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- [00:00]
Stephen K. Bannon
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
Simone Sanders Townsend
Guaranteed Human.
- [00:05]
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Weeknight. I'm Simone Sanders Townsend with Eugene Daniels and Jackie Alemani in for Alicia and Michael. Let's get right to tonight's breaking news. Donald Trump just caved, backing down from his fake deadline, averting for now what the President described this morning as an attack on Iran that would lead to the death of a, quote, whole civilization.
- [00:27]
Pete Hegseth
Let's continue our breaking coverage. Donald Trump has announced that the United States has reached a two week ceasefire agreement with Iran contingent very important point here on Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier tonight, MSNOW reported that more than 50 House Democrats are now calling for Trump's removal either through impeachment or the 25th Amendment in the wake of Trump's threats against Iran.
- [00:52]
Iran has been a threat to the United States and the free world for 47 years. Chance of death to America, targeting our people, killing Americans, lying and blackmailing their way toward a nuclear weapon. So they thought, no longer. Not on our watch. Other presidents marked time and kicked the can down the road. President Trump made history. From the strike that took out Qasem Soleimani, to tearing up the disastrous Obama Iran deal, to the precision campaign that obliterated Iran's nuclear sites in Operation Midnight Hammer, to the decisive military victory we just achieved in Operation Epic Fury. No other president has shown the courage and resolve of this commander in chief. President Trump forged this moment. Iran begged for this ceasefire and we all know it as the president truth this morning, a big day for for world peace. Iran wants it to happen. They've had enough. Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield. A capital V military victory by any measure. Epic Fury decimated Iran's military and rendered it combat ineffective for years to come. You see, had Iran refused our terms, the next targets would have been their power plants, their bridges and oil and energy infrastructure. Targets they could not defend and could not realistically rebuild. It would have taken them decades. And we were locked and loaded. They couldn't defend against it. President Trump had the power to cripple Iran's entire economy in minutes. But he chose mercy. He spared those targets because Iran accepted the ceasefire under overwhelming pressure. This new regime was out of options and out of time. So they cut a deal. They know this agreement means that they will never, ever possess a nuclear weapon. Under the terms any nuclear material they should have will be removed. Any material, excuse me, they should not have, will be removed. Right now, their dust is deeply buried and watched 247 overhead. The President has been clear from the beginning, there will be no Iranian nuclear weapons, period. Full stop. Other presidents said it. President Trump did it. For decades, Iran killed Americans with roadside bombs in Iraq, using cowardly proxies to do their dirty work. While they hid safely in Tehran, they struck our embassies with car bombs and attacked from the shadows, never daring to face us toe to toe. They thought they could bleed America with impunity. Well, they just learned the hard way what happens when you try to fight us directly. And even when they got lucky one time in 40 days and down two of our pilots, they couldn't hold them. In a daring 14 hour rescue operation, seven hours in daylight and seven hours of night, both pilots were recovered safely not once, but twice. A daylight thunder run right up the middle of their country, boots on the ground. A midnight raid right up the middle of their country, boots on the ground, zero American casualties. The Iranians humiliated and demoralized. We control their fate, not the other way around. That's why they came to the table. The suffering their regime has inflicted around the world. Now we have a chance at real peace and a real deal. The War Department, for now, for now, has done its part. We stand ready in the background to ensure Iran upholds every reasonable term. And as everyone knows, nobody makes a better deal than President Trump.
- [05:16]
Trina Parsi
Anderson, I tend to withhold judgment until we know a little more and see, we don't really know what's happening in Iran. We don't know the strength of the system. I do think we've lost the plot, though, Anderson. I mean, you and I were talking back in January about the protests by the Iranian people, and I feel like we've lost that critical. You think destroying their civilization is a. I know, exactly. I mean, what we saw play out in the last 24 hours was so counterproductive to everything, and particularly the Iranian people are protesting for their civilization, for Iranian nationalism, against the Islamic Republic, the Islamic State of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And we've lost that. So, look, we have to see as the dust settles here, what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz. How intact is this regime? Is the Supreme Leader even in control? Is he alive? We actually don't know these answers, so we'll have to see. But obviously there are a lot of problematic elements here right now, and I think it's going to require some good diplomacy to try to pull them together.
- [06:16]
Reagan Reese
President Trump posted on Truth Social this morning that there has been a very productive regime change in Iran and that there will be no enrichment of uranium, and the US Will work with Iran to dig up and remove the deeply buried nuclear dust. So I just have two questions here. So both you, Mr. Secretary, and the President, have referred to a new regime in Iran. So is this not the regime that was at war with us for 47 years? And how do we, what do we think of when we're saying that this is a new regime? What are we thinking and what are we saying there?
- [06:54]
Steve Bannon
And then?
