THE WAR ROOM WITH STEPHEN K. BANNON, JANUARY 8TH, 2026 (EP.#5052)

Summary

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Podcast Summary: THE WAR ROOM WITH STEPHEN K. BANNON, JANUARY 8TH, 2026 (EP.#5052)

Podcast: Real America’s Voice (iHeartPodcasts)

Date: January 8, 2026

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Overview

This episode of "The War Room with Stephen K. Bannon" focuses on the aftermath of a fatal ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis, the political fallout, alleged large-scale welfare fraud, debates on U.S. immigration and sanctuary policies, and criticism of federal spending. The show features heated exchanges between political leaders, commentary from Bannon and guests (John Solomon, Glenn Story, Senator Rand Paul), and detailed allegations involving the Minnesota state government and national law enforcement agencies.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Minneapolis ICE Shooting & Political Response

Timestamps: 00:02–03:25, 18:24–22:00

• Governor Tim Walz delivers a fiery statement, declaring an ICE shooting “not self-defense” and blaming federal authorities for escalating violence:
  "Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly, that is bull. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying." (00:02)

• Walz asserts Minnesota will conduct its own investigation and vows not to take “bait” from the federal government:
  "We do not need any further help from the federal government. To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem. You've done enough…Minnesota will not allow our community to be used as a prop in a national political fight. We will not take the bait." (00:27)

• Tensions rise as local officials trade blame and Bannon calls for decisive actions such as arresting the Minneapolis mayor over sanctuary city stances and ICE opposition:
  "Go in and arrest the mayor. They should have done that yesterday." (07:10)
  "You talk about a Civil war. You talk about insurrectionist. And that mayor...f ICE and instigating more violence against ICE agents. Come on, man, go arrest that punk." (07:10)

• NYC Official/Mayor ties the Minneapolis event to broader immigrant rights:
  "We know that when ICE agents attack immigrants, they attack every single one of us across this country. We will always be a city that stands up for immigrants." (04:56)

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2. Sanctuary Cities and Federal vs. State Conflict

Timestamps: 04:56–06:25

• New York’s Mayor reinforces adherence to sanctuary city policies and denounces ICE collaboration.
  "We are not here to assist ICE agents in their work. We are here to follow the laws of New York City." (05:50)

• Bannon and guests frame sanctuary cities as sources of chaos, accusing Democratic leadership of “insurrection” and creating conditions for violence against federal law enforcement.

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3. Fraud Allegations & Cash Transfers from Minnesota

Timestamps: 20:46–26:15; 45:33–47:11

• John Solomon details federal investigations into massive welfare fraud in Minnesota, specifically referencing Somali couriers allegedly moving $350 million per year in cash out of the Minneapolis airport:
  "Somali couriers who come to the airport almost daily with $1,600,000 in cash in a luggage...They were moving about $350 million a year...99 times larger than all the cash declared in luggage leaving JFK International." (22:24)

• This activity, tied to alleged fraudulent aid programs, is described as far outstripping other airports and is now under FBI and DHS investigation.
  "This was an abnormally high amount of cash being stuffed in the luggage...nobody in the Biden administration thought it was unusual..." (23:54)

• Bannon and guests draw connections between this and failures of federal/state oversight, especially implicating those with political ambitions:
  "Tim Walz was actually a nominee as Vice President...the polling and odds were that Tim Walz was going to be the Vice President...How this never came up during...vetting of Tim Walz is very deep statish..." (26:20)

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4. Debate Over U.S. Spending, Welfare, and Border Policy

Timestamps: 29:06–36:53

• Senator Rand Paul joins to discuss fiscal responsibility, slams the defense budget proposal ($1.5 trillion), and calls for an end to welfare eligibility for non-citizens: "If you take military spending off the table...you'll never balance your budget." (29:20)

  "I’m going all in...no welfare for illegal or legal immigrants...Republican establishment is quietly backstabbing the President and continuing to fund these refugee programs." (31:06)

• Paul criticizes Congressional budget processes as “a whole fake process," arguing true fiscal conservatives are kept off appropriations committees.

• On entitlements, Paul advocates gradually raising eligibility ages and encourages private saving, warning of looming insolvencies in Social Security and Medicare: "The age of eligibility has to go up...if you don’t want me to fix it, we'll watch it collapse." (35:19)

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5. “Quiet Skies”, J6 Fallout, and Government Overreach

Timestamps: 41:39–45:33

• Paul reveals details of "Quiet Skies," a federal program subjecting January 6 attendees (and relatives) to “terrorist watch list” surveillance. "What the Biden administration did with January Sixth folks is they put them on these lists...and harassed everywhere...Her husband was an air marshal and that's how he discovered she was on the list." (41:47)

• Paul shares the story of innocent people caught up in the post-J6 dragnet, including whistleblowers, and decries universities’ participation in citizen surveillance. "George Washington University, among others...was commissioned by the federal government...used to just do a dragnet over our entire population..." (45:09)

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6. COVID Investigations & Dr. Fauci

Timestamps: 36:53–40:42

• Senator Paul discusses efforts to refer Dr. Fauci to the (now Trump-led) DOJ for lying to Congress, destruction/evading of records, and improper use of private communications. "Anthony Fauci has been referred to the Trump DOJ for destruction of records, unlawful use of private sources for records, and still for lying to Congress about gain of function research." (38:18)

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7. Calls for Systemic Reform & Mass Deportations

Timestamps: 46:14–47:39

• Rand Paul announces new legislation for comprehensive audits of all welfare programs—focusing on fraud and eligibility—plus automatic deportation for those who defraud the government. "I've authored new legislation that I'm going to be introducing soon for an overall audit of all of the welfare programs in all the states...Another is to make it explicit that if you defraud the government, it's an explicit reason you can be deported." (46:14)

• The hosts and guests are consistently aggressive about the need to “send back” illegal or criminal immigrants.

