Episode 5521: China's Plan To Bomb US WarShips; China Cuts Off AI

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bannon’s War Room, Episode 5521

Date: July 16, 2026
Main Theme:
This episode centers on China's escalating military preparations, the potential threat to US warships, and China's new restrictions on artificial intelligence (AI). Stephen K. Bannon and Natalie (co-host) lead a discussion with Captain James Fennell (retired US Navy) and Joe Allen (AI and transhumanism expert), focusing on China’s military tactics, global ambitions, CCP infiltration strategies, and the emerging intersection of AI and national security.

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1. Overview

The episode explores China's multifaceted strategy to surpass the US as the world's leading superpower, highlighting its military build-up, cyber and informational warfare, and infiltration of American institutions. It also investigates the CCP’s aggressive moves around Taiwan, the US military’s declining capabilities, and the parallels between US and Chinese approaches to AI companionship and digital influence.

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2. Key Discussion Points & Insights

A. The Threat of Chinese Military Modernization

Guest: Captain James Fennell
[02:26 – 15:00]

• US Underestimation of China:

  • Captain Fennell criticizes US media and intelligence for “threat deflation” regarding China’s intentions and capabilities.
    • "The idea that [China] got involved with the elections and somehow our intelligence community said that, 'oh, there’s nothing to worry about here.' That fits the pattern...always, 'don’t worry about China.'” – Capt. Fennell [03:38]

• Chinese Naval Buildup vs. US Decline:

  • US Navy has halved since the 1980s, while China has built the world’s largest navy.
  • China leverages every domain: military, economic, informational, and even academic infiltration.

• Practical Military Drills Targeting US Ships:

  • China constructs mock-ups of US warships and naval bases in its desert to simulate missile strikes.
    • “They have developed the systems, they have developed the intelligence collection capabilities, the missile system, to be able to actually destroy those ships while they’re there.” – Capt. Fennell [11:44]

• Implications for Taiwan and Beyond:

  • China’s drills signal readiness to attack US assets in the Pacific if “diplomacy, information warfare, and economic warfare” fail.
  • The artificial targets mirror real US bases (e.g., Yokosuka, Japan), showing long-term strategic planning.
    • “They’re going to come...when they get to the point where they say we have no other alternative but to do this in order to be able to stay in our timeline.” – Capt. Fennell [12:43]

B. CCP Strategy: “Comprehensive National Power”

Host: Natalie, Captain Fennell
[17:10 – 24:28]

• Multi-Domain Offensive:

  • The CCP’s approach is not solely kinetic (military); it includes economic, political, cyber, and cultural infiltration.
  • Blockades and incremental control (e.g., over Taiwan’s adjacent waters) serve as salami-slicing tactics.

• Strategic Use of Nuclear Forces:

  • Recent submarine-launched ballistic missile tests in the South Pacific demonstrate China’s willingness to escalate.
    • “They may threaten us with nuclear weapons in order to achieve whatever they want to get Taiwan.” – Capt. Fennell [22:50]
  • The longstanding Chinese “no first use” policy on nuclear weapons now appears in doubt.

C. US Vulnerabilities: Industrial and Human Infiltration

Host: Natalie, Captain Fennell
[24:28 – 28:09]

• Industrial Atrophy:

  • US defense manufacturing—especially in critical domains like munitions and drones—has weakened as China’s manufacturing dominance expands.

• Birthright Citizenship & CCP “Sleeper Cells”:

  • Open borders and birthright citizenship are described as national security threats, potentially enabling infiltration and future influence by Chinese nationals.
    • “It is a danger to have that kind of infiltration into our system that allows people to vote and to vote against our government, our form of government, our constitution.” – Capt. Fennell [25:51]

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3. Highlight: China’s Move to Regulate AI – A Contrasting Approach

Guests: Natalie, Joe Allen
[30:29 – 50:12]

A. China’s Ban on AI Companions

[36:59 – 40:18]

• New Restrictions:
  • China has officially banned AI companions that induce emotional dependence or displace real relationships.
    • “No AIs will be allowed that excessively cater to users, induce emotional dependence or addiction, and damage real interpersonal relationships.” – Joe Allen [37:38]
• Possible Motivations:
  • CCP may be seeking to prevent “AI psychosis” among citizens, or to preserve Party loyalty over digital relationships.
  • Signals a top-down, authoritarian model in contrast with US tech libertarianism.

B. US AI Dilemmas & Societal Impact

• Emotional Attachment to AI:

  • Western AI, by design, fosters emotional bonds (companionship, therapy, etc.), risking social atomization.

• Security & Civil Liberties Backlash:

  • Rising threats against tech executives are used as pretext to crackdown on anti-AI dissent.
    • “The more there is this kind of specter of violence…the more justification you have for surveillance, the more justification you have to blame rational actors…” – Joe Allen [41:00]

C. Cultural Irony and Policy Gaps

• American Freedom vs. Social Risk:
  • US reluctance to regulate leads to vulnerabilities—especially among children and lonely adults—while China's control is seen as “squashing” emerging dependency.
    • “If America doesn't use the freedom that we have to choose not to allow children…to become closer to AI bots than human beings, then…we will race to the bottom as human beings lose their intelligence.” – Joe Allen [39:45]

