WarRoom Battleground EP 692: Keeping America Safe; Rules Of Unforced Error

Summary

Summary of "WarRoom Battleground EP 692: Keeping America Safe; Rules Of Unforced Error"

Episode Release Date: January 23, 2025

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Overview

In Episode 692 of Bannon’s War Room, host Stephen K. Bannon engages with key figures Ezra Cohen, Josh Steinman, and Colonel Mike Waltz to discuss significant shifts within the United States' national security apparatus. The conversation centers around efforts to restructure the National Security Council (NSC), counter what they describe as the entrenched "deep state," and implement an "America First" agenda to enhance national safety and policy efficiency.

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Key Discussions

1. Restructuring the National Security Council

• Speaker: Ezra Cohen

  Ezra Cohen opens the discussion by highlighting recent developments reported by CNN concerning substantial changes within the NSC. He references US Transportation Command's directive to prepare military assets for potential deportation flights and mentions the removal of approximately 160 career government employees from the NSC, a move credited to Colonel Mike Waltz.

  “President Trump's national security adviser, Colonel Mike Waltz, is sidelining roughly 160 career government employees on temporary duty at the White House National Security Council.”
  [04:30]

• Speaker: Mike Waltz

  Colonel Waltz elaborates on the rationale behind the staff reductions, emphasizing the elimination of "detailees" — politically appointed staffers from previous administrations — to ensure that the NSC is fully aligned with the current President’s directives.

  “NSC staffers are there to make sure that the executive power is vested in the president.”
  [07:00]

2. Challenges in Controlling the Intelligence Community

• Speaker: Josh Steinman

  Josh Steinman discusses the complexities of limiting the intelligence community's influence within the NSC. He underscores the necessity of separating policy-making from intelligence operations to prevent the continuation of policies from prior administrations.

  “We need them focused on the politics of our adversary, not on the politics at home.”
  [10:50]

• Speaker: Mike Waltz

  Waltz further explains that previous NSC structures allowed non-aligned policies to persist and that removing politically motivated staffers is crucial for reinstating constitutional executive power.

  “Good leadership is about stopping the things that the US Government is doing that are against the interests of the American people.”
  [06:39]

3. Impact on National Security and Policy Implementation

• Speaker: Mike Waltz

  Waltz details immediate actions taken post-restructuring, such as stand-downs and freezes on foreign aid, to halt policies viewed as detrimental. He advocates for NSC staffers to be fully aligned with presidential directives to streamline decision-making processes.

  “Good leadership is about stopping the things that the US Government is doing that are against the interests of the American people.”
  [06:39]

• Speaker: Josh Steinman

  Steinman addresses the practical challenges of replacing removed staffers with loyal appointees, acknowledging potential short-term inefficiencies but stressing the long-term necessity for policy alignment.

  “The key thing is stop the existing policies.”
  [10:45]

4. Media and Political Reactions

• Speaker: Ezra Cohen

  Ezra Cohen addresses media criticisms regarding the NSC restructuring, citing a hearing where Senator Warner questioned the administration's actions. Cohen interprets such encounters as evidence of the ongoing struggle against the entrenched bureaucracy.

  “We are going through a very logical process from the first administration in the bridge, what you call either 2025 or America first priorities.”
  [20:09]

• Speaker: Josh Steinman

  Steinman counters media narratives by asserting that intelligence agencies’ involvement in policy-making has compromised national security and that centralized control within the NSC is essential for effective governance.

  “We need people that understand the mechanisms, understand the bureaucracy, and are able to utilize those tools in order to affect the President's priorities.”
  [26:04]

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Steve Bannon [00:09]:

  “This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people.”

• Ezra Cohen [04:30]:

  “President Trump's national security adviser, Colonel Mike Waltz, is sidelining roughly 160 career government employees on temporary duty at the White House National Security Council.”

• Mike Waltz [07:00]:

  “NSC staffers are there to make sure that the executive power is vested in the president.”

• Josh Steinman [10:50]:

  “We need them focused on the politics of our adversary, not on the politics at home.”

• Ezra Cohen [20:09]:

  “We are going through a very logical process from the first administration in the bridge, what you call either 2025 or America first priorities.”

• Josh Steinman [26:04]:

  “We need people that understand the mechanisms, understand the bureaucracy, and are able to utilize those tools in order to affect the President's priorities.”

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Conclusions

The episode underscores a pivotal moment in the administration’s efforts to overhaul the National Security Council by removing staff believed to be loyal to previous administrations, particularly within the intelligence community. The guests argue that these changes are essential for reinstating executive power and ensuring that national security policies are directly aligned with the current President’s "America First" agenda. They acknowledge the challenges of implementing such large-scale restructuring but maintain that it is necessary to prevent the deep state from undermining national safety and policy effectiveness. Critics, represented by Senate inquiries and media scrutiny, contend that these actions could destabilize established security processes and compromise national safety.

