
Episode 5379: Texas Goes After Transgender Indoctrination And Child Mutilation; Chaos At The Fed ...
Loading summary
Steve Bannon
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. 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. 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.
Steve Cortez
And where do people like that go
Steve Bannon
to share the big lie?
Steve Cortez
MAGA Media.
Eric Bolling
I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
Steve Bannon
Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?
Stephen K. Bannon (Host)
If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
Eric Bolling
War Room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.
Steve Bannon
It's Monday, the 18th of May, in the year of our Lord 2026. Early voting starts today in the great state of Texas. We have to kick off the week. The great Attorney General of the great state of Texas, Ken Paxton. General Paxton, a couple things I just want to get, because we keep up with your, your activity and your press releases, two things. Number one, you've. You've got a historic settlement on this, I guess, transgender ideology and the practical implication of it. You've also gone after this H1B visa scam and this time with Chinese nationals. Let's start with the. I guess it's D. Transitioning. Walk me through the settlement, because I know you've been on top of this from day one.
Ken Paxton
Yeah. We've been fighting this transgender movement for four years, way before it was cool to do so. And we sued Texas Children's Hospital. They're not the first one we sued. We've actually pushed hospitals out of the state. We've gotten doctors licenses taken. But this was, this is historic. We sued them Texas Children's Hospital about a year ago. And the settlement that we've reached is they are going to fire all the doctors, all the woke doctors that were doing these procedures. They're also going to adopt compliance measures so that they cannot do this again. And then they're. They're contributing 10 million to the state, and part of that 10 million is going to pay for detransitioning service for these children who otherwise don't have the resources to go back and remedy some of the problems these doctors have created. But over the next five years, they can go to Texas Children's Hospital, and the services are free. So I'm very excited about this. I don't know of any other place in the country that has gotten this kind of result. And I'm just so pleased to have
Steve Bannon
this done because we followed this and I think we reported on this a couple of years ago. Here's. To me, the most powerful thing is that Texas Children's Hospital is one of the finest children's institutions in the country. This is not some back alley, you know, abortion clinic or not some back. I mean, not some back alley marginal where they're doing this. This is a revered institution, not just in the state of Texas, but throughout the world. I mean, you went and took on and there's a lot of these institutions that have been radicalized that a lot of people are just afraid of taking on. Why did you decide to take it on, sir?
Ken Paxton
Look, I was so sad seeing what was happening to these children. They're making decisions for them. Some of these procedures can't be reversed. But either way, it's a very costly and emotionally challenging position to put children in when their brains are not fully developed to make decisions that affect their entire lives. I just felt like we needed to protect these children. It's been one of the main themes of my work over the last, say, five years to try to figure out a way to stop this, at least in Texas, and maybe send a message to the rest of the country. This is not a good idea. Let's stop doing this. Let's protect these children. And this is. This is one case where we've actually been successful in doing that.
Steve Bannon
How did this ideology get so embedded in such a revered institution that normally is at the cutting edge of quality care?
Ken Paxton
You know, the progressive movement works.
Steve Bannon
They get.
Ken Paxton
They start talking about it, it becomes their talking point, ends up in universities, colleges, it becomes part of the media, becomes accepted there'. You almost feel bad if you speak out. And I remember when we, when we first spoke out, we put out an opinion saying that I thought this is probably four or five years ago, saying that I believe that this was child abuse. And that was the first sort of salvo that we had. And then shortly thereafter, I was trying to put pressure on the legislature to do something about it, and they did. They followed that up with legislation banning these procedures in Texas and giving me the authority to stop it and hold these hospitals and doctors accountable. And that's what we've done.
Steve Bannon
Talk to me about this. The Chinese nationals and the H1B visas. I from spending time in Texas, I can tell you the beside, right, right below the Sharia law. People are outraged by the abuse of the H1B visa scandal.
Ken Paxton
Well, we've been focused on, obviously, I can't do anything about the federal law. But I can stop them, stop these companies from deceiving consumers in Texas and this particular company, Chinese nationals running it, advertising in China, come to Texas, have your baby. We'll do it on a tourism visa and we'll hide it from the federal government. So they've been doing this for like 20 years. And we found it, we went and researched actually advertisements. We'd have people translate and we'll set AI translate. And that's how we found their advertisements in China. And so they would bring their babies over here, have them, they'd become citizens. And they've been doing this for 20 years. So think about it. The Chinese Communist Party can now send these people over as citizens to vote, to run for political office, to any political office. And so it's very dangerous for our country. And so we've sued them. We are going to hold them accountable. We've sued them for damages and we've sued for an injunction to stop them from ever doing this again.
Steve Bannon
Talk to me, today is the first day of early voting. You know, all of a sudden it's been a, you talk about transformations and transitioning. John Cornyn's transitioned from a do nothing supporter of the established corrupt order into a fire breathing populist nationalist grassroots fighter on all the topics that are interesting. How did that happen? How did, how did you talk about transitions? How did this transition take place? Because it's pretty remarkable.
Ken Paxton
It was a very fast conversion. When he found out I was running, the conversion occurred like that. He will detransition shortly after the election back to the real John Cornyn. Speaking of detransitioning, back to the Mitch McConnell guy that he is. He's a Mitch McConnell Washington guy that spends his life there, that lives there. His daughter works as a lobbyist there. He is fully committed to the Washington world, whether it's Democrat, Republican, helping Joe Biden fighting Donald Trump. And we will get that John Cornyn back as soon as he stops lying to us during this primary to get reelected. And fortunately, I don't think the voters of Texas are going to believe this and buy his $150 million worth of lies.