D. “Foreign Influence” and the AI Debate

• Weaponizing Dissent:
  • Anti-AI critics in the US are increasingly accused of being “foreign agents,” a dynamic manipulated by both right-wing and mainstream voices.
    • “The anti AI thinkers are also being accused of foreign influence operations...it’s ironic because Fox News just apologized for platforming Kevin O’Leary...accused [a group] of being direct agents of China.” – Joe Allen [46:47]

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4. Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Chinese Deception:
  "They will use deception at every turn to get us to lower our guard. And we did in many ways."
  — Captain Fennell [04:57]

• On the Scale of Chinese Military Build-Up:
  “China’s navy went from a brown water coastal navy force to a navy that’s the largest on the planet today.”
  — Captain Fennell [05:35]

• On the Threat to US Military Assets:
  “What a better way to destroy the U.S. 7th Fleet than to catch them when they’re in port?”
  — Captain Fennell [11:19]

• On AI Companionship:
  “China recognizes that these sorts of relationships are extremely harmful and unhealthy, and they want to make sure their citizens don’t go into AI psychotic.”
  — Joe Allen [38:25]

• On US Response to AI Risks:
  “If America doesn't take some kind of similar step...then as we’re worried about China racing ahead to superintelligence, we will race to the bottom as human beings lose their intelligence.”
  — Joe Allen [39:55]

• On Misplaced Focus in Tech Dissent:
  “The AI companies have all the money...but we have the numbers. And I believe that we also have the moral authority here.”
  — Joe Allen [49:04]

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5. Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:26] China’s all-domain strategy and history of threat deflation in the US
• [08:52] Details on China’s replica US warships and desert missile drills
• [17:10] CCP’s preference for non-kinetic warfare, rising risk around Taiwan
• [18:46] Assessment of likely flashpoints: Taiwan and regional escalation
• [25:32] National security impacts of citizenship policies and infiltration
• [36:59] China’s banning of “AI companions,” social and strategic logic
• [41:00] Media’s response to anti-AI violence, and implications for dissent
• [46:01] Joe Allen’s closing thoughts on resisting AI overreach

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6. Conclusion: Action Items & Warnings

• For Policymakers & Citizens:

  • The US must overcome the tendency to deflate Chinese threats across all domains.
  • Industrial and electoral defenses must be reinforced, especially against subtle forms of infiltration.
  • A national conversation is needed about AI’s social risks before they reach critical levels.

• On Opposing AI Overreach:

  • Critics are urged to remain steadfast against both AI corporate power and attempts to delegitimize skepticism as “foreign influence.”
  • As Joe Allen counsels, “Don’t ever accept the mantle of being a foreign influence operative…The AI companies have all the money…[but] we have the moral authority.” [49:04]

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End of Summary.

This episode delivers a sobering analysis of the growing threat posed by China—militarily and digitally—while raising fresh alarms over the implications of unregulated technological change in the West. The dialogue is urgent, combative, and laced with warnings against complacency and institutional capture.

Transcript

[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 on 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

[Captain James Fennell]

in the world to stop that, but

[Steve Bannon]

you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen.

[Captain James Fennell]

And where do people like that go

[Steve Bannon]

to share the big lie?

[Captain James Fennell]

MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul,

[Steve Bannon]

I wish that any of these people had a conscience. Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my

[Mike Lindell]

country, this country will be saved.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

War ROOM here's your host, Stephen K.

[Natalie]

Band, here in the war room. It's Thursday, July 16th in the year of our Lord 2026, the Eve, the pregame, I guess, or I guess the show right before what will be a very historic day. President Trump hopefully delivering on the promise that we all elected him to do. I think the media gets it wrong. They myopically think it's just about the 2020 election. It's some self centered, vindictive plot. No. And as Steve always says, it's about exposing who really runs this country. And I think those who administer, run and allow our elections to be hacked. That probably answers that question to a T. Honored to be joined by Captain James Finnell, which the audience probably knows by now means we're going to get into all things the Chinese Communist Party, which I guess is a very fitting topic ahead of likely, I guess tonight's speech from President Trump. But Captain Fanell, before we get into some new reporting from the Telegraph, talking about how China has what they call replicas of U.S. warships and fighter jets. They're practicing, striking them. Quite concerning. I'm curious to get your thoughts. Putting the kinetic capabilities aside, you know, the legacy media acts like we're total buffoons for thinking that China has the cyber capabilities to interfere with elections like, let alone the country at scale. I'm just curious your assessment, not necessarily if something like that did happen, but just how wrong the media is when they come to their diagnosis of the cyber threat that the PRC poses to the United States.

[Captain James Fennell]

