Episode 5253: War Escalating Into Lebanon; Texas Is The Railhead Of The Country Episode 5253: War Escalating Into Lebanon; Texas Is The Railhead Of The Country

Summary

Bannon’s War Room – Episode 5253: “War Escalating Into Lebanon; Texas Is The Railhead Of The Country”

Date: March 28, 2026
Host: Stephen K. Bannon, WarRoom.org
Featured: Marco Rubio (Secretary of State/National Security Advisor), Frank Gaffney, Military Correspondents, News Reports

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Stephen K. Bannon leads an intense discussion on multiple escalating crises: the widening U.S.-Iran war (notably involving Iran striking a U.S. airbase in Saudi Arabia and expanding Houthi missile activity), the political infighting over border security and ICE funding in Congress, and the grassroots mobilization in Texas against Sharia law. The show combines up-to-the-minute war analysis, historical analogies, frustration with U.S. allies abroad, and domestic mobilization calls, with Bannon’s signature populist, defiant tone throughout.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Escalation of the U.S.-Iran War

• Iranian attacks: Tehran hit an area near its nuclear plant, threatened heavy retaliation, and successfully damaged a U.S. airbase in Saudi Arabia, injuring American troops ([02:43], [06:21]).
• U.S. Response: The U.S. sent additional carrier strike groups to the region. Despite intensifying military posture, Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeatedly insists no need for American “boots on the ground” ([00:35], [04:13], [13:10]).
• Negotiation Efforts: The Trump administration tabled a 15-point peace proposal; diplomatic backchannels are reportedly active via regional players ([00:02], [06:21]).

Quote:
"We can achieve, we are achieving all those objectives. We are ahead of schedule on most of them and we can achieve them without any ground troops."
— Marco Rubio ([00:37])

Analysis:
Bannon is deeply skeptical of the “no ground troops” mantra, highlighting historic U.S. allies’ reticence and calling for greater burden-sharing from Arab partners, Israel, and NATO navies ([12:40], [17:30]). He suggests the U.S. should be economically ruthless, shutting down Iranian money flows and demanding greater sacrifices from allies.

Quote:
“It’s time to get the Arabs to stand up. Not that we should have done that maybe before the war... Everything comes out of there either makes the Arabs money, big time money, Bitcoin, and it fuels Asia and Europe.”
— Bannon ([19:45])

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2. Tension Between Military and Political Leadership

• Bannon compares the present uncertainty and infighting to Civil War-era coups and Lincoln’s struggle with his own generals ([16:22], [18:40]).
• He warns that the true test of American resolve comes after the first initial wave of patriotism and calls for continuous, informed involvement rather than blind trust.

Quote:
“…wars are not simply the fog of war, but it’s the law of unintended consequences.”
— Bannon ([16:50])

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3. CPAC Texas, Texas Politics, and Sharia Pledge

• Texas hailed as the “railhead” of populist mobilization, linking national election security, immigration, and anti-Sharia activism ([29:53]).
• Frank Gaffney interview: Launch of the “Sharia Free Pledge”, modeling Grover Norquist’s tax pledge but focused on banning Sharia law at every level of U.S. government ([33:47], [38:23]).
• Gaffney frames Sharia as “slavery 2.0,” drawing historical parallels to the abolitionist movement. Bannon rails against the “Bush political class,” accusing Texas elites of enabling Islamist infiltration via business interests ([41:55]).

Quote:
“We’re about abolishing slavery 2.0. Because what these guys have in mind… these Sharia supremacists have in mind, is your enslavement.”
— Frank Gaffney ([36:44])

Quote:
“The imminent threat for the destruction of this republic is in Washington, D.C., New York City, and places like Texas. It’s inside the wire.”
— Bannon ([42:10])

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4. Divisions and Frustration Within the GOP and Congress

• ICE and Border Security: Bannon lambasts Senate leadership for failing to fund ICE and Border Patrol, accuses both Senate and House of lacking urgency, and advocates new leadership targeting “27 votes” for a Senate majority ([31:00-33:47]).
• Populist Frustration: CPAC attendees, according to Bannon, are not uniformly in favor of escalation or ground war; skepticism toward establishment narratives is palpable ([20:00]).

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5. Global Economic and Geopolitical Stakes

• Soaring oil prices ($112+/barrel), stock market downturns, and the admission that Persian Gulf security – and who pays for it – are now open questions ([01:53], [20:15]).
• Bannon maintains that China’s economic lifeblood flows from Persian Gulf oil and suggests U.S. may need to cut off these flows to weaken both Iran and its backers ([21:10]).

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6. Call for “Total War” and Economic Strangulation

• Bannon zealously calls for a cutoff of Iranian monetary flows through Dubai, a crackdown on countries facilitating sanctions evasion, and robust U.S. secondary sanctions ([45:06-49:30]).
• He insists front-line combat should not fall to American troops alone and demands public clarity about war aims ([45:06-47:00]).