Steve Bannon
One of the things we watch, a lot of your videos are going to the site. Is it true? Because myself and our staff haven't seen that. You ask a question, I think at the start of the thing a lot of times saying, hey, he's been there for 40 years. Can anybody name one accomplishment I have yet to see in any of the town halls or anything you've done where anybody raises their hand and actually mentions an accomplishment. Is that. Is that been true in all the. All the settings you've gone, all the town halls you've done?
Ken Paxton
I have made it a part of every meeting, whether it's one person or 10,000, to ask that question. John's been running for his fifth term in Texas. No one in Texas history has run for a fifth term for U.S. senate. Not Sam Houston, not LBJ, not John Tower, not Bill Graham. He's running for a fifth term. He's been in office. And I say, look, let's not just give him the 24 years I may have given, the whole 42 years he's been in office, since I was in college and I'm 62. Let's give him the whole 42 years. Can you name it? I open it up to the audience. Can you name any good accomplished? I'm not talking about bad. We've got plenty of bad stuff. But can you name a good one? No one, not even his supporters, have ever given me an answer to that question that was positive.
Steve Bannon
How did. How did they. Even with $150 million. I mean, how they get around the basic fact that on the afternoon of the 20th of January in 2021, you were the first guest we had on the war room in the afternoon show, and you laid out your program. You said, look, we're the Biden, where Biden is going to be inside the lines of the Constitution for the good of Texas, we will work with their administration. Where they're not, we will see him in court. I think you filed your first, I think, his executive orders that day to open the border. You were the very first person, I think, to jump in there. John Cornyn at the. At the exact same time was one of the biggest promoters of, you know, reaching across the aisle and working with the Biden regime. How did they. Because the folks in Texas are smart. Cable TV ads can't get over that juxtaposition. You've been a warrior for maga. You've been a warrior for President Trump. You've been a warrior from the Trump movement in some of the hardest things. I don't mean some. Just happy talk. Let's talk about legislation. I mean, in the trenches, fighting as a state attorney general to stop this madness. Whereas Cornyn was one of his biggest promoters. How to. How does Cornyn get around that? And cable TV ads can't make up for that. So how does he get around that basic fact?
Ken Paxton
He just lies a lot. I mean, his commercials talk about how he's been pro Trump, which is not true. He voted 99% with Trump. What does that mean anyway? But it's not true that he's been. He's a tough guy in the borders. The reality is everything he said he's been, he's an open borders guy. He's for amnesty. He's for. He wasn't for building a wall. He was totally against it. He criticized it. He criticized Donald Trump running for president both times, said he should not be our president. So with $150 million, the goal is just keep lying about it over and over and lie and then hopefully he can take 5% of my voters and turn them into 5% of his voters. That's a 10% shift, something like that. 10, 12, 14. That's what they're targeting. If enough people believe the lies, if you tell them enough. John Cornyn's relying on that. And of course, we know what John Cornyn will be the day those elections end. He will go back to the anti Trump establishment, work with the Democrats, Joe Biden congratulating him. All that stuff is back if John Cornyn ends up getting another six years in the U.S. senate.
Steve Bannon
So General Paxton, let's talk about today's the first day of early voting. You guys actually vote, I guess next week or tell me about the next Tuesday, I think tell me about what's the plan, what's the campaign plan? What should people look forward to? Where can they see you? Because you have a tremendous amount of support in this audience, sir.
Ken Paxton
So I will be in Dallas at noon. I'll be in Tyler tonight at 6. Tyler, which is east Texas. I will be in Collin county, which is north Texas, north of Dallas, tomorrow around noon. I will be in Magnolia, which is north of Houston on Wednesday and I will be in Dripping Strings Springs outside of Austin on Thursday. I'll also be in Katy on Wednesday, which is west of Houston. And then on Thursday night I will be in San Antonio speaking. So we're going, we're barnstorming the state. John Cornyn doesn't do that. He's maybe. I've seen him do one event this last week that was a new thing for him. He's depending on TV ads that are completely funded by massive dollars from Washington D.C. to protect him.
Steve Bannon
No, the send talk about that. The Senate Leadership fund, every, every McConnell, McConnell's guys have raised all this money and they need to keep deceit. Why are they so completely. I've never seen a freak out like this as long as we've been covering this, even my days at Breitbart, I've never seen one individual that has scared the McConnell machine to its core. Why is that?
Ken Paxton
You know, it's interesting to me. I've learned a lot about this. One, is there are really no fundraising limits on income. It's only on challengers. And two, that the primary school doesn't really necessarily seem to be protecting the map, making sure we get the most Republicans. The primary goal is to protect incumbency. Otherwise, why would you spend that much money on John Cornyn? I mean, spend the money after when we need it in the general election against The Democrat instead $150 million being spent here against a Republican. Most the donors, they knew that probably wouldn't be very happy. Two, you could have used that money in Georgia, you could use it in North Carolina. You could use it in Michigan or Maine somewhere where it actually make a difference to help us hold onto the map. But the primary goal is not that. Otherwise their actions would have followed and they would have held the money for that. Instead of trying to keep John Cornyn. And look, why don't you just let Texas decide that? Let the voters decide instead of trying to influence it from Washington and mislead people about my record about who I him and mislead about John. Let John stand on his own. He's had 24 years in the Senate. Let him fight his own fights. Don't come spend the money here. Go spend it against Democrats and help us keep the majority.
Steve Bannon
General Paxton, where do people go to the website to find out where are you going to be when they, when they can go and meet you and hear you? Also where they can donate, where they can get more material about all this and how they can sign up and volunteer for this, a really important final week.
Ken Paxton
Well, kenpaxon.com to donate. And we can still use money because there's still. We're getting out spent still two or three to one in a lot of places. So we'd like to compete. So anything give will help. And then at KenPax TX for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to follow where we're going to be at. And all I would say is, please, we have a chance to send the right message to Washington or the wrong message. The wrong message is you can spend as much as you, you can spend $150 million, mislead people from Washington and, and control who the senator is from Washington or the good message, which is, no, that doesn't work. I don't care how much you spend. Texas are not going to put up with this. We're going to send somebody that actually gets good things done and stops the bad things. We have that opportunity this time if people will get out and vote because it's going to be low voter turnout, probably less than 10%, maybe five. And so you're voting for a lot of people. So bring your friends, tell your friends and tell your family.
