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Steve Bannon took a victory lap of sorts this weekend as he categorically declared his strategy to “flood the zone” has led to a media “meltdown” as President Donald Trump has begun his second term governing at a frenetic, dizzying speed.
Bannon, a former Trump aide and campaign manager, spoke to Semafor’s Ben Smith about Trump’s media strategy, which he famously labeled as to “flood the zone” with “muzzle velocity” and unequivocally claimed it was working.
“Of course. It’s worked. The media is a complete total meltdown,” Bannon told Smith. Smith and Bannon spoke about the recent confirmation hearings and how Trump worked to change the topic in the media as Robert F Kennedy, Jr. stumbled in front of the Senate. Smith wrote:
Take last Wednesday. For a moment, it seemed like a couple of key confirmation hearings were going badly. Health secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in particular, had no real explanation for some of his past utterances.Trump “watches the first hour and he’s seeing it and they’re taking
some incoming. So what does he do? He gives the press conference,” Bannon reflected. “He threw out something and everybody took the bait. He’s doing the hands thing, the elevation [of the helicopter]. He keeps doing the DEI thing and then he does the elevation,” he said, referring to Trump’s cheerfully unfounded speculation on the causes of the crash.
“You guys keep saying. ‘He’s not going to do this to us, we did it last time, this is how he wins,’” Bannon said, adding:
Then he goes all Mort Sahl on you, and he triggered you guys and they never went back to the hearings,” Bannon gloated. “God, he’s such a brilliant strategist.
“Let me give you a perfect example,” Bannon added, citing Kash Patel’s hearing as well:
This is how great it is. On Friday, President Trump, right after [FBI director nominee] Kash [Patel]’s confirmation hearing. … What does he do? He sends these guys over to the FBI to clear out the FBI and clear out the Justice Department, fire half the guys before [Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi] are even voted on.On Sunday we’re sitting here — because we monitor MSNBC and all the time on Sunday — and it’s not in the top half. It’s in the C block of the MSNBC stuff and they’re all meltdown Friday night and Saturday. He’s doing so much other stuff that time he’s flooded the zone.I haven
’t seen any fight at all, and the confirmation hearing’s where I was stunned. Rubio rolls out the end of the post-war international rules-based order. There’s no response to Democrats. There’s some establishment Republicans pushing back. Pete [Hegseth], for all his personal foibles, he lays out a revolution of military affairs, including where the budget is going to go. … The Democrats are all talking about his personal weakness. [Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent lays out … a new economic model, including the External Revenue Service, where the cuts are going to come from, how Trump looks at the government. No intellectual pushback, no ideas pushback. It’s almost like surrender.
Bannon regularly cites MSNBC segments on his War Room podcast and has long praised the network for its production value, while shredding its content and scoring points off its hosts.
“Everything is media. Media is the message, and Trump understands that. That’s why the Cabinet is all TV guys. What’s on MSNBC right now is more real than what’s happening in real life, in the analog world. He knows that,” Bannon concluded.
Many pundits and observers have long pointed to Trump’s use of distractions to keep the media’s focus where he wants it. Trump’s recent rhetoric around the U.S. somehow taking control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, as well as Canada becoming a state, have led to suggestions he’s simply trying to divide attention as he implements his