steve bannon

'No excuse': MAGA turns on Bannon after Epstein messages reveal plot against Trump

One exchange recently unearthed in the latest tranche of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents shows an exchange between Epstein and Steve Bannon — who was President Donald Trump's chief strategist during his first administration. Now, MAGA activists are demanding Bannon explain an apparent plot to oust Trump via the 25th Amendment.

In the text exchange in December of 2018 and January of 2019 (shortly after Democrats flipped 41 Republican seats in the 2018 midterm elections), Epstein remarked that "emotions are running high" among Democrats he spoke with. Bannon agreed, saying Democrats were "going to blow him up right out of the box." He added that the White House "has zero plan to punch back," comparing Trump's situation to "Fort Apache with no cavalry enroute."

"And no soldiers in the fort," Epstein said. "He is really borderline. Not sure what he may do."

"I think it's beyond borderline. 25 Amendment," Bannon responded, referring to the constitutional amendment laying out the process to have a sitting president removed from office.

The Daily Beast reported Monday that the exchange has set off a firestorm of outrage among MAGA Republicans. Gen. Michael Flynn (Ret.), who served as Trump's first national security advisor until he was fired for lying about being in contact with Russian officials, demanded accountability for Bannon in a post to his X account.

"The WH or at least DOJ needs to come out and say what they plan on doing with this information," Flynn wrote. "I remember all the 25th amendment talk back in the first term. It was really ugly. If Bannon AND Epstein were behind it, Bannon needs to be brought in for questioning. And he needs to address this and all the other s—— he was doing on behalf of Epstein."

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) responded to Flynn's post by writing: "Agree completely. Steve Bannon went to jail for Trump (I was there), but back on 1-1-19 (after Dems took the House) he was texting with Epstein about 25th amendment. Also, there is no excuse for having such a friendly relationship with Epstein, post conviction, 2018-19. None."

Bannon's remarks also caused an outcry among Trump's base. MAGA influencer Catturd tweeted to his four million followers that the exchange was just "only one of thousands of disturbing messages between Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein," and that there were "hundreds" more that were "way worse." U.S. Navy veteran and Trump supporter John Blount concurred, saying Bannon "needs to be dealt with."

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Conservative demands Trump explain why he's protecting Epstein associates

National Review writer Noah Rothman admits Democrats are tearing President Donald Trump to shreds for clinging to friends and confidants of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Rothman pointed to a recent X post by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) — which accused Trump of protecting child abusers and claiming that in her home country of Somalia, child predators are executed — to argue that Trump is carrying the kind of baggage that could bring down an entire administration.

“The president and his allies have not been able to leverage reckless remarks like these, render them liabilities and impose a political price on their expostulators,” Rothman wrote. “They don’t even seem to be trying. It’s not at all clear why.”

Trump’s “onetime aide and federal convict, Steve Bannon,” was “chummy with Epstein long after the child abuser was convicted of his crimes,” reports Rothman. “Indeed, even on the eve of Epstein’s final arrest, Bannon was committed to making a documentary about the former financier explicitly designed to rehabilitate his image.”

So why on earth, demands Rothman, would Trump’s solicitor general, D. John Sauer be lobbying an appeals court to drop charges against Bannon to erase his conviction for obstructing the House's January 6 investigation?

“Behavior like this is the augur in which conspiracy theories bloom,” warned Rothman.

Similarly, Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick “maintained surreptitious relations with Epstein long after he repeatedly claimed (once, under oath) that he cut the pervert off, (after 2005),” according to what Rothman told CNBC.

But the so-called ‘Epstein Files’ made Lutnick out to be a liar by revealing that in December 2012, Epstein invited Lutnick to lunch on his private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The two also had business dealings as recently as 2014, according to CBS News.

Any retaliation the Trump administration makes against Democrats’ Epstein accusations, said Rothman, “will be limited by the administration’s efforts to shield those in Trump’s orbit with deeper ties to Epstein from accountability.”

“Certainly, figures like Bannon and Lutnick, who are guilty not of mere association but of misleading law enforcement, lawmakers, or the public, complicate the White House’s efforts to indemnify the president,” said Rothman. “It’s not at all clear why these two replaceable components in the MAGA machine are worth the effort."

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Steve Bannon warns MAGA has 'massive lack of enthusiasm' for Trump

Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategic adviser and prominent MAGA commentator, warned on Monday that the MAGA base is suffering from a "massive lack of enthusiasm" as Donald Trump's second term wears on.

