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WarRoom Battleground EP 964: President Trump Gives Updates On The War In Iran
WarRoom Battleground EP 964: President Trump Gives Updates On The War In Iran ...
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- [00:00]
Donald Trump
And that was protected by granite. They wanted it protected. Granite's pretty good. But they wanted it protected by a lot deeper. They wanted to go a lot deeper. And they started the process while rapidly building conventional ballistic missiles. They were going to do it all at the same time. That threatened our overseas bases and soon could have reached even our homeland. The regime's intention was to use this exponentially growing ballistic missile threat to make it virtually impossible to prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon. So, as you probably saw, they had a tremendous number of missiles, most of which are now being used or destroyed and very unsuccessfully used because we have been able, for the most part, to shoot them all down. What incredible technology. The Patriots have been unbelievable and other things. And the laser technology that we have now is incredible. It's coming out pretty soon. Where literally lasers will do the work of. At a lot less cost. Do the work of what the Patriots are doing or what other things are doing. The situation was very quickly approaching the point of no return, and the United States found it intolerable, in my opinion, based on what Steve and Jared and Pete and others were telling me. Marco so involved that I thought that they were going to attack us. I thought they would if we didn't do this at the time we did it. I think they had in mind to attack us. And if you notice, they did something which was very foolish, very stupid, I would say they attacked their neighbors, and their neighbors were largely neutral or at least weren't going to be involved, and they got attacked. And it had the reverse effect. The neighbors came onto our side and started attacking them, and actually quite successfully. If you look at Saudi Arabia, you look at uae, Qatar, and others, but they were strong and they were smart, but they got attacked. Nobody. When I first heard it, I said, no, somebody made a mistake. There was no mistake. UAE had over a thousand missiles shot at. It knocked them almost all down. On the very first day I came down the escalator in 2015, I said, quote, I will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, and all I'm doing is keeping my promise. Think of that. That was in 2015. I said it. It was a threat then and a much bigger threat now, but no longer a threat. Not for a long time, anyway. We want to keep it that way. As we continue Operation Epic Fury, we're also focused on keeping energy and oil flowing to the world. And I will not allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage and attempt to stop the globe's oil supply. And if Iran does anything to do that, they'll get hit at a much, much harder level. I will take out those targets that were easy and that I mentioned just before will take them out so quickly they'll never be able to recover, ever. If they want to play that game, they better not play that game. In the long run, oil supplies will be dramatically more secure without the threat of Iranian ships, drones, missiles, nuclear menace or anything. So the Strait of Hormuz is going to remain safe. We have a lot of navy ships there. We have the best equipment in the world inspecting for mines. Again, most of their ships are down at the bottom of the sea. But we will, we will hit them so hard that it will not be possible for them or anybody else helping them to ever recover that section of the world. They do anything. In recent years, the regime and its terror proxies have launched attacks on hundreds of commercial vessels. We're putting an end to all of this threat once and for all. And the result will be lower oil prices, oil and gas prices for American families. We've done that. We've done it. We brought it very low. This was just an excursion into something that had to be done. We're getting very close to finishing that too. In the meantime, during this brief disruption, the United States is offering political risk insurance to any tankers operating in the Gulf. So we're putting up risk insurance. We'll perhaps go alongside of them for protection. We don't think it'll be necessary. If it is, and if they do anything, the price will be incalculable. It will be so great that they will have wished they never did it. Because you have to keep the Straits flowing with all of that. It affects other countries much more than it does the United States. Doesn't really affect us. We have so much oil. We have tremendous oil and gas, much more than we need. We have Venezuela now as our new partner. Great partner. It worked out so wonderful. We're working with the administration, the president, and it's a massive source of oil, gas, everything. But we're in a very good position, but very unfair to other parts of the world, like China as an example. I mean, we're doing this for the other parts of the world, including countries like China. They get a lot of their oil through the straits. So we're doing this. We have a very good relationship with President Xi in China. I'm going there in a short period of time and we're protecting the world from what these lunatics are trying to do, and very successfully, I might add. We're also waiving certain oil related sanctions to reduce prices. So we have sanctions on some countries. We're going to take those sanctions off until this straightens out. Then who knows, maybe we won't have to put them on. There'll be so much peace. But when the time comes, the US Navy and its partners will escort tankers through the strait if needed. I hope it's not going to be needed, but if it's needed, we'll escort them right through. And we have the greatest minesweeping ability, we have the greatest ships and all of the. We know exactly where they're placed. We'll get them out of there very fast. But we hope we don't have any of that. And again, if they do that, if they play that game, we're going to hit them at a level that they have not seen before. So we're winning very decisively. We're way ahead of schedule. It's. Our military is the greatest in the world with the greatest equipment and the greatest people in the world. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. Iran is a very powerful country. They were going to take over the Middle east if we did not hit them. They were going to take over the Middle East. They had thousands and thousands since their last hit. They had thousands and thousands of missiles and everything else. Most are now destroyed. But they were going to take over the Middle East. Those weapons were aimed at Middle Eastern countries. That had nothing to do with this. They were going to take over the Middle east and they were going to try and destroy Israel. So we stopped it with good timing and we're very proud to be involved in this. And it's going to be ended soon. And if it starts up again, they'll be hit even harder. Thank you very much for being here. Go ahead. Any questions?
- [07:36]
Reporter
Thank you so much.
