Bannon's War Room - Episode 5247⧸5248： Live From CPAC Day 1

00:00:00.000 and it's prepared to probably go into battle maybe even this weekend so the

00:00:03.900 country has to come together for that there's gonna be plenty of time for

00:00:07.240 finger-pointing about how we got here but the questions got to be what do we

00:00:11.580 find as victory what does President Trump define as victory and how do we

00:00:15.960 get this thing done as quickly as possible and get our boys and girls home

00:00:19.680 okay so you posed a critical question and really all the only answer that

00:00:23.820 really matters is what does President Trump view as victory but how would you

00:00:27.520 to find victory i'm curious i would find victories that president trump set out the military operation

00:00:33.520 to defang and declaw uh the iranian uh seven no nuclear weapons destroy their industrial base

00:00:40.640 destroy their ballistic missile and their missile capabilities those four or five things but you have

00:00:45.360 to make sure that we can guarantee free passage of the strait of hormuz i was there in 1979 and 1980

00:00:52.320 I was on a destroyer during the Iranian hostage crisis.

00:00:55.920 We were the first carrier battle group ever to show up, what, 47 years ago.

00:01:00.500 So it's a dangerous place.

00:01:02.680 We have to do that.

00:01:03.680 If we do that, I think President Trump can call that victory and we can come home.

00:01:08.760 My fear is, and here's one thing you should notice, the Iranians who's left of them have

00:01:17.100 picked up the tactics of President Trump.

00:01:19.560 I mean, they're very Trumpian in how they respond to him, right?

00:01:22.960 Hey, dude, we're fighting to the end.

00:01:26.360 Here's our five things.

00:01:27.560 They're non-negotiable.

00:01:28.800 If you want a meeting, agree to it.

00:01:30.380 They've got an edge to them, and I think that edge is going to be taken off,

00:01:33.840 hopefully by the military in the next 48 hours.

00:01:35.620 If you want to control the strait and Karg Island, it's not going to be by the air.

00:01:40.620 You're going to have to go in on the ground.

00:01:41.920 Well, on the ground, the other thing I think we have to have a conversation

00:01:45.080 totally destroy the iranians ability to go to dubai and get money money and when we go to karg

00:01:51.560 island and those islands and the thing we have to have the uae the saudi's and qatar military

00:01:56.920 have to be this has to be all the persian gulf countries have to have troops okay we have to

00:02:03.000 have a unified front this can't be americans just going and doing it we have to have the arabs with

00:02:07.560 us if they're not with us then i think that's another conversation steve the thing that strikes

00:02:13.000 me about your estimation as to what would define victory you didn't mention leadership you didn't

00:02:18.600 mention a change in leadership or or the installment of some sort of iranian leadership

00:02:23.320 does that not factor into you well listen i think if you look at it i think president trump's right

00:02:28.040 i mean he took out the ayatollah he's taken out all the way down i think to the brigade level

00:02:33.160 on the on the uh revolutionary guard right uh if he finds somebody to negotiate with

00:02:39.160 that to me by definition is the leadership if he finds somebody to negotiate with he hasn't found

00:02:44.840 it yet right we have we have a path through the pakistanis there's some other group that keeps

00:02:50.760 giving you know negative feedback but once he finds that group that whitkoff or the vice

00:02:56.520 president or jared kushner whoever's in the room with our people i would say by definition that's

00:03:03.400 the leadership he's comfortable enough with that can that can so so it's almost you find out who

00:03:09.160 you can negotiate with that can actually represent the country as shattered as it is and then and

00:03:15.160 then we that to me is the leadership you deal with okay you wonder if it's you wonder if they

00:03:20.920 can find a delci rodriguez over in iran you wonder if that can happen it's whack-a-mole over there

00:03:26.200 steve it's whack-a-mole i think the delci rodriguez thing as you know developed over time they actually

00:03:31.400 had a side negotiation with her in Qatar which is very smart it's quite it's quite it's very tough

00:03:37.160 i think to uh i think a lot of those guys that they thought they had a lot of those have been

00:03:42.040 killed and so that's why you have different uh power centers over there and that one power center

00:03:48.280 that's being most aggressive against president trump may actually be the leadership you end up

00:03:53.240 dealing with but i'm sure president trump and the intelligence services and joint command know

00:03:58.680 they're looking for somebody they can actually because remember to make this deal you have to

00:04:02.680 live by the terms of it that's what that's what i think is so important absolutely well steve

00:04:08.680 always good to see you my friend i think we are done it's 904 as i'm looking at my clock so we're

00:04:13.320 eating into your time anyway this is okay great we're going to do a cold open i want to thank

00:04:17.560 by the way are we ready to go with war room is this all right i think we're about ready okay

00:04:21.480 let's go let's go and do it looking at my clock let's go thank you steve let's go and do a cold

00:04:26.760 open right now. You guys love cold opens, don't you? Let's do a cold open and we'll be right

00:04:31.060 back. That's topping our global war coverage from our newsroom, a milestone in the air campaign

00:04:35.700 against Iran. U.S. Central Command tonight reports that American forces have now struck

00:04:40.220 more than 10,000 military targets since the operation began. This is one of them hit earlier

00:04:45.440 today. CENTCOM included no details, but CNN military analyst Cedric Layden tells us it was

00:04:50.460 a weapons storage facility. Israeli forces were busy as well again today.

00:04:56.760 That is another Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon today.

00:05:02.580 Part of what Israel's defense minister says is the campaign to establish a security zone about 20 miles deep inside Lebanese territory.

00:05:10.400 Israeli forces today also struck in Gaza.

00:05:12.600 Thank you.

00:05:42.600 president likes to maintain options at his disposal. She also reiterated that the administration's

00:05:49.620 timeline for the fighting is still, quote, approximately four to six weeks. To that end,

00:05:54.200 two senior administration officials tell us the White House is working to arrange a meeting in

00:05:57.680 Pakistan this weekend to discuss what an off-ramp to the war might entail.

00:06:02.020 Look, bringing Congress and the allies on board doesn't give you an unlimited, you know, blank

00:06:06.320 check, but it gives you a lot more than what we have now. When you go to war without Congress,

00:06:10.540 without the public, without allies, when your objectives constantly churn and change,

00:06:15.580 you basically are going to war without a cushion.

00:06:17.820 And if and when things last longer or start to head south, who do you appeal to?

00:06:22.900 What do you say?

00:06:23.620 And I think this administration is paying a price for the lack of preparation in every sense of the word.

00:06:29.020 Like we're doing in the Middle East with Iran.

00:06:32.100 And they are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly,

00:06:35.320 but they're afraid to say it because they figure they'll be killed by their own people.

00:06:40.540 They're also afraid they'll be killed by us.

00:06:44.360 There's never been a head of a country that wanted that job less than being the head of Iran.

00:06:53.520 I don't want it.

00:06:57.020 We listen to some of the things they say.

00:06:59.420 We hear them very clearly.

00:07:01.040 They say, I don't want it.

00:07:02.800 We'd like to make you the next supreme leader.

00:07:05.660 No, thank you.

00:07:06.720 I don't want it.

00:07:07.360 Obviously, for weeks, there has been a lot of chatter about the possibility that the Trump administration might deploy troops to take Karg Island in an attempt to kind of coerce Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz because this island is such a key economic lifeline for the Iranians.

00:07:22.120 And the Iranians have taken notice and they have begun, according to our sources, reinforcing the island with additional air defenses, with additional personnel.

00:07:30.820 And they've also begun laying traps, booby traps around the island that include mines, including along the shore where U.S. troops might make an amphibious landing if they were to move forward with a ground operation there.

00:07:44.640 Now, U.S. Central Command, they did decline to comment on the Iranian preparations for CARG.

00:07:49.720 But U.S. officials and experts that we spoke to said the risks are extremely high, given all of that, given the preparations Iran is making,

00:07:57.360 given the fact that this island is so close to the Iranian coastline, they will still be susceptible to Iranian drone and missile attacks.

00:08:06.080 And, you know, the Speaker of Iran's parliament on Wednesday actually said this openly,

00:08:10.580 He said that anyone who dares try to occupy these Iranian islands are going to be subject to relentless attack.

00:08:17.120 And he said that based on the intelligence the Iranians are receiving,

00:08:20.480 they understand that with the support of one of the U.S.'s regional allies,

00:08:25.400 the U.S. is preparing to occupy one of Iran's islands.

00:08:28.960 We know that Karg Island has been a fixation of President Trump's for quite some time now.

00:08:33.160 And he warned that all enemy movements are under the full surveillance of our armed forces.

00:08:37.980 So it's worth noting the U.S. does have the forces available to do this if it wants to.

00:08:42.940 Two marine expeditionary units, they are en route to the Middle East and they would specialize in this kind of operation.

00:08:49.020 But still, the risks and the casualty possibilities, the risks of really high U.S. casualties are there.

00:08:54.720 The Trump administration is taking note of that and weighing whether the risk is worth it.

00:08:58.280 Congress both on both sides of the aisle saying that they were unsatisfied.

00:09:02.540 You have the CENTCOM today saying we've hit 10,000 targets.

00:09:05.560 Is that the roadmap to success?

00:09:09.200 It's one measure of success, and there's no doubt, in my view, that there's a degradation.

00:09:14.300 If you go back, Anderson, the real reason we were all involved in this was to degrade,

00:09:18.660 if not eliminate their capacity to ever develop and basically produce a nuclear weapon.

00:09:24.620 But they've discovered in this process they got a nuclear option, and it's called the Strait of Hormuz.

00:09:29.000 And so we may actually be effective in degrading, but they also now discovered something they thought they had,

00:09:35.560 But they've now realized, and that's a problem that we're now caught in our own.

00:09:39.020 Do you think they've discovered that during this?

00:09:41.160 It was always on the plans.

00:09:43.560 Anybody that's ever sat through this in the Situation Room, it was always on the plans.

00:09:47.680 But it was never actually ever realized.

00:09:50.760 And now they know it, and they have a veto, but they have what is a nuclear option.

00:09:53.960 They got the nuclear option.

00:09:54.700 And until we can figure out how to open it, or as Richard Haas, who you had here earlier, he has said,

00:10:00.240 either it's open to everybody or it's closed to everybody.

00:10:02.400 And you've got to do an absolute 180, either side of that.

00:10:05.220 post. But that's what's been discovered here. Obama gave them the absolute right title and

00:10:12.660 interest. Gave everything to Iran. You remember that? When Bibi Netanyahu came over and begged

00:10:18.620 him not to do it. He gave Iran the right to have a nuclear weapon at the highest level within a

00:10:26.740 very short period of time. And I terminated that agreement as soon as I came to office.

00:10:35.220 And if I didn't terminate it, that weapon would have been used three years ago.

00:10:42.200 It would have been used a long time ago.

00:10:43.620 And then we stopped it a second time with those beautiful B-2 bombers.

00:10:48.460 They went in and they knocked the hell out of their nuclear potential.

00:10:52.320 And if they didn't do that attack, Iran would have had a nuclear weapon within two weeks to four weeks after the attack.

00:11:01.840 But we did attack and we obliterated the site.

00:11:05.220 and we saved it there too we did many things taking out solomani was very important he was an

00:11:14.360 evil man but that was a big event we took out in my first term we took out solomani and they never

00:11:20.220 had leadership that could compete with that he was an evil guy but he was a real leader and he

00:11:27.220 was a very tough general probably wouldn't have been quite as easy i will tell you i don't think

00:11:32.040 we would have would have taken us an extra day. So is it clear how Israel views negotiations

00:11:38.040 direct or indirect, whatever their status may be between the U.S. and Iran?

00:11:44.960 It's in fact quite clear, Anderson, because since the president began

00:11:48.480 raising this prospect of negotiations with Iran earlier in the week, there have been two

00:11:53.040 consistent points from Israeli officials. One, that Israeli attacks on Iran will continue for now

00:11:59.540 with full force, and two, that Israeli officials remain skeptical that Iran is willing or able

00:12:06.720 to negotiate in good faith or make any of the concessions that the U.S. wants. I spoke a short

00:12:12.780 time ago to the foreign policy advisor for the Israeli prime minister, Ophir, and this is what

00:12:19.500 he had to say in quite strong terms about those talks. Well, Iran always lies. We've learned that.

00:12:28.020 they always lie but more importantly our objective is uh to remove the existential threat posed by

00:12:34.660 this ayatollah regime the best way of doing that is to remove the regime another way of doing that

00:12:40.500 is to decimate their capabilities decimate their uh military capabilities until they get to the

00:12:46.500 stone age get them to the stone age that that oh fear fox rule so you get a quite a sense of

00:12:54.740 of just how skeptical Israeli officials are of the prospect for negotiations.

00:12:59.260 Now, Israel says it does not oppose negotiations.

00:13:02.420 In fact, they're perfectly happy with two tracks at once.

00:13:05.460 That is continuing military operations and allowing the president to pursue the possibility of peace.

00:13:13.420 But they're doing it for two reasons.

00:13:15.420 Number one is they want to deflect from all of the tremendous success that we're having in this military operation.

00:13:22.460 operation. I won't use the word war because they say if you use the word war, that's maybe not a

00:13:26.380 good thing to do. They don't like the word war because you're supposed to get approval. So I'll

00:13:32.620 use the word military operation, which is really what it is. It's called a military decimation,

00:13:38.720 but they don't like the good publicity. They don't like to see us succeed. They want to see our

00:13:43.720 country fail. We actually defined the birth of Western civilization by the Greeks beating the

00:13:51.060 persians in one battle by the way side note it's called like a marathon is a marathon because the

00:13:57.440 guy that ran and gave the warning ran 26.1 miles to give the news the persians are coming the

00:14:03.220 persians are coming and so that's how long their history is it goes back thousands of years it's

00:14:12.260 not like iraq where churchill draws lines and creates a country you know a hundred years ago

00:14:17.860 And there's a fabric woven in there. I'm not saying they won't collapse. I'm just saying Iran is not a rock.

00:14:26.460 So you can keep killing these leaders and don't expect everybody to surrender.

00:14:31.520 And in your opinion, boots on the ground, is that an actual option?

00:14:38.420 There are no really good options for boots on the ground other than to invade the country and actually achieve a political overthrow through invasion.

00:14:46.940 The size forces that were moving into the region could conceivably see Karg Island.

00:14:51.860 They could conceivably do some raids or see some of the coastal terrain along the Straits of Hormuz.

00:14:57.220 But there's a very long terrain there.

00:14:58.960 There's over 100 miles.

00:15:00.580 There's very rough terrain behind the coast.