Steve Bannon
General Paxton, you have proven yourself in the crucible of battle for the MAGA movement, the president, United States and our country. We're honored to have you on here. Good luck this week. Look forward to getting you back.
Steve Cortez
Thank you.
Ken Paxton
Appreciate it.
Steve Bannon
General Ken Paxton, the legendary attorney general of the Great state of Texas, $150 million to keep him out of the Senate in a runoff race. Think about that for a second. $150 million against one man. On the politics of personal destruction. Exactly the scam they ran on President Trump. Short commercial break Geopolitics, the greater world capital markets, bond, interest rates, all next on a Monday morning in May in the War Room. 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 waves 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 him Bannon sent you. Don't let the IRS be the first to act, take advantage of first mover advantage. You move.
Stephen K. Bannon (Host)
Yeah. You know, I think it's evident when you talk to officials that the President is staring down another decision to what happens to this war in Iran. Does he resume the fighting? Does he try and wait out this diplomacy? He spent at least part of the weekend meeting with top national security officials, including at his golf club out in Virginia, to discuss where exactly all of this is heading. We expect him to convene that group again sometime early this week to talk about resuming the military campaign inside Iran. And it's seems as if right now the US And Israel are in intensive conversations, perhaps the most intensive since that cease fire went into effect last month, about resuming the bombing run. The President spoke yesterday to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. And that message that the President wrote over the weekend, calling on Iran to get moving, saying that the clock was ticking, I do think underscores some of the impatience that the President is feeling about the pace of diplomacy here. You know, he's frustrated that the Strait of Hormuz remains close. He's frustrated that, in his view, Iranian leadership aren't coalescing around a single negotiating position. You also hear a rising level of urgency among some of the President's advisers about some of the economic fallout of this war as the midterm elections grow nearer and nearer. And so it's all, I think, coming to a sticky sort of conundrum that the President finds himself in. You know, there are differing views inside the administration about the best way to proceed. Some officials are advocating a more aggressive approach to try and coerce the Iranians into conceding some of these negotiating positions. You also hear officials who are much more advantageous about diplomacy. And it does seem as if the diplomacy is still grinding forward. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said today that it had sent its latest response to the US So you see how those gears continue to grind. And so the president clearly, I think, facing a critical decision here very soon now, if he does decide to resume military strikes, the options could include essentially picking up where he left off when the cease fire went into place. You know, more aggressive, aggressive bombing runs against military targets or even some infrastructure sites. You also still have a number of special operators in the region, Marines, paratroopers, who are essentially on standby to go into Iran to retrieve some of that highly enriched uranium. That's an option that the President has yet to take off the table.
Steve Bannon
Okay, we're going to play some more into China in a little while. I'm Also going to do Cuba because we got a new one on the horizon. That is Kevin Liptak, one of the White House correspondents for cnn. I think their national security guy, get Eric Bowling and Steve Cortez with me. But over at Fox and we didn't have time to play this a guy I really like a lot, although sometimes I don't agree with his kind of neocon perspective, General Jack Keane and General Keane is very, very close to the President. He was, he was saying, hey, they're meeting and he's going to meet again tomorrow. But they're getting ready to go to go kinetic here. Bowling, talk to me about the markets, talk to me about the commodity markets and tell me about General Jack King, because General King was pretty specific. I thought, hey, that you're giving them plenty of opportunity on the diplomatic side. And you just keep getting these insults back. They can word it differently, but essentially is you lost, we won, you lost. We want reparations. You got to pay us for what you did. You got to stop all other activity in the, in the area. Oh, by the way, we'll call it what we'll call it, but we're going to control her moves and we decide to charge for it later. You know, our friends, like the CCP won't have to pay, but other people have to pay. That's essentially their negotiations is that we won, you lost, and you got to deal with it. Eric Bolling.
Eric Bolling
Yeah, Steve, a lot going on this Monday. Nervous oil markets up $2 a barrel earlier down a dollar barrel right now. Again, you had Trump saying Iran better get their act together or they won't have anything to negotiate with. Indicating that he was back on track to.
Steve Bannon
Well, he said, he said specifically, he said specifically they're running out of time. Not just some general things. As they're running out of time, they better come to the table or it's going to be obliteration, essentially. Right. Then he put the memes that he's shooting them out of the air. He's shooting them. I mean, he was this is about as aggressive as the president's been for a couple of weeks, correct?
Eric Bolling
Yeah, well, I, I think he's been on and off aggressive throughout. And this seems like the one where he said we were going to blow their civilization off the face of the planet. And then we kind of made nice with them. I, I will tell you that with that truth in, in moments later, General Jack Keenan, if I watch him on Fox and he literally said that the, they're ramping up the Kinetic portion of the military ready to, ready to, you know, ready to go, go time, which I don't know if they are or not. General's got great insights but he may also be talking to the White House. And then throughout this whole thing it's been, let's let the world proceed that we're ready to go see if we get Iran to the bargaining table. I'll tell you what happened in the last 24 hours. Iran sent a deal to the Trump administration saying that, well, we're not going to demand reparations but we want compensation, whatever that means. I don't know the difference between the two but there's something very important buried in it is that they were willing to negotiate on the nuclear dust, the enriched uranium. But here's what their negotiation was. They would turn it over with the right deal to the Russians, not to the United States. So is that a win? I don't know. Can you, you know, can you trust that? Or Putin say yeah, yeah, we have it. Meanwhile he lets him keep it. We don't know. So after that deal came across, Trump said they're running out of time. So he didn't like that deal. I will tell you one more thing, Steve. We talk about a lot here. Diesel gasoline is 452. It's holding above 450 as expected, probably going to push towards 5. But the diesel number is approaching the all time high set with Biden in June of 2022. It's 563A gallon. Now all time high is 581. So what is that 18 cents away from the all time high? A tiny fraction of a percentage point and it's probably going to blow that through right through that number. A lot of wild stuff on the economy, bonds.
