Tag: Steve Bannon

How a ‘shadow’ universe of charities joined with political warriors to fuel Trump’s rise

The following article by Robert O’Harrow, Jr. and Shawn Boburg was posted on the Washington Post website June 3, 2017:

The crowd rose to its feet and roared its approval as Sen. Jeff Sessions bounded onto the stage at the Breakers, an exclusive resort in Palm Beach, Fla. Stephen Miller, an aide to the Alabama Republican, handed him a glass trophy honoring his bravery as a lawmaker.

“Heyyyy!” Sessions yelled out to the crowd. Continue reading “How a ‘shadow’ universe of charities joined with political warriors to fuel Trump’s rise”

USA Today Report Raises New Questions About Stephen Bannon And The “Breitbart Embassy”

The following article by Pam Vogel was posted on the National Memo website March 26, 2017:

PHOTO: AP Photo

White House senior adviser Stephen Bannon’s housing and financial arrangements are unusually complicated. Many reporters have attempted to tackle the intricate and conflicting network of connections between Bannon, the extreme-right Breitbart.com site that he used to run, far-right billionaires, a tangle of small companies and financial holdings, and President Donald Trump. USA Today’s new report on the Washington, D.C., town house near Capitol Hill known as the “Breitbart Embassy” hints at another set of potential conflicts of interest for the senior White House official.

The “Breitbart Embassy” has been a D.C. staple since Breitbart (then a fringe conservative site) began operating out of the residential property in 2011. As early as 2013, the town house was described as then-Breitbart chief Stephen Bannon’s house — though it’s actually owned by an Egyptian businessman and politician named Moustafa El-Gindy. Until recently, there have been conflicting reports on the nature of any official relationships between Breitbart or Bannon and the actual owner of the property, including the nature of any financial or leasing agreements among the different parties. Continue reading “USA Today Report Raises New Questions About Stephen Bannon And The “Breitbart Embassy””

Bannon And Trump Have Quietly Installed An Alt-National Security Council Operating Inside The White House

The following article by Jefferson Morley was posted on the National Memo website March 15, 2017:

Less than a month after much-admired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster took over from Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser, Trump’s alter-ego Steve Bannon appears to be more in control of U.S. foreign policy than ever.

There is little sign McMaster will be able to restore traditional U.S. foreign policy commitments to NATO and the European Union, and every indication that Bannon’s shadowy Strategic Initiatives Group, denounced by two national security experts as “dangerous hypocrisy,” is driving U.S. policy. Continue reading “Bannon And Trump Have Quietly Installed An Alt-National Security Council Operating Inside The White House”

Some of Steve Bannon’s Biggest Intellectual Influences Are Fascists and White Supremacists

The following article by Ben Norton was posted on the AlterNet website March 8, 2017:

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmor

Steve Bannon just can’t help himself. The president’s chief strategist, and former executive chair of Breitbart News, has repeatedly cited fascists and white supremacists without compunction or even discretion.

A recent investigation by the Huffington Post exposed how Bannon’s fondness for The Camp of the Saints, an obscure French novel that portrays a race war between the “civilized” white West and the evil brown hordes of the so-called East. The Huffington Post highlighted several interviews in 2015 and 2016 in which Bannon compared global politics and the refugee crisis to the plot of the book, which has been likened to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Continue reading “Some of Steve Bannon’s Biggest Intellectual Influences Are Fascists and White Supremacists”

Trump and Republicans see a ‘deep state’ foe: Barack Obama

The following article by David Weigel was posted on the Washington Post website March 7, 2017:

President Trump’s weekend allegations of a “Nixon/Watergate” plot to wiretap his 2016 campaign confused intelligence analysts, befuddled members of Congress and created fresh work for fact-checkers. Within 24 hours of his allegations, made on Twitter, the administration conceded that the president was basing his claim not on closely held information, but on a Breitbart News story quoting the conservative radio host and author Mark Levin.

But in conservative media, where the claim originated, Trump has gotten credit for cracking open a plot by a “deep state” of critics and conspirators to bring down his presidency. And the perpetrator is former president Barack Obama. Continue reading “Trump and Republicans see a ‘deep state’ foe: Barack Obama”

The Real Deep State

The following article by Ishaan Tharoor was sen in the March 7, 2017, Washington Post Today’s Worldview e-newsletter:

Key figures in the White House see themselves locked in a battle with the “deep state” — a term they’re using, as my colleagues explained, to describe “a group of Obama-aligned critics, federal bureaucrats and intelligence figures” as well as the media. Stephen K. Bannon, the White House chief strategist who once ran far-right publication Breitbart, has reportedly spoken “at length” with President Trump about his view that the “deep state” is undermining Trump’s presidency.

The consequences of such paranoia can be seen in Trump’s Twitter outburst over the weekend. He accused his predecessor of tapping his phones (without offering any evidence) and framed his administration as the victim of “witch hunts” and “McCarthyism.” On Monday, reports emerged that FBI Director James B. Comey was “incredulous” over Trump’s allegations. Continue reading “The Real Deep State”

Al-Qaeda likes Steve Bannon so much, they put him on the cover of their official newspaper

The following article by Amanda Erickson was posted on the Washington Post website March 3, 2017:

Al Masra

The way al-Qaeda tells it, the West is locked in an existential war with Islam. This is how the terrorist group justifies its violence and its fundamentalist ideology. And now it has found a Westerner to back them up — top Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

Bannon graced the cover (above the fold!) of the most recent al-Qaeda-linked Al Masra newspaper. That prominence, University of Oxford researcher Elisabeth Kendall told Quartz, is “striking.” Continue reading “Al-Qaeda likes Steve Bannon so much, they put him on the cover of their official newspaper”

Trump’s $5 Trillion Attack On America’s Values And Reputation

The following article by @LOL was posted on the National Memo website February 27, 2017:

Donald Trump wants you terrified.

If you’re Muslim, he wants you to expect to be harassed every time you take a plane, even if you’re Muhammad Ali’s son. If you have family or friends who are documented, he wants you to think they can be snatched away at any time, even when seeking protection from a potential abuser. If you’re a legal immigrant, he wants you to know that if you’re shot and killed in cold blood, the president will not even bother to mourn you with a tweet.

This week, Adam Purinton reportedly shot Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani at a bar in Olathe, Kansas. Kuchibhotla died. Continue reading “Trump’s $5 Trillion Attack On America’s Values And Reputation”

CPAC Is Trying To Wash The “Alt-Right” Stench Off Breitbart

The following article by Matt Gertz was posted on the Media Matters website February 23, 2017:

The term “alt-right” is toxic. It should be. The loose confederation of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and misogynists have spent the last year spreading fear, hatred, and conspiracy theories.

The problem for conservatives is that the movement is directly connected to the major right-wing news outlet Breitbart.com; its former executive chairman, Stephen Bannon; and Bannon’s new boss, President Donald Trump. Continue reading “CPAC Is Trying To Wash The “Alt-Right” Stench Off Breitbart”

Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos resigns following outrage over his past comments about pedophilia

The following article by Paul Farhl was posted on the Washington Post website February 21, 2017:

Milo Yiannopoulos, the incendiary writer and commentator who helped make Breitbart News a leading organ of the “alt-right,” resigned from the news organization Tuesday after a video of him endorsing pedophilia resurfaced online over the weekend.

Yiannopoulos — known simply as MILO in Breitbart’s own coverage of him — has been a flame-throwing provocateur whose writing has offended women, Muslims, blacks and gay people ever since former Breitbart executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon hired him as a senior editor in 2014. Continue reading “Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos resigns following outrage over his past comments about pedophilia”