Episode 5290: What The War In Iran Means Globally; Taiwan's Opposition Leaders Meet With China
0 min
•Apr 11, 20267 days agoSummary
Episode covers Trump administration's approach to mass deportation, immigration policy, and the Iran ceasefire, while analyzing how Middle East conflicts affect China's Taiwan calculus. Discussion includes critiques of bipartisan immigration bills, defense industrial capacity concerns, and strategic implications of U.S. actions against Chinese proxies.
Insights
- Mass deportation and immigration restriction are foundational to Trump's America First agenda, with organized opposition to amnesty-framed legislation across both parties
- Iran policy is strategically targeted at degrading Chinese proxy capabilities and influence in the Middle East, not primarily about Iran itself
- U.S. defense industrial base is critically undercapitalized relative to current operational demands and future China deterrence requirements
- Taiwan's political fracturing through opposition party engagement with Beijing represents sophisticated Chinese political warfare strategy
- National debt interest payments ($1 trillion annually) now rival defense spending, creating fiscal constraints on military expansion
Trends
Bipartisan immigration reform bills using euphemistic language (dignity, fairness) to obscure amnesty provisions and labor market impactsChinese infiltration of Pacific island nations through medical services and veteran care gaps, exploiting U.S. treaty obligation failuresDefense procurement concentrated among legacy primes despite urgent need for distributed, rapid-scale manufacturing capacityIran ceasefire as proxy conflict between U.S. and Chinese influence rather than bilateral U.S.-Iran negotiationWeaponization of visa programs (H-1B, OPT) to suppress wages for American STEM graduates and entry-level workersTaiwan opposition party meetings with Xi Jinping as part of broader Chinese political warfare campaign to fracture democratic consensusUnpredictability as strategic asset: Trump's foreign policy approach constraining adversary decision-making calculusVeteran care deficiencies in Pacific territories creating recruitment vulnerability for Chinese soft power expansionFederal spending trajectory ($7.5T) outpacing revenue ($5.5T) with defense budget expansion further widening deficit gapBirth rate decline linked to economic insecurity from wage suppression via immigration and visa programs
Topics
Mass Deportation Policy and ImplementationH-1B and OPT Visa Program ReformBirthright Citizenship Constitutional ChallengeIran Nuclear Program and Ceasefire NegotiationsChina's Proxy Strategy in Middle EastTaiwan Political Warfare and Opposition Party EngagementDefense Industrial Base Capacity and Munitions ProductionNational Missile Defense InitiativeU.S. Pacific Island Territories and Strategic DenialVeterans Affairs Benefits in Freely Associated StatesChinese Organized Crime in Taiwan PortsImmigration's Impact on Housing and Birth RatesFederal Deficit and Interest Payment TrajectoryBipartisan Immigration Reform Legislation CritiqueStrait of Hormuz and Oil Supply Security
Companies
Chinese Communist Party
Discussed as primary strategic adversary using Iran, Venezuela, Cuba as proxies to harm U.S. interests and influence ...
Social Security Administration
No-match letters from SSA proposed as enforcement tool for mass deportation implementation
Internal Revenue Service
IRS no-match letters discussed as mechanism for worksite enforcement and deportation coordination
People
Natalie Winters
Hosting episode 5290, conducting interviews on immigration, Iran, and China policy
Stephen K. Bannon
Show creator, appears briefly in opening segment discussing immigration and media narratives
Rosemary Jenks
Guest discussing bipartisan immigration bill critique, H-1B visa expansion, and OPT program elimination strategy
Cleo Pascale
Guest analyzing Taiwan opposition leader meeting with Xi, Chinese infiltration of Pacific islands, and political warf...
Brian Kennedy
Guest discussing Iran policy as proxy conflict with China, defense industrial capacity, and strategic deterrence impl...
Donald Trump
Audio segment discussing Iran ceasefire, military degradation of Iranian capabilities, and Strait of Hormuz negotiations
Kane
Guest discussing national debt, interest payments ($1T annually), deficit trajectory, and fiscal policy implications
Mike Lindell
Guest discussing Minnesota gubernatorial campaign and product closeout sales
Maria Salazar
Lead sponsor of bipartisan immigration bill criticized for amnesty provisions and labor market impacts
Scott Besant
Mentioned as focused on revenue growth and deficit reduction strategy
Quotes
"This bill hits every American worker, whether they're low wage, medium wage or high wage. It's got amnesty for at least 10 million illegal aliens to compete with low wage American workers."
Rosemary Jenks•Early segment
"The optional practical training program OPT was created under the W. Bush administration by executive fiat. There's no statutory authorization for this program."
Rosemary Jenks•Mid-segment
"I see this as targeted as much at China as it is Iran. And in that sense, I take quite seriously what President Trump has articulated about their nuclear weapons."
Brian Kennedy•Iran discussion segment
"If we had a national missile defense that could protect the United States, then we wouldn't be over there right now doing this."
Brian Kennedy•Defense policy discussion
"We're borrowing the U.S. government borrow $6 billion every day. So you multiply six times 365 days in a year. That's how you get a $2 trillion deficit every year."
