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Notes -
Bannon’s podcast has an incredibly powerful audience. It’s basically a political activism organizing meeting every day.
Maybe not a “king maker”, but he’s a big deal. Much more than just a talking head.
Sure. Bannon is a 'big deal.' But it's also clear he's not as big a deal as he wants to be, wishes he could be, or compares himself to.
Bannon is fundamentally trying to reverse one of his worst mistakes of his political career, which was his break with Donald Trump after being chief strategist the first time. Trump has his peculiarities, and it's not uncommon for him to welcome in former foes, but one of his apparent dividing lines is post-separation loyalty. He can respect a parting of ways, but if the person then wants to write a tell-all / slam piece, that's an act of betrayal in a way that simply parting isn't. Bannon did the slam piece tell-all, thinking Trump was done without him. Bannon went from being 'the man behind the curtain' to outside the wire, and has spent a good part of the last few years trying to get back into Trump's good graces to the position he once had.
The envy dynamic is emblematic of his recent-ish feuding with Musk. Musk has the power that Bannon wishes he was, even though has never been the sort of 'big deal' that Bannon has spent a lifetime trying to cultivate. Musk has agenda-setting power, can come in and shut down entire government agencies in weeks, and has an influence that Bannon lacked even when he was on the 'inside.' In the first major inter-right dispute of the administration, Trump pretty clearly sided with Musk over the Bannon-esque faction.
None of this means Bannon has nothing. Bannon even has power that Musk does not. Musk is very much an ideological outsider in the right circles.
But when it comes to setting government policy- and especially Trump administration policy- that's nowhere near enough. Bannon is out, when he really wants to be back in, and he's trying so hard he's being a try-hard in echoing his foil's own recent fake-scandal.
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