Bannon's War Room - Episode 5190： Focus Needs To Be Not Just On Iran But On CCP And Russia

00:00:00.000 Donovan, Eric Gerasi, who from day one in my office, he was my first sergeant in Iraq,

00:00:08.520 he's one of my senior advisors.

00:00:09.420 You're in the war room, it's Thursday, March 5th, in the year of our Lord, 2026, we are

00:00:12.820 watching Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speak down live in Miami, we're going to let him

00:00:17.280 finish, and then we have a PAC show, so don't go anywhere.

00:00:21.060 Patrick Weaver, Phil Hegseth, who I happen to know, and Ricky Berea, my chief, for doing

00:00:27.980 a great job putting this together, Tony Salisbury, thank you, so many folks that every single

00:00:34.520 day in Washington, I hope you know, are working hard to run as fast as you are, to stand alongside

00:00:40.160 you in this mission, this is not a conference with flags, so we can pat ourselves on the

00:00:45.780 back, I can tell you that, if I sold that to President Trump as the objective, he'd kick

00:00:50.960 me out of his office, this is an operational conference to bring our countries more closely

00:00:57.000 together to achieve a shared objective, and do so aggressively.

00:01:03.340 This is not a one race street.

00:01:05.640 Every partner in this region has to do more and invest more in your security as well.

00:01:10.380 We like you want a hemisphere of sovereign, secure, and prosperous nations.

00:01:15.760 We like you want what another great American President, Teddy Roosevelt, called the permanent

00:01:22.000 peace on this hemisphere, and it will require action from all of us.

00:01:27.880 You know, our schools used to teach American school children about our blessed history.

00:01:33.980 Every child in grade school grew up knowing the remarkable story of this country.

00:01:40.180 They knew that President James Monroe was once an orphan, that at a mere 16 years old, he

00:01:46.060 had to look after his siblings.

00:01:48.900 I've got an almost 16 year old, he couldn't have looked after anything.

00:01:52.960 It's remarkable.

00:01:53.960 Well, that orphan grew to be not just one of the greatest presidents, but one of our greatest

00:01:58.300 Americans.

00:01:59.660 After his presidency, when his wife died and he became frail and ill with heart failure,

00:02:03.740 he still spoke about what he called our shared cause of liberty, still talked about the toils

00:02:11.280 and the perils of our war for independence.

00:02:15.920 James Monroe, our seventh president, died on July 4th, the 4th of July, Independence Day,

00:02:22.940 1831, 50 years after 1776.

00:02:28.120 What I like to say is, here at the Department of War, we're in the 1775 business, which is

00:02:34.300 when Americans took up arms before they even declared independence.

00:02:38.680 All of you are also in the 1775 business.

00:02:41.960 Without the force of arms, without our militaries, we cannot keep our country safe.

00:02:47.060 That's my responsibility and it is yours.

00:02:51.100 With Donald Trump in the Oval Office and with all of you here, we can still realize that

00:02:55.680 a long ago dream of James Monroe in our time.

00:03:00.400 We will make the Americas great again.

00:03:04.960 Thank you and God bless you.

00:03:09.960 The United States and its partners have launched Operation Epic Fury.

00:03:20.640 The most lethal, most complex and most precise aerial operation in history.

00:03:25.520 Our military in the Middle East is undertaking an unprecedented operation to eliminate Iran's 1.00

00:03:31.740 ability to threaten Americans, as they've been doing for nearly half a century. 0.98

00:03:37.220 We are also sinking the Iranian Navy, the entire Navy. 1.00

00:03:42.880 We didn't start this war.

00:03:44.240 But under President Trump, we are finishing it.

00:03:51.240 Combat operations continue at this time in full force and they will continue until all of our

00:03:59.520 objectives are achieved.

00:04:04.240 Declan's unit was deployed in Kuwait for nine months.

00:04:16.240 They left in September of last year.

00:04:18.740 So estimated his time would have ended in May.

00:04:21.460 This was the morning before we dropped him off for him to leave.

00:04:25.580 He was our cat, Autumn's favorite.

00:04:27.740 He'd sit in his room.

00:04:28.740 He was going to be 21 in May in two months.

00:04:33.960 I would say Sunday.

00:04:34.960 I'm sure everybody started waking up that morning and you heard at the time that four

00:04:40.260 people had been killed and many injured.

00:04:45.420 I think we talked with our son in Italy at the time and said he had talked to Declan.

00:04:53.020 And Declan just was checking in with him.

00:04:55.240 The reason being is Declan was nine hours ahead of us.

00:04:58.320 He was two hours ahead of his brother.

00:05:01.020 So he called his brother.

00:05:03.040 So Declan had been sending us updates every one to two hours like, hey, everything's still

00:05:08.540 good.

00:05:09.540 I'm good.

00:05:10.540 Which goes to tell you, you know, he was thinking about us, like, don't worry about

00:05:14.420 me and so forth.

00:05:16.420 So he had checked in with his brother and kind of based off of timing, you know, and what

00:05:25.080 we know so far.

00:05:26.080 We don't know specifics, but we're just making an assumption based off of timing that it was

00:05:31.340 shortly after that phone call that he had gotten off with his brother, that this is when

00:05:35.880 that happened and his operations center got hit.

00:05:39.100 I still don't fully think it's real.

00:05:41.600 I didn't think it was real when they told us.

00:05:44.100 Um, because I just remember all of our conversations about what he was going to do when he came

00:05:49.100 back.

00:05:50.100 And so I'll just be sitting and thinking about it.

00:05:53.100 And then, I don't know, it's just, it's really hard.

00:05:57.100 And I didn't have like the same phone call like this weekend that my dad and like my brother

00:06:06.100 did.

00:06:07.100 And so I just really wish I got to tell my love one more time because he was just so amazing.

00:06:14.100 And he always in front of everybody just was like really strong.

00:06:19.100 He like, you know, his emotions really show.

00:06:23.100 But I just, I don't know.

00:06:24.100 I can't help but think because he was my little brother and he was probably really scared even

00:06:30.100 if he didn't want people to know.

