WarRoom Battleground EP 1003: Saving Wisconsin And Spiritual Authority In The US; Family, Future, Savings

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Bannon’s War Room – Battleground EP 1003

Date: May 5, 2026
Main Theme:
Saving Wisconsin, defending spiritual and family authority in the US, and practical solutions for American family affordability challenges.

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Episode Overview

In this dynamic episode, Steve Bannon hosts discussions on the critical role of Wisconsin in national elections, the controversial intersection of Catholic leadership and American politics, US-Vatican relations, the unfolding political situation in the UK, and innovative proposals to restore affordability and prosperity for American families. The show features in-depth conversations with Steve Cortez (political commentator/filmmaker) and Wade Miller (Center for Renewing America), plus an overseas report from Raheem Kassam.

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Key Sections and Insights

1. Wisconsin: The Battleground State’s National Significance

Timestamps: 01:03–08:05 | 03:25–06:41 | 06:41–08:51

• Steve Cortez is reporting live from Wisconsin, underscoring its outsized importance:

  "As Wisconsin goes, so goes America." (01:03)

• He details Republican Tom Tiffany’s campaign for governor as vital to securing election integrity—especially combating “systemic cheating” in Milwaukee—and setting the stage for the 2028 presidential race.
• Cortez highlights how the Democratic primary is chaotic, with “unbelievably radical” candidates “all in favor of open borders, all of them against school choice” (03:25–04:32).
• Both Bannon and Cortez insist the rest of the state is deeply conservative outside “pockets of radicalism like Milwaukee [and] the University of Wisconsin.” (06:16–06:41)
• Notable Quote:

  "If we get Tom Tiffany in the Governor’s mansion in Wisconsin, believe me, he is intent on doing everything he can to cleaning up the election processes, especially in Milwaukee." — Steve Cortez (05:38)

2. Catholic Leadership, Politics, and the Progressive Left

Timestamps: 08:05–13:57

• The conversation shifts to the Catholic Church’s stance on immigration and what both Bannon and Cortez view as an “institutional capture” by left-leaning globalists:

  "The institutional church is about as radical an institution when it comes to the sovereignty of the country, about immigration, as any institution out there." — Steve Bannon (08:05)

• Cortez discusses his article on Church teaching, referencing Thomas Aquinas’s strict positions on immigration and the “deep contradiction” with modern Church leaders.
• Cortez presents findings from Sen. Grassley's committee:

  “We now have...the Biden DOJ saying that they were targeting Catholics for being Catholic and even targeting nuns...joking about how much they wanted to prosecute nuns who still wear habits.” (09:51)

• Both note personal gratitude for Catholic education while sharply objecting to the DOJ’s and Church hierarchy’s recent actions.

Key Quote:

"When you're making fun of nuns and when you are targeting them for criminal prosecution...you're doing something really, really wrong." — Steve Cortez (10:55)

3. Vatican Relations, Pope Francis, and Geopolitics

Timestamps: 13:40–20:42

• Bannon and Cortez criticize the Pope’s appointments and refusal to visit the US for its 250th anniversary, seeing them as partisan gestures.
• Discussion of US diplomacy:

  “Given the way the Pope is acting...I don't think he deserves the honor of a visit from the Secretary of State.” — Steve Cortez (17:20)

• Bannon presses on the Vatican’s “secret and dirty deal” with the Chinese Communist Party to let Beijing select bishops, calling it “outrageous” and contrary to Church integrity (18:33).
• Cortez appeals for Church leaders to “follow the example of John Paul II” and resist “deals with the devil.” (19:28–20:42)

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4. UK Election Update & Transatlantic Political Climate

Timestamps: 21:34–26:52

• Raheem Kassam reports from London on imminent local and parliamentary elections:
  • Highlights Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, gaining on the main parties.
  • Suggests it could be “the end of Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership.”
  • Addresses US-Germany tensions over military spending and medicine pricing.
• Key Context:

  “It is an extremely pertinent moment for the fight against the political establishment here in the United Kingdom.” — Raheem Kassam (21:55)

  • Alerts listeners to parallel affordability and sovereignty debates in the UK and US.

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5. Family Formation, Savings, and Affordability: New CRA Initiative

Timestamps: 31:28–48:31

i. Affordability Crisis and Data Points

• Wade Miller unveils CRA’s detailed proposal for “restoring affordability” to the American family:
  • Baseline: To meet basic societal participation, a family of four needs ~$105,000/year after taxes—significantly above many actual incomes.
  • Breakdown: Mortgage/rent, healthcare, transportation, energy, childcare—all have “inherent inefficiencies, many deliberately imposed by the left.”
  • Crux: “If you're telling me it's 105,000 without any of the other [extras],...that 105,000 is after tax.” — Steve Bannon (35:11)
• CRA claims average employer health plans cost $28–29k per year—advocates for direct primary care and market-driven reforms.

ii. 63-Point Reform Plan

• Miller details proposals “to cut the $105,000 baseline to $41,000”—a “transformational” reduction (39:49–41:00).
• Categories: healthcare, housing, transportation, energy, childcare, college savings, and more (40:44–43:01).
• Heavy Emphasis: These are pragmatic, “not massive government programs or subsidies,” unlike progressive plans.

iii. Legislative Path and Call for Action

• Plan to bifurcate state and federal reforms, encouraging “Freedom Caucus Networks” in states and Congress to act quickly (44:54–45:30).
• Notable Quote:

  “If people are making $125,000 after tax, look at what they could do for savings. You would change the dynamic of Americans' lives.” — Steve Bannon (46:00)

iv. Societal and Cultural Stakes

• Miller warns that cultural renewal is as critical as financial reform:

  “If we don’t save our culture, none of this will eventually matter anyway.” (47:41)