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Final Thoughts

"WarRoom Battleground EP 692" offers an inside look at the administration's strategic moves to reclaim control over the national security apparatus. Through candid discussions with key figures involved in restructuring efforts, the episode highlights the tension between transforming government structures and maintaining operational efficacy. The conversation reflects broader themes of political realignment, the battle against institutional inertia, and the quest to redefine national security priorities in a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape.

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Note: This summary excludes all advertisements, introductory remarks, and non-content segments to focus solely on the substantive discussions and insights shared by the hosts and guests.

Transcript

[Steve Bannon]

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

[Ezra Cohen]

I got a free shot.

[Steve Bannon]

All these networks lying about the people.

[Ezra Cohen]

The people have had a belly full of it.

[Steve Bannon]

I know you don't like hearing that.

[Ezra Cohen]

I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but.

[Steve Bannon]

You'Re not going to stop it. It's going to happen.

[Ezra Cohen]

And where do people like that go 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?

[Ezra Cohen]

If that answer is to save my.

[Steve Bannon]

Country, this country will be saved.

[Ezra Cohen]

War room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Band. It's Wednesday the 22nd of January. Yerva Lord 2025. Thank you for staying for the second hour of the late afternoon early evening show. So I'm gonna hit three news items. I got. Two of my favorite people have joined me for this hour. Item one, this is from CNN up on Derek Evans Twitter feedback. This is huge. US Transportation Command instructed to prepare the use of military assets and aircraft for deportation flights. Boom. Also, we can't confirm the second, but it's a tweet out there from blonde lady. 2024 US Marshals have entered DC prison to extract the illegally held J6ers. We'll track that down. Ben Berkwam has left the DCJO, has been down at the vigil. He is actually out in the field. And we'll be doing action reports tomorrow. You'll see what we're talking about. Hopefully Ben will be in North Carolina on Friday with President Trump when he goes to the parts of Appalachia where Ben was last week. But Ben's going to be in the field again tomorrow in an undisclosed location. Third element is that it's been announced. This is the Associated Press, President Trump's national security adviser. That would be Colonel Mike Waltz. Green Beret is sidelining roughly 160 career government employees on temporary duty at the White House National Security Council. Administration officials told the Associated Press I want to bring in Ezra Cohen, Josh Steinman, two of the really the stalwarts in President Trump's first term, first administration. Ezra, I'll start with you. I talked about this this morning, that when General Flynn was there, I asked him, you know, in the first couple days and remember I ran this by you guys, give me an organization chart. And he came back and there was 292billets. 70% of these or 75% filled with what we call detailees. These people that come from the agencies come from the Defense Department. And I said, when I was in the PENTAGON Back in 1981, the NSC had 25 people and ran the world. What is this about? And Lieutenant General Flint moving to do what Waltz just did is what got him turfed out. So talk to folks about, we're going to talk about transition, but just this news today, that Waltz with the President was able to convince the President, we got to get rid of these detailees. What's a detailee? What's the structure? 160 people go, man, that's a lot of people. I thought National Security Council was a little situation room below the West Wing, sir. Right.

[Josh Steinman]

Well, thanks again, Steve, for having us on. You know, Josh and I were the ones that built out the org chart for the NSC in 2016, going into 2017. The detail. These are people that are brought in from the different departments and agencies. They're hand selected by the politically appointed NSC staff. So really, what you have there is the, the people that were there that Mike Waltz very judiciously and prudently sent packing today are people that were hand picked by name, requested in many cases by the Biden political appointees. So President Trump has come in right off the bat on day one, and his aim is to break, shut down the autopilot so that you don't continue the policies, the failed policies of Joe Biden. So the people that are handpicked by their staff need to go. Otherwise you will have a continuation of those policies until somebody actively steps in and shuts them down.

[Ezra Cohen]

So how can you lose, Josh? How can you lose 160, 160 detailees. Are these coming from the Pentagon, CIA? I mean, how can, how can waltz the criticism on MSNBC tonight? And they're going to have David Ignatius, mark my words, David Ignatius will be on Morning Joe tomorrow, say the nation's unsecure. You have these crazy people. They're crazier now than they were in 17. Right, because now they've effectuated the plan. Flynn and Cohen and Steinman and Bannon just crafted a plan that was never fully executed and led to the impeachment of Trump because the deep state fought it here. You've let go 160. Imagine, let's say they still got the 292. You've let go 2/3. The. The nation's not safe. How can you go to sleep tonight? How can you rock that little baby of yours, Steinman asleep, knowing the nation's unsafe because Trump's a madman and is ripping apart the National Security Council, sir.