00:06:32.100 And so I just wish he got to know one more time that we all loved him.

00:06:38.100 And so we're, uh, we're engaged in military action against, uh, the mothership of terrorism,

00:06:43.100 Iran, which I hope will sink pretty soon. 1.00

00:06:46.100 Do you think the threat level against the United States is up or down when it comes to

00:06:50.100 radical Islamic terrorists?

00:06:51.100 It's up. 0.77

00:06:52.100 It's up?

00:06:53.100 Yep.

00:06:54.100 So you mean they actually may want to come here and hit us because we hit them in Iran? 1.00

00:06:57.100 I don't think you have to be, you know, a general to figure that out.

00:07:00.100 Mm-hmm.

00:07:01.100 Is the Coast Guard without funding?

00:07:03.100 Portions of it.

00:07:04.100 We're keeping some of the salaries paid, but they're-

00:07:06.100 So there's no funds in the appropriation bill for the Coast Guard.

00:07:09.100 Is that correct?

00:07:10.100 That is correct.

00:07:11.100 Because your agency is not being funded.

00:07:14.100 It's the one part of the appropriations bill where we haven't agreed on funding.

00:07:19.100 Is that correct?

00:07:20.100 Correct.

00:07:21.100 Well, FEMA. 0.98

00:07:22.100 Mm-hmm.

00:07:23.100 No money, right?

00:07:24.100 Coast Guard.

00:07:25.100 No money.

00:07:26.100 Really?

00:07:28.100 Really?

00:07:29.100 ICE?

00:07:30.100 Mm-hmm.

00:07:31.100 They have money because of the bill we did before.

00:07:33.100 The Secret Service.

00:07:34.100 Are these people being paid?

00:07:36.100 Yes, they are.

00:07:37.100 They're being paid, but do we have money?

00:07:39.100 Our law enforcement is paid, but their resources, their administrative staff, their contracting.

00:07:43.100 They're not being paid out of appropriated funds this year, right?

00:07:45.100 Correct.

00:07:46.100 Correct.

00:07:47.100 So in the appropriations process, we've got no new money for the Secret Service.

00:07:50.100 Does that make any sense to anybody in America?

00:07:54.100 Can we not understand America is under siege now?

00:07:57.100 Likely to be attacked because radical Islam is under siege and they're going to hit back?

00:08:03.100 And we're sitting here looking at each other and not funding DHS?

00:08:08.100 This is the primal scream of a dying regime.

00:08:13.100 Pray for our enemies, because we're going medieval on these people.

00:08:18.100 Here's the time I got a free shot at all these networks lying about the people.

00:08:23.100 The people have had a belly full of it.

00:08:25.100 I know you don't like hearing that.

00:08:26.100 I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it.

00:08:30.100 It's going to happen.

00:08:31.100 And where do people like that go to share the big lie?

00:08:34.100 Mega Media.

00:08:35.100 I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.

00:08:41.100 Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?

00:08:45.100 If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.

00:08:51.100 War Room.

00:08:52.100 Here's your host, Stephen K. Vance.

00:08:58.100 Here in the War Room, it's Thursday, March 5th, in the year of our Lord, 2026.

00:09:06.100 That first video that we played, that is a compilation that CENTCOM put out of the first 100 hours,

00:09:13.100 which I guess we have now passed of, I guess, the non-war war.

00:09:17.100 It depends who you ask, what's going down in Iran.

00:09:21.100 Wonderful execution, of course, our thoughts and prayers are with the United States military.

00:09:26.100 Just a tragic video of one of the, I believe now, six U.S. service members who have been killed tragically,

00:09:33.100 just absolutely horrifically in this, as President Trump, I think, describes, ongoing combat operation.

00:09:41.100 We're going to go through all of it.

00:09:43.100 I think there's a lot of signal, a lot of noise in this news cycle, but we're going to give you just the signal.

00:09:49.100 Though, like I said, there's a lot of it to sort through.

00:09:51.100 So I want to start with Kurt Mills.

00:09:54.100 And Kurt, I want to have, you also got Brian Kennedy, but we're going to start with Kurt.

00:09:57.100 There's a really interesting Axios story, I think, as we sort of try to really understand the clear objectives.

00:10:04.100 I know the White House has put out their press releases and their statements.

00:10:07.100 But I think in order to understand where this conflict is going, it's best to understand the source of it.

00:10:12.100 There's some interesting reporting talking about how the Israelis have been making outreach to the White House,

00:10:19.100 trying to understand if there are talks or negotiations going on at the moment with the Iranians.

00:10:26.100 Can you sort of walk us through this reporting, this piece, and then we'll get into where we stand in the broader region?

00:10:33.100 Yeah, so obviously the start of the war has not gone great for the administration.

00:10:38.100 And so the best chance at this point for them is to seek an off-ramp.

00:10:42.100 There is some reporting from Axios a day or two ago that the Israelis actually phoned around the United States,

00:10:49.100 the Netanyahu administration, that is, to ensure that the U.S. was actually not negotiating again with the Iranians.

00:10:55.100 I have nothing to report about whether or not there are back channels.

00:10:58.100 There's probably deep back channels at this point between the U.S. and Iran, although not positive on that.

00:11:03.100 But, of course, the restarting of negotiations, the idea that the administration might just call it,

00:11:08.100 they've assassinated Khamenei, they have destroyed some of the Iranian military capabilities,

00:11:13.100 and might just call it a victory, I think is the best chance at this point to stop a war,

00:11:18.100 which, of course, the Israelis very much do not want.

00:11:21.100 Walk me through a little why you say not great.

00:11:26.100 Are you talking about the actual, you know, tactical kinetic operations, the messaging, the projected timeline?

00:11:33.100 I just want to get some clarification on that.

00:11:36.100 Yeah, look, I think on two main vertices.

00:11:39.100 So number one, the military.

00:11:41.100 The U.S. has now instructed U.S. citizens to evacuate upwards of over 15 countries.

00:11:46.100 The Iranians have internationalized or regionalized the conflict.

