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- [00:00]
Stephen K. Bannon
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
Public Podcast Announcer
Guaranteed Human support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc, SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available@public.com this is Martha Stewart
- [01:07]
Martha Stewart
from the Martha Stewart Podcast. Ever wonder how to make hosting look effortless? Here's a secret when prepping for cooking and baking, get ahead of the mess with new Reynolds Kitchens countertop prep paper. Just lightly wet the counter so the paper grips, lay it down and drips and spills stay on the paper, not on your counter. Cleanup is as simple as lifting it away to reveal clean counters. Effortless it is thanks to Reynolds Kitchen's countertop prep paper. Wet it, set it, prep it done. Available in the Reynolds Wrap aisle at Walmart.
- [01:47]
Stephen K. Bannon
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile. I'm told it's super easy to do@mintmobile.com
- [02:05]
Military Analyst
Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees, extra fee, full terms@mintmobile.com people
- [02:17]
Stephen K. Bannon
at work supported me while I was going through treatment. By not treating me like somebody who was going through treatment. Treatment sucks. Cancer sucks. Being engaged with work really helped to oh, I just knew I was going to beat this thing. Research shows there is a significant connection between the ability to continue to work and cancer recovery. We can make work a better place for healing, learn more and sign the pledge@workingwithcancerpledge.com the Global Gaming League is presented by Atlas Earth, the fun cashback app. Hey, it's Howie Mandel and I am inviting you to witness history as me and my How We Do It Gaming team take on Gilly The King and Wallow 267's million dollars gaming in an epic Global Gam League video game showdown. Plus a halftime performance by multi platinum artist Travy McCoy.
- [03:08]
Public Podcast Announcer
Watch all the action and see who
- [03:09]
Stephen K. Bannon
wins and advances to the championship match
- [03:11]
Public Podcast Announcer
right now@globalgamingleague.com that's globalgamingleague.com in partnership with Level Up Expo.
- [03:17]
News Correspondent
With thousands more ground forces heading to the Gulf, President Trump signals the fighting could soon be over, quoting from his social media post from late today, we are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great military efforts in the Middle east with respect to the terrorist regime of Iran. The Hormuz Strait, he adds, will have to be guarded and policed as necessary by other nations who use it. The United States does not. He finishes by saying, if asked, we will help these countries in their Hormuz efforts. But it shouldn't be necessary once Iran's threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy military operation for them. In short, getting out and leaving American allies to fend for themselves. As for the declaring victory part, he did that as well today.
- [04:03]
Stephen K. Bannon
Oh, I think we've won. We've knocked out their navy, their air force, we've knocked out their anti aircraft, we've knocked out everything we're roaming free. From a military standpoint, all they're doing is clogging up the strait. But from a military standpoint, they're finished.
- [04:20]
News Correspondent
Okay, Mana Sources in the intelligence community and the administration tell us that unclogging the strait is a problem without a clear solution, one that a recent intelligence assessment determined could drag on for as long as six months now. A Pentagon spokesman dismissed that notion, though, telling cnn, quote, one assessment does not mean the assessment is plausible and it's dangerous for the media to cherry pick the worst case scenario to scare the American people. Still, it is hard to find anyone with any experience in the region saying that safeguarding the strait will be, as the president just put it, an easy military operation or that it will open itself, which he also said today.
- [04:57]
Stephen K. Bannon (Host, alternate segment)
I want to ask you this There have been a lot of lies. First of all, we're now, we haven't even as of this hour, this Friday night. We haven't entered the third week of this conflict in terms of intelligence, military display of power. There's never been anything like this in the history of warfare, ever. And yet people making proclamations, oh, Donald Trump listened to Israel and to Bibi and to people like you and to people like me. They don't know Donald Trump if they're making idiotic statements like that. But here's fundamentally what it came down to for me. Steve Witkoff meets the President wants a deal. The President wants peace. They rejected it. They're clinging to their nuclear ambition. And here is the option. Either we learn the lessons of history in the last hundred years where over 100 million human souls died and we, we preempt a raging Islamic fascist regime now before potentially millions can get killed, or we hand that off to our children and grandchildren. Not an option for me. I don't think it's an option for you. I know it's not. And it certainly wasn't an option for Donald Trump. And he made that calculation after Steve Witkoff told them that in 10 days they'd have enough weapons grade enriched uranium for 11 bombs.
- [06:20]
CENTCOM Representative / Military Spokesperson
On day 22 of combat operations, US forces continue to take bold action and remain on plan to eliminate Iran's ability to project meaningful power outside its borders. Just two days ago, the US army launched the longest field artillery strike in army combat history. Using precision strike missiles, the strike took out Iranian military infrastructure, demonstrating the US Military's unmatched reach and lethality. Iran has lost significant combat capability over the last three weeks. We are taking out thousands of Iranian missiles, advanced attack drones and all of Iran's navy which they use to harass international shipping. Their navy is not sailing, their tactical fighters are not flying. And they've lost the ability to launch missiles and drones at the high rates seen at the beginning of the conflict. Our progress is obvious. US forces maintain air superiority over Iran's skies. Having now flown over 8,000 combat flights. Our aircrews are performing exceptionally across the fight. From tankers to fighters and bombers, to land based and carrier based aviation doing a superb job. Tankers are extending our reach so that we can keep constant pressure on the enemy. Fighters and bombers are delivering precision strikes against our primary objectives. And our pilots across the board are dynamically hunting threats as well, finding and eliminating targets in real time. So far we've struck over 8,000 military targets, including 130 Iranian vessels, constituting the largest elimination of a Navy over a three week period since World War II.
