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Tina Deskovitz
This is an iHeart podcast.
News Reporter
Bolton faces 18 counts related to the retention and transmission of national defense information. In short, this is a classified documents case. Back in August, the FBI searched Bolton's home and office. At the time, Trump made it all about him, saying, quote, my house was also raided. Trump is still fuming about the criminal investigation into the classified information he stored at Mar A Lago. So when. When he calls Bolton a, quote, bad person, we should note the hypocrisy. Trump was charged with very similar crimes. Of course, Trump never had to face those charges in court. Judge Eileen Cannon, who Trump appointed to the federal branch, threw them out. As for Bolton, he warned about this moment last year during the presidential campaign, writing in his book, quote, trump really cares only about retribution for himself, and it will consume much of a second term.
Steve Bannon
Indicted by a grand jury in Maryland.
Brian Harrison
Do you have a reaction to that?
Steve Bannon
I didn't know that. You tell me for the first time. But I think he's, you know, a bad person. I think he's a bad guy. Yeah, he's a bad guy. Too bad. But the way it goes. That's the way it goes, right? That's the way it goes. Well, I. What?
Brian Harrison
Have you reviewed the case against him?
Matt Palumbo
No, I haven't.
Steve Bannon
I haven't. But I just think he's a bad person. We know now from what we've seen in the past couple of weeks that.
Brian Harrison
When Donald Trump makes these demands of.
Steve Bannon
Charges against his perceived enemies, sometimes those charges follow.
Brian Harrison
What is not clear at all, however, is what crimes these people may have committed. It seems that Donald Trump is interested solely in payback because these are people who presided over charges against him.
Steve Bannon
So, you know, Jack Smith was the.
Brian Harrison
Special counsel and Lisa Monaco was the deputy attorney general at the time. Andrew Wiseman was just somebody who worked on Robert Mueller's team. And so there's no suggestion of any criminal conduct by any of these people. And so targeting individuals because they're bad.
Steve Bannon
People or because you want to seek.
Brian Harrison
Payback is a really inappropriate use of the Justice Department.
Steve Bannon
So I don't know that prosecutors are.
Brian Harrison
Going to find any crimes that they can charge these people with, but if.
Steve Bannon
They do, I think they will be highly suspect. Along the lines of the Jim Comey.
Brian Harrison
And Letitia James indictments, this is a.
News Reporter
Very serious and detailed indictment. It says that John Bolton derived secrets from his time as national security adviser, assembled them because he was writing a book, sent them over unclassified email and messaging apps to his wife and daughter. We've identified the two people as his wife and daughter. And then that information was hacked by the government of Iran. At least one of those email accounts was hacked. And so the government of Iran obtained some of these state secrets, according to this indictment. And the indictment says that Bolton used language that made clear he knew he was talking about sensitive information, things like the intel briefer said, or when in the Situation room, I learned.
Matt Palumbo
So this is.
News Reporter
And these charges, as you said, carry 10 years each, so he could spend the rest of his life in prison theory if convicted on these charges. But let me tell you what the defense could be here. I should add that. And this case has been, this case is being prosecuted by career prosecutors, respected people. Unlike the Comey and the James case, which was avoided by every career prosecutor in the department and pursued only by Donald Trump's political appointee, this one has gone through normal channels, as we understand it. But let me explain some potential mitigating circumstances here. Lots of people who have jobs where they see classified information, write books and they send the manuscript through a publication review. For example, if you're a CIA officer, and oftentimes those reviewers will say, sorry, you can't say that it was classified. We're keeping that out of the book. Well, that information was classified. It went over an unclassified email system. Those people don't get prosecuted for doing that. So what's at issue here are not documents marked classified, which was the case in the Donald Trump indictment. These were. This was information that John Bolton gathered and wrote down in diaries and sent that the FBI and the CIA and other people have determined contain national defense information. And when you look at the descriptions in the indictment, it's pretty clear that some of it probably did. But the question here is, where is the line for people who are writing books if they'rejohn Bolton did go through the publication review process here. Now, there's allegations that he ignored some of the suggestions from people about what to leave out of the book. But there's a lawyer named Mark Zuckerberg, aide, who represents a lot of people who write books. And what he was saying last night is that if you're going to prosecute John Bolton, you've got to prosecute a lot of other people who wrote books and had potentially classified information on their email systems, which was then left out of the books, but which was actually sensitive. And the other thing is, Abby Lowell, John Bolton's lawyer, is saying here that this was not classified. These were. This was information that he kept for diaries. And he said that the FBI has known about this for A long time. And that's true. This arose in the Biden administration. And. But what seems to be the case is that they did not know the extent of what was in at least one of his email accounts until they discovered that Iran. They discovered the material that Iran had hacked through a US Intelligence penetration of Iran. That's according to my reporting. And that's one of the reasons this case didn't go forward in the Biden administration, because officials were concerned about revealing that penetration. The Trump administration has made a different calculation. They're okay with revealing it. They've revealed it now to the Iranians. So whatever penetration they had is now shut down. That's how badly they wanted to prosecute John Bolton. And that's where you can ask questions about whether this case should have gone forward.