00:15:03.660 And the Iranians can engage into the Straits from a long range.

00:15:07.980 They don't have to be right at the coast.

00:15:09.680 So there aren't good options.

00:15:11.760 I've been involved in war games that have looked at this situation before.

00:15:15.520 As I think Secretary Higgs has said, we knew about the Straits of our moves.

00:15:19.560 They knew about it, but they weren't prepared for it.

00:15:21.680 And here we are in a situation I don't think we know how to resolve right now.

00:15:25.600 The Navy, we knocked out everything. It's amazing.

00:15:28.420 We have the greatest military. We make the greatest military equipment.

00:15:32.960 And now, if you notice, I said, you got to make it faster, got to make more of it,

00:15:37.020 because we need it. All made in America, but we make the greatest.

00:15:41.020 you know, we had an attack. 100 missiles were shot by Iran at a very important thing that we

00:15:51.060 had. I won't tell you what it was for certain reasons. 100 missiles going 2,000 miles an hour

00:15:57.980 were coming at this element of importance, tremendous power and importance. And of the 100

00:16:06.020 missiles coming at us 100 missiles were immediately shot down shot out of the air

00:16:12.900 fall into the sea think of it not one missile got through that was the patriot system that's great

00:16:20.840 you said israel has continued to carry out strikes in in lebanon particularly in southern lebanon

00:16:25.500 they have been trying to you know degrade eliminate uh hezbollah for for a very long time they've had

00:16:31.180 a lot of success for going back years. What is the ultimate goal of the military operation right now?

00:16:39.240 Well, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his public comments, says,

00:16:44.160 in effect, they want to change the situation in Lebanon for good. And when you listen to

00:16:50.280 the Israeli Defense Minister as well, they're talking about destroying all connections,

00:16:55.080 all bridges between Lebanon and the southern part of the country below the Latani River

00:17:00.440 to prepare the way for what seems to be a long-term Israeli military operation,

00:17:06.980 perhaps even occupation there.

00:17:08.920 So that is a further expansion of what is another front of this war, right?

00:17:14.100 Israel has been striking targets in Lebanon for some time since the start of this war with Iran,

00:17:20.080 as they have in months and years prior, but they're stepping up that activity.

00:17:24.480 And it appears that what they're laying the groundwork for, Anderson, is a long-term Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon.

00:17:32.620 And you know well, having covered this region for many years, that the history of long-term Israeli occupations in Lebanon has not been a good one.

00:17:42.300 It's often been bloody for both sides, but that does appear to be at least Israeli intentions in Lebanon.

00:17:48.500 this is the primal scream of a dying regime pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on

00:17:59.520 these people here's not got a free shot all these networks lying about the people the people have

00:18:06.120 had a belly full of it i know you don't like hearing that i know you try to do everything

00:18:09.880 the world to stop that but you're not going to stop it it's going to happen and where do people

00:18:13.460 like that go to share the big line mega media i wish in my soul i wish that any of these people

00:18:21.280 had a conscience ask yourself what is my task and what is my purpose if that answer is to save my

00:18:29.220 country this country will be saved war room here's your host stephen k band

00:18:36.440 Whoa! Welcome to CPAC!

00:18:43.020 War and Posse.

00:18:44.480 How about that?

00:18:45.980 The survivors of the Mike Davis party last night.

00:18:48.600 Thank you for showing up.

00:18:49.720 You notice Mike Davis is not here.

00:18:51.760 I want to welcome John Solomon.

00:18:53.180 Let's give it up for John Solomon.

00:18:54.580 Thank you, brother.

00:18:55.100 Just the news.

00:18:57.060 We're going to get to everything about the war in a moment,

00:18:59.380 but President Trump, by the way, President Trump, when does he sleep?

00:19:04.200 He never sleeps.

00:19:05.060 Never sleeps.

00:19:06.120 If you follow the true socials, you'll see that President Trump, 2 in the morning, he was quite active about filibuster and Save America Act.

00:19:15.320 But then this morning, moments after this story broke, he retreated or put up on his true social post, John Solomon's blockbuster story.

00:19:25.880 John, this story is so important.

00:19:27.980 I know people at the White House are very focused on it.

00:19:29.880 I want to make sure that the Warren Posse understands what's going on, transpired in the last 24 hours.

00:19:35.760 Yeah, this is important stuff. We've really shifted. You know, we're still focusing on weaponization, making sure that the people who did what they did in the last decade get prosecuted. John Brennan moving towards a potential indictment down in Florida. In the meantime, we're going to look.

00:19:49.860 Hold it. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.

00:19:51.600 I figured I was going to say that.

00:19:52.200 No, no, no, no, no. You can't. That's a buried lead.

00:19:55.320 Hold it. Buried lead.

00:19:57.280 Hang on. For this audience, do you believe that John Brennan is actually going to be indicted by a grand jury on federal crimes?

00:20:07.700 I think they're moving in that direction.

00:20:09.020 Listen, you never know until a grand jury looks at the evidence.

00:20:11.620 But a very important transmission of evidence occurred this week.

00:20:16.640 House Intelligence Committee.

00:20:17.920 This week.

00:20:18.640 This week. On Tuesday.

00:20:20.320 House Intelligence Committee took all of its transcripts of all of its conversations with John Brennan and sent them to the grand jury in Miami.

00:20:28.320 The Senate has been asked to do the same thing.

00:20:30.780 And I think the fact that Congress is now officially transmitting evidence to a prosecutor and to a grand jury tells you that they're getting very close to making that decision.

00:20:39.620 The charges that the prosecutors are considering, lying to Congress, that's the 2023 testimony he gave saying,

00:20:46.360 I didn't rely, I didn't want the Steele dossier in my bogus assessment, but obstruction of Congress, which is a heavier charge.

00:20:53.540 Wow.

00:20:53.840 They're looking at that as well.

00:20:55.140 So, yeah, I think we'll know by mid-April if there are going to be charges against John Brennan.

00:20:58.980 Is Brennan, not guaranteeing he's indicted, but is Brennan the domino once he falls, others will be falling after that?

00:21:06.280 Yeah, it's the fireworks that start the show.

00:21:08.140 And then right soon after that, there's a very active investigation right now looking at the FBI agents and federal prosecutors who went after Cash Patel's phone records, Susie Wiles' phone records, on the allegation that they opened an investigation without a predicate, meaning it was a fake predicate.

00:21:23.420 uh yesterday before we get to the war a couple of things in the in your breaking story yesterday

00:21:30.820 also big tish james yeah re-indicted on something that we had mike davis tom fit and yourself

00:21:38.700 come on originally and say why is an insurance fraud included in this right so what did they

00:21:45.240 do yesterday uh the head of the federal housing finance administration bill bulte sent two criminal

00:21:50.540 referrals, one to Chicago and one to Miami. Those are the two insurance companies that Tish James

00:21:56.840 put her homeowner's insurance in. It allows the prosecutors to bring the charges in Illinois,

00:22:02.100 and people say, well, Illinois is a blue state. Should I be worried? Illinois convicts Democrats

00:22:06.680 all day long. If you know, they just got Madigan their speaker. They've sent three governors to

00:22:11.420 prison in the last two decades. They don't like political corruption, even though they're a blue

00:22:15.300 state. She's going to face jeopardy there. And then the very same prosecutor that currently

00:22:20.300 is looking at the weaponization he gets the second case against letitia james because she

00:22:25.060 used the florida insurance company the evidence is very strong it includes evidence she submitted

00:22:30.540 in her first indictment that got dismissed they're now using that evidence against her

00:22:34.600 to bring this case okay now what is this big what is this big case about ukraine yeah and and and

00:22:42.000 taking usaid money that that that kind of quasi cia program and funneling back into the united

00:22:50.240 States for political contributions. So the National Security Agency, which sits on all foreign

00:22:54.880 countries and listens in all day long, they intercepted a series of communications, I believe

00:22:59.600 they're emails, where the Ukrainian senior government officials in the Ukrainian government

00:23:05.880 were working with our USAID workers in our Kiev embassy. So you have Americans working with a

00:23:12.400 foreign power, and they concoct a plot to move hundreds of millions of dollars in a clean energy

00:23:18.360 Graham in late 2022, early 23. So this is the 2024 election. It's Joe Biden's re-election.

00:23:24.840 They're going to move the money to Ukraine. Ukraine's going to move it to subcontractors.

00:23:28.560 The subcontractors are going to move it to American companies, and then they're going to

00:23:31.860 launder it into Joe Biden's 2024 campaign. If you remember when this is going on, this is right as

00:23:37.560 the Jack Smith investigation is targeting Donald Trump. Joe Biden's not very popular. Afghanistan,

00:23:43.580 his own mental facilities in the open border, are dragging him down.

00:23:48.320 He's having a hard time raising money, even though he's the incumbent president.

00:23:51.560 And this plot is intercepted by the NSA.

00:23:54.400 The director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has asked the USAID to open an investigation,

00:24:00.380 see if this grant actually occurred, and then if it did, to make a referral to the FBI and the Justice Department.

00:24:07.100 This is real-time information recorded, names, details, name of grant.

00:24:12.880 They've got everything in the classified setting.

00:24:15.620 I got a declassified version of The Intercept, but this is a big deal.

00:24:19.720 Keep an eye on Tulsi Gabbard's social media.

00:24:22.040 I think she's going to make a statement today or tomorrow, but this is going to start rumbling down the hill.

00:24:26.720 This is, have we ever gotten an audit on the Ukraine funding?

00:24:31.100 I mean, didn't we ask for this forever?

00:24:32.580 And this is one of the reasons.

00:24:33.400 So for this audience, the hardcore of the hardcore, both on taking down the deep state and the weaponization of the government against MAGA, against President Trump, against Republicans and conservatives, are we now, because everybody's sitting there going, you know, what is happening?

00:24:50.780 I can tell you in the chats, every time we talk about it, they go, where are the perp walks?

00:24:54.660 We're in the indictments.

00:24:55.600 They weren't shy about doing it to Trump's people over and over again.

00:24:59.000 Is this, between Tish James, the Ukrainian story you're breaking, what the grand jury's working on down in South Florida,

00:25:06.160 are we really seeing movement on both taking down the deep state that tried to go after President Trump all the way from, what, 2015 or early 16,

00:25:14.820 and the weaponization against people like Letitia James and others

00:25:19.360 to de-weaponize and defang the federal government and state government.

00:25:22.600 I'm going to add one element to it, because I think the new element,

00:25:25.980 what we're seeing right now, is for the first time,

00:25:28.600 there's evidence that the Democratic Party might have been working with foreign powers

00:25:32.140 to have them intervene in our elections.

00:25:35.200 There are two things that we broke in the last month that point in this direction.

00:25:38.440 We know that China gave access to our voter registration databases.

00:25:43.220 After they did that, they sent 20,000-plus driver's licenses to Chicago O'Hare Airport.

00:25:49.620 The FBI and the Customs and Border Protection Agency intercepted those.

00:25:53.580 The FBI's informant inside China told the Chris Wray FBI that the goal of those driver's licenses was to get them to voter mills,

00:26:03.040 get fake names to register and vote during the COVID pandemic election to help Joe Biden win.

00:26:09.680 All right, that's the first piece of evidence that's new.

00:26:12.580 Now you have a second piece of evidence where USAID workers aligned with Joe Biden's campaign

00:26:17.920 in Joe Biden's administration is working with Ukraine to rock hundreds of millions of dollars

00:26:23.840 of your money. By the way, USAID is your money, taxpayer money, and then launder it into Joe

00:26:29.600 Biden's campaign. If these two things are corroborated, you now have a weaponization

00:26:34.220 program that used prosecution to harm Donald Trump and possibly used foreign powers to aid

00:26:40.920 Joe Biden. I think that's where this case is going. The answer is the train is definitely

00:26:45.240 picking up speed down the tracks. The only question is, do we have the right people who

00:26:49.580 can close prosecutions and get us convictions? I've gotten to know the team down in Miami.

00:26:54.720 They seem very impressive. They're grizzled career prosecutors. They seem very dedicated

00:26:59.700 to getting to the truth and putting bad guys in jail. If we don't see indictments between

00:27:05.080 mid-May and mid-June, I think a lot of people are going to lose faith. If we see some early

00:27:09.560 indictments end i think the train gets grown have you guys lost faith in that part of it or do you

00:27:14.460 still have faith that we're going to get indictments on the deep state and the uh and weaponization

00:27:18.660 yeah you're right yeah zero so far i think i think that ben burquam i think the audience is saying

00:27:28.420 hey it sounds great we're here in progress but we haven't seen a perp walk we haven't seen what

00:27:35.000 would would john brennan being perp walked would that change your attitude

00:27:40.020 let me ask let me ask the crowd here what what what what about what about tish james tish james

00:27:47.060 that uh yeah let me ask the crowd let me go across this side so what do you guys think what is it

00:27:54.740 going to take you look at what they did to president trump to the j6ers to everybody to

00:27:58.960 our own steve bannon what is it going to take to get faith back in our justice department

00:28:03.660 I think it's actually too much.

00:28:05.680 I think that the deep state has completely won over America.

00:28:09.200 The last time I was on Bannon, actually, he asked me the question,

00:28:13.940 are you willing to go to jail for America?

00:28:16.300 And since that, the day after I went on his show,

00:28:19.900 I actually, a warrant was filed in Palm Beach County,

00:28:23.080 the same county where Elijah Schaefer is being attacked.

00:28:25.100 And that's a great question.

00:28:26.740 Do you think, at his point, that the deep state,

00:28:29.280 do you think the deep state has too much control of the country?

00:28:31.960 and can it be broken just by the legal process

00:28:35.460 or does some other process have to take place?

00:28:38.240 Listen, they don't control you.

00:28:39.520 That's why you're here.

00:28:40.260 That's why you're still free.

00:28:41.380 They control large parts of the government, right?

00:28:44.200 You, we the people, have the greatest opportunity.

00:28:46.800 You made your first move in 24 by re-electing Donald Trump.

00:28:50.300 It's incumbent on Donald Trump's representatives,

00:28:53.640 the people he put in all of these agencies,

00:28:55.640 to get the job done that you hired them to do.

00:28:58.660 You can take the deep state out.

00:29:00.060 Large amounts of FBI agents have either been fired or they left the job in protest.

00:29:05.020 Large amounts of deep staters left the Justice Department.

00:29:09.080 USAID is a fraction of what it used to be.

00:29:11.740 But if you don't hold the people accountable for what they did in the last 10 years, there's no deterrence.

00:29:17.300 The next time the Democrats get back in, they'll restack the government and they'll do it again.