Quote:
“Let’s go to total war. Let’s shut down everybody trading with them…Let’s go to UAE and said, hey, you got like two hours to go to Dubai and shut it all down. The Pirate Cove in Dubai gotta stop.”
— Bannon ([45:40])

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7. Tension Between External and Internal Threats

• Bannon repeatedly asserts the true existential threat to the Republic is “inside the wire”—domestic Islamist infiltration, Congressional dereliction, and establishment duplicity ([42:10-43:53]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• Marco Rubio: “We can achieve all of our objectives with our ground troops, but we are always going to be prepared to give the President maximum optionality and maximum opportunity to adjust to contingencies should they emerge.” ([04:18])
• Bannon (on media): “CNN, for instance, which is another trash network...played like four minutes unedited from Iran television station. That would be like Winston Churchill allowing Joseph Goebbels to broadcast...” ([01:02])
• Mil. Correspondent: “We do not have clarity on what those injuries were other than...at least two servicemen and women who are injured with a shrapnel injury. Now of course, all of this is going to further complicate...these ongoing negotiations.” ([06:21])
• Bannon: "Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people." ([08:21])
• Frank Gaffney: “We want a Sharia free pledge. We want America to be served in the Congress. Yes. But also in their state legislatures, executive branches and so on by people who are going to stand up against Sharia.” ([37:40])
• Bannon: "Why do you think the mainstream media is down at CPAC saying, oh, there’s a divide in maga?...In wars, what Lincoln said, as long as you have popular opinion, he called it, or the people that have your back, you can go through these times and get to the other side." ([18:30])
• Bannon: “If we’re going to go to war, let’s go to total war...Let’s get them all down there. Let’s see, let’s see. Let's make them all turn over the cards. Let’s see who’s with us and who’s against us in this.” ([52:35])

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Opening War Update and Rubio Statement: [00:00 – 04:18]
• Market/Economic Impact & Iran Airbase Strike: [01:53, 02:43]
• CPAC & Media Discussion, Historical Parallels: [16:22 – 20:30]
• Critique of U.S. War Strategy & Iraq comparisons: [12:10, 17:00]
• Frank Gaffney Interview & Sharia Pledge: [33:47 – 41:15]
• Inside-the-Wire Threats, Texas Focus: [41:55 – 43:53]
• Policy Advocacy: Economic War & U.S. Objectives: [45:06 – 47:20, 52:35]

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Tone and Language

The tone is urgent, combative, and laced with populist fervor. Bannon blends sarcasm and historical metaphors (“Prisoners, I got a free shot…We’re going medieval on these people” [08:21]), deep frustration at the political establishment (“They wanted to take their two week break and you know, the House guys wanted to do it too…They’re not interested” [32:30]), and rallying calls for grassroots activism and clarity of purpose.

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Summary for New Listeners

This War Room episode is a bracing, sometimes chaotic, deep-dive into the expanding U.S.–Iran confrontation, laced with domestic political grievances, frustration with foreign allies, and broad calls for American populist self-assertion both at the ballot box and on the global stage. Bannon delivers stinging commentary on war strategy, the failures of Republican leadership, and the challenges within Texas and the Republican grassroots. If you haven’t listened, expect unapologetic, opinionated breakdowns with little patience for bureaucracy or global passivity.

Transcript

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters

[Marco Rubio]

a short time ago that he was expecting Iran's response to a US Peace proposal at any moment. The Trump administration has offered Tehran a 15 point plan to end the war. And this comes as the two sides could potentially begin face to face negotiations in the near future. At the same time, the US Is sending thousands of troops to the Middle East. Though Secretary Rubio says that Iranian military capabilities can be destroyed by. Without putting any American troops on the ground. Listen, we can achieve, we are achieving all those objectives. We are ahead of schedule on most of them and we can achieve them

[Stephen K. Bannon]

without any ground troops, without. Any.

[Marco Rubio]

Now, in terms of why there's deployments,

[Stephen K. Bannon]

number one, the President has to be prepared for multiple contingencies, which I'm not

[Marco Rubio]

going to discuss in the media.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

And again, I refer you to the Department of War who will probably tell

[Marco Rubio]

you the exact same thing. But we can achieve all of our

[Stephen K. Bannon]

objectives with our ground troops. But we are always going to be

[Marco Rubio]

prepared to give the President maximum optionality and maximum opportunity to adjust to contingencies should they emerge.

[Stephen K. Bannon (Ad/Promo Voice)]

Granted, I don't trust these guys as far as I can throw them, but it's time to start negotiating. And Donald J. Trump has started negotiating and everybody lied about it. And they said that didn't happen. Cnn, for instance, which is another trash network, you know, they were taking the word of the Iranian regime. They actually played like four minutes unedited from Iran television station. That would be like Winston Churchill allowing Joseph Goebbels to broadcast on the radio during World War II.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

It's just absolutely foolish.

[Stephen K. Bannon (Ad/Promo Voice)]

And they're rooting against the United States of America. And there's something else I'd like to bring up. It's not just the mainstream media. There's a whole pile of former general officers and flag officers who are actually rooting for the Iranian regime.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

And it's shameful.

[Stephen K. Bannon (Ad/Promo Voice)]

Now you know who these people really are and how they have subverted President Trump during his first administration and how they're trying to subvert him now when they're civilians.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

It's shameful.

[News Reporter]

Tehran is reporting that a projectile hit an area near its nuclear power plants. This comes as Iran's foreign minister threatens what he called a heavy price for such attacks. And all of this economically driving up the price of oil to $112 a barrel and once again sending investors to the nervous exits. Wall street had another punishing day. The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 all ended the day and all ended this week down sharply in Short, all serious stuff, deeply serious. Or perhaps as the president put it tonight, just another stop on a longer excursion

[Stephen K. Bannon]

and Cuba's next, by the way. But pretend I didn't say that. Please. Pretend I didn't say that. Please, please, please. Media, please disregard that statement. Thank you very much. Cuba's next.

