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Steve Bannon Explains that the US Must Act IMMEDIATELY to check the growing threats against the US from China, Russia and India and from Big Tech in a Must Watch Video for ALL Americans!
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Steve Bannon and others speak at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, DC. on Friday, September 5, 2025
Transcript of Bannon's Speech:
Thank you. I want to thank the National Conservatism movement, and also the folks that put this on for inviting us. It’s been great over the last couple of days. There’s been a real debate here about many of the hot topics and issues. I may come in a little hot on a couple—or three. Let’s just remember we’re all on the same side.
I want to start with this, because they asked me today to speak about how you make America First, America First. Front page of the Financial Times of London: “Xi hails China’s unstoppable power in show of solidarity with Putin and Kim.” OK. President Trump called this a conspiracy—said if these guys are going to conspire against us, they’re going to have to answer for it. He was pretty blunt. That’s not a conspiracy, I would tell the President; that’s a flex.
Mitch McConnell is interviewed in—I think—the leading paper in Lexington, Kentucky, a couple of days before this event. And remember what this event was: trying to clothe the Chinese Communist Party and shroud them with the patina of being a victor in World War II, in which they did virtually nothing except fight the Nationalists, with very little engagement with the Japanese. Their plan was always, after the shooting stopped with the Japanese, to take over and then take the country in the civil war of 1949—as Joe McCarthy tells us, with General Marshall and other communists in the State Department essentially turning the country over to the Chinese Communist Party.
McConnell said in this interview that we’re in as dangerous a period as the 1930s—the 1930s—and he blamed it on Trump’s tariffs. On Trump’s tariffs. Trump’s tariffs; Trump’s America First policies, particularly regarding Ukraine. Nothing could be farther from the truth. America First is what’s going to save this country—saving it right now.
That flex—Putin on stage; they had Kim on stage; they had the mullahs, the Persians; all their buddies—they’re there to send a message: the Second World War was about the Eurasian land mass, and we’re already in the Third World War. Mitch McConnell and the neoliberal neocons are what got us here: 30 years of rot.
What happened in 1989? Within six months, in Tiananmen and in Berlin, you had the Goddess of Liberty and massive protests in Tiananmen Square; six months later the Berlin Wall comes down. That’s all from post–World War II. The Russian people, the captive nations in Eastern Europe, and China had had a bellyful of it. They wanted out.
So how are we here today? It’s not Trump’s tariffs. It’s not an America First national-security policy that says, “No, we’re not going to get involved in Ukraine,” which we’ve been arguing from the eve of the war. Everything we said on the show—every guest we had—proved to be true. There are 1.8 million—this is why President Trump has been talking about it—you don’t understand the scale of the killing. I want people to put the guns down. From a hack, we know 1.8 million Ukrainians dead and wounded; 625,000 this year.
This is why people in Ukraine—the parents—demanded that 18- to 24-year-olds finally be able to leave the country and not serve in the military. The tragedy there is worse—worse than the start of the Second World War. If you go from Poland in 1939—by the way, we commemorated the 86th anniversary on Monday—I might add, I believe the War Room is the only media company that commemorated at all the 80th anniversary of the signing of the Instrument of Surrender on the Missouri. And we intercut it with the Shanghai conference where they’re all sitting there saying, “We’re the new rising power; America and her allies are finished.”
There have been 1.8 million Ukrainian and 2.8 million Russian casualties. From 1939—the invasion of Poland—to June of 1941, when they turned on their partners and Operation Barbarossa started, that’s two to three times more killed than after the fall of France and the Blitz in England. We are in the Third World War today. And you add what’s happening in the Middle East to it. That is not Donald Trump—no war on Donald Trump’s watch. This is the neoliberal neocons.
What has Mitch McConnell done? Shoved $315 billion—when you add it all up, according to President Trump—into Ukraine. And now our great head of conference call today—this fiasco. President Trump had them—the chaperones of Zelenskyy—at the White House three weeks ago, two weeks ago. They’re talking big: security guarantees. It’s all a lie. They have no troops. They have no money. They have no arms. And, more importantly, they have no political will.
Why no political will? They’ve allowed the Middle East and North Africa to invade their countries. Today, in capital markets, England, France, and Germany can’t sell 30-year bonds. The bond market is saying, “We don’t even know what government will be— we’re not sure you’re going to be around.” England is heading to a civil war as we speak. And Nigel Farage and the rise of the populist party is not going to stop it. You see them putting up the English flag—the cross of St. George—it didn’t just occur out of nowhere. It’s heading there. Why? They have a problem with radical Islam that they have not dealt with, and it’s metastasizing and getting worse.
Same in France. Macron’s leading the conference call—paper of note this afternoon—they want to know Trump’s commitment on air assets, funding, intelligence: What’s America going to do? Here’s what America should do: wash our hands of it. This is the E.U. The E.U. did this. 1.8 million Ukrainians. We said this at the time: these people are very brave, very courageous. It’s not about that; it’s about the blood loss. It’s about that part of the world, where every general and strategist in the West says, “We have to stay out of it.” Look at the tragedy. And look at McConnell and these guys. There’s a $58 billion bill sitting in the Senate they want to jam through here while we go broke at midnight on the 30th. The government has no money. We’ll have a fiasco the next couple of weeks on funding the government—yet they’ve got a $58 billion bill.
