Bannon's War Room - Episode 5160： Iran Tensions Grow; President Of Korea Sentenced To Life In Prison

00:00:00.000 Tonight, Trump's signature economic policy, it is in shambles.

00:00:04.940 The sweeping tariffs he falsely promised would liberate hardworking Americans have been illegal all along.

00:00:11.600 Today, the Supreme Court struck down a huge chunk of the president's trade agenda.

00:00:16.960 The court ruled he illegally deployed emergency powers,

00:00:20.260 authority that he does not have to slap crushing tariffs on nearly every country.

00:00:25.340 The historic decision on presidential power was handed down six to three.

00:00:30.800 Even two of Trump's appointees, Justice Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, ruled against him.

00:00:36.540 Trump then unleashed this unhinged tirade against the justices who dared to put him in his place.

00:00:44.580 I'm ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what's right for our country.

00:00:53.140 They're very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution.

00:00:56.460 They don't want to do the right thing. They're afraid of it.

00:00:59.380 Justices Gorsuch and Barrett, are you surprised in particular by their decision today?

00:01:04.760 Do you regret nominating them?

00:01:06.820 I don't want to say whether or not I regret it. I think their decision was terrible.

00:01:10.020 I think it's an embarrassment to their families, you want to know the truth, the two of them.

00:01:17.720 There's a reason why Trump is attacking our country's separation of powers.

00:01:21.520 The New York Times writes the court's ruling, quote, amounted to a declaration of independence.

00:01:27.980 But let's be real, it took more than 10 months to get here.

00:01:31.680 Trump's illegal tariffs were in effect for 321 days before the court stopped the president's unlawful tax on the American people.

00:01:39.280 And voters, well, they have felt the pain, with 60 percent of Americans disapproving of Trump's whiplash trade policy.

00:01:46.100 But that is not stopping Trump. Breaking just minutes ago, Trump says he signed a new executive order imposing an additional 10 percent tariff on all countries.

00:01:57.160 A new effort to bypass the court's ruling.

00:02:00.000 Today really strongly said President Trump's tariffs policy is unconstitutional and illegal.

00:02:07.560 He said, look, if you want to get tariffs, the way to do it is to go to Congress and ask for authorization.

00:02:13.920 And so, you know, it's not a decision about any particular president.

00:02:17.560 It's a decision about the presidency.

00:02:19.300 And the chief justice, writing for six justices, used very strong language about the president, to the president, saying, you know, the Constitution requires you to get this affirmative approval of the Congress.

00:02:31.660 And you can't just do this on your own.

00:02:33.780 In America, the stroke of the president's pen is not enough to impose taxes on the American people.

00:02:40.220 And tariffs are nothing else but taxes, the chief justice said.

00:02:44.280 And I think it's notable that this decision wasn't just written by some group of lefty justices, to the extent there even are any.

00:02:51.800 It was written by and joined by six justices, including two justices appointed by Donald Trump himself, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, both of them saying in full that these tariffs were unconstitutional.

00:03:05.440 And so, you know, when I presented the argument to the Supreme Court on November 5th, I made about six key points.

00:03:12.260 Every single one, Nicole, of those six points was accepted 100 percent by all six justices today on the Supreme Court.

00:03:20.160 Where do you think things stands there?

00:03:22.820 There's obviously some competing narratives here.

00:03:25.740 The U.S. still maintaining that the bottom line is zero enrichment for Iranians.

00:03:29.840 But then you had the foreign minister come on morning, Joe, yesterday saying, actually, diplomatic negotiations are apace.

00:03:36.040 And that that is not the bottom line that the administration has, at least in private meetings, offered in discussions.

00:03:43.620 What's your take on where things stand and whether or not you think limited strikes, which is what the Wall Street Journal has been reporting, could potentially be effective?

00:03:52.400 Well, Jackie, first of all, it's hard to make sense of U.S. policy because it's somewhere between incoherent and opaque.

00:03:59.860 The United States has assembled all these forces.

00:04:02.500 It's not clear what the objectives would be, what would be our definition of success.

00:04:07.300 It's not even clear what triggered it.

00:04:09.260 The only new thing coming out of Iran the last couple of months is not their nuclear program, not their missile program, not support for proxies.

00:04:16.500 It's their slaughter of Iranian dissidents, and it's not at all clear how American aircraft carriers and the like and airplanes could protect individual Iranians or bring about regime change or anything else.

00:04:28.860 So I literally do not understand American policy.

00:04:32.340 And by the way, the administration hasn't bothered to explain it.

00:04:35.400 Congress hasn't bothered to hold hearings and ask questions about it.

00:04:40.020 This idea of a limited strike, yeah, the president may feel compelled to do something because threats don't seem to have moved the Iranians. 0.99

00:04:47.440 The problem with limited strikes, by definition, is what happens if they don't do the trick?

00:04:51.740 Do you then double down or triple down?

00:04:53.920 Then we find ourselves in a large war.

00:04:55.840 And by the way, Iran has all sorts of ways to inflict pain on oil shipping, on oil refineries and wells, on American forces in the region. 0.71

00:05:04.460 So we shouldn't kid ourselves, but simply because we want to keep an interaction limited, the Iranians do. 1.00

00:05:10.940 It only takes one to start something, but it takes two to manage it and end it.

00:05:15.700 Today in Seoul, they watched and cheered as if it were a play-by-play, a judge making the final call on the sentencing of former President Yoon Suk-yul.

00:05:24.680 And after Yoon's fate was sealed, his critics celebrated. 0.91

00:05:33.160 I was watching the martial law, which is something I'd only seen in history books, unfold in real time.

00:05:38.960 I hoped for a harsher punishment so that history wouldn't repeat itself.

00:05:43.700 His supporters were left shocked.

00:05:45.760 Watching what appears to be a collapse of rule of law today, I am compelled to question whether we should proceed with an appeal or continue to participate in these criminal proceedings at all.

00:05:58.340 It was December 2024 when President Yoon declared martial law.

00:06:03.160 His middle-of-the-night announcement sent members of the military to parliament.

00:06:09.000 Protesters protected the building and their democracy.

00:06:11.920 Inside, the only thing that stopped soldiers from parliament floor, furniture deployed by opposition staffers.

00:06:18.860 That bought time until a unanimous vote lifted martial law.

00:06:23.260 From start to finish, it was only six hours.

00:06:26.120 But it was, and has been, a test of South Korean democracy.

00:06:30.580 To me, the most remarkable story is the resilience and the sustainability of South Korean democracy in the face of unprecedented challenges.

00:06:38.920 Frank Genuzzi is the president of the Mansfield Foundation, which works on U.S. relations with Asia.

00:06:44.880 He calls Yoon's the most momentous domestic trial in more than 30 years in a country that has a history of presidents who've been impeached, jailed, or overthrown.

00:06:53.360 Over the last 14 months, South Korea has emerged from this process with due process sustained, rule of law sustained.

