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Stephen K. Bannon
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Stephen K. Bannon
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Podcast Host
And with breaking news tonight, Donald Trump is walking back his threat to obliterate Iran's power infrastructure. In a social media post, the president said he is extending the negotiation deadline 10 days at the request of the Iranian government. A reminder Iranians have denied that direct talks with the United States are happening at all. Trump's announcement was made 11 minutes after the closing bell on what was Wall Street's worst day since the start of the war. And the extension comes as the president is reportedly getting impatient with the war that he started. Axios reports the Pentagon is developing military options for a, quote, unquote, final blow in Iran that could include the use of ground forces and a massive bombing campaign. That's according to two U.S. officials and two sources with knowledge. Tomorrow is the first surge of 2,200 U.S. troops and the first surge that is expected to arrive in the region. At his cabinet meeting today, Donald Trump downplayed Iran's capabilities, issuing this ultimatum.
Donald Trump
We'll see if they want to do it.
Jim Rickards
If they don't, we're their worst nightmare.
Donald Trump
In the meantime, we'll just keep blowing them away unimpeded, unstopped. There's not a thing they can do about it. They can't do anything about it.
News Reporter
So any resol to this conflict? Does Iran remain in some sort of control of the Strait of Hormuz?
Stephen K. Bannon
I believe they do.
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And they will.
Stephen K. Bannon
Yeah. Unless there's a regime change. Unless, you know, we go in and we decide that, you know, all out. The only way that this comes out in our favor is to remove the theocracy. In Tehran.
News Reporter
Another senior Iranian military leader has been killed. Israel says its military has assassinated Ali Reza Tang Siri, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval forces, as well as other senior Iranian naval command. The commander has been a key figure behind Iran's near total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Now, Iranian authorities have not yet confirmed his death. Extension came just 11 minutes after markets finished their worst day since the fighting began. Quoting now from his social media post, which landed at 4:11pm as per Iranian government request, please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of energy plant destruction by 10 days to Monday, April 6, 2026 at 8:00pm Eastern Time. Talks are ongoing and despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the fake news media and others, they are going very well. About an hour later, the President phoned in to Fox with much more to say.
Donald Trump
Well, the Iranians asked me to do that and I was not happy with them because I made a statement that we're having productive negotiations. I don't know that they get there. Maybe they do, maybe they won't. I mean, look, in a certain sense, we've already won because we've knocked out their navy, we've knocked out their air force, completely knocked out their air force, just about completely knocked out. We knocked out 154 ships and pretty good ships. In fact, I said, why don't we just take them instead of sinking them? We could have used them ourselves, right? They asked for seven. You're going to say, oh, Trump's a terrible negotiator. They asked for seven and I said, I'm going to give you 10 because they gave me ships. We talked about the eight ships, you know, the president that I talked about the other day, but they asked for seven and I gave them 10. You got 10 days. And they were very thankful about that. Now they may say, oh, we're not speaking. I don't like that, because that wasn't true the last time, as you found out. But we are speaking and it's going fairly well. And so I gave him 10 days.
News Reporter
The interview went on for about 40 minutes after that answer, which we had to condense for time. In addition to that, he held forth on whether Iran's supreme leader is gay. He boasted about ending his own rallies with what he called, quote, the gay national anthem, which I'm assuming is ymca, though the band now insists it's not a gay song. The President also talked about JFK Jr. Putting him on the COVID of his failed magazine, George and New York in the 90s and his new ballroom, all of it closing out day 26 of the war and an especially rough day on Wall Street. The Stration is anticipating Iran's retaliation would
Strategic Analyst
be, well, it could be really just an escalation of what we've seen a little bit of them doing to the kind of regional partners, regional U.S. allies, targeting, whether it's desalination plants or targeting energy Infrastructure. And any of that would just, you know, further prolong the conflict and also make the current issues worse. We're dealing with a global energy crisis first and foremost. Oil prices going up, gas prices going up. If you now have Iran trying to take out infrastructure that is critical to that oil flow, that's only going to make that energy crisis worse. Not only has the US but the country.
News Reporter
Has the White House responded to this report?
Strategic Analyst
Yes. What they have said is Caroline Levitt, the White House press secretary, said, quote, it's the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the commander in chief maximum optionality. She said it doesn't mean the President has made a decision. And as the President said in the Oval Office recently, he is not planning to send ground troops anywhere at this time.
Stephen K. Bannon
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. You're just not going to free shot all these networks lying about the people. The people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you've tried to do everything
Jim Rickards
in the world to stop that, but
Stephen K. Bannon
you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen.
News Reporter
And where do people like that go to share the big lie?
Eric Bolling
MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
Stephen K. Bannon
Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
Eric Bolling
War Room here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
Stephen K. Bannon
Friday, Friday the 26th of March. Year of our Lord 2026. We're live at CPAC. You know, CPAC has this tendency historically that each morning show draws less and less at the beginning because of the activities of cpac. Last night they had the Mike Davis party the first night. And then last night there's about five or six parties. So people are dragging in here or coming in here. Glad to see you. We're at cpac. Another live all day CPAC tomorrow. Also. I'll be talking to the grassroots leaders right after the show and then giving a speech at about 12:50 central time. We'll get to all that. Jim Rickards. Rickards is in the house. Okay. The President yesterday had a, had a war, a war cabinet meeting. Marco Rubio.
Jim Rickards
Scott.