- [06:54]
Reagan Reese
My second question is, with any future deal with Iran, is their handing over of all of their enriched uranium and their promising not to enrich any future uranium be non negotiable for the US
- [07:09]
Pete Hegseth
it's always been non negotiable that they won't have nuclear capabilities. And so right now, it's buried. And we're watching it. We know exactly what they have and they know that. And they will either give it to us, which the President has laid out, they'll give it to us voluntarily. We'll get it, we'll take it. We'll take it out. Or if we have to do something else ourselves, like we did in Midnight Hammer or something like that, we reserve that opportunity. But what is clear, what the Iranian, the new Iranian regime knows is they'll never have a nuclear weapon or the capability to get a path to one. As far as the new regime, you heard the list that I read. It's a new group of people who've seen the full capability of the United States military and has a new calculus about what it means to negotiate with us. Hence why they came to the table wanting a ceasefire and the shooting to stop. So this new regime, which the regime has been changed, has a different interaction with the U.S. one America News.
- [08:04]
Simone Sanders Townsend
First of all, thank you to our troops. What role is our military playing in escorting vessels through the Strait of Hormuz at this point? And the President said on Truth Social that the US Will be hanging around to make sure everything goes well. Obviously, Mr. Secretary, you just mentioned, you know, we know, the scars from hanging around in Iraq for decades, but what does that entail in terms of our military presence at this juncture?
- [08:32]
Pete Hegseth
Yeah, we'll be hanging around, not going anywhere. We're going to make sure Iran complies with this ceasefire and then ultimately comes to the table and makes a deal. So we'll stay put, stay ready, stay vigilant. As the chairman laid out, our troops are prepared to defend, prepared to go on offense, prepared to restart at a moment's notice with whatever target package would be needed in order to ensure that Iran complies as far as the strait. You saw the initial agreement that was struck, which is Iran's letting ships go through. So they'll be, that, that will be happening. They will be sailing. And ultimately, as the President, I mean, we've done an incredible job militarily inside this raid of Hormuz. What Admiral Cooper, I failed to mention Admiral Cooper's name. He's done a phenomenal job, along with everybody at Afcent and Absent and Arcent and all the components down there laying the groundwork for Iran. Iran doesn't have the same ability to defend it the way they did before. And so as the President has pointed out to the rest of the world, we barely get any of our energy out of the strait, just a tiny fraction. It's time for the rest of the world to step up and ensure that that stays open. After President Trump and the War Department brought Iran to the place where they are voluntarily opening it right now, as was announced last night.
- [09:47]
Jack Posobic
But I will say that the President's demands, we have not reached any of those objectives. I have full confidence that the President is going to find some way to make this. But he said that we want to dismantle all major nuclear facilities. That has not happened. The end of uranium enrichment on the soil, they're still enriching. The transfer of the enriched uranium stockpiles out of Iran, that hasn't happened. The acceptance of intrusive international inspections, they're still not willing to do that. And they have not suspended their ballistic missiles program. They're still firing them off to stop the production of the long range missiles. That's just a few of them on the President's proposal. The question is, is the President using this two weeks to give our soldiers a break, a rest, to see if we can get this ultimately done? We'll see.
- [10:40]
David Zia
Good morning, Mr. Secretary. Mr. Chairman. David Zia, real America's voice during the ceasefire. What do we do when we see Iran rearming, regrouping, repositioning weapons systems and air defenses? And also have we confirmed the specific model, type of air Defense or MANPADS that took down our F15 and is it still a threat for our patrols?
- [11:06]
Captain Fennell
We're still working through the specific details around that particular shoot down. And the crews, when they normally return, go through a debriefing process along with the other members of that flight that were out there and they'll go back as they always do, and forensically look at what are the tactical lessons learned. Did we censor see something? Could we have done something Different. We do that as I mentioned in a prior press conference, every single time we take any loss like that so that we become a quick learning organization. On the other part of your question around the movement of Iranian military forces, US CENTCOM will continue to monitor that situation. They will continue to have a series of response options and if need be will come to the secretary to the president for guidance and be prepared to do the things that they're ordered to do so against valid military targets in accordance with the normal procedures that we have.
- [12:10]
Pete Hegseth
I would just note it's a good question. The more Iran moves, the more Iran moves forces, the more they emplace forces, the more easily targetable they are for us right now. Remember, we're able to look, we're able to see, we're able to sense, we know they where they. So if they try to pre position they're just creating riper military targets for us to strike should they make the wrong decision at the table. Sorry, it was an indictment framed as a question. So you're forgiven for understanding.
- [12:37]
Steve Bannon
Go ahead, please.
- [12:38]
Pete Hegseth
No, you've had your chance open right now.
- [12:41]
Steve Bannon
Thank you very much.
- [12:42]
Captain Fennell
I believe so. Based on the diplomatic negotiation, I believe so. It is always nice to see you.
- [12:47]
Pete Hegseth
Sorry.
