https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...bannon-s-downfall-is-a-warning-sign-for-trump The End of Steve Bannon—and Maybe Trump, Too Bannon failed to deliver on the promises of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, and so has the president. By Joshua Green August 21, 2020, 6:00 PM GMT+8 Steve Bannon’s arrest on charges that he defrauded donors to a right-wing immigration group for $1 million marks the end of a political era—the era when a Trumpian admixture of economic populism and nativist immigration policy looked as if it could, as Bannon once put it to me, deliver the Republican Party “a hammerlock on the Electoral College.” At the time he made this assessment, in the days after Trump’s 2016 victory, it seemed entirely plausible that Bannon, Donald Trump’s campaign chairman and future chief strategist, was right. Before Trump, the GOP had imagined its future lay in purging its racist fringe and soft-pedaling its brand of laissez-faire economics to a diversifying nation that had spurned the 2012 Republican ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. The Republican Party “autopsy” conducted in 2013 after their loss warned that the GOP risked falling into oblivion if it didn’t present a more welcoming face to immigrants, minorities, and young people. Bannon exits a federal courthouse in Manhattan following his arraignment hearing on Aug. 20. Photographer: Andrew Kelly/Reuters Trump, of course, egged on by Bannon, instead offered a turbocharged anti-immigrant nationalism that promised to revive working-class fortunes, a message that resonated particularly among Rust Belt voters who’d previously voted Democratic. He was certain that Republican Party leaders would recognize this. “What Reince [Priebus] and Paul Ryan realize now,” Bannon told me after the election, “is that our message was the right one and that it’s gonna deliver Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania to the Republican Party for a generation.” This was the Trump hammerlock. Had Trump delivered on his promise and instituted the kind of working-class populism Bannon was espousing in 2016, he’d likely be in a better position than he is today. Certainly, Bannon would be. But that never happened. “There was only a plan to get elected,” says Sam Nunberg, a former Trump staffer. “There was never a plan to govern.” Instead, the Trump administration proved chaotic from the outset and the Trump-Bannon marriage quickly blew apart. Once in office, Trump lost any interest he’d had in economic populism and signed a tax cut that favored the rich, while Bannon, who clashed with colleagues and members of Trump’s family and had no experience in or talent for policymaking, was quickly forced out of his chief strategist job. Even after Bannon left the White House in 2017, he held fast to his belief that a politics of hard-edged nationalism could deliver the right politician the presidency. Resentful of his ouster—“I’m sick of playing wet nurse to a 71-year-old man,” he griped of Trump—Bannon began fitting himself for the role of political leader. Upon leaving the White House, he tried to marshal a slate of nationalist candidates, including Alabama Senate hopeful Roy Moore, who would rout the GOP establishment and “carry Trumpism beyond Trump.” Bannon was a potent enough figure on the right that he traveled to Europe to spread Trump-style nationalist populism. At the same time, as I reported in 2018, Bannon began scheming to start a new U.S. political party that he planned to call the “National Union Party”—the temporary name Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party had adopted in 1864 to attract War Democrats and Unionists—imagining that he could unite disaffected populists on both ends of the political spectrum and make his own run at the White House. Bannon’s fantasy never came to fruition. Instead, as often happened, his indiscretion became his undoing. After the author Michael Wolff quoted Bannon disparaging members of Trump’s family, Trump angrily ostracized him from the Republican Party. This included pressuring Rebekah Mercer, a major Trump donor and backer of Breitbart News, to oust Bannon from his position atop the conservative publication. Once robbed of his influence in the White House and at Breitbart News, Bannon came to understand that it was Trump, not Bannon or his ideas, that excited Republican voters. Furthermore, it became obvious that any hope Bannon had of exerting influence on national politics was contingent on his worming himself back into Trump’s good graces. To do this, Bannon swallowed his pride and began making boosterish appearances on Fox News to loudly advocate for the same president who’d publicly destroyed his standing in Republican politics and even issued a White House press release saying that Bannon had “lost his mind.” To regain relevance, Bannon became active in anti-immigrant organizations like We Build the Wall, whose leaders were indicted by federal prosecutors on Thursday, and anti-China groups like the Committee on the Present Danger (Bannon was arrested aboard a 150-foot yacht belonging to Chinese billionaire tycoon-in-exile Guo Wengui). But Bannon was no more effective in bringing about the policies Trump had campaigned on than Trump was. The supposed purpose of We Build the Wall was to build a privately funded barrier at the U.S.