Stephen K. Bannon
Scott Bessant, Pete Hegseth Witkoff going through how he's going to negotiate. The president did a 25 minute cold open. Where are we? You're the, you're the master. Geopolitical and capital markets thinker Bolling's going to join us in a moment to give her the traders perspective. But where do you think we are? There's all types of rumors that 10,000 additional. Have you guys heard this? That they're prepping 10,000 additional combat troops in the United States, planning for augmentation to the two Marine Expeditionary Units and the, and the 82nd Airborne Brigade, which is about 8,9000 troops. So besides the 40 or 50,000 sailors we have there, other support personnel and air force. It looks like at least President Trump in his negotiations is also keeping a hammer right on the table. Jim Rickards, your thoughts?
Jim Rickards
Let's deconstruct the negotiation thing a little bit, Steve. The Iranians in the United States are not talking directly to each other. There are no direct negotiations. It's going through Pakistan. There is communication. Yes, but what are the.
Stephen K. Bannon
So there's no direct negotiation right now. It's all through a third party?
Jim Rickards
That's correct. It happens to be Pakistan. But you gotta like dial this down a little bit, know what is actually going on. So what is the Iran, what is the Trump plan? So Trump has announced a 15 point plan. Just quickly. Full dismantlement of the Iranian nuclear program, limits on missile capacity, free passage in the Straits of Hormuz, nuclear inspections, give up, surrender their enriched uranium and stop funding all the proxies like Hezbollah. Iran has agreed to none of those things.
Stephen K. Bannon
Right.
Jim Rickards
Okay. What is the Iran deal?
Stephen K. Bannon
Hold up now when you tee this up, one thing the Iranians I think have picked up from President Trump is President Trump's style. Right? I mean, when they heard President Trump's 15 points and those are the top five, they came back in kind of a Trumpian manner.
Jim Rickards
Right.
Stephen K. Bannon
Read, read what the response was.
Jim Rickards
So Trump said, or sorry, the Iranians said, we want reparations for all the damage you caused. We want Iranian sovereignty of the Straits of Hormuz. That has not been true up until now, but now they want it. An end to sanctions, regional ceasefire, including Hezbollah. So Israel has to lay off Hezbollah and they want security guarantees that there'll be no further US Attacks. Trump is agreed to none of those.
Stephen K. Bannon
Well, they're, almost all of those are non negotiable for President Trump.
Jim Rickards
Well, that's, but that's my point. If Iran has rejected all of Trump's points and Trump has rejected all of Iran's points and they're not actually talking to each other directly, which they're not, where's the negotiation? So the way, the way you think about this, from an intelligence analyst point of view, and I know you know this, you have to take your politics and your personal opinion and put it on the shelf. It's hard to do. You need kind of ice water in your veins and be completely analytical. So there are only three ways to go here. One is regime change, and that could be revolution, a new shah, you know, it could be a lot of elections or whatever. Regime change. Number two, mission accomplished. We say, hey, we won, we're going home. And that was a big thing in Vietnam. Why don't we just declare victory and go home? And number three is escalation. It doesn't have to be a forever war, but it could be a long war.
Stephen K. Bannon
You mean escalation to de escalate.
Jim Rickards
Well, that's what they say, but the history of escalation is you keep escalating. So again, I'm trying to be as analytical as possible. So the way you do this, you got three possibilities. Let's say you had no information. You would give them each a 1/3 probability. That's how you would start. But then you adjust the probability based on the facts. The facts matter. Okay, what are the odds of regime change? I think you go from 33% down to like 5% really fast.
Stephen K. Bannon
And President Trump right now, it's pretty obvious, is not looking for a regime change. Right?
Jim Rickards
So maybe it's zero, but you never say zero.
Stephen K. Bannon
Well, I mean, if he's negotiating and looking for a negotiating party could deliver, you could theoretically say you've killed the ayatollah and a couple, you know, all the way to the brigade level. But these guys still represent the spirit, that of the, of the Iranian Islamic Revolution. It's still going to be a theocratic state, right?
Jim Rickards
That's exactly right. But my point is starting with these three things, if we can eliminate a couple of them, we can tell you what's going to happen. So no regime change. I think we take that off the table, mission accomplished, go home. That's not happening. Maybe a 20% probability, but the loss of face and hey, we want to end the war. The Iranians don't want to end the war. They're going to keep attacking the Straits of Hormuz. So we take that off the table also. So at that point, what's left? Escalation. And you, you put your finger on it, Steve. So 10,000 troops maybe, or say actually they are being activated. USS Tripoli, which is an assault carrier, it's a smaller aircraft carrier, basically amphibious assault. 3,000 marine expedition, 3,000 men, marine expeditionary Unit, men and women. That's in Diego Garcia three days sail away. The USS Boxer is underway in the Pacific and other 3,000 Marines heading for the, the Middle East. The Iwo Jima is underway in the Caribbean. Don't know where it's going, but it's, you know, could be heading that way also. So that could be 3,000 Marines in three Marine expeditionary units. You got 10,000, you got a brigade of the 82nd Airborne. That's about three, 3,000 troops. Okay, so you, and then with the 10,000 more, you add this up, you're talking two divisions.
Stephen K. Bannon
Yep.
Jim Rickards
20,000 troops.
Stephen K. Bannon
Yeah.
Jim Rickards
So what is that? Well, you know, probably take Carg island, maybe a little Toro Shore, but that's the, that's the most likely outcome. It's not peace, it's not negotiation, it's escalation.
Stephen K. Bannon
We took, we took a poll yesterday. The folks are here. I'd like to do it again. How many would, if you could talk to President Trump this morning, how many of you all would say, finish what we started.
