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- [00:00]
Stephen K. Bannon
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear. That I will faithfully execute. That I will faithfully execute. The office of President of the United States. The office of President of the United States. And will, to the best of my ability. And will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend. Protect and defend. The Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations, Mr.
- [01:10]
Narrator/Reporter
Trump.
- [01:10]
Cleo Pascal
Exhaustion syndrome. And dives into the nonstop and frantic development surrounding President Trump's first year back in office and how Americans just can't seem to keep up. The report chronicles Trump's attempts to expand his power over the past year and why seemingly no one has been able to stop him.
- [01:32]
Scott Bessent
Again. I would say this is the same kind of hysteria that we heard on April 2. There was a panic. And what I am urging everyone here to do is sit back, take a deep breath, and let things play out. As I said on April 2, the worst thing countries can do is escalate against the United States.
- [01:53]
Ursula Van der Leyen
It feels, Joe, like I'm sitting here in Davos waiting for Storm Trump to arrive, and nobody really knows. Is he going to come here with a message that is more conciliatory? Having said, he had a good conversation with Mart Rutter, the Secretary General of NATO, or is he going to come here and escalate things? I mean, if this is a kind of reality show, what's the next plot twist going to be that he's going to offer us? And really, Europeans are bewildered. But I think what they have taken on board is that this is a permanent shift. And I think that's something it's taken Europe a while to adjust to. But you just heard, I was listening to the President of the European Union, Lyon, here in Davos, given in the opening remarks. Here's what she said. Nostalgia is part of the human condition, but nostalgia will not bring back the old order. So Europe realizes it has to prepare to defend itself now. It has to deal with this emergency over Greenland. And you've got President Trump attacking some of his closest allies. We've said for a while, Joe, he has a better relationship with Macron, he has a better relationship with Starmer. When he goes and releases their private communications and attacks Keir Starmer for great act of stupidity, it doesn't do much to shore up his relationships in Europe. And all of this, as we've been saying, to the benefit of Russia, to.
- [03:05]
Narrator/Reporter
The benefit of China and the decision to dealing the US Dollar from gold in an instant. The foundations of the Bretton woods system and the entire global economic order set up after the war effectively collaps. But it also had two major effects. It inadvertently created the conditions for what would become a truly global order. And it provided a sharp lesson for Europe and on the need to strengthen its economic and political power. It was a warning to reduce our dependencies, in this case on a foreign currency. The world may be very different today without any question, but I believe the lesson is very much the same, that geopolitical shocks can and must serve as an opportunity for Europe.
- [04:12]
Stephen K. Bannon
Okay, welcome. It is Tuesday 20th January, year of alert 2026. One year to the day of President Trump returning to set things right. We have a longer cold open. It's magnificent. I want to compliment my team for the first part. Just magnificent. But we have a very special guest and we want to get to it. It's the Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bessen. Mr. Secretary, you led the advance guard over there before the president arrived. Your message yesterday was take a deep breath. Ursula Vandelet and the others saying, hey, we understand this is a permanent shift. We have to think about this permanently. The markets are, you've been promoting and saying, hey, look, the Trump trade is a smart trade. The markets this morning looks like they may be questioning that. Dalio came out and said we may be going into capital wars where Europe are going to reallocate away from the United States. Your assessment, because you started off, there was a lot of swagger when the United States showed up. Is there going to be continued swagger when the president arrives?
- [05:21]
Scott Bessent
Steve, good to be with you. And, you know, I can tell you here in Davos, remember their paper a few years ago that we should all be eating insects. And given the food here, I think I'd rather eat insects. So. But to be serious, the president's got plenty to swagger about. It's been an incredible year. Peace deals, tax deals, trade deals that The Atlanta Fed GDP numbers 5.3% forward. Inflation looks like it could be at the Fed's target by the end of the summer. And we we've got the hottest economy on Earth now. The Europeans are very good at value signaling. And if you remember, probably their most strident moment, the most strident moment against Russia, Ukraine was when they put the Ukraine shown the Ukraine flag up on the side of the EU Parliament building. I am sure that Vladimir Putin was quaking in his, in his boots. So look, the Europeans, they like to talk in these big turns. They like to talk. They like to talk in these big terms. And I there are allies. They want to be under the US umbrella and they will be.