00:29:21.500 If we don't take on the deep state now and have things, as soon as President Trump's out of office,

00:29:28.400 There's no doubt they're coming after President Trump and everybody already guys believe that a

00:29:33.660 Hundred percent. That's the process too long. Let's go to short commercial break

00:29:37.060 We're gonna come right back in the war room in just a moment

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00:34:03.680 Strategic intelligence, based upon predictive analytics.

00:34:07.420 It's what chairman and CEO throughout the world read, and you should too.

00:34:12.940 Here's your host, Stephen K. Vann.

00:34:17.460 Okay, welcome back.

00:34:19.000 breaking news the president because of everything going on and i think particularly the war

00:34:25.680 the president has called a cabinet meeting at uh 10 o'clock our time uh we're going to be cutting

00:34:31.240 to that we've got uh we've got brian glenn at the white house we have our camera crew there

00:34:36.280 we also have neil mccabe at the white house so we're going to be going that may start a little

00:34:41.120 late maybe 11 30 but we're going to go live i'm sure the president's going to have a few

00:34:45.060 comments for the nation and then they're going to have a closed cabinet meeting as you know

00:34:49.800 we're they're we're in a uh in a very tough fighting situation over there in fact john i've

00:34:54.740 got eric bowling is by the way has bowling been doing a great job uh every day about oil and gas

00:35:00.080 amazing yeah i didn't know if that pundit thing was going to work out for you uh bowling but oil

00:35:06.360 and gas you got okay it's just been a great a great ride let's talk before we go to eric um

00:35:11.540 you saw the last 48 hours the president's been in a very tough actually to find who to negotiate

00:35:18.000 with you know the guys at the white house very well you're talking to them all the time

00:35:22.180 what is the feeling around the white house this cabinet meeting is going to be another situation

00:35:27.060 to push it forward where do we stand with this uh iran's military is completely decimated all

00:35:33.120 they can do is be a menace now when they are menace and they fire a few rockets they still

00:35:37.080 kill people they still have the hermuz somewhat laced with mines now the guy that laced those

00:35:42.380 mines met Allah this morning he was taken out by an Israeli missile about six o'clock our time

00:35:47.900 so we're continuing you saw that where they took out the head of the uh Iranian navy yeah they are

00:35:54.400 thinning out the Iranian military's leadership their capabilities we're now in close uh air

00:36:00.120 support meaning that we have such supremacy in the skies we can bring in black hawk and warthogs

00:36:06.060 and other things, and take out mobile missile launchers, armored vehicles, and things like

00:36:10.800 that. We are in total control of the military dynamic there. The question for the president

00:36:17.000 is at what point does Iran say, I've had enough, and we're willing to negotiate a real deal?

00:36:21.860 They're not in the mood to negotiate a real deal right now. Nothing's real yet. I think

00:36:25.760 the pain will continue to go, and pretty soon there won't be anyone left in the regime to

00:36:29.560 negotiate, and you'll go down to the civilian. Hasn't whatever's left of the Revolutionary

00:36:34.760 guard yeah aren't they taking on a little bit of president trump's persona they are i mean the way

00:36:39.680 they're coming back is very trumpian you know he goes out and says i got a 15 point plan if we can

00:36:45.360 talk about this these things will be and they come back and go hey look straighter moves ours

00:36:50.340 total reparations for everything i mean it's very trumpian this negotiation even to find out who you

00:36:55.940 can talk to is going to be tough they're talking about sending the vice president of pakistan

00:37:00.480 Jared and Whitcoff to Pakistan.

00:37:03.560 We don't really right now have a group that can deliver a deal,

00:37:08.080 deliver the Iranian people, right?

00:37:09.320 They can't right now.

00:37:10.220 And I think that's why the thinning out of the ranks has to continue.

00:37:13.080 They're hitting the Revolutionary Guard very hard.

00:37:15.040 They're dropping these bunker buster bombs on these underground things,

00:37:17.960 and they're collapsing them in on them.

00:37:19.760 I've heard from people that we've taken out maybe 10,000 to 15,000

00:37:23.120 of their 40,000 component.

00:37:24.940 That's a big degradation.

00:37:26.620 But I think you're going to see another two weeks of destruction

00:37:29.220 until the Iranian regime is so humble that someone comes out and says,

00:37:33.940 enough's enough, let's make a deal.

00:37:35.280 So this massive fight they're going to have,

00:37:39.720 the massive thing President Trump is talking about,

00:37:42.080 that will happen in the next 48 hours, 72 hours?

00:37:45.440 Oh, I think we're dropping huge arguments every day.

00:37:48.600 It's nonstop. It never paused. It's all day long.

00:37:53.760 Eric Bolling.

00:37:54.680 eric was going to be here live but he's as eric has become now the nation's oil and gas analysts

00:38:02.080 you're going downtown for a big deal we understand but we still got you by car eric first off talk

00:38:08.040 to us about the markets who are the markets telling president trump they think is going to happen

00:38:12.400 great to be with you guys again good good analysis so far solomon and ben awesome awesome stuff so

00:38:18.880 woke up this morning oil was up four dollars a barrel it's sitting up three dollars a barrel

00:38:23.840 ninety three dollars and change right now and that's on the response that you just pointed out

00:38:27.780 hang on eric we're gonna cut live we're gonna cut live to the cabinet meeting right now let's go

00:38:32.800 live to the white house president united states you do fantastically well congratulations to you

00:38:39.000 have an amazing family that were here yesterday in the oval sworn in his family's amazing so

00:38:44.160 Thank you very much.

00:38:47.560 We're now on day 41 of the disgraceful Democrat shutdown of Mark Wayne's department.

00:38:54.160 Congratulations.

00:38:55.160 We came into a department that shut down.

00:38:58.160 Shut down by the radical Democrats, right?

00:39:01.480 But Democrats are really punishing the American people.

00:39:04.880 I saw it today on one of the shows where they were interviewing people at the airport and

00:39:09.360 they're all angry at the Democrats.

00:39:10.760 They're saying they're actually angry at Schumer.

00:39:12.880 I don't think anyone knew his name.

00:39:14.980 One woman said, that Schumer is disgraceful.

00:39:17.180 He's a disgrace to our country.

00:39:19.420 But they're angry at the Democrats.

00:39:20.780 They know what's happening.

00:39:22.480 But they're punishing the American people,

00:39:24.460 including travelers at airports,

00:39:26.200 all in the quest to return to open borders

00:39:29.960 and give amnesty to illegal alien criminals.

00:39:32.340 They want to give amnesty to some of the criminals

00:39:36.540 that came into our country.

00:39:38.180 Just about all of them, actually, if you look at it.

00:39:41.400 They love sanctuary cities.

00:39:42.780 which is a sanctuary for criminals.

00:39:45.040 They want to make sure they're taken care of.

00:39:46.660 That's what we're fighting about.

00:39:47.820 That's really what they're fighting.

00:39:48.780 They don't talk about that, but that's what they're fighting about.

00:39:51.620 They want to protect criminals.

00:39:53.460 In many cases, 11,888 murders.

00:39:56.800 Many of them, I will say, are gone now because of us.

00:40:00.000 We got them out, but still have some left.

00:40:03.600 Should have never happened.

00:40:04.500 Should have never been allowed to come into our country.

00:40:07.640 But we're not going to let it happen.

00:40:08.940 We're not going to let the Democrats get away with this stuff.

00:40:12.040 and people are wise to them so they need to end the shutdown immediately or we'll have to take

00:40:18.120 some very drastic measures this morning i want to give an update on the operation epic fury

00:40:25.560 which is an appropriate name because we are absolutely obliterating them over the past

00:40:31.800 three weeks we've been hitting iran's military capabilities at a level that few people have

00:40:37.980 ever seen before. People never knew there was such a capability. We have the strongest military

00:40:43.580 anywhere in the world by far. I built it during my first administration and I used it during my

00:40:49.960 second administration. Unfortunately, because I'd rather not have to use it. But it's a display of

00:40:56.720 force and precision and skill like nothing the world has really witnessed, although you get a

00:41:01.840 pretty good witnessing of it in venezuela also and that was a smaller version of what we're doing

00:41:08.320 now we're crushing their missiles and drone stockpiles destroying the defense industrial base

00:41:14.220 we've wiped out their navy completely their air force completely we've wiped out a large percentage

00:41:22.360 of their missiles and the missile launchers without the launchers you can't the missiles don't do any

00:41:30.060 good. And we've knocked out probably close to 90 percent of the launchers, probably more than 90

00:41:37.180 percent of the missiles themselves. Between some they fired and more than they fired, we knocked

00:41:42.540 out. We've also destroyed a lot of the factories. We're continuing to do that, but a lot of the

00:41:49.540 factories where they manufacture the drones and the missiles. The drones, too, are way down. But

00:41:54.700 the reason they're down is they they go one way they don't come back because for the most part

00:42:00.300 we're shooting them down but we also are able to with we've really done tremendous damage to the

00:42:06.140 places where they make them and just so we set the record straight because i've been watching

00:42:10.940 the wall street journal's fake news and all these stories that get printed like oh i want to make a

00:42:15.660 deal they are begging to make a deal not me they're begging to make a deal and anybody that saw what

00:42:22.780 was happening over there would understand why they want to make a deal but they say oh we're not

00:42:28.340 talking to anybody would know that and only a total for and they're not fools they're very smart

00:42:34.040 actually in a certain way and they're great negotiators i say they're lousy fighters but

00:42:39.120 they're great negotiators and they are begging to work out a deal i don't know if we'll be able to

00:42:47.840 do that i don't know if we're willing to do that they should have done that four weeks ago they

00:42:52.560 should have done it two years ago or they should have done it when we first

00:42:56.880 came into office because two years ago they had free reign under Biden sleepy

00:43:01.920 Joe worst president in the history of our country when he allowed to happen to

00:43:07.020 our country at the borders and even with a thing like this but not just him

00:43:11.640 every president for 47 years every president should have done this they

00:43:15.360 should have done it a long time ago because you cannot give lunatics a

00:43:19.500 nuclear weapon and they would have had a big one it stopped really when we did

00:43:25.680 the B2 but even before that the Barack Hussein Obama what he did where he gave

00:43:32.040 them the Iran nuclear deal gave them free will toward a nuclear weapon

00:43:36.540 basically he chose Iran over Israel and others that didn't want him to do it but

00:43:44.280 I terminated that deal had I not terminated that deal you would have

00:43:47.340 a nuclear weapon years ago and it would have been used guaranteed and one of the reasons you know

00:43:53.500 about the guarantee is because their neighbors were sort of like bystanders they weren't involved

00:44:00.460 very much they didn't choose heavy size they didn't want to because people were concerned

00:44:05.980 with the red there was a big black cloud over the middle east they were concerned but all of a sudden

00:44:11.820 the war starts and they start shooting at these five in particular five countries they start

00:44:17.580 shooting at qatar saudi arabia uae kuwait oman they start shooting at them and they were they

00:44:27.180 were everybody was shocked including us you know why because they're sick and they had a plan to

00:44:34.140 take over the middle east and some of those missiles that were shot at them were locked

00:44:38.780 long before we even started this process they were locked and loaded and aimed at those countries

00:44:44.940 they wanted to take over the middle east but we happened to come along so it wasn't so easy

00:44:50.780 so right now their navy is sunk in the largest elimination of a foreign navy that has taken

00:44:58.460 place maybe ever but certainly since world war ii their air force is gone their anti-aircraft

00:45:05.100 and communications capabilities are totally dismantled and one of the problems they do have

00:45:10.940 when they deal with us is we deal with people and the people aren't able to communicate with anybody

00:45:15.980 else so you know because all of their leadership has been gone the first level is gone and they

00:45:22.140 met to pick a new level and they're gone they're all gone because they didn't make a deal and

00:45:29.180 because they're sick people they're really sick they're they're really sinister sick people and

00:45:35.260 if anybody thinks it was okay to have a group of people like this to have nuclear capability

00:45:40.380 nuclear weapons and if we didn't attack with the b2 bombers they would have had a nuclear weapon

00:45:46.780 within two weeks of that maybe four weeks but between two and four weeks they were planning to

00:45:52.380 have a nuclear weapon if we didn't hit them at that time with the nuke with the p2 bombers and

00:45:57.260 one of the great air raids in history maybe the greatest dark at night no moon no light

00:46:05.420 every single bomb hit its mark and just obliterated that place so it's now buried deep under earth

00:46:14.140 and it was an amazing thing but they would have a nuclear and they would have used it without

00:46:18.540 question and you know that because why did they shoot all these countries that weren't even really

00:46:22.620 involved with them they weren't involved they had no big problems because they're sick because they

00:46:28.300 want to take over the middle east not just israel certainly israel would have been the first on

00:46:33.420 their list they would have used nuclear weapons a nuclear you don't need too many of them but they

00:46:38.860 would have used a nuclear weapon on israel and they would have used it on the other in the

00:46:42.380 neighbors and then they would have come after us and we had a weak president they would have done

00:46:48.620 great damage but fortunately you don't have a weak president i knew what was happening

00:46:53.900 and i think we've been proven right you know they took one missile went 2500 miles they supposedly

00:46:59.740 didn't have a missile like that they had no missile with that capability but they shot the

00:47:04.460 now famous ireland the the island that the uk was very afraid to give us because they didn't want to

00:47:14.860 get dragged in but we don't want to get dragged into their wars either one thing we're very

00:47:19.980 disappointed i'll say it publicly we're very disappointed with nato because nato has done

00:47:25.100 absolutely nothing and i've always said 25 years ago i mean i was somebody that wasn't a politician

00:47:31.740 but i was always involved in politics and i understood politics i said 25 years ago that

00:47:37.340 nato is a paper tiger but more importantly that we'll come to their rescue but they will never

00:47:43.100 come to ours and i want you to remember that we said this they didn't come to our rescue

00:47:48.300 now they all want to help when they're annihilated the other side is annihilated they said

00:47:54.140 we'd love to send ships they actually made a statement a couple of them that we want to get

00:47:59.420 involved when the war is over no it's supposed to get involved with the war's beginning or even

00:48:05.500 before it begins we had the uk say that we'll send this is three weeks ago we'll send our

00:48:11.980 aircraft carriers, which aren't the best aircraft carriers, by the way. They're toys

00:48:15.880 compared to what we have. But we'll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over. I said,

00:48:22.640 oh, that's wonderful. Thank you very much. Don't bother. We don't need it. And we don't need it.