- [08:01]
News Correspondent
You heard the President saying that the war could end right now, but that further airstrikes would mean Iran could never rebuild militarily. Where do you see things right now today?
- [08:10]
Military Analyst
Sure. Well, first I would want to say that the very early mission accomplished we could end the war. That sounds quite familiar to a lot of Americans right now. I think. I hate to say it, but I think that we have gotten ourselves into a scenario where we may need boots on the ground. And the reason I say that is because you can't launch an all air campaign with just airstrikes without actually having a presence in country. So think about what we did.
- [08:34]
News Correspondent
Even if you're not trying to go for regime change.
- [08:37]
Military Analyst
Correct. Even if you're not trying, I don't think you can do it at all. I think that it's very disruptive to the country in general because think about this, the civilian, from the perspective of the civilian populace in country, they are just seeing buildings getting destroyed. And I have no doubt that CENTCOM is getting really good targets. And it looks like we are hitting the targets that we want, but we're also hitting targets that are creating serious civilian casualties. And so if you don't have boots on the ground actually monitoring what's going on in country, that can spiral out of control. Control very quickly. And if you want to compare it to Iraq in 2003 where we saw an insurgency emerge, the scenario there is not even comparable to what we're dealing with here. Iraq is about half the size of Iran. And in 2003, Iraq and later in 2014 when we went back to try to weed out the Islamic State, we had a multi country coalition in country with us fighting alongside us and actual boots on the ground. We also had State Department resources, USAID NGOs, we had groups there doing building, doing reconstruction. By contrast, right now on the ground in Iran, all there is is destruction and there is no functional government. We are making sure that there is no functional government to help people rebuild. And so that leaves civilians with a question of who is helping us. Who are the good guys here. Could we actually see then American boots on the ground going deep into the tunnels?
- [09:59]
Military Expert / Special Forces Analyst
I mean on the second question, if they really decide they want to go in and secure that he u I don't think there's any other way. And that would not be.
- [10:08]
Military Analyst
It's dangerous, isn't it?
- [10:09]
Military Expert / Special Forces Analyst
Extremely dangerous. That's not an operation. They'd have to use special forces. They'd have to use a ton of kind of air power to secure the location for however long they want. I mean, on the one hand you wouldn't have to go in there and hold the territory. You'd have to send in teams, get them in and get them out. You know, they, that operation in Venezuela when they took Maduro was pretty impressive. They have that capability. I think grabbing Maduro was probably easier than sending people down to grab. Essentially, I guess the ATU is held in bins, basically big bins. I don't think that's the dangerous part. I think the dangerous part is what type of resistance. Because you can imagine the IRGC is reading our press and knows this could be an operation. So they probably both fortified it, probably booby trapped it, and they'd be waiting. So that would be a very dangerous part.
- [11:03]
Conservative Commentator
Here's the bottom line for me. For 47 years these bastards have been killing Americans, threatening us, and finally have a president who's done something about it. You had appeasers and Obama actually worse, they were funding the enemy. Same with Biden. You have scores and scores of violations of these phony agreements. They're within a whisker of having nuclear weapons yet again. They certainly have the nuclear material. I don't understand the opposition. They're ideological or they're grifters or they're Democrats or whatever they are. If we're not going to preemptively because of an imminent threat, that's quite obvious, take out an enemy like this, then when would we? When would we?
- [11:45]
Defense Analyst
The reality here is that essentially during Defense Secretary Haight Hegseth's press conferences or even during the President's interviews, they make war sound easy. That air power alone is going to, you know, topple the Iranian government or prevent Iran from ever getting a nuclear bomb. Those goals, particularly the one about the nuclear bomb, cannot be achieved without American boots on the ground. And as we talked about earlier, you might need American boots just to open the Strait of Hormuz. And so this idea of sort of, and I hate to say waging war on the cheap, I mean that makes it politically palatable. Our air power and our air force is extraordinary. But you're not going to be able to remove. It's this thousand pounds of uranium that isn't enriched to a level where it can be made a bomb. And this is this other problem. Just yesterday, Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel said that Iran doesn't have the ability to enrich that uranium. Now, to a higher level, it looks like the strikes have Destroyed the centrifuges they need to so that uranium is not the threat Trump is claiming. And then if he does think it's an existential threat, he's going to send Americans in. They will be on the ground for hours. They're going to be going into places that the US bombed last year. Tunnels that existed were bombed by the US So American troops will go in and have to dig through dirt and sand to get down to these storage bunkers that hold this uranium. They'll be on the ground for hours and the Iranians will be trying to pick them off and kill as many Americans as possible.
- [13:11]
CENTCOM Representative / Military Spokesperson
We also remain zeroed in on dismantling Iran's decades old threat to the free flow of commerce throughout the Strait of Hormuz. For example, earlier this week we dropped multiple 5,000 pound bombs on an underground facility located along Iran's coastline. The Iranian regime used the hardened underground facility to discreetly store anti ship cruise missiles, mobile missile launchers and other equipment that presented a dangerous risk to international shipping. We not only took out the facility, but also destroyed intelligence support sites and missile radar relays that were used to monitor ship movements. Iran's ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is degraded as a result and we will not stop pursuing these targets.
