Steve Bannon Quotes

“Remember Circuit City? Bear Stearns? Lehman Brothers? Sports Authority? Once, all were billion-dollar companies – then gone in a moment. The fatal problem might be fraud or corruption, but more often, it’s simply that management didn’t see ‘over the other side of the hill.’”

― Steve Bannon

“The longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em. I want them to talk about racism every day. If the Left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.”

― Steve Bannon

“The baby boomers are the most spoiled, most self-centered, most narcissistic generation the country’s ever produced.”

― Steve Bannon

“If you stay true to yourself and true to your vision and your own values, you can power through and make an impact on modern life.”

― Steve Bannon

“This country is in a crisis. And if you’re fighting to save this country, if you’re fighting to take this country back, it’s not going to be sunshine and patriots. It’s going to be people who want to fight. I mean, Andrew Breitbart was all about the fight.”

― Steve Bannon

“If ‘The New York Times’ didn’t exist, CNN and MSNBC would be a test pattern. ‘The Huffington Post’ and everything else is predicated on ‘The New York Times’. It’s a closed circle of information from which Hillary Clinton got all her information – and her confidence.”

― Steve Bannon

“A country is more than an economy. We’re a civic society.”

― Steve Bannon

“Economic nationalism is what this country was built on. The American system.”

― Steve Bannon

“Darkness is good. Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power.”

― Steve Bannon

“I’m a Leninist. Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal, too.”

― Steve Bannon

“I think the discussion of, you know, can we put a cap on wealth creation and distribution – it’s something that should be at the heart of every Christian that is a capitalist. Is, what is the purpose I’m doing with this wealth?”

― Steve Bannon

“Hollywood does not understand Middle America, and it certainly does not understand and, in fact, despises, the core values of the country.”

― Steve Bannon

“The media bubble is the ultimate symbol of what’s wrong with this country.”

― Steve Bannon

“What Trump represents is a restoration – a restoration of true American capitalism.”

― Steve Bannon

“Mr. Mr. Mr. Trump… You’ve been in New York real estate and global real estate and the gaming industry and with politicians. You can’t say, reasonably, that Ted Cruz is the biggest liar you’ve ever seen.”

― Steve Bannon

“This accumulated debt at all levels of our society poses an immediate existential threat to America. Now unlike the manufactured crises of global warming and healthcare, this is a true crisis. This crisis threatens the very sovereignty of our country.”

― Steve Bannon

“I’ve got a cure for mental health issue. Spank your children more.”

― Steve Bannon

“To be brutally frank, I mean Christianity is dying in Europe, and Islam is on the rise.”

― Steve Bannon

“The swamp is a business model. It’s a successful business model.”

― Steve Bannon

“We don’t believe there is a functional conservative party in this country, and we certainly don’t think the Republican Party is that.”

― Steve Bannon

“Let the grassroots turn on the hate because that’s the only thing that will make them do their duty.”

― Steve Bannon

“The globalists gutted the American working class and created a middle class in Asia.”

― Steve Bannon

“Two-thirds or three-quarters of the CEOs in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia.”

― Steve Bannon

“Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy.”

― Steve Bannon

“I became a huge Reagan admirer.”

― Steve Bannon

“We’re at economic war with China. It’s in all their literature. They’re not shy about saying what they’re doing.”

― Steve Bannon

“I think Mitch McConnell and, to a degree, Paul Ryan – they do not want Donald Trump’s populist, economic nationalist agenda to be implemented. It’s very obvious.”

― Steve Bannon

“Without U.S. independence, North America would have remained a rural, non-industrial breadbasket. Blessed as it was with natural resources, agrarian North America would have supplied cotton and beef and lumber to industrial Britain. America would thus be more like Australia – a nice enough place to live, but no kind of world power.”

― Steve Bannon

“I think that most people in the Middle East, at least 50%, believe in being sharia-compliant. If you’re sharia-compliant or want to impose sharia law, the United States is the wrong place for you.”

― Steve Bannon

“That’s one of the unintended consequences of the women’s liberation movement – that, in fact, the women that would lead this country would be feminine, they would be pro-family, they would have husbands, they would love their children.”