Donald Trump
Yeah,
Stephen K. Bannon
run through the tape. Okay. Finish what we started. If that requires us to do something more than bomb, continue to bomb. If it requires combat troops to get into Tehran and to do a regime change. Is that when you say, when I asked you finish what we started. Is that what you believe we started? How many, let me see a show of hands. How many want to march to Tehran? No, that's not true. That's not true. We got some. You want to march to Tehran, take it all down. How many want to, how many want President Trump to get the best negotiated deal he can get, Has the objectives of what we're trying to accomplish? Now raise your hand if you think you could answer what the objectives are. Have they been articulated enough that you could make a reasonable, you could make a reason choice of backing a President Trump policy. Do you believe it's been articulated enough? Show of hands? If you think it is, it has. Ben, get some, I want to get some of these people. If you want to march to Tehran, if you think it's a thing, let's. Can we get you just talk to the audience right back.
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You, Ben?
Stephen K. Bannon
Yeah, yeah.
Jim Rickards
Let me just go here first, real quick.
Stephen K. Bannon
Your thoughts on it.
Jim Rickards
Yeah.
Daniel Hayworth
Then R.C.
Political Commentator
williams, watchman action. So, Steve, this is an interesting one, right? Because there's actually a two front war. There's a physical war and there's a narrative war here back home. The press conference yesterday was to get ahead of this exact conversation, but it's complicated. You've got to go and establish order. What you said yesterday was where are the Arabs and what are they doing? Well, with the petrodollar, they're like, we're not doing anything. That's what we pay you for. So we've got to solve that problem first, get a coalition engaged, but we have to establish order. The thing that we didn't do up front is knock the bum out. When you got a bum in the ring with you, you got to knock them out. Now that you haven't done that, you've got to establish order, get coalition partners in to fight that battle so that we can finish.
Stephen K. Bannon
Hold it. Hold it right there. We're taking a short commercial break. Back in the war room for a debate next.
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Podcast Host
need to be healthy every day to survive it and go through the next chemo round and the next chemo round. So it's important that work was part of that to keep my mind busy for eight, nine hours and then I had to go back and face the reality. I had a goal and the goal is to survive.
Stephen K. Bannon
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Eric Bolling
War Room, here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
Stephen K. Bannon
Okay, welcome back. Back. We're going to get into the debate in a moment. Have some War Room posse members that are let's march to Tehran. I think their voices have to be heard. But President Trump left the Senate with one objective, right? Remember, the one objective is pass the Save America Act. So the Senate last night passed a Department of Homeland Security to get TSA funded and paid. But there's always a hang up. They kept out ICE and Customs and Border Patrol. That's the best deal Thune could offer the president. Neil McCabe's at the White House in the White House press room. Neil, you've got more breaking news that's even worse than that. What is it?
Neil McCabe
Well, the Senate will be going home. They actually, when they passed the, they passed the Homeland Security funding Bill shortly after 2am and that was no roll call. That was unanimous. That was unanimous voice vote. So no one's on the record voting for or against, which I guess the Democrats cut the Republicans a break there. And so then they said, hey, we're taking a break. We will reconvene April 13th. And so that's after Greek Easter, Steve.
Stephen K. Bannon
Holy. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. The Senate after John Thune did nothing to help President Trump. SAVE act, Save America Act. Mike Lee, we would stream it. You saw Mike Lee every night speaking Eric Schmidt. Right. You saw the same people going up there pushing the president's number one priority. I thought we were going to seize the floor and we were going to break the filibuster and we were going to force the Democrats into a standing filibuster. How did they pass a bill that doesn't fund ice, doesn't fund customs and border, which is the way that we've secured the border. And President Trump shut it down his first 90 days and don't even talk about the SAVE act and then go home or not back to April 13th.
Neil McCabe
Yeah, it was a case of jet fumes, Steve. Everybody wanted to go home for Holy Week and that was it. There's nothing more powerful than jet fumes from Reagan National. And so, you know, McCormick was on the floor last night. Huston was on the floor last night. Mike Lee was on the floor last night all talking about the Save America Act. Murkowski, the Alaska Republican, she took the floor to go against the Save America Act. And so that's where we left it. We passed Homeland Security. So the TSA lines and everything. Well, all of that pressure from Democrats and their media allies goes away and then they come back in two weeks to look at it again. Steve, maybe.
Stephen K. Bannon
So what, by the way, I want to ask the audience, what do you think ought to happen with John Thune? Has John Thune delivered for President Trump's agenda? What should he's the leader of the Senate. What should happen with John Thune? He hasn't delivered anything. No ice funding, no customs and borders. So we don't have the secure border. Probably got to send the National Guard down there or the great Border Patrol works without pay. And supposedly, theoretically, they've got pay from the original big beautiful bill. But there's a big argument, can you actually use that cash? But he walked away from President Trump's number one priority, which is the Save America Act. So I'm a show of hands, how many believe John Thune should be removed as the leader. We got to when they get back, we're going to get all over the Senate about doing this. Neil, stick around at the White House. We're going to come back to you. There's more breaking news there about the war. Jim Rickards is with me. Jim, do you think the president is preparing the American people right now for a further escalation, like a ground invasion on Carg island or one of the islands around the Straits of Hormuz, or do you think he's leading to say, hey, look, I'm going to negotiate as good a deal as possible with this, whatever's left of this regime, and then we're going to get out?
Jim Rickards
I think the former he's preparing the American people for boots on the ground, including coming ashore with the Marines, coming from the air with the 82nd Airborne. And as we said earlier, that's the only choice he has because the Iranians are not negotiating. He's really not negotiating. You know, Jared Kushner and Steve Wykoff, they've done a very good job, but now they've got a reputation internationally. They're not really diplomats, they're dealmakers. And that's okay. Sometimes you want a deal. But they're like Lucy in the football at this point, which is, hey, you know, Wyckoff will come out Thursday. Negotiation, hey, it went really well. We're going to meet again on Monday. And then Friday night, we bomb them. So it's like, okay, how many times are you going to fall for that? How many times can Lucy.
