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1. BANNON IS A SIGNIFICANT FAR-RIGHT INFLUENCER
Steve Bannon is a far-right political provocateur, podcaster, and conspiracy theorist with considerable influence over right-wing audiences. Among his rallying cries: telling his audience that mainstream media and leaders hate them, and that the media is trying to “destroy” conservatives.
Bannon has expressed the view that the 2024 election results were a vindication of his anti-establishment, chaos-first ideology. In early 2025, he made the rounds at CPAC, where he encouraged attendees to not “retreat” from their agenda and to “fight, fight,” ending his speech with a salute that many saw as a Nazi gesture. (Bannon denied that characterization).
In recent years, Bannon has become a de facto spokesperson for the far-right in the United States. In 2020, he created a podcast, “War Room: Pandemic,” also known as “Bannon’s War Room,” which attracts millions of listeners daily and continues to gain traction on both fringe and mainstream social media platforms.
Bannon first gained public attention as the editor of the right-wing online publication Breitbart, a position he took over in 2012. As editor, Bannon expressed his enthusiasm for the alt right, a loose network of individuals and groups that promoted white identity and rejected mainstream conservatism in favor of politics that embrace implicit or explicit racism, antisemitism and white supremacy.
Bannon reportedly “proudly” told a Mother Jones reporter at the 2016 Republican National Convention “we’re the platform for the alt right,” referring to Breitbart News. In the same interview, Bannon denied that the alt right is inherently racist or antisemitic.
In August 2016, alt right personality Richard Spencer told the Daily Beast, “Breitbart has elective affinities with the alt-right and the alt-right has clearly influenced Breitbart. In this way, Breitbart has acted as a ‘gateway’ to alt-right ideas and writers.”
When President Trump named Bannon as his chief strategist in 2016, numerous well-known white supremacists celebrated the appointment, including David Duke Jared Taylor of American Renaissance and Peter Brimelow, founder of the racist site VDare, who called the hire “amazing.”
In August 2017, after Bannon was dismissed from his duties at the White House, he resumed his position as executive chairman at Breitbart News. He stepped down five months later after Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury” revealed his controversial statements about Trump family members.
When the “War Room” podcast began, Bannon initially promoted conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic, but after the November 2020 presidential election, he turned his focus to promoting conspiracy theories about election fraud. He has invited numerous figures on the right and far right on his show and has encouraged listeners to take over election boards and school boards in their communities.
In December 2021, The Daily Beast reported that Bannon said that he and his associates “would take over the entire ‘election apparatus’ in the United States,” adding, “We are going to get it decertified,” referring to the 2020 presidential election. On his podcast, Bannon consistently criticizes the mainstream media and has suggested the Biden administration was illegitimate and run by radicals.
Due to his promotion of disinformation and threats of violence, Bannon has been banned on certain social media platforms. In November 2020, he called for the beheading of Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Christopher Wray, former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; these statements led to the suspension of Bannon’s War Room account on YouTube, X and Spotify, although a new “War Room” X account was created in July 2024.
2. BANNON CHAMPIONS NATIONALISTS IN THE U.S., EUROPE AND ELSEWHERE
Bannon has backed numerous far-right political candidates and parties in the U.S. and Europe. In 2017, he supported Roy Moore, a controversial Republican candidate who ran for the U.S. Senate in Alabama. Moore is known for putting a monument to the Ten Commandments in the state judicial building in Montgomery and for allegedly sexually assaulting a number of women and girls.
Throughout 2018, Bannon met with far-right European leaders from Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France and Serbia. He told the New York Times in March 2018 that he wanted “to build a vast network of European populists to demolish the Continent’s political establishment.” Most of the leaders and parties he embraced have taken an anti-immigrant, anti-globalism stance.
That same month, Bannon spoke at a meeting of the far-right National Front in France, where he told attendees, “Let them call you racists. Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists. Wear it as a badge of honor.” Bannon has also called Viktor Orban, the authoritarian leader of Hungary, a “hero,” despite Orban’s attack on democratic institutions in his country.
In 2018, along with British politician Nigel Farage’s former aide, Raheem Kassam, Bannon attempted to form a Brussels-based organization called “The Movement” to undermine the European Union. Bannon told the Daily Beast in August 2018, “Right-wing populist nationalism is what will happen. That’s what will govern.” One of the first leaders to join The Movement was Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s anti-immigrant party, The League. Bannon, in conjunction with a conservative Catholic think tank called the Human Dignity Institute, also attempted to buy a medieval monastery in Italy that would have served as an academy for training far-right leaders, but the Italian government did not allow the purchase to take place.
Bannon’s efforts to build a far-right network in Europe fell apart in 2019, after he was unable to drum up support from right-wing leaders and a number of far-right candidates lost in European elections.