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6. Immigrant Integration, Sharia Law, and American Legal Foundations

Timestamps: 48:31–50:20

• Miller and Bannon critique the spread of what they call “Sharia supremacism,” referencing controversies in Texas and the challenge of balancing cultural and constitutional defense:

  “The Constitution is not a suicide pact...We don’t have to allow radical Islamic Sharia to pervasively take over...” — Wade Miller (48:53)

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7. Closing and Further Resources

Timestamps: 50:20–50:41

• Show wraps with calls to action:
  • Find CRA’s reforms at americarenewing.com
  • Follow guests on X/Twitter (@CortezSteve, @WadeMiller) for updates
  • Bannon commits to further follow-up and encourages collective action for family and cultural renewal.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• "As Wisconsin goes, so goes America." — Steve Cortez (01:03)
• “Milwaukee cheats systemically. It is just part of political life in Wisconsin.” — Steve Cortez (05:15)
• “When you are targeting [nuns] for criminal prosecution,...you're doing something really, really wrong.” — Steve Cortez (10:55)
• “The institutional church is quite happy working with demonic forces in the Biden administration, are they not?” — Steve Bannon (12:08)
• “Stop comforting the oppressors, start comforting the afflicted.” — Steve Cortez (16:42)
• “If we don’t save our culture then none of this will eventually matter anyway.” — Wade Miller (47:41)

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Resources, Action Items, and Further Reading

• Cortez Investigates: cortezinvestigates.com — Full coverage, new Wisconsin documentary.
• Center for Renewing America (CRA): americanrenewing.com — Full 63-point affordability plan and policy breakdown.
• Social Media: @CortezSteve, @WadeMiller on X.
• Follow UK political coverage: thenationalpulse.com (Raheem Kassam).

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This episode is a vivid, high-tempo blend of swing-state tactical urgency, cultural confrontation, and ambitious policy vision, challenging both political adversaries and the institutional status quo in the US and abroad.

Transcript

[Steve Bannon]

This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these. People's not 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

[Wade Miller]

to share the big lie? MAGA MEDIA 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? If that answer is to save my

[Steve Cortez]

country, this country will be saved.

[Wade Miller]

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

[Steve Cortez]

As Wisconsin goes, so goes America. I'm in Wisconsin right now. That's beautiful. Lake Michigan behind me. It's great to be here in springtime. I'm here working on behalf of Tom Tiffany for the 2026 election. And let me tell you why this matters. Even if you live nowhere near Wisconsin, if we have a Republican governor in Wisconsin for 2028 presidential elections, that means that we have a chance to have election integrity, particularly in places like Milwaukee that cheat systemically. So the whole of America should pay attention to Wisconsin 2026. We need Tom Tiffany to be the governor here in part so that we can then win in 2028. The Democrats target Catholics, and I don't mean target with just harsh words. I mean prosecutions, criminal targeting. It's a war on faith. It's a war on families. And we now have the proof in their own words, from the highest levels of the doj, of Joe Biden, a supposedly devout Catholic. And yet many bishops, from the Pope himself to numerous American church leaders, they take every opportunity, every opportunity to step into partisan politics and align themselves overtly with the Democrats, even. Even as those same Democrats target us. Why?

[Steve Bannon]

Because they're neo Marxists. Steve Cortez joins me. Let's go back to Tiffany, the reason I love Tiffany. As you remember, Steve, Tom Tiffany is one of the few individuals who go down to the Darien Gap. He went to Central America. He was all with Oscar Blue Ramirez and Ben Berkwam and others down there. He wanted to see firsthand all those from Wisconsin. He understands Every state's a border state, every town's a border town. He's one. And by the way, Ben in Berquam and, and Michael Yan and, and Oscar Blue Ramirez were courageous themselves going down there. Because as you know, it's nothing but bad Hombres. And Tiffany was down there, you know, in a kayak and going around. It's just amazing what he saw down there because he's that kind of dedicated guy. When he was in Congress, he wanted to get to the bottom of the invasion of the country. Sir.

[Steve Cortez]

Yes, listen, he is rock solid on immigration, which is certainly my number one issue and I think the number one issue of most voters in America, certainly most America first voters. So I interviewed him today, I'm in Wisconsin right now in Milwaukee, and I interviewed him for my upcoming documentary. This first one that we're doing on him is about education because educational standards and test scores have plunged in the state of Wisconsin under Democrat rule. And so we want the Republicans for once to run on the issue of education. But I also spoke with him off camera about these issues of illegal aliens and illegal alien crime right here in Wisconsin. Some horrific recent events because there are so called sanctuary jurisdictions like Dane county, where University of Wisconsin is, where the state capital is at Madison. And so we're going to also do an upcoming documentary that Tom Tiffany pledges to take part in where we're going to highlight the dangers of these illegal aliens who are able to hide in plain sight in these so called sanctuary counties like Milwaukee county and Dane County. And I can tell you from spending time with Tom Tiffany, he's an incredible politician. He is a man of principle. He's a great patriot. And we have a wide open race here. Thankfully, on the Republican side, there's really no primary. So he is the presumptive nominee. On the Republican side has the Trump endorsement of is lining up a lot of financing. He's just, he's a fantastic candidate in all ways. On the Democrat side, they are having an absolute mud fight right now. There are nine candidates in there, three who are probably really serious and have a chance to win. All of them unbelievably radical. All of them in favor of open borders. All of them against school choice, getting back to education, because Wisconsin thankfully has fairly robust school choice. All of them against it want to shut that down. So it's going to be a real contrast. I mean, most races these days are contrast in a divided America, but in Wisconsin it's really going to be. And my point there that I made in that video is you may not think Wisconsin matters to you if you live far away from here. It matters. And the reason is this is the consummate swing state. Three elections in a row now of the battleground states, it has been the thinnest margin for whomever Prevails. Wisconsin is the consummate battleground state. So that's the first reason. But the second one, in terms of mechanics and election integrity, Milwaukee, I'm telling you, Milwaukee cheats systemically. It is just part of political life in Wisconsin. They've had cover because nobody in Madison, nobody in the state capitol had any interest in trying to make sure that there were honest and transparent and clean election returns coming out of Milwaukee. Well, if we get Tom Tiffany in the Governor's mansion in Madison, Wisconsin, believe me, he is intent on doing everything he can to cleaning up the election processes, especially in Milwaukee. And in 2028, no matter who the Republican nominee is, Steve, that could be the difference. It very well could be. Elections can be won and lost in just Wisconsin.

