THE WAR ROOM WITH STEPHEN K. BANNON, APRIL 6TH, 2026 (EP.#5276)

Summary

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Real America’s Voice: War Room with Stephen K. Bannon

Episode 5276 | April 6, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of “War Room” focuses on the rapidly escalating U.S.–Iran conflict, with just hours remaining before a White House deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face potentially devastating U.S. military action. Host Stephen K. Bannon is joined by analysts and commentators—including Sam Faddis, Trita Parsi, David Ignatius, Caroline Leavitt, and Eric Bolling—to dig into the strategic, economic, and political stakes. The conversation is unfiltered and deeply skeptical of official narratives, with particular concern over how the war’s unintended consequences may profoundly impact global markets, U.S. national security, and the world order.

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Key Discussion Points

1. The White House Ultimatum & Escalation Risks

• President Trump’s deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz dominates the episode, underscored by his inflammatory social media threats and the possibility of immense military escalation if unmet.
  • Quote:

    “Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day all wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it. Open the fuckin' strait you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell. Just watch.” —President Trump post, cited by Sam Faddis [01:51, 05:28]

• The seriousness of attacking civilian infrastructure and the risk of war crimes are flagged.
  • Quote:

    “Destroying civilian power infrastructure is generally considered to constitute a war crime under international law...” —Sam Faddis [01:51]

2. Regional and Global Diplomatic Fallout

• The U.S. acted largely without consulting key European and Asian allies; most allies oppose the war.
• Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s influence on U.S. decision-making is noted, with suggestions the war was driven more by opportunity than threat.
• Regional players (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan) are scrambling to broker a 45-day ceasefire seen as an increasingly faint prospect.
  • “The Iranians said that they reject outright this idea of a temporary cease fire.” —Caroline Leavitt [11:30]

3. Military Operations & Iranian Resistance

• The episode details the spectacular U.S. rescue of a downed airman inside Iran, but highlights unexpectedly fierce Iranian resistance.
  • Quote:

    “We had to send in...a major operation and a major firefight...It is not what we saw on the ground in Iran. We saw guys prepared to throw down.” —Sam Faddis [17:41]

• The belief that Iran would quickly collapse under U.S. pressure is directly challenged.
  • “The theory that you were going to hit them real hard in Tehran and they would collapse was never viable. It didn't happen...It’s not going to happen.” —Sam Faddis [20:38]

4. The Strait of Hormuz: Leverage and Economics

• Iran’s closure of the Strait grants it enormous leverage, letting its oil flow to favored countries while blocking others and charging huge tolls.
  • “Iran now makes about twice as much on its daily oil sales compared to before the conflict.” —Trita Parsi [08:27]
  • “Their leverage...they have the world by the throat.” —Sam Faddis [54:59]
• Oil and gas price spikes threaten to destabilize the global economy.
  • “Oil, $112 a barrel...It could be a lot higher. If we do unleash hell...you’ll see probably a $150 [US crude] barrel and $180, $200 for Brent.” —Eric Bolling [25:45]

5. Escalatory Trap and Asymmetric War

• Analysts fear Trump is caught in an “escalatory trap,” where each threat or strike demands further escalation.
  • “Do you think President Trump right now is...trapped in what we call the escalatory trap?” —Stephen K. Bannon [27:44]
  • “We tried something based on an idea...that they would fold. And now since that didn’t work...our plan is: let’s just do more of that without reevaluating.” —Sam Faddis [28:44]
• Iran’s asymmetric tactics—including decentralized command, innovative air defenses, and willingness to retaliate against oil infrastructure—present deep challenges.

6. Diplomacy, Leverage, and Mistrust

• Multiple analysts argue that meaningful negotiation is the U.S.’s only plausible off-ramp.
  • “If we wait too long, we will be in an increasingly negative negotiating position vis a vis the Iranians. So I would move fast, and I would move fast to just end the war.” —Trita Parsi [45:51]
• Skepticism prevails about the effectiveness of phased ceasefire proposals, given a lack of trust by all parties.
  • “Those ceasefires are rather quickly violated and used in order to be able to regroup, rearm, and relaunch attacks.” —Trita Parsi [34:50]
• Confusion exists over whom in Iran to negotiate with, given divided authority and shifting power structures.
  • “Who is he really supposed to negotiate with?...If they reached a deal, could actually execute it inside of Iran.” —Stephen K. Bannon [36:07]

7. Endgame Scenarios: Petrodollar Threat and Strategic Consequences

• The financial war looms large: Iranian oil sold in yuan threatens the petrodollar’s global supremacy, risking dollar devaluation and U.S. economic slide.
  • “If you do open up this idea to the world that the US dollar is no longer the currency that you trade global commodities...you devalued the dollar.” —Eric Bolling [61:28]
• If escalation continues, panelists warn of a “permanent state of war” and a reshaped, less stable Middle East.
  • “We would end up in a permanent state of war with Iran…Trump himself…railed against these endless wars. And this would be, by definition, an endless war.” —Trita Parsi [42:20]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Trump’s Leadership Style:

  “I've never seen a president that could stand at the South Portico of the White House and talk about egg rolls and Easter bunnies while bombing the spit out of the Iranian people.” —Eric Bolling [58:13]

• On the Delusion of Easy Victory:

  “We were told these guys were getting ready to quit and in about three days of bombing it would all be over. That is not what we saw on the ground in Iran.” —Sam Faddis [17:41]

• On Asymmetry and Resilience:

  “They're going to fight an asymmetric war...these appear to be people who would rather die than surrender or particularly capitulate to the Great Satan.” —Stephen K. Bannon [32:49]

• On Economic Impact:

  “Even if the strait were opened today and ceasefire declared today, we're looking at months forward of pain at the pump, higher inflation and maybe...a global recession.” —Eric Bolling [25:45]

• On Diplomatic Pathways:

  “No country that has leverage will ever trust the US to get to phase two or phase three. And as a result, they won't even bother even contemplating phase one.” —Trita Parsi [37:04]

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Key Segments (Timestamps)

• [00:00–01:51]: Bannon’s cold open, framing the drama as existential and outlining the war’s stakes.
• [01:51–02:34]: Sam Faddis details Trump’s expletive-laden ultimatum to Iran; war crimes concern.
• [03:05–04:14]: David Ignatius on unresolved nuclear issues and the risk of open-ended military action.
• [08:27–10:31]: Trita Parsi outlines how Iranian oil revenues have doubled as a result of the war and describes region-wide economic instability.
• [17:41–22:04]: Sam Faddis and Stephen Bannon probe the difficulties and losses of the airman rescue; underestimated Iranian resilience.
• [23:35–26:17]: Eric Bolling breaks down oil price spikes, looming inflation, and the “art of war” vs. “art of the deal.”
• [27:44–32:49]: Extended roundtable on escalation, the risk of mutual destruction, and the myth of Iranian collapse.
• [34:50–37:04]: Trita Parsi and Bannon debate the viability and mechanisms of diplomacy, underscoring American and Iranian mistrust.
• [38:55–41:11]: Trita Parsi: Iran believes it has initiative/escalatory dominance.
• [45:51–46:32]: Trita Parsi: U.S. negotiating power has eroded; urges immediate substantive diplomacy.
• [54:59–56:34]: Sam Faddis on why Iran’s leverage is economic and global; warns of a “blowtorch to the world economy.”
• [58:13–59:54]: Eric Bolling on Iranian martyrdom, Trump’s negotiation unpredictability, and the domestic political stakes.
• [61:28–63:03]: Bolling and Bannon analyze the economic war over the petrodollar versus yuan.
• [64:54–66:10]: Closing thoughts on the inescapability of escalation and the direct impact on American lives.