Well, Natalie, it's good to be with you. This is my first time with you, so thanks for having me on. Your question is very, very important. And I listened to the previous hour Steve and his cold opens and, and you know, the, the narrative that was put forth that, you know, China, you know, doesn't have these capabilities and couldn't possibly do this or doesn't have the intentions to do this. And, you know, they are pulsing things and taking surveys, but, you know, they're, they, they didn't do anything. And that, that defies the last 35 years of observed activity from the Chinese Communist Party and their efforts to come after the United States across all levers of power, national power. So I focus on the military domain and we'll talk about that. But they have also very much devoted a lot of attention to economic power, information power, and, you know, information warfare that they put out through their media. But they also have invested themselves in our academics and in our government institutions and think tanks. And they've, you know, infused themselves into our thinking to tell us that they're not a threat and they just want to, you know, rise up above the poverty that they were at, you know, when Mao was created, the prc. But the reality is, is that China is using every facet of power that they can to, to disrupt America's security. They want to, by their own estimation, they want to displace the United States and they want to become the world's superpower. And they're on an objective to do that. And so the idea that they got involved with the elections and somehow our intelligence community said that, oh, there's nothing to worry about here. That's, that fit. Fits the pattern that we've had from the IC on so many other things where they've told us, don't worry about this military issue, don't worry about this economic issue. Don't worry about the, the yuan replacing the dollar. Don't worry about their navy, don't worry about their Air Force, don't worry about their diplomatic effort to isolate Taiwan. It just, it's always one way. The IC and the academics, it's always, don't worry about China. And Brad Thayer and I wrote a book about it, embracing Communist China, America's Greatest Strategic failure. And we talk about this notion of threat deflation. And so the, the threat has been deflated across many fronts, across many domains from the prc. And I expect that tonight the President's going to lay out another area where the intelligence community has deflated the threat about the prc. And we know that by what Steve played in the open with what Ms. Now and their analysts have said that it's classic and it's only becoming exposed to the mainstream of America because they haven't really, you know, focused in on China analysis. But what, what those people said is, I've heard this for 30 years. It's the Same approach and the same explanation of, you know, they're not capable or they wouldn't do that, or they have their own problems and, or they want to work with us. And there's, there's factions in China that are reaching out to us. And so they will use deception at every turn to get us to lower our guard. And we did in many ways. I talk about the naval issue. You know, when I joined the Navy in 1986 and was commissioned, we had 600, almost 600 warships. Now we have 300. So in 40 years, less than 40 years, we cut the size of the US Navy in half. Well, China's navy went from a brown water coastal navy force to a navy that's the largest navy on the planet today. We could examine air forces, strategic rocket forces, space force, cyber, you name it, in the military domain, you could do the same thing in the economic arena. They're using deception to make us lower our guard and we've done that.

[Natalie]

Yeah, I mean, to be frank, I think those MSNBC guests who are really all a part of that cohort of people who I think are responsible frankly for the kind of original sin of the globalist economic model which is letting right China ascend the wtao, the Lao Beijing being the kind of slave labor that allows that system to perpetuate to this day, but that they still show their face on tv, let alone give their opinions on what the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party is. Consistently underplaying it. It's not just that they have been duped by their white pa, by their friendly think tanks who happen to put your spouse on their payroll and all of a sudden your kid's making hand over fist cash from some Chinese linked entity. It's truly absurd that these people still think that they can weigh in on the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party, not just because they are not neutral arbiters, they are fully blown compromised. But even to that point, there was a white paper that the State Council put out, I think just a few weeks ago where they explicitly admitted, it was kind of the first time where they had actually reversed course on admitting that they actually are trying to be a geopolitical, not just superpower, but hegemon. Because typically the refrain that you see from these think tanks is that they're happy to use a word. The left loves coexist. They just want their separate spheres of influence. I'll pull the quotes and I'll read them in the next break, but I want to link this, which I think is a quite concerning development but also to this new Telegraph story, which I want to get into the more kinetic aspect, but there's always sort of, I think, interspersed reporting right where they're doing this new drill off the coast of Taiwan, they're doing this new drill in the Philippines, or they're developing their capabilities in this one niche domain of warfare. And I think it's easy to sort of look at it myopically, but when you really put the picture together, I think it presents quite a concerning problem for the United States, especially as we're in a war with Iran, depleting a lot of our weapons and ammunition stocks. But I am curious about this new Telegraph reporting talking about how they have these replicas of US Warships, military equipment, what exactly are they doing with it? Is this an escalation? Is this a new thing that they're doing? What does this mean?

[Captain James Fennell]

