Steve Bannon issues warning to Donald Trump’s enemies—”We want you to fear”

Steve Bannon issues warning to Donald Trump’s enemies—”We want you to fear”

May 23, 2024 / Kevin harson /


Steve Bannon said Donald Trump’s critics should “fear” an incoming Trump presidency if he is elected in November.

Speaking on his War Room podcast, the former Trump aide responded to a discussion on MSNBC between host Mika Brzezinski, John Prideaux, U.S. editor at The Economist, and various other panellists. The group were discussing previous remarks by the former president about “being a dictator on day one” and whether the American state is “dictator-proof.”

Responding to the discussion, Bannon said: “We mock your fear, we want you to fear. There’s going to be accountability [when Trump becomes president]. We are taking apart the administrative state. We’re going to destroy the deep state and we’re going to hold everybody responsible that put this republic in the situation it’s in today.”

Deep state refers to a supposed clandestine network of high-ranking people in government departments who are involved in the secret manipulation or control of federal policy, and is a term frequently used by far-right conspiracy theorists. Trump has promised numerous times to “destroy the deep state” at his campaign rallies, and the phrase “drain the swamp,” which broadly refers to reducing the influence of the federal government and lobbyists, was a key campaigning slogan during the 2020 and 2016 presidential races.

Steve Bannon speaks to reporters on October 21, 2022, in Washington, D.C. Bannon was chief strategist to the Trump administration between 2016 and 2017.

GETTY

“Accountability. Responsibility. And that will come with authority,” Bannon continued. “The authority of Donald John Trump as the 47th president of the United States. Full stop. It’s happening and it’s going to happen. It’s organizing, it’s self organizing at every level because people are disgusted.”

“They’re repulsed by what you stand for,” he continued. “They’re repulsed by what you try to do this country. Disgusted. Revulsion. And you’re gonna have to deal with it.”

He also referred to Trump as the “American Caesar,” in reference to the Roman general and statesman Julius Caesar, who was killed by a group of senators led by fellow statesman Brutus.

Newsweek contacted Trump via the contact form on his website for comment outside of normal working hours.

“Caesar, the end of America,” he continued. “They are teeing up understanding their defenses are crashing around them. The lawfare is crashing,” he said, referring to the mainstream media.

“They’re putting it out into the public the danger of Trump, and the danger of the Trump movement,” he said, likening his listeners to the “brownshirts,” which refers to members of the early Nazi paramilitary organization the Sturmabteilung, which played a significant role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power prior to World War II.