- [12:48]
Sam Faddis
I trust President Trump. I know his heart. I know he wants to do the right thing. I know he has Lilliputians who are telling him to do something else. I know he has other advisors to telling him to do something else. He's the most understanding, competent of the bunch and he's the President of the United States and his instincts are very, very good. But I would say this, this enemy is still the enemy. They're still surviving. Their military may be destroyed, but the communist Chinese will still help them. The Russians will still help them to rebuild. And so this thing's not over. And it's not that I'm a warmonger, it's that they're a warmonger. It's not that I'm an interventionist. They're an interventionist.
- [13:41]
Steve Bannon
Wednesday the 8th of April in the year of our Lord 2026. Fairly dramatic. President Trump essentially, as I said last week when he gave the national address, I came, I saw, I conquered, I'm going to hang around and conquer a little more. Which he did. Major strikes over the last couple of days, not on their infrastructure but on their war making capacity. You heard the briefing by Pete Hegs as Secretary of War and General Kaine. We're going to get into it. The first question we're going to pose to our array of experts that have been with us since the beginning of the war is exactly what 10 points did anyone agree to? Because the Iranians and the European press are putting out something. I think that might be a little difference to folks at the White House, but we'll break it all down for you. I think we can say that the military objectives of this campaign have been met according to the Pentagon and according to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commander in chief of the Armed Forces of the United States. Short commercial break we're back with Poso Faddis. Captain Fennell, we're gonna go the White House. We got Eric Bolling on markets, all of it Today on the 1st, here's
- [15:06]
Stephen K. Bannon
your host, Stephen K. Band.
- [15:11]
Steve Bannon
I came forget the political article from last week. I came, I saw, I conquered. I said he's going to hang around and conquer a little more and then they're going to figure something out and we're all going to go home. Mark Levin, bad day for Tel Aviv Levin we'll have more of that total full meltdown. Lindsey Graham now saying. Lindsey Graham saying, well, you know, this is all good, President Trump's greatest negotiation world, but we're going to have to bring that to the Senate to get approval like the Obama deal did. I don't think Lady Lindsay I don't think it's going to happen. Okay, President Trump's going to make a deal and move on. Let's get so we got Fennell, Faddis, Poso and of course, Eric Boland. Let's go to the markets first. Some people got shredded yesterday, did they not, Eric? And I think the world's telling us at least the capital markets, it's time they agree with President Trump. Time to wrap this up and go home. I'm going to get into the part about exactly who thought they agreed to what, because I think there's a big difference in the bid and the ask about what the 10 points are. What even 10 points there are what we agreed to and what because the president went on Sky News, gave a 90 second interview or to the journalist and the guy said, well, hold it, the 10 points of the Iranians are totally maximalist points. In fact, they still control Hormuz. He goes, well, those are not the 10 that I'm talking about. So we'll get into more of that. But Eric, right now, capital markets, the oil market, commodities markets, telling us what
- [16:43]
Eric Bolling
the oil Steve, last night when we heard that Trump was going to accept the two week pause or ceasefire down $9 a barrel we woke up this morning and texted you it was down $20 a barrel. It's sitting $20 a barrel lower. That translates into lower gas prices. However, folks have to understand this is great news. You're talking about the capital markets. Sometimes when things bounce off a low like this, for whatever reason, we call it a dead cat bounce, which is a temporary bounce and then continuation of lower prices in equities. This isn't a dead cat bounce. This is a legit recovery. 1300 points in the Dow, 3% move in the indices. So the issue is gasoline will remain high, it'll go higher. We've talked about this with people. Hate to hear this. I'm just bringing the truth here, folks. That's it. You'll probably see gasoline continue the upward movements, up a dollar a gallon since we started. You probably see another, oh, at least, probably $0.40 higher on the pump price going forward, probably another three weeks, a month before it starts to trickle its way down. Good news is, Steve, it was quick. And we've been talking about how this needs to happen quicker so that we can clear out all the BS before the midterm elections. Can I just touch on one of the points in the 10 point whatever they sent over? Trump alluded to this in a couple of press conferences and the Iranians said that this was one of their issues, that they were going to collect $2 million per vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz. I did a little math here, Steve. That's $110 billion a year. And they were going to negotiate each point. So I'm praying, I'm hoping Witkoff and Jared and whoever else was negotiating, hopefully they said, let's do a 50, 50 split on that. You can get your reparations 50% of that 110 billion. But we're going to pay for our struggles here in the war struggles and ensure we don't have to deal with this again. And take that 50, $55 billion a year is a nice little chunk of change for us to be able to replenish our supplies as well. So I think there's a lot on the table right now. There was a rumor also of a potential Fed move on rates today, and I haven't confirmed it yet. But if Powell doesn't hate America, he'll lower and he will call a quarter point drop in the Fed funds rate, which will add some fuel to the recovery of our equity markets, which I think will be great for a midterm situation
- [19:10]
Steve Bannon
for people that went long on the civilizational takedown. They're dead men walking this morning. I mean, you always tell me, I see dead people. You see some dead people out there that were on the wrong side of this trade, sir?