00:11:50.100 They have thrown Shahad drones and missiles throughout the Gulf region and in Israel.

00:11:55.100 These are places that, you know, I mean, Doha Airport, you know, Dubai Airport.

00:12:00.100 These are major thoroughfares for anyone who's ever traveled internationally outside of Europe.

00:12:04.100 These are places that Americans know well.

00:12:06.100 They're closed.

00:12:07.100 They are not safe.

00:12:08.100 The Gulf is not safe for people to visit, as the State Department has instructed.

00:12:12.100 And the Iranians have held. 0.92

00:12:14.100 It is not entirely clear that the assassination of Khamenei really changes the political calculus there.

00:12:20.100 In fact, they're poised to just appoint another Ayatollah Khamenei, his son Moshtaba.

00:12:25.100 So at this point, the Iranians have shown themselves far more plucky and adversarial in resisting the U.S. and Israeli assault than, say, Hamas was in Gaza, or Hezbollah certainly was in Lebanon, or even the Houthis were the Houthis in Yemen.

00:12:38.100 The Iranians are not Venezuela.

00:12:40.100 As much as the president is seeking a Venezuelan option here, the Iranians are a much more fearsome state. 1.00

00:12:46.100 And additionally, Khamenei was a different leader than Maduro.

00:12:49.100 It's a much more complex and decentralized bureaucracy.

00:12:53.100 The Iranians are going to hold on. 1.00

00:12:55.100 On the politics, it's very clear there's an elite MAGA revolt.

00:12:58.100 People like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and others have sounded the alarm, the sort of high-information Republican voters,

00:13:04.100 and especially the independence that President Trump brought to the polls in 2016 and 2024.

00:13:10.100 You know, the approval for this war is very, very low.

00:13:12.100 This is essentially a factional war of traditional Republican hawks and neocons, his allies on the Hill,

00:13:19.100 and many of the hawkish think tanks and magazines, frankly, that oppose Trump's initial rise to power.

00:13:26.100 I mean, just take a look at the National Review Against Trump issue from winter 2016.

00:13:32.100 That is a litany of people who are today supporting this Iran war.

00:13:36.100 And Kurt, just give me a minute because there's been some shifting timeline predictions for the first time ever.

00:13:45.100 I think yesterday we heard eight weeks, four weeks seemed to sort of be the number.

00:13:49.100 What do you think we're looking at right now?

00:13:53.100 I think they're obviously moving the Overton window both on depth and width or depth and breadth of this campaign.

00:14:02.100 Number one, they've already moved the Overton window to potentially having ground troops.

00:14:06.100 They're not ruling it out.

00:14:07.100 The senators on both parties, from everyone from Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut to Josh Hawley of Missouri,

00:14:12.100 hardly, you know, a liberal, have seemed spooked after the Hill briefing earlier this week about how long this campaign may be.

00:14:20.100 And Hegseth, the Secretary of War, keeps moving the goalposts on how long it may be.

00:14:24.100 Additionally, there was reporting out in Politico this morning that fascists of the administration are considering a war that is as long as 100 days, even stretching into the autumn.

00:14:33.100 Obviously, the president himself has castigated the idea that he couldn't fight a forever war.

00:14:39.100 Of course, President Trump ran against forever wars when he won in 16 and 24.

00:14:43.100 And the fact that he is sort of reading from the neocon script is obviously disheartening for those who voted for him in that reason.

00:14:50.100 We got a bounce to break. But if you can hang with me, I got a I got a cold open that I want your reactions to.

00:14:55.100 We'll be right back.

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00:16:21.100 I know you have to keep a lot of cards close to the vest on this, but we've already lost six troops, sir.

00:16:27.100 The president says he does expect more.

00:16:29.100 A lot of Americans and military families want to know if their loved ones are about to be deployed to Iran for this.

00:16:35.100 Will there be boots on the ground? The president has yet to rule that out.

00:16:39.100 Well, I certainly hope not. If there are boots on the ground, I hope they're not on the ground any longer than the boots on the ground were in Venezuela. 0.93

00:16:50.100 But I think that that's something the president knows that members of Congress certainly hope doesn't happen.

00:16:57.100 But sometimes that's unavoidable in a situation like this.

00:17:01.100 And you mentioned six troops had lost their lives. Some had been from Fort Knox in Kentucky, my home state.

00:17:08.100 So, you know, we're devastated. And obviously our thoughts and prayers are with the families of anyone that's been lost or wounded thus far.

00:17:15.100 Go ahead.

00:17:19.100 Caroline, could you tell us about the president's current thinking about ground troops and whether they could be used if they were to be sent into Iran?

00:17:28.100 What would they be used for? What's the situation?

00:17:30.100 Well, they're not part of the plan for this operation at this time, but I certainly will never take away military options on behalf of the president of the United States or the commander in chief.

00:17:40.100 And he wisely does not do the same for himself.

00:17:43.100 I know there's many leaders in the past who like to take options off of the table without having a full understanding of how things could develop.

00:17:49.100 So, again, it's not part of the current plan, but I'm not going to remove an option for the president that is on the table.

00:17:56.100 You're back in the war room. We still got Kurt Mills, Brian Kennedy going to be joining us after.

00:18:02.100 I would just say I think this boots on the ground discussion is obviously kind of the thing itself or at least one of the most determining and determinative factors into how this war, not war, whatever you want to call it, shakes out.

00:18:17.340 But I do think it's important to note that the second, third and fourth order, fifth, the list goes on, order effects of, you know, invading Iran, even if it's not actual kinetic, traditional boots on the ground type style conflict, are still very real, whether that's, you know, refugee influxes, refugee mass flows, terrorist attacks, sleeper cells.