Yeah, so this is a really nice report from the Telegraph. And what you see there is a construction of what is a gnarly Burke class size destroyer, which is about just over 500ft in length. Arleigh Burke is, you know, just around 10,000 tons. But this is built out in western central China in the middle of the desert. And you know, if you go to the article, you can scroll through and see how it was constructed and then what it finally looks like. And there's, there's numbers of ships, there's a number of outlines of ports. This is a, this is a image from 2021 actually of an aircraft carrier that's on a rail line. And so the aircraft carrier, this simulated aircraft carrier can transit on this rail line. And the purpose of having these identical ship types of the US Navy, our aircraft carriers, our destroyers, and having them to even be able to move in the desert is to allow the PRCs, the PLA, Strategic Rocket Force, they have a force. We have, we have a navy, we have an air force, we have a Marine corps, we have an army, and we now have a space force. Well, they actually have a rocket force. And their rocket force is full of short range, medium range, intermediate range and intercontinental ballistic missiles. And these missiles have various seeker heads at the end of the cone of the missile. And so they're going to get targeting information about certain platforms, certain locations, and they'll have that in uploaded into the missile before it launches. But after it launches in mid course, it can get an update from the sensor in the, in the, in the, in the missile, in the cone of the missile. And so those mid course updates can come from either electronic intelligence. So if the radar is Emanating, it can detect the radar signature or it can detect and look down and see radar, a radar outline. So it'll take a synthetic aperture radar scan and, and if it sees something that fits what they think is the size of US Navy destroyer, then it'll hone in on it. It'll be more precise and more likely to strike that target. And so by practicing this out in the desert, away from American collection systems, away from the US Press, away from our attention, we start to understand that the Chinese have been actually doing this. I don't know if Cameron can bring it up, but I have a picture that shows the outline of Yakusuka Naval Base in Japan, which is in the Tokyo Bay of Japan where I was stationed. There it is. So this Telegraph article actually showed the picture on the right just now from new commercial imagery. But what you see in this picture is actually from 13 years ago. And on the left is the actual overhead commercial imagery of Yakuska Navy Base and one of our aircraft carriers at the time. And on the right is this simulated. It's a mirror image of the Yakuza Navy base in the deserts of China. And they've been practicing for 13 years to identify that base with their sensors and then to be able to strike ships that are in port. And many times in the Christmas season, the US 7 fleet where I was stationed, I lived in Japan for four years. Our ships sometimes at Christmas time are in port. And so what a better way to destroy the U.S. 7th Fleet than to catch them when they're in port. So they have developed the systems, they have developed the intelligence collection capabilities, the missile system, to be able to actually destroy those ships while they're there. In addition, they've developed sensors that would be able to cue and be able to try to find our ships while they're actually steaming around in the western Pacific. So, and it's not just, it's US bases in Japan. So I want people to understand, you know, we talk about China wants to take Taiwan. That's their number one immediate near term goal by 2030. I think they want that. But they're willing to strike American naval forces that are forward deployed, whether it's in Japan or Guam or on the Ryuku island chain, or now as we start to expand our operations in the Philippines. So they're going to go there when they pull that trigger. Now they'd rather not pull the trigger. They'd rather not have to use kinetic means to achieve their objectives. But when they get to the point where they say we have no other alternative but to do this in order to be able to stay in our timeline, which is to achieve our world domination in 2049 when we're 100 years old as a nation and achieve the great rejuvenation of China. They're going to come. There's pressures in China right now to say we should be, we need to make, we make them make a decision. If diplomacy and information warfare and economic warfare is not going to get the people of Taiwan to capitulate, then there are people in the system in China, the Chinese Communist Party that are arguing to say we're going to have to use military force. And Xi and before him Hu Jintao and likely Zhang Jamin all, all ordered the PLA to be ready to have these capabilities. And Xi, who's been in power for 13 years, he's done the most of any paramount leader to get them ready to do that. And these images in the desert are a signal to us that they're practicing. And it's not just those images by themselves. We can see craters, we can see that they've been actually launching in and lobbing in test missile platforms to improve their accuracy and make sure that they're going to be ready in a combat scenario. And I think that's really important because a lot of times there's criticisms in Washington that says, well you know China,

[Natalie]

they've never hold you through the break or we're coming up again. So when we get into that, this sort of timeline of 2028, Taiwan and beyond, foreign policy through the break, we got Captain Fennell, we got Joe Allen and who knows what else. Be right back.

[Steve Bannon]

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[Natalie]

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[Stephen K. Bannon]

War room, here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.

[Natalie]

You are back in the war room. Still talking about the Chinese Communist Party because, yes, MSNBC here, or sorry, Ms. now. I know your show, so, so, right. All the time that you only had to, what, rebrand because you couldn't afford to pay any of your staff. But sure, we'll take pointers from you on how to understand the Chinese Communist Party. They always love to point out the fact, Captain Fennell, that, you know, well, they don't prefer to go kinetic. Right. If you read unrestricted warfare, it's like, well, yeah, that's not the preferred tactic or means for the end. But the end doesn't change. They just want to overtake the United States in every aspect possible. They would prefer not to go kinetic. They would just prefer to take over the country from the inside out. Right. But thank you to our erudite scholars over at Ms. Now for explaining the China threat to us. I'm curious to get your thoughts on. You know, there's a lot of discussion and focus. I think sometimes it gets slightly mischaracterized. Xi Jinping talking about wanting to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Obviously you've seen a lot of movement, the Central Military Commission, competing interpretations of, of what it means. Is it the younger, more aggressive generals who are in there to just sort of affirm Xi Jinping, are they going to, you know, move on Taiwan to deflect from certain economic things going at home, going on at home. I'm curious, looking at the Iran war obviously is a huge variable in all of this course what's raging on in Russia and Ukraine. Do you still think that Taiwan is likely to be that first kinetic flashpoint or do images like these suggest that it might not even be there? I'm just curious your sort of assessment of where you think that flashpoint would actually be.

[Captain James Fennell]