00:48:28.560 We don't need them. We estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks to achieve our

00:48:33.700 mission. And we're way ahead of schedule. If you look at what we've done in terms of the

00:48:41.420 destruction of that country. I mean, we're way ahead. Think of it. They have no navy and they

00:48:46.800 had good ships. 154 ships have been shot down and are resting very nicely at the bottom of the sea.

00:48:54.380 And we did that in a matter of less than a week because we have the greatest military in the world

00:49:00.080 by far. Nobody even close. So we estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks

00:49:06.780 to achieve our mission 26 days in we're extremely really a lot ahead of schedule the iranian regime

00:49:15.840 is now admitting to itself that they have been decisively defeated they're saying to people

00:49:22.140 this is a disaster they know that's why they're talking to us they're only they wouldn't talk

00:49:28.240 otherwise but they're talking to us because they've got a disaster on their hands they're

00:49:34.180 defeated. They can't make a comeback. We're free to roam over there. Cities and towns and destroy

00:49:41.960 all of their crazy nuclear weapons and missiles and drones that they're building. Oh, we're doing

00:49:47.380 that. They now have a chance to make a deal, but that's up to them. And they'll tell you,

00:49:53.840 we're not negotiating. We will not negotiate. Of course they're negotiating. They've been obliterated.

00:49:58.660 who wouldn't negotiate they are begging to make a deal we'll see if we can make

00:50:04.060 the right deal and they make the right deal and then the strait will open up

00:50:10.000 Hormuz strait will open up and even now we don't know if there are any mines you

00:50:14.920 know we they have 22 mine they call mine droppers think of it who would have 22

00:50:20.780 mine droppers it's a boat that drops mines who has 22 mine droppers except

00:50:26.380 for people with very evil intention so every one of those mind droppers has

00:50:32.080 been struck with the same weapon we used to stop drugs from coming into the

00:50:40.780 United States of America when we hit those boats it's the exact same weapon

00:50:46.060 extremely effective we have unlimited supplies and extremely effective but

00:50:51.460 But they have no more mind-drivers.

00:50:53.400 By the way, speaking of drugs, we're 98 percent down drugs coming in by water, by the ocean,

00:51:01.500 by the sea.

00:51:02.500 98 percent.

00:51:03.500 And we're trying to find out who are the 2 percent because we think they're the bravest

00:51:08.160 men anywhere in the world.

00:51:10.940 Maybe women.

00:51:11.940 But whoever's on those boats is very brave or doesn't watch television.

00:51:16.700 But where drugs coming in by sea, coming in by water, are 98 percent down.

00:51:23.760 And now we'll stop the drugs coming in by land.

00:51:25.700 The land is the easy one.

00:51:26.700 You got to stop the water.

00:51:27.700 A lot of it came in through the water.

00:51:29.700 Now it's all pinched.

00:51:32.000 And these people are trying to come in by land.

00:51:35.160 And we will — that's it.

00:51:36.700 That's the easy one.

00:51:37.700 But we had to take care of the water first.

00:51:39.700 Nobody's — nobody's coming in.

00:51:41.700 Very — virtually nothing is coming in anymore.

00:51:44.660 It was hundreds of millions of dollars a week were coming in by water.

00:51:50.300 But they now have the chance, that is, Iran,

00:51:55.560 to permanently abandon their nuclear ambitions and to chart a new path forward.

00:52:00.120 We'll see if they want to do it.

00:52:01.360 If they don't, we're their worst nightmare.

00:52:04.620 In the meantime, we'll just keep blowing them away, unimpeded, unstopped.

00:52:11.720 There's not a thing they can do about it.

00:52:13.280 They can't do anything about it.

00:52:14.540 You know, I tell you if they could, if they could,

00:52:16.500 you'd be hearing about it.

00:52:18.620 You'd be hearing about it.

00:52:19.620 You don't hear anything about it.

00:52:21.820 They can't shoot our jets.

00:52:23.040 We have the best.

00:52:24.320 We have the best military equipment in the world.

00:52:26.620 Not even a contest.

00:52:27.980 You see that with Venezuela, they had other equipment.

00:52:31.820 They didn't have ours. It didn't work.

00:52:34.200 Didn't work. Think of it.

00:52:35.060 We did a situation in Venezuela.

00:52:37.900 It was a great military operation getting a very,

00:52:41.400 very dangerous man who's killed a lot of people,

00:52:44.040 forced people into our country.

00:52:46.580 Incredible, he emptied his prisons in Venezuela,

00:52:50.880 emptied his prisons into our country.

00:52:53.280 And I hope that charge will be brought at some point,

00:52:56.160 because that was a big charge that hasn't been brought yet.

00:52:59.980 It should be brought.

00:53:01.320 He emptied his prisons into our country

00:53:03.920 and was a major purveyor of drugs coming into our country.

00:53:09.340 And he's now been captured and, you know, I guess, be given a fair trial.

00:53:17.800 But I would imagine there are other trials coming because they have just they've really

00:53:22.600 sued him just in a fraction of the kind of things that he's done.

00:53:25.840 Other cases are going to be brought, as you probably know.

00:53:28.680 In the meantime, with Iran, we're going to keep doing what we've been doing.

00:53:33.380 And nobody's a match for the United States, but they're not a match for the United States.

00:53:39.280 small potatoes that's why i'm so disappointed in nato because this was a test for data this was a

00:53:46.080 test you can help us you don't have to but if you don't have you know if you don't do that

00:53:51.120 we're going to remember just remember remember this in a number of months from now remember my

00:53:56.800 statements uh they have an expression a great expression never forget you can never forget

00:54:05.680 So as we end threats to America abroad, we're focused here at home on building the greatest economy in the history of the world.

00:54:14.460 Now, before this started, the Dow hit 50,000, the S&P hit 7,000.

00:54:20.380 Both of those achievements were not achievable.

00:54:26.420 Every one of you, most of you, I guess, said you'll never hit 50,000 during a four-year period because it was too high a number.

00:54:35.000 well we hit it in our first year and i said well now we have to take an excursion to iran and we

00:54:41.160 have to stop this maniac who's no longer with us the supreme leader wasn't so supreme no longer

00:54:49.640 with us it's very sad but we have to stop him from blowing up the world blowing up the middle

00:54:56.120 east and blowing up our country and we did that and i thought frankly i thought the oil prices

00:55:02.840 would go up more and i thought the stock market would go down more hasn't been nearly as severe

00:55:09.160 as i thought i think they have confidence in maybe the american president and maybe the people

00:55:13.960 sitting around this table but americans filing their taxes this year are receiving record-setting

00:55:20.440 refunds it's been a very big story well it should be a big story i don't think you write about it

00:55:24.360 that much but i speak about it you know i speak about it because if i speak about it at least

00:55:30.600 people here. You don't write about it. You don't write about the drug prices going down. It'll be

00:55:37.320 going down 30, 40, 50, 60 percent, 70 percent. Favored nations. Call them most favored nations.

00:55:45.080 We're going to be paying the lowest price anywhere in the world before we paid the highest price

00:55:48.760 in the world, Bobby, right? And now we're going to pay the lowest price in the world. That's

00:55:53.380 quite a difference it's a difference of from 40 to 70 and 80 and even 90 percent that's a pretty

00:56:01.060 big difference but we're slashing regulations and investment is pouring in from all over the world

00:56:07.860 we have the most investment of any country in history has been put into our country in the last

00:56:13.540 year and again we had to take a little detour won't be long gonna end soon we had to take a little

00:56:20.660 detour go to Iran and we had to put out a fire very dangerous fire that could have blown up

00:56:28.180 big portions of the world if not the whole thing so tomorrow we'll be announcing a variety of

00:56:33.860 actions that we're taking to support american farmers who we never forget we love the farmers

00:56:39.380 we gave them 12 billion dollars out of tariff money we had a tremendous amount of tariff money

00:56:45.300 come in and we continue to have we've gone as you know the supreme court gave us a very unfortunate

00:56:50.500 foolish ruling a ruling that gives the people that have ripped off our country for many years gives

00:56:56.420 them some money back but uh it's one of those things it's a terrible terrible horrible mistake

00:57:04.340 they made but it's okay because we have another method that's just as good we'll use the other

00:57:08.100 method but because the tariff money has been so substantial we gave our farmers who have been

00:57:14.020 mistreated by some countries we gave them 12 billion dollars and they're extremely happy and

00:57:23.300 they deserve it they've been great they never complain they just go out and they farm and

00:57:27.620 they wouldn't do anything different they wouldn't trade jobs with any of you except maybe some of

00:57:33.780 the fake media somehow i don't see that i like i like their job better actually i love the farmers

00:57:40.340 so we gave him 12 billion dollars so in just a few moments treasury secretary scott bestin will

00:57:46.180 discuss the actions that were taken to address energy prices which have not gone up as much as

00:57:52.500 i thought scott to be honest with you and you know it's not over so maybe it'll go up a little bit

00:57:57.460 more it's all going to come back down to where it wasn't probably lower and my predictions have been

00:58:03.140 right trump was right about everything they have a new hat trump was right about everything

00:58:06.820 It's pretty right, but Scott's going to address that.

00:58:14.200 And I think before we go very much further, I want to ask Vice President J.D. Vance to

00:58:19.880 say a few words about where we are with the situation he's involved with Steve and with

00:58:26.640 Jared on negotiations.

00:58:28.340 And then some of the others will speak.

00:58:30.700 We'll have Marco say a few words, Pete Hegseth, who was born for this role.

00:58:36.780 I mean, he's doing a great job.

00:58:38.600 They gave him a hard time.

00:58:40.420 And now people, I'll tell you, somebody came up to me yesterday and gave you a very hard

00:58:43.660 time and said, you know, I made a mistake.

00:58:45.600 Pete Hexeth is doing a good job.

00:58:48.020 So when I tell you who, you're not even going to believe it.

00:58:51.020 He said, Hexeth, he gave you such a nasty hard time.

00:58:55.700 But you're doing, you're doing great.

00:58:59.180 And then Steve is going to speak and Scott will speak last.

00:59:04.620 If we have any questions, we'll take some questions.

00:59:07.020 You may have questions.

00:59:08.060 I doubt it, but you may have some questions.

00:59:10.820 So, J.D., please.

00:59:12.260 Yes, sir. Well, thank you.

00:59:13.900 It's good to see everybody.

00:59:14.940 Proud to be part of this team.

00:59:16.060 Proud to be serving the President of the country.

00:59:18.140 Let me just say a couple things.

00:59:19.140 First of all, is the President summarized this very ably.

00:59:23.180 But look, the Iranian conventional military

00:59:25.540 is effectively destroyed.

00:59:27.380 They don't have a navy.

00:59:28.420 They don't have the ability to hit us

00:59:29.840 like they could have even a few weeks ago.

00:59:31.220 And what that does is that gives us options, Mr. President.

00:59:34.060 Now, there's been a lot of reporting about diplomatic options,

00:59:37.040 about negotiations.

00:59:38.140 There's, of course, Pete and his team.

00:59:40.140 There are further military options.

00:59:41.600 But what we have now that we didn't have

00:59:43.960 when the President took over just a little over a year ago

00:59:46.800 is the ability to use every tool at our disposal

00:59:50.580 to ensure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon.

00:59:53.280 Because when I say options, I think it's important

00:59:55.520 the American people know options for what?

00:59:58.180 And it's options to ensure

00:59:59.580 that Iran never has a nuclear weapon.

01:00:01.420 You talk about people who walk into a crowded supermarket and have a vest on and they blow

01:00:06.100 up the vest and a couple of people get killed and that's a terrible tragedy.

01:00:09.180 What happens when what's on the vest is not something that can kill a couple of people

01:00:12.540 but can kill many, many tens of thousands of people.

01:00:15.880 That is the most important American national security objective that exists for any administration

01:00:21.060 at any time is you don't want the worst people in the world to have a nuclear weapon.

01:00:25.220 That's why the president is doing this.

01:00:27.380 That's why the president cares so much about this particular issue.

01:00:30.180 I'll let Steve talk a little bit about the details of the negotiation.

01:00:34.020 But the last thing I'll say before I turn it over to Marco is I'm very mindful, of course,

01:00:38.900 that we have a lot of folks overseas fighting very ably for the United States of America.

01:00:43.420 I know Pete and the whole team were very proud of them, but they're fighting at a time where

01:00:48.540 we are about to enter as Christians the most important week of the Christian calendar,

01:00:53.880 the holy week that celebrates the return of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem.

01:00:57.200 And so I want to say to all of my fellow American Christians, but particularly those serving in the Gulf, that I wish you all a very blessed Easter, a very blessed Holy Week, and we continue to stand behind you and continue to support you every step of the way. Thank you, sir.

01:01:11.640 Thank you very much. Marco.

01:01:14.160 The most important job any president has is to keep the American people safe. And every president says it, but we have a president that means it and does something about it.

01:01:22.080 As the president outlined very clearly to the world on the night this operation began,

01:01:27.060 Iran has been at war with the United States for 47 years.

01:01:30.960 For 47 years, Iran has been killing Americans and attacking Americans across this planet.

01:01:35.600 And other presidents had an opportunity to do something about it.

01:01:38.280 And they all warned about how Iran was dangerous, but they refused to act.

01:01:41.260 And this president is not someone that's going to refuse to act.

01:01:43.720 He's not going to leave a danger like this in place.

01:01:46.260 He's going to address it, and that is what he is doing.

01:01:48.600 From the very first night of this operation, the president made it very clear

01:01:51.960 people like this. And now what I'm talking about is not the people of Iran. The people that run

01:01:56.640 this country are radical Shia clerics. These are religious fanatics. Look what they are doing now

01:02:01.940 at their weakest point. This is the weakest Iran has ever been. And look at what they're doing.

01:02:06.400 They're attacking embassies. They're embassies. They're attacking hotels. Imagine what these

01:02:12.000 people would do if they had a nuclear weapon. That is an unacceptable risk for the world.

01:02:16.580 By the way, the president's not just doing a favor to the United States and to our people.

01:02:19.780 This is for the world.

01:02:21.780 He defined very clearly on the first night of this operation what the goal was.

01:02:25.840 We were going to destroy Iran's Navy, and that is happening.

01:02:28.960 We were going to, if it hasn't already happened, I'll let Pete speak to the specifics of it.

01:02:32.820 We were going to destroy their missile launching capabilities.

01:02:36.440 We're well on our way to achieving that goal.

01:02:38.540 We were going to destroy the factory so they couldn't make more missiles and more drones.

01:02:42.220 And that is moving forward.