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8. Event Promotion: “Save Texas”

Timestamps: 09:55–17:19

• Bannon, Glenn Story (Patriot Mobile), and guests promote an upcoming Patriot Mobile-sponsored “Save Texas” gathering in Grapevine, Texas, featuring Glenn Beck and Gert Wilders. "We've brought together hundreds, almost a thousand people, legislators from three or four different states...Glenn Beck...is going to keynote." (09:55) "I believe in the freedom of religion...However, if you're going to bring in some law that's contrary to our U.S. constitution...we're going to fight this tooth and nail." (12:19)

• Story positions Patriot Mobile as a company aligned with Christian, conservative values and activist causes. "We are an activist company that funds our activism through a simple thing called a cell phone." (14:28)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Gov. Tim Walz:
  "This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying...Minnesota will not allow our community to be used as a prop in a national political fight." [00:02, 00:27]

• Stephen K. Bannon:
  "You talk about a Civil war. You talk about insurrectionist...instigating more violence against ICE agents. Come on, man, go arrest that punk." [07:10]
  "We're on the road today for the next couple days in Texas...You've got an Islamic invasion in the great state of Texas..." [07:10]
  "This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people's not got a free shot." [06:25]

• John Solomon:
  "The most important piece of evidence is the bullet hole from the first shot fired by the ICE officer is directly in the front windshield...the officer had to be in front of the car as it was peeling away and he was in danger." [18:24]

  "TSA saw the money go...from Minneapolis to Europe, Europe to Dubai, often through Amsterdam. It was flagged for years. TSA was flagging these payments for years. They grew...from $20-$30 million a year to $350 million a year." [22:45]

• Senator Rand Paul:
  "If you take military spending off the table...you'll never balance your budget." [29:20]

  "I’m going all in...no welfare for illegal or legal immigrants." [31:06]

  "George Washington University...became the basically the accomplice to a government run amok on abuse of power." [45:09]

  "If you don’t want me to fix it, we'll watch it collapse." [35:19]

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Major Segments & Timestamps

• Minneapolis ICE Shooting Response (00:02–04:00)
• Sanctuary Cities Debate (04:56–06:25)
• Bannon, Guests on National Guard & ICE (07:07–09:55)
• “Save Texas” Event Discussion (09:55–17:19)
• Allegations of Minnesota Welfare Fraud (20:46–26:15)
• John Solomon’s Investigative Details (22:24–26:20)
• Rand Paul on Defense Spending and Welfare Policy (29:06–36:53)
• COVID Investigations and Fauci (36:53–40:42)
• Surveillance, J6, and Government Overreach (41:39–45:33)
• Systemic Fraud Audits, Deportation Push (46:14–47:39)

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Tone and Language

• Tone: Combative, urgent, populist, highly critical of Democratic leadership, the “establishment,” and federal oversight mechanisms.
• Language: Emphatic, confrontational, defensive regarding law enforcement actions, deeply suspicious of government motives and elite intentions; displays camaraderie among guests united by ideological alignment.

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In Summary

This episode presents a raw, unfiltered conservative reaction to recent Minneapolis events—using them as a touchstone for broader themes of governmental failure, immigration crisis, cultural conflict, and institutional corruption. The hosts and guests vigorously promote legislative and grassroots actions, emphasize deep skepticism of establishment processes, and frame the conversation in existential and often apocalyptic terms for American sovereignty and values.

Transcript

[Stephen K. Bannon]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Minnesota Governor Tim Walz]

Guaranteed Human be trying to spin this as an action of self defense. Having seen the video of myself, I want to tell everybody directly that is bull. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying to Minnesotans.

[Minnesota State Official or Spokesperson]

Know that our administration is going to stop at nothing to seek accountability and justice. The State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are working on the investigation. We have activated the State Emergency Operations Center. State Patrol of Minnesota National Guard leadership is connected with the Minneapolis Police Department, the St. Paul Police Department, Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, the DNR and Minnesota's Homeland Security and Emergency Management. We have activated dozens of members of the State Patrol's mobile response team. And from here on I have a very simple message. We do not need any further help from the federal government. To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem. You've done enough. There's nothing more important than Minnesotan safety. I've issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard. We have soldiers in training and prepared to be deployed if necessary. I remind you a warning order is a heads up for folks. And these National Guard troops are our National Guard troops. They're teachers in your community. They're business owners. They're construction professionals. They are Minnesotans. Minnesota will not allow our community to be used as a prop in a national political fight. We will not take the bait.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Get the out of here right now.

[John Solomon]

See, that's what I'm saying.

[New York City Official or Mayor]

It's a bunch of.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

They killed my neighbor. Who the are these Nazis?

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

You guys are losers.

[Glenn Story]

You guys are losing.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

You guys are losers.

[Minnesota State Official or Spokesperson]

Trying to agitate me.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

You're agitated it over here. Get the out of our city. The is wrong with you? Somebody's dying.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Go to your car so we can.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Take a picture of your plate.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Where's your car? You coward. You couldn't even stop.

[John Solomon]

I'm not moving you walk the block.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

You're a coward.

[Minnesota Governor Tim Walz]

Get the out to ice. Get the out of Minneapolis. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite. Somebody is dead. That's on you. To the family. I'm so deeply sorry. We're going to be working towards justice as quickly as we possibly can right now. And justice is what we've all got to get. We're going to make sure that in this very difficult moment we do not take the bait that these ICE agents are trying to create and that the federal government, to be clear wants people.

[Glenn Story]

Are going to want to exercise their first amendment rights. But please do so safely and lawfully to ensure that we do not have any further tragedy in this city or destruction.

[Minnesota Governor Tim Walz]

We can show them the kind of courage, bravery, love and compassion that makes Minneapolis, Minneapolis. Let's unite around hope and love and peace and getting justice.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Ambassador, I just think we're in new territory here. The President of the United States is actually not on this side of the allies.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

The President of the United States is.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Aligning himself with folks like Vladimir Putin. And I say that because territorial integrity, sovereignty, those are things we got to remind Putin of, President Xi of. Why are they reminding the President of the United States?

