Who’s funding all the massive protests against Elon Musk, DOGE, and President Trump? And, if they’re not grassroots, can Trump do anything to fight back? Glenn speaks with “Bannon’s War Room” co-host Natalie Winters, who makes the case that the same progressive dark money groups that keep popping up, including George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, are the brains behind the operation. She lays out a few ways that Trump and congressional Republicans can push back against these groups and their “color revolution paradigm.”
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Natalie winters, co-host of Ben's war room.
And also, White House correspondent. Welcome, Natalie. How are you?
NATALIE: Hi, good. Thank you so much for having me.
GLENN: Thank you for all of the hard work on so many stories. But this one in particular is really disturbing.
Because it shows that this is nothing, but the same revolutionaries, and this time, they are pushing into the zone of terrorism.
NATALIE: Kelly. And I think the most concerning thing here, is that sort of proves our worst caricature of the Democratic Party, which is that the last four years, they used tools like censorship, lawfare, overregulations. Political persecutions. To go after not their enemies. But people who disagree with them.
And now that they have effectively been shut out, right? Of their institutional and government levers of power.
They can't impeach President Trump. So what are they doing? I guess what Marxists always do, not just show in a preference for private property and try to destroy Tesla. But they're using violence and intimidation. And I think the way that the left has tried to depict these actions. As organic civil society.
Just, you know, speaking about democracy.
And democratic values.
There's nothing civil about this.
We have terrorism.
And, frankly, there is nothing societal.
These people are being funded by far left donors, like George Soros, like the Tides Foundation. The same state money, dark money interests that funded basically every violent protest, we've seen since Trump really entered the stage.
GLENN: Yeah. I mean, literally the oligarchs that they say, that Elon Musk is.
It's --
NATALIE: You're exactly right.
GLENN: So tell me about some of the people that are behind this.
NATALIE: Sure. So Indivisible is sort of the ring leader of all of this. And their biggest refrain that they are always pumping through the airwaves, is that they are a grassroots organization. That they are people-funded and people-powered.
But if you dig into their financials, which as you alluded to, they have essentially erased all of their web pages showing the personnel of their movement, but from the sort of 990 filings where you can see, again, by design.
Not exactly who is funding them.
But overwhelmingly the majority of the funds that support this group come from big dark money type foundations or philanthropic organizations.
The NGOs of the world. That's obviously a euphemism.
But of that, the majority of it, and I'm talking. Seven-plus million dollars, since 2018 alone. It's coming from George Soros' Open Society Foundations. And like I said, when they tell you that they're funded by people in this people power.
It's not true. And in some cases, most recently.
They were doing a whole thing.
I'm sure your audience has seen this apoplectic thing, that House Republicans are not showing up in town wall. Well, Indivisible was behind that.
And they were actually reimbursing their groups. In some cases, $200 to buy all the protests that they needed for that.
And they have a separate program, where they'll reimburse groups up to $1,500 for get out vote operations.
Advocacy and recruitment.
The idea that this is all organic.
And that Trump is just angering Americans so bad by going against waste, fraud, and abuse.
It's not true.
It's the same people who funded the protest outside the DNC. The flag burners.
And frankly, it's the same people who fund inside the DNC.
GLENN: How do we -- how do we reverse this?
Let me see if I can pull this up here. There's a new poll out that shows from Rasputin. Are the attacks on Tesla and Tesla vehicles, justified?
Nineteen percent of Americans said, yes!
Among the respondents, ages 18 to 34, that was 36 percent that said, they are justified!
Among respondents that are Democrats, 31 percent say they are justified.
When asked, is it fair to call the attacks on Tesla and Tesla vehicles a form of domestic terrorism? Overall, only 46 percent say yes, 39 percent say no, 15 percent said, I'm too dumb to have an opinion.
Among the respondents who say they're Republicans, 68 percent said yes. The respondents who say that they're Democrats, 58 percent say they're no.
How do you keep people saying, and a growing number of people saying, no. It's totally cool to shoot that guy in front of a hotel, because he works for an insurance company. And we have burned down the Tesla. And we can find people in our own neighborhood that have them, target them, and destroy their lives, until they take a stand with us. And say, they believe what we're doing. And they sold their Tesla.
How do you get so many Americans to get behind that?
NATALIE: I think there are two key things that the Trump administration could do to push back on that. First and foremost, I think would be provoking the tax-exempt statuses of a lot of these organizations that are organizing these protests because they're essentially all 5O1C3s, which is absolutely insane.
And I think it is continuing to press ahead on the Act Blue investigation.
And just in general, the dark money funding.
But also, a lot of the money for groups, for example, there's a new thing called the resistance lab, which is being spearheaded by Representative Pramila Jayapal in conjunction with Harvard -- in that, they're not a prestigious Kennedy school. And though they have similarly deleted the web pages, some of their top funders are, other than USAID. And the Department of State. And the lady who runs it. Who uses they/them pronouns, so make your own judgment there.
But she herself has been funded extensively by USAID. The United States Institute of Peace. And I think it's important to drill down on this figure. Because this is someone who is not studying protests and nonviolence. This is someone who, their CE reads like a rap sheet. They're studying terrorism and violence versus non-violent protests.
Not because violent protests are immoral or unethical. But because they think at this moment, non-violent protests are more effective in bringing out their sort of utopian Democratic world view, and I use democracy, not in its true sense.
