Episode 5206: Iran Continues To Lay Mines In The Strait Of Hormuz; AI Exceeds Cognitive Versatility

Summary

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Bannon's War Room – Episode 5206 Summary

Date: March 11, 2026
Main Theme:
This episode zeroes in on the ongoing U.S.–Iran war—particularly the crisis over Iranian mines in the Strait of Hormuz and the broader implications for military strategy, global oil markets, and the emerging role of artificial intelligence in warfare and society. The War Room also features candid assessments of U.S. objectives, Israeli involvement, the potential for escalation, and whether technology and geopolitics are accelerating beyond human control.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Escalation in the Strait of Hormuz & Status of the War

• Iran’s minelaying activities:

  • Multiple Iranian naval vessels, including minelayers, have been struck by U.S. forces as Iran begins laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz ([00:00], Stephen K. Bannon).
  • The U.S. has destroyed about 16 minelaying vessels, but Iran still retains most of its mine-laying fleet ([02:23], Natasha Bertrand).
  • Mines and drone attacks have turned the strait into a hazardous passage, fueling economic uncertainty worldwide ([03:35], Natasha Bertrand).

• U.S. & Israeli objectives:

  • The U.S. military claims near-total destruction of Iranian naval, missile, and nuclear capacity ([01:21], Admiral Brad Cooper; [01:24], Jesse Kelly).
  • Israeli strategy seeks the total destruction of the Islamic Republic, possibly even provoking a civil war, but Washington fears the regional risks of Iranian state collapse ([04:38], Sarah).
  • "They want an Iranian state that can't function much in the way that what happened to Syria." ([04:44], Sarah)

• Risks of Civil War & Nuclear Material Loss:

  • U.S. is wary of Iranian internal collapse which could place nuclear material into the hands of militias ([05:23], Sarah; [08:03], Natasha Bertrand).

2. Energy Markets Volatility

• Gas price fallout:

  • U.S. average now $3.54/gallon, up by $0.56 since outbreak of the war ([00:20], Stephen K. Bannon).
  • Lifting of sanctions on Russia, oil reserve releases, and market uncertainty all highlighted as attempts to stabilize prices ([06:13], Natasha Bertrand; [37:56], John Kilduff).
  • “I guarantee $4 national average happens in America right now. Even if peace breaks out tomorrow… we will continue to go up for the next month to two months.” ([39:52], John Kilduff)

• Market mechanics discussion:

  • Speculation vs. hedging: John Kilduff provides a primer on how producers and refiners use futures markets to manage risk, not just speculators ([40:09], John Kilduff).

3. Debate Over U.S. Strategy: Offramps, War Aims, and Internal Politics

• Finishing the job?

  • Uncertainty over whether ground troops could be deployed to eliminate nuclear threats ([07:36], Stephen K. Bannon; [08:03], Natasha Bertrand).
  • The administration haunted by the specter of “not finishing the job” and a “latent threat” remaining, echoing post-Gulf War regrets ([08:03], Natasha Bertrand).

• Competing priorities:

  • “Victory is what matters here. It would be catastrophic for us to not have victory in this. And I realize that may rub some people the wrong way, but that I think that's just a hard reality.” ([16:26], Stephen K. Bannon)
  • White House reportedly walked back unconditional surrender demands, now focusing on degrading military capability ([23:44], Eric Bolling).

• Iranian popular sentiment:

  • Israeli calls for Iranian uprising have so far failed—crackdown has fostered a defensive nationalism and muted unrest ([11:40], Stephen K. Bannon).

4. Technology and Artificial Intelligence in Warfare

• Military integration of AI:

  • Admiral Brad Cooper details how new AI systems compress decision-making—from hours and days into seconds ([18:28], Admiral Cooper; [32:02], Joe Allen).
  • “US Combat power is building, Iranian combat power is declining, and we remain centered on very clear military objectives in eliminating Iran's ability to project power against Americans and against its neighbors.” ([18:28], Admiral Brad Cooper)
  • AI-driven systems used for target identification, decision support, with claims that humans remain “in the loop”—but actual oversight questioned ([32:02-35:16], Joe Allen, Eric Bolling).

• Concerns about human oversight:

  • “The most important facet of the AI integration...is the decision compression...if the decision compression is in fact down to seconds, it's very difficult for me to imagine how it is that a human is going to be able to accurately assess what the AI has presented.” ([32:02], Joe Allen)

• Broader implications for society:

  • Expansion of AI to civilian life and institutions, with warnings about the risk of AI replacing human judgment and autonomy ([44:48-48:07], Joe Allen).
  • “Children from birth will have an artificial intelligence as a companion...AI as a tool and AI as a teacher, AI as a companion, AI as a creature with a consciousness of its own...So you have AI as God. What we need is a politics that is humans first.” ([44:48], Joe Allen)

5. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Victory narrative:
  • “Now it's time to declare victory. Now, President Trump, thank God he was there. He's the right guy at the right time... When this is over, we're going to obliterate their nuclear program and there's going to be a new dawn in the Mid East.” ([01:50], Jesse Kelly)
• On cost:
  • “Freedom is not free. Americans are going to have to make some sacrifices.” ([07:00], Jesse Kelly)
• On oil markets:
  • “These speculative traders...can be right for a minute...but they can't be right long term.” ([42:04], John Kilduff)
• On AI-driven war:
  • “Tasks...planned over the course of hours or weeks are being planned and executed in seconds...the most important facet...is the decision compression.” ([32:02], Joe Allen)
  • “To hand power to those systems is a perversion and a dereliction of the duty and responsibility of human beings.” ([44:48], Joe Allen)

6. Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening—War status and Iran mine-laying recap: [00:00-02:23]
• U.S. & Israeli objectives debate, civil war fears: [04:35-06:13]
• Oil/gas price implications and sanctions: [06:13-07:36]
• Possibility of ground troops, nuclear concerns: [07:36-09:06]
• Air campaign summary and Iranian civilian impact: [10:43-16:22]
• Admiral Cooper’s Operational Brief: [18:28-23:44]
• AI use in targeting and military operations: [32:02-35:42]
• President's "nothing left to target" remark—market reaction: [35:42-37:56]
• Oil market mechanics, hedging, volatility: [39:52-42:27]
• AI and the future of humanity—philosophical warnings: [44:48-48:07]

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Structured Summary by Section

I. The Iran War: State of Play and Strategy

• U.S. air and naval forces have targeted Iranian assets to suppress minelaying and drone attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, citing success in reducing Iranian capabilities.
• Debate intensifies over U.S. endgame—whether to walk back from maximalist objectives (internal regime change) to achievable military aims.
• Israeli attempts to encourage Iranian uprising seen as backfiring; popular support for the regime is holding amid the onslaught.

II. Energy & Economic Impact

• The closure/risk to the Strait of Hormuz has sent oil and gas prices skyrocketing.
• Experts suggest releases from global reserves are a stopgap; true remedy is American energy independence.
• Speculation is not the chief culprit in price rises; hedging by producers/refiners is the main mechanism stabilizing (and elevating) prices.

III. AI's Role On and Off the Battlefield

• Military application: AI compresses operational decision timeframes, but risks creating “black boxes” in targeting decisions.
• Societal expansion: AI's rapid adoption in civilian life prompts philosophical and ethical warnings from team and guests—“Humans First” movement, concern for education, medicine, and autonomy.

IV. Political & Strategic Inflection Point

• Trump signals war may be ending soon ("practically nothing left to target"), sparking wild swings in oil markets.
• Confusion remains about whether U.S. objectives include regime change or only regional deterrence.
• Internal debate within the War Room: are Americans prepared for the prolonged costs and strategic ambiguity of the campaign?

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Closing Thoughts & Tone

The episode mixes urgent military briefings, hard-nosed political analysis, economic explanation, and broad warnings about where AI may be taking society and the military. The tone alternates between exultant, skeptical, and ominous—reflecting both pride in U.S. military achievement and unease about the unchecked speed of change, whether geopolitical or technological.

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For listeners:
This episode offers a comprehensive real-time look at the Iran conflict (from operational details and political debates, to the financial and technological ripple effects), laced with probing skepticism about the wisdom, ethics, and ultimate consequences of current U.S. policy—especially as it enters uncharted, AI-accelerated terrain.

Transcript

[Stephen K. Bannon]

This new video of what the Pentagon says are strikes on multiple Iranian naval vessels, including 16 minelayers near the Strait of Hormuz. Now, CNN is reporting that Iran has begun laying mines in the strait. That's according to two people familiar with U.S. intelligence reporting on the issue. The video released a few hours after President Trump posted on social media, quote, if for any reason mines were placed and they are not removed forthwith, the military consequences to Iran will be at a level never, never seen before. The chokehold that Iran continues to have over the Strait of Hormuz sent the average price of gas here in the US to $3.54 a gallon. That's up 56 cents from before the war. Now, earlier today, the Pentagon announced this would be the most intense day of strikes inside Iran. Those were their words that seem to stand in contrast with President Trump's pronouncement last night that the war, or as he called it, excursion, would be over, quote, very soon.

[Joe Allen]

Do you think the President is going to look for an off ramp or keep going?

[Jesse Kelly]

Well, I think that he's achieved his objectives the way that he's laid them out. And you just put it beautifully, Jesse. I mean, what is there really that's left to do that we haven't already done? I mean, we have demonstrated to the world and anybody who's watching, by the way, that we have overwhelming military superiority and we know how to use it.

[Admiral Brad Cooper]

We have totally destroyed forever their nuclear program.

[Jesse Kelly]

We have destroyed their ballistic missiles. We have destroyed their navy. I mean, this has been a total

[Admiral Brad Cooper]

success in whatever it's been 11 days.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

And I thought the President's remarks last night that he could declare victory today

[Jesse Kelly]

and it would be a 100% victory. I think it's true.

[Admiral Brad Cooper]

I think we ought to say to our heroes, thank you for a job well done.

[Jesse Kelly]

This has been absolutely amazing. It's been astounding, it's been historic.

[Admiral Brad Cooper]

And now it's time to declare victory.

[Jesse Kelly]

Now, President Trump, thank God he was there. He's the right guy at the right time. And when he heard they were that close to 10 weapons, he acted. And you know what? When this is over, we're going to obliterate their nuclear program and there's going to be a new dawn in the Mid East. President Trump, you did the right thing. God bless you. And Steve and Jared, you literally saved

[Stephen K. Bannon]

the world from terrorism. Right. Some of those Iranian mine laying ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Natasha, what more are you learning about the apparent destruction of those ships?

[Natasha Bertrand]

Yeah, Anderson. So U.S. central Command, along with the president and the Secretary of Defense. They began saying earlier today that the US has begun taking aggressive steps to try to sink these Iranian vessels that are believed to be mine layers in the Strait of Hormuz. And that reaction started coming out in response to reports, including ours, that Iran has, in fact begun laying some mines in the Strait. And we should note that, according to our sources, this is not extensive mine laying at this point. A couple dozen in the last several days at most, according to one of the sources. But Iran still retains roughly 80 to 90% of those small boats and mine layers that it uses to lay these mines. Mines, according to one of the sources. And therefore, it could feasibly continue to do so and lay hundreds of mines in the coming days. Now, President Trump has said that there are going to be serious military consequences for Iran writ large if they don't take steps to actually remove these mines. But the US military also said today that they have destroyed about 16 of these minelaying vessels. Of course, these are very small vessels operated by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. They are very. They can go undetected. It is very difficult right now for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, including the US Military, because not only of these mines, but also because Iran is attacking ships that transit there with drones. So it's a very fraught situation that, of course, has led to a ton of uncertainty in the global oil markets, given that this is such a key passageway for global oil production.

