Steve Bannon is quietly creeping back into the White House, sources say
Steve Bannon is back … sort of.
Donald Trump’s lightning-rod 2016 campaign boss and former White House chief strategist who was banished from the West Wing in 2017 has quietly crept back into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., reestablishing ties to staffers, particularly with regard to his pet issues of China and immigration.
“He does have relationships there. No question about it,” a person with knowledge of the situation told The Post. “You know who runs the trade and China policy work in the White House. You know who runs the immigration side of things, those are the people Steve is talking to.”
Multiple people close to Bannon insisted he was still not on speaking terms with the president and also steered clear of Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and their allies. Still, the ex-adviser got a big boost with the elevation of Mark Meadows to the role of chief of staff. The two are known to be chummy, with Meadows even appearing on Bannon’s “War Room” podcast in January, just weeks before his promotion.
Another former administration official told The Post that Bannon never really left the White House after he was fired, maintaining contacts and keeping up regular channels of communications with officials there.
A number of notable Bannon allies remain in the president’s orbit, including White House senior advisor Stephen Miller and economist Peter Navarro, who runs the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy.
A longtime China hawk, he has been a frequent target of the Chinese Communist Party in their official state media. In a statement, Bannon demurred on the extent of his White House ties.
“No need to speak to the President or the White House because anything we have to say goes up everyday on our show for the deplorables,” he told The Post.
Bannon was a political neophyte when Trump’s presidential campaign chose him to lead the effort during its tumultuous final months in 2016. He previously spent four years as executive chairman of Breitbart News. Before that he worked for years in entertainment as a conservative documentary filmmaker and spent time as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. A financial stake Bannon owns in TV’s “Seinfeld” still generates income for him.
After signing up with Trump’s campaign, Bannon oversaw many of the billionaire’s most audacious moves, including bringing Bill Clinton’s former accusers to Trump’s second debate with Hillary Clinton.
After a short and rocky tenure in the White House, Bannon was unceremoniously fired on Aug. 18, 2017. The removal came as the president came under intense criticism for his response to the “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., which left one woman dead. Days before his ouster, Bannon openly bragged to The American Prospect about his own internal White House battles.
Though he has always maintained unswerving support for the president, Bannon dug his own hole deeper after telling author Michael Wolff that he believed Donald Trump Jr’s. 2016 meeting with Russian operatives in Trump Tower was “unpatriotic” and “treasonous.” He later apologized, but the damage remains lasting.
“Steve left the White House almost three years ago, and left on bad terms by burning down the kids so that is always there,” said the insider. “Blowing up the kids is never good.”
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