steve bannon.been. >> a. >> foot soldier for. >> donald trump. >> he went. >> to. >> jail for donald. >> trump for. >> a really long time. >> and i think he is. >> understandably, deeply skeptical of elon musk, who, you know, was not even really a close. ally of donald trump the. >> first time around and sort. >> of. >> came out. >> of nowhere and. >> has really stolen. >> the spotlight. >> let's remember. steve bannon. was a close advisor in the white house. >> the first. >> time around. >> and i think he has real questions about. >> what elon musk is. >> up to. >> we know that that. >> trumpism is sort of anti-immigrant nationalist. >> and it's not clear. >> that elon musk. >> shares any of those views. now, donald trump needs both of those people. i think he likes. >> what elon musk is doing. >> but if steve bannon. >> keeps railing against him. >> i think that there's. >> a real fracture. >> that that could happen here. because. >> look. >> steve bannon has been through this. he has the real, y

was ironic, but not surprising that the politico story quoted steve. >> bannon talking about it. >> steve have business ties together. and, you know, he's a guy who just pled guilty to a fraud, you know, for fraud in relation to something from the border the first time around. so there's sort of like this cyclical. these guys just don't stop trying to sell. the second scenario, which i think is far more terrifying and unfortunately we can't discount, is. from what prince's proposal appears to be, you're looking at 10,000 mercenaries armed, kicking in doors in private homes in america and poorly trained. right. so what you're talking about really is blackwater 2.0, but inside the united states. and it takes one time, one time that you get some kind of, you know, untrained, you know, a massacre of some kind of event. that would, you know, this is we're talking about things that are just historically unprecedented. they're immoral. they're really gross. and, you know, truly, prince makes a career out of this. he tries to, you know, the worst case scenario. you know, he had a plan in libya a

steve bannon talked a lot about no, you're right. i was like, what?ening. you've got donald trump vows to fight anti-white feeling in the united states. axios trump allies plot anti-racism protections for white people. just tonight, the university of virginia announced that it passed a resolution dissolving universities office of equity, inclusion and community partnerships, ordering a review of university programs. this comes after the state of the secretary of education for the state directed the boards that govern the public colleges to basically get rid of all the discrimination on campus. it seems to me that the protections from the civil rights act of 1964 maybe even could extend to the voting rights act of 1965, even the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments are going to now be weaponized against the very people with whom they were created to protect. for this false sense of reverse racism. >> well, and let's. >> say let's actually. >> play devil's advocate, right? i mean, we can argue that dei is a blunt instrument. sure. but if again, if you go into

. - in your book, you write that several members of trump's braintrust, including wilbur ross, steve bannon, peter navarro and stephen miller, wanted trump to be quote, "slapping tariffs like a supermarket clerk firing off price labels." (kevin laughs) i mean, are there tariffs that are unacceptable to you as a economist, a free market economist? they're not all created equal, as we both know. so, you know, make the case for why these tariffs are your good tariffs, not bad tariffs. - right. well, when we started to really dig into trade policy at the beginning of the trump administration, we just started studying, you know, what the chinese were doing with their trade policy, and it was really pretty chilling. it was like they were preparing for war. so, for example, they have pretty much three times the steel capacity that they need. and, you know, steel is really important if there's a war 'cause just about everything that you use in war has got steel in it. and they're, you know, dumping steel into the u.s., trying to put our steel companies out of business. and, you know, maybe it's goo

got to give credit where credit is due, to maga architect steve bannon.n working on taking out the e.u. for a while now. >> it's a global revolt. it's a zeitgeist. we're on the right side of history. >> the beating heart of the globalist project is in brussels. if i drive the stake through the vampire, the whole thing will start to dissipate. we'll call it the movement or the cause or something like that. and that's literally when we take over the e.u. >> jon: holy shit! what a concise, centrally planned social engineering scheme. but here we are. the end result of a scripted arc that culminates in america betraying its old alliance for the lore of a strongman partnership that carves up the world's rich bounties and places classic democratic values behind transactional convenience. so say it with me, conspiracy theorists: by design, it's a new world order! so europe, sadly, if i may: when we come back, matthew desmond is here, don't go away. [cheers and applause] (vo) introducing the all-new dave & buster's. where you can play new and exclusive games in o