- [07:37]
Donald Trump
Go ahead.
- [07:38]
Reporter
Do you approve of Iran's new supreme leader? And secondly, can you tell us more about your call with Russian President Vladimir Putin today? What did you discuss?
- [07:47]
Donald Trump
Yes, I had a very good call with President Putin. We had a lot of people on the line from our side, from his side. We were talking about Ukraine, which is just a never ending fight. And when, look, there's tremendous hatred between President Putin and President Zelensky. They can't seem to get it together. But I think it was a positive call on that subject. And we obviously talked then about the Middle east. And he wants to be helpful. I said, you could be more helpful by getting the Ukraine, Russia war over with. That would be more helpful. But we had a very good talk and he wants to be very constructive. Yeah, please. Yeah, please.
- [08:32]
Reporter
Thank you, Mr. President, on Iran, you called it an excursion. You said it would be over soon. Are you thinking this week it will be over?
- [08:39]
Donald Trump
No talking days? I think so. Okay. And with respect to very soon. Look, everything they have is gone, including their leadership. In fact, there are two levels of leadership, and even actually, as it turns out, more than that. But two levels of leadership are gone. Most people have never even heard about the leaders that they're talking about. So it's obviously been very, very powerful, very effective
- [09:05]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
to Cuba.
- [09:05]
Reporter
You said that Cuba wants to make a deal.
- [09:08]
Donald Trump
Yes.
- [09:08]
Reporter
What would the United States get in return for that? And why should Americans trust Marco Rubio to negotiate it?
- [09:14]
Donald Trump
Well, Marco Rubio is doing a great job. I think he's going to go down as the greatest Secretary of State in history. Look at what we've done as a, as a presidency. Look at what we've done as an administration. They trust Marco and so do the American people. Trust he's been successful no matter where he's been. He also speaks the language, which is always nice and always helpful, but he's dealing. And it may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover. It wouldn't matter because they're really in. They're down to, as they say, fumes. They have no energy, they have no money. They're in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis and we don't want to see that. But they were very, very bad to a lot of people, as you know, and a lot of people living our. The Cuban American vote, which I got at record levels. Very important. Those people are very important to me. I know, I know what they went through. They went through hell. Some of them have gone on to be some of the most successful people in the country. Cuban American business people, some of them are like the most successful in the country. And a lot of them are friends of mine because I've been fighting this battle with them for a long time. The Castro regime was brutal, but they lived off Venezuela. Now they don't live off Venezuela sends them no energy, no fuel, no oil, no money, no nothing. They lived without Venezuela. They couldn't have made it. And we cut them off from everything else. So yeah, they're going to make either a deal or we'll do it just as easy. Anyway. Yeah, please go ahead. Please go ahead. There's a footage that shows that an American missile strike and a Tomahawk missile
- [11:07]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
likely destroyed that Iranian girls school. So will the Americans, will the US accept any responsibility?
- [11:14]
Donald Trump
Well, I haven't seen It. And I will say that the Tomahawk, which is one of the most powerful weapons around, is used by, you know, is sold and used by other countries. You know that. And whether it's Iran, who also has some Tomahawks, they wish they had more. But whether it's Iran or somebody else, the fact that a Tomahawk. A Tomahawk is very generic. It's sold to other countries. But that's being investigated right now. Yeah, please. Thank you.
- [11:44]
Reporter
Thank you, Mr. President. You've said the war is, quote, very complete, but your defense secretary says this is just the beginning. So which is it and how long should Americans be putting it in?
- [11:53]
Donald Trump
Well, I think you could say it both the beginning. It's the beginning of building a new country. But they certainly, they have no navy, they have no air force, they have no antiaircraft equipment. It's all been blown up. They have no radar, they have no telecommunications, and they have no leadership. It's all gone. So, you know, you could look at that statement. We could, we could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here. I could call it. Or we could go further. And we're going to go further. But the big risk on that war has been over for three days. We wiped them out. The first in the first two days. When you think about it, it's incredible. We wiped out a big navy, very powerful navy. You know, these were ships. These were serious ships. These were ships that you buy when you want to win battles. They're all, they're all on the bottom floor. The sailors are all running off their ships. They refuse to get on the ships. The air force is gone. Everything's gone. The missiles are down to a trickle. The drones are down to probably 25%, and they'll soon be down to nothing. We'll have the. Where they manufactured the drones are under fire as we speak. They're being hit. So the rest is going to be determination as to my attitude, along with the people in the Trump administration, what we want to do. Thank you. Yeah, please.
- [13:25]
Kurt Mills
Can I ask you, you mentioned you were going to waive certain additional oil waivers or sanctions. Can you talk a little bit more about that and address in particular?
- [13:33]
Donald Trump
Well, we're looking at the oil prices down. We went artificially up because of this excursion into a very positive thing. I mean, this was an excursion that a lot of people wouldn't have done. I knew oil prices would go up if I did this, and they've gone up probably less than I thought they'd go up. But I don't think anybody thought we were going to be this quickly successful. This was a military success the likes of which people haven't seen. We have the best military, we have the best equipment, we have, I believe, the best generals. We have the best. And this went very quickly. We talked about that with President Putin. He was very impressed with what he saw because nobody's ever seen anything quite like it. You know, Iran was a very powerful military country with all of the missiles. Now you had the double attack, you had the original attack with us in Israel, and that knocked them for a loop. Then you had the B2 bombers which took out their nuclear capability. And they would have had a nuclear weapon within two weeks to four weeks. And they would have used it long before this press conference. And we might have had a much different press conference if we had a press conference at all. But it's been amazing. The military success that we've had is truly unprecedented.