[Political Analyst or Commentator]

Well, it's because their foreign policy is governed by grownups strategy. They have an appreciation of history and understand what we have built, but also all of us have worked so hard together to build over the course of the last 80 years. The President of the United States doesn't understand that. Evidently Marco Rubio used to understand that, but the Secretary of State doesn't seem to understand that. And I think it's critically important for someone like me. The reason I speak out as vociferously as I do on all sides of the both sides of the Atlantic on this is because we got to get Americans to understand that there is so much on the line here. This is the world order as we know it. And again, if he drives a sea stake through the heart of NATO, the world will be fundamentally different afterwards. And I sure as heck am not going to let that happen. So I think we all have to fight as hard as we possibly can, starting with American members of Congress. I want to get them on the record on this. I know there's a lot of movement. There should be a heck of a lot more getting them to take a side. I was thrilled to see what a bunch of a couple of Republican senators did today, but we need to see a lot more of it first.

[New York City Official or Mayor]

Just want to make clear that the news coming out of Minneapolis is horrific. This is one part of what has been a year full of cruelty. And we know that when ICE agents attack immigrants, they attack every single one of us across this country. And this is a city and will always be a city that stands up for immigrants across the five boroughs. And I have made it clear to everyone within my city government, and that extends to nypd, that we are going to uphold our sanctuary city policies. We are going to adhere to them. That is why One of the 11 executive orders that we signed was to repeal the previous administration's order to allow for collaboration with ICE on Rikers Island. What we are going to be doing is following the laws that we have set, laws which have kept New Yorkers safe. And we are going to make it clear to each and every person in the city what their rights are. That's why we took the time to make a know your rights video, because it goes back to the earlier question, if you don't know of your rights, then how can you be expected to actually use those rights? So we are going to take every opportunity we have to inform New Yorkers of what they already can do. And also to make it clear to our own city government agencies and departments across the board, including nypd, that we are not here to assist ICE agents in their work. We are here to follow the laws of New York City.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people's not got a free shot. All these networks lying about the people, the people have had a belly full of it.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

I know you don't like hearing that.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen. And where do people like that go.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

To share the big maga media?

[Political Analyst or Commentator]

I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

War room here's your host, Stephen K.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Band Foreign It's Thursday the 8th of January in the year of our Lord 2026. Welcome to the worm on we're on the road today. Talk to you in a few minutes about where we are. Right there you see is the president. United States works through hemispheric defense from Latin America all the way up to the Arctic. And of course I think we took another ship on the high seas today we're closing in on one to ensure that this oil can't be monetized by our enemies. Bad guys running these countries and also the Chinese Communist Party. As I've said time and time again, the wars at home, we got to win this war, we got to win other wars. Important to win, but not actually must wins. Must win is in the United States of America and right there from Minneapolis. And you had, let's be blunt, walls the governor who's not going to run again, right? We're not going to run again because we have criminal charges brought against him. He's talking about bringing in the National Guard of Minnesota against ICE and against federal officials. You talk about a Civil war. You talk about insurrectionist. And that mayor I put up on getter yesterday in one of the left wing sites picked it up. I said go in and arrest the mayor. They should have done that yesterday. His throwdown right there f ICE and instigating more violence against ICE agents. Come on, man, go arrest that punk. He's one that. He's the railhead of a lot of the problems and walls. Now we're on the road today for the next couple days in Texas. Now why are we in Texas? You've got an Islamic invasion in the great state of Texas. This is not about religion. Has nothing to do with religion because 80 to 90% of what you see in all these mosques being built and these schools being built and all that has nothing to do with a religion. This is not about first Amendment. It's not about your right to practice a religion. Of course you can do that. This is about submission of the United States of America to Islamic wave that has now engulfed Europe.

[John Solomon]

Why?

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Because the elites in Europe for years and years and years, decades would not take action. So we're down here in Texas. We have a big event tomorrow night. Glenn Story joins me from the fantastic Patriot Mobile that has our back, a Christian company, I might add. And we've got Gert Wilders coming in from Netherlands who's been a fighter on this topic and warned people about this over decades. And you see what's happening in his country and other countries. And of course, I'll be speaking Glenn Story, because of your good offices. We also have another guest I think we're going to talk about this morning. What do we got?

[Glenn Story]

Yeah, you know, I do want to say this. You know, we're a small company and small when you embrace God or scripture tells us that giant things can happen out of a small package. Well, look, you know, I think what we're doing right now really illuminates that, you know, I would just say this. You know, you think about the feeding of the 5,000. A little boy had two fish, five barley loaves, and he trusted to give his only possession over to the Lord. And look what it did. It fed multitudes. And so I look at this right now saying, okay, you know, we are this small company. We've handed our business over. My chairman said, yeah, let's do it. Five years ago and giant things have happened. But today is a real good example of what's going to happen or tomorrow. We've brought together hundreds, almost a thousand people, legislators from three or four different states. We brought in Gert Wilders, you know, the. And this guy named Steve Bannon and then another gentleman and I don't really shouldn't say this but he's Glenn Beck, you know, and this is incredible. He's going to be the keynote speaker. He's going to load this thing up. And Steve, you usually light it on fire but dude, what you light on fire. He's going to really. You lied on it.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

I'm just the, I'm the, I'm the opening act for the great Glenn Beck. The reason, one of the reasons for this is Glenn Beck's been on this for over a decade. One of the best books about understanding Islam I think Glenn Beck wrote:12 years ago or something. I remember just reading it when it first came out. Glenn Beck's been on this problem from the very beginning talking about Europe and I think it's fantastic. He's going to keynote and close it out. I'm sure he's going to get people jacked up. Glenn, just tell me where do people go? To find out more about Patron Mobile, you've brought in 22 to 25 groups for this event. We could have sold a thousand tickets. I think we had to cut it off at 700. You've just done a magnificent. What people have been working on and coming together over the Christmas holidays to put this on. And now the great Glenn Beck is, is going to join us and close it out, be the keynote address. Talk to me about Patriot Mobile. Where do people go? Find out more about you and if they want to get on a waiting list for a ticket or do whatever, where do they go today?

