Bannon's War Room - Episode 5030： Peace Through Strength Trump Meets With Bibi Netanyahu

00:00:00.000 Well, I hope he's going to get along with Syria because the new president of Syria is working very hard to do a good job.

00:00:06.220 He really is. I know he's a tough cookie and he's, you know, you're not going to get a choir boy to lead Syria.

00:00:13.980 That's the one thing I would say. So I hope they're going to get along because, you know, I took, I dropped the sanctions on Syria

00:00:20.500 because otherwise they wouldn't have had a chance. We want to see Syria survive.

00:00:23.860 Mr. President, the honor of ours from Channel 12 News, what are your plans regarding Gaza for the next few weeks?

00:00:32.080 Well, we're going to be dealing on Gaza. That's why this very great prime minister is here right now.

00:00:38.140 We're talking about Gaza. We're talking about a lot of things.

00:00:40.380 We have about five major subjects that we're discussing and Gaza will be one of those subjects.

00:00:45.820 It's a very good group. We've made a lot of progress already.

00:00:48.940 We had about a five minute meeting and we've already settled about three of the difficulties.

00:00:55.380 So thank you very much for being here.

00:00:57.600 We talked about Hamas and we talked about disarmament and they're going to be given a very short period of time to disarm.

00:01:05.620 And we'll see how that works out.

00:01:07.900 Steve Whitcoff and Jared Kushner will be in charge of that from our side.

00:01:14.200 But if they don't disarm as as they agreed to do, they agreed to it and then they'll be held to pay for them.

00:01:23.360 And we don't want that. We're not looking for that.

00:01:26.000 But they have to disarm within a fairly short period of time.

00:01:29.540 President, if you don't see Hamas disarm in that short amount of time they're giving them, can you tell us what the next steps would be?

00:01:35.040 It's going to be horrible for them. Horrible.

00:01:40.900 It's going to be really, really bad for them. And I don't want that to happen.

00:01:46.860 But they made an agreement that they were going to disarm. And you couldn't blame Israel. 0.88

00:01:51.900 By the way, we have other countries that will come in and do it.

00:01:54.240 They said, let us do it for you if they don't. Countries that were with them, wanted the deal to be made, agreed that they would disarm.

00:02:03.980 And now if they say they're going to disarm, that's fine.

00:02:07.240 If they say they're not going to disarm, those same countries will go and wipe them out. 0.99

00:02:13.040 They don't even need Israel. 0.97

00:02:14.400 You know, we have many countries, 59 countries that are in agreement.

00:02:19.340 This is a real peace in the Middle East.

00:02:22.060 And Hamas is a small part of it, but it's still a part of it.

00:02:26.220 But we have 59 countries that signed on, big countries, countries that are outside of the Middle East, as you know the Middle East.

00:02:35.940 They want to go in and wipe out Hamas. 0.88

00:02:40.420 They don't want Israel. They don't need Israel. 0.98

00:02:42.360 They want to do it because it's the right thing to do, because they were for the deal, based on the fact that Hamas pledged. 0.97

00:02:49.060 They swore that they were going to disarm.

00:02:52.020 Now, if they're not going to disarm, those same countries will wipe out Hamas. 0.71

00:02:57.700 Somebody said in the room, if you don't have Trump, you needed a proper combination of everything.

00:03:04.800 And if you didn't have that combination, which they had, you would not have an existing Israel right now. 0.93

00:03:11.080 And the people of Israel know it.

00:03:13.660 That's why they like me, and it's why they really, they actually like him.

00:03:16.940 He's got a little bit of a love-hate more than I do over there.

00:03:20.040 But you know what?

00:03:21.680 Even the haters have a lot of respect for him.

00:03:23.780 There's a lot of jealousy about him.

00:03:26.540 A lot of jealousy.

00:03:27.780 Jealousy is a bad word.

00:03:28.760 But I believe you would not have Israel right now. 0.98

00:03:31.960 So it's a big deal.

00:03:33.080 Yeah.

00:03:33.580 Too late, Powell.

00:03:34.700 Too late because he's always too late with interest rates, except before the election.

00:03:38.860 He was too early because that would have helped.

00:03:40.760 That was supposed to help get her elected. 0.97

00:03:42.980 It had no impact.

00:03:44.120 We won all seven swing states.

00:03:45.620 So what do you think of-

00:03:46.620 But, no, no.

00:03:48.580 We're thinking about bringing a suit against Powell for incompetence.

00:03:52.440 Because think of it.

00:03:53.480 These are two, these aren't outstanding buildings.

00:03:55.380 These are small buildings.

00:03:57.960 He's at $4 billion more.

00:03:59.280 It's going to end up costing more than $4 billion.

00:04:01.620 $4 billion.

00:04:02.200 Again, it's the highest price of construction.

00:04:06.820 Again, Democrats.

00:04:08.760 Highest price of construction per square foot in the history of the world.

00:04:12.720 There's never been-

00:04:14.040 Gorgeous monuments are built for a much smaller price.

00:04:18.320 So we're thinking about bringing a gross incompetence, what's called gross incompetence lawsuit.

00:04:24.460 It's gross incompetence against Powell.

00:04:27.580 And it was his baby. 0.99

00:04:28.700 And the guy's just incompetent. 0.91

00:04:33.760 I mean, there's nothing you can do about it. 0.99

00:04:35.120 He's just a very incompetent man.

00:04:37.380 But we're going to probably bring a lawsuit against him.

00:04:39.600 What's an announcement, Ben, on Powell's replacement?

00:04:44.740 January, something.

00:04:46.080 And will you ask Jay Powell to resign from the board entirely?

00:04:49.320 Well, he should resign.

00:04:50.320 It'll be a favor to the nation.

00:04:52.120 But he's come close.

00:04:53.560 I mean, we're getting pretty close.

00:04:55.160 I would fire him.

00:04:57.520 I'd love to fire him.

00:04:58.580 But we're so close, you know, maybe.

00:05:01.220 But maybe I still might.

00:05:05.620 This is the primal scream of a dying regime.

00:05:10.660 Pray for our enemies.

00:05:12.620 Because we're going medieval on these people.

00:05:15.900 I got a free shot at all these networks lying about the people.

00:05:20.160 The people have had a belly full of it.

00:05:22.060 I know you don't like hearing that.

00:05:23.500 I know you've tried to do everything in the world to stop that.

00:05:25.260 But you're not going to stop it.

00:05:26.180 It's going to happen.

00:05:27.240 And where do people like that go to share the big line?

00:05:30.860 Mega Media.

00:05:31.780 I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.

00:05:37.700 Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?

00:05:41.400 If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.

00:05:47.620 Here's your host, Stephen K.

00:05:50.580 It's Monday, 29th December, year of alert, 2025.

00:05:59.980 We had Zelensky yesterday.

00:06:02.500 And, of course, the morning show, a lot of it was about that, the analysis of it.

00:06:06.500 And then this afternoon, although the president, we did find out, had an additional phone call with Putin this morning.

00:06:11.500 We won't get to all that.

00:06:12.500 Rabbi Willicki starts.