According to a Monday report from The Hill, Bannon — who maintains considerable influence in the MAGA sphere — warned during a recent episode of his "War Room" podcast that Trump's loyal base is suffering from a notable lack of excitement and motivation. He cited several reasons, including the president's slow and controversial handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files release, as well as the shift away from his campaign promise to avoid foreign conflicts and his lack of success addressing affordability.

"You have a massive lack of enthusiasm among the base," Bannon said. "Because they’re sitting there going ‘I’m just not feelin’ it right now."

Bannon further cited a concerning report from Big Data Poll, which found that the voters were throwing their midterm support more toward Democrats than Republicans. On a generic ballot, around 46 percent of the poll's respondents said that they would more likely support a Democratic candidate for Congress, while only 42 percent said that they were more likely to support a Republican.

The Hill noted in its report that, despite this fading excitement and generic ballot support, the GOP maintains a fundraising lead over the Democrats for the time being, with the Republican National Committee ending 2025 with around $100 million in cash-on-hand than the Democratic National Committee.

Bannon recently generated widespread controversy over statements encouraging the Trump administration to deploy federal immigration officers to monitor polling places during November's midterm elections. While Bannon claimed this would be done to combat election fraud — of which there is little actual evidence — others accused him of encouraging Trump to engage in voter intimidation.

"You're damn right we're gonna have ICE surround the polls come November," Bannon said during an earlier episode of his podcast. "We're not gonna sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen…. Let's put you on notice again: ICE is going to be around the polls in the 2026 midterm elections."

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Steve Bannon has 'ulterior motive' behind push for 3rd Trump term: report

The Daily Beast reports MAGA influencer Steve Bannon “has an ulterior motive for banging the ‘Trump 2028’ drum.

“Close associates of Bannon, 72, told Axios that the former White House adviser keeps mentioning a third term [for President Donald] Trump — which is unconstitutional — because he wants to run for president himself,” the Beast reports.

“When Trump doesn’t end up running, [Bannon] will reluctantly say he must carry the mantle,” a source told Axios.

Bannon denied any speculated run for president outside of Trump’s shadow, calling the idea "bulls——.” He claims he's instead focused on supporting Trump's illegal third term.

"We don't have a country if we don't get every ounce of fight and energy from President Trump — you can drive a Mack Truck through the 22nd Amendment — and that's exactly what I intend to do in order to save our country," Bannon told Axios.

But while Bannon is overtly denying his personal ambition, Axios reports he has quietly “taken several steps to prepare a possible campaign, according to two anonymous sources. Namely, Bannon has expressed interest in setting up a PAC that could spend money in midterm races and has talked with allies to see who might work for him.

Axios reports Bannon has also appeared at recent events hosted by the Colorado and Georgia Republican parties, which Axios claims is proof that he's working to “curry favor with local organizers who play a role in primaries.”

Bannon purports to be pressing three Trump lieutenants to run for president in Trump’s absence in three years: Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz. (R-Texas)

None of Bannon’s three champions confirmed their political plans for 2028.

Read the Daily Beast report at this link.

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MAGA influencer publicly accuses Steve Bannon of being 'PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein'

Turning Point USA's annual "AmericaFest" is officially underway in Phoenix, Arizona, and the first night of speeches was rife with MAGA celebrities taking public jabs at each other.

In his Thursday night speech, podcaster Ben Shapiro of the far-right Daily Wire took direct aim at the conspiratorial faction of the Republican Party, mentioning several leading figures by name. Shapiro specifically took issue with right-wing figures who trafficked in the "dual loyalty" trope — which the American Jewish Committee has described as antisemitic as it suggests Jewish Americans are more loyal to Israel than to the United States — and specifically named former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

"When Steve Bannon, for example, accuses his foreign policy opponents of loyalty to a foreign country, he is not actually making an argument based in evidence," Shapiro said. "He is maligning people he disagrees with, which is indeed par for the course from a man who was once a PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein."

At that point, the crowd is heard murmuring uncomfortably, to which Shapiro responded: "Check the record."

Shapiro was likely referring to photos showing Bannon and Epstein together that were recently released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. Bannon was making a documentary about Epstein at the time the photos were taken, though the approximately 16 hours of footage remains sealed in a vault and has yet to be publicly released.

Shapiro's speech stirred up shocked reactions on social media. Politico and Rolling Stone contributor Laura Jedeed wrote on Bluesky: "Conservative cold war just went hot at AmFest. Shapiro just came for Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and Steve Bannon HARD, not sideways or with caveats but head-on and furious."

"On the first night of Turning Point’s big conference, Ben Shapiro is going scorched earth on Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes — and fellow AmericaFest speakers Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and Megyn Kelly," Arizona Republic reporter Stephanie Murray tweeted.