00:18:41.000 I thought it was quite interesting that Lindsey Graham is just like, oh, well, I guess there's going to be a terrorist attack in the United States. Oops. 1.00

00:18:47.340 That is, I guess your America last is showing, but I guess that's always on display. But there's still orders of magnitude of impacts, I think significantly higher than the American people would like that come with any sort of kinetic engagement with an adversary like Iran. 0.94

00:19:04.720 I want to bring Kurt on, though, because I am a little confused. I mean, I would posit, I think, in the next week or so, you're going to start seeing, you know, some iteration, whether it's JSOC, SOCOM, kind of a limited hangout version of boots on the ground, maybe turning out into a fuller force, more traditional boots on the ground when colloquially you hear that.

00:19:28.680 But I'm curious, your thoughts, both through a historic lens, but also just with what you're hearing from the admin, is this sort of laying the groundwork for a more traditional kinetic insurgency, or do you think there is a chance that they get out now?

00:19:43.720 Okay, well, first, I think you were right to flag the Lindsey Graham comment. I think it was unbelievable that he told Secretary Noem yesterday, just casually, that the danger of, quote, Islamic terrorism is up, quote, because we hit Iran. 0.82

00:19:58.060 I mean, it's not even clear if it's cynicism or imbecility, frankly. Like, does it even occur to him, the causality here? It's really not clear if he doesn't care or he doesn't know. And at a certain point, it doesn't matter.

00:20:12.660 But it just shows you how casual these foreign policy mistakes are in sort of compounding America's problems. America's problem with terrorism is related to its forced posture overseas. And I think he just conceded it casually.

00:20:29.180 To your actual question, my apologies, as to boots on the ground, like, look, the president is now allied with the faction of neoconservatives who are giving him poor counsel. And there are all the hallmarks of neoconservative foreign policy mistakes in the making right now.

00:20:45.640 I would flag, you know, the sort of Kurdish farrago that the administration seems to be flirting with. You can't say for sure, but that very well could be a stalking horse for special operations that are already on the ground. 1.00

00:20:58.040 And I would flag the administration has not been extremely forthcoming about how all six servicemen or service people were killed.

00:21:06.740 And I think it's very possible the U.S. already has ground operations. I don't have evidence, but I don't.

00:21:12.080 The administration hasn't really ruled it out that they already have some personnel on the ground.

00:21:16.220 And of course, as the secretary of state and the former CIA director, Mike Pompeo, said into the new year when the Iran protests kicked off, he highly implied that CIA and Mossad were, you know, we had assets on the ground that were involved in spurring these protests in Iran.

00:21:32.200 Not denying the organic frustrations of the Iranian people with this government, but they were obviously used as a tinder and a causes belly for U.S. intervention at this point. 0.79

00:21:42.080 Yeah, that Lindsey Graham clip, I think sort of gets to the heart of it, the, you know, flippancy with which the homeland is treated in comparison to this like extremely steel-manned, ideologically aspirational version of what could maybe potentially, if 9 million things go right in an order that we've never seen happen before in history, makes us believe exactly the opposite.

00:22:08.280 If that happens or materializes in Iran, it's just sort of a very interesting cost-benefit analysis.

00:22:14.680 And I think what I would say to that mindset is, I just wish, Lindsey Graham, that you cared about the American people, like one one-hundredth of how much you cared about the Iranian people, which it seems to me that there's this idea that there's this organic uprising going on there.

00:22:30.020 Then I'd ask why the CIA is so busy arming, you know, supposed rebellious forces, whether it's the Kurds or whatnot.

00:22:37.320 I don't know if that was bad intel, if we thought we were going to go in there and the people would sort of take it over in this populist-style revolt.

00:22:43.260 I don't necessarily think that we're seeing that happen, but even if you take away what is going on in Iran, I just think the premise, right, people like Lindsey Graham, you know what, Lindsey Graham, if Iran is such an imminent threat, which I learned apparently something can be an imminent threat if it's been around for 47 years, I don't really think that makes sense. 0.72

00:23:03.100 But I digress, because that's all we've been hearing from the neocons that I voted to get away from as a party, but shouldn't have all these senators then been, I don't know, absolutely apoplectic, breaking down, crying down, trying to secure the border under Joe Biden because all these Iranian sleeper cells would be embedding in the country? 0.69

00:23:21.100 Like, you would think they would have cared a little bit more about border security enough to, like, I don't know, go on Fox News and call for us now invading basically every country in the region and outside the region because apparently we're getting involved in Cuba, too, now, or at least the Cuban diaspora is lobbying the Trump administration.

00:23:38.900 You know what I'll say, and then I'll toss it to you, Kurt.

00:23:41.060 I'm a little tired of these, you know, ethnic diasporas here in the United States that we take in out of the goodness of our hearts, then demanding that American blood and treasure and the lives of the best and brightest Americans, like Sergeant Cody that you just saw, 20 years old from Iowa, have to die so these communities that are, like, vaguely American can somehow fulfill their vengeance against regimes in the country. 0.94

00:24:10.200 They no longer have allegiance to that's just not the point of what the United States of America is, and I wish why people like Lindsey Graham, that neocon ideology pisses me off so much and really makes me mad.

00:24:22.540 It is the flippancy with which they treat American lives and the American homeland, yet the way that they speak about these foreign countries, the people there, it's as if they have the revolutionary spirit and the American people, well, sorry, you just have to sit down and accept a terrorist

00:24:40.200 attack because Raytheon wants to make a little bit more money despite being years behind on all their drone orders that we should be able to have actual weapons stockpiles, but apparently we don't because, you know, defense primes are the way the Pentagon wants to go.

00:24:54.300 Kurt, I know there's a lot of debate going on right now back and forth, and MAGA, I'm sure some of the comments section, probably getter, is lighting me up for that, but I think the difference between our side and the left is that we can have disagreements and you don't have to hate the people who are sharing these viewpoints.

00:25:08.980 I think that's what makes our side really unique.

00:25:12.280 What would your pitch to people who are listening to you and are wanting to pull their hair out saying you're skeptical, you're a Trump doomer, you don't know what you're talking about.

00:25:19.920 I'm sure they'd say we're probably both too young, we don't know, we're too anti-war.

00:25:24.740 What would your pitch be saying that you represent actually real MAGA?

00:25:31.140 Well, just first, I mean, the people who are dying, the service people are young people, so I feel like they get a vote.

00:25:36.180 And I think their perspective matters.

00:25:38.800 And I mean, the sergeant, the late sergeant that you flagged, his life was tragically bookmarked by, I mean, he was born after 9-11.

00:25:46.900 And he died fighting a global war on terror that is arguably still going that hasn't ended even with the exhaustion of his life.

00:25:54.840 And so it's just awful.

00:25:57.340 And I think it's not in the American national interest to be fighting this war or really to particularly care about what happens one way or the other in the Middle East.

00:26:07.980 As to the point that you make about the right having a robust conversation right now, yeah, I think it's a good thing.

00:26:13.920 And I think it is something that makes the right better than the left.

00:26:16.000 I remember, and people well remember, the Ukraine debate four years ago, the left shut down the conversation.

00:26:23.560 They excised any left-wing critics of the Ukraine war.

00:26:27.260 They tried to cancel the Congressional Progressive Caucus from even writing a strongly worded letter about the Ukraine war ahead of the midterms.

00:26:35.380 And the right's not doing that.

00:26:36.760 The right is having a small D democratic, robust, vibrant conversation. 0.58

00:26:41.860 And I think that's a good thing.

00:26:42.880 I think that is the milieu in which Trump came to power in 2016 and rose back in 2024.

00:26:49.180 And I think it will be the key to, you know, enduring conservative and Republican victories in the future.

00:26:56.820 There's this idea that there shouldn't be a fight.

00:26:59.780 There's the idea that there shouldn't be a contest.

00:27:01.880 I don't remember the 2016 primary or the 2024 primary or the Trump era in general being polite or close-minded.

00:27:10.560 And so I think we should welcome this discussion.

00:27:12.880 As to the age point that you're making, I mean, yeah, I mean, I guess maybe we're too young, but I'm not that young.

00:27:19.560 I mean, I'm pretty much aged out.

00:27:22.840 Not that I'm applying, but I'm pretty much aged out to be in the special forces.

00:27:27.920 The special forces are going to be people who are pretty much younger than me who potentially would die in this Iran war.

00:27:33.540 So I think it is relevant what millennials and Gen Z think.

00:27:36.860 And it is the future.

00:27:37.820 And I think if you turn your back on the future, we run the risk of running an increasingly, you know, it already is, but an even more laughably gerontocratic society.

00:27:47.840 Kurt Mills, if people want to follow you, read the magazine, where can they go?

00:27:51.560 Leave some comments.

00:27:52.700 We appreciate it.

00:27:53.740 Where can they go to do that?

00:27:56.020 The magazine was founded in 2002 by Patrick J.

00:27:58.640 Buchanan, the Tucker Carlson of his age.

00:28:01.140 He founded with conservatives and friends against the Iraq war in 2002.

00:28:05.280 It's at theamericanconservative.com.

00:28:07.480 My own personal commentary and with the admixture of the magazine is at C-U-R-T-M-I-L-L-S on X.

00:28:13.760 Thank you, Natalie.

00:28:15.260 Thank you, Kurt, for joining us.

00:28:16.580 We'll have you back.

00:28:17.380 Brian Kennedy after this short break.

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00:30:59.920 You're back in the War Room.

00:31:02.040 I want to bring on Brian Kennedy.

00:31:04.360 Look, I'm all for open discussion and debate.

00:31:07.220 I know the comment section.

00:31:08.320 You guys like to get heated.

00:31:10.100 I'm all for it.

00:31:11.120 That's passionate citizenship.

00:31:13.480 It's your patriotic duty.

00:31:15.240 I just always say, asking for clarity from the administration.

00:31:19.360 There's nothing wrong with that.

00:31:21.160 But I want to bring on some different perspectives.

00:31:23.820 We got Brian Kennedy.

00:31:25.060 Brian, I want to get into the also kind of implications on other regions, particularly

00:31:30.100 with the Chinese and Taiwan and all that.

00:31:32.460 But before we pivot to, you know, my favorite topic to discuss, your sort of thoughts on the,

00:31:39.520 you know, Kurt Mills and Con Worldview, the assessment of where we stand now.

00:31:44.880 Do you agree?

00:31:45.780 Where do you maybe differ?

00:31:49.900 Yeah, well, Kurt's a smart guy.

00:31:51.520 First of all, great to be with you, Natalie.

00:31:53.760 Always good to be with you.

00:31:55.500 Kurt's a smart guy.

00:31:56.800 And I understand his perspective.

00:31:58.500 But the fact is, the president is anti-war.

00:32:03.040 I'm anti-war, as are many of the MAGA, you know, base.

00:32:07.940 So the president wouldn't have done this, President Trump, if he didn't think something

00:32:12.200 was really serious here.

00:32:14.180 He himself, you know, tried diplomacy, didn't want to go to war.

00:32:18.500 He moved a third of the Navy over there for sure, because he thought there was something

00:32:23.260 imminent going on.

00:32:25.000 And he was concerned about that.

00:32:26.640 But he would prefer not to go to war.

00:32:29.920 This is a very risky thing he's done.

00:32:32.860 But war is a risky business.

00:32:35.800 And so he did it because he thought that the benefits of doing it would outweigh those risks.

00:32:41.580 And I would humbly say that it's an unfortunate, you know, byproduct of war that young men die.

00:32:49.140 You know, Sergeant Cody, who you showed earlier, he died for the United States of America and

00:32:53.800 its national security, for the people of the country.

00:32:57.820 And we should be very proud of him.

00:33:00.040 But we also have to remember, as we remember him, that it's very difficult to fight wars

00:33:05.720 trying to pull on the heartstrings of Americans every day by showing the young dead.

00:33:11.460 It's an unfortunate thing.

00:33:13.360 It's a most unfortunate thing.

00:33:15.060 But these things happen.

00:33:16.360 And they only happen because war is a very deadly business.

00:33:21.340 And the president wouldn't have put us on this path unless he thought it was absolutely necessary.

00:33:27.460 And, you know, you said earlier that this wasn't an imminent threat or for 47 years, you know,

00:33:33.960 we've been arguing with Iran and this is not an imminent threat.

00:33:38.620 Well, how do we know that?

00:33:40.960 Well, we don't.

00:33:43.580 We can surmise what's going on.

00:33:46.600 But Iran was working on nuclear weapons.

00:33:49.500 They had the option of foregoing their work on nuclear weapons.

00:33:53.680 They wouldn't do it.

00:33:55.160 What does that tell us?

00:33:56.940 Well, it tells us that Iran is serious about being a regional power with nuclear weapons. 0.87

00:34:03.980 Everyone says, well, this is just carrying out Israeli foreign policy.

00:34:07.460 Well, it may be.

00:34:10.020 Certainly, Israelis have an interest in this.

00:34:12.880 But so do the Saudis. 0.99

00:34:14.000 So do the Qataris. 0.98

00:34:14.900 So do the other Emirate states.

00:34:17.760 No one wants Iran to have nuclear weapons.

00:34:21.300 And I would say when it comes to those nuclear weapons, the purpose of those was, you know,

00:34:27.000 first and foremost, the United States.

00:34:29.940 They're not going to use their nuclear weapons if they acquire them.

00:34:33.600 And I've said before on the show, I think they already do.

00:34:36.300 But they wouldn't use those against Israel.

00:34:39.580 They knew if they used them against Israel, that would be met with nuclear retaliation against Iran.

00:34:46.720 So it wasn't really in the equation that they were going to attack Israel.

00:34:51.000 Who could they attack?

00:34:52.120 Well, they could attack the United States.

00:34:55.400 And they weren't going to do it from the territory of Iran.

00:34:59.400 Their own Iranian nuclear strategic doctrine is to be able to launch a nuclear ballistic missile from a ship,

00:35:08.960 presumably off the coast of the United States, in order to attack either an American city or to use it as an EMP weapon against the United States.

00:35:18.420 Now, the mere fact that that hasn't happened before now is not at all indicative of what could happen in the future.

00:35:25.160 And President Trump had certain intelligence he must have to lead him to believe that that was going to happen sometime in the future and that he wasn't going to let that progress any further, hence where we are today.

00:35:40.440 So for all the folks who, you know, think this is a neocon project, President Trump's not a neocon.

00:35:47.420 And I don't even think the people around him are necessarily neocons.

00:35:52.080 They're people who are looking at the hard facts of the Iranian nuclear program and discerning that they cannot have nuclear weapons,

00:36:01.000 which they will use first and foremost against the United States.

00:36:05.020 I'm curious because Senator, I believe it was Senator Cotton, was on Fox, I think, a day or two ago.

00:36:12.120 And why I brought up the word imminent, it was, I think, actually quite an interesting community note on X,

00:36:18.480 where the senator was talking about the reason why we went in is that Iran has been an imminent threat for 47 years,

00:36:24.740 which I do think is sort of an oxymoronic sentence.

00:36:27.160 Of course, I understand it. I agree with your assessment.

00:36:29.560 I don't think the president is a neocon either.

00:36:32.360 But I'm curious then how you square this idea of imminent threat with the other rhetoric and documents that we've seen from the administration,

00:36:42.080 whether it was the national defense strategy, the national security strategy,

00:36:45.380 or even a lot of the press post-midnight hammer, saying that Iran was as weak, as vulnerable, as degraded.

00:36:52.720 In some cases, they even used the word, you know, obliterated, as we've ever seen,

00:36:57.780 which for me makes it a little hard to square that positioning of Iran with then, you know,

00:37:03.700 this was going to be the time that they would attack.

00:37:06.680 And I would also tack on there, I'll ask you a couple of questions and you just engage how you'd like.

00:37:12.000 But who's to say, too, that going in like this, when a clear successor, it's clearly not, you know, a Venezuela-type operation.

00:37:20.500 I also do think the fact that it's an Islamic theocracy complicates the Venezuela template a bit, 1.00

00:37:25.660 at least from like a sleeper cell perspective.

00:37:28.000 But who's to say that changing the regime there even necessarily results in a non-nuclear or nuclear-seeking state?

00:37:38.280 Who's to say that we don't get a more radicalized Iran? 1.00

00:37:42.560 Yeah, it's a great question, Natalie.

00:37:44.220 It's a good observation, too.

00:37:45.580 Look, when we think of Venezuela, we didn't change the regime in Venezuela.

00:37:52.700 We changed the mind of the regime in Venezuela.

00:37:56.080 So when the president says a Venezuela-type operation or a Venezuela-type regime change,

00:38:02.500 it's changing the mind of the regime that they're going to believe that attacking the United States is a good thing.

00:38:08.660 Look, in Iran, there is very, very little what you would call in American terms civil society, 1.00

00:38:16.980 meaning people who form public groups, who can understand the public good,

00:38:22.980 who can work towards civil engagement and the production of a government that has the interests of the people at heart.

00:38:31.400 But that's not going to happen in Iran.

00:38:35.040 And the failure of the neocons was believing that they could create that in the Middle East, in Iraq and elsewhere.

00:38:43.240 That was a gross failure.

00:38:44.700 So I can see why many young folks think that the use of American military power and engagement is a bad idea,

00:38:54.180 because our past history prior, I will say, to President Trump, 0.99

00:38:59.280 has been to use American military force and American military power in a most ineffective and, frankly, stupid way. 1.00

00:39:07.660 Thinking we were going to democratize Iraq was a very stupid idea. 1.00

00:39:11.620 We're not going to democratize Iran. 0.99

00:39:14.640 We're not going to create in Iran any kind of free society. 1.00

00:39:18.680 That's not our job.

00:39:20.260 That is the job of the Iranian people. 0.69

00:39:22.480 But even then, that's not likely to happen,

00:39:25.180 because they don't have a civil society from whence this will come.

00:39:29.160 So you're going to get some kind of Islamic theocracy, probably, 0.99

00:39:34.520 or an Islamic military dictatorship, quite likely.

00:39:38.480 That is the quite likely outcome.