[Mike Waltz]

Yeah, Steve, it's great. It's a great question. I think first of all we should level set, which is that when Ezra and I came in with General Flynn in 2017, January 2017, we were there minute one, day one, we brought in with us less than 25 people that the President had chosen, including the National Security advisor or deputy National Security Advisor. So every other person on that NSC staff on day one last time had been someone who, though a career civil servant, had been screened, interviewed and then hired by the Obama. And that was exactly what was going to happen this time. Obviously it hasn't. And I think National Security Advisor Waltz made a great move to have those folks go on a sort of limited duty and go home. So I think the question is.

[Ezra Cohen]

Yeah, but, but hold it. But, but hang on, but hang on. I got it. We had a plan. We wanted to pull the trigger. 25. I don't think we ever got up. I don't think President Trump ever had more than 35 political appointees. I think he could have had 60 and it still wouldn't take down.

[Mike Waltz]

Yeah. So there are a lot of reasons.

[Ezra Cohen]

Why staffers, Pentagon, they go back to CIA, they go back to there. How can the nation be safe?

[Mike Waltz]

Yeah. So you know, what those staffers are doing from day to day is essentially coordinating the interagency. So they're not actually now under Obama, they were, but under us, you know, they are not actually picking targets. They are not actually manipulating the agencies themselves. They're just saying, hey, why don't we get on one sheet of music and do one thing? And that one thing should be what the President wants. And this is why it's so critical that NSC staffers. And by the way, you know, I'm sure they're good patriots. I hope they're good patriots, even the ones that were serving under the previous admin. But this is why NSC staffers need to be totally in lockstep with the duly elected President of the United States. Because an NSC staff is an extension of the first sentence of Article 2 of the Constitution. Executive power will be vested in a president. NSC staffers are there to make sure that that is what happens across the national security establishment.

[Ezra Cohen]

So, Ezra, I don't know if I'm feeling better after Steinman. How is the nation going to be safer tonight? Isn't it unsafe? Isn't the plan that we came up with a. In the scale of what the NSC does today? Because Steinman brought up a good point. We made a conscious decision that we weren't going to run wars out of the National Security Council. And people should understand this is a fundamental. There's two ways a National Security Council can be a coordinator and advisor to the Commander in Chief, or it actually can be we actually run the wars. This is the big struggle. When I was in the Navy as a junior officer, the Chief of Naval Operations, even though they didn't want a Kissinger, they didn't want to Zigbee Brzezinski. This is Richard V. Allen. The White House still ran the wars. They ran Contra, they ran what they were doing in Central America. They ran. Everything was run out of the White House with 25 guys. Right. TRUMP made a conscious decision to do that. Biden, I think, took the opposite. So tonight, like, who's in charge when you guys leave the watch? Who's in charge? Particularly when you see 160, these guys going to the Pentagon, CIA, everything. Who's on watch?

[Josh Steinman]

Yeah, so look, we are, we're in a. We're coming in here to a crisis situation after four years with Biden. So step one, we've got to stem the bleeding. Part of stemming the bleeding is getting people out that are not on the same page of music. Now, ideally, what would have happened is we would have already selected new detail ease to come in and we could have done this hot swap. That's obviously not going to happen for many reasons, but right now the key thing is stop the existing policies. I can just tell you as an example, Steve, in 2017, when Josh and I stepped into the Situation Room, actually five minutes before the President was sworn in, we were the first people into the White House compound. We immediately started getting phone calls to try to get us to authorize operations that were ongoing or that the Obama administration had put in place. And General Flynn was great. He basically just said, look, we're going to do a 24 hour stand down. The only thing that requires an immediate response and truthfully is responding to a nuclear strike or an attempted nuclear strike. Everything else can wait. So that's what I think is going to happen. Now, we're just going to have a quick pause here and then at the agencies, you know, this is another problem. And maybe you want to get this, but we do not have control yet at the agencies. We don't have political appointees anywhere except the State Department.

[Ezra Cohen]

Hold on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. I'm going to play a clip from Russ Vogt taking incoming From Warner. We're going to get to that. Before I do, though, hang on. Steinman in the entire apparatus. How can he even staff with anybody? The apparatus, the way your career progresses. Like when I was in the Navy, it was before they had the joint. Really the Joint commands were very weak and you kind of. The deadbeats got dumped there. It was only later, when they went to the Joint Unified Command Structure, that you got a career enhancer by going before. The biggest enemy we had was not the Russian Navy, it was the US army taking resources. My point is every institution has their own outlook, right, on national security, of how you progress as a career, to be at the top. And they only take the best. Are there any best having spent their careers 10, 15, 20 years at that level, to be equivalent to get second deed or seconded over to the National Security Council that don't have the mindset of America, the imperial state, America First. It's like, that's like a bacillus. The institutions reject it, not just the personnel, but the institution rejects it. So where do you get and get any detailees that can actually come into the National Security Council since we don't have control of those institutions, which we'll get to in a second, that could actually be supportive of an America first agenda and keep the country safe?