Stephen K. Bannon
Well, isn't that what the Iranians think? They're Israeli agents. Right. I mean, one of the reasons they want JD Vance or Marco Rubio or somebody else is that that's happened twice so far.
Jim Rickards
Correct. So we went 40 years wondering when Charlie Brown was going to rise up to Lucy. But the Iranians have. I'm not dissing Wyckoff and Kushner. I'm just saying their act is now pretty transparent, so they're not going to play that much of a role. There is zero history of bombing your way to regime change. It has never happened. Maybe Japan, 1945, but even then, that
Stephen K. Bannon
was after a long time. Two nuclear weapons.
Jim Rickards
That's right, that. But it's never happened. Now, you can bomb, you can degrade, you can get air supremacy. That can all be true. And they're doing a great job, but that's not regime change. The Iranians are not negotiating. So there's really. It's not a matter of opinion. There's no choice except escalation.
Stephen K. Bannon
Ben, we've got a couple of the war. Impossible to say. Hey, let's march at Tehran. Let's go and hear that.
Jim Rickards
Yep.
Stephen K. Bannon
Sir, running for judge here in Dallas. What's your opinion on that?
Judge/War Supporter
If you're going to commit America's finest to go out and possibly pay the highest price, we owe it to them to finish the job. As Rush Limbaugh said, peace comes after victory, and you can't achieve full victory. As I was taught in my military training, until you have an infantryman with his rifle on the ground holding it, then it's yours.
Veteran/Military Supporter
Our commander in chief isn't George Bush. It isn't Obama. It's Donald J. Trump. And he and. General Kane. I know what they're doing, and I trust in Trump, and I think we should trust in Trump and your boots
Stephen K. Bannon
on the ground, but not necessarily to Tehran.
Veteran/Military Supporter
I was in the infantry. You can't win a war without infantry. You have to go in. I mean, we could go in quick and get out.
Stephen K. Bannon
Take. Take the.
Veteran/Military Supporter
Take the uranium. Go in and take the uranium bunker, bus, those palaces that are underground.
Stephen K. Bannon
Can I have the gentleman with the hat just come back. Come back up. Judge, if you had. If we had to ask you, what's the number one lesson we should take from Iraq, what would you say?
Judge/War Supporter
We didn't finish the. The job in Iraq. Do what we did not finish the job in Iraq.
Stephen K. Bannon
I can't hear you. We didn't finish the job. We didn't finish a job in Iraq?
Judge/War Supporter
No, sir, we did not.
Stephen K. Bannon
What was the job that we didn't finish?
Judge/War Supporter
I think that when Bush the elder saw the slaughter on the road to Baghdad, that he got cold feet and pulled out. He should have gone on in and established a presence, put our troops there with our weapons to make sure it is a peaceful and good exchange. Turnover.
Stephen K. Bannon
Now, I've got. I've got some Iranian ladies here as well. Let's bring them up.
Veteran/Military Supporter
Come here.
Stephen K. Bannon
Come here. Ma', am, what is your thoughts on, or what are your thoughts on this?
Iranian Resistance Representative
There are already Iranian boots on the ground. MEK affiliated resistance units have been active on the ground for the past 10 years. So they have a clear plan. And even five days before the whole conflict started, 250 armed members of the MEK attacked Khamenei's headquarters in the middle of Tehran in a heavily secured area. So there are boots on the ground, but those are Iranian boots. And the Iranian people with their organized resistance will do the regime change by themselves.
Jim Rickards
Okay,
Stephen K. Bannon
They are, they are saying that one of the tomorrow in the reports and people in D.C. are saying one of the biggest strategic miscalculations that comes from the intelligence community, and particularly the Israeli intelligence, was that Netanyahu and the Israelis way oversold the Iranian people in an uprising to actually overthrow this regime itself. It hasn't materialized as of yet. You may be talking about an intention of people want to do it. But so far, we're almost four weeks into this war and people are looking at how we got here. One of the biggest things that there was supposed to be a spontaneous uprising of the Iranian people. Like it was back in January, where you had 30,000 people, looks like, killed. That uprising hasn't taken place. And there's a lot of people in Washington saying, hey, we may have been oversold. The Israelis may have been oversold by their relationship with the Iranian resistance. Any thoughts?
Iranian Resistance Representative
Yes, I would say that, you know, it's very hard to come out on the streets when there is bombing on streets of Tehran or Iran. So the rate the uprisings, we had nine major uprisings in the past 10 years, and every single one of them has been bigger, wider, deeper, and more radical than before. So this uprisings will continue when the time comes.
Stephen K. Bannon
Let me ask you, as people talk about, we talk about this bombing campaign and President Trump yesterday, Pete Hexeth was very specific in the war cabinet. He didn't mention ground troops. He said more intense bombing every day. President Trump has said you basically have till April 6 to negotiate a deal. I'll start bombing the electric grid. As this bombing goes on, how far into it do we have to get to? We're going to see a spontaneous uprising of Iranian patriots.