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Conclusion: Tone & Perspective

The episode’s tone is urgent, unvarnished, and critical—often blunt and occasionally profane, mirroring both the magnitude of the crisis and the “primal scream” sensibility Bannon set in his opening. Panelists share a deep skepticism of White House and “mainstream” soothing, predicting only costly outcomes unless a bold diplomatic shift is found. There is no consensus, but agreement that military, economic, and political costs are mounting at a perilous rate, and that the window for preventing catastrophe is rapidly shutting.

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For Further Analysis

• Trita Parsi: @tparsi on Twitter / Quincy Institute / Substack: Astrita Parsi
• Eric Bolling: Live analysis at 4pm and deeper economic coverage at 5pm and 6pm on RAV

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Transcript

[Stephen K. Bannon]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. Prisoners not got a free shot on all these networks lying about the people. The people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen.

[Sam Faddis]

And where do people like that go to share the big L MAGA media. I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved. War Room here's your host, Stephen K. Banner. It's Easter Monday, the 6th of April, year of our Lord 2026. Later today at 1 o' clock, there's going to be a press briefing by the President United States about the situation in Iran and potential ceasefire, although I think they may have already been rejected by the by the regime. We're going to get into all that. We've got an all star lineup of analysts and observers to walk us through this. Break it down all for you. We're going to play. And for those with sensitive ears or children, we're going to play the newscast from yesterday's news as we always do in the cold open, let you see a wide range of what happened. Some of the language is a little harsh because they're quoting a true social that the commander in chief put out at 5:00am Eastern Daylight Time yesterday morning. Let's go ahead and let it rip. To open the war room.

[Sam Faddis]

No longer. He has just threatened Iran in extraordinary graphic terms, giving the Iranian regime just over a day to either make a deal, reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face hell. If your children are watching, be warned, the president did not use polite language. Quote, Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day all wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it. Open the fuckin straight you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell. Just watch. We should note that destroying civilian power infrastructure is generally considered to constitute a war crime under international law, though the president could argue that the infrastructure has dual use and also is utilized by Iran's military.

[Trita Parsi]

Sure. So then how does this resolve itself? Because let's assume that, you know, there isn't a kind of totally dramatic escalation where you have a complete free for all, but Trump decides to do more bombing and then just quits in, say 10 days or two weeks, the Strait remains closed. At that point, is it left to, you know, countries like Saudi Arabia to find some way to negotiate with Iran and open the strait

[David Ignatius]

free you? There's two great unresolved issues, one I know you'll talk about later, which is the nuclear issue. And we could be looking at, if you will, open ended bombing by Israel and the United States kind of, rather than having a formal negotiator arrangement kind of redlines. And if and when Iran more to move against them, there would be recurring military activity on the strait. It's what I've described as we broke it, you own it. The president could simply walk away and say as he's posted, that the United States is not directly dependent on energy moving through the strait. And then I think it's unrealistic to expect the local Arab countries or the Europeans to free it up. So I think then we're looking at a long term situation where Iran derives enormous revenue, not to mention political leverage, from operating the strait. And I would think that ought to be an unacceptable situation if you add those two things together, the strait and the nuclear. Talk about being worse off after initiating a war of choice that didn't have to happen. Strategically and economically, the United States and the world, as your opening take suggested, would be far worse off than it was five weeks ago.

[Trita Parsi]

President Trump is expected to detail the rescue of an American airman whose aircraft was blown out of the sky over Iran. He's also expected to take reporters questions afterwards, and there are many. Why the expletive filled social media post on Iran. Will he stick to his deadline of 8pm tomorrow for creating, as he put it, hell on earth if Iran doesn't open the Strait of Hormuz and what's happening with ceasefire negotiations?

Hardly anyone could argue that Iran posed a threat to its neighbors, let alone to the United States, which sits roughly 6,000 miles away. Donald Trump effectively admits committed this on Wednesday.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

We don't have to be there, but we're there to help our allies.

[Trita Parsi]

It's worth noting that none of America's European or Asian allies were consulted and many have spoken out against the war. In fact, reports suggest that Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu sold Trump on this war not because Iran was an imminent threat, but because its unprecedented weakness provided an opportunity to strike hard to to effect regime change. Why else would Trump have closed his brief announcement at the start of the war by urging the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow the regime? A call echoed by Netanyahu in His own message.

[Sam Faddis]

Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day all wrapped up in one in Iran, there will be nothing like it. Open the fucking straight, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell. Just watch.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Praise be to Allah.

[Sam Faddis]

End quote. That's what the President of the United States has just posted.

[David Ignatius]

So you have a theocratic regime with a lot of military power that has not been destroyed as much as the president and Secretary Hegseth want to talk about the body count, as it were, of missiles and launchers and the capability to shoot. You know, Iran shot some more missiles into Israel just today. So you're seeing a regime that's hanging on that is saying we are now being attacked. It's hard to overcome 47 years of screaming at the US and Israel that they are the Great Satan. We're even worse Satans now because we seem to be killing a lot of civilians and trying to damage institutions which are rebelling against it. So I think it's going to take a lot longer time, and I agree with David Ignatius about letting it die its own death. I also agree with Mark that it's going to die eventually, but I think it's going to be much longer.

[Trita Parsi]

So, Joe, I think we're still balanced between the two fundamental themes of this war. Tactical brilliance of the United States military was demonstrated in a different way with this rescue mission, but it was an amazing feat of arms. Showed off our special operations forces the ways they can do things nobody else on the planet can. But it also showed that Iran can withstand our best punch and has got an asset in the, in the Strait of Hormuz that it's very hard to take away absent diplomacy. I've been thinking that if Trump did go through with his threat to blow to smithereens every power plant, bridge, etc. That would probably make the Strait of Hormuz impassable for decades. It would leave behind such ruin and rage that the idea of reopening it under any circumstances would be almost impossible. I'm not sure Trump thinks through the consequences of that action.

