocent people all across many countries last night, all over Iran, the voices of the Iranian people could be heard cheering and celebrating in the streets when his death was announced. The entire military command is gone as well. And many of them want to surrender into saving their lives. They want immunity. They're calling by the thousands.
Steve Bannon
You know, will the real reason for
Jack Posobiec
this operation please stand up because it is changing by the hour, right? It's regime change. One moment.
Steve Bannon
It's some undefined imminent threat, which by the way, is a lie, right?
Jack Posobiec
There is no imminent threat.
Steve Bannon
I sit on the Intelligence Committee, the Armed Services Committee. I pay very close attention to this.
Jack Posobiec
And there is no imminent threat.
Steve Bannon
I can tell you that, Right?
Jack Posobiec
So what is really going on here?
General Raisin Kane
Turns out the regime who chanted death to America and death to Israel was gifted. Death from America and death from Israel. This is not a so called regime change war, but the regime sure did change and the world is better off for it. Brothers butchered by Iranian backed roadside bombs and well armed militias, thousands of our own. We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it. Their war on Americans has become our retribution against their Ayatollah and his death cult. To the media outlets and political left screaming, endless wars stop. This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both. Our generation knows better and so does this president. He called the last 20 years of nation building wars dumb. And he's right. This is the opposite. This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission. Destroy the missile threat, destroy the Navy, no nukes. Israel has clear missions as well, for which we are grateful. Capable partners. As we've said since the beginning, capable partners are good partners.
President Donald Trump
I just spoke to President Trump for several minutes about Iran. I asked him about who is going to take over now that the Ayatollah, the Supreme Leader, is gone. And his answer was interesting. He said the attack was so successful, it knocked out most of the candidates. He told me it's not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. I talked to him about the fact that the Iranians had tried to kill him. There was a plot in 2024, an Iranian plot to try to kill Trump. And he said of the Ayatollah, I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first. As for how long the war will go on. The President told me we always thought, he always thought it was going to be a four or five week deal. That's what he told me, a four or five week operation. He said it could be shorter and he was prepared to go longer. And about the three Americans who were killed, the President said it's war and you have casualties in war. He marveled at the fact that with all the operations he has conducted as president in Venezuela, one last summer in Iran and this one, that the total casualty count, American casualties is three. That's a quick summary of a rather lengthy conversation with President Trump tonight.
Pete Hegseth
Combat operations continue at this time in full force and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved. We have very strong objectives. They could have done something two weeks ago, but they just couldn't get there. Earlier today, CENTCOM shared the news that three US Military servicemembers have been killed in action. As one nation, we grieve for the true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives. We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen. And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That's the way it is, likely be more, but we'll do everything possible where that won't be the case. But America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against basically civilization. They have waged war against civilization itself.
Erik Prince
Iran is a place that could be wonderful without Hezbollah. Hezbollah has American blood on its hands. It killed those Marines 220, 18 sailors in 1983. And Ronald Reagan, the great Ronald Reagan left and never did a damn thing. Mr. President, unleash the American military. With Israel on Hezbollah tonight, finish these bastards off. They have American blood on their hands. And it shows you how desperate Iran is to have to rely upon Hezbollah. We have a chance here not only to take the mothership of terrorism down Iran, we also have a chance to eliminate one of the most lethal proxies in the Mideast. Hezbollah. Mr. President, do it and do it now. They're weak. We can take them out. And we should take them out. Between the United States and Israel, we got these bastards on the ropes.
John
Fight.
Erik Prince
Finish them off. Is President Trump finish the job that President Reagan failed to do? I am a big admirer of Ronald Reagan, but I'm here to tell you that Donald Trump, in my opinion, is the gold standard for Republicans. Maybe Any president when it comes to foreign policy. Maduro. Everybody talked about him. Well, Donald Trump's got him in jail. Cuba's next. They're going to fall this Communist dictatorship in Cuba. Their days are numbered. The Iranian regime, the mothership of international terrorism, is about to collapse. The captain of the ship, the Ayatollah, is stone cold dead.
Pete Hegseth
This is the duty and the burden of a free people. These actions are right, and they are necessary to ensure that Americans will never have to face a radical, bloodthirsty terrorist regiment armed with nuclear weapons and lots of threats. For almost 50 years, these wicked extremists have been attacking the United States while chanting the slogan, death to America or death to Israel or both. They are the world's number one state sponsor of terror. We are the world's greatest and most powerful nation, so we can do something about what they do. These intolerable threats will not continue any longer. I once again urge the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian military and police to lay down your arms and receive full immunity or face certain death. It will be certain death. Won't be pretty. I call upon all Iranian patriots who yearn for freedom to seize this moment to be brave, be bold, be heroic, and take back your country. America is with you. I made a promise to you and I fulfilled that promise. The rest will be up to you, but we'll be there to help. Thank you. God bless you. To our incredible warriors, and God bless the United States of America.
Erik Prince
I admired you. I never admired you more than I do right now. When it comes to Hezbollah and seize the moment here, they pick this fight. They join the fight. Make sure they pay a price.
General Raisin Kane
I heard the question about four weeks. It's the typical NBC sort of gotcha type question. President Trump has all the latitude in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take. Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It could move up, it could move back. We're going to execute at his command the objectives we've set out to achieve. And what he has shown ability to do that other presidents can't quite seem to have the aperture to do. Well, I mean, Joe Biden didn't even know what he was doing is to look for opportunities and off ramps and escalations for the United States. That creates new opportunities to execute what we need on our own timeline. So you can play games about four weeks, five weeks. He has all the latitude, and I'm glad he does, because there's no better communicator than our president expressing those things. I've been in meetings with the President for the last two and a half days. We know exactly where his headspace is, and he will communicate, as he should, exactly what he would like, and we will follow those orders. And I think he. Everything he said on that is right down the middle. Absolutely.