[Jesse Kelly]

You worry about gas prices. Let me tell you what the world would be like if Iran had 10 nuclear weapons. It would be miserable. They'd hold us all hostage.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Why wouldn't the US Want a civil war in Iran?

[Sarah]

Look for Israel, it's very clear what they want is to destroy the Islamic Republic in every sense. And you can watch their bombing campaign. They're going after the leadership. Leadership, compounds of military headquarters, but even police. You know, they want an Iranian state that can't function much in the way that what happened to Syria. For 10 years, Syria, mired in civil war, actually helped Israel. One more enemy taken off the board, one more adversary you don't have to worry about. But the United States has huge interests in the Middle east for peace and stability. And, you know, the coexistence to a certain extent, among the Sunni and the Shia. The idea of an Iran that collapses into civil war with Shia militias running around with nuclear material. With nuclear material.

[Joe Allen]

Exactly.

[Sarah]

Dirty bombs that could be made. You know, it's bad for Saudi Arabia and the Other Gulf allies of the United States who want free flow of oil. You know, the United States objectives are peace, stability, economic integration. Free flow of oil.

[Natasha Bertrand]

Right. I mean, I just asked because you described it as a hiccup, the gas prices and the change in the oil market that we're seeing. I mean, if they're lifting sanctions on Russia, clearly they're worried it could last longer than just a brief period. Don't you think?

[Jesse Kelly]

I don't, Caitlin. I think you're really reaching here. I think, I think just as quickly as we, we took those sanctions away, we can put them back on. So I think, again, it's one day at a time. You live in this little ivory tower here. I don't think that you're dealing with the real world that President Trump has. We don't know when the war is going to be over. We don't know when the sanctions should go back on. But I think the president, on a day to day basis.

[Natasha Bertrand]

But how is it ivory tower? I'm asking you about gas prices that Americans are paying that are extremely high and having wild swings, in part because of the war with Iran that the president started.

[Jesse Kelly]

Right. So again, freedom is not free. Americans are going to have to make some sacrifices. But we're operating from a point of strength. Isn't it great that compared to when I was growing up in the 70s, we were so dependent upon Middle east oil, but now we're the largest producer of oil in the world, that we're the second biggest exporter of oil in the world. So we're not going to be shut out economically from this. We at least have the oil here. Yes, it's a worldwide commodity, but this is one of the prices of war. Are we willing to stand here for 47 years and let Iran beat the heck out of Americans and kill thousands of Americans, or are we willing to stand up and say enough of this?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

I mean, the White House is still not ruling out ground troops. It's hard to know how real that is and not. There was some talk about, you know, special Forces trying to, you know, locate, take or neutralize nuclear material. That seems like it would be a long operation or a very intensive operation and involve larger ground troops just for perimeter security at the very least.

[Natasha Bertrand]

So here's building off what Brett just said. They are at the point now, and I think that Americans, you know, it's like, we're in this. Do we want this refrain to be like it was after the first Gulf War? You didn't finish the job. That's what they're worry that's their nightmare in the administration. And not finishing the job is not necessarily good for Americans if this threat still remains. So the nuclear threat is the reason in my mind, we're all speculating here, right? We don't know, but that they would need to do ground forces and we have 400kg plus of 60% enriched uranium which could be turned into a rudimentary bomb just there. 60%. You don't even need 90% for that or a dirty bomb. But later down the road, you know, you have this latent threat of a nuclear power. And so I think that this is why they won't rule this out. So how do you see this ending this war?

[Eric Bolling]

I don't know, Sarah.

[Admiral Brad Cooper]

I know this, that President Trump is

[Stephen K. Bannon]

the wrong guy to go up against.

[Eric Bolling]

That's what I know.

[Natasha Bertrand]

Ours are battles of will and the ability to sustain pain. And what the Iranians are trying to do and now with, you know, a few mines in the straits, is to prolong the pain, to increase the pain for now. And also because they want to deter us if this war ends without it being with them still in charge. They want to make it really so painful for us that we wouldn't dare to go back again. So we are in a battle of wills and the Iranians think they're in a better position to win.

[Jim Rickards]

This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going

[Eric Bolling]

medieval on these people.

[Jim Rickards]

Reasons I got a free shot. All these networks lying about the people. The people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that.

[Eric Bolling]

I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen. And where do people like that go to share the big lie?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

MAGA media.

[John Kilduff]

I wish in my soul, I wish

[Stephen K. Bannon]

that any of these people had a conscience.

[Jim Rickards]

Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.

[Joe Allen]

War room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.

[Eric Bolling]