[Glenn Story]

Hey, I will say this. It is sold out. You know there is a wait list. Go to patriot mobile.com savetexas but you know, if you received an email then you're going to get it, you're going to get in. And then secondly, I just want to say, look, we have a Pre meeting with 50 legislators leading up to the event and these guys are from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and other states that are coming in just for this. And it's an incredible, incredible event. And you know, I think we're probably going to do this once a quarter and you know, we want to educate others. And I will say this one last thing. I say it every time we talk. I believe in the freedom of religion. I don't care if you're Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, whatever you want to worship. I want you to have the freedom to worship that here in this country. However, if you're going to bring in some law that's contrary to our U.S. constitution. That's where it really stops. That's where we put our feet down. And you know what? Look, we're going to fight this tooth and nail through the legislative sessions. And look, this is something we have to stop because we do not want to. Europe or America.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Not going to. It's not. We're going to stop it. It's going to get stopped. This is not going to happen in the United States. It's happening. You see Mandami running his mouth, the Ugandan Marxist jihadist. And if somebody did the work to check his naturalization papers, as I recommend it, because I know this, he would be denaturalized and put on a plane back to Uganda where he should go. You saw him mouthing off in the, in the opening segment. We're going to be a sanctuary city. We're going to do this, we're going to do that. Hey, he had his shot in the Oval Office. President Trump was gracious enough to hear him out. And now you see this punk every day. They're a sanctuary city. Well, guess what? We're the United States of America and we want all the illegal aliens gone. And we particularly want Mandami's terrorist buddies all gone. Glenn story one more time. Where do people go to get to patriot mobile, sir?

[Glenn Story]

Patriotmobile.com and you'll be a customer of ours. And I'll tell you what, we are an activist company that funds our activism through a simple thing called a cell phone. The service is fabulous. And you know, when you need to talk with somebody, you're going to talk to a guy like me. And if you've got a service, Steve, I want you to say what it is. But hey, I'll tell you what, this thing works as good as anywhere you can go and, and I'll tell you fun or go ahead.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Look. Love you, brother.

[Minnesota State Official or Spokesperson]

Hang on.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

I'll hold you through the break. Just hang on.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Okay, we're down here. We're actually broadcasting from Kevin Friedman's war room, the great Kevin Freeman. Kevin's going to join us later in the show. Also, Tasch Gill is going to slip in here. Tasia is with us, going to talk about what's going on in Minneapolis. And John Salman is going to join us in a moment. So just to summarize Glenn's story, tomorrow night in, I think it's in Grapevine, Texas, we're going to have a, we're going to have a gathering, I don't know, 5, 6, 700 folks. And Glenn Beck is now going to join myself and Gert Wilders also. I think Stintroom is going to be there also. He's going to emcee and also speak. So this thing is packed wall to wall. One more time, where do they go to Patriot mobile?

[Glenn Story]

Glenn Story, patriotmobile.com savetexas and yeah, you know what? New York City, what's going on up there is just an abomination. You've got this communist run in the city. It's one of the greatest cities in the world. I lived there for 15 years. And we're just, we've got to put a wall around that and keep all that nonsense out and we've got to save Texas. So you know what, if you want to be a part of this save Texas event, you know, it's an, it's going to be an inspiration. It's going to embolden folks. It's going to teach us what we can do. And look, if you didn't make it this time, we're going to have another one. And we look forward to hosting you guys.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Okay.

[Glenn Story]

And very excited. Glenn is going to 972 Patriot.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

972 Patriot. You talk to somebody, as the company says, a hillbilly with the east Texas accent. But that's a United States citizen about everything about the company. Go do it today. And like I said, Glenn Beck's going to keynote and close this thing out on Friday night. We couldn't be more excited. Last question. Glenn Story, you lived in New York City for 15 years with that accent. What do they think you from? What'd they make you? They thought you were from another planet.

[Glenn Story]

No, dude, I fit right in. Everybody loved me because you know what? I'm one of the few that like to talk to dead dog in the road. And you know what? People like people that like to talk because I think everybody has something interesting about them.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Glenn Story. Love you, man. Keep fighting.

[John Solomon]

All right. Yeah.

[Glenn Story]

Have a blessed day, guys.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

That supports has the back of folks with Christian values. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Just some logistics. Scott Bessant, the secretary treasurer is out I think for a two day trip to Minneapolis already previously scheduled. I think Jack Basil was going to be with him. Our own David Zier and a crew from Real America's Voice is going to be there. He's given a major speech at the economics, the economic club of Minneapolis. Talk about all the good things happening with the Trump economy and more to come. And so we're going to stream that live on all of our platforms today, Real America is always going to do it. We're also going to stream it on our rumble and our getter channels, all of them. Grayson, Mo on top of that. And then later on, we're trying to get Scott Bessant maybe for an interview this afternoon, if not tomorrow morning. So we're going to work it all out. He's going to stop by some factories, some folks we know out there. So the Secretary of Treasury, John Solomon, joins us. John, first off, you've got. You've been doing investigative work in your assessment of this situation yesterday with the ICE officer. Sir.