Jack Posobiec
Thank you, sir. As you've said, there are a large amount of U.S. service members that are in harm's way right now.
Brandon Weikart
What is your prayer for them?
General Raisin Kane
First of all, my prayer for them is that I do pray for them. My wife prays for them. Our family prays for them. Our Cabinet prays for them. None of this is done on a whim. Having been in their boots, having been in their shoes, having been in their flight suits, I think we, I mean, I know we think about them. With every decision that we make and every recommendation that we make to the President of the United States, those, those, those recommendations are made prayerfully. And when I pray every day for them and for this mission, I pray simply for the biblical wisdom to see what is right and the courage to do it. It's going to take courage to follow through on this. There's going to be a lot of noise, and we pray for that, and we hope all of you do as well. Thank you very much.
Steve Bannon
Appreciate it.
General Raisin Kane
Thank you.
Unidentified Analyst
Secretary Hecseth, I had two questions for you. First, are there currently any American boots on the ground in Iran?
Aaron Wrights
No.
General Raisin Kane
But we're not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do. I think it's one of those fallacies for a long time that this department or presidents or others should tell the American people and our enemies, by the way, here's exactly what we'll do. Here's exactly how long we'll go. Here's exactly how far we'll go. Here's what we're willing to do and not do. It's foolishness. And so President Trump ensures that our enemies understand we'll go as far as we need to go to advance American interests. But we're not dumb about it. You don't have to roll 200,000 people in there and stay for 20 years. We've proven that you can achieve objectives that advance American interests without being foolish about it. Now, will we be bold about it? Are we willing to be decisive about it? Do we put months and months of planning into what kind of effects we want to achieve?
Steve Bannon
Absolutely.
General Raisin Kane
But going forward, why in the world would we tell you, you, the enemy, anybody, what we will or will not do in pursuit of an objective, we fight to win. We fight to achieve the objectives the President of the United States has laid out. And we will do so unapologetically.
Erik Prince
Thank you to every American. You are safer tonight because the Ayatollah is dead. You're safer tonight because the largest state sponsor of terrorism is on the run. It's just not about a nuclear weapon. They have been killing Americans through their proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis for decades. It's about not just, not just nuclear weapons. It's about being the largest state sponsor of terrorism.
Jack Posobiec
What do we need to know? Well, Trace, what's amazing here is that the president has showed that for the first time, someone who comes in as a businessman, someone who didn't have a background in government, is able to achieve his objectives in the Middle east without boots on the ground. This isn't going to be a forever war. We're not seeing the gender studies programs in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We're not seeing the pallets of cash to the mullahs. We're seeing President Trump understanding what the situation is and figuring out how to deal with it smartly and swiftly and then hopefully getting home and getting to peace.
Steve Bannon
Okay, Monday, the 2nd of March, year of our Lord 2026. Just some logistics. There's going to be a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House at 11 o', clock, I believe the President, I think is actually we're hearing now may actually do a spray or talk to some reporters. So we got a pack show as we do on Saturday and Sunday, with the best brains in the business and best experience. But we may have to do some juggling and I'm sure you'll bear with us. So we'll be going to the president of the White House, Eric Prince. Aaron Wrights is also going to join a situation in Austin, Texas. Aaron's running for attorney General. He's going to update us on momentarily. Of course, Jack Bassobic. Jack, we didn't get to play the package. We have a whole package on General Raisin Cain. People should understand General Kane has just been a tremendous military advisor and architect and implementer execution of the plan for President Trump. A lot of credibility there. Jack, you've given a number of briefings. So with all that to kind of did the level reset, the level set today, we did have a briefing this morning. We played some of Pete's Hex Seths overall, but we didn't get to raising Kane. We'll do that later. But your assessment, particularly on the briefing itself of what we actually know and was some of this, we didn't see a Norman Schwarzkopf video, grainy video. Really didn't talk about the command structure because my understanding is that they've destroyed a lot more of the command structure than the Ayatollah. And 40 guys having a picnic with him. Is this because of opsec? Is operational security still paramount right now? And that's why they're being very close hold about putting up maps, putting up charts showing any video, sir.
Jack Posobiec
Well, Steve, let's go back. Right. Rewind the clock back to June of 2025, when Operation Midnight Hammer was conducted. That was General raising Kane at his finest. That was the tech. He gave us the technical briefing. He explained how those bunker busters worked. He explained the, the angle, the diameter, he explained exactly how the holes work, how they punched through, etc. Etc. Everything that took place to those underground bunkers, that was done. That was the level of briefing that we got after Midnight Hammer. Didn't have that here. And perhaps one of those reasons is because, you know, we were told B2 bombers came in, conducted another bombing run. We didn't get a lot of specificity about that. But also, Steve, to your point, on the leadership, Marco Rubio briefed over the weekend that it was in fact Israel that's been taking the lead in focusing on these leadership, these decapitation strikes. Looks like Israel was the one that led the strike on Ayatollah Khomeini. And so, of course, the question remains, what is the level of intelligence sharing between Israeli Special Forces, between Mossad intelligence and the United States? Are their operations being conjunct, conducted directly with us, or are they doing things and then telling us after the fact
Steve Bannon
that, and by the way, is it isn't. Isn't. Isn't that. Isn't the hit on, on senior, on their senior regime, Wasn't that predicated principally by CIA intelligence? That's what I'm hearing. Are you hearing that it's more shared a Mossad or Shin Bet, or was it CIA intelligence that actually maybe even did the targeting? The Israelis actually dropped a hammer.
Jack Posobiec
From what I'm hearing, it's that the, the, the intelligence was American, but the operation was Israeli.
Pete Hegseth
Yes.