00:06:13.820 We got Kurt Mills going to join us, Dr. Thayer, trying to break this all down.

00:06:18.040 So, Rabbi Willicki, you've been putting out these, I quite frankly think they're very helpful videos.

00:06:22.800 And you've been making the case that in Syria, you've got a Turkish proxy, that's all Erdogan, in Gaza, that there's something really wrong there, that you're not going to be ahead.

00:06:36.320 And you were the guy that went through the whole difference between the plan and the UN resolution, that we really haven't designated anybody to disarm Hamas.

00:06:46.880 And you've been making a case that, hey, you've got Turkey in Syria, you've got Turkey that is supposedly going to be the security force coordinator for Gaza.

00:06:55.660 You've got Qatar there.

00:06:56.760 You've also been warning about what's happening in Iran.

00:07:00.280 Put in perspective, like, given the press conference that came afterwards and some of the leaks started coming out, what do you think happened?

00:07:07.840 And what is the action plan on five?

00:07:10.480 President Trump said they agreed on three of the five outstanding items they had to go through.

00:07:15.800 Your thoughts, sir?

00:07:16.880 Well, Steve, the main items on the agenda were Gaza, Iran and Syria, as you just pointed out.

00:07:26.040 And what I heard from the press conference today was that Trump is, I guess, returning to the doctrine that dominated his first term approach to the Middle East, which is peace through strength.

00:07:39.620 And that means that if you really want peace, you need to either destroy the bad actors or have them recognize that there's a real credible threat of them losing their power.

00:07:52.540 And that's the only way that they're going to come into line that I think I don't know what changed in the meeting with with Netanyahu or we simply hadn't heard Trump articulate it so clearly.

00:08:03.400 But, you know, the whole discussion of Gaza, let's start there.

00:08:08.820 In the press availed before the meeting, someone in the press pool asked about the issue of Turkish troops in Gaza.

00:08:18.260 And Trump said that it's one of the issues they're going to talk about.

00:08:21.100 And unfortunately, no one asked about it in the press conference afterwards.

00:08:25.080 And I would have loved to hear that was that was what I was waiting for most, honestly, to see what he would say about that.

00:08:30.920 Because as as you say, as I've been pointing out, the big problem facing the the Middle East, the big miss, I believe, that the Trump administration and again, I am at the front of the line saying that President Trump is the has been great on the Middle East.

00:08:47.700 He's been great for Israel.

00:08:48.860 We're very grateful.

00:08:49.860 At the same time, this love affair with the Turks and the Qataris is causing some missteps, let's just say. 0.99

00:08:57.140 And there's no way that Israel is going to allow Turkish troops on it.

00:09:00.780 But you've been a lot of these a lot of these videos you've been putting out is saying, hey, now we got to think about the five billion dollars.

00:09:07.220 Is it worth it?

00:09:07.900 Because we get the Turks, the Turks. 1.00

00:09:10.500 And I've said this on the show, Erdogan and President Trump said beginning he's very close to Erdogan.

00:09:15.700 He thinks very highly Erdogan.

00:09:16.960 But Erdogan, to me, hasn't been shy about saying I'm reestablishing the caliphate.

00:09:22.800 He says the goal is to march on Jerusalem.

00:09:24.660 He dreamed of expanding the – well, also the two holy sites.

00:09:29.560 I mean he'd like to get Mecca and Medina back in the fall as they had before World War I. 0.94

00:09:34.280 So what he did say that – I don't know if it's confusing because President Trump does a lot of this to make sure that nobody's – that he can always continue to negotiate and people can't get a steady grip.

00:09:45.660 He made this comment about – and one of the things that I know you and others have been harping on is this whole issue of at the end of the day, who is going to actually go in and disarm Hamas, right?

00:09:56.920 It's not going to be Qatar. 0.78

00:09:57.920 It's not going to be Egypt. 0.98

00:09:58.980 You keep saying it's not going to be Turkey.

00:10:01.400 There's some ambivalence there because we know that the UN resolution that they got passed is different than the plan.

00:10:08.360 But he said today there are many nations over there.

00:10:11.480 There are many nations.

00:10:12.560 Almost like they're volunteering to go in and disarm Hamas. 0.66

00:10:16.780 Have you noticed that anywhere over there?

00:10:19.220 Or is that a –

00:10:19.840 Yeah, I was scratching my head over there.

00:10:21.220 Misdirection play, misdirection play.

00:10:24.560 Well, let's just review, Steve.

00:10:26.720 At the very beginning of this, after the 20-point plan was announced, and I pointed out at the time that, hey, wait a second, it doesn't say who's supposed to disarm Hamas.

00:10:35.180 And then we had this circus act where Trump said maybe the Israelis would do it.

00:10:40.420 Kushner and Witkoff said that it will be the international stabilization force.

00:10:44.080 King Abdullah said, no, no, no, no, no, we're not doing that.

00:10:46.960 And everyone was pointing fingers at each other about who's going to disarm Hamas.

00:10:50.360 At the same time, Trump was adamant in this press conference that Hamas agreed to disarm.

00:10:55.180 He says this all the time.

00:10:56.620 And, Steve, I could show you half a dozen interviews with Hamas spokespeople going all the way back to the day the 20-point plan was announced,

00:11:05.540 adamantly insisting that they never agreed to disarm.

00:11:08.920 Now, that either means that they're lying, which is a distinct possibility.

00:11:12.400 I don't think Trump is lying.

00:11:13.740 Or it means that the Qataris and the Turks, who were the go-between between Hamas and the Americans, are, you know, basically said, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're going to disarm and they're not really going to.

00:11:23.980 It's still unclear who's going to do it.

00:11:25.880 And when Trump said that there's all these other countries who said that they're willing to go in there, I do not know what he means.

00:11:30.980 I have yet to see a single country that has shown a willingness to actually militarily go into there.

00:11:36.780 Because, again, disarming Hamas is not a negotiation. 0.61

00:11:40.660 It is a firefight.

00:11:42.220 It is a war.

00:11:43.440 OK, let's make no mistake about it.

00:11:45.120 Disarming Hamas means fighting Hamas in the tunnels.

00:11:48.580 It means going in there.

00:11:50.420 And it is a military kinetic action.

00:11:53.940 And the only country that has shown a willingness to do it is the Israelis. 0.99

00:11:58.500 So that still remains an open question.

00:12:01.320 Let's just say that.

00:12:02.380 At the same time, Steve, in this press conference, when I say that I heard a return to peace through strength, I think the most important line in the entire press conference was when they were talking about Iran.

00:12:15.060 And Trump said there can be no peace in the Middle East if Iran rearms.

00:12:21.200 And what that really speaks to is, and you can say the same thing about Hamas, there can be no peace. 0.74

00:12:27.960 The Gaza, a brighter future for Gaza, a more peaceful, more quiet southern border for Israel and the Israel-Egypt border, it can only happen if Hamas is removed. 0.93

00:12:41.300 That's the only way these things can go forward.

00:12:43.500 And let's remember, President Trump is not naive.

00:12:45.620 He does not want his peace plans and his Middle East policy to fail.

