NYTimes | Mr. Bannon is in some ways a perplexing figure: a far-right ideologue who made his millions investing in “Seinfeld”; a former Goldman Sachs banker who has reportedly called himself a “Leninist” with a goal “to destroy the state” and “bring everything crashing down.” He has also called progressive women “a bunch of dykes” and, in a 2014 email to one of his editors, wrote
of the Republican leadership, “Let the grassroots turn on the hate
because that’s the ONLY thing that will make them do their duty.”
A
few conservatives have spoken out against Mr. Bannon. Ben Shapiro, a
former Breitbart News editor who resigned in protest last spring, said Mr. Bannon was a “vindictive, nasty figure.” Glenn Beck called him a “nightmare” and a “terrifying man.”
But most Republican officeholders have so far remained silent. Some have dismissed fears
about Mr. Bannon. Other Republicans have praised him, like Reince
Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, whom Mr.
Trump announced as his chief of staff on Sunday, and who said
Mr. Bannon could not be such a bad guy because he served in the Navy
and went to Harvard Business School. Some saw the pick of Mr. Priebus as
evidence that Mr. Trump would not be leaning so much on Mr. Bannon. But
don’t be fooled by Mr. Priebus’s elevated title; in the press release
announcing both hires, Mr. Bannon’s name appeared above Mr. Priebus’s. In a little more than two months Mr. Bannon, and his toxic ideology, will be sitting down the hall from the Oval Office.
