Everything You Need To Know About The Man Hovering Over President Trump’s Shoulder
Steve Bannon stares at President Donald Trump during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington — Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)” class=”aligncenter size-full” />White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon stares at President Donald Trump during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington — Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Steve Bannon has been running the White House these past few weeks. As President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Bannon is playing a significant role in shaping and executing the agenda of the Trump Administration. Bannon has been consolidating power and many have taken notice — including our president.
During his second weekend in office, President Trump signed an executive order reorganizing the National Security Council (NSC), and elevated Steve Bannon to a position on its Principals Committee. At the same time he demoted the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Being part of this cabinet-level interagency group makes Bannon one of the most powerful men in Washington. The NSC consists of staff within the White House that coordinates foreign policy and national security matters with the President and outside departments, like the Departments of State and Defense. This move is troubling to many throughout Washington, as Bannon’s influence over President Trump, and our country, undeniably grows. And it seems to be troubling Trump as well.
Aside from detailing how after 6:30 pm President Trump puts on his bathrobe and watches TV, Sunday’s New York Times report had many revealing insights about the inner workings of the Trump administration. The report noted that Trump is making moves to check Bannon’s power. Trump is frustrated that he was not fully briefed on the executive order (a sign that Trump is not giving the Executive Orders he’s signing a full read through) giving Bannon a seat on the NSC :
Another change will be a new set of checks on the previously unfettered power enjoyed by Mr. Bannon and the White House policy director, Stephen Miller, who oversees the implementation of the orders and who received the brunt of the internal and public criticism for the rollout of the travel ban…
…For the moment, Mr. Bannon remains the president’s dominant adviser, despite Mr. Trump’s anger that he was not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed giving his chief strategist a seat on the National Security Council, a greater source of frustration to the president than the fallout from the travel ban.
Steve Bannon wrote President Trump’s inaugural address, is writing many of Trump’s executive orders, and is still Trump’s most dominant advisor. So who is this man that appears to be running our nation while President Trump is watching cable news?
Steve Bannon watch as President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 23, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)” class=”aligncenter size-full” />From left, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, National Trade Council adviser Peter Navarro, Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, policy adviser Stephen Miller, and chief strategist Steve Bannon watch as President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 23, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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Steve Bannon’s Worldview
Bannon’s dark worldview, anti-semitic past, and time at Breitbart became a point of discussion when he was first appointed to the position of Chief Strategist. Now, with his increasing level of power, Bannon’s past is being brought into the light.
Bannon believes that the period we are currently living in is a “new dark age,” and that we’re in a global war with “jihadist Islamic fascism.” He’s warning us that a more broad global religious war is incoming:
“And we’re at the very beginning stages of a very brutal and bloody conflict, of which if the people in this room, the people in the church, do not bind together and really form what I feel is an aspect of the church militant, to really be able to not just stand with our beliefs, but to fight for our beliefs against this new barbarity that’s starting, that will completely eradicate everything that we’ve been bequeathed over the last 2,000, 2,500 years…
…We have to face a very unpleasant fact. And that unpleasant fact is that there is a major war brewing, a war that’s already global. It’s going global in scale, and today’s technology, today’s media, today’s access to weapons of mass destruction, it’s going to lead to a global conflict that I believe has to be confronted today. Every day that we refuse to look at this as what it is, and the scale of it, and really the viciousness of it, will be a day where you will rue that we didn’t act [unintelligible].”
To hear more about his thoughts on that, watch this or read the transcript.
Bannon has also revealed some of his motives to a reporter at the Daily Beast:
“I’m a Leninist. Lenin, wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bannon gave perhaps the most shocking insight into his world view. One that explains why Saturday Night Live cast Death to play his character.
“Darkness is good. Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power. It only helps us when they (liberals) get it wrong. When they’re blind to who we are and what we’re doing.”
President Trump’s Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon at Trump Tower on Oct. 7, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Early Life
Stephen K Bannon graduated from Virgina Tech in 1976, and went on to receive a masters in National Security Studies from Georgetown University. At age 29, Bannon attended Harvard Business School where he earned his M.B.A., with honors. Steve Bannon is also a former naval officer who served aboard the destroyer the USS Paul F. Foster as a Surface War Officer in the Pacific Fleet, and took a position as a special assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon.
Career In Business & Media
Shortly after earning his MBA, Bannon landed a job at the investment firm Goldman Sachs. In 1990, with several colleagues from Goldman’s, he started his own investment firm that specialized in media, called Bannon & Co. Bannon & Co. owns a stake in Seinfeld which has made Bannon very wealthy. Bannon & Co. was purchased in 1998 by Société Générale. The sale of Bannon & Co. led to Steve’s career as an executive producer in Hollywood, who worked on films such as Julie Taymor’s Titus.
In 2004 Bannon had his directorial debut with In the Face of Evil, a documentary about Ronald Reagan. It was during the making of this film that Steve Bannon was introduced to, then publisher, Andrew Breitbart. And, after a brief stunt as CEO and Chairman of Affinity Media, in March of 2012 Bannon took a position as Executive Chairman of Breitbart News LLC. Under Steve Bannon Breitbart News branded themselves as less of a traditional conservative media organization, and took an alt-right and nationalistic position. Ben Shapiro, a previous editor of Breitbart News, once said, “Under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart openly embraced the white supremacist alt-right.”
Bannon also co-founded the Government Accountability Institute in 2012. That’s conservative group that wrote the 2015 book Clinton Cash. He also financed the 2011 Sarah Palin documentary film “The Undefeated” with a sum of $1 million.
Steve Bannon’s Controversies
Steve Bannon’s world view has seemed to seep into his personal life. He’s been arrested and charged with domestic violence. He has espoused anti-Muslim extremists in his daily radio show. And he’s used anti-gay slurs during an on-air interview in 2011.
Mary Louise Piccard, Bannon’s ex-wife, who claimed he choked her, has also sworn in a court of law, that he once said he did not want his daughters “going to school with Jews.”
Steve Bannon — a man with a checkered past, an outlandish and bigoted worldview, and a self-proclaimed ‘Leninist’ hellbent on destroying the state… may just be the most powerful person in the United States.
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