01:02:43.900 Every single objective the president clearly laid out on the first night of this operation

01:02:48.160 is being effectuated. Again, Pete will speak to the specifics of it. This has been an incredibly

01:02:52.380 successful operation. Every day, it may not get covered because, you know, we're unlike them,

01:02:57.360 we're not bombing embassies and hotels. We're hitting military targets. But every day, the

01:03:03.040 Department of War lets the drummer get wicked over every portion of Iran that has these military

01:03:07.960 capabilities, and the results are going to bear fruit for the world. The world is going to be a

01:03:12.140 safer and a better place when President Trump's mission here is achieved. And frankly, I think

01:03:17.020 countries around the world, even those that are out there complaining about this a little bit,

01:03:20.260 should actually be grateful that the United States has a president that's willing to confront

01:03:24.540 a threat like this and not allow it to continue to persist. Because these people will kill as

01:03:29.500 many Americans as they have a chance to do. And if they have a nuclear weapon, as the vice

01:03:33.120 president pointed out, they could kill millions of Americans in the future. And that is a risk

01:03:37.540 that was not going to continue to exist as long as we had this president. Thank you. You know,

01:03:42.660 Well, it's very interesting because yesterday, I was watching, he said, Anthony Blinken,

01:03:48.620 and he was saying that they should have done it. But they didn't do it. Nobody did it. Nobody did

01:03:54.400 it. For 47 years, Marco, that's the number. 47. I guess now it's 48, because we've been saying 47

01:04:01.360 for a long time. It's probably 48. But for 47, 48 years, every president should have done this.

01:04:09.000 And some are saying now that they made a big mistake

01:04:15.280 in not doing it, but we're taking care of business.

01:04:18.140 Steve Whitcoff, please.

01:04:19.520 Mr. President, it is my distinct honor

01:04:24.280 to be a member of your cabinet and to report to you

01:04:28.420 and your team on our negotiations with Iran.

01:04:31.560 Mr. President, you directed Jared and I

01:04:34.960 to pursue a diplomatic resolution with Iran

01:04:38.760 prior to Operation Epic Fury, which we did.

01:04:43.340 However, it became quite clear during these meetings

01:04:47.640 with the Iranian negotiating team that we could not make a deal

01:04:52.340 that fulfilled your objectives of the following.

01:04:55.740 No enrichment whatsoever.

01:04:58.140 No chance of weaponizing whatsoever.

01:05:01.320 Decommissioning on Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,

01:05:05.560 which you destroyed in Operation Midnight Hammer.

01:05:10.740 No stockpiling of any material,

01:05:13.460 which they flagrantly violated,

01:05:15.940 turning all enriched material over to us,

01:05:19.500 and a cutback in Iran's missile inventory

01:05:22.580 and range capability of those same missiles.

01:05:26.240 Throughout our meetings with the Iranians,

01:05:28.760 we heard the following from them.

01:05:31.360 The Iranians have the inalienable right to enrich.

01:05:35.560 Then we heard they possessed enough 60 percent

01:05:38.660 enriched material, 460 kilograms, to make 11

01:05:43.440 atomic bombs.

01:05:45.740 Finally, we heard the following statement.

01:05:48.600 They would not give up diplomatically what we

01:05:51.700 could not win militarily.

01:05:54.440 In other words, they were again miscalculating the

01:05:57.980 success of Midnight Hammer, which was a total success.

01:06:02.160 These are incontrovertible signs, among many other

01:06:06.540 signs, sir, that their regime had not given

01:06:11.940 their negotiating team authority to make a deal

01:06:15.780 required by you.

01:06:18.180 We conferred with you and all the other members of

01:06:21.480 your foreign policy team — Susie Wiles, Pete

01:06:24.920 Hegseth, the chairman, Marco Rubio, J.D., Scott

01:06:29.660 percent, Chris Wright, John Radcliffe, throughout all of these negotiations, and we were repeatedly

01:06:37.460 rebuffed on everything we asked for. I have no doubt that we exhausted all efforts on behalf

01:06:43.300 of a peaceful resolution, as you directed. Jared and I both agreed that the Iranians were there

01:06:49.840 to buy time until a weaker president arrived. This was a flawed strategy, as your clear direction

01:06:58.080 was to never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon today

01:07:02.600 or any time in the future.

01:07:05.380 Against that backdrop

01:07:06.820 and our compelling military successes in epic fury,

01:07:11.640 we have had multiple reachouts from the region

01:07:14.960 and others who want to play a role

01:07:18.100 in ending this conflict peacefully.

01:07:20.500 I can report to you today

01:07:22.560 that we have, along with your foreign policy team,

01:07:27.000 presented a 15-point action list that forms the framework for a peace deal.

01:07:34.000 This has been circulated through the Pakistani government acting as the

01:07:39.280 mediator. And this has resulted in strong and positive messaging and talks, as you

01:07:46.180 just indicated to the press. But these are sensitive diplomatic discussions, and you

01:07:51.720 have directed us to maintain confidentiality on the specific terms and not negotiate through

01:07:58.940 the news media as others do.

01:08:02.320 I can say this.

01:08:04.100 We will see where things lead and if we can convince Iran that this is the inflection

01:08:09.340 point with no good alternatives for them, other than more death and destruction.

01:08:15.920 We have strong signs that this is a possibility, and if a deal happens, it will be great for

01:08:22.160 the country of Iran, for the entire region, and the world at large.

01:08:27.960 Your policy of peace through strength is the most effective tool for a diplomatic resolution

01:08:34.140 here, just as this policy was an effective tool in each and every one of all of the other

01:08:41.160 conflicts you settled in your first year.

01:08:44.720 Iran is looking for an off-ramp following your powerful threat on Saturday.

01:08:50.660 Your indications that you are willing to listen to peace proposals have been well received.

01:08:57.540 You have instructed us that your preference is always peace and that we should make that

01:09:02.540 our priority.

01:09:04.360 We have delivered that message, sir, along with the 15 points for peace.

01:09:09.400 Finally, we have told Iran one last thing.

01:09:13.380 miscalculate again thank you very much good job doing a great job everybody around this table is

01:09:21.740 doing a great job be take sense please mr. president I'll start kind of where you left off

01:09:28.640 mr. president thank you for doing the work of the free world and having the courage to step up and

01:09:34.600 stop the Iranian terror regime from holding the world hostage that's really what it is and 27 days

01:09:40.820 ago, Iran had a modern military. Never in recorded history has a nation's military been so quickly and effectively neutralized. Operation Epic Fury is not an endless war. It's a decisive campaign with clear objectives to destroy Iran's offensive military capabilities and ensure they never obtain a nuclear weapon. This is stuff for the history books. This is stuff for legacy. Mr. President, you are acting now to ensure future

01:10:10.660 generations do not have to live under the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.

01:10:16.340 However, you wouldn't know it if you listen to the dishonest hate Trump media

01:10:20.620 as you referenced. The folks here in the room, these cameras, they have a

01:10:24.760 choice. You're either informing the American people of the truth or you're

01:10:28.840 not. Because I hear it from my people every day. Behind every headline you

01:10:34.180 you write, there's a helicopter crew in the air, and behind every news banner you write, there's a battalion on the move, and behind every fake news story, there's an F-35 pilot executing a dangerous mission. My message to the media is get it right. This actually isn't something new to me. I may be a young guy, Mr. President, but I'm not a rookie in this realm. In 2007, I helped lead the surge, the public fight for the

01:11:04.160 Iraq surge stood and watched people stand in the Senate and declare the war is lost before it even started. Who was that? It was Harry Reid. That was the Democrats and the media working hand in glove. Back then it was three years into a war. Now we're three weeks into an operation. But see, unlike Iraq, this isn't a tie. This is not parody. This is not chaos. This is success. Pure American success on plan.

01:11:34.160 And as the president said, ahead of pace.

01:11:36.440 Over 10,000 enemy targets destroyed.

01:11:39.640 Over 140, I think now you're right, Mr. President,

01:11:41.960 over 150 naval vessels sunk.

01:11:44.300 Underground facilities destroyed.

01:11:46.020 Their defense industrial base in shambles.

01:11:48.380 And overnight, not only did they not have a Navy, Mr. President,

01:11:51.700 they no longer have a Navy commander.

01:11:54.540 IRGC's Navy commander was killed overnight in operation.

01:11:57.640 So no Navy, no Navy leader.

01:12:01.580 Now that he's, here's the thing about the media, though.

01:12:04.160 If President Trump had not acted, you'd be screaming, why not?

01:12:09.060 And now that he has taken decisive action, you're asking, well, why did you?

01:12:13.380 It's the same old tired playbook, TDS in your DNA.

01:12:17.940 But the hardworking, God-fearing, patriotic Americans out there know better.

01:12:22.920 And you alluded to this, President Obama, Mr. President.

01:12:26.100 Here's a fact that you don't hear on your networks, but we know.

01:12:28.600 Many of the Iranian military factories and bases that we're systematically destroying were paid for by the pallets of American cash that Barack Obama flew into Tehran under the Iran deal.

01:12:43.180 You might call it an inconvenient truth.

01:12:46.760 Iran took our money and turned it into weapons and bunkers and ammo.

01:12:50.120 And now we're destroying those weapons and we're writing, you're writing, Mr. President, that grievous wrong.

01:12:56.220 And make no mistake, we had to act.

01:12:57.960 And our objectives are clear. No nukes, no Navy, and a complete dismantling of their missile program and defense industrial base.

01:13:05.680 And as Marco pointed out, that mission, and the VP as well, has not changed since day one.

01:13:12.320 Yet, two days ago, they shot two failed missiles on a target 4,000 kilometers away.

01:13:20.240 For years, they told the world that their missiles could only range two kilometers.

01:13:24.500 surprise, yet again, Iran lied. And to the world, I say London is 4,000 kilometers from Iran.

01:13:34.980 Washington, D.C. is 3,300 kilometers from Venezuela, another country President Trump

01:13:41.060 did something about that partnered for a long time with Iran. So you're telling us that Iran

01:13:45.840 is not a threat to the world or to the U.S. President Trump knows better. And here's what

01:13:49.740 success actually looks like right now. You mentioned it, Mr. President. A-10 warthogs,

01:13:55.400 if you know them, you love them, and Apache helicopter gunships are flying strike missions

01:14:00.760 inside Iranian airspace and throughout the Strait of Hormuz at will. See, you only send these slow,

01:14:08.380 low-flying, close air support platforms when the enemy has no meaningful air defenses left.

01:14:16.620 Their presence is proof that Iran's air defenses are gone.

01:14:21.660 Their command and control is shattered.

01:14:23.000 Their top leaders hiding in underground bunkers

01:14:25.140 while their mid-level commanders are being crushed in the field.

01:14:28.300 The morale of their fighters plummeting.

01:14:30.780 We see that disconnect daily.

01:14:33.520 They're privately admitting, as you said, Mr. President,

01:14:36.200 very heavy losses. We know that.

01:14:39.840 President Trump has given us a clear mission.

01:14:41.760 Our capabilities are only going up and Iran's are plummeting.

01:14:45.200 We are here to win, and we're full speed ahead.

01:14:49.160 So, Steve, we appreciate your efforts.

01:14:51.620 We pray for a deal, and we welcome a deal,

01:14:54.480 and we have the ultimate dealmaker to make it happen.

01:14:57.400 But in the meantime, as I said yesterday,

01:14:59.540 the Department of War will continue negotiating with bombs.

01:15:03.320 War is negotiation by other means.

01:15:06.920 And finally, I want to thank our incredible troops,

01:15:10.920 our pilots, crews, sailors, refuelers, air defenders,

01:15:14.340 the absolute best of America, the real 1% of our country.

01:15:19.340 This President, President Trump, has your back.

01:15:22.580 And I know this Cabinet prays for you every single day.

01:15:26.820 And we ask the American people to do the same

01:15:29.260 as they continue in this mission.

01:15:30.820 God bless. Thank you.

01:15:31.820 The President. Thank you very much. It's great.

01:15:33.800 I think before I ask Scott to say a couple of words,

01:15:38.860 it would be great if people like the mayor of chicago and the governor of illinois would say

01:15:50.700 please come in and stop the crime a beautiful young lady was killed the other day and the father

01:16:01.020 was a very good friend of dan scavino and he took it very hard dan took it very hard like the father

01:16:09.660 friends they grew up together and it's a young lady who whose life would be saved if we had

01:16:21.900 if we did what we did as an example in washington dc which is now a safe city

01:16:26.620 all the time people come up to me in the building people that work here they say thank you so much

01:16:31.640 I know immediately what they're talking about they're able to walk to work they walk to work

01:16:35.340 you all walk to work some of you were mugged I know you told me stories some of you were mugged

01:16:40.340 one person in particular was viciously mugged in the group right here it's not happening anymore

01:16:46.600 you have a safe city Louisiana the governor of Louisiana called me can you help me

01:16:53.260 with New Orleans. They just had the Mardi Gras. He said it was the safest Mardi Gras we've ever

01:16:57.460 had. Sounds terrible to say. No murders. You know, it sounds like who would say this? No murders,

01:17:03.900 but they always had murders. They had a lot of crime during Mardi Gras. He said virtually no

01:17:08.580 crime. We had the troops down there. Memphis, Tennessee, I just got back. We were there.

01:17:14.700 Crime is down 75 percent. In a short period of time, we're there five months.

01:17:19.160 We could do that for Chicago.

01:17:21.160 We could do that for New York.

01:17:23.160 We could do that for L.A.

01:17:25.160 And we could do that for, frankly, San Francisco.

01:17:28.160 I know they have a mayor who's trying very hard.

01:17:30.160 He's a Democrat, but he's trying very hard.

01:17:32.160 But we can do it much more effectively, because he can't do what we do.

01:17:36.160 He can't take people out from the city and bring them back to the country from where they came,

01:17:43.160 where they were in prisons.

01:17:45.160 They were allowed to go in prisons.

01:17:47.160 There were drug dealers, the highest level of drug dealers,

01:17:50.940 murderers, 11,888 murderers.

01:17:53.840 We do things that they can't do.

01:17:56.220 I had friends calling me up from San Francisco.

01:17:58.380 Could you give him a chance?

01:17:59.580 I said, absolutely.

01:18:00.640 If you want him, we'll give him a chance.

01:18:02.200 He's trying. He's doing okay.

01:18:04.500 But we could do much better.

01:18:06.060 We could make it a lot safer than it is.

01:18:08.120 San Francisco, a great city, was a great city,

01:18:11.340 could quickly become a great city again.

01:18:14.080 But, you know, they're going very slowly.

01:18:15.900 I tell my friends, they're very substantial people.

01:18:20.500 They're in a certain business where people have made a lot of money.

01:18:24.600 I hope that lasts.