[News Reporter]

Iran hits a US Air base in Saudi Arabia. American equipment is damaged. American troops are hurt. It happened here. Iranian state media releasing this image showing the destruction at the Prince Sultan Air Base. We do not yet know how many service members have been wounded or how badly. What is clear, however, is that this commander in chief is very different. As the world was learning about this and as those service members were dealing with what could be anything from bumps and bruises to hopefully not, but possibly life altering injuries, the president was having what I guess we should call some Friday night fun.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Unlike other politicians, they would like the question screened. I don't ask for screening of the questions. You can ask me anything you want. You can talk, sex, you can do

[Marco Rubio]

whatever the hell you want.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

I'm here for you. Whatever question you want, you can ask. So do you want to do that?

[News Reporter]

That's the president tonight at an investors conference in Miami. He did also talk about the war.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

It's not finished yet. I'm not saying it's sort of finished, but it's not finished. It's got to be finished.

[News Reporter]

And he repeated what's become something of a refrain for him of late, that Iran is eager, very eager, the president says, to make a deal to end the fighting. And though he said tonight There are some 3,500 targets still to be hit, his Secretary of State Marco Rubio today said there would be no need, Rubio says no need to go beyond airstrikes.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

We can achieve all of our objectives with our ground troops, but we are always going to be prepared to give

[Marco Rubio]

the president maximum optionality and maximum opportunity to adjust to contingencies should they emerge.

[News Reporter]

And perhaps along those lines, the contingencies you just heard Secretary Rubio talking about. CNN has learned, just learned a third aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. bush aircraft carrier expected to deploy now to the area as that's according to a source familiar with the matter. Unclear, though is whether it will join the other two or replace one of those already there.

[Marco Rubio]

I can remember very vividly just Christmas Day 2023. We had an Iranian drone grievously wound Americans in northern Iraq in January with three American 2024 before three Americans killed in Jordan from an Iranian drone. The Iranians have been doing this for Some time. And that gets to something, I think you said important. You know, the CENTCOM military campaign, John, has about two more weeks left to run on this four to six week timeline. So that brings you to about April 11th. And they are methodically just taking apart Iran's defense industrial base, missiles, drones, day by day so that at the end of this Iran will be so significantly weakened and degraded. I think the Iranians from people I'm talking to in the region are starting to realize that they actually don't have many friends and that their, their ability to recover from this every day goes on the Runway for them is much longer. So does that open the path for diplomacy? Maybe. I mean Pakistan, Turkey, others are passing messages. There is this proposal. I've heard mixed things from people who are involved in this and that there seems to be a debate within Tehran of what's left of the system and who's really in charge of how to respond to the American proposal. So there's a chance, I would put it a low chance in my experience negotiating with the Iranians, John, that there will be a diplomatic off ramp I think we can take as a base case. The military campaign will continue here for another couple weeks and within those couple weeks you'll be testing out the parameters of diplomacy. I think that's basically where we are.

[Military Correspondent]

So we don't have the exact number of servicemen or women who were actually injured during this attack, but I was just told by a source moments ago that two of the service members did have shrapnel wounds, but they were clear to say that these were non life threatening wounds. I'm also told that aircrafts, at least one aircraft was damaged in this strike, but it's not something that's going to totally take out their capabilities on that air base. Now in terms of the shrapnel wounds, in terms of the wounds overall, the injuries overall, we do not have clarity on how many, many service members, men and women, were actually injured. We do not have clarity on what those injuries were other than the at least two servicemen and women who are injured with a shrapnel injury. Now of course all of this is going to further complicate what is supposed to be happening behind the scenes right now and what we are told is happening, but which is this quest for diplomacy, these ongoing negotiations. And I will say we heard from the Secretary of State earlier today who said that they were waiting to hear from Iran on that 15 point plan and that they still didn't know who they were supposed to be talking to and what they were supposed to be talking about and the reason why that's so critical, that 15 point plan, I mean that's supposed to be the basis of these negotiations. So if Iran doesn't accept that, what are they actually going to talk about if the two sides sit down together either late this weekend or early next week. But when it comes to what happened in Saudi Arabia, I mean this was, this information is still very fluid. It is coming in. It does sound like the, the injuries that we know of were non life threatening but again this is still a very fluid situation after this Iranian missile strike.

[Stephen K. Bannon (Ad/Promo Voice)]

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

[Stephen K. Bannon]

medieval on these people.

[Stephen K. Bannon (Ad/Promo Voice)]

Prisons I got a free shot. All these networks lying about the people, the people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

And where do people like that go

[Marco Rubio]

to share the big lie?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul

[Marco Rubio]

I wish that any of these people had a conscience.

[Stephen K. Bannon (Ad/Promo Voice)]

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

[Stephen K. Bannon]