00:07:03.840 Democracy itself was in the docket in this trial.

00:07:08.200 And the South Korean people affirmed the value of that democracy, the resilience of that democracy, without personalizing the crime.

00:07:17.060 The outcome from Yoon could have been much worse. 0.85

00:07:19.260 The prosecution asked for the death penalty.

00:07:21.700 And it wasn't only Yoon. 0.65

00:07:23.120 Five other former officials were also convicted, including the former defense minister, who will spend the next 30 years in prison.

00:07:29.880 Current President Lee Jae-myung, Yoon's longtime rival, has refrained from politicizing the trial, says Genuzzi.

00:07:37.340 This allowed him to cool down the temperature a bit and also allowed him to focus really on where he needed to focus, which was his foreign policy priorities,

00:07:47.140 sustaining an outreach to Japan and reassuring the United States that South Korea would be a loyal, faithful ally.

00:07:55.240 Over the past year, South Korea has faced pressure over trade and promised to increase defense spending.

00:08:02.100 It's been a balancing act for a democracy that has now sent a former president to prison for life.

00:08:09.500 Richard, real quickly, let's say the president does indeed, does some kind of kinetic action in Iran.

00:08:16.700 How destabilizing will that be to the region?

00:08:19.380 Again, it all depends upon the Iranian response.

00:08:23.060 I think internally, Iran has institutions, can probably absorb it.

00:08:26.920 The real question is whether they retaliate and whether they go after the Saudis or go after shipping, in which case the oil prices go up.

00:08:33.500 So in a funny sort of way, after we strike, if we do, it cedes the initiative to Iran. 0.87

00:08:38.580 They've got to decide how they want to manage the crisis.

00:08:41.380 So the markets are driven at this point largely by AI, right?

00:08:44.960 We've talked about this, the magnificent seven mega tech companies that are not largely impacted by tariffs or mass deportations.

00:08:51.360 But if you look under that seven, things are much shakier.

00:08:55.720 And we've talked about it before.

00:08:56.840 So many businesses are in this no hiring, no firing, no growth.

00:09:00.700 They're bracing themselves, right?

00:09:02.320 Foreign investors are not feeling great about investing in the U.S.

00:09:05.820 And the funny thing, as happy as people have been about the markets in the last year, look abroad.

00:09:11.260 Markets abroad have been stronger than ours have.

00:09:14.620 Well, the amazing thing is that they don't react badly to Trump anymore.

00:09:17.980 They just kind of grin and bear it and hope to get through.

00:09:20.200 And the positive for the markets is that they hope that Trump won't like regulation.

00:09:24.020 But when something like this happens today, they really like it because it means that we do adhere to the rule of law here.

00:09:30.280 And if we're a country that doesn't adhere to the rule of law, then expect your markets to fly out the window because nobody's going to invest a red cent here.

00:09:39.400 This is the primal scream of a dying regime.

00:09:44.280 Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people.

00:09:49.460 I got a free shot.

00:09:50.800 All these networks lying about the people.

00:09:53.780 The people have had a belly full of it.

00:09:55.680 I know you don't like hearing that.

00:09:57.100 I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it.

00:09:59.740 It's going to happen.

00:10:01.080 And where do people like that go to share the big line?

00:10:04.480 Mega Media.

00:10:05.380 I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.

00:10:11.260 Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?

00:10:15.040 If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.

00:10:21.320 War Room.

00:10:22.240 Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.

00:10:29.740 It's Saturday, 21, February, in the year of earlier, 2026.

00:10:33.500 Obviously, a lot of forces in the world are coming together to try to thwart President Trump's populist nationalist revolution here in the United States.

00:10:44.440 We're going to get to all that.

00:10:45.280 I've got two of the top experts, E.J.

00:10:48.100 and Tony and Spencer Morrison.

00:10:50.940 Spencer Morrison of the great classic book, Reshoring.

00:10:54.140 We're going to walk through in a moment all of this with tariffs and really economic nationalism is what it is and putting the country first.

00:11:01.100 The American system is thought up by Alexander Hamilton.

00:11:04.820 I want to get to the moment, but I've got Captain Fennell for an update.

00:11:08.860 Two things.

00:11:09.360 Number one, Captain Fennell, latest, we continue to pour assets into the Middle East, into the region, what they call effective as a breaking story about Portugal, the air bridge, more assets coming on the air bridge from Portugal in real time.

00:11:24.960 Your assessment of where we stand with this, as President Trump refers to, a vast armada.

00:11:29.820 Well, Steve, I think right now we're seeing, as you said, all the chess pieces are getting into the region, into the EUCOM, European Command and Central Command's area of responsibility.

00:11:42.220 So from the eastern Mediterranean down into the Gulf of Oman, over on Friday night, it was reported that the USS Gerald R. Ford and its carrier battle group had chopped through, went through, transited through the Strait of Gibraltar and is now in the Mediterranean Sea.

00:12:00.220 In the latest reporting on air asset updates, we basically have over 350 combat aircraft that are in the region, both afloat and ashore.

00:12:11.840 And more importantly, we have over 100 tankers, which allows our combat aircraft, the F-16s, the F-22s, the Strike Eagle F-15s, the F-18s and the F-35s that have shorter range.

00:12:26.720 Those tankers on your screen can get now fuel to be able to sustain what is called air supremacy over a combat area.

00:12:36.960 Normally, we talk about air superiority, which is a temporal time and space where you have combat air control over a geographic area.

00:12:48.060 But air supremacy is where you can control the air at all times in all in that whole geographic region for a sustained long, long period of time.

00:13:00.120 And so it seems to me that we are moving in and preparing our forces for air supremacy.

00:13:05.680 And I would just say to Mr. Haas, who talked about managing, if we do a strike, we'll have to manage some kind of deal with the Iranians. 0.99

00:13:14.200 No, we're not going to manage anything. We're going to come in and if President Trump decides to use military force, we will destroy Iran's military, 100 percent of it. 0.99

00:13:24.300 We will take down their SRBMs or medium range ballistic missiles and their naval forces and their remaining little air forces that they have and their air defense forces.

00:13:35.720 And we will sit over the top of Iran and call fires down on anybody that tries to shoot off an air defense missile or a ballistic missile. 0.82

00:13:45.780 They may get off one or two here and there, but they're not going to be able to sustain any kind of campaign against our allies in the region and against our forces.

00:13:55.740 And this is what's coming to them.

00:13:57.360 Captain Finnell, hang on for a second. I want to hold you through the break.

00:14:01.240 I want to talk to you briefly about the this President Trump's incrementalism, what they're thinking about, at least leaking to the Wall Street Journal.

00:14:09.860 We're going to leave you with Bruce Springsteen in the streets of Minneapolis, the revolt insurgency in this country.

00:14:15.680 I might add we're going to talk about South Korea.

00:14:18.080 Also, the president got life in prison, almost got a death sentence.

00:14:24.020 Bolsonaro in Brazil, Le Pen in France.