But these people are extremely, extremely radical. And I think what it goes back to, is what we started this interview on.
They have always used this color revolution paradigm to institute change, and to oppose President Trump. It's why they take him as an autocratic, as an authoritarian.
Right? Because then they can justify their outside the system regime change tactics that they've used abroad. And since they usually rely on impeachment proceedings, or contested election results, they can't do that. Right? They didn't take the House. President Trump won the popular vote, overwhelmingly.
So they're relying on this narrative, that what he's doing is so unpopular. And they sort of AstroTurfed outrage and protest and intimidation tactics.
To really this one myth they can't be President Trump is a dictator that must be opposed at all costs.
GLENN: What is -- I mean, I agree with you that Trump needs to go after the 5O1C3s.
I mean, I'm a little disappointed in Pam Bondi.
However, I say that, realizing, she doesn't even have her full team around her.
It's taking so long.
But I'm hoping that the justice departments starts to move a little quicker on things. Because this is -- this is clearly terrorism.
It is clearly, these -- these organizations, that, as you've said, have been taking money from the taxpayer. To do all of these things.
And the only way to stop them, I think, is to not just call them out.
But if they're breaking any kind of law. Which they clearly are.
Go after them with everything we have.
NATALIE: Yeah. And I think these radical judges have been stepping in at every point. It's a continuation of the lawfare.
And I think the fundamental issue. Look, you had all these Republicans talking tough about how they're so difficult. Where were they on the USAID front? All this waste fraud that was uncovered for decades. They did absolutely nothing.
Now the best we can get, is not even a full committee hearing but a subcommittee hearing that's been postponed on judges with some experts to tell us and confirm what we know.
That these people are radical targets and activists.
It's so unfortunate. Because our side. Our grassroots are fueled by patriotism. Not dark money. Not George Soros money.
And they have such amazing investigative reporters. You go on X now.
People are the ones exposing these groups.
And elected Republicans that should be enforcing. We're not even telling them to go after the groups in an autocratic, no despotic way. We're just saying, enforce the laws, enforce the facts that we should not be receiving tax exempt statuses or 5O1C3 statuses. Or go after the election billionaires. I mean, the case that they've been unable to make against right-wing billionaires, who are trying to root out waste, fraud, and abuse.
We need to juxtapose them to actual, I will argue criminal cases that you could bring against a ton of Western billionaires who are clandestinely and covertly funding terror operations here in the United States. Not just since January 20th. But for years on end, the issue I think starts with the weak faculty at the Congressional Republicans, who just have continually showed that they are unwilling to do anything.
GLENN: When is Trump going after them?
I would love Trump to give a speech today on a few things. One, okay. I just did the tariffs. The tariffs are not going to work by themselves.
I need actual tax reforms. Tax cuts. And a tax cut is not renewing the Trump taxes that are going to be raised. That's not a tax cut. That is a tax cut eight years ago. Give us a significant tax cut Congress. And also, I'm taking a hatchet to the regulations beginning right now. And anybody who wants it to stand around with their hands in their pocket, that's fine. But we cannot stand around and wait.
The time is too short to stand around and wait.
I'm looking for him to start, really pushing, you know, eyes into people's heads just a little bit.
Saying, excuse me.
The pressure is on me.
The pressure is on the population of the United States.
Do your damn job, Congress. Right now.
NATALIE: Well, and it's quite interesting, right?
Because you hear President Trump get criticized for "flooding the zone." They say, it pejoratively. But flooding the zone is just a response to the absolute disarray and chaos that President Biden left this country in.
We have to flood the zone with executive orders and action after action and tariffs after tariffs because of what happened in Afghanistan, at the Southern border, cost this country with Chinese spy balloons.
Right? It's such a double standard. And Congressional Republicans, the same people who were joining the DOGE caucus, and posting all their pictures, and talking their tough game on Twitter. They're voting to continue spending levels. At the very same -- and the Senate is already moving to try to make so President Trump can unilaterally oppose tariffs.
You know, the Senate is the people who have been there probably than I've been alive, who allowed the Chinese Communist Party, who allowed these Third World countries to overtake our manufacturing jobs, to seize essentially our means of production.
And they did nothing about it. Because their donors, the people who have been funding them. Got rich off of it, and enjoy it. And their constituents, the people who knock on the doors for them, donated to them small-dollar amounts, they have nothing, but contempt for them.
And you can see it on display. And, frankly, it's insulting to the intelligence. Your audience, abandoned war room audience when they think that just some tweet, or some strongly-worded letter.
Or some, you know, halfhearted hearted hearing against the judge, who has no really enforcement power.
It will be enough to satisfy us.
The MAGA movement is about shifting the goalposts for accountability.
And I think our audience has been very clear, that it's found in prison sentences. And in investigations for people who have committed crimes. And not just strongly worded letters. Or, you know, Fox news segments where people are going off.
And did nice spicy rants. And these criminals keep getting away with it.
GLENN: Yep. Natalie, thank you so much. We'll talk to you again. Thank you for all the hard work you do. Sincerely, thank you.
NATALIE: Likewise, thank you.
GLENN: You bet. That's Natalie Winters, White House correspondent, and also co-host of Steve Bannon's War Room.