Bannon has also repeatedly expressed support for Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right, populist former leader of Brazil. In 2023, after thousands of Bolsonaro supporters in Brazil stormed government buildings to retaliate against his election loss, Bannon publicly referred to the protesters as “Brazilian freedom fighters” and suggested the election results may have been fraudulent.
In February 2025, Bannon invited European parliament member and vocal Alternative for Germany (AfD) supporter Christine Anderson to his live broadcast from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), during which Bannon called AfD “the MAGA of Germany” and cheered, “Let’s hear it for AfD!” AfD is an extremist, anti-immigrant political party with a history of espousing antisemitic, anti-Muslim and anti-democratic rhetoric.
3. BANNON’S “WAR ROOM” PODCAST IS A VEHICLE FOR FAR-RIGHT CONSPIRACY THEORIES
Years after its initial launch, Bannon’s “War Room” Podcast continues to gain traction as a go-to media source for conspiracy theorists. As of early 2025, social media accounts for the podcast have amassed over 180K followers on Instagram, 176.7K followers on X (formerly Twitter) and one million followers on Rumble. In 2023, the “War Room” topped a Brookings Institute list of political podcasts most responsible for spreading false and misleading information.
Guests on Bannon’s show have ranged from mainstream political figures to conspiracy theorists, many of whom promote false or misleading claims related to the government, the media, health and more. This includes election deniers like Mike Lindell, QAnon-adjacent influencers like Jim Caviezel, promoters of anti-vaccine narratives like Robert Malone and far-right conspiratorial commentator Alex Jones, whom Bannon has widely praised.
Using his popular “War Room” platform, Bannon and his guests have helped promote false, conspiratorial and hateful rhetoric to the masses. Several episodes have boosted false narratives about COVID and vaccine safety. Following the presidential election in November 2020, the podcast promoted various conspiratorial claims suggesting that President Biden’s win was the result of widespread election fraud.
Other topics of choice on “War Room” include anti-immigration and mass deportation narratives, misleading claims about mass shootings and threats of retribution against so-called enemies like the “Deep State gestapo.”
4. BANNON WAS INVOLVED IN PROMOTING ELECTION DENIAL NARRATIVES THAT LED TO JANUARY 6
Bannon became a prominent voice and advocate for the “Stop the Steal” movement during the 2020 presidential election, attempting to prove that Donald Trump was the rightful winner. Bannon refers to his push to declare the 2020 election illegal as the “Three November Movement.”
Days before the results were called, Bannon called into question the validity of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania. Even after the official announcement that Joe Biden won the election, Bannon doubled down on the denial, declaring Trump the victor multiple times on his “War Room” podcast.
In an episode from January 5, 2021, Bannon spoke about the upcoming “Stop the Steal” protests in DC on January 6, stating, “It’s not going to happen like you think it’s going to happen” and claiming it would be “extraordinarily different.” On January 6, Bannon fanned the flames of the conspiracy theories on his podcast just hours prior to the Capitol attack itself.
In the months and years that followed, Bannon would go on to repeatedly spread false claims about the election and the January 6 attack, defending extremist participants like the Proud Boys.
Since President Trump took office in January 2025, Bannon has celebrated the pardons of January 6 participants and continues to parrot unfounded election fraud claims. During his CPAC speech in February 2025, he stated the J6 choir would play at the Kennedy Center — a claim the venue has denied — and referred to the January 6 attack as “a fedsurrection, totally set up by the FBI, by the Justice Department…all of em. And we’re gonna show the receipts.’”
5. SINCE 2020, BANNON HAS BEEN CHARGED AND JAILED ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS
In August 2020, federal prosecutors charged Bannon with defrauding donors in a scheme to privately raise money for building a wall along the Southern U.S. border, a project that President Trump promoted. Authorities said that Bannon and others involved in the scheme spent the money on personal expenses, including travel, hotel bills and credit card debt. In January 2021, before leaving office, President Trump pardoned Bannon and the charges against him were dropped. However, in August 2022, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office brought its own charges against Bannon of “money laundering, conspiracy and a scheme to defraud” donors who contributed to building the wall. In February 2025, Bannon pleaded guilty to the charges, which allowed him to avoid a trial and possible jail time.
In September 2021, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection subpoenaed Bannon to answer questions about the role he may have played in the events of that day. Bannon refused to appear, citing Trump’s “executive privilege.” In October 2021, Bannon was charged with two counts of contempt of Congress. Bannon pleaded not guilty. The Department of Justice brought charges against Bannon and in November, a grand jury indicted him.
In July of 2022, Bannon was found guilty of the charges, and in October 2022 was officially sentenced to four months in prison. He served his sentence in 2024 and was released just days before the 2024 presidential election, after which he continued to promote election conspiracy theories.