It's Wednesday, the 11th of March in the year of our Lord 2026. That phrase, we are in it now, we're in it now. And so if you're in it now, you've got to win it, right? However we got here, whatever, you know, Lindsey Graham can keep Talking about the 10 nuclear weapons or a week away, all these different wild excuses, but we're in it now. So we got to figure out how to win this. Pete Hegseth we're going to get to the centcom put up a little while ago, I guess a briefing, a video. We're going to watch Admiral Cooper in his entirety in the next block because I think it's very important to continue to focus on one level on General Kane and Admiral Cooper Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, Admiral General Kane, obviously the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President's principal military advisor, uniform service military advisor about what's actually happening. As we go back and forth, we know that Pete Hegse said this was going to be the most intense day. I think that's correct. But the Iranians still showed that they got some fight left in them. In fact, with this asymmetric warfare of these drones, my understanding from people in the region and from others of the Erik Prince caliber is that 25% of the drones got through this hit to UAE today. So between these little mining ships which we took out 11 and I think we've put the vast majority of the Iranian navy, including their submarines to the bottom of the ocean and we are taking care of making sure they can have. It's as difficult as possible to mine the Straits of Hormuz. The Iranians are I think and I think their strategy first is to peel off the Arabs to make sure that. And this is why Lindsey Graham continues to go on TV after a couple of mint juleps, act like he's, act like he's commander in Chief and talking about giving the Arabs promising Saudi Arabia in perpetuity defense pack and we will do anything to protect the monarchy forever if they join this fight and to warn them about double dealing, that's behind the back. The reason is I think you're seeing from Kuwait to Qatar to Bahrain to uae, even mbz, because I think Dubai was hit again. The Saudis, I think they're saying, hey, we didn't sign up for this. We don't know what this is about. And you know, we don't want to, we don't want to attack back and peel off of the, of the Arabs would make things much more difficult, I think particularly with air rights and everything else we need to get access. Also Netanyahu has put out a, a statement or I guess a proclamation for the Iranian people for the Persian people to rise up. For the Persian people to rise up that now's the chance for their liberty, that this entire Israeli American attack was to give them their freedom. This is after firebombing them on Saturday night, which as you see from at least what is available and I think if you talk to people in the region, it doesn't seem to be any general rise up. Nothing compared to what happened a couple weeks ago when Scott Besant broke their currency. In fact, the rallying looks like it's a, it's in back of the theocratic thug regime that is, that has, that has run this place forever. I do think in Senator Marshall, I appreciate him going into Kaitlan Collins last night, but I think we have to have, I think we have to refine the pitch. I just think going back 47 years, particularly with somebody who's there at the beginning, is not, is not working. It's not going to resonate with the American people. This was initiated for other reasons. And I think we got to be very blunt with the American people because this is going to be a tough one. You talk about off ramps. The off ramp right now has to come from taking down, you know, the degradation and destruction of their military capability for force projection and for protective projection against their people. And that's a tall order. We're taking a short break. We're going to have, we got, we're absolutely packed today with many different things. But we're going to come back and I'm going to tee up. We're going to hear from Admiral Cooper of Central Command next in the war room.

[Jim Rickards]

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[Stephen K. Bannon]

Here's your host Stephen K. Band.

[Eric Bolling]

Okay. I think it's the idf. It's in Hebrew, so we can't, I can't translate. We'll try to get it up. But had a press conference or had a briefing for the Israeli people, said there's no time limit on this. It kind of is what it is. I also, I strongly recommend this came comes from the Baltimore engine room. This phrase freedom isn't free. I think when you do wars like this, I'm not so sure that's a. I'm not so sure that's a phrase that resonates with people. I think we have to get very serious about this. We have a lot of young men and women in harm's way. We're pouring a ton of resources in there. A lot of this is a massive opportunity cost. Look at everything we could do. Two hour show today packed with some of the best people in the country on topics other than this. And every day, as you know, we're taking amazing amount of time and that's because the nation, this is obviously we're at war. So it's a huge focus and this is one of the things we're focused on totally. Just, you know, we heard that we're not gonna do any mass deportations and you know, they're happy talking the save act house. The story in Politico house is moving on. They're glad Trump came down, talked to him at Doral, had a great conference. You know, they're, they're going to their next thing. So there's so much going on politically, the Maricopa county. We're going to try to jam as much in today. Dr. Tucker with Make America Healthy again. But obviously the center of gravity of what we're doing is because we're at war and we have young men and women in harm's way. So. And like I said, we're in it. I'm not happy that we're in it, but you're in it. So you got to figure out how you have victory because victory is what matters here. It would be catastrophic for us to not have victory in this. And I realize that may rub some people the wrong way, but that I think that's just a hard reality, what we have to deal with. Let's go. And this is why I think it's very important for us to listen to General Raisin Cain and Admiral Cooper. Admiral Cooper, the head of centcom. Let's go ahead. We're going to play his. He put up a video of kind of a mini brief, I guess let's go ahead and watch it.

[Admiral Brad Cooper]

