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The ghost of Steve Bannon haunts the White House [1]
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Date: 2025-09-20
Steve Bannon may have been fired by Donald Trump as chief strategist early in his first term as president, but his ghost still haunts the White House as Halloween 2025 approaches. Trump’s policies, when seen from the perspective of a political scholar versed in government strategy and tactics as used by U.S. administrations over the past two centuries, may be seen as chaotic, ill informed, or working at cross purposes. But from the perspective of Steve Bannon they are perfectly coherent, unified, and strikingly effective. How can this be? Consider Bannon’s vision.
Steve Bannon is a self proclaimed disciple of Traditionalism with a capital T. That’s the philosophy of Traditionalism as espoused by French author René Guénon (1886-1951). Guenon’s perspective was later politicized by Julius Evola (1898-1974), a person who considered himself to the political right of fascists and Nazis. This is not of course my slinging of labels, but according to Bannon’s own proclamation. This is no secret, though, unless you are a devoted follower of Bannon, it is perhaps not common knowledge.
So, to put it tersely, Trump’s actions as President are still guided by Bannon’s strategy, which is informed by Traditionalist beliefs, which were applied to politics by Evola, who reviled the liberal values of the Enlightment, which shaped our Founding Fathers development of the Constitution.
Briefly, Bannon hates our liberal Constitutional democracy and agrees with the fascist vision of a “dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.” They believe that might makes right.
He believes, the way to get there is to destroy the current government of America and rebuild it to match his vision. This is exactly what Trump is in the process of doing, much more effectively this second time around. By appointing a cabinet of fools, suspects, and wackos abetted by the Dismantling DOGE, Trump is systematically destroying the entire federal system of government.
Trump’s target is the apolitical bureaucracy of experts, Bannon’s Deep State, that has made the U.S. the most productive and wealthy nation on earth. In addition, Bannon want to eliminate the tax system, regulations, and trade pacts. The bureaucracy looks out for air quality, water quality, health standards, weather forecasts, shipping safety, food safety, bank deposit safety, and air traffic safety. In the short term the wealthy owners of business benefit from less regulation everyone else loses.
Trump’s chaotic policies are perfect for achieving Bannon’s goals. Bannon sees Trump as a stick of dynamite with which to blow up the status quo in a world wide urban renewal project, to make room for what he sees as a “natural order” of rich over poor and powerful over weak. That is the order of superior autocrats such as Putin, Erdogan, and Xi. These folks view liberalism as "soul less" and “the birth place of mediocrity”. They view war and destruction as "natural" and to be embraced. Trump is their toady who idolizes them and craves entrance into their exclusive club of autocrats.
Now, why does Trump want to designate Antifa a terrorist organization, even though it is not an organization, but a political movement opposed to fascism and white supremacy? Simply because Donald J. Trump is a fascist and white supremacist. Don’t take it from me, take it from Webster. Why does he not like being called a fascist? Its not something to be proud of. It has a decidedly bad reputation. Look at the fascist legacy from World War Two. Millions of Americans fought against fascism in that war and many died. Democracy and liberalism prevailed and were celebrated. They are the banner of our armed forces.
Today, Trump is fulfilling Bannon’s dream of a fascist state by dismantling the U.S. government, destroying international alliances like NATO, and promoting what Bannon sees as “natural” conflict with greater nations dominating lesser neighbors such as Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Greenland.
The ghost of Steve Bannon still haunts the White House and lives in the dark corners of Donald J. Tump’s mind.
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