- [19:26]
Eric Bolling
Yeah, I see dead people in markets, especially energy markets. And this whole time we've been on 40 days now, I was positioned to lose money if oil continued higher and stocks went down. Even though I said that was what was happening, people didn't believe me. That's the truth. I'm having, obviously a monster day today because oil is now down, stocks are up. The people who listen to the Mark Levins of the world, the doom and gloom people, the people who want Iran civilization wiped off the earth versus A negotiations are smoked. They literally got smoked overnight in a matter of. And there was no getting out. Steve. It happened at 6pm Eastern last night. You can't trade your way out of a massive position at 6pm or until the market really opens today. So they're getting crushed. They're probably going to defend their positions right now in the market. It moved a little bit against America for about an hour or so right now, but we'll see. I have a hunch towards the end of the day, you're going to see massive, massive selling in oil, massive buying in the equity markets. I will caveat yet with this. The problem is it's always one tweet away. It's always one important material tweet away from changing the whole dynamic. But right now, the ball is in Trump's court victory lap. It is Trump's court lower prices for gas.
- [20:47]
Steve Bannon
But here's. I think it's directionally what we've been saying and allowing all the different commentators coming here. President Trump had a certain set of military objectives, as Captain Fennell has told us. You heard again this morning from the Pentagon and from the Joint Chiefs. They believe those military objectives have been completed. Now, there's a very tenuous ceasefire. There's a lot of questions. The reason I keep emphasizing who are we actually dealing with, because it's not just who can sign a paper or tweet over something that they agreed to, certain things, who can actually enforce it. I think this whole situation, I believe the combination of Bedouins and Persians down on the Strait of Hormuz are going to have something to say about those fees and where they go.
- [21:34]
Stephen K. Bannon
Right.
- [21:35]
Steve Bannon
These are pirates. Okay? I don't know if they're going to let anybody horn in on that, including the guys that run the show in Tehran. I say, hey, you're in Tehran, we're here, right Dig us out. So there's a lot of moving pieces here, but I think directionally, you see, President Trump has said, hey, we've achieved the military objectives. P. Texas said, we're going to hang around and you got to clearly get this thing negotiated. It's just a temporary ceasefire. And there's a huge, you know, the point they made in making in Europe that the Iranians, these are maximalist positions from both sides. Maximalist positions on the Iranians, 10 points maximization, opposition on ours. You actually used the R word there. Reparations. I think President Trump's, you know, eyes would cross if he heard that word. He has no intention of paying the Iranians anything for that. But to be worked out. Eric, we'll see you back and do a transition with you at four. We'll let you get back into the pit and do some trading today. What's your social media and where they go to get your new shower?
- [22:32]
Eric Bolling
Bowling with a C. Just keep it on, Rav. I'm all over the place. Steve, you're really all over the place. And always, you gotta be commended for some of the stuff that we've been talking about for the last 40 days just materialized last night, 6pm Eastern. Congratulations to Ben and the war room for having. Anyone can report the news news. You go to the war room, you find what's going to happen next, which is all the difference in the world.
- [22:57]
Steve Bannon
See it for 50 on, on this, on this morning's show, we got bowling, Posobic, Sam Fatis, Captain Fennell, Trito, Parsi, Reagan, Reese. We're going to have hopefully David Azir and, and Neil McCabe. We're gonna get you as wide a range as possible of Gaffney again. We're get you the neocons and we're gonna get you other people, too. So you can make up your own mind, which is what needs to happen here. Can't be told what to do. You got to come up, think about it yourself. Use your agency. Eric, thank you so much. Jack Bosovic, you're gonna give us a bigger strategic picture here because there's a bigger strategic picture. But just tell me of what you've seen so far, particularly the direction you heard today, the Pentagon, what President Trump's been saying. Our military, your naval intelligence officer, but also the Iranians are running around Europe saying, we won this. They've agreed to these 10 points and these are maximalist positions. Your thoughts, sir?
- [23:55]
Stephen K. Bannon
Well, Steve, I'm not going to believe any 10 points until I hear them from the President of The United States, Donald J. Trump. And we've seen 10 points and 5 points and 15 points. And Pakistan came out with theirs and the Chinese Communist Party came out with theirs as well. And so we have to see when the dust settles, perhaps the nuclear dust in this case, when it settles to figure out what's going on. But, but I keep saying, and I've said from the very start that this people are looking at it and they're saying Israel, Iran, the United States. But I would submit to you that everyone is looking at the wrong straight. This has always been about China. This is about China and the BRICs and the multipolarity trying to rise themselves above what they see as the US Dominated UNI polarity. And they're trying to position this. You're already seeing this, Steve. They're trying to this as an American Suez. And they're talking about the fact that the tolls were taken as I've talked about just about every time I've been on here going back to day one, the fact that the tolls are being taken in Chinese Yuan. This is a trial run on the world stage with everyone looking proof of concept of de dollarization. De dollarization with oil sales backed in Chinese currency. Don't think for a second that that is not brics. That's not the Belt and Road Initiative. That's bri. And what is Xi Jinping? Just a couple of days. Well, the leader of the Taiwan opposition party just landed in China and she is going over to meet with Xi Jinping.