[John Solomon]

Yeah, listen, officer involved shootings have three key elements to them when they decide whether it's lawful. The first is did the person who was shot know that they were being stopped by law enforcement? And that issue, we know for sure that's the case. She was trying to block them with the car. They had their lights on. They identified themselves as ICE when they told her to get out of the car. Secondly, they always look at what was she told to do? Was she give a lawful instruction? The instruction was to get out of the car. She chose not to and drove forward. The third thing is when an officer fires her gun was were they in danger? That's the third element. There is a singular piece of evidence that's going to be essential to this review. And all the folks that I talked to in the last 24 hours who've investigated officer involved shooting for decades of experience say that the most important piece of evidence is the bullet hole from the first shot fired by the ICE officer is directly in the front windshield. Why does that mean? What does that mean? Why is that significant? It means the officer had to be in front of the car as it was peeling away and he was in danger. I think that when those three elements are reviewed, all of the politics are stripped away. You have a person that was driving at an ICE agent after being lawfully instructed to stop and get out of the car. That's going to make this, according to all the experts I talked to, a legitimate, tragic, but legitimately legal shooting.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

John, you've also been talking to authorities and people in the administration about this mess we have where you're trying to have ICE get into begin the mass deportations. Right? The criminal element's still there, but also the mass deportations. They're interfering with federalized National Guard. They're interfering with ICE officers. You saw Mandami right there say, we're a sanctuary city. We're going to protect our sanctuary city laws and we'll put these guys in Rikers if we have to. You saw the mayor and I think he should. I think they are rolling on the mayor because he's instigating violence. Talk to me about institutionally what's happening, particularly about these groups. You can tell they barricaded streets now and hopefully zero after the speech will get down. They're barricading streets right now in Minneapolis and a lot of it has the writing on, on the barricades is all in other languages. What do you got for us there?

[John Solomon]

Just talked a little bit ago to the FBI, got a statement directly from Kash Patel, the FBI director. He said and confirmed this morning that the organizers and funders of the anti ICE protests in Minneapolis are under criminal investigation for impeding lawful law enforcement activities and endangering public safety. When you put your car in front of a caravan of law enforcement that are lawfully moving through the street, you're endangering public safety. When you don't follow the instructions of law officers and you lurch your car towards an agent who's doing his job, you're impeding public safety and you're endangering it. This is the most strong statement that anyone in the administration has given that not only are the people the ICE is rounding up doing unlawful activities, but these left wing anarchist protesters are also potentially going to face criminal sanctions soon. Very strong statement. Just moved to Just the news a little while ago. And while that's going on, there's a larger investigation that the FBI and the Homeland Security Investigations Unit has begun. And that's into something that I've been tracking for about a year and a half now. Is this fraud that was going on in Minneapolis in the food program and the Autism Child Support Program and the other welfare benefit programs, which was systemic and willfully ignored by the Waltz administration and the Democrats of Minnesota. Did it have a foreign component? Meaning was this money being secreted out of the United States? And yesterday the Transportation Security Administration acknowledged for the first time on the record they've been aware of these cash transfers since about 2018, ironically, around the same time that Tim Waltz started as governor in that state. What are these cash transfers? There are Somali couriers who come to the airport almost daily with 1,600,000 in cash and a luggage. That sounds a little suspicious, right? It was going on daily and they were moving about $350 million a year in cash in their luggage out of Minneapolis Airport. And then traditionally are predominantly overseas. One of the routes that TSA saw the money go, it would go from Minneapolis to Europe, Europe to Dubai, often through Amsterdam. It was flagged for years. TSA was flagging these payments for years. They grew. They grew from 20, 30 million dollars a year to 350 million dollars a year the last two years. 2024. In 2025, it was literally a foreign ATM taking cash out of the United States to foreign destinations. And we don't know the reason why, but that is now under investigation by the FBI and hsi. And people say, well, is this normal? I mean, maybe this goes on in every airport. We got comparative statistics yesterday. The amount of money that these Somali couriers took out of the Minneapolis airport with the TSA flagging it daily was 99 times larger than all the cash that was declared in luggage. Luggage going out of New York's JFK International Airport, one of the busiest international airports in America. 99 times more than what flies out of Dallas, 90% more than what was flown out of Seattle, which is the most common airport for people to go to Asia from. This was an abnormally high amount of cash being stuffed in the luggage being detected every day by the tsa, because, by the way, the couriers told. They declared the money, they literally would say, hey, we've got a million bucks in our suitcase, which you have to do to get it through the airport. And nobody in the Biden administration thought it was unusual that a million bucks of cash was moving in luggage out of the country, out of Minneapolis, every day, way more than any other airport in America at the time. This is, I think, the second end of this welfare scam, which is, where was this money going after it was defrauded? And I think we're beginning to get some signs of what's going on here.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

This is almost jaw dropping. You're saying for the four years of Biden, when you hear these kind of numbers every day is. Or cash or Kristi Noem or somebody now doing an investigation for broadly. And why this was not shut down.

[John Solomon]

Yeah. The President, in fact, just reposted my story and said, arrest them all. Meaning all the people that were moving the cash out of the country. If it was defrauded, Dash. That's a big moment. Yeah. There's been an investigation going on for three or four weeks since, you know, this thing. We first wrote about the welfare scandal in August of 2024. Steve. Right. When Waltz was named. Because it was important that the man who wanted to be vice president be exposed for the fact that he presided over it. In February of this past year, the Justice Department approached us and he's like, hey, where'd you get this evidence? The answer is it's all in the public documents. Look, it's in our story. That's when prosecutors really ramped up their activities in Minneapolis. They discovered this cash flow in the airports about six or eight weeks ago when some whistleblowers came forward within the TSA and people had retired from the tsa. It's been under investigation for three or four weeks now. It's a very unusual and large amount of money, unlike anything we've seen anywhere else in the country. And I think it's become part of the larger picture, but it is under significant and large investigation. There's hundreds of agents now looking at both who defrauded it, where did they come from and where did they send their money? And I think those are the three questions that will give us a bigger sense of just what the scandal is all about.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

John, I know you got to bounce. We got Senator Rand Paul, but if you can just hold for a second through the break.