Steve Bannon
Hang on, hang on, hang on. Don't jump ahead here. Don't jump right here. We're going to take this piece by piece. We're going to get to that in a second. Look, I can't figure out, you know, because I've trademarked America's greatest ally. Now I used to use it for Israel and then I use it for Saudi Arabia because the Saudis been such great allies to us. Now I think I'm going to add it to Beijing. So we got three America's greatest allies. Do you believe what's happened over the last 48 hours?
Eric Bolling
That's facetious, right? You are pointing out you're being facetious.
Steve Bannon
You're very good, you know, for, for, for an oil trader. You're, you're very Good. You're very sharp. You get this. Okay, Bowling, take your number two pencil and right now. Bowling. Does it appear that the ch. Given what's happened in the last 48 hours, the true socials President Trump taking being more adamant that we got to clean this thing up or, you know, I'm going to use some leverage on you. Big league Jack Keene. What Jack Keane is saying, what the Marx is saying. Does it appear that America's new best ally, our besties in Beijing are helping out here, Sir.
Eric Bolling
Not now, not ever, not going forward. I mean, these photo ops in Beijing or in D.C. later in the year, that's wonderful. But the actual economics telling you what's happening on the ground, in the water, and we still have vessels trickling through the strait, which I believe at this point, Steve, we're beyond help for the wind terms at this point. You and I have been doing this for 78 days. Early on, there was an opportunity to get a deal done, get oil prices down. Trump is being very optimistic by saying we'll get gas, it'll crash down after we get a deal. It won't. I mean, it may crash down in the physical immediate market, but the pump will stay high probably into September at least.
Steve Bannon
Hold on, but hang on, but hang on. But there's a logic to that because the Persians understand they've got an ally that allies the Chinese Communist Party. Yes, Russia too, but, but the Chinese Communist Party that's, you know, sending equipment and component parts for the military over the overland route. These people are savvy. They've been doing this, you know, the Chinese gave us a love tap at the dinner saying, you know, our 5,000 years of civilization and we want to congratulate you on getting to 250 over at the kids table. But they, you know, the Persians have been doing it. The, the Persians have been doing it for 2500 or 3000 years. So they've got a long history of this. They understand that they're going to drag this out past the midterms and the Chinese Communist Party is going to help them, right?
Eric Bolling
Well, yes. And at this point, early on, I thought we could cut a deal with our oil companies. Now it's. Now I think the biggest mistake is go kinetic now, Steven, because now you go kinetic, you're going to risk major disruption of oil infrastructure throughout the Middle East. We saw it over the weekend, Iran, but he's had a drone strike hitting a UAE refinery that supportive of oil. If you go kinetic with Iran, Iran goes kinetic with every other well. Oil Installation.
Steve Bannon
I don't want to give a prescription.
Eric Bolling
One more quick thought, one more quick thought, but hang on.
Steve Bannon
I don't want to give a prescription on what they should do. They're going to look at all their options and the President is right, but
Eric Bolling
holding out, holding out China a lot.
Steve Bannon
Well, if you lock down and make sure they don't get any oil through that. But, but the range of alternatives is what they're looking at right now. If the President feels he's got the most leverage in doing that, he's going to do it. Just, just hang on for, for one second there, Cortez. And let's just stick with the Persian Gulf and the Iranians when they send back a proposal. By the way, the UAE was not just a refinery. The UAE is reporting that the, the Persians aimed at a nuclear a power facility, which get everybody up and saying, hey, these guys are playing beyond. Either they're totally incompetent or they're really trying to play hardball. But, but these guys are sending a message that they're prepared to drag this thing forever. When they send President Trump a thing that says, okay, it's not gonna be reparations, it'll just be compensation. And oh yeah, we're gonna open the Straits, but we're still gonna have military control of it. And you know, we still get, we won't charge fees now, but we have the option of charging fees.
Steve Cortez
What's.
Steve Bannon
Donald Trump's gonna say? Screw you, like he said the other day, I read the first line, it wasn't good enough. I tore it up. I mean, these people are not serious. You agree about making a deal with the President? Correct.
Steve Cortez
And this is the problem with going to battle against Jihadi extremists, many of whom don't mind dying and in fact might even welcome it. And to connect it back to US Politics, by the way, this was graduation weekend for a whole lot of young Americans that were collecting college graduations everywhere across the country. And Steve, the most impressive gains we made in 2024 were among young people, Gen Z, particularly Gen Z men, that and Hispanics. Those were the two groups where we made massive, massive gains. Unfortunately, what we see right now is young people are totally disillusioned, mainly because of the economy, but also because of the war. And of course, the two are inextricably linked together. Well, I believe we can win those young people back, but we've got to stop these George Bush style interventions. We've got to get back to an economy that rewards them for their hard work. We need to get rid of the foreign visas. We need to, we need to convince these young people through an agenda that they are going to get good jobs, good paying jobs and that they have success in front of them.