- [14:57]
Reporter
You said you've told your congressional colleagues that you will not sign any piece of legislation until the Save America act is passed. Does that include the confirmation of Senator Mullen as your next DHS secretary? Does that mean a DHS funding bill? And Senator Thune said today it's not a matter of whether or not your Republican colleagues agree with the policy. It's about changing the process. In other words, getting rid of the filibuster to get there.
- [15:19]
Donald Trump
So in order to get it, you're going to need Democrat votes. And what we're saying is the Save America, not the Save act, which nobody knew what it was. The Save America Act. The Save America act. And that's voter id. We want voter id When a voter. We want to be able to see a picture of the voter. We want to be able to see that the voter is legitimate. We want very importantly, confirmation that this voter is a citizen of the United States of America. And we want no mail in ballot scams. So we have exceptions for the military, for sick, for disabled and for people that are away. Business trips or whatever. Even vacations will be very liberal in that. We've added two things to it. No men in women's sports and no trans gender. Mutilization of our children. We don't want our. It's mutilization of our children and we don't want that. So we added those two things. That's the five points. We have five very good points. It polls at 86% with Democrats. Think of that. The overall vote is 86%. With Republicans, it's 98%. And the only One opposed to it is Democrat leadership because they cheat. They want to cheat. So we added those two points. We're going for the gold and we're going to have to fight like hell. Now. Certain things will happen, certain things will take place. I'm here to do a great job for the country. But we don't have a country if we're going to have elections that are so corrupt and so dishonest, like we've witnessed over the last period of time. You know, as an example, few. I mean, virtually nobody has. Like we. Nobody has a system of mail in ballots like we have no other country in the world. France went away from it. They all went. You know why? Because it's corrupt. And Jimmy Carter, when he had a commission, frankly, I think it's probably the best thing Jimmy Carter did. He said, you can't have mail in voting because it's inherently dishonest. And it's turned out to be totally dishonest. So we're going to fight for it. Yeah.
- [17:38]
Reporter
Has Iran activated any sleeper cells inside the U.S. there's reports that they have pressed that trigger button to activate those cells, at least abroad.
- [17:48]
Donald Trump
Well, we've been. They've been trying for a long time. We've been very much on top of it. One of the things we have to do is get the Democrats to stop the Democrat shutdown, because as you know, the apparatus that looks into that, Schumer and the Democrats have shut it down, which tells you they probably hate our country a lot. But the Democrats have to open that up. But we've got very, very good intelligence into that. We know a lot of different things that have happened that have been very bad. A lot of them came in during the Biden open border period, but we have them under. We've got them. We're watching every single one of them. Yeah, we know a lot about them. The biggest problem we have is the Democrat shutdown. We know a lot about them, but the shutdown doesn't allow us to do what we have to do.
- [18:40]
Reporter
You have to take him out. Does he have a target on his back?
- [18:43]
Donald Trump
You mean the new supreme leader? You mean the Sun?
- [18:46]
Reporter
How can there be an Iran?
- [18:47]
Donald Trump
Well, I don't want to. I don't want to say that, but, you know, I was disappointed because we think it's going to lead to just more of the same problem for the country. So I was disappointed to see their choice.
- [19:00]
Steve Bannon
Thank you. Thank you, sir.
- [19:02]
Donald Trump
You've said you have someone in mind
- [19:03]
Steve Bannon
to be the new Iranian leadership, if
- [19:05]
Donald Trump
not the Ayatollah's son. What are you looking for in that person?
- [19:08]
Steve Bannon
Are you looking at someone internal, given that you just said that their leadership has been.
- [19:12]
Donald Trump
I like the idea of, you know, internal and eternal, come to think of it. But I like the idea of internal because it works well. I mean, I think we've proven that so far in Venezuela. We have a woman, Delsey, who has been, you know, president of the country. Very respected, very. She's doing a great job. And it's, you know, no disruption. We had, as you remember, Iraq, where everybody got fired, that the military got fired, the police got fired, the politicians got fired. There was nobody. And you know what? They turned into isis. And we don't want that. We don't want that. So I would like to see people that are inside go now. They talk about the son of the Shah. They talk about other people, but, you know, hasn't been there in many, many years. We have a formula that's been very good so far, and I think it'll continue to be good. The relationship is extraordinary with Venezuela. Smart country. We've taken out 100 million barrels of oil. It's right now in Houston being. Being taken care of and made so beautiful. And you have to see this at work. They have. It's brought to the refineries. It's being refined in Houston, which is made exactly for that product. And so far. But it's 100 million barrels of oil. And now they have another hundred million barrels coming. And it's like a partnership. We're getting along so well with them. It's great for Venezuela and it's great for the United States.
- [20:54]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
Yeah, please, go ahead, Mr. President. You just suggested that Iran somehow got its hands on a Tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war. But you're the only person in your government saying this. Even your defense secretary wouldn't say that when he was asked, standing over your shoulder on your plane on Saturday. Why are you the only person saying this?
- [21:13]
Donald Trump
Because I just don't know enough about it. I think it's something that I was told is under investigation. But Tomahawks are. Are used by others. As you know, numerous other nations have Tomahawks. They buy them from us. But I will certainly, whatever the report shows, I'm willing to live with that report. Yeah, please.
