One thing you can say for Steve Bannon, the former presidential adviser and newly returned Breitbart News executive editor, is that he knows how to make an exit. Bannons series of interviews both before and after being fired last Friday put chief antagonist Anthony Scaramuccis diva departure to shame (although Twitter wags were quick to point out that the first headlines from Breitbart News certainlyevoked the memoryof some of The Moochs choice comments about Bannon).
Rumors had been out there since the spring that Bannon was on thin ice. And the reason given, then and now, that makes the most sense is that Donald Trump didnt like his minion receiving so much attention. He was angry last spring when Bannon made the cover of Time, which Trump considers to be such a tremendous honor that he constantly boasts about his own covers, even going so far as tomock up fake ones for Trump properties. The headline for Bannons Time cover was even worse: The Great Manipulator.
They seemed to have papered that over until recently, when Bannon was the subject of considerable press coverage after reporter Joshua Greens new book about him was published. Trump was reportedly upset that the cover featured an unappealing picture of him and that the title put Bannons name first. Considering the presidents overwhelming vanity and narcissism, Im inclined to believe that was the ultimate reason he was fired.
Bannons departure will have little effect on the Trump administration. Even if John Kelly succeeds in making the trains run on time, that doesnt solve the central problem of the Trump administration. Bannon was not the reason this dumpster fire of a presidency has exploded into a raging conflagration. He wasnt mouthing the words President Trump spoke in that odious press conference last Tuesday. He didnt force him to play chicken with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un the week before that. He certainly didnt have control of Trumps Twitter account, the window to the presidents frightening mind. Other than convincing the newbie Trump that the entire government bureaucracy is a deep state out to get him, Bannon has been no more influential on Trumps behavior than the latters son Barron.
Bannon is, however, highly influential among Trumpsupporters,although not as much as when he was building the Trump mystique. As conservative talk show host and Never-Trumper Charlie Sykeshas been pointing out for some time, Trumpism is not a movement it is now a full-fledged cult of personality in which the presidents followers believe themselves to be under siege from the same forces Donald Trump rails against: the media, political correctness, elites of both parties, liberals, racial and ethnic minorities. The more they see Trump being attacked the more they identify with him.
Nonetheless,as I pointed outon Friday, Bannon is a professional propagandist with a feel for the right-wing Zeitgeist. We can expect that he will be a player going forward. He told people different things in his manic series of exit interviews, at once claimingthe Trump presidency was effectivelyover and promising to go to war on its behalf. But its pretty clear that Bannon is going to war for Bannon, and for a movement that he apparently believes still exists outside of Trump: In many ways, I think I can be more effective fighting from the outsidefor the agendaPresident Trump ran on, Bannon told The New York Times. (Emphasis mine.) And anyone who stands in our way, we will go to war with.
If the early stories coming out of Breitbart (which Bannon officially rejoinedon Fridaynight) are any indication, he will first concentrate on settling scores. Here are a couple of headlines from over the weekend: McMaster Of Disguise: Natl Security Adviser Endorsed Book That Advocates Quran-Kissing Apology Ceremonies and Report: Ivanka Trump Helped Push Steve Bannon out of the White House.
The New York Times reportedthat Bannon had met with Breitbart benefactors Robert and Rebekah Merceron Mondaynight to plan his post-White House strategy.According to Axios, its a much bigger deal than little old Breitbart.com:
Bannon has told friends he sees a massive opening to the right of Fox News, raising the possibility that hes going to start a network. . . . He believes Fox is heading in a squishy, globalist direction as the Murdoch sons assume more power. . . . His chief financial backer, Long Island hedge fund billionaire Bob Mercer, is ready to invest big in whats coming next, including a huge overseas expansion of Breitbart News.
Bannon may be right that Fox is a shadow of its former self. But the problem isnt that its become squishy and globalist. Its that for the last 20 years the whole network was pretty much a brothel, and since the departure of the sexual harasser Bill OReilly and the sexually harassed Megyn Kelly, its only star is Trumps smarmy sycophant Sean Hannity. Most importantly, the network lost Roger Ailes at the helm, the TV impresario who understood the Fox audience and would have understood how to effectively surf the Trump wave. Ratings are down and the network seems lost without him.
So, theres an opening in right-wing television news for something fresh. Bannon perceives of himself as an all around agitprop genius, buthis terrible moviescertainly dont demonstrate that. He may turn out to be more Trump hot air than Ailes-style brilliance.
As for the Breitbart new media extravaganza, back in October, Bloombergs Joshua Green and Sasha Issenbergpreviewed Bannons post-election plans(presuming Trump wouldnt win) with a big story aboutthe sites plans for European expansionand a Mercer-funded merger between the Trump digital operation and Breitbart.com. Bannon told Green,I wouldnt have come aboard, even for Trump, if I hadnt known they were building this massive Facebook and data engine. Facebook is what propelled Breitbart to a massive audience. We know its power.
Whether Bannon will have access to all that juicy campaign data is unknown, but since hes funded by Mercer, a partial owner in the data mining companyCambridge Analytica, odds are hell have plenty of technology to work with.
Its a new era for right-wing media (as for everyone else). For the last couple of decades the conservative media barons have been ahead of the political curve. Were about to find out if theyve lost their touch.
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