We’re closing rural hospitals. Talk about America First—you’ve got to start putting American citizens first. They miss that. But President Trump is trying to accommodate. And think of the record: from Tiananmen, Bush sent the general over to say, “You brothers have a problem and we’re here to help—we’re going to work out a business relationship.” That’s what happened. We saved the Chinese Communist Party—twice. In 50 years, when the people had had a bellyful and tens of thousands of casualties—not just in Tiananmen but all over the country—the business, corporate, political, and Wall Street elites bailed them out.
What did we do? Most Favored Nation. World Trade Organization. On and on to accommodate. Never any real trade deals. Let them gut the great industrial power of the Midwest. For what? Did it help the American people? No. It helped the tech bros. Helped corporations.
When I took the campaign over in 2016, we saw an opportunity in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. You could speak in shorthand: Wall Street came and shipped the jobs and factories to China. People don’t need MBAs from Harvard. I go to Wall Street, talk to my colleagues at Goldman Sachs—they’ll take two hours to explain it—“No, they’re not a pure competitor.” And you’re funding an enemy.
President Trump tried to work it out. In 2019 he had a deal—two years of working out the deal to address the original seven sins: overcapacity, state-owned industries, and more. After two years, after their Belt and Road meeting, they spit in our face and tore it up. He declared a people’s war—also on the tech side. “We have to get off Western technology; build our own champions.” And this gets to the Faustian pact progressive Democrats made with the tech oligarchs. Obama, then Biden. All the Democrats. Do you think any of those are true MAGA? They became MAGA at 10 p.m. on November 4, 2024, when Pennsylvania and Michigan went. Suddenly: “I think I’m MAGA. I like Trump. Where do I send a check for the inauguration?”
They had no antitrust. I’m a New Yorker—I believe concentration of private power with government power is China’s model. They’re not communist; they’re state-owned capitalists, where the regime gets everything, not the people. It’s obvious. They made a Faustian pact and Google and Facebook have no competition. They’ve got 200 electric-vehicle companies; we have one Google. Oh, and finally—after years of having Google in court, about to break them up—a judge rules (an Obama judge): “Google ruling shows limits of U.S. antitrust enforcement.” We have to break up the bro-ligarchs. It’s anti-populist. It’s anti-American.
TikTok: they made a Faustian pact—“Keep technology, keep us on the committee; dominate social media.” What do we find out? DeepSeek comes up with a different philosophy. You don’t hear “climate change” anymore because Silicon Valley needs fifty times more energy and they’ll burn anything—wood, coal, grass. Total hypocrites. You don’t hear anything about decarbonization—gotta get data centers up. They’re in your face about it.
TikTok is a Chinese Communist Party/PLA instrument. Look at kids that use it. The Chinese are smart; they don’t allow it for their children. DeepSeek is, they claim, faster than our AI—Grok and the rest. What do the tech bros want? A Marshall Plan bailout. Socialize the costs; give themselves unlimited upside. That’s what this is about. We can’t allow it. If we do, you’re not going to have a country.
What has President Trump done? He’s the only person in modern history to stand up and say, “We’re not going to do it this way.” This is why I say: Washington at the founding; Lincoln at the rebirth; Trump as the transformation to bring the country back—Make America Great Again to her greatness. Those are the three greatest. He stood up to these guys. Is it perfect? No. It’s not going to be perfect—too many pressures. But he’s taking on the deep state. He’s trying to get our sovereignty back.
You want to get our sovereignty back against the Chinese Communist Party? It’s everywhere. I’ve got a couple of recommendations for the President, who has gone out of his way to try to deal with them as a great power. Number one: if you’re going to hit India with tariffs on energy taken from Russia, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander—hit China. And I’ve got a solution for Tehran. It’s not a decapitation raid, not sending troops or commandos. Cut off the oil. There are already sanctions—stop the black-market oil that supplies the CCP with 80% of their energy needs. Cut the mullahs off from cash; the Persian people will come to the conclusion that maybe this 50-year run hasn’t been that great. Maybe it’s time for a change; stop being at war; take care of business at home; sell oil to legitimate buyers. That’s the way to do it. It’s sitting there right in front of us.
Also, if we cut China off—they are nothing without our capital, technology, and training. All those tech and social-media companies are trained here in the United States. Tomorrow morning, if the President—trying to be accommodating—said, “We tried to work a deal,” then boom: 350,000—send them all home tomorrow. And to Howard Lutnick—doing a great job at Commerce Secretary—but don’t come in and try to sell me on 600,000 CCP nationals here because we have to worry about the bottom 10% of colleges since American kids all go to Harvard. Let’s take that bet. Let American citizens into Harvard and MIT.
