Bannon's War Room - WarRoom Battleground EP 953： Live Coverage From Australia

00:00:00.000 This is the primal scream of a dying regime.

00:00:17.140 Pray for our enemies, because we're going medieval on these people.

00:00:22.460 I got a free shot on all these networks lying about the people.

00:00:26.740 The people have had a belly full of it.

00:00:28.240 I know you don't like hearing that.

00:00:30.160 I know you've tried to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it.

00:00:32.780 It's going to happen.

00:00:34.060 And where do people like that go to share the big line?

00:00:37.440 MAGA Media.

00:00:38.780 I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.

00:00:44.200 Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?

00:00:48.000 If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.

00:00:54.260 War Room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Banff.

00:00:58.240 It's Friday, 20 February, in the year of our Lord, 2026.

00:01:04.220 So every Friday at this time, I normally come off the 5 o'clock show and toss to Rome to our anchor, Ben Harnwell, who runs international for us, our international bureau.

00:01:16.540 Today, we're doing a little differently.

00:01:17.980 I'm in Texas.

00:01:19.000 I am hosting.

00:01:19.840 We're going to go to Australia in a moment.

00:01:21.820 Our own Dr. Bradley Thayer and our own Ben Harnwell there.

00:01:25.240 But I wanted to finish with Trita Parsi. 0.99

00:01:28.260 Trita, one more time.

00:01:29.360 Because what was leaked to the Wall Street Journal, and they have very strong access to the White House, was when I read it, it was, I think, kind of Trumpy.

00:01:38.660 And President Trump did not want to do a regime change war on the 12-day war.

00:01:43.500 He was very specific.

00:01:44.640 He totally obliterated the nuclear weapons program, what he said.

00:01:49.540 In Venezuela, had a very sophisticated JSOC exercise, but it was to take out Maduro and the wife, leave the rest of the regime there, work some deal out, and see if they can't run it by themselves.

00:02:03.200 Here, it was incremental.

00:02:04.660 He was going to, you know, do some sort of kinetic activity and see if he couldn't get the Ayatollah and the Mullahs and their advisors to reach his goal.

00:02:13.780 Do you think that that is a strategy that works, sir?

00:02:17.300 I don't think that will work.

00:02:20.240 And I think part of the reason why it won't work is because I think the Israelis have convinced Trump that Iran is much weaker than it actually is.

00:02:28.460 Iran undoubtedly is weaker than it was two years ago.

00:02:32.420 But they have essentially convinced him that you can do these incremental attacks and the Iranians won't respond. 0.99

00:02:38.340 Reality is the Iranians have their backs against the wall. 1.00

00:02:41.300 They've seen no way out of this, but any incremental thing that they don't respond to eventually will weaken them so much that they will lose anyways.

00:02:49.920 And once they have no defenses, the Israelis are going to go and blow that place up. 1.00

00:02:53.880 That's their expectation.

00:02:54.860 That's exactly what the Israelis did in Syria as soon as Assad fled the country. 0.70

00:02:59.180 They just went in and bombed everything.

00:03:00.860 So their best shot, paradoxically, is actually to strike back and strike back hard in order to hope that even though they are weaker, the United States has a lower pain tolerance because the population is not behind us.

00:03:15.540 And if they inflict significant damage on the U.S. on the ships in the Persian Gulf or whether it is going after oil installations in the region and close the Strait of Hormuz, shoot up oil prices, shoot up inflation in the United States and globally, the calculation is their chance of getting out of this is to actually destroy Trump's presidency before they lose the war.

00:03:37.900 So their incentive structure is not to play along and accept being hit incrementally.

00:03:43.340 It is actually to escalate fast in that type of a scenario, despite the fact that they clearly are the weaker party.

00:03:49.400 The question we have to ask ourselves, how does any of this serve U.S. interests?

00:03:53.760 Why do we have to do this in the first place?

00:03:56.240 There can be negotiations.

00:03:57.860 There are negotiations.

00:03:58.820 But those negotiations have to be based on a much more realistic understanding of where the Iranians are and where the U.S. are, not the kind of red lines that have been sold to Trump

00:04:07.500 by the Israelis who are doing this because they want him to go to war.

00:04:11.640 Well, hang on for a second.

00:04:12.700 President Trump, once again, re-edited today at the tariff presser.

00:04:16.620 He was asked about this situation.

00:04:18.740 He says, look, they can't have nuclear weapons.

00:04:21.340 I don't want any more.

00:04:22.780 I don't want nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

00:04:25.580 I don't want Iran to have them. 1.00

00:04:27.060 That being his position, walk me through a negotiation because President Trump's a dealmaker.

00:04:32.920 He'll make a deal.

00:04:33.940 It's not that he's not looking for a deal.

00:04:35.680 He'll make a deal.

00:04:36.300 So walk me through a deal.

00:04:38.140 Walk me through a series of deals that could get to where President Trump wants to go.

00:04:45.120 If the only red line is no nuclear weapons, there's absolutely a chance of getting a deal because there are plenty of different things that can be done.

00:04:52.040 For instance, one of the things that were being floated around in the previous negotiations, which is still on the table, is a consortium in which the enrichment still takes place in Iran.

00:05:01.160 But you have several different countries involved in it.

00:05:03.520 So the Iranians can't do anything on their own. 0.89

00:05:05.500 You could even have American inspectors there.

00:05:07.880 This, I think, would be a way better deal than what Obama managed to get.