- [06:51]
Stephen K. Bannon
Let's go to, I want to talk about Ursula Vandalay. She kind of gave a history of the US currency as Bretton woods and you know, but Nixon coming off the gold standard, she implied that that's actually going to be in question. When she talked about a new geopolitical realignment, she implied that this has to do with the US Currency. Then Ray Dalio came up and said, hey, you may see a reallocation. We may be heading into a time of capital wars under your stewardship. It's been quite evident with the President's strategy and you executing that the Europeans have piled into the, have piled into what you call the Trump trade, the America first trade, the MAGA trade. Are you concerned at all, not just the geopolitical realignment, but the, I don't know, it's $100 trillion of assets I think the Europeans own of our stocks and our bonds. Sir.
- [07:47]
Scott Bessent
Well, Steve, a couple of things and I wanted to backtrack for a moment because I don't believe that the markets are going down or I don't believe the primary catalyst for the market going down is the kerfuffle over Greenland. I believe the markets are going down because the Japanese bond market had a six standard deviation move for the past two days that would be in their ten year bonds. I've been in touch with my economic counterparts in Japan and urged them to take the necessary measures to stabilize their bond market. But that's spilling over into all bond markets. German yields are up, French yields are up, US Yields are up. And again, it's mostly the Japanese bond market got nothing to do with Greenland. And the Europeans can shake their fist. They love regulation, they have low growth. And our message to them has been, you know, come grow with us, be part of the, our innovation economy. Because Steve, imagine this, that Europe has no cloud of its own. It's the US and China. How is it that 400 million people haven't been able to develop that? And it's just this overregulation and not my words. Mario Draghi, the former Prime Minister of Italy, former head of the ecb, said issued a gigantic report called the Draghi Competitiveness Report. And he said that he believes that goods intra Europe are tariffed at about 50%, services are tariffed at 100%. So it is just this regulatory morass that Europe, they like to export Regulations I've had many are great US Tech executives. Some I know you take shots at rightly tell me that it's easier to do business in China than in the eu.
- [10:03]
Stephen K. Bannon
A lot of people don't realize your expertise in Asia and East Asia. I want to go to Japan for a minute since it's such a significant ally for us and the new Prime Minister has been really, I think, President Trump's own strongest supporter. She announced the snap election, but she also announced she was going to have a new economic model. Is that what's driving this turmoil in the, in the Japanese bond market or the world bond market? Is her new plan or the fact she called a snap election? Because she's riding a wave of popularity and she's quite vehtly anti CCP and very proud. The American alliance in East Asia between Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the United States.
- [10:46]
Scott Bessent
Look, the Prime Minister is fantastic. She's very popular. She's called this snap election to give her a longer mandate. But I think that they failed to recognize Abenomics was a reflationary program brought Japan out of 20 years of a malaise, a deflationary malaise. But that program has been running for 14 years. So what Japan doesn't need is more stimulus. What they do need is to let the BOJ do their job. So I'm confident that Xi, the economic team, will do whatever it takes to stabilize the message.
- [11:32]
Stephen K. Bannon
You walk the audience through for months and months and months to say, hey, look, the big beautiful bill is a supply side tax cut. Here's the bet we're making. It's the last chance we've got to really do supply side to focus on manufacturing, growing manufacturing. Also the tariff deals. You had a brilliant defense of it. I think we played some clips at the top of the cold open about redoing the commercial relationships and how significant that was working also to drive manufacturing today, I think or yesterday. They announced the deficit for last year over $2 trillion up to $39 trillion debt. You've told our audience for a long time and said, hey look, we've got our last chance to try to grow our way out of here. Now the Atlanta Fed is saying real growth of in, particularly in the private sector is over 5%. Do you still hold with that that that you and President Trump believe we can actually grow way out of here and that somehow in some future time this year, later this year, next year, we're going to start getting our arms around the stimulus we're putting into the economy. The $2 trillion deficits.
- [12:39]
Scott Bessent
Well, Steve, for the calendar year, the deficit actually went down by about 200 billion. And a big reason for that was President Trump's tariffs. So we had a fiscal contraction and then we grew the GDP at, call it 3% with about 2 1/2% inflation. So the, the really important number to look at here is the deficit to GDP. So 2024, deficit to GDP, calendar year, not fiscal year, was 6.9%. This past year, 2025, 5.4%. So we have made a substantial dent in the deficit to gdp. That's the important number that shows that we are growing our way out of this. So we could, we brought the numerator down and we grew the denominator. And if we keep this up, we're well on my, we're well on the way to my 3% deficit to GDP by the time the President leaves office. And Steve, the other thing that's, I just want to say the other thing that's important here too, the other thing that's important here too is what is, what is the reason we're not making more progress on the deficit is because we are doing the immediate expensing of equipment, of factory structures and of farm structures. And that is productive, that, that is productive spending. And so we take a tax hit on that upfront that business people, any of your viewers who have small businesses, they buy an office computer, they can write 100% of it off. They, they build a new farm shed, they can write 100% of that off. And, but you were increasing the tax revenues the year after the following year. So it's not just social spending that goes out the door, never to be seen again. We are pulling the rubber back band back further and further so our economic potential gets bigger and bigger.
