But this isn’t just an issue for his show. MAGA Republicans were quick to lament the political impact of losing Bannon as a political activist while he appeals his 2022 conviction for failing to comply with a subpoena from a House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The sentence had already been stayed pending appeal, but in May a federal appeals court refused to vacate the conviction.
Bannon has been ordered to report to prison by July 1 and will serve his four-month sentence, with his expected release just days before the election.
“It’s not ideal. He has a huge audience,” said Charlie Kirk, a right-wing Trump ally and activist who founded a conservative students group that has forged strong ties to the party’s evangelical wing. But Bannon’s absence could boost voter turnout, energize his base and “create a bigger cheer than the show would.”
David Bossie, a close adviser to Trump and co-chair of the Republican National Convention, called it an effort to “silence Steve,” telling NBC News that Bannon was “doing a lot of very important, strategic work behind the scenes that influences the conservative movement and campaigns.”
Trump portrayed Bannon as the latest victim of the Justice Department’s “desperate efforts to not only jail him, but all Republicans.” In a post on Truth Social, Trump called the outcome “a total American tragedy.”
The Justice Department is following its normal legal procedures, including in a separate case involving Peter Navarro, who is serving a federal sentence in Florida after being convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a committee subpoena on January 6.
There is no doubt that Trump will feel the loss of Bannon keenly.
Mr. Bannon turned his ultra-conservative outlet, Breitbart News, into a staunch supporter of Mr. Trump in 2016. After the election, he joined Mr. Trump as a senior White House aide, but fell out of favor and was ousted from the administration within a year.
His show offered him a way to return to Trump’s inner circle, where he defended the drive to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud and his battles with the former president’s foes in Congress and within the Republican Party.
Bannon is not a household name to most Americans, but he is a giant among pundits and establishment figures, especially die-hard political junkies.
Critics have portrayed Bannon as the ringleader of a populist insurrection that catapulted Trump to the presidency and a malicious propagandist, while Democrats say he helped fuel the former president’s most inflammatory positions and see his show as a way to create a supportive environment for Trump.
“I know you can’t get happiness from other people, but Steve Bannon going to prison did just that,” Anthony Scaramucci, a former Trump adviser and now critic, wrote on X.
Bannon has critics on the right who say his influence has been exaggerated, but that hasn’t stopped him, his supporters and even his opponents from heaping praise on his efforts.
Bannon said Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel’s supporters had caused the chairwoman’s standing to deteriorate so much that she was forced to leave the party. “The RNC is in crisis because we cut off funding to these supporters,” he said.
Tim Miller, a former Republican strategist and leading anti-Trump figure, points to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)’s firing of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as evidence that Bannon can sway the Republican Party.
“Everybody at Fox was against Gaetz. Every single hour. Every single person,” Miller said. “And they took down the speaker of the House.”
“Because they were able to use the grassroots power of MAGA to convince enough people, enough members, to support them,” he said. “I mean, that’s pretty crazy.”
“I’m hungry for something substance”
Most days, you can find Bannon in his basement studio, down a narrow staircase a block from the Supreme Court.
There, Mr. Bannon sits under the bright lights of a TV studio while a skeleton crew hurries to prepare for guest appearances, which on one day in late February included firebrand conservative lawyer Mike Davis, former Trump White House counsel Mark Paoletta and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell.
At 10am the show began with a cold open.
Bannon’s preparation involves reading the day’s headlines with discerning accuracy and watching cable TV news almost constantly.