00:12:51.740 So he's not living in a world of wishful thinking.

00:12:55.820 There are people around him who might be, but he does not live in a world of wishful thinking.

00:13:00.400 And because of that, he doesn't—I think that maybe it happened in this meeting with Bibi, or maybe he already was on this thinking beforehand.

00:13:07.760 But to understand that there simply won't be peace in the Middle East if the Iranians, who scream death to America and death to Israel, they spend all of their money. 1.00

00:13:17.560 Their people are in the streets right now rioting, not because they're pro-Israel.

00:13:21.980 They're rioting because their currency is collapsing.

00:13:25.700 They don't have water.

00:13:26.760 They don't have electricity.

00:13:27.700 And all these billions of dollars that Iran is getting from selling oil to the Chinese is being used to rebuild their ballistic missile program.

00:13:37.560 That's what they're spending their money on.

00:13:39.800 So there will simply be no peace in the Middle East if Iran continues to arm. 0.96

00:13:45.240 There will be no peace on Israel's southern border if Hamas is there. 0.99

00:13:48.320 And this is what peace through strength is all about.

00:13:50.320 You need to punish the bad actors or remove them or have a credible threat of their removal if you want to have peace in the Middle East.

00:13:58.180 And it is achievable.

00:13:59.560 And I think that Trump is on the right track.

00:14:01.380 I think that's what this is really about.

00:14:02.820 I think that was the most important line in the entire press conference because it was more about strategy than about a specific tactic that's on the table.

00:14:10.420 So still, the disarming of Hamas is, I think there's a little bit of a shell game going on, pretending that it's actually an achievable goal without Israel going in and fighting Hamas, which would look like the resumption of the war.

00:14:27.460 Let's come back to that in a second.

00:14:28.860 We're going to take a short commercial break.

00:14:31.000 Dr. Thayer is going to join us.

00:14:32.620 Kurt Mills is going to join us.

00:14:33.700 We're going to try to break all this down.

00:14:35.660 President Trump said three of the top five were agreed to today.

00:14:40.420 Also, he said President Putin informed him that Kiev, the Ukrainians, tried to hit one of his residences with a drone.

00:14:50.940 Zelensky is already out and the Ukraine is already out saying they didn't do it.

00:14:54.460 We'll break it all down for you next in the war.

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00:16:31.380 You don't see Hamas disarm in that short amount of time they're giving them. 0.58

00:16:34.840 Can you tell us what the next steps would be?

00:16:36.480 It would be horrible for them.

00:16:41.240 Horrible.

00:16:42.480 Okay.

00:16:42.720 It's going to be really, really bad for them.

00:16:46.820 And I don't want that to happen.

00:16:48.280 But they made an agreement that they were going to disarm.

00:16:51.460 And you couldn't blame Israel.

00:16:53.340 By the way, we have other countries that will come in and do it.

00:16:56.460 They said, let us do it for you if they don't.

00:16:59.740 Countries that were with them, wanted the deal to be made, agreed that they would disarm.

00:17:05.400 And now if they say they're going to disarm, that's fine.

00:17:08.620 And if they say they're not going to disarm, those same countries will go and wipe them out. 0.96

00:17:14.460 They don't even need Israel. 0.97

00:17:15.840 You know, we have many countries, 59 countries that are in agreement.

00:17:20.760 This is a real peace in the Middle East.

00:17:23.480 And Hamas is a small part of it, but it's still a part of it.

00:17:27.000 But we have 59 countries that signed on, big countries, countries that are outside of the Middle East, as you know the Middle East.

00:17:36.480 They want to go in and wipe out Hamas. 0.88

00:17:41.840 They don't want Israel. 0.99

00:17:42.920 They don't need Israel. 1.00

00:17:44.280 They want to do it because it's the right thing to do.

00:17:46.260 Because they were for the deal based on the fact that Hamas pledged. 0.84

00:17:50.500 They swore that they were going to disarm.

00:17:53.460 Now, if they're not going to disarm, those same countries will wipe out Hamas. 0.71

00:17:58.820 Rabbi Walecki, of anything that was said today, pre, post, or maybe even during, that was the most declarative sentence.

00:18:10.080 I'm just going to go back that Hamas made an agreement. 0.79

00:18:13.660 They pledged, they swore to disarm, number one.

00:18:16.940 Number two, there are many countries, including ones on their side, that are prepared to go and wipe them out.

00:18:24.300 Not just disarm, wipe them out.

00:18:26.220 Wipe them out.

00:18:26.660 Now, he's got to be talking about Turkey and Egypt and, I guess, Qatar writing checks.

00:18:34.860 But the Gulf Emirates, UAE, Egypt, and Turkey, which is the muscle there.

00:18:39.520 So, hang on, what am I missing?

00:18:42.100 What am I missing, sir?

00:18:43.920 How could he be talking about Turkey?

00:18:45.440 Turkey houses the Hamas leadership and praises Hamas as freedom fighters.

00:18:51.500 Erdogan talks about Hamas in glowing terms.

00:18:54.020 That is the Muslim Brotherhood. 0.99

00:18:55.940 Let's stop calling them Hamas.

00:18:57.640 Steve, you've said this many times.

00:18:59.660 We should stop calling these organizations by these other names.

00:19:02.020 Just call them what they are.

00:19:03.440 Hamas is the, Hamas was founded as the Muslim Brotherhood branch in the Gaza Strip.

00:19:09.800 That's actually what its original name was.

00:19:11.800 It's an impossibility, it is an impossibility that Turkey will go in, guns blazing, and actually 1.00

00:19:20.160 have firefights in the tunnels, losing men of their own in the process, which Israel is 0.87

00:19:25.820 willing to do, tragically.

00:19:27.860 But Israel is the only country willing to do it. 0.92

00:19:30.200 No one's going to go in and disarm Hamas. 0.86

00:19:32.020 I don't know what President Trump is talking about here.

00:19:34.180 I would love for him to give an example of a country that is willing to go in and fight

00:19:38.340 Hamas and take away their weapons.

00:19:41.180 The two central things today, correct me if I'm wrong, just for our audience, was to get

00:19:45.240 some clarification of this, because Netanyahu and his government behind the scenes, I think

00:19:50.400 this unites all Israelis, even the ones that are virently anti-Netanyahu, is that Hamas, 0.88

00:19:56.900 the whole purpose of this war, the whole purpose of fighting it, that the military operation

00:20:01.060 of Hamas has got to be disarmed, number one, and then we'll talk about the ballistic missiles 0.95

00:20:05.620 that rained.

00:20:06.580 Okay, so here's what I'm confused by.

00:20:09.160 If that was the centerpiece of the meeting, what does Netanyahu's government take away today

00:20:15.080 that is the next step?

00:20:16.600 Is it going to be, because it sounded like the IDF was going to be a player to be named

00:20:21.140 later, as we say in baseball, right?