So

we're again at a moment where to me, the path out of this towards something that will stabilize the region and achieve the basic war goals of the United States, requires us to work with our allies towards some kind of diplomatic solution. The idea you could just keep pounding the other guy and he's going to eventually say, okay, that's it. I think the evidence in this war points in a quite different direction so

far, aside from devastating Iran and crippling its already weak Military, which was predictable. In such a one sided contest, few of the desired results have been achieved. The regime has not fallen. Key leaders have changed for the worse. The 86 year old Ayatollah Khamenei, who famously banned the development of nuclear weapons, was killed and replaced by his son who is said to be more hardline than his father. In general, the Revolutionary Guards, who have always been more militant, seem to be ascendant, which makes sense in times of war. The Strait of Hormuz, which was free and open despite many threats through 47 years of u. S. Iran tensions, is now blocked by the new leadership whom Trump terms much more reasonable. President Trump says that after a few more bombing runs, the strait will open naturally because Iran will want to export its own oil. This misleads the situation. The strait is not closed. It is open to Iranian oil which is flowing freely, especially to China. The net result of the war is that Iran now makes about twice as much on its daily oil sales compared to before the conflict. In addition, if it continues to charge a reported $2 million per passing ship, Tehran will make hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue every month. Enough to rebuild its military and more. America's Gulf allies now face a far more unstable and tense environment than they did before the war. Their business models require peace, stability and economic integration. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had mended ties with Iran in 2023 because he wanted to calm geopolitical waters to pursue his ambitious program of modernization. Today all that progress is in jeopardy as oil exports are crippled and the region has gone from having a path to be an oasis of stability rather than a cauldron of conflict.

[Caroline Levit]

We're learning more about this here. Cease fire and potential to see whether or not there could be a deal by before the deadline tomorrow that the President has said. I should note he actually extended that it was supposed to be this evening. He then appeared to extend it until 8pm tomorrow, but to see if these potential talks could at least be staved off for the time being. Because as we heard from the President, particularly in that expletive Laden post that he shared yesterday, really threatening to bomb Iran, saying that he would go after infrastructure and energy sites as well if they do not reopen the Strait of Hormuz by that 8pm deadline tomorrow. So what we're learning is really the countries who we know have been crucial negotiators throughout this entire process, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, they're among those who have been pounding out a 45 day cease fire to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and again try to buy some time before we can could see the United States military really escalate their attacks on these different infrastructure sites. Now the plan, we're told was sent to the US And Iran late Sunday and is viewed as a last ditch effort to try and see if they could find an off ramp to this war again, even if it is only temporary. Now we have also heard from the Iranians say that they said that they reject outright this idea of a temporary cease fire. But of course, throughout this entire process, there's a lot we've been hearing publicly not only from the Iranians, but also from the Trump administration. While things are happening, of course, private behind the scenes, I will say we did hear from a White House official. They did confirm that this potential 45 day cease fire is just one, they said of many options that the White House is considering as they look ahead to how they want to proceed. But you know, based on this deadline that the President has set for tomorrow,

[Sam Faddis]

and I think we read the headlines, you know, when President Trump took action to take on Iran, you know, for 50 years presidents have talked about doing this and he's the first one to do it and face the scrutiny of instant gratification. Everyone wants to know, is it two weeks, is it three weeks? You know, give us a timeline. But he understood that it was going to take risk and it was going to take some short term hardships for a longer term gain for our country, for my three boys future certainly. So I think this just shows that freedom is not free and things have to be fought for and earned. And we have the best and the brightest in this country that are prepared. You think of those going in to rescue these pilots, they're trained, highly trained, the most trained people in the world to take this on. So my thoughts and prayers are with them. And this is the greatest country in the world, but it doesn't come without a cost.

[Trita Parsi]

But so far, has any American military action ever racked up so many costs for so few games?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Okay, welcome. Like I said, Easter Monday the 6th of April, you're overlord. 2026. We're going to the White House at 1 o'.

[Eric Bolling]

Clock.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Real America's voice. We're going to cover that and do some pregame analysis. The Israeli paper Harrits is just reporting now up on zero hedge that the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard is not prepared to agree to any concessions as part of a deal to end the war. So like I've said before, we're in it, President Trump threw down pretty hard yesterday. Ticking time bomb, 8pm I think Eastern Daylight time Tuesday night is the deadline he's given him. We're going to get into all of it, the economics of it, the geopolitics of it, the national security. And incredible. And incredible. Incredible joint operation yesterday to retrieve the weapons officer on the, on the F15. Just incredible. Of course, people are asking, was that really just a cover to go after the nuclear dust. We're getting to all of that this morning. Eric Bowling, Sam Faddis, Trita Parsi and more. A cast of thousands here in the worm short break back in. What about Lake and Riley? It's Charlie too.

[Trita Parsi]

Hard to say. What about when you took your shot

[Stephen K. Bannon]

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Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.

[David Ignatius]

Yeah,

[Stephen K. Bannon]

the president yesterday was a combination of Patton about Rommel and the general in charge of the 101st Airborne at Bastogne. His response to the Germans, he was giving it to them with both barrels. But Sam Faddis, let me start with you. I got Eric up here. A lot to talk about on the Strait of Hormuz and the convergence of geopolitics and economics. There's all these rumors going around of course on the Internet about Yesterday's

[Sam Faddis]

really

[Stephen K. Bannon]

a 48 hour magnificent evolution as we call in the military to retrieve the weapons officer from the downed F15. And of course a lot of people saying, oh, this is just a cover on a failed mission to go get the nuclear powder. Your sense of things, what I think is striking to people and even Lisa, part of the conspiracy theory is it was a pretty big firefight and there were a lot of SEAL Team 6 and SEALs Team 6 are kind of the, the assassins. Right. The these guys go in as all SEAL teams are incredible as all of our Special Forces, Delta Force, you know, the Green Berets, Rangers, all of it. Force recon for the Marines, the special unit the Air Force has. But send in Seal Team 6 and have their fight and we still don't know if they're casualties from that or not. But I did, I believe we lost two C130s. And then this morning the Iranian Revolutionary Guard told President Trump no deals. Right? Nothing. We're not giving. We're not giving up on anything. Now that could change in 30 minutes, but at least that's what the Israeli papers are reporting. Your thoughts on that, Sam Faddis?

[Eric Bolling]

Right.

[Sam Faddis]

Well, first, obviously all credit where credit is due to the amazing folks who pulled off this op. And we got the weapons officer out alive. And as far as I know, we did not take any fatalities, although I do believe they were wounded. Okay, fantastic. Best military in the world. And we should thank God for that. We should also take stock of what happened and what it took to pull off this op we had to send in. Now, this is not a chopper with a handful of guys that hopped off the side and picked up a guy. This was a major operation and a major firefight and we ended up having to blow up two C130s on the ground. I think a little bird helicopter as well. And then there were multiple other aircraft hit during the course of the overall operation. So, you know, some takeaways to come off the top of my head. We were told these guys were getting ready to quit and in about three days of bombing it would all be over. That is not what we saw on the ground in Iran. We saw guys prepared to throw down. That does not mean we can't beat them. Just means you better stop thinking that they're going to fold. We were told their communications were gone, they can't communicate anymore. Well, we saw them in real time coordinate a very large operation to get this weapons officer and confront our guys. So obviously they can communicate and they are, they are still an effective force. We were also told by the way that their air defenses are no longer are non existent. Well, there's F15 that went down tells you that that is not true. I mean we have destroyed some types of air defenses. They have, they have in place now very asymmetric non conventional air defenses. Like they literally have loitering munitions drones that just hover.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Yeah, yeah, the A10 also down by the strait itself. Also I think a couple helicopters got hit. I don't think anything went down. I want to go back to something you said from the beginning, that they've got an operational plan because they, they had a contingency this day was coming. So it's not like CENTCOM Central Command. They disperse. Where this incredible rescue mission took place is in a pretty. It's not a suburb of Tehran. Right. It's also not near one of Their major, where they dispersed defense capabilities. Right. It's a fairly remote part down close, you know, pretty close to Iraq. So your theory is not just simply a Tehran and these other four or five big military installations they've got. But it looks like they may have dispersed all over, correct?