Jack Posobiec
And, and that being, and that being said, it, you know, it remains to be seen what level of operations Israel is still conducting. And look, if they're still conducting these operations, they may not want to put that information out because, because the fact that the Iranians have lost this C2, they want to keep, for strategic, strategic ambiguity. They want to keep the leadership guessing as to who exactly is alive who is not. You saw foreign minister even sort of mentioned this himself yesterday when he said IRGC units are isolated and operating independently. That means that a lot of these attacks you're seeing on the Gulf partners, this is part of a contingency plan that was put in place. Should, should leadership communications be severed. This was the plan attack US and US Allies across the Gulf.
Steve Bannon
Erik Prince on Saturday you had some concerns about this. Are you more comfortable that it looks like they're going through, as Captain Fennell walked us through over the weekend, that they're going through a pretty systematic degradation, particularly of command and control and the Iranians and the Persians ability to have even organized strikes back. Because it looks like what they're hitting us back with is a little haphazard. I do understand, and probably for operations security reason, maybe they're not talking about in depth, but my understanding is they've gone pretty deep in the command structure, people saying the battalion or brigade level of even taking out some of these bad IRGC folks. Your thoughts on Monday, sir?
Brandon Weikart
Well, the thing about taking out the top of their command structure means that the bottom is still very much intact. And they also, the Iranian foreign minister said that they had delegated authority and responsibility to the lowest level units to maximize their fight. And the straits of Hormuz are closed. The Rashtanoor facility in Saudi Arabia, which flows 6, it's a loading terminal for 6 million barrels a day of crude. It was hit, fire, fire was put out. Fortunately, the Qataris just took off 20% of the world's gas production from their, from their facility, which has also been attacked. So even if there's a lot of command and control at the senior levels that have been damaged, if they can still launch the hundreds, if not thousands of drones they still have, there can be significant economic damage. I think it's a great opportunity for the President to declare a win. They did. They took out the leadership of Iran, the people that killed those protesters over the last months. And if they negotiate with the mullahs or whatever for some kind of transition, give them the city of Mashad like a, almost like a Vatican where the mullahs can go and be super Islamic and strict and let the rest of Iran breathe free if they want to. But ultimately it's the Iranian people's opportunity to do this. It is not our, it's not up to our air power, our troops and our blood to fix it. Look, America owes a debt of gratitude to France, remember, because it's the French navy that showed up at Yorktown, which Assisted us to trap Cornwallis army, giving us the victory at Yorktown. The United States has done a great gift to the Iranian people by removing their leadership and degrading some of their capabilities. But ultimately this has to be decided by the Iranian people on the ground. If I were the president, I would not encourage him to go deeper and deeper on this. Treat this almost like or the way the Romans used to do a punitive raid at the edge of empire when they had a misbehaving state. They would send a Roman general like Scipio Africanus who punished Carthage after Carthage had been rotting up and down Italy and Spain. Remember, Hannibal was the one that took the elephants all the way to Rome. But use this as a punitive raid. Pound them for a few days and then leave.
Steve Bannon
Don't get caught in the. If I remember my history, if my remember our history, I think Scipio Africanus took it part brick by brick and salted the earth. Maybe it's more than one or two. But your point is one of these Roman punitive raids and. Or Viking raid where you go in and punch hard. You heard today discussion. The president told Jonathan Carl again in an interview, hey, it could be four or five weeks. I'm not going to put a timeline on it. Your, your advice is that you think you get hit hard enough in the next couple of days because the, the new guy that's kind of, you know, that's kind of their spokesman or leadership spokesman. He's not a religious clerk. He's saying we have no interest in talking right now. The president said, hey, I'm open to talk. He said it the other day. But they're not, they're not interested in talking. So how do you get your off ramp or your hey, let's get this done in 24, 48, 72 hours instead of five or six weeks. That punch, you have to have somebody on the other side to actually talk to. Let them do a transition, get back in a room and talk about their nuclear program. How do you do that?
Brandon Weikart
That's a good question, Steve. That's why I counseled against this kind of strike in the first place. But now that we've done it, go as hard as possible for a few days and then. And then pull back.
Aaron Wrights
Okay.
Steve Bannon
What would. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. What would Erik Prince's. If this is a Roman punitive raid like the Empire used to do, or even the Republicans, if you're going to hit them, what is your recommendation? You're an expert. What do you from what you've seen in operational security, they haven't put a lot out. But what would you do in the next 24 to 48 hours to make sure that they understood? This is rough Roman justice. The Persians should respond to that. They got enough of it when those two empires wanted each other, sir.
Brandon Weikart
Every irgc, not that they would be in the barracks anymore, but anything that was of value to the IRGC that enables the IRGC could swarm force Mois to continue to suppress the people, bomb the hell out of those, and then be done and then cut away. And then tell the Iranian leadership that remains, if we have to come back, we're going to take apart all your economic infrastructure. The problem is, the problem with bombing, with picking a fight now with Iranian cleric religious extremists is they are really willing to die for their cause and they will take everything else with them and they will burn down the rest of the Middle East. I suspect they will continue to launch drone attacks into the rest of the GCC countries. Hell, they even built, they even hit Cyprus yesterday, the British base at Akwateri, because there's US aircraft launching from there. So they have the ability to punch, punch much harder than we suspected. For all the smoke and thunder about the US action against the Houthis, the fact is the Houthis are still there controlling the same terrain with significant weapons load. And for those period of months, they effectively shut off the Suez Canal at the southern end. And now we're thinking we're going to do the same to the Iranians in their home country with as much as they've been stockpiling. Look, the Russians have been at war in Ukraine for four years. The Iranians have been learning. The Russians bought that shahed drone for 20, $30,000 apiece. And they have produced many, many improved variants of it. And so the Iranians certainly have been learning they had good capability before they reinvested. And for us to have to shoot down a shahed drone with a 1 million, 2 million, $3 million Raytheon PAC 3 level missile, it's really, really bad math. And on top of that, we lost three F15s today. It's probably an accident. It was probably a friendly fire incident. Not sure. I doubt it was not over Iranian territory. But it's an other important note. To my knowledge, there are not a lot of US aircraft going over Iranian territory getting after these targets. So again, the President should call a win. Like he said in his comments. I have paid my debt to the Iranian people. I removed this leadership which killed them now leave it to the Iranian people. The other thing that the administration should do is it's ripe for a change in Afghanistan. Even the Taliban are sick of their leaders, not to mention all the other ministers, all the other former generals, all normal Afghans. They very much want to shift back to the middle and be closer to America, make a couple of quick changes there and go to Bagram. And now you have a staging area that you can threaten Iran from if you need to.