00:20:23.180 Not really part of this effort to disarm Hamas, which is the next step before we go to the 0.98

00:20:28.980 next step, and you've got a yellow line, and Gaza on this side is going to be some Hamas 0.66

00:20:33.800 operations, and the other side is going to be non-Hamas, but until you get down to the 0.98

00:20:38.260 thing of actually disarming it, and President Trump said again, it was a central part of the

00:20:43.300 deal.

00:20:43.640 In fact, Hamas pledged they would do it and swore they would do it. 0.91

00:20:46.660 Your interpretation.

00:20:48.380 Again, I said it before.

00:20:49.980 I know that President Trump says that.

00:20:52.120 He says that all the time.

00:20:53.180 He said it to Maria Bartiromo a week after the deal was signed that Hamas pledged to disarm,

00:20:57.700 but I'm telling you, I've saved the clip, Steve.

00:21:01.040 Hamas folks, people from day one were saying, we never agreed to that.

00:21:04.660 We never agreed to disarm.

00:21:05.860 We're never going to disarm.

00:21:07.000 They keep saying it.

00:21:08.060 They've been saying it every day.

00:21:09.340 They are not going to lay down their weapons.

00:21:12.700 It's essential to who they are.

00:21:14.500 They're not going to do it.

00:21:15.560 Aren't their sponsors?

00:21:16.860 Hang on.

00:21:17.560 Aren't their sponsors Qatar and Turkey?

00:21:20.500 Right.

00:21:21.300 That's what I said.

00:21:22.180 Tell them the game is up.

00:21:23.140 Hang on.

00:21:23.540 The game is up, and we are underwriting.

00:21:26.520 We, Qatar, are going to put up the bulk of the money for this redevelopment.

00:21:29.960 We, Turkey, are going to be the, no matter Netanyahu and the Israelis don't like it,

00:21:34.020 we are going to be the head of the security force.

00:21:36.060 You're going to have to disarm.

00:21:37.980 Do you believe that they have the stroke to tell Hamas to do that, or it's just going 0.88

00:21:41.960 to fall on deaf ears?

00:21:42.500 I don't believe they did it.

00:21:43.380 We're back to the very beginning.

00:21:44.400 Here's what I think.

00:21:45.760 I'm going to say what I think happened, and this is just my conjecture from, let's call

00:21:50.120 it a well-informed conjecture from watching really closely.

00:21:54.160 Here's what I think happened.

00:21:55.120 I think that Qatar and Turkey told Trump, don't worry.

00:21:59.620 We can handle these guys.

00:22:01.520 There are guys.

00:22:02.420 We can rein them in.

00:22:03.400 We can take away their weapons.

00:22:04.540 We'll take care of it.

00:22:05.940 And that their plan all along was to insert themselves into the situation and do what

00:22:12.380 they're trying to do now, which is to move forward to a phase two, which is not really

00:22:16.740 a phase two.

00:22:17.340 It's really a trashing of the whole deal, and get themselves in there so that they

00:22:21.920 actually protect Hamas and then go through some sort of dog and pony show where Hamas 0.84

00:22:26.960 kind of disarms when they were, where they're going to hand their weapons over to some other

00:22:30.680 jihadists and say that they're not Hamas, and it's really going to be a performative

00:22:34.980 thing, and they're not really going to disarm.

00:22:36.940 I think this is what Qatar and Turkey want to do, and the Israelis are on to them, and 1.00

00:22:41.660 Netanyahu is saying, no, no, no, no, no.

00:22:43.480 It has to be a real disarming.

00:22:45.000 That's what I think actually happened.

00:22:46.420 But again, I cannot stress this enough.

00:22:49.660 And we're talking not only on Arab media, even on Western media.

00:22:52.600 Sky News, BBC, Hamas has said repeatedly that they never agreed to lay down their weapons.

00:23:00.340 Let me ask you, and notice, you know, Jared and Steve Witkoff are there.

00:23:05.900 Jared's the architect of Abraham Accords.

00:23:09.200 It's kind of the intellectual underpinnings of this.

00:23:11.840 It's more economic than political.

00:23:14.500 You have Witkoff as probably the lead negotiator here.

00:23:16.680 I noticed when I looked at that shot from the lunch, that Ambassador Ron Dermer, who I

00:23:22.020 think a lot of folks that are involved in this have always thinks been a steady pair

00:23:26.460 of hands, a safe pair of hands, and steady on the wheel.

00:23:30.420 Why are Witkoff in, and I think everything we heard about going to the resort and signing

00:23:36.780 the deal and President Trump going to the Knesset and all that, Dermer was a major player

00:23:42.060 as kind of the representative of Netanyahu's government to make sure this thing was all worked

00:23:46.480 out, and you had one person in the room that knew everything was going on.

00:23:49.920 Where is Dermer, and if he's not there, is that a big deal?

00:23:55.020 Yeah, it's a big deal.

00:23:56.520 Ron Dermer has been part of the brain trust of Bibi's foreign policy, especially with regards 0.98

00:24:02.420 to the United States, Saudi Arabia, this whole, all of these issues for many, many years.

00:24:07.920 Let's remember that during the first Trump term, he served as ambassador to the United States,

00:24:14.660 so he was stationed in Washington, and he's, until just a few weeks ago, he was serving

00:24:21.060 as Minister of Strategic Affairs, which is a made-up office that was created just for

00:24:27.040 him during this Netanyahu administration in order to handle all of these touchy issues,

00:24:32.100 and he resigned not long ago.

00:24:35.720 He stepped away.

00:24:36.600 He cited personal reasons, family, but he stepped away.

00:24:41.440 He did not come on this trip.

00:24:43.000 Personally, knowing the players involved, I am concerned that he's not there.

00:24:47.380 I wish he was there.

00:24:49.880 But, look, it's, you know, Dermer's the best guy we have, and he's no longer part of that

00:24:58.580 team that's there in Mar-a-Lago.

00:25:01.360 But that doesn't mean that the policies of the Netanyahu administration are not being

00:25:06.820 pushed forward.

00:25:08.000 So, yeah, I would rather Dermer be there.

00:25:11.200 One of Dermer's big projects, you know, you mentioned the Abraham Accords.

00:25:14.320 One of his big projects was trying to get normalization with Saudi Arabia and expansion of the Abraham 0.81

00:25:21.460 Accords.

00:25:22.040 But let's note, Steve, important to note, that the Abraham Accords countries, which are the

00:25:27.440 Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, and the tacit approval of the Saudi Arabians, that's the actual moderate 0.64

00:25:35.560 group in the Middle East who are mortal enemies of the Qataris and the Turks who have become 0.94

00:25:42.580 so much an important part of the Trump administration's orbit.

00:25:46.280 And it's not, these are two very different factions in the Middle East.

00:25:49.600 In fact, it was reported today, one of the members of Netanyahu's press pool, who's there

00:25:55.440 in Mar-a-Lago now, said today that, and he's someone who's very reliable, that the Saudis 0.50

00:26:02.300 and Emiratis have said quite clearly to President Trump that they want no part of the Gaza Reconstruction

00:26:09.560 if Qatar and Turkey are involved.

00:26:12.320 And that's something that's worth noting.

