Steve Bannon
Steve Bannon is named in 30 events across the Capture Cascade Timeline, from 2014 to 2025.
Quick facts
| Full name | Stephen Kevin Bannon |
| Born | November 27, 1953, Norfolk, Virginia |
| Education | Virginia Tech (BS); Georgetown University (MA, National Security Studies); Harvard Business School (MBA) |
| Known for | Co-founding and running Breitbart News; serving as 2016 Trump campaign CEO and White House Chief Strategist; the War Room podcast |
| Source of wealth | Stake in Seinfeld syndication rights via his firm Bannon & Co.; Goldman Sachs banking; Hollywood production |
Key positions
| Role | Organization | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Officer | U.S. Navy | 1977–1983 |
| Investment banker | Goldman Sachs | 1985–1990 |
| Founder | Bannon & Co. | 1990 |
| Co-founder; Executive Chairman | Breitbart News | Co-founded 2007; chairman 2012–2018 |
| Board member | Cambridge Analytica | 2014–2018 |
| Chief Executive | Trump presidential campaign | Aug–Nov 2016 |
| Chief Strategist | White House | Jan–Aug 2017 |
| Member, Principals Committee | National Security Council | Jan–Apr 2017 |
| Host | War Room podcast | 2019–present |
Biography
Stephen Kevin Bannon was born November 27, 1953, in Norfolk, Virginia, into a working-class Irish Catholic family; his father worked as an AT&T telephone lineman and middle manager. He served as a U.S. Navy officer from 1977 to 1983, earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, and joined Goldman Sachs as an investment banker. After leaving Goldman in 1990 he founded Bannon & Co. The firm helped negotiate the sale of Castle Rock Entertainment to Ted Turner and, in lieu of cash at closing, accepted a stake in TV rights to five Castle Rock shows — including Seinfeld, then in its third season. That participation became the foundation of his fortune; Seinfeld has since generated billions in syndication revenue. Bannon also worked as an executive producer on Hollywood films and used his wealth to fund right-wing documentaries and projects, including the book Clinton Cash.
Bannon co-founded Breitbart News with Andrew Breitbart in 2007 and became executive chairman after Breitbart’s death in 2012. Under his leadership he described the site as “the platform for the alt-right” (NPR, November 2016). His rise was financed in significant part by hedge-fund family Robert and Rebekah Mercer, who according to Joshua Green’s Devil’s Bargain invested in Breitbart and were instrumental in installing Bannon and Kellyanne Conway atop the Trump campaign in August 2016. Bannon also sat on the board of Cambridge Analytica, the Mercer-backed data firm that in 2018 was revealed to have harvested tens of millions of Facebook profiles for political targeting. He has described his recognition of “rootless white males” with “monster power” in online gaming and chan communities — a constituency he sought to mobilize politically by hiring Milo Yiannopoulos to cultivate the Gamergate audience (Byline Times, September 2019; Green, Devil’s Bargain).
As Trump’s Chief Strategist (January–August 2017), Bannon was, in an unusual move, given a seat on the NSC Principals Committee in January 2017; he attended one meeting before being removed in April 2017 as the council was restructured. He left the White House in August 2017. In January 2018, Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury published Bannon’s description of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting as “treasonous”; Trump disavowed him, the Mercers cut ties, and he was forced out of Breitbart. He later articulated his media doctrine to the journalist Michael Lewis: “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit” (Bloomberg, February 2018).
In August 2020 federal prosecutors charged Bannon in the “We Build the Wall” scheme, alleging he and others defrauded donors who believed their money funded border-wall construction; he was arrested aboard the yacht of fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui. Trump pardoned him on January 19, 2021, but the pardon did not cover state charges, and on February 11, 2025, Bannon pleaded guilty in Manhattan state court to one count of scheme to defraud (no jail time; three-year conditional period; barred from charity fundraising or officer roles in New York). Separately, he was convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress on July 22, 2022, for defying a January 6 Committee subpoena; he served a four-month sentence at FCI Danbury from July to October 2024 and resumed his War Room podcast on release. On February 9, 2026, the Justice Department under U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro moved to dismiss that contempt conviction with prejudice. Bannon continues to host War Room, a top-ranked political podcast and a central platform in MAGA factional disputes.
Sources
- Joshua Green, Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency (Penguin Press, July 18, 2017) — biography; campaign role and “activate that army” / “rootless white males” quotes.
- Miles Parks, “Steve Bannon’s Own Words Show Why The ‘alt-right’ Really Loves Him” (NPR, November 18, 2016) — Breitbart as “platform for the alt-right.”
- Michael Lewis, “Has Anyone Seen the President?” (Bloomberg, February 9, 2018) — “flood the zone with shit” quote.
- Simon Parkin, “Steve Bannon Saw the ‘Monster Power’ of Angry Gamers While Farming Gold in World of Warcraft” (Byline Times, September 1, 2019) — gaming-industry background, “monster power” framing.
- “Leaders of ‘We Build the Wall’ Online Fundraising Campaign Charged with Defrauding Hundreds of Thousands of Donors” (DOJ, U.S. Attorney SDNY, August 20, 2020) — fraud charges.
- “Trump pardons Bannon” (Reuters, January 20, 2021) — January 19, 2021 presidential pardon.