00:39:41.020 But it will be a dictatorship that has the interests of Iran at heart, 0.94

00:39:47.440 and that interest in Iran will be not to attack the United States.

00:39:52.480 Not to build nuclear weapons and to keep to themselves.

00:39:57.160 And so we should have, and I don't think the president has any illusions that we're going to create a free society in Iran. 0.96

00:40:04.900 He does have the very clear objective of making sure that in Iran you have a regime that believes nuclear weapons are a very bad idea,

00:40:13.400 and that trying to kill Americans is an even worse idea.

00:40:19.120 And so from that point of view, this seems perfectly consistent with the America First approach of MAGA and actually a rejection of neocon ideology. 1.00

00:40:31.400 And look, Lindsey Graham is a ridiculous human being. 1.00

00:40:33.980 And so, you know, the fact that the people who are for the war, many of them are ridiculous human beings, 0.99

00:40:41.920 doesn't make the objectives of this military engagement in Iran wrong,

00:40:47.100 or in any way, you know, discount what it is President Trump's trying to achieve here.

00:40:52.520 I'm curious your perspective, both the kind of, you know, de jure de facto, actually what the admin is pursuing,

00:41:01.580 but then your opinion too, when you talk about these sort of security guarantees,

00:41:07.300 you know, maybe accepting some sort of Islamic theocratic regime,

00:41:10.500 but as long as they're not explicitly seeking to attack the United States,

00:41:14.200 there's some form of compromise there.

00:41:16.700 Do you think that the kind of calculus for that also includes Israel and our allies and partners in the region,

00:41:25.900 or do you think that that is something that President Trump is negotiating purely from it's only about America?

00:41:32.880 Or do you think our partners, junior partners, everyone to call them, in the region are also part of that too?

00:41:39.680 I think President Trump is doing first and foremost what is good for America.

00:41:43.780 And the fact that you hear these stories of Israel not knowing what these back-channel deals are,

00:41:50.620 or potential negotiations are, is a sign that the President's going to do what he thinks is best.

00:41:56.560 It may benefit Israel in the long run, it may benefit Saudi Arabia in the long run, 0.61

00:42:01.780 but his first and only interest here is what's good for the United States.

00:42:06.640 And I really, I can't, I'm a little, you know, the young folks within the MAGA movement who don't understand that,

00:42:14.640 I think, simply don't have enough, I would encourage them to look deeper into what the President's objectives are,

00:42:21.960 and not have a reflective sort of dislike of military engagements,

00:42:28.460 because they think it will lead to a broader war.

00:42:31.920 And let me say, this may lead to a broader war, and I hope it doesn't.

00:42:35.260 But, you know, we've been talking on this, on War Room for some time about us being in World War III.

00:42:41.360 And this is one front in World War III.

00:42:43.960 And you simply can't, you can't dismiss this notion that the President sees it that way,

00:42:52.600 and that he wants to take Iran off the table, because Iran is a proxy of communist China.

00:43:00.120 And so the communist Chinese interest here has to be first and foremost.

00:43:05.100 And frankly, I'm worried about Islamic terrorism in the United States. 0.97

00:43:09.940 I'm also worried about the 200,000 Chinese men of military age who look like special forces, 1.00

00:43:17.800 who came over during the Biden administration, and what they could be doing in our country,

00:43:23.320 and what they are doing in our country, as you pointed out in your own investigative reporting.

00:43:30.200 And so that leads me to the conclusion that we're in war.

00:43:31.120 Brian, we're going to have to jump to break shortly.

00:43:33.300 I want to hold you through, because you're just ahead of me.

00:43:37.820 I want to get to the China angle on all this.

00:43:39.780 I will say I was recently on the campus of Stanford, and I actually saw a Chinese national jogging there wearing a PLA t-shirt.

00:43:47.880 So if that doesn't tell you the threat that we face, then I don't know it does.

00:43:53.240 Brian, if you can hang with us.

00:43:54.400 I love asking questions like this.

00:43:55.940 I agree.

00:43:56.380 Young people maybe have a bit of a reflexive kind of trigger point on this,

00:44:00.100 but I think it's important to ask these questions and get the information out there

00:44:04.160 so everyone in the audience can hear some different viewpoints.

00:44:06.980 We'll be right back.

00:44:08.180 More Brian Kennedy on the China threat.

00:44:10.140 All things are on right after this break.

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00:45:43.080 In the war room, here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.

00:45:52.780 You're back in the war room.

00:45:54.360 We've still got Brian Kennedy with us.

00:45:56.840 Brian, I want to sort of let you pick up where you left off,

00:45:59.960 but I just want to pose sort of the broader question, obviously,

00:46:03.600 how does this implicate the PRC?

00:46:06.380 I think the Taiwan question.

00:46:08.580 I'll give you this to start you off for, what is it?

00:46:11.660 I think every day for the past, I don't know how many years,

00:46:14.540 the Chinese Air Force, they've done their military kind of air incursions

00:46:19.800 over Taiwan, I think, and Tainan every day, multiple times a day.

00:46:24.120 And I think for the last three days,

00:46:25.520 at least open source intelligence is showing us that they've stopped.

00:46:29.220 I'm curious how you interpret that more broadly, the paradigm.

00:46:33.900 Do you think America's actions, whether it's Iran or Venezuela,

00:46:38.060 emboldens the PRC to be more aggressive with Taiwan?

00:46:42.000 Or do you think it shows them that the United States is not going to mess around

00:46:45.940 and put up with any of their kind of attempts to meddle there?

00:46:50.100 Yeah, that's a great question, too, Natalie.

00:46:54.200 I think what that shows is that the Chinese don't want to escalate things right now,

00:47:00.600 that this is a very dangerous time in world history.

00:47:05.700 We have a lot of our military over in that part of the world.

00:47:10.260 We're doing very serious things in Iran, 0.99

00:47:13.240 and the Chinese do not want to do the kind of things to provoke us right now.