00:26:13.540 The Saudis and Emiratis and the other actual pro-Western moderate Muslim states are not

00:26:19.840 part of the same camp in the Middle East as the Turks and the Qataris.

00:26:24.180 This is something that Westerners need to understand.

00:26:26.780 The Turks and the Qataris are not part of the pro-Western bloc.

00:26:32.600 I want to go to the Persians in Iran. 1.00

00:26:36.620 As we adamantly said here over and over and over again, the Israelis were taking it on 1.00

00:26:43.600 the chin in the 12-day war.

00:26:45.960 The ballistic missiles were not all caught by, you know, David's sling and all these different,

00:26:49.820 you know, the dome and all that.

00:26:51.180 You were getting pounded, particularly in Tel Aviv.

00:26:53.100 We had rushed Aegis-class cruisers to the Eastern Med.

00:26:56.960 You had Patriot missile stats, all of it, but it wasn't enough given the ballistic missile

00:27:00.460 campaign.

00:27:00.620 And I thought that that was pretty hidden, trying to be hidden from the mainstream media

00:27:06.360 because the Netanyahu government would never talk about it.

00:27:08.760 We also said sanctions, economic sanctions can work here, particularly if you cut off

00:27:13.000 the oil to the Chinese Communist Party and don't let the cash there.

00:27:16.660 There are riots in the streets right now.

00:27:18.780 The economic conditions couldn't be worse in Tehran.

00:27:21.860 Plus, now you're having a discussion about maybe a second bombing run or a second kinetic

00:27:27.620 activity around the ballistic missile program.

00:27:31.260 Give me 30 seconds.

00:27:32.160 I'm going to hold you through the break.

00:27:33.160 We've got Thayer and Kurt Mills.

00:27:34.400 Your thoughts?

00:27:36.300 Yeah.

00:27:36.720 Well, the 30 seconds is that there have been flare-ups of riots in the streets in Iran happening

00:27:42.480 for a long time.

00:27:43.540 If you think back over the last decade and a half, there's something different going on

00:27:47.140 there now.

00:27:47.960 The regime is struggling to push back, almost not pushing back.

00:27:52.800 There are reports coming out of the Iranian street that a lot of the police are just kind

00:27:57.600 of giving up and not really doing much.

00:27:59.460 It's really signaling weakness by the regime that we haven't seen in a long time.

00:28:05.360 And again, it's all around the fact that their economy is collapsing while they're spending

00:28:09.940 the billions of dollars they make selling their oil to the CCP on a ballistic missile

00:28:14.520 program to try to destroy Israel. 0.77

00:28:16.260 That's what's going on there.

00:28:18.220 So I think that some heavy sanctions right now...

00:28:21.440 Hang on one second.

00:28:22.740 Yeah.

00:28:23.720 Hang on a second.

00:28:24.720 We're going to hold you through the break.

00:28:26.020 Rabbi, we'll look at you on the other side.

00:28:27.600 Here's your host, Stephen K.

00:28:33.460 Bannon.

00:28:37.300 Birchgold.com.

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00:28:43.500 No obligation for investing in gold and precious metals.

00:28:47.620 That would be silver.

00:28:49.440 Okay.

00:28:49.680 Silver had the wildest ride today.

00:28:51.360 Hit 80.

00:28:52.240 Ended up.

00:28:52.660 The futures ended up at 71.

00:28:55.020 Massive swings.

00:28:55.800 Make sure you talk to Philip Patrick and the team.

00:28:57.500 Philip called in from London today, so they are at work.

00:29:01.360 Go talk to the Birchgold team.

00:29:03.020 Philip Patrick and company.

00:29:05.200 Get the complete scoop from them now more than ever.

00:29:08.900 President Trump said he was going to knock the hell, quote, knock the hell out of the Persians, Iran, if they were going to rebuild their ballistic missile program.

00:29:19.520 Is the way to see this, and I don't want to have too much of a jaundice eye here when we're talking about, which I think is a sideshow, which the Middle East and Israel sideshow to a sideshow. 0.82

00:29:28.940 Was this just the kickoff to Netanyahu 2026, his campaign, sir?

00:29:34.660 Well, I don't know if this is the kickoff.

00:29:38.160 Things have been happening for a while.

00:29:39.620 You know, these diplomatic deals and the gas deal with Egypt.

00:29:43.320 Israel signed a $35 billion gas deal with Egypt that was announced a couple weeks ago and all sorts of big weapons deals.

00:29:49.340 There's been a lot going on, a lot of PR, and it certainly is the beginning of campaign season here in Israel.

00:29:54.780 Look, when it comes to elections and Bibi has, you know, there's, he's got, there's a lot of problems with Bibi Netanyahu, but the way the coalition politics works in Israel, and it's far beyond the scope of this discussion to get into the weeds on this.

00:30:10.040 Maybe at some later point when it gets closer to the election, we can talk about it, but there's kind of no, he will be the next prime minister.

00:30:18.280 I mean, it's just going to happen again because of the way things are and his Likud party being so popular, and he's still, he still laps the field.

00:30:27.420 It's kind of similar to the, you know, to the, to the Republican primary in 2024, where there was just no, there's no real challenger when it comes to who people prefer as prime minister.

00:30:37.240 The left in Israel has been decimated and destroyed, and Bibi's the, he heads up the largest right-wing party. 0.98

00:30:43.320 So, yeah, it's kind of the campaign, but, you know, the truth is in the current, in the current makeup of the way our coalition politics works, he kind of doesn't need the help.

00:30:55.060 And I'm not saying that as an endorsement, it's just a fact.

00:30:57.760 Yeah, I got it.

00:30:59.080 Well, President Trump, I think, endorsed him.

00:31:00.840 I mean, he couldn't have spoken higher, said there wouldn't even be an Israel, wouldn't even be an Israel if you didn't have Netanyahu. 0.60

00:31:05.940 Before I let you go, you've been an advocate of, hey, these meetings, we shouldn't even have to have them as often.

00:31:12.440 We should have our own independence.

00:31:13.900 We shouldn't take the $5 billion.

00:31:15.460 You're cutting all these deals with everybody else.

00:31:17.920 You're building, you know, with Greece, everybody.

00:31:20.660 You're building your own alliances or your own network.

00:31:23.920 Where does that stand?

00:31:25.100 Because there's other people saying that Times of Israel reports today, there's some factions in Bibi's coalition saying you've got to get the MOU.

00:31:31.860 We need a new MOU, et cetera.

00:31:33.400 How serious is this effort for people to really say, hey, look, we shouldn't have to go begging the United States every time we want to take on a move in Syria against ISIS.

00:31:43.480 Or if we see ballistic missile capabilities, we want to take them out.

00:31:47.020 We shouldn't have to call Washington and get permission, sir.

00:31:50.440 Yeah, look, and it goes beyond that.

00:31:52.240 You know, Trump won't be in power forever.

00:31:55.700 And under the Biden administration, there was, you know, there was weapons that were being withheld from Israel.

00:32:00.280 And it all has to do with this asymmetrical relationship.

00:32:03.400 More and more Israelis are waking up to the fact that the aid from the United States is bad for Israel.