- [13:57]
Conservative Commentator
You know, 9, 11 happens, everybody, they go, well what happened? We have a whole commission because people weren't awake, they were asleep at the wheel. All these events happen. Pearl harbor, we talk about Pearl harbor. How did that happen? Because everybody's asleep at the wheel and they're not paying attention. Well, you have a president who's not asleep at the wheel and now we're talking about nuclear weapons. And I ask you this, Mr. And Mrs. What if the other side is wrong? What if they would use nuclear missiles against us? What if this regime is evil? What if it is a 7th century throwback? What if they really believe in death? What if they really do believe in everything they've said over and over and over again? Should we risk the existence of the United States? Should we risk the lives of 350 million people? What's the democrat plan? We've already seen what they've done. Or these neo fascist podcaster isolationists, what's their plan? They have no plan because they have no mind. Let me tell you something. During the Revolutionary War we had, we had, of course, Benedict Arnold. You know, we have, now we have scores of Benedict Arnold's out there trying to undermine our troops, trying to sabotage our effort. Do all these things that are going on, that we hear about our media. Can you imagine a media like this during the Revolutionary War seven and a half year war, we lost most of the battles. We fought almost all of them. Can you imagine what the media would be saying today?
- [15:31]
Stephen K. Bannon
It's Saturday, the 21st of March in the year of our Lord 2026. Welcome. For our Saturday show, we're going to get a lot. Captain Fennell is going to join us in a moment. We're going to go through the military operations and the progress that we're making there. Eric Bolling's going to join us also. We're going to talk about oil markets impact on the world economy, how we go forward. President Trump pretty blunt yesterday saying, hey, when I talk to my military leaders, I think we've, I think we've accomplished what we set out to accomplish militarily. And if you want to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and oil coming and gas coming from the lng, coming from the Persian Gulf, the allies, the Arabs, Asians and particularly NATO are going to have to step up here, keep the Red Sea and in the Strait of Hormuz open. I think Tel Aviv Levin has now become the new Baghdad Bob. I think he makes the case more and more every day of why this has to be reviewed and reviewed in depth. And it's not right now the imminent threat. There will be plenty of time for that later. What we have to review and we'll get into this in the show and I'll do even a deeper dive tomorrow is now it's become evident that 17% of the capacity of the Qatar gas field, the one they have in joint ownership with the, they have joint ownership with the Iranians. But they actually I think run, run it. 17% of the capacity has been, has been destroyed and they are talking about force majeure on five year contracts, virtually all of them, I think in, in, in Europe. How that happened, how once again, two big inflection point. The two I think biggest inflection points have come during the military operation was the bombing of the oil facilities in Tehran a couple of Saturday nights ago, I think two weeks ago against a specific standing order from the commander in chief of the United States. That would be Donald J. Trump. That standing order is still out there. You are to not to touch Iranian oil facilities. The Kharg island event by a magnificent military took out the military targets in precision, did not touch the oil targets. Yet the Israelis once again went against a standing order from the commander in chief and bombed, bombed the Iranian part. Turns out they got the Qatari part too of the of this gas field 17% of the capacity. We now know that has to be investigated. Has to be investigated now the answers so far are not acceptable. Short commercial break Captain Fennell, Eric Bowling on the other side
- [18:18]
Public Podcast Announcer
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures this
- [19:19]
Martha Stewart
is Martha Stewart from the Martha Stewart Podcast. Ever wonder how to make hosting look effortless? Here's a secret when prepping for cooking and baking, get ahead of the mess with new Reynolds Kitchens Countertop prep paper. Just lightly wet the counter so the paper grips, lay it down and drips and spills stay on the paper, not on your counter. Cleanup is as simple as lifting it away to reveal clean counters. Effortless it is thanks to Reynolds Kitchen's countertop prep paper. Wet it, set it, prep it, done. Available in the Reynolds Wrap aisle at Walmart.
- [20:01]
Stephen K. Bannon
I need to be healthy every day to survive it and go through the next chemo round and the next chemo round. So it's important that work was part of that to keep my mind busy for eight, nine hours and then I had to go back and face the reality. I had a goal and the goal is to survive. Research shows there is a significant connection between the ability to continue to work and and cancer recovery. We can make work a better place for healing, learn more and sign the pledge@workingwithcancerpledge.com the Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports right now. The NBA is heating up. March Madness is here, and MLB is almost back.
- [20:39]
Public Podcast Announcer
Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with
- [20:46]
Eric Bolling
the Bleacher Report app.
- [20:47]
Public Podcast Announcer
For me, it's is about staying connected to my sports.
- [20:50]
Stephen K. Bannon
I can follow the teams I care about, get real time, scores, breaking news
- [20:54]
Public Podcast Announcer
and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment.
- [21:00]
Wynton Hall
Too fast, Trevor. Too fast.
- [21:02]
Public Podcast Announcer
Here at the Zebra, research shows people would rather teach their kids to drive than search for auto and home insurance.
- [21:07]
Stephen K. Bannon (Host, alternate segment)
I know what I'm doing, mom.
- [21:09]
Public Podcast Announcer
Or attend a corporate team building workshop.
- [21:11]
CENTCOM Representative / Military Spokesperson
Go team. Feel that synergy.
- [21:13]
Public Podcast Announcer
Or be regaled by Uncle Frank's conspiracy theories.
- [21:16]
Conservative Commentator
They're listening to us right now.
- [21:19]
Public Podcast Announcer
That's why the Zebra searches for you. Comparing over 100 insurance companies to find savings no one else can compare. Today at the Zebra.com we do the searching, you do the saving.
