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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBannon 2020? "I Have Power": Is Steve Bannon Running For President?
On a whirlwind tour around the globe, Trumps former aide and alter ego reveals what really went down in the White House, his unfettered thoughts on Javanka, his complicated relationship with his erstwhile bossand his own political ambitions.
BY GABRIEL SHERMAN
DECEMBER 21, 2017 2:15 PM
Around the time Donald Trump took off from the Philippines aboard Air Force One at the end of his 12-day Asia tour, Stephen K. Bannon touched down at Tokyo International Airport. It was the evening of November 14, and the presidents former chief strategist flew to Japan to deliver a hard-edged anti-China speech at a conference for human-rights activists. Im not really a human-rights guy, he told me as we boarded the plane in New York. But this is a chance to talk to them about populism.
A polite airline representative whisked Bannon and his entourage through the terminal. Tej Gill, a goateed ex-Navy SEAL security guard with tattoo-sleeved arms, stuck close by Bannons side. Ive had a couple assassination plots, Bannon told me, I got it from an intelligence source. They were trailed by a short, barrel-chested ex-SEAL in a knit beanie cap, by a videographer named Dan Fleuette who co-wrote Bannons documentary Clinton Cash, and a redheaded body man, Bannons 26-year-old nephew, Sean. In moments we were escorted through a V.I.P. immigration lane and into an elevator that descends to an underground garage, where a motorcade awaited. Bannon climbed into the back seat of a black BMW 7 Series and sped off towards the Peninsula hotel to catch a few hours of sleep. The rest of the staff followed in a pair of minivans.
The next morning, Bannon was pacing in front of a packed auditorium in a squat building on the grounds of the Olympic Village built for the 64 Tokyo Summer Games. I feel like Im at a Trump rally! he said, pointing out a young woman sporting a Make America Great Again hat. For the next hour, Bannon held court, microphone in hand. The elites in our country have been under a very false premise that as China became more prosperous and economically developed that there would be an underlying increase in democracy, he said. What we found out over the last decade is the exact opposite has happened. He speculated that dark unseen forces are at work. The question has to be asked: Are the elites in the United States that stupid? Did people actually sit there year after year after year and not understand what was going on? Or was something else going on? Were these elites either bought off or did they just look the other way? That question is going to have to be answered.
Bannons core messagea clueless, corrupt ruling class (many of whom, of course, reside in blue states) has sold out American workers to a hegemonic China, and its up to a vanguard to take our country back before the world tips toward cataclysmis the same, whether hes speaking to Alabamian Roy Moore voters or Chinese dissidents. But he adjusts his vocabulary to fit his audiencehere in Tokyo, he was in full prophetic mode.
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https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/12/bannon-for-president-trump-kushner-ivanka
bearsfootball516
(6,377 posts)But he would have no shot. He might be able to make it through the primaries, but hes way too insane to win the general.
Trump pulled it off because he was able to come across as just sane enough to win swing voters and moderates. I dont think Bannon could do that.
Heartstrings
(7,349 posts)samnsara
(17,640 posts)CrispyQ
(36,527 posts)53% of white women aren't going to vote for him. (Although I can't fathom any woman voting for the Con either. :crazy
VOX
(22,976 posts)His instincts are almost as bad as his moth-eaten appearance. He looks like hes a skipped cocktail away from the DTs.
And THIS (along with Putin) is #45s guide-star.