00:05:12.340 But it is not acceptable to the Israelis because they don't want to have any deal at all. 0.87

00:05:16.520 They want to have complete obliteration of everything, including missiles and other things.

00:05:20.380 And they're pushing Trump in that direction.

00:05:22.820 U.S. interest, however, is in a different place altogether.

00:05:25.740 If we can get a deal that not only makes sure that they have no pathway towards a nuclear weapon, which I think is doable, but also opens up a new relationship, you have trade, you have investment, you have other things that would benefit the American middle class and ultimately benefit the Iranian people as well.

00:05:41.860 I think that's a much better route to go and precisely the type of things that Trump likes to do.

00:05:46.520 The big mistake the Iranians have done, in my view, is that they have refused to talk directly to Trump. 0.85

00:05:53.540 I think if they were open to that, which they should be and they haven't been, I think there could be a massive de-escalation.

00:06:00.180 Both sides could avoid a lose-lose war.

00:06:02.980 And both sides could be on a path towards a much, much better future for both of them.

00:06:07.800 One of the things President Trump has a saying, if you know him, no games.

00:06:12.420 And he hates the concept of being tapped along.

00:06:15.460 One of the things I've heard as a feedback is that because, you know, the Persians have a certain way they negotiate.

00:06:20.840 And so much of this has now gotten to kind of a formal process where it's really negotiating for the next meeting.

00:06:26.160 There's going to come a point in time he's just going to say, you know, I don't want to do this.

00:06:30.120 Are Whitcoff and Jared, who are his two guys and done such a great job other places, are they really making progress to get to a deal?

00:06:38.380 Or are we just kind of falling into this Persian bureaucratic trap that we're negotiating the next meeting?

00:06:46.680 So unfortunately, there is a lot of that nonsense going on about where is the next place?

00:06:51.820 How does the shape of the table look like, et cetera?

00:06:54.060 And it's a big problem, undoubtedly.

00:06:56.000 I don't think it's the main problem, however.

00:06:58.080 The main problem is Trump needs to decide.

00:07:01.160 Is he going to pursue his own American red lines or is he going to adopt the Israeli red lines?

00:07:06.780 And the other problem is the Iranians are not talking directly to Trump.

00:07:10.360 If they were just to do that, I think he would have a completely different scenario taking place here.

00:07:15.420 And I think Trump himself, as you said, he is a dealmaker.

00:07:18.620 But the idea that the other side refuses to talk to him, I think is completely foreign to him.

00:07:23.920 Why are they doing that?

00:07:25.540 Why do we have these things that kind of – you have these intermediaries.

00:07:28.780 Why are the Persians not in a direct conversation with President Trump and the dealmakers?

00:07:36.140 I think, first of all, they have their own politics.

00:07:39.560 And they have elements over there who don't like the idea of direct talks with the United States.

00:07:43.580 But at this point, I think, personally, they have to set all of those things aside because this is now about war and peace, those type of considerations.

00:07:51.200 However, you've been in politics. 0.91

00:07:53.180 You know that a lot of politics are silly and not necessarily very rational.

00:07:56.520 But at this point, that kind of stuff needs to be set aside.

00:07:58.900 And I really worry that that may be the only de-escalatory card that can be played right now, and they're not playing it.

00:08:07.540 Trita, where do people go to get more of your analysis?

00:08:10.800 This post you put up this morning, this tweet this morning, I thought did a very logical job of breaking down what had been leaked as one of President Trump's alternatives.

00:08:18.760 And you kind of gave a counterargument that, hey, I think this is what will really happen.

00:08:22.340 Where do people go to get more of that content?

00:08:23.720 You can go to my Twitter, which is tparsi, or you can go to the Quincy Institute's website or our publication platform, which is responsiblestatecraft.org or quincyinst.org.

00:08:37.800 Thank you, sir, for taking time on a Friday to explain this to us.

00:08:41.760 Look forward to having you back.

00:08:43.680 Absolutely.

00:08:44.260 Thank you so much, Steve.

00:08:45.380 I want to go to Advance Australia now.

00:08:48.040 Our two colleagues, Ben Harnwell, the host of this hour, and, of course, Dr. Bradley Thayer.

00:08:52.500 Ben, I do want to start with Bradley because I want a response.

00:08:55.920 Dr. Thayer spent a lot of time in this Iranian situation.

00:08:58.540 I do want a response.

00:09:00.580 And first off, I would like to know that Dr. Thayer has parental supervision.

00:09:07.320 The sunburn is a little much here.

00:09:09.420 We've got to turn down the lights.

00:09:10.460 Are you okay, Dr. Thayer?

00:09:11.640 Because I know you're in Australia for a couple of days and already you're lobster red.

00:09:16.080 Steve, it's wonderful to have a nice few summer's day here in Sydney, Australia.

00:09:24.140 So there's no shortage of sun.

00:09:26.780 No doubt about that.

00:09:28.360 Trita Parsi, Ben, I'll jump to you in a second.

00:09:30.860 Trita Parsi was our guest at the end.

00:09:33.620 And Trita is a Quincy Institute guy.

00:09:36.380 They don't see eye to eye with the Israelis or the Foundation for Democracies, kind of more of the neocon crowd.

00:09:44.420 He talked about this has been leaked in the Wall Street Journal that President Trump was looking at some sort of incremental plan where he could hit, make a couple of bombing runs, and loosen up the Ayatollah to really for more negotiations.