Brian Harrison
Guys vote. Who was a key architect of Project 2025 and also served as OMB director during President Trump's first term. He has been a catalyst behind the administration's efforts to fire federal workers, gut key agencies, and slash for foreign aid. Now a piece published jointly by ProPublica and the New Yorker is taking a deeper dive into votes dismantling of the federal government, chronicling his rise from the mailroom of the U.S. senate to what some call the shadow president votes vision for the US Government and all powerful executive branch would be able to fire workers, cancel programs, shutter agencies and undue regulations that govern air and water quality, financial markets, workplace protections and civil rights. The Department of Justice, meanwhile, would shed its historical independence and operate at the direction of the White House. All of this puts vote at the center of what Steve Vladek, a law professor at Georgetown, described to me as the Trump administration's complete disregards for the law. And if you look at historical parallels and you read books like the one written by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright or Ann Appelbaum, the groundwork being laid here for destroying democracy.
News Reporter
But John Bolton did come back with a statement on this, and he's not going down, as Tish James noted as well, without fighting. He said, quote, these charges are not just about Trump's focus on me or my diaries, but his intensive effort to intimidate his opponents to ensure that he alone determines what is said about his conduct. Dissent and disagreement are foundational to America's constitutional system and vitally important to our freedom. I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power.
Brian Harrison
Question is, which guardrails are left given what the Supreme Court has done?
Steve Bannon
Right.
Matt Palumbo
That's exactly right. There aren't many guardrails left. And that's the reason why I feel.
Steve Bannon
The need to come on tonight and.
Matt Palumbo
Really just speak in very clear terms.
Steve Bannon
Because the only guardrails is the American.
Matt Palumbo
Public and our skepticism and that we don't start with the presumption that an indictment returned against Donald Trump's political enemies.
Steve Bannon
Is on the up and up.
Matt Palumbo
We start with the presumption, the strong.
Steve Bannon
Presumption, that when Donald Trump's political enemies.
Matt Palumbo
All of a sudden find themselves magically.
Steve Bannon
Under indictment, that it's probably not on the up and up, that it probably.
Matt Palumbo
Is because something untoward happened.
Steve Bannon
And so that's all I'm ask everyone to do right now. This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies, because we're going to medieval on these people. I got a 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 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 to share the big lie?
News Reporter
MAGA media I wish in my soul.
Steve Bannon
I wish that any of these people had a conscience. Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved. War Room, here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. It's Friday the 17th of October in the year of our Lord 2025. I'm here in the Lone Star State with Brian Harrison. Brian, thank you for joining us today for the, for the broadcast. Great to be with you this afternoon and tomorrow. So we're going to be juggling a lot here at War Room. In real America's Voice, we have the Moms for Liberty, a huge conference in Florida, which a lot of the RAV personnel are speaking at. John Solomon and the team. We've also got Marine Corps 250 out of camp Pendleton, Amanda Head and the team out there. And of course, I'm here for the next couple of days to talk to the conservative and the grassroots conservatives in the Lone Star State to figure out the Lone Star State supposed to be the railhead of maga, but the folks here don't have time to even much help us on the national level because you're trying to turn around Texas.
Brian Harrison
Yeah, I know. The people of the state of Texas love President Trump. They vote for bold Republican leadership. They deserve bold Republican leadership. But instead of Texas leading the fight to lock arms with President Trump and make sure. His agenda is not just passed, but passed with as big and maximum of an impact as possible. The failed liberal establishment in the Texas government is forcing Texas taxpayers to basically fund the Joe Biden Kamala Harris agenda, even though they've been absolutely routed at the ballot box.
Steve Bannon
Outrageous. Okay, big geopolitical news today. Zelensky's at the White House at one o' clock for this massive discussion about providing Tomahawk missiles and other offensive capabilities to the Ukrainians in the Ukraine, war against the Russians. President Trump's talked to Putin. We're getting all that we want to go now. I think we've got it. The Council on Foreign relations, our own Dr. Peter Navarro is giving an address about the trade policy and I think particularly going to delve into this economic war against China. Let's go to the Council on Foreign Relations, Peter Navarro.
Matt Palumbo
After all, it's not every day I get to speak before an audience that has opposed nearly every policy I've ever helped advance in the White House. But let's be honest with each other. CFR has been uniformly anti tariff and anti Trump and highly skeptical of an America first foreign policy that in truth is restoring our trade balance, rebuilding our industrial base, strengthening alliances like NATO keeping, and as we just saw in the Middle east, negotiating the broader peace and reasserting American sovereignty on the world stage. So let's ask ourselves the obvious question. How did the gulf between the Council on Foreign Relations and Trump world grow so wide? If you ask an AI search engine, try this. I did. It will tell you that the Council on Foreign Relations embodies an establishment, technocratic and globalist ideology, one comfortably wedded with Wall street and the multinational corporations that love open borders, cheap offshore labor, and an endless stream of subsidized imported goods. By contrast, the Trump administration since 2017 has stood squarely with the people who make and grow things in this country, our farmers and ranchers, our manufacturers and workers. What many in this audience dismiss as populism or nationalism simply means doing what's best for Americans first, protecting our jobs, communities, and the industrial base that anchors our national strength. History is indeed a harsh mistress. Here. Exhibit A. Council on Foreign Relations members helped negotiate nafta, which hallowed out the US Manufacturing base and triggered one of the largest illegal mass migrations in modern history. CFR analysts championed China's 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization, the single worst trade deal. The single worst trade deal in American history. Then came the Trans Pacific Partnership. Forgive me here, Mike. CFR sold it as a geopolitical Rampart against a rising China. Yet the TPP would have surrendered much of America's manufacturing base, including our crucial auto and auto parts sectors, to Japan, Vietnam, and ironically, ultimately China itself. President Trump saw this very clearly and tore up the