- [21:36]
Reporter
You said earlier that we've already won in many ways, but we haven't won enough. What do you consider enough?
- [21:42]
Donald Trump
What's your baseline where they're not going to be starting the following day to develop a nuclear weapon where they'll look at that man and some other people from the administration and say, all right, we're not going to do it. They were not willing to say that. And when Steve called up and he said that to me, I said, well, here we go. Let's do it the hard way. But the hard way, I think, is probably the easy way, when basically I can see that they will no longer have any capacity whatsoever for a very long period of time of developing weaponry that could be used against the United States, Israel, or any of our allies. We have great allies in the Middle east, great countries that are allies, and they were staying out of it until they got hit. Someday they'll have to do a story, why did he do that? Why did they do that? But they were going to hit them. If I didn't hit them first, they were going to hit our allies first. I believe upon information and belief, but I believe that he was going to. He was. They were going to take over the Middle East. They were looking to take over the Middle East. Now, had Operation Midnight Hammer not taken place, that was definite because they would have had a nuclear weapon within a matter of weeks. But that took place. That was a setback. But look at the number of missiles they were able to buy and make over the last six months. And those missiles were aimed at various countries. And when you look at a thousand. Over a thousand missiles shot at, like uae. They were looking to take over the Middle East. We got there first. Lucky. I'll tell you what, the Middle east and those countries, very rich countries, are very lucky that I was president instead of somebody else. And your vice president when it comes to US Action in Iran? I don't think so. No, no, we get along very well on this. He was, I would say, philosophically, a little bit different than me. I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going, but he was quite enthusiastic. But I felt it was something we had to do. I didn't feel we had a choice. If we didn't do it, they would have done it to us. I felt based on the negotiations that were being had by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and Marco and Pete and everybody was involved. I felt that they were going to. That they were looking to tap us along before they hit, and I thought they were going to hit. And if they hit us first, that would have been a very bad thing. In the back, please. In the back. About the straight, you mean? Yeah, well, I'm. I want to keep it open. I want to Keep it good. You know, it doesn't pertain to us so much as it does to China. We're really helping China here and other countries because they get a lot of their energy from the Straits. But, hey, look, we have a good relationship with China. It's my honor to do it. Yeah.
- [24:57]
Reporter
You have called him an unacceptable choice. So does he have a target on his back? And how can you.
- [25:02]
Donald Trump
I don't want to say whether or not he does, because that would be inappropriate. But, hey, look, I had a target on my back because, as you people wrote pretty well, they caught the assassin that was after me. So we just got them first, but they caught the assassin. They have him now in custody. That was after me. So, you know, but people don't like to mention that. But they. They did catch him. And I'd like to congratulate our military, secret Service, FBI, all of the people that worked on that. But they did. Yeah, please. No, go ahead, please.
- [25:36]
Reporter
Thank you. Mr. President, you promised the Iranian people you would help them, but it sounds like you're willing to end this fight after your military objectives have wrapped up. Is that. Isn't that a betrayal?
- [25:45]
Donald Trump
Will I help them? I'd like to, if they can behave. But they've been very menacing. You know, they're great people. They have an amazing population. It's amazing. Smart, brilliant, energetic. They have a great. I'd love to help them, but they have to be in a system that allows them to be helped. And right now, they're in a system that only allows failure. And I don't want that. And I want a system that's not going to be attacking us. We want a system that can lead to many years of peace. And if we can't have that, we might as well get it over with right now. Yeah, please.
- [26:22]
Reporter
Thank you. Mr. President, as of today, there have been eight U.S. military fatalities associated with. With the war in Iran. How many American deaths are you willing to have in this war?
- [26:32]
Donald Trump
Well, as I said before, when you have conflicts like this, you always have death. And I was at Dover yesterday. I met the parents. And they were unbelievable people. They were unbelievable people. But they all had one thing in common. They said to me, one thing, every single one. Finish the job, sir, please. Finish the. The job. And I'll leave you at that. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
- [27:09]
Steve Bannon
Okay, President, United States, with a press conference right there. Took about 30 minutes. You know, I said yesterday in the Sunday morning show, given the intensity of the bombing on Saturday night, and this is why we're so thankful for real America's voice to let us do the Sunday morning show. Given the intensity of the bombing on Sunday night, I said several times because we had a packed show. Also, given what the president was saying about unconditional surrender and Pete Hexseth, which he reinforced on 60 Minutes, I know it was shot beforehand, but what he reinforced when it was played last night, I said many times, well, we're not going to have a off ramp by Tuesday. I was wrong. I guess we got an off ramp on Monday afternoon, I think. Dr. We're going to break it all down. The president's actually obviously been thinking about this a lot, Dr. Thayer and Mark Levin. And people know I don't agree with Mark Levin a lot on things that are said, but Mark Levin has put up something. I just want to pull it up. My crack staff, my production staff has sent this to me. If I can pull it up. Mark Levin just put out a tweet and I'd like to have you respond to it. Dr. Bradley Thayer and of course, Kurt Mills going to join us here momentarily. The tweet is from Levin. During this press conference. Is Iran, quote, a short term excursion, unquote, or unconditional surrender and complete defeat? Is it a condition based operation or a time based operation? Inquiring minds want to know. So, Dr. Thayer, given what the president of the United States and commander in chief, who's been pretty adamant at least over the last five, five or six days of I think we're in day 10 of unconditional surrender and pretty on pretty tough terms about what that unconditional surrender would look like, did he set a condition that if they change out the leader, the new ayatollah, the ayatollah son that's now the the new head of the the government as the ayatollah, although the Revolutionary Guard still controls the day to day, if they make that change, that President Trump could see a way to bring down the military, the military operations that we have here, sir.