- [15:03]
Stephen K. Bannon
You know, we've heard numbers thrown around 19 trillion here, 9 trillion here, whatever. But are you comfortable? Because this is the key to the plan. Are you comfortable? You're seeing from the big beautiful bill and from the imposition of the, of the tariffs, of the redoing of commercial relationships, the capital coming back into the United States and starting to basically make the investments. I mean, the last time I think we caught up with you was at a factory in South Carolina where a, I think it was a German company was putting a major capital expenditure in to revamp. I think it was around magnets and rare earths. Are you comfortable right now when you advise the President, President. That this is going down the path and that you say because the semaphore just had all the Wall street economists I think 20 of them did their assessment. Surprisingly, they back up you and the president of what 2026 is going to look like.
- [15:58]
Scott Bessent
Well, I think it could be even bigger. And the last time I joined you was in Sumter, South Carolina. It is a German company but owned by an investor group in Texas. So really an American company that went out a couple of years ago. And talk about great foresight. They saw what was coming with the Chinese, with the magnets. So they went to Germany, acquired this company. Company has production facilities in Germany. They've come to Sumter, South Carolina for the first time in 25 years. US on US soil made a rare earth magnet. They're going to be producing a lot more. We will be independent, have sovereignty without controlling your supply chain. And we're seeing that again and again because after I was on your show, I went down to my hometown, Charleston, South Carolina. Boeing is expanding their Dreamliner factory there by 50% due to all the new orders that President Trump drummed up as part of the trade deals. Every one of the trade deals, not only are we getting tariff income, but we are also encouraging ag purchases, substantial industrial purchases. And Steve on the, on the other side with President Trump's leadership and Jameson Greer's encyclopedic knowledge of trade he has just gone through and they cut out all the tariffs that our American exporters pay and all the non tariff trade barriers. So we saw a big in the third quarter gdp, first time in years we saw a positive contribution to trade instead of a trade deficit. When I started the investment business, 1980s, 1990s trade always had a positive contribution. Then after the China shock, it never did. And I think we can get used to having a positive contribution from trade instead of, as Ross Perot said, that giant sucking sound.
- [18:02]
Stephen K. Bannon
That's what shocks me when you're over there and you've got these geopolitical issues about Greenland and Canada and the Arctic north and things that President Trump is geopolitically trying to work out and you're trying to, you know, assist on both the trade deals and the finances of it. China announced a over a $1 trillion trade surplus. A lot of that comes from Europe. Now, I mean, do the Europeans not really understand the kind of geo economic logic block and obviously the American people, it's time for the Europeans to stand up and pay more for their own defense. But are they missing the fact of the interconnectivity of our capital markets, the interconnectivity of our commerce and that the sucking sound you've got Particularly for them, and especially for places like Germany is now the Chinese Communist Party. Did they fail to understand that.
- [18:55]
Scott Bessent
Steve? It's a complete understanding. And it goes back to, I think it was 2018, when President Trump met with the head of NATO and said, why are you doing Nord Stream 2? You are going to regret. You're going to regret this cheap Russian oil. And they did. So, you know, as I continually say, the Europeans are still sending money to Russia for energy, like in the ultimate amount. You couldn't make it up. It is so absurd. They are financing the war against themselves. And so it's the same kind of thing that I told when we were doing the negotiations with our European partners last summer. I told them we have the tariff wall up on China and these goods are going to come somewhere. They're going to go to Canada, they're going to go to Australia, they're going to go to the UK and mostly they're going to come to Europe because the global south, the developing markets, can absorb them. And guess what? They've all come ashore in Europe. And there was a headline in the Wall Street Journal that was supposed to be derogatory towards the US Said Germany trades more with China than it does with the U.S. well, guess what? That is a bad statistic for Germany because they are being flooded, Steve. 40%, 4 0% of the cars at the Munich auto show were Chinese cars. I was watching TV here late last night and Bosch, legendary auto parts supplier here, I think they're laying off 13 or 15,000 people. And there are all these signs saying, whatever happened to the Bosch family? Well, Bosch family got exported to China.