[Sam Faddis]

Yeah. Look, they spent 20 years watching the way we fight in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere. There are smart boys and girls. They developed a plan knowing precisely how we wage war and knowing that it would begin with decapitation, taking out major sites, essentially trying to destroy command and control. Their response to that was to create 31 separate commands, autonomous commands all around the country. And those pieces continue to fight on their own. And each one of those commands has access to everything you need to continue to fight, including the external. The military plus the basis the internal security guys, the thugs that beat people up in the street. They are all they, they understood what was coming. They have watched it for 20 years and they prepared for it. So that's, that's where we are now. The theory that you were going to hit them real hard in Tehran and they would collapse was never viable. It didn't happen. It hasn't happened. It's not going to happen. So. Okay, I'm not. That is not me saying we lose. It's just saying you need to accept that, face reality and adapt. Our strategy has to be modified. We can't keep just thinking we'll repeat the same thing we've done and get a different result.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Also this fantasy, at least a fantasy up till now that there's going to be some massive uprising in the streets. I think President Trump said, hey, we sent some weapons because this gets down to are these people armed? Can they fight back against the internal security? And we sent them to the Kurds. I think he said it looks like the Kurds kept them. Which if I'm a Kurds, probably not a bad, probably not a bad alternative. The Americans are going to send us weapons. You know, maybe, maybe we get them there and maybe we just keep them because we're always being double dealt by everybody. So let's just, let's just hunker down. This goes back to my point. We don't have any friends in this region. None. The world, America's greatest ally, ain't a friend. The Saudis are not a friend. Mbz, you know who glazes President Trump all the time. He's not a friend. They're all looking out for themselves. And given what a cockpit that place is. Right. Maybe it's to their benefit to do that. But don't think you've got any friends over there. You may have alliances of convenience when it suits them. Hang on for a second, Sam, I'm gonna get back to you in a second. All this, I wanna go to the, to the economics of it, Eric, Is it appropriate to say that even with the explosion of prices kind of over the weekend or for the last trades, that people are kind of on tenterhooks now, waiting for what President Trump says at one o' clock and then this deadline, which has been pushed, I think theoretically to 8:00pm Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday.

[Eric Bolling]

Yeah, he added 20 hours. It was supposed to end this evening, he pushed it to Tuesday. So very interesting phenomena happening. But first of all, regarding what Sam was just talking about, guys, we've been talking about exactly what's happening right now for the past four weeks. We said, in fact, Steve, we sent, I sent the video of us talking this exact idea into Hegseth and into Susie Wiles that you need to bomb the literal daylights out of these folks. You need to take out their media, their infrastructure, their roads, their bridges. Maybe clearly there'll be civilian deaths in it. But that's what you need to do to get the IRGC back to the bargaining table, hat in hand, and then you can work out some negotiations. It feels like Trump is melding together this kind of the art of war, as Sam points out, with the art of the deal, which he is all about. And I just have this hope and suspicion that he's going to get what he wants. The other side of that is I also know Trump, as you do as well, that he's not going to be, I guess, disrespected on a global stage with the irgc telling him to go take a hike with all his attempts on negotiations. And I believe he will unleash hell on them. And I think that's what everyone's waiting for. Will this be the, you know, will we get another 45 day pause? Will we get a ceasefire? Will we get hell unleashed on Iran, which would be the oil markets? And so everything is kind of in limbo right now. Very nervously trading a very tight range. Oil, $112 a barrel, gasoline up to $4.12 nationally a gallon. Brent is trading $130 a barrel right now. It could be a lot higher. If we do do unleash hells, bomb them back to the Stone Angels, you'll see probably a $150 barrel of US of WTI and 180, $200 barrel of Brent So, and that would be very, very negative to the stock market. The other thing that we, you and I chatted about, Steve, offline, was this idea that, you know, this is, even if all things ended right now, there's international U.N. i guess it was U.N. study saying even if the strait were opened today and ceasefire declared today, we're looking at, we're looking at months forward of pain at the pump, higher inflation and maybe there's a possibility of sending the world into a global recession, which would be bad for everyone else too. But again, there's, there's an off ramp. Trump may be thinking about various options, but he's got to portray that the only option to him left is to bomb the crap out of Iran, which I don't think is a bad idea. I think letting them know that he's willing to go and he's ready to go, that's what he's good at in these, these, they've clearly seen that.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Then you're, you're saying that he's, when

[Eric Bolling]

he goes,

[Stephen K. Bannon]

you're, you're saying he's caught an escalatory trap, that he actually has to escalate now, Is that what you're saying? Because these guys, nothing over the weekend has shown, hang on, nothing over the weekend has shown they're even prepared to negotiate with people or talk to people directly. There's something that JD's been up all night and trying to communicate with some guy. But the, the head, the guys came back today and said we're not giving up on anything. Right? We're not going to give one inch, one concession. I think they're coming back with their own 15 point plan. I tell you what, Eric, hang on for one second. Sam Fedis, Eric Bolling. To kick off Easter Monday, really an incredible heroic and it tells you about the, really the valor of our, because the equipment's incredible, the communication, when it gets down to it, it's the valor and savvy and toughness and grit of our troops. The pilot himself climbed up to 7,000ft injured. Just incredible, incredible weekend. But we're now down into it. President at one o' clock from the White House, short break, back in a. War room.

Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.

If Sam, let me get to what Eric said. Do you think President Trump right now is, is trapped in what we call the escalatory trap? That he's got a, he's got to go up to the, he's got to go up the escalator. Particularly if what Haaretz and some of the Israeli media is reporting that the Iranian Guard, because people don't really know who speaks for who, what faction, who's in charge. I mean one of the problems we got, you've got the Pakistanis and the Egyptians, the Turks, everybody's trying to organize the Saudis. You know, you got a couple of guys here, a couple of guys there, but at least and Haaretz a pretty good paper they're saying the Revolutionary Guard is saying, hey, here's what you think about your 15 points. There's no deal, there's no cease fire, we don't need a meeting. We're going to send you over our 15 standby. It sounds a little bit, they, they almost sound like they are taking the style of President Trump and using against President Trump, sir.

