Chief strategist compares himself to Satan
WASHINGTON: Steve Bannon rises to immense political power by orchestrating Donald Trump’s stunning White House victory, an accomplishment he suggested on Friday, puts him in the company of United States ex-vice president Dick Cheney, Darth Vader and even the devil himself.
“Darkness is good,” said Bannon, who was named chief strategist for the incoming administration last Sunday after he turned the Trump’s campaign into ballot box gold.
“Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power.”
The 62-year-old leader of Breitbart News website, which has been described as a haven for the “alt-right” anti-mainstream movement, ignited controversy due to his alleged alignment with white supremacists, white nationalists and anti-Semites.
The alt-right movement enthusiastically backed Trump in the presidential race, with figures like former Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard David Duke expressing support.
Bannon insisted that he was not racist, but a nationalist compelled to return America’s working class to prominence in a rapidly changing and modernising world.
“I’m not a white nationalist, I’m a nationalist. I’m an economic nationalist,” Bannon said.
“The globalists gutted the American working class and created a middle class in Asia.”
While Breitbart News draws readers fed up with multiculturalism, immigration policies and political correctness of the left, Bannon proclaimed his anti-establishment bent was jobs-driven.
“Like (19th century president Andrew) Jackson’s populism, we’re going to build an entirely new political movement,” he said.
“It’s everything related to jobs,” he added.
“I’m the guy pushing a trilliondollar infrastructure plan to rebuild US roads, ship yards, and steel mills. It will be as exciting as the 1930s, greater than the (president Ronald) Reagan revolution — conservatives, plus populists, in an economic nationalist movement.”
Bannon had a blue-collar upbringing, but became part of the very establishment he rails against.
He began his career as a Goldman Sachs banker, then became a Holywood producer before taking over Breitbart.
Bannon is on leave from Breitbart while working for Trump. AFP