Steve Bannon
Hang on one second. We're going to come back with the bond market with Powell with all of it in the war room on a Monday. Modern day, the dollar's convertibility into gold ended in 1971. Gold was fixed at $35 an ounce. Well, fast forward to today and the US dollar has lost over 85% of its purchasing power. Gold, on the other hand, is increased in value by over 12,000%. That's why Central banks are buying gold at record levels. That's why major firms like Vanguard and BlackRock hold significant positions in gold. And that's why I encourage you to consider diversifying your savings with physical gold from Birch Gold Group. But it starts with education. Birch Gold just announced their Learn and Earn Precious Metals event. This free online event rewards you for learning the basics of investing in precious metals. Sign up to get a free silver on your next purchase. Get even larger incentives as you go. The more you learn, the more you can earn. But you must act now as this special event only runs through April 30th. The dollar lost its anchor in 1971. You don't have to lose yours. Text my name, Bannon B A N N O N to the number 989-898 to join Birch Gold's Learn and Earn Precious Metals event by April 30th. Text Bannon B A N N O N to 989-898 and do it today.
Steve Cortez
Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
Steve Bannon
Okay, folks, just so you understand something, when the, when FOX News the kicko is rolling out. Mark Thiessen, the cheerleader, one of the cheerleaders with Nicole Wallace of the failed Iraq war and all the lies I told you about the Iraq war. He was one of the Bush, you know, mouthpieces for the Iraq war and General Jack Keane. Jack Keane's a good man. And if it wasn't for, I think, health problems with his wife and, and some other issues, he would have been, I think, the national security advisor, one of the national security advisors in the first term. President Trump thinks very highly, but they are banging the war toxins over FOX this morning. Just think about when Jack Keane's sitting there going, hey, they're getting ready to go kinetic. They get a big me national security. They've already announced tomorrow. You should take that. As you know, almost not totally, but Almost money. Good. Cortez, talk to me about the bond market. I'm gonna get bowling in here in a second too. Talk to me about the bond market. You had a couple warnings on here. Of course, we've been doing this since Biden's time or even before that. Even though when President Trump. And think about this folks. President Trump turned over an economy to Joe Biden. I think it was 1.4% inflation in the 10 year was at 1.7%. Was that, is that correct? That is like unheard of. The, the success of the convergence. The convergence in the late summer, fall and Christmas of 2019 was literally epic. What President Trump brought together on those policies that came together, particularly after the Chinese told us to go pound sand after they tore up the, the deal that Lighthizer Navarro worked on for two years in May of 2019. Of course, then we've written the bioweapon and, and the stealing election, all of it. But Biden, you know, you were on here all the time talking about the problems. The bomber you've been warning, hey, when the 30 year gets above 5 and when the 10 year gets above 4.5, we better get very concerned because this thing could get out of our control very quickly. Your thoughts?
Steve Cortez
Yeah, that's exactly right. And unfortunately we are there as we speak right now, 10 year yield, 4.6%. So we're not just above five, we're actually, well, four and a half. Excuse me, not just above four and a half, but well above it. I believe that is soon going to go to 5 where the 30 year yield already is that yield, by the way, the highest it's been since George W. Bush was president. So the bond market gets a vote. Okay, here's the deal. And the bond market doesn't care very much about politics. It cares about mathematics. And the bond market sees that gold is almost at 4600, silver is almost at 80, sees real assets, things that are limited in scope, that have scarcity, like crypto, like single family housing in the United States, all soaring against the United States dollar. So you'll realize that too, the dollar is doing okay versus other fiat currencies because they have such problems as well. Right. Europe and China are totally uninvestable. But the dollar is getting killed against real assets right now. And so the bond market,
Steve Bannon
as we refer to it, the dollar is the against fiat currencies, is doing well because the safe haven. But it's the world's tallest midget, is it not?
Steve Cortez
Correct. Correct. And it is getting crushed versus Real assets. And so what the bond market is saying is if you're going to pay us back in these dollars that we increasingly don't have confidence in, we're going to demand we bond. Bond lenders are going to demand a much higher interest rate. And when you have $40 trillion in debt, even very small moves higher in interest rates become incredibly consequential really, really fast. We're at a breakpoint right now where things have gotten out of control already. The biggest line item now in the federal budget is interest payments.
Steve Bannon
Let's explain.
Steve Cortez
We simply can't continue to situation.
Steve Bannon
Let's explain why this is so important. Scott Besson, among his other duties, has essentially have to refinance of the 40 trillion, about 25% to 30. A third of that has to be refinanced every year or you know, throughout the year. So he's rolling this and having to pay those higher interest rates. This is why in the 10 year folks, the 30 years tied to your mortgage, the 10 year is tied to your credit card, your home equity loan, your student loan, your car loan, everything else besides your mortgage is the 10 year. And that's why you start to see these movements are big movements and they're going to have a direct impact on American citizens, are they not, sir?
Steve Cortez
That's exactly correct. And I think the bond market, politically speaking, is probably as important as it has been in decades. I think you have to go back to the Clinton presidency, the last time that the bond market had this much relevance for policy and politics. And people who watch the Clinton presidency well know that a lot of his initial very liberal instincts were restrained thankfully by the bond market. And there's that famous phrase from James Carville where he said, I want to come back if I'm ever reincarnated, I want to be a bond trader. Because they're the masters of the universe and they can essentially dictate policy to Washington D.C. i think that's starting to happen right now.
Steve Bannon
Yeah. No, Bob Rubin, who ran the trading desk at goldmanager, they had a coat, they had a head. That was Steve Friedman, who was the investment banking side that we reported up to. And then you had the trading side, which is Bob Rubin. Bob Rubin came in as his national economic. And this is interesting, he came in and ran the nsc, the National Economic Council, because they didn't think at the time Bob Rubin could get confirmed because of, let's say, certain social issues. Okay. After Bob Rubin told him with all the services, hey, you got to focus, you got to, you got to manage your government for the 10 year bond market. That's when Carvel got old time religion and realized I want to come back as a bond. Very shortly thereafter, Bob Rubin was secretary of Treasury. I think it was a 99 to nothing vote. When they got concerned about Clinton they said let's get Rubin over to treasury, let's get an adult there. That's one of the issues that we have now is that the bond market, as I say, has turfed out more governments than howitzers. You saw this in, you saw this United Kingdom and now Scott Bessant's got a huge job in front of him. And Scott Bessant bowling. Scott Bessant sending you a signal. He gave two interviews the other day. I think one from China was prerecorded. He used a phrase I've never heard Besson say. He didn't say deflation, which as you know is once you have deflation you got a massive problem. He said disinflation movements and numbers are going to come in the next 60 to 90 days. Now Scott is not want to make a lot of predictions like that. Why do you think he did that, sir?
