3951 Civil War MAGA: President Donald Trump vs. Steve Bannon
Michael Wolff's new book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" has sparked a MAGA civil war – leading to a very loud and public falling out between President Donald Trump and Breitbart head Steve Bannon. Your support is essential to Freedomain Radio, which is 100% funded by viewers like you. Please support the show by making a one time donation or signing up for a monthly recurring donation at: http://www.freedomainradio.com/donate
You know, in any movement, it is never the unity of your enemies that should give you fear.
It is the disunity of your allies.
The infighting among your allies is how more battles are lost than anything.
And it doesn't give me much pleasure to report on it, but I think it's a very, very important topic.
Michael Wolff's new book, Fire and Fury Inside the Trump White House, has sparked, well, I guess what could be described as a MAGA civil war, leading to a very loud, very messy, and very public falling out between President Donald Trump and Breitbart head Steve Bannon.
Axios has reported that the White House originally sanctioned this book, and Michael Wolff spent a significant amount of time in the West Wing speaking to people such as Bannon, then White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus and Deputy Katie Walsh and more.
Wolf reportedly has dozens of hours of recorded conversations with various Trump officials, even though many of them thought they were off the record.
We'll get to that in a moment.
But first, who is Michael Wolfe? Well, he's a columnist, I guess a reporter and a book writer.
He's written at USA Today, Vanity Fair, Hollywood Reporter, British GQ, New York Magazine, The Guardian, and of course is the author of five books, including...
A smear job on Rupert Murdoch.
Now, Trump is a friend of Rupert Murdoch, so to me it seems a little surprising, if not downright shocking, that this reporter, this writer, Wolf, would be given access and that Anybody would speak to him.
You know, it's not that complicated a rule.
You know, if somebody trashes your friend or your friend's friend, don't sit down with them and help them sell books!
This is not a statement that I feel really needs to be made.
This is like, you know, you go buy a letter.
And there's like half a phone book of instructions that seem pretty obvious.
Do not place on water.
Do not use while drunk.
Do not place on ice.
It's like, well, yes, I think that seems pretty obvious.
Do not help people who smear your friends sell books.
This is kind of a rule that people seem to have a little trouble with.
Grokking their mind around.
Listen, if you really think someone is bad, despicable, mean, nasty, and is an enemy, shut up about them.
Make them a non-entity.
They don't exist to you.
Do not mention them. Do not refer to them.
Do not talk about them.
That's how you deal with people.
I don't know. Also, dozens of hours of sitting down with a reporter.
I don't know. Don't you have jobs to do, people?
Seems like you've got a mission to save America, maybe even to inspire other people to save Western civilization as a whole.
So why are you breaking bread with slimy reporters who write for The Guardian?
I mean, okay, unfettered access to the White House.
Yeah, okay, maybe I can see a scenario where bringing him into the White House would make sense, you know, come and step on that carpet that Bill Clinton had installed for his interns, so that you can go down into the lube room.
Now, I personally appreciate many of the individuals involved in this story.
I mean, we are not overflowing with allies in the battle to save Western civilization, but a lot of mistakes have been made here.
I think... The best we can hope for, and it's not bad, is a teachable moment.
Okay, so, first of all, gentlemen, welcome to Fight Club.
The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.
The second rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.
Because here's the deal.
Everyone is under investigation in this fake nothing burger Russia collusion witch hunt.
So, given that everyone's under investigation, what sense does it make to talk to hostile reporters and give them hours and hours and hours of recorded audio?
Woo-hoo! I mean, I know I don't just have a forehead, I have a five or a six head, but I still don't have enough hands to palm it enough.
I mean, hours and hours of recorded audio.
Hello, Discovery!
I guess it's all going to get subpoenaed.
Why are you talking to him?
Don't you have any friends?
And is no one in the White House, is no one in this administration setting off alarms about this guy roaming around the White House with a microphone in hand?
Maybe we shouldn't talk to him.
Maybe we're busy. Maybe we've got things to do.
I mean, I know how it works.
So the reporters, they call you up and they say, well, I want to talk to you.
And you're like, eh, I don't want to talk to you.
And they say, listen, this story is going to get written whether you like it or not.
And the story is going to be more fair if your voice is in it.
Eh, the book's story is going to be written anyway.
But if you put your side in, it'll be much more fair and balanced.
And so it's kind of like a...
Nice reputation you got here.
Nice career you got here.
Be a real shame if something happened to it.