- [29:36]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
Well, Steve, first point to make is that the president sets the president has a conception of what America's national interests are informed by his Cabinet, of course, and other actors as well. And so when he's making the point that we've won, perhaps we haven't won enough, but we soon will once this attrition continues. He referenced the ballistic missiles, the drones, for example, in essence, their ability to harm the US and our national interests, Israel and our allies in the region, then that's going to be sufficient. That's victory. And so that's the first point to recognize it's President Trump who frames that. Second point to keep in mind is that President Trump is absolutely a flexible realist. Right. He adapts as circumstances change, as the battlefield dynamic changes. He's seeing victory in terms of the campaign against the navy. The Iranian navy, which has been so successful. Strait of Hormuz does seem to be open, which is absolutely essential. Great success in the air campaign, great success against their air defenses. The nuclear campaign was taken out last year and I'm sure there were additional targets that were hit this time around to hit that. And you have had great attrition in the regime as he referenced. Two layers of the leadership have been removed. So from President Trump's perspective, US national interests have been met or very soon we will be met. So that I think is. That's his assessment and that's the assessment that matters. Others who want to go on to an invasion of Iran or to go on to having some type of conquest of the totality of Iran, I think are losing that point. We have in our present that consummate, flexible, realistic, who's able to advance our national interests and win battlefield victory. U.S. national objectives have been met. To recognize that and not to continue in a way that would become self defeating and that would lead to additional escalation and that would lead to a continuation of a war that need not continue with when the US has other adversaries, the Chinese Communist Party as well, to face. So there's much to like in what President Trump has said today. He covered a gamut, obviously quite, quite a few topics.
- [32:27]
Donald Trump
Yeah.
- [32:28]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
But on Iran, there's much here.
- [32:31]
Steve Bannon
Yeah, hang, yeah, hang on one second. And of course, we've been, I think, part of the realist camp here, although supportive of the president, but part of the realist camp. So there is a lot to like here. I just want to make sure that we fully understand it because even I'm, I'm kind of confused here, but I just don't see. And I'm sure they've got back channel discussions going on. The Israelis have just come out, I think part of the United Nations. The Israelis are talking about a completely different alternative. I mean, they're, they're all, and not just simply for regime change. I think they're going for, continue to go unconditional surrender. I, as I said on the show this morning, I think Saturday night was a big, it showed you a gap between our, our greatest ally in the United States, a big gap about what intentions were and what, what the follow through was going to be anyway. Dr. Bradley Thayer is here. Kurt Mill is going to join us in a second. Natalie's going to be back tomorrow morning. She's got a report out about the refugees situation, but I think everybody ought to pay attention. It says going to dwarf whatever happened in the Syrian civil war, Afghanistan, Iraq war, all of it. And it's very well thought through. Dr. Bradley Thayer is with us. President of States just had, I think the most important press conference so far, really the first time a press conference in this war, but took a ton of questions and answered them all. Short commercial break. You're in the war room.
- [34:06]
Jim Rickards
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- [35:01]
Steve Bannon
you go there, you get strategic intelligence
- [35:05]
Jim Rickards
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- [37:03]
Steve Bannon
You move.
- [37:05]
Jim Rickards
If you could make one holiday wish, would you wish to be free from your credit card and other debt? Let's see if we can help you with that. If we could give yourself one gift this holiday season, would it be finally
- [37:18]
Steve Bannon
to get some relief from your credit card and other debt?
- [37:21]
Jim Rickards
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- [38:47]
Steve Bannon
War room here's your host, stephen k. Ban. You saw the President speak at the Republican conference. Then he went over, spoke again, very powerful in front of the press and then had a press conference that lasted about the speech in the press conference combined with the media lasted about 30 minutes. Technically. You've got two other things you want to bring up or I think are quite important for the audience to understand about what President Trump said. Can you give me that, Dr. Thayer?
- [39:20]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
Sure, Steve, absolutely. First, Trump spoke very clearly about the causes of this war, right? He said that we preempted Iran. Iran was going to hit us. Secondly, he addressed the conduct of the war and conveyed that our military objectives had been met or were very close to being met. What were those objectives? First, we had to be at the point where the Iranian regime recognized that they're unwilling to continue to develop the weaponry to hurt the United States, our national interests in the region, Israel and our Arab and other allies. Secondly, regional hegemony. Iran sought regional hegemony, he said, and that this action has stopped Iran's bid for regional hegemony. So in terms of the causes Iran was going to, we preempted Iran from attacking and then the conduct, our military objectives have been met or being very close to being met in terms of destroying the weaponry. He referenced the ballistic missiles that they're greatly down right. That they're really now ragged in the ability of the Iranians to launch them and that the drones were down to 25%, as he mentioned, of those attacks. So that's very good news. The Iranian air force has been decimated and the Iranian navy has been as well. The straits are open. Straight of Hormuz is open.
- [41:00]
Donald Trump
Yeah.