Steve Bannon
Hang on one second. I want to come back. I want to hold you for a minute. I want to talk about that Cyprus, because Matt Bol was in Greece last week and said how the Turks, the Greeks, everybody were concerned about this and they hit Cyprus yesterday or tried to hit Cyprus. So hang on for a second. Jack Bosobic, as we go to break here, your thoughts on Eric's Roman punitive strike or a Viking strike. Hit him, hit him hard and then say, hey, it's your deal, you take it from there. What would that mean in your definition as a naval intelligence officer? A Roman punitive strike on Iran that would take a couple more days would look like what?
Jack Posobiec
Well, you remember, I mean, this is what Rome would do. They would take out the leader and then they would see who comes up next, see if they wanted to cut a deal. If that guy didn't want, they take him out and then they'd keep going down the line up until they found a leader that was willing to make a deal. Look, you know, we could see exactly how that's done. President Trump, I believe in remarks to ABC last night, Jonathan Karl said something along the lines of how the second and third runners up for who they thought would take the leadership of Iran were also killed in Israeli strikes. So they're actually now looking for either that leader or potential group to be able to take the reins. But we're also seeing, you know, parsing the tea leaves here. We're also seeing the administration say that this again, this isn't regime change, this isn't a forever war, that this isn't going to be nation building like we saw in Iraq and Afghanistan, but instead it's taking out the current leadership and then working with who remains after. What does that look like? That looks like Maduro. That looks like exactly the Venezuela model that we saw just last month, last early February. So, you know, I think that seems to be where the administration is settling in this. Look, you get to the point where you have stable leadership where they're able to meet the president's objectives. I think the Objectives clearly have been met. You saw that from Secretary Hegseth as well this morning, stating it several times. They may have some more objectives that we don't know about yet. But it does look as though the President has the ability now to, to find that stable leadership, cut the deal, ensure peace, and do so swiftly and smartly rather than get into a prolonged and protracted conflict.
Steve Bannon
Do you really believe there's stable leadership over there? I mean, you were talking about the hardcore. What's left would be, you know, a couple of tiers down on the irgc. I mean, is that your idea of stability? Also when you go down and layer like, like Fennell said, you take it down layer by layer. To Eric's point, they're still getting off shots, taking out oil facilities, loading facilities in Saudi Arabia. They're going after the gas fields in Qatar, all the things people are concerned about. We got about a minute. What about that? Is there stable leadership there? And if you peel this back and keep peeling it back, they keep dropping these pop shots. How long do you stick around?
Jack Posobiec
Well, Steve, remember the secular president, the civil president of Iran is still in place. The foreign minister is still in place. So while the religious leadership has been removed, at least in terms of the Ayatollah, we know the ayatollah has family members that survived. His son's still alive. We know there's mullahs that still, that are still there, as well as the civilian leadership that does remain in place. And again, these IRGC units that are operating under the standing orders from the previous Ayatollah, should the Ayatollah be killed, that's when they embark on what the asymmetric warfare that we're now seeing. Striking those economic implements, striking the oplat, striking pipeline, striking the ports. Again, this is the asymmetric war, that radar system, billion dollar radar system out in Qatar. So the asymmetric warfare campaign has been continuing. But remember, a lot of the civilian leadership is still there in Iran.
Steve Bannon
Okay, stick around. Erik Prince, Jack Vesovi. And joined by others, Aaron writes, is this war spreading to the great state of Texas? A FBI is investigating Karen Terrorism unit investigating this shooting, a mass casualty event in Austin, Texas. Aaron Wright's a combat veteran that is running for the Attorney General is going to join us here in a moment. As we've told you before, gold for 5,000 years has been a hedge for things like Carthage. Incipio Africanus. Take your phone out. Bannon B A N N O N 989-898 Talk to Philip Patrick and the team at Birch Gold about why gold has been a hedge for 5,000 years of man's recorded history. Short Break A new year means new financial goals like making sure your savings are secure and diversified. Will this be the year you finally listen to me and talk to someone from Birch Gold Group? Honestly, they're great people. I appreciate their educational approach and their understanding of macroeconomics. There are forces pushing the dollar lower and gold higher, which is why they believe every American should own physical gold. So until February, if you are a first time gold buyer, Birchgold is offering a rebate of up to $10,000 on qualifying purchases. To claim eligibility and start the process, just text Bannon at 989-898. Birch Gold can help you roll an existing IRA or 401K into an IRA in gold and you're still eligible for a rebate of up to $10,000. Make right now your first time to buy gold and take advantage of a rebate of up to $10,000. When you buy by February 27, text my name Bandit 989898 and claim your eligibility today. Remember, text Bannon B A N N O N to 989-898. You've got to the end of February 27th February to qualify up to a $10,000 rebate. The world is getting more unstable and chaotic every day. It seems like everyone, everywhere you look there's another crisis, another controversy, another conflict or just outright catastrophe. You can't control what happens out there, but you can control how you prepare for it. You can make sure that no matter what happens, you have the basics covered in case one of these disasters reaches your doorstep. You know things like having enough food to eat when the shelves are empty. And when it comes to my family's food security, I trust my Patriot supply. They've helped millions of Americans get prepared and they have over 90,000 five star reviews right now. You can get their best selling 3 month emergency food supply kit for 100 bucks off. My Patriot Supply almost never offers a deal like this. To take advantage of it, go to preparewithbannon.com that's all one word. Preparewithbannon.com this food kit gives you 2,000 calories a day, last up to 25 years. And best of all, it's $100 off for a limited time. Go to preparewithbannon.com and get yours right now. That's preparewithbannon.com make sure you know all one word preparewithbannon.com Special deal 100 bucks off. Do it today.