[Sam Faddis]

Yeah, well, I think we are potentially that, that's precisely where we are. I mean this is what I mean by we tried something based on an idea we had of how, what would happen, that they would fold. And now since that didn't work, it appears our plan is let's just do more of that without, without reevaluating, without, without stopping and thinking about what's really happening here. And I, as I keep saying, I mean we're, we're in this war so we gotta win this war. We don't have a rewind button. We can't go back and revisit that decision. We cannot walk away and have been defeated by the Islamic Republic of Iran. But we do need to think about why is it not working and let's change that. So if we're going to bomb them, what are we going to bomb exactly? Given that they have moved to a decentralized system, because continuing to think we're just going to bomb certain key nodes and they will collapse is not enough. We also have to anticipate as we back them further and further into a corner, what are they going to do? Up until now you and I have been talk about how the Straits of Hormuz are the center of gravity here, by which we really mean oil and gas coming out of the Gulf. Okay, but when you get the Iranians in a corner and really out of options, what happens when they decide to destroy the oil and gas infrastructure of the Persian Gulf? So you're not looking at reopening the Straits, you're looking at nothing's coming out of Kuwait and any other country in there.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

One of the reasons, yeah, one of the reasons. And we're going to spend more time on this in the next couple days. One of the reasons we went back in recent history and Talked about the 1980s is as they've gone down on the command structure and taken out the senior people. They're getting into mid level and below. These are all people that came in as volunteers, as first lieutenants, second lieutenants, non commissioned officers, the nine year old, the 12 year old kids that gave them a stick and said the Iraqis over there go charge. Like in World War I and in Korea. These are not, we're not getting. As you go down the ladder, you're not getting to Jeffersonian Democrats or members or guys that went through the enlightenment. You're getting the harder. You're getting harder core people who their entire life, their formation of them as young men was in a brutal war that was a war that they had to win against at that time, Saddam Hussein in the west, right? And so you're getting people that know how to dig in and these are Persians to start with. You layer on top of it this radical theocracy, right? This martyr, this whole philosophy and religion based around martyrdom. These are, you know, these are tough people formed in the crucible of an apocalyptic war, which it was, I think, I think there was a million casualties over the eight years of that war. And you think about in Vietnam, the casualties. I think we had 50,000 killed, obviously, tens of thousands of more casualties and millions on the Vietnamese side. This was and people should remember and this I told the Sunday Times, I said, look, the military's had 12,000 sorties. They're going to, I think the target right now is 13, 5 or 14,000 sorties before they say at least their initial mission is accomplished. We've only had a couple planes shot down. That is a pretty remarkable. But we're hitting these people. We hit them again last night. It's a relentless hitting of the kind of defanging and declawing of their conventional military apparatus. Sam. But these guys are totally asymmetric now and they're going to fight an asymmetric war. And these appear to be people who would rather die than surrender or particularly capitulate to the Great Satan. Sir.

[Sam Faddis]

Yeah, as I've said to you many times, I worked against the Iraqis and the Iranians for many years. The Iraqis were absolutely ruthless. The Iranians were every bit as ruthless, but frankly a heck of a lot more organized in that sense and smarter in the way they operated and more dangerous. They were the folks you really had to watch yourself against. And your use of the term asymmetric is dead on, Steve. I mean, look, you know, we're worried about missile batteries and them shooting down planes the way we would. Okay, we should worry about that. But the fact of the matter is they've moved now to using these loitering munitions. And I'm not talking about things that go up in the air and then hit a tank on the ground. They're like sky mines. They go up and they hover thousands of feet in the air pass. And they have passive infrared sensors. And when your F15 Strike Eagle comes by, they impact it. There's, they're, you know, it's not an area there. We're looking for radar systems, we're looking for SAMs, we're looking for all of this stuff. And they have relatively cheap munitions hovering over key areas. This is back to the psychology at least of the Vietnam War.

[David Ignatius]

Right.

[Sam Faddis]

We're using massive conventional force and we're fighting an enemy that's fighting us very unconventionally and asymmetrically.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Yep. Hanger for one. In fact, a bomb to the Stone Age came, I think from Curtis LeMay in the Vietnam War. Hanger, one second. Trita, where do we stand? Haritz is reporting that the Revolutionary Guard has responded to our feelers through various sources of trying to, you know, trying to try to have a climb down at least before tomorrow evening's deadline. And they're telling us, hey, no interest, no deals. We'll come back to you later with our own 15 point plan. Your thoughts?

[Trita Parsi]

I think the Iranians are open for negotiations, but they're not going to agree to a ceasefire unless they get what they want. Because the track record of Israel and the United States for the last two, three years when it comes to ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon has been very clear. Those ceasefires are rather quickly violated and they're used in order to be able to regroup, rearm and then relaunch attacks. So the Iranians are not going to fall for that. And particularly if it's these kind of phased ceasefires. First Iranians do everything up front and then in phase two or phase three, the US responds with some concessions. Those are complete non starters and I don't think we should waste time on that because reality on the ground is this is not the type of scenario that existed before the war in which the US had a lot of leverage vis a vis Iran. Now the Iranians have a lot of leverage over the US as well. That requires real compromises and that's going to take some time. But if you start off those negotiations with these kind of low ball offers, you're Just wasting time, frankly. And right now, time is not on Trump's side. If I were him, I would move much faster towards real negotiations that did not require the Iranians to give up everything up front and then the US taking measures in phase two, because those are just non starters, it's not going to work.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Trita, help me out here and help the audience out. When you say real negotiations, President Trump, this is one of the things that drove him crazy. And you and I talked about this, drove him crazy. Beginning that the Iranians would be in one room, you know, Witkoff and Kushner in another room. You have either someone from Oman or some intermediary passing notes back and forth. Who is he really supposed to negotiate with? If you had a recommendation right now you got the Pakistanis working one thing, the Saudis working another, the Turks working another. You've got guys coming up as spokesman. I mean, if President Trump wants to make a deal and talk to somebody, and JD's been up all night, the media is telling us, talking to somebody who is the President, United States supposed to interact with, that not only can deliver a, or have a meaningful conversation about what you just talked about, but also, if they reached a deal, could actually execute it inside of Iran. Sir.

[Trita Parsi]

So, Steve, earlier on, I think this was a very valid concern, that the methodology of the negotiations were highly problematic. And that was overwhelmingly the fault of the Iranians in which they originally only had these meetings in which notes were passed from one room to another through the Omanis. The talks in Geneva, Kushner and Witkoff sat in the room with Iranian negotiators and they were actually direct negotiations with them. So the methodology had improved and it should have been done so from the very outset. I think it was a huge mistake by the Iranians to do it in the manner that they did. At this point, however, I don't think the problem is in the methodology. The problem is that the two sides are too far away from each other on the substance of the issue and that both sides are driving rather maximalist positions, and particularly Trump kind of still acting as if he can dictate the outcome here. That is not the reality on the ground. The Iranians have the ability to squeeze the American economy in a manner that they didn't have before this war was started. And as a result, even though of course the methodology needs to improve, et cetera, et cetera, the real problem is in the substance here. Now the US side can talk to the Iranians through the Pakistanis and others. There's nothing wrong with those channels per se. But if the starting point is essentially Iran gives up everything in terms of control of the Strait of Hormuz, and then in phase two, the US reciprocates the track record of the last couple of years have made sure that no country that has leverage will ever trust the US to get to phase two or phase three. And as a result, they won't even bother even contemplating phase one. That's the problem of having done in the manner that the Israelis wanted to do it in Gaza and Lebanon. It's just destroyed that credibility and has put us in a much, much harder position.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

I'm not saying this is reality, but I want to know the reality. As the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the folks running the country, and particularly running the military look at it, do they believe that they have the initiative in this war right now and not the Americans?