― Steve Bannon

“After making the ‘Occupy’ movie, when you finish watching the film, you want to take a hot shower. You want to go home and shower because you’ve just spent an hour and fifteen minutes with the greasiest, dirtiest people you will ever see.”

― Steve Bannon

“An elite is someone who’s for themselves and not for the country.”

― Steve Bannon

“I’m a commercial filmmaker.”

― Steve Bannon

“I come from a blue-collar, Irish Catholic, pro-Kennedy, pro-union family of Democrats.”

― Steve Bannon

“Goldman in the ’80s was like a priesthood, a monastic experience where you worked all the time but were incredibly dedicated to client services, to building and growing companies.”

― Steve Bannon

“One of the things Goldman teaches you is, don’t be the first guy through the door because you’re going to get all the arrows.”

― Steve Bannon

“What you realize hanging out with investigative reporters is that, while they may be personally liberal, they don’t let that get in the way of a good story.”

― Steve Bannon

“I don’t think people realize how life-altering running for president is.”

― Steve Bannon

“Feature film can have a major role in explaining ideas and describing peoples’ lives and their struggles.”

― Steve Bannon

“Fear is a good thing. Fear is going to lead you to take action.”

― Steve Bannon

“I could not think higher of Governor Palin. She is a force of nature and has inspired a generation of women to really get actively involved in politics and, more importantly, take their culture back and take their country back.”

― Steve Bannon

“What I find shocking is that there’s this thought process that Hillary Clinton is going to be president of the United States, and to even think of Donald Trump is a joke.”

― Steve Bannon

“Trump is a product of a seething populism and nationalism that is the driving political force.”

― Steve Bannon

“George Clooney, who is a moron, came here to Cannes and gave a press conference saying, ‘Under no circumstances will Trump ever be president. Hillary Clinton will be the next president.’ Well, we can’t wait to make George Clooney eat his words.”

― Steve Bannon

“Goldman Sachs isn’t the firm it once was when I worked for it, but it’s still one of the building blocks of our capitalist society.”

― Steve Bannon

“Our vision – Andrew’s vision – was always to build a global, center-right, populist, anti-establishment news site.”

― Steve Bannon

“We have a mantra. ‘Facts get shares; opinions get shrugs’.”

― Steve Bannon

“I turned on Wall Street for the same reason everybody else did: The American taxpayer was forced to cut mook deals to bail out guys who didn’t deserve it.”

― Steve Bannon

“We hire people who are freaks. They don’t have social lives.”

― Steve Bannon

“I’m not a white nationalist, I’m a nationalist. I’m an economic nationalist.”

― Steve Bannon

“Planned Parenthood has amassed a Third Reich-style death count completely legally and while pocketing half a billion dollars a year to do so.”

― Steve Bannon

“Given the hipness of transsexualism with people like Caitlyn Jenner and Jazz Jennings, there might be a third category, especially among children, and that is fashion.”

― Steve Bannon

“There’s a reason that male golfers don’t compete against female golfers. They’re in a league of their own, and it would end in tears. It’s time to apply this logic to the online world.”

― Steve Bannon

“Are there some people that are white nationalists that are attracted to some of the philosophies of the alt-right? Maybe.”

― Steve Bannon

“Maybe some people are attracted to the alt-right that are homophobes, right? But that’s just like, there are certain elements of the progressive left and the hard left that attract certain element.”

― Steve Bannon

“Our definition of the alt-right is younger people who are anti-globalists, very nationalist, terribly anti-establishment.”

― Steve Bannon

“We think of ourselves as virulently anti-establishment, particularly ‘anti-‘ the permanent political class.”

― Steve Bannon

“We say Paul Ryan was grown in a petri dish at the Heritage Foundation.”

― Steve Bannon

“I think anger is a good thing.”

― Steve Bannon

“Would you rather your child had feminism or cancer?”

― Steve Bannon

“The solution to ‘on-line harassment’ is simple: women should log off.”

― Steve Bannon

“Not one criminal charge has ever been brought to any bank executive associated with the 2008 crisis. And in fact, it gets worse. No bonuses and none of their equity was taken.”

― Steve Bannon

“I’m a very practical, pragmatic capitalist. I was trained at Goldman Sachs. I went to Harvard Business School. I was as hard-nosed a capitalist as you get. I specialized in media, in investing in media companies, and it’s a very, very tough environment.”