Watch the clip of Shapiro's speech below:

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Trump’s former chief strategist now warns his agenda will 'crush the working class'

Steve Bannon — who was President Donald Trump's chief White House strategist in 2017 — is now railing against one of the president's top policy priorities.

ABC News reported Monday that Bannon took time on his podcast to harshly criticize the administration's pledge to pour billions of dollars into powering artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States. Bannon called AI "the most dangerous technology in the history of mankind" and warned Trump's promise to accelerate it would have disastrous effects on workers.

ABC reporter Will Steakin quoted Bannon as saying AI had the potential to "crush the working class" and that Trump doubling down on it would result in major losses for Republicans in both the 2026 midterm election and the 2028 presidential election.

"I'm a capitalist," Bannon said of AI during a podcast episode last week. "This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism."

Bannon — who remains a steadfast Trump supporter and hinted in October that there were already plans underway to keep him in office for a third term – insisted to ABC that he felt motivated to speak out against the proliferation of unregulated AI as a means of ensuring the MAGA movement would have a positive legacy.

"History will know us for this," Bannon said. "Even more than the age of Trump, [the MAGA base] will be known for this. So we've got to get it right."

Bannon isn't the only influential figure within MAGA to break with Trump over AI regulation. ABC cited far-right influencer Matt Walsh, who said during a Daily Wire podcast that AI was "probably the greatest crisis we face as a species right now" and that Americans were "sleepwalking into our dystopian future." Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who announced her retirement from Congress last week, has also severely criticized AI as a threat to local resources, given that AI data centers require large amounts of water to cool servers and have been associated with higher utility costs for local residents in communities with data centers.

Click here to read ABC's full report.

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'Is that a hint?' Epstein helped top Trump advisor attack Brett Kavanaugh's accuser

One of the emails from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein recently released by the House Oversight Committee reportedly shows correspondence with Steve Bannon — one of President Donald Trump's longtime advisors — about getting Trump's embattled second Supreme Court nominee through a major controversy.

On Wednesday, journalist Sean Morrow of More Perfect Union posted a September 2018 email exchange between Epstein and Bannon, in which the two are seen discussing a potential line of attack on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. According to the emails, Epstein suggested that then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's attorneys press Ford — who accused Kavanaugh of assaulting her at a high school party — on medications she may have been using that can sometimes cause memory loss.

"I delayed my trip a day. So I'm still around," Epstein wrote from a personal gmail account. "Tell [Kavanaugh attorney Bill Burck] they should make sure they ask Ford about her medications, what type and for how long. My guess is that [Ford lawyer Debra Katz] won't let her answer."

"Roger," Bannon responded.

Epstein then sent Bannon another email with a link to a 2015 Pharmacy Times article entitled "8 Medications That May Cause Memory Loss." Bannon wrote back: "Is this a hint," with Epstein replying: "Duh."

The convicted child predator then sent Bannon a link to a 2017 University of São Paulo study entitled "false memories in social anxiety disorder," followed by another correspondence that read: "She couldn't recall if the lie detector was given the same day as her mother's funeral or the next day? MEDS."

"Oh I get it now," Bannon wrote back.

Even though Bannon was no longer Trump's White House chief strategist after August of 2017, the Washington Post reported several months after his firing that Bannon and Trump regularly kept in touch in regular phone calls that Trump himself usually initiated. Bannon still called Trump "sir" even though he was no longer an administration employee, according to the Post.

Morrow wrote that while the email address Epstein had been corresponding with was redacted, he determined the recipient was Bannon, as previous exchanges with that recipient mentioned that they had been on comedian Bill Maher's show. Morrow reported that he verified that Bannon was indeed a guest on Maher's program on the night in question.

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'What are you doing?' New book blows the lid off MAGA infighting among Trump’s inner circle

ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl discussed the push and tug between affluent Donald Trump supporters in the aftermath of Trump’s November election win, with certain personalities grinding against others at the very onset.

Vanity Fair published an excerpt of Karl’s new book “Retribution,” which lays out early opposition to certain appointments by billionaire World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon and America First Policy Institute CEO Brooke Rollins — who Vanity Fair writer Bess Levin described as a member of Trump’s “brick-s—— scary new cabinet.”

Karl said McMahon and Rollins quickly despised Trump’s pick of former campaign worker Susie Wiles for White House Chief of Staff and “rushed over to Mar‑a‑Lago in a last‑ditch effort to derail the pick.”