Iranian Resistance Representative
We need to have you need to focus on the people of Iran and the organized resistance. You know, that's something that it's missing from the American, you know, media that there is armed struggle inside Iran. As I said, you know, 250 armed struggle, you know, members attacked Khamenei's headquarters. But in the news we did not see much in the Western media. So we need to focus on the people of Iran, the organized resistance and the National Council of Resistance of Iran with Mariam Rajavi's leadership, which they have a 10 point plan with the thousands
Stephen K. Bannon
of endorsements by the parliamentary do you folks think there's going to be a spontaneous uprising of Iranian resistance of any meaningful thing that's going to overthrow at least the regime? And we now know that the intelligence reporting this morning they've only used one third of their missiles. This is the latest intelligence. Once you hang on to after the break, Jim Burke is going to be with us. Eric Bolling is going to join with us. Look, you guys have to come up, you have to come up with your own opinion on this, right? This is going to be a huge and massive issue in the coming weeks and President Trump's going to need need your back. But you've got to think this through and come nobody can sell you on any position. This is why we're trying to put out all the possible information and have every various alternative out there so that you can think it through. Come to use your own agency because this is going to be the number one topic. It's already the number one topic. But I mean we're going to come to a decision point a couple of weeks now. Jim Rickens here, Eric Bolling and of course the War Room posse. Short commercial break Back in a moment. Here's your host, Stephen K. Band. Welcome back. Could you go see Ben Berkwam? Just go, hey Ben, I got some more customers for you right over there to Ben Berkham, the camera. Ben, we got some people that the mainstream media have been interviewing non stop that are war impossible. So I'm going to get to him a second. Jim Rickards, the uprising in Iran because one of the absolute essential parts of the equation is how big and how hard and tough is The Iranian resistance in coming to basically assist in regime change or at least making sure the regime understands they have to negotiate with President Trump to get some sort of deal that can get this thing shut down.
Jim Rickards
I don't doubt for a minute that there are people in Iran who are good intention, want democracy, oppose what's going on. I don't doubt that those people are there. But there'll be machine guns in the streets. They already have been. The Iranian regime killed. Low, low end estimate 5,000, perhaps as many as 30,000 people. Do you want to be 5,001? Now, the way to explain this, what's the Ukraine war all about? It's not about Ukraine. It was always intended by the neocons and Victoria Newland and others to overthrow Putin. But they always thought there would be a resistance in Russia. So that didn't happen. It's not happening in Iran. Again, there are good people there, but that is not going to happen.
Stephen K. Bannon
Okay, let's go to Eric Bolling. Eric, tell us what the, what the trading pits are saying today. What are the markets telling President Trump? Because people realizes he watches the markets very closely. Why? Because it's a good source of information about where the world's capital, what's the world's capital thinking? What do you got?
Eric Bolling
So you can take both sides. You hear one side say that it's going this way, the other side says the other way. What really what traders are honing in on, what's really happening, get the noise out. And so what we've been talking about for the last few days, told you, Steve, I spoke to one of the major, probably the biggest liquefied natural gas transporter certainly in the country, maybe in the world. And I'm speaking with a refinery here in Texas today. And what we're finding is they're all very, very much fearful of a higher price which makes what happens, the price go higher. It just drifts towards the fear. Call it a war dividend, whatever it is, we're up $3 a barrel right now. We're approaching 98 more. $98 a barrel. WTI Brent is 1 11, almost $112 right now. So prices are rising. Gasoline hit $4 a gallon for the first time as we predicted in five years, four or five years things are looking like they're drifting higher until we get some solid information for the first time. Steve, all the other times Trump said, you know, we'll go give it a 48 hour pause. Then there was a five day pause. Now there's a 10 day quote unquote pause. And it didn't matter today because they're not listening to these things anymore. They're going with what's going on in the, in the Strait of Hormuz, in the oil markets. And all things are pointing higher. You said something very important. Where are the Arab countries? You want to eradicate the threat that Iran is? The gentleman in your audience is, I believe he's right. I think you need actual troops, boots, boots on the ground to fully eliminate the threat. Who of those people yesterday was 65%, Steve said, let's get, let's end the threat. And then you ask them, well, how many are willing to send troops, boots on the ground? Our young, young men and women on the ground. That number dwindled to near zero.
Stephen K. Bannon
Talk to me yesterday, we called for the Arab armies, you know, particularly UAE and the Saudis, they have big military operations to be part of this, particularly if you're going to take Carg island with paratroopers, 82nd Airborne to take it, and then the Marines come in to hold it. Don't you need participation of the guys actually in the Persian Gulf? Remember, our Arab allies are making a fortune right now. Oil's up, you know, two, two times to go into two and a half times where it was. They love the fact oil is going up there. They love the fact they're calling for force majeure all the time on the contracts. Qatar has done it, Iraqi, Iraq's done it. The Saudis are talking about it. So they're making a bundle. I haven't seen them pitch in any money so far. And there's articles today that the Saudis were pushing President Trump the entire time to go after Iran hard. But they have not made a decision yet whether they're going to participate in the combat operations. How is that fair?
Eric Bolling
It's not fair. And we've been highlighting this for a long time, Steve, because they're benefiting. The Saudis, the Omanis, the Bahrainis, the United Arab Emirates countries, all the producing opec, generally, OPEC producing countries are benefiting from this. We talked. I did the math for you yesterday. It's $21.6 billion if this price lasts for 60 days. We're almost, we're almost 30 days already, or whatever we are. If it lasts 60 days at this level, we're handing Iran alone $21.5 billion of war dividend. Saudis produced double the oil that Iran. So of course they're going to be supportive of Trump publicly and pat him on the back privately even. But when push comes to shove, this is a 50, could be $100 billion equity raise, money raised US petrodollar raise for Saudi Arabia alone. So no one is in a rush have this end in the Middle east, maybe with the exception of Israel. But Israel's, Israel's blown it up, in my opinion, a couple of times already. They're, they're often, you know, doing their, pulling their own strings and triggers and bombs dropping bombs where they shouldn't. Never before I let you go installation,
Stephen K. Bannon
before I let you go. For the audience both at CPAC and at home, talk us what's going to be the market is showing what they believe President Trump's going to do. And walk us through how you think that's going to develop in oil markets over the next week.
