September 9, 2021

By Bill Berkowitz

Fired by Trump, and rebuffed by Italy’s right-wing politicians, Steve Bannon has pivoted toward Brazil, where he’s being welcomed with open arms by its president, Jair Bolsonaro.

In August, at a “cyber symposium” hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, Bannon spoke candidly about Brazil’s 2022 presidential election, looking to make it the next MAGA battleground. Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of the Brazilian President, and a Brazilian congressman -- playing out of Donald Trump’s pre-election playbook -- told the crowd that his father is concerned that the election could be stolen.  Eduardo Bolsonaro said, “I'm going to tell a story. Imagine a country where, on election day, officials start counting votes minute by minute and then pause for a few hours. And when they start counting again, guess what, whoever was in second place is now in first.”

According to The New Republic’s Andre Pagliarini, in Brazil, President Bolsonaro “has even raised the prospect of military intervention to supposedly ensure the integrity of the vote, parading army tanks and troops in Brasília on August 10. To all but his most ardent supporters, the president’s real intentions are obvious. He is preparing to reject an unfavorable future outcome by sowing doubt now.”

Bannon followed Eduardo Bolsanaro to the podium, and called next year’s presidential race in Brazil the “second most important election in the world,” asserting that “Bolsonaro will win unless it’s stolen by, guess what, the machines.” Bannon also said that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro’s main opponent, is “the most dangerous leftist in the world, a criminal, a communist who is supported by the entire US press.” Shades of “Crooked Hillary!”

Bannon’s statements run directly counter to recent Brazilian polling that has Lula, the former president, who heads the center-left Workers’ Party, and the most prominent voice of the opposition, out front.

Pagliarini reported that “Eduardo Bolsonaro’s appearance at Lindell’s event appears to be the next step in this strategy. Bolsonaro is now attempting to link events in Brazil to the broader network of fantastical delusions, resentments, and outrages that fuel the Trump base and, by extension, much of the Republican Party. Bolsonaro —with Bannon apparently on his side — wants to make Brazil the next MAGA battleground.”

After the U.S. presidential election, Bolsonaro was slow to recognize Joe Biden’s victory. According to The Intercept, “For more than 30 days, he claimed that Trump had been a victim of electoral fraud.” Then he relented. Then, he changed his mind, telling “a Biden representative that he believed in fraud in the American elections, which stunned his interlocutor. Bolsonaro has made it clear to the US government that he considers Biden an illegitimate president.” 

Anyone familiar with the trajectory of Steve Bannon’s career knows that he’s always got multiple coals in the fire. Over the past five years, Steve Bannon, the senior counselor and chief strategist to former President Donald Trump has certainly had his ups and downs. He was a big winner when he helped Trump win the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton. He was a big loser when Trump fired him after less than seven months at the White House.

He was a big loser when he was arrested for allegedly siphoning money from a charity called "We Build the Wall," to use on personal expenses and purchases, but was pardoned by Trump. He was a big winner when he charted plans and raised money for Dignitatis Humanae Institute, his training school in Italy for right-wing activists, but this year, Italy’s Council of State definitively ruled against the project and shut it down.

And while the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, didn’t fare so well, for Bannon’s Boys, that was the beginning of another chapter.

Bannon has become a significant player in the podcasting world. On his War Room podcast, Bannon recently hosted Trump advisor Jason Miller.  According to UPROXX’s Kimberly Ricci, “While speaking with Bannon (who appeared to note that Miller was ‘with President Bolsonaro’ at some point), Miller bragged about his planned trip to Brazil, where it’s been feared that Bolsonaro is attempting to incite a military coup. In the below clip, Miller spoke about how excited he was to get down with Brazilian ‘patriots’ who love ‘free speech.’ He praised the Bolsonaro supporters who have been flocking to his new social media platform, Gettr, which caters to those right-wingers who want something different after Twitter banned Trump.”

Miller was detained by Brazilian police, and he issued a statement that read: “This afternoon my travelling party was questioned for three hours at the airport in Brasilia, after having attended this weekend’s CPAC Brasil Conference.” He added: “We were not accused of any wrongdoing, and told only that they ‘wanted to talk’. We informed them that we had nothing to say and were eventually released to fly back to the United States. Our goal of sharing free speech around the world continues!”

According to ProPublica,  “On his ‘War Room’ podcast, which has tens of millions of downloads, Bannon said President Trump lost because the Republican Party sold him out. ‘This is your call to action,’ Bannon said in February, a few weeks after Trump had pardoned him of federal fraud charges.”

Bannon’s plan is “to seize control of the GOP from the bottom up.” “It’s going to be a fight, but this is a fight that must be won, we don’t have an option,” Bannon said on his show in May. “We’re going to take this back village by village … precinct by precinct.”

ProPublica pointed out that Bannon’s call went viral: “Viral posts promoting the plan racked up millions of views on pro-Trump websites, talk radio, fringe social networks and message boards, and programs aligned with the QAnon conspiracy theory.”  And people started volunteering to become GOP precinct officers.  

Don’t cry for Steve Bannon. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Bannon has a net worth of $20 million. And don’t sleep on him either! Bannon backing Bolsonaro in Brazil in 2022 seems to already set in motion. Bannon back with Trump for a 2024 run? Don’t bet against it.

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