01:18:26.680 But they have a tremendous potential.

01:18:30.940 It's one of the greatest cities in the world now.

01:18:32.660 It's got a lot of crime.

01:18:34.200 And the mayor is really trying it.

01:18:35.660 Again, a Democrat trying.

01:18:37.640 And I spoke to him.

01:18:38.400 He just wants to have a chance.

01:18:40.280 And I said, we'll give you a chance.

01:18:42.080 But we can solve it very quickly.

01:18:43.560 this young lady would be around today if we were around because we have nobody coming through our

01:18:54.140 border i mean literally for nine months it's zero i'm it's hard to believe that that number

01:18:58.520 can be possible because millions of people came in through by but nobody even tries we don't have

01:19:04.520 the caravans of thousands 25 30 000 people pouring into our border they come up in caravans we don't

01:19:12.780 have caravans anymore there's no such thing and it was a name that I think I

01:19:16.780 developed but somebody developed it but I think was me I thought it was an

01:19:20.400 appropriate thousands of people would come up and just barge into our country

01:19:24.900 totally unchecked totally invented and this man came in Dan right and he came

01:19:31.200 in through the ridiculous open border of Biden if we were there the election

01:19:39.420 was rigged. What are you going to do? Came back. Big comeback. But if we were there, we wouldn't

01:19:46.000 have had people coming through. It's amazing. You know, it's so easy now because everyone knows

01:19:51.020 they're not getting through. We don't have any caravans. Once they know that, when it was easy

01:19:55.140 to come through, when I heard that they had an open border policy, I said, boy, this is going to

01:19:59.820 be, I couldn't believe it. But when it was actually, you know, it dawned on me because

01:20:03.500 I had built a thousand miles of wall and we were finishing up some and he didn't want to finish it

01:20:11.860 up and I said they really do want to have an open border and we got it finished but

01:20:18.960 that young lady would be alive today and she'd be alive for another reason because we would have

01:20:26.780 the National Guard in Chicago and in New York and in other places and they love doing it it's like

01:20:33.100 It's training, to be honest, it's actually training.

01:20:36.500 I never want to take him out of D.C.

01:20:38.300 I mean, maybe somebody later on will do it, but I never want to take him.

01:20:41.940 You know, the people, they look, they say, we feel so good, we feel so safe.

01:20:45.540 We see these beautiful, strong people, and they're so nice.

01:20:50.980 They help, they open the doors for people, they carry bags, they pick up paper when they

01:20:56.560 see paper on the ground.

01:20:58.760 I looked at D.C.

01:20:59.760 last night i drove to make a speech and i drove through and i said take me this way take me that

01:21:04.720 way the city's clean the fences are down you don't have homeless all over your parks i mean we had

01:21:11.200 parks you couldn't there was no room for anything else other than homeless it's all clean and nice

01:21:16.320 it's gonna and it'll be even more beautiful in a year from now and we have some projects that

01:21:22.000 are great this ballroom is going to be something that's so beautiful for the city so desperately

01:21:26.160 needed by presidents i mean now it's uh no secret the military wanted it more than anybody it was

01:21:33.920 supposed to be secret but it became unsecret because of people that are really unpatriotic

01:21:40.720 saying things but does it matter doesn't matter it's going to be great we're building

01:21:46.720 an arc a triumphal arc which will be incredible for the city incredible we're fixing up the

01:21:51.040 the what was the Kennedy Center.

01:21:54.040 I was honored when the board changed the name a little bit.

01:21:57.640 Actually, it shows that the Republican and the Democrats,

01:22:01.020 they work together.

01:22:01.780 It's really something we work together.

01:22:04.120 So I think it's a great symbol, actually.

01:22:06.660 But we're doing a lot of work.

01:22:07.560 That building is ready to fall down.

01:22:09.020 It's in terrible shape. We're closing it.

01:22:11.460 We're going to open it with a bang in less than two years.

01:22:14.700 It'll come in under budget ahead of schedule.

01:22:16.700 That's what I do.

01:22:18.100 It won't be like the Federal Reserve

01:22:19.860 that's costing $4 billion or something thereabouts.

01:22:23.100 Think of it, $4 billion.

01:22:26.400 You know, it's amazing, I said to the group before,

01:22:29.300 I said, everything I do, I get sued.

01:22:32.000 I billed under budget ahead of schedule.

01:22:35.580 I get sued over a ballroom

01:22:36.780 that's going to be the most beautiful ballroom in the country,

01:22:38.940 so desperately needed.

01:22:41.020 You won't have to have tents sitting on the wet White House lawn.

01:22:44.680 If it rains, you get wiped out to honor the president of China

01:22:48.920 the president of france or the president of somewhere uh you could have the greatest we get

01:22:55.400 sued by the national trust for historic preservation uh they don't know what they're doing

01:23:03.560 then i just found out we got sued by that group and another group i guess on the

01:23:07.880 on the fixing up of of again i'll use the old name kennedy center because they're not fixing

01:23:15.960 up trump cannon what it's going to be beautiful when you add the name trump but we got sued

01:23:23.240 and all i'm doing is fixing it up we're fixing broken marble we're putting on a roof because

01:23:29.560 it leaks like a sieve we're fixing steel that's broken it's the same building same exact building

01:23:36.360 we're fixing it's going to be beautiful it's going to be so beautiful and safe

01:23:40.200 it's actually unsafe you had some of those columns on the outside that were painted a fake gold now

01:23:44.760 we painted him a beautiful white color beautiful cream white it's beautiful everyone said so much

01:23:50.840 more beautiful now instead of a cheap you can't imitate gold see i'm a gold person it's all real

01:23:55.800 stuff you can't imitate it they've someday they'll discover a paint that will look like gold and the

01:24:02.120 guy's going to be the richest man in the world but you can't imitate real gold it just doesn't

01:24:08.680 And it's 24 carat, which is what this building deserves.

01:24:13.320 But think of it.

01:24:15.520 I get sued because I'm fixing up the Trump-Kennedy center.

01:24:20.120 We're going to make it gorgeous and safe.

01:24:23.120 We're fixing new windows, new this, but just all fix-up.

01:24:27.000 I got sued by preservationists.

01:24:31.680 But you know who they didn't sue?

01:24:33.780 The man that took this beautiful Federal Reserve

01:24:36.280 building that's small much smaller than the hotel i built i built the waldorf astoria hotel

01:24:42.760 down the road and it was a beautiful job for 200 million 201 million dollars it's bigger i think

01:24:50.760 than the federal reserve building and it's got rooms and bathrooms and it's not like just an open

01:24:55.560 office space which is much cheaper to build think of this i hear he's going to be over four billion

01:25:02.360 dollars for a little building. He doesn't get sued by anybody but me. I sue because it's either

01:25:10.960 somebody who's very crooked, which has to be, because what happened to all that money? You can't

01:25:16.440 sue. I would have done that building for $25 billion. It's going to cost maybe $4 billion,

01:25:23.300 and we have a great new person coming in to take over the Fed.

01:25:29.140 And Kevin may not ever have an office

01:25:32.820 because I don't know if they're going to be able to build it.

01:25:35.320 I passed that building the other day. It's a see-through.

01:25:37.600 You know what see-through means? There's no walls up.

01:25:40.840 And they're going to spend.

01:25:43.480 But the National Trust for Historic Preservation,

01:25:46.160 which is a joke, by the way,

01:25:48.040 they didn't sue that building.

01:25:49.880 They didn't sue anybody.

01:25:51.060 but they sue me and I build and by the way my buildings it's all donations rich

01:25:58.800 people and people are putting up the money zero taxpayer dollars is that

01:26:03.360 right Scott zero taxpayer dollars stuff is all done for free and I get sued

01:26:09.120 it's gonna only happen to Trump but they don't sue the guy whose interest rates

01:26:16.200 are too high that's why we call him too late his name is Jerome Powell we call

01:26:20.240 Jerome, too late, pal, and done a terrible job.

01:26:26.480 He suffers from Trump derangement syndrome, as he probably should, because I hit him pretty

01:26:30.420 hard, so I don't blame him.

01:26:33.120 But they don't sue a man who has taken this gorgeous building, ripped it down from the

01:26:41.660 inside, taking ceilings that are as beautiful as you've ever seen, taking the ceilings down

01:26:49.780 instead of leaving them, taking walls down that were two feet thick of solid concrete

01:26:55.880 and plaster, replacing them with six-inch walls with no insulation. I said, let me ask

01:27:03.760 you, are you going to put insulation in? No, it's not in the budget. Insulation costs

01:27:10.820 $5.

01:27:11.820 Now you're going to hear the guy next door.

01:27:14.820 If he's next door to me, I'll be able to hear his military plan.

01:27:17.820 I'll know exactly.

01:27:19.820 If Lutnik is in there, I'll say, oh, I know exactly what Lutnik's got planned.

01:27:23.820 It's the craziest thing I've ever seen.

01:27:26.820 They've ripped this gorgeous building apart, and you can never build it again.

01:27:32.820 I could, but it costs a lot of money.

01:27:34.820 But a normal person can never build.

01:27:36.820 So you're going to have crummy little walls, a flat little ceiling eventually, but right

01:27:42.220 now you don't have anything.

01:27:44.420 And nobody sues this guy.

01:27:46.660 And then when Jeanine Pirro, working with Pam and others, has the courage to sue to find

01:27:52.860 out what happened to maybe $4 billion and a building that may never be occupied by Kevin

01:27:58.680 Walsh.

01:27:59.680 She may never get there.

01:28:00.680 We're going to have to find him some space in the White House.

01:28:04.320 put them in the basement of the ballroom but but when you know think of it when jeanine piero

01:28:13.840 and pam and the group when they bring a suit it's like oh this terrible thing and then we have a

01:28:19.200 judge that attacks us she attacks us so we've got to get our priorities straight you know it's uh

01:28:27.520 it's a very sad thing that's happened with the fed and then just one other thing very quickly

01:28:31.920 you have gavin newscom in california railroad that's a hundred times over budget it's out of

01:28:39.120 control it was supposed to go from the middle of san francisco to the middle of l.a well now it

01:28:44.720 stops way short of both it now goes into areas that nobody ever heard of it's it's billions and

01:28:53.380 billions of dollars over budget years and years maybe decades late

01:28:58.700 And that's why we have a country that has a lot of problems, you know.

01:29:04.560 We have incompetent people. It's all people.

01:29:07.240 Think of this. Federal Reserve, I would have had that building done for $25 million.

01:29:11.580 If I did it, somebody else would have done it for more.

01:29:16.360 So maybe 50. But you could have done that building if it was properly done and planned.

01:29:21.380 You would have done that building for, I would have done it for $25 million.

01:29:26.420 and it would be better it would be better see this pen right here this pen is an interesting

01:29:32.780 example it's the same thing so this pen is very inexpensive but it writes well i like it but i

01:29:40.380 can't have the pen the way it was you know what it is i don't want to give too much publicity but

01:29:44.200 they do treat me well sharpie so i came here they have thousand dollar pens and you know you hand

01:29:52.320 pens out you're signing and you're handing them out you're handing them to all these people

01:29:55.480 sometimes you have 30 40 people and there were a thousand dollars a piece beautiful pen ballpoint

01:30:02.600 thousand it was gold silver gorgeous but i'm handing out to kids that don't even know what

01:30:06.600 they're what is this mommy this is kids they're getting a pen for a thousand dollars they have

01:30:11.400 no idea what it is and i'm and i feel guilty because i'm like you know i'm by nature i i don't

01:30:17.240 you know it's the government i love the government like i love myself economically i want to save

01:30:22.680 money so i'm saying this is crazy and it had another problem they didn't write well

01:30:27.800 so i take it out and i saw it and there's no ink and i got all you people looking and you say there

01:30:33.640 must be something wrong with trump and i'm signing and there's no ink in the pen and it cost a

01:30:39.160 thousand dollars this one i called the guy i said i'd like to use your pen but i can't have a gray

01:30:45.800 thing with a big s on it saying sharpie as i'm signing a trillion dollar airplane contract

01:30:53.560 to buy brand new fighter jets brand new b2 bombers of which we just ordered plenty

01:30:58.840 i can't do that with the press use your pen but i like the pen the best but i'll sign it i could

01:31:03.800 do like biden did you know give it to somebody else to sign or an auto pen or maybe sign it

01:31:09.560 separately in another room but i can't use your pen he said well i can make it nicer so what can

01:31:14.360 you do?" He said, I'll paint it black. I said, that's nice. And I can even paint the

01:31:19.500 White House on it, sir, if you like, in gold. Almost real gold. Not bad. And I can even

01:31:26.940 do your signature, sir. And by the way, this was not staged. I just saw the pencil there

01:31:31.920 and I thought of this as an example of how $25 million spent by me at the Federal Reserve

01:31:38.760 building would be a better job than $4 billion that they're spending. And you know one of the

01:31:45.540 things that Kevin Walsh told me? He said they ripped down the nicest building. I don't know

01:31:49.820 what building they're talking about. They ripped down a building, Scott, right? Kevin Walsh said

01:31:53.720 it's the most beautiful building in Washington. He said the most beautiful space. They ripped it

01:32:00.100 down. Why did they do that? I don't know. Do you know what he's talking about? Is it true?

01:32:04.100 They ripped it down.

01:32:07.000 We have a moron at the Fed.

01:32:11.540 Who wouldn't be lowering interest rates right now?

01:32:15.340 But I want to thank Jeanine Pirro and Pam and her

01:32:20.180 group for having the courage to bring this suit.

01:32:24.660 And I believe that the contractor on that job is

01:32:28.760 probably one of the richest men in the country right now.

01:32:31.860 I believe that it's not possible to spend that kind of money.

01:32:37.200 Three billion, four billion.

01:32:38.400 Nobody knows.

01:32:39.100 Nobody has any idea what it is.

01:32:41.080 But it's over three billion, and it's probably going to be over four billion by the time they finish.

01:32:46.900 And it may never get finished, unless I take it over.

01:32:50.720 I'll get it finished.

01:32:51.480 But it can never be where it was.

01:32:53.180 It's never going to have those beautiful ceilings.

01:32:55.060 It's never going to have those incredible walls.

01:32:57.740 The walls were a foot and a half thick of solid masonry.

01:33:00.340 They ripped them down for no reason and I just give you the story and just to finish on this one

01:33:08.440 So I told that story to somebody said yeah, but I mean but it's not the same thing. I said you're right

01:33:14.020 This one is better

01:33:16.020 It writes

01:33:18.100 So the guy said to me

01:33:20.320 You don't have to pay me sir. I'll give him to you for nothing. I said no, I don't want that

01:33:24.940 Let me pay you. I want to pay you. No, sir

01:33:27.420 You don't have to. You're the president of the United States.