00:14:27.360 Youn in South Korea and President Donald Trump in the United States of America.

00:14:33.240 Remember, Bonnie Willis and these people wanted to put him away for 20 or 30 years.

00:14:37.220 We're also going to go to Georgia.

00:14:38.460 The government has responded to Abby Lowell and Norm Eisen, and they came in full on.

00:14:45.340 We are packed this morning in the war room.

00:14:48.300 Short commercial break. Back in a moment.

00:14:57.360 Do doctors have Black Friday sales? 0.88

00:15:01.800 The doctors at Brickhouse Nutrition do.

00:15:05.020 They just announced the Black Friday 30% off sale, the biggest sale of the year.

00:15:10.320 The most impressive health and nutrition products in the industry are now 30% off, like Lean, the doctor-formulated weight loss supplement for people who want to lose meaningful weight without injections.

00:15:22.820 Let me repeat that. Lean, the doctor-formulated weight loss supplement for people who want to lose meaningful weight without injections.

00:15:31.480 And 30% off, Creatone.

00:15:34.000 Creatine designed just for women to help you look leaner, in shape, and tone without extra dieting or exercise.

00:15:41.940 Even 30% off, Field of Greens, the only super fruit and vegetable drink shown in a university study to actually slow aging.

00:15:51.260 And only Field of Greens promises better health results.

00:15:54.440 Your doctor will notice.

00:15:56.220 Every Brickhouse product, from better sleep to superior collagen, is 30% off.

00:16:01.720 But hurry, because these Black Friday deals go fast.

00:16:05.440 Visit BrickhouseSale.com.

00:16:07.600 That's all one word.

00:16:09.160 BrickhouseSale.com and save 30%.

00:16:10.940 That's BrickhouseSale.com.

00:16:13.740 One more time, BrickhouseSale.com.

00:16:18.180 Here's your host, Stephen K.

00:16:20.380 Okay, we're going to get to E.J. and Tony and Spencer Morrison in just a moment, but there's updates.

00:16:26.980 And Sam Fadis is going to join us in the second hour to go down and take another cut at this.

00:16:32.340 Captain Fennell, the Wall Street Journal has done a pretty good job reporting because the Pentagon and the national security folks leak to them a lot.

00:16:39.880 And it's a leak to try to put out into the public President Trump's thinking and get responses.

00:16:45.360 What they're putting forward is President Trump's got a strategy, and it's kind of Trumpian.

00:16:50.560 You saw that when he didn't do regime change back in June when he took down the total obliteration of the nuclear program.

00:16:56.720 And in Venezuela, we took Maduro and the wife and cut a deal with the rest of the regime.

00:17:02.500 This would be he would – he's got this deal he wants.

00:17:06.200 If they're not there, he'll do a limited strike, dust them up a little bit, see if that opens up to him.

00:17:12.700 If not, if it is, they'll go back and talk.

00:17:14.940 If they tap him along, he'll hit it again, and he'll continue to do this until he reaches some point where he goes full kinetic.

00:17:22.920 Is that a strategy that you think works, sir, from your years in naval intelligence?

00:17:29.400 It's clearly a strategy that doesn't work, and we know that from the Vietnam War with Lyndon Johnson.

00:17:35.140 It was a failed strategy that ended up us losing that war even though we were winning it.

00:17:40.020 So the idea that President Trump is going to tap this along, I'm not really sure that that's what he'll end up doing.

00:17:47.860 He may be signaling that now, as you mentioned.

00:17:50.600 But I think what we saw at Midnight Hammer was not something that was incremental.

00:17:54.460 That was a full-on strike against our nuclear facilities.

00:17:56.980 No, no, no, that's just not true.

00:17:58.600 That's not true.

00:17:59.540 That's not true.

00:18:00.660 The Israelis wanted a regime strike.

00:18:03.520 They started as a regime strike.

00:18:05.240 They couldn't defend themselves.

00:18:06.740 President Trump, that was a very limited engagement.

00:18:08.820 You're just wrong there.

00:18:10.020 Let me ask you, Captain Fanon, let me ask you a question.

00:18:12.100 Hang on, let me ask you a question.

00:18:13.460 If we do what you want is unload fire on the Iranian military, the Ayatollah, and the Mullahs, and crush it all, who owns the civil war that follows? 0.54

00:18:25.840 Who owns the chaos that takes place in Iran? 1.00

00:18:28.280 Do we own it?

00:18:29.040 Does Israel own it, or the Iranian people own it? 0.96

00:18:31.960 The Iranian people own it, obviously.

00:18:34.520 And that previous event from last June, that was our action.

00:18:38.060 We took the strikes on Midnight Hammer.

00:18:41.220 That was Operation Midnight Hammer.

00:18:43.260 That is a U.S. military operation.

00:18:45.900 But Captain Fanon, hang on, but that was a limited strike.

00:18:51.280 President Trump took out total obliteration of the nuclear program.

00:18:54.400 The Israeli initiation of that entire war was a regime change strike. 0.55

00:18:58.480 They took out Wyckoff's counterparties in the negotiation.

00:19:03.000 They hit the military.

00:19:04.460 They had Mossad guys killing people.

00:19:06.260 They continued to push for a regime change strike.

00:19:09.480 And President Trump wouldn't do it.

00:19:11.240 The reason he had to bail it out is that, as you remember, and this is why the ballistic missiles are on the target list now, is that Tel Aviv was getting crushed.

00:19:19.280 Tel Aviv, and now Israeli media reports that, that Tel Aviv was taking incoming.

00:19:24.620 President Trump had a very targeted, limited strike for obliteration of a program, but it was not a regime change strike.

00:19:31.120 Do you agree with that?

00:19:32.900 Back in June, I 100% agree.

00:19:34.780 He said, my objective is to take out the nuclear program, which he did in 100% full capacity.

00:19:41.580 Venezuela, the same thing.

00:19:43.020 I have to get rid of Maduro.

00:19:44.940 100%, I got rid of Maduro.

00:19:46.880 So this time, when the president comes out and says, I am going to take action because the Iranian regime will not give up nukes or will not stop terrorizing their people and murdering their people, 1.00

00:19:57.780 we don't know exactly what the president will say is his final rationale or the full scope of his rationale.

00:20:03.640 But when he says it, he will, in fact, execute forces that he has in the region to do that.

00:20:10.020 I got it.

00:20:11.020 But if we make the arguments about terrorizing their people and we take out the military and the Ayatollahs and the Mullahs, then we've come to the defense of the people.

00:20:18.520 Then we own everything they're after.

00:20:20.260 You just can't say, oh, because terrorizing people, and then we take them out, and then you fall into chaos.

00:20:27.420 We own that, do we not?

00:20:29.940 I don't know how you say it falls into chaos.

00:20:32.020 The people have been in the streets protesting to take their government back.

00:20:35.900 They only cannot take it back because the Iranian regime is murdering them in the dark of the night and in the streets, and they're terrorized.