Eric Bolling
I love Scott Bessant. I think he's, he's playing the company line, so to speak. I mean they're, look, I've done this for close to 40 years. You can say what you want, but oil is the, it's not only a lifeline of the economy, it's the best indicator. The bond market as well. And Steve's right, the, the bond market dwarfs most markets. But as far as tail wagging the dog, the oil market is the tail. It's the literal tale. And I'll give you anecdotal story from around 2010 till I'd say about 2022 or so, Fed funds rates were essentially zero. Just maybe just a touch of zero or above. Things changed into 2022, we went up to 5%. You get 5% of short term treasury. It dropped down to in the low threes and it's moving its way back up. And that is the bond market, the biggest market on the world. Those folks, those traders that see everything, they voting, they're voting with their money and they're saying we have no confidence and we have no confidence that inflation is going to come down anytime soon. So it would take the other side of Besson's comment, that's 60 to 90 days. And I would, I would go with the bond market because I've seen it in the oil market. Well, Steve, you guys there's no chance. Gas prices come down precipitously.
Steve Bannon
Hang on. Before September, tell people, tell people why the Fed funds rate is, is so important. Why is that important? You brought that up. I want to make sure people understand
Eric Bolling
it because every, every, it's where the banks go to the Fed to borrow money. So for a long time, banks, when we quote the 10 year yield or the 20 whatever or interest rates on a loan for, for better part of 15 years, banks could go to the Fed, they can go to the Fed window and they could borrow money essentially zero. I'll take $500 million at zero turnaround when rates were low like that. Turn around, we'll loan it out at two or two and a half percent.
Steve Bannon
But hang on, but hang on. Don't bury the lead There was that because of an event called 2008, the financial crash. This was to save the system. They saved the banks.
Eric Bolling
Yes, they opened the window to save the system.
Steve Bannon
They saved the system. It was a bailout for the banks and for the elites in this country.
Eric Bolling
It was a big failure. I would tell you that. But hold on. But staying at 0 for 10 or 12 or almost 15 years meant that there was a general feeling that things were okay. We weren't gonna have an era of hyperinflation. Well, Biden changed all that. Rates started to jump. It was perceived as a Biden event, but I'm telling you, it's now becoming a Biden and oil price which is tied to Trump's activity in the Middle East.
Steve Bannon
The great fall, Cortez. But hang on, hang on. The great fall of 2019, when everything came together. Blue collar wages rising higher than white collar wages, non college graduates faster than college graduates. The inflation, interest rates were at 1.7%. Inflation was at 1.4%. The reason was, is that not just, but they also had the convergence. The predicate of Trump economics is full spectrum energy dominance. Right? Full spectrum energy dominance. That's the predicate for all of his efforts. Here we are with the 30 year treasury and you said it's above 5% today, right? Heading to 5.1% above 5.1. Excuse me, 5.1. I think.07. It's the first time since 2007. Wasn't that the canary in the coal mine, Steve, for the coming financial crisis of 2008?
Steve Cortez
Yeah, it certainly was. And so, you know, we better pay attention right now to what the bond market is telling us. And yes, you make such important points and I'm glad you mentioned 2019 because 2019 during the first Trump boom was probably the best year for workers in the history of the United States. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that, because you had pay absolutely galloping higher with incredibly restrained inflation, meaning real wages were soaring and exactly right. Particularly for the people who needed it the most, the people who had been left out during the Bush and Obama years. Blue collar workers in this country were absolutely thriving. And if it hadn't been for this epidemiological dirty bomb from China, they would have kept thriving into 2020 and 21 and maybe all the way through the present day. But the point isn't just to wallow in the sentiment mentality of what was so wonderful in 2019, it's to get back there. And we can get back there, right? Trump has closed the border. That's a key to raising real wages. Now I think we need to get rid of a lot of legal immigrants, a lot of work visas in this country. If we do that, we're going to raise wages even more for American citizens. But all of it necessitates stop the interventions, stop the war, get our energy dominance back to a place where it is benefiting us. Because America is, thank goodness, full spectrum energy dominant. If we stop the interventions, we get crude oil back to 50 bucks a barrel. And guess what? This economy could get back to those 2019 Highlands. We can get back to that place for American workers. It's possible. But none of it can happen while we're engaged in these kinds of wars around the world. And we have crude now, it's seemingly stabilizing above $100 a barrel. It just, it can't happen, I think,
Steve Bannon
because Boeing today in the Axios, you have Mark Caputo, who's the scribe of the West Wing, and now they're talking about, they've got drones coming over Gitmo. I don't know. I think these guys have had missiles that can hit us for a long time. But they got, you know, we're, we're on the path for ramping up an intervention in Cuba. You can pretty much tell how they're playing this. Isn't the bond market going to be the restraint here. Isn't the bond market going to say, look, you got all this debt, you got a deficit now of $2 trillion. You're talking about a massive increase in military spending. The Democrats won't cut, won't cut social spending. There's inability to raise taxes, particularly on the wealthy. You've got this massive gap. You got 40 trillion. And also you got the off balance sheet Liabilities. And Besson's got to refinance this and trust me, refinancing this with a 10 year bond going to 5% and a 30 year bond going to 5 and a half percent is going to be a new day in America's finances. Correct?