Eric Bolling
Yeah, it's it. Unless there's a legit deal on the table. Again, that's, you know, again, you guys have to define. That's your job there. Define what, what is mission now? What is mission success? Regime change. Was it just getting rid of nuclear capability? We've done that. Is it regime change or what? I believe it really is. I don't. You know, people don't like to hear this. This is an oil play. This is a play to secure the oil. And if you're not willing to have our young men and women on the ground there, that deal has to be solid. You got to make a deal. But you've got to bring Iran to their knees first. You got to take out infrastructure, take out highways, take out media, take out the big industry, manufacturing, not just military. Stay away from the oil because you want to negotiate for their access to the access to their oil with them with some international corp. Steve, let's be honest. You're a smart man. You've done this a long time. Are we really, really, really going to replace not only the mullahs but the IRGC with some sort of democracy? And if we are put a time frame on that, because I would say it's years, not months.
Stephen K. Bannon
Eric Bolling, where do people get you on social media? Show is right before us at 4pm Eastern Daylight Time. You've got a new show on YouTube. Where do people go?
Eric Bolling
It's right there, the edges right there. Let's do some. Steve, every time I come on, your audience has been amazing. Let's see how many subscribers we can get. YouTube. Eric Bolling, just, just Google it or YouTube it. Eric, along the edge, see how many subscribe. You have an amazing, amazing audience. It's been amazing. I'm going to check the number and report back to you this evening because when I hand off the show to you tonight, we'll talk about it.
Stephen K. Bannon
Thank you. Eric Bowles. Give it up for Eric Bolling. Jim Rickards, your thoughts on Bolling and about what's oil signaling to President Trump and about what President Trump's doing.
Jim Rickards
Markets have absolutely not discounted what's happening. Wall street doesn't sell stocks. They sell narratives to get you to buy stocks. So what's the narrative? The narrative is the war is going to be over in a few weeks. Yeah. The price of oil is higher, but it's going to come back down. We'll get through this, Trump's got a plan, etc. None of that is true. This war is going to go on for much longer. We talked about it earlier. Escalation is the only path. There's no regime change. We can't just pick up and go home. And by the way, say, where's the, where's the impact? Why, why isn't it worse already? The answer is there were, there were weeks of oil underway outside the Persian Gulf when the war started. So they closed the Straits of Hormuz. Right. But that oil was still in transit. It got to Japan, it got to South Korea. The shortages did not show up right away because there was oil underway. Now a month later, the shortages are going to show up. You could be talking about shutting down the South Korean economy, which is an industrial powerhouse, appliances, cars, semiconductors, etc. This is far worse than Wall street expects. And I think investors would be well advised to, you know, get some cash and trim your exposure.
Stephen K. Bannon
Let me see a show of hands. Are the American citizens here, the MAGA patriots? Are you prepared to bear a little pain to get this problem solved? Okay, run through the tape, Ben, you've had some maga, some of our war impostees been interviewed by other media. Let's hear from them. Yeah. Talk to us about what you've experienced so far, folks.
MAGA Supporter 1
Yeah. My wife and I have been here from yesterday and probably six different groups, from Christian to Irish star to Germany and a couple of other ones thrown in. And basically the lead in question is always, and it is a lead in question. Do you approve of the new war that Trump's bringing on? And I mean, our response is that this is not a new war. But then the follow on is that would you support troops on the ground? I mean, it's basically a set series of questions which isn't unreasonable. I mean, given what is going on right now and what you're talking about. But it seems to me that, you know, they are trying to accentuate a split. They think.
Stephen K. Bannon
But hang on, that's a compliment. They're coming here because they understand that you guys are the tip of the spear of the MAGA movement. You are the guys that make it happen. You are President Trump's most loyal followers. You're the backbone of the MAGA movement for international media and for mainstream media that have no clue about any of this and hate President Trump. They want to come and hear what his followers have to say. I think it's a legitimate question. So I'm going to ask you, I wouldn't call it a new war, but what do you and President Trump now refers to it as a military operation. What is your opinion right now of the military operation that we're in the third week of?
MAGA Supporter 1
My response to those questions, and that was one of the questions most of them had, was that basically there's this is several presidents have wanted to do, maybe they left office. So it was safe to say what they said. But this is the first one that did what the other ones were were talking about. As they say, this is a continuation of a long term problem that needed to stop. But the media part, I agree with what you just said, that it's a compliment. But on the other hand, they're trying to form a division of people that are here with these leading type questions.
Stephen K. Bannon
Well, they are asking leading questions. The good news is that the MAGA base, you know that they're coming here to try to have division, but
Jim Rickards
the
Stephen K. Bannon
reality is there is going to be division because not everybody's totally on board. Let me ask you, you're supportive. Do you believe there was an imminent threat? Given you said there's five or six presidents that have never gotten anything done. And I was there in 79, 80 under Carter, before President Reagan came for the disastrous. We were there for the workup, not for the actual raid itself, which was a total disaster and the first big failure after the Iranian revolution. Do you believe given you had those five or six, seven presidents, there was an imminent threat that on Friday the 26th of March in the year of our Lord 2026, we're asking you and all these other patriots, what do you think about putting boots on the ground to take Carg Island? So do you think it was in your mind, not spun by anybody? Do you think there was an as you weighed and measured things, there was an imminent threat that we would go in that we would three weeks later be talking about putting combat Troops in.
MAGA Supporter 1
Well, I think the answer is yes. And that it was a time coming and it was a point in time. You know, I think Netanyahu expressed this several times, that this was a unique point, an opportunity to, you know, take out a lot of leadership at one particular point in time. So that I think is the reason why it was that day at that time when that happened.