Erik Prince
This Morning. Police in Austin, Texas, along with the FBI are investigating whether a deadly mass shooting there is connected to the US War on Iran. This happened at a bar in the busy entertainment district. Authorities say the shooter was armed with a pistol and assault rifle and started firing out of the window of his suv. Two people are dead, 14 others wounded. Police shot and killed, killed the suspect. CNN's Holmes Library joins us now with the latest on this. What are the details? What are you learning?
John
That's right, John. So this individual armed with a pistol, with a rifle did end up shooting two individuals who died as well as 14 others. Now investigators are looking at whether there is a nexus in terms of the attacks on Iran. This individual was seen with a shirt that had the Iranian flag and there other items that were found that kind of give investigators this potential idea that he may have been motivated by the recent attacks by the US Against Iran. Now something to kind of contextualize that is this individual also who originally from Senegal, became a U.S. citizen in 2013, has had mental health issues and mental health instances with authorities in the state of Texas that also could be part of this and it is certainly part of, of the investigation. Now all of this also ties into the FBI and DHS really being on high alert for any potential attacks on US Soil inspired by the attack against Iran. We already have multiple assassination plots that have been foiled by Iranian government in the US that's including against President Donald Trump twice as well as his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his former national security adviser John Bolton. So this is certainly something that investigators will continue to look into. It is, it is something that they are very concerned about, especially in these early days after the attacks against Iran.
Steve Bannon
For our seven day a week coverage yesterday morning, I'm really proud of Rev and our own team here at War Room putting together. I want to David, Nino Rodriguez, the great podcaster, former boxer, the head that we talked our show came on at 10 o' clock Eastern time yesterday. We talked at 7 and David kind of had this story but we didn't feel comfortable enough that we had enough verification by FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force that we that's why we didn't put it up here. So I want to give a hat tip to Nino who actually had this story. Aaron writes. Aaron, first off, you've served your country in these bad neighborhoods, your thoughts of what you've seen over the last 24:48 hours and then specifically you're running basically as the law and order candidate in the attorney General's Race in Texas. Your thoughts about this weekend, sir?
Aaron Wrights
Yeah, look, I think it's as you teed up in that CNN clip, right? It's. We're asking to. We see a guy who came into Austin, Texas. He's wearing a shirt that says Property of Allah. He's wearing under that sweatshirt a flag of the. Of Iran. They found a Quran in his vehicle. We know that he's from Senegal, which is a Muslim majority country. And now we're being asked to speculate about what his motive is. And look, I appreciate that law enforcement has to sort of be very careful about what they say publicly, but for civilians that are watching this sort of thing, there is no question that this guy is an example of the spreading jihad not only into the United States in general, but in Texas in particular. And this is something you've covered and I've been on this show before to talk about the Islamification that is happening in Texas. We know exactly what motivated this guy. We know exactly what led to him coming here. A lot of people make this distinction between illegal immigration and legal immigration. Okay, illegal immigration is bad, but legal immigration is good. Well, let me tell you something. This terrorist who killed two people and injured at least 14 was technically a legal immigrant. The problem is that we have such a lax immigration system that not only have we allowed the invasion of tens of millions of illegal aliens, but we've rubber stamped all of these so called legal immigrants. And this is why I've called for several things as the next Texas Attorney General. Number one, we need to treat the Sharia pushers, the Islamification pushers, like the feds have treated the mafia in the latter half of the 20th century. We've got to smoke them out. Number two, we have got to audit all of the so called legal immigrants that have come here over the past couple of decades to ensure that they comply with the highest standards of federal law, statutes and case law. And number three, we need to get rid of these so called gun free zones, which is just another word for we're here as sitting ducks. Zones. That's why terrorists like this man from Senegal came and shot up a bar because of the 51% law. He knew that people wouldn't be in there armed and that he could just open fire and slaughter a bunch of Americans. And so look, we know what inspired this guy. Law enforcement has to do their due diligence to speculate. But as an observer myself, and as your audience darn well knows, we know exactly what motivated this guy. And when I'm elected Attorney General we are going to smoke out the sorts of networks that inspired this man to commit his act of terror and we're going to get them all out of Texas.
Steve Bannon
Aaron, the governor has designated Muslim Brotherhood and CARE as terrorist organization, but obviously he's going to leave it up to the Attorney General to implement this. As Attorney General, what do you tell our audience you will do in that regard, sir?
Aaron Wrights
Well, the governor declared, as you said, declared these entities foreign terrorists and transnational criminal organizations back in November. That was a great move because in that executive order it unlocked a whole wing of the armory of legal weapons that we can use to smoke out the Islamic network here in Texas. And so the Attorney General now has new tools in the Texas Property Code, the Civil Practices and Remedies Code, the Health and Safety Code, the penal code, all these other provisions under state law. The AG now has access to those tools. One of the campaign promises I've been making on the campaign trail from the very beginning, for the last nine months is that I'm going to treat the Islamic network here in Texas like the Feds treated the mafia in the 70s, 80s and 90s. How many mob bosses did we put behind bars for committing murder in the latter half of the 20th century? The answer is not very many. Why? Because they're sophisticated. They wipe their fingerprints off the weapons that they committed their heinous acts with. But what we got them with instead were the process crimes, the financial crimes, the money laundering, the racketeering, RICO violations, human sex and drug trafficking, tax fraud, tax evasion, all of these sorts of things to where we created a bramble Bush of litigation, investigations, regulations that crippled their ability to operate and choke them out. We can do the same exact thing here in Texas. As Attorney General, I have vast constitutional, statutory, regulatory and administrative weapons and tools at my disposal to ensure that the kinds of networks that aided, abetted, gave cover and inspired this act of terror. Here in Austin, where I live, frankly, I drive by Buford's where this act was committed all the time right here in downtown Austin. We are going to stop this sort of thing and we're going to roll back the Islamification. We're then going to partner with the federal government, the Trump administration, to conduct a widespread audit of legal immigration paperwork. We're going to re migrate these people that came here over the past couple of decades and I'm going to partner with the legislature to get rid of so called gun free zones. All of these are critical actions that the next Attorney General needs to take. Tomorrow is election day. Tuesday, March 3 Texans need to get to the polls and vote Aaron Reichs for Texas Attorney General if we're going to effectuate all of these things.