So maybe you want to sit down with me for a little while and give me some off-the-record comments, click recorder.
It's not true.
I don't believe any of that stuff is true.
They're just going to write crap about you.
And if you participate, you look like an idiot for participating with someone who's writing crap about you.
Come on. They're reporters.
Ugh. The devil, when the conveyor belt of reporters comes down to hell, he's like, whoa, whoa, no, no, no, no, no.
Somewhere else, man, we got standards.
Now, Steve Bannon is quoted in Wolf's book as reportedly saying, quote, the three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government...
Oh, okay, so this is...
This is this Russian lawyer, this woman who wanted to come and talk about adoption standards and so on.
Okay, so she was just a lawyer, not a foreign government official.
And actually, this woman was in the country illegally because, you know, Russia, they're not sending their best.
Turns out she's connected not so much to the Russian government as she is to fusion GPS.
So most likely this was an entire setup as part of the whole Russia collusion thing, the, quote, insurance, end quote, that has been discussed by some FBI agents in the unlikely event that Trump won.
So Steve Bannon is reportedly quoted in the book as saying, the three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor with no lawyers.
They didn't have any lawyers.
Even if you thought that this was not treasonous or unpatriotic or bad shit, and I happen to think it's all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.
So this appears to be the plan.
I think I'm going to get on record calling Donald Trump's son treasonous.
Now I don't know what relationship you have with your children, if you have any.
Don't mess with a man's children, a man who loves his children enormously and is proud of his children and will do just about anything to protect his children.
Don't sit there and call them treasonous, which is about the worst sin.
I mean, it's a great asset if you're on the left.
Treason is their reason for getting out of bed in the morning.
But if you're a patriot, if you love your country, being called treasonous is a grave insult.
Now, This quote simmered online for a while.
It kind of bubbled up around 7 o'clock in the morning.
And there was no comment forthcoming from Steve Bannon.
No claims, oh, it's a misrepresentation, I didn't say it, no statements speaking out against the author of the book, just silence.
Now, of course, this is a crisis.
And in crisis management, as Mike Cernovich pointed out, crisis management is measured in minutes, not hours.
Silence all day.
Now, what was going on in Steve Bannon's mind?
Who knows? Who has a clue?
I mean, this book, I guess these interviews were done after, of course, the election, but, I mean, had to have time for proofs, writing proofs and editing and so on.
So, months ago, he sat down, and if he didn't remember saying this, he calls the reporter.
Maybe the reporter says, no, no, no, it was recorded.
He's like, what? I don't know.
Can I hear the recording? Well, it's proprietary.
I don't know, right? Who knows? Who knows what happened?
But this is why you don't sit down and talk with these people or record it yourself.
I mean, but just don't sit down with these people.
So who knows why Steve Bannon didn't respond.
So then the bomb dropped after, I guess, hour after hour after hour after hour of no comment from Steve Bannon about this horrendous statement regarding Donald Trump's son.
President Donald Trump issued a statement and let me just indicate what this sounded like at the beginning.
Or maybe it was a Stuka sound.
Who knows? But this is what he said.
Trump. Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency.
When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.
Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating 17 candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican Party.
Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn't as easy as I make it look.
Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country.
Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than 30 years by Republicans.
Steve doesn't represent my base.
He's only in it for himself.
Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was.
It is the only thing he does well.
Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue whom he helped write phony books.
We have many great Republican members of Congress and candidates who are very supportive of the Make America Great Again agenda.
Like me, they love the United States of America and are helping to finally take our country back and build it up, rather than simply seeking to burn it all down.
Well, that's not something you want as a reference.
So in addition to burying Bannon approximately 600 feet under a flaming pile of lava with his statements, Trump also, unfortunately, by that action, helped to sell untold thousands of copies of a book he clearly doesn't believe to be accurate.
He offered up in his statement the largest possible advertisement for the book for the left, something the author and the publisher could only have dreamed of getting their hands on.
Now, Donald Trump Jr.
tweeted this, and I quote, Steve had the honor of working in the White House and serving the country.
Unfortunately, he squandered that privilege and turned that opportunity into a nightmare of backstabbing, harassing, leaking, lying and undermining the president.
Steve is not a strategist.
He is an opportunist.
Now, I did the truth about Steve Bannon at the presentation, don't know the man, and Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., they know Steve Bannon more than you and I do, and they also know why he was pretty much fired.
So, I suppose there's a little bit of bad blood under the bridge, I would assume anyway.