Kane•National debt segment
Full Transcript
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies. Because we're going to med the evil on these people. Here's the thing, I've got a free shot on all these networks lying about the people. The people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you've tried to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen. And where do people like that go to share the big lie? Maga. Media. I wish in my soul I wish that any of these people had a conscience. Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved. War Room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Bann. Here in the War Room, it's Friday, April 10th in the U of R Lord 2026. Natalie Winters hosting today, Philly and First. Stephen K. Bann, but our enemies don't take any days off. So we've got to pack, show what they're what. It is waging here on the home front, abroad in the Middle East, the Chinese Communist Party, and the Taiwan Straits. We're going to get into all of it, but I want to start with what is, I think the wrinkly seminal issue of President Trump's campaign and really a bedrock issue of America first, that is, of course, immigration and restricting it. There should be no caveats on what mass deportations mean. I know Rosemary Jenks gets that, the wonderful work you've been doing over the immigration accountability project, I think speaks for itself. But we've seen a sort of resurgence. It seems like every Congress, there's this new euphemistic spin on what is amnesty to depress the wages and livelihoods of American workers, you know, euphemized. So we're going to give people their new favorite word, dignity. And we're seeing it, it's a rearing, it's ugly head again. It's just people being proxies for big business, right? What's new. But can you sort of walk us through first, the sort of a front of this bill, the way that a lot of these Republicans as well, I guess I'd say shocking, but I guess at this rate, it's not that that is the messaging behind it, how radical it is and what you guys are doing to try to stop it. Yeah, so I call this bill instead of the Dignity Act, the SAW Act for Screw All American Workers, because this bill hits every American worker, whether they're low wage, medium wage or high wage. It's got amnesty for at least 10 million illegal aliens to compete with low wage American workers. It codifies OPT. It doubles the employment based green card, so it's hitting mid and high wage American workers and taking their jobs. It allows foreign students that get STEM degrees in the United States to remain here permanently. So I mean, it doesn't matter where you are in the economy. This bill would dramatically affect you and decrease your wages and increase competition for jobs. It's despicable. And it's not just there are 20 Democrat cosponsors and 19 Republican cosponsors plus the lead sponsor Maria Salazar, but basically all of the Democrats in the House support almost all of them anyway, support this bill. And they're just metering the number of sponsors so that they can claim that it's completely bipartisan with 20 of each. So every time they find a new dupe Republican to join their effort, they add on another Democrat. It's just a scam and they're lying. The sponsors of this bill are lying about it saying that there's zero tolerance for criminal aliens in the amnesty. That is not true. They have waivers for all kinds of crimes, misdemeanors, drug smuggling, all sorts of things, including by the way, unlawful voting. So the thing that never happens, they're actually waving the felony for unlawful voting to get amnesty. It's disgusting. We've done a lot of work here in the war room exposing the kind of, I think, foundational lies that led to the just complete and utter ballooning of the H-1B visa caps. This idea frankly at its core, which I think is offensive that American workers can't cut it, but they're actually not importing the best of the brightest. But I think this OPT program is something that doesn't get equal attention even though I think its actual creation is almost more sinister because it really is replacing the brightest, the youngest, most STEM-oriented Americans, particularly those just starting out their careers in the college and grad school levels. Could you sort of expand a little bit on that program? Yeah. So the optional practical training program OPT was created under the W. Bush administration by executive fiat. There's no statutory authorization for this program. It was created by the president. And then it was expanded by President Obama so that if you are graduating with a STEM degree as a foreign student, you get three years to stay in the United States and taxpayers subsidize the employers of these foreign graduate students since they don't have to pay FICA taxes. So basically the employer gets a discount to hire a foreign graduate instead of an American graduate. It's an unbelievable program and most people don't know it exists unless, of course, you're one of the victims of it. The Americans who graduate from college with a STEM degree, they've done everything they're supposed to do, everything we tell them to do, and yet they can't get a job because the employers are subsidized to hire foreign graduates. And this is the pipeline that leads to H-1B. So people come here as a foreign student and then they get OPT and they find an employer and then that employer sponsors them for an H-1B and that job is essentially permanently removed from American ability to get it. So it's a terrible program. It needs to be ended. It should have been ended a long time ago and it is time to completely and utterly end OPT. Nobody here on a foreign student visa should get an employment authorization. If any administration, I think, wants to show that they're putting American workers first, I mean, frankly, there's a laundry list, a very extensive grab bag of weird three-letter programs that you could probably cancel if that were just a little better. I think OPT should be top of the list. But I want to link this to, I think, what is a pretty alarming story that I'm sure a lot of the war embossies has read about, which is that the birth rate is hitting yet, you know, new year, new low. Obviously, the, you know, Lawler and Maria Salazar and Establishers and Publicans of the world would say, well, this is why we need mass immigration. This is why we need to make birth rate citizenship even more, Loss Day Fair, if you're, you know, within a 50-kilometer radius of the United States, you can be a citizen. But it sort of seems like addressing the root cause, which is that young American families can't get jobs, don't feel the economic security that they have to actually have children is sort of being exacerbated by these policies. Can you speak a little bit to sort of linking that crisis with the immigration crisis? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the more we import foreigners, and by the way, we're importing them at the rate of over a million per year as legal permanent residents, then we have well over a million temporary foreign workers. And then we have illegal immigration, which is, you know, 16 million minimum in this country. And all of those people need a house to live in. They all need services, whether it's criminal justice services or, you know, welfare services or public education is a huge one. And so they're competing with Americans for resources, and they're taking the supply of infrastructure like housing. So, you know, if you're a young person and you can't afford to buy a house and the rent is out of control, it's tough to make that decision to have a family. But, you know, the immigration is not going to solve a birth rate problem, because first of all, we're importing poor people. So, you know, the vast majority of immigrants who come here, especially lawful permanent residents, are family based immigrants. And they're largely undereducated and poor. You can't, you know, fix the social security system or the economy with low wage workers. You know, we need an educated workforce. We've got AI coming in that's going to be more competition for American workers. So we need to focus on getting Americans, you know, good paying jobs where they can actually support a family and make the decision to have one so that they see some hope in their future. And speaking of that, I think an even more radical idea is birth rate citizenship, I think, with the Trump administration has been trying to do on ending that is certainly moving in the right direction. I kind of view it as like the worst derivation of DEI. It's not even fake marginalization. It's just like, if you are somehow in the United States and giving birth, you get the most precious thing on this planet, which is citizenship here in the United States, it's preposterous. But I know there's been a lot going on, a lot of everybody from the ACLU, all the horrible, evil left wing NGOs trying to do everything they can to obstruct this, whether it's protesters or countersuits, lawsuits. Where do we stand on that front? And what do you think the feasibility is of the Trump administration actually being able to end that? So I was actually at the Supreme Court when they had arguments a week and a half ago or so. And it was, I mean, it seems so obvious to me, I'm clearly biased, but the solicitor general did a great job in those arguments, I thought. It was very clear that at least one of the justices has no concept of much of anything, but certainly didn't understand the meaning of the word jurisdiction and that there's a difference between territorial jurisdiction and political jurisdiction. And it is absolutely clear from what the authors of the 14th Amendment wrote and said in debate that they intended, subject to the jurisdiction thereof, to mean political jurisdiction. In other words, allegiance, allegiance to the United States and not allegiance to any foreign power. And it is preposterous to argue that illegal aliens or temporary visitors, whether they're tourists or foreign students or whatever, have any allegiance to the United States of America, to our government. You have to be a lawful permanent resident, essentially, which is what was decided by the Supreme Court in Wong Kim Art when they said that the parents were legally domiciled and so therefore their child was an American at birth. So if the justices look at what the actual language of the 14th Amendment meant at the time it was written, and that is very clear, that meaning is very clear in the congressional record, then I think they have to get rid of birthright citizenship. Now, what I think they may try to do, what certainly Justice Kavanaugh made it very clear that he was looking for a way out of having to decide the constitutional question and whether that means they toss it to Congress to define subject to the jurisdiction thereof or some other way, I think that's a very strong possibility. And the Congress has had a bill called the Birthright Citizenship Act that has been introduced to every Congress for at least 20 years and Congress should pass it. They should have passed it years ago. They haven't because of course it's Congress and so they don't do much. But they certainly could pass that and define subject to the jurisdiction in the law. That would have actually lent weight to the Solicitor General's arguments in the Supreme Court. We'll hope that they will step up and do their job at some point. Well, I don't think we should hold our breath. I think the only thing capable of getting House Republicans to do anything is the phone calls from the War Room Posse, which we are all very grateful for. And I know you guys have been really putting your shoulder behind the wheel on yet another thing that I guess congressional Republicans have not just created the problem but failed in fixing, certainly aided and abetted. That's mass deportation. You obviously have the mass deportation coalition. Can you give the audience a quick update on what you guys got going on there? Yeah, so we released the playbook for the Mass Deportation Coalition on April 1st. It's available online. It's at the MassDeportationCoalition.org, I think it is, or MassDeportations.com either way. And it lays out our recommendations for the Trump administration to get the deportation numbers up to a million this year so that they can ramp up even more after that in coming years. We believe that since the president promised the largest mass deportation campaign in American history that we want to help him deliver that, it's absolutely critical. After four years of the Biden invasion, we have to get these illegal aliens out of our country. We do not want to give them amnesty. Thank you, Maria Salazar. We want them out of our country. And so there are relatively easy, straightforward ways to do this, including things like the no-match letters from the Social Security Administration or the IRS, which would be better for enforcement purposes. Worksite enforcement is absolutely critical. We have to do worksite enforcement, and we have not seen that ramping up yet. So yeah, we must get mass deportations, and that means that we have to know you need to... And Rosemary, we have President Trump speaking, so I'm going to have to toss to him, but people ought to check that out. We're going to toss to President Trump right now. Thanks for joining us, Rosemary. We will have that open fairly soon. What's your backup plan? You don't need a backup plan. The military is defeated. The military is gone. We've degraded just about everything. They have very few missiles. They have very little manufacturing capability. We've hit them hard. Our military is amazing. The job they've done. Sorry, is this the one in Dutch talk, or are you open to it, or are you talking about spending a lot of money? I don't know. I can't tell you. I have to see what happens tomorrow. They've been talking for 47 years with other presidents, and we're not doing much talking. Thank you very much. You're back in the worm. It seems like President Trump is very familiar with the war room show clock, timing that perfectly with what would have been our break, making my job easy. We have Cleo Pascal. We also have Brian Kennedy, who I want to have on to give us some updates on what President Trump was just talking about. But before we get to all things Iran, Cleo, I want to bring you on the show. You're always at the tip of the spear doing very interesting work in Chinese Communist Party infiltration and shenanigans across the