Bannon Warns ‘Trump is a Moderate’ In the MAGA Movement And In The Future The Left Will ‘Pine’ to Have Him Back

Former Trump campaign manager and White House advisor Steve Bannon called the former president a “moderate” in the MAGA movement and argued that Democrats will someday “pine” to have him back as the far-right takes over.

In the final episode of Showtime’s The Circus, hosts John Heilemann and Tim Miller peppered Bannon with questions about what a second Trump term might actually look like.

Miller, a former spokesman for the RNC turned Never Trump, noted, “A MAGA lawyer likes to go on your podcast, Mike Davis, here’s what he suggested were the top priorities for Trump’s attorney general. One. Fire the Deep State Executive branch. Two. Indict the whole Biden family. Three. Deport 10 million people. Kids in cages, ‘that will be glorious.’ Four. Detain people at Gitmo. Five. Pardoned every January 6th defendant.

“What do you think about that?” Miller asked.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Bannon replied enthusiastically.

“All five?” Miller shot back.

“We are going to start the largest deportation program in history. All 10 million must leave,” Bannon added.

“You’re saying that it’s about people’s gut feelings, about people’s lived experiences. You think somebody’s struggling? You think somebody that’s struggling right now on the economy cares about firing random deep state people, indicting Joe Biden?” Miller hit back.

After some talking over each other, Bannon concluded, “Did I say that’s all we are going to do. That’s Mike Davis, he’s probably the attorney general.

Heilemann then ran through some of Trump’s controversial rhetoric of late:

He said that Mark really should be executed. He wants to pardon these January 6th insurrectionists who beat cops with flagpoles. And then he talks about we should have the shoplifters killed. Right? Is there not a pattern here that Trump’s rhetoric is demonstrably getting more violent?

“Any president that’s come from behind in ’16 and then try to have his administration thwarted from day one. Then win a massive win in 2020 and have it stolen from him,” Bannon replied.

“No one has ever been able to produce a shred of evidence that there was a stolen election 2020, an administration, a powerful man, a billionaire. There’s a lot of lawyers on his side who went out and adjudicated it in all kinds of venues at your urging and others, and lost in every single venue with Republican judges who were often appointed by him,” Heilemann pushed back.

“We’ll have plenty of time for that after we win in 2024. We will get to the bottom of how it was stolen. We will hold people responsible and criminal charges against those people who stole it,” Bannon responded.

“Okay, But as long as he is around. Yeah, everyone has to kiss the ring. Everyone has to espouse the fake election fraud, or else they are excommunicated,” added Miller.

“Not excommunicated. But you’re not part of this movement. This is kind of the inner workings of this civil war between the Republican establishment and MAGA and in there you have litmus test. And one of the litmus test,” Bannon replied.
“It’s Trump,” Heilemann interjected.

“Not just President Trump, but also particularly the stealing of the 2020 election. That is a fundamental tenet of this movement. By the way, they’ve made it all about Trump, okay? This movement is ascendant and it’s going to go on long after Donald Trump is even more powerful and broader. Even if a Democrat was to win. There’s no compromise here,” Bannon doubled down.

“What you’re saying is even if Trump lost to Biden, there’s no going back to the old Republican Party,” Heilemann clarified.

“No, we are far to the right of Trump,” Bannon replied, concluding:

President Trump is a moderate in our movement. You’re going to pine in future years that you wished Donald Trump was around.

Watch the full clip above.