“Various Trump aides, most of whom had worked for Wiles during the campaign, managed to impede the two women on their way to see Trump. They even orchestrated a phone call with Vice President–elect JD Vance to delay the two aspiring chiefs of staff on their way to Trump’s office. By the time McMahon and Rollins got in to see Trump, it was too late. He had already asked Wiles to be chief of staff,” Karl wrote. “They would have to settle instead for secretary of education and secretary of agriculture, respectively.”

Trump’s billionaire friend Howard Lutnick, meanwhile, campaigned early to topple the appointment of former Republican lawmaker and MTV reality star Sean Duffy for the role of transportation secretary. Claiming “the man has no relevant experience” doesn’t get far with Trump, according to Karl, so Lutnick “tried to appeal to the president‑elect’s ego instead, tasking his team with searching through Duffy’s hundreds of television appearances to find any criticism of Trump.”

Duffy, according to Karl, was a consistent supporter. Lutnick had to scroll all the way back to the early days of the 2016 Republican presidential primary “to find anything Duffy had said that was remotely negative about Donald Trump.”

Lutnick eventually found a September 2015 interview in which the then‑congressman had said he didn’t believe Trump was a real conservative and didn’t think he would win the party’s nomination. Of course, even then, Duffy had praised Trump for “boldly speaking and saying things that the conservative wing wished that their leaders would say.”

“As weak as Lutnick’s effort to dig up dirt turned out to be, that one stray comment from almost ten years earlier nearly cost Duffy the job,” Karl wrote. “Trump, reconsidering the pick, called Duffy and his wife, Rachel, and they were able to convince the president‑elect that Sean had long since changed his views on Trump’s conservative bona fides.

Trump’s advisor Steve Bannon launched his own attack against the appointment of Kristi Noem as secretary of the sprawling Department of Homeland Security.

“‘We still got the global war on terror,’ an exasperated Steve Bannon told me two days after Trump made the announcement. ‘She runs the whole thing? She runs the f—— Secret Service? It’s all of it. It’s the global war on terror. It’s all that’” Karl reports. “‘What are you talking about? She’s never been in law enforcement!’”

But Bannon didn’t put the blame on Trump for making what he considered a terrible choice. He blamed Corey Lewandowski for convincing the president‑elect to do it.

“’This motherf—— asked for somebody who’s obviously unqualified — and it’s dangerous,’” Karl reports Bannon telling him. “‘This is dangerous. What are you doing?’”

Read the full Vanity Fair excerpt at this link.

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MAGA influencer used 'coded' system to direct Trump from jail: new book

ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl said MAGA firebrand Steve Bannon was communicating with President Donald Trump even as he sat in jail for contempt of Congress.

In his new book "Retribution," Karl reports Bannon managed to discreetly keep in touch with Trump and his camp during his 2024 prison stay through a "coded" system that allowed his daughter and top aide to pass along messages to Trump through the monitored email system he was allowed in prison.

"Bannon claims that an investigative officer at Danbury — an official he described as 'pure MAGA' — had warned him that his communications were being reviewed by 'Main Justice,' otherwise known as the Biden administration,” Karl wrote, according to ABC News.

"So he developed a coded system to let 'the girls' know which messages were to be passed on to Trump or to those around him, in particular the aide Boris Epshteyn: 'I had just a system to get to Boris, kind of in quasi-code, through [daughter Maureen] into [aide Grace Chong],' he said. Was there literally a code word? 'Well, we had — ' he began, before catching himself. 'I don’t — the Bureau of Prisons could go back through it. We had a way that they could get to him,'" Karl writes.

Karl reports Bannon remained an influence on Trump’s presidency after he was released from prison, and he was likely a source of Trump’s hostility toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a controversial meeting earlier this year.

“In his book, Karl reported on a meeting of Trump's national security team shortly before Zelenskyy's visit to Washington in February where Trump stopped the meeting and asked then-national security adviser Michael Waltz to ‘get Steve Bannon’ on the phone,” ABC reports.

"Hey, Steve, I’ve got the boys here," Trump said. "I’m going to put you on speaker."

“Trump, keeping Bannon on speakerphone for half an hour, had the MAGA firebrand make his case to the national security team against the deal, and Zelenskyy, who he referred to as ‘that punk,’" according to ABC News.

“I f—— hate it," Bannon said, arguing that the deal "ties us to Ukraine."

"If that punk comes here, he’s going to want a security guarantee,” Bannon said of Zelenskyy to Trump and his top advisers. He told the group they "can’t trust Zelenskyy" or "any of the Europeans."

Karl claims in his book that the previously unreported conversation set the tone for Trump’s combative meeting in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy, which crumbled into a shouting match in front of reporters and international viewers.