i mean, during trump's first term, everyone speculated that steve bannon was in trouble when he was putnd dubbed the great manipulator. obviously, he did not last much longer. musk seems to be a little bit different, and it's kind of understandable. he has a lot of leverage over trump. with the millions that he gave to his campaign. he funded him. he can fund the entire republican congress if he really wants. do you think trump is actually reining him in, or does he just need to publicly appear that way? >> that's a great question. >> i mean, certainly. >> the appearance. >> is important here. >> i mean. >> trump put. >> out. a truth social post saying he was. reigning him in. >> and, you know, he didn't go into all the detail. >> about everything that happened in the meeting. >> but clearly there has been, you know, and we know this from our reporting kind of building unease with with trump. sorry with musk for. weeks now. i mean, this cabinet meeting did not happen suddenly. i mean, it was called suddenly, but. cabinet officials dating. back to, you know, kind of the musk incursion in

so this kind of goes back to the steve. bannon ism of.term flood the zone before. weirdly for bannon that's kind of not the right gun term. >> it should be. >> fire. >> rate if we're talking about this kind. >> of. guy doesn't. >> even know about guns. whatever. there are. >> so. >> many announcements. >> edicts, all that coming thick and fast that they. >> know that even. >> the most well resourced newsrooms can only. >> really focus. >> on maybe 2 or. >> 3 things. >> and have that be. >> prioritized in their coverage, how they allocate resources. so it's more than. >> like the shiny object. >> thing. >> and it. >> kind of goes to a deeper level of. >> okay. >> the scale. >> of this. >> would not. >> be possible given. musk's bare bones knowledge of. >> the. >> federal government. so that's where people like. >> stephen and katie. miller come. >> in, where they're kind of, you know, his eyes and. >> ears. >> and guides to washington. and i think, well, i. >> had a. >> couple trump people in that story tell me. >> we're cool with elon. ta

you'll probably see steve bannon next. >> we've seen so many politicians try to -- where are i peoplei must lead them, and it doesn't work for them, right? the voters want the problem for the dechlt party is there's no consistency. in the meantime though, i thought senator schiff's answer was bonkers when asked, you know, what should democrats be doing about tariffs? his answer was, messaging. no. you're in congress. your job is not to be on the news. vote. congress gave this power. >> jonathan: well, they are in the minority. >> say what you are going to do if you can take back the majority. repeal the president's power to have this much criminal over tariffs. you don't hear democrats saying that. >> they're losing the working class in the meantime. >> they're not. democrats -- democrats understand what the fight is all about. we're not sleepwalking. what we're trying to do is to stand up, not just the minority opposition, but to ensure that we protect working families, veterans, rural hospitals, farmers, ranches, people who are losing their way of life. >> make congress great again.

in fact, steve bannon piled on, saying that musk's weighing trump down. new york times reports on what it calls the battle within maga. the quote pits those, like mr. bannon, who want mr. trump to carry out a more fully populist agenda against ultra wealthy interests, epitomized by mr. musk, who occupy key positions in the president's orbit. is this internal battle? is it already causing problems? >> it is. >> causing problems. and the reason why president trump, for the first time, imposed. some boundaries on elon musk is because, number one, he sees the polling. he knows that the public isn't behind elon musk. elon musk. >> is not popular. >> i think his last approval numbers were in the high 30s. and then he's also got all these cabinet members who feel like they can't do their jobs, who feel like they aren't actually in charge of their agencies, because elon musk is just running around telling people what to do without even asking for any kind of input. so donald trump is starting to realize that this isn't going to work long term. and that's why elon

steve. >> bannon's war room podcast. >> i wanted to announce with you. >> you are loyal to president trump. god anoints people. he's anointed president trump. so if elon musk wants to cut trillions of dollars out. >> of this budget. >> and if my. >> family has to tighten our belt and not go on vacation because of it, i'm down with that. so you. >> welcome some personal financial hardship. if you think in the long run it will help. >> i've already. experienced it. >> under biden with inflation. i mean. >> were you. >> happy to pay the higher prices, or did you think that was a failing of his presidency? it was a. >> tremendous failing. >> how long are you willing to. wait for the economic. >> changes you're hoping to see, for the prices to come down? >> i'm good. if president trump wants to run in 2028. >> in 2022, taylor ran in the republican primary for governor with a jesus. >> guns baby. >> slogan and lost. >> but why run for congress if some. billionaire can just undo whatever. >> budget you. >> passed, whatever. >> laws you passed? >> oh, he's not undoing everything. he's dealing with