TPPP on day one. I was standing right behind him on that beautiful day. This is what the Council on Foreign Relations has never understood. Weakening our industrial base has never strengthened our strategic position. It has only invited aggression. That's why in Trump world, we do not trade off economic security for national security. We believe economic security is national security. Memo to cfr. You cannot project power if you surrender production. You cannot deter aggression when your supply chains run through your opponent's ports. You can't lead the free world if you can't make what the free world needs. Here's the second big problem with the Council's free trade dogma. The belief that the World Trade Organization somehow delivers fair trade as well by its own rules. It does not. The WTO's Most Favored Nation MFN rule says you must treat all partners the same. But what it doesn't say is that everyone must charge the same tariffs. So what happens? Virtually every country in the world charges America far higher tariffs than we charge them. Germany, for example, charges us 10% on autos. We charge them two and a half. The result? Bavaria sells us seven cars for everyone Detroit sends to Germany. That's the tilted playing field that the Council on Foreign Relations has defended and the one President Trump has begun to level with his policy of reciprocal tariffs. Of course, the moment President Trump uses the T word, CFR waves the bloody shirt of what? You know what I'm about to say. Inflation. But the record. The record tells a very different story. Under President Trump's first term, inflation stayed low, growth was strong, and the American manufacturing base saw its first real revival in decades. Far from tariff chaos, Trump World had price stability and the strongest job market in modern history. Street, let's be clear. The inflation we're living with today did not come from tariffs. It came from Joe Biden's reckless fiscal expansion, his neglect of our supply chains, and a hopelessly politicized Federal Reserve that accommodated the Biden bonfire. That's why we in Trump world now hold the credibility high ground on tariffs. Exhibit B during the Trump first term. And you all remember this. CFR's predictions of economic calamity widely missed the mark. The inflation and recession that you all forecast never came. The alliances you said would disintegrate have endured those wars you predicted for four peaceful years during the Trump first term, China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia kept their powder dry. Now in his second term, President Donald John Trump is once again performing beautifully. And it's long past time for the Council on Foreign Relations to catch up with a world it refuses to understand. In closing, in closing, I come to you today not to quarrel, just to simply challenge respectfully the assumptions that still dominate this room. The world has changed. The American people have changed. The age of blind globalization is over. If the Council on Foreign Relations wants to be relevant, it be must, must stop mistaking nationalism for isolationism, sovereignty for retreat and strength, for aggression, for ultimately, maga. And the America first movement isn't about pulling back. It's about standing tall. It's about defending what we make, who we are and the nation we love. Thank you for your time. I look forward to your questions. And Ana Swanson of the conservative New York Times is going to grill me here.
Audience Member
Wow.
Steve Bannon
Just perfect. Okay, so the reason we wanted to start with that the great Peter Navarro, is that Texas is kind of the railhead for the populist economic nationalists and the folks down here, the ranchers, the farmers, the manufacturers, the entrepreneurs. That Peter Navarro folks, he just went into the lion's den. The Council on Foreign Relations is like the Vatican of globalism. Okay? He went in there and threw down what people don't know. And the reason I wanted Harrison to ride shotgun with me this morning as we start to get in tomorrow, tonight and tomorrow, more the grassroots folks here is that you were in the first Trump term and you were one of the wingmen for Navarro and working. You were at HHS on the supply chains. You know exactly what he's talking about. And the fight, the biggest fight we had was really against kind of Republican establishment who was absolutely appalled of populism and nationalism. The thing that the grassroots love in Texas, they were appalled at and fought us every day.
Brian Harrison
And what's so great about seeing my former colleague Peter there going into the room full of, you cannot imagine a room full of more of like the, the word elite. Okay. The elitist doesn't even quite capture. But what's great about watching Peter, who, yes, I did get to work with and spend a lot of time with in the West Wing during President Trump's first term, is that that speech, even though he's delivering it to the globalists, to the elites in our nation's capital. Right. That speech was basically a speech meant for the hard working men and women of the people in Texas, the people that that group derides as flyover country. You know, the others, right, the forgotten men and women of the United States. I'm here to tell you as somebody who had the honor of working for President Trump, you know, alongside Peter and others, Donald J. Trump is the people's president. And from the time he got in office up until now, I watch him systematically take positions that not just weren't within like Republican establishment orthodoxy, but when right at it. I mean, Peter just mentioned most favored nations. I mean, I was in the room with the President. He's sick and tired of not just farmers and ranchers paying too much for everything, but American patients. He's sick and tired of these, these drugs that cost pennies to make being sold for pennies in all these socialist European countries, but American patients.
Steve Bannon
Let's talk about that. Number one is that the Chinese control all active pharmaceutical ingredients and dominate the generic market. But then you talk about the non generic. So the Americans are getting ripped off there. But even worse is that working men and women in this country are underwriting basically the profit stream for the big pharma from international companies. It is an international country.
Brian Harrison
It is an absolute fact that American patients are overpaying for their prescription drug drugs. And that's bad enough, but we're doing it so that we can subsidize these socialist governments all across the world. And I was super proud to get to help President Trump announce multiple pathways for drug importation, which is something as a Republican, you weren't supposed to do back four years ago when he announced this. And it was actually the Democrats under Joe Biden that pushed this anti patient policy and peeled that stuff back. But no, President Trump is putting the American workers first. He's putting American patients first, he's putting hardworking Texans first. And I tell you here, Steve, as somebody who represents hundreds of thousands of Texans and gets to serve 30 million Texans, Texans appreciate what President Trump is doing. They know he's got their back against the bigs, against the elites, against the powerful. And he's the President for the forgotten.