- [20:49]
Stephen K. Bannon
Larry Fake, you know, we've argued here for a long time about. Yeah, go ahead, sir, go ahead.
- [20:55]
Scott Bessent
No, no, I was going to say they will eventually come around, but it's going to be slow, it's going to be painful, and I wish them the best. We are still NATO's allies. The NATO relationship is strong. And President Trump just believes that the US Needs Greenland because no one will make a move on it. Then if the Europeans have it, if Denmark has it, what if Russia? What if China makes a move? Then we're part of NATO. We'll get pulled in. Isn't it much better that in advance just to cede it to the US and then it has US Protection? Because I can tell you, I believe that what President Trump is influenced by is our great allies in the UK they have a base on an island. We share a military facility on an island called Diego Garcia. And the UK Is giving that island to Mauritius. And guess who is behind Mauritius? The Chinese. So we needed to own that island, but the Brits are giving it up.
- [22:17]
Stephen K. Bannon
Now. We're actually, as soon as you're off, we're going to pivot. We've been arguing about this Diego Garcia situation for I'm very familiar with it being a Pacific Fleet sailor that had to cross the Indian Ocean and get to the North Arabian Sea. It's absolutely ridiculous. And President Trump has now finally come out and said it's ridiculous. Last thing, Secretary, I know you're busy, but Larry Fink, the new mayor of Davos and someone you know quite well said today about and something you've been very focused on, Dave Walsh on War Room, who's now in the government has been very focused on this is about the data centers. Larry Fink finally got old time religion. He said today that hey, these data centers can have intermittent power, that solar and wind is like he's preaching out of President Trump's the gospel according to Trump on energy. He says we can't do this with intermittent power, that solar and wind is not going to help us here. We've got to rethink this. I know you've been very engaged with the tech community to figure this out. Both also the water needs. What is, what is Secretary Besant's advice to Larry Fink?
- [23:24]
Scott Bessent
Listen to President Trump. Listen to President Trump. Because President Trump idea with the data centers was to allow them to produce their own power. And if you look all over, Steve, that there are facilities, nuclear facilities that are being reopened, they're being forced to create their own power supplies. And I think think because of this public backlash, we're going to see some of the data centers, the communities that are near them may actually see their power bills go down for a couple of years. But who thought that that was a good idea? I was just with a Spanish business person and I don't know if you recall, the lights went out in Spain because they were so dependent on, on solar. So it's just not reliable. I do have to say that I'd been here once or twice in previous years, didn't like it very much. We do have to give Larry Fink the credit. He has re centered the conversation somewhat. It is not completely illogical. There are still the vestiges of the ESG and DEI and Kumbaya people who want to go down with the ship. But it is much more of a discussion. And Steve, better than anyone, you know, when President Trump, when Marine One lands here tomorrow, that Donald J. Trump is going to suck all of the oxygen out out of Davos for the 24 hours that he's here.
- [25:10]
Stephen K. Bannon
Mr. Secretary, you were a contributor here to War Room. You have a huge fan base among the Warren Posse. What is that? It's a one year anniversary of President Trump's return to power. A historic year. What has it been like for you personally.
- [25:26]
Scott Bessent
Steve? I have the busiest day that I've ever had. Every day. I've wanted to serve my country since I was 17 years old and it is the honor of my lifetime. And, and I tell you, everyone says to me, well, if this candidate won and this candidate won in 28, would you stay? And I said it would be impossible to stay because the warp speed that President Trump moves with, the way we get things done, that not only is it gratifying, he makes it fun that he's a force of nature. And I couldn't have imagined that we would get this much done this quickly. And I don't have to tell you, Trump, years are like dog years. I feel like I've aged seven years, but it's been worth it. It's been worth it.
- [26:18]
Stephen K. Bannon
Well, you look marvelous, sir. Social media where do we keep up with the Secretary of the Treasury? Ray Coms team, where do we keep up with you?
- [26:29]
Scott Bessent
Just at my treasury account. So the Secretary of the treasury and we put a lot of things up on the X account every day and we'd love to have your viewers join us there.
- [26:45]
Stephen K. Bannon
Mr. Secretary, in honor and congratulations for an incredible, incredible first year. Thank you so much for joining us.
- [26:52]
Scott Bessent
Well, good, Steve, thanks to you and the posse for all you've done, all the support, and I think you ain't seen nothing yet.
