Steve Bannon took some time out of his usual War Room programming on Friday to lament a fallen soldier, a true MAGA martyr: failed attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz.
“We took a casualty today,” said Bannon, referring to Donald Trump’s Cabinet pick stepping down amid allegations that he trafficked and had sex with an underage girl at a 2017 sex party. “One of the best warriors we have in all his imperfections, and he’s quite imperfect, as Donald Trump is imperfect, as Stephen K. Bannon is super imperfect.”
In Bannon’s eyes it was the “deep state” that tanked his nomination, and not the fact that the House Ethics Committee reportedly had mounting evidence of Gaetz’s misconduct, including a history of Venmo payments for sex.
“It’s a big defeat for President Trump today. And trust me, those demons and jackals and hyenas up there in the United States Senate, Mitch McConnell, that crowd, they know it. Yo. They know it,” Bannon fumed.
Other members of the Trumpsphere felt similarly dejected. “Trump getting elected was beyond epic, no doubt. But Gaetz as AG? That was the cherry on top,” War Room chief financial officer and chief operating officer Grace Chong wrote on X. “Not gonna lie, I might’ve been more hyped for that. But, Steve Bannon trained us well with ‘next man up.’ He really prepared us for this battle.”
“MAGA morale is way down currently. The only thing that can save it right now would be Kash Patel for FBI Director,” right-wing influencer Owen Shroyer posted on X.
Bannon, like much of MAGAworld, was initially overjoyed at the news of Gaetz for attorney general, warning everyone he didn’t like that they’d “better be worried.” The collective meltdown in response to Gaetz stepping down shows how much faith the far right placed in the former Florida representative to blindly carry out Trump’s agenda.
