Steve Bannon, who left his position running alt-right news source Breitbart News to run the Donald Trump campaign in the weeks just before the election, has now been awarded by Trump with a key position within the Trump administration. In an attempt to let mainstream America know where he’s coming from, Bannon recently said some bizarre and controversial things in an interview with Michael Wolff from the Hollywood Reporter, and people who aren’t concerned already that such an extreme and dangerous man has the ear of the leader of the free world probably should be.
Bannon told Wolff that “darkness is good,” and that Dick Cheney, Darth Vader and Satan all serve as examples of this. If that’s not strange and ominous enough, he also indicated that it was good when “they” – apparently meaning anyone who didn’t vote for Trump – are scared of Bannon and his alt-right agenda.
Bannon explained that he loves being hated by the left, indicating that Trump has no real plans to bring together a nation divided by the election but rather drive the wedge even further between Americans on the right and left. To Wolff, Bannon spoke of attracting “conservatives and populists” to the Trump movement, but he showed only zeal at the prospect of alienating anyone not along those lines politically.
Furthermore, Bannon expressed his wish to create a populist movement along the lines of the one led by president Andrew Jackson in the 1800s. It’s frightening that Bannon held up Jackson – who was responsible for the death of thousands of native Americans when he forced them to leave their rightful homelands for the “Trail of Tears” to the west – as a role model.
Bannon added that he’s not a white nationalist but merely a nationalist. This isn’t especially comforting to the many minorities, disadvantaged people and ordinary citizen who are worried that such a strange and hateful man is now in a position of enormous power in the White House rather than in his former position of running a crackpot alternative news company in cyberspace. Hopefully, Bannon’s presence alongside Trump will motivate decent Americans to vote Trump out office next election. In the meantime, it looks like the country will not be a friendly place towards the many people Bannon disagrees with politcally.