― Steve Bannon

“I think the bailouts in 2008 were wrong. And I think, you look in hindsight, it was a lot of misinformation that was presented about the bailouts of the banks in the West.”

― Steve Bannon

“The Tea Party in the United States’ biggest fight is with the the Republican establishment, which is really a collection of crony capitalists that feel that they have a different set of rules of how they’re going to comport themselves and how they’re going to run things.”

― Steve Bannon

“My old firm, Goldman Sachs – traditionally, the best banks are leveraged 8:1. When we had the financial crisis in 2008, the investment banks were leveraged 35:1. Those rules had specifically been changed by a guy named Hank Paulson. He was secretary of Treasury.”

― Steve Bannon

“Trump is an entrepreneur.”

― Steve Bannon

“The Clinton strength was to play to people without a college education. High school people. That’s how you win elections.”

― Steve Bannon

“I’m the guy pushing a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. With negative interest rates throughout the world, it’s the greatest opportunity to rebuild everything. Shipyards, ironworks, get them all jacked up. We’re just going to throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks.”

― Steve Bannon

“Facts get shares; opinions get shrugs.”

― Steve Bannon

“There is a growing global anti-establishment revolt against the permanent political class at home and the global elites that influence them, which impacts everyone from Lubbock, Texas, to London, England.”

― Steve Bannon

“I can see this on Wall Street today – I can see this with the securitization of everything is that, everything is looked at as a securitization opportunity. People are looked at as commodities. I don’t believe that our forefathers had that same belief.”

― Steve Bannon

“The rise of Breitbart is directly tied to being the voice of that center-right opposition. And, quite frankly, we’re winning many, many victories. On the social conservative side, we’re the voice of the anti-abortion movement, the voice of the traditional marriage movement, and I can tell you we’re winning victory after victory after victory.”

― Steve Bannon

“The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”

― Steve Bannon

“The media has zero integrity, zero intelligence, and no hard work. You’re the opposition party. Not the Democratic Party. You’re the opposition party. The media’s the opposition party.”

― Steve Bannon

“You have an expansionist Islam and you have an expansionist China. Right? They are motivated. They’re arrogant. They’re on the march. And they think the Judeo-Christian West is on the retreat.”

― Steve Bannon

“Breitbart is the most pro-Israel site in the United States of America.”

― Steve Bannon

“I’m an economic nationalist. I am an ‘America first’ guy. And I have admired nationalist movements throughout the world, have said repeatedly strong nations make great neighbors. I’ve also said repeatedly that the ethno-nationalist movement, prominent in Europe, will change over time. I’ve never been a supporter of ethno-nationalism.”

― Steve Bannon

“I never went on TV one time during the campaign. Not once. You know why? Because politics is war. General Sherman would never have gone on TV to tell everyone his plans. I’d never tip my hand to the other side.”

― Steve Bannon

“I am Thomas Cromwell in the court of the Tudors.”

― Steve Bannon

“I think strong countries and strong nationalist movements in countries make strong neighbors. And that is really the building blocks that built Western Europe and the United States, and I think it’s what can see us forward.”

― Steve Bannon

“I think that Putin and his cronies are really a kleptocracy, that are really an imperialist power that want to expand.”

― Steve Bannon

“What the media misses is the amount of anger that’s out there. Trump didn’t create that.”

― Steve Bannon

“There is voter fraud. I know there is voter fraud.”

― Steve Bannon

“It was pretty evident, I think, the direction the country was going, and that’s why I think Donald Trump offered such a clear alternative to that from Hillary Clinton.”

― Steve Bannon

“It’s a very unpleasant topic. But we are in an outright war against jihadist Islamic fascism. And this war is, is, I think, metastasizing, almost far quicker than governments can handle it… We have Boko Haram and other groups that will eventually partner with ISIS in this global war.”

― Steve Bannon

“Islam is not a religion of peace. Islam is a religion of submission. Islam means submit.”

― Steve Bannon

“I’ve studied documentarians extensively to come up with my own in-house style. I’m a student of Michael Moore’s films, of Eisenstein, Riefenstahl. Leave the politics aside, you have to learn from those past masters on how they were trying to communicate their ideas.”

― Steve Bannon

“Technology not only allows grassroots conservatives like Palin to get their message across without the mainstream media’s filter and become a ‘force multiplier,’ it also helps them topple candidates financially backed by the establishment.”

― Steve Bannon

“Critics say that Fox News leans right, but the truth is, it’s more centrist – it just looks right-wing in comparison to the other news outlets.”

― Steve Bannon

“As the Executive Chairman of ‘Breitbart News’ with a long run in business and finance, I can tell you, it’s hard to run a company that is infinitesimally smaller than Fox; it takes a steady and experienced hand.”

― Steve Bannon

“Under our Constitution, if you’re a bad citizen, you’re still a citizen; that’s the way we roll.”

― Steve Bannon

“The American television industry is a Darwinian environment where success is usually measured in inches, not yards. That is, for most TV media, audiences have gotten so small that one measures ‘victories’ in tenths of a point – as in, a 2.2 percent share is a great leap over a 2.1 percent share.”

― Steve Bannon

“With ‘Clinton Cash,’ we never really broke a story.”

― Steve Bannon

“The modern economics of the newsroom don’t support big investigative reporting staffs.”

― Steve Bannon

“Donald Trump’s a fighter. Great counter puncher. Great counter puncher. He’s a fighter.”

― Steve Bannon

“I’m a street fighter.”

― Steve Bannon

“If people take a knee, and the National Football League players want to take a knee, they should take a knee at night, every night, and thank God in Heaven Donald J. Trump is president of the United States.”

― Steve Bannon

“Ethno-nationalism – it’s losers. It’s a fringe element. I think the media plays it up too much, and we gotta help crush it, you know, eh, help crush it more.”

― Steve Bannon

“Mitch McConnell, I’m going to light him up.”

― Steve Bannon

“In the White House, I had influence. At Breitbart, I had power.”

― Steve Bannon

“I am definitely going to crush the opposition. There’s no doubt.”

― Steve Bannon

“I can fight better on the outside. I can’t fight too many Democrats on the inside like I can on the outside.”

― Steve Bannon

“UKIP’s biggest fight is with the Conservative Party.”

― Steve Bannon

“I think the bailouts in 2008 were wrong.”

― Steve Bannon

“’National Review’ and ‘The Weekly Standard’ are both left-wing magazines, and I want to destroy them also.”

― Steve Bannon

“When you side with a man, you side with him.”

― Steve Bannon

“America was built on her citizens.”

― Steve Bannon

“This country’s gonna be greater, more united, more powerful than it’s ever been.”

― Steve Bannon

“As long as you’re a citizen of our country. As long as you’re an American citizen, you’re part of this populist, economic nationalist movement.”

― Steve Bannon

“The Republican establishment is trying to nullify the 2016 election. That’s a brutal fact we have to face.”

― Steve Bannon

“Donald Trump has a grasp on what’s important and what’s marginalia.”

― Steve Bannon

“There’s nothing to the Russia investigation.”

― Steve Bannon

“Hillary Clinton’s not very bright. Everybody says she’s so smart, so much smarter than Donald Trump. She doesn’t really have a grasp. She doesn’t have a grasp on what’s important and what’s not.”

― Steve Bannon

“Here’s the problem of the Democratic Party… There’s no Breitbart. The problem in the Democratic Party? They haven’t had a civil war.”

― Steve Bannon

“My suggestion and my recommendation is, to solve the problem in Korea, you need to solve that problem with China. It’s a client state of China.”

― Steve Bannon

“I totally respect the pope, and I totally respect the Catholic bishops and cardinals on doctrine.”

― Steve Bannon

“What built America’s called the American system, from Hamilton to Polk to Henry Clay to Lincoln to the Roosevelts. A system of protection of our manufacturing, financial system that lends to manufacturers, OK, and the control of our borders.”

― Steve Bannon

“I was raised in a desegregated neighborhood.”

― Steve Bannon

“I want China to stop appropriating our technology. China is, through forced technology transfer and through stealing our technology, but really forced technology transfer, is cutting out the beating heart of American innovation.”

― Steve Bannon