Steve Bannon
Ministry and the international, these international institutions and organizations, whether it's UN in Geneva, the World bank, the imf, all of the World Health Organization. I want to mention, just give folks, look, the Council on Foreign Relations, you have globalist elites and then you have actually the elite of the elite, almost like a public skull and bones. The Council on Foreign Relations you have to be invited into. It's like the inner sanctum of the foreign policy establishment. All the bankers, the corporatists, the biggest pundits and writers in foreign affairs. And foreign policy, that is the Council on Foreign Relations. And here's what they've done. They're really centered in New York City, this kind of center of globalism. But they now have Peter speaking actually at their DC Branch, which is right down from the White House, because they know they got to keep an eye on President Trump. President Trump is a populist and a nationalist, and this is what broke the mold and really stood up to defend our country. And this is the thing coming down to Texas. That speech right there is aimed to sell the Texans. Hey, we understand what the problem is. We understand these globalists, what they've been trying to do to you. We understand how the elites in this country sold you out, including the room of the people I am in. And by the way, is about to be interviewed by Anna Swanson over the New York Times. And she's actually pretty. She's actually pretty. Yeah, she's actually pretty good. But, you know, the New York Times is the paper that. In the journal, the paper of globalism. Why can't we translate Trump's victory and particularly Trump's principles as laid out, at least on the geostrategic side and the economic side? Why are we having such a hard time here in Texas? Because I think we've come to the. I've come to the conclusion is Texas is actually the railhead of maga, but it's a purple state, by the way, that the elected officials run it.
Brian Harrison
Yeah, no, I say this all the time. The Texas voters, the men and women who love this state, the 30 million people who call Texas home, they are red. But the reality is, and people don't know this because all they watch is maybe a few seconds of our governor or lieutenant governor on Fox News every once in a while. They think our government matches that and that we're red. The reality is that Texas people are red. The Texas government is blue and has been for a long time. And that's why you see people like, you know, Peter Navarro representing the President of the United States walking into a room full of people who for generation, basically have been able to control the regulatory capture and other things, the government. So it's not really been the elected officials controlling the government government. It's been the entrenched rich elite, special interest. And President Trump is an existential threat to that. And the state of Texas should be a multiplying force and an amplifier for what President Trump is trying to do and break the mold for the people, a force multiplier.
Steve Bannon
Use an example. What Texas elites are in the governing philosophy down here because they say they're Republicans, but they're really, they're anti populist, anti Trump globalist. I mean that's what it is. And that's why you have these policies. Whether it's transgender ideology. I mean you've got one of the great universities, I told you, the, the men and women I know that are Aggies, the most conservative, hard bitten crew. And I see what's happening at Texas A and M, I go, how can that possibly happen at Texas A and M?
Brian Harrison
When I say as a proud member of the fight in Texas, aggie, class of 2004. And it's one of the reasons that people. Why are you picking on AM so much? Well, I love A and M, they, they, they educated me. One of the best public universities in the country, most conservative. But now they've been taken over by leftists because our governor has appointed a bunch of woke progressive leftists that have allowed this leftist Marxist socialist ideology to proliferate unchecked. And now the hard working men and women of the state of Texas, they're being taxed out of their homes, highest property tax in the country, by the way, to fund the leftist ideology which leads us to the transgender movement, the transgender violence. Hang on.
Steve Bannon
When people think of Texas, they think of, of the frontier. They think of the Texas ethos, the Alamo. And you sent to all the great things that Texas represented in development of the country, in freedom. And you're telling me, I think people are looking at property taxes are one of the things people are prepared to. You got to support local government, the local schools. But you're telling me you have among the highest property taxes in the country.
Brian Harrison
There was one in a house.
Steve Bannon
How can that be? You've got Massachusetts, you got New York York state, you got California.
Brian Harrison
Here's what I'll tell you. And it's just, it's, it's heartbreaking and it's infuriating. Texas has a reputation, Steve, for leading and conservative values. Individual liberty, freedom. Right. Here's the reality. We've just been coasting on that reputation for a generation. And yeah, one analysis, people think we're a low tax, low regulation state. It's total myth. One analysis last year, Texas has the highest property tax rate in the country, effective property tax rate. And what are they doing with all this money? Or we're funding the exact opposite of everything President Trump is fighting for in Washington. We're probably the biggest funder DEI and transgender indoctrination in the whole country.
Steve Bannon
And this is why you've got, I think some of the best, if not the best grassroots of fighters in the nation right here in Texas. I just want to say we're going to go to break here in a second. The other day on the on Tel Aviv Levin on Mark Levin show, they had the radio show, they had Abbott and he was praising Abbott Abbott for Abbott was taking credit for the five seats, the redistricting. He actually had the chutzpah to try to tabs in and go, hang on. This is all these grassroots organizations Brian Harrison war were repounded every day. Abbott's fight has behind the scenes everything. And he's taking credit now for. He's taking credit for the renditioning your thoughts.
Brian Harrison
Well, yeah, he has a habit of doing this. You know, I forced a big job, forced a professor to be fired at a and then like clockwork, there's a tweet from the governor, this professor must go. And I'm like, okay, well where were you, you know, when your reasons were hiring all these leftists? But no, and here's the thing too, on the five seats, yeah, we got it done and thank God we did. But quite frankly, without the grassroots pressure and the president having to tell hey, Republican elected officials, get off your duff and do something. And by the way, Steve, you were right on this. The posse, it should have been more than five seats. And even the lead author of the bill has admitted we could have had more than five seats. We should have had more than five. Unbelievable.