Eric Bolling
Yes. I don't know that things were that different before Iran. You could say a lot of similar things. But I do know that the price of oil shooting up is a huge part of the reason why the interest rates are moving up right now as aggressively as they are. There's none of the, there's no oil play in Cuba. They don't have any production. I mean, it doesn't matter that they have requirements. We have excellent excess production. We've talked about this endlessly. This would be a perfect fit for us. Specifically, we'd open up 11 million new customers for our soybeans, for our farming, for our auto industry, for our energy industry as well. I don't mind the play. I just don't like the forced play, the aggression of we're going to take you because. And this, by the way, this, this rhetoric of, oh, they are now talking about the potential to bomb the United States. That's a problem. That's, that's to see how that plays in the media.
Steve Bannon
We're taking a short break. I don't have to scratch bowling very much to get to that Neocon short commercial break Bowling and Cortez on the other side. We rejoice when there's no more. Let's take down the CCP. If you're 65 or already on Medicare, listen up folks, and grab a pen, maybe even a number two pencil, call 845-Warter Room. That's 845-Warter Room. Call it right now. I'm serious. Call it now. Here's why. The insurance companies and their lackeys in the Washington swamp have built a Medicare system designed to confuse you and rip you off. Rising premiums denied claims, fine print. Nobody but a lobbyist understands. Millions of American seniors are paying too much and getting too little. And worst of all, most don't even know it. Hey, that could be you. That's why if you're already on Medicare or will be soon, you need to talk to our friends at Chapter. They have a team of advisors trained to serve American seniors, not the insurance companies. In under 20 minutes, they can find you the best plan for your needs at the lowest cost. Why? They're a data company. They have all the data on every plan. It's totally free. There's no pressure no bs, just straightforward honest help from fellow patriots. So don't wait. Call 845 war room right now. That's 845 war room. Tell them Bannon sent you. Now listen, in the first couple of days of the launch of this company with the Warren Posse, Posse members saved tens and up to hundreds of thousands collectively of dollars in these fees. Go check it out today. That's chapter call 845-WAR-ROOM. Do it today.
Steve Cortez
So thank goodness we have a new Fed chair. The media is full of endless adoration for Jerome Powell. Why? Because he's a partisan who pretends not to be. And because he's a Washingtonian lifer. He's the epitome of the establishment. But let's look at his, his actual record. What did he do? Well, for over five years, for 62 consecutive months, he missed the Fed's stated goal on inflation. He also was completely non transparent about both the Fed's own operations, including its construction of its building, as well as Fed policy. Furthermore, he lied constantly and consistently to the American people telling us that inflation was, quote, transitory. In 2022, when it was very obvious that the opposite was the case, he did so to protect Biden and Yellen. So, Jerome Powell, you won't be missed. Adios.
Steve Bannon
President Trump calls him Too Late Powell. Why is that? And what kind of damage did he actually deliver to the US Economy? Because of his, his partisan nature. He cut rates for Biden right before the election. It was ridiculous, but he went out of his way to thwart President Trump. Cortez, tell us about it at all times.
Steve Cortez
Jerome Powell, who is literally a Washingtonian lifer, born and raised there, went to high school at Georgetown Prep. He's the personification of the worst kind of Washington sewer swamp operator. He's brazenly partisan, even though he pretends not to be. And that was most evident in 2021 and in 2022 as inflation was exploding because of the profligacy of Joe Biden, who kept spending at crisis levels even though the crisis was over. The COVID panic, thankfully was breaking at that point. Yet he insisted on spending at World War II type levels. Those, those kinds of metrics. And what did Powell do? He didn't raise rates. In fact, he provided political coverage for Biden and Yellen by constantly repeating their lie, their propaganda narrative that inflation was, quote, transitory. Well, we are still dealing with the ravages of this inflation to this very day because of what Powell did then. So the damage he did to working class Americans, it's Impossible to exaggerate just how much havoc was wrought by the mismanagement and the dishonesty of Jerome Powell. And despite that actual record, and again, we can look at the numbers. You don't have to take Steve Cortez's opinion, okay, look at the actual numbers. By his own stated metric of 2% inflation, he didn't hit it once in 62 straight months. And the handoff from him to wash, I don't envy wash. Talk about a tough job. The handoff is miserable. The handoff is yields spiking to multi decade highs with $40 trillion in debt, with all kinds of inflationary pressure in the system. Even outside of the war. Forget about the war for a moment. Outside, outside of that intense inflationary pressure building, that is the handoff from Powell. And despite that record, despite the reality as expressed by the numbers, by the bond market, what did you get from corporate media, from Axios, from NBC, from all of the typical suspects, Nothing but absolute adulation for Jerome Powell. Why? Only because he despised Trump and that was enough for them to anoint him as a saint when in fact he was a wrecking ball. He was a dirty bomb to the American economy and especially to middle class people.
Steve Bannon
Bolling, give me a minute or two. Because Cortez is right. This handoff is just atrocious of what he's done to the finances of the country. President Trump has always wanted this rate cut in June. That ain't happening, correct?
Eric Bolling
No, no way. You may not get one through the end of the year now even with Wash because it's in the wrong Direct can't cut rates with inflation. You know, the producer price index last week showed a tripling of the expectation. That's be a tough environment to cut rates. Holding them would be optimistic. I believe if Powell were in there, he'd be raising. Because I do agree with Steve and you, Steve, that Powell was not, he was not about the Fed or monetary policy or employment, which is their only two mandates. He was about politics. He gave Biden wind in the Democrats wind in the sails at the end, right before the election in 2024, which was insane after coming off the highest inflation rate in 30 years and there's no reason to cut then you did it to give it a little bit of political push. And then all of a sudden Trump comes in when things were coming down, inflation was coming down from the mid fives down to two and change with Trump. He refused to lower when Trump saying it's time to lower now. What would happen now when we're starting to jump back up. He was always behind the curve not because of he didn't understand monetary policy. He understood politics and cared more about the politics than the monetary policy.
