World War 3 has already begun, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon tells the Mail’s ‘Apocalypse Now?’ podcast

By JOSEPH PALMER

Published: 15:45 BST, 2 May 2025 | Updated: 15:58 BST, 2 May 2025

A third world war has already begun, former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon told the Mail’s ‘Apocalypse Now?’ podcast.

In conversation with special correspondent David Patrikarakos, Mr Bannon described how the Russia-Ukraine conflict is ‘metastasising’ to engulf parts of the Middle East and Asia.

Mr Bannon said: ‘There is an arc of instability, all the way from Belarus and Ukraine to the Balkans and the Middle East.

‘If you add to that Kashmir, these are the flashpoints for a third world war, which we’re already in. The kinetic part of this has already started.

‘This is already much bloodier than 1939-1941, which people think of as the first few years of World War 2. Over a million and a half people lay dead or wounded in Ukraine, which looks like Dresden in 1945. Gaza looks even worse.

‘We are two minutes to midnight here – from a far greater global conflagration.’

Listen to ‘Apocalypse Now?’ wherever you get your podcasts. Listen now

Mr Bannon served as a key strategist to Mr Trump for his 2016 presidential campaign. Listen now

Mr Bannon warned that unless US president Donald Trump can cool tensions with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, then the entire globe risks sinking into a ‘brutal’ war which inevitably will involve the use of ‘chemical, biological and nuclear weapons’.

The host of the Bannon’s War Room podcast made his chilling prediction when asked why Mr Trump has adopted a less hawkish stance towards the Russian president than his predecessor Joe Biden.

‘I think what Trump is trying to do’, Mr Bannon explained.

‘He’s trying to reach a reproachment with a part of the Judeo-Christian West, which is Russia – so we can lay down our arms and calm this thing down.

‘If he isn’t successful: China, the KGB mafia in Moscow, working with the mullahs in Persia and Tehran – people better understand that as barbaric as the Second World War was, the Third World War will be of such a level of brutality, with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, that people can’t even comprehend it.’

The former Trump advisor, credited with spearheading the president’s shock 2016 election victory, clarified that despite fears of global war, the US must continue to be tough with China.

Steven Bannon: ‘We are two minutes to midnight here.’ Listen now

 Steven Bannon: ‘It’s not a question of whether Trump can take China on, he must take China on.’ Listen now

Mr Bannon described how the Russia-Ukraine conflict is ‘metastasising’ to engulf parts of the Middle East and Asia

Over the last month, Trump has raised tariffs on the world’s second-biggest economy to a record 145%.

‘It’s not a question of whether Trump can take China on, he must take China on’, Mr Bannon declared.

‘Wall Street and the global corporatists in Silicon Valley, have been gutting for twenty-five to thirty years, the heartland of the United States.

‘I think around 100,000 factories closed in the United States and shifted to China. Our manufacturing base went there and what came back was fentanyl, chemical warfare the Chinese Communist Party is running on us.

‘You have to confront that, and Trump is confronting that, through tariff and non-tariff barriers.’

Earlier in the podcast, Mr Bannon communicated his disdain for the Chinese Communist Party, branding China’s leadership as ‘worse than the Nazis.’

‘We are hurtling towards an inflection point for all mankind’, he exclaimed.

‘The Chinese Communist Party is an illegitimate dictatorship: the most brutal dictatorship in mankind’s history, worse than the Bolsheviks and the Nazis.’

Search for ‘Apocalypse Now?’ with special guest Steve Bannon, wherever you get your podcasts.

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World War 3 has already begun, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon tells the Mail’s ‘Apocalypse Now?’ podcast

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