00:20:44.300 So these are all Jeffersonian Democrats that we have.

00:20:50.560 Fine.

00:20:51.180 We'll have this discussion later.

00:20:52.820 I think you're just 1,000% dead wrong.

00:20:55.140 But let's pivot to Korea.

00:20:57.860 Let's pivot to South Korea.

00:20:59.620 The mainstream media is covering this up like it's a return to democracy and that this new South Korean government is some great ally of the United States and Japan.

00:21:08.640 Gordon Chang's got a tweet out that I think is reality.

00:21:11.420 Yet two days ago we came very close to having a death sentence on a conservative politician that at least tried to work with the United States as an ally.

00:21:22.340 Do you believe the Chinese Communist Party and others are in back of this move in South Korea?

00:21:26.520 And do you think you can count on South Korea now as a full ally in East Asia?

00:21:33.560 I think the cold open with the MSNBC analyst on saying that South Korea is moving towards Japan is not correct.

00:21:41.840 They're moving into the sphere of the PRC.

00:21:45.400 And we just saw on the 18th of February, as Gordon puts in his tweet, we had B-52 bombers fly into the region, which is a routine operation for our air forces.

00:21:55.520 And the South Koreans did not help escort those bombers.

00:21:59.820 Only our FNA-18s did that are there in the theater on Peninsula.

00:22:04.340 And after that occurred, the South Korean minister of defense called the commander of U.S. forces Korea in and dressed him down for why we were doing that.

00:22:13.020 This has never happened before, as Gordon notes, and he's correct. 1.00

00:22:16.380 And this is not, this is an indicator of where Lee is and where his head is at.

00:22:21.200 So we need to be very careful and not allow the same people that told us that we should go along with six-party talks and all these other crazy schemes on the peninsula.

00:22:30.540 We should not follow their advice.

00:22:32.420 We need to be careful where we're proceeding with South Korea, and we need to hold them to account. 1.00

00:22:39.220 We have 25,000-plus American soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen on the peninsula, and they're there to defend them.

00:22:46.280 And if they're going to treat us like this, then we need to talk to them about that and where we're at.

00:22:50.760 And I'm afraid, though, that this could be a ploy for them to justify removing our troops there,

00:22:56.500 which would be something that would be very dangerous for America and the region's national security.

00:23:02.420 Do you think, President Trump, should we insert ourselves now, since you've seen Bolsonaro or Le Pen,

00:23:07.600 should we insert ourselves now in this situation with the South Korean government and say,

00:23:11.700 it's just not acceptable to us, the guy got life in prison, sir?

00:23:14.820 Well, we should have said something before the presidential elections and influenced the elections to the extent that we said this is what we stand for.

00:23:24.260 And we didn't do that, and so we're eating the results of that in action.

00:23:29.780 So today we should be saying something.

00:23:32.500 I would hope that President Trump and Secretary Rubio would be contacting the South Korean president privately first to express our displeasure,

00:23:41.300 how they reacted to our flights in the Yellow Sea and the West Sea and their lack of support and, in fact, dressing us down.

00:23:49.080 And if they don't want to deal with us on that, then you have to take it public.

00:23:52.740 But first, try it in private.

00:23:55.200 Captain, we're not going to be back on the show until Monday, and we'll get you back on.

00:24:00.160 You've been, as much as I may not like it, you've been correct in everything about this Iran buildup. 0.97

00:24:06.380 What are you looking for over the weekend, the next 24 to 48 hours?

00:24:10.860 What are you looking for as tells of what actually is going to happen here, sir?

00:24:14.960 Well, I think the Iranians came out today or last night and said that they're trying to pin together some kind of compromise or some kind of deal.

00:24:25.160 We'll see how that goes.

00:24:26.880 I would expect to see the forward transit from the western Mediterranean Sea to the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

00:24:33.000 It may even come down through the Suez, but it may just sit off in the eastern Med to be used there.

00:24:39.500 But we should watch for any kind of lash out.

00:24:44.520 The Iranians, the Chinese, and the Russians were doing naval drills here in the last 24, 48 hours.

00:24:50.700 What goes on with that?

00:24:52.220 And do the Iranians try to play any games with sneak attacks or shutting down the strait or attempting to shut down the strait that they may try?

00:25:01.120 So I think for now, it's back in the diplomatic court.

00:25:06.180 All the pieces are moved in.

00:25:07.980 Maybe we have another option to ratchet up.

00:25:10.740 If they don't come to the table cleanly, maybe President Trump says, hey, I'm going to send the Bush now, and we'll have three carriers over there.

00:25:18.460 So he's still got room to maneuver to get across to the mullahs that we're not going to accept this anymore.

00:25:25.680 Last thing, we've got about a minute.

00:25:27.140 Again, as I said, this is about not Israel and other things, even though there's issues there, and I know you like to talk about them.

00:25:34.980 But we have to remember, in 1983, the Iranians killed 241 Americans in Beirut, and they've killed Americans in Khobar Towers, the USS Cole, and a host of other things. 0.84

00:25:46.360 So this is not exclusively about Israel.

00:25:49.340 This is about what Iran's done to us for 47 years, and the pimple is about ready to be popped. 1.00

00:25:55.320 Let me – I also will remind you that President Reagan removed every other military and said it was the biggest mistake he made.

00:26:04.080 And, of course, we made decisions to not hit back at the others, which I think you're correct there.

00:26:09.760 We should have.

00:26:10.560 Last question, though.

00:26:11.440 You've brought up something here that I think people need to get their arms around, the great power struggle.

00:26:17.080 Your point – we've got about a minute.

00:26:18.600 Your point is, hey, when you put this amount of assets in as commander-in-chief, you don't really have options of not using it.

00:26:25.940 Is that where we are right now in the greater war with the China and, unfortunately, the Russian partnership that right now, if we get this many assets in there, they're going to be used?

00:26:38.600 Well, there's nothing as determinist, so we can always – and I think President Trump has demonstrated that he is ability to make decisions contrary to popular opinion or determinism.

00:26:51.120 But I think we're in a position right now where everything's moved forward and the Iranians are not compromising.

00:26:57.080 So if they're not going to compromise, there's only one other solution.

00:27:02.240 Captain Fennell, where do we get your writings?

00:27:04.200 I know occasionally you're putting stuff up on American Greatness.

00:27:06.900 Is that where we should go and look?

00:27:10.080 Yeah, that's probably the best for me, yeah.

00:27:12.980 Captain, thank you so much for taking time away.

00:27:15.020 We look forward to seeing you on Monday and tracking this.

00:27:17.900 Thank you.

00:27:19.240 Captain Jim Fennell, former head of Naval Intelligence for the Pacific Fleet.

00:27:24.100 Okay, we're going to pivot now to economic nationalism.

00:27:28.420 Yesterday, was it a death blow, as the media once reported to President Trump's redoing of commercial relationships through trade deals and tariffs?

00:27:38.280 Or did they shut the front door but open up the back door?