- [25:28]
Steve Bannon
Hold it. It's the party founded by Shanghai Shek. It's the, it is kmt.
- [25:34]
Stephen K. Bannon
They put Shanghai Shack and Chairman Mao together at gunpoint. When to say you got to fight the Japanese and join together, you know, it's kind of like you got the ghost of Chiang Kai Shek and the ghost of Chairman Mao looking down.
- [25:48]
Steve Bannon
Okay, real quickly, I need, I got about a minute. Tell this audience why Suez when they call this the American, when the Chinese are sitting there saying this is the American Suez, what does that mean for people that study geopolitics, sir?
- [26:03]
Stephen K. Bannon
Well, for people looking at it from a geopolitical perspective, when I believe it was Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal against the British and said, we are going to take this and we are going to have control of this canal. Now, again, the key maritime choke point, the British came in, they went to force it back open. The US Said no, we're not going to get involved, we're not interested. The countries in the region said, no, you know, we're not going to do this. That forced a withdrawal in that case, which we haven't seen in this case, by the way. But it marks sort of the, you know, the idea that on the world state, the British Empire was no more, that Pax Britannia no longer ruled the waves. And so the Chinese are very quietly trying to put that out now that that's what's happened to Pax Americana.
- [26:50]
Steve Bannon
Hang on, we're getting more into this. Passoba, Captain Fennell, Sam Faddis on the.
- [27:05]
Reagan Reese
Social he threatened to wipe out a civilization. That statement elicited a huge response in America if Iran did not come to the table and make a deal yesterday by the deadline, was the president really prepared to wipe out Iran entirely?
- [27:21]
Pete Hegseth
Like I said, we had a target set locked and loaded of infrastructure, bridges, power plants. Remember, this is a terror regime. The military regime used all of these things for dual use to fund their military, to fund their terror campaigns. We had a lot of legitimate targets. They knew exactly the scope of what we were capable of. We hit some military targets on Kharg, which is a bit of a signal they can't defend it. And so Iran ultimately understood their ability, their future to produce, to generate power to fuel their terrorist regime was in our hands, was in President Trump's hands. That's why they came to the table. He ultimately said, we can take it all from you. Your ability to export energy will be taken away, and the United States military has the ability to strike those things with impunity. That type of threat is what brought them to the place where they effectively say, hey, okay, we want to cut this deal.
- [28:17]
Steve Bannon
You know, it's interesting. I think it was Gavin Finnell yesterday, I think it was yesterday said that the love task that the president or the CENTCOM gave Carg island on the military was a precursor what was going to happen. Reagan Reese joins us. Reagan, bold question. Really appreciate you asking it, particularly coming from what I would call the Daily Caller. More conservative media, you know, New York Times, everybody saying, oh, these are softball questions. You guys ask anything, but you ask great questions all the time. What did you think of the response?
- [28:50]
Reagan Reese
Well, first I just want to say, Steve, yesterday I got a lot of texts from friends and family who are big supporters of President Trump's who were worried about that truth social post, who were scared, who didn't know what to expect, who thought that a larger war was going to escalate. And that's why I felt this question was really important to ask, like, what was behind this threat? Was it a real Threat the response. You know, the underlying question within my question is were we going to go after civilians? Were we actually going to just flatten Iran entirely? And what Secretary Hegseth there says is that they were going to target infrastructure, bridges, energy plants, etc. He goes on to say that they are going to target places that fuel the Iranian regime, which signals to me that it was going to still be, you know, within the bounds of this war, is going to really just threaten Iran's military. And like you mentioned before, Carg island, those, those threats, those attacks that they made, there was kind of a preview of what was to come. And so some are interpreting it as, yes, they were going to follow through on the threat. It's hard to say. You never want to take what they say is face value. And honestly, that's why I'm considering recycling the question for other administration officials later today.
- [30:26]
Steve Bannon
Oh, wow, Reagan, before I let you bounce, because I know you're super busy today and thank you for taking time out to come on. You know, you've been in the Oval and interviewed the President. I believe it was a one on one. You're highly regarded by the White House communications staff because you're pulling kind of double duty. You're at the White House and at the Pentagon when it's important. As you look at this thing today, what did we actually agree to? Because we're going to have a treat of parsion later. The Iranians are putting out this maximalist position of these 10 that include reparations. They control Hormuz under kind of our guidance. And at least President Trump and others are saying, well, that's not the 10 we agreed to. They're different. Different. As you see it right now, as one of our top reporters, what was actually agreed to to get us to kind of this joint stand down that everybody appears wants.