WAR ROOM here's your host Stephen K Ban. Saturday 28 March Year Ruler 2026 A lot to break down today. Speaking of breaking down the breaking down media row at CPAC particularly those large buses, the Patriot Mobile and other buses that had to get out so they're breaking. I think we had a clip of breaking down our studio. I want to thank everybody with amazing cpac thank everybody for coming tons of energy. We also it's very tough as you know in those live events to do the type of analytical coverage that we can that we normally do and we've got to get to that. So we got breakdowns today of many important things. One obviously the war where we stand. What's the reality? How, how long is it before we can take the win so to speak. Also the cowardly Senate really in just an amazing move cut out ICE and border patrol and I think it's this understanding they think these things could be funded. I think particularly ICE could be funded. I'm not so sure about that. Anyway the House rejected that last night so there's a standoff there. We'll get to that. Also no kings they're talking about millions of people going to flood the nation and now to to get drive their energy for the 2026 midterm election. So we're going to break all that down. I want to get to the war first. The war is expanding, is not contracting. The Saudis hit yesterday. The Houthis overnight or a couple hours ago lit off some missiles into Israel at least any reports right now they have not done anything on the Red Sea or anything of the traffic to the Red Sea or there are some US Navy elements down there. Nothing on those elements. You know we fought. I think the Houthis probably the better, better than a draw this summer. But they, they punch way above their weight. Also I think Marco Rubio, who's one of the architects of this, remember Marco wears two hats. The Secretary of State had things being way overplayed. He's national Security Advisor. He's one of the chief architects of this and obviously he's quite nervous. He's been in the witness protection program for a couple of weeks doing no media since he had the disastrous going to the mics telling us really what caused us which was Israel was going to strike and they were going to be struck. So we that was the imminent threat. His words, not mine really. Until yesterday in the tarmac, I don't think he'd been doing much media. In fact they'd had other people out like Scott Bessant talking about escalate to DE escalate and 50 days of pain for 50 years of peace. All of that which I think really has to be thought through. Are we actually escalating to de escalate right now? Our bombing campaign, the CENTCOM campaign to defang and declaw the conventional military of the of the Iranians continues but the Houthis are now in it expansion the Persian Gulf. Rubio is very specific. No need for to achieve the military to achieve the military to achieve the objectives of President Trump. In the Trump administration you do not need boots in the ground. That means you don't need to take Carg island. You don't need to take the, those islands right by the straight of Hormuz. You don't need to take, you don't need a beachhead up on those cliffs or up on that part of Hormuz where they've, where the, where the B2 bombers dropped the 5,000 pound bunker busting bombs. And I don't even think they're Persians down there. I think it's kind of these Arab tribes that are down there but obviously part of the Iranian alliance or have been there since Alexander the Great and her bad hombres. So I guess he's saying that keeping Hormuz open and making sure that we can have safe navigation is not an objective. Because I haven't heard anyone say yet that bombing just resolves that. Now, if the objective, if that's not an objective, and you're going to put that back on NATO, which, hey, I do think NATO's got to step up here. Remember, this all goes to Asia, into and to NATO where their navies, right? There's been talk about the Japanese navy, the South Korean navy, the NATO Navy. You're finding out right now they don't have any punch. Let this be a lesson for what's happening in Ukraine. So don't, don't lose that. Also, I think it's incumbent upon us because there's. You're hearing Kuwait say one thing, Qatar say another. They're all getting hit. Some are united, some are not. I think the best way to unite the Persian Gulf is to, Is to have a sit down right now and say, look, the taking a Kharg island is going to be the first wave of that is going to be your responsibility. Instead of sending in the 82nd Airborne with two Marine Expeditionary Units to back them up. So you have the 82nd Airborne take it. The Marines come in to hold it for a while. You know, uae, we've been pumping billions of dollars to these guys for years. Yes, we are selling them weapons, but there's tons of military support for UAE and the Saudis. It's time to step up. Can the Arabs fight? Do they want to fight? Are they in this or are they not in this? I think the exercise over this next week has maybe had the Israelis do less and the Arabs do more. If you go to a briefing, you can't put it up on the board. The Persian Gulf, they call it the Arabian Gulf. Fine, it's the Arabian Gulf. Then let's go for it. We're going to break all of this down exactly where we stand. What are President Trump's options? He likes optionality. When are we actually going to be talking to people called Iranians or Persians directly to see if there actually is a deal or if this war will continue? All next and all morning in the war room, think about this.

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[Stephen K. Bannon]