- [41:01]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
So oil is able. Oil and gas is able to exit. Well, obvious.
- [41:08]
Steve Bannon
Yeah. People should understand. People should understand that when the President leaked this, or I shouldn't say leaked, he talked to CBS News. He gave one of those phone interviews that he's now famous for. And he said they're going to wrap this thing up and the markets completely turn around. I think oils at 88 got up to 120 today. The market turned around. Bond market kind of calmed down everything. Hang on. Dr. Thayer, Kurt Mills. What just happened?
- [41:36]
Donald Trump
Sir,
- [41:39]
Kurt Mills
it's a fair question. I think the President is signaling an interest in an off ramp. I think this was a good press conference. I think this is good news. I think the President is seeing that the military options from this point forward are not particularly attractive, but he doesn't want to quite wrap it up yet. And that will create the potential reality for spoilers who want to keep us in the war. The people that are messaging and we're messaging ahead of the press conference, frankly on Monday that the war must go on. Were the same people who suckered the President into the war. The foundation for Defensive Democracies. Josh Hammer, Mark Levin, Lindsey Graham, they're going to message all night on Monday night that this was. Yes, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, President. But you really need to do more. You shouldn't pull out here. Many of these folks are already pooh, poohing the increase in gas prices that Americans are paying in the Pump saying that it's a small price to pay for Israel's war.
- [42:40]
Steve Bannon
What he did put a, he put a condition there that I'm confused about this condition. So help, help it make sense to me. He was pretty adamant that they had to select somebody. He wanted his hand and he said this last. He wanted to participate in choosing. He uses the Venezuelan model and he goes back to the Venezuela model day and say, hey, we're closer than ever. They're ramping up oil production. Things are working great because we had a person in their regime that would work with us and essentially report to us. Although she doesn't like to admit that, that everybody knows that's kind of what's happening. He offered that as a framework or a template for what would happen in Iran. Although a very, very, very different set of circumstances, he still said as a condition, we got to get somebody in there I like or this guy can't, can't handle it. What is that? If that is still a condition until we would go home, we could be there for a while. Correct?
- [43:48]
Kurt Mills
Potentially. I mean, obviously it's an open question about whether the United States is going to try to kill most of the new Supreme Leader or Israel is going to try to kill him, frankly. Additionally, it's a question of whether or not they can. Presumably Mashaba Harmony is going to be much more secured and underground.
- [44:06]
Steve Bannon
But hang on, but hang up. But it's not. It's not, it's not, it's not. Yeah, but it's not one. I mean, yeah, so they kill this guy who's a guy's son. They don't like this hereditary thing anyway. They kill him, they got a 500 more guys are just as dug in as this guy or more thousands. What Their selection the other day was up in our grill saying, hey, you want us to change? Not only we're not changing, we're going to get a younger guy who's supposed to be even more hardcore. They got plenty of those. So if the Mossad takes this guy out, at least their tendency to date has been we're going to show continuity. And that continuity is going to be to even harder than we were before. Am I wrong on that?
- [44:46]
Kurt Mills
No, no. I mean, this is why I think the President's getting bad advice. I mean, the reality is that Iran is a much different scenario than Venezuela. It is a tougher state. I mean, Venezuela wasn't lobbying shahed drones to everybody in the Caribbean. Venezuela didn't have ballistic missiles that they could fire to Mexico. This is just A completely different scenario. The reality is if the president wants an enduring relationship with this government in Iran, he's got to walk away from this war and come back to the negotiating table. If the Iranians will even come back to the negotiating table, as did the transition that you described.
- [45:20]
Steve Bannon
Then you just, okay, but then, okay, but you just. Okay, but you just walked in. Okay, then Levin and those guys are going to get their way.
- [45:26]
Kurt Mills
I know, I know,
- [45:28]
Jim Rickards
I know.
- [45:29]
Steve Bannon
But you just, you just set up, you just said, let me, Let me just put another piece of information out there that the president's heard for the last 24 hours. Kuwait, Qatar, UAE even the great MBZ, the tough fighter MBZ and the Saudis, I think, have been blown up. The phone lines going, what in the hell are we doing here?
- [45:46]
Donald Trump
Right?
- [45:46]
Steve Bannon
This is. These guys are crazy. And they're lobbing hot ones over here. They're taking down our desalization. They're taking our water. They're, they're, you know, Qatar warned forever. We had Trita Parsi on here, I think, that said that it could be five to seven years before Qatar gets their gas field back. Those guys are sitting there going, hey, they're trying to shut down our oil operations for years. They're trying to block the straits or moves. They are taking out our desalination and water's just as important here as oil. I think collectively, they all, from what I'm hearing, all were all over people today saying, we gotta see a plan to wind this thing down. But if the wind down is the president puts a condition that it's got to be a regime that's malleable to American influences, I think that and because of what happens Saturday night is a game changer. Do we have that Dan Senior thing? And here's why, Kurt and Dr. Thayer, I think it galvanized Persian nationalism. This is the one thing you didn't want to do. Once you galvanize Persian nationalism, it's the Persian people. It's not this Islamic republic against. This is why I think you haven't seen uprisings in the street, besides the fact that they killed 30,000 of their best, you know, guys who would get to the streets. I think part of this is now they look at it as a nationalistic cause because they look at as Israel in the United States against them as a nation and a people. It's not this Islamic republic, which they hate and, you know, two thirds will probably hate. Let me play. Can I play the Dan Senior thing? Let me play the Dan Senior thing. And I Want to pick your brain on this, Kurt?