Steve Bannon
Okay, today we're going to juggle a lot. We've got news back in D.C. of taking down the administrative state. John Bolton is about to be. The indictment is about to be. He's about to go to court today to be arraigned. We've got. We're going to Lando to Moms for liberty. We get a preview of Marine Corps 250 tomorrow from Camp Pendleton. I think Amanda Head is gonna is gonna be there to anchor everything thing. We're gonna take a short commercial break. Gold, by the way, blew through 4300 bucks last night. Why is that? I don't know. Zelinsky's in the White House, day in the Oval asking for offensive weapons. The Chinese Communist Party, Scott Besant and Jameson Greer, the ambassador for trade. The trade negotiators saying, hey, the Chinese Communist Party trying to put the death now on the global economy by banning by this restriction of rare earths. We're gonna get into to all of it today in the war room as we're juggling the news Globally, from Texas to the Eurasian landmass. Back in a moment in the war room. Kill America's Voice family.
Matt Palumbo
Are you on Getter yet?
Steve Bannon
No.
Brian Harrison
What are you waiting for?
Tina Deskovitz
It's free, it's uncensored, and it's where.
Steve Bannon
All the biggest voices in conservative media are speaking. The Getter app right now, it's totally free. It's where I put up exclusively all of my content 24 hours a day. Want to know what Steve Bannon is thinking? Go to Getter.
Matt Palumbo
That's right. You can follow all of your favorites.
Steve Bannon
Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk, Jack Posobi and so many more.
News Reporter
Download the Getter app now.
Steve Bannon
Sign up for free and be part of the movement. Okay, welcome back. We're going to get Matt Palumbo up in a second. Mika. They're doing a huge profile of Russ, I think the New Yorker and our Vanny Fair, one of these paper, one of these magazines, and they're completely going after Russ Vote because he's a Christian nationalist. They absolutely hate him. They think he's the, you know, he's the architect of so much of this. He and Steven Miller. But they're going absolutely crazy. Talk to me. And we, we really would like Russ taken off the chain in this because we think we're winning. We know we're winning. The Schumer shutdown. Yeah. Now it's time to drop the hammer. And Russ has, I think, laid off 5,000. Started 5,000, but that's of two and a half million. I think we still have 2.3 million civilian workers in the government. I know Russ has a plan to go the 500,000 above which we're selling. And President Trump's under tremendous pressure by Wall street, by the, by the rhinos in the Senate, which is virtually all of them. Oh, calm this down. Tone it down. We don't really make big changes.
Brian Harrison
No, the American people don't want to calm down. The American people want big changes. That's what they voted for last November. And I'm really thrilled that, you know, one of the silver linings of the Democrats total, I would say it's incompetence, but it's like willful malice. So what they're doing with this Democrat led Schumer shutdown, I think one of the silver linings is my friend and former colleague and yours, Russ Vogt, getting to finally do some of the things that I think, quite frankly, Russ has been preparing for many, many years to get to do. Because one of the things I think the American people now understand is that The President is supposed to be the head of the executive branch.
Steve Bannon
Yes.
Brian Harrison
But he's constantly undermined by the hundreds of thousands of woke leftist Marxist progressives that in theory work for the president President, but are in fact actually undermining everything. President Trump is.
Steve Bannon
This is what in the years in the wilderness. Right. The Project 2025 team. But it really was Russ Vote cra heritage, Stephen Miller's America first legal. So much. Brooks Rollins, the America First Policy Institute, you know, CPI with Senator DeMint and Mark Meadows, all these groups working together with really Miller and Russ and the Viceroy, Mike Davis saying, hey, we want to get down to a real driving. We're going to drive the narrative here. On the article, two powers of the President states he's chief executive officer of the country. That means he can fire who he wants. And the appropriations bill is a ceiling, not a floor. He can hold money back, he can impound money.
Brian Harrison
Yeah.
Steve Bannon
As commander in chief. Hey, he can repel invasions, he can go after our enemies. And most importantly, I think has been so different. He is the chief magistrate and chief law enforcement officer, officer of the United States government. So the Justice Department, the FBI are not hermetically sealed away from the executive branch. Brian. I think that's the big challenge we've had now in everything we're doing. And it's not going to stop.
Brian Harrison
No. And I was in those fights with President Trump in the first term. It's not just the career bureaucrats that make up the vast majority of the massive federal workforce, but the president gets to politically appoint, you know, a thousand plus, you know, people to come in and serve with him and make sure his agenda is carried out out at all the different agencies. But even keeping the people that are appointed by the president, they're explicitly the appointment of the White House during the first term. I can tell you that there were a lot of D.C. swamp creatures that made their way into President Trump's first administration. And it was even the political appointees that were undermining him. But to your bigger point, Steve, if you work in the executive branch, if you're a bureaucrat somewhere, your ultimate boss, if you care about that pesky little thing called the Constitution, is the President of the United States. And the president is Donald J. Trump. And if you're a bureaucrat, the executive branch, you're there to carry out his agenda.
Steve Bannon
One of the most striking differences between the first term and the second is that those years in the wilderness, people were at work not just in the policies, but also the people. You get 3,000 people you can get on board as soon as they get a security clearance. Day one, a thousand basically have to be, you know, get confirmed by the Senate and this confirmation by the Senate right now. President Trump put out a true social last night about eight U.S. attorneys that he can't get in in blue states because of this concept of the blue slip. I don't think President Trump's calling for that to go away. I don't think it's going to go away, Mr. President. It's a custom and tradition to stick with. But John Thune ought to call a real recess, which they've never had for one day of President Trump's first term or second term. The reason is Mitch McConnell and the reiners in the Senate don't trust President Trump on a recess appointment right now. Thune needs to, you know, next week to get Johnson since the House is out and Johnson said he support this to actually call it a formal recess. And let's get these recess appointments, particularly these U.S. attorneys. And I'm going to show you why. We've got Matt Palumbo up. We got a call open. From the one aspect I can tell you, they're driving, driving, driving is this investigation of the deep state, the investigation of what happened, the conspiracy in the first term and particularly now antifa and everything associated with antifa. You got the Treasury Department on this, you got the IRS on this. We got Matt Palumbo who's the specialist in source and the in the Devil spawned the Sun. Let's go and play the clip and bring Matt Palumbo on.