00:09:57.520 Trita was saying, look, their backs are to the wall.

00:10:00.260 And if they get hit, they're going to strike back.

00:10:03.060 And Trita is saying, look, we've got the Persians, the Ayatollah, got to drop this thing.

00:10:07.220 They're not going to talk to the Americans directly.

00:10:09.800 Of course, they're blaming it on the Israelis.

00:10:11.540 The Israelis are obsessed with taking down Tehran. 0.97

00:10:15.060 What are your thoughts about this entire situation?

00:10:17.260 As you've seen the load in, now the air bridge is there, the naval assets are there, and we're getting ready to work up, I think, the air wing for a potential strike.

00:10:26.080 And I would assume a major strike would come or be available to the president around the middle of March with the end of Ramadan. 0.68

00:10:35.100 Sir, what are your thoughts about Trita and what he had to say?

00:10:38.660 Oh, I thought it was very insightful, Steve.

00:10:40.860 But I think there's problems with limited strikes in Iran.

00:10:45.920 Limited attack options are not going to solve the problem that Trump seems if he resorts to the military instrument, right?

00:10:54.760 If he uses force.

00:10:55.900 That is only going to be solved by major attack options, right?

00:11:00.980 A broader target set, going after the leadership, going after Republican, essentially the military elements of the nuclear program, which might still remain, as well as ballistic and ship missiles and other military targets.

00:11:18.140 So a limited attack option has tremendous disadvantages.

00:11:23.460 It's not solving or addressing the problem that would be solved, that the military tool solves best.

00:11:31.640 So as Matt Boyle has stressed on your program multiple times, diplomacy is still on the table.

00:11:40.980 And President Trump, you never box him in, of course.

00:11:44.060 You never predict what President Trump is going to do, but limited attack options are, to my mind, are going to be inferior to major attack options against the pillars of the regime.

00:11:57.140 We're going to come back to this.

00:11:58.720 Ben, explain to the audience why I'm here in Texas hosting your show at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and you're not in Rome.

00:12:08.840 Where are you, where are you, what is going on, and why did they invite you guys?

00:12:15.600 Okay, Steve.

00:12:16.360 So first, a few points of housekeeping.

00:12:19.500 And I'll deal with your questions right in order.

00:12:22.080 But first, I've got to say a few things.

00:12:23.780 We've been given special permission here, and we thank the organizers of this conference for allowing us to do a live stream on the wall, direct from the floor of the conference center.

00:12:34.160 Over my shoulder, you can hear a good friend of the wall, Joel Gilbert, currently giving his keynote speech.

00:12:41.300 And that's the first thing I have to say.

00:12:42.520 The second thing I have to say is that whereas the International Bureau has provided one set of an earphone for the two of us, there's only one microphone, and it's there in Dr. Thayer's ear.

00:12:57.500 So if I'm meeting a little close and sort of talking about this, I just want to say on international television, I'm not trying to use the opportunity here to be overly chummy with Dr. Thayer, and I'm not sort of whispering sweet nothings into his ear.

00:13:10.140 I'm talking like this because that's the microphone there, and otherwise you won't be hearing me at all.

00:13:15.160 Right now here we are in Sydney.

00:13:16.860 I said this conference, the first conference that they've organized of this scope since this movement, Advance, was created about eight years ago.

00:13:25.860 In American terms, the nearest thing I think we could use to describe it would be the American MAGA movement.

00:13:32.660 It's very much pitched to replace the traditional centre-right political parties, the Liberal Party and the National Party, as those establishment parties have done what centre-right establishment parties are doing around the world, pivoting away from responding to their base.

00:13:49.660 And this movement here, movement-led, it's not a political party, has very much moved to occupy that territory.

00:13:56.740 It has a couple of huge successes under its belt.

00:14:00.180 It was just this brief time, and one of them was winning a referendum a couple of years ago, which was supposed to create a special parliament for Australia's Indigenous.

00:14:09.460 When Advance took over the official no campaign to that, I think nine months before the referendum, the polls were indicating that the yes side would win that referendum 70% to 30%.

00:14:22.740 These guys took over that campaign, and the referendum was actually won by them on a 60-40 turnover.

00:14:30.280 And Steve, the only thing I can know, I can stay off the top of my head, of a similar turnaround, is when you took over the Trump campaign in 2016, 88 days before election campaign,

00:14:41.800 when the president was 16 points behind, and in 88 days, that was one of the great examples of a military turnaround in history.

00:14:54.260 And the Australians here have, concentrating on similar types of debate strategies, have achieved something of monumental importance to the Australian political and civic life.

00:15:08.860 Let me, I want to take your, of what they're trying to replace, I want to take it, Marco Rubio gave this speech last week, of which, you know, it was kind of a sequel to the Warsaw speech of President Trump of August of 2017.

00:15:23.700 And it was, I thought it was very good.

00:15:25.700 It was interwoven with defense of the Judeo, our Judeo-Christian civilization and the Christian West.

00:15:31.400 But I criticized it, I think it will be up on Daily Mail later.

00:15:36.640 Not criticized, I made an observation that what's really the operative thing here is the national security memorandum where we talk about civilizational erasure.

00:15:46.540 And that's why we're here in Texas, fighting Sharia law. 0.97

00:15:50.560 And what's obvious is that it just can't be about borders and immigration anymore.

00:15:55.440 That is 10 or 15 years ago.