I'm Admiral Brad Cooper here at United States Central Command, where I'm leading the forces executing Operation Epic Fury. First, I want you to know that we continue to keep the families of our fallen heroes and our wounded teammates in our thoughts and prayers. I'd also like to acknowledge and thank the families of the 50,000American servicemen and women deployed in and around the Middle East. I'm grateful for your selfless sacrifice, and I know that Americans across the country hold you in their hearts. Let me start by offering my overall assessment of Operation Epic Fury. In short, US Force continue delivering devastating combat power against the Iranian regime. I've said this before, but it bears repeating. US Combat power is building, Iranian combat power is declining, and we remain centered on very clear military objectives in eliminating Iran's ability to project power against Americans and against its neighbors. Every day we're striking hard at Iranian ballistic missile and drones. To date, we have struck more than 5,500 targets inside Iran, including more than 60 ships using a variety of precision weapons systems. Just yesterday, we had strike waves nearly every hour from different locations and directions going into Iran. We also took out the last of four Soleimani class warships. That's an entire class of Iranian ships now out of the fight. I'd characterize our strikes as being unpredictable, dynamic, and decisive. Since the first 24 hours of this campaign, Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks have dropped drastically. But it's worth pointing out that Iranian forces continue to deliberately target innocent civilians in Gulf countries while hiding behind their own people as they launch attacks from highly populated cities in Iran. Of course, forces executing Operation Effort Kuri aren't just defending against Iranian threats. We are methodically dismantling them by hitting Iranian missiles and drones as we also strike their defense industrial base. Just last night, our bomber force hit a large ballistic missile manufacturing facility as an example. So it's not just about what's shooting at us today. It's also about eliminating the threat in the future. Now, let me show you a few of the results from the tremendous efforts by America's Joint Force. Here you see an Iranian Jamaran class warship, a large patrol ship, a drone smuggling vessel, and four other surface combatants docked at Chabahar Port in the Gulf of Oman the day before we launched Operation Epic Fury. Here's the same pier four days later. All ships taken out of action. This Bayandar class surface ship was hit and rolled on its side. Here's another example. Here you see two Iranian surface combatants docked at an Iranian naval base near The Strait of Hormuz just hours into the campaign. And here's what they look like three days later, engulfed in flames after we struck them with a precision weapon. For years, the Iranian regime has threatened commercial shipping and US Forces in international waters. Our mission is to end their ability to project power and harass shipping in the Strait of Hormuz from the air. We've achieved a concentration of air power with back to back waves of advanced fighters creating constant pressure on the enemy every single day. Our dominance is not a solo effort. It's a testament to the strength of our ironclad alliances. We continue to coordinate closely and effectively with Israel in this very large operation. And we are also coordinating and serving side by side with all of our partners in the Middle East. We're on a path to eliminating Iran's ability to threaten Americans and our friends. And we are achieving this through a combination of lethality, precision, and rapid innovation. Let me highlight a few examples, at least the ones that aren't classified, of how we are achieving lethal effects in entirely new ways. First, our warfighters are leveraging a variety of advanced AI tools. These systems help us sift through vast amounts of data in seconds so our leaders can cut through the noise and make smarter decisions faster than the enemy can react. Humans will always make final decisions on what to shoot and what not to shoot and when to shoot. But advanced AI tools can turn processes that used to take hours and sometimes even days into seconds. I continue to be impressed with all the branches of the US Military. The entire team is performing superbly. Strike operations from our joint Force continue. As I've said, I assess that we are clearly exercising air superiority over vast swaths of Iran. We have the most integrated air defense umbrella in the Middle East. And our defensive operations from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Space Force teams are performing magnificently. A note about the Space Force. Our space superiority has been a critical enabler to this fight. Unseen by the world, the Space Force is doing two things. First, they're degrading Iranian capability. And second, they're helping to protect American forces. And I'll have to leave it right there. All told, despite this incredible progress, make no mistake, we remain highly vigilant. And I just could not be prouder of our Operation Epic Fury team. And I know the American people shared that same pride. To all our warriors out there, please keep up the great work and Godspeed. Thanks so much.

[Eric Bolling]

So that's Admiral Cooper. That's about as close I think it was when you get to a Norman Schwarzkopf type, brief, but very solid. Admiral Cooper and General Kane, of course. General Kane started yesterday by talking about really going through an evolution on the deck of an aircraft carrier with all the enlisted men and women that have to make that happen and the bravery of those folks to train 247 to make sure that this can happen. I think that's the valor. I will point out the buried lead there. And that was, I thought, a pretty solid brief. But the buried lead with the military objectives, one that's now missing is power projection on their own people. Just a couple days ago we were talking about unconditional surrender, and unconditional surrender was the inability to have power rejection or force projection against American forces. Could not have power projection against their neighbors, particularly Israel and the Gulf states, and couldn't have power projection internally against their own people. That now is not. And as these things get vetted, that is a pretty, I think, interesting deletion, or at least not a priority. Now it's power projection on the people. I don't know how in Axios had this story that we're now the supplicant asking Israel, will you please not bomb anymore oil infrastructure in Tehran. So I'm at a loss to understand

[Jim Rickards]

how we can take that.

[Eric Bolling]

It's not a priority to take away the ability of the Revolutionary Guard, the military there, the police, all of it, to have power projection on their own people, to suppress and kill like 30,000 they did, which is a consensus number. A couple of weeks ago, at the same time Netanyahu calls, stands up and asks, tells the people to rise up. It's time to rise up and overthrow your theocratic Islamic overlords, who are some of the worst people in the world. I think we're all agreed on that. At the same time, this Axios piece, remember Axios? Yes. Is Axios a liberal site? There is, but it's the White House that chooses to leak to Mark Caputo and Rabat and the Israelis leak to him. So that's why it's a people go to Axios, because outside of President Trump's true social, it is probably the most. You get the most heads up or the most scoops of reality. And now it's a situation where the Americans went back and asked them, you don't ask them. They're not driving this and they're not co ally. You order them. You're not going after the oil assets. The Iranian people, as even Lindsey Graham put out, maybe between drunken stupors that he tweeted out, hey, we need that later. To convince the Iranian people that there's a future and they can sell oil and gas. It's also what's happened. The shift, it's obvious the shift since Saturday night. A people that were your allies and one of the central allies we really had were the Iranian people who hate the Islamic Republic and want to overthrow these demons. Now we've kind of galvanized them. I shouldn't say we. The Netanyahu's government, because of their out of control targeting of these people, have now galvanized them into a Persian nationalist. Oh, we got to support the Ayatollah because at least he's Persian. At least he's one of us. That takes away our greatest opportunity to overthrow these folks. You saw that when Scott Bessant broke their currency. So I think we need a reset on the strategy and I think people need to come out. Is it not unconditional? So surrender. If you even looking at off ramps, as Josh Hawley said to Jesse last night on Fox, you know, if there's an off ramp, what are the military objectives to that? And that's kind of beyond the pay grade of Admiral Cooper and General Kane. But I think we need as much clear talking and focus from other folks as we're getting from our military commanders on the military objectives here, which once again, very methodical and very professional. The United States military is degrading slash destroying their military capabilities. Now, they talked about artificial intelligence. A lot to go on there. Joe Allen is with us. He's in studio. We've also got Eric Bolling. The IEA just announced 400 million barrels of kind of the European and Asian Strategic Patrolling Reserve. We're going to get into all of it and much, much more in the War Room.

[Jim Rickards]

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[Stephen K. Bannon]

Here's your host, Stephen K. Banner.