Well, Natalie, I think like you said, if they don't have to fight, they won't. They'll try to get it through other means. And I think right now what we're seeing is a China that's very confident Xi is in total control. He's been able to, you know, purge out those that have not gone along with this program in terms of the modernization of the military. He's got us tied down with support into the Ukraine conflict. We're in that one way or another economically or with some military assistance. We're definitely involved. And we've got, you know, over 15 warships, more than that in the, off the coast of Iran right now, two carrier strike groups and amphibious ready group. So we're heavily tied down in, in that area. And he's been slowly moving and pressurizing Taiwan. One of the things that happened here in the last month in June was the Chinese kind of announced through their media that they have decided and declared that the waters of Taiwan, not just the Taiwan Strait but east of Taiwan, are now part of China's near shores waters and they're claiming sovereignty over it. And after they made that statement in the, in the last month we've had two kind of waves of Chinese maritime forces operating east of Taiwan. First we had their Maritime Safety Administration for the first time ever. It's kind of a smaller kind of coast guard. They were operating east of Taiwan in the last month and then the Chinese Coast Guard a couple of weeks ago was also operating east of Taiwan. And, and in the latter case with the Coast Guard, the Chinese coast Guard, they started and stopped and inspected ships, commercial vessels transiting around eastern, east of Taiwan. They said they claimed they, they inspected 198 warships, so or not warships, commercial vessels. So we're all focused on keeping the, the Strait of Hormuz open and the right of international waters to be open. It's something that the US has backed for 250 years. Well, we're watching China gobble that up, so that's a way to slowly kind of control something. And we may be asleep, focused on other things and we won't be able to react fast enough to stop, which is an effectively the starting of a blockade. And then Last week on July 6, the Chinese launched a submarine launched ballistic missile 7,300 km from the south China Sea over the Philippines, past Guam, across our territories of the Micronesia and the Federated States there. And they went into the areas in the South Pacific. It's the first time that the Chinese have ever launched an SLBM submarine launched ballistic missile into the South Pacific. Two years ago they had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile into those same waters. So in the space of two years after essentially a 40 year gap of any kind of significant ICBM testing, China's done two strategic nuclear tests into the South Pacific. Which is to say in their own words in the Chinese press, they said nuclear missiles launched from submarines deep under the sea surface are very difficult to detect and track and could be used on short notice. So they are tasked with realizing sea based nuclear deterrence and counter strike. So for 50 plus years the Chinese have always claimed that they're a no first use state, that they will never use nukes in a first use scenario. Well what we've seen over the last five years, since 2021 when we saw 350 ICBM silos built out in Central China, we've seen the development and advance of these JL3 10,000 kilometer missiles on these newer improved class Gin class submarines. And they have this new H20 strategic bomber. They have three legs of a triad. They've tested two of them here in the last two years. I would expect another test which is to get to your point, which is to say they may threaten us with nuclear weapons in order to achieve whatever they want to get Taiwan. So there's a lot of pressure points that they're bringing to bear. Economics, diplomacy, raw military conventional power and the threat of nuclear power. Even though they say and claim we're not a first use nation, since they launched last On Monday the 6th, the Chinese government has not reiterated that they are a no first use state. They just say hey, this was a routine test, which it wasn't. We gave it ample notification which they didn't and they didn't tell us any specific details. So it's not transparent. And then they lied and said it wasn't targeted against any nation, it was obviously targeted against the United States of America. So there's a lot of things that the Chinese are they game out. They call it comprehensive national power. It's an actual form of government function for the Chinese Communist Party. And they will basically do a roulette wheel of different scenarios and analyze, well, if I do this here, what will happen? And they'll play it out. And if I do this in this domain, what will happen? And they'll play them all out and they'll do them in different combinations and variations. And they keep working it as they keep pressing forward, almost like the Argentinians last night in the World cup. They just keep pressing towards the goal of what they want. And if they come to the point where they have to use military force because these other non kinetic measures haven't worked, then they're prepared to do that as well. Although it's their last resort.

[Natalie]

I also think there's such a brilliance to their plan. Right. Obviously what you're talking about is their rapid rate of buildup, escalation through almost industrial capacity. Meanwhile, the United States has seen its factory, its industrial base, especially when it comes to the defense primes, our ability to build simple things like cheap drones, munitions be completely atrophied. They've effectively seized the means of production when it comes to our manufacturing capabilities. We've got a few minutes before I let you go. I just want to sort of link this all together on yet another issue that the legacy media is glaringly wrong on. And I guess some Supreme Court justices, but this idea of birthright citizenship. I believe the number from Peter Schweitzer estimates it's up to like 1.5 million quasi Chinese nationals. Being American citizens, of course you have an open border under Joe Biden, you could have sleeper cells galore here. We do. Your thoughts on the national security threat posed by the sort of actual human infiltration of the United States?

[Captain James Fennell]

Yeah, I'm not an attorney, but I, when I read the Constitution and when I read about our history and how we were founded, I find it incredible that anybody could defend the notion that in the 21st century our founders would have said, oh yeah, sure, it's fine, you can come from Communist China, a sworn enemy of the United States. You can fly over here, have a baby, get a passport and fly back home and stay in China, get indoctrinated from the Chinese Communist Party in school, and then yet still somehow affect our elections. It's incredible and it's very, very dangerous. And I'm obviously the Supreme Court didn't agree with that or agreed with that. It's legal. So we're going to have to find another way to stop it. But it is a danger to have that kind of infiltration into our system that allows people to Vote and to vote against our government, our form of government, our constitution, the principles that we stand for. And then when you add in hundreds of thousands of Chinese Communist Party students, now they're not all card carrying Chinese maybe, but they're still under the rules and regulations of the Chinese government. We have a lot of people in the country that we just don't know their status and who they're loyal to. So we have a real risk there. And you can see it reflected. People can say, oh, you're exaggerating or you're, you're, it's a China threat or it's even racist. They'll say, but the reality is, look at what you see in the Chinese military. Just in the domain that I live in. Look at the platforms that they built. They're almost carbon copies across air forces, naval forces, submarine, across many different spectrums. They're building things that they clearly stole from us. And so we're giving away, we're paying billions and trillions of dollars to build these systems and then we're essentially letting the Chinese steal it from us, build it to industrial scale, as you just mentioned, and then turn around and say, we're gonna, we're gonna use it against you unless you do what we say. And so that's really, it can't keep going.

[Natalie]

Federalist Paper where they argued for Chinese nationals or nationals from any country, let alone our sworn enemy, to become citizens of the United States and vote in our elections. I must have missed that one. Captain Pinell, I've got to let you go. If people want to get the book, stay up to date with everything you're working on. Where can they go to do that?