[John Solomon]

Sure.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

I just got another question answered because it shouldn't be lost on anybody. Tim Walls, I know this is unbelievable, but Tim Walls was actually a nominee as Vice President, United States. And on the morning of the election, the polling and the odds were that Tim Walls was going to be the Vice President, United States. How this never came up during at least a cursory vetting of Tim Walls is very deep. Statish short Commercial break We have Senator Rand Paul is going to join us. John Solomon's going to wrap up. We're packed today. Back in a moment.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

John Solomon, I know you got to go. We got Senator Paul on deck just quickly but and when Walls was named, how did DHS or how the body administration $325 million came through in that year? And here's my point. He stepped he said the other day I'm not running again for the third time. Stepped away. The reason is he understands and the team around him understands that they're going to come on criminal charges. So theoretically, this guy could have been the vice president of the United States. And we've been in a major firestorm right now about the guy going to get removed from office. How did this not come up in August of 2024 that he had been overseeing a state where you had, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars going through the airport. Sir, how did DHS not inform anybody.

[John Solomon]

And billions being stolen? Listen, the reason is we don't have enough Senator Rand Paul's In Congress, it's a club and Tim Waltz used to belong to that club. And so when we did our original stories in August, many of the Republicans just went, oh, that's Tim Waltz. No problem. We're going to let that go. The media, which has been aligned with the deep state, suffocate the story. And so we see it, the prosecutors saw it, but most of the establishment leaves it there. We need more. Senator Rand Pauls listen. Every day for the last 20 years, he's been exposing the fraud, the waste in government and the abuse of government. The stuff he put out yesterday is the stuff every Republican should be talking about. The tools that we made for terrorists and for criminals were turned against innocent Americans simply because the Democratic regime disagreed with their opinions. That's not America. Senator Rand Paul calls it out every day. We need more. James Comers. Rand Paul's Jim Jordan is calling this stuff out. The club just sits there and yawns at it. And that's how we end up with a $37 trillion, $38 trillion debt.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

John Solomon, where do people go for your content, Sir?

[John Solomon]

Just the news.com and Jay Solomon reports on all social media.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Thank you, sir. Appreciate you.

[John Solomon]

Thank you.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Senator Paul, now there's been an announcement of a $1.5 trillion defense budget. You've been one of the biggest folks in there saying, hey, we got to get the waste, fraud, abuse. Things might be out of control. What are your thoughts about that?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

You know, I think waste, you know, is part of it, but really has to be overall budgets of everything. I mean, if you, if you cut out the waste and abuse in government, I think it's not enough. I mean, what Doge found was enormous and we should codify that, put it into the law and make sure it doesn't happen again, particularly the foreign aid. But you really have to address just overall spending. If you take military spending off the table though, and you know the president yesterday says we should increase it from 1 trillion to 1.5 trillion. If you do that, you'll never balance your budget. But you also will perhaps precipitate a crisis here or where the dollar could suddenly lose its value and our debt suddenly become something no one wants to touch.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

So we have now President's focus on hemispheric defense. From Greenland to the Gulf of America, the Arctic to Panama Canal, Latin America, you've got these moves. I'll talk to you about that in a second. But at home, things seem more and more spinning out of control. We did a cold open Mandami Says, hey, we're a sanctuary city. We're not going to allow ICE in. You got walls saying he's calling out the National Guard against ICE and federal officials. And the mayor yesterday during this event came out, said, f ice, I don't want him in the city and we're going to fight him. This internal problem, I mean, we basically have this insurrection by these radical Democrats in the city is worse. It's getting to the level of pre civil war America back in the 1850s. What say you, sir?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

I talked to the President yesterday about this. The appropriation bills that are coming before us next week, we'll still have refugee money and billions of dollars to give to refugees. Precisely. The money that the Somalis were stealing in Minnesota is being renewed. Why? Because many of the so called allies of the president, you know, they pretend as if they're the President's best friends. They're on the appropriations committees, they are quietly putting back in the refugee money. I think it should be zeroed out. In fact, I'm going to introduce both an amendment and a freestanding bill that says you can't get welfare or any welfare programs if you're not a citizen. It's supposed to be that way anyway. If you immigrate here legally, you're not supposed to be eligible for five years. That's abused. But then all of these people are brought in. They're not called immigrants, they're called special visas and refugees, but to the tune of hundreds of thousands of people. And within years, their families come and we're talking about millions of people. And then not only are they just on traditional welfare without the fraud, they're also fraudulently sucking up billions of dollars too. But there is a battle and someone needs to watch Congress and point out, you know, I get flack sometimes for disagreeing with the President. We do have honest disagreements. But on this, this is something where I'm going all in and have always gone all in on no welfare for illegal or legal immigrants. And yet the Republican establishment is quietly backstabbing the President on this and continuing to fund these refugee programs.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

But this is the issue on so many, this is the point on so many issues, they sit there and tell the President they're his ally and they're going to this. They can't stop the filibuster. You know, you can't get anything passed. But there is ally. But you look through that budget in the appropriations, there's item after item after item that the President is not just against, he's vocally against these. And they still get in there. How does that work, sir?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Well, it's sort of, it's in some ways it's a whole fake process. There's a game as if people in the public are presented as if there is some sort of conservative opposition to big government, but there really isn't. And the reason is this. When, when you come to Congress, when you're elected to the Senate of the House, they, they choose which one of the new people get to be put on the spending committees, the appropriations committees. You're not put on these committees unless you already have a proclivity to spend money. If you are a fiscal hawk, if you think that, that you're an ideological conservative and believe in smaller government and think spending should be like you never get on. So it's a self selecting process in both parties now. There really are no Democrats that would reduce anybody. They don't care. Military, non military, therefore more spending on everything. But on our side there are true believers like myself for limited government. We're never allowed near an appropriation committee because they don't want any no votes. And then when they pass, like for example the money that passed for the refugees passed out a committee, I think it was about a month ago, maybe two months ago, the vote was every Republican other than one voted for it and all of the Democrats voted for it. So they have these appropriation, really one party is not better than the other. And the overall amount, discounting that some of it was for refugees, just the overall spending amount was equal to the Biden level from the year before. So they say we're doing, they're doing a great job because they didn't raise spending. It's like, well yeah, but the spending level from last year gave us a $2 trillion deficit. If you spend the same amount this year, you're going to have about a $2 trillion deficit. But this is what we're up against.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Your father was the pathfinder here and then you've been fantastic about it. Don't people on Capitol Hill, can't they do the math? I mean we're hurtling towards a financial crisis that's consistent in 82% of the American people. As a poll out yesterday up on citizens Free Press, 82% of the people in the country unite around one thing. They think we're heading to a fiscal crisis because of the debt and the deficits don't any does. Is the donor class and the lobbyists that powerful that they can convince the United States Senate to look the other way about what mathematically is going to happen, sir.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

