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| Steve Bannon |
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| Brad Parscale |
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| Jason Miller |
Bannon aims to make a comeback in circle of Trump
influencers ahead of election
Trump fired him in 2017, but recently Bannon praised
his former boss on Fox News and Trump is rumored to have spoken positively of
him in return
Daniel
Strauss in Washington DC
@danielstrauss4
Published onSun 28 Jun 2020 10.00 BST
As an
election approaches, Steve Bannon and his allies are trying to return the
former chief White House strategist to media circles known to influence the
president’s thinking.
An
investment banker who became chairman of Breitbart News and led Donald Trump’s
campaign in 2016, Bannon has extensive links to global far-right nationalist
movements.
He was
fired as a top adviser to the president in the summer of 2017, in the aftermath
of white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia during which a
counter-protester was killed.
Since then
he has worked to boost insurgent conservative candidates in Republican
primaries, sometimes contrary to the Trump administration’s aims, and has tried
to foster rightwing populist movements in Europe.
More
recently, Bannon and Jason Miller, a former Trump communications adviser,
worked on a podcast called Bannon’s War Room, a niche offering for the right
wing of the party.
Both men
have now returned to more mainstream Republican and conservative media circles.
Miller
recently returned to the Trump campaign as a senior adviser, briefing Trump
often and is reportedly in good standing with the president.
Bannon’s
successes have been more modest. But he recently appeared on Fox News,
discussing the forthcoming election and lavishing praise on the boss who fired
him.
“When
people see the difference between the order of Trump and the chaos of [presumptive
Democratic candidate Joe] Biden,” he said, “I think it’s going to be a pretty
clear choice and I think Biden’s going to have a very tough time making this
case to people.”
Both
Republicans close to Bannon and those who have talked with the president
stressed to the Guardian that Bannon has not talked to Trump directly and is
not in the mix to return to the White House or the campaign.
Bannon
declined to talk on the record for this story.
But allies
stressed that the president has started to speak positively of Bannon and likes
Bannon’s podcast: a not insignificant development, given Trump’s well-reported
tendency to be influenced by conservative media.
“The
president has spoken very highly about Steve to a number of people lately,”
said one Republican operative who has spoken often to Trump.
The
operative added that “there’s no formal or informal role” for Bannon on either
the Trump campaign or in the White House but “at the same time the president
has spoken very highly of him and likes the show”.
The
conservative-leaning Washington Examiner cited former White House officials and
Trump insiders when it reported that Bannon has been trying to get conservative
commentators to start criticizing the president’s re-election campaign.
In an
interview on the John Fredericks radio show, Bannon praised Trump for traveling
to Arizona this week, and touring the border wall. But Bannon also said Trump
should approach re-election less like a candidate and more like a sitting
president.
“You act
like president of the United States, you take action like the president of the
United States, you govern like you are president of the United States, you are
going to be re-elected,” Bannon said.
Other
senior Republican officials and advisers to the president described Bannon
offering his thoughts about Trump’s campaign as an attempt to reinsert himself
in Trump’s orbit.
The
president has expressed frustration with his current campaign manager, Brad
Parscale, and the campaign has brought in officials with extensive experience.
Bannon, senior officials and advisers said, sees an opportunity to get back in
the mix.
Running
Trump’s 2016 campaign, Bannon engineered moments such as a press conference
before a debate with Hillary Clinton in which Trump presented women who had
accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct. While most predicted defeat for
Trump, Bannon was bullish throughout.
But he
ended up leaving the White House after less than a year, after clashing with
then-chief of staff John Kelly. After the publication of Michael Wolff’s
tell-all book, Fire and Fury, for which Bannon was a chief source, Trump took
to abusing him on Twitter as “Sloppy Steve Bannon”.
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