00:47:17.480 And so let us hope that cooler heads prevail, as they say,

00:47:22.860 and that China sees this as something that's being done in America's interest,

00:47:28.580 and that they're not going to do the kind of things to provoke us,

00:47:32.020 especially vis-a-vis Taiwan.

00:47:34.380 But, you know, I want to underscore the fact that these things are not desirable to have done,

00:47:42.740 but the president did it because he thought he had to do it.

00:47:45.900 And so there's something bigger going on here.

00:47:49.360 This is a much bigger war.

00:47:51.380 And him going after Maduro in Venezuela is, in my mind,

00:47:57.020 designed to take a Chinese proxy off the table.

00:48:00.100 If he does go after Cuba or encourage regime change in Cuba,

00:48:04.860 that won't be a neocon, you know, expeditionary kind of, you know, engagement.

00:48:10.560 That will be because the president believes China can't have a proxy or the Russians can't have a proxy in Cuba.

00:48:18.140 And that's American interest being defined and operated on rather than some kind of neocon democratizing the world kind of approach.

00:48:27.400 Brian, I'm asking you tough questions, but it's because I respect you very much.

00:48:34.940 I think you're one of the best guests we have on War Room.

00:48:36.800 But I'm curious how you square the idea of using kinetic action to take Chinese proxies off the map.

00:48:44.580 Within the administration also, for instance, you know, canceling arm sales or arm transfers to Taiwan

00:48:52.000 or greenlighting the H-200 chips, kind of giving them some of our most sensitive and high-value tech transfers.

00:49:01.360 How do you see that kind of squaring with this more kinetic force to take out Chinese proxies? 0.65

00:49:09.440 Well, that's a great question, too.

00:49:13.440 The administration should not be selling our advanced chips to Communist China.

00:49:20.760 I'm for decoupling, a systematic decoupling with Communist China entirely, as you know. 0.94

00:49:27.640 And I'm for selling arms to Taiwan and doing it at a rapid pace.

00:49:34.260 And our so-called military-industrial complex needs to be more industrial and industrious

00:49:40.440 in producing munitions for us so that we can sell them to whatever country that is in our interest to sell them to.

00:49:49.580 And so, yes, the administration should be more consistent when it comes to that.

00:49:54.260 They should be making sure that Communist China does not have access to U.S. capital markets. 0.99

00:49:58.640 They shouldn't have Communist China being able to buy up U.S. farmland. 0.83

00:50:02.220 They should be buying back from Communist China the farmland they've already bought. 0.64

00:50:06.580 We need to get much more serious about Communist China. 0.78

00:50:09.640 And in the meantime, we have to use kinetic action to make sure that Communist China's proxies around the world 0.97

00:50:16.260 are defanged, as Captain Fennell said yesterday, from being able to harm the United States.

00:50:24.180 Yes. And look, we talk about nuclear war and nuclear weapons were the cause for President Trump going into Iran.

00:50:32.980 And because we've not had a nuclear war doesn't mean there won't be one someday.

00:50:37.400 And President Trump is trying to avoid that.

00:50:40.340 And he only would have done that if he believed that whatever track Iran was on would have led to that eventuality 0.50

00:50:47.580 or that they already had them and he wanted to degrade their capability of ever being able to use them.

00:50:54.620 And so, as undesirable as many of these things are, they were done for a reason, and a very serious reason.

00:51:01.960 And he wouldn't have done it unless that reason was very serious.

00:51:06.480 And, Brian, we've got about two minutes left.

00:51:08.760 I want you just to sort of sketch what you think the contours of both a politically positive but also geopolitically safe kind of off-ramp or timeline would look like,

00:51:24.260 specifically in Iran, what that kind of level of escalation would be, what is the kind of crescendo, are we there yet, are you expecting more action there,

00:51:34.920 or when do you think the administration, or by when, do you think they need to, you know, colloquially, we would call it, get out?

00:51:42.740 Here's the easy answer. I don't know.

00:51:45.740 The administration has certain objectives when it comes to degrading their military capability.

00:51:52.540 I would say that we should leave when the Iranian regime, whoever that is, believes they've been defeated. 1.00

00:52:01.320 Not only defeated, but that they know they've been defeated, and that they believe deep within them that it is a bad idea to think about attacking the United States in whatever way they can.

00:52:16.720 Look, for 47 years, they've committed textbook acts of war against the United States.

00:52:22.720 Whether it was taking our embassy, or using surrogates to kill our men in Beirut, or, you know, the final pre-flight training of the 9-11 hijackers was in Iran.

00:52:36.340 Yeah.

00:52:37.300 After September 11th, Osama bin Laden's family lived in Iran.

00:52:42.920 Osama bin Laden's diaries have, you know, a lot of correspondence with his colleagues about,

00:52:49.480 we don't like the Iranians, but they provide us money and intelligence. 1.00

00:52:53.340 And then they provide them munitions in Iraq to kill Americans. 0.95

00:52:58.220 So they've been doing this for a long time.

00:52:59.980 Brian, I hate to interrupt you, but we're coming up against the end of the show, and I'm actually tossing to Steve.

00:53:04.920 So don't worry, Warren Posse, you get Steve back.

00:53:07.500 But Brian, if people want your commentary on this, which I know they do, where can they go to follow you and get your writings?

00:53:13.680 Thank you, Natalie.

00:53:16.880 On X, it's Brian T. Kennedy 1.

00:53:19.280 On Getter and True Social is Brian T. Kennedy.

00:53:21.840 And they can go to presentdangerchina.org.

00:53:25.060 Thanks.

00:53:25.500 Great to be with you this morning.

00:53:26.140 They must follow.

00:53:27.480 Brian, thank you for joining.

00:53:28.420 Thank you for putting up with my questions.

00:53:31.220 I think discussions like this are important to have, you know?

00:53:34.860 America first.

00:53:35.940 It's quite an explosive term, but we're here to defend that.

00:53:38.780 In the warm, Steve Bannon picking up after the break.

00:53:41.340 Have a good one.

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Bannon's War Room - March 05, 2026

Episode 5190： Focus Needs To Be Not Just On Iran But On CCP And Russia

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