- [27:07]
Stephen K. Bannon
No doubt. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Appreciate you. From the, from the great state of South Carolina, a gamecock, Scott Besant. Incredible first year. Everything accomplished. No, so much started. Yes. Big issues. We got to get to the deep state. I think we're going to cut momentarily to. We're going to cut momentarily. I think Stewart Rhodes is doing a press conference across the street, I think from the White House to address a memo he and his colleagues sent to President Trump about, about the, about the Insurrection Act. Let me go first. Do I have Cleo? Can I get Cleo in for a minute? Cleo Pascal, are you with us?
- [27:58]
Cleo Pascal
I am indeed.
- [28:01]
Stephen K. Bannon
We got about two minutes before we go to break. We'll hang you through. Scott Bessem went out of his way to talk about President Trump now putting people on notice. He ain't happy with the Diego Garcia deal, you've been the leading voice in this to warn people what's going on. Give me a minute before you go to break. About the warning now being acknowledged and President Trump saying it's stupid, it's weak. What are we doing here? This can't happen. Your thoughts, ma'?
- [28:27]
Nor bin Laden
Am?
- [28:28]
Cleo Pascal
It's reinvigorating. This was on path to be forced through the British Parliament. And now that President Trump has made it clear that he doesn't like the deal, there is a chance that this might get revisited. One of the only remaining arguments that the Starmer government had was the Americans are okay with this. Well, the Americans are not okay with this. And now that's been made very clear. And there's a hope that, as the president said, this incredibly stupid deal may not go through. So we're going to be watching very closely for the next few weeks to see what happens in London.
- [29:07]
Stephen K. Bannon
Okay, hang on. Clio joins us from the strategic pivot of the United States. Yes, that would be the Central Pacific. We're going to go back. We got Stuart Rhodes on the Insurrection Act, Tina Peters, the situation with Tina Peters in Colorado. Also, Ursula Van der Line. She pretty blunt about the end of the dollar empire. Gold and silver are on a tear. You need to find out more about. It ain't the price, it's the process. Get smart. Text abandoned. B A N N O N at 989-898, you get the ultimate guide for investing in gold and precious metals in the age of Trump. Most importantly, get access to Philip Patrick and his team. I'm trying to get Philip to join us today in the afternoon show. Stick around during the work. Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. Okay, I want to connect some dots here on geopolitics, geoeconomics, capital markets and you, the war in posse and some turbulence that may be going on today. Now I've got Cleo Pascal is in the Pacific. She's going to join us. Come back in a moment. We've got Nour bin Laden in Switzerland who covers Davos force. You know, every year what Scott Bessen said in the turmoil in the capital markets today, the bond and stock market particularly, and of course, precious metals on a tear, as Scott said. Look, part of that may be this whole what Ray Dalio is talking about and this whole issue about a geopolitical realignment and particularly letting the Europeans know, hey, look, we just can't. We're not going to do it anymore. We're not going to pay for your title defense. Your entire Defense, the elites in Europe have to understand you gotta get to 5%. But even more in getting into 5% is the seriousness of what you take. These threats now that goes from Canada and the Arctic and Greenland and the, you know, the Greenland, Iceland, UK gap about the situation with Russian submarines, all of it. But it also goes as we've banged the drum on this show for months and months and months because we knew this day was going to come where people internally, they've been talking about a lot. And President Trump has another geopolitical and geostrategic necessity is this atoll or this little island in the middle of the Indian Ocean that has been quite strategic for the British and then for the Americans for, I don't know, over 100 years. That is Diego Garcia, right? And particularly when you're taking a carrier battle group, a carrier strike group, I think they call it now, from the South China Sea, where it's on patrol in defense of Taiwan and free trade and the passage, you know, free passage of cargo, right, to the Straits of Malacca to cross the Indian Ocean past Deo Garcia to the North Arabian Sea to be available in case there is any need for it in this situation in Tehran. The third part of that is what Scott Bessen said. He said, hey, don't lose sight of the issue about Japan. He says most of he thinks reaction is about the situation with Japan and particularly Japan's finances. And Japan ought to be a cautionary tale for the United States. Back in the late 1980s, early 1990s, had a massive asset bubble, particularly around real assets, real estate. Remember, at one time, people thought Japan was going to own the world. They were buying Tiffany's. They were buying every building in the United States. The bank of Japan's lobby, it was one time valued at four or five billion dollars, just a real estate value in central Tokyo. What you've had is you have a prime minister there. She's quite energetic. She's a real partner with President Trump. Geopolitically, she's quite strongly anti ccp. They've had this thing called the lost decades because of the implosion of their economy around this asset bubble collapsing in the late 80s, early 90s, and everything they've tried to do, struggle through, they've