There is a good argument to be made that the Alt Right movement spearheaded by the likes of Steve Bannon, Richard Spencer, Milo Yiannopolous, and the polemicists at Breitbart was a reaction to the rise of identity politics on the left. Much has been written about this, and the ...read more
Former White House chief strategist and former Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon has made a deal to speak with special counsel Robert Mueller regarding Russia's interference into the 2016 election. What this means is anyone's guess, but given the very public falling out between Bannon ...read more
A very smart writer friend of mine suggested that I use my skills in dramaturgy to analyze the Trump presidency as an unfolding dramatic story. He argued that a weekly column analyzing events – “The Week in Trump-a-turgy,” perhaps – could make sense, from a writerly perspective, ...read more
Steve Bannon is officially out at Breitbart.com, the internet haven for the insidious Alt Right movement that swept Donald Trump to power in 2016. Reported the New York Times: Stephen K. Bannon is stepping down from his post as executive chairman of Breitbart News, the company ...read more
UPDATE: Given the importance of the story, we're running a 30 day trial on a Banter Membership so you can read "The Alt Right is Now a Movement Without a Cause" for free. Steve Bannon has been the major force behind the Alt Right movement for many years, and like his protege ...read more
One of the greatest pleasures anyone opposed to white nationalism can enjoy right now is the comments section on Breitbart.com. The racist cesspool of white resentment is in a state of deep shock and disarray after Donald Trump went to war with Steve Bannon after the shocking ...read more
Today's bombshell report that Steve Bannon believes Donald Trump Jr. is guilty of collusion with the Russian government was understandably plastered over every news site on the internet. Hell, even Breitbart.com featured it prominently on the front page (albeit not as headline). ...read more
It's difficult to know where to begin. Donald Trump continues to rapidly descend into the depths of mental incapacity, proving in the first three days of 2018 that he's even more unfit for the office than we previously observed. During his holiday break at Mar-a-lago, Trump ...read more
After learning of Steve Bannon's hostile (yet accurate) comments about both the infamous Trump Tower meeting and the ridiculous palace intrigue of the Trump White House, Donald Trump did was he always does: Threw a public temper tantrum and attacked Bannon. In a blistering ...read more
Steve Bannon is not only waging war on the GOP establishment, it appears he has now turned his attention onto his political protege, Donald Trump. In a truly astonishing series of excerpts from an upcoming book by Michael Wolff, the Guardian has revealed that Bannon believes the ...read more
The entire political universe is (justifiably) hyperventilating over former White House Chief Strategist and current white nationalist Steve Bannon throwing Donald Trump under the bus: Steve Bannon said the meeting Donald Trump Jr. took with a Russian government lawyer in June ...read more
After pedophile Roy Moore's crushing loss in the Alabama Senate race to Doug Jones last night, it turns out that Alt-Right guru Steve Bannon is not the evil genius many believe him to be. He's just plain evil -- and also a giant loser. Bannon spent an inordinate amount of ...read more
The Banter Long Read: Today's elite are little more than a cancer, rewriting our society's genetic code, changing us into something ugly and nonviable. And just like a cancer, they don't understand that when the body dies, they go with it.... To continue reading this article, ...read more
One of the many satisfying aspects of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's juggernaut-like investigation is knowing that Donald Trump is mostly powerless to thwart it, while also knowing that it's eating him alive being the ultimate target of the counsel's historic efforts. It's ...read more
One of the things that drives me nuts about the Left is that, more often than not, we allow GOP operatives to run roughshod over us with their stupid, unsourced arguments and talking points. Back in January, Chuck Todd (not a liberal but a good example of the phenomena) got ...read more
Erica Werner from the Associated Press tweeted out this remarkable peek inside the Republican Party two days ago. Do not expect the Beltway Media to pay attention to it: Translation: The Nazis are marching into Paris and I'm going to be first in line to greet our liberators ...read more
As we contemplate what has become of our political scene in 2017, with a President who used to be a reality TV host, dubious billionaires seeking to dip their toe in the water, and a superPAC supporting a 2020 candidacy from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, we can all breathe a ...read more