“You’re not acting at all thankful,” Trump said to the Ukrainian leader, in contradiction of Zelenskyy thanking the U.S. profusely for weaponry and aid to defend itself against its Russian aggressor. Trump also accused Zelenskyy of “gambling with World War III,” despite Russia invading Ukraine in 2022.

Read the ABC News report at this link.

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'We have a massive problem': Steve Bannon gives two-word explanation for MAGA mass shooter

MAGA podcaster Steve Bannon — who was President Donald Trump's White House chief strategist during his first term — is now offering up a novel explanation for the perpetrator of a mass shooting at a Mormon church last weekend.

On Sunday, 40 year-old Thomas Sanford — a U.S. Marine Corps veteran — drove his pickup truck festooned with American flags into the Jesus Christ Church of Latter-Day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan and killed four people while injuring eight others. He also set fire to the church. Police killed Sanford roughly eight minutes into the attack.

Investigators say Sanford harbored hostile feelings toward the Mormons, and had previously been in a relationship with a Mormon woman. Sanford was an apparent Trump supporter, and was once photographed in a t-shirt that read "Trump 2020: Make Liberals Cry Again." He also had a Trump sign outside of his home. But despite all of the shooter's apparent affiliations with the MAGA movement, Bannon took efforts to distance the shooter from the pro-Trump community, and blamed the attack on "psychotic drugs" before quickly pivoting from the topic entirely.

“I think these shooters this weekend were also on these psycho, you know, the psychotic drugs,” Bannon said on his Monday podcast. “We’ve let the psychiatry industry basically poison the minds and the bodies with drugs. We have a massive problem that is the foundational element of the violence atop.”

The other shooting Bannon was referring to happened in Southport, North Carolina, where 40 year-old Marine veteran Nigel Max Edge — who served between 2003 and 2009 and was deployed twice to Iraq — allegedly killed three people and wounded five others. Edge was apprehended alive and has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder, five counts of attempted murder and five counts of assault with a deadly weapon. Authorities said the attack was "highly premeditated."

Before those two shootings, another mass shooting broke out at the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino in Eagle Pass, Texas in the early hours of Sunday morning. 34 year-old Keryan Jones allegedly killed two people and injured several others. One of those killed in the shooting was a retired U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent.

After the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk earlier this month, President Donald Trump chalked up his murder to "radical left political violence," though authorities have not yet publicly stated the alleged shooter's motive. Trump has not commented on the shootings in North Carolina or Texas, but in a Truth Social post this weekend, the president said the Michigan shooting was part of a "targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America."

Click here to read the Beast's full report (subscription required).

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'Patently false': Bannon says this Trump Cabinet member is either incompetent or 'lying'

Steve Bannon – who was President Donald Trump's chief White House strategist in his first term — is now taking the gloves off in his criticism of one of Trump's most devoted Cabinet members.

The Daily Beast reported Tuesday that Bannon used the most recent episode of his "War Room" podcast to go after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Bannon particularly took issue with Lutnick's failure to explain the Trump administration's new policy of making employers pay a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas (which are used by companies hiring foreign workers). Lutnick said the fee would be $100,000 per year, prompting White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to intervene and clarify that the $100,000 charge was a one-time fee, not an annual payment.

“These are not tiny details in the document,” Bannon said. “These are not in the footnotes. This is the deal. You’re supposed to be a deal guy. You’ve got to understand your own deal that you put before the president.”

Bannon has consistently maligned the H-1B visa program, arguing that its primarily used by tech companies to take jobs away from Americans and give them to workers brought in from overseas. Earlier this year he battled intensely with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk over the H-1B visa program, which Musk insisted was necessary for companies who wanted to hire the most capable employees.

While the "War Room" host said he supported Trump's effort to make H-1B visas more costly, he reiterated that if it were up to him, he would axe the program entirely. And he slammed Lutnick for his apparent lack of knowledge about the most important details of the policy, which he chalked up to either stupidity or dishonesty.

"The Secretary [of] Commerce sat up there and gave not just erroneous information, but patently false information,” Bannon said. “During the show, in a hot take, I can sit and go, ‘that makes no sense,’ because, if that’s true, then, hey, we kind of won—the whole program, just shut the program down."

“That’s the heart of the deal,” he continued. “When you make a deal... This is the basic architecture. These are the key points. Those are the key points. You didn’t even know them. Either didn’t understand it or patently lied about it. You pick.”

“Don’t take it from me. See it with your own lying eyes," he added. "So if that’s the Secretary of Commerce, what information is the President of the United States going to get?”

Click here to read the Beast's full article (subscription required).

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