- [31:18]
Reagan Reese
Well, that's the question, Steve. I mean, I've been talking to other reporters because that's. You don't just talk to your sources, you talk to other reporters to hear what they know. And everyone is a little bit unsure exactly on what we agreed to. I think the big question is, is, did we agree to something temporary or is this war completely over? A the messaging you see coming out of the administration is that this ceasefire is within the bounds of that timeline that the President originally set that four to six weeks. And so that signals to me that this isn't just a temporary cease fire, this is an official end to the war. But then you go to the Pentagon press briefing today and you hear From Secretary Hegseth who says we're going to continue to hang out in the area and the Pentagon is still on standby in case they need to strike and fire back up again. And so I think the big question is, you know, there are a bunch of different things within this 10 point, 15 point plan, but did we actually agree to end the war or is this just going to last a couple of days and it's going to keep going? That's something I'm not seeing people really talk about. And I think that's key to consider as you're reading everything that's coming out of the administration.
- [32:38]
Steve Bannon
Absolutely Central Reagan, where do people get you on social media and over the Daily Caller for your reporting?
- [32:42]
Reagan Reese
Ma', am, I'm on all the platforms. Instagram, regrettably, I'm on TikTok. I'm on Twitter or X@ReaGanReis. Underscore. Very easy.
- [32:56]
Steve Bannon
Thank you, ma'.
- [32:56]
Stephen K. Bannon
Am.
- [32:56]
Steve Bannon
Great job of the Daily Caller. Thank you. Jack Posobic, back to you. It's a framework to kind of get to something more permanent or semi permanent or however it is. But you can tell the direction of President Trump and the Pentagon, they feel they've achieved their objectives. Your thoughts on this, particularly the maximalist position that the Iranians are taking. This entire thing, and let's call them what they are, their sponsors in Beijing, sir.
- [33:30]
Stephen K. Bannon
We'll see. That's exactly like, look, Iran is attempting to frame this, remember, not just for the regional partners, or I should say regional adversaries, the Arab states, the Saudis, who have always been their top regional rival there, also their backing of China, this is all about their independence, but also their local domestic population. They need to go and bring this out to the domestic population to say, look, they took out our supreme Leader. They turned him into a glorious martyr. Now we are able to say that we won, we defeated them. They said they were going to wipe us out. That didn't happen. They said they were going to take out the revolution. That didn't happen. And Steve, we're also, you know, I'm paying very close attention to see what's going to happen with the Supreme Leader because they said this guy was so worried about assassinations that he's been sending handwritten notes so that, so that the CIA and Mossad would be able to track the electronics that were going in to exactly where he is the same way. And the New York Post has the story up that the American airman was saved by just being able to use AI to find the beating of his heart using this system called Ghost Murmur, if that report is to be believed, that they were able to track a human heartbeat in the middle of the desert and use these type of signals to be able to track potentially even specific individuals. So, Steve, there's a lot to be said here. I do think that the Iranians look there and a lot of these people who are saying, oh, Iran did so well, they overperformed. You got to look at the scoreboard. The scoreboard does not show that Iran was able to fight off the Americans and the amount of damage that they committed to Israel, while they were able to punch through the Iron Dome on a number of times, the damage was, quite frankly, de minimis. It was de minimis. So is Israel invulnerable? No, but they didn't do anything to knock off the stability of Israel whatsoever the way that they're running around claiming that they did. And the United States continued to be able to pound them. So are they toothless? No, but they are not some kind of, you know, monster that's about to take over the Middle east the way that they're saying they're just not. So, Steve, what we see here, though, I think, is that the president is working in to create a new normal for the Middle East, a new normal whereby in you're going to have the Americans, you're going to have the Gulf nations, Israel will be there, of course, but, but perhaps, and I keep saying this, this is all about a grand deal that we're going to see between the United States and China come when May 14, when the President heads over to Beijing to sit down as well with Xi Jinping.