So, Immediately, other reported quotes and statements in Wolf's book came under fire, and they were reported as being inaccurate.
People have drawn attention, and it seems like a fairly significant point, people have drawn attention to an author's note in the book, suggesting the quotes are, quote, recreations.
Whatever that means.
I mean, it seems to me, if you're talking to someone...
And they're talking to you.
And you're recording it.
You pretty much type whatever they said into your book.
That's called a quote. I do not know what recreations means.
You get busted for counterfeiting.
No, no, no! My counterfeit money is a tribute band.
It's a recreation, Your Honor.
You know, you make a painting, you sell it as a Van Gogh, make a huge amount of bank.
Turns out it's a fake.
No, no! It's not a fake.
It's not a counterfeit. It's a recreation.
I don't know what this means. I don't know what this means.
It just means, I think it means that you can paraphrase to ill intent and still get away with it or hope to.
Now this book, Wolf's book, also claimed...
The book claimed that Trump didn't want to win the presidency.
I mean, did you see how hard Trump worked in the final days of the election, giving speech after speech after speech until he was half hoarse?
Trump, you see, didn't want to win the election.
See, Trump's master plan went something like this.
Okay. I'm rich.
I'm famous. I'm good looking.
Beloved by many.
I make ungodly amounts of money as a television star.
I can travel the world. I have a beautiful wife, a fine family, a new son.
But what I'm going to do, see, I've got this plan.
I'm going to run for president, which everybody thinks is a joke.
I'm going to become incredibly hated by massive portions of the American society.
I'm going to get endless death threats.
I'm gonna be separated from my wife for a while if I win the presidency.
I'm gonna give up a huge fortune.
I'm gonna spend an amazing amount of money on my campaign.
I'm going to be called a racist, a Nazi, a fascist, you name it.
People are gonna try and attack me on podiums and then be celebrated on CNN. I'm gonna spend ungodly amounts of money on legal defenses.
And then I'm going to be very, very sad when after a massive amount of work and money and expense and stress and hatred, I finally get what I want.
I'm gonna be very sad.
Because, you know, Trump, boy, if there's one thing about Trump, he just hates winning.
Boy, just not on his platform, not on his to-do list.
His bucket list is never win, right?
Isn't that how it works?
Wolfsburg also claimed that Trump didn't know who John Boehner was.
Despite Trump knowing him for years, there are pictures of him golfing with Boehner, and Trump frequently tweeted about Boehner in the past, but apparently no idea who he is.
The book claimed that Donald Trump Jr.
said his father looked like a ghost on election night.
A statement John Don Jr.
has publicly denied.
And that's so weird.
He looked like a ghost on election night.
That's like this emotional portrait, which is, you know, for somebody who makes arguments, and you can check out my book, The Art of the Argument, at theartoftheargument.com.
So, Reason, evidence, build the case, patiently and slowly.
Do you have anything to say about Trump's policies?
No, but I know he looked like a ghost on election night.
I mean, this emotional portrait, it's such a foreign planet for me.
You see this on the internet, like I'm making an argument with someone and people are like, comment below, I can see the fear in your eyes as your worldview crumbles around you.
I know the motives of Logan Paul.
It's like, mind reading about emotional states is...
You guessed it, not an argument.
So the weird thing to me, so this book seems to have so many clear falsehoods, so why were Bannon's statements immediately believed to be true?
And why did they provoke the President's statement?
Well, Bannon's lack of immediate clarification or denial was a huge mistake.
But why such immediate and swift denunciation from Team Trump when doing so gives the left a win and sells tons of books that you clearly think are false?
I invite your theories in the comments section below.
So Trump's legal team later sent a cease and desist letter to Michael Wolff and the book publisher, Henry Holt, demanding they stop publication of the book and issue an apology for the defamatory statements contained within the book.
Trump's lawyers also sent a cease and desist letter to Steve Bannon, claiming that he had breached his non-disclosure agreement and suggesting legal action was imminent.
Non-disclosure agreements, NDAs, can be a real challenge.
They can be tough to enforce, but they are often enough of a pretext to tie you up in court for a long time.
And that kind of like non-competes, they're a speed bump that's not inconsiderable in the forward trajectory of your life.
Now, afterwards on Breitbart Radio, Bannon said, and I quote, The President of the United States is a great man.
You know I support him day in and day out.
That's not exactly the kind of response that clarifies much or quells the rising tensions.
