Steve Bannon Reportedly Compared Congress Under Trump to the Russian Duma Under Putin
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Former Trump White House chief strategist and influential far-right commentator Steve Bannon reportedly compared Congress’s role in the second Trump administration to that of the Russian Duma under dictator Vladmir Putin.
In an expansive report for The Wall Street Journal, Josh Dawsey reported that President Donald Trump’s recent actions — including his Department of Justice’s prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey — “reflect a buoyed commander in chief who feels emboldened to go further after feeling as though he has faced surprisingly little resistance to his ambitious agenda in the first nine months.”
From Dawsey’s story:
Inside the White House, top advisers joke that they are ruling Congress with an “iron fist,” according to people who have heard the comments. Steve Bannon, the influential Trump ally, likened Congress to the Duma, the Russian assembly that is largely ceremonial. When senior White House aide Stephen Miller recently held a party at the exclusive Ned’s Club to celebrate his 40th birthday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) showed up to honor Miller, the people said.
Bannon, who worked in the first Trump administration, attributed some of the faded resistance to Trump’s comeback after four years “in the wilderness,” a period that he said hardened Trump. “He’s doing things now he wouldn’t have ever considered the first time,” Bannon said. “He’s jackhammering away on levels you haven’t seen before.”
For his part, the president observed this summer that “Everyone’s on my side now,” has “expressed amazement” at the speed with which law firms have been cowed by his administration’s threats and private firms have set aside funds for his pet projects, including a White House ballroom.
Former GOP operative and NBC commentator Brendan Buck told the Journal that Congress’s surrender to him over already-appropriated funds “tells you a lot about what people think their likelihood is of being successful in fighting back.”