even trump ally steve bannon called the release a, quote, fiasco. republican congresswoman anna paulina luna posted, quote, this is not what we or the american people asked for, and a complete disappointment. the epstein files are just one example of recent doj missteps. here now is cnn's chief legal affairs correspondent, paula reid, and cnn legal analyst elliot williams. paul, first to you. what are you learning about how the white house press office is taking over the justice department? >> look, i've covered the. >> justice department. >> for over a decade. >> and what we're seeing that is unusual here is that the communications, the public affairs, a department that handles everything from key administration priorities to press conferences on elder fraud, it's all being run through the white house. that is unusual. it's also, though, an example of how president trump really wants to limit the traditional independence of the department of justice. now, of course, we talked to elliot. he'll explain why that's a problem. if you spoke to the presid

he was quoted as saying, i believe on on steve bannon's podcast or something to that effect that i don't really care what happens in ukraine. so we already had disillusionment. unlike some of his fellow republicans about ukraine long before entering the white house. >> let's talk about your reporting. the president is taking what some are calling a revenge tour of new york city. um, far more interest in the issues there than he was in his first term. what are you learning? >> yeah. i mean, look, obviously trump is a fan of new york city. he was. >> born and raised there, but he also has this sort of odd friction with the city because one people there politically don't really accept him. he was born in one of the outer boroughs and always wanted to be accepted in manhattan as a real estate broker, but even the real estate circles didn't really accept him historically. and then add on top of that, this was the town that that slapped him with various felony counts. when the jury weighed in and found him guilty. and so some observers are arguing that he's basically on a revenge tour, and he'

and when you take it together, if you think about what's happening, they are doing what steve bannon once talked about. they are flooding the zone. you don't have to read all of this again. i'm just doing something we rarely do, which is combine a bunch of graphics to show you they are throwing a bunch of stuff out there, but if you let your eyes just sort of glaze over all the red xs, you are seeing just how many of them are being blocked in various ways. and there are 90 plus lawsuits. now, some of this is happening in parts of the country, and through efforts that you're not always going to see, even if we try to keep track of it in general. but it shows you where the fault lines are. trump is losing at the highest court in the land, and many of the other efforts are running into checkpoints. those red xs or setbacks or freezes. even as many americans tuned in and heard the president talk about this as if it was all going just according to plan, or as if things that were frozen and paused and might never happen are definitely going to happen. so what's happening here in the larger

. >> years about this steve bannon ism flooding the. zone with, you know, excrement.s democrats need to flood the zone with facts, right? they just have to be out there. and there's so much concern about exactly the right message. it doesn't matter. what matters is the truth and. >> the truth. at least today. >> it still matters. so it needs to be like, you know, they're cutting nih funding, right? some of this nih funding that was ordered to be back on is frozen and unfrozen. now it's still frozen. you know, that kind of stuff needs to be the fact check. they just need to be talking all the time. and the reason we're seeing chris murphy out here is because he is talking all the time. he's doing videos, he's doing social media. he's doing mainstream media, he's doing interviews, he's doing tweets. i mean, he is just out there 24 seven messaging. and that's what democrats have to do. because, look, they ran on this idea that democracy was on the ballot. that is true is more true than it's ever been. so the question is, are they going to behave like it is the emergency?

there was a vanity fair article where it said that steve bannon's target is the us dollar. dollar to truly destabilize the united states? crypto may be the answer. are you paying attention, america? do not disengage. it's all hands on deck. all right. everybody is staying right here. when we return, the president threatens, threatens large scale sanctions on russia until there's a peace deal with ukraine. but he said the same thing six weeks ago. and what has he done over the last six weeks? every single last six weeks? every single thing that vladimir mopping is hard work, but then i tried the swiffer powermop. it has a built-in solution that breaks down dirt on contact. plus, it's 360-degree swivel head cleans up along baseboards and even behind the toilet. bye, bye bucket. with the swiffer powermop. did they just hop from a baseball game to a show on max... without leaving directv? it's like all their apps and channels... are connected. oh, it's allll connected... shows, movies, sports, cooking shows. — oh my god cooking shows! — is she talkin' to us? tell me, how does d

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there was a vanity fair article where it said that steve bannon's target is the us dollar.we devalue the dollar to truly destabilize the united states? crypto may be the answer. are you paying attention, america? do not disengage. it's all hands on deck. all right. everybody is staying right here. when we return, the president threatens, threatens large scale sanctions on russia until there's a peace deal with ukraine. but he said the same thing six weeks ago. and what has he done over the last six weeks? every single thing that vladimir putin wanted, we're going to get into it next. >> don't let back pain turn your whole day. >> into a. >> constant struggle. take action with doan's proven relief to get you back to your day. doan's maximum strength back pain relief. trusted for over 100 years to get you back to doing what you love. >> hi grandma, i played baseball today. >> oh that's great. >> what position did you play? >> first base. that's where grandpa. >> used to play. >> when our. >> hearing wouldn't allow us to use a regular phone, it made us feel isolated. >> it bec

and that is steve bannon. idea if bannon has any role in all this, but it does seem like musk has stumbled not by taking more attention from trump, which is how most people stumble, but by dirtying him up politically. the things that musk is doing are not popular among republican voters in republican districts. >> that that is the whole point. i think that musk could get away with a lot, but he cannot in any. >> way endanger. >> his his popularity when he starts seeing polls coming down based on things that musk got him to do or that musk did in his name, that gets his attention. you got to remember, a narcissist is about him. and when you are doing things that in any way. injures or besmirches the image of the narcissist, he's got to react. all the logic in the world doesn't matter. everything else doesn't matter. but wait a minute, he's making me look bad. i don't care how rich he is. and i think that that's what musk is going to run into here. >> what's interesting, though, is that this is a different trump

no longer are you seeing reince priebus playing against steve bannon, playing against gary cohn, jarediefdoms are gone. what does that mean now from a policy perspective, chris, we're seeing that. will republicans ever find the line for pushback? >> well, he's. >> taught the. >> american people at the maga. level what. >> the truth is. >> as he knows the truth, he believes in tariffs. he says, i love the word tariffs. >> who else. >> loves the word tariffs? >> but he. >> has. said so. >> and the maga. >> base is so. >> with him. >> and the members of the. senate are so afraid. >> of that base. >> that's what it comes. >> down to. >> he gets the. >> base and the base tells. >> the senators. >> what to do. capitol hill i was up there yesterday. it's different than it used to be. no one is in the house dining room. there's nobody getting together. >> the two. parties don't. >> meet each other. they don't even talk to each other. they go to their. >> separate conferences, the. >> republican and. >> democratic conferences. >> they go to their fundraisers. >> and it's all about. >> getting i

. >> full maga, whether it's like a steve bannon. >> or a charlie. >> cook or charlie. >> kirk or. >>re. >> they are unified on almost. all of these topics. >> there is kind of a middle. >> of maga. >> which is like mostly maga folks that you. >> see. like someone like hugh hewitt, who. used to be pretty. >> conventionally conservative, who now. >> would kind of. fall into that category. and then the. big one is like mega adjacent, and that would. >> be like the joe. >> rogan's of the world. where they're. >> not inherently. >> political. not always political. but have become. very maga. >> over. >> the last 18 months. and i think. >> one of the reasons trump won the election and surprised people. >> was. >> this merger of maga media with what i would consider kind of the bro longevity industrial complex, that. >> kind of. >> that rogan universe or even. >> a huberman. >> who's a, who's a pretty. famous longevity guy. who increasingly. >> is you find. himself injecting. >> himself into politics on x. >> and it's the three of those into totality that. >> do have a lot. >> of clout. and

mean, the big one is like the true maga meat eaters, like they're full maga, whether it's like a steve bannonr charlie kirk or a don junior like they are, they are unified on almost all of these topics. there is kind of a middle of maga, which is like mostly maga folks that you see, like someone like hugh hewitt, who used to be pretty conventionally conservative, who now would kind of fall into that category. and then the big one is like mega adjacent, and that would be like the joe rogan's of the world, where they're not inherently political, not always political, but have become very maga over the last 18 months. and i think one of the reasons trump won the election and surprised people was this merger of maga media with what i would consider kind of the bro longevity industrial complex, that kind of that rogan universe or even a huberman who's a, who's a pretty famous longevity guy who increasingly is you find himself injecting himself into politics on x, and it's the three of those in totality that do have a lot of clout. and yes, they have edge cases like the tate brothers coming back to