Steve Bannon
Last thing, the the grassroots and MAGA champion Ken Paxton endorsed you. Give me a minute. Why did he do that? And what about his agenda? Did he endorse you because he wanted to see you fulfill his agenda? Why did he endorse you among all the candidates and what are you going to implement of his agenda?
Aaron Wrights
Yeah, look, Axon has been in office serving our state ferociously, effectively for the past 12 years as Attorney General. The number one question that Texans have on the campaign trail in the grassroots is who is going to be able to keep his foot on the pedal, keep his foot on the gas to continue and even amplify the sorts of effective fights that Paxton has gotten us involved in and got us victory in. When Paxton endorsed me earlier this fall, he made it very clear about why he endorsed me. He said, Aaron Rights is the only battle tested, proven and qualified candidate that I trust to carry on the baton into the next generation of legal fights up and down the chain of the justice system. Paxson has known all of the candidates in this race for decades and yet he said Aaron is the only guy who has proven himself in legal combat, leading legal troops into the most consequential legal fights to deliver legal victories for Texas, for our nation and for our constitutional values. If Texans want somebody who has been endorsed by Paxton, trusted by Trump. I most recently came from the senior ranks of President Trump's Justice Department. Trump called me a true MAGA attorney and a warrior for the Constitution. Who's trusted by Trump, endorsed by Paxton and who has a Marines fighting spirit. Fighting spirit to advance our values in court. It's Aaron Wright's for Texas Attorney General tomorrow. Tuesday is election day. Get out to the polls. Aaron writes for Texas ag.
Steve Bannon
Aaron, thank you for joining us, making that clear. Appreciate you, sir. Jack Posobec, you've been one of the leaders of saying, hey look, this war is going to metastasize. It's already gone to Cyprus. I know people in Greece as bold talk to in Turkey are saying what these guys hit Cyprus, but it's also a war at home. You've been one of the leading voices to say hey look, we got to get serious about this. Your thoughts about Austin, Texas and what it means as we continue on, at least what the what Pete's talking about. They're not going to give exact timeline, but the arc that they've thrown out there is another four or five weeks. And I guess you get news from Jake Tapper that the worst is yet to come.
Jack Posobiec
Well, Steve, to be fair, I'm not citing Jake Tapper on this. I'm citing Donald J. Trump, who called in to cnn. He stated that the US Military knocking the crap out of Iran, but the big wave is yet to come. He said it's going, I think it's going very well. It's very powerful. We've got the greatest military in the world and we are using it. He also said, I don't want to see it go on too long. I always thought it would be four weeks and we are a little ahead of schedule. And so he said we want everyone staying inside. It's not safe out there. Again, he's talking about the protesters maybe, maybe sort of explaining why we haven't seen those mass protests materialize in terms of opposition groups to the regime. And then again saying that the biggest surprise was Iran's attacks against the Arab countries in the region, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. So the Gulf is as they're called in the region, these partner forces. Saudi Arabia also attacked, by the way. And so you hear the president saying he expected four weeks. We had reported that originally over at Human Events and now saying that he believes they are ahead of schedule. Also says in terms of succession, we don't know who the leadership is. This is, and this is key, by the way. We don't know who they will pick. Maybe they will get lucky and get someone who knows what they're doing. So that says to me that, that it does actually look like the United States may not be trying to play a role in picking who the successor will be on the supreme leader side as the ayatollah from those mullahs, that perhaps the United States will be trying to sit back and actually let the Iranian people, the Iranian leadership be able to reconstitute there, talking about being ahead of schedule, look, achieving those objectives that Pete Hegseth said, that's what I was talking about last night when I was on Fox. That's what I'll say here again, President Trump swiftly, smartly, and then hopefully be able to return home and return to peace very quickly.
Steve Bannon
You know the president, you know him very well, loves, always wants optionality and always wants a range of return alternatives, never wants to signal too much of what he's going to do. He has said, hey, I'm open to talk to people. If you get actually leaders there, I'm prepared to talk to him. But people should take your number two principle. And write down when he says we haven't really hit hard. The big wave is coming. We got 30 seconds. Jack, what, what do you take from that?
Jack Posobiec
Look, he just showed that the B2s were able to get in and get out without taking any shrapnel. Not taking any flak. He's certainly able to do so. I've talked about as well. We haven't seen attacks on civilian infrastructure as much yet. Maybe, you know, a couple of pipelines here and there, but not too much in terms of oil platforms and other economics implements, which certainly could be responded to after seeing what Iran did to so many of the Gulf partners in terms of their asymmetric warfare. So the escalatory ladder has many rungs left on it with which the President can ratchet up the leverage.
Steve Bannon
Jack Hanger for one second. Short commercial break so big Brandon Weikart on the other side. We rejoice when there is no more. Let's take down the ccp. If you can make one holiday wish, would you wish to be free from your credit card and other debt? Let's see if we can help you with that. If we could give yourself one gift this holiday season, would it be finally to get some relief from your credit card and other debt? I might have a solution. Here's why. Now's the time to make a move. This time of year, credit card and loan companies close out their books. They clean up past due accounts. They sell or write off the debt to clear their books. That means if you have credit card debt and unpaid bills, lenders may be more open to negotiating and settling your account before you're in. That means right now, and I mean right now, you may actually have leverage. And Done With Debt knows how to use this to your advantage. They monitor lender trends and understand the year end pressure on creditors. They used that timing to negotiate hard on your behalf. Now's the time to get out from under crushing debt and interest payments without bankruptcy or taking on new loans. Done With Debt goes to work for you Month one with one clear goal to reduce your total debt and leave you with more money every month. Get started now because your leverage may disappear at the end of the year. Chat with a Done with debt specialist@donewithdebt.com that's donewithdebt.com donewithdet.com do it today. He said there is a plan.