[Mike Waltz]

I mean, Steve, this is the deep dark secret of the swamp, which is that, you know, being a good NSC staffer is not actually a hard job, it's just a demanding job. And so, you know, I am. It's like that line about I'd rather be governed by the first hundred names in the Boston phone book than the, you know, faculty of Harvard College. You know, smart, dedicated professionals who know how to write, know how to think, and know how to uphold the Constitution can be good NSC staffers. What you're talking about is the way in which Washington has groomed, you know, this class of Mandarins for the past 50 years. And look, in my opinion, it's like, you know, what's that, what's that memetic concept with the Swedish fish, right? These people, they are, you know, multiple generations past the great statesmen that they claim to be the inheritors of, you know, their, you know, their mantle. And instead of actually being great thinkers or great warriors, as those folks in the 1940s and 1950s were, instead, what's actually going on is they just participated in the forums. These are the people that were like, oh, Zig Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger got PhDs at Harvard. I'll go get a PhD at Harvard and I'll be Kissinger. It's like, that's not how it works. And so what you're talking about is when you ask this question of, oh, do we have the people that can do it? Anyone can do it. I mean, not anyone, but lots of people can do it. But the point is, how does Washington, how does establishment in Washington like to groom people for these positions of named authority? And it's through these processes. All that to say that there are plenty of folks in the US Government that I think are well qualified and could be effective NSC staffers. And many of us have been going out and finding them over the past few years. And so I'm confident that we'll get a good crop. And I think many of them are already coming to the NSC staff right now who absolutely will be able to do that job.

[Ezra Cohen]

The interagency process, this is where everything gets leaked. Everything President Trump wanted to do, the phone calls got leaked. Everything got leaked. Higgins. Sergeant Higgins wrote a memo. It was very controversial. Led to his being removed by McMasters from the White House. But walked through. He took the detailees and walk through who the traitors were and it turned out in the impeachment. Just go right through, go right through that list. Let me play. I want to get to. Let's play. I want you to listen to Russ vote taking incoming from Warner today at his hearing on Office of Management Budget. Let's go ahead and play it. Denver.

[Senator Warner]

Sir, I do appreciate the fact one of the things you said, which was you think it's important for the federal government to keep our nation safe. Probably the most important thing I've done in this job is my work with the intelligence community and chair and vice chair. Now we got thousands of men and women work in the intelligence community without a lot of fanfare. You realize, of course, I hope that to become a CIA agent, it takes about a year to get a secure clearance. You aware of that?

[Russ Vought]

Yes, I am.

[Senator Warner]

All right, so in your Project 25 Magnus, you put forward the idea that somehow breaking up the CIA and moving it around the country would make our nation more safe. Do you not understand, sir, that if President Trump, by having the intelligence community close to him, to have ability from folks from nsa, CIA, the Pentagon, the FBI in this region, your idea of let's somehow go on this ideological jihad to break up the intelligence community's effectiveness. I would ask you, sir, can you show any evidence that somehow we would make our nation safer? If you put your political litmus test. And this idea of bringing trauma to the federal workforce by taking the intelligence community, which has been supported on a bipartisan basis year in and year out, and somehow breaking it up and spreading it hither and yon just for a political purpose, how does that make our nation safer?

[Russ Vought]

Senator, I never proposed that. And the president has disassociated himself from Project 2025. It's a mischaracterization of.

[Senator Warner]

So, okay, good, we're here on the record. You're going to commit to make sure, I would argue you have to make a business case before you start breaking up the government. I'm all for effectiveness, but you're going to be willing here to commit not to undermine our national intelligence community by arbitrarily trying to break them up and spread them around just because you want to blow up the federal workforce in this region?

[Russ Vought]

Yes, Senator, there's no policy process that the Trump administration had done that's producing arbitrary results. And let me speak to the question that you raised with regard to my comments about the bureaucracy. It was specifically in reference to the weaponized bureaucracy that we've seen.

[Senator Warner]

So you are the arbiter of who's weaponized and who's not. You get, you know, again, I hope my colleagues are raised. I think your completely irresponsible actions on so called schedule F, you know, we put a civil service in place. But I urge you, sir, if you become in this position, think long and hard about the men and women of the national security and the intelligence community before you go on some political jihad of trying to score points by simply trying to break up an operation that actually functions better because of their close collaboration. In your comments about the federal workforce, I find disqualifying on this basis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[Ezra Cohen]

