Ben Harnwell tells Steve Bannon that the proposed 15 year U.S. security guarantee is not a compromise but a long term commitment that cuts directly against America First.
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This clip aired on December 29, 2025. Transcript begins below and may contain minor errors.
HARNWELL: a 15-year "US security guarantee” is a terrible blow to the America First movement
STEVE BANNON (HOST): So, Harnwell, your thoughts on this. I know you, as head of our International Bureau in the Eternal City, you keep your BDI on this. What do you got for us?
BEN HARNWELL (GUEST): Well, look, let’s start off with the 50 year term limit, the ask on behalf of Zelensky, because I know that’s what we’ve been discussing on the show so far. My view on that, and I think Dr. Thayer makes some valid points, especially on the idea that 15 years, which is what apparently the U.S. is committed to, is only a token in order to shoehorn the U.S. into this, and then it will obviously be ignored and extended further on.
But my observation on this, to sort off with this, the whole 50 year thing, the whole thing is theater, Steve, as I see this. The 50 year thing was only ever theater, a theatrical fake negotiation point, so that President Trump could then sort of bring it down to 15 and then come back and say, look, what a great negotiation I have obtained for the American people. Of course, the WarRoom audience knows that 15 years is appalling in and of itself.
This is a defeat for the America First movement, for the reasons that we’ve been saying right from the beginning of this war, from when Biden was in the White House. No one ever made the argument and attempted to explain what America’s vital national interests are in this. And therefore, as an extension of that absence, 15 years to safeguard what American interest is the question that needs to be asked.
Look, so that’s the first point I would make about this. This is a defeat for the America First movement. The second point I would make is, I think that, you know, and I don’t want to take too big a sweeping hit at my own side on this, but I get the impression somewhat, Steve, that folk in the administration are concentrating on the wrong election cycle. They’re preening themselves, the frontrunners in the administration for 2028, and they ought to be far more concerned about the midterms. Because at the present rate, the way things are going, President Trump is going to be impeached after the midterms. And that will obviously have a dynamic on 28.
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