00:32:08.880 It limits us strategically.

00:32:10.820 The way that Israel got the aid to begin with was always as a way of pressuring Israel or selling Israel on making security concessions.

00:32:21.400 It all started when we gave up the Sinai Desert and the Camp David Accords with Jimmy Carter.

00:32:25.020 So the aid to Israel has always been a strategic problem for Israel.

00:32:29.960 And right now, in Bibi's inner circle, there are different factions.

00:32:35.280 Netanyahu himself, finally, finally, over the course of the last six months or so, and ramping it up in the last couple of months, has been talking about the need to end the aid completely when this MOU ends.

00:32:47.600 I pray to God that we actually do so.

00:32:50.720 More and more Israelis, as I said, are waking up to the fact that we need to do so.

00:32:53.820 But there is that faction, that hardcore faction, those old-fashioned guys, the deep staters here who want the MOU renewed.

00:33:01.520 They might even want an increase.

00:33:02.860 They're going to be lobbying for it.

00:33:04.160 I've been pretty vocal in my Jerusalem Post columns and elsewhere advocating that the aid is bad for Israel.

00:33:12.640 So it is a bit of a knife fight going on over this issue.

00:33:15.400 But thankfully, Netanyahu has come out openly on our side, on the side of drawing down the aid.

00:33:21.540 Israel's becoming more and more independent.

00:33:23.200 Steve, think about this one detail.

00:33:25.140 Israel, in the last month, has sold over $10 billion worth of air defense systems to Germany and Greece alone.

00:33:36.220 The annual payout of aid to Israel, the military aid to Israel, is $3.8 billion.

00:33:43.640 And at the same time, we just signed a gas supply deal where we're supplying natural gas to Egypt.

00:33:51.620 $35 billion deal was signed over the last two weeks.

00:33:55.140 This $3.8 billion in the United States is less and less of our annual budget.

00:34:01.720 It's less and less.

00:34:03.120 It's a tiny fraction of a percentage of our GDP.

00:34:08.240 It's not even that big a percentage of our defense budget anymore.

00:34:11.980 It's less than 10% of our defense budget at this point.

00:34:15.080 So we need to get rid of this aid.

00:34:17.760 And hopefully, it's moving in that direction.

00:34:19.620 I was informed, and it was spoken about here in Israel over the last few weeks, that this was going to be on the agenda of the meetings with Trump.

00:34:30.060 They didn't talk about it in the press conference.

00:34:32.720 But if Netanyahu stays in the prime minister's office, we will move in the direction of the aid being drawn down.

00:34:39.960 If he's not prime minister, we might get someone who thinks more traditionally, who wants to keep the aid going.

00:34:45.780 Where do people get these videos you're putting out in your columns?

00:34:50.300 Where do they go for all your content?

00:34:52.380 Thank you.

00:34:52.880 The videos are three times a week at the Israel365 YouTube channel.

00:34:57.480 And thank you for the endorsement, Steve.

00:34:59.040 These are not just videos of me yapping.

00:35:01.200 These are videos explaining things that are going on in the Middle East that you simply are not getting through the mainstream media.

00:35:07.280 You can also find my columns on the Jerusalem Post, jpost.com.

00:35:11.360 I have a piece tomorrow about Israel's recognition of Somaliland and why that's so important geostrategically.

00:35:17.520 And you could also follow me on Exit, at RabbiPW, and at Israel365action.com.

00:35:26.740 Thank you, sir.

00:35:27.500 Appreciate you staying up late to do this live.

00:35:29.880 Thank you, sir.

00:35:31.180 Dr. Bradley Thayer, you were great this morning.

00:35:34.040 You were great.

00:35:34.620 Thank you, sir.

00:35:35.100 You were great this morning on Ukraine.

00:35:36.920 Of course, since then, President Trump's actually had a conversation with Putin about – he's saying that Ukraine is coming after his personal lodge, his personal residence.

00:35:46.220 But what was your assessment of Netanyahu's visit?

00:35:48.620 Give me a couple of minutes on that, particularly the press conference after.

00:35:53.220 Well, I thought it was very impressive.

00:35:56.460 Trump's performance was very impressive, of course, in the conference and in the press conference.

00:36:01.360 And I think, as the rabbi identified, that Netanyahu there has his demands and Trump is working out, obviously, a way to massage him and move him on to his re-election, which Trump sees, of course, is very important for the relationship with Israel.

00:36:25.080 Yeah, so never a dull moment, of course, on that front, on Ukraine or, of course, on Taiwan.

00:36:34.160 Yeah, yeah.

00:36:35.280 Tell me – Taiwan, you know, and President Trump was kind of – not flippant, but he says she's not going to move on Taiwan while I'm here.

00:36:43.060 I know this guy very well.

00:36:44.220 They may be exercising, but he didn't seem like he was that worried about it.

00:36:47.080 He was much more upset about the situation, which he said, I don't know the facts.

00:36:51.380 I'm just hearing one side.

00:36:52.900 If it is true that Kiev went after Putin's private residence, how big a deal is that in this very delicate negotiation that we're trying to get to at least somewhere in this Ukraine situation?

00:37:05.720 Well, it's huge.

00:37:06.740 I mean, the facts are yet to come out, but it does seem like Kiev tried to decapitate Russia, right?

00:37:12.180 It was a counter-leadership strike against Putin in an effort to kill him, and there's a logic there, and that is that Kiev wants the war to keep going, right?

00:37:22.700 Zelensky wants the war to keep going as Xi Jinping wants the war to keep going.

00:37:28.720 So decapitating Putin would, of course, throw a spanner in the works.

00:37:32.840 That's really going to gum things up and delay –

00:37:37.180 While you bring it up, while you bring it up, President Trump is like Prometheus trying to do this.

00:37:44.200 Actually, Putin has no problem with the war going on.

00:37:46.760 They think they're winning.

00:37:48.160 Zelensky needs the war to go on because he realizes he's getting turfed out immediately.

00:37:52.060 He understands that.

00:37:53.100 Netanyahu needs the war to go on.

00:37:55.080 That's how he continues to win and get endorsements from President Trump.

00:37:58.400 Plus, he'll face charges when it doesn't happen.

00:38:01.900 The mullahs want the war to go on because the people on the street riding right now because they don't have any bread and food, so they need the war to go on. 0.60

00:38:09.260 Xi particularly wants to keep the pressure on Taiwan.

00:38:12.360 He keeps the military off him by having the war continue to go on.

00:38:15.780 And let me throw Maduro in there.

00:38:17.480 All of the bad – all the actors in this drama, except for President Trump, want these wars to go on.

00:38:22.560 Therefore, how can one man try to solve these things with the opportunity costs it has to focus on it, right, when you've got so many other concerns here?

00:38:32.540 Am I wrong?

00:38:34.160 Every major participant that's a decision maker – and let me throw Erdogan in there too – all want these wars to continue because it's in their benefit for them to continue, is it not?