[Eric Bolling]

Okay, number one, now more than ever. Bowling's going to be here in a minute. Talk about commodities market, oil and gas. We're going to talk about the speculative nature and also the ability companies need to hedge. So we're going to get into that about what you think about these oil prices. IEA just said they're going to dump 400 million barrels. Of course the media, their hair's on fire. Bolling is going to really break it down. What that means. Birch Gold. Take your phone out, text Bannon B A N N O N 989898. You get the ultimate guide with no, no obligation, totally free for investing gold and precious metals, physical gold in the age of Trump. Most importantly, put you in touch with Philip Patrick, his team. Get to Philip Patrick's team today. Even if you're already a customer and currently own gold, make sure you talk to them. And if you're, you're new to the whole situation, it ain't the price of gold, which is over I think around 50, 1, 50, 200 bucks today. It's not that. It's the process of what we're in that drives value, particularly gold as a hedge. Make sure you check it out today. Also cpac a one time good deal. And if Mo and Grace can make sure anybody in the chat room that bought War Room Posse that bought a ticket before last night, the tickets now are 17 bucks for war room Posse. We're gonna have a huge endeavor there. We want everybody there. $17 for all four days at CPAC. It's in a fabulous place. It's where we kicked off the same hotel, the Gaylord, where we kicked off the Prop 10 with Gertfielders and Glenn Beck and Stinch Grant was there as emcee, which is fantastic and a great location. Couldn't pick a better location in Grapevine, Texas. Want everybody there, particularly the people in the general area for 17 bucks. How can you go wrong? CPAC get there today, you gotta make sure you tell them you're part of the war room. So Go there today and, and check it out. It's up on the screen and I'll repeat where you actually go as soon as I can read it. Joe Allen. I got Joe Allen bowling on the war. And then I gotta keep Allen around for this, Joe, for this huge news that's coming out on AI. Joe, first off on the war, you heard Admiral Cooper, your response to that, sir?

[Joe Allen]

Well, as you heard Cooper say, tasks, military tasks, attacks that would have been planned over the course of hours or weeks are being planned and executed in seconds. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but the most important facet of the AI integration into the military, especially in this war, is the decision compression. So when any, any commander is looking for what is a valid target, how to prioritize the targets that have been identified as valid, they're going to be using systems like Claude, pairing them with Palantir, raking over surveillance data, and then using the decisions made by the AIs to then make top level human decisions. What is really important to remember about that, Steve, is that, yes, to the extent we always have humans in the loop, and that is the Department of War policy and has been and hopefully will continue to be, the decision to kill or not to kill begins in many cases with the AI making the decision and a human checking it. And if the decision compression is in fact down to seconds, it's very difficult for me to imagine how it is that a human is going to be able to accurately assess what the AI has presented to him.

[Jim Rickards]

Hang on, hang on. But didn't they do a thousand?

[Eric Bolling]

I thought I read in the Wall Street Journal, brother, that a thousand attacks like the first day were done by artificial intelligence. Is that, Are you saying that that's not quite correct?

[Joe Allen]

Yeah, that was. Washington Post a week ago published an article about the use of AI, especially claude, in the initial attacks. And the way it was reported was that of a thousand attacks, we know that AI was leveraged in some of those attacks. Whether all, nobody really knows. It's all behind the wall of classification. It's been interpreted as a thousand attacks were conducted by AI by some people, but there's no reason to believe that. But it is really important. Again, Steve, I think that it's not being overstated how much the integration of AI into the military overall. I mean, remember, Claude has been integrated since late 2024. And Claude from Anthropic was the only system that was raking over classified documents that were by and large organized by Palantir. This is really, really important on Many levels. And especially in terms of identifying targets, accurately identifying targets. It's an open question as to how much you're saying this has really improved that.

[Jim Rickards]

Are you comfortable?

[Eric Bolling]

I gotta jump here. There's a breaking news on the president.

[Jim Rickards]

Are you comfortable?

[Eric Bolling]

Joe Allen, you just made a statement. Department of War policy is that humans have to be involved in the decision making here. I thought the whole anthropic thing, because anthropic said that had to happen in Department of War, saying we're not going to be handcuffed by that policy. Is, is that our current policy right now in this Iranian war?

[Joe Allen]

It's the current policy, but the way that's interpreted internally is really up to the Department of War. And so to the extent they can offload decision making to AIs, it doesn't have to be a critical position for the human to make a decision. In many cases with autonomous weaponry, it's quite possible to just have a human say go kill and it can go kill. Although again, the policy, the stated policy is that that won't happen.

[Eric Bolling]

Joe, hang on a second. Because we got a bigger fight on AI. Breaking news and I'm pretty proud of how we put this together because Axios has it up. The president, I state, just called, wait for it, Axios directly on a phone call. Barack Ravid. Now Barack Ravid is the guy that's got direct pipeline to Netanyahu and the Mossad and IDF high command. He's their guy. Mark Caputo has a direct access pipeline from the White House. But and want to quote, the headline is Trump tells Axios there's, quote, practically nothing left to target in Iran. President Trump told Axios in a brief phone interview Wednesday that the war with Iran will end soon because there's practice, a quote, practically nothing left to target. There's a little of this and a little of that, said the president. Anytime I want to end it, it will end, said the president during a brief five minute phone call. Why it matters. Trump is publicly signaling that the operations, the military objectives are by and large he believes wrapping up now. This is why I said about the Israeli minister. Axios cuts right to that. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that the world will continue, quote, without any time limit for as long as necessary until we achieve all the objectives and decisively when the campaign, end quote. And it goes on to talk about CENTCOM. They, they talk about the CENTCOM Commander Brad Cooper's, etc. Etc. So President Trump saying there's little to continue to target. It's kind of the Josh Hawley pitch from last night. He's saying little to target and that he can end this war at any time. So I think we ought to stand by for that. Eric Bolling and John, we'll get right back to you on the bigger and more important fight about AI than even the military, as big as that is. Eric, IEA just announced and we have the Strategic Petroleum Reserve here in the United States of America. There is another Strategic Petroleum Reserve, I guess spread between Europe and Asia. I think we're part of it. But just I don't know if we're a member or whatever. But it's really their deal. They've announced they're going to release 400 million barrels. Wall street and the markets are kind of skipping around on that. You take a more jaundiced view, sir.