01:33:29.300 He was shocked. The head of Sharpie gets a call.

01:33:31.780 I don't even know who the hell he is.

01:33:34.640 He said, is this really the president?

01:33:37.100 He said, no, you don't have to pay me, sir. This is such an honor.

01:33:39.820 I said, nope, I want to pay you.

01:33:42.040 He said, what would you like to pay? I said, how about five bucks a pen?

01:33:45.620 I said, that's all right. Whatever the hell we agreed to.

01:33:49.340 Peanuts. As opposed to a thousand.

01:33:51.680 And these were thousand dollar pens.

01:33:54.100 and we were giving them out.

01:33:55.860 Sometimes, you know, you were there for signage.

01:33:57.620 I'd have 30, 40 people standing behind me.

01:33:59.480 I'd give out 40 pens to people.

01:34:01.560 Then somebody would say, could I have a couple extra?

01:34:03.900 This way, I'd go like this.

01:34:05.040 Here, you want five? Here, take five.

01:34:06.900 But the bottom line is, they're better pens.

01:34:10.280 It's a business story.

01:34:11.820 So for $5, it could be zero, but for $5,

01:34:15.180 I get a much better pen than for $1,000.

01:34:19.100 And I can hand them out.

01:34:20.460 And actually, they become hot as a pistol.

01:34:22.160 So what can I tell you?

01:34:23.260 And with that, could I give it to, please, a man who's done a great job at treasuring his people?

01:34:30.220 Good luck, Scott.

01:34:33.060 Well, sir, as always, you're a tough act to follow, but that is very illustrated.

01:34:37.900 Your economic leadership has made our military mission possible.

01:34:42.640 Mr. President, national security, as you always say, is economic security.

01:34:47.320 Your leadership has shown the American people that there is no prosperity without security.

01:34:54.340 That our mighty military on one side, but the U.S. economic strength is fighting off this evil regime.

01:35:04.260 The Iranians believe they are fighting a two-front war.

01:35:07.580 It is the military war that our great warriors are prosecuting.

01:35:12.480 But on the other side, they are trying to take control of the global economy through a choke point that we believe does not exist and that we will overcome.

01:35:23.360 The historic operation at Epic Fury seized a generational opportunity to demolish a regime that has coordinated over four decades of global terror and claimed thousands of American lives.

01:35:35.940 Many people, especially the Democrats, underestimate the will of the American people for short-term volatility for 50 years of safety that we are going to have on the other side of this.

01:35:48.280 And I believe energy prices will be lower, inflation will be lower, before we had the appearance of security, which is not real security.

01:36:00.440 Now, the American people and the world will have absolute security.

01:36:06.640 Through your maximum pressure campaign, Treasury has worked to uncover all financial lifelines through the regime and cut them off.

01:36:14.520 You gave that order last March.

01:36:17.380 This was not something that happened overnight.

01:36:21.780 This is something that has been contemplated for almost a year.

01:36:25.020 They find that the Iranian financial system collapsed in December.

01:36:30.440 We have systematically weakened Iran's ability to fund operations and procure weapons,

01:36:36.340 and that required months of preparations.

01:36:39.460 Threats to American national security have no place in the global economic system.

01:36:44.580 The oil market is well supplied.

01:36:47.660 We have taken actions to ensure oil supplies stranded at sea are made available to the global market.

01:36:54.060 Your bold actions like the Development Finance Corporation's Maritime Reinsurance Program

01:36:59.120 in conjunction with Central Command will soon provide shippers through the Gulf region

01:37:05.140 with a level of security we have never seen before.

01:37:08.720 Mr. President, we are starting to see more and more movement in and out of the Gulf today,

01:37:13.980 and this is more than yesterday, and this is the beginning.

01:37:18.000 I am confident that shipping traffic will continue to increase on a daily basis even before we secure the straits.

01:37:28.240 Turning to the home front, the U.S. economy remains strong.

01:37:33.000 We had a strong economy thanks to you.

01:37:36.880 We are the best insulated in the world thanks to your energy efforts in Term 1 and Term 2.

01:37:44.600 The U.S. is an energy superpower.

01:37:48.000 American workers purchasing power is finally being restored the latest

01:37:53.280 figures indicate robust real compensation increases we are starting to

01:37:58.380 see the working family tax cuts benefits bearing fruit this tax season 44%

01:38:05.040 of tax returns have claimed at least one of your signature policies no tax and

01:38:11.440 tips no tax and overtime no tax and Social Security deductibility of auto

01:38:15.600 loans. The average tax refund is up more than 10 percent for working Americans. The economy you

01:38:23.060 vitalize through your pro-growth policies is well positioned to withstand these temporary

01:38:28.340 disruptions. The United States dollar has reasserted itself as a safe haven asset. The U.S. dollar has

01:38:36.560 appreciated since the hostilities began because everyone knows, thanks to your efforts, the U.S.

01:38:42.880 economy is the best position in the world and capital is flowing in. Efforts to reprioritize

01:38:49.420 economic security are ensuring the United States remain secure, resilient, and prepared for the

01:38:55.240 challenges ahead. As we approach the 250th anniversary, America will never be safer and

01:39:02.040 more secure militarily and economically. Thank you. I just want to ask you a question. Is this

01:39:09.220 This guy is central casting.

01:39:12.020 I'm looking at him.

01:39:12.920 I'm in Treasury.

01:39:14.420 He might not be so good for war.

01:39:15.920 I don't know.

01:39:17.620 No, I'm looking pretty good to him.

01:39:19.440 I'm looking at this guy.

01:39:20.340 He's central casting.

01:39:21.660 Even the glasses are perfect.

01:39:23.000 When do you get glasses?

01:39:24.660 I think I'm going to get glasses like that.

01:39:28.140 That's beautiful.

01:39:30.000 Great job.

01:39:30.800 That's really good.

01:39:31.440 No, he's done a great job.

01:39:33.380 You all have.

01:39:34.280 Proud of you all.

01:39:37.140 Do you have any questions?

01:39:38.380 Mr. President, are you going to go in for the uranium?

01:39:42.020 Like, how do you secure Iran and...

01:39:44.580 Let's assume I was or I wasn't.

01:39:47.420 Why would I ever answer a question?

01:39:49.480 Can you accomplish...

01:39:50.200 What kind of a question?

01:39:51.280 Am I going to go in for the...

01:39:52.700 Oh, yeah, I'm going in.

01:39:53.820 We're going in tomorrow at 3 o'clock.

01:39:57.600 How could you possibly ask a question like that

01:40:00.320 and expect an answer?

01:40:01.640 I don't know.

01:40:02.640 But, I don't know.

01:40:04.120 I think you're a friendly person, too.

01:40:05.540 It's just such a ridiculous question.

01:40:08.380 Thank you, Mr. President.

01:40:09.380 There's been a report that potentially the U.S. is looking at diverting some munitions,

01:40:20.380 air defenses that were meant for Ukraine to the Middle East.

01:40:23.380 Is there any accuracy to that?

01:40:24.380 Is that something that you're considering?

01:40:25.380 Well, I'd have to ask you, but we do that all the time.

01:40:28.380 You know, we have tremendous amounts of ammunition.

01:40:30.380 We have them in other countries, like in Germany and all over Europe.

01:40:33.380 We have, you know, we're packed.

01:40:35.380 And we take sometimes we take from one and we use for another we help Ukraine

01:40:41.440 Biden started and he gave 350 billion dollars away too much way too much and

01:40:48.580 We sell it now to NATO we sell it to NATO and they probably give it to Ukraine mostly. I think they give it to Ukraine, but

01:40:57.220 We get paid for everything that we we give we don't give anything anymore

01:41:00.860 more. That's a tough situation, that whole Ukraine situation. Very, very tough. We're working very

01:41:07.300 hard on getting that one solved. It doesn't have any impact on us, virtually nothing. In fact,

01:41:13.140 if anything, I mean, we sell a lot of equipment for that unfortunate war. 25,000 people died last

01:41:19.420 month. 25,000, mostly soldiers. Some in the towns, but for the most part, soldiers. They're dying.

01:41:25.820 nobody's seen anything like it since world war ii uh it's uh it's a terrible situation and

01:41:31.980 hopefully that's going to get settled you know i settled eight wars and many of them i think were

01:41:38.380 more difficult than this one in theory they were more difficult but there's tremendous hatred between

01:41:43.740 president putin and president zielinski tremendous hatred i've i've seen it before but i've never

01:41:48.620 never see him maybe to this extent and i think that's calming down a little bit and i think we

01:41:55.480 have a chance of getting it done but we it it doesn't affect us thousands of miles away that's

01:42:00.620 why it when i heard the head of germany say this is not our war about iran i said well ukraine's

01:42:10.620 not our war we helped but ukraine's not our i thought it was a very inappropriate statement to

01:42:15.220 but he made it you can't erase it but he felt that way i said well you know ukraine's not our

01:42:23.060 but and it's not but i would like to see all those young people stop being killed i mean they're

01:42:28.340 being killed it's like a slaughterhouse what's happening there is horrible 25 000 on our last

01:42:34.740 two months ago was 31 000 people died in one month mark all right i look i said it's getting

01:42:41.700 crazy it's getting worse think of it 31 000 soldiers both russian and ukraine died two months

01:42:50.660 ago 25 000 last month and if i can solve that it would be a great honor to do it i wish it could

01:42:57.460 have gone faster the you know i saw the other ones in one day that had been going for 32 years

01:43:03.360 we solved we stopped one that was starting it was already started india and pakistan and the

01:43:11.020 Prime Minister of Pakistan, a very fine gentleman,

01:43:14.220 said President Trump solved something that was going

01:43:18.660 to cost 10 million lives.

01:43:21.640 That one's going to cost a lot of lives to nuclear nations.

01:43:25.560 And those were complicated, but we got them done quickly.

01:43:29.500 This one is, it's a shame.

01:43:33.180 And the only reason I'm doing it, frankly,

01:43:35.420 is because I want to stop death.

01:43:36.920 I want to stop the death from happening.

01:43:38.880 I think I'm going to go with a man that I've missed, Brian.

01:43:41.920 I haven't seen you in a long time.

01:43:44.040 He's been in a very strange location.

01:43:46.660 I don't know.

01:43:48.960 He's had a strange thing happen.

01:43:51.720 But anyway, go ahead, Brian.

01:43:52.540 Well, good to see you, too.

01:43:53.540 Actually, good to see the entire cabinet.

01:43:55.260 You talked about gas prices coming down, obviously they will.

01:43:59.820 Would you ever consider suspending the federal gas tax

01:44:02.440 in order to kind of temporarily alleviate some?

01:44:05.580 Well, some people should do that.

01:44:07.400 But as an example, in California, every time prices go down, his prices go up because, you know, the gas tax is bigger than the tax itself, bigger than the product itself.

01:44:20.480 It hasn't, I mean, we've thought about it, I guess.

01:44:23.760 But honestly, when I did this, I knew it was going to be a little bit, we had the greatest economy ever.

01:44:33.140 We had the greatest stock market in history.

01:44:35.160 I said, we're going to take a little bit of a hit, a short-term hit.

01:44:39.340 It's going to end up going much higher than it was, in my opinion.

01:44:43.240 I said, I said, we're going to have a great stock market.

01:44:46.640 Nobody thought we could get to 50,000 or 7,000 in their respective indices.

01:44:52.940 Nobody thought that that was going to happen.

01:44:54.900 But it did, in the first year.

01:44:56.720 They said it couldn't happen in four years, that you wouldn't hit 50 in four years,

01:45:00.780 but you could maybe get close.

01:45:03.160 We hit it in the first year.

01:45:05.560 And I said, this is a good time to solve a problem that you had to solve.

01:45:09.580 And that's what I did.

01:45:10.400 But the gas tax, you know, people have talked about it.

01:45:15.820 It's something we have in our pocket if we think it's necessary.

01:45:19.300 And if I follow real quickly, you just recently took off, Secretary Duffy,

01:45:23.180 17,000 truckers off the road that could, quite frankly,

01:45:27.300 could not speak English, which is a safety issue.

01:45:29.780 Could we ever extend that to Uber drivers, Lyft drivers,

01:45:33.780 cab drivers, for someone who takes a lot of Uber,

01:45:36.780 a lot of my drivers who can't speak Uber?

01:45:38.780 Oh, well, that's not good. I didn't like that.

01:45:40.780 Go ahead, John.

01:45:41.780 So that's a really good point.

01:45:43.780 The problem is that our states are the ones

01:45:46.780 that issue these licenses.

01:45:48.780 So with commercial driver's licenses,

01:45:50.780 we do have some federal control.

01:45:52.780 But again, we have thousands of people

01:45:55.780 who can't speak the language,

01:45:57.780 long-standing rule and it's a safety issue but if you can't understand road

01:46:02.760 signs if you can't communicate with law enforcement when you're pulled over and

01:46:06.540 communicate what's on your rig huge problem but the last administration Mr.

01:46:11.160 President they let truck driving schools self-certify that they were

01:46:17.500 qualified to train truck drivers and so this is like the Leering Center so you

01:46:23.160 pay $800 and you get a certificate that you passed a CDL driving school and again they have no

01:46:31.640 skills they never they don't they don't have the knowledge they don't have the skills they haven't

01:46:35.480 gone through any of the testing and then they get licenses and they're killing americans on our

01:46:39.640 roads so it's remarkable uh the rot that the last administration allowed to take place we are ending

01:46:45.320 that and i need partnership with our states even california started to come on board even gavin

01:46:51.400 has started to play ball with us, which is surprising.

01:46:54.240 Not all the way, a little bit.

01:46:55.580 A little bit of a ball.

01:46:57.180 Mr. Mr. President, yes.

01:46:58.740 The President.

01:46:59.580 The President.

01:47:00.580 The President.

01:47:01.580 The President.

01:47:02.580 You know, it's interesting because I just saw something

01:47:03.580 that the nursing home business and the daycare centers

01:47:06.480 in particular, they went out and inspected them in

01:47:09.660 Minnesota, and they didn't exist.

01:47:13.580 They're knocking on doors.

01:47:14.360 He happens to be a young man, Nick.

01:47:16.220 Nice young man.

01:47:17.560 He's done a very good job.

01:47:19.120 They're knocking on doors.

01:47:21.420 It's like homes.

01:47:23.660 And they're getting hundreds of thousands of that.

01:47:26.000 They didn't exist.

01:47:28.060 And in California, it's worse.