I think there's very little courage or individual thinking by members of Congress. Congress, it's a herd mentality. And I think for many of them, the difficult decisions will only come in a crisis. And so most of the problems we face could be fixed and they could be fixed gradually. So we're short on money on Social Security. We're short on money on Medicare. There are gradual ways that would not be too abrupt that you could gradually fix these programs. For example, and I've said this at my own peril, but both Social Security, Medicare, the age of eligibility has to go up. We're living longer, but you have to immediately jump it up five years, but you have to go up a month or two every year for the next 10 years or so. We already, we already did it once back in 83. And people say we don't want to do that. Tell Rand Paul to keep his hands off my Social Security. Well, that's fine. If you don't want me to fix it. We'll, we'll watch it collapse. But the day it collapses is only about four or five years out now. And when it collapses, it'll be a day where the poor person who lives on $700 a month, Social Security gets 500. They won't have food and they won't have heat and they won't have electricity. And that's a terrible thing to wait till that precipitous time to try to fix it, and then it takes a draconian fix. Most of these entitlement programs that are fixed gradually could be done gradually. We also need to encourage the ability of people to save out outside of the government system because I think there's an inevitability that the government is not very wise with, with your money, and they never will be.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Senator, you've also been the guardian of two issues, J6 and Foushee. First off, our audience, as you know, we were kind of the tip of the spear. We were banned on platforms globally, on all the big platforms because of my attacks on Foushee. Can you give us an update? You've been the one guy can lead it. Are we finally going to bring Fauci to justice, sir?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

So we've tried for quite some time under the Biden administration, we could get no records, but there was enough evidence, just from public testimony that he had lied to Congress, which is a felony if he'd been a Trump supporter or, as you know, anybody related to Trump lying to Congress. They did put people in jail or contempt of court for not testifying, you know, personally about. But the thing is, is that we sent that referral twice to Merrick Garland and it was ignored. We get to the Trump administration and they have been great. We've worked very closely with Robert Kennedy and he's, I think, doing a wonderful job on a lot of fronts. But also in this, we got records, but it took six months because there were minders and protectors around him trying to keep him from doing his job for six months. They finally got rid of those people and a week later we got a flood of information. We've made it through a good chunk of the information. Looking at Anthony Fauci's culpability and others, the main thing that we found are emails back and forth where he tells people to read this and destroy it. That's illegal. And it's a destruction of federal records and it's evading federal records. There's also some evidence of him using other devices other than government devices to talk about government business, also against the law. So we've rewritten the referral to the Trump doj. Anthony Fauci has been referred to the Trump DOJ for destruction of records, unlawful use of private sources for records, and still for lying to Congress about gain of function research. But we haven't had any action. And so, you know, I have a bunch of these paid influencers that attack me every day on Twitter and their big attack line now is, how come you didn't arrest Fauci? And it's like, you moron, I'm not a prosecutor. I have no ability to arrest anybody. I can point attention to it. I can vote on the issues and I can ask the prosecutors at DOJ to arrest him, but they haven't done so. There's another gentleman over there that was probably equally, if not worse, but not a so high profile David Morens. He's the guy that bragged to everybody on email about how he destroyed records, how you can avoid foia. And one of his favorite things to do is miss the names of people that were being FOIAed. One of them was Christian Andersen who got a 9 million dollar grant from Fauci for flipping his testimony from. I think it came from the lab. He flipped over and said, oh, it's crazy. Never could have come from the lab. The way they spelled Christian Andersen's name is they put dollar signs for the S's, which I think is ironic, but they were doing it to try to avoid FOIA requests. He without question was breaking the law intentionally so and should be prosecuted. We've referred him as well. Now, the complicating thing with Foushee, of course, is that he's received a pardon. But my advice to the DOJ has been this. I've said it's a perfect way to challenge the pardon. Did.

[New York City Official or Mayor]

Did.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Did Biden actually consciously and purposely and individually pardon Fauci or did an auto pen do it? Is it valid? The only way to do it. To accuse him of a crime. Accuse him of a crime. Go to court and fight it out. Now, you can't guarantee you win. You will. They well may lose. But I think it's a very narrow case of what he's done wrong. I would take him to court, indict him, and then. And try him, but I would also indict David Morenz. I think David Morenz has things to tell about Fauci that he might be inclined to tell where he under indictment himself.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Senator, can we hold you for a minute or two through our commercial break? I just got another question on J6. If not, we'll. We'll let you go. Now you. You tell us. Can we hold you?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

I think we can do a couple minutes more.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Okay, fine. Senator Paul, on the other side, Today we'll attempt a feat once thought impossible. Overcoming high interest credit card debt requires merely one thing. A SoFi personal loan. With it, you could save big on interest charges by consolidating into one low fixed rate monthly payment. Defy high interest debt with a Sofi personal loan. Visit sofi.com stunt to learn more. Loans originated by SoFi Bank. NA member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. NMLS 696891.