[Steve Bannon]

I told when we shifted the strategy and tried to pierce the blue wall in 2016, obviously Michigan, Pennsylvania, but Wisconsin, I said, people have this thought out there. That's a very liberal state. It's not a liberal state. You've got pockets of radicalism like Milwaukee, you've got pockets of radicalism like the University of Wisconsin. But the rest of the state is essentially maga, is it not?

[Steve Cortez]

Absolutely, no, for sure. And the point is in those areas, right, where you know you're not going to win Milwaukee county or Dane county, where Madison is, you're not going to win those, but you can't get crushed. So, for example, we were talking, Tom Tiffany today told me, he's like, if I get to 25% in Dane county, which isn't a great showing, obviously, but if I get to 25%, we win, right? Because we do so well in the rest of the state. To your point about just how red the rest of the state is, the rest of the state, culturally and politically, I mean, you might think you're in Alabama, right, Except for you're getting Wisconsin accents instead of a Southern drawl. And by the way, I will also tell you Wisconsin, when the weather is nice, rural Wisconsin, I believe, is one of the most wonderful places, not just in America, but perhaps on planet earth. And I really mean that. The rolling hills, the dairy farms, the lakes, the wonderful people, the Wisconsin nice, which is very real. The friendliness. This is an incredible and special place. And I believe with accurate elections, it would be a close state, but a state that actually leans right. Another reason why we need to get Tom Tiffany to be the governor. And again, it's important just on its own for him to win because he's such a good man, such a patriot, so good on immigration and all these issues. But in addition to that, for all of America, if you've got a kick ass Republican in the governor's mansion of Wisconsin, you've got a way, way better shot at winning that presidential race in 28 and 32. And they're on.

[Steve Bannon]

Just remember all those nights we spent on all those all night election boards, right. And we didn't have a Republican. We didn't have in, in, in 2020 when they stole the election. It was a nightmare. Even 2016 was close. But 2020, when they stole it, if we had Tom Tiffany, then that wouldn't have been the outcome. I want to go to the Catholic situation. You talk about the targeting, but the bishops, the issue is immigration. With the institutional church, that's also the issue. The institutional church is about as radical an institution when it comes to the sovereignty of the country about immigration as any institution out there. I mean, they're as far left as you could possibly get. Correct, Stephen?

[Steve Cortez]

Yeah, it's absurd and in total contradiction by the way of centuries and centuries of church teaching about sovereignty. And that's my article which I wrote at Daily Signal to go with that video. So I encourage people to please read the article and I give all the citations, of course, in there. But for many, many centuries, for time immemorial, the Catholic Church has believed in nations. After all, nations were created by God himself. The Bible is all about nations. And the Catholic Church has always correctly taught that we have a right to borders, that we have a right to control entry into our borders. Perhaps the most profound thinker and teacher on this point is Thomas Aquinas. And Thomas Aquinas, by the way, if you were to put his writings on immigration, and I encourage people to take a look at them, if you put them into today's context, he would be known as an uber hawk. Okay? On immigration, for example, he believed that even the second and third generations shouldn't be allowed to vote because they might not be culturally assimilated enough. That's where, you know, probably the foremost father of the church, maybe some Augustinians would argue with me, but maybe the foremost father of the church in terms of teaching, Thomas Aquinas, that's where he was. That's what the Catholic Church has believed for centuries and centuries. Unfortunately, now we've got some globalist leaders in incredibly important positions, including the seat of Peter itself. And they insist that at every opportunity in inserting themselves into partisan politics and aligning themselves with the Democrats because of this immigration issue. And the point I'm trying to make here is because there is new news here that was broken thankfully by Senator Grassley and his committee. We now have, in their own words, their own text messages and emails, the Biden DOJ saying that they were targeting Catholics for being Catholic and even targeting nuns and specifically joking about how much they wanted to prosecute nuns who still wear habits which are the traditional robes and veils, the traditional religious garb. Now, Steve, when you're making fun of nuns and when you are targeting them for criminal prosecution, when you're trying to put nuns in handcuffs and in jail, you're doing something really, really wrong. And I don't think you have to be Catholic to understand that. But for those of us who are Catholic, this is especially offensive. And for people like you and I who, who were educated by wonderful religious sisters, my K through 12 was Dominican sisters. They were some of the most magnificent women I've ever met in my life. He was such a blessing to me. If I have any ability to speak well and write well, it is because of them and what they taught me. And now to read that the top echelons of the Biden doj, Biden, supposedly a Catholic himself, are targeting Catholics in this manner. And then to witness what is going on with, with the Pope and bishops constantly joining themselves at the hip to those very Democrats. It's wrong, it's offensive. It needs to be called out. What the Pope just did in naming an illegal migrant, the Bishop of West Virginia, a very deeply read pro maga West Virginia. There's no way that was coincidence, Steve. That was a shot at the United States, at the American right, at Donald Trump, at America First. And it's just, it's inexcusable, particularly coming from his office for the most important church office on planet Earth. It's totally inexcusable. And that's why I'm calling it out.

