On October 7, 2016, one month before the presidential election, Donald Trump’s campaign, splashed by a huge scandal, seems on the verge of imploding. THE washington post broadcast a recording dating from 2005 where we hear the Republican candidate bragging about his methods of seduction. “When you’re a star, [les femmes] let you do it. You can do whatever you want! Take them by the pussy…” The general opinion is that the New York promoter is cooked.
“What are you going to do?” asks a journalist to Steve Bannon, his campaign strategist. “Attack, attack, attack,” he replies. Two days later, a few minutes before the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the latter summons the journalists. Alongside him are four women, three of whom accused Bill Clinton of sexually assaulting them. “Mr. Trump may have used inappropriate language but Bill Clinton raped me… and Hillary Clinton threatened me,” said one of them before going to sit in the front row of the audience. A Machiavellian counter-attack… and very effective. In the room, a camera shows a radiant Bannon.
“If there is an explosion or a fire somewhere, summarizes one of his colleagues, Steve is probably not far with matches.” This volcanic character, cantankerous and very cultured, arrived a few months earlier to relaunch the campaign, on the recommendation of Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, big conservative donors. The two men barely know each other. But Donald Trump hires him, to the dismay of the Party establishment, which sees him as a dangerous agitator.
One of Washington’s most powerful men
He has neither the political experience nor the physique for the job. Always disheveled and unshaven, he likes layered shirts and Bermuda shorts. What does it matter! Trump, usually allergic to scruffy people, is seduced by his big mouth, bawdy side, his colorful insults… Not to mention his multiple divorces. He also likes his extraordinary biography: naval officer, Goldman Sachs banker, Hollywood producer, press boss… In 2012, Steve Bannon took over as head of Breitbart News, a website dedicated to anyone who finds Fox News too left-wing. This passionate about esotericism and history, a great admirer of Charles Maurras, preaches a virulent nationalism there, thundering against free trade, Latino immigration and Islamic terrorism. No wonder he supported the New York promoter very early on and agreed to manage his campaign.
Everyone finds their account in this unusual alliance. For the Republican candidate, Bannon is the key to getting elected. “It provides him with a complete and coherent view of the world,” writes Joshua Green in his book titled Devil’s Bargain (“The Market with the Devil”, untranslated). He also attracted the disillusioned, fervent electorate of the Breitbart site. He finally brings him a network of conservatives ready to do anything to discredit Hillary, an abhorred symbol of the left-wing elites. As for Bannon, always very opportunistic, he sees in Trump “a vessel for his ideas”, continues Joshua Green. And too bad if the leader of the populist revolution is a Manhattan billionaire who invited the Clintons to his wedding. What better base than the White House to launch the revolution?
“This is not going to be a traditional campaign,” proclaims the new strategist upon his arrival. His predecessor had tried to water down the image of the Republican candidate a little. Bannon, on the other hand, encourages his inflammatory statements and orchestrates vicious attacks on Hillary Clinton, including the publication of Clinton Cash. This book tells how at the head of the State Department, she would have granted favors to the donors of her foundation. The evidence is thin and the errors numerous, but by insisting that the Democrat is a “ripou”, he ends up casting doubt and achieving the unthinkable: a victory for Donald Trump who names him, once he reaches the White House, “chief strategist”. All presidents have an eminence grise. The difference is that Steve Bannon thinks he’s a modern Attila. His dream is to dynamite the system to better rebuild it as he pleases.
His mark is felt from the inaugural speech, January 20. Usually, the newly elected adopts an optimistic tone and speaks of unity. Donald Trump makes a very dark speech in which he evokes a country in full “carnage”. For a few months, the former Breitbart boss is going to be one of the most powerful men in Washington. He has the president’s ear and even gets a seat on the National Security Council, a rarity for a political adviser. Its goal is to pass as many measures as possible very quickly, by decree. A week after his arrival, for example, a text was promulgated prohibiting the entry into the territory of nationals of seven Muslim countries. The directive was concocted by Bannon and a handful of advisers in the most total improvisation, without consulting the legal experts. The result is masterful chaos at airports and the decree is blocked by judges. The strategist pushes Trump to strengthen ties with Russia to better tackle China, convinces him to get out of the Paris agreements. On the other hand, he failed, faced with the panicked rebellion of a number of Republicans, to make him abandon NATO.
“A gift for making enemies”
Because Trump’s populism is only a facade. To Bannon’s chagrin, he hires former Wall Street bankers as ministers, imposes lower taxes on the rich, and refuses to outsource the war in Afghanistan to mercenaries. The extremism of the former leader of Breitbart and his permanent low blows against his colleagues deemed too “leftist” end up hurting him. He is suspected of having mounted a smear campaign in the right-wing media against General McMaster, the national security adviser. Bannon “has a knack for making enemies,” observes Joshua Green. He especially attracts the hatred of Jared Kushner, Ivanka’s husband and Trump’s son-in-law, whose influence continues to expand. Very quickly, he leads a knife fight with “Javanka”, as he nicknames the couple, and falls into semi-disgrace. Especially since he is no longer in the president’s little papers, furious that he overshadows him.
Trump doesn’t like seeing him on the cover of the magazine Time with the title: “The Great Manipulator”, implying that he is the mastermind of the Oval Office. Seven months after his arrival, the eminence grise was sacked and returned to Breitbart. In January, the publication of fire and fury (Fire and Fury, ed. Robert Laffont, 2018), the book by Michael Wolff in which Bannon, his main source, portrays the Trump family in a fierce light, completes its fall. The president splits a terse statement: “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my administration. When he was fired, he lost not only his job, but his head.” Shortly after, the ex-advisor left Breitbart, disavowed by the Mercers, who financed the site.
He is trying to convert himself into a leader of the international populist movement and to create a network of far-right parties in Europe. Without much success. Just before the 2020 elections, he was arrested for fraud aboard the yacht of an exiled Chinese billionaire – supreme irony for a populist who constantly denounces relocations to China. He embezzled funds collected from the public for the construction of the wall on the Mexican border.
To avoid prison, he reenters the good graces of Donald Trump by affirming loud and clear that the election was indeed rigged and, via his very listened to podcast, white heats the Trumpist legions for the demonstration of January 6, 2021, which turns into an insurrection on Capitol Hill. The day before, he is at the Willard Hotel, near the White House, with a small group of loyal followers of the president, all very crazy, who are plotting delusional scenarios to prevent the victory of Joe Biden. In gratitude, Donald Trump pardons him in extremis. If “the Napoleon of Mar-a-Lago”, according to the formula of two journalists, manages to come out of his Florida exile and return to power, will Steve Bannon, 69, return to service?