00:15:57.000 Where we are today is that the center-right governments have essentially abandoned the defense of the Christian West.

00:16:03.880 And if we're not talking about mass migration or mass deportations, if we're not talking about remigration, we're kidding ourselves.

00:16:10.940 And you made some pretty brilliant comments about that.

00:16:13.580 Talk to me, both of you.

00:16:14.420 I'll start with you, Ben, first.

00:16:15.660 The center-right are the rhinos of the other nations of the world, have abandoned a defense of the Christian West. 0.98

00:16:24.560 And that's where we find ourselves in all these parties today where the energy is, is farther to the right and taking a much harder stance.

00:16:32.840 Ben Hardwell, we'll start with you, and then I'll go to Dr. Thayer.

00:16:35.220 Yeah, I mean, that's absolutely right.

00:16:37.980 And it mirrors something that we've been covering, that you and I have been covering, even before the war started, even before the Trump insurgency started in 2015.

00:16:50.300 And that is the fact that the center-right political movements right across the world have pretty much been taken over by purely performative apparatus.

00:17:00.300 That is, they talk in the language, especially in election times, that we want to hear.

00:17:05.480 But the moment they're in power, they're pivoting away from that and push forward with a globalist, programmatic agenda.

00:17:14.280 And that is nowhere more evident than on the situation regarding the invasion that is taking place right across the Judeo-Christian West.

00:17:24.800 That is the issue which absolutely defines the Christian Democrat betrayal of the base.

00:17:32.560 And I'll just give one example to cite that.

00:17:34.860 And that was last week, there was the elections in Portugal, the presidential elections in Portugal.

00:17:39.840 That came down to a runoff between two candidates, the Chega candidate, which is the far-right candidate, and the socialist candidate.

00:17:48.700 And what did the Christian Democrats, the center-right, do in that face-off?

00:17:53.000 They said they encouraged all their voters to support the socialists, who in fact won the presidency,

00:17:58.820 because they said they couldn't possibly allow Portugal to fall into the hands of the fascists.

00:18:06.580 That guy, Vin Torda, who was the Chega candidate, is not a fascist, not a totalitarian, not a white supremacist.

00:18:15.140 The only thing that differentiates him from the rest of the political class is his strict position on not allowing Portugal to be subsumed into the expo of an invasion globalist agenda.

00:18:27.640 And it's that immigration issue, the invasion issue, which is the iron curtain down the political spectrum that divides the performative uniparty on the one hand,

00:18:39.360 and parties such as the movement here represented by Advance, on the other hand, which is responding to the will of the people.

00:18:48.180 And that's really, that's the fundamental issue.

00:18:51.520 The central-right in Europe, the central-right is basically Christian democracy, which is explicitly, formally, supposedly founded on promoting Catholic social teaching.

00:19:02.900 But there is none of that left now.

00:19:04.800 We're not dealing in talking to the German political terms of the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

00:19:10.460 The names of the parties remain, but what is actually being provided is very difficult.

00:19:15.520 I'll close with this one example, Steve.

00:19:18.960 The real invasion, the crisis here in continental Europe hasn't, on the end of the invasion, hasn't particularly taken place under the left, under the centre-left,

00:19:29.080 though they are the main beneficiaries of the invasion because it's widening their voter base.

00:19:35.200 It's really been taking place under the Christian Democrats.

00:19:38.020 And the most clear example of that is the German example with Angela Merkel, who's a former German chancellor under the Christian Democrats, the CDU.

00:19:50.320 She's responsible for bringing in a million Muslims into Germany.

00:19:55.260 And the consequence of that is that the AFD went from 2.5% 10 years ago to, at a minimum, 25% across the various Länder in Germany.

00:20:09.620 So that's an illustration of how the Christian Democrats have betrayed the people, but how the people themselves are responding by creating new political movements, new political parties out of nothing, 0.56

00:20:22.220 that they can have the confidence to actually respond to their desires when in government.

00:20:28.060 Dr. Thayer, your thoughts on the same topic?

00:20:30.360 The central problem facing Western democracies, in terms of the health of their democracy, is the legitimation crisis.

00:20:40.340 That is, the elites are uniparty, or however you want to describe them. 0.64

00:20:48.460 They have the same core, and they have the same approach and attitudes, ignoring their base, ignoring their populations.

00:20:56.060 And that legitimation crisis has to be resolved, because if it is not resolved, you're going to see the continuation of what we see in Europe, Canada, Britain, and even in Australia.

00:21:12.040 That is increasingly authoritarian, formerly democratic, political governments, and political parties.

00:21:20.760 So, advance is one of a group, which is fighting far above its weight, in terms of advancing very specific principles, but focusing also on the nuts and bolts of elections.

00:21:34.960 So that the people, and populist political parties, are going to not only understand the electoral process in every respect, but be able to actually win elections through very specific targeting of voters.

00:21:53.800 So, the legitimation crisis is profound, and it's affecting, of course, all Western democracies, but groups like Advance, and perhaps others, are offering solutions about how a populist right can employ very specific mechanisms to win elections.

00:22:13.960 And that's a welcome change from center-right Republican parties, which seem to welcome and embrace losing elections, but giving excellent concessions to people when they lose.

00:22:28.860 So, Advance is focusing on actively the nuts and bolts of winning, and therefore, it's an extraordinary group, and there's much to learn from it, Steve, in the States as well as around Western democracies.