[Trita Parsi]

I think it's quite clear that that is their perception. And again, whether that perception is entirely true or not could be a very different story. But I think that they do believe that they have an escalatory dominance here. Because, for instance, let's say that Trump activates his threat. And by the way, the Israelis are currently bombing power grids and energy infrastructure in Iran long before the deadline has been met. Whether they're doing it right now in order to sabotage any small prospect for the Iranians agreeing to some sort of a ceasefire, or. Or if all of this is once again another ruse in which diplomacy is not serious from either side, we don't know yet. But nevertheless, they're doing it regardless of Trump's deadline. But let's say that that goes forward, what the Iranians can then do, and they've already shown the ability to do it, is to take out the oil infrastructure in the region, not just stopping ships from going through the Strait of Hormuz. The reason why we have high oil prices right now is not because oil is not being pumped out of the ground. It's because the oil is stuck in the Persian Gulf and it can't get through. But once the Strait, the oil will go through very quickly and oil prices can come down very quickly. However, if Trump activates his threat and goes after the oil infrastructure and other power infrastructure in Iran, and the Iranians retaliate by taking out the oil and gas infrastructure in the GCC states that we're not just talking about oil getting stuck in the Persian Gulf, we're talking about oil and gas not getting out of the ground. And that will then require years of recuperation before it actually gets back to normal state. And then oil prices will not come down quickly. Rather they will stay high for a long period of time. That will be devastating for the global economy and for the United States. And that will destroy Trump's presidency. That's why I think the Iranians feel confident that they have an escalation dominance. Trump can do a lot of things in terms of blowing things up, but strategically, the Iranians can do a lot to destroy his presidency.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Trita, I know you got a bounce. Just hang on for a second. I got a couple more questions. Sam Fatt is going to stick with us. We're going to get back to Eric Bowling on all things geoeconomics. Short break.

Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.

A treat, a thank you. Thank you for coming on the show over the last, what, 38, 40 days of this war and even beforehand and helping us think this through. What do you think to be helpful, to try to get this thing sorted right? What do you think would be, what would be helpful from President Trump today at 1:00 clock and then from the Persians? How do you anticipate if we're to get anywhere or just keep slugging it out? Because President Trump's not a, you know, he's a guy who says, hey, look, if this is what you want to do, we'll just slug it out. What are your thoughts on that?

[Trita Parsi]

Well, let's first better understand what slugging it out would mean. You know, Trump went in here with some clear objectives. It didn't work out because it was based on a false understanding of the reality on the ground that had been sold to him by the Israelis. But at this point, when you listen carefully to what he's saying, it appears that as if our options here have been reduced to the Israeli strategy of mowing the lawn, which the Israelis use against Lebanon, against the Palestinians, which is every six months to two years, they just go back to bombing them just to make sure that they can never actually end up achieving anything that could pose a challenge to Israel. So it's not a solution. It's just a constant state of warfare. And this is how the Israelis have pursued their immediate security in the region, because they have kind of given up or not been interested in actually achieving peace. So they're in this endless state of warfare. And Trump has said that he's just going to take out as much as possible, bomb them back to the Stone Age and add it to that, and then the next president may have to go back and bomb them again in a couple of years, that means that we would end up in a permanent state of war with Iran. Now, that may very well be Israel's preference. I think it is. But this would be devastating for the United States. We should not be here. And Trump himself is the person who, more than any other politician, has railed against these endless wars. And this would be, by definition, an endless war. So I think we have to really recognize that if we agree to that, then we've completely fallen into the trap of doing something that Trump campaigned on not doing and ending, actually. So what can be done at this point? I think, first of all, there has to be an effort to fully end the war, not ceasefire. We don't have any credibility with ceasefires any longer because of what has happened in Gaza and Lebanon for the last two to three years. So if we want to have any serious talks, it has to be about ending the war altogether. Three weeks ago, I thought it would be possible that if we offered sanctions relief, making sure that Iranian oil got back onto the market, which would be good for the US because it would push down oil prices. But if we could add something to that, which is to make sure that the Iranians at least sell half of that oil in US Dollars instead of Chinese currency, it actually could be a win for us and the Iranians would agree to it. Open up the straits. At this point, I think it's become much harder because now increasingly I'm seeing messages from the Iranian side or signals from the Iranian side that they're not looking at using the Strait of Hormuz as a way of ending the war. They're looking at it as a way of managing the post war era in which they're going to use the control of the straits, not to close it, but to control who comes in, who comes out, pays transit fees, and to use that to reestablish economic relations with countries that over the last 10, 15 years have more or less ceased to have any economic relations with Iran as a result of US Sanctions, if that is the direction they're going. This is going to become much, much harder. But when Trump says, hey, I don't care about the straits, we're not getting any energy out of that region, it's all going to Asia, et cetera. It kind of, I think, has led to the Iranians believing that they can pursue their strategy. Trump will just give up on this trade of Hormuz. They will reopen it, oil will flow again, but they will be in control of this trade as a new geopolitical feature in the region. I don't know if that's going to shift, but that is where they seem to be right now. And I think, if we're very honest, we will see that the US's negotiating position has gradually degraded during these last 35 or so days. And there's nothing to point to that really suggests that it could be shift in a positive direction with some sort of a silver bullet. And my fear then is that if we wait too long, we will be in increasingly negative negotiating position vis a vis the Iranians. So I would move fast, and I would move fast to just end the war. Not a ceasefire, offer some sort of a sanctions relief, but in return request things from the Iranians that actually really matter to the us, which is, for instance, making sure that the petrodollar is not undermined.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Trita, where do people go to get your observations and analysis? Very, very enlightening.

[Trita Parsi]

They should go to my Twitter, which is TPARCY, or go to the Quincy Institute's website, which is quincyinst.org or my substack, which is Astrita Parsi.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Trita, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

[Trita Parsi]

Thank you so much.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Appreciate it. Thank you, brother. We're gonna keep. We're gonna go the White House. The President's coming out for the Easter egg event they put on for the children, but he's talking about Iran. Let's go right to it.