globe, often in conveniently placed, strategically located ports and other very interesting military significance locations. I'd love to get some updates on that, but also your thoughts on the meeting we saw go down between Taiwanese opposition leader and Xi Jinping, certainly in escalation. A lot of talks about unification and future of Taiwan, how that kind of all meshes in with what you've been working on. Yes, thank you very much. So she's the president of the KMT, which as you mentioned is the opposition party. I mean, it's a party that's been known to be quite close to China for a very long time. And what it's doing is it's creating fractionalization, not just within the KMT, because there are some sections of the KMT that would like to remain free of such overarching Chinese control and be put in re-education camps when the Chinese come across the street and all that sort of thing. But it also creates fractionalization within the population itself. So it's the kind of entropic warfare of the political warfare realm that we've been seeing before. It's not helpful, which is what the Chinese are going for. And it's combined with closing of air spaces that we're seeing in other locations and a continuation of military exercises and building up of their capacities. They are not slowing down. So it's among the spectrum that goes from political warfare all the way through to kinetic. It's a strike right into the heart of the political infrastructure within Taiwan. And hopefully it won't be effective. I'm curious, your broader thoughts as to how what is going down in the Middle East is affecting the calculus in Beijing. I know there was a lot of focus on sort of shake up at the CMC, having younger, maybe more wolf warrior style leaders in there, potentially making something more aggressive likely to happen or just sort of agreeing with anything that Xi Jinping wanted, a distraction from maybe a dismal economy at home, a lot of permutations. But that's sort of a big variable to now toss into this. What's your general assessment of the United States's significantly expanded involvement, not just from a defense industrial based munitions artillery weapons perspective, but also just seems like maybe a reorientation of focusing on that region a little bit more. How do you think that affects Xi's calculus in Taiwan? It's a very complex scenario because you can find indicators for things that would help the US position and things that would hurt the US position. So in terms of things that would help the US position, the Chinese Communist Party likes things to be predictable and President Trump is anything but predictable. So unless they feel like they've got a control over the political situation, which would mean that the US wouldn't enter into conflict with Taiwan to begin with, or the kinetic situation, which is the US can't, munitions are depleted or whatever, enter into a situation in Taiwan, then it makes it harder for China to move. Also, the US is in the process of strangling some key fuel supply lines into China, so not only out of the Middle East, but also the Venezuela move was incredibly important for that. So those are things that might help delay Chinese decision to go across the street. But another is, you know, if they think that the American population isn't going to push for anything else, if they think they have the sort of tools available to them in places like Guam, for example, to be able to cut off a US response and buy some time so that the media narrative warfare campaign can take root and make it an almost fete compte, then you've got something that would benefit China. And also remember that the Chinese are, there's talk about, you know, having to bring massive amounts across the street, how difficult that would be. They can fly in on commercial flights, large amounts of what's required, and also the Chinese organized crime elements and key ports within Taiwan are basically controlling the port, so who knows what's coming into the ports anyway. So when you're looking at assessing Chinese capabilities already in Taiwan, it's not only essential to look at that fifth column element, but also the role of Chinese organized crime in undermining Taiwan's ability to respond. And again, the key, I think, is going to be delaying, making things go dark, creating confusion, making it harder for the US political response to trigger a kinetic response that would force the Chinese to dislodge. But that's once the decision to try to invade Taiwan is taken, and that decision hopefully has been complicated by President Trump's forceful actions and unpredictability from a Chinese Communist Party calculations perspective. From CNMI to Guam to Diego Garcia to all of these sort of, you know, not niche in the geopolitical sense, but niche in the traditional Western media sense places that you've spent a lot of time in. I think there's an extremely high and outsized ROI on, you know, investing there and securing those areas and rooting out PRC infiltration. What would you tell the Trump administration? Are those little kind of, you know, education situations which maybe don't catch a bunch of media headlines, but that the result or return that they would get from really deploying, whether it's resources or political capital or just attention to these areas, they could really shore up some security and ensuring that the PRC is less likely to do something, you know, more in the kinetic spectrum in Taiwan. Thank you. Thank you for that question. There's one thing that's very critical at the moment. So we've talked about the three US freely associated states, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands. So these are this area of the Central Pacific between Hawaii and Guam and the Philippines. These three islands have a unique relationship with the United States. They can serve in the military at very high rates and they do. They can freely work and live in the US. The US has the responsibility to protect them. It has strategic denial. It's what allows the US to safely get across the center of the Pacific in order to be able to get to the first or second island chain and to get to the Americans in Guam and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Island. Over 100,000 Americans died during World War II to create this very unique relationship. And these are the locations of battles like the Battle of Pellilou in Palau, for example. Right now, I mentioned that they serve in the US military at very high rates. There's such an integrated part of US defense that not only have they allowed the US to use their land to defend the US, including the Americans in Guam and CNMI, but also in Hawaii and the mainland, but they've used their bodies. They've physically served in the US military. They've died for the US. And part of the agreement is that they're supposed to get VA services when they go back. So if they have PTSD, for example, they should be able to get their drugs for PTSD. And again, they're so integrated that the US Postal Service is a domestic US male in Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, and Marshall Island. So it shouldn't be complicated. And as part of the renewal of the agreement's compacts of free association, this was promised to