Steve Bannon
Eric where do people go and get you on social media? 4 million followers today. I think the president we're going to he's going to be doing a live event on health care affordability. So we may not be able to do a changeover although I follow you at 5:00 every day. Where do people go to get you've got another show, you've got social media. You're putting up great stuff all the time where they go right Here War
Eric Bolling
Room 4 o' clock on rev social media at Eric Bowling. But see just may point out the first time in my history I've ever been called a neocon was on this show by you Mr. Ban as ref was as the bell is ringing for the end of the round. I caught a glove to the jaw. I was the black sheep at Fox for being the anti establishment Republican conservative. You know where I got that? I remember I got that from Steve Bannon and Andrew Breitbart when the three when you two and me and I join you sometimes over Del Frisco's and I became a true believer in America first. So it hurts when when my when my sensei tells me I'm a neocon.
Steve Bannon
But if bowling if Bolling was offered the secretary of commerce in the first administration, of course turned us down because he was making, you know, $10 million here at Fox. But if we would have had we would have had a census. We would have had the census. Miller and I census not counting illegal aliens. The Commerce Department under Wilbur Ross turned it around. If we had had U.S. secretary of Commerce the whole picture of the United
Eric Bolling
States has been different than in 2028. Bowling Secretary oh no. I'm just saying folks.
Steve Bannon
Secretary of War Steve. STEVE Cortez, brother. Where they go for Cortez Investigates. All these great videos you're putting up and all your commentary, sir.
Steve Cortez
Yes. And Steve, thank you for having the Chicago boys on today. Bowling and Cortez, both Chicago natives, appreciate it. Both Chicago Catholic League products, I might add. Please go to CortezInvestigates.com all my content is there. You can follow me on the Twitter at Cortez. Steve Cortez with an S at the end. Appreciate it brother.
Steve Bannon
If you want to find out about capital markets, don't go to Wall street, go to Chicago. That's where the guys in the pits. Rick Santelli's from there also, that's where the guys tell you the truth. Okay, we are going to take a short commercial break. We got John Solomon, Naomi Wolf. Dorothy Moon's gonna join us, grassroots leader out in Idaho. And we've got even more, more, more of AI all of it in the next hour. Birch Gold. If you're a first time buyer, go to birchgold.com I tell you what, go to Bannon. This is easier. Bannon B A N N O N 989-898. Get to Philip Patrick in the team. Talk to him today. If you've heard all this, all of our discussion about capital markets, you're interested in physical gold and you've never done a purchase before. With a qualifying purchase. And I talked to Philip Patrick in the team, you could get up to a $10,000 rebate on qualifying purchases. Burch Gold, Bannon 989-898. Check it out today. Back in the warming. Mom. Everyone's focused on how the conflict in the Middle east is raising oil prices. But there's another grim reality to this contention. Oil isn't the only resource being constrained. About one third of global fertilizer trade happens through this region. And with spring planting season on top of us, American farmers are sounding the alarm with some saying they can't afford to plant their fields. When one piece of the supply chain gets hit this hard, you know what comes next? Higher food prices, reduced availability, maybe even panic buying. That's why having an emergency food supply at home makes so much sense. And that's where our friends at my Patriot supply come in right now@preparedwithbannon.com that is preparewithbannon.com we've set up an entire just site for the war room posse. You go to prepare with bannon.com that's all one word. Preparewithbannon.com you get a three month emergency food supply. Don't include a free mega protein Upgrade, an incredible $200 bonus you don't want to miss. It's a simple way to protect your family from whatever comes next. Go to preparewithbannon.com that is preparewithbannon.com to get your emergency food supply today. That's preparewithbaned.com do it today. Go check it out.
This episode of Bannon’s War Room, hosted by Stephen K. Bannon, focuses primarily on two major themes:
The episode is characterized by combative, urgent rhetoric—reflecting the War Room’s signature style—and features a blend of legal, political, and economic topics with a pointed populist perspective.
[00:53 – 14:19] Interviews, strategy, and Texas politics
Paxton's Battle Against Transgender Procedures
Why Target a Prestigious Institution?
Transformation Accusations Against Sen. Cornyn
Questioning Cornyn’s Record
Big Money Influence and Election Stakes
Paxton’s Closing Call to Action
[16:52 – 44:01] CNN, Fox analysis, panel debate
Diplomacy vs. Military Action
Crisis with Iran and Oil Market Instability
CCP and Russian Influence
Bolling warns any U.S. military action could lead to massive oil infrastructure disruptions in the Middle East—“Iran goes kinetic with every other oil installation.”
(Bolling, 26:21)
Bannon: “These guys are sending a message that they're prepared to drag this thing forever… When they send Trump [a proposal]…he’s gonna say, screw you.”
(Bannon, 27:32)
[30:17 – 49:32] Deep economic analysis
Surging Bond Yields Signal Crisis
Why Does This Matter? Bannon Explains:
Federal Debt and Refinancing Crunch
“2019 during the first Trump boom was probably the best year for workers in the history of the United States… because you had pay absolutely galloping higher with incredibly restrained inflation.”
(Cortez, 40:36)
“Predicate of Trump economics is full spectrum energy dominance.”
(Bannon, 39:31)
[45:51 – 49:32] Critique and Analysis
Conclusion:
This episode delivers a fiery, unapologetically populist take on Texas’s efforts to combat progressive policies in medicine and immigration, while offering a dire warning about U.S. financial stability in light of spiraling debt and impending crises in global markets. The commentary repeatedly underscores skepticism of establishment Washington, corporate media, and entrenched political interests—demanding grassroots vigilance and action from the audience.