Steve Bannon accuses Trump of lifting Hillary Clinton's 'playbook'

Former White House adviser Steve Bannon on Friday launched a sharp round of criticism at Donald Trump, arguing that the president’s threat to intervene if Iran violently suppresses anti-government protests closely mirrors warnings once issued by his onetime opponent, Hillary Clinton, and other Obama-era officials.

Speaking on his "War Room" podcast alongside CDM.press editor-in-chief Todd Wood, Bannon mocked Trump’s comments as identical to Clinton's foreign policy position while she was Barack Obama’s secretary of state, as well as to former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.

“Aren’t people teasing right now that Samantha Power and Hillary Clinton must somehow have gotten invited to the Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Eve celebration?” Bannon said on the podcast, as reported by The Hill. “Because the president coming out today saying, ‘Hey, we’re locked and loaded,’ isn’t that straight from the Samantha Power and Hillary Clinton playbook?”

Power served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017 and later led the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2021 to 2025.

Bannon argued Friday that the Trump administration should instead focus on maintaining economic pressure on Tehran and “let the mullahs try to run the economy as they’re running it because they don’t know what they’re doing.”

“The economy will crash, and the Persian people will overthrow these guys just like they overthrew the shah,” he added.

Earlier Friday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the United States would “rescue” demonstrators if Iran “shots and violently kills peaceful protesters.”

Iran has seen its largest protests unfold since 2022 in recent days, according to The Hill. The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported that at least 29 demonstrators had been detained, while the semiofficial Fars News Agency said three protesters were killed and 17 others injured during an attack on a police station, the publication added.