With the tech bros—this whole thing with Palantir and AI after DeepSeek—they want control of the national weapons labs; a $500 billion bailout; and AI amnesty—like Section 230 on steroids—with no guardrails. They’ll try to slip it into the NDAA. We beat it before. The Silicon Valley oligarchs need to understand: yes, AI could be tremendous, but you’re staring into a bottomless pit of downside nobody understands. And the last thing I want is a bunch of folks in Silicon Valley who aren’t even that dedicated to the United States—talking about “networks” instead of a country—making decisions for the American people. America First means American citizens first.
Let me talk about what some of you may perceive. If you read Seven Pillars of Wisdom or Lawrence of Arabia, when he goes to British military intelligence in Cairo, the general’s pitch is: the Western Front is where the war is; this is a sideshow, and the Arab Revolt a sideshow to a sideshow. Right now, in geopolitics, as our former allies collapse in front of us because of radical Islamic jihad takeovers—that’s what it is—a Jewish person today can’t go to London, Paris, or Brussels. It was Frank Gaffney and others who talked about the Great Green Alliance of Marxists; Gaffney was banned at Fox; Trevor was called a nut case.
The biggest threat to Israel? First off, right now CENTCOM is one of the most powerful institutions, but we have to pivot to Asia and confront China. I realize I’m supposedly from the non-interventionist side—I’m a non-American-empire interventionist—but when we have to do it, we have to do it. We must cut them off—decouple, and hard-decouple, starting tomorrow morning. The Middle East is not the main event; it’s a sideshow. Israel—the greatest expansion project—is a sideshow to a sideshow. The defense of Israel is different. I would argue, as a big defender of Israel and the Jewish people, the most immediate threat is not in Tehran. Cut off the oil and it’ll change faster, yes—but the threat is right in New York City.
What happened in London the last ten years? Paris? Brussels? Every country except Hungary and Poland—the ones who said, “We’re going to keep our culture.” Look at Germany. It’s all the same source. Right now in New York City, he’s going to win running away because he’s got the Working Families Party, the DSA, and a massive ground game—10,000–20,000 canvassing every day. It’s the grassroots equivalent of what President Trump has built. Mamdani is a Marxist and a jihadist—let me be blunt. Another, better-programmed version of Barack Obama. It’s coming. He’s going to win in November and control the government of the most important city in the world—and you aren’t getting it back.
Any conservative—George Will was aghast—“Socialism!” Do you think Sadiq Khan is giving back London? Are they giving back Paris? The English people know this. Why do you think they’re putting the flags up? England is heading to a very dark place. You’ll have to go to a dark place to get your country back.
Thank God for Donald Trump. If we didn’t have Trump—if Clinton had won in 2016—followed by the rest of this crowd, where would the country be? The 20 million illegal-alien invaders we’ve had on Biden’s watch have to be mass-deported. I know a neoconfederate when I see it. The neoconfederates run California; they run Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City. It’s time to take the federal government and the National Guard—militarize it—and you’re going to have to send it when Mamdani is running New York City. In less than ten years, because this guy is more lethal than Sadiq Khan, it will be a no-go zone for Jewish people. You wait. And the polls show roughly 57–60% of young Jewish voters under 30 are going to support him. That’s how sophisticated this is. They’ve generated a generation of almost-terrorists from the schools in New York City—people who are programmed. Watch it. And they’re giving happy talk now; the business community is starting to genuflect. The entire donor class couldn’t come up with a plan to get a couple of people out of a race and give this guy a real run.
The problem we have in the world is the Chinese Communist Party and what’s happening here. We don’t need to send armies all over the world. We don’t need expeditionary forces—though President Trump ended the 12-day war with total obliteration of the nuclear-enrichment program. I’m a skeptic about a lot of this because I know the process—but I can be convinced. Either way, we are in the kinetic part of the Third World War. We have to get focused. We can’t let the Mitch McConnells and the people who brought us here—policies that led to disaster—continue. They allowed China to flex in our face.
Think about it: everything the United States of America did in a war we didn’t want to enter—blood, sacrifice, resources, toughness: the fire-bombing of Japan, bombing of Germany, submarine warfare, landings in North Africa, Normandy—all of it. The guys who fought in China—of which President Trump said, “Give us a little thank-you for that.” Of all the sacrifice, they choose the 80th anniversary to get in your grill and convince the world that was their victory and Americans are nothing.
So we’re in it, and we don’t have a choice. We have to shut them down now. They’re an existential threat to the folks in China, to East Asia, to our allies, and to the people of the United States—given what they’ve done to co-opt Wall Street and the tech oligarchs. That’s what America First is: putting our citizens, our sovereignty, our country first. If we do that, we’re going to win—no doubt. If we flinch at any time, we could lose this, because an individual like Donald Trump comes along maybe once in a country’s history. We’ve had three: Washington, Lincoln, and Trump. With all his imperfections, rising above them is his true greatness.
Thank you. Make America Great Again.
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