- [36:01]
Steve Bannon
Well, that's the whole thing about American Suez, because that's the issue, as Captain Fennell has drilled into us to keep the main thing, the main thing, the defense of Taiwan is in the vital national security interest of the United States. Let me just reiterate this. The Middle east and the Gulf Emirates and the Persian Gulf and Ukraine, you roll it all up. It's a sideshow. It's just a sideshow. And the Israel situation is a sight. I don't care what Mark Levin and all his colleagues are all throwing the toys out of the pram this morning. President Trump goes from the world's greatest leader to, oh, you're quitting too early. The Israel first crowd, that's a sideshow to a sideshow when they talk about American Suez with the Suez Canal. Nasser, an Arab nationalist, not a, although supposedly a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but he was an Arab nationalist. And the era of Arab nationalism decided to take the Suez Canal. Both Israel and the Brits put together a counter striking force and they assumed that the United States of America was going to be there with them. And it was General Eisenhower, who had led the coalition in the great crusade in World War II in Europe, said, we're not doing that. That's kind of outside of our bailiwick. You know, we fought in the desert against Rommel. We're not going back there. You guys are going to have to handle. And that was a shock. Anthony Eden, these guys were in shock. And it was really the beginning of at least the end of the empire east of Suez and came as a shock. That's why you're going to hear this. This is America's Suez right here. What President Trump did, I think far, far, far from it. Both the hemispheric defense from the Arctic all the way through South America, coupled with really where our strategic pivot is. Jack, back. It's not Mackinder's Central Asian heartland. It's the vast Pacific Ocean, which is an American lake. And you take the three island chains, which gets you right up there to Taiwan, that is in the vital national security interest of the good old United States of America. And you're absolutely correct. This is going to be one thing. You bring up AI Before I let you go, folks, we were going to start the show this morning. Even with everything that happened overnight, the single most important story today has nothing to do with, or at least nothing to do with what happened in the Middle east, except maybe some of the operations. It's artificial intelligence. It's anthropic. And now people can understand what this big fight between the Pentagon and anthropic. And if my crack team can put it up. So Jim Vanderhay and Mike Allen over that have real insights. And with these CEOs, Jackson have put up a story everyone has to read this morning. We'll have Joe Allen, Mark Beale and a cast of all stars on this afternoon. This is the single most important thing that's been revealed. It ain't about the Middle East. It's not about the Strait of Hormuz. This is about species. You guessed it. As we've been warning, there are systems out there and AI models that cannot be controlled by the AI, by the AI guys. They admit this. It turns out. They say the White House has known this for six weeks. Other people in the industry have known it for a couple of months. Jack, I think that's part. I think that's part of the battle with the Pentagon. They've had also I think this is what the system you just talked about, people have been blowing Jack and I up behind the scenes saying hey there's super weapons that are about to be deployed. There's all these super weapons like greater than tactical nuclear weapons. I believe this is part of it. Jack Posovic, you
- [39:32]
Stephen K. Bannon
Steve there's no question that AI is the new superweapon. AI is going to be the nukes of the future and the real danger here and you look at the Axios piece that's out today talking about how the how D.C. governs by crisis. It's one of the best lines I've ever heard because it's exactly true and it holds true across administrations. But there's a pause that I think that people really need to understand and you don't need to go full Joe Allen and Dark Aeon, which of course we've got the we've got a copy of it sitting right over here. But people need to understand you hook this one of these things up clawed or anthropic. Hook that up to an aircraft carrier. If you hook that up to the USS Gerald Ford, if you hook that up to America's nuclear missile stockpile, what is going to happen next? Even one F35 Lightning 2 if you hook this up this thing goes self aware there suddenly it's going to be and it's and by the way it's not just going to go after other countries, it's going to link up with other AIs and that is the danger
- [40:35]
Steve Bannon
by the way. It's like the Terminator movie. Skynet is self aware. Jack what's your social media I know you got to bounce. Thanks for joining us.
- [40:42]
Stephen K. Bannon
More where people go yeah thanks so much and God bless to the posse. We're going to be up at Jack Posobic of course here later today Real America's Voice 2p Eastern and then you get the podcast. We'll have the sit rep out every day.
- [40:56]
Steve Bannon
Amazing Jack. Look forward to seeing you too. Jack Posobic okay Fennell Faddis next.
- [41:05]
Pete Hegseth
Here's your host Stephen K. Ban.
- [41:09]
Steve Bannon
Okay to get you up the speed reporting UAE and Kuwait are reporting that they're being hit by missiles still also I think they went after don't know if the Houthis their allies or the Revolutionary Guard did try to strike at the pipeline that going to the Red Sea of the Saudis. Also Netanyahu's office has reconfirmed what they said overnight. We'll get Fatis in on this one that Lebanon is not part of this deal. Sorry, not sorry. That might be surprising to the guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but we're going to get to all that. Captain Fanell, you've done amazing reporting here of the military aspects of this. Let me just ask you though, broaden out for a second. Second, is this the American Suez or what happens in Beijing tentatively scheduled for I think the 13th, 14th, 15th of May in Taiwan? As you know, the Komintang is over there right now kowtowing. Would Chiang Kai Shek be rolling over in his grave kowtowing to Beijing over the next couple of days as a tee up for that meeting to Jamie us Is that going to be the American Suez, sir?
