Steve Bannon Explains his Plan for America

Every year, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) brings conservatives from across the country together, and this year it was no different. The now-familiar faces of White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus were met with standing ovations from the crowds at the conference, which drew more than 10,000 attendees.

Earlier, there had been reports in the mainstream media of friction between the two men, but based on their joint appearance on the CPAC stage, none of that was in evidence.

Bannon made a joke that as former chairman of Breitbart News, he had once held a conference for “The Uninvited” — those conservatives who had not been asked to speak at CPAC. But now, Bannon had emerged from the shadows of the right and stood proudly among not just the ranks of the invited, but amongst those given a hero’s welcome at this year’s conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland. “I want to thank you for finally inviting me to CPAC,” Bannon declared.

One of the first things Bannon was asked was what the biggest misconception of the Trump administration was, to which he responded, “Everything.”

Although the press has consistently described the Trump White House as “chaotic,” “embattled” and “disorganized,” Bannon made clear that none of these depictions were accurate and that administration operations were running much more “methodically” than had been portrayed.

In fact, Bannon quickly identified the culprits of such misconceptions — the corps of journalists he and President Trump together have called “the opposition.” Bannon said that the agenda of the Trump administration is “pretty simple” to decipher; “it’s all in the speeches; our job every day is to execute on that.” But, said Bannon, the “opposition party” keeps missing the stories.

According to Bannon, the “corporatist, globalist” press “were dead wrong on the cast of the campaign, just like they were dead wrong on the cast of the transition; they are absolutely wrong about what’s going on today… They are the corporatist, globalist media who are adamantly opposed to the economic nationalist agenda that President Trump presents… If you remember, the campaign — by the media’s description — was the most chaotic, the most disorganized, most unprofessional… had no idea what it was doing. And then you saw [the media] all crying and weeping [on election night].”

But, Bannon promised, “[Media criticism] is not gonna get better [in the future]; it’s gonna get worse.” In fact, Bannon said, any hope conservatives may have that mainstream media bias against Trump might fade over time or be neutralized was in vain.

With no ambiguity, he told conservatives, “[Trump] is going to continue to press his agenda, and as economic conditions get better, as jobs get better, [the media] is going to continue to fight.”

He vowed that “If you think you’re going to get your country back without a fight, you’re sadly mistaken; every day is going to be a fight.” But, he threatened, “The mainstream media better understand something: all of [Trump’s] promises are going to be implemented.”

Matter-of-factly, Bannon said that Trump’s agenda can essentially be split into three parts — restoring economic nationalism, restoring national sovereignty and deconstructing “the administrative state.”

As far as economic nationalism, Bannon said it was paramount to bring back American dominance in trade and commerce. This meant “re-thinking” about how to reconstruct trade treaties with nations and trading partners all around the world — mostly by making bilateral exchange deals instead of broad “free-trade” agreements — in order to make them favorable by American terms. The goal, according to Bannon, is more high-paying jobs for Americans and trade that’s fairer in the long run to the U.S.

When it comes to national sovereignty, Bannon said that fixes were necessary at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Defense (DoD) and within the intelligence community. Some of these fixes — such as those involving immigration reform — have begun, while others are still to come.

As far as “the administrative state,” Priebus, who sat next to Bannon, noted that one of Trump’s executive orders requires any federal agency wanting a new regulation to first scrap two existing regulations. Bannon said this mandate would enable business growth, but vigilance was required against Democratic tendencies to make an end-run around opposition policies.

“The way the progressive Left runs is that if they can’t get it passed, they’re just going to put it in some sort of regulation in an agency — that’s all going to be deconstructed,” Bannon promised.

Priebus said that Trump “hit his agenda every single day — whether it’s TPP, whether it’s deregulation, whether it’s [Supreme Court nominee] Neil Gorsuch.” Bannon asked Trump supporters to “have our back” in upcoming battles with Democrats and the press, which have already been fierce and injurious.

Bannon summed up his remarks by saying, “The center core of what we believe [is] we’re a nation with an economy — not an economy just in some global marketplace with open borders, but we are a nation with a culture and a reason for being. And I think that’s what unites us, and I think that’s what is going to unite this movement going forward.”

At the end of his CPAC speech, Bannon praised his administration partner Priebus for being “steady” and “indefatigable” under immense pressure. “I can run a little hot sometimes. Reince has been unwavering.”

For his part, Priebus called Bannon “a very dear friend” and “extremely consistent.” Clearly, rumors of discord between the two men are simply mainstream media “fake news” that’s been designed to drive a wedge between officials in Trump’s administration.

Already, angry reactions among the Left to the conference were swift, with website Mic incredulously condemning Bannon’s speech as “anti-Semitic” for using the words “corporatist” and “globalist,” which it claimed were “coded language” and “anti-Semitic signals.”

Mic claimed that the use of the term “globalist elite” was “a persistent dog whistle used repeatedly on [Bannon’s] Breitbart News to paint Jews as co-conspirators with a hidden anti-populist agenda.” This is in spite of the fact that Bannon has been praised by the state of Israel for his support of that country and that both he and President Trump have repeatedly denounced anti-Semitism.

Mic and other news sites had made much of the fact that while Bannon and Priebus were very present on CPAC’s stage, there were two other voices from the right who definitely were not. Controversial conservative author Milo Yiannopoulos was disinvited from speaking after a controversial video of him seeming to condone inappropriate relationships emerged.

Another person barred from the conference (and removed after he entered anyway) was Alt-Right fringe individual Richard Spencer, who a spokesman for CPAC says the conference finds “repugnant.” Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which puts on CPAC, said in no uncertain terms that “The ‘Alt-Right’ does not have a legitimate voice in the conservative movement… Nobody from that movement is speaking at CPAC.”


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