Brian Harrison
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the White House is planning to install true Trump loyalists in the IRS criminal unit for the not sole purpose, but one of the reasons is to target left leaning groups. What do you make of this? It sounds very familiar and you know, we've been hearing rumors about this and reports. I think Jeff and his team at Reuters did a story a week ago about targeting these left wing groups. And when I hear this, my mind immediately went back to Watergate. Actually, you know, everybody remembers that there was bugging, you know, that was, you.
News Reporter
Know, they were bugging the Democratic headquarters back then.
Brian Harrison
But you know, there were many other crimes involved with Watergate and one of the big ones was Nixon and his henchmen sending a list of enemies over to the IRS and asking them to go investigate. I mean that was a big, that was one of the article, it was part of the article to, of impeachment, one of the things that led to his resignation. Now of course that was a very different time because at that time when that list came over, the irs, the people that they didn't act on it. And in fact. And then eventually, you know, Republican members of Congress stood up and said, this is one of the reasons, Mr. President, you.
News Reporter
You're going to lose an impeachment vote.
Brian Harrison
You need to resign. Now we're talking about him putting his henchmen in an irs. So if he sends that list over, I think there's a really good chance they actually do prosecute him. We see this play out exactly the way we stopped it from playing out in the 1970s.
Steve Bannon
By the way, in Texas, they keep saying the mainstream media, oh, antifa is just a bunch of kids. You know, they dress up in Pepe things and alligators. In Portland, they're just dancing in the streets. They're flower children.
Brian Harrison
Yeah. Tell that to the families of the ICE agents that were shot by alleged antifa activists just within the last month here in the Lone Star State. Now that's complete nonsense. And I'm sick and tired of the mainstream media not just running interference for the Marxist progressive leftists. They're now running interference and basically covering for domestic terrorists in this country. It's beyond reprehensible.
Steve Bannon
No, I think you've had two incidents. You had the one on the roof and you had the other one with the agents. I mean, until it was put down. They're going to continue on. The best way and smartest way to do it is not run after all the gunmen and you're just playing whack a mole. The way to do it is not just go to the training element, which is in the national security apparatus and quite frankly in the military. The best way to do it is to go after the money in the organization. Matt Palumbo, you have spent your career, your dam bung guy, you run the Bongino site, you've been his producer for years. You wrote this amazing book on Soros. I still think the best book on source written and immediately told me he said, hey, I'm going after the kid because he's the devil's spawn. It may actually be bigger than the old man. Where do we stand with this? Now? The shocking because, hey, the Treasury Department's got their terrorist financing group up on money laundering and terrorist financing and the IRS simultaneously. It's a pin censor move from Scott Bessant. And you can tell how important this is because the mainstream media is in total meltdown of this probably more than anything else they're dealing with.
Audience Member
Well, good Morning, guys. Thanks for having me on. Alex and the OSF clearly are afraid they're in defense mode. You know, in their press releases they're saying they didn't knowingly fund any violent groups. And I think the word knowingly is doing a lot of these, the heavy lifting in that sentence, but it's also irrelevant. They're arguing that we're not directly paying people to do violence. Doesn't mean anything if groups have a record of doing violence. The analogy I've given is they will hand gasoline and matches to an arsonist and then say, well, we couldn't have possibly known what was gonna go on there. And Alex cited a New York Times article that made that exact argument document. And they had claimed that a recent report from the Capitol Research center, which does profiles on left wing groups, had made that exact claim. There's no evidence of any direct funding. And you know, I read the report and I'll read directly from it. The Open Society foundation since 2016 gave $80 million to Pro Terror groups. And this is split between groups that are themselves going out and committing acts of violence, violence, or are making light of violence, doing propaganda for groups like Hamas to downplay their atrocities or providing legal aid, free legal aid to these protesters. And we talked in the last show how Alex had used environmentalist groups sort of as a front for other left wing causes, and that he had authorized over 438 million in new spending to environmental groups groups ever since he took over. But that's only a small percentage of what they actually do. They're sort of a catch all for left wing activism. And a lot of the Palestinian groups he funded are in that pro terror category where regardless of your position on the Israel Palestine conflict, even if you are, you know, someone on the right who is more sympathetic to the Palestinians, it's no doubt that these left wing groups are really anti American groups. And that is just their front issue. We saw that with, with them, their number one issue being, well, we want a ceasefire, then the second we get a ceasefire. I don't think Rashida Tlaib had posted on Twitter for a couple days after that even happened, never mentioned it. Most of these groups calling for ceasefire now never mentioned it, did not give Trump any credit because they didn't really care about that issue. That was just the rallying cry. But they have a million other little things they wanna do now when it comes to other things the IRS could look into. And, and we talked about this in the last show, in the last chapter of my book on Alex that comes out in about two weeks. I looked into all of the groups in the US that he had funded the year he took over the osf, which is the most recent year we have data. And I looked at groups. It's over 500,000 in funding. And there are a number of groups that are set up basically to give plausible deniability. They are in this sort of funds of funds category will, where he will give $10 million to a group. And I'll go through the social media, their YouTube, their website. There is no activity, no press releases, no news of everything, anything they're doing. But they present themselves as active groups. And then you go through their financials, their public statements and all their operations are giving money to other groups and then their expenses will be 100 bucks a year. It's just things that don't add up. And it's the gift. He is layering the funds so that you cannot in those cases directly link him to anything. And his father had done this with the Tides foundation for Forever, basically, or the Rockefeller Groups. But his son is doing it to a much greater degree.