00:22:42.440 Take a minute or two, Dr. Thayer, one thing that shocked us in our coverage during, Ben will remember this, when we were in pandemic, was how, as bad as England was, and as bad as the United States were, nothing compared to what happened in Australia.

00:22:57.260 And I think people were shocked because, you know, we have such a close cultural relationship with Australia.

00:23:02.140 People have a certain mindset about what Australia means, and particularly kind of that ruggedness and individuality.

00:23:07.840 During the COVID lockdowns, I mean, they were, I think, arguably one of the worst fascist states in the world.

00:23:15.900 Take a minute or two, how did that help the rise of Advance or the formation of Advance, just the reaction against not just the socialists, but what the quote-unquote conservative party was doing in Australia as far as lockdowns go?

00:23:29.100 Right, Steve, and there was effectively no political resistance to those lockdowns.

00:23:36.160 The lockdowns in Australia were so draconian, they were only exceeded by China, right? 0.97

00:23:42.820 Which shows you how bad the lockdowns were.

00:23:46.380 At this conference, we had many veterans of that lockdown experience who suffered, who were persecuted, because of some efforts to instill some sanity into the Australian government.

00:24:00.500 And the Australian government's reply, the lesson from the lockdown for patriotic Australians was the government is only a half a step away from being hard, authoritarian.

00:24:15.020 And additionally, individuals here see that as a dry run, right, essentially as a dress rehearsal for steps that the Australian government may take in the future.

00:24:29.440 So a hard authoritarianism that would rival China in many respects is possible, really, in any Western democracy.

00:24:40.360 Australia might be the most acute, or see that most intensively as a result of their experience.

00:24:49.480 Sadly, there's nothing to guarantee that a future crisis would not be met with the same reaction.

00:24:56.460 No matter what the Australian people think, the Labour government, in conjunction with its allies, might again resort to a very hard authoritarian approach.

00:25:10.000 That authoritarian approach is welcomed by the Chinese Communist Party, welcomed and supported by the Chinese Communist Party.

00:25:16.240 And the CCP influence in Australia is proud and is doing its utmost to ensure that groups like Advance or Patriotic Australians are not able to have a role in Australia's political life.

00:25:35.520 You guys hang on for one second.

00:25:37.320 They are live at the Advance Australia Conference in Sydney, Australia.

00:25:41.400 Our own Ben Harnwell and Dr. Bradley Thayer.

00:25:44.480 We're going to take a short commercial break here.

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00:26:05.740 We're going to take it out with Bruce Springsteen.

00:26:08.820 We're going to come back with Dr. Thayer and Ben.

00:26:11.360 We're going to find out what they talked about.

00:26:12.680 They gave keynote addresses.

00:26:14.320 We'll get it all down to you and we'll be back in a moment after a short commercial break.

00:26:18.780 We'll get it all down to you and we'll be back in a moment after a short commercial break.

00:26:48.780 We'll be back in a moment after a short commercial break.

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00:31:41.660 Here's your host, Stephen K. Mann.

00:31:46.080 Welcome back.

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00:32:29.400 Let's go back to Advance Australia. 0.52

00:32:33.020 Guys, I want to tell you, you know, we've had Natalie last week on firing lines. 0.99

00:32:36.880 She did such a magnificent job.

00:32:39.080 Joe Allen is on the cover of Time magazine with his work on artificial intelligence

00:32:43.160 and trying to make sure that there's some at least rudimentary framework of regulation

00:32:48.040 and all the work he's been doing going throughout the country for the last two or three years.

00:32:51.480 And I can tell you right now, the live audience is so incredibly impressed that you guys are in Australia.

00:32:58.100 You've been invited down there to basically carry the war room flag and to make sure that the people in Australia understand that we feel their pain.

00:33:06.340 And we are huge supporters of these parties that emerge that are farther right than the centrists, either RINOs, Tories, or center-right parties of Europe.

00:33:17.280 These parties that have just sat there have been a controlled opposition.

00:33:20.140 So, Ben, why did they invite you, and what were you there to talk about?

00:33:25.840 Tell me about the talk and how people responded to it.

00:33:29.600 Steve, people are absolutely on fire here.

00:33:32.000 There are, as I say, 500 people behind us.

00:33:34.620 And you go around talking, get the response of Dr. Thay and I both gave our keynote speeches yesterday.

00:33:40.240 The response has been absolutely incredible.

00:33:42.380 And, yes, you're right to say that we're both here to preach the gospel of Steve Bannon.

00:33:47.940 And it's an extremely fertile soil.

00:33:50.940 That's true.

00:33:51.880 That's true.

00:33:52.280 What I was speaking about yesterday, my talk was on civilizational decline.

00:33:57.660 I started off by quoting the magisterial concepts of Arnold Toynbee in his 12-volume set of A Study in History, his fifth volume.

00:34:10.240 He actually says, he makes the argument that having studied 21 notable civilizations, 19 of them collapsed, not because of external pressures from outside, but from internal pressures from within.

00:34:24.660 19 out of 21 civilizations collapsed because of internal implosion.

00:34:30.020 I made the argument, Steve, that, of course, Toynbee, writing in 1939 on the eve of the Second World War, it never predicted the decline of Western civilization.

00:34:42.960 And I made the suggestion that the decline of the Judeo-Christian West, the demise of the Judeo-Christian West, isn't due necessarily to external pressure from outside,

00:34:54.600 and neither is it due to the internal spiritual malaise from within.

