The Stone Zone is a place where we discuss the latest news and reaction to it. Today's episode is about Steve Bannon, the former White House Strategist and Chief Strategist, who was fired from the Trump White House in 2017 for his role in the so-called "Russia Collusion" scandal and his subsequent return to the White House as Counselor to President Trump.
00:06:34.560He's not holding a meeting unless he knows what the results of that meeting are likely to be.
00:06:39.440So I'm going to assume, knowing him for 50 years, that he has the framework of a peace deal.
00:06:46.260He has certainly been living up to the promise of being a pro-peace commander in chief,
00:06:51.520seamlessly reversing decades of foreign policies that have only exacerbated conflicts throughout the world.
00:06:58.460So Trump helped negotiate a ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia, put together a peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo,
00:07:08.000ended the violence between Pakistan and India.
00:18:21.660Welcome back in The Stone Zone. Here we talk politics, politics, and more politics.
00:18:28.040I think unless you've been under a rock someplace, you're unaware of the fact that several weeks ago,
00:18:35.100Elon Musk and Donald Trump had a public falling out.
00:18:40.400Musk posted a couple of attacks on Trump that he later apologized for and withdrew.
00:18:47.260I think it is time for the Make America Great movement and Elon Musk to mend fences for the greater good of saving the country and winning the midterm elections.
00:19:00.480There is no question that Musk's assistance to Trump was of great value in the 2024 election.
00:19:07.600It's also important to note that once Musk bought Twitter, changed it over to be called X,
00:19:15.180but made the decision to release all of the proof that intelligence agents from the previous administration
00:19:23.980were working hand in glove with executives at Twitter to censor people online who questioned the outcome of the 2020 election
00:19:35.520or questioned the efficiency and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccination
00:25:29.540By the way, there are dozens of Roger Stones on X, but there's only one real Roger Stone.
00:25:36.140That's where you can find out every day who's going to be on the Stone Zone program that day.
00:25:42.640I'm also continuing to be banned on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
00:25:47.700In all honesty, I don't really miss it.
00:25:51.380I think that trust in Musk's judgment is being restored and his importance in the next elections cannot really be understated.
00:26:04.240Musk's acquisition of X stopped big tech from censoring Trump throughout the 2024 election cycle.
00:26:10.440And then his infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars into Trump's campaign helped build a grassroots infrastructure that rivaled the Democrats for the first time in decades.
00:26:22.480Even though the Democrat Party support is in the toilet and radicals like New York City mayor, Oriole candidate Zoran, the Ayatollah Mamdami are becoming the face of the party.
00:26:37.760The 2026 midterms will not be a cakewalk for Republicans, regardless of how strong and vibrant our economy will be.
00:26:47.760It's already strong. Think how much stronger it will be once President Trump finally gets an interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve.
00:26:58.300Unfortunately, our current Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, refused to use the same metrics that he used the last four times the Federal Reserve cut rates.
00:27:10.740Today, the rate of inflation and the rate of unemployment are either lower than or at the same level as the last four times that the Federal Reserve cut rates.
00:27:22.540That's because the last two times they cut rates were to try to benefit first Joe Biden and then Kamala Harris.
00:27:29.400Today, Powell insists that he can't cut rates because he's unsure of the impact of the new tariff deals that President Donald Trump has negotiated.
00:27:40.940Well, we know the impact. They told us that inflation would zoar. Inflation remains low.
00:27:47.680They said the dollar would be unstable. The dollar remains strong.
00:27:52.100They said the stock market would crash. We have a record Dow.
00:27:55.980Now, if there is any negative impact of our new tariff revenues, which is highly unlikely because in the month of June,
00:28:05.440it was the first time in 15 years that the United States government actually ran a surplus,
00:28:12.820meaning more money came in than the government was paying out.
00:28:16.540Well, they could always adjust interest rates then.
00:28:19.140No, I think Jerome Powell and those on the Federal Reserve continue to act politically in an obvious effort to stop the Trump economy from booming.
00:28:36.400I was on Laura Loomer's program the other night on Rumble where she flatly predicted the Republicans would lose the House.
00:28:44.220I mean, as a veteran of 50 years in American politics and a veteran of 13 national presidential campaigns,
00:28:52.040I would point out that in politics, a week is a lifetime and that no one can predict today what will happen in the upcoming off year elections.
00:29:04.880But this much is true without President Trump on the ballot helping pull the Republicans towards victory.
00:29:12.340Republican candidates will have to stand on their own merits.
00:29:15.660And oftentimes, in some places, those merits are not particularly exceptional.
00:29:21.600Republicans will have to present candidates with dynamism necessary to captivate the voting public in order to win in 2026.
00:29:30.300Now, this will be a difficult proposition because the Republican establishment has not yet learned the lessons of MAGA.
00:29:38.720President Trump is still dogged by a fifth column of Republicans who want to put him in a box and limit his success.
00:29:45.980This was seen very recently by the Republican Senate leadership's refusal to allow President Trump to put forward recess appointments,
00:29:54.780halting the president's ability to put key appointees into key positions within the federal government.
00:30:03.200The swamp realizes that personnel is policy and they will slow roll appointments and nominations as much as possible in order to grind President Trump down through the tedious process of Washington, D.C. rulemaking minutia.
00:30:19.680Even today, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York refuses to acquiesce in the appointment of Jay Clayton,
00:30:27.880the former head of the SEC, to serve as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
00:30:35.540No one can question Clayton's qualifications for this position, given his previous service, both as a private attorney
00:30:43.500and as a public official, as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
00:30:49.680It's a perfect example of the deep state swamp politics that paralyze the appointments process.
00:30:57.880Too many Republicans remain content to be out of power where they can talk a big game, raise millions of dollars for their reelection campaigns,
00:31:07.040blame the Democrats at every turn, but shirk the responsibility of actually governing.
00:31:11.880Despite his faults, Elon Musk is not one of those individuals.
00:31:18.480As impetuous as he may be at times, Musk earnestly earns to take a sledgehammer to the reviled Washington D. status quo.
00:31:28.280Theoretically, Musk is the perfect person to be the George Soros of the MAGA right,
00:31:34.520a position that Musk once relished before his recent public falling out with Trump.
00:31:40.680When fully activated, Musk can force the Republican funding and organizational apparatus to run a sleek,
00:31:48.140modernized, data-driven operation in the midterms that the party would otherwise resist.
00:31:54.780So I say it's time for MAGA to mend fences with Elon Musk for the greater good of saving the country and winning the midterm elections.
00:32:04.020Democrats regularly put personal squabbles aside during election time for the betterment of pushing their radical agenda,
00:32:11.020and Republicans must show the same level of unity with Elon Musk if they want to restore America's greatness.
00:32:18.920Musk's drive, his competence, his vision can prevent the arrogant political hacks of the Republican establishment
00:32:27.180from exercising the mismanagement that they are famous for.