- [47:17]
Dan Senor
I, I will tell you, Jessica, I, I have never seen integration between the United States military and another military, not just between the United States and Israel, certainly that has never been the case, but the United States and any other sovereign military. I've never seen this level of integration. Aircraft from both countries, you know, in the skies above Iran at the same time, all feeding into a central command function, sharing the same information between those aircraft, sharing the same intelligence, sharing in some cases the same command structure and chain of command. It's just total integration. And don't take it from me, you can hear this from the Pentagon. U.S. cENTCOM put out a post yesterday with the Israeli flag and the American flag talking about how these air forces are just achieving total excellence and performing with incredible excellence and success and professionalism working together. It's really, they're attached at the hip. It's, you know, I think about the 91 Gulf War where the U.S. the Bush administration, the first Bush, Bush administration, asked Prime Minister Shamir, Prime Minister of Israel at the time, to show restraint that Israel couldn't get involved. Why couldn't Israel get involved? According to the Bush administration, because that would fracture the coalition, which included many Arab countries. The Israel and the Arab countries couldn't be seen in the Arab countries eyes to be fighting on the same side. Now that is, we've completely inverse that. Now you have Israel and the US Fighting side by side, totally locked in, and the Arab countries are joining that coalition. So we are living on so many levels through truly historic times that I couldn't have even imagined in terms of the transformation in the region potentially and certainly the transformation in the relationship between the US And Israel.
- [49:05]
Steve Bannon
Okay, that's not Steve Bannison. It's Dan Sr. And everybody knows Dan Sr. Is a, how do I say, former spokesman for the Iraq debacle under Bush, where he lied, bald faced, lied to the American people only every day. But he's also, let's say, quite close to the Netanyahu clique in Israel. And he's 100% correct. They got guys. He says it one joint command. It is impossible to have happen on Saturday night. What happened on Saturday night with that structure and it's from his lips and that structure to have, oh my God, the Axio story that sits there and even Lindsey Graham putting out a tweet afterwards. Hey guys, we gotta calm down. Unless the Israeli air force, the IDF and the senior command of Israel, bald face, lied to the Americans. And I think right there, that was an inflection point. I believe President Trump because they said, oh, he's going to have a heated conversation with Netanyahu. The allies are not together on this at all. Our war aims and you just saw President Trump. The war aims of President Trump look quite different than the war aims of Bibi Netanyahu. Kurt Mills, and this is why I think Saturday night was an inflection point. President Trump was adamant. I don't want any oil assets, I don't want any infrastructure touched. Right. I'm trying to get the, the Persian people on our side. If we got to do things on in Tehran, I want the bombing of like the Air Force command center that the IDF did take down I think on Saturday night, which is a hard target. But I don't want to spread this war into a Dresden type firebombing of Tehran. That's exactly what I don't want. Because you know what? Then the Persians will dig in and we'll be here five years from now. This is to me the beginning of the separation led President Trump to this podium today to kind of say, hey, thinking about this, we got a couple other things I want to do on my punch list, but we're out. Kurt Mills, your thoughts?
- [51:04]
Kurt Mills
Yeah, I mean look, that Dan signora person basically works for another country as far as I'm concerned and all but name and so this also was the Romney foreign policy person. This is a complete neoconservative. It's not clear why this person should have purchase anywhere near the White House for a president who ran against all these people. But that's neither here nor there. I think the reality here, though, Steve, as you are alluding to, is that the president is going to have to tell the Israelis no. The president is going to have to disappoint Lindsey Graham. He's going to have to disappoint and reject the foundation for defensive democracies. He's going to have to reject Tom Cotton or we're just going to do this again and again and again. The Iranian political system is opaque, so they put in the sun. But in many ways there could be an opportunity there. The analysts who understand the country, which are few and far between, basically are of the mind that this could be the moment that they are passing from a clerical dictatorship to more of a military dictatorship. That Mojtaba is in some sense the cat's paw of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. And military dictatorships are not Jeffersonian democracies, but they could be more pragmatic. There are people in the system. The president himself pursued Pyscheskian, his team Arachi, they won election two years ago on negotiating with the west, on negotiating with the United States, on negotiating with Donald Trump. You know there are other people in their system who think screw the Americans, we'll just deal with the Chinese and the Russians and when we have, you know, black skies at 10am Tehran time, you're kind of vindicating the hardliners in the system. So yeah, again other things on President Trump's punch list. Talk about other things on president's, President Trump's punch list in his term. He needs to take the off ramp here and the off ramp for a very, very long time. And I think Israel has been shown to the world as charlatans for this military endeavor. They are trying to spike oil to above $120 a barrel. They are shutting down air traffic, they are getting Americans out of 15 plus countries. You know, it is making Uncle Sam a pariah throughout the region and throughout the world. And we need to cut bait on these guys. We need a long hard talk about what the U. S. Israeli relationship. And I think it's going to come either sooner or later and if it comes later, it's going to come in the Republican primary and it's going to be pretty nasty.
