Trump Adds Breitbart Executive to Campaign Staff

Andrew Anglin
Daily Stormer
August 18, 2016

Stephen-K-Bannon-Screen-640x480

Stephen K. Bannon

The media is painting this as some type of freak move to intensify the far-right rhetoric.

However, it appears to me to just be adding a guy to the team whose got a good understanding of the issues.

Of course, jimmies are rustled, as Breitbart has, over the last year, gone from Fox News-style cuckism to full-on Stormer-tier on most issues (not the Jews, of course).

The Hill:

Donald Trump’s campaign shake-up is being seen on Capitol Hill as yet another shot across the bows of the GOP establishment.

The changes in effect demote Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman who had been urging Trump to show more restraint, and promote pollster Kellyanne Conway to the position of campaign manager.

But the real bombshell came with the recruitment of Steve Bannon, an executive with the conservative news organization Breitbart, as the campaign’s CEO.

Breitbart has been synonymous with attacks on the GOP leadership, especially in recent weeks and months. A particular foe: Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

The site has also suggested that Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is insufficiently rock-ribbed when it comes to standing up to Democrats.

That coverage, together with Breitbart’s broader reputation for inflammatory journalism, is causing consternation on Capitol Hill.

That isn’t likely to bother Bannon much — a Bloomberg Businessweek profile 10 months ago referred to his cooption of the phrase “Honey badger don’t give a s**t” as the Breitbart motto.

But Capitol Hill Republicans already disheartened by Trump’s scorched-earth campaign were apoplectic over the Wednesday morning shake-up.

“Breitbart has no credibility outside of the most extreme conservative wing of our party. Frankly, the same could be said of Kellyanne Conway,” one House member and close Ryan ally who has publicly endorsed Trump said in a text-message tirade.

“This would seem to signal that Trump is ready to go double-barrel against all of Washington, Republicans and Democrats alike,” the GOP lawmaker continued. “Breitbart takes a flamethrower to Washington and plays very loose with the facts. I would anticipate an even more bellicose, even less-connected-to-the-facts approach from the Trump campaign moving forward.”

Other sources who spoke with The Hill were much more complimentary of Conway — but, for the most part, just as scathing of Bannon and Breitbart.

Long-time Republican strategist John Feehery, who is also a columnist for The Hill, said he thought Conway was “a good hire” who could “bring some much-needed discipline” to Trump’s quest.

But he added, regarding Bannon’s elevation: “I know how it is going to be perceived on the Hill and among the leadership: it’s not gonna be perceived very well. Because Breitbart are nuts! They’re unhinged. They do stories that are not journalistically credible.”

Feehery added that if Trump were going to “run a Breitbart-type campaign, we are going to get 30 percent of the vote.”

Fears about how a take-no-prisoners approach might backfire electorally were also heard from lawmakers.

A second House Republican who has endorsed Trump said: “This doesn’t sound to me like someone interested in running a rational, positive message, let alone winning. Breitbart isn’t a legitimate news organization. It’s a disgraceful propaganda machine that is trying to divide the party.

When asked if the Speaker had any issue with a Breitbart executive leading Trump’s campaign, Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck declined to comment.

But Buck raised eyebrows by sending a tweet on Wednesday saying, “Free idea: Election Day on September 8th instead of November 8th.”

Stuart Stevens, who served as senior strategist on 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign, tweeted Wednesday that “The RNC shouldn’t give a dime or help in anyway a campaign run by Breitbart. It’s like funding CDC run by a Witch Doctor.”

Rick Tyler, who served as communications director for the presidential campaign of Trump’s main rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, told The Hill, “I just don’t know what [Bannon] adds. I think Mr. Trump has already won over the Breitbart crowd. I don’t know how Steve Bannon helps attract more people to Trump.”

Others took a more philosophical approach. Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said the personnel changes showed that Trump was “going to play this hard all the way through.”

Steele added, “There was a lot of wishful thinking, including from me, that he will make a turn, a pivot. Well, there should be no further expectations for him to do anything like that.”

The changes, Steele said, reflected a belief on Trump’s part that “This campaign is going to succeed or fail on what got us here. It’s really kinda looking into the rearview mirror at the establishment, saying: There you are. You’re either going to get into the car with him or you’re not.”

I’m getting in the car.

But this whole thing is being misframed.

Breitbart produces good propaganda. They are good at marketing ideas. That is a skill which exists outside of the specific material you are marketing.