Steve Bannon

Steve Bannon in 2017

Stephen Kevin "Steve" Bannon (born November 27, 1953) is a movement conservative who helped guide Donald Trump to his remarkable presidential victory and then stayed on as a top advisor in the White House until August 2017, pushing for Trump to pursue the conservative policy agenda he had campaigned on. Bannon then continued his work as a leading conservative activist at Breitbart News as its executive chairman, a position he also held prior to August 2016.^[1] He was forced to resign in January 2018. He is also a former U.S. naval officer and businessman.

Bannon's conservative principles of economic nationalism, populism, and non-interventionism are influential among conservatives and Republicans.^[2] Bannon's nationalist and pro-worker positions, as well as his opposition to the establishment globalist faction of the GOP, are also attractive to some on the Left, as well as minorities.^[3]

Biography[edit]

Bannon joined the United States Navy in 1977 and became an officer in six months.^[4] He became a strong supporter of Ronald Reagan after he saw Jimmy Carter's destructive left-wing policies – before that, he was apolitical.^[4] He served for seven years.^[4]

Bannon and Roger Ailes of Fox News Channel knew each other were allies to an extent but also were rivals, competing for their differing visions for the Republican Party and for greater influence over Trump.^[5] Bannon won out on the struggle after Trump became the GOP nominee.^[5] During the campaign, Bannon warned Ailes about Megyn Kelly, with the former telling Ailes that she would betray him.^[5] That came true in July 2016.^[6]

Bannon co-founded the Government Accountability Institute a non-profit group that helped the Koch brothers fund some of his research on a tax-deductible basis.

The left-of-center Bloomberg News called Bannon "the most dangerous political operative in America" in October 2015, due to his desire to defeat both Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush in the 2016 presidential election.^[7]

White House Chief Strategist[edit]

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump appointed Bannon as his chief strategist, and Bannon took office upon Trump inauguration on January 20, 2017.

Due to his conservative, nationalist views, as well as his strong opposition to the mainstream media, the MSM was ruthless in trying to oust him from the White House.^[8] More moderate members in the White House also oppose him.^[9] Due to that opposition, Bannon has been falsely claimed to be "racist," even though these claims have been refuted.^[10] In fact, Bannon has called white supremacists and racists "a collection of clowns."^[11] He was described as the "intellectual heart" of Trump's political movement, and he preferred working on weekends over partying.^[12] Bannon strongly supported Israel, advocating for moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.^[13]

On August 18, 2017, the White House announced that Bannon was leaving his role, effective immediately. The UK's Guardian newspaper reported that minutes earlier a White House insider and Trump ally had confided that the leaks over previous days about Bannon's role were "part of an effort to pressure the White House aide to step down." The source claimed: "They are trying to get him to quit."^[14] The Guardian also noted that "[Bannon's] absence means more power and influence for figures such as Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and the national economic council chair, Gary Cohn, who have few, if any, ideological ties to the Republican Party and the conservative movement."^[14] On the same day his resignation was announced, 20 grassroots conservative groups sent a letter to President Trump asking him to keep Bannon, along with Kellyanne Conway.^[15]

Bannon rejoined Breitbart as its executive chairman on the same day he resigned as White House Chief Strategist.^[16][17]

Post White House career[edit]

After leaving the White House, Bannon campaigned against the establishment Republicans in the U.S. Senate. By October 2017, three of them had either resigned or had been voted out, apparently due to Bannon's efforts, at least in part.^[18] However, Bannon was hurt in late 2017 and early 2018 when Roy Moore lost the Alabama Senate election (despite establishment and media gloating, the loss was not Bannon's fault), and when negative comments toward Trump and his family that Bannon had made months earlier were revealed. The latter incident severely hurt his standing with President Trump, and he was forced to resign several days later.^[19] He was unsuccessful in defeating the U.S. establishment in the 2018 elections, as he originally hoped to do.^[20] By mid-2019, Bannon's standing with President Trump began to improve.^[21]

After resigning from Breitbart, Bannon refocused his efforts on promoting right-wing populism in Europe, something he did successfully.^{[22][23][24][25]} He also founded a group with fellow former Breitbart journalist Raheem Kassam to help patriotic forces in Europe.^[26] Bannon also developed a close relationship with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his son Eduardo Bolsonaro.^[27]

Bannon, a critic of the Communist Party of China, has participated in organizations and conferences warning the public of the communist dictatorship.^[28]

In 2019, Bannon became more publicly active to support President Trump against the Democrats' impeachment investigation.^[29]

In August 2020, Steve Bannon was arrested along with 3 others for allegedly defrauding Americans of millions of dollars through the "We Build the Wall" fundraiser.^[30]

Quotes[edit]

• "The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States."^[31]
• The Republican establishment is trying to nullify the 2016 election. That's a brutal fact we have to face."^[32]
• "The Neo-Nazis and Neo-Confederates and the Klan, who, by the way, are absolutely awful – there’s no room in American politics for that. “There’s no room in American society for that."^[33]
• "In the 48 hours after we won, there's a fundamental decision that was made. You might call it the original sin of the administration. We embraced the establishment. I mean, we totally embraced the establishment ... Because ya had to staff a government."^[34][35]
• "America’s built on ... our citizens. ... Economic nationalism is what this country was built on. The American system. Right? We go back to that. We look after our own. We look after our citizen, we look after our manufacturing base, and guess what? This country’s going to be greater, more united, more powerful than it’s ever been. ... And by the way, that’s every nationality, every race, every religion, every sexual preference. As long as you’re a citizen of our country. As long as you’re an American citizen you’re part of this populous economic nationalist movement."^[36][37]
• "That's the geniuses of the Bush administration. I hold these people in contempt, total and complete contempt ... They're idiots, and they've gotten us in this situation, and they question a good man like Donald Trump... By the way, the Obama crowd, almost the same. Clinton crowd, almost the same. It’s three administrations."^[32][35][38]
• "The elites represented by Mitch McConnell hold me in contempt. They think I’m a bad guy. They think I’m a dangerous guy. I wear their contempt as a badge of honor."^[39]
• "We’re a nation of citizens; we’re not a nation of immigrants."^[40]
• "A country’s more than an economy. We’re a civic society."^[40]

• "I'd actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I'd put the heads [of Anthony Fauci and Christopher Wray] on pikes. I'd put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you are gone."^[41]

See also[edit]

• Mike Flynn
• Kellyanne Conway
• Reince Priebus
• H.R. McMaster
• Jared Kushner
• Cruzites

References[edit]