00:38:43.140 It is, I think, for most of those actors, but it is in the interest clearly of Russia at some point to end this war and to take the – not the olive branch,

00:38:57.980 or to at least to take the entreaty that Trump is offering him of moving beyond this conflict and improving relations between Moscow and Washington,

00:39:07.420 which is a very important step and helps us enormously in the relationship with dealing with, of course, the Chinese Communist Party.

00:39:17.080 So, yeah, a lot of actors want the war to keep going.

00:39:20.820 Zelensky and Xi Jinping, I think they are most important.

00:39:24.900 But every war ends.

00:39:26.620 And this war is going to end.

00:39:28.140 Doctor, yeah, hang over a second.

00:39:31.020 Just stick right there.

00:39:31.660 I'm going to come back to you.

00:39:32.680 Kurt Mills, my thesis that they all want the wars to continue.

00:39:36.640 You saw President Trump.

00:39:37.560 What was your assessment of the BB meeting?

00:39:41.120 We talked beforehand.

00:39:42.140 You saw the press conference afterwards.

00:39:43.960 What do you think happened?

00:39:46.620 I think it took quite a temerity for Netanyahu to come in here before the year closes and ask for a bill of goods

00:39:53.740 and ask the president to expend more political capital on wars that he promised to end.

00:39:59.080 And I think so far, you know, talk is cheap and maybe Trump is just trying to throw him a bone rhetorically by saying, you know, the relationship is as close as ever.

00:40:08.440 And meanwhile, they'll usher Netanyahu out.

00:40:10.800 Certainly that's what happened in the spring when he looked tight as a knot with Netanyahu and initiated negotiations with the Iranians.

00:40:19.220 But so far, today's meeting was not positive for those who want to see the U.S. diversify from the Israeli relationship and extricate the country from these wars in the Middle East.

00:40:33.660 Why do you say that?

00:40:34.700 I mean, Trump, unfortunately, committed to hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.

00:40:41.320 But on like, let's take Hamas, which has always been a a burning topic.

00:40:46.020 How do you go for it?

00:40:47.000 He said there are many countries he essentially, I think maybe I misinterpreted the IDF wasn't on his top 10 list to disarm Hamas.

00:40:55.700 He says there's many countries, including some of their former allies who will want to go in and destroy them right there.

00:41:02.740 That's a totally different that's now you think that was just rhetoric as is President Trump talking or you actually think that that's a move that he's telling Netanyahu we're not going to have because the centerpiece of this meeting, I'm sure, was about who's going to disarm Hamas.

00:41:16.200 That's the one that that in the end and hitting the Iranians again with another attack, hopefully leading to regime change for Jerusalem. 1.00

00:41:23.800 Right. That's the two centerpieces of this meeting.

00:41:26.680 Well, I think the most concerning part was the commitment.

00:41:28.880 And I'm not sure he knew what he was doing there to the commitment.

00:41:31.400 And unfortunately, people can construe it as a red line to bomb Iran for the ICBMs.

00:41:36.480 Iran has ICBMs already.

00:41:38.180 So if that's the if that's the criterion, you could see bombing raids tonight.

00:41:43.260 And I think that would be very concerning.

00:41:44.740 I think, though, Trump threw a lot of rhetoric that was potentially intentionally self-contradictory.

00:41:51.100 My previous guest, Rabbi Willoughke, kind of caught on to it, I think, in my opinion.

00:41:55.400 He had a lot of positive words to say about Erdogan.

00:41:58.300 Erdogan, Erdogan's interest in Turkey's interest, Turkey's interest in the Middle East are not the same as the rabbis or the Netanyahu faction or Israel.

00:42:06.980 And so he's he's going to have to pick or, you know, this that these chairs going to keep spinning.

00:42:13.220 That this this dynamic will will continue to be unsolved.

00:42:16.140 Hang over a second.

00:42:19.220 We're going to get into more of it.

00:42:20.280 My thesis that all the nine actors President Trump is dealing with all want these wars to continue.

00:42:26.260 Short break.

00:42:27.480 Kurt Mills, Dr. Thayer.

00:42:31.140 Here's your host, Stephen K.

00:42:33.380 Bannon.

00:42:35.620 We're getting to all the Federal Reserve things.

00:42:39.100 President Trump talked about tomorrow.

00:42:40.620 We're going to also get into he said there's actually was a hit inside of Venezuela.

00:42:44.840 We'll do that tomorrow.

00:42:46.020 But Kurt Mills, given opportunity costs, given all this, you know, revelations of what's happening in Minneapolis, you've seen the fight in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles about not not allowing ICE or not allowing federalized National Guard to come in and support ICE on mass deportations.

00:43:03.400 The energy and focus and time it just takes for these endless wars, and particularly when it was the seven or nine guys you're across the table from, none of them want them to end.

00:43:13.400 It's not that they're incentivized to keep them going because they stay in power this way and the money keeps flowing from the arms industry.

00:43:21.020 So as President Trump, I mean, he saw Ukraine yesterday was three or five hours, you know, hours in preparation, hours afterwards for decision making.

00:43:29.520 Same thing today.

00:43:30.740 Is the candle worth the game here, sir?

00:43:33.980 I mean, clearly not.

00:43:35.280 The question is about how to bring this home and how to score a touchdown on it.

00:43:39.340 I think the Israelis really don't want the wars to end.

00:43:41.960 So I think it's important to tear this.

00:43:43.660 And I think among the Israelis, Netanyahu really doesn't want them to end.

00:43:46.940 And I think you see this rhetorically, or perhaps I should say in Israeli propaganda, that they'll effectively operate and co-opt any talking point that they need to.

00:43:57.020 So they've seen the writing on the wall on defense spending.

00:43:59.720 The U.S. does not want to continue funding defense expenditures for the Israelis.

00:44:04.880 It makes no sense.

00:44:05.940 It's not voguish on the right to advocate for it.

00:44:08.200 And so they'll move the goalposts and say, oh, that's OK.

00:44:11.620 We don't actually support defense spending.

00:44:13.480 But then they'll lobby for all other types of military support and back channels.

00:44:18.620 And I think that's what you saw today.

00:44:19.660 I mean, if Israel really didn't need the United States, what is Netanyahu doing here days before the new year?

00:44:26.540 What is Netanyahu in private briefings with the Secretary of War and the president of the United States demanding potential U.S. strikes on Iranian ICBM missiles, not nuclear weapons?

00:44:37.380 The goalposts have already moved from that.

00:44:38.920 That was the Israeli talking point since the 90s.

00:44:41.180 And because they know they'll enrage President Trump by claiming that the Iranians maybe still have nukes, I think they probably do, then they're moving to these missiles, which is just, you know, if that's the criterion, as I said in the earlier segment, we're going to war tonight. 0.94

00:44:57.480 And so I'm not sure if President Trump quite realized what he committed to there, but it's very dangerous stuff if the president wants to keep his pledge to keep us out of endless wars.

00:45:06.580 That's what the man on the street understands.

00:45:09.060 This is all well and good.

00:45:11.020 And if this pageantry, if this dealmaking results in accords, then I would be the first to celebrate it.

00:45:18.180 And I think that, you know, the madman theory of diplomacy will have borne fruit.

00:45:22.340 But if it results in the wars continue and that the average voter, the average MAGA voter is either demotivated for 2026 or outright hostile to the legacy of this administration on foreign policy, that's bad news for Trump's legacy.

00:45:36.340 That's bad news for potential successors.

00:45:38.540 That's bad for the country.

00:45:41.300 Okay.

00:45:41.760 Where do they go to American conservative?

00:45:43.360 Look, I say pox on all their houses.

00:45:45.760 Let them go fight it out.

00:45:47.180 They've been fighting for thousands of years in the Middle East.

00:45:48.960 It's a sideshow to a sideshow right now in the Ukraine.

00:45:53.540 I could care less.

00:45:54.920 The Russian-speaking eastern border of Ukraine is not in the vital – whatever happens between those two Slavic entities has nothing to do with the vital national security of the United States.

00:46:04.620 Maybe in Paris it does.

00:46:06.180 Maybe in Brussels it does.

00:46:07.540 Maybe in Davos, Rome, and London.

00:46:09.280 And those people are to step up to the plate and stop lying to their own people and the president of the United States.

00:46:14.660 Kurt, where do people go and get you over at the American conservative?

00:46:17.160 Look, Detroit is more important than the Donbass. 0.65

00:46:20.300 Texas is more important than Tel Aviv. 0.81

00:46:23.400 Theamericanconservative.com, the magazine, was founded in 2002 by conservatives including Patrick J. Buchanan against the Iraq War.

00:46:31.160 You can find my own work at at C-U-R-T-M-I-L-L-S on X.

00:46:35.740 We're doing activist journalism here to try to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

00:46:40.860 Thank you, Steve.

00:46:41.440 I know you're a skeptic on this and particularly – and like he says it, the deep state in Israel wants to continue on.

00:46:49.340 But I think I see a glimmer of hope in this fact of no more money, no more support, go do what you want.

00:46:55.580 You want to take the Turks on, have at it. 1.00

00:46:57.020 You want to take ISIS up in Syria, have at it.

00:46:59.540 You want to take the Persians on, have at it. 1.00

00:47:02.100 Just deal us out.

00:47:03.080 We're not – we're not – it's – the Middle East is a sideshow. 0.97

00:47:06.720 So Israel and the whole situation there is a sideshow to a sideshow and it's now time to cut bait and let them go, you know, give them a blessing and boom. 0.94

00:47:14.220 If they want to go hammer and they know how to hammer, hammer away, particularly with the situation of Hamas and who's going to take the weapons away, et cetera, it shouldn't be our concern.

00:47:22.880 We've got more than enough to do here.

00:47:24.820 Kurt, thank you so much, sir.

00:47:26.400 Appreciate you.

00:47:26.920 We'll have you back on.

00:47:27.700 This is the beginning of a conversation, not the end.

00:47:30.660 Dr. Thayer, where do folks go to – you had a brilliant assessment today of the Ukraine situation.

00:47:34.980 I want to make sure everybody gets it.

00:47:36.620 I know you're working on a new book.

00:47:38.040 Where do people get your writings?

00:47:39.560 Where do they get you on social media?

00:47:42.120 Brad Thayer at X and Bradley Thayer and Getter in Truth.

00:47:44.580 And Steve, you know, the CCP is the center of gravity here.

00:47:48.220 And it's not Ukraine.

00:47:49.640 Yes.

00:47:49.840 And it's not the Middle East.

00:47:53.000 And they are turning up the heat on Taiwan.

00:47:55.320 I actually had a chance over the weekend to meet with some Taiwanese folks.

00:48:01.000 And I don't think people appreciate the sensitivity with the high-chip production manufacturing and what's going on.

00:48:09.480 This naval exercise – and we're going to have Captain Fennell on tomorrow – this naval exercise in the last 24, 48 hours is nothing to joke around about.

00:48:18.220 I mean, this is a whole envelopment, live fire exercise.

00:48:22.360 Xi could not be, I think, singling more that – and he says this.

00:48:26.160 They want us to back off that anybody that supports Taiwan independence is a problem and therefore an enemy, according to the CCP.

00:48:34.800 Right.

00:48:34.980 Give me a minute on that.

00:48:35.860 Do you agree that this thing is – this is the – of everything that's happening, this is 10 times the most serious thing that's out there, correct?

00:48:41.200 It is.

00:48:41.720 It's not getting any attention.

00:48:43.040 And it is the most serious thing.

00:48:46.000 They've surrounded Taiwan with exercises with the eight zones that they have.

00:48:49.900 One of the zones overlaps with Japan's EEZ.

00:48:53.540 So that's involving Japan, which Xi Jinping is quite clear about that.

00:48:58.580 It's a very difficult relationship with the Japanese.

00:49:01.680 And it directly negatively impacts our relations, our national security interests in the Indo-Pacific.

00:49:08.300 Taiwan matters because of chips, no doubt about it.

00:49:11.620 But also because it's geostrategic real estate really matters for that reason.

00:49:16.200 And it matters because it shows what the CCP killed in China.

00:49:21.420 Taiwan shows what China might have been if the communists hadn't come to power.

00:49:25.580 So they're targeting it.

00:49:27.420 They're turning up the heat.

00:49:28.640 And we need to act.

00:49:30.080 Yeah.

00:49:31.820 Thanks, Steve.

00:49:32.660 Dr. A., thank you.

00:49:33.920 Look forward to having you back on the next couple of days.

00:49:37.980 Very, very serious.

00:49:39.120 President Trump, like Prometheus.

00:49:41.980 Remember, all nine of them, everybody across the table, none of them are interested in any of these wars.

00:49:46.980 They're not.

00:49:47.540 In fact, they're incentivized to keep these wars going.

00:49:51.180 All of them.

00:49:52.660 Only President Trump.

00:49:53.500 And President Trump starts everything by saying, how many people killed?

00:49:56.400 26,000 a month Ukrainians.

00:49:59.300 Again, today, President Trump lays it out there.

00:50:01.280 26,000 a month.

00:50:03.760 And that weighs on President Trump.

00:50:05.740 Just the reality.

00:50:06.420 So, not sure we got a lot of clarity in the last 48 hours, but we'll be on top of it.

00:50:13.120 Stick around.

00:50:13.820 Another hour to come in the War Room.

00:50:15.380 Give me the name.

00:50:25.820 Ahead.

00:50:26.300 Mai dark when I am near the Beach Zone.

00:50:28.120 We'll be on top of it.

00:50:28.720 We'll be on top of it.

00:50:29.520 Ahead.

00:50:29.960 The That weighs on us.

00:50:30.100 And if we can see you next time.

00:50:31.060 We're on top of it.

00:50:34.300 We'll please marry them.

00:50:36.280 We'll be on top of it.

00:50:36.980 We'll be on top of it.

00:50:37.960 We'll be on top of it.

00:50:38.480 We'll be on top of it.

00:50:39.280 We'll be able to win again.

00:50:40.460 We'll be on top of it.

Bannon's War Room - December 30, 2025

Episode 5030： Peace Through Strength Trump Meets With Bibi Netanyahu

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