But it’s not just his show. MAGA Republicans were quick to complain about the political implications of losing Bannon as a political operative when he appealed his 2022 conviction for resisting a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. The sentence had already been stayed pending an appeal, but in May a federal appeals court refused to overturn the conviction.
Bannon was ordered to jail until July 1 and is scheduled to serve four months on his release days before the election.
“It’s not ideal. He commands a large audience,” said Charlie Kirk, a Trump ally and right-wing activist who founded a conservative student organization with strong ties to the party’s evangelical wing. But he said Bannon’s absence from the air “could lead to a rally cry that will be even bigger than the show” by driving higher turnout and galvanizing the base.
David Bossie, a close Trump ally and co-chairman of the Republican National Convention, called it an attempt to “silence Steve” and told NBC News that Bannon is “doing very important and strategic work behind the scenes that will have an impact. about the conservative movement and campaign”.
Trump described Bannon as the latest victim of the Department of Justice, not only Bannon, but all Republicans “hope to be arrested.” One post On Truth Social, Trump called the outcome a “Complete and Complete American Tragedy.”
The Justice Department pursued the usual legal processes, including in a separate case involving Peter Navarro, who was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing a January 6 subpoena and is serving time in a federal penitentiary in Florida.
There is no doubt that Trump will feel the loss of Bannon.
In 2016, Bannon turned Breitbart News, a staunchly conservative publication he led, into a relentlessly pro-Trump outfit. After the election, he joined Trump as a senior White House aide, but fell out of favor and left the administration less than a year later.
His show offered him a vehicle to return to Trump’s inner circle. He championed the push to nullify the 2020 election, Trump’s baseless allegations of widespread fraud, and the fight against the former president’s enemies in Congress and within the Republican Party.
Bannon isn’t a household name to most Americans, but among pundits and the ruling class — and especially among die-hard political junkies — he’s a behemoth.
described by critics as poisonous preacher who helped the brain populist rebellion Democrats who put Trump in office say Bannon helped fuel most of some former president incendiary is taking a stand and sees his show as a means by which he is trying to create the conditions to support Trump.
Former Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci turned critic: “I know we shouldn’t take our happiness from others, but Steve Bannon going to jail did the trick.” He wrote in X.
Bannon has critics on the right who say his influence has been overstated. None of this has stopped Bannon, his supporters and even his enemies from heaping credit on him for his efforts.
Bannon credits his audience with the difficulty of fundraising within the party, which has left Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel with no choice but to leave. “The reason the RNC went into crisis was because this viewer turned off the faucet,” he said.
Tim Miller, a former Republican strategist and leading anti-Trump voice, points to the ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy by California Rep. Matt Gaetz as evidence that Bannon can move the GOP.
“All of Fox was against Gaetz. Hour by hour. Everyone,” Miller said. “And they overthrew the speaker of the assembly.”
This was “because they were able to use the power of the MAGA underclass to convince enough people, enough members,” he said. “I mean, that’s pretty crazy.”
‘Hungry for an item’
Most days, the place to find Bannon is in his studio, a basement down a narrow flight of stairs a block from the Supreme Court.
There, Bannon sits under the lights of a bright television studio, a skeletal worker, hurrying to put together a harvest one day in late February, with appearances by conservative firebrand lawyer Mike Davis, former Trump White House counsel Mark Paoletta and conspiracy theorists. Mike Lindell.
At 10 am, the show started with a cold opening.
Bannon’s training reads the day’s headlines with judicial precision and consumes cable news almost constantly.