- [21:31]
Stephen K. Bannon
Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. Okay, the war. War and rumors of war and of course the fog of war. It's hard to kind of make sense of this. I'm very proud of this show. We've shown so many different angles to this. By the way, Rabbi Wielicki will join us tomorrow on the Sunday show. Also, Ben Harnwell from Rome. The Pope has got something to say about this. We're gonna break all of that down, plus a military update. Captain Fennell, CENTCOM put out another video. I actually wish that the CENTCOM would not put out videos. I would like to see Admiral Cooper just do what General Kane does. Because I, I'll be blunt. I think General Kane and, and, and Admiral Cooper in the situation we're in for the military operation part of it just do an incredible job. And I would like to see more of it and I would like to see more of it live and even have Admiral Cooper take a couple of three questions from media. But that's. We're just putting that out there. Captain Fennell, your assessment? You've been pretty good at walking through. Bang, bang, bang. Here's what they're trying. Here's what they're attempting to do, here's what actually they're doing, and here's the results of it. Your thoughts, sir?
- [22:42]
Captain Fennell
Well, Steve, I'd like to start off with Admiral Cooper's final statement. In that video he put out here a couple hours ago. He said he gave the force the 50,000 plus American service members, three direct, three guidances, pieces of guidance. The first was to be relentlessly lethal and I think we'll talk about the lethal part. Then he said be a good shipmate, be a good partner, teammate. And then the last thing he said is steady your resolve. And so when I listen to the cold open I see a lot of folks that are civilians, a lot of folks you know, that you know, seem to be losing their resolve. So when I, you know, I just put that out there to say, you know, let's not lose our resolve and let's focus in on what's happening. And what's happening is, is that as the Admiral said, we've conducted over 8,000 sorties and we've struck over 8,500 targets and we're relentlessly pursuing the Iranians capability to project meaningful power outside of their borders. Now there's been some exceptions but he said we're steadily making progress there and the Iranians ability to do that is declining. And empirically we can see that for instance in the ballistic missile launches they have gone down, they're not eliminated but they have gone down dramatically. In the first 21 days of this conflict, the first three weeks. Now we did see last night Iranians launched two ballistic intermediate, intermediate range ballistic missiles, the core Ramshar 4 ballistic missile towards Diego Garcia. One of the missiles broke up malfunction in flight. The second one was engaged and shot down by a US Navy Aegis destroyer with the standard missile three and it shot that missile down. So yep, that's a concern that'll probably be taking, you know, more attention now about where did that come from and where did they, how did they get out and have the ability to do that? The missile itself, you know there was some estimates that most of the IC's estimates and in the public domain said that the Iranians didn't have anything over or just around 4,000 kilometers. Diego Garcia is just about 4,000 kilometers from Iran. And this missile that was engaged and shot down, it was only previously seen to fly 2-3000km. So this has gone well beyond what the assessments were. So a little bit of a, you know, they're, they're taking a last ditch effort. It looked to me like it was a Hail Mary. Let's see if we can strike Diego Garcia. And it's not going to work because of our ability to shoot down and the fact that we thought ahead and we put Aegis SM3 integrated air and missile defense warships that protect Diego and our other locations. And oh by the way, the Iranians still obviously have some cognizance because they did this strike right after Prime Minister Starmer of the United Kingdom announced that he was going to let the US use RAF Fairford in the UK and Diego to launch attacks into Iran. So it's, they're still fighting, but their ability to be hurtful is being diminished. Another area that we can assess is in the Strait of Hormuz. Admiral Cooper mentioned that we dropped multiple 5,000 pound bombs. Those are the GBU 72s. They're 5,000 pounds that can penetrate 150ft, 50 meters. And we dropped several of those. It's the first time those have ever been used in combat. And they're going for these hardened artillery sites, these underground storage bunkers and underground missile launchers for anti ship cruise missiles and mines and anything else that could affect the strait. And when you again look at the statistics and you go to the UK's Maritime Trade Office and their Joint Maritime Information center update from last night, we now still have not had any vessel attacks in the Strait of Hormuz for, for well over a week. There's been a couple of incidents on the north or south side of the strait, but those have been drones and no ship was actually hit, just some debris fell on them. So there's. The Iranians are not successfully attacking ships now. Ships are, you know what we, what we see from AIs, only one ship transited yesterday. But there's dark fleet ships that are going through still and there's no. The UK's MTO also says there's no evidence of mines in the Strait of Hormuz. So there is an effect there. The fact that there's no mines have been detected, the fact that there's no ships that have been struck inside the Strait of Hormuz for days now, many days, for over a week, shows that we're having an impact. So what I think I get back to what Admiral Cooper said. Steady our resolve. This campaign is working and it's working significantly to reduce the ability of the Iranians to have any coordinated devastating impact on us. Now they're going to be able to pop off a missile here and there like you talked about with some of the oil refineries. But I think we're at a position now where we just got to keep grinding on. And so when I hear army officers on CNN and other places say that air power cannot work. Well, it can work because if the goal is to make sure that the Iranian regime is declawed and doesn't have the ability to send out missiles and mines and ships and aircraft and those kinds of platforms that can be devastating. We are achieving that. The other objectives about regime change and things of that nature, I'm not sure the president's there on that. Right now we're taking the gun away from the Iranian regiment.