[John Kilduff]

Yeah. Steve, great catch on the breaking news because I'll tell you what happened. I was watching the oil marks. I'm watching it right now when Trump said I can end it anytime soon and he said, you know, there's nothing left to target. Oil dropped $7 a barrel immediately, within a minute, right? And I'm watching, I'm like this, this people are going to get caught and smoked again on this. It's now up that $7 back and another $3 higher right now because look, there's a lot of rhetoric going both ways. Trump wants us to calm people's nerves down. I mean, that's so he puts these, these missives out. Markets react. But when you take a step back, the 400 million barrels, Steve, what is it, a five or six day supply of oil, if everything were, you know, stopped, it's, it's, we talked about this over the last four days. It's not an accessibility to crude oil. There's plenty of crude oil sloshing around. It's a dislocation issue right now. And the other thing is Trump had said we're going to bomb you 20 times harder if you line the straits. And he wanted to be involved in whoever the next ruler of Iran was. If he's going to walk back on all that, then, then maybe this, he just doesn't seem like the type to do that. This is talk. One way it goes up, one way it goes down. Here's the bottom line. The only solution, the only smart solution so we don't get into this predicament again is the one that we've been talking about, you and I, right here on the show for the last four days, which by the way, Susie Wiles now has Confirmed. She has and so is Pete. Texas is going to send it to the right people. It's the one Trump walks away unscathed. America is never going to be dependent on another drop of foreign oil ever again. And our oil companies are going to love it the most. They won't have to raise prices. That will, I guarantee, Steve. I guarantee $4 national average happens in America right now. Even if peace breaks out tomorrow in the Middle East, I guarantee we will, we will continue to go up for the next month to two months.

[Eric Bolling]

Is that because the speculative nature or is it companies hedging? Why are we doomed? It's not doomed. As President Trump says, it'll pass. But why are we walk people through the logic of the structure of this market that'll eventually get us to four dollar gasoline.

[John Kilduff]

So don't blame the speculators. They're a percentage of the price, but not the biggest percentage of price. The biggest percentage of price is exactly what you said. You have oil producers who hedge their production. So if they pull a barrel out of the ground at $40 a barrel, their risk is below 40. So they will short the futures market to make sure that anything below 40 they'll make on the futures, even though they're losing with the physical oil. On the other side of the coin, refiners need to buy oil. So they're going to run oil through their refinery. They can't shut a refinery down if the price goes too high. So they risk, they have risk on the upside, so they have the virus. So those two factions playing together are massive. I'll give you a good example. When the World Trade center was bombed, got knocked down by terrorists, Lower Manhattan was devastated. The whole lower Manhattan was gone. And I was there because our exchange, the World Trade center, housed the New York Mercantile Exchange where I traded for 15 years. We were. No one in New York was allowed to go back in there besides the firemen. Well, day three. It happened on a Tuesday. By Thursday or Friday, the U.S. navy was escorting us on a boat into the world Trade, into the lower Manhattan, into our trading floor, which was still standing, the whole areas, because they needed to have that ability, those hedgers to buy and the sell hedgers in the international market. They were fearful of a 500, 600 thousand dollar barrel of oil because speculators would take over. And so yes, the futures market provides massive stability to the oil market, even in times like this, where the oil market is as volatile as it's ever been.

[Eric Bolling]

But the volatility, we got to bounce. But the volatility said even President Trump. The release of this Axios piece, it dropped seven bucks immediately, then it clawed it back. But just on the, just on news or rumor or whatever, this thing's all over the map right now, all over the place.

[John Kilduff]

That's because these speculative traders are the ones who are. They can be right for a minute, Steve, but they can't be right long term. And unfortunately for a lot of them, they probably got caught in that hole. I call it shorting the hole. They were caught in the hole down $7. It shot back 10 from that low in a matter of minutes and it's right now again, $10 higher than that low.

[Eric Bolling]

Wow. Eric, where do people go for your new show? Social media. All of it. You're on fire now, sir. Talking to us about what traders look at and traders are driving a lot of this. So where do people go?

[John Kilduff]

I've been doing this a long time, Steve. This is I see dead people in oil markets and markets at Eric Bowling, on social media, everywhere, X all of them. Facebook, all the way at Eric. But the Edge, that picture right there is the is the new show. And I love you, Steve, for putting it up on a very busy news. They'll let you go. But the Edge is on YouTube only, so subscribe please. Eric Bowling, the Edge thanks Steve. I appreciate your time.

[Eric Bolling]

No, the audience loves if people signed up for it. So thank you so much for joining us. Eric. Today, early you want to hedge your wrist. How about home title lock? 90% of your net worth and every dream you ever had is in that home you've had. Joe Allen tell you enough about artificial intelligence being used in the war. Don't let AI cyber rogue lawyers, rogue accountants, rogue relatives, rogue significant other get their hands on 90% of your net worth. Hometitlek.com promo code Steve we keep it simple. 14 days free 1 million dollar triple lock protection. Get to Natalie Dominguez of the team

[Jim Rickards]

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[Eric Bolling]

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[Jim Rickards]

That's exactly what you get when you join our frequent guest and contributor Jim Rickards in his elite research service, Strategic Intelligence. Inside Strategic Intelligence. You'll hear directly from Jim and receive critical updates on major financial and political events before they hit the mainstream news. He'll put you in front of the story and tell you exactly what moves to make for your best chance to profit as A proud American. You do not want to be caught off guard. Sign up for strategic intelligence right now at your our exclusive website.

