Politico: Bannon ‘Intellectual Heart’ of Movement Who Would Rather Work Weekends than Party in Hamptons

Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon is the “intellectual heart and soul” of President Donald Trump’s nationalist-populist movement who was “laser-focused on [Trump’s] promises scrawled onto his office wall,” which Politico reported was in storage while the White House was undergoing renovations.

Politico notes that Bannon’s absence could “alienate conservatives” while heartening those who saw his white board of campaign promises as a caricature and hated his brand of “populism-nationalism.”

Though “shrouded in mystery and enigma,” Bannon, according to Politico, “was different than many others in Trump’s West Wing — often fighting for the hardline position and embracing culture wars, working throughout the weekends, reading ancient historic texts while deriding other aides as the type to spend time in Davos or Southampton and having little of a social life.”

While Bannon, as former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus noted, worked “24 hours a day” to fulfill Trump’s campaign promises, other aides reportedly enjoyed partying in the Hamptons. Politico is referring to its Playbook report that spotted White House aides like Dina Powell, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and Kellyanne Conway partying with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and anti-Trump financier George Soros in the Hamptons last month.

“He often reminded the president that his base was strong and that moderates and Democrats would never support him,” Politico noted of the former chief strategist, adding that Bannon was instrumental in helping Trump knit “together a new coalition to capture the presidency” by not taking the advice of the Beltway elite to court just 3.8% of the most elite voters, which always results in a GOP candidate losing.

According to the outlet, “Bannon’s twin obsessions seemed to be keeping campaign promises and, particularly in recent weeks, the rise of China,” but the White House’s globalists apparently “pulled Trump away” from confronting China on trade.

And now, the West Wing Democrats and globalists will get stronger because, as Politico noted, nationalists and those with “anti-globalization” bents have “been largely eviscerated” from the White House.

“Bannon is the intellectual heart and soul of the Trump movement,” Mark Corallo, “who served briefly as the spokesperson for Trump’s private legal team,” told the outlet. “He was the think tank. He’s the idea generator. … He was the guy who was the most thoughtful about how to enact the agenda, how to build a coalition.”