- [28:28]
Stephen K. Bannon
Let's go back to that. And I agree with you with what CENTCOM and even the Joint Staff under General Kane have. But we did for the first four or five days of this war, because Admiral Cooper is very specific. The ability to project power in the region or against people in the region, particularly the Gulf Arab states in Israel. That's a change, though, from the, remember, first couple of days. We follow this quite closely. It was about an uprising in the streets. It was about power projection, not just in the region, but power projection against their own people. That has been noticeably. That objective which kind of got inserted in there after the first couple days is noticeably missing. There is no uprising in the streets. I think when people also talk about. It was only Netanyahu who the other day said, you can't do this by bombing. You have to put troops in if you want to bring the regime down. That was his now I think his foreign minister or defense minister walked back and said that uprising, those boots on the ground have to be the Iranian people. But when people talk about boots on the ground now, I mean, it's the Joint Staff and centcom, I'm sure, under the direction of the president that has the Tripoli coming from Japan with what, 2500 Marines and the Boxer coming from San Diego with 2200 Marines to head to the North Arabian Sea to add a capacity and a capability, not a little be used to actually have some sort of amphibious assault or something upon Carg island and even the littoral, the actual shores around Hormuz where they did this massive bombing. I mean, that's a potential. So and now they're talking about potentially and this has been. Netanyahu has talked about this and people in the administration have leaked to the press about the possibility. If you're going to really make sure that you have 110% probability that they can't get nuclear again, you got to get in and get the material that somehow that'd be a command or Special Forces raid. Your assessment of that, because this is the war as defined by CENTCOM and their military objectives, you're defanging decline. I don't think there's any doubt as we've had you on and gone through now for what, 22 days or however many days we've been at this, I think, is going, as you said, just right down very methodically. And people should understand, as Pete Hegses tells us, every day is more intense than the day before. I think he talked about what, 10,000, 8,000 combat sorties already. So it's intense. But these other aspects of it are because of the kind of the expansion of the war around away from just the decline and defanging.
- [31:24]
Captain Fennell
Captain Well, I think the movement of the two muse out of Japan and out of San Diego and the boxer out of San Diego, I think that is, you know, they have a thing called the the tip fid, the time phased force movement process that the military has in their war plans. And so we were probably at a point in this process where if certain things didn't get resolved, if certain actions didn't happen, then there was a plan that said, okay, Trip, these groups, these muse to start moving towards the west so that we can have that option to use them in some capacity. Now, what capacity is the real question. And my sense is, given the tit for tat that's been going on against these oil fields and what Iran did against Qatar, I think the president's probably concerned that the Iranians in the last desperation, like they did with these intermediate range ballistic missiles towards Diego Garcia, may be thinking, we're going down, we're going to take out Kharg island and we're going to screw up the world's economy. And so the president may have decided that it's time to make sure that we secure Carg island and that put in, you know, Patriot and other interceptor systems there to protect it from the Iranians destroying it. That's how I think if we're going to have any kind of action there, it would be that way. And MEW has got what they call a Musa, special operations capable. So they'll be the kind of people that will know how to look for unexploded ordnance mines, booby traps, things of that nature. But the goal would be to protect the oil and make sure that Iran cannot destroy the world's global oil supply.
- [33:06]
Stephen K. Bannon
Hang on for one second. We're going to we're going to take a short commercial break. Captain Fanell, Eric Bolling with us. Birch Gold Gold had the worst week, I think, in 43 years. Find out why. Talk to Philip Patrick and the team. Best way to do it is take your phone and text BAN&B A N N OWEN at 989-898. Get in touch with Philip Patrick and the team Philip's going back with us on Monday to talk this war room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. Captain, thanks for doing this. These updates are great. Real Quickly, Hormuz Tanker Wars 8,788 lessons learned. We only get a couple minutes. But but some of the allies I think are actually stepping up and hearing President Trump. But for the Navy to take this on and keep it clear. Your thoughts? Because this is the question everybody's asking, particularly in global capital markets. Sir.
- [34:05]
Captain Fennell
Yeah, Steve, I think, you know, while we discuss, you know, before the war started, our my concerns about the size of the U.S. navy and the lack of ships. I think that with the two carrier strike groups that are out there, the Ford and the Lincoln, the French carrier that's out there with its assorted escorts, we have ships right now that could start an escorting process. The reason that we're not starting this because the commander at CENTCOM is not convinced that he has eliminated the threat in and around the Strait of Hormuz. And they're going to keep bombing and keep taking out all those resources until they have that confidence and then they can come in and start doing this. And I think when you add in now that just got revealed in the last 24 hours that the U.K. germany, Italy, France and Japan, and it was really give the credit to Prime Minister Takaichi for breaking the logjam and showing these Europeans that our closest ally right now is Japan. And so by her doing that, I think it unlocked the people to say, okay, we're going to help. So add in, you know, a dozen or so ships from those nations and you develop a system. And oh, by the way, as Admiral Donegan, the former commander of 5th Fleet and absent said last Sunday on on on Television on ABC, said in February, we had just practiced, 30 nations had practiced doing these kind of escort operations. We've been practicing and training. We have a standing maritime force that does this kind of work out there in the Fifth Fleet area of responsibility. So this isn't just some pickup game or something that we're picking up on the fly. These are things that we train to. There's people identified. There's command and control networks, there's communications networks, there's all kinds of things that are already well developed, well trained to and we know how to do it. It's just a matter of making sure that we you just don't walk in and, you know, let the guy have, you know, anti ship cruise missiles and start shooting at you. You want to do everything in your power to to eliminate all of that. And that's what we're doing.
- [36:08]
Stephen K. Bannon
Captain, thank you so much. Your writing goes up on American greatness, correct?
- [36:14]
Captain Fennell
Yeah, I've been a little bit off a couple of weeks and I'm writing up for my annual PLA Navy Review for the US Naval Institute proceedings that'll come out in May.
