Steve Bannon on Trump's First 100 Days
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What are the key changes in Trump's first 100 days?
How do President Trump's first 100 days look to Steve Bannon? He's an early backer of the president who served in his first White House and remains influential. We'll listen for clues to where Trump's movement may be going in a special episode of Up First from NPR News. Steve Bannon promoted Trump's cause in the 2016 campaign when his Breitbart website pushed out stories about Trump and immigration and the left. In 2020, he supported Trump's bid to overturn his election defeat. We talked with Bannon as the president finished the first hundred days of his second term. Settle in for Up First from NPR News.
How does Steve Bannon assess Trump's influence?
Steve Bannon did not go into the second Trump administration the way that he did for the first. His position of influence today is instead a daily webcast that is also a podcast.
OK, it's Monday, 28 April, Year of Alert 2025.
He puts out hours of programming that people follow when trying to understand a wide swath of Trump supporters.
Bannon has understood the MAGA voter better than basically anybody on the right.
Tim Miller is a former Republican strategist and writer.
The language that he uses, the policy positions that he takes are kind of a window into where the Republican Party is going.
We visited Bannon at the studio where he broadcasts, the basement of a Washington, D.C. townhouse. It's filled with books and newspapers. When we last visited just before the inauguration, he was broadcasting in front of a mantle covered with Christian icons and slogans. When we came by 100 days later, the mantle had a few additions, signs reading, God will not be mocked and we can do hard things.
We've got to start making things again. The high value added part of manufacturing has to come back. Something that a man or a woman can have a job and have a family and have their spouse stay home if they so want and raise their kids. Once we're back to that, the country is going to be vibrant and robust again.
What economic vision does Bannon advocate for?
Bannon describes a return to an older economy, which is connected with a more traditional idea of the family. He sees that distant goal amid the trade war, the firing of government employees, and a drive to deport as many people as possible, all of which he discussed in a characteristically expansive conversation about the first hundred days.
It's a revolution about America's role in the world. our position geopolitically, the global commercial relationships, plus the administrative state and how the countries govern. He's so much farther down the path and so much more aggressive than I think anybody would ever thought.
Certainly a lot of attention, but help me understand how much has really changed. I've heard you talk about government spending. Doge has gotten a lot of attention. Elon Musk has a lot of attention. Analysts have said the actual savings are not that great. It might end up costing the government something.
First off, I do think – and I've had tremendous disagreements with Elon Musk. I do believe you had to have a trauma-inducing force like Doge to kind of rattle the administrative state. I think they really served a purpose. Now, to the degree that they find actual trillion dollars, which I was always skeptical about, in waste and fraud, but there will be something. I've actually called for an audit of that. Number two, there also has to be a certification that no data or data sets of American citizens have gone anywhere except to the Trump administration and or the U.S. government. You have doubts? Trust but verify.
When you listen to Steve Bannon, you hear some of the debates within Trump's coalition. Bannon is focused on government debt. He wants to reduce spending, even military spending, which Republicans traditionally support. He says he personally would raise taxes on the wealthy. And he's hoping that Trump's trade war eventually restores those high-paying jobs for the working class.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the key changes in Trump's first 100 days?
0:13–0:54
2
How does Steve Bannon assess Trump's influence?
0:54–2:17
3
What economic vision does Bannon advocate for?
2:17–5:09
4
How are tariffs affecting U.S.-China relations?
5:09
5
What are the implications of government spending cuts?
4:07–7:50
6
How does Bannon view judicial resistance to Trump's policies?
7:50–9:44
7
What are the concerns about presidential emergency powers?
9:44
8
What does Bannon say about deportations and immigration?
8:04–19:25
Speakers
6 identifiedMore from Up First from NPR
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