them. And there's funding allocated for it. But for some completely inconceivable reason, kind of lower level people in veterans affairs are blocking it. And the result is that it's such a breach of trust because you have these people go from, for example, the Marshall Islands. They serve in Afghanistan. They serve in Iraq. They come back home in need of help. And the US has breached its contract. And from a political warfare perspective, apart from anything else, this is a gift to the Chinese who say, look, they take your boys and girls and they send them back broken. The US doesn't care about you. And at the same time, the Chinese are also sending medical teams into the area. So they've got a team of at least half a dozen doctors working out of the main hospital in Ponepe and the Federated States of Micronesia. And they are the ones serving the veterans. So they're getting whatever information a doctor can legitimately ask for from a service member. Where did you serve? What are your injuries? How can you get your care? And why aren't you getting your care from the US? Why are we the ones giving you the care? So this honorable treatment of the men and women from the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and Marshall Islands, that the US government promised them and is not delivering to them is low cost. The money is already allocated. And if it's not done, it is very damaging to the US position across the region and is a huge opening for the sort of Chinese entry into the medical systems that can result in expanded social credit control, including denial of care to the sort of people who would otherwise be sent into the medical system. And that's a great recommendation. And I think that's a great recommendation. If you want to follow you, stay up to date with everything you've got going on, where can they go to do that? Thank you. I'm on X. Just my name, Cleo Pascal C-L-E-O-P-A-S-K-A-L. And I don't follow anyone just because of my grumpiness about the algorithm. So it's not personal if I'm not following you. It's my mind. I'm not following you. I'm not following you. I'm not following you. I'm not following you. I'm not following you. I'm not following you. I'm not following you. It's my own little tiny thing. It's all in. I didn't use the machine. There we go. Thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate having you on. Thank you. Thank you. We've got a few minutes before we're going to jump to break, but I don't want to spare any of the time that we have with our next guest, Brian Kennedy, who joins us now formally of Claremont of all things. You guys have really been putting out some, I think, wonderful resources, making the case for the Iran war. There's some people who have differing opinions, but I think it's important to have robust discussions about it. And I think what Claremont and certain magazines have been putting out really is some wonderful materials. I'd love to get your thoughts on the ceasefire, if it actually is one, what you think the future of it looks like. And I don't know if you were able to see President Trump's recent comments just right there in the gaggle talking about the Strait of Hormuz, obviously an extricably linked to the ceasefire, but your thoughts on sort of where we stand. Well, thank you, Natalie. Great to be with you on this Friday afternoon. Look, I take the president as word that we've achieved many of our objectives, that the ceasefire is something that we hopefully can negotiate around and come to some kind of conclusion on this. I take the president seriously when he says they can't have nuclear weapons. Now, a lot of people don't believe they have nuclear weapons, that they didn't want nuclear weapons. They say they want nuclear weapons, and the president believed them, and he has believed them for many, many years. And so if he believes that we have reduced their ability to build nuclear weapons, then it's time for us to leave. Whether or not the Strait can be opened soon to our satisfaction is something here that's going to need to be negotiated. And I believe that given the team we have open, there are hopefully what we're going to be able to achieve that. But we don't know whether the ceasefire will hold. We don't really know whether the people who are, that we're negotiating with, actually have the authority to be negotiating. We certainly hope they do, but this is a country in Iran that's at war with us. And so there will be parts, as I think the war room has done a brilliant job of articulating the people over there who will still continue to fight the war. And they may not agree with whatever terms will come up with here tomorrow. And so we're going to have to see the one hope that the war ends. No one wants this war. And I can say at Claremont, there are people who, regardless of the wisdom of doing it now, certainly want the president to win. But there are also critics of what the president's done here. And I think we can have and should have a robust debate about those things. And I think we are, and I think war room has been at the forefront of that. And as I say, I've done a brilliant job at that. I've been very proud to be a part of war. I think it's one of the few shows right now that is actually giving not just both sides, but every side. I think a lot of shows are just pandering to one direction. And that's what I love to have everybody on from Kurt Mills to Brian Kennedy to the China Hawks to the China skeptics. We love it all, Brian. Thanks for being with us through the break. I've got a lot more questions for you. As you could imagine, War and Pulse, you've got to make sure you're checking out birchgold.com slash Bannon or texting Bannon to 9898. I think we could probably fill maybe two times the amount of war room shows a day. Don't give Steve that idea. But with content about how unstable and wild the world is, and you guys know Gold has always been a hedge against that. So check out birchgold.com slash Bannon. More Brian Kennedy right after this short break. The American healthcare system is broken. And for most Americans, nothing changes. There's still delays, denials, high cost insurance roadblocks. 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Representing yourself or calling the IRS on your own waves your rights and cost you more money. They are not and let me repeat the IRS is not on your side. Get protected the right way with Tax Network USA and start the process of settling your tax matters once and for all today. Call 1-800-958-1000 or visit tnusa.com for your free discovery call with Tax Network USA. Let me repeat, 800-958-1000 tell them Bannon sent you. Don't let the IRS be the first to act. Take advantage of first mover advantage. You move. Welcome back to the war room. Quiet I guess. Prophetically named. We still got Brian Kennedy, chairman of the committee on the present danger. China, Brian, I just sort of want to toss it to you in the broadest sense. I'm sure you heard my discussion with Clio how this affects the PRC calculus. Obviously, there's a lot of developments going on not just in the Taiwan Straits but in mainland China with the meeting between opposition leader and Xi Jinping. I'm curious how you think the various outcomes of what we're seeing going