type: timeline_event
At Turning Point USA's AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Steve Bannon described escalating conservative infighting as "a proxy on '28" for the 2028 presidential election succession battle. Bannon sharply attacked Ben Shapiro, calling him "a cancer" and a "hardcore never-Trumper," and accused Shapiro and Mark Levin of prioritizing Israel over American interests.
Bannon claimed "the Israel First crowd" was undermining the America First agenda, stating "the Middle East is a sideshow and Israel's a sideshow to a sideshow." The attack exposed deepening fissures in the MAGA coalition between nationalist isolationists aligned with Bannon and pro-Israel conservatives represented by Shapiro and the Daily Wire.
The public rupture at a major conservative gathering signaled that battles over post-Trump succession were already fragmenting the right-wing movement. Bannon positioned himself as the guardian of populist-nationalist orthodoxy against what he characterized as establishment conservative voices who prioritize foreign policy over domestic economic nationalism.