Disqualifying that the great Russ vote right there. You remember Russ, one of our major contributors over the last four years. Let me start with. Let me start with Ezra right there. Gets to the heart of what you guys have been talking about and quite frankly have been working on. You are experts in the IC community. We don't have control of it. It has control of us. This is when people talk about the deep state. And I see and you understand the CIA is root and branch and everywhere. It's in dod, it's in dhs, it's in FBI. It is a cancer that has metastasized. And they have their own way of doing things. As they said in my father's house, there are many mansions. In the CIA, they have all kind of independent fiefdoms and tribes and clans in there, oftentimes across purposes, but always focus on. They run the deal. Ezra, did I overplay that? And you just see right there, Russ Vote, we're going through a very logical. This has been years in the making from the first administration in the bridge, what you call either 2025 or America first priorities. Brooks Rollins. And you got, you got Russ Cra. You've had many different think tanks look at this. And the best thinking is that we got to get our hands on this apparatus. You've got to deconstruct the administrative state, but you've got to take the hammer to the CIA and kind of disaggregate it. And right there you see Warner, who's one of the worst. One of the worst. That's the defense of it. And he actually said, Russ Vote. What Russ Vote had said about this was disqualifying. So that's a no vote in your grill at the, at your hearing today. Start with it. Ezra, your thoughts?

[Mike Waltz]

Yeah.

[Josh Steinman]

So I'm not sure of the exact proposal that Senator Warner was referencing. I don't think Russ Vote knew either. But. But the key thing is I just want to push back on a few things that were said there that are not accurate. One is this idea that somehow you have to be physically located in the same place to be productive. First of all, one, over the past four years, even the intelligence community has been, in large part remote. People are not having, in person meetings. President Trump's going to fix that. And things have just been work. Been working just fine, according to Senator Warner. Second of all, you know, we also have a problem, and I think Tom Cotton pointed to this very well in John Radcliffe's hearing, which is the intelligence community is incredibly distracted and it has lost sight of the core objective. We do not need people in the IC focused on influencing the policy process or getting involved in making policy. Their job is to inform the policymaker, not influence. And that's very important. And unfortunately, the overemphasis within these agencies on what's happening on the politics inside of the Beltway has reduced their mission effectiveness. We need them focused on the politics of our adversary, not on the politics at home. And one way to do that is to get people physically out of the Beltway. And by the way, the CIA is one of the most geographically dispersed agencies in the world. And again, according to Senator Warner, they are functioning fine. So that's. I just think some of the core assumptions there are just not accurate.

[Ezra Cohen]

Steinman, how do you, how do you actually get to the beast. We talk about the deep state. The CIA is, is the head of the snake. How do you get, how do you get your arms around it? If you got, if you see right there, Warner, you're going to have Senate intel is going to be against you. They just fired the President. I states, let's be blunt, it wasn't Mike Johnson. I know Waltz might have upset him in a meeting or something like that, but as even Johnson told Waltz, this is coming from Mar a Lago, they're not happy. The President wants a clean sweep of this. I mean, you guys are the tip of the tip of the spear for him. The first administration now with more experience and quite frankly, a bigger, a bigger win. And as they said in Davos day, the greatest come from behind win ever. So he's kind of unbeatable now. How do you go about actually taking on the deep state?

[Mike Waltz]

Well, Steve, it sort of goes back to Aristotle. We are what we do, right? And so I think the first task is, what is the US Government doing? What are these institutions actually doing? What are they doing day in, day out? And that's why some of the biggest, in my mind, initiatives that have come out over the past 36 hours, 48 hours since the President took the oath of office have been the stand downs, the let's hold off on the 90 day freeze on foreign aid, the similar activities happening across the Department of Defense, et cetera. So I think the whole point here is that good leadership, and good leadership comes from the topic, come only from the politicals. Good leadership here is about stopping the things that the US Government is doing that are against the interests of the American people. And I think that's one of the most powerful things that a National Security Council staff can do, which is deeply get into the weeds with these departments and agencies. And so for me, like, yes, we.

[Ezra Cohen]

Okay, hang on, hang on. But hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. They thrive. We're talking about the CIA here, bro. They are experts at the wilderness of mirrors.

[Steve Bannon]

You're going to walk over there.

[Ezra Cohen]

I could take my two best guys, I could take, I don't know, Steinman and Ezra Cohen. I would send you over to the CIA. They would have your head turning so much and chasing false rabbits. If you had to go over and your mission was quite simple from the President, guys, number one, I want to get CIA involvement out of the Pentagon. I want to get it out of FBI. I want to get it out of doj. I want to get it out of the National Security Council. I want to get it out of dhs, I want to get it out of the State Department, I want to take in Treasury, I want to take my power organizations. The first step is I just want to get their reach. That's everywhere. Just get it out. But Steve, when you two went over there, they would have you guys bagged and tagged. They'd have you guys bagged and tagged in a week, would they not, sir?