Over the weekend, Alabama Senate Candidate Roy Moore received a Twitter bounty many can only dream of - he nearly doubled his number of followers. 20,000 more people than before hit the "follow" button to read the thoughts of a man who lost his first judgeship in 2003 when he ...read more
The Banter Long Read: For the past eight years, a civil war has been waged for control of the Republican Party. It has been "The establishment" versus "The extremist fringe of white nationalism", and the fringe has been winning over and over and over again... (UPDATE: We have ...read more
Watching the media fawn over Steve Bannon has convinced me that they've learned absolutely nothing from 2016. For the past several weeks, you can practically hear the sound of newsrooms collectively wetting themselves in joy that Bannon, the white nationalist, is trying to wage ...read more
By now, you've probably heard Eminem's ruthless takedown of Donald Trump in a remarkably powerful hip hop video released before BET's Hip Hop awards. In it, the Detroit based rapper slammed Trump for his anti-immigrant rhetoric, blasted him for his ties to racists, and drew a ...read more
In a sane society, Thursday's damning report from Buzzfeed would be the end of Steve Bannon as a face on cable news and in the mainstream press. The report, ironically relying on a large number of leaked emails, details how Steve Bannon, at the behest of the billionaire Mercer ...read more
In his first major interview since departing Trump administration, former White House chief strategist and current Breitbart editor Steve Bannon discussed a number of highly revealing issues on "60 Minutes" with Charlie Rose. There's much to dig into, but one particular ...read more
It's been almost eight months since Trump was sworn in yet he and his staff still haven't seemed to have learned an important lesson about American politics: The executive branch cannot treat Congress like the hired help because they do not work for Trump and his administration. ...read more
Well that didn't take long. Fresh from his embarrassing removal from Trump's reality show of a presidential administration, Steve Bannon is back doing what he does best: defending the indefensible and promoting intellectual white nationalism. In an excerpt of a “60 Minutes” ...read more
Now that Steve Bannon is leaving the White House, the Alt-Right guru will be free to use his Machiavellian talents for his own purposes. Hamstrung by those opposed to fascism and white supremacy in the White House, Bannon has largely spent the past 6 months battling "globalists" ...read more
Widely regarded as the brains behind Donald Trump's meteoric rise to the presidency, Alt-Right guru Steve Bannon was once untouchable in the president's inner circle. No more, as senior aides to the president have revealed the former Breitbart editor and filmmaker is getting his ...read more
To all you Alt-Right males out there, I hear you. I understand -- to a degree -- where you are coming from. You believe in freedom of speech, you are sick of PC culture that you feel suppresses your right to be an asshole. I can be an asshole too, and I understand that activist ...read more
After a white supremacist plowed his car into a crowd of anti-fascist protestors, one would think that responsible media outlets would cover the story quite extensively. Not so if you're Breitbart.com -- the internet's thinly disguised home to America's White Power community. ...read more
One of the reasons people hate politics is that truth is rarely a politician’s objective. Election and power are. –Cal Thomas. As a political writer, I’ve always found voluntary humiliation in the political world fascinating to witness. The men and women who enter politics are ...read more
With cratering poll numbers and the spectacular failure to replace Obamacare, Trump is close to becoming a lame duck president after a mere 6 months on the job. As his administration careens from one spectacular screw up to the next, the Republican party is growing tired of ...read more
In just the last week, Trump and his band of White House deplorables have: 1. Announced that the civil rights division of the Department of Justice will sue colleges for oppressing white people (No, seriously).2. Told the police to go right ahead and hurt people (read as: Black ...read more
If you thought the insanity of last week couldn't be topped, think again. After 10 days on the job (10 days!) White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has been unceremoniously fired by Donald Trump and escorted off the premises. Reported the Huff Post: Anthony ...read more