00:35:00.440 The decline here in the West, and this is what makes it unique, is due to the betrayal of our political class, of our sociopathic overlords.

00:35:10.360 And as I was making an argument yesterday to come back to the point you were talking about with Dr. Thayer before the break about COVID and the lockdowns, 0.72

00:35:17.200 I got one of my loudest and most sustained applauses of my speech when I said, look, the guys who are running the world, these people are sociopaths.

00:35:26.840 And to make that argument, to get the connection between myself and the audience, talking the language that I knew they were going to understand.

00:35:34.640 I cited COVID and the lockdowns, and I said, you know, these people, they were lying to us then about the virus, and they're still lying to us today, five years later.

00:35:45.880 And it's exactly the same with the vaccine. They were lying to us then about the vaccine, about it being safe and effective, and they're lying to us today.

00:35:53.700 And that's their response to these things, just to continue to gaslight.

00:35:56.660 And as I say, I was talking to fellow kindred spirits when I said that, and it helps to get across this argument that the people who are running our various countries in the West

00:36:08.120 and sort of fundamentally behind the reason of our decline and collapse as a civilisation, even though our culture is, I think, one of the best that mankind has ever produced,

00:36:19.060 is because we have elected and we go on electing sociopaths, people who pretend to seek, when they're seeking election, to want to represent us.

00:36:29.600 But in fact, they're representing ideologies that are antithetical towards our needs and our interests because they hate us.

00:36:38.900 Does Australia, do the Australian people feel as tied together?

00:36:43.320 Because you remember, Ben, it's got to be seven years ago, eight years ago,

00:36:47.400 I was invited over to France by Front National, or National Rally Now, and I asked Le Pen,

00:36:55.680 okay, I'd love to come, I want to come, tell me what I need to talk about.

00:36:59.940 And he says, the only thing you need to talk about is tell us that we're not alone,

00:37:04.840 that the fight we hear in France is bigger than just France, and it's bigger than just Europe.

00:37:09.920 Tell us what's going on in the United States.

00:37:11.580 Tell us how the right, we are kindred spirits.

00:37:14.740 Is that what, is Australia, do they feel isolated because they are in the Indo-Pacific?

00:37:20.860 And a key member, as we'll talk about with Dr. Thayer, the strategic, you know,

00:37:25.080 whether it was World War II or whether it's this current global conflict that we're in,

00:37:30.380 do they feel isolated from the Judeo-Christian West given the distance?

00:37:34.140 No, not at all. They're very enthusiastic. It's a theme that the Australian speakers themselves were repeating at every opportunity.

00:37:44.680 Australia is firmly within the Judeo-Christian tradition, within the system of English common law.

00:37:52.160 It's very much part of the proud heritage of the Australians who are here at this.

00:37:58.660 I get the point you're making about Le Pen five years ago, but I think that that period now,

00:38:06.160 you know, largely due to your work and then that you were doing here in continental Europe,

00:38:10.180 the idea that these are singular, isolated, populist, nationalist, economic nationalist iterations.

00:38:16.780 I think that was probably a security of some years ago.

00:38:22.260 Right now, the people are very conscious that they are aware of a national movement.

00:38:28.180 Obviously, it's going to be different from country to country.

00:38:31.720 And I think Dr. Thayer and I here are simply here to give representation of that fact.

00:38:37.240 And of course, if we're talking in terms of a convoy movement of an armada,

00:38:42.160 the largest ship in that armada is, of course, MAGA and the American representation.

00:38:48.960 And that, I think, gives momentum to everything we're trying to do in continental Europe,

00:38:55.080 to everything that the Australians here are trying to do. 0.99

00:38:57.720 Because America, you know, I say this repeatedly on the show,

00:39:00.200 America is the most economically powerful, culturally powerful, militarily powerful nation

00:39:06.280 that's ever existed on the face of the planet.

00:39:08.040 But if America can absorb within its system the principles delineated by MAGA,

00:39:15.580 the independence of the need to put the nation first, the America first context, obviously, in America,

00:39:22.180 if that is possible for America, then that is possible for every country around the world.

00:39:27.660 And that's very much, I think, why Dr. Thayer and I have been invited here to make that message.

00:39:34.820 Not so much because, as I said, to repeat, not so much because five, six, seven years ago,

00:39:39.640 there was a slight hesitation, a slight radicalness.

00:39:42.920 That's very much been bedded down now.

00:39:45.400 But it's more of a case of, I think, sustenance, reinforcement, and momentum, right?

00:39:52.260 Absolutely.

00:39:52.700 Dr. Thayer, you're a renowned expert on the Chinese Communist Party.

00:39:57.260 Strategically, you know the importance of Australia and the Indo-Pacific,

00:40:01.800 all the strategic elements of it.

00:40:04.620 While you guys have been down there, I think Cleo and you and Captain Fennell won a huge victory.

00:40:12.320 The president came out.

00:40:13.100 Couldn't come out harder about Diego Garcia, the strategic importance of him,

00:40:16.980 particularly given what's happening in Persia right now.

00:40:19.620 But why were you invited is because of your expertise, understanding the Chinese Communist Party

00:40:25.020 and what they're trying to do in East Asia on the Eurasian landmass

00:40:29.060 and why Australia is a central part of the physical defense of the Judeo-Christian West,

00:40:34.520 just like Australia is where we fell back to in 1942 to kind of reboot on the drive back

00:40:42.880 to take down Imperial Japan, sir?

