‘Accepting fate or defeat is not in his DNA’

This is the progression of Steve Bannon’s job titles over the past 18 months: Breitbart News chairman, Donald Trump campaign chief executive, White House chief strategist, Breitbart News chairman.

Bannon has had a stunning rise and fall from the political fringe to the West Wing to whatever is fringe-ier than the fringe. Less than a year ago, Time magazine put Bannon on its cover and wondered whether he might be the second most powerful man in the world. What’s next for Bannon? “I don’t think he’ll be quiet or silent for very long,” Kurt Bardella, a former Breitbart spokesman, said.

“Accepting fate or defeat is not in his DNA. Someone who entertains running for president doesn’t just retreat and shrink away into anonymity. He will try and reinvent himself. He will try and finish what he started.”

In a December Vanity Fair article Gabriel Sherman reported that a White House run “has at least been a passing thought” for Bannon. “In October,” Sherman wrote, “Bannon called an adviser and said he would consider running for president if Trump doesn’t run for re-election in 2020. Which Bannon has told people is a realistic possibility.

“In private conversations since leaving the White House, Bannon said Trump only has a 30 per cent chance of serving out his term, whether he’s impeached or removed by the Cabinet invoking the 25th amendment.”

Michael Wolff reported in Fire and Fury that former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes approached Bannon in April about teaming up to launch a new conservative television network that would feature the just-fired Bill O’Reilly. Bannon left the White House just four months later, but by then Ailes had died. Bannon could attempt to start a new venture without Ailes or perhaps go back to making documentaries. Those projects might require fundraising and Bannon has alienated the Mercer clan, which would have been a source of support.