War Room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. As I said in my remarks at CPAC yesterday, it is you, the Warren posse, the, the leaders of the MAGA movement, the grassroots leadership, you know, the precinct strategy people, all of you combined that are going to make the difference here. Here's the reason, just like in any war, all the initial polling, because there's always a, A, you know, an embrace of the flag and patriotism and yes, let's do this. You saw it in Vietnam, you saw it in Iraq, saw it in Afghanistan. Have we not learned the lessons of, I don't know, the late 20th and early 21st century? What's important, as Lincoln said. And Lincoln went through some very dark days. You know, there was a military coup, the beginning of a military coup against President Lincoln by General McClellan. It came at the end of the peninsula campaign where McClellan was not simply insubordinate and a physical coward. There was a great concern after that, but the politicization. Lincoln had made a decision after he went down and saw what happened, that McClelland would never have a, would never have command again. And he ordered him back to essentially Alexandria, bring his troops back down the James, up, around, up the Potomac, and he relieved him and put John Pope in charge, an Indian fighter from out west. Pope was a guy of, as Shelby Foote said, a known liar. All the Popes are known liars. And Pope was a braggart and a liar. Put him in charge of a new army. They created the army of Virginia that was going to go back and do what Lincoln wanted, which was draw the army of Northern Virginia out and destroy it in basically Manassas or Bull Run, whichever you call it. Because Lincoln was very concerned at the time about the army of Northern Virginia and getting to Richmond. There was the beginning of a military coup by McClellan and McClellan's staff of backstabbing Lincoln. They had been doing it for a while. It actually increased after Pope turned out to be a total disaster. In second Manassas was one of the great victories of the Confederate army of the army of Northern Virginia. It got even worse. They had to bring McClellan back and led to Antietam. But there was an active potential military coup in the Civil War. So we've gone. My point is we've gone through these issues before of turbulence and everybody wringing hands and pulling their hair out doesn't know American history. What did Lincoln say? And Lincoln at about that time started in his process of becoming a warlord in which he was a warlord. And he shredded the Constitution, shredded the Constitution to fight the Civil War. Shredded it and became a warlord and took Sherman's advice eventually and realized this was a war of attrition and burned the Confederacy to the ground. As Sherman told him in the first 30 days of administration. When they said, told Senator Sherman, Tecumseh, Sherman's brother, get your brother out of here. He's crazy. This is crazy talk. Well, it turned out it wasn't. That's why wars are complicated. And wars are not simply the fog of war, but it's the law of unintended consequences. You have Marco Rubio, you know, in their every run round. 2028, we're going to do this. We're going to do this. Forget 2028. Anybody talking about 2028 is not concerned about the well being of this republic. Today, today, today, today. Lennon was right. There are decades in which nothing happens and weeks in which decades happen. And you're in the middle of that. You're. You're living in those. The Chinese curse. May you live in interesting times. Well, you're living in interesting times. And because you're part of this audience and an activist and have learned how to use your agency, you're one of the driving political forces here. Why in the hell do you think the mainstream media is down at CPAC saying, oh, there's a divide in maga and maga's divided. This is divided. And that's divided in war. What Lincoln said, as long as you have popular opinion, he called it, or the people that have your back, you can go through these times and get to the other side. And there's no better example than our revolution and there's no better example than our civil war in the revolution. If you read the military and political history of the revolution, they were coming after Washington virtually every day. What he had to withstand as an individual is to me what shows his greatness. They undercut him, they backstabbed him, they badmouthed him. The stuff they said about him is far worse than they say about President Trump today. And these were, quote, unquote, his allies. The same with Lincoln. Absolutely. Forget character assassination. I mean, they tried to relieve Washington two or three times. Gates, they had so many plots against Washington. And Lincoln, the same. A military coup by his own generals, who all happen to be Democrats. And they wanted to cut a deal with the South. They wanted to cut a deal with the South. That's one of the reasons they said McClellan kept pulling his punches. My point, Steve, why are you wandering around and talking about the revolution, the civil war? We want to talk about Iran. Well, you can't understand what's going on until you understand the frame of American history. We've gone through this before, and yes, everybody runs to the flag at the beginning of these things because naturally you have your patriots. The important thing is how this goes through. How as this goes on, where are you? And as you have more information, and I will tell people, everybody says, well, it looks like it's cpac. They're all supporting the war. I said, no, no, no, no, no. Hang on. As we did the thing the other day, and 65 or 70% of the war on posse, yes, we support the war. Okay. Do you support ground troops? Do you support marching on Tehran? What's. What is, I think very important now is to make sure that we, because we have, because of Israel's action, the world's greatest ally. We have. This has turned from some concept. So some people had a concept of the Persian people are going to rise up and overthrow this Islamic republic of which they brought in. Remember, don't think this thing just, it didn't just creep in on cat's paws. We were thrown out. And all the work we had done to make this a kind of a, a nation and assist this nation in its quest for modernity was thrown out. That had good and bad. And now you got the monarchists and they're all run around cpac, you know, oh, you know, free Iran. Free Iran. Well, yo, if you want to free Iran, what are you guys actually doing in the country? Because I certainly haven't seen any uprising. We now have reports that inside the administration, they're very angry at Netanyahu and the Israelis for over promising what was going to happen. But it was the Israeli actions of that first Saturday night, or I guess the second, technically the second Saturday night. Of the war when they bombed, essentially bombed the oil facilities around Tehran and created a firestorm that was, I don't know, looked like some of the Japanese cities that we bombed in March of 1945 when we firebombed. We tried to. Attempted to firebomb the Japanese into total submission and actually hit him with more destruction collectively than the atomic weapons we dropped later. So don't think we won't unsheath the sword and throw away the scabbard, because we will and we have. And that changed. That was the inflection point of the war, the two inflection points that gave the Iranians the initiatives. And let's be blunt. They have the initiative. They have the initiative. They have the initiative. They've shifted the center of gravity of this war to the Persian Gulf and I think have exposed, they've been quite brilliant about that because they've exposed the fecklessness of our Arab allies, the ones everybody's going over to the conferences for, and everybody wants to move over there and everybody, oh, they're so terrific, and these guys are so great. Well, where are they? They haven't even committed all the things they. They're thinking of really doing some commitments here on the war. They're bitching and moaning non stop why the Americans are not protecting them. This was the attack. And the Iranians, just to put an explanation point on that, hit the Prince Sultan airfield yesterday and damaged a bunch of American aircraft and I don't know, have 10, 12, 13American casualties. People are injured, some not so bad, some supposedly pretty serious. But you haven't seen it. You know, behind the scenes they're reporting, MBS is saying you got to go do this, you got to take them out, you got to go hard. Well, where's the, where are the Arabs? I think our strategy right now should be, hey, maybe we want Israel to do less and maybe we want the Arabs and NATO to do more. Everything comes out of there either makes the Arabs money, big time money, Bitcoin, and it fuels Asia and Europe. And oh, by the way, the main thing is Captain Fennell continues to remind me the Chinese Communist Party lives off what comes out of the. Essentially lives off what comes out of the Persian Gulf. So maybe we ought to stop that if there's going to be. And Rubio said we don't need ground ground troops. Okay, I assume then Hormuz in the Persian Gulf are not part of your plan of an objective of the war. That's fine. The oil markets may respond to that. I think they already have. I think West Texas Intermediate is up near 100 bucks. Last trade yesterday were 110. I think for Brent, that's going to have an impact. It just is. But if it's not an objective, because I haven't seen a plan or heard of a plan or talked to anybody about a plan that doesn't require some sort of ground troops and some sort of naval blockade or naval, you know, escort duty like my kid brother had back in 86 and 87 in the. In the tanker war. It's time to get the Arabs to stand up. Not that we should have done that maybe before the war. Let's put a pin in that. That's another thing. All the stuff about what went wrong and all that, that's for another day. Now we're in a shooting war and we have American kids at the line of contact. So I think all of our attention should be to what is going on here. If we're going to be at war and gonna put kids in harm's way, let's rip the Iranians face this off economically. Let's go to Dubai. Are they. Are they exchanging any money in Dubai? Or any of the sanctions we put up, Any country in the world trading with them, including Russia? If you're doing it, we're coming for you. And we're stopping all the money flow and we're stopping the oil from being monetized. If you sell it to keep the economy going, it's fine, but we're taking the cash. Time to get very, very hard.