[Steve Bannon]

So for audiences not Catholic. And by the way, I was taught by the Benedictine nuns, same way with you. Everything I owe on the education side is from them because they were quite strict people. Confused, well, hey, how can they be so radical on the border? And they have the Catholic Church charities at the same time, Biden, because Biden's crew, when you read it, they're targeting trad Catholics, they're targeting traditional Catholics. When I was at Danbury, the most incredible men in that prison were the men that were sent there by the Biden Justice Department for saying the rosary outside of abortion centers. These men were modern day saints. They didn't have any money. They couldn't buy stuff at the Commissary, you had to help, you know, people had to help get them clothes and rec clothes, things like that. But these people, they had a glow about them, right? In prison, in a hellhole prison, These, these live their Christianity and live their Catholicism every day. That's the folks that Biden went after. They go after traditional Catholics and traditional Catholic beliefs. Nuns inhabits, people at abortion centers saying the rosary, the Latin Mass, the FBI coming up, starting with my family's parish, the Tridentine parish in Richmond, to say, oh, these are centers of extremism and white nationalism. But the institutional church is quite happy working with demonic forces in the Biden administration, are they not? I mean, they literally would have voted for them over President Trump every day of the week. Correct?

[Steve Cortez]

Correct. That's the unfortunate reality. But I think it's incumbent upon us, it's our obligation as faithful Catholics to call that out. And, you know, for most of church history. Right. The opposite was the case. In other words, the clergy had to correct the laity, right, who were generally too lax.

[Wade Miller]

Right.

[Steve Cortez]

With their own morals, with social norms and that sort of things. And the clerics would correct the laity. We now in many cases have the opposite. Right, where the laity in many ways is way more faithful to Catholic tradition, to Christianity itself, to biblical principles, than are the clerics, than are the leading actual officials of the church, including the American bishops. And now we see the Pope himself. And also, let's put this in context. It wasn't just naming this one bishop. He also named another bishop, an auxiliary bishop in Washington, D.C. in our nation's capital, who is a guy who is an absolute DEI radical. I mean, the way he talks about dei, you'd think you're listening to Hakeem Jeffries rather than a church shepherd. And of course, you know, we know that the Pope got in a very public spat with President Trump. In addition to that, there are some things that might seem more trivial, but I think they still matter. For example, he was asked, are you going to root for the US Or Peru? He said, I'm going to root for Peru in the World Cup. So I guess doesn't really consider himself to be an American. And on that topic, by the way, here we are in our 250th birthday year, a huge deal for the American people, for all of us. Not for Republicans, for Americans. He's an American born and raised here, and yet he is not coming to the United States. He refused the invitation to come for July 4th itself, and there are no plans for him to come to his homeland at all. And what is he doing on the 4th of July? He is going to an Italian island that is known as essentially an illegal migrant transport hub. He's going there again. That's not coincidental. He didn't pick the July 4th date to do. He's an American. He knows what's going on on July 4th, especially in 2026, the 250th anniversary. So, look, I think it's important for us to recognize, as Catholics, we recognize his spiritual authority. Okay. You know, I'm not a heretic, okay? I recognize his spiritual authority. I don't believe in schism. At the same time, when he is acting like a partisan political actor and when other bishops are, I, as a fellow partisan political actor, I'm going to push back. And I think we, as lay Catholics have. Have an obligation to do so now. Do it respectfully. Do it with facts. Right? We don't have to make up scurrilous lies. In this case, unfortunately, the facts, as revealed are damning enough. But I thought it was important to connect these two stories. So what's going on with the Pope lately? Particularly naming an illegal migrant, former illegal migrant, to be the bishop of West Virginia. Let's connect that story to the new news out of the Grassley Committee. What we now know, I think a lot of us, of course, suspected, but we now know, in their own words, the Biden DOJ was doing targeting. So my message to the bishops is can you please stop comforting the oppressors and instead comfort the afflicted? Because that is your job as shepherds of the Church, as faithful servants of Christ, and as inheritors of the apostolic mission to evangelize and love the world. Stop comforting the oppressors. Start comforting the afflicted.

[Steve Bannon]

Even as we've talked about this and get you up on the show and with your videos, you're in Wisconsin, which is a very Catholic state. Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, has made plans to leave tomorrow to go see the Pope, to talk about the Pope's opposition to this war. Right. And it's not, you know, does the Pope need to be schooled on Aquinas and just war theory, sir?

[Steve Cortez]

Perhaps he does. And listen, I have to say, I am not in favor of the White House. If I could get this message to the President, I don't think this is a good move, sending Marco Rubio, because right now, given the way the Pope is acting, given again, how much he is interjecting himself into partisan politics here in the United States, I don't think he deserves the honor of a visit from the Secretary of State of the United States, of his home country and the greatest superpower on Earth. I really don't. I think in terms of diplomatic outreach, right now, you should be following normal channels. This is an extraordinary move that we are making, and it's a real honor to get a visit from the Secretary of State of the United States. So I believe instead, we should be operating through the US Embassy to the Holy See and my dear friend Brian Birch, who's doing an amazing job as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, he should be sent to have these conversations with the Pope. That is my belief. I think politically, symbolically, that's how this should happen, because the Pope is not acting in a way that deserves this level of recognition right now from the United States. Now, look, I think President Trump bends over backwards because he has such great respect for Catholics in America. That's a wonderful thing. We should be very glad about that. But I think in this case, going a little too far.

[Steve Bannon]

Also, the timing. If we're still gonna have this meeting with the CCP in Beijing next week. One of the hot button issues for conservative Catholics on a geopolitical basis is the secret treaty that. That parallel negotiated and Francis negotiated and signed with the Chinese Communist Party to allow the Chinese Communist Party to select bishops. It's outrageous. They've renewed it. If that is not a centerpiece of. Of Secretary Rubio's meeting to say, hey, look, we're going to see him, but we're going to need you guys. Because it's against U.N. it's against U.N. you know, rules and regulations. And what got us into World War I with all these secret treaties. You can't have secret treaties, secret codicils. Right. That has to be exposed. It's shocking to me that Rubio would go the week before Beijing on an institution that has a secret deal with the Chinese Communist Party, sir.