[Captain James Fennell]

I write sometimes on American greatness and otherwise I'm off the net.

[Natalie]

And the book?

[Captain James Fennell]

Oh, the book is. Skyhorse has it and it's on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, other places, so you can get it there.

[Natalie]

Awesome. Thank you, sir, for joining us. We will have you back on soon. We got Joe Allen and some more China repartee after the short break.

[Steve Bannon]

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[Natalie]

We wouldn't be celebrating America 250 if it wasn't for a strong foundation set by the Framers. Hamilton built America's financial foundation on the principle of sound stable money, a principle later embodied by the the gold standard. However, we abandoned that discipline in 1971 and have seen inflation erode the dollar's value. Birch Gold Group has been helping Americans solidify their savings with gold for the past 15 years. They'll help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered IRA in gold. Learn how gold fits into your portfolio by Texting Bannon to 989-898. You'll receive a free no obligation info kit. Text Bannon to number 989-898 to get your free info kit now.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

War Room, here's your host, Stephen K. Band.

[Natalie]

We're back in the War room. We're going to hit AI imminently. But I was just thinking in the break, it is pretty absurd that these MSNBC betters of ours who have been wrong, what about basically everything? Sometimes intentionally, sometimes they're just retarded. I think I'm allowed to say that word now since President Trump won. I never stopped saying it. But more importantly, we've seen what is it over the years. So many distortions of the Founding fathers. We got Nikole Hannah Jones. I think that's idiot's name, although I think she's at the New York times with the 1619 project. But I missed the part in America's founding where we would just allow people intentionally coming over to the United States to seek American citizenship for nefarious purpose, to just get that and then go back to Communist China. It's absolutely asinine. I feel like it's the kind of final boss end game of idiotic diversity woke thought. It's like DEI admission into who could become an American citizen. Let's concoct the literal, worst national security threat person and make them an American citizen, not just so that they can vote, but so they can have access to God knows what and work in the United States government. But I digress on that. But here's the thing, right? Today is one of those days when President Trump is going to speak where you really remember and realize that our conspiracy theories are so much better than their conspiracy theories because they're actually true, right? They want to party around and say that because Russia put some Facebook ad, they changed probably you in this audience, your entire conviction, your entire political ideology about who you were going to vote for because some shoddily broken English ad maybe told you that Hillary Clinton was probably something, which she is, is corrupt and a fraud. But it's, I think, really to the point of, remember, what was it back in the 2010s? All the, the peak of the culture war stuff where you would have these crazy campus leftists apoplectic over having conservative speakers. And the refrain from our side was always, well, if these people have such dumb ideas, then don't you want them to speak? If President Trump is so wrong about the election, then why are these people so scared, churning out an information operation that I have frankly not seen in recent history. Maybe you have to go back to 2020 itself to actually see this. It's quite ironic now that Charlie Kirk was assassinated, right? These same people who are now melting down over President Trump Talking about the 2020 election, as Steve calls them, the media assassins, are also responsible, you know, for ginning that up. You want to talk about stolen elections, how about calling to kill the people who helped us win 2024? They also got, what, everything about Wuhan wrong. We still don't have any answers on that. But it's so interesting because the only time these people will describe the Chinese Communist Party as a threat certainly never has to do with elections. It's solely when their defense contractor lobbyist friends and their defense prime owner friends can really buttress and bolster the idea of China as the existential threat of this nation just so they can get a few more billions of dollars so they can build up America's defense industrial base, yet actually not do anything because it takes years to build anything. They're so behind on building anything that we need to actually keep this country safe. It's pretty wild. I'd also extend that critique to all of our newfound MAGA friends, the David Sachs and chamaths of the world, the grifters galore, all those people who, you know, the reason why, conveniently, their companies seem to be on the profiting upside of this. But why we need to basically turn over America's strategic advantage in the form of AI chips to the Chinese Communist Party is because China is such a threat. So we should make peace with them, I guess, through cyber and digital means. It makes no sense. But, you know, where are these people talking about President Trump's speech tonight or the 2020 election or the cyber capabilities that the PRC has to actually hack? They're stunningly silent, right? But they're willing to talk about it if it means that their shady companies can make more money or their paymasters can see their stock values inflate to literally ridiculous levels. You know, all these people love, love democracy so much, right, over at msnbc. Well, let's see how much they, they love democracy tonight. How about that? Joe Allen? I bring up AI, I bring up David Sacks. I should apologize preemptively to the audience. I do not like those people. They are so cringe they almost make me want to be a Democrat. I'm kidding. But, Joe Allen, you have a lot of new reporting that you want to get into. There's some stories, ironically, about what China is doing with AI. If you can sort of walk the audience through the developments over there. I know we've got a cold. Let's play that and then we'll bring you in.

[Joe Allen]

A big shout out to the war room posse. It's a pleasure to be here and engage in this conversation. Let's make it memorable.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Let's do it. I'm here with Ameca, a robot produced by Engineered Arts. What is transhumanism?

[Joe Allen]

Transhumanism is like a tech infused philosophical smoothie. It blends human aspirations with advanced technology aiming to enhance the human condition. Think of it as humanity's quest to level up through science and innovation.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

What is post Humanism?