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War Room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Bam. Okay, I've got Dr. Thayer. We're going to go through the war. We're also going to talk about Lindsey Graham in a little while. Other things. The, the, the ICE not being funded from the stage at CPAC on Thursday, the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanche concurred 100% with War Room and Stephen K. Bannon about ICE agents to the polls. And I want to play if we can do it, Ken Cuccinelli's misreading of the situation. Ken on CNN the other night trying to virtue signal which you cannot do. Ken, note to self. Note to cra. Love the CRA guys but let's get our talking points organized because the deputy Attorney general, which I think is senior to Ken's position over at dhs says yeah, we got to do it and we have to do it and we're going to do it. More on that in a moment. One thing we launched at cpac, Frank Gaffney joins us. And yesterday the Grassroots in Texas organization for like 150 grassroots leaders was amazing. Jenny's Story hat tip to Patriot Mobile and Jenny Story, she is the, she's just absolutely incredible. Her organizing ability and the way that she brings people together, it's just incredible. And so much momentum coming out of Texas. That was the providential part about having CPAC in Texas. Frank gaffney, the Sharia Talk to me about the Sharia pledge. I want to make sure this goes and particularly at the federal level. We've got a caucus now and I don't understand why there's only 35 guys signed up. Because, because you know why folks, if you don't put a bayonet in their back in this past couple of days has been a perfect example. The Senate had to take their two week break, right? Had to take their two week break and you know, the House guys wanted to do it too. Now Johnson, cause I think the president put the whip hand on him. You know, the House kind of came back last night. So we don't really have any funding. It's a very confusing situation but Save America is kind of tossed into the garbage bin. Let's be blunt. Mike Lee and all these heroes that tried to push it. You can't get anything done. If you're going to take your two week break, think about for a second. We told these guys you're going to seize the floor and this is going to be non stop for four or six weeks. When I kept saying when we first started streaming it, Mike Lee was doing such a heroic job. But I was talking to Jenny Beth and Cleta and others associated with. I said I can tell when something's got some heat and some urgency and our audience responds and people, there were a lot of people watching but you could just tell there was no urgency. They were never going to seize the floor because they wanted to take their two week break. If we had done anything before and they were leaving, they're not going to seize the floor and hold it and force this and have some dramatic Mr. Smith goes to Washington or the Civil Rights act in the 60s and no one of these historic standards. They're not interested. They're not interested. Tommy Tuberville told you they're not interested. They don't care. And I think the president, you know, we gotta. The way you make them care, sir, is you have a come round and to me you can't get 51 votes, you can't get 60 votes, fine. You can't get 51 votes, fine. But man, I know you can get 27 votes and that gets your new leader. So let's try, let's try it under new management. Clear. This management in the Senate ain't working. The whole Senate leadership team. So I think the new target, the new normal ought to be the 27 and let's see how that gets through because Dune doesn't care, could care less. Frank Gaffney, how are we going to get the, the pledge done? Are you, are you, are you going full Grover Norquest on us? You're going to make this like the tax pledge that the, that the Republicans had for decades?

[Frank Gaffney]