[Steve Cortez]

Yeah, well, and by the way, regarding that secret, terrible, dirty deal with Beijing, what these church leaders should do is they don't have to look way back in history. In this case, they don't have to look to Aquinas, just look back a few decades at St. John Paul, the great John Paul II and the way he confronted Communism. Right. And that should be your model. Read some of his sermons, some of his speeches, read about the actions that he took against the evil of Communism, and then contrast that with the way the Vatican is treating, with absolute kid gloves, the monsters of Beijing, the junta of the Chinese Communist Party right now. The greatest menace, the greatest threat to the entire world and certainly to the United States, but also to the Catholic Church. And stop cozying up to them. Stop making deals with them where you let them effectively name bishops, you grant them control over the true church, the true church, which has often been underground, of course, in communist China, rather than what they call the patriotic church, which is the recognized one. Don't make deals with the devil. And when you're speaking about the Chinese Communist Party, it's the devil. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that there are clearly demonic forces at play there. We're talking about, of course, an organization that, that has, that has effectively killed babies for decades and decades. Don't make deals with them.

[Steve Bannon]

Where do we go to get all your content, Steve Cortez, now you get a bounce.

[Wade Miller]

Yeah.

[Steve Cortez]

Please go to Cortez investigates.com Cortez with an S at the end. And of course, my Twitter, I'm at Cortez, Steve. And check out all the content. We'll be coming out with this Wisconsin documentary very, very soon. And you can see all my videos, all my articles@cortez investigates.com thank you, brother.

[Steve Bannon]

Thank you for sticking around. Appreciate you.

[Steve Cortez]

Thank you.

[Wade Miller]

Thank you.

[Steve Bannon]

We're going to go to Raheem Kassam here momentarily. Make sure take your phone out if you need something quick and dirty to understand gold and precious metals, the ultimate guide text Bannon B A N n Owen and 989-898. You get the ultimate guide for investing in gold and precious metals in the age of Trump. And you get direct access to Philip Patrick and his team at Birchgold. Trying to get Philip on tomorrow or Friday to talk about the central banks buying gold at record rates. Let's hear from Raheem Qassam.

[Raheem Kassam]

Well, greetings from London, where the nation waits with bated breath to see what the results are going to be like in the English local elections on Thursday. Alongside parliamentary elections in the devolved parliaments of Scotland and Wales, there are thousands upon thousands of seats up for grabs in these local elections. Some people will remember that last year the embattled British Prime Minister Sir Keir Stark actually paused and postponed elections all over the country in a highly cynical and anti democratic move. Those elections are now taking place this week and I have been out on the campaign trail with Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage, who is expected to mop up thousands of seats. While the traditional major two parties, the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, otherwise known as the Tories, are projected some massive, massive losses. It is an extremely pertinent moment for the fight against the political establishment here in the United Kingdom. And indeed, we are also focusing heavily on what happens in Wales and, and Scotland. Both of those devolved parliaments have been run by far left nationalist parties. The Labour Party of Wales and the snp. The Scottish National Party have held power for a very long time in those areas. But it looks like that power may now be at risk again. Reform polling extremely highly in Wales and about to make major breakthroughs in Scotland Also, some things that were genuinely unthinkable just a year or two ago. The situation here in the United Kingdom is changing rapidly. It may lead to the end of Sikhi Starmer's premiership. You will remember, especially the American audience here will recall, just how much Sikhi Starmer has been at loggerheads with President Trump in recent weeks and months. Well, he is not a particularly popular figure in the United Kingdom either. He actually has worse approval ratings than George W. Bush had at his lowest peak and also the lowest ratings of Richard Nixon. So Sir Keir Starmer may well be deposed by his very own party come this weekend after Thursday's results. Another thing for the audience to bear in mind right now as developments are taking place in Iran and as the situation continues to change across Europe, are the moves recently taken by the German government. As we know, President Trump is pulling troops out of Germany. We don't know specifically how many yet or how quickly they will go. We don't know if Germany is also the only country that will go through this. But there is more than one place in which the American taxpayer underwrites what's going on in Europe. Everybody thinks of defence, but there's another area, a massive area in which the Germans simply are not playing ball with America and that is in medicines. The Germans have recently taken steps to further try and fleece the US taxpayer and force them, like the US does all across the continent, to underwrite the cheap medicines that Europeans get. Meanwhile, Americans pay top dollar for top drugs in the United States. It effectively is a similar situation to what happens with NATO. So there is another element to which the President can fight back against Berlin. It is an incredibly important time for him to do so. There could be a Section 301 investigation launched. There's already been one in March which has to do with excess supply that comes out of Europe. But also we're now looking at what happens with medicine price fixing all over the continent too. The Brits actually, funnily enough, have taken steps to remediate this and to bring themselves into line better with American pricing structures so that the American taxpayer isn't expected to underwrite their medical system. But the Germans are simply not playing ball in this section 301 investigation. If they expand, expand it to deal with what Germany's doing could be a very useful tool in addition for President Trump to removing troops from Germany. So a lot taking place here in Europe this week. Stay on it, stay focused and we will report on thenationalpulse.com and hear about what happens in these critical crunch elections in the UK Cheers.