Stephen K. Bannon
This is why we're trying to show every aspect of this. I have Trita Parson, who's not just Iranian, but he's very close to some of those guys. We have Kurt Mills on who's a Buchananite, who's anti Iraq, anti all this. We have Rabbi Wolicki, we have Brian Kennedy and Frank Gaffney, neocons from decades and decades. Here's the reason for this to go forward and to make sure it's a success. The MAGA movement has to come to its own independent assessment as the facts that they see them. Right. And that's why your point of view is fantastic, because you've kind of thought this through a little bit. Other people have to think it through. This is not going to be able to be spun because more information is going to come out. This thing's going to get a lot nastier. It is. And now you're not just talking about B2 bombers and that, you're talking about sons and daughters of the MAGA movement because remember, it's working class people in this country. Their kids are Marines and sailors. So now we're going another level potentially to actually put knowing the lessons of Iraq, to put comp in Afghanistan, to put your sons and daughters, your, your grandchildren in harm's way. And that's why the MAGA movement is going to have to come to its own conclusion to assist President Trump in getting to a. Here's your host, Stephen K. Band. Okay, welcome back. A heated debate here at at War Room, as it should be. Your thoughts, Jim? First off, marching to Tehran, right?
Jim Rickards
We've gone down the list of possibilities and people talk about marching to Tehran. I've been a geography freak since I was about 5 years old. Iran is as big as the continental United States east of the Mississippi. Just chop off Florida. But it's the continental United States east of the Mississippi. So you're talking about marching from Boston to New Orleans with 70 million people occupying that territory. That is not going to happen. So it's a dangerous delusion. Take it off the list. The problem with escalation, if you can't escalate all the way, and I don't see how we can. Then you're just in another kind of forever war.
Stephen K. Bannon
Okay. Talk to us about various options, your thoughts and how do people get strategic intelligence? I think now more than ever you got to get if you have access to strategic intelligence, you ought to be reading it. Yeah.
Jim Rickards
Thank you, Steve. We have a landing page. It's Rickardswarroom.com that's Rickardswarroom.com you go there. You can subscribe to our flagship newsletter, Strategic Intelligence. We do predictive analytics. We have a great track record going all the way back to Brexit, Trump 2016 electoral votes in 2024. So we have the track record to back it up. What we did here today actually is a good example of predictive analytics. I have my opinions. Keep your opinion out of it. Look at the facts. Do the analysis weight them? And unfortunately, the scenario is escalation and kind of a dead end.
Stephen K. Bannon
Wow. Let's give it up for Jim Rickards, one of the best. Jim, thanks so much. Ben Berkhwam, what do you got for us? Yeah. So the question is, is this a forever war? The question we're not. Why? Check, check, mic check is the problem. We've got a fight here in Texas and in America. Tell me your name and what you guys are doing here in Texas.
Daniel Hayworth
Yeah, my name is Daniel Hayworth. I'm a pastor at Vintage Church down in Harker Heights, Texas. We're right outside the largest military base in the country, Fort Hood. Right now we're doing a 10 week series. We've given away to over 100 churches across the country and across the world on the threat of Islam. Because the truth is this war is not just one isolated event in our day and time. It's actually one war in a series of wars that's been going on since the existence of Islam for the last 1400 years. And none of these problems get solved by us doing what we're doing right now, which is mass importing Muslim migrants into red states. The left is an alliance to Texas
Stephen K. Bannon
is the is the center of this. You just passed Proposition 10 to prohibit the governor designated Muslim brotherhood and care and care still down in Austin holding hearings about putting more Islam into into public schools. What do you guys particularly what's the church and the pastors going to do about it?
Daniel Hayworth
Yeah. So our mission right now is to wake up the church. The truth is every single country that's a Muslim country right now in North Africa and the Middle east used to be historically Christian countries. The ones that remained and stayed faithful. It Wasn't because of the great military might of those countries. It was because of the courage of the church. I mean, the Jerusalem cross I'm wearing right now is the symbol of the first crusade of a group of Christian men who said we're not going to allow the Muslim hordes to come take over.
Stephen K. Bannon
What's that symbol? What's that symbol you've got on your shirt?
Daniel Hayworth
It's the Jerusalem cross and it's, it's the symbol of the first Crusade, most famously worn by one of the great Christian men of history, Duke Godfrey of Bouillon. He's a great man.
Stephen K. Bannon
They weren't gonna, they. The war room posse had to make calls non stop for three days because Pete Hegses got that tattooed on his chest. They weren't gonna let him be secretary of War.
Daniel Hayworth
It's ridiculous. It's a symbol of Christendom. And Christendom, by the way, America is best thought of in history as the crown jewel of Christendom. It's this idea that our founders had that we'd be built upon the foundations of God's word. And if we don't remember that, we will fall to this unholy alliance of the left and Islam.
Stephen K. Bannon
Are you bringing young men back to the church for a muscular Christianity?
Daniel Hayworth
Yes, we have been.
Stephen K. Bannon
Hasn't Christianity been too, wait for it,
Daniel Hayworth
feminized, it's been neutered. It's been this sort of third way ism where people have said, oh, we're just going to be nice to the people who don't want to be told that they're wrong. But that's not at all what Christianity is supposed to be. Christianity is a masculine religion where Jesus said, I want you to come and I want you to sacrifice and I want you lay down your own life. That's masculine sacrifice. That's what Christianity is about. And it's been carried forward by men who are willing to stand in the gap against evil. And that's the Christianity that if it rises up, we'll save the country. And if we cower, the country will fall.