-Mexico border—the one that Trump had promised to erect in 2016 (and make Mexico pay for) but failed to do as president. Just as Trump sold a bill of goods to his followers, prosecutors allege that Bannon and the leaders of We Build the Wall were essentially grifters who raised $25 million by preying on the nativist political desires of donors. “The defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction,” U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement. The idea that Bannon and a group of right-wing extremists would actually build a border wall was ridiculous on its face. Last month, ProPublica discovered that a three-mile section of wall the group erected too close to the Rio Grande had already begun to erode and was in danger of falling down. The true purpose of the project, as Trump himself seemed to discern, was to bring attention, acclaim, and money to its sponsors in a way that would attract the president’s notice and help Bannon to rehabilitate his tattered image. “I haven’t been dealing with him for a very long period of time,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “ don’t know anything about the project at all ... I don’t like that project. I thought it was being done for showboating reasons.” The symbolism of Bannon’s grand political project ending in his indictment and arrest is timely, if nothing else. Precisely four years ago, he’d just taken command of Trump’s sputtering, left-for-dead presidential campaign and was about to steer it to the greatest upset in U.S. political history. But the political realignment Bannon thought was happening four years ago always depended on Trump delivering what he’d campaigned on. The details of Bannon’s indictment lay bare the path he’s traveled since the days not so long ago when he was regarded in some circles as “the second most powerful man in the world.” Although he’s avoided indictment, Trump’s path hasn’t been much smoother. He survived impeachment, but he hasn’t delivered a border wall, middle-class prosperity, or an American condition that can be considered anything like “great again.” It takes just a glance at the polls—Trump is behind in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania—to see that the electoral lock Bannon envisioned, like so much else, is a fiction and that Trump’s political career, like that of his former strategist, could be about to draw to a close.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-...order-wall-fraud-charges-20200822-p55ob7.html 'Honey badger doesn't give': Steve Bannon fires back on border wall fraud charges Washington: A day after President Donald Trump's former White House strategist was charged with defrauding donors to a border wall fundraising operation, Steve Bannon fired back on Friday at federal prosecutors, vowing to challenge the criminal case lodged against him. "I am not going to back down," Bannon said on his War Room podcast, referring to the prosecution as "a total political hit job." Steve Bannon, former US President Donald Trump political strategist, departs from federal court in New York.Credit:Bloomberg Bannon, who pleaded not guilty on Thursday prior to his release on a $US5 million bond, was charged with three others in connection with a private effort to assist Trump's signature campaign program, raising more than $25 million ($35 million) to build parts of a wall along the US-Mexico border. The charges accuse Bannon, Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea with "defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors" in the "We Build the Wall" GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign. "Everybody knows I love a fight," Bannon said. "I was called honey badger for many years. A honey badger doesn't give. I'm in this for the long haul." Bannon was arrested early on Thursday morning by federal authorities while aboard a 150-foot (45 metre) yacht just off the Connecticut shore. On Friday, a brash and defiant Bannon was back at work, doing what he has done for years: promoting Trump and the hard-line immigration enforcement that he helped shape while at the White House. "This (the fundraising effort) was to show support for President Trump," Bannon said. The charges, he said, are "to stop and intimidate people that have President Trump's back on building the wall." But prosecutors have alleged that the border wall project merely capitalised on the interest of those who supported it "under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction," acting Manhattan US Attorney Audrey Strauss said. Steve Bannon, an architect of US Donald Trump's 2016 election victory, was arrested on a yacht and pleaded not guilty after being charged with defrauding donors in a scheme to help build the president's signature wall along the US-Mexico border. As part of the alleged scheme, according to federal prosecutors, Kolfage, the founder of the campaign, "repeatedly and falsely assured the public that he would not take a penny in salary or compensation' and that '100 per cent of the funds raised ... will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose.'" "Those representations were false," prosecutors said, asserting that hundreds of thousands of dollars were secretly routed to the four men. More than $US350,000 was allegedly routed to Kolfage, and Bannon received more than $US1 million. Trump immediately sought to distance himself from Bannon and the wall project, saying that he felt "very badly" for his former adviser. "I haven't been dealing with him for a very long period of time," he said, adding that he didn't "know anything about the project at all." At the same time, however, he claimed to have opposed the project because he thought it was being done for "showboating reasons." "It was something I very much thought was inappropriate to be doing," he said. In 2019, Trump ally Kris Kobach told The New York Times that the president gave the wall campaign his "blessing." Earlier that year, Donald Trump Jr also lauded the project at a rally featuring Kolfage in New Mexico, near a section of wall funded by the project. "This (privately funded border wall) is what capitalism is all about," the president's son told the crowd. "This is private enterprise at its finest. Doing it better, faster, cheaper than anything else. What you guys are doing is amazing."
“There was only a plan to get elected,” says Sam Nunberg, a former Trump staffer. “There was never a plan to govern.” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- They built their little fence right on the river..
I think we all need to become honey Badgers if we are to take this wave of leftist evil on and have a chance to beat it.