Does he have a good voice for a white. I think we're gonna send him to the Met. We'll get a little commission, make a lot of money, because that man can sing. Thank you very much. Not the first time we've heard him. So today is a very special day. It's a day where we celebrate Jesus. It's a day where we celebrate religion. And it's an honor to be the President of the United States. Our country is doing so well, like it has never done before. You'll see that very shortly. And things that we've done have not been done before. We've broken every record on the stock market. We've broken every record in our military. And what about the rescue that took place yesterday? What about that? It's something that you rarely see. You know, they were giving me a briefing about that, and they said, normally when you're in very hostile territory, and I don't think it gets much more hostile than Iran. They're capable fighters. They're very tough people. And there are others like that. You don't mind when the enemy is weak, but that enemy is strong. Not so strong like they were About a month ago, I can tell you. In fact, right now, they're not too strong at all, in my opinion. But we're soon going to find out, aren't we? But when a thing like that happens, where a pilot shot down, in most instances, you're really not able to go in because you'll go in with 200 people and lots of jet fighters and helicopters and you really don't have a chance. They get shot down, you lose 200 in order to pick up one. It's a horrible thing, but it's very rare that you can do it. And what we did yesterday is we picked up not one, we picked up two. We kept the first one quiet and we were able to keep it quiet for about a day, which made it a lot better. But those two pilots were incredible, brave and. And we thank them. And we're going to be having a news conference today at 1:00 clock at the Oval Office, and we look forward to it. But I just want to say we have a great military. We have the greatest military, the most powerful military any place in the world. You saw what happened with Venezuela, and it's an honor. I built it on my first term and I didn't know I was going to be using it this much in my second term, Second term, but it's my honor. And they're the greatest people on earth. Our warriors are the greatest fighters on earth. And they very much appreciate you and love you, and that's why they do it. So this is all about today. I must tell you. I came out and I expected we were going to be talking about farmers, and we love our farmers. We were going to talk about so many different products. But you know what they want to talk about, sir? This is about eggs. Eggs, because we have the egg farmers of the entire country here and they are unbelievable. And if you remember when I first got elected, my first news conference with the fake news, a lot of fake news here today, but I had a news conference and the first question, what are you going to do about eggs, sir? I said, what do you. What's wrong with eggs? I just got there. It's my second day in office at a news conference and they were screaming at me, what am I going to do about eggs? And I said, well, it's like, tell me what's wrong with eggs. The price was so high, it was four times higher than it was a year before. I said, well, that sounds like a problem. Let me think about it. And Brooke Rollins, our great Secretary of Agriculture, she got involved. We all got involved. They didn't want me, as you know, just last year, it's hard to believe.

[Sam Faddis]

Believe.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

They didn't want me to order eggs for the Easter Egg Roll, the Easter egg hunt that we have here every year. They wanted me to use plastic. I said, I'm not using plastic. We'll get it solved. And within a short period of time, eggs came down. They came down 40%, 50%. And by the time we got there, we had so many eggs, we didn't know what to do with them. And today we have more than 40,000 eggs supplied by all of the great egg farmers that are with us. So eggs is a big thing, and it was a big thing to our great first lady, who's here someplace. Let's see. I think this is our first lady. What do you think of our first lady? She's a movie star. I don't know. Do we call her first lady or a movie star? She has the biggest movie. Can you believe this? And she deserves it. Would you like to say a couple of words to your friends?

Happy Easter Monday.

[Eric Bolling]

I hope you enjoyed this beautiful day.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

We are celebrating a very special Easter Egg Roll this year because it's 250th birthday of this beautiful nation.

[Eric Bolling]

Enjoy it, and I hope you have a wonderful day.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Thanks.

Thank you, honey. And she worked very hard with her staff and the staff of the White House on really just making it nice. This is the nicest I've ever seen. And so this is my fifth. And I will say that this is. It gets better every time, right? It gets better every time. You notice the fencing is all brand new. I said, you know, we could have bought used fencing and saved a lot of money. They said, this is for the. This is for Easter, and this is for our farmers, and we're going to get new fencing. Everything's new and everything's beautiful. And the White House never looked better, and our country never looked better. So I just want to thank everybody. It's been a special period of time. One year ago, a little bit more. Our country was dead. We had a dead country. We had an administration that didn't know what the hell they were doing. Today we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. We're respected by everybody, and that's the way we're going to keep it. That's the way we're going to keep it. So, again, I want to thank all of the associations and the egg farmers and all of the people that are here. We think we could have 50,000 people coming all day long, it's open and they expect between 30 and 50,000 people. So that's great. And most importantly, I want to just say happy Easter and God bless America. We have the greatest country on earth. God bless you all. You are very, very special people. Thank you, everybody. Have a good time.

The president. Easter parade right there. Can we pick up the music? They're going to go the egg roll. Real America's voice. We're going to split the stream, as we call it. You're going to be able to watch that because it's always a fun event, historic event. President Trump and the first lady really get into this and do it right. There are thousands of people there right now, including many of the associates of the war room having a good time this morning with their children, as it should be. We're going to go back to the war and we're going to leave the White House with enjoying Easter Monday, traditional Easter Egg Roll. And of course, the screen will be there. Sam Faddis, a treat of Parsi and what the president just said. One o' clock today, folks. You do not want to miss us. Now, the president says back in the Oval Office, I believe because of the demand of so much media that wants to attend, I think they put it into the press briefing room. I would not be surprised. They moved it to the East Room. My understanding is there's an overwhelming response by the media to want to be there because it looks like the Revolutionary Guard has said right now they're not interested in a deal. What did you think about that? And then I'll get to Eric Bolling about what Trita said on the oil infrastructure. Sam Faddis, your thoughts on Trita Parsi.

[Sam Faddis]

Well, Steve, look, here's something you don't hear me say every day. I agree with Trita Parsi's assessment in the sense that he understands that the center of gravity of this war is the world economy, the flow of oil and gas, and then all the other really critical byproducts produced from them. And so we're talking about wanting the Iranians to negotiate. We want them to surrender. We want them to concede. They don't think they need to concede. They don't think they're losing. And they have a point because they have the world by the throat. So we're fighting this conventional war against their military, and they've shut down the Straits of Hormuz. But then they are also poised to take out the oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf. Which means what? When the war finally ends, minimum probably Five years and nobody has any idea how many billions of dollars to reconstruct it. And in the meantime, we go into economic free fall worldwide. So that's their leverage. We want them to quit. They don't think they're have to quit because they think they're winning. Right now, that's where we are, whether we like it or not. We can pretend.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Does that surprise you given your, given Your decade, your 20 years of work in this file, but your decade in country, does that surprise you about the Persians?

[Sam Faddis]

No. Nothing about this surprises me and wouldn't surprise anybody who's worked against them and understands that regime. And the irgc, if you're going to tee off against them in what is an existential fight from their side, the first thing that's going to come to mind is, okay, well, they're not going to collapse. And at some point when we push them hard enough, they're going to basically take a blowtorch to the world economy. So what's the plan for how we stop them from doing that before the first bomb falls? Before how? They're going to send 10,000 drones headed for the oil and gas fields in the Persian Gulf. So how many? And you tell me. We got 90% interception rate. That's fabulous, guys. That's still 1,000 drones that are going to hit oil and gas infrastructure. So how much damage is that going to be caused and what are the, what's the impact? And all of that should have happened obviously before anybody pulled the trigger, but apparently we were sold this bill of goods that we don't have to worry about that because in a few days it's all over but the shouting. Those troops will be home by Christmas and we win.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Well, I think they're going now for state. Total state collapse. Hang on, put a pin in, because I want to. One of the buried leads, a treata is something that I did fail to mention this morning on news reports. And America's greatest allies have already started, have already started going after the infrastructure. Just hang on for a second, Sam. I want to go to Eric Bolling. Eric, given what Trita said, does that change your assessment at all? Is that how you see this playing out? At least from their perspective of what they're trying to accomplish?