- [36:24]
Stephen K. Bannon
We keep the main thing, the main thing, we'll have you back on to talk about that. What's going on with the Chinese Communist Party as they view this. Captain Fennell, thank you. On a Saturday. Kick us off. Eric Bolling. Eric Bollinger, sir, the world right now focused on, focused on the oil and gas market straight or Hormuz, but particularly now that it's been fully developed and this, Americans ought to be outraged at this, that 17% of the capacity of liquefied natural gas coming from that, from that joint Qatar Iranian oil field. And to have Captain Fennell right there say, hey, it could be godadamarung with the Iranians, the Persians to take it all down around them and no offense, just logical war. If they feel they're going to get, if they feel they're going to get wiped out and they're kind of messianic, you know, occultish Modi, 12th Iman or 13th Iman, whoever it is, why not take it all down around you. That's got to be in the playbook. The 17 capacity and I think Iraq last night put in force majeure because their refineries have been hit. The, the, the Qataris who are outraged by this because this attack was initiated by the Israelis to start things off is, I know they're lighting up the president saying, hey, you know, we didn't start this war and now, you know, we could have five years. We have to shut down this field. How what's the implication of all this and what's the way out of here? The president yesterday could tell, hey, we won, I've done, you know, centcom's destroyed this thing. Captain Fennell just reiterates what a magnificent job the military is doing. And he's saying, hey, look, Hormuz is your problem. Europe and Japan and Asia, China, you, you guys deal with it. Your thoughts, Eric Bolling on a Saturday morning.
- [38:10]
Eric Bolling
Yes, Steve, thanks. I think you're right and Captain's right. The, the game changed with the Israeli attack on that gas field because it becomes oil. This becomes, you know, if there's any question whether it was, it was a, you know, let's degrade their, the Iranians ability to deliver a nuclear weapon that was the original mission. Then it was, you know, let's get rid crazy, fanatical mullahs. That was the mission. Creeped to that. And I think everyone has now realized that this is becoming about oil. And BB Netanyahu the other day saying, hey, it wouldn't be bad to bring some of that oil through Israel. I mean, that was the worst thing he possibly could do. So there's mission creep. Steve, hold it.
- [38:47]
Conservative Commentator
Could.
- [38:48]
Stephen K. Bannon
He couldn't hold it. He couldn't hold back. He couldn't, he couldn't hold back from making it. The pitch. He couldn't hold back. It was like if you had to take the dumbest thing you could possibly say, that was the dumbest thing you could possibly say, given the situation. This a guy, this guy, this guy, this guy is one of the worst people in on Earth. But continue on, sir, I digress.
- [39:10]
Eric Bolling
So that changed. The game became on oil. You pull natural gas out of the Middle east, everyone's natural gallium. Europe is really dependent on Middle east and Russian natural gas. That, that brings it off. So liquefied natural gas can be shipped. So if it's coming offline over there, someone will buy it over here, even though it's more expensive to transport it. But guess what, when price is higher, it may become. That's why oil is fungible. So wherever the price happens, it doesn't matter of the location. That's why all ships, all oil prices rise with one major disruption. Zero ships, 138 ships per day on average through the strait of hormuz. Zero ships at all. 20 million barrels a day. Zero barrels a day going through right now. I have a re, I have, Listen, there's a. They have an idea what they're, they're doing in the situation room in D.C. but to allow. Scott Besson says we're going to allow them to sell 140 million barrels of Iranian oil that's sitting out in the sea in the, in the Gulf somewhere. We're going to give them $14 billion. $14 billion to play with. Steve, you yourself said when the Iranians feel like this is an existential threat, they'll, they'll fight to the death. We're going to hand them a lifeline. We're going to feed them an INJ. Testosterone for, for lack of a better word, $14 billion can buy a lot more time. This thing can go on a lot longer.
- [40:33]
Stephen K. Bannon
Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Are we, Are we, absolutely. Are we, are we a hundred percent sure that the cash. Because it's the way it's been kind of talked about. I'm not getting a straight answer. Is the, is the 140 million barrels that are on the high seas, is that cash actually going to Iran or Scott saying is best in saying, hey, we're going to control the payments also and it may come to pay down the expense of the war.
- [40:59]
Eric Bolling
And Ian said that all I heard was we're going to allow them to sell 100. And I think what it is, is we talked about it for the last two weeks. Steve, the Achilles to Trump has the strongest military in the world at his fingertips. He's got an Achilles, though. It's the high gasoline price of the pump in an election cycle, in the midterm election cycle. And they know that. So the longer it drags out, the worse it becomes. When you allow the Iranians and then you're going to do a what about 40 day lift allowing Iranians to sell oil? The sanctions against Iranian oil, that's not part of what Besson said. They're going to allow Iranians to sell oil because the Chinese are buying it too cheap right now. I just don't know some of them. It doesn't make sense to me. That's basically what I'm saying. But I do know when the Iranians feel like it's this or the end, they're going to fight to the death. Steve, they have probably 2 or 3,000 the equivalent of our Tomahawk missiles. Remember, that's probably, I don't know what 2000 mile shoreline for the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf of Persian Gulf, that they can lob missiles and they can also use these unmanned drone mines throughout the Gulf. So I told you we spoke to a captain who, not a captain, a guy who owns a shipping company that ships through the Strait of Hormuz. He says it doesn't matter. US Navy ships aren't doing it. They're not in that area right now because it's not safe. So they're not even safe with our major destroyers and, and you know, minesweepers. If it's not safe for the Navy, it's when you, when you, when you
- [42:33]
Stephen K. Bannon
notice, when you notice the combatants, when you notice the combatants are not cruising through there, that's always a good signal that CENTCOM has not cleared the area. So what's, what's going to happen? And you've been great at predicting these markets. Now one of the issues the audience should understand, the longer they stay up and, and also understand this, the Arab nations which are going crazy saying we didn't start this, we didn't want to do it. And now you're crushing us. Dubai's crush, you know, it's not going to be right for 30 or 40 years. They're also playing the double game in the fact that they, they love hundred dollar oil, right? Trump had it down at 50. Trump wanted full spectrum energy dominance at 40. It's going the other direction. They're in no hurry to get it below 100 bucks, are they?