00:40:44.880 Yes, Steve.

00:40:47.300 I think two big points.

00:40:49.960 We're amongst an incredible group of patriotic Australians who are offering a solution to what ails the West,

00:40:59.700 both in terms of the legitimation crisis that we face in Western politics,

00:41:05.040 but also in terms of dealing with the Chinese Communist Party

00:41:10.380 and how do we eject the Chinese Communist Party from the politics, businesses, society of Australia,

00:41:17.280 as well as, of course, other Western states.

00:41:20.820 So that's very important to bear in mind.

00:41:25.880 This is a great group of individuals who are really at the tip of the spear in working in that direction.

00:41:32.600 Secondly, the tactics.

00:41:35.140 Advance is moving in a direction which is allowing them to really have the nuts and bolts of election victory,

00:41:44.120 which is also a big part of the solution to the legitimation crisis that we face in Western politics

00:41:50.720 and the problem of CCP, Chinese Communist Party, penetration of Western societies.

00:41:58.420 So the solution to what ails the West is found in this room to a large degree.

00:42:03.880 It's an extraordinary group of Australians who are looking to link up with other groups internationally,

00:42:12.140 in the United States, in Canada, in Europe, in Great Britain,

00:42:17.040 so that we can establish, if you will, a general staff.

00:42:20.880 If we can establish an organization that's going to be able to meet the left on its own grounds

00:42:29.260 and win victory over the left in the domestic political context,

00:42:35.140 but also in the international political context in terms of victory over the CCP.

00:42:39.580 So the answer is here, Steve, a big part of it.

00:42:43.180 I want to talk to you about that because one of the things that has shocked me since coming to Texas,

00:42:48.020 and as you know, Ben, you know, it was Peter McElvin coming here in November

00:42:53.360 to really look at Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and report it back to us.

00:42:58.120 He said, hey, guys, you know, Mandami just took New York, 0.99

00:43:02.320 and you see what the DSA is doing and the Working Family Party,

00:43:05.380 and you guys keep using the example of Sadiq Khan.

00:43:08.220 Well, I want to tell you, from in the same kind of time period,

00:43:12.680 if you take London as an example, which we do all the time,

00:43:16.020 you are so much more advanced here in Islamic takeover of Texas and given all these indices.

00:43:23.460 Since I've gotten here, I tell people it's not simply this Islamic problem,

00:43:28.620 although this has got to be the top issue that we have on the Sharia law on Prop 10.

00:43:34.260 It is the DSA and the Working Family Party.

00:43:36.620 The Red-Green Alliance is alive and well in the great state of Texas,

00:43:41.020 and I mean working nonstop.

00:43:42.280 So when you talk about Advanced Australia and you talk about the tactics that they're using,

00:43:47.800 what would those be?

00:43:49.160 Because I see something so ripe now for the West to fight back

00:43:54.300 and for the United States to fight back, aligning with others and actually sharing tactics,

00:43:58.700 as you have to be blunt, as Mandami and what you see in Minneapolis

00:44:03.260 and what you're seeing here in Texas, they're sharing all the time.

00:44:06.640 They're working in a unified method, as I know you're working on this book,

00:44:11.040 this magnum opus, Dr. Thayer, talking about America's fight against communism going on now

00:44:16.380 over 100 years and that their tactics get more and more sophisticated.

00:44:20.740 They also get more and more powerful.

00:44:22.660 So when you say advanced, it's got not just the overall thinking

00:44:26.280 of how you unite the Judeo-Christian West.

00:44:29.240 What is it about the tactics that so impressed you

00:44:31.720 about how they actually win elections in democracies?

00:44:34.080 Absolutely, Steve.

00:44:36.720 It's a hugely important issue.

00:44:39.620 The Leninists established the common term to spread the revolution.

00:44:43.400 That was their general staff system.

00:44:45.040 And they did it very successfully through the Soviet Union

00:44:48.180 and now through the Chinese Communist Party, through the United Front.

00:44:51.780 The common term is also privatized, right?

00:44:54.440 You've got guys like George Soros and Singapore

00:44:57.080 essentially taking the same issue and advancing the same agenda

00:45:02.940 with their own money as well as the CCP's money.

00:45:05.420 Advance is countering that, and they're countering that as the essentially the vote in 2023,

00:45:14.220 which rejected the constitutional change through a variety of mechanisms,

00:45:18.940 one of which is a very targeted voter identification,

00:45:24.320 very targeted advertisements, right?

00:45:28.780 Framing the issues so that knowledge is conveyed before you're asking people to make a decision.

00:45:34.700 And those messages are tailored in a way which would speak to individuals,

00:45:38.960 no matter what their gender is or what their age is, for example,

00:45:44.840 or affinity with social media.

00:45:46.760 So there's a lot to learn here for Western populist political parties to defeat,

00:45:58.340 in essence, the modern privatized common term, which exists globally.

00:46:03.960 And advanced folks are doing their utmost.

00:46:07.120 And I think we should expect, Steve, to see a lot of good people come out of here

00:46:11.580 and enter into other races and to contribute to perhaps movements in the UK and in the United States.

00:46:20.340 These guys know the nuts and bolts, and we have a lot to learn.

00:46:25.140 Ben, we're getting ready to wrap up.

00:46:27.100 We really want to thank the sponsors for allowing you guys to do this live

00:46:30.300 right there at the conference at Advance Australia.

