EXCLUSIVE. What Steve Bannon told me in Washington --Trump's revolt is coming to Britain
A note from Washington for our most committed supporters
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Greetings from Washington where I’ve been meeting with key figures, politicians, and influencers ahead of the inauguration of ‘number 47’ —President Trump.
It’s been a busy few days.
Among other things, I joined a meeting with the leaders of Europe’s anti-establishment parties, hosted by the Heritage Foundation, including a conversation with Santiago Abascal, President of the European Patriots movement.
From Austria to Italy, Sweden to France, and ahead of a crunch election in Germany next month, there’s a real sense among Europe’s rebels and disruptors that with Donald Trump’s re-election the wind is now firmly behind their sails.
I also met with several of Donald Trump’s advisors, including one who told me: “I just went to London for the first time in twenty years. I was shocked. Not just because of the immigration but the extent to which your leaders hate your own people”.
As I said on X, I’ve heard this a lot in Trump’s circles in recent days.
A widespread sense of confusion and bewilderment about what Britain is doing to itself —mass immigration, broken borders, the appeasement of Islamism, the endless self-loathing, a palpable loss of belief among the elite class in who we are as a nation, the growing crackdown on free speech (which particularly irks Americans), and, of course, most recently, the rape gangs scandal, which for many Americans has become a potent symbol of this national decline if not suicide.
I also attended Nigel Farage’s ‘Stars and Stripes’ party at the Hay Adams Hotel, which was absolutely packed with countless American and British politicians and donors, offering a sharp contrast between Nigel Farage’s visible and growing influence in Washington and Keir Starmer who was nowhere to be seen in Washington.
But one of my most interesting discussions was at another party, hosted by Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former (and no doubt ongoing) consiglieri.
The man who, long before 2016 —and dare I say a bit like the author of this Substack—was well ahead of the curve in spotting the rise of national populism, the space for Brexit and Trump, and the need to carve out a movement that is willing to call out the established consensus on not just mass immigration and broken borders but also globalisation or “globalism” —how big corporations and financial institutions are routinely putting their own needs ahead of their surrounding national communities.
I took the opportunity to ask Bannon how he sees British politics right now, with the rise of Reform and the ongoing collapse of the Tories, as well as a few other things. And here, exclusively for you, is what he said and why I think it’s significant.
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