Podcast Summary

Podcast: Bannon’s War Room
Episode: Battleground EP 889: Downfall To Americans As AI Rises; Branches Of US Military Funding Chinese Labs
Date: November 12, 2025
Host: Stephen K. Bannon
Guests: Trevor Comstock, Natalie Winters

Episode Overview

This episode of "Bannon’s War Room" explores the mounting risks posed to American sovereignty and security by the convergence of Big Tech, artificial intelligence, and economic policy, with a particular spotlight on government funding benefitting Chinese labs. The discussion pivots between current Veterans Day reflections, the commercialization of health supplements, deep concerns about AI dominance, US economic policy under Trump, and explosive revelations about US military and government funding flowing into Chinese Communist Party–linked research.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Veterans Day Reflections and Health Supplement Promotion

• Trevor Comstock (of Sacred Human) opens with gratitude for US veterans and discusses a Veterans Day sale (01:02–04:39).
• Emphasizes the benefits of their flagship products: grass-fed beef liver ("nature’s multivitamin"), tallow moisturizer, and creatine for cognitive function and muscle growth.
• Bannon highlights the cultural trends around red meat and masculinity movements, linking the popularity of beef liver supplements to these themes (04:39–05:24).

Notable Quotes:

• Trevor Comstock:
  “It’s essentially like nature’s multivitamin and it has a ton of, ton of benefits.” (02:43)
• Steve Bannon:
  “I think it’s because we’re carnivores.” (05:20)

2. Trump’s Economic Policy vs. AI Industrial Complex

• Bannon breaks down Trump’s economic vision, particularly emphasizing the drive to restore America as a manufacturing superpower via tax incentives and protectionism (08:28–13:00).
• Deep concern voiced over the unchecked rise of artificial intelligence, the lack of regulatory oversight, and the AI sector demanding massive, government-backed energy subsidies.
• Warns of the public being forced to “socialize the risk” while private investors reap the upside ("That is not capitalism, that’s corporatism,” 14:41–16:41).

Memorable Moments & Quotes:

• Steve Bannon:
  “You have more regulation on a nail salon on Capitol Hill than you have on the entire, you know, a technology that could end the world.” (13:26)
  “This is why young people don’t believe in capitalism. Because you know what? That is not capitalism, that’s corporatism.” (15:20)

• Calls for detailed, transparent accounting of the actual capital requirements and risks of AI, underscoring that the taxpayers deserve a direct stake if they bear the risk (16:41).

Key Segment:

• [13:00–16:41]: Bannon’s deep-dive monologue on the risks of unregulated AI, taxpayer exposure, and elites’ manipulation.

3. AI, Surveillance, and "Chipping" the Population

• Discussion broadens to concerns about AI intersecting with surveillance, the "chipping" of humans for cognitive enhancement, and the potential loss of American individuality (19:00–20:41).
• Bannon and Winters reflect on the moral crisis posed by technologies that fundamentally alter what it means to be human and undermine meritocratic achievement.

Notable Quotes:

• Steve Bannon:
  "Maybe my kids study harder, work harder, do more reps... Or we can just chip, you know, chip yourself and then head out." (19:14)
• Natalie Winters:
  “What you're essentially talking about, the idea of bettering humans… It really goes back to what it means to be an American, maximizing the value of your citizenship.” (21:00)

4. Chinese Influence, Rare Earths, and US Funding of CCP Labs

• Natalie Winters (investigative reporter) brings explosive claims that branches of the US government, including the Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and Office of Naval Research, have funded research at top Chinese state labs, including those under the "Hundred Talents" program (32:07–37:03).
• These labs are central to China’s rare earths monopoly and, according to Winters, are “a wonderful, yet just ominous and scary metaphor for...our subsidizing our own demise.”

Notable Quotes:

• Natalie Winters:
  “The Department of Energy, the National Science foundation and even the Office of, of Naval Research and the Naval Research Laboratory have been sending our tax dollars to research that is being concurrently conducted between American researchers and their counterparts at this Chinese Communist Party run laboratory.” (33:45)
• Steve Bannon:
  “Full stop. You’re telling me that branches of the US Government are funding research at a CCP center on rare earths done by CCP researchers? Our tax dollars are funding that?” (37:03)
  (Winters confirms.)

Key Segment:

• [32:07–40:00]: Winters’ expose on US-funded research at Chinese rare earth labs and discussion of the “performative” attitude in Washington toward China’s rare earths domination.

5. China’s Economic Warfare and Full Spectrum Dominance

• Bannon and Winters discuss how China consolidated its rare earth industry, bought up global production assets, and leveraged Belt and Road projects to capture resources around the globe (42:36–44:25).
• Highlights China’s broader strategy: economic, legal, and information warfare, with a focus on “asset-building” among American local officials and political hopefuls.

Notable Quotes:

• Natalie Winters:
  “Every single thing that's being built there is, is owned by China…with a nation ending, jaw-drop. It's truly daunting.” (43:55)
• Steve Bannon:
  “They are on a tear to be a manufacturing superpower and have the United States in a third, fourth or fifth position, not even number two.” (44:25)

6. Implications for America First, MAGA & the Next Phase of Geopolitical Rivalry

• Heavy emphasis on national self-reliance: calls to decouple innovation, manufacturing, and critical materials from Chinese supply chains.
• Repeated insistence that government leaders and American corporations have been “performative” or outright complicit in facilitating China’s rise ("The mask is coming off,” 48:32).

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:02 – 04:39: Veterans Day and Sacred Human health supplements with Trevor Comstock
• 08:28 – 13:00: Trump economic plan and reindustrializing America
• 13:00 – 16:41: AI industrial complex, “socializing the risk,” taxpayer exposure
• 19:00 – 20:41: “Chipping” humans and AI’s moral dilemmas
• 32:07 – 37:03: Natalie Winters on US government funding Chinese rare earth labs
• 37:03 – 40:00: How and why this funding persists; broader pattern of complicity
• 42:36 – 44:25: China’s full-spectrum “economic warfare” and global resource strategy
• 48:32 – 49:37: Bannon’s take on the “coming off of the mask” and keeping MAGA vigilant

Notable Quotes

• Bannon [13:26]:
  “You have more regulation on a nail salon on Capitol Hill than you have on…a technology that could end the world.”

• Winters [33:45]:
  “The Department of Energy, the National Science foundation and even the Office of, of Naval Research…have been sending our tax dollars to research…being concurrently conducted between American researchers and their counterparts at this Chinese Communist Party run laboratory…”

• Bannon [37:03]:
  “Full stop. You’re telling me that branches of the US Government are funding research at a CCP center on rare earths done by CCP researchers? Our tax dollars are funding that?”

Tone and Style

The episode maintains Bannon’s aggressive, populist tone—blunt, polemical, often combative. Guests mirror this style, especially when exposing perceived betrayal or incompetence within US institutions. There is an explicit call for accountability, transparency, and a strong America First stance.

Conclusion

This high-intensity War Room episode weaves together themes of governmental overreach, corporate collusion, and the need for patriotic vigilance. The core warnings are against unregulated AI, the rise of corporatism at taxpayers’ expense, and the alarming reality of US government funding aiding America’s most powerful geopolitical rival in strategic technologies. The episode closes with renewed calls for grassroots activism and unrelenting scrutiny of elites—governmental and corporate—suspected of betraying American interests.

Further Reading / Follow-ups

• Natalie Winters' investigative reporting: nataliegwinters.substack.com
• Zero Hedge article on AI subsidies: [Refer to Bannon’s Getter account]
• Veterans resources and economic analysis: warroom.org

Note: Promotional and ad-read content has been omitted as per guidelines.