Steve Bannon
Can you hang on for a second? I wanna hold you into the, I wanna hold you into the next break. I wanna talk about the 80 million that's already gone to pro terror groups right in the ward when their lawyers send out a release that's been chopped and they go knowingly. They're already, you've already seen them.
Brian Harrison
It's 80 million for catering.
Steve Bannon
Exactly. They're, they're, they're, they're, they're already laying their illegal defense. They know they got big problems and they've never had treasury come after them, They've never had the IRS come after them, and they've never had them come after them for money laundering and for terror financing. And these, these have very stiff penalties as right now Bolton is getting a range, I think in Maryland, in Greenbelt, Maryland, on his 18 counts. Each count has 10 years, so it's 180 years in prison. We'll go into all that. Gold's over 4300 or it's bounced around 4300. Blew through it yesterday. Find out why we don't talk to you about the price of gold. It's the process. Right now we have two different ways you can get there, right. Both free. Maybe you start off with the ultimate guide for investing in gold and precious metals. And remember the. And precious metals.
Brian Harrison
Metals.
Steve Bannon
Right now, silver has been on fire. So go to birchgold.com promo code. War Room or promo code Bannon to get the end of the dollar empire. That's one way. The others, just take your phone out and text Bannon B A N N O N at 989-898. That gets you the ultimate guide. Both of them will get you in contact with Philip Patrick and team. That's who you need to talk to. Remember, it's the process of gold being a hedge and now shifting over a. Got a big article from Peter Shift up on Getter about how gold we talked about it is now becoming a significant asset class and back of the dollar. Short break. Back in the war room from Texas in a moment. Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. Okay, welcome back. Home title lock. Make sure you know every dream you ever had is in that home. If you're lucky enough to own. Remember, folks under 35, very rare to own a home. Home ownership has gotten to be very, very, very tough. President Trump's trying to work and get some stuff rolling, but right now it is what it is. Make sure that your dream does not turn into a nightmare. How do you do that? Hometitlelock.com promo code Steve, talk to Natalie Dominguez and the team and make sure that, you know, artificial intelligence, cyber rogue accountants, rogue lawyers, maybe even a rogue family member. Remember, a loved one, quote, unquote. Don't get in there and get a hard money loan, second mortgage on your home that you gotta pay off. Hometitlelock.com promo code Steve, talk to Nelly Dominguez and the team. They got tons of information. Go check it out. Today, Moms for Liberty. I don't know if there's any group that's been more at the forefront of the punch out we've had on parents rights and this culture, all of it. Tina Deskovitz, Bo Davison. Tina, you're down in Orlando today. We're covering it nonstop here in Real America's Voice. We're pulling out speakers. We got a bunch of RAV people down there. What are you trying to accomplish? I think this is your fourth or fifth conference. What do you guys. I thought Trump won and you guys helped so much in the victory. Isn't the parents rights fight over, ma'? Am?
Tina Deskovitz
Oh, I wish it was over, Steve. I wish parents truly could experience the fundamental right to raise their children. Unfortunately, it's still under attack across the country.
Steve Bannon
Can you hear Steve? Yeah, I got you right now. Perfect. Okay.
Brian Harrison
Okay.
Steve Bannon
Go ahead, Tina.
Tina Deskovitz
You want me to take it away again, Steve?
Steve Bannon
Take it away again?
Tina Deskovitz
Yeah, I was just saying that unfortunately, parents rights are still under Attack in America. You would think at this point, the left and the radicals would get the hint that moms are not backing down and that we have the fundamental right to raise our children. But it's still, school boards across the country are still stomping all over them. Whole states are defying President Trump, and there's still a lot of work to be done.
Brian Harrison
So.
Steve Bannon
So what is to be done? I mean, you guys have done so much. You're one of the key groups that delivered the victory for President Trump. What is. We've had the first wave of attack where we started to take over school boards. Is it pushback or are we losing ground? I mean, what's the plan? Plan?
Tina Deskovitz
Yeah. You know, Randy Weingarten just came out with her new book. If I'm not even going to give it any more acknowledgment than that. But she even states in there that, you know, Moms for Liberty came out strong. We won over 500 school board seats, which, you know, sounds amazing when you say that number, but there's 13,000 school districts in this country. And so in her book, she came back and said, we doubled down, we invested, and they had hundreds of millions of dollars. Moms for Liberty's budget is nothing like that. And so we have a long way to go. Unfortunately, this is probably going to take decades to get our schools back from the teachers union completely. And then, you know, there's problems at all levels of government. California, New York. Right now, they're violating parental rights at every turn with state laws. Governors are signing them into law. And so we love President Trump and we're grateful for all he's doing, but it's just part of the story.
Steve Bannon
Well, as you know, with, with the, the onslaught of news geopolitically, you know, Zelensky's in the White House day, we're on the verge of war with the Russians. We got a war, economic war with the Chinese, Communist Party, Venezuela, all over. Why is what the Moms for Liberty doing so important that you're down there covering it? And, Rav, we're giving wall to wall coverage this weekend.