And this radio show is like those 15 minutes, no talk about the elephant in the room.
Just kind of odd.
Now, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, mmm pie, was asked if Breitbart should fire Steve Bannon, Breitbart, the news site.
And she said, it's something they should look at and consider.
Now, reporters, just a word to the wise, bit of a pro tip here.
Are you suggesting that somebody should be fired for getting embroiled in fake news controversies?
If there's fake news, people should be fired?
That is very interesting.
Should somebody be fired for slandering someone?
Should somebody be fired for trash-talking someone?
That's very interesting.
I'm not sure you want to fire up those sky cannons, because I'm pretty sure I know where the targets would most rationally alight on.
So, Breitbart, it's had a tough while.
It's had its advertisers targeted heavily in this sort of Rush Limbaugh style, so that, of course, the left targets the advertisers, so they stop advertising on the website.
Therefore, the economics become increasingly difficult to manage.
And, I mean, just by the by, you know, econ kill shots, also not an argument.
You know, if it's easy to refute these people, if they're making such mistakes, refute them and correct them by just trying to starve them off funds, not an argument.
Now, rumor has it that Steve Bannon has also reportedly lost the support of billionaire backers Robert and Rebecca Mercer after he suggested he might run for president himself and they might support him on that.
Rebecca Mercer said, and I quote, I support President Trump on the platform upon which he was elected.
My family and I have not communicated with Steve Bannon in many months and have provided no financial support to his political agenda, nor do we support his recent actions and statements.
Matt Drudge is alluding that Bannon has acquired a new Chinese billionaire benefactor, Miles Kwok, which is not exactly the greatest look for somebody who's extraordinarily sympathetic to, say, economic nationalism.
So this is a bad situation for everybody involved, except the writer and the publisher.
If they survive the cease and desist, it's going to make a fortune because the left is going to be all over the stuff.
So a couple of lessons spring to mind.
Number one, shut up!
Shut up! Shut up!
Zip it! Silence! Put a silence back, silence bell, end it!
Be as the grave.
The rest is silence.
Don't talk to these reporters.
Don't. I just did a video.
Coincidence. Just did a video about this the other day.
Or if you have to talk to them, you can be like a nine-year-old and just echo them.
What do you think of President Trump?
What do you think of President Trump?
Are you just going to keep repeating what I say?
Are you just going to keep repeating what I say?
Just be like that. Be as annoying as they are duplicitous.
Don't advertise for enemies.
Don't promote. Don't give oxygen to a fire.
Don't feed their visibility.
You understand? Your enemies are like lasers and you have the water spray that makes them all visible.
Don't do it.
I know it's tempting. Don't engage.
Don't engage. Don't engage. Just think of Spock and Kirk.
Going the other direction. Engage?
No. Don't engage. Because, like, the people who are fighting to save the West kind of need each other.
And this means...
I hate to break it to you, but this kind of means...
Listen, there's tons of stuff.
I started... I want to do a philosophy show, abstract philosophy and all that kind of stuff, but...
A higher cause, a higher calling came calling.
And it's tough to say no.
So you have to submerge your ego to this higher cause.
You know, when you're in the trenches, when the enemy is advancing, sure, you might have the occasional political disagreement with the guy manning the machine gun.
Maybe you disagree with him about the relationship between federal powers and states' rights.
But a greater enemy is advancing, so give him the ammo.
Don't turn on him. Don't fight him.
Don't pick fights. There is a greater cause.
Because if we lose the West, these bickerings are going to seem so pointless and so ridiculous.
Because if we're not united in the fight to save the West, and we turn on each other in this ridiculous, shallow manner, what do we get?
We don't get to keep our freedoms.
What do we get? Well, my likelihood and my likely scenario is we get communism with a tasty side dish of Sharia.
So it's not about you.
It's not about your ego.
It is about being committed to the highest cause known to human beings, which is the promotion of freedom and virtue and responsibility.
And I look forward to the day.
I don't think I'll live to see it.
Maybe I will. I look forward to the day when these issues are worth discussing.
I look forward to the day when we can productively discuss whether taxes should be 1% or 0%.
I look forward to the day when we can productively discuss how children should be educated in a free society and who should build the roads.
And one day, when we've achieved that world, when we've beaten back the darkness, one day, when we're safe, we can afford to be petty and it will be okay.
But we're not there yet.
We're not even close.
And days like today feel like we're heading in the wrong direction.
So, let's turn around.
Let's hang together, or we really will hang separately.