With your help we will. Steve. This is the deal. We have a moment right now and I think it ties right into what you were just talking about. We need new leadership. Yes. We need new, you know, bodies in the United States Senate, in the House of Representatives, in every legislative body across this country. Executive and we have an opportunity to do that. I believe by focusing like a laser on an initiative that we've demonstrated in the state of Texas can in fact be a unifying issue as you pointed out, Steve, when you discern that the number of votes for Ken Paxton and for John Cornyn combined was less than the number of votes to ban Sharia in the state of Texas, that was 1.9 million Texans. And that's a small subset of what we're ultimately going to get because basically I believe it's the case that if you go to any red blooded American, and I'm including, yeah, some independents and yeah, I think even some Democrats, I'm an old Scoop Jackson Democrat myself, much reformed, mind you, but I believe there are still people out there in this country who happen to vote the wrong way on some policy issues who are not going to vote vote for Sharia. And so what we've done with your help is we've launched this campaign, we call it the Sharia Free Pledge. And it simply says this quote, I pledge to the citizens of my district and the American people that I will oppose any and all efforts to impose Sharia law on them. Now that's an homage to old Grover Norquist, who I've had my differences with. But his tax pledge is the model for the Sharia Free pledge. And we need every man, woman in this country who is running for elective office to be asked, are you for Sharia in America or are you free now and want to remain free to vote against Sharia and will you serve? Is my representative in whatever capacity to work to keep Sharia out of our country to prevent it from taking over. And Steve, I don't know of anybody who's done more than you with your move to Texas in the run up to that proposition 10 to help us demonstrate that this really matters, that this is a moment when we have to change the trajectory of our country and to take advantage of this, I think growing sense of the American people that there's a toxic totalitarian death cult that seeks to destroy our country. And if we take the actions that I believe are now possible, starting with this, to create a movement, I'd liken it to the movement to abolish slavery. Back in the 1830s and 40s and 50s, you know, they called it the New York Times and the, and the 1619 Project. The original sin of this country was slavery. Right, 250 years ago. Well, you know, a Republican party was born out of that movement and they nominated a guy by the name of Abraham Lincoln to run for president. And the rest, as they say, is history. It took us 650,000 lives to expiate the sin of slavery. And a lot of civil rights movement and all the rest of it. But Steve, here's the point. We're about abolishing slavery 2.0. Because what these guys have in mind for you, these Sharia supremacists have in mind, is your enslavement. And oh, by the way, Sharia itself enshrines the concept of slavery. The guys who sold those slaves to the African traders and so on, those were Muslims and they're still selling slave even now, are Christians. By the way, we want a Sharia free pledge. We want the America to be served in the Congress. Yes. But also in their state legislatures, executive branches and so on by people who are going to stand up against Sharia.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Yeah, Frank, hang on. You're going in and out for the connection. But I want to. Where they go. Where they go. Yeah. Okay. Endsharea.com we'll get it. I want to say here's the ban, the Sharia ban. Sharia.com. let's get up. Frank Hangers. I think the irony of using the template of Grover Norquist is quite interesting because Grover Norquist I don't think has ever answered the question of his agency for the Islamic cause, particularly in the 2003 when he was the one that talked Bush in the say, and going to a mosque a couple of days after 911 and saying, oh, you know, it's a religion of peace. Nothing could be further from the truth and nothing hurt us more. The only thing that hurt more was his two daughters not enlisting into the military and being part of the cause. But the other was that his administration was infested with pro Islamist because they had made money in the Persian Gulf. Now let me think about that for a second. Hang on, hang on. I'm a connected out Bush, Texas. Oh yeah. It's the reason we got, the reason we got the problem in Texas. Here's the thing. Let's, let's just go to total war. If we're going to put, if we're going to put young men and women on those carrier battle groups and we're now going to send them around the Red Sea to keep the Red Sea open for the Europeans and have the Houthis be firing at us like they were last summer when they were giving as good as they got. If we're going to have American airmen in the, in The K. The KC135 tanker is a perfect example of I think two, two women, right? Four men, all patriots, all heroes, died in service of their country. Or did they? Or was it in the service of foreigners? You know, The Arab in Israel got a big stake in this. In the Europeans, where are you? Is taking out the Persians, taking out the Islamic regime? 100%. The United States issue, as I've said over and over and over again and the facts have proven me right, the issue we have with radical Islam is not going back 47 years because I was there at the beginning and you know about Beirut and all these horrible things that have happened and horrible things have happened, horrible things have happened. But it's inside the wire. And one of the reasons that we have this ban Sharia prohibitoria law in Texas and people are telling you, hey, man, Frisco, Texas, and some of these great towns are under siege by Islamists. Why is that? Well, hang on, let me wait for a second. Why? Peter McElvenny, probably, I think he and Rahim are the two most educated and best about this wise McElveen, he says, Steve, when he went to Dallas, you know, in the same time frame, Texas is much worse, 10 times worse than London was at the same time. And London now has fallen, he says, because they're in the business community, in the political class have embraced them. Let me repeat this. The Bush political class, it's the same at the war. Don't you see what's going on? The elites in this country whose sons and daughters ain't on carrier strike groups in the North Arabian Sea are not the brigade, the ready brigade of the 82nd Airborne. You have maybe one or two, but as a class, no way. Not interested. Where are the. We have a bigger problem inside the wire. Mandami in New york City is 10x the problem for the United States of America than Tehran, full stop. We got them inside the wire. Don't ask me. Ask these good, hardworking people in Texas. The people in Texas. One of the biggest problems we're going to have is that there's such good natured and kind people. It's the kindness and the openness and this kind of, you know, hospitality that's going to make this fight so tough because the enemy ain't like that. The problem in Texas is a ticking time bomb for this country. The problem in Tehran. And we'll have plenty of time to get to what the imminent threat was. I cannot be blunter. The imminent threat for the destruction of this republic is in Washington, D.C. new York City and places like Texas. It's inside the wire. No Grover Norquist in the tax pledge. They never had a pledge for cutting spending. So how do you not raise taxes and continue spending? I'm all for cutting taxes. I'm all for cutting taxes, particularly to give it to the, to what's being funded. But if you don't cut spending radically, you're going to bring a financial collapse in this country, full stop. And that's the path we're headed down right now. The problem is inside the wire, outside the wire is nobody, nobody does any heavy lifting except the kids, the young men and women in the United States of America.