[Mike Waltz]

No, I don't think so. And in fact, last time, I mean, you know, we had a handful of people that deeply understood the intelligence community and the Department of Defense as political leaders and we absolutely were able to get our hands around it. You know, if you understand how those mechanisms in the IC actually work, which Ezra does, which I do, there's critical bureaucratic process that you can take control of on day one that absolutely pulls things to a standstill. And so this is where I think it's so critical that we have people that understand the intelligence community that have been intelligence community operatives and then have gone on to be political supporters of the President. This is why it's so critical that we have those people in the most senior roles in the government. That includes the Undersecretary Defense for Intelligence Principal, Deputy dni, Deputy Director of CIA. You need people who are politically on the same page as the President and then deeply understand the intelligence community in those roles. Because if you know how the mechanism operates, you can absolutely put your hands on the, on the steering wheel and get control of it.

[Ezra Cohen]

Hang on for one second, guys. I'm going to ask you to just stay through a short commercial break. I want to talk to Senator Rubio. Secretary of State laid out a new vision of America first at the end of the post war international rules based order. That's the one big fetish that runs the hegemon. But the internal fetish is the interagency process. Oh man, that sounds like a sleeper. It is not. This is how the deep state coordinates the way they're going to roll, no matter who the politicals are. Short commercial break Birchgold.com, times of turbulence coming out. President Trump's got 200 executive orders or actions. Things are happening all over the globe from the Ukraine to the Gulf of America. Make sure you understand gold in that process as a hedgehog. Short break. Back in a moment.

[Steve Bannon]

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[Ezra Cohen]

War Room here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. Okay, Birch Gold. Gold's been a hedge for 5,000 years of man's recorded history. Make sure you go understand why in times of financial turbulence which are going to be upon us, the ten year bond keeps going where it's going. Birchgold.com Ben ended the Dollar Empire sixth free installment Modern monetary theory. The idea that broke the world. Understand how dangerous this theory was, how little it was understood and how it's caused so much carnage in the capital markets. The reason the United States government is increasing its debt by $1 trillion every hundred days. Make sure you go check it out. Ezra Interagency process My theory of the case is this is how it is if you're in the National Security Council or I would get the calendars of the National Security Council guys, the senior guys, Flynn, kellogg and then mcmasters. You could be in meetings down there 24 hours a day, seven days a week and only get about half the work done of meetings. They got deputy meetings, assistant meetings. Everything is and they got the agencies they're getting all the different departments are throwing in their true sense. They get papers going around to get a consensus. It is a massive amount of work. When I saw this integration process and it's sacred the interagency process. The reason they hated Trump right of the box is that it's Trump. He didn't care about interagency process. He wants to get facts, things, make decisions, move on. The interagency process I believe is the mechanism that the CIA uses to control the entire process. All their different and they have major nodes of power in every one of the principal, what I call the power departments, treasury, dhs, justice and FBI. Underneath it obviously the Department of Defense and the dni, which is the oversight, not the operational control, but the oversight of 17 labor in these things. State Department also. Why am I wrong? Tell me. Argue that the interagency process is not the way the CIA keeps control. Until you get in and break that up, the CIA is basically going to have control of the United States government full stop. And I've seen it from the inside where I don't. It's not a deep state. It's up in your grill every day, sir.

[Josh Steinman]

Yes, Steve, I mean I think you do point at one problem we have, but which is that the intelligence agencies are again they're supposed to be influence, they're supposed to be informing the policymaker, not influencing. But then you have about 50% of the detailees at the NSC are all CIA bodies. So it's not just that they're filibustering with a plethora of meetings and policy proposals which aren't going to go anywhere, but they're also then back channeling things to people on the NSC staff to set to manipulate the process which is supposed to be isolated. So they're really coming at it from both ways. Now I will say this. I do think that there is a need to have a centralized control cell element that basically pulls together. I mean I think if you look at what we did with China, right, we needed to find a way to pull together the American power from the Treasury Department, from the State Department, from the Department of Defense. We needed to find a way to synthesize them all together to create a focused action against the enemy. And I think that really the NSC is the place to do that. The key thing though is you've got to take, you've got to keep the intel agencies out from making policy. And actually this is where I've got to give it up to Mike Waltz. If you look at NSPM1, which is really that core document, the rules of the road for the NSC, they popped out on day one. It took us the first term several weeks because McMasters wanted to re litigate it three or four times. But they popped that on day one. And Mike Waltz did a very smart thing in there, which is he said the intelligence agencies have a non voting role. Basically they can't make decisions. Their job is to show up with facts so that the other agencies can make the calls. And I thought that was a very good move to kind of fight back.

[Ezra Cohen]

Against what you're talking about Josh diamond right there with walls. And you've been there. You had a front row seat. You were a player in this. In President Trump's. They, we came from out of nowhere, even though they tried to stop us with all the crossfire hurricane, they tried to stop us, they couldn't. The American people voted and you could argue she lost as much as we won. But then so they failed. They tried to act and failed. And that's pretty definitive. Then they tried to make up a whole thing, the Russia hoax, all that. But in Trump's first term to stop him, have a nullification project process. Then the stealing, the pandemic and the stealing of the 2020 election and then the insertion of Biden. And we know now Biden's not even making decisions open, open secret on that has the CIA, no matter what Walt's done, had they become a modern praetorian guard like in ancient Rome, would they actually select who your leaders are? And they select in the field of actual action and effort that the leader, if they disagree with the leader of actually what they can actually do, and even if they agree with the leader, they funnel in a way that is self supporting of them. Sir.