[Glenn Story]

War room.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Senator Paul, I know you've got a bounce. Thanks for hanging for a minute. Just J6. Can you get us up to date on anything you're working on there, sir?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Yeah, We've been investigating this program called Quiet Skies and Quiet Skies caught up Tulsi Gabbard. It's a like a terrorist watch list. You're scrutinized, strip searched, put in rooms, denied travel. They investigate your whereabouts, they track you around the country. What the Biden administration did with January six folks is they put them on these lists so they got extra scrutiny at the airports and harassed everywhere. Well, one of the women they put on this list was named Christine Crowder. Her husband was an air marshal and that's how he discovered she was on the list. She's a Catholic schoolteacher in Texas. She has never committed any crime. She is not part of an Extremist group. She didn't plot against the government. And interestingly, she came to hear the President on January 6th at the White House, but actually was never at the Capitol. They knew this by pinging her phone. Her geolocation showed she was never at the Capitol. And yet they persisted to harass this woman for two years, put her on this list, this quiet skies list, sent spies to her house, spied on her activities at her house, spied on her conversations. And they did this for two years. And it only came to light because her husband began a whistleblower. He's an air marshal and had been an air marshal for 30 years. He was trusted with really all of the important confidential information. So he was completely trustworthy. But they were flying. He would be on a plane with his wife, and they would have another air marshal tracking their own air marshal and his wife. It was completely ridiculous. It all started also the way really a lot of bad, nosy government starts. Some neighbor of hers or a former friend didn't like her and reported her and said, oh, here's a picture of her. Well, it turns out when they finally bothered to do the video identification or the facial comparison, it wasn't her. She also could prove she had other pictures from her trip there. She was in different clothing than this woman had clothes on. But really, to spy on somebody, because somebody who a neighbor doesn't like them, turns them into government, is really grotesque. And the reason we point this out is we want it never to happen again. I know another young gentleman who wasn't really part of the crowd, but he worked nearby, walked over to the Capitol. He said it was exciting. There's people everywhere. When he got to the Capitol, the doors were wide open and he walked up the steps. And they have the video of him in the Capitol. There are four policemen leaning up against a table with their arms crossed. They say nothing to him. They don't yell at him. They don't say he's trespassing. They don't say it's against the law. They say nothing to him. He walks around, says nothing to no one, looks around and walks out. He's in the capitol a minute, 15 seconds. They went after him for months and months based on his shoes and combed through social media. They finally arrested this dangerous person, threw him to the ground in an airport, handcuffed him, and put him in jail. This can never happen again the way they track these people. We have another investigation going on. George Washington University, among other universities, was commissioned by the federal government and given money like NGO money. And then this money was used to just do a dragnet over our entire population, all the activities of everyone looking for January 6th people. And it's a real tragedy that an American university, which should be based on openness and intellectual thought and difference of opinion, would become the basically the accomplice to a government run amok on abuse of power.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Senator Paul, here's what boggles the audience's mind. We had Solomon on beforehand and talked about $700 million in cash money coming through TSA in the Minneapolis airport. And they monitor it, but they never report it to anybody. Walz was nominated for Vice President of the United States in August. In a year, they did $350 million through the Minneapolis airport. How can we have a government that's going after average citizens through these old nitpicks? And here you have a billion dollars flowing in bags that they actually check in and identify and nobody even brings it up when they do a checking for a guy that's nominated for vice president States. I think people sit there and go, this thing's got to be so rigged.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Sir, can you imagine if this much fraud is happening in a small state of Minnesota, what must be happening in California and New York? So I've authored new legislation that I'm going to be introducing soon for an overall edit audit of all of the welfare programs in all the states. A lot of these programs are part state and part federal, like Medicaid, food stamps. Federal government supplies the majority of the money, but the states supply some. And there needs to be investigative audits of all, all of this. And I don't know how that could have happened in Minnesota. I think they had to know. The other legislation I'm supporting is from another senator, and that is to make it explicit that if you defraud the government, that it's an explicit reason that you can be deported. So, you know, if we catch thousands of Somalis doing this, I don't really care to pay for their food and lodging in a prisoner.

[Political Analyst or Commentator]

I'd.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

I think they should be sent back.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Well, I think in the war, we think they all be sent back. Senator Paul, thank you for staying into the bonus time. Where do people get you on social media, sir, to combat these influencers that are attacking you?

[Minnesota State Official or Spokesperson]

Sir.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

I'm all over Twitter, but. And rand paul.com we have both official, unofficial. We're everywhere people want to look.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Senator, thank you. And make sure anybody you think ought to come on the warm audience ought to. Ought to meet. We already got a couple of recommendations for you. Make sure you let us know. Appreciate you.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Thank you.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Okay, we're going to pivot. We're going to go back to Minneapolis and we got Oscar Blue Ramirez is going to join us in the, in the next hour. We're going to talk about a massive. President Trump yesterday got us out of 66 different international organizations, including, remember, the migrant compact. What kind of drives all this for the United Nations. And every day we'd be, we'd have Oscar Ramirez down in the Darien Gap and he would say, end every show. Like President Trump puts on the end of his true socials. Please attention to this matter. Oscar Blue Ramirez would tell us, hey, you got to get out of the migrant compact. That's one of the, that's one of the things holding us together. Bombshell. President Trump yesterday signed this executive order. Get us out of all these things, including that. He's going to be here. Taij Gill is going to join us. First, we're going to talk some economy and capital markets, some of the new economic numbers. Joe Lavornier from the Treasury Department is going to join us. Like I said, Scott Bessant is en route right now to Minneapolis. Jack Posobic is with him. Jack. In fact, we'll do a two o' clock show, I think, with Scott Bessant that's since given a address at 1:00pm Eastern Standard Time today. We're going to cover that and stream it also, hopefully maybe get an interview before he leaves Minneapolis tomorrow. David Malpass is going to join us also to talk about these institutions he got out of, except maybe the World bank and IMF and what the Fed is doing. Take your phone out. Text Bannon ba n o n 989898 the ultimate guide. It's free. No obligations from Birch Gold. When Senator Rand Paul's telling you the dollar's under massive pressure, let Birch Gold tell you what the solution is. Short break. Back in a moment.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Podcast Host or Commentator]

Guaranteed Human.