on in Iran kind of affect the PRC back at home obviously with reporting being that they were quite instrumental in helping the ceasefire even be agreed to. But how you think this just sort of affects the broader geopolitical situation? Yeah, that's a great question, Natalie. First of all, I think the PRC wanted that ceasefire because they want their oil contracts to be fulfilled from Iran and they certainly don't want or could afford to have the global economy go into some kind of free fall if things got worse over there. So they weren't doing this to look out for anybody but themselves. Look I've always looked at this problem with Iran partly in terms of China or maybe even mostly in terms of China. China has used Iran as a proxy against the United States for many years. The reason the Chinese want that proxy is because they're able to use it for influence throughout the Middle East. So Iran's nuclear program, which is ostensibly the reason we're there, has been developed for over two decades with the help of communist China. Much of that development of those nuclear weapons programs occurred in North Korea using Chinese and Russian scientists. So China certainly sees Iran as one of their proxies. Venezuela was also one of their proxies. Cuba is also one of their proxies. I think much of what President Trump has done here is to eliminate the ability of China's proxies to harm the United States. And so Venezuela, in my judgment, was about China. Cuba, if we should go down that road, will be about China. And certainly Iran, quite substantially, is due to China and their support of Iran's nuclear weapons program. I think what President Trump has done here is signal to communist China that's not going to take place, that we're going to do what's in our interest. We're not going to be in endless wars. We're not going to have an American empire that seeks to go everywhere all over the world. But we are going to stop you, communist China, from using your influence to harm the interests of the United States and more importantly, the security of the United States. So I see this as targeted as much at China as it is Iran. And in that sense, I take quite seriously what President Trump has articulated, as I say about their nuclear weapons. And I'm concerned today about what communist China could do to resupply Iran during these two weeks. The president has articulated that there'll be 50% tariffs on anybody who looks to be helping Iran during this period of time. But we're in a delicate spot here. This is not going to be easy. I don't think it's going to be quick. I hope it is quick. But there's a long way to go here before we see an end to this war in terms that are suitable to the United States. Yeah. I mean, from start to finish, from cradle to grave, basically all of the domestic drone manufacturing down in Iran is aided and embedded. It's buttressed by Chinese technology manufacturing. And I understand what you're saying on the China front. I think there's no disputing that these countries have acted as proxies. But I think to me, to help square that logic chain, I think it's incumbent that the administration really seriously then address our defense industrial base and the shortages that we're now seeing as a result of what is going on in this conflict, not just by the rearrangement of forces, but by the deployment of interceptors and missiles that we're seeing. We now have really critically low levels of, and I think that in some cases, the way that the Pentagon is approaching, kind of fixing or trying to up those numbers is just by giving massive amounts of money to the same military, industrial, complex giants, these defense primes that got us here in the first place. And I don't think, I mean, in my opinion, that we've seen enough movement to deter the Chinese from, I think, viewing America as being in a place that is from a defense industrial base perspective adequately supplied to effectively deter China. Obviously, this conflict is going on in real time, so that's something that has to play out. It takes years to make just one submarine. But I'm curious how you sort of view that problem as factoring into the lens of the China issue, but also the ability or the prospect of boots on the ground and how you think that would affect the calculus. Let me go with your first point about the industrial capacity of the United States to produce these weapons or our own defensive munitions. We're not going quickly enough. If we have defense industries today that are not working around the clock the way they did in World War II to produce these munitions, then we're making a mistake. And the Defense Department or the Department of War is going to have to fix that immediately. My guess is there are various parts of our military industrial complex, the way you describe it, that are working around the clock to make sure we're protected. And we need to be protected by not merely munitions that we can use to inflict damage upon our enemies wherever they may be, but we also need defensive systems. As I've argued, even though I'm a supporter of President Trump and a supporter of his actions here, I've made the argument that if we had a national missile defense that could protect the United States, then we wouldn't be over there right now doing this. And the President has a golden dome initiative that he is pursuing, but we're not pursuing it quickly enough. Back to your question of the military industrial complex. If we had that defensive system in place, this whole question of Iranian nuclear weapons would have been a moot point and we wouldn't have been over there. And so let's consider that for a moment. We don't want to go to war all over the world, but the mere fact that we don't have a national missile defense to protect us from Iranian, Chinese, Russian, or other potential rogue actors who have nuclear weapons that they may have gotten from the communist Chinese should be something we're deeply concerned about. Boots on the ground, I don't think that's a viable option. We don't have enough boots and there's a lot of ground to cover. So I don't see us going in there with boots on the ground. I don't think that's been the President's plan. Of course, there are a number of contingencies here, but let's take the President at his word that he wants to reduce their capacity to produce nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles that could potentially harm both the United States and whether people want to hear this or not Israel. By the way, I have a new piece out in the Federalists where I've articulated President Trump's views about this over the last 25 years, including in 2024 when he ran for President. Even though he doesn't believe in no new wars, he does have a particular view about Iran that he takes very seriously. And he has said it 20 years ago in one of his books that I describe. He said Iran cannot have nuclear weapons, period. He also said that Israel, again, I know much of the audience may not be supportive of Israel, but President Trump said of Israel in 2020, I guess it was 2020 exactly. He said there are a unsinkable aircraft carrier for American interests, meaning it wasn't about being friends with Israel. It wasn't about, he mentions nothing about our