[Mike Waltz]

Yeah. Steve, you know, it's an interesting point that you raise. And I think, you know, what we're really seeing here is the fact that the modern American state is incredibly complicated, right? It's not as simple as things used to be. You know, we used to be able to handle statecraft and international relations, you know, with letters and communiques and, you know, singular individuals dispatched with, you know, small staff over to Paris or, you know, down to Rio de Janeiro with very simple ambassadorships. And so, you know, I think what we're really seeing here is the fact that that complication affords bureaucratic topological advantage to people that deeply understand the mechanisms, right? And so they know that if they change this memo over here, that they can then control these outcomes here. They can control what outcomes get offered up to senior leadership. And I just think that that advantages people that have been in that system for a very long time. And this is why I think it's so critical that we have people that understand those systems but are also loyal to the Constitution and to the first sentence of Article 2, which is the executive power shall be vested in a president. And so the whole point here is that you need people that understand those mechanisms as much as the people that have been in those mechanisms for 30 years. So you can label it, you can Say, oh, it's the CIA. You can say, oh, it's dhs, it's this, it's that. No, no, no, it's practice. Right. And so we need people and we have people. Whether it's Ezra, myself, I mean, you know, National Security Advisor Walls, the team that he's assembled, many of the people on that team have this type of expertise. I'm quite pleased with the folks that he's assembled there. But the whole point is you need folks that understand the mechanisms, understand the bureaucracy, and then are able to utilize those tools in order to affect. Affect the President's priorities. When you don't have that, when you have people that don't have experience in these areas, or maybe they've had some, you know, a year or two of experience on the Hill, then those folks can get snowed by the true professionals that have been living in that environment for 20, 30 years. So, you know, do, do I think that there's some, you know, man behind the curtain? No, but I just think that there's a lot of people that understand this complicated system that we've created. Created. I think we should absolutely simplify that system. I think that these things are unnecessarily complicated and they can be boiled down very simply. But the whole point here is you need people that can cut through the bs, cut through the bureaucracy, and continue to drive the process towards the outcomes that the President has directed, which is completely constitutional.

[Ezra Cohen]

Josh, your Twitter feed, you did a thread, I think, about a week or so ago about the National Security Council that was very illuminating to many people. Where do people go and get you on social media, sir?

[Mike Waltz]

Yeah, it's just. I'm on Twitter. Joshua Steinman, that's my at. Yeah, feel free to hit me up there for folks that want to follow along.

[Ezra Cohen]

Brilliant analysis as usual. Last Ezra, you just put out a tweet that said that the media is really pulling their hair out about the 160. Are they friends of these guys? Why. Why would the media have any comment besides the fact that we're. We're less safe tonight? What, what other reason would the media have for. For gnashing their teeth and pulling their hair about 160 national security bureaucrats apparatchiks going back to their department, sir?

[Josh Steinman]

Well, Steve, it's simple. They want to get the call transcript for the President's foreign calls, which are going to happen this week, passed through the White House fence. And, you know, the people that did that are the people that were held over last time around. And what Mike Waltz has done is just taken all their sources off the playing field. You know, I mean, it's that simple.

[Ezra Cohen]

Very powerful. So that's why people have to follow you on social media. Where do they go? Ezra.

[Josh Steinman]

Ezra A. Cohen.

[Ezra Cohen]

On Twitter.

[Josh Steinman]

On Twitter?

[Ezra Cohen]

Yeah.

[Josh Steinman]

Ezra Cohen on Twitter.

[Ezra Cohen]

I used to refer to Ezra Cohen and Steinman as the Special Projects Division of the White House. They were over in EOB and always caused in trouble. Guys, thank you very much. Fantastic. Very insightful for the war and posse people. I can tell that your people are very appreciative. So thank you, guys.

[Mike Waltz]

It's great to be here. Great to be Steve.

[Josh Steinman]

Thank you.