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world read and you should too. War room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Band. Okay, we have an eighth free installment. Now it's totally free. The first seven installments, all free, everything is free or a Birch Gold, no obligation, totally free. It's to get you up the learning curve. Because once you're up at a learning curve, then you can make a decision. Hey, do I think precious metals, do I think gold and precious metals fit in to my investment philosophy or fit into where I am financially? That has to be the bottom line. Don't run out and just oh, let me go buy gold. That's not the way to do it, it's to understand it. Make your own decisions. Birchgold.com, promo code Bannon end of the dollar empire. Now the eighth free installment, the seven we've put into a book because of popular demand so you can get that also the Patriots edition. Very proud of this now being taught actually in a finance graduate school. And the reason is the accessibility of it. We took a lot of complicated concepts and using history and financial analysis and you don't have to know any high order math. It's to get you up the learning curve. Birchgold.com also specials for the Warren Posse. Home title lock. You get 14 days free testing of 1 million dollar triple lock protection. Look, 80 or 90% of your net worth is tied up in your home if you're lucky enough to have one. And we now know the average age of a first time buyer is 40 years old, which is obscene. Most of these young kids. You want to know why these young kids are angry? Because they're fighting foreign wars that they don't really see the purpose of and they haven't bought off on the assumptions that are being pitched. And they look back at home and every opportunity they've got is being taken by foreigners. Beau French said yesterday on the stage at, you know Beau French, a friend of the show that's running for railroad commission and they're all, hey, Beau French. You can't have Beau French. Beau French. Oh, he's terrible. In Texas, the Republican party, oh my God, Beau French are the worst. He said there's 100 million foreigners in the country. You think the younger generation sees a couple of three opportunities leaving. That's why they, that's why they're angry, because they can't own homes. They don't have the economic foundation to start families, which is central to our republic. The beginning of, of Edmund Burke's little platoons that kind of keep society and culture and civic life going home. Tide lock for pennies a day. But don't take it from me. Talk to Natalie Dominguez's team. Homedatalock.com promo code Bannon. The last is Tax Network USA. I'll give you the number in a moment. What they've done I think is pretty extraordinary. They've given you a free. It's very complicated to understand, hey, where you stand with the irs. And if you've missed a filing before or you got a letter from the IRS and you put it in the drawer and just don't want to go away, that's not the way the system works. They got so many tools to garnish your wages to get. They're going to get their money. The process is to get an advisor that can define what that money is. And to do that you need to know where you stand. So the Tax Network USA people have given you a free opportunity to find that out, called a discovery. Call 8665-1355-1686-6513. 5516 just for the Warren posse. Call that number, tell them you're from the war room and get a free discovery. Now you may have to Go back and get some of your paperwork done. But hey, that's between you and them. They've solved a billion dollars worth of tax problems. I tell people there is nothing in your tale of woe that they ain't heard before, okay? So you can come up free and clear and then get the, get the results. Dr. Thayer, if we're going to go to war, let's go to total war. And what I mean by total war, let's shut down everybody trading with them. Let's shut down. Let's go to UAE and said, hey, you got like two hours to go to Dubai and shut it all down. The Pirate Cove in Dubai got to stop. We got to stop the Arabs. Everybody's playing games. The Israelis are playing games with us. The Arabs are playing games with us. The Europeans are playing games with us. And what are we doing? We're sending troops over there. We got. Which is fine. President Trump needs options and alternatives to, to, to negotiate. To negotiate here around the. The military. Operation Victory and Marco Rubio ought to go on the morning shows tomorrow. Not Scott Bessa, but Marco Rubio to go on the morning shows tomorrow and lay out and go back to this definition. If the military objectives that he talked about in the tarmac, which have been what we've said, those four military objectives, if that is the sum total of our objectives, and that can be done by increasing intense bombing campaign, and we know that there's 3,500, I think there's 3,500 additional or maybe up to 6,000 additional targets, that's fine. Then keep doing it. If that's the objectives and then you got that, either negotiate, just withdraw. If you've met your, if you've met your objectives, I don't know what you need to negotiate. Now, if it's bigger than those objectives. Marco Ruby is national security advisor, not a Secretary of state, national security advisor, because I think by statute, national security advisor from the National Security act and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs or the two senior advisors. And they ought to have, you ought to have just. If that's it, then we shouldn't be on any big search for who we actually have to negotiate with. Now, if it's broader than that, and we want something broader than that, that's fine. Then people ought to know that because that probably means we may not saying we have to, we may need an alternative of actual combat troops. Let's call them what they are. Let's stop saying boots on the ground. Let's call them combat troops. Young men and women of the United States of America. Combat troops inserted into the Persian Gulf or maybe even the mainland of Persia. We're going to go back and redo what Alexander the great did 2,300 years ago. Fine. If we do that though, I want Arabs at the front. The first wave at Carg island send you a mbz. Probably the best ally we got over there. A guy that punches way above his weight. A country punches way above their weight. Fine, dude, you're all in. Let's go shut down Dubai. The pirate cove of exchanging cash, money laundering the Persians cash. Shut that down now. Shut it down now. And let's get mbs. He's another big talker, you know, talking. We gotta destroy this. Gotta destroy this. No, you gotta stand up and destroy this. And maybe get a couple of three little princes in uniforms. Let's get them over there. Let's. Let's get some of the royal families. Qatar royal family. You got any kids over there in special forces? Let's line them all up. Let's line them all up and then see how big they're talking. Yeah, the United States. You got to get in there. It's time to have a session where we talk about what exactly is going on here in the United. President Trump's in. Hey. And we're into as long as the information's out there. And President Trump's now searching for some Iranians to negotiate with. And we're increasing the bombing campaigns, which is fine. And that's one aspect of it. But another aspect of it is got. You got to get. Make sure, number one, the Israelis understand your strategic objectives, which are paramount and the only thing that matters. And you got to get the Arabs and then let's get the Arabs pans. Let's get the Royal Navy down there, let's get the French Navy down there. Let's get, let's have a. Let's get them all down there. Let's see, let's see. Let's make them all turn over the cards. Let's see who's with us and who's against us in this.

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