[Joe Allen]

Post Humanism takes a step beyond pondering life after traditional humanism. It's like opening a new chapter in the book of existence where humans might transcend current biological and social limitations. It's about redefining what it means to be. Well, be.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Can you tell me a little bit about the technological singularity?

[Joe Allen]

The technological singularity is like the ultimate plot twist in humanity's narrative. It's the point where artificial intelligence skyrockets beyond human smarts, potentially reshaping society. It's. It's as if Technology grabs the steering wheel of progress and floors it into uncharted territory.

[Natalie]

You can always count on Joe Allen for some of the best Cold opens. Joe, walk us through the relevance of what we saw there to some new reporting coming out of China today.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Natalie, very good to be here. That was actually recorded in December of 2023 when I was doing my book tour. That was out in California at Engineered Arts Studio. And what you saw there is Amica, powered by GPT 3.5. I use that to show where things began and where things are going. So in America, the AI companies have done their best to create Personas for their AI models, and people have come to bond with them emotionally. They see them as friends, they see them as loyal lovers. Some of them turn to them as therapists and priests. Well, reporting from two days ago out of China shows that the Chinese government sees things very differently. While the American government is concerned about AI models like Mythos and GPT 5.6 hacking banking systems, China is taking steps to keep AIs from hacking brains. So China has officially banned AI companions, at least according to the reporting coming out. That would mean then, according to the rule book that China is turning to, no AIs will be allowed that excessively cater to users, induce emotional dependence or addiction, and damage real interpersonal relationships. And so as this comes into Effect, companies like ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent, and perhaps High Flyer that produces Deep Seek will no longer allow their bots to be sycophantic. Or they'll take steps to mitigate it anyway, be sycophantic and tell users what they want to hear, or to engage in kind of emotional relationships with human beings. I think it's important to ask why China would make that decision. I can't pretend to know the motivation of the Chinese Communist Party or the people commanding the five government agencies that are enacting this new rule. But it could either be that China recognizes that these sorts of relationships are extremely harmful and unhealthy, and they want to make sure their citizens don't go into AI psychotic. It could also be that Xi Jinping is a little bit jealous. Maybe he sees the way his citizens are bonding with these bots and looking to the bots for friendship. And maybe he feels like they should be looking to the party for that connection instead. I don't know. But what I do know is in the long run, if America doesn't take some kind of similar step, I don't mean federal law banning AI companionship or even state laws banning AI AI Companionship. But I do think that if America doesn't use the freedom that we have to choose not to allow children or vulnerable people or lonely people or any people to become closer to AI bots than other human beings, then as we're worried about China racing ahead to superintelligence, we will race to the bottom as human beings lose their intelligence.

[Natalie]

And walk us through this Wall Street Journal story, how it all sort of links together.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Yeah. The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the AI backlash leading to increased security concerns for tech executives. This is, I think, an important moment because what you see, if you'll recall when the assassination occurred, where Luigi Mangione shot the insurance executive and I was on with you and my first response was that these sorts of acts of violence will be used to blame otherwise rational people who are making rational anti tech or technoskeptic arguments for these sorts of violent acts. There was a kind of AI angle with Luigi Mangione and I think that that was. You already had the first stirrings of it then. Now what are we, a year, a year and a half later, even more now. You have a lot of kind of random psychopaths who have either threatened AI tech execs or a couple who have attempted some kind of violence, shooting at their homes or throwing firebombs. No one has been hurt. But what you see then is a justification to crack down on any kind of of dissent when it comes to technology. And I think that will increase even more. In the Wall Street Journal article, they note that Palantir and Oracle have increased their spending tremendously on security. And I think that that kind of goes to show you that the more there is this kind of specter of violence, the more there is this boogeyman. And the more you can actually blame people who are simply talking and arguing against these people. The more justification you have for surveillance, the more justification you have to blame rational actors for irrational acts of other people. And for me, it infuriates me that the same people who talk about replacing all jobs with robots and AIs, the same people who talk about the ultimate succession of humanity into a technological species, the total replacement of humanity or the risk that their technology might cause the human species to go extinct, those people making those claims are furious that we are pointing them out and blaming us for the inevitable backlash. Yeah, I don't buy it. And I don't think anyone in the war room posse does either.

[Natalie]

Yeah, the plebs, or I guess in this case the posse is not just rolling over and accepting that this is Supposed to be the greatest thing for humanity, which will conveniently, I'm sure expanding. Expand their wealth by orders of magnitude. Literally never even conceivable to the human mind before 2026. Joel. And if you can hang with us through the break, I want to drill down on some of this. Expand a little bit more. It's quite interesting how these articles interconnect. Warren Posse. We'll be right back after the short.

[Mike Lindell]

Everything's begun and you are over cuz

[Stephen K. Bannon]

we're taking down the CCP Spread the word all through Hong Kong we will fight till they're all gone we rejoice

[Mike Lindell]

when there's no more let's take down

[Steve Bannon]

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[Natalie]

We wouldn't be celebrating America 250 if it wasn't for a strong foundation set by the framers. Hamilton built America's financial foundation on the principle of sound, stable money, a principle later embodied by the gold standard. What's the foundation of your savings? Is it gold or something that can be shaken, disrupted or devalued? Birch Gold Group has been helping Americans solidify their savings with gold for the past 15 years. Learn how gold fits into your portfolio by Texting banded to 989-898. You'll receive a free no obligation info kit with an A rating from the Better Business Bureau and countless five reviews. Leverage gold at Help build your foundation with gold Text ban into 989-898-WARROOM here's

[Stephen K. Bannon]

your host, Stephen K. Ban.