00:27:41.680 We have two experts, Spencer Morrison of the classic book, Reshoring, and of course, our own E.J. and Tony, one of the smartest guys out there about the American worker.

00:27:53.900 We're going to take a short commercial break.

00:27:55.140 Take your phone out.

00:27:56.580 Now more than ever, you should be talking to Birch Gold.

00:27:59.580 Take your phone and text Bannon, B-A-N-N-O-N at 989898.

00:28:03.880 You get the ultimate guide, totally free, no obligation, for investing in gold and precious metals in the age of Trump.

00:28:11.120 Short commercial break.

00:28:12.120 We'll be back in a moment.

00:28:13.260 The world is getting more unstable and chaotic every day.

00:28:20.100 It seems like everywhere you look, there's another crisis, another controversy, another conflict, or just outright catastrophe.

00:28:28.940 You can't control what happens out there, but you can control how you prepare for it.

00:28:34.540 You can make sure that no matter what happens, you have the basics covered in case one of these disasters reaches your doorstep.

00:28:43.700 You know, things like having enough food to eat when the shelves are empty, and when it comes to my family's food security, I trust my Patriot Supply.

00:28:52.820 They've helped millions of Americans get prepared, and they have over 90,000 five-star reviews.

00:28:59.460 Right now, you can get their best-selling three-month emergency food supply kit for $100 off.

00:29:07.180 My Patriot Supply almost never offers a deal like this.

00:29:11.500 To take advantage of it, go to preparewithbannon.com.

00:29:15.840 That's all one word, preparewithbannon.com.

00:29:20.120 This food kit gives you 2,000 calories a day, lasts up to 25 years.

00:29:25.560 And best of all, it's $100 off for a limited time.

00:29:30.640 Go to preparewithbannon.com and get yours right now.

00:29:34.900 That's preparewithbannon.com.

00:29:37.560 Make sure you know, all one word, preparewithbannon.com.

00:29:42.620 Special deal, $100 off.

00:29:44.980 Do it today.

00:29:45.580 You know, one of the things we try to do here, whether it's geopolitics, capital markets, everything related to the fight, the legal aspects, the fight for our country, obviously lots of economics, populist, economic nationalism.

00:30:03.140 We always try to put you ahead of the curve by bringing the smartest people that really talk, understand topics and really talk it through.

00:30:11.600 That's why Captain Finnell, and look, obviously, I disagree with a lot about this Iranian situation, but the reality is he's been dead spot on about the military aspect of this.

00:30:23.340 What's interesting, Sam Fadis is going to join us later.

00:30:25.940 It's going to come down to intel.

00:30:27.840 I think a lot of this is going to come down to intelligence, exactly where the military in Iran is, where the Aitollahs are, not physically where they are, but what this really is, President Trump's incremental, because obviously he's running that up the flagpole.

00:30:41.420 Is there a chance to do incrementalism here, or are the Persians just going to negotiate, which they're famous for, negotiate to have another negotiation? 0.66

00:30:51.340 That's what we had Trita Parsi on last night. 0.91

00:30:53.700 Now, he's quite pro-Iranian, but he brought up the part that I think has to be addressed immediately.

00:31:00.040 We're not in direct negotiations with them.

00:31:02.640 It's all this kabuki theater where they talk to, you know, they're in Oman, they've got Oman, they're here, they talk, and they go in another room and talk.

00:31:08.960 Look, even Trita realizes that with this type of military surrounding them, you've got to stop with the formalities and drop the internet.

00:31:17.440 You've got to get in a room with Kushner, and you've got to get in a room with Steve Witkoff, the president's emissaries, and see if there's a deal.

00:31:24.380 If there's not a deal, then the balloon's going to go up, folks.

00:31:30.020 I want to pivot now.

00:31:31.280 Okay, President Trump, he's doing something to change 50 years of sellout of the American worker.

00:31:40.940 Number one is the big, beautiful bill, which is the supply side.

00:31:44.180 It maximizes, to the extent you can, the reinforcement of investment in capital equipment in the United States to bring manufacturing jobs back.

00:31:52.120 Because President Trump has seen through the folly of gutting our manufacturing and trying to turn us into a service economy.

00:32:02.140 Everybody that told you on Wall Street and all these puns were not kind of wrong, they're dead wrong.

00:32:06.940 Now he's redoing the commercial relationships.

00:32:08.820 He's using trade deals and tariffs as a forcing function to force international operations to make their plant and equipment here and therefore hire American workers and have this whole ecosystem around manufacturing.

00:32:23.060 That will rejuvenate our economy based upon a plan written by Alexander Hamilton that is just one level down from the Declaration of Independence in the Constitution.

00:32:34.040 The report on manufacturers that the genius Alexander Hamilton wrote in his earliest days as the first secretary of the Treasury.

00:32:43.420 And you heard Scott Besson talk about it yesterday at the Dallas Economic Club.

00:32:47.080 And I want to reinforce Rob Sigg and Parker Sigg to play that entire thing yesterday shows you the difference between Real America's Voice and other channels.

00:32:56.540 Other channels are going to run around and talk about the noise of the day.

00:33:00.960 Here, it's pure signal all the time.

00:33:04.040 Now, the Supreme Court has stepped in there.

00:33:07.800 E.J. and Tony, we read your text message you sent me from the train.

00:33:11.480 You're coming from Wall Street back to the Capitol.

00:33:14.260 Walk me through what you had to say yesterday, your feelings.

00:33:16.980 Because the left's out there today, there's a spike in the football.

00:33:21.020 It's illegal.

00:33:21.940 It's illegitimate.

00:33:23.280 Trump's a dictator.

00:33:24.600 The Supreme Court stood up to him.

00:33:26.140 It's separation of powers.

00:33:27.240 But also, you brought up this act from 1930 that gives Trump even more leverage, President Trump even more leverage.

00:33:34.480 Give us your assessment, sir. 0.74

00:33:35.740 Yeah, Steve, it's amazing to hear the people on Ms. Now and all the other loser networks talk about how Trump's a dictator. 0.98

00:33:43.240 He's the worst dictator ever. 0.93

00:33:45.500 The people that he got on the Supreme Court voted against him. 0.98

00:33:48.700 Are you kidding me?

00:33:49.800 I've never seen a dictator fail to get his way on so many different things.

00:33:54.500 Regardless, it doesn't matter.

00:33:57.120 Let's get into the meat of this, Steve.

00:33:59.540 You're absolutely right.

00:34:00.740 You can go back to the Tariff Act of 1930, Section 338 of that law.

00:34:07.440 And again, this is almost 100 years old here, all right?

00:34:09.840 This is not as if it's some newfangled thing.

00:34:13.040 Along with the Tariff Acts and the Trade Acts in the 60s and 70s, we've seen them be used.

00:34:20.580 We've seen them be held up in court.

00:34:21.920 If we go back to this particular law, though, from 1930, it actually gives the chief executive the ability to issue tariffs up to 50 percent.