00:46:32.660 Give me a minute or two of closing thoughts, sir.

00:46:34.740 Just to add to what Dr. Thayer was saying, the strategy of advance in the elections last year

00:46:43.140 was quite particular to target the Greens.

00:46:45.660 The Greens themselves had between members of Parliament and Senators five representatives,

00:46:50.900 and the momentum was clearly behind the Greens.

00:46:53.980 And they declared publicly that their goal for the election was to double that representation to 10.

00:47:01.320 And obviously, when political parties do that, they aim low so that they can say they did even better than what they planned.

00:47:07.080 And Advance led the campaign against them and reduced their actual representation from five to one.

00:47:13.900 The leader of the party was wiped out, or the higher leadership of the Greens was wiped out.

00:47:20.200 Specifically, they did this, Steve, and I know time is running short,

00:47:22.880 but they had two really quite genius strategies in communicating that message.

00:47:28.260 One of them was to say that, you know, knowing that there is a popular affinity behind the Green Movement,

00:47:34.760 was to say, the Greens are not who you think they are.

00:47:38.140 They're not who they used to be.

00:47:40.900 That it's not simply a sort of conservationist, environmentalist organisation.

00:47:46.200 It's far more radical than that these days, working hand in hand with communism and with Islam. 1.00

00:47:53.020 And that had huge resonance with the Australian people.

00:47:55.640 The second tactic that they used was to say, not this time, basically,

00:48:01.020 which was to give to those supporters of the Green Party permission, if you will,

00:48:06.160 not to support them because the movement itself was no longer authentic to its representation.

00:48:12.620 So it wasn't saying voting Green, voting pro-environment, voting pro-conservationist is wrong.

00:48:18.300 This isn't the cycle to do that because these aren't the guys who are going to represent you.

00:48:22.240 And as I say, that was a strategy that had unbelievable fruits, reducing the Green representation from five to one. 1.00

00:48:30.960 So these guys, they really absolutely do know what they're talking about.

00:48:34.660 And I've learned a few things as well from my time here.

00:48:37.200 While you're there.

00:48:43.480 I miss you, Steve.

00:48:44.980 You cut out the moment.

00:48:46.520 Your social media.

00:48:47.540 While you're there, people are going to want to follow you.

00:48:49.320 Where do they go?

00:48:50.880 On Getter, my social media platform of choice.

00:48:54.500 Tap in my surname, at Harnwell.

00:48:57.300 And I'll be back.

00:48:57.840 I've dropped off from my daily posting because of the travels to get here.

00:49:02.620 But I'll be resuming that, my usual service imminently.

00:49:06.320 Thanks, Steve.

00:49:06.900 God bless.

00:49:07.240 Thanks very much for bringing us on the show today.

00:49:09.340 Oh, we love it.

00:49:09.940 Dr. Thayer, where do people go to get all your writings?

00:49:12.120 I know you're working on this big new book that's going to come out in the spring.

00:49:15.200 Where do people get all your content, sir?

00:49:19.060 Well, they can always go to Brad Thayer at OnX or Bradley Thayer at Getter on Truth.

00:49:22.980 But I'd encourage folks to go to Advance and to start exploring what Advance is offering

00:49:29.360 in terms of lessons that populists can learn for winning elections.

00:49:35.280 And that would be a welcome change.

00:49:37.780 And for resolving the legitimation crisis that we face in the West.

00:49:41.660 It's a good group of people here, folks.

00:49:43.100 And Steve, get some sun.

00:49:44.280 Steve, I'll give out the website.

00:49:46.720 It's advanceaustralia.org for folks and folks if they want to check out the movement here.

00:49:51.780 It's advanceaustralia.org.

00:49:55.360 Advanceaustralia.org.

00:49:56.280 We will push that out hard.

00:49:57.820 Gentlemen, we couldn't be proud of you.

00:49:59.240 The audiences love this.

00:50:00.820 Thank the Advance people for allowing us to do it live from their conference in Sydney, Australia.

00:50:06.440 Good work, gentlemen.

00:50:07.520 God bless.

00:50:08.160 Godspeed.

00:50:10.800 We're going to leave with a tribute to Australia.

00:50:14.640 I would say their national song.

00:50:16.440 Let's go ahead and hear it.

00:50:17.980 See you back here tomorrow morning, 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

00:50:21.780 You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.

00:50:23.120 You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.

00:50:31.160 He sang as he shoved that jumper in his tucker bag.

00:50:35.620 You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.

00:50:39.160 Up-road the troopers, one, two, three.

00:50:53.740 With the jolly jumbuck that you got in your tucker bag.

00:50:58.020 You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me

00:51:01.900 Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda

00:51:05.980 You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me 0.51

00:51:09.900 With the jolly drum butt that you've got in your tucker bag 0.98

00:51:13.960 You'll come a-waltzing you scoundrel with me 0.97

00:51:17.980 Up-jumped a swagman, sprang into the billabomb 0.95

00:51:26.640 You'll never take me alive, said he

00:51:31.080 And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabomb 0.55

00:51:39.680 You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me

00:51:43.980 Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda

00:51:48.120 You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me

00:51:52.060 His ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabomb

00:51:56.140 You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me

00:52:00.020 Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda

00:52:04.060 You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me

00:52:07.980 His ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabomb

00:52:11.960 You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me

00:52:15.840 You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me

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Bannon's War Room - February 21, 2026

WarRoom Battleground EP 953： Live Coverage From Australia

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