Judeo-Christian heritage, whatever we mean by that. He means strictly in strategic terms, Israel was useful for the United States. And so we're going to do what's in our power vis-à-vis Iran to protect the United States first and foremost, but in a secondary way, Israel. And again, it wasn't had any kind of friendship. This is 2020. So he rejects this notion that A-PAC had any influence on him back in 2020. Right? He wasn't even, he was considering political office in 2020, but he wasn't an active candidate. He thought strategically, and again, we can disagree about these views, but this is what President Trump thought. And his actions today are in pursuit of what he understands as a strategic imperative for the United States, which is to defend our interests in the Middle East and to defend first and foremost, the American homeland. So I think this whole calculus has to be about what does President Trump believe about this? What is he said about this? What does he run for office on? 2015, before he ran for president, he articulated the exact same view. And in 2024, he said again, they could not have nuclear weapons. And so for all the Tucker Carlson's and Alex Jones, who say they've been betrayed by President Trump, they weren't listening to what he was saying. He said even in 2024, they couldn't have nuclear weapons. In the same paragraphs where he was describing no new wars, he was also saying they couldn't have nuclear weapons. And so I think we should all take that in mind that there is something important going on here in what we've done. The president gets nothing out of going after Iran politically. This is a political loser for him. So he's risking politically much of his support around the country by doing what he's doing. And we can say, well, Israel is dragging him into the war. And certainly Israel has has influence. I'm not denying that in the least. And they have outsized influence. And I agree with that. But I also would say President Trump sees the Iranian threat in ways that many of his supporters did not fully appreciate. And what we're seeing today is him carrying that out and trying to do so in a way that doesn't destroy the global economy and certainly doesn't destroy the U.S. economy. But I think support for what he's doing is much more broad than we're giving him credit for. Brian, if people want to read that piece, I'm sure they will. Where can they go to get it? And where can they go to stay up to date with with everything you're putting out? Thank you, Natalie. President Danger China.org is the website. I put that piece up on my on my X and getter and truth social on X. It's Brian T. Kennedy won on getter and truth social. It's Brian T. Kennedy. And by the way, let me plug a new show if I can on Real America's voice. Which is coming out on Sunday. There's a new show called Get Real hosted by my old friend David DeRosher. And it's a part of the real clear politics family that that is going to be shown here on Real America's voice. And there's a special show Sunday on China that some members of the committee on the present danger China are part of discussing China, myself and Steve Mosher and others. So I would highly recommend that to the audience and that's on Sunday at four o'clock. Thank you, Natalie, for for having me on today. Of course, we'll have to check those out. Thank you for coming on the show. Thank you. Now, our next guest. Hey, and if citizen prepress, I'm sure everyone's probably favorite site here will really only come on war rooms talk about one thing. So now I guess they sort of like when there's news about how the national debt is exploding only because it means we get to get some some expertise from Kane. Kane, there's a new study from the CBO talking about how it's not just that the national debt is absurd, but basically all of our projections about them are wrong too. And typically on the the underside always lower, they always seem to be more expensive than all the government experts tell us they're going to be. Can you walk us through real quick? I'm going to hold you through the break. But what exactly the latest is in national debt land? Well, you didn't tell the full part of the story. So here's the inside scoop for the war room audience. And finally, Natalie Winters post stories in the stack. If you wonder what the stack is, that's the list of headlines that's it's currently got about 1200 of them. It's at the top of citizen free press. And Natalie this morning posted five or six stories along with me as as she was doing all of her other work. And one of them was about the national debt and specifically interest on the national debt. And she knew that it would piss me off or whatever it would fire me up as a better description. And, you know, I expanded on our headline and moved it to the top. So look, you know, the war room audience is pretty smart. So they probably know this because we got a bounce to break. But now they got the lore. They got the backstory of how I strategically use the stack to get you on the war room. Makes my job easier. Over right back after this short break, more war room. Everyone's focused on how the conflict in the Middle East is raising oil prices. But there's another grim reality to this contention. Oil isn't the only resource being constrained about one third of global fertilizer trade happens through this region. And with spring planning season on top of us, American farmers are sounding the alarm with some saying they can't afford to plant their fields. When one piece of the supply chain gets hit this hard, you know what comes next. Higher fruit prices reduced availability, maybe even panic buying. That's why having an emergency food supply at home makes so much sense. And that's where our friends at my Patreon supply come in right now at preparewithbanon.com. That is preparewithbanon.com. We've set up an entire just site for the war room posse. You go to preparewithbanon.com. That's all one word. Preparewithbanon.com. You get a three month emergency food supply. They'll include a free mega protein upgrade and incredible $200 bonus you don't want to miss. It's a simple way to protect your family from whatever comes next. Go to preparewithbanon.com. That is preparewithbanon.com to get your emergency food supply today. That's preparewithbanon.com. Do it today. Go check it out. War room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Bown. I need this script. You're back in the war room where you got to be checking out chapter health. That's 845 war room between Washington and big insurance. Medicare is full of corruption millions of seniors are on the wrong Medicare plan. Chapter makes that simple. They can compare all your options in under 20 minutes. They search every plan to get you the right one. They've got hundreds of thousands of seniors find better Medicare plans. It's free. And if you're already on the right plan, they will tell you and give you peace of mind. That's 845 war room. I'm going to give them a call. While you're at it, maybe check out vertical.com slash war room or text Bannon to 9898. Give Philip Patrick and the team a call. They have a bunch of resources. Always got good deals going on to make sure you're checking out vertical.com slash Bannon. You're back in the war