- [53:26]
Steve Bannon
Well, it's going to happen right now. I mean the president's laid out some conditions, I mean Levin just said this times based or conditions based. He's said the president has laid out some things that he wants to accomplish that he thinks accomplishes his war objectives and then we can move on. And part of that is obviously deal with the regime and what the regime is going to do. But the Israelis more than ever are all about regime change and destroying the regime. Those are two right now. Diametrically opposed. You know the president did not mention unconditional surrender. He did not mention the total and complete destruction of their, of their war making capability. If you're going to take out any possibility of their power projection on their own people, as hard as this is to say, you're going to be there for a while. Because these people are not pushovers. They're hard, tough. That's the Persians, same guys the Romans fought and the Greeks fought. They're still there and now they're bigger and more powerful. Not that you couldn't take them down, but it's a process. And you've seen the targeting list we've been going through. How do you think this plays out? Because you're right, the guys that want us to stay forever are already all over this. You're going to see it on Fox News tonight. You're going to see it on Fox. And tomorrow they're going to be, you know, saying President Trump, you can be Churchill here or you can, you know, you can actually look and try to get a peaceful exit. And they're all going to be for taking the hard way. And as you can tell, the hard way is not going to end next week or the week after, the week after that. Sir.
- [54:56]
Kurt Mills
I thought it was interesting that Mr. Sanur went after George H.W. bush, of course, because attacking George H.W. bush for not marching all the way to Baghdad in Gulf War One became the rallying cry for what became the neoconservatives. And they're the people who ruined Mr. Bush's son's presidency and helped ruin US position in the world. And so I think it's very interesting that they attacked HW because they don't want President Trump actually to repeat the lessons from the Bush 41 White House, which is you can you wipe out, you know, a tough military, but you don't go all the way. You don't do regime change. You leave the regime weakened and in place. And I think that's obviously at this point the best option for President Trump. If he leaves now, if he leaves now, this will be a bad memory. This will be, this will be a moment of fracture within maga. But I think Trump will be able to keep his coalition together. I think Trump will be able to compete in the midterms if this is all we are doing. If Pete Hegseth is screaming at 60 Minutes in July, it's going to be a major problem for the White House.
- [55:58]
Steve Bannon
Kurt, where do people get you now, particularly overnight until we reconvene tomorrow morning? Because I think it's going to be quite intense tonight for sure.
- [56:06]
Kurt Mills
Yeah. It's the American Conservative.com magazine founded in 2002 by Papp Buchanan and friends against the Iraq war. We are now covering the Iran war. Wire to Wire. And my own work and addition to the magazines is at Curt Mills URT and my LLS on X.
- [56:22]
Donald Trump
Thank you, Steve.
- [56:25]
Steve Bannon
Thank you, Dr. Thayer. We got 90 seconds before we get a punch. Your thoughts?
- [56:30]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
You fight a war to win the peace. And President Trump has explained the causes of this war, why we went to war. That was to preempt an Iranian attack. He also talked about the conditions, the conduct of the war that would lead to its end, right to having the US Win the peace. And that was when the Iranian leadership said we're not going to continue in essence to build, I'm paraphrasing, but to build the ballistic missiles, to reconstitute an air force and a navy, that's going to be able to hurt US national security interests, Israel and the allies in the area. So President Trump has a path to winning the peace. I would just say secondly and finally, Steve, that there are really three sets of targets here. We're talking about counter leadership targets, counter force targets and counter value targets. Counter leadership targets the Israelis seem to have been driving that was getting rid of the regime. Counterforce targets were the military targets. That's what President Trump wanted to hit. Going after the ballistic missiles, going after the air Force, the navy, the nuclear facilities obviously last year and continuing those attack tax and then the counter value targets President Trump does not want to hit. Right. Very importantly because that ties into nationalism. If you start going after the value what, what the society values, the oil, the, the infrastructure, the way people make their money, the sources of the economy, you're going to generate a tremendous nationalist reaction. Trump did not want to counter value target. He wanted to counter force target, very importantly, and maybe counter leadership targets. So he's got a pathway to peace. He can win. He can win the peace.
- [58:17]
Steve Bannon
Dr. Thayer, brilliant. Where do people go to get you, particularly overnight until we reconvene at 10:00am Eastern Standard Time tomorrow morning? Sir.
- [58:25]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
Yeah. Steve, Brad Thayer at X and Bradley Thayer at Truth and Getter. Thanks very much, Steve.
- [58:31]
Steve Bannon
Thank you. Okay. Oil went from what, 80 to 120 back to 88. Markets stabilized. Thing President Trump saw when he ran up the trial balloon with cbs, what the response would this be? I think also the guys in the Gulf said, hey, look, you know, this can only get nastier. We got to think this through together. I think that's what's happening. President Trump's going to come under an intense barrage tonight. And it ain't from the uranium. We'll cover it all and we'll see you back here at 10am Eastern Standard Time tomorrow. Remember, you get a vote in this. What do you think? We'll check that out tomorrow morning. Birch, gold. Now maybe more than ever, you need to find out what a hedge is. Take your phone out, Text Bannon at 989-898. Get the Ultimate Guide for investing in gold and precious metals in the age of Trump. Most important importantly, get access to Philip Patrick and the team. That's what you need. Talk to them. Talk to them immediately.
- [59:29]
Jim Rickards
We'll see you back here in the war room.
- [59:31]
Steve Bannon
Natasha Owens will take us out. We'll see you back here at 10am Eastern Standard Time tomorrow. I guarantee we will be on fire.
- [59:39]
Donald Trump
We still need help from the boss. We need help from the boss.