- [43:16]
Eric Bolling
No, we, yeah, we talked about the, the Qataris and Saudis and the Buranis and the Omanis saying, God go, Trump, go. We got. And then they all shut in production the minute they can. They declare force majeures whether they have to or not. Because they can hide behind the war as a potential force majeure. Because I certainly would like to sell my oil at $110 a barrel versus the $55 a barrel it was when deal. So they can force Majeure on the 55 and sell it for 100. They're not going to bring production online right away. You clear the Gulf tomorrow, It could be 30, 45, maybe 90 days before some of these countries bring it back online because they know, they know that they can slowly, slowly reduce the price of oil themselves without Trump and without supply or demand, they can just pull the supply off the market, keep the supply off the market longer. So we'll work through our stockpiles which are backing up, we'll go work through that and all of a sudden we go, wait a minute, where's the new oil well, you know, it took us a long time to restart those oil fields. It took them a day to bring them down and take them three, four months because they want the higher prices. I'm very skeptical that, that all these Middle Eastern Arab countries aren't actually winking. An odd, maybe even communicating with Tehran or whoever's running the show, the IRGC and said, just let us know before you can bomb that refinery or let us know before you bomb that oil platform so that when we remove our people, guess what? We'll see higher oil prices later. Steve, the first day we were on a couple weeks ago is gasoline was, I think it was $3.11. And I said, it's going to be $4, I guarantee it. Well, we're going to hit $4 probably on Monday. People stopped, they laughed. I'm going to make an ominous prediction right here. $5 gasoline nationally, that's $7 diesel. Diesel is what we run this country on. Trucks, planes, railroads. Diesel fuel is vital to the economy. $8 diesel probably baked in the cake already.
- [45:17]
Stephen K. Bannon
Wow. So what's going to happen next week? Give us, give us a, give us a forecast.
- [45:25]
Eric Bolling
I think you're going to see massive volatility in the oil. It'll be a rumor that everything's great, things are going well. Oil will be down $10 a barrel a couple of days. Then wait a minute. Iranians said, no, not so fast. Maybe they'll fire a missile into somewhere sensitive. Oil will be back up to $10. I think we're trending a lot higher, at least the short term.
- [45:48]
Stephen K. Bannon
Eric Bolling, where do people go to get your thank you for stepping out today and on Saturday and doing this. Where do people go to get all your insights in your new show?
- [45:58]
Eric Bolling
Oh, new shows. The edge. It's right there on the screen. I appreciate you doing that. Every time we, we do this, we get a bunch of your, your amazing war room audience that come and join. Just subscribe right there and you can always catch me right before Band is War Room. Every day on Rev at 4 o'. Clock. I lead into Steve's 5 o' clock hour where you will learn a lot of stuff. We do a little bit more markets in the economy of 4. Steve will give you the geopolitics at 5.
- [46:22]
Stephen K. Bannon
That's what we got. I got to do more handoffs. I gotta get people know. I gotta get more organized for my afternoon show. There's so much that happens there. That's why love doing the they say, why do you do too? I said there's so much goes on during the day in Trump's presidency, you got to be on top of it. But as you know, I'm putting the show together at the last second. Unlike the morning show, we're a little more organized. Eric Bolling, love you, brother. Thank you for doing us over weekend. We'll see you on Monday, sir.
- [46:45]
Eric Bolling
Now. See you later, Steve. Have a good day.
- [46:49]
Stephen K. Bannon
Had great insights. We're gonna get back to all of this. We're gonna pivot here. We gotta talk some politics. Ken Paxton, two polls in Texas coming out. Ken Paxton up 16 and one on one against Cornyn and 18 on the other. I think the grassroots are speaking with a pretty strong voice down in the great state of Texas. Need to talk to Philip Patrick in the team over at Birch Gold. Let's do it this weekend or let's do it on on Monday and Tuesday. We're gonna fill it back on. I think we're gonna fill it Back on on Monday. Worst week in gold, I think in 43 years this past week.
- [47:31]
Stephen K. Bannon (Host, alternate segment)
Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
- [47:36]
Stephen K. Bannon
So on Birch gold. Also birch girl.com promo code ban. And if you want to get a little more thorough, the end of the dollar empire. You get access now to the printed edition. We've taken all the seven firsts, the installments and put it in, put it in one print edition if you want it. Graphics are amazing. Team did a great job. You can understand the direction of, particularly with things like, I don't know, $200 billion price tag, at least initial price tag for this war. On top of the $1.2 trillion
- [48:07]
Wynton Hall
debt.