Pete Hegseth
He points to Venezuela as a template
Steve Bannon
which means to me that going in they had some sense on the ground
Brandon Weikart
of what was coming next.
Aaron Wrights
Wow.
Steve Bannon
Where did we hear that first, Jack Bosobic, I think that might have been the war room talk about the Venezuelan where you've actually, you're gonna think you're gonna line something up with who's left and then you move on your thoughts. By the way, we're hearing right now there's a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House and somebody's just reporting that President Trump may actually address their, in a spray or a with media, the Iranian people and talk directly to them. So we're going to cover all this and we have to juggle some breaks. We'll juggle some breaks. Jack, your thoughts right there. You and I talked about this extensively about the Venezuelan model. That would lead, that would lead me to believe the Roman punitive hit is kind of the operating philosophy here, sir.
Jack Posobiec
Well, Steve, again, you know this, this weekend I've been working the phones. You've been working the phones. We've been in discussion with members of, you know, high, high level, high level individuals. And you know, this, this tone, this rhetoric, this idea of the Venezuelan model certainly is something that has been shaken out because look, going back on the success of the Maduro raid which President Trump spoke about at the State of the Union, which was less than a week ago, I would remind everyone, less than a week ago we gave that command performance at the State of the Union. Now conducting this operation, this weekend operation in Iran, if this thing is able to be put to bed quickly, you could see something like the Venezuelan model being put forward. That's what we talked about yesterday here on the War Room. That's what we're seeing now, the president saying to Bret Baer over at Fox and it certainly seems to be an angle that I think the United States would be hopeful for. Now, the question, of course as to what does Iran do, do you have these elements of the IRGC that continue going what does Israel do? Does Israel sue for peace or does Israel try to take out more leaders? A lot of this remains to be seen. But President Trump, we are told that Medal of Honor ceremony coming up supposed to be 11am Eastern and he will potentially be speaking to press and potentially to the Iranian people as well.
Steve Bannon
Jack, your coverage has been amazing. You got Human events daily at 2, you're up all the time on, on Twitter and then you've been great jumping in here in the war room. Where do people follow you, sir? And particularly get ready for you've got a very special engagement. Also besides Human Events Daily, what else are you doing today?
Jack Posobiec
We do so encourage everyone to Follow our special coverage of human events daily. Download the podcast Apple Spotify. That really helps us out. That really helps to support us and everything that we're doing. We're also going to be doing special. Just to let everyone know, we will be doing special coverage with the Thought Crime crew over at the Charlie Kirk team for the Texas primaries on Tuesday and then potentially another thought crime episode on Thursday. And today I'll be on Piers Morgan. I'm going to be having a little debate with Tim Miller, Dave Smith, some of the others on Iran and you know, really just kind of chopping it up. So that'll be a lot of fun. Look for that.
Steve Bannon
Hold on, hold on. Dave Smith at the Guardian and Tim Miller at the ball work. Jack Boba.
Jack Posobiec
No, no, Dave Smith, the, the, the comedian, podcaster Dave Smith.
Steve Bannon
Oh, got it, got it, got it. Okay, fine. Where else, where do we go one more time to find you? We don't want to miss the, the, the, the piers more. Going to be up at 5 or 6 o'. Clock.
Jack Posobiec
Yeah, yeah, we pre tape it and then it'll come out later.
Steve Bannon
Okay, fine. Where do people go? Sir? Get you.
Jack Posobiec
Human Events Daily is always the one stop shop for everything we're putting out.
Steve Bannon
Thank you, sir. Brandon, you called this? Yeah, go ahead, sir. Jack, if, if I could.
Jack Posobiec
By the way, one thing that we're working on before all this went together, we, we went up this weekend to, and we're going to be putting a special video out of if people remember the Team usa when Huffington Post was attacking Team USA and was attacking the American flag, there was one organization, one business establishment that actually stood up for them and, and told the Huffington Post to go F yourself. And that was Jimmy's Famous Seafood out of Dundalk, Maryland. Well, the Poso clan took the, took to the road and we went out to Jimmy's Famous Seafood. We told them that we were with Turning Point. They knew exactly who we were. And we're going to be putting a special video out on that. And I would just encourage everyone in the wardroom posse go and support the great patriots at Jimmy's Famous Seafood. They ship nationwide, these guys. Steve, I got to tell you something, man. I have never had crab cakes like I've had these crab cakes. You will not believe it.
Steve Bannon
Unbelievable. Can't wait, can't wait for it, sir. Jimmy's Special Seafood. Make sure we get it up there. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you, Jack. Brandon Weickert, you've had a cold shot on the star of this. Not too shabby over the weekend. What do you got for us? Before the president states takes the stage on this Medal of Honor ceremony we're going to cover. He's also supposed to talk to the press and maybe directly to the Iranian people. Your thoughts, sir?
Unidentified Analyst
Well, I am, as I noted the last time I was on, getting very concerned about these stockpiles in the CENTCOM area of responsibility. It looks like we have maybe about a week left if we keep at this operational tempo now, they're going to try to stretch that out our logistics people. But if this thing keeps going at the, the tempo that it is, we will run out of the critical stockpiles of air defense interceptors and missiles for centcom, which means our logistics guys are going to have to then pivot and start pulling systems from the indopacom aor, which is causing a lot of dyspepsia, to say the least among the guys I know at Indo paycom because that could leave a strategic window open for China to do something big and bold against Taiwan or the Philippines. So if this conflict can in fact end up being a punitive raid like you and Eric were talking about, then Trump comes out looking like a genius. Otherwise we're going to have, he's going to have a headache because we're going to then have to start stretching our logistics chain and it's going to be problematic. The regime in Iran has been damaged, it has been degraded, but it has not been destroyed. And their only objective in this war right now is to hang on until they think we're, we're running out of weapons. So this still race depletion.