Stephen K. Bannon
Let's give it up right there. You like that? Last thing before I get you. Are you a Christian nationalist?
Daniel Hayworth
I believe that this country was founded upon the truth of God's word and that no other foundation will allow it, will support it, will let it stand. And that if we don't return to those principles, every single one of the great men of this country was a person who got on their knees and said, lord, I want more of you and less of me. That's what built this country. And it's in our forgetting of that that we've fallen.
Stephen K. Bannon
I take that as a yes. Yes.
Donald Trump
Where do people go?
Stephen K. Bannon
What's your website? What's your social media?
Daniel Hayworth
Go to Vintage Church, Forward slash Infidel to check out everything we're doing on our Islam series. You can check out our YouTube at Vintage Church Texas if you want to follow me personally, I'm on x d Hayworth 22. But look at our church stuff first. Get equipped with God's word. That's what you need more than anything.
Stephen K. Bannon
That's how we fight back. Right there.
Elaine Kalati
Right on.
Stephen K. Bannon
Okay. The California contingent. The California contingent is here. It's on me all the time. We don't do enough about California. California has more MAGA voters than any other state in the union. Even Texas. Elaine, you're running for governor. Talk to us about it.
Elaine Kalati
Hi, I'm Elaine Kalati. I'm running for governor of California. And I just want everyone to know while we're all watching the war, we're all watching the war. California is going to the Democrats. It is a national emergency. Emergency. I need you all to pay attention. It is unwinnable with the current bench. There are too many people in the race. By the way, this is for you. You should be wearing that. Don't vote for me, baby, vote for us. All right, listen, California. 31% of Californians are registered, registered independents. Only 24% of Californians are registered Republicans. Mathematically it's important, possible if you have 10 people in a race because no one's pulling higher than 8%. And while we're all watching the Gulf and the gas, we're going to sell off California to Iran and Israel. As soon as the sun's going to come up tomorrow, if we don't get on top of it, we need to bring the middle together.
Stephen K. Bannon
Swalwell going to win.
Elaine Kalati
Swalwell is winning. Swalwell is winning.
Stephen K. Bannon
So very simply, how do you bring it? You guys enthusiastic about Eric Swalwell being governor of California?
Elaine Kalati
Good God, no.
Stephen K. Bannon
How are you going to beat Eric Swalwell?
Elaine Kalati
The way you beat Eric Swalwell is from the middle. We need this group of people. We need the Trump administration. This is a call for help. We need your help in California. We cannot do it alone. 24% cannot do it. Especially when you have a two party race. When you have a two party race in California, you have a one party race. And just note, I took down the right finger. If you have a two party race in California, you have a one party race. I want everybody to pay attention to what just happened at usc. At usc? They canceled the debate. Thank you very much, Elaine Cilotti. Why did they cancel the debate? Because they had an idea they would call their field on the stage at USC seat.
Stephen K. Bannon
We gotta bounce. What's your website? Where do people go? You got 10 seconds.
Elaine Kalati
What do you talk? Wear my hat.
Stephen K. Bannon
We gotta go.
Elaine Kalati
I'm okay.
Stephen K. Bannon
I don't wear hats. Hit it, Elaine.
Elaine Kalati
Kotti is my name. It's Kotti, spelled C U, L, O,
Podcast Host
T, T. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
This episode of "The War Room with Stephen K. Bannon" comes live from CPAC and is dominated by escalating U.S.-Iran tensions as the war approaches its fourth week. Key discussions revolve around President Trump’s latest decisions, the status and strategy of negotiations with Iran, the impact on global markets and energy prices, and vigorous debate among MAGA supporters regarding boots on the ground, the war’s objectives, and lessons from past military engagements. The episode seeks to inform the MAGA base on the real options, invite honest debate, and rally grassroots engagement just as critical Senate action (or inaction) on border security and the Save America Act becomes a parallel hot topic.
| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Highlight | |-----------|-------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 05:38 | Donald Trump | “In a certain sense, we've already won because we've knocked out their navy, ...154 ships and pretty good ships. ...They asked for seven and I gave them 10. You got 10 days.” | | 11:40 | Jim Rickards | "If Iran has rejected all of Trump’s points and Trump has rejected all of Iran’s points... where’s the negotiation?" | | 13:15 | Stephen K. Bannon | “You mean escalation to deescalate.” | | 15:22 | Jim Rickards | “At that point, what's left? Escalation. ...That’s the most likely outcome. It’s not peace, it’s not negotiation, it’s escalation.” | | 25:55 | Judge/War Supporter | “We owe it to them to finish the job. As Rush Limbaugh said, peace comes after victory, and you can’t achieve full victory ...until you have an infantryman with his rifle on the ground.” | | 27:53 | Iranian Resistance Rep. | “The Iranian people with their organized resistance will do the regime change by themselves.” | | 33:49 | Eric Bolling | “We’re up $3 a barrel ...gasoline hit $4/gallon... all things are pointing higher. ...If you want to eradicate the threat, actual troops, boots on the ground [are needed].” | | 39:49 | Jim Rickards | “Markets have absolutely not discounted what’s happening...This war is going to go on for much longer. Escalation is the only path.” | | 44:41 | Stephen K. Bannon | “The MAGA movement has to come to its own independent assessment as the facts that they see them.” | | 46:21 | Jim Rickards | “Iran is as big as the continental United States east of the Mississippi... marching to Tehran... That is not going to happen.” | | 48:02 | Daniel Hayworth | “This war is not just one isolated event... it’s a series of wars going on since the existence of Islam for the last 1400 years.” | | 51:54 | Elaine Kalati | “While we’re all watching the war, California is going to the Democrats. It is a national emergency.” |