Brian Harrison
Well, I'll tell you this, Steve. I became a parent 20 months ago, and so I have a young son, and I'm lucky to be in the free state of Florida. Tina, thank God for that. But I have to start thinking about these things. You know, I've covered conferences in the past, CPACs, whatever, here and there, but never before have I covered a conference like this when I was actually a parent. So to Me, it's an educational experience to me. And I know that's what Moms for Liberty does, is empower, educate parents. And so. But it's not just for moms. It's for dads, too. I noticed there's a panel, Steve, on fatherhood, which Pastor John Amanchuco to is going can be a part of. Benny Johnson is moderating Graham Allen. So I think it's important for people to know that it's not just about moms. It's about the dads, too. And Tina, I'd just like to ask you too, what are three things that maybe me as a new parent need to be thinking about right now?
Tina Deskovitz
You need to think about where your child is going to go to school. There's long wait lists right now if you want to put them in some very special private schools. But, you know, are you prepared to home school? I'd say absolutely. You and your wife are probably prepared, but you need to make those choices.
Brian Harrison
When.
Tina Deskovitz
Where are you living? Unfortunately, in a lot of places in America outside of Florida, you still have to go to the school by your zip code, which is just unacceptable. So number one, where's your kid going to go to school? Number two, get prepared to be on the front lines. Join Moms for Liberty. Are you a member yet?
Brian Harrison
Not yet, but it looks like I'm going to have to join you. See, Steve, I'm learning.
Matt Palumbo
Yeah.
Tina Deskovitz
We have dads all across the country. Seven of our 320 chapters are actually led by dads. So you could run the chapter in your county if you wanted to, too.
Steve Bannon
I mean, Broward.
Tina Deskovitz
Yeah. Oh, gosh, good luck with that one. It's tough. Broward is tough. And so number two is, you know, get involved and get activated now so you understand the issues that are coming. There are issues with AI, with tracking your child's data now with your 2 year old. Is that what you said?
Brian Harrison
Almost to 20 months. Yeah.
Tina Deskovitz
The government's already tracking his data and so mom to Liberty can help you protect and opt out in the places that you need to opt out.
Steve Bannon
The two year old Beau, two years old. You're about to go into the fun part. We're going to check in with Mrs. Davidson later and see what your learning curve has been like in the last couple of years. Right. You're getting guidance from Tina. We want to talk to the source. Tina, real quickly. Talk to us today. The agenda today and tomorrow we're going to be covering it nonstop on Real America's Voice. What should we look for?
Tina Deskovitz
Yeah, we just closed up with the Florida Attorney General, James Utmire and Dr. Latipo, our surgeon general who recently banned the all vaccine mandates in schools, which our moms stood to their feet and cheered for that when he was discussing that today. So it's been a strong morning of Florida leaders. We're moving into breakouts right now. We've got covering all kinds of topics, AI in education, sextortion happening on digital platforms of children getting into some deep and depressing things, unfortunately. But here at Moms for Liberty, we know our future is bright. We have a big lunch session coming up very soon with a couple panels with Cory DeAngelis and some alternatives to teachers union. So we're very excited about that.
Steve Bannon
Tina, where do people go to More for Moms for Liberty to follow this on streaming and your social media where they go?
Tina Deskovitz
Yeah, you guys are streaming it all day. You could go to our website too. Moms for liberty.org it should be right there on the front page and all of our socials. Moms number four, Liberty.
Steve Bannon
Bo Davidson, what be should your social media, how do people follow you while you're down there covering it, sir?
Brian Harrison
Yeah, of course people can find me.
Steve Bannon
At Thebo Davidson and it's a pleasure.
Brian Harrison
To be on with you, Steve. And I gotta say, you know, being just a young dad and learning here at Moms for Liberty is the place to be. And here we are in Orlando too. You know, where Disney is. I hope we've made some improvements, Tina. I really hope.
Steve Bannon
We have got Terry Schilling, you got Benny Johnson, Bo Davidson. Quite a crew down there, guys. Thank you so much for streaming all day. And tomorrow, tomorrow Moms for Liberty. Tina, great job. Thank you guys.
Brian Harrison
Thank you, Steve.
Tina Deskovitz
Thank you, Steve.
Steve Bannon
Really proud of Rav. We're drug, we're juggling Texas. We're juggling Orlando, Florida, moms for liberty. We're juggling Marine Corps 250 out in camp Pendleton. A lot going on this week on a real American Voice. Don't leave us. We're gonna take a short commercial break. My wingman Brian Harrison is here. We got a all star cast an out 2. Stick around.
Tina Deskovitz
This is an I heart podcast.
Podcast: Real America’s Voice | Host: Steve Bannon and panel
Date: October 17, 2025
This episode of “The War Room” centers on the political and cultural battlegrounds of modern America, focusing on legal actions against public figures, the struggle between populist and establishment powers, and the ongoing culture war in education and federal governance. Key topics include the indictment of John Bolton, the role of Russ Vought’s Project 2025, economic nationalism espoused by Peter Navarro, the tension within Texas Republican politics, grassroots activism via Moms for Liberty, and allegations of left-wing financing of domestic unrest.
[00:04–03:06]
[05:58–07:30, 31:31–34:03]
[11:28–19:27]
[24:39–28:52]
[31:31–42:31]
[45:31–51:13]
The conversation is combative, urgent, and underscored by distrust of government institutions and mainstream media. Bannon and his guests emphasize the “regime’s” alleged overreach, the threat of globalism, and the necessity of grassroots activism—especially at the state and education level—to reclaim American sovereignty and traditional values.