Table Of ContentPRAISE FOR
BANNON
“Darth Vader of the Right, populist Svengali, the real president, Stephen K.
Bannon has been called many names, most counterfactual.
“I have worked with Steve inside and outside the White House. He is more
than a Renaissance man. He is one of the truly strategic thinkers alive today.
Keith Koffler’s book will help you understand why Steve Bannon still matters,
and why he is one of the most powerful and important men outside the Oval
Office.”
—SEBASTIAN GORKA, Ph.D., former deputy assistant to President
Trump and chief strategist of the Make America Great Again
Coalition
“By now, everyone in America knows Steve Bannon, the force of nature who
has shaped the Trump presidency more than anyone except Trump himself. If
you want to know what’s behind that force of nature—if you want to know Steve
Bannon the man—this is the indispensable book for you.”
—DAVID HOROWITZ, founding president of the David Horowitz
Freedom Center and author of Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey
and Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left
“At a time when we are witnessing the wholesale abandonment of the basic
principles of quality journalism—fairness, honesty, objective factual reportage,
thoughtful analysis—all across the American media, it is most heartening to see
Keith Koffler’s Bannon: Always the Rebel. Mr. Koffler’s treatment of his
ostensibly controversial subject is at once dispassionate, informative, objective,
and insightful. He more than meets his objectives of demystifying this important
and not well-understood figure, placing Bannon accurately in the broader
framework of American conservatism. The book is also a very lively read.”
—KENNETH deGRAFFENREID, former national security advisor to
President Ronald Reagan and deputy undersecretary of defense
Copyright © 2017 by Keith Koffler All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
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For Rebekah, Adam, and Ariela
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PROLOGUE
1 A BORN FIGHTER
2 THE CANDIDATE
3 IN THE NAVY
4 MOVING ON UP
5 THE AUTEUR
6 GENERATION ZERO
7 A FLAWED VISIONARY
8 STONE COLD SPIRITUAL
9 A HUMANE ECONOMY
10 DEFENDING THE WEST
11 TEA PARTY WARRIOR
12 THE PALIN PATRIOT
13 BANNON AT BREITBART
14 CAMPAIGN CHIEF
15 THE PRESIDENT’S STRATEGIST
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
INDEX
I am obliged to confess I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two
thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by
the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.
—William F. Buckley Jr.
Introduction
T
his book is an effort to demystify Stephen Bannon, to separate the real
man from the caricatures, and to explain his brand of conservative
populism.
Bannon has a good sense of humor, but he is an extremely serious man. This
I learned during more than ten hours of interviews with him, conducted over
three different visits to his home in Washington, D.C. Two of the sessions
occurred in July 2017, while he was in the White House serving as President
Trump’s chief strategist, and the other in August, just two days after his White
House service ended. He is an impressive man to interview, a man whose mind
is immersed not just in current events, but in history and philosophy and
religion. “I don’t think there is a major battle the United States has ever engaged
in that Steve couldn’t describe in minute detail,” said one of his good friends.
Indeed, during our conversations, generals and battles, world leaders and
historical events, philosophers and theologians—from ancient times through the
twenty-first century—dropped off Bannon’s tongue with the ease of a blackjack
dealer throwing cards on a table. If you find yourself facing off against him on
Jeopardy! just quit or pray for the Daily Double.
Bannon is not only fearsomely learned, and always reading to learn more, he
is committed to applying his knowledge to the world around him. Combine that
with an incredible energy and willpower, little need for sleep, and a capacity for
ruthlessness, and you have a force to be reckoned with or, for his enemies,
preferably avoided.
Bannon is a rebel by nature, but always a rebel with a cause. That cause