- [48:08]
Stephen K. Bannon
We already have Wharton School analysis. Do think about. I'm trying to get him up on the show. We're trying to find time. He came out with analysis. It's 100 trillion in debt. Not even contingent liabilities. He actually has worked it through. He said it's 100 trillion in debt. He may be closer to the facts. What did someone who was on the show yesterday said? Getting close to a $3 trillion deficit. We had that deficit coming down. You know, Scott Bessance wants to get to 3% of GDP, all of that into the dollar empire. Find out about it today. Talk to Philip, Patrick and the team. Particularly Gold as a hedge in the turbulence of capital markets. Gold had its worst week in 43 years. What does that mean? What does it mean for you? Go check it out. We're gonna get Philip back up here on Monday. Talk it all through Wynton hall next hour, because we're just not going to be maniacally focused on, on this war. Although President Trump, as we said back in the summer when he had a carrier battle group down there outside the Red Sea on the Gate of Tears, that straight is actually tougher than Hormuz by a long shot. That one goes in the Red Sea and up to suez, which is 100% to the Europeans. We had a carry battle group and the Houthis, look, they're ornery, they're tough hombres. They were given as good as they got then, right? It's a European problem. He said at the time in the European, in China and Japan, Hormuz, that's your deal, not our deal. We're all good. Of course it affects the global economy and that impacts us, but we're all good. So I think President Trump, he was pretty adamant on the, on the, on the lawn, getting ready to go to Mar a Lago yesterday, saying, hey, look, I took care, I Took care. I took the nuclear capability, sank the Navy, blew up their air force, did all of this. You guys have really pitched in. In fact, you've been kind of hemming and hawing. Time to step up. That's President Trump putting, as we say in the Navy, a shot across the bow. On with two main things. One, the Chinese Communist Party's existential threat. The other's artificial intelligence and hurdling towards the singularity. Code Red is the book that you need to get up to speed on what this really means, politics and for your kids. Look, the jobs apocalypse. You know, Powell came out the other day and had pretty shocking news. And we're going to get EJ and Tony up next week. He's been traveling around. He gave a big interview to the Financial Times about the economy. But it was kind of a shocker, Winton, because I think it gets to the heart of this AI situation. And people got to remember when they see these announcements, big layoffs, if they don't say it's related to AI, it is all related to AI, okay? The cutting staff, et cetera. So Code Red gets into this and particularly the crisis we're going to face on job creation and particularly high value added job creation that people can really build a family of four around. Sir.
- [50:52]
Wynton Hall
Yes. I mean, one of the things we all remember was Rahm Emanuel never let a crisis go to waste. I think we really have to understand the political power game that's being played here. So sometimes you hear from the conservative movement, oh, this is all hype. It's just marketing. You're trying to raise capital investment and so forth. And, you know, we've heard in the industrial revolution that, you know, all of this was going to be a disruption and it ended up creating more jobs. It's the lump of labor fallacy. I think what we need to understand is it almost doesn't matter which way this turns out because it can be weaponized to build support for universal basic income and that fear and panic. So whether you think it is going to happen or you don't, you're going to see efforts to push it. And let me just give you a couple of quick examples of that. So we all know that, of course, Elon Musk has said that AI is a, quote, supersonic tsunami headed toward humanity. Right? And I think we all agree it's going to affect everything from education to jobs to national security. And that's literally why I wrote Code Red to kind of walk us through all of the different fault lines as this seismic shift unfolds the second thing is of course Dario Amadeus, the head of Anthropic, saying just a month and a half ago that in 12 months, Steve, we're not talking about out into the wild Future. This is 12 months from now. He says we're looking at between 12 months and five years, 50% of all entry level white collar jobs being disrupted. Now that's our college kids, right? The kids, our kids. So you take out a big loan to get your kid through college, they play by the rules, you do everything you can and now you're taught talking about a wipeout of that lower rung of starting. And we all know we all had great mentors and you have to be able to move yourself up professionally and develop. If you hack off that lower rung of the job opportunity, what's that going to hollow out for middle management and upper management long term? But more than that, what are those kids going to do? And then Mustafa Suleiman, Microsoft AI CEO, says that in 12 to 18 months again just from now, we're looking at the ability to replace 100% of white collar job tasks, not exact jobs, but using the tasks that you would be able to do. And so over time automating that away. Now if you think that that is a bunch of hype, fine, that's great. But understand forces very well funded are using that fear mechanism, whether you think it's real or not, to build support for things like universal basic income, wealth redistribution, a global economic res. We've seen Bill Gates seeding the narrative terrain with this idea of a three or a four day work week. We've seen the Bernie Sanders element of that as well, trying to argue for a European style 37 hour a week work week and so forth. So the point that you have to understand, and this is what I try to do in Code Red, is explain that this is a power game just as much as it is a tool that, that we might use for productivity or our own efficiencies and so forth. And I think that's the real way to get ahead. I mean, one of the things I've always learned from you is you've gotta be able to connect those dots so that you can think five steps ahead of where somebody else is on that chessboard. And that's what Code Red tries to do.
- [54:19]
Stephen K. Bannon
The question the audience has got is where have you been for the last decade? Man, you should have been out hammering this stuff for forever. Not just this, but other topics. One of the best minds about how to message and how to lay it out there. Win Hall. The guy's been behind the scenes and a major, major player now stepping out in front of the curtain. The book is code Red. Get it today. You will not be disappointed. The left, the right, the ch. China, the CCP in the. In the fight for the control of artificial intelligence. Wynton, where do people go to find everything about what you're doing on this book?
- [54:54]
Wynton Hall
Thank you so much, Steve. Yes, so we have a website, aicodereadbook.com but obviously Amazon is the quickest way or Barnes and Noble Books a million. The book is everywhere right now. And so go ahead and grab it today if you can. The other thing, of course, is on Twitter. I'm at Winton W Y N T O N. Hall. Twitter just at Winton Hall. And thanks so much.
- [55:20]
Stephen K. Bannon
Let's. Let's go sign up. Thank you, brother. Books number 27 on the list. Short break. Back in the worm in a moment.