00:34:32.320 And if he wants to go beyond that, he can issue outright embargoes.

00:34:36.400 So, again, this is an incredibly powerful law.

00:34:38.840 And in order to do that, Steve, what he needs is to find as a fact, the law says, that there has been some kind of discrimination against U.S. commerce.

00:34:48.080 Well, that is an incredibly broad definition.

00:34:52.340 It's a very large umbrella under which you will find everything that Trump is trying to fight against.

00:34:58.220 When the Chinese engage in intellectual property theft, when they engage in subsidization of industry and dumping of products here in the United States, when Canada imposes quotas on U.S. dairy, when you have American automotive manufacturers who face unfair trading practices, whether they be tariff or non-tariff barriers in the EU. 0.72

00:35:20.620 I mean, you name it, all of the different things that were cited in that book that Greer and his folks put together last year.

00:35:29.660 All of the different unfair trading practices from around the world, all of these different discriminations against U.S. commerce that are faced, that are instituted by other nations, again, from literally around the globe, everything falls under the umbrella laid out in Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

00:35:49.640 And I believe, actually, if I remember the opinion correctly, in Justice Kavanaugh's dissent, I think he actually mentioned this law as well in his list of about half a dozen different tariff authorities the president can use.

00:36:02.920 So, Steve, what I'm getting at here is this.

00:36:05.360 Although getting rid of IEPA, saying IEPA no longer can be used to institute tariffs, that does limit the president in terms of his speed and his flexibility with which he can implement tariffs.

00:36:17.140 But that's about it. This changes, in my opinion, this changes nothing in the long run.

00:36:23.060 It has a short-term impact on the president's trade policy, absolutely.

00:36:27.320 And again, it affects, I think, the speed and the flexibility he has in terms of making decisions with these negotiations.

00:36:34.320 He can't necessarily make the snap decisions, turning tariffs on and off.

00:36:38.220 But, again, as long as he can demonstrate some kind of discrimination against U.S. commerce, as the law says, he finds it as a fact, it's a blank check.

00:36:48.560 Spencer, you've written the definitive – E.J., we're going to come right back to you.

00:36:53.400 Spencer, you've written the definitive book on reshoring the time he couldn't have been perfect, came out last year.

00:36:58.420 Your assessment, E.J. saying, hey, 301s, 232s, all the stuff we used in the first term.

00:37:03.840 And I know Navarro and those guys, Jamison Greer, they got all the analysis done.

00:37:06.860 They're going to springboard this thing forward.

00:37:08.940 Your assessment, sir, since you're the expert.

00:37:13.520 Thanks for having me on the show, Steve.

00:37:15.300 No, I agree with my friend.

00:37:17.500 The reality is that there are many, many different legal avenues for President Trump to impose further tariffs.

00:37:23.760 This is sort of a hiccup along the road.

00:37:28.420 But, ultimately, I think this is a good opportunity for the president to sort of take stock and look at what we actually need to do to set up a trade policy that's not going to just be something that's at the whim of the presidency,

00:37:43.700 but change the entire sort of economic cultural shift.

00:37:48.440 Right. And what we have to do is we have to get back to the situation where we were, you know, 50 years ago, where tariffs were not simply being imposed sort of on an ad hoc basis,

00:37:59.160 but were baked into the fabric of the American legal and economic landscape.

00:38:04.460 America prospered under the American system, which was derived, again, from Alexander Hamilton's report on manufacturers all throughout the 1800s,

00:38:15.400 that period where America industrialized and the average worker grew to become the most prosperous worker in the world.

00:38:23.500 All of that was done under a high tariff regime.

00:38:26.920 America had the highest average tariff rates in the world, over 40 percent, over 40 percent.

00:38:32.520 And that was at a time in history when we didn't have bulk shipping.

00:38:36.140 That was at a time when, you know, foreign trade was not such a large proportion of our overall economy.

00:38:42.680 Okay. So what President Trump needs to do at this stage.

00:38:46.500 Yeah. How do you bake it in?

00:38:49.460 President Trump can move mountains.

00:38:51.400 You're saying, hey, the individual trade deals and redoing the commercial relationships is fine.

00:38:56.460 But you're saying we have a deeper he has a deeper challenge here.

00:38:59.880 We got to bake it into the into basically a tech, a tech bro oligarch and Wall Street lords of easy money that are adamantly opposed to what you're saying, sir.

00:39:10.880 Right now, they're spending all day in the in these frickin frontier labs trying to get rid of the American worker. 0.99

00:39:16.820 So how are we going to I agree with you a million percent.

00:39:20.100 Tell me how President Trump is going to do that when you got both Wall Street, the corporate America and most importantly, the tech bros that spit on the floor as soon as you mention that, sir.

00:39:31.920 I mean, it's an uphill battle, but it begins and ends with the American people.

00:39:35.600 President Trump has to take this case directly to the American people and have people understand exactly what's going on.

00:39:42.740 I think that this needs to be packaged in a way that people can understand.

00:39:46.180 Everybody understands, you know, that national security is is an important national security is of utmost importance.

00:39:55.540 Package terrorists as a part of that.

00:39:57.960 I mean, think about the national security concerns in America doesn't manufacture its own GPUs when we're in entering into the A.I. age.

00:40:06.320 Right. I mean, what about the fact the country doesn't manufacture, you know, like light bulbs, ball bearings, engines?

00:40:13.740 Right.

00:40:14.020 And the entire country is over the last 50 years has been integrated into a global economic system and in such a way that the economy is now dependent on foreign countries products.

00:40:32.960 Hang over a second, Spencer.

00:40:36.140 E.J., are you buying Spencer's argument?

00:40:39.000 And if you buy it, how do we do it?

00:40:40.520 Well, Steve, it's a great question.

00:40:44.840 Again, I think the president has a lot of options here, right?

00:40:48.460 He has a lot of of paths forward.

00:40:51.160 Now, would it be a whole heck of a lot easier if Congress gets on board?

00:40:55.340 Absolutely.

00:40:56.420 And I think that's one of the reasons why it's important to recognize all of the problems with international trade.

00:41:03.340 But hang on. Hang on.

00:41:04.440 This is why you guys are going to be the forefront of changes.

00:41:07.900 The House Trump could not get if you put it to if you go back to the Republican conference and you go to the Hassett rule, which you have to have a majority of of the majority.

00:41:19.040 Right. You have to have enough in the House conference to put forward his trade policies today.

00:41:23.740 If put to a vote of the House, let me be brutally frank, would not do it because they're still neoliberals.

00:41:31.240 They're they're they're they're believe in the school.

00:41:33.480 They're raised on the mother's milk of Milton Friedman.

00:41:37.540 They're not with Spencer Morrison.

00:41:39.780 They're not with E.J.

00:41:40.840 and Tony.

00:41:41.420 They're not with Donald J.

00:41:42.480 Trump or they're not with Stephen K.

00:41:44.400 Bannon, the populist nationalist.