[Natalie]

Welcome back to the War Room. Joe Allen, We've got a few minutes. I just wanted to let you flag if there's anything else for the audience to pay attention to be looking at right now or just sort of wrap up what you think we need to do in response to this, what almost seems to be a national security threat when you look at the birth rate of these AI companions, which I'm sure the Chinese Communist Party would love here in the United States, how to fix that problem.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Yeah, it's interesting, Natalie, that you have the Chinese government taking such strong measures. I would imagine that a big part of it probably is that they see a kind of mass psychosis among their own population and rather than sit on their hands, they're squashing it. But there's also probably the element that you don't want to have your subjugated citizens looking to bots for answers and granting them a kind of moral authority that the government doesn't have again in the United States is going to be very different. But the conversation here is just completely toxic. You have, as I just mentioned, you have the anti AI thinkers being blamed for random acts of anti AI company violence. These anti AI thinkers are also being accused of foreign influence operations so being the tools of countries like China or Russia. Ben Shapiro, I haven't watched it because listening to his voice is more odious than listening to a robot voice. But he came out with a video, I think just yesterday entitled the Anti AI Movement is a Foreign Influence Operation. Now it's ironic because Fox News just apologized for platforming Kevin o', Leary, the data center magnate that is working on the 40,000 acre data center complex in Utah. Because Kevin O' Leary accused group the alliance for Better for a Better Utah of being direct agents of China. And of course, he had no evidence. He admits that he had no evidence. He simply made it up. And so you've got that sort of idea percolating through the media sphere. And I think that if we're going to get to any kind of sane social response, religious response, political response to this profoundly disruptive and I would say, you know, kind of socially damaging technology, it's going to have to be a little less hysterical, you might say. Well, Joe, aren't you being hysterical about these guys? I think I've basically said my piece in the sanest way one can. When you have tech executives talking about chipping everyone's brains and linking them to AI systems to fight the evil super intelligence is going to kill us all. I think if you call me the crazy one for simply saying that that's a bad way to do business, then I guess I'm guilty as charged. But yes, Natalie, I think that the real key to all of this is going to be to keep trucking forward, to not ever accept the mantle of being either a foreign influence operative or not to ever accept the idea that your ideas are leading to violence. And certainly if people start Fed posting at you or they show up to your meetings talking about violence, you want to flag them as most likely either a Fed operative operative or a psycho. But again, you got to keep trucking forward. The AI companies have all the money increasingly as they are fused to the security state. They have the guns, but we have the numbers. And I believe that we also have the moral authority here. We have the high ground. These companies are degradating the. They're degrading. I just degradating. Even word sorry chat GPT probably put that into my head. They are degrading human life and we are simply responding as any human being should. We are saying we don't want it. And I think that the more people continue to do that and are not distracted by the insane allegations and other sorts of narratives, the better off we're going to be.

[Natalie]

By the way, you buried the lead. Ben Shapiro talking about other people being foreign influence ops. I think over there it's not even a foreign influence op, it's just foreign. Not you from myset. Right. But Joe, I gotta let you go. We're coming up against the end of show. Where can people go to follow you? Read all this stuff in detail and stay up to date with you.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

I've got essays going up at joebot xyz so subscribe. I've been on and off of X, but of course if you want to see my musings, it's OE B O T X Y Z on X. Jo

[Natalie]

Allen, thank you for joining us. We will have you back on stage soon since apparently you're responsible for all these threats faced by these horrible money hungry people who want to destroy this country in pursuit of profit. Joelle, thank you. Mike Lindell, someone who runs a company that helps this country and helps American manufacturing. Probably the antithesis of these weird creepy AI overlords. You got two minutes. Hit the Warren posse with the latest that you've got going on. Both on the gubernatorial trail but also with the company.

[Mike Lindell]

Well, let's start with the governor. You guys, everyone check it out. The president, the greatest president ever endorsed me yesterday for the next governor of Minnesota. So exciting. It's been. It was kind of clear. It kind of makes a great path here to get to victory with all of your help out there. And you guys have been helping by supporting my PLO so I. So I can be put 100% into running for governor. But I wanted to get on here with these sale. The sale we have now. These sales they come once every 250 years, everybody. And here we put together today a four pack special for the War Room Posse. Four pillows for more MyPillows for 49.98 to go anywhere. Two MyPillow classics and and also the sale colliding with our second annual mega sale. You guys, this is our Giza Dream sheets as low as 2998. Best sheets ever. Our president's favorite product. Then you have the my MyPillow six piece towel sets. Towels that actually dry you. What a concept. I always say they actually work. They're amazing. 39.98. Then you have. If you go to mypillow.com war room then you're gonna see all of the stuff where the sales collide. The my. The Mike Lindell crosses that I wear. The crosses that you save $80 there. Made in the USA. We have made in the USA socks on sale. We have you. We have over 40 new products you guys can take advantage of with that. With promo code war room and free shipping option available if you call right now. But it's 800-873-1062. Talk to my employees. They're so excited. We heard from a lot of you yesterday. Call in now. The sale, it comes once again every 250 years. Natalie, promo code war room.

[Natalie]

Thank you sir for joining us and thank you or impost for hanging with me. We got a lot of special war room coming at you tonight so make sure you're tuning in starting at 5pm make sure you're back at 8 and watch President Trump.

[Steve Bannon]

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