[Ezra Cohen]

So I'm not a conspiracy theory guy, never have been, but I know what I know. And when you get in there, you talk about the deep state, and I thought the deep state might have been overselling it. It was not overselling it. In fact, it undersells it. There is a permanent government here, a fourth branch that was never, ever envisioned by the founders and framers at all. And you got the administrative state, which that massive fourth branch that kind of runs the bureaucratic nature of it. And that's why Doge is so important and why what Elon has been working on is so important. Because we're 60, we're 58 days away from having to get a budget. No more crs. And Doge's got to be doing that. Incredibly important. The only way you're going to deconstruct this is you got to cut off their oxygen first. But on this interagency process, which is the way they kind of come to consensus, what you're going to do in the National Security Council, the advice you're going to give the President. The CIA is everywhere. And I'm not a guy that runs around, oh, the CIA this, CIA this. Ask anybody. And you watch this show. Have I ever done that? How many times have I done that? They're everywhere. And the way they control the system is through process. They're experts at process. And the way the bureaucracies work. They put a ton of time in thinking that through. Very smart people formed this thing. Some of the original founders were some of the senior partners at Sullivan and Cromwell at that time. The Dulles brothers, remember them, would say what you want. Tough, smart hombres that knew what they were doing in setting up a permanent Praetorian Guard. And this is why, supposedly, in the next 72 hours, they're going to release all the documentation on Jack Kennedy. Can we play? Add a few comments. Now, the other side of The Stargate situation. Can we play my comments about Elon Musk? Can we go and play that? Thank you. Ready? Let's go ahead and hear this and I'll talk about the other side of Stardust or Stargate. Okay, guys, we're going to play this. Steve, you made peace with Elon yet, sir? Make peace with Elon. Elon's got to make peace with the President. What's he dumping on the joint venture for? He's criticizing the president. Criticizing the DA yesterday says the guy's only got $10 billion. The president says he has $500 billion. You can't have that in the White.

[Steve Bannon]

House.

[Ezra Cohen]

Not reverse what the President's already talked about. It's unacceptable and satisfactory. Mr. Bannon, why weren't you at the inauguration? I didn't even hear that. So that's el. I didn't even hear the other question. Why were we inauguration lady. We're doing nine hours in the freezing cold of doing the best coverage of the inauguration and prepping for bang Days of Thunder, which was actually as important as a ceremony. President Trump found football. So with Elon, you heard Stargate and Stargate's got all kind of complexity to it about artificial intelligence, gene splicing, vaccines, a whole dog's breakfast there. And of course there were posse's all over it and a lot of concern about that. But in addition, there's another way to handle this. You know, Elon came out. President Trump presented his $500 billion understanding all the money wasn't put in yet. These are major corporations or hedge funds or, you know, OpenAI is a major operation now with tons of money coming through it. And then Elon later said, hey. And this is what his fight is with. Altman says, hey, there's only 10 billion that's been raised. They can't raise. Implied the rest of the money was not going to be there. This is all a hoax. And my point is you got to get together. Ellen on your mandate is very specific for Doge. We are burning daylight. We're 58 days away from the end of the CR. We're not going to have another one. We have to have a full budget and that is you and Russ vote working together. You've committed to $1 trillion of cuts on a six and a half trillion dollar budget. We got to see it. It's essential for President Trump's plan going forward. Remember, it's significant. Spending cuts coupled with tariffs are now part of an external revenue service to looked at as a cash flow that comes in not Just punitive tariffs on Mexican avocados. So people got to get to work. We're burning daylight. And your mandate, your remit, does not include investments the president makes. If you got a problem with it, instead of implying that the president has not performed appropriate due diligence before he takes time away in these crazy first three or four days to go to the Roosevelt Room for the first time, which is right outside the door of the Oval Office, and put up Larry Ellison in SoftBank and OpenAI as paragons of the future, understanding you have all these problems. You tell him that privately and tell him even beforehand, not publicly. Get into your feud with OpenAI. And I understand you guys are fighting at a whole different level about this. But the place not to do it is in the is outside. And this is why I think, and I've advocated this, there got to be guardrails. Number one, your focus is probably the most important focus we can have now on getting the financial plan together, which is deconstructing the administrative state in massive cuts in spending that should be occupying yourself 24 7. It just is. It's that complicated. So here we have today, another kind of unforced error when people just don't have time for it. A couple things to look at. Jim Rickards has become one of the most prominent of our contributors. One reason is that the other contributors are the OMB Secretary of Treasury Special Assistant Special Counsel Peter Navarro to trade and manufacturing. Rickards is here. He brings capital markets and geopolitical expertise people loving. Go to rickardswarroom.com you get access to all his books. You also get Paradigm Press, his newsletters. He's famous now for his newsletters. If you like what you hear on the show, you're going to love what you see in these newsletters. He's got all different types. Got a starter newsletter to get kind of your sea legs on this. He's got all types of specialties. Paradigm Press with Jim Rickards, Rickards Wardroom, all1word.com. Go check it out today. And of course Birch Gold. Make sure you go talk to Philip Patrick. We give you access to these folks. It's all free. Just go check it out. Talk about the instrumentality they got. But more importantly, start to get comfortable or understand precious metals and how they work in an advanced industrial economy. Particularly we have all types of asset classes and different investment opportunities and particularly for your for your retirement. Last but not least, the guys at Jace Medical. I love people that take action. They took it off this show back in 2020, they saw that the Chinese Communist Party control the control the high ground of the supply chains and they did something about it. Jacemedical.com.