In an unhinged, profanity laced phone call to the The New Yorker, latest White House press secretary Anthony Scaramucci went at journalist Ryan Lizza and demanded he hand over the name of whoever leaked information that Scaramucci was having dinner President Trump, the First ...read more
There is no other way of getting around this: Donald Trump is officially a failed president. He is so far removed from fulfilling his obligations as the Commander in Chief that there can be no other way of describing him, or his presidency. The failures are so extreme, so ...read more
Wednesday was a busy day for the administration. With the deadline for Donald Trump's first 100 days barreling towards him on Saturday, the president continued to be the kid in class who didn't do the work and tried to throw together a project at the last minute so it looks like ...read more
by Matt Casper There has been much celebrating among the sane, non-Breitbartarian, political world over the past week as it has become clear to even President Donald Trump that his evil puppet master/Chief Strategist and confidant Steve Bannon was a destructive force in the ...read more
Last Friday, I penned an article asking whether Donald Trump was about to kick off World War III. I wrote it in response to his out of the blue aggression against North Korea, and the shocking lack of foresight he is showing by attempting to interfere in a region he clearly ...read more
Steve Bannon was thought to be the most Machiavellian, most diabolical and most mysterious behind the scenes presidential advisor in American history. In a bid to wreck the state, destroy the environment and kick of World War III, the doughy Alt-Right Super Villain was seen to ...read more
Everybody have a good weekend? Awesome. Here are all the different ways the world lurched towards Armageddon while you hopefully cherished your time with friends and loved ones. Or in my case, let my daughter repeatedly win at Scrabble Junior because there probably won’t be ...read more
As egomaniacs resting their fat, gilded asses on the seat of power are wont to do, Donald Trump waved his big boy pee-pee around last night by launching 50+ Tomahawk missiles into Syria in an effort to teach Syria a lesson about bombing Syrians that Donald Trump specifically and ...read more
On November 8, 2016, America went from a nation that was admittedly rife with problems — albeit problems that we were slowly overcoming — to a goddamn dystopian horror show in the blink of an eye. To make matters even more terrifying, Donald Trump, the squinting, carrotoid ...read more
According to Bloomberg, Donald Trump has reorganized his National Security Council and removed his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon. The report that broke today continued: National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was given responsibility for setting the agenda for meetings of ...read more
While Donald Trump continues to build a kleptocracy by blatantly installing his family members into his administration and then tasking them with a dizzying array of responsibilities whenever they’re not too busy turning his “blind trust” into whatever the exact opposite of a ...read more
David Brooks has spent so many years providing ideological cover for Republicans as the conservative movement descended into madness that he clearly started to buy into his own bullshit. Since the election of Trump, he can't quite seem to believe that what we're seeing is the ...read more
A few weeks ago, I wrote about what it means to be a Jew in Trump's America and I made the following point: If there's one thing I learned from my casual acquaintance with Jewish history, it's this: Sooner or later, they always come for us. So imagine my utter lack of surprise ...read more
In a careful staged display of pretend mutual admiration, Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon wanted to make clear that despite the leaks, there was no conflict between the two men. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) yesterday, the two men showered each ...read more
I've managed to go the length of my time here at the Banter, and as an internet writer in general, without mentioning the name Milo Yiannopoulos other than once in the context of a larger piece about Donald Trump's relationship with Twitter. This was by design, because it always ...read more
In the middle of Donald Trump's ongoing meltdown, Steve Bannon still had time to instruct Trump to have Defense Secretary Jim Mattis reduce the United States to a sleazy extortion racket: BRUSSELS — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, echoing his boss in Washington, warned on ...read more
I keep coming back to this, but it really is astonishing how off-the-mark I was in my pre-inauguration predictions of what we could expect from a Donald Trump presidency. I said it would be a deluge, a daily gangbang of incompetence, scandal, dishonesty, corruption and general ...read more