[Eric Bolling]

That's rickards war room.com rickardswarroom.com you go

[Jim Rickards]

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[Eric Bolling]

Do it today, right now.

[Joe Allen]

Rickards war room.com Children from birth will have an artificial intelligence as a companion that will learn them, that will instruct them, that will watch them, and will report back, one imagines, to the boss man in Silicon Valley. And so you have AI as a tool and AI as a teacher, AI as a companion, AI as a creature with a consciousness of its own, more powerful, more intelligent, at least in the imagination of those pushing it, than any human being. And so you have AI as God. What we need is a politics that is humans first. And to get that, we have to have a culture that is humans first and at the deepest level, a worldview that is humans first. Why should you put humans first? Why should you reach out and take hold of life and direct the future of life? And I think that the deepest argument to be made is because you are a child of God. You were made in the image of God, and these systems are a perversion of that image. And to hand power to those systems is a perversion and a dereliction of the duty and responsibility of human beings.

[Eric Bolling]

You're made in the image and likeness of God and have the spirit of the Holy Spirit in you. And remember, as Jesus Christ told us, the only unforgivable sin is to blaspheme and mock the Holy Spirit. Unforgivable mortal sin said, I can't help you. Which shocked the apostles and the disciples. Joe Allen, you talk about where and folks, we're going to be putting up information. My getter account. This is where you get a getter. Grace Mo Elizabeth, putting up information all day long about this war because we're in it now. We're in it and we got to figure out how to win it and we got to figure out how to bring this thing to a close. But we're in it. We're going to put out tons of information so that you can help form your own judgment. That's what we need is the war and posse to form its own judgment, not to be dictated to by a bunch of people.

[Jim Rickards]

Same way here.

[Eric Bolling]

We're in it. And in fact, the reason Joe's starting Humans first, we're so proud of him, is that not only are we in it, the hour is late. Joe Allen, I'm gonna go back to humans first. And Amy Kramer is going to join us. What you guys are doing in Florida. But I want to. Here's what's concerning me. The accelerationists are winning. And why? Because we're accelerating at an accelerating rate. You have Elon Musk, who shut down his safety department. You have two of the other four. So there's four Frontier Labs. Maybe throw in five, there's one more. But let's say the four labs, three of them are signaling to people. So we're going to be at Artificial General Intelligence by the fall. Sir, how late is the hour here that we're dealing with?

[Joe Allen]

One thing is for absolute sure, Steve, and that is that all four of the Frontier Labs, plus Meta, if you want to tag them on there, all of them want to create systems that have completely replicated every capability that the human being has, and then to replace every human being on Earth, economically, maybe socially, that is the goal. They used to talk about this in much more just explicit terms, kind of perverse terms. But now more and more, as people have started to pay attention, they couch it in terms of radical abundance or augmentation. If Denver will throw up just the two graphs that I sent, I think that this will give you some idea of not only what they want to see happen, but what's actually happening right now. The first one, if we can see the center for AI Safety's AGI definition, if not, then I guess the audience can imagine it. We'll let the audience imagine it. So there are two studies that have been published recently that I think the audience should know about. The first is the definition of AGI, Artificial General Intelligence, by the center for AI Safety. And what they found was that the increases in capabilities of just GPT alone in reading and writing, in math, in knowledge, in reasoning, in memory retrieval, show dramatic improvement. Dramatic improvement. And what that also shows, it's not just one simple line, right? It's not one capability such as language processing. You're talking about mathematics here. You're talking about general reasoning abilities. I think that it's really important to understand that just because these systems are improving and basically kind of eating up the potential that human beings otherwise would have, doesn't mean that they're going to succeed in creating a total human replacement. But what we know is that they want to. We know they have profound influence in corporate America. They have profound influence in the education system and in the hospitals. And they are at the moment deploying these systems all over all of these institutions and basically forcing people to use them. I'll give you A really good example someone gave me from a hospital, a hospital administration office. And in that administration office, there's a sign that says, think less, GPT more. And the whole notion is that we don't need you to make decisions, we need the machine to make decisions. And this is going to keep increasing. The more these guys have power and leverage over every institution in society and the more they're buying off politicians through PACs, like leading the Future, then the more we're going to see this crammed down people's throats and the more you're going to see actual replacement. So this is a completely different graphic that we're seeing here from the one I asked for Denver, but it does show.

[Eric Bolling]

Hang on. Yeah, hang on. Let's. I want to get the graphics right. Let's get the graphics right. I'm gonna hold. You're gonna stick around. We got Amy Kramer that's working with you at Humans First. We're gonna get all of it, get the graphics straightened up. Solomon's gonna join us. Updates. I think Caroline Wren's gonna join us. Carl Rove and that team is trying

[Jim Rickards]

to do a sneaky move.

[Eric Bolling]

I know that shocks you around Ken Paxton. Not going to work. Dr. Jeffrey Tucker on Make America Health again, polling the facts. Why we have Bobby Kennedy Cage. Why are we having the White House political director say we can't talk about mass deportations? Let me think about this. For everything that President Trump won on, we're just supposed to not talk about. I don't think that's going to work. Folks. Don't think that's going to work.

[Jim Rickards]

Isaiah 21:6.

[Eric Bolling]

Go set the watchman. That's Joe Allen. What's happening here in artificial intelligence? The most important thing out there is this inflection point with humanity, with Homo sapiens. And it's upon us and the hours late. So go set the watchman. Joe Allen. Humans first. Short break.

[Jim Rickards]

Back for the second hour of War Room, which will be more on fire than even the first that I will commit to you. 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. 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, 800-958-1000, tell them Bannon sent you. Don't let the IRS be the first to act. Take advantage of first mover advantage.

[Eric Bolling]

You move.