lost decade after decade after decade of being a manufacturing superpower and being a dominant player in the world economy. Well, she's got a new economic plan, but most importantly, she's calling a snap election. You can do that in their system, in the parliamentary system. And the reason is she's Got tremendous momentum because guess what? People in Japan like her energy. They like the cut of her jib. They particularly like the fact that the Japanese elites are publicly waking up to the fact that the Chinese Communist Party, not just in the South China Sea, but in the East China Sea, is a strategic threat to the people of Japan. No more just, you know, talking about North Korea. This is one of the big things that we did in the first days of President Trump's first term, particularly in the transition. This whole thing with Obama, this obsession with the of Korea, which it should be, but Korea is a vassal state to the Chinese Communist Party. They're the enemy. And so those three nodes, both what's happening in Japan with a closer strategic realignment to the United States via this amazing young prime minister. They have female what's happening in Diego Garcia and the Central Indian Ocean with that as a strategic asset. And clearly what's happening in Greenland. And not just in Greenland, don't forget the Mack Daddy that is northern Canada, from Alaska to all the way to Greenland and across northern Canada. That part of the Arctic is the new great game. And that is where the vulnerability of the west really comes out because China and Russia are all over it. Cleo Pascal, with that as a tee up. You have warned about this and you've done a brilliant job of getting analysis out there, taking clips from war room and you've warned, don't miss what the British are talking about. It's like marine Mauritius and the people and the indigenous people and what we're doing. They, they are, they're consciously obfuscating what the issue is here. The issue is that through one belt, one road and other predatory capitalist, you know, predatory capital, capital and kind of the British East India Company model in reverse. This is a client state. Mauritius is a client state of the Chinese Communist Party. And you're a basically turning over a key naval asset at the very moment when President Trump's Mahanian strategy, Mahanian strategy is coming ever clearer that the choke points and what Mahan said is the key to global power. A navy that can keep the seven seas free, but also can deploy everywhere is now at the forefront of, of everybody's mind. And it's not lost in President Trump that the British government is just giving away to the Chinese Communist Party one of the most strategic assets in the world. Your thoughts, ma'?
- [36:20]
Cleo Pascal
Am? Not just giving away, they're going to be paying for Mauritius to have it. So they're going to transfer sovereignty and then the idea is that they will lease it back and there are two poison pills in this proposed agreement. Now, the state of it is that an agreement has been signed but not ratified, and it's being held up in the British House of Lords. They've been trying to get the government to reconsider and it hasn't yet gone to Mauritius even to be presented as legislation or ratified. So there is still a little bit of time. And it was President Trump's truth social message was extremely welcome. Because there are two things in this treaty that are going to blow it up. One is the minute it's signed, the US is likely to be in contravention of international law because Mauritius has signed on to this Pan African Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, the Pelondaba Treaty, which means that all of Mauritian soil cannot have nuclear weapons on it. And the US is, we saw this with what happened in New Zealand a few decades ago. The US's policy is not to say whether or not there are nuclear weapons there, which will, because they're not saying there aren't going to immediately cause set it up for legal problems. And then this treaty, which where the UK will lease the land for the base for 99 years, becomes terminated if the UK misses one payment. So I think that it's very likely over the next 99 years, some government in the UK is going to not pay their bills, and then the US really is in legal jeopardy. So in this treaty, there are these. These traps that are set to betray the us, make it difficult to operate and in a cognitive and narrative warfare context, to make the US even more isolated. And this isn't just we're talking about Diego Garcia, because that's the one that the British are trying to set the trap in now. But when we talk about Europe, and especially in the context of the national security strategy, where they say Europe might not be what we think it is in 20 or 30 years, Europe isn't geographically contained to the continent of Europe. There are pieces of Europe. As we see, the UK is in the Indian Ocean, France is in the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific. And I think, for example, the French are looking for a way to get out of New Caledonia. So when we're looking at our strategic geography, and especially these very critical islands, we need to take into account what is happening in those European capitals and how they're reacting towards the US now in order to be able to get ahead of the game. Because I don't think they're the allies that necessarily, necessarily they're presumed to be. And I also think that they're Looking for ways to get out of the rest of the world which will leave the US Even more exposed. Diego Garcia is the most clear example of this now, but I don't think it's going to be the only one.