room. We still got Kane with us. Kane, I'm sorry I had to interrupt you. I'm going to let you pick up where you left off, given us all the updates on where we stand on the, I think ballooning is still an understatement, but all things national debt. Yeah, no problem. You know, it's all bad news anyway, Natalie. We should probably just, I could, I could sum it all up in a minute and we should skip over it. The, the, the story though that you put up that's in the stack that if people want to see it is that people need to be reminded that interest, just the interest on the national debt has really exploded as interest rates have gone up, right? So five years ago we were paying 300 billion a year in interest and now we're paying over a trillion. And that trillion is a little bit more than the defense or it's right around the size of the defense budget and it's bigger than social security or Medicare. So it's, it's this huge number, right? And so it works out it's $3 billion a day and even worse. So that's the interest part. What do we actually borrow every day is another 3 billion. So we're borrowing the U S government borrow $6 billion every day. So you multiply six times 365 days in a year. That's how you get a $2 trillion deficit every year. And as you and I have talked, people should actually know Natalie and I talk about the national debt in our private personal phone calls. As we, as you and I have talked, you know, we're bringing in five and a half trillion in tax revenue every year and we're spending seven and a half trillion. So that's how you get a $2 trillion deficit. And we certainly wish the government would pay a little bit more attention to it. We love Scott Besant and we love President Trump and we know he cares about the national debt. Like there's no doubt about it. You know, I've, the case I've been making, and I'll throw it back to you. The case I've been making is just that this is a time, you know, Trump has a certain type of popularity with the base where we would support him. I would like to see a real effort in these next three years to address the long term spending problems that are causing the national debt to, you know, to grow this way. So that's the case I always try to make. And people will notice in the stack that I think if there's one issue that I really, really care about, it's debt and deficit issues. And so I'm trying to, you know, and I'm now convincing you to have the same neuroses that I have. So there you go. I'm curious, you know, not just here today, but I guess, start of this administration to date, have you seen anything meaningful that gave you a little bit of hope that they were going to address this cut on? Revenue, the only place, and this is the point that Besant tried to make is, look, we're going to grow the revenue side. We're going to grow the tax revenue. And it looks like that's being done slightly. I mean, deficits were about 2.2 trillion under Biden. And this year, this fiscal year for Trump, it's probably going to be 1.9 or 1.95. So that's, yes, that's, you know, we're making slight bits of progress that were, that were shrinking it. But, you know, you talked about in the last segment, Trump, again, I love the guy, but he wants to increase the defense budget from 1 trillion to 1.5 trillion. So that's obviously going to expand the deficit again. It would take it from 1.9 to about 2.3 trillion. So, yeah, whatever. It's not the best news. That's why we're burying it on a Friday, Natalie. This is really good TV strategy. Hey, what can I say? I get told I'm going to host and it always seems to be on on Friday's afternoon, which I say is. Oh, I know the real war room posse that's here. That's true. These are the hardcore fans and ones that are here. And look, I say it all tongue in cheek. Like, you know how I how I sort of feel about this stuff. And I'll just say this as we check out, you know, the war room audience needs to pay attention, pay attention when Natalie talks. She is one of the true amazing young superstars. People will forget she's still just 25 years old and, you know, and she's running the show like a pro. So it was fun to be with you and I'll always say yes. I'm laying it out there now. When you host the show, if you want to talk to National Debt, I'll be happy to do it. Well, I wish more people spoke about the National Debt who who are in Congress and the White House and all around the state. Thank you for joining us. If people want to read the site, I know it's easy to get to. But sometimes citizens free press. So let's just tell them it's citizen free press work. Where can they go to read it and follow you guys on social? Yeah, they're all citizen free press. And that was a nice little dig at Bannon. We love you, brother. Citizens free press. Somehow people find their way to the, you know, to the correct address. It's my favorite site where I go to multiple times a day to prep for the shows and everything. Kane, thank you for joining us. We will have you back on soon, hopefully with better news about the National Debt. Sounds good. And of course, it wouldn't be a war room show. If we didn't end with Mike Lindell. Mike, you've got about two minutes. You always have breaking news and a breaking good deal. So hit us with both. Right on. I just came from another one of my town halls events for running for governor of Minnesota here. You guys, I'm doing events like six, six rallies in town halls just this week. Two more tomorrow. I can really knew we need all your support at MikeLindellgov.com. I, we are out. I'm in this to win this 18 hours a day heading out there on the trail. It's MikeLindellgov.com. You guys at Minnesota is the tip of the spear with all the fraud and, and everything else going on. And I plan on banning Sharia law soon as I'm governor here, but it's MikeLindellgov.com. And what gives me, am I able to go away from my pillow and be feeling secure? It's because of you war room policy. Remember, like Steve has told you, we have three, only three semis left of product when we moved factories that were discounting to 80%. So here it is. The one, you have the mice slippers 80% off. Once they're gone, they're gone. You guys, they're 2998 a pair, 2998. There they are. Get the slippers now as many as you want. And we also have, if you go to mypillow.com. You're going to see the slippers there and you're going to see all these other products that we're closing out for good. Remember, they were originally earmarked for the box stores, which canceled us. You're getting them for 80% off using that promo code, um, war room. And also don't forget right now, the mattress toppers, the mattresses, they ship for free right to your front door. Matt mattress toppers as low as 9998. So you guys call 800-873-1062. 800-873-1062. Talk to my employees, use that promo code war room and have a great weekend. Thanks for having me on, Natalie. Thank you, Mark, for joining us. Thank you, Warren Bossy for joining me. You guys have a great weekend. But watch the 6 PM show before you start that. Have a good one. If you're 65 or already on Medicare, listen up, folks and grab a pin. Maybe even a number two perincel. Call 845 war room. That's 845 war room. Call it right now. 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