00:41:46.060 I mean, E.J., you know these guys better than I do.

00:41:49.240 And I'm not even talking about the Senate.

00:41:51.360 Forget the Senate.

00:41:52.040 I'm talking in the House.

00:41:53.520 They may all sing out of the hymnal of President Trump and MAGA.

00:41:58.020 But if you went in and put your what you and Spencer Morrison are talking about, which I think is absolutely logical.

00:42:03.600 How many votes do you think we get, sir?

00:42:06.800 Well, not enough.

00:42:07.980 That's for sure.

00:42:08.960 And Steve, look, this is why.

00:42:10.640 And I'm not necessarily sure you need to get different people in there.

00:42:13.980 I think it actually was Milton Friedman.

00:42:17.460 One of the things he said that I definitely agree with was that getting the right things through Congress is not necessarily a matter of getting the right people in there, but giving the wrong people the right incentives.

00:42:28.300 In other words, it doesn't matter who you put in Congress necessarily, but if they know that voting against these things will result in their loss in the next election, then chances are they're going to change their mind and they're going to vote the way the people want them to.

00:42:42.120 So I think the problem is maybe more so we have to change the hearts and minds of more voters out there.

00:42:48.360 We need to get people to understand that the kind of ivory tower world from which Milton Friedman was often speaking is not what we have today.

00:42:57.700 Look, if you are coming at this problem, or I should say if you're coming at any kind of situation from a perfectly idealistic world, then you would never want to impose tariffs.

00:43:08.720 In other words, if everything is already fine, if there is no problem, you don't want to then impose tariffs.

00:43:14.460 If the patient doesn't have cancer, you don't want to give them chemotherapy.

00:43:18.240 But that's not the world we live in.

00:43:19.840 In the mercantilist strategy of the Chinese Communist Party, right, which they learned from the British East India Company, we're going to take a short commercial break.

00:43:28.120 Spencer Morrison, the author of Reshoring, and the great E.J.

00:43:32.720 And Tony, who knows more about the American working man than anybody in the United States of America.

00:43:39.100 Also, we're going to Georgia in the crime of the century. 0.54

00:43:43.500 Next, in the War Room.

00:43:46.200 Imagine having the world's most connected financial insider feeding you vital information.

00:43:51.360 The kind of information only a handful of people have access to.

00:43:56.400 And that could create a fortune for those who know what to do with it.

00:44:01.300 That's exactly what you get when you join our frequent guest and contributor, Jim Rickards, in his elite research service, Strategic Intelligence.

00:44:10.880 Inside Strategic Intelligence, you'll hear directly from Jim and receive critical updates on major financial and political events before they hit the mainstream news.

00:44:22.000 He'll put you in front of the story and tell you exactly what moves to make for your best chance to profit.

00:44:28.980 As a proud American, you do not want to be caught off guard.

00:44:32.200 Sign up for Strategic Intelligence right now at our exclusive website.

00:44:37.500 That's RickardsWarRoom.com.

00:44:40.140 RickardsWarRoom.com.

00:44:41.800 You go there.

00:44:43.060 You get Strategic Intelligence based upon predictive analytics.

00:44:47.460 Do it today, right now.

00:44:50.000 RickardsWarRoom.com.

00:44:52.660 Here's your host, Stephen K. Vance.

00:44:56.120 Okay, Spencer, we're going to have you back on.

00:44:58.300 We have more time.

00:44:59.060 Where do people go to get reshoring?

00:45:01.160 Where do they go to your site, sir?

00:45:03.940 Hi, Steve.

00:45:04.440 You can follow me on Real SP Morrison on X.

00:45:07.400 The book's available on Amazon.

00:45:09.900 It's also available directly from Calamo Press at Reshore, How Tariffs Will Bring Our Jobs Home, Revive the American Dream.

00:45:15.620 You can also find my work on nationaleconomicseditorial.com.

00:45:20.020 You did an amazing job, and great Delaney.

00:45:21.880 What brilliance.

00:45:22.880 The timing of your books are exquisite.

00:45:25.760 Thank you so much, Spencer.

00:45:27.200 Feel better.

00:45:28.360 We'll talk to you over the weekend.

00:45:29.760 We'll see you back here Monday.

00:45:32.820 Spencer's very ill with the flu, but joined us.

00:45:36.460 EJ, also, we're going to get back.

00:45:38.620 We've been sending your clips to everybody.

00:45:40.880 Where did people go on us on Twitter this weekend to follow you, sir?

00:45:44.280 We'll have you back on early in the week.

00:45:45.600 Yeah, that'll be the best place to follow me, Steve.

00:45:49.220 The handle there is atrealejantonian.

00:45:51.940 Thank you so much for having me on, Steve.

00:45:53.860 It's such an important issue.

00:45:55.560 There's so much misinformation going around right now.

00:45:58.780 So, again, thank you for having me on and for helping to clarify all this.

00:46:02.620 No, we're going to have you on more.

00:46:03.880 You have the back of the American working man and woman, sir.

00:46:06.960 Okay.

00:46:07.460 Harry McDouglin is going to join us, but we have a long, cold open.

00:46:10.960 You have to see from the mainstream media about Georgia.

00:46:14.080 They're very focused on Harry.

00:46:15.620 They're very focused on the team at Georgia.

00:46:16.880 They're very focused on the war room.

00:46:17.900 Let's hit it.

00:46:19.260 Trump's visit comes amid escalating threats to federalized state-run elections,

00:46:24.280 which would go against the Constitution.

00:46:26.460 Just that old thing.

00:46:27.580 For now, a Trump-aligned Georgia election board has declined to intervene in Fulton County.

00:46:33.120 But notably, one of the five members left the door open to further action, telling reporters,

00:46:38.020 quote, I'm waiting to see what happens with the DOJ and the FBI seizure and see what comes

00:46:43.080 out of that.

00:46:44.980 Yeah, look, Donald Trump and his cast of characters that follow him as Republicans,

00:46:49.480 this is all a solution in search of a problem.

00:46:52.640 And they want to try to fit their narrative of this election being rigged through this shiny

00:46:56.760 object and this shiny object.

00:46:59.060 It's all been lies and continues to grow, and they're doubling down on it.

00:47:02.980 Look, if somebody shows up to the voter rights conversation, access to voting conversation

00:47:10.260 fairly and squarely, then they're not trying to limit crowds.

00:47:13.080 They're trying to open up access and just validate.

00:47:15.840 That's what this should all be about.

00:47:18.880 And it's all about those exceptions.

00:47:20.460 What about that nurse who works a 24-hour shift to support her family that can't show 0.84

00:47:24.740 up on Election Day that has to mail in that ballot early?

00:47:26.900 What about that person that's homebound due to an injury or an illness?

00:47:30.980 The list goes on and on.

00:47:32.180 Look, this is an outright attempt for Donald Trump to put his thumb on the scale.

00:47:37.140 You have to look no further than the FBI raids.

