Steve Bannon
To quote Ben Shapiro (something I never want to do again!), “Bannon is a legitimately sinister figure.”
Shapiro worked as a writer and editor at the extremist site Breitbart News where Bannon was executive chairman at the time. Shapiro claimed the employees of the right-wing site were afraid of Bannon, “He is a vindictive, nasty figure, infamous for verbally abusing supposed friends and threatening enemies.”
Bannon left Breitbart to run Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 using his VP role at Cambridge Analytica to spread disinformation about Hillary Clinton. Trump took Bannon with him all the way to the White House where he played the role of chief strategist. According to Jeff Taylor of Street Sense Media, it was really Bannon pulling the strings all along:
Bannon has a very significant following. Ideologically speaking, long before Trump came on the scene, there was Steve Bannon. Bannon is not a vessel for Trumpism. Trump is the vessel for Bannonism. He’s malevolent and quite intelligent, possessing a Harvard degree. He knows just what buttons to push to keep his minions foaming at the mouth.
After his “mutually agreed” upon exit from the Trump administration, Bannon did not fade away into the ether. Instead of keeping a low profile, he siphoned off a million dollars from the We Build the Wall fundraising campaign. Bannon used hundreds of thousands of dollars on personal expenses from the cash donated by Trump’s loyal followers — donors who assumed the money would be going to support Trump’s border wall. (Bannon’s two cohorts in the scheme just pled guilty, but Bannon was pardoned by Trump — so he’ll remain unscathed.)
Bannon also spent plenty of time making content and spreading misinformation about the 2020 Presidential election — misinformation that got him kicked off YouTube. He was removed from Twitter, however, for discussing violence against FBI Director Christopher Wray and Dr. Anthony Fauci. “I’d put their heads on pikes,” Bannon said in a 2020 episode of his podcast.
In 2021, Bannon made headlines again when he was indicted by a federal grand jury for his refusal to cooperate with the Jan 6 investigation. Bannon ignored the subpoenas from the House committee and refused to turn over requested documents.