01:47:29.560 It's even worse.

01:47:31.160 And I spoke with Russell out.

01:47:34.240 I said, Russell, don't send him any money.

01:47:35.940 He said, but we have a court order that we have to.

01:47:37.940 Can you believe it?

01:47:38.800 A judge.

01:47:39.540 The judges are really hurting this country.

01:47:42.120 Our judges, just as Roberts doesn't like when I say it,

01:47:46.820 But the judges are really hurting this country.

01:47:50.260 And, frankly, the justices.

01:47:52.460 The Supreme Court has really hurt our country, too.

01:47:56.560 The Press.

01:47:57.660 Mr. President, do you have a new deadline,

01:47:59.200 given that there are some talks now?

01:48:00.760 Do you have a new deadline before taking drastic action?

01:48:02.700 The President No, I'll announce it right now.

01:48:05.440 You're talking about a deadline for doing some

01:48:07.140 pretty big damage, even bigger than we've done.

01:48:11.520 Well, we'll see.

01:48:12.420 Look, we have very substantial talks going on

01:48:16.020 with respect to Iran, with the right people.

01:48:20.560 You know, I told you about a present, right?

01:48:23.400 Steve, can I reveal the present?

01:48:27.300 You can do anything you want to show.

01:48:31.300 They said to show you the fact that we're real and solid

01:48:37.540 and we're there.

01:48:38.940 We're going to let you have eight boats of oil,

01:48:41.080 eight boats, eight big boats of oil.

01:48:43.980 This was two days ago.

01:48:45.820 And they'll sail up tomorrow. That was three days ago.

01:48:49.480 And I didn't think much about it.

01:48:53.080 And then I watched the news and they said,

01:48:56.680 a very good anchor actually, happy to be Fox.

01:49:01.480 But I watched it and he said,

01:49:04.480 something's unusual happening.

01:49:05.920 There are eight boats that are going right up

01:49:09.760 the middle of the Homo Strait.

01:49:13.720 Eight big tankers are going loaded up with oil right through.

01:49:17.100 And I said, well, I guess, I guess they were right.

01:49:20.160 And they were, they were real.

01:49:22.360 And I think they were Pakistani flagged.

01:49:25.300 And I said, well, I guess we're dealing with the right people.

01:49:29.160 And actually, they then apologized for something they said.

01:49:33.280 And they said, we're going to send two more boats.

01:49:36.240 And it ended up being 10 boats.

01:49:38.280 I hope I haven't screwed up your negotiations.

01:49:40.440 But I thought it was appropriate to say,

01:49:42.340 because I did taunt you the other day by saying

01:49:45.540 they're going to give us a present.

01:49:46.820 The Pressure for two illegal immigrants who were arrested

01:49:53.420 at San Francisco airport for ignoring deportation orders.

01:49:57.660 At the same time as you highlighted, really great

01:50:00.660 reception from American travelers for ICE agents.

01:50:03.760 Is there a PR aspect of this that can allow future

01:50:07.500 deportations to go on with less protest and less outrage?

01:50:11.000 Yeah, it's amazing, because by putting ICE there,

01:50:14.760 look, the press was very unfair to ICE.

01:50:18.260 So was everyone else.

01:50:19.340 These are great American patriots.

01:50:20.720 They have a tough job.

01:50:21.480 They have to find murderers and take them out of our country.

01:50:23.700 I wouldn't want to do it.

01:50:24.500 You wouldn't want to do it.

01:50:25.300 Most people wouldn't want to do it.

01:50:27.140 They do it.

01:50:28.080 And, you know, 11,888 murderers, and that's murderers.

01:50:32.380 That's not drug dealers.

01:50:33.620 That's not lots of other things.

01:50:35.260 It's not people from mental institutions.

01:50:37.320 entire jail populations were released from major countries and led into our country through the

01:50:45.740 open border and ice has done an amazing job i wouldn't want that job it's a tough job dangerous

01:50:51.960 so what happens is um by putting them at the airport and i just said do me a favor take off

01:51:00.060 your masks and they did for that not for when they're looking for some you know cold-blooded

01:51:06.020 killers and they're in the net but for that and they did they took them off and the passengers

01:51:12.500 I see the interviews of people they say these are nice people one person said he's a very strong man

01:51:20.420 but he's a nice guy he grabbed my bag he helped a woman with a bag that she couldn't lift and

01:51:27.540 I'll tell you I don't want to use the word rehab because there was nothing to rehab but

01:51:31.540 Rehab from the press, you know, because the press is so tough on them.

01:51:35.280 And these crooks in Minnesota, these crooked politicians and dirty cops,

01:51:39.320 they're dirty cops, they're dirty politicians.

01:51:42.220 Waltz is a dirty, crooked politician.

01:51:44.920 The attorney general is a crooked guy.

01:51:47.000 He's no investigations.

01:51:48.520 And I hope J.D. is going to do a great job.

01:51:50.260 He's in charge of it now with somebody who's very talented.

01:51:53.840 But I think it's easy stuff.

01:51:55.620 They say $19 billion, think of it, is missing.

01:52:01.540 19 billion do you know if we would solve half of the fraud problem pam in this country we would

01:52:07.300 have more than a balanced budget we have we'd have a surplus and in the case of minnesota it's

01:52:15.620 a lot it's very somalia oriented think of it these people come from a crooked country disgusting

01:52:22.420 country one of the worst countries in the world acknowledged to be one of the worst countries in

01:52:26.980 or some people say it's the worst they have no money they have nothing they come to our country

01:52:34.740 low iqs and they they rob us blind stupid people and they rob us blind because we have crooked

01:52:43.060 politicians and we have dirty cops the attorney general is a dirty cop it's my opinion it's only

01:52:50.340 my opinion and something should be done about him let's see what kind of job you do yesterday you

01:52:56.180 Do you think Iran should be able to charge a toll for the Strait of Hornets?

01:53:02.180 They're charging some vessels to go through.

01:53:05.180 Well, should they be able to?

01:53:07.180 I mean, they shouldn't be able to, but they're doing it a little bit.

01:53:12.180 Look, their capability is a lot less than it was two weeks ago.

01:53:17.180 And with every week and every day, frankly, it gets less and less.

01:53:21.180 All I can tell you is they're begging to make a deal.

01:53:24.180 So let's see what happens.

01:53:25.180 tell me about mail-in ballots going yeah you may not use the mail-in ballot you probably said yeah

01:53:33.300 I did you know what because I'm president of the United States and because of the fact that I'm

01:53:38.700 president of the United States I did a mail-in ballot for elections that took place in Florida

01:53:43.900 because I felt I should be here instead of being in the beautiful sunshine taking

01:53:49.080 that's right and I yeah and I decided that I was going to vote by mail-in

01:53:55.160 ballot because i couldn't be there because i had a lot of different things but you know we have

01:53:59.240 exceptions for mail-in ballots you do know that right so if you're away we have an exception if

01:54:05.240 you're in the military we have an exception if you're on a business trip we have an exception

01:54:09.800 if you're disabled we have an exception and if you're ill if you're not feeling good

01:54:15.000 so i was away mostly in washington dc so i used a mail-in belt but i appreciate the question because

01:54:20.840 I know I know it was so well meaning. Yeah, I actually just looked up the company that owns Sharpie

01:54:27.320 and they stopped doing positive after you mentioned it.

01:54:33.800 By the way, they deserve it. It's a good product.

01:54:36.520 So you gave a five-day deadline. With oil tankers going through the straddle news,

01:54:41.640 is that a condition to remove that five-day deadline?

01:54:43.640 Well, we don't want anything impeded.

01:54:48.640 We want ships to go through.

01:54:50.640 We don't know that they've dropped any mines, by the way,

01:54:53.640 because we blew up all their mine droppers, right?

01:54:56.640 We blew up every one of them.

01:54:58.640 They're going to have to take them out on a rowboat or something.

01:55:00.640 I don't know how the hell they get out there, but we don't really know.

01:55:03.640 You might speak to it. We don't know.

01:55:05.640 There could be a few of them out there, but that's a lot.

01:55:08.640 You know, if you have a billion-dollar ship and you get hit by a mine,

01:55:11.640 It's not the greatest thing in the world.

01:55:14.640 So if you think the problem with that, that's not like you've

01:55:18.640 decimated the military.

01:55:20.640 If you think there may be a mine, that's a bad thought.

01:55:23.640 And it stops things up.

01:55:25.640 How are we doing in that regard?

01:55:26.640 Mr. President, you're right.

01:55:27.640 We have so heavily degraded their coastal defense capabilities

01:55:31.640 and their naval capabilities that any strategical operational

01:55:35.640 attempts to do those types of things are extremely limited.

01:55:38.640 extremely limited. And we continue to move over the top of that. Now, whether Iran makes a wise choice or not to try to execute that is part of how this deal comes together. But with every passing day, the military pressure that we're putting on them lessens their ability to really hold that militarily at issue. I mean, the problem, the problem with the issue of the Homo states is this. We've decimated them as a military. No air force, no navy. Very few rockets left. We blew up so many.

01:56:07.040 hard to manufacture them. Same thing with drones.

01:56:11.180 The leadership is gone. The problem with the Straits is this.

01:56:15.480 Let's say we do a great job. We say we got 99 percent.

01:56:19.980 One percent is unacceptable because one percent is a missile

01:56:24.660 going into the hull of a ship that cost a billion dollars, right?

01:56:27.600 So one percent is that we can't. If we do a 99 percent decimation,

01:56:32.900 that's no good so it's so it's really you know but i have a feeling it's going to clean up pretty

01:56:41.380 quickly i could just say this they they want to make they want to make and i i probably hurt our

01:56:46.340 little negotiation it gives them a little impetus to say well i wish you didn't say that but they

01:56:51.460 said yesterday that we weren't negotiating with them and now they admit that we were negotiating

01:56:56.340 with them so they want to make a deal the reason they want to make a deal is they have been just

01:57:01.300 Just beat the shit.

01:57:03.300 Are you thinking of taking control of Iran's oil?

01:57:08.300 It's an option.

01:57:10.300 I mean, I wouldn't talk about it, but it's an option.

01:57:12.300 Is that something you thought about?

01:57:13.300 Well, in Venezuela, we've done very well working with Venezuela, certainly.

01:57:17.300 We've taken in billions and billions of dollars.

01:57:21.300 And by the way, Venezuela is doing better right now than they've ever done in the history of their country.

01:57:26.300 And it's sort of like a joint venture, but the United States has made a lot of money, Marco, right?

01:57:33.700 Do you want to talk about that for a second?

01:57:35.480 About Venezuela?

01:57:36.180 Yeah.

01:57:36.560 Yeah, I mean, I think Venezuela in the first two months of this year generated more revenue from oil sales than they had in most of all of last year.

01:57:43.960 But the money is not being stolen anymore.

01:57:45.340 And it's being held in a U.S. Treasury-blocked account.

01:57:48.440 And to the extent it's flowing to the Venezuelan government, it's going to help people, like fund hospitals, pay teachers.

01:57:53.820 It's not being stolen.

01:57:54.400 lot of it and they got more than they have in many years think of it we get a lot of it we have a

01:58:00.560 deal we get a lot of it we had a hundred million think of this 100 million barrels we took in in

01:58:09.200 the first two weeks 100 million barrels that's a lot of oil it's a lot of ships uh and we got

01:58:15.120 some and they got some we paid for the ships a lot of money left over and venezuela has done

01:58:22.480 more better now with us call it a partner call it whatever you want we've made a lot of money and

01:58:30.560 they've made a lot of money we've paid for the cost of that military hit many many times over

01:58:38.000 and we've only just started our relationship with venezuela has been amazing uh the people

01:58:45.360 actually i'm the highest polling person in in other words after the presidency i think i may

01:58:50.640 go to venezuela against elsie i may run against elsie it's an option no i i they like me in

01:59:00.240 venezuela but uh it's an option for me it's a wonderful option yes there's some reports

01:59:07.440 that gulf allies are concerned about winding down the war too soon and potentially leaving

01:59:11.920 a ride well they'd probably like us to stay but but the concern if we if we don't stay look it's

01:59:17.440 It's a beautiful thing about airplanes that go 2,000 miles an hour.

01:59:20.740 You can get back there very quickly.

01:59:23.960 If we don't stay, we're going to be protecting them.

01:59:26.260 We know, you know, they've been very good.

01:59:28.900 Hey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, in particular, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, the three of them, Kuwait, Bahrain.

01:59:39.520 They've been 100%.

01:59:40.820 Now, in all fairness, you know, they could have gone the other way.

01:59:43.280 They were surprisingly mistiled.

01:59:47.440 They were shot at.

01:59:49.440 Nobody ever thought they'd be shot at.

01:59:52.040 UAE had 1,400 missiles aimed at them.

01:59:55.940 Fortunately, they had the greatest anti-missile weapon

01:59:59.020 in history, called the Patriot.

02:00:01.480 Almost every single missile was shot at.

02:00:03.880 You know, we had an incident recently where 101 missiles

02:00:07.500 were shot at a certain thing that we own.

02:00:09.200 It's very valuable.

02:00:10.860 101 missiles going 2,000 miles an hour.

02:00:14.600 Out of the 101 missiles, every single one of them

02:00:17.580 was shot down in midair and fell into the ocean.

02:00:20.500 It's amazing technology.

02:00:22.380 There's nobody has equipment like we have.

02:00:24.320 The Pressure is going to have that enriched uranium.

02:00:28.900 Is it even possible to wind up?

02:00:29.840 Well, you're going to have to see.

02:00:31.340 But, you know, I think we'll be...

02:00:33.220 We're in just very good shape.

02:00:35.040 You know what we're doing?

02:00:36.340 You know the word roaming free?

02:00:38.780 We're over their skies with the most beautiful planes you've ever seen.

02:00:42.440 roaming free, there's not a damn thing

02:00:44.780 they can do about it.

02:00:47.020 It would be nice if

02:00:48.480 like the fake news, New York Times

02:00:50.740 which writes so fake. And the Wall Street Journal

02:00:52.660 is terrible. Terrible.

02:00:54.440 I mean, I read a story today that I'm desperate to make a deal.

02:00:56.900 I'm not, I don't,

02:00:58.320 if I was desperate, he'd be the first to know me.

02:01:00.960 Let's get the hell out of there.

02:01:02.800 I'm the opposite of desperate.

02:01:05.300 I don't care.

02:01:07.320 If a major disruption

02:01:08.480 happened and you couldn't get to the store,

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Bannon's War Room - March 26, 2026

Episode 5247⧸5248： Live From CPAC Day 1

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