00:47:39.200 That had nothing to do with the 2020 election.

00:47:41.640 That's been validated, certified, hand-counted, double-counted, all of it.

00:47:45.520 It has to do with sowing little seeds of doubt so that he can claim fraud when they lose the

00:47:50.540 midterms in 26.

00:47:52.780 Mr. Duncan, I want to stay with you a sec on this, though, because in 2020, you were one

00:47:57.020 of a handful of Republicans really across the country that actually stood up against Trump.

00:48:01.840 And maintained that you had seen no evidence of voter fraud that Trump was claiming.

00:48:07.080 Do you think that there's anyone left in an elected position or an election administration

00:48:13.640 position in Georgia who, if there were similar efforts to overturn the results of a future

00:48:19.700 election, would actually be there and be in place to stand up to President Trump and the

00:48:24.860 Republican apparatus?

00:48:25.800 I certainly hope so.

00:48:28.100 I mean, that's the backbone of democracy.

00:48:30.360 And it's interesting to see how Republicans react to me in my stance to push back as hard

00:48:35.320 as I possibly can in private.

00:48:36.720 They're very supportive.

00:48:37.860 They can't wait for Donald Trump to get out of the scene.

00:48:39.820 They cannot explain tariffs or Greenland or weaponizing the Department of Justice or these

00:48:44.680 ICE raids or even these vicious attempts to try to limit voting just to steer the election

00:48:49.080 towards Republicans.

00:48:49.800 But publicly, most of them lack the courage to say it out loud.

00:48:53.500 Until Republicans have the courage to call Donald Trump out for being the worst mistake

00:48:57.620 this country's ever made, they're still going to have those problems.

00:49:00.780 And the best thing we can do as Democrats is win these elections, continue to win them

00:49:04.260 fairly and squarely, continue to harness the momentum of this movement to push MAGA back

00:49:09.240 into the closet and let us run this country in a way that's fair and equitable, even for

00:49:13.040 the people that don't vote for us.

00:49:14.600 I think that's an important cornerstone of democracy.

00:49:16.700 Trump says he will issue executive order to get voter ID requirements before midterms.

00:49:22.940 To Tia's point, and as you well know, elections are up to the states.

00:49:27.720 So if the president issues this executive order, would it be illegal on its face?

00:49:33.820 Would states be obligated to comply?

00:49:37.860 Well, if you believe in the Constitution like I do and every American should, the answer is

00:49:41.720 yes.

00:49:41.960 It would be an illegal attempt to usurp democracy as we know it.

00:49:47.300 These elections are not about the outcomes.

00:49:50.160 They're about the process.

00:49:52.040 And there's going to be ebbs and flows throughout time.

00:49:54.240 Donald Trump wants to win through any means necessary.

00:49:57.200 We've seen that since 2020.

00:49:58.900 We've seen the disgusting attempts.

00:50:00.460 He cares nothing about the law.

00:50:02.720 He cares nothing about the Constitution.

00:50:04.500 He only cares about the person looking at him in the mirror.

00:50:06.620 The thing that makes me continue to worry about the unique threat that this administration

00:50:16.440 at this hour poses to the Constitutional order is the unfolding January 6th.

00:50:25.360 Not just the insurrection at the Capitol, but the recruiting of fake electors, the challenging

00:50:32.700 of the results.

00:50:34.840 If Mike Pence had not done the courageous thing, and I have liberal friends who say, why do

00:50:40.600 you give him credit?

00:50:41.500 I said, because you've never been in the Oval Office being yelled at. 1.00

00:50:44.440 So shut up. 1.00

00:50:46.040 Right. 0.99

00:50:46.640 This is our point about knowing people.

00:50:49.820 Mike Pence. 0.95

00:50:50.040 And with a braying mob out front saying, hang my pants with a gallows. 1.00

00:50:54.920 With a gallows, right?

00:50:56.300 So he did the right thing.

00:50:59.620 The strategy, as we know from Peter Navarro and others, was that they were going to delay

00:51:06.880 the certification into the next week, week and a half, get toward the 20th, and then take

00:51:14.500 it to the House, because there wouldn't have been a result out of the election.

00:51:20.040 So what do you do if he had – if President Trump had prevailed in the House, thereby offering

00:51:28.420 a constitutionally sanctified remedy to an illegitimate result?

00:51:34.840 What do you do?

00:51:36.520 I don't know.

00:51:37.640 And I think if he could do it, I think President Trump would do that again tomorrow.

00:51:48.920 And if you want to be optimistic and say, well, yes, but it didn't happen, I just don't

00:51:57.180 think we should be running that – making it that close run a thing.

00:52:00.100 It's why I thought he was a unique threat, argued against it, no one cared.

00:52:07.260 And by the way, the folks who voted for him, their votes count absolutely as much as mine

00:52:12.740 does, right?

00:52:13.540 I don't think he is an illegitimate president.

00:52:17.820 I do not – you know, they said that about President Biden.

00:52:20.440 I don't share that, right?

00:52:24.000 A big, big part of this moment and what – whether we emerge from it is whether people

00:52:32.940 are going to have the citizen capital, if you will, to accept a loss and to see a loss

00:52:42.220 as seasonal as opposed to existential.

00:52:46.380 You know, you still need help from the boss.

00:52:51.500 If you could make one holiday wish, would you wish to be free from your credit card and

00:52:56.020 other debt?

00:52:57.600 Let's see if we can help you with that.

00:53:00.120 If we could give yourself one gift this holiday season, would it be finally to get some relief

00:53:05.240 from your credit card and other debt?

00:53:07.120 I might have a solution.

00:53:09.400 Here's why now is the time to make a move.

00:53:12.220 This time of year, credit card and loan companies close out their books.

00:53:16.000 They clean up past due accounts.

00:53:18.900 They sell or write off the debt to clear their books.

00:53:22.160 That means if you have credit card debt and unpaid bills, lenders may be more open to negotiating

00:53:27.720 and settling your account before you're in.

00:53:30.860 That means right now, and I mean right now, you may actually have leverage.

00:53:36.700 And Done With Debt knows how to use this to your advantage.

00:53:39.800 They monitor lender trends and understand the year-end pressure on creditors.

00:53:45.160 They use that timing to negotiate hard on your behalf.

00:53:49.400 Now's the time to get out from under crushing debt and interest payments without bankruptcy

00:53:54.020 or taking on new loans.

00:53:56.900 Done With Debt goes to work for you month one with one clear goal, to reduce your total debt

00:54:03.480 and leave you with more money every month.

00:54:06.200 Get started now, because your leverage may disappear at the end of the year.

00:54:13.260 Chat with a Done With Debt specialist at donewithdebt.com.

00:54:17.140 That's donewithdebt.com, donewithdebt.com.

00:54:21.320 Do it today.

Bannon's War Room - February 21, 2026

Episode 5160： Iran Tensions Grow; President Of Korea Sentenced To Life In Prison

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript