Just hours before President Trump announced a two-week pause on a potential military strike against Iran, former White House strategist Steve Bannon held a private, previously unreported meeting with the president at the White House.
The discussion reportedly focused on alternatives to military action. A longtime critic of foreign entanglements, Bannon urged Trump to prioritize diplomacy over force — a refrain he has echoed consistently through both his own platform and other sympathetic media outlets.
BANNON: Iraq wasn’t a failure of intelligence. It wasn’t an honest mistake. It was a bald-faced lie. You were lied to. President Trump told the world that. Told the Bushes that. That’s one of the reasons he’s President of the U.S. And we’re getting bald-faced lies right now. pic.twitter.com/1kp6yo42M2
— Grace Chong, MBI (@gc22gc) June 20, 2025
Speaking at a breakfast in Washington shortly beforehand, Bannon continued to extol the virtues of noninterventionism, arguing — according to Politico’s Playbook — that “Trump rose to power by assailing the Iraq War as a ‘big, fat mistake,’ and that his base remains skeptical of endless foreign wars.”
“This part of MAGA that’s most concerned is principally veterans or parents of young people who could be called in there. And it’s a very deep thing,” Bannon told reporters. “We don’t want any more forever wars. And if you look at the cheerleaders” — alluding to outlets like Fox News — “it is unacceptable.”
Bannon emphasized the future of the Republican Party, raising the question of how the GOP will retain low-propensity voters who remain fiercely loyal to the president once he passes the proverbial torch.
“How do you get those people to come out and vote when Donald Trump’s not on the ticket?” he asked. However, Bannon added that Trump has built up enough of a reservoir of goodwill with the base that MAGA supporters would likely support U.S. military intervention in Iran — for a limited time — even if it conflicted with their instincts.
But they want Trump’s decision to come on his own terms.
JACK POSOBIEC: President Trump alone is the one who will make these crucial decisions.
— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) June 19, 2025
Not Tel Aviv, not Bibi.
The American people elected one president, and his name is Donald J. Trump.@JackPosobiec pic.twitter.com/7F4Ubti3pv
READ NEXT: Trump Gives Green Light To Military Operation — Final Go‑Ahead Delayed






The USA has been deceived and manipulated by Iran (and much of the rest of the world) for decades. Iran never follows through with any terms of agreements
and would not do so this time. They need to be SHUT DOWN !
Dropping bunker busters does not commit us to a war. It pays that regime back for a LOT of US blood spilled by them or their proxies. It also gives the Iranian people a chance to take their country back. And most important these terrorists nuclear blackmail is ended. Full stop. I did not see people freaking out over the Houthis getting bombed into the stone age. Is there some money stream for someone going to be cut off or what?
IF we go to War then make sure we strike hard & fast
NO lollygagging around Iraq