[Steve Bannon]

Amazing, amazing report. Rahim over there helping out with Nigel. Wade Phillips, cra Next in the war

[Steve Cortez]

room,

[Steve Bannon]

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[Wade Miller]

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

[Steve Bannon]

Welcome back. We have Wade Miller joining us from cra, a Center for Renewing America, the great organization founded by Wade and Russ Vogt and others, many of whom were in the administration. You, you, Wade, you've had a, and CRA overall had a, a focus on the American family and, and basically how we have family formation, but also how we make sure that the family has the resources it needs is kind of looked at as an economic unit. In fact, one of the organizing principles I would say of CRA is exactly the fact that you probably more than any other institution look at the American family as an economic unit and what do we need to do to make sure it's healthy and prosper, particularly given the difficulties we have in this country of family formation as particularly gets later. These are massive slides. Societal problems. You've got a new initiative you're launching today. Can you Tell us about it.

[Wade Miller]

Sure. So there, you know, there's been a lot of national conversation about affordability. And, you know, the left's been complaining about Trump. And the reality is, is that Trump is doing everything that he has the power to do. You know, the one big beautiful bill with the tax cuts, the deregulatory agenda, he's putting a focus on America first refining, you know, because we export 4.6 billion barrels a day, or, you know, so much because we don't have the ability to refine the oil that we're producing. Our. We have the ability to refine, you know, foreign oil. And so, you know, he's doing everything that he can do as an executive on that front, and eventually the Iran war is going to end. Everything that he can do, he's doing. But there's a. There's this other lingering problem, which is that at a systemic level, most of the institutions that are, that encapsulate all of the threshold buckets for what it costs to raise a family. So mortgages, health care, child care, transportation, energy, on and on and on, they all have inherent inefficiencies built into them. I think some of these are intentional by kind of the cultural Marxist left. They don't want markets in the first place. They want to push us towards government programs. And so we said about. I read a really interesting article about six or seven months ago, and it said that the cost of participation in society, the average for a family of four is about 130, something,000 dollars. So we, I wanted to reverse engineer that, that work and figure out what's the truth. And the reality is, is that the, the cost of participation is about 105,000 a year for the American family. That's just the basics. And the average median income is about 120,000.

[Steve Bannon]

Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Slow down. When you say participation, just walk the audience through. What does that mean?

[Steve Cortez]

Sure.

[Wade Miller]

So just to exist in our society, the things you would need as a family, rent or mortgage, at least one car, preferably two. You have to pay for energy, you need health care. There's all sorts of things that are basic necessities of family formation. Some of us preppers can say that we could get away without most of those, but the average family would say that they need all of those things to have a chance at thriving in our country. And right now, the average cost of all those buckets is about $105,000, which is a lot. And that's not. We're not talking about going out to the movies. We're not talking about buying all the clothes you need for school next year. You know, all of these additional add ons, these are just the basic necessities. $105,000 a year. And you know, it's. That's just not. Doesn't need to be this way. So we actually throw our. Hang on all.

[Steve Bannon]

But hang on, but hang on. I want to make sure I understand this. Correct me if I'm wrong. If you're telling me it's 105,000 without any of the other vacations or, you know, getting clothes and the kinds of things you need to actually participate in society. Maybe not at the super high level, but we're a middle class family. That 105,000 is after tax. That's cash that you got paid for a mortgage or so are you telling me a family of four, if I gross up for the taxes, got to make, I don't know, $140,000 to actually have the cash after tax to pay for it?

[Wade Miller]

That's 100% correct. The average family, well, hang on.

[Steve Bannon]

Struggling. An average family of four right now, correct me if I'm wrong, is $72,000. Is that, is that a average family of four, two incomes is essentially $72,000 in American household.

[Wade Miller]

The average family of four number that we were able to come up with is about 128,000. Now if you, if you do, you know, you could, there's different ways you can slice 128,000.

[Steve Bannon]

What? That's two parents working household income.

[Wade Miller]

Correct. Two parent household income is 100 and what, 28,000. And so your math is right. When you account for taxes, Social Security, all of these things. It does. It's going to be a little bit less than 105,000. So the average family is having difficulty keeping up because of the way these incidents are.

[Steve Bannon]

Let me be stupid here for a second. The average wage for a person coming in is 52,000. I thought the average, I thought the family of four with two wage earners with something like 75. That can't be right. Okay, fine. So are you saying that to get to the 105,000 you need to make, what did you say, 125 or 130.

[Wade Miller]

You need to make more than that to really make it kind of even out. But that illustrates the point, which is that the average family is struggling to keep their head above water. You know, Trump is doing absolutely everything that he is empowered to do, and he is pushing the needle in the right way. Families are going to be benefiting from, from some of these things he's doing for the next decade or two. And they won't even know that it was Trump. But a lot of these buckets are inherently systemically inefficient. So take health care. The average health care plan, business provided plan is about 29,000 and change, 28,000 and change right around in there. That's the average for a family of four. There's no need for this. The entire system is structurally set up and we could have a whole debate on health care, for formation of systems and how they should be structured. But our plan gets you the same basic coverage and actual health care at about half the price. So we can get business sponsored plans down to about 13,800amonth a year for a family of four, which is transformational. It would basically make it so that employers could cover healthcare and no one would have to even pay for it if they've got employer covered care. And businesses would still save money even if they covered 100% of your health care. But why can't you do that right now? Well, Obamacare basically makes this structure illegal. They want to force everything through insurance companies, even basic care. So if I right now could, what would I do? I would go out and get a direct primary care plan. Just go directly to a doctor. I would pay that Dr. 300amonth. It's the best system that's, that's available. The problem with that is that if you do that, you can't just get a catastrophic plan on the back end. You have to get comprehensive coverage which renders direct primary care not an option for the average family. But with health sharing ministries with infinite risk pools, and with our DPC plan, you can cut that in half and have actually better health care. We don't have to live this way. But here's the takeaway. We can go through bucket by bucket. We can do energy, we can do mortgages. At the end of the day, if you implement all of our reforms, we have 63 reforms that we're proposing. You can take that down from 105,000 as the cost of participation down to about a little less than 41,000 a year. It's transformational. We can cut $68,000 a year out of the average family of four budget. And these are through efficiencies changing the system, tax, treatments, all of these things we can do. And here's the interesting thing, you'll enjoy this. I actually early on was going out on AI and asking for every single idea that was out There that's been promoted, proposed at the state level, at the federal level and then group them bipartisanship. There was actually quite a few ideas in the Republican party that had been out there. The left had essentially no ideas. They were all government subsidies and new government programs which would just increase costs. None of them had any actual solutions. And so one of the things we're going to do with this as the left is going to be chirping on about affordability all summer long. I'm sure they will, is we're going to put out our plan. We're going to lay out all 63 of those proposals in the plan.