- [42:21]
Captain Fennell
Steve, I agreed with what you said to Jack in the previous segment. I do not see this as American Suez. The performance over the last 39 days of our combat forces against Iran is unprecedented in history. So I would say this is more like, you know, the end of World War II in a sense that we've done something very significant and it's not over. But in terms of what we've been able to demonstrate is really, really unprecedented in terms of the ability of our military to systematically bring a nation to come to a negotiating table like this in just less than five weeks. So I think that's what history will see. And President Trump's aware of this impact from China and the impact on China. He's put out today, said, I'm putting a 50% tariff on any arms suppliers to Iran. And that's important because in the last six weeks, China has supplied sodium percolate which is used to build ballistic missiles on a number of five Iranian ships, Revolutionary Guard supply ships that have come in over the course of the last six weeks. So he's saying now if you do this, China, you're going to lose 50% of your trade with the United States. So this is a, this is well thought out. And he's, he's aware of what's going on. And so I think the message is we're going to dominate this area. We have dominated it. We're going to open it up. One of the tests will clearly be will the strait open without this one or $2 million fee that the Iranians are somehow trying to claim that they're, they're, they're taking Oman's already come out in the last four hours and said we will not pay anything. So this is kind of significant. And I think the rest of the world, based on the United nations conventional law of the sea. There's going to be a lot of pushback internationally to say we're not going to pay to transit through an international waterway. And the test will be if that's allowed to happen. Maybe if we see a United States Navy warship conduct the freedom of navigation transit without being attacked, that'll demonstrate our power there. But again, back to the mission.
- [44:34]
Steve Bannon
But hang on. I want to talk about the broader mission, but they're also saying there's paid in Chinese yuan. Would you not agree with me that the recommendation we would make to the President right now, the Commander in Chief, is like, as this thing gets another week into it and we get more refinement on the 10 points for the intermediate ceasefire and then for a longer kind of peace arrangement, I don't think this is going to be a treaty, but some acknowledgement that we're going to lay our arms down. Shouldn't we take both carrier battle groups in the North Arabian Sea and maybe take the Tripoli in a couple and transfer those back through the Straits of Malacca to the South China Sea and maybe have them do freedom of navigation runs, which we haven't done in the Straits of Taiwan to let the masters in Beijing know that the United States Navy's here and it just kicked ass in the Middle east and is prepared to. To Defend Taiwan, sir, 100%.
- [45:29]
Captain Fennell
I have been calling for a long time for the United States Navy to send an aircraft carrier strike group. Not just a destroyer, not just something with an aircraft like a P8, but we need to send an aircraft carrier through. The last time the United States Navy aircraft carrier went through the Taiwan strait was in 2007. USS Kitty Hawk, which I had just served on previously a couple years before. And it was only because there had been a typhoon coming up through the South China Sea and they had to get out of port quickly to escape the typhoon that they actually went through. So we have not enforced our freedom of navigation statements that we've heard from many administrations. Fly anywhere, sail anywhere, steam anywhere. It sounds good, but you got to do it, you got to follow through. So I would suggest we do a freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. And then when the Lincoln's done and this thing is now calmed down and we feel confident, maybe we leave the bush in the Med, but when the Lincoln goes home, she should come back through the Strait of Malacca and then go right up through the Taiwan Strait as a signal to Xi and the rest of them that, hey, what's good for the Goose will be good for the Gander. Which is you, China. So don't get any ideas about Taiwan.
- [46:40]
Steve Bannon
Walk me through your concerns about the enforcement of the ceasefire. There's already kind of a scrambling around of, you know, what you just mentioned. What's going to happen happen in the Strait of Hormuz. Are they going to charge a fee? What's it going to be paid in or are they just going to blow that off? Other aspects of their nuclear weapons capability. Mark Levin and these guys saying you haven't done the job there. You still need to go get the nuclear dust. Your thoughts on the continued potential of military operations here?
- [47:08]
Captain Fennell
I think there's still a real potential. I mean and Secretary Warheadseth mentioned that there's still some strikes happening. There's still some kinetic action from the Iranians and they're attributing that to the poor command and control and communications and this mosaic architecture that Sam's told us about. Fine, so we'll let that go for a couple of days. But if that continues, then we got a problem. But I think the real bigger issue is the nuclear issue, which is the no enrichment of uranium, which we have said is part of our points. And the Iranians have said we'll never allow that. And then there was was also in our comments about nuclear dust, as you mentioned, a joint excavation and removal, joint US Iranian program. If the Iranians agree to that, that would be phenomenal. Let's see what happens. So I think what happens here, I think it's in Friday in Pakistan will let us know more about that. But that would be for me the key sticking point. Nukes.
- [48:10]
Steve Bannon
Captain, hang on for one second. I know you got to bounce but I want to get you on the other side. Trina Parsi is going to join us tentatively. We also got Sam Fadis. All this talk about what's going to happen in Beijing. All this talk now Beijing saying that they were very involved both with their partners in Pakistan and in in the Persians. Talk about paying this toll in Chinese Yuan, not petrodollars. End of the dollar empire Understand what the bricks nations are trying to do how it impacts gold. Why gold has been a hedge for 3,000 years in times of financial turbulence. Burch Gold.com promo code Bannon the End of the Dollar Empire Talk to Philip Patrick and the team. Do it today. Not tomorrow. Today. Shortbr. This is an Iheart podcast.
- [49:06]
Simone Sanders Townsend
Guaranteed human.