- [39:29]
Stephen K. Bannon
You're 100% correct and we will get ahead of that with you. Just to remind the audience, the national strategic memo was 33 pages long. Kind of gives a a very 60,000 foot level overview of the thinking of an administration as they think about the national security of the United States. And this was an America first document. Europe did not really get addressed until page 29. As I tell you, when I do these interviews overseas, I said that should be a wake up call. It's not a number one priority anymore. And you're absolutely correct. There's a lot more that they're going to be dumping because in pages 29 to 33 they had one of the most brutal phrases I've ever seen in an official government document. They talked about civilizational erasure and that is because of the Muslim takeover. The migration issue in Europe, you can't look away from that anymore. In France, you can't look away from it anymore. In the Netherlands, you can't look at anymore in Brussels, you cannot look away from it in England. In the United Kingdom, it is a reality and becoming a more brutal reality every day. And this is one of the reasons we launched War Room Texas, because the exact same issue and how to get ahead of it. This is why Geert Velders wasn't randomly, he just didn't randomly wander into Texas that day for that conference. We invited him to be, because he is probably the best. He's the Cassandra, he's the one that warned about it, the earliest and the best. And this is why we have Peter McElvenny with his great show that travels to Texas and let us know what's going on. Cleo, you've had a great nose for this. What's important, we've talked about Greenland, we've talked about Canada, we've talked about the Arctic, you've talked about Diego Garcia. And eventually these all become not just front page news, but they become like in Davos right now, it is in vapor lock about the Arctic, about Greenland, about America's first geostrategic policies. You have been with us throughout this past year on the anniversary now of President Trump's, you know, the first anniversary of his second term, the first year you have been warning that as big a problem as all these other things are that the real strategic pivot in An America first hemispheric defense is the central Pacific. That has been proven out not just by McKinley and these geniuses in the late 19th century that knew how important it was, but more importantly 80 years ago when young men who had never heard of these places, families actually every day were looking at Guadalcanal and Peleliu and Tarawa, these small islands, as the Americans heroically fought across the Pacific to basically break the Japanese empire. Tell us and I'm going to hold you through the break. Give me a minute on the central Pacific and where you are today and how important that is in the overall strategic context of America first national security policy.
- [42:28]
Cleo Pascal
I'm in the Republic of Palau, which is in free association with the United States. This is the country of the island of Peleliu. This is a country that definitely knows war and doesn't want war again. And the president of this country, President Sarangel Whips, was the keynote speaker at the Honolulu Defense Forum and he explained in very strong and clear terms why his country recognizes Taiwan and the risks that the Chinese Communist Party imposes on anything that gets close to it. So this is a country of blood and courage and it's an honor and privilege to be here. And I learn from Palauins every day about how important it is to be on the front line and be willing to fight.
- [43:18]
Stephen K. Bannon
Can you hang on for one second? I'll hold you through the break. I got Noor bin Laden. Also, Tom Fitton's going to join us. More revelations about my favorite Dr. Fauci. And also we're going to get an update on Tina Peters and everything that's going on inside the prison. In. In Denver, Ursula laid out the case for why Europe may be going in a different direction when it comes to the prime reserve currency. She couldn't be more blunt. Take your phone and a text. Bannon B A N N O N at 989-898. Get the ultimate guide for investing a golden gold and precious metals in the age of Trump. And make contact with Philip Patrick and his team at Birchbold. Short break. Here's your host, Stephen K. Band. Cleo, we look forward to coming back to you because I want to tell the audience now is the things we've talked about for months now are taking center stage, particularly with Greenland and Canada, the Arctic North, Diego Garcia. Even bigger is going to be the central Pacific. These islands that Clio spends so much time in knowing the people there talking about it. Peleliu and Taroa were at the scale of Normandy. As far as bloodshed, America has a real stake there. The greatest generation left their imprint to take those islands. Understanding the critical nature of the central Pacific in the defense of the United States. The defense of the United States as McKinley and all the great military experts of the late 19th century, all the way through FDR and MacArthur, Nimitz, all the great leaders in the Pacific understood the defense of the United States does not start at Oregon, Washington and California, the shores on the great Pacific. It starts thousands of miles, thousands of miles past Midway and past the Gibraltar of the Pacific, which they believed Honolulu was at the time or Hawaii. It is in the western central Pacific, the western part of that, in the southern part of that. And this is going to become a huge issue in years to come. You can already start to see it form around the issue about Japan, the issue about Australia, the issue about Diego Garcia. Cleo, until that time, ma', am, how do we keep up with you? And we'll have you back on to talk about your beloved Canada. Bloomberg's leaking that Canada is putting together plans. Carney's government are putting together plans for a potential invasion of Canada by the and it won't be the first time. Between the French and Indian War, I think three or four times the revolutionary generation was obsessed because many of those folks had served in the French and Indian War. Obsess. Also in the War of 1812. We've taken a couple of shots at Canada in the past. We've always crapped out, but we've taken a couple of shots. But we'll have you back on to discuss that. Until that time, ma', am, where do people keep up with you and your travels?