[Steve Bannon]

Okay, hang on one second in if I had just so conception I want to have you back on. We'll drill down but if I look at mortgage or rent, which is, you know, shelter, if I look at energy, which is, you know, transportation and the home. Right. And then if I look at health care, what are the other big buckets I'm missing? Those are three, what else do you include as big buckets? Because I then want to put the 63 inside of one of those buckets. What are the.

[Wade Miller]

We've got a, we've got a whole mega thread out there. We, we've distilled it down into five or six main buckets. Health care, housing, transportation, energy, child care and kind of another catch all with various reforms you can do. There's more that can be done and we would love it if other entities and organizations, individuals would jump into the fray here and provide another 60 additional ideas and maybe some of their ideas are better than ours, that'd be great. But I think the key point of all of this is to point out that one, it doesn't have to be this way. Leftists have built this up over time, I think intentionally to undermine the entire middle class system to justify their structure of top gap down governance and you know, attacking markets. But you know, at the end of the day we're going to put this out and we're going to say to any leftist at any level, city council, mayors, state reps, state senators, members of congress, anyone out there, do you support any of the, any one of these provisions? And if not not a single one of them, then we're going to call bunk on their claim that they are for affordability and that they want to solve these problems for the middle class. And I'm willing to bet there aren't very many leftist politicians out there that will agree to even one of our reforms.

[Steve Bannon]

I agree, but taking it on a positive side Just on our side of the football. And when you go through your 63, are they all now changes that need to be made at the federal level? In other words, the states have always been, as Russ Vogt taught me, the laboratories, local communities in the states or the laboratories for ideas that we can then take national. Are any of your 63 right now, to the best of your knowledge, implemented at a statewide level, at least some basis that we can then take over the federal? Or are these all things you think need to be done at the federal level right away?

[Wade Miller]

Most of these are innovative ideas that are not yet in place that we are proposing. Not a lot of these things have been done at state level or federal level. Some of them have been proposed but not done.

[Steve Bannon]

I think this is fantastic. Can you walk us through some of the biggest subset of action items in those categories? In those five big categories?

[Wade Miller]

Yeah, so I've mentioned the health care plan. There's the whole, you know, Trump homes is a great idea. But we also need to figure out tax advantage accounts on how we get families to the point where they can do their down payment and so incentivizing their ability to put money forward and also incentivizing family members. So often families and parents and grandparents want to be able to contribute to these things, but they're not tax advantaged. And you know, we want to be able to build into this and feed into that. And also, you know, there's, there's ways we can start saving for college. There's all sorts of things that we can do that we're not currently doing in every single one of these categories that would essentially significantly lower the costs. I mean transportation, renewable fuel, standard, all of these things that are, you know, all of these regulatory burdens that are in just the ability to produce a vehicle today are outrageous. And it ends up just harming families. It makes it harder for them to own a vehicle which is a threshold to being able to find employment that's more than, you know, walking distance away. There's all sorts of things we can do that fundamentally improve the condition of the American family.

[Steve Bannon]

In the way to do one of the ways to do this, obviously you got challenged the left, but that's just going to get into the debate. They're all big government guys that, that want to, they want the family to fail so they have more control. Is there any way between now and let's say they go home in August to get the house to sit down and to get members to say, hey, look, these are 20 things we can put into an overall comprehensive bill of supporting the American family. Get that drafted, get it up. So then we've got something on record to say, hey, here's what we're saying. Here's these, their solutions are all more big government or destruction of the family and here ours is supporting it. And this is what we want to put forth as a positive piece of comprehensive legislation.

[Wade Miller]

Absolutely. I think that they're, we're going to bifurcate this out to proposals for states and then proposals for Congress. And by the way, apologies for my background. I think that the, the whatever is on timed out and it's just going through an Apple TV right now. But yes, we're going to send this over a package and I think there's a lot that Congress can do, there's a lot that states can do to fix this problem. And we're going to have a sent out and work with State Freedom called Caucus Network and others to try to fix these problems.

[Steve Bannon]

What let's go back to what you said about the state Freedom caucuses is are a bunch of these can be put at the state level. So we could actually get some of these things implemented on an easier basis.

[Wade Miller]

Yeah, some of these are state level and some of these, there's clever and innovative ways that some of these State Freedom caucus networks can put pressure onto the federal government to kind of push them in the right direction of fixing some of these problems.

[Steve Bannon]

What's the best way Wade, for people to start to get their hands right? You're launching it today. When you say launch, are you going to roll it out with a media launch? Are you going to go testify on Capitol Hill? I mean where can people find out obviously more so they get an understanding of this. First off, 105,000 or 41,000, that's cutting out about 65% of the cost if you think about it. You know, if people are making 125,000 after tax, look at the amount of money they're prepared to look at what they could do for savings. You would change the dynamic of Americans lives just by the ability to have them have the ability not just to maybe get some nicer things and maybe more travel, but in addition actually be able to put some money away to build a nest egg for when they retire.