My opinion, Trump & Bannon have much in common. Very ambitious. Portray to a gullible public they are there to serve when reality appears they have foremost self interest. Big mouths and can't for one minute other than sleeping STFU.
Fraud trial may end mystery of Steve Bannon’s riches https://www.theaustralian.com.au/wo...s/news-story/d92c3dd5cddad125559e156980a6586d Steve Bannon claims “I’ve got f***-everybody money”, but where does it all come from? Surely an ongoing stake in sitcom Seinfeld isn’t enough to fund his lavish lifestyle. Picture: AFP By Josh Glancy The Times 57 minutes ago August 23, 2020 Where does Steve Bannon get his money from? This is a question that all Bannon-watchers grapple with regularly – and that a jury will face now he has been arrested and accused of fraud, which he denies. For a self-proclaimed man of the people, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist certainly likes the good things in life. In Rome, he is often spotted at the luxurious Hotel de Russie. In London, he favours the five-star Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair. Bannon lives in a state of perpetual motion. If you can pin him down, it is usually at the so-called “Breitbart embassy” on Washington’s Capitol Hill, a luxury townhouse he has made his own, despite the fact it belongs (or belonged) to an Egyptian businessman, Moustafa El-Gindy. Bannon prefers to travel in style if he can, flying private when possible. He was arrested last week while summering on Lady May, a $38 million yacht belonging to his latest benefactor. When arraigned in court in New York, he looked as though he had just come off a long Grateful Dead tour. #SteveBannon: Yesterday's fiasco was to intimidate anyone that wants to talk about American sovereignty and the Wall. This is a dog fight#WarRoomPandemic pic.twitter.com/n4zw3gMJHC But where does the real money come from? Bannon says he made it himself. “I’ve made enough money,” he told me two years ago. “I’ve got not just f***-you money, I’ve got f***-everybody money. If I wanted to go sit on a sailboat and sail around or, you know, chase pretty girls, I could live any lifestyle I wanted.” He certainly appears to have had financial success in the past. He worked at Goldman Sachs, made documentary films in Hollywood and reportedly has a stake in the endlessly profitable sitcom Seinfeld. But in recent years, Bannon has usually had someone with real “f***- you” money underwriting his endeavours. For several years this was the Mercer family, billionaire hedge funder Robert and his daughter Rebekah, who have been among the most prominent donors to the Trump movement. But Bannon’s big mouth shut off that spigot. When the president cast his former Svengali aside in early 2018, following passages in Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury where Bannon had criticised members of the Trump family, the Mercers followed suit, leading Bannon to step down from his position at the helm of Breitbart News. Steve Bannon doing his War Room: Impeachment radio show at his Washington home, with former Trump chief of staff, Reince Priebus, right. Since then his life has been a quest for relevance and funding, as he travelled the world promoting globalised populist nationalism. The populist fraternity can be generous at times. In Bannon’s Washington bedroom, between an unmade four-poster bed and shelves groaning with grand historical tomes, I once spotted a splendid portrait of him as a Napoleonic field marshal. The source? His friend Nigel Farage, he said. His real backer in recent months has been Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese billionaire whose affinity for Bannon appears to stem from their mutual loathing of the communist regime in Beijing. Bannon’s real backer in recent months has been Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese billionaire whose affinity for Bannon appears to stem from their mutual loathing of the communist regime in Beijing. Picture: AFP But the charges levelled by the southern district court of New York point to other people and murkier waters. We Build the Wall was a crowd-funding scheme that arose from frustration with the glacial pace of Trump’s wall-building enterprise on the border with Mexico. Run by a group of right-wing operatives, including the Iraq war veteran and triple amputee Brian Kolfage, the enterprise raised some $25 million, mostly from small donations. Bannon and Kolfage are accused of siphoning off money for their personal benefit. According to the charges, Bannon milked the non-profit organisation of more than $1 million, putting hundreds of thousands of dollars towards his expenses. The group is charged with hiding the payments via a shell company. Bannon, who has pleaded not guilty, faces prison if convicted. The Times
A planet where you don't get your news from youtube videos from right wing shills who will say anything for money.
Fine. If someone is corrupt, go charge him but, what about Bill and Hillary Clinton? John Podesta? Remember Paul Manafort worked at his lobbying firm? Hunter and Joe Biden's Ukraine and China activities? I am sure there are more and if not, for the Deep State covering things up, a lot of the real corruption would have already been unearthed and prosecuted? And while, we are at it, we had the Jussie Smollet and Kim Foxx case in Chicago where the Obamas have been implicated exerting political pressure on Kim Foxx yet, nobody has been charged for it? Or Felicity Huffman's 14 day joke of a sentence on a crime with a 20 year maximum? I did not expect her to get 20 years but, 5 years would be more appropriate. Other average joes got 5 years for crimes while, Felicity Huffman and her entitled ass, and political connections got off scot free?