- [46:35]
Cleo Pascal
Sure, I mean you can find me on Exped. And I would just say just to point out that you're hitting the U.S. you fly. I mean I just flew seven, eight hours from Hawaii to the U.S. west to Guam. So you know, this is the McKinley and especially McKinley but also Bush Senior actually who was there when they brought in CNMI placed deliberately America and Americans part of the homeland. Seven, eight hour flight west of Hawaii. So you go across the center Pacific and you get to the United States. That's the message that they sent future generations about how important this area is and the Americans that are out here on the front line with Asia because if you remember, CNMI shares a maritime boundary with Japan, the US shares a maritime boundary with Japan and that part of the US still lets Chinese in without a visa. That's what's going on here on the front line. America's Asian frontline. So if you want to follow more about what's going on here as I travel through the region on terrible United Airlines flights, it's my name on X, just my name, Cleopaskal. And come along for the ride and come visit your fellow Americans, please. They want to see you there out here. And yeah. Yep.
- [47:58]
Stephen K. Bannon
Working on the tariff thing behind the scenes, I think what we'd have to do is have a special we have to have you for one hour and walk through McKinley's influence on Trump, both on tariffs and geostrategically. McKinley was, was quite he and the people around him There was late 19th century, early 20th century Americans just unbelievable in their foresight about the world. Cleo, thank you so much and thank you for being out there and warning the American people and quite frankly, the Brits that are now finally waking up to the fact President Trump ain't happy with the situation in Dere Garcia.
- [48:33]
Cleo Pascal
Thank you, sir.
- [48:34]
Stephen K. Bannon
Thank you, ma'. Am. Bin Laden, Larry Fink, the Mayor Scott gave him a little bit of a heads up. The Secretary of Treasury saying, hey, the ESG and DEI is still there, still embedded, but it's dying down a bit. Of course, Larry Fink was the single biggest driver that since he controls, I think it's $2 trillion of assets, basically money market funds and mutual funds, etc. Give me a couple of minutes before we go to break. We're going to hold you over on your assessment of Davos through day two awaiting President Trump. Ma', am.
- [49:16]
Nor bin Laden
Secretary Besant was quite gracious with Larry Fink and very diplomatic with him. I found in his statements. I'll be less diplomatic, I have to say, because I just think he's a total hypocrite. And his opening remarks today were clearly that hypocritical. And he's trying to toe the line between appeasing America First President Trump ahead of his visits while still kowtowing to the Davos elite and Davos club. So he's playing that fine line. And his opening remarks were very interesting where he recognized that it was an elite gathering where people weren't invited and that in the spirit of dialogue, to refer to the theme of this year's annual meeting, it was very important that we start listening to other voices, even if we disagree with them. But this is in total contradiction to what he said in the past. And specifically to that ESG point, I sent the team a video of him speaking about how it was so important that we needed to force be behavior changes. And that was just a couple of years ago. So he's doing like a complete volta fast and it's frankly quite sickening to watch.
- [50:39]
Stephen K. Bannon
We, we know, we know that Nor bin Laden. That's why we've got you. You're not going to leave off the hook. We're gonna start the next hour. That Nora's gonna stick around. We're gonna go to Colorado and talk about Tina Peters. We got Tom Fitton. We're packed actually. Jack Posobics wandering around and Brian Glenn are both on the loose in Davos. I'm sure the authorities are on top of that. We're gonna take a short break. Two things. Patriot Mobile 972 Patriot. Not just the best phone service out there and particularly the best phone service for your money but they back your causes. The situation in Texas. Patriot Mobile has done an extraordinary job of and remember this is the, the unspoken tension underneath the surface at Davos. The Islamic invasion of France and Germany in Netherlands in Belgium, in the United Kingdom and the direction of those societies. In the strategic memo it's called civilizational erasure. That was put in as a wake up call to folks but there's a wake up call down in Texas and we want to thank patriot mobile. 972-patriot- call. You'll get a Texan, a U.S. citizen with a hillbilly accent that walk you through everything. The best little phone company out there. Patriot Mobile 972 Patriot call them today. Tumble room sanction. Short break. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.