Steve Bannon
Hang on for a second because I want to hold you, want to get you back in here. I want, I want to ask you point blank, what's it going to take? Captain Fennell's been saying, going layer by layer, what's it going to take? Because President Trump's not going to want, just degrade. He's, I believe, wants to destroy. And can you do that in 72 hours or is that the four or five week menu? Okay, folks, we got some logistics issues and that's because so much happening with so many great people that want to come on here, want to thank Saturday and Sunday shows I think were really extraordinary and we're trying to do that level and quality every day. President, though, I think is going to have a Medal of Honor ceremony. We do not want to miss that. I also believe he's going to address at least maybe take some questions, talk to the press. Now, there's some rumors he may actually address part of this to the Iranian people. As you know, he's this is about he's a very big believer in freeing the Iranian people, are giving them the opportunity he said will never come again in generations to actually get their freedom. We're gonna take a short commercial break also, folks. Go to birchgold.com right now. End of the dollar empire. Go check it out. It's learned you up pretty well. We're working on the eighth free installment. Seven are up there already. And you also get a hard edition of the Patriots edition. Short commercial break. We're going to return in the war room. Just a moment. Do you owe back taxes or you haven't filed your taxes in years? Now is the time to resolve your tax matters. With the national conversation around abolishing the income tax, the IRS is fighting back, improving. It's here to stay by becoming more aggressive than ever before before. They're sending out more collection notices, filing more tax liens and collecting billions more in recent years. If you owe, the IRS can garnish your wages, levy your bank accounts, seize your retirement and even your home if you owe or haven't filed. It's not a question of if the IRS will act, it's a question of when it will act. Right now, Tax Network USA is offering a completely free IRS research and discovery call to show you exactly where you stand and what they can stop before it's too late. Their powerful programs and strategies can save you thousands or even eliminate your debt entirely if you qualify. Don't make a costly mistake representing yourself or calling the IRS on your own waives your rights and cost you more money. They are not, and let me repeat, the IRS is not on your side. Get protected the right way with Tax Network USA and start the process of settling your tax matters once and for all today. Call 1-800-958-1000. That's 1-800-958-10000 or visit tnusa.com Bannon for your free discovery call with Tax Network USA. Let me repeat, 800-958-100. Tell them Bannon sent you. Don't let the IRS be the first to act. Take advantage of first mover advantage.
Jack Posobiec
You move.
Title: Where The Next Few Weeks Go With The War With Iran
Date: March 2, 2026
Host: Steve Bannon
Guests & Co-Hosts: Pete Hegseth, Jack Posobiec, General Raisin Kane, Erik Prince, Aaron Wrights, Brandon Weikart, various analysts
This urgent episode of Bannon’s War Room, broadcast the day after Ayatollah Khamenei’s death and the effective decapitation of Iran’s military command, focuses on the rapidly evolving U.S.-Iran conflict. The show analyzes the operation’s intent, military and political implications, risks of escalation, consequences for both Iran and the Middle East, and reactions on American soil—including a mass shooting in Texas possibly tied to war-related tensions. The discussion features real-time intelligence, high-level insights, and advocacy for decisive U.S. military and legal action at home and abroad.
“The entire military command is gone... they want immunity. They're calling by the thousands.” — Pete Hegseth [00:45]
“It's some undefined imminent threat, which by the way, is a lie.” — Steve Bannon [00:56]
“There is no imminent threat.” — Jack Posobiec [01:01]
“This is not Iraq. This is not endless... This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission.” — Gen. Raisin Kane [01:35]
“It knocked out most of the candidates. ... It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead.” — President Trump (reported by correspondent) [02:49]
“I got him before he got me.” — President Trump (re alleged assassination plots) [03:09]
“America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against basically civilization.” — Pete Hegseth [04:49]
“We got these bastards on the ropes.” — Erik Prince [06:06]
“Finish these bastards off.” — Erik Prince [06:10]
“From what I’m hearing, ... the intelligence was American, but the operation was Israeli.” — Jack Posobiec [16:03]
“The United States has done a great gift to the Iranian people by removing their leadership... But ultimately this has to be decided by the Iranian people on the ground.” — Brandon Weikart [19:16]
“There is no question that this guy is an example of the spreading jihad... in Texas in particular.” — Aaron Wrights [36:24]
“The US Military knocking the crap out of Iran, but the big wave is yet to come.” — Jack Posobiec quoting Trump [43:39]
“If this thing keeps going... we will run out of critical stockpiles of air defense interceptors... which could leave a strategic window open for China...” — Brandon Weikart [53:40]
The episode is marked by a tone of assertive triumphalism, fierce advocacy for aggressive and decisive U.S. military action, concern for U.S. casualties, and wary pragmatism about avoiding entanglement in another “forever war.” The panel expresses confidence in Trump’s leadership, lauds Israeli partnership, and warns both of continued asymmetric attacks from Iran’s proxies and the importance of enabling Iranian self-determination. On the homefront, the conversation veers into calls for robust legal action against perceived jihadist networks in the U.S., particularly in Texas.
Overall:
Listeners are left with the sense that the U.S. is at the crest of a major military action, with significant uncertainty about the aftermath—both in Iran and globally—as well as heightened vigilance at home. The war is framed as a necessary, righteous, and hopefully finite campaign—a “Roman punitive raid”—with the hope that peace and stability may follow, but the warning that both military and economic risks, and regional instability, remain sharp.
For Further Listening: