Exposing the fraudulence of Steve Bannon's and Donald Trump's populism....

Trump is all populist “bark” (grievance), and no populist “bite” (action). Trump’s bite is not populist. It’s oligarchic.

I watched this interview between Ross Douthat and Steve Bannon because I was curious what Bannon thought about Elon Musk commandeering the government. Instead, the conversation further exposed the fraudulence of Trump as a populist leader…..as well as the fraudulence of Bannon’s guerilla populist rhetoric (servitude).

Let’s unpack….

At the 6:00 minute mark, Bannon indulges MAGA (populist) victimhood:

Here's the thing:
It's not necessarily that populism wasn’t taken seriously....

....it’s that Trump couldn’t be taken seriously as a true populist leader

This is because, as we’re currently seeing…

…..the guy with the gold plated toilets who was excited about having the tallest building in NYC on 9/11/2001…

….who just blocked a TikTok ban after becoming flush with Jeff Yass’ cash and TikTok-user narcissistic supply....

…..who just bilked his followers out of billions of dollar with Trump coin crypto……

…..and who just overbooked his inauguration with “centibillionaires”…..

….doesn’t give a damn about the “little guy”.

This very important and obvious fact is what causes the cult of personality “populists” that formed around Trump’s fraudulence…..

….to also not be taken seriously.

As Bannon explains in his auto-biographical introduction in the interview.....

.....many of the populist positions he now champions were held by democrats for decades.

A lot of former Democrats have joined the MAGA movement.

And were the movement led by a sane, non-corrupt, non-treasonous leader who was capable of putting the interest of the country ahead of his own…

...then many more “public intellectuals"...

...and countless others who've championed populist causes for decades...would be on board.

Instead, this populist movement is led by a narcissistic conman/fraud who can be bought off by the highest bidder/flatterer……

.....who repeatedly takes care of the super wealthy….

….and who is handing over the government to oligarchs.

Moving on…

At 15:00 minute mark, Bannon describes first identifying Trump as the future leader of the populist movement:

“I told [Stephen] Miller….this [Trump] is our guy….this guy is the personification of what we need…he's a hammer….he's a man's man”.

This is another reason the movement is not respected, if not taken seriously:

Legitimately masculine blue-collar populists have been conned….or disingenuously claim…

….that a soft, whiny, “professional victim” who’s never worked a day of hard labor in his life…

…is a “man’s man”.

This absurdity is what causes non-MAGA to not take MAGA seriously.

If MAGA was led by a guy like Dan Osborn, it would be a different story:

More on Osborn……

Even if you take 20-30 years off of Trump....

....can anyone possibly imagine Trump pulling over and changing a truck tire for a random stranded motorist?:

Moving on….

At the 19:45 minute mark, Bannon Calls Zuckerberg, “THAT criminal”….

At the 24:30 minute mark...

....Bannon makes an interesting characterization of Republicans…..

....not as the party of Trump, but as distinct from MAGA no matter how much they pathetically capitulate to Trump/MAGA so they can desperately/selfishly hold onto their office….

…..and, most recently.....

......by confirming grossly unqualified....and potentially dangerous…cabinet secretaries:

The 25:00 minute mark is a really interesting portion of the interview.

Douthat reads Bannon a quote Bannon made right before Trump was inaugurated in 2016:

Many people will watch the interview and immediately think (as I did), “Yeah that never happened”....

....they might even make a joke about “infrastructure week”....

....and then think about the 2017 Tax Cuts.... which are antithetical to any populist movement.

Trump, the alleged leader of Bannon's populist movement, ran on reauthorizing these tax cuts in his 2024 presidential campaign.

This part of the interview is where it gets really interesting to observe Bannon:

1) He’s on evangelizing on an MSM site (NYTimes) so he’s on his best behavior, so to speak. He’s less fire and brimstone than he is on his "War Room" Podcast.

2) He’s not in control of the interview or the script, so inconvenient questions/observations get brought up.

3) He knows that very few of his audience will “waste” time watching him on the NYTimes podcast when they can just watch him for three hours/day and get the pure, “uncut” Trump sycophantic propaganda. This allows Bannon to be a little less rigid/dogmatic/militant.

4) We see where the real world (actual campaigning/governing) conflicts with Bannon’s podcast revolutionary-ism.

(Remember, Bannon already called conservatives….and the Republican party “a bunch of pussies” earlier in the interview (4:45)…..and he does so again at 1:06:20)

For example, when Douthat points out that none of Bannon’s populist infrastructure agenda was implemented during Trump’s first term….

.…Bannon jokingly pushes back by pointing out that there were “300 infrastructure weeks” during Trump’s presidency.

Bannon then went into a compromise/coalition-making justification about Trump’s campaign being poorly run:

Observations from this exchange:

This validates why so many people refuse to embrace any movement led by Trump…....especially a populist movement….....because as is evident by Bannon’s own admission:

Trump refused to be “a hammer, and a man’s man”….

….because he refused to push through a trillion dollar infrastructure bill that would “be as exciting as the 1930s, greater than the Reagan Revolution”…….and that would have immeasurably helped out the “little guy”.

Instead, Trump pushes through a tax break for corporations and rich people.

Here’s the problem with Trump’s (and Bannon’s) populism:

First….

Trump is all populist “bark” (grievance), and no populist “bite” (infrastructure).

The fact that people won’t support Trump/MAGA doesn’t mean they don’t support the “little guy”….

.…it just means they won’t support a populist fraud who exploits the “little guy”.

It’s unfortunate that so many Trump supporters…..and apparently Bannon, as well….are either incapable or unwilling to admit this.

...and second:

Bannon sheepishly justified “making a coalition” so that Trump could win the election.