[Eric Bolling]

So what Trita said is something we've been talking about a long time, that, yeah, the whole Mideast loves $100, $120, $150 barrel of oil. I also think I'll add to what Trita said and what Sam said is that they do have the ability to go after oil infrastructure in the region. But before they go down, these people are martyrs. They'll blow up their own infrastructure as well, and then they'll do whatever they can to keep the strait closed as long as they can before any sort of relent or surrender to the Trump administration. So they're going to fight it out. I'll also take the other side of both of those. Those very astute, smart gentlemen say it's a fool's game to doubt Trump, even if you don't see it coming. There's always something up his sleeve that he has. And I just think he's got some form of negotiation that he's ready to play. I've never seen a president that could stand at the South Portico of the White House and talk about egg rolls and Easter bunnies while bombing the spit out of the Iranian people. He's just got that. And I just, I hope that he realizes something that I think they do. I hope they realize that. Yeah, we're up. We're for 12 a gallon right now, Steve. We're headed to $5 a gallon. The faster it gets there and starts its way down, the better because I. This sounds ridiculous. On the short term, we could lose aggressively lose the midterms, the House, maybe even the Senate. And that, that's something that I don't in America, I don't really. We've made so many strides with Trump. I'd hate to give it all back over one issue like this.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Talk to me about Trita mentioned the petrodollar. People have to understand, I think right now, at least what we're seeing is that the tolling that the Revolutionary Guard pirates are putting on anything coming out of Hormuz, first of all, it's only going to really their allies are there new would be ally. I think India, because India gets some of this too. It's all being my understanding. Everything's being transacted in yuan, the Chinese currency. He mentioned the petrodollar. And this is going to get to be the pressure on the US Dollars. This is getting the BRICS nations another bite at the apple and trying to destroy the United States financially, particularly folks on this budget that just got put up and it's been out three days. We haven't had a chance to talk to you about it because it is pretty, I think, shocking and we have to address it because the deficits are talking about are substantial and gonna put additional pressure on the US Dollar. Talk to people about this whole fight behind the Scenes on the financial war between using the Chinese currency and you can tell Iran is hardwired with the Chinese Communist Party on this and treat it as like a give. Hey look, it's a big negotiation. We'll give you the survival of the petrodollar. I mean, that's just said casually, that is a huge deal. And to understand that they think, and remember he was given their perspective that they think that they got us by the throat on that is a, is a pretty big headline, sir.

[Eric Bolling]

Yeah, he's right about one thing, that, that if you do open up this idea to the world that the US dollar is no longer the currency that you trade global commodities, oil, gold, various forms, you have to go to the US buy US Dollars, dollars to trade a barrel of oil all around the world. If you move to the yuan or some sort of BRIC currency which they've been trying to do, you devalued the dollar. Greatly, greatly devalued the dollar. And that means every asset that we hold in US Dollars will be devalued as well. It's a very dangerous game of chicken there as well. I think the stability, the global stability of the dollar will remain. There are too many weird things going on in China, too many things going on, going on in let's say Russia. And then the BRIC countries or businessmen are smart. They're not going to do it just out of politics or political feelings or ideology. They're going to do it where the money is the safest. And still so far, the US dollar is the safest currency on the planet, bar none, by a long shot. But if you start undermining the integrity of the dollar, yeah, that is a major, major risk. These things are all so detrimental to our economy. A lot of folks are saying, oh, you know, this isn't a big deal, it's going to go away soon. It's not. Prices are going. Inflation is what we got Biden out of office with. We're going to be up against some massive inflation at the worst possible time politically. So I think this thing has to end and fast. Even if ends badly ended fast.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Many people are saying, hey look, this is just another Middle east war. I'm not interested in it. I want to watch what's happening on TV or other events or the final four. That's all fine. You may not have an interest in this war. This war definitely has an interest in you. First off, everything about the dollar and what they're trying to do with the dollar is directly involved interest rates. The ten year treasury, how we finance all this? I think diesel price, somebody told me diesel was six over. The engine room in Phoenix told me that Diesel was over six bucks a gallon. I think $6.18 in Phoenix today. Gasoline, increasing fertilizer price for food. This is all inextricably linked into the global economy. That's why the Iranians, although they're getting crushed and Captain Fanell and CENTCOM are absolutely correct on a conventional military sense, they are getting crushed like very few people in this world have gotten crushed. I think it shows you their toughness. Now there is this thing they've already had to go to, a barter economy. They may be relatively close to a state collapse. Even in a state collapse, is that going to stop their kind of asymmetric warfare? Particularly as you got these pirates that are down close to the, to the Hormuz, the Strait of Hormuz and those islands down there that have really set up a tolling operation to kind of restrict flow. And right now it doesn't even mean insurance. Just captains aren't prepared to put it at risk and go there and take a couple of incomings, sending on a million barrels of oil that'll blow them to kingdom come. So this war has a direct interest in your financial and economic well being. Eric Bolling, closing thoughts and then tell us where to get you. We're going to have the president's at 1, Eric Bolling will be at 4. We're going to do a transition with Eric, talk all about it. And then at five and six o' clock tonight live, we're going to break it all down for you. Eric, closing thoughts and then where do we get you, sir?

[Eric Bolling]

So the closing thought is this. First of all, there's only 13 ships that have navigated the Strait of Hormuz in the past week. Week still ridiculously low. It's nowhere near open, not even close. So what happens, Steve, if the dollar gets devalued? A weaker dollar forces inflationary. It's an inflationary force because you need more dollars to go after the same goods. So you're chasing more goods. Inflation isn't up. It just gets jacked up as the dollar gets gets sold, which will happen if they take the geopolitical requirement of the US Dollar to trade oil and others. And then you already have the fuel prices pushing inflation higher as well. You have a double bang effect of inflation higher on the US Economy. There's only one solution to that. That's raising interest rates. That puts, that puts a weight an anchor on the equity markets. It's all bad. Inflation is the silent killer and it will kill the economy, the US Economy, maybe the global economy as well, needs to happen fast, faster, better. Steve. And again, I'm very, very worried about midterms at this rate. I'm not being doom and gloom. I think Trump has the ability, even if it goes to five bucks a gallon, he can start working the down south and go into the midterms with better pricing.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Eric Bolling, thank you. We'll see you back here at 4 o'.

[Sam Faddis]

Clock.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

We'll do a transition towards the end of the show. You're going to be following President Trump. 1:00pm President Trump said Oval Office. Caroline Levit said they may shift down to the briefing room. We're going to see you're going to get the president in rare form today and we're going to cover it all. Short break.