[Wade Miller]

Absolutely. And the amount you would save in one year is almost enough to cover four years of college tuition in state in most colleges in most states. You know, it would be transformational amount that you could save. It would be transformational in the amount that you know, starting your Family and having the psychological feeling that you can do that safely and effectively. There's so many things that would transform in our society and not the least of which could be just AI proofing our economy or at least buying the those of us in this, in our economy. Time to adapt to the coming AI changes. Because if you're making 128,000 versus you know, I, I would rather make 70 and with an expense of 41,000 a year than 128 with an expense of, you know, 110 a year. So what you can make versus what things cost is really important way to think about things. Not just simply how much can I make. The value of what you make also matters. And a lot of this, it will make us AI proof in, in the coming years.

[Steve Bannon]

So how do people get, how do they get to this? How do they start to work their way through it so they understand it?

[Wade Miller]

So the, the, the we wrote a piece on each one of them. You can find [e-mail] that's americarenewing.com we wrote on each one of these buckets. And then we just released today our wrap up piece which kind of ties them all together and paints the big picture narrative on what this all means. But put together, you can find that all on our website. I'm going to be tweeting about it more today, you know, on X, I'm Wade Miller at Wade Miller and, and we'll be more talking about these things and then ultimately I think that the bigger picture here though is this is just the first hurdle. We can do all of these things, but if we don't save our culture then none of this will eventually matter anyways. So getting money out of the way, the inefficiencies and cost burdens out of the way is a big step. But we also have to remember in the back of our minds that the next step after this and probably concurrent and simultaneous is that we also have to fight to save our culture.

[Steve Bannon]

But you guys have been doing it the lead of Sharia law and Sharia supremacy. How do you think we're doing that in Texas? You know we just had folks on Today about this water park financed by, financed by I think Grand Prairie Texas down there and they're going to have a Muslim only day. I mean how do you think we're doing on this, on the anti Sharia fight in the great state of Texas?

[Wade Miller]

I'm encouraged by the fact that more and more people are waking up to this and they're emboldened to speak out about it. I am still concerned that at the legal level, judiciary level, judges, that they are not yet capable of thinking in ways that will facilitate. I think we're going to get some wins and I think we have smart people that will craft these. But what we need is a revolution in the judiciary to understand that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. That the First Amendment does obviously provide us great protections, but it doesn't mean that we have to allow a radical Islamic Sharia to pervasively take over our entire culture knowing that doctrinally it is being designed specifically to supplant the current culture and ultimately it's at odds with the entire Constitution. And so I think those two things have to find to happen. We have to continue to fight this. But we also need judges to wake up and understand that their job is to protect our culture and our, our entire system and not to use it as a, a shield to protect these offensive ideologies that are out here to destroy us.

[Steve Bannon]

Wade, I want to thank you and your team there for providing such great leadership. You put so many great people in the administration and you guys have not missed a beat since Russ and the team went over there. So really extraordinary. Of course, you know the Warren posse loves you guys. Where can they go to get all the analysis here? To get updates on the Sharia law and what is your social media on?

[Wade Miller]

Social media America Renewing I think you can am renew center but you can look it up center for renewing America on X And we've got a whole thread outlining everything we talked about here and of course my ex handle is at Wade Miller.

[Steve Bannon]

Wade Miller, thank you so much for the work and thank you for coming on the show to explain this.

[Wade Miller]

Thanks for having me on.

[Steve Bannon]

Okay folks, let's drill down on this because this is the corner the American families, the cornerstone. And this phony argument about affordability is I know it's driving the President's nuts, but it's also off the target. Think about that average cost to participate. $105,000. That's why families can't do it. We just talked about homes and mortgages. Hometitle lock.com promo code Steve, if you're lucky enough to own a home and I think the average age of a first time owner now is like 40 some years old. 80 to 90% of your net worth is tied up in that home. Every dream you've ever had is tied up in that home. Ensure that the heartache is in the in the opportunity cost, the anxiety, the angst if somebody was to get into your title and be able to take out a hard money second loan, you know, second mortgage where you had to pay off the capital and these high interest rates or could even try to monetize your home in some other way. It happens and it happens every day. Particularly with advances in artificial intelligence and cyber, not to mention rogue relatives, significant others. All of it protect yourself from pennies a day. Hometitle lock.com promo code steve go check out today, talk to Natalie Dominguez team. You get the one million dollar triple lock protection totally free for two weeks. Go check it out. Also take your phone out and text Bannon B A N N O N at 989-898 you get access to the ultimate guide for investing in home investing in Gold and Precious Metals in the Age of Trump. We will see tomorrow at 10am do you owe back taxes or you haven't filed your taxes in years? Now is the time to resolve your tax matters. With the national conversation around abolishing the income tax, the IRS is fighting back, improving. It's here to stay by becoming more aggressive than ever before. They're sending out more collection notices, filing more tax liens and collecting billions more in recent years. If you owe, the IRS can garnish your wages, levy your bank accounts, seize your retirement and even your home if you owe or haven't filed. It's not a question of if the IRS will act, it's a question of when it will act. Right now, Tax Network USA is offering a completely free IRS research and discovery call to show you exactly where you stand and what they can stop before it's too late. Their powerful programs and strategies can save you thousands or even eliminate your debt entirely if you qualify. Don't make a costly mistake. Representing yourself or calling the IRS on your own waives your rights and cost you more money. They are not, and let me repeat, the IRS is not on your side. Get Protected the Right Way with Tax Network USA and start the process of settling your tax matters once and for all today. Call 1-800-958-1000. That's 1-800-958-10000 or visit tnusa.com Bannon for your free discovery call with Tax Network USA. Let me repeat, 800-958-1000. Tell them Bannon sent you. Don't let the IRS be the first to act. Take advantage of first mover advantage. You move.