A coalition is made up of people/groups with varying interest who unite to achieve a goal.

Not every party to the coalition gets everything they want, but they give things up to achieve the common goal. In other words, they compromise.

It’s especially interesting to hear Bannon talk about creating a coalition (so he could win the 2016 election), which inherently resulted in compromise…..

……and which resulted in no infrastructure for the “little guy”, but big tax cuts for the rich……

…..and then hear him characterize bi-partisanship (compromise) as a “malignant cancer” at TPUSA.

The Lesson:

Throwing rhetorical grenades from his “War Room” podcast studio, is a hell of a lot easier than actually governing.

At 30:20 Bannon admits:

“There's definitely a gap between the populist nationalist promise, and the populist nationalist delivery”.

Yes, exactly.

This statement epitomizes Trump: All populist bark (grievance), no populist bite (action).

Trump’s bite is not populist. It’s oligarchic.

At 30:30 Bannon:

“You got to keep that Nikki Haley 14 or 15% maybe 18 20% of traditional Republicans that are just not there with you….they'll be there if you give them a policy SWEET that they can buy into and you need those people to win”.

Again, Bannon is talking about political compromise.

Again, this the same guy who calls bipartisanship a “malignant cancer”.

At 28:50 Douthat asks Bannon to define the goal of deconstructing the administrative state.

Bannon speaks for four minutes but does not answer the question.

At 32:30, Douthat again tries to pin Bannon down to define the goal of deconstructing the administrative state:

Douthat presses Bannon further:

“The populist….the [white] blue collar voter in 2016….the Hispanic voter [in 2024]….they vote for Trump b/c they agree with a populist critique of the economy…..what is the concrete deliverable for those voters out of the deconstruction of the administrative state?”

Bannon talks for two minutes but still does not give a specific answer to the question.

At 34:40 Douthat tries to make the point that....

.....despite all of the populist rhetoric....

....Bannon’s current vision of the MAGA coalition is still made up of rich people who are going to be made happy by Trump.

Bannon then proceeds to:

1) Describe “the donor class, Wall street journal, & Murdochs as ‘corporate welfare Queens’”.

2) Claim his ideas would have netted better results for Trump’s first term.

3) And then admits that at over $1.2 trillion of the reauthorized 2017 tax cut will go to the wealthy…..before pivoting off about spending.

Again....tell us again how not supporting a fraudulent populist leader (Trump) is about disrespecting the populists??

What it is actually happening….is that people like Bannon:

1. Take legitimately-based opposition to a fraudulent populist leader (Trump).

2. Twist that opposition into a grievance-triggering narrative about the populists.

3. In order to emotionally incite the populists to vote for the fraudulent populist leader (Trump)…….

.....of which Bannon couldn’t even articulate any “deliverables” that the leader (and the movement) would provide to the populists.

It’s easy to destroy. It’s very difficult to build.

At 37:50, Douthat again tries to pin Bannon down:

“You're saying basically do a version of the tax reauthorization that either actually takes out some of the [tax cuts for the rich] and combine that with discretionary spending cuts? I just want to be clear is that is that the combination?”

Bannon, to Douthat’s frustration, immediately pivots and meanders to a point about Biden’s first 90 days.

At one point Bannon says,:

“I'm talking about significant spending cuts starting in defense and….if we don't get the cuts and the wealthy don't have some cuts….”

Bannon then reflexively qualifies: “I don't want to increase taxes on wealthy just because I believe in ‘soak the rich’….”

….before then seeming to remember that he’s a populist movement: “Maybe I do (want to “soak the rich”) but I would not want it to be part of policy”

At 39:10, Bannon declares that Trump should not only avoid renewing the 2017 tax cuts for the rich, but that Trump should ALSO raise taxes on rich.

Douthat expresses skepticism that the people “fanning out” in the Trump administration will have much of an appetite for increasing taxes on the wealthy (in other words, the “centibillionaires” in the administration).

Bannon seems annoyed.

At 1:02:30 Douthat asks about Trump’s TikTok flip flop.

Bannon attempts to distract and dismiss Trump’s national security risking flip flop on “a Chinese Communist psyop infecting American life”….by talking over and cutting off Douthat with:

“Oh you're so cynical…you're so cynical….Ross, you’re so, you’re so, you’re so cynical”

Remember....

....Bannon is the same guy who has a sign behind him that says, “There are no conspiracies….but there are no coincidences.”

Bannon is the epitome of cynical:

Douthat is attempting to point out that Trump’s TikTok flip flop betrays the “America First”, populist movement when he asks this question:

“To what extent is populism in all the forms you've described, just completely lashed to the personality and character of Donald Trump?”

Bannon pivots into a meandering, stumbling nonsensical statement where he stumbles around talking about Trump:

“He’s a guy from Queens…..he’s actually an incredible kind-hearted empathetic individual…..the core base of MAGA is hard-welded to Trump because they admire his moral clarity”.

…..before then comparing Trump to Washington and Lincoln….and characterizing (revising history) Trump’s decision to run in 2024 as a sign of courage because Trump knew they would come after him legally if he did.

The reality/truth is Trump ran in 2024 because he was desperate to stay out of prison for legitimate prosecutions that had already begun.

Bannon continues to explain his, and MAGA’s, unwavering support of Trump:

And so…. we end up full circle from where the interview began:

The radical populist (Bannon) admits that he will unconditionally follow the populist leader (Trump)…

...despite the populist leader not implementing populist policies that provide “deliverables” to the populists….

But somehow, it’s not the populist leaders (Trump/Bannon) who betray the populists.

No, according to Bannon…

...the true traitors of populism (and the country) are those who expose, and refuse to support fraudulent populist leaders who do not act in the best interest of the populists…..

More on Bannon: