Bill Berkowitz for BuzzFlash: Will Bannon’s European School for Right-Wing Gladiators Be Derailed by Wall Fraud Indictment?

September 1, 2020

Steve Bannon (Gage Skidmore)

By Bill Berkowitz

Steve Bannon is a man of many projects – both in the US and in Europe -- all of which promote his brand of white right-wing economic nationalism. With his arrest for fraud, the future viability of these projects may be in question. Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former top advisor, along with three others, has been arrested and charged with perpetuating a massive fraudulent scheme called “We Build the Wall.” Bannon was allegedly part of an online fundraising effort that brought in more than $25 million, ostensibly to build a wall on the Mexican border. Instead, the Fab Four built a luxurious lifestyle at their naïve donors’ expense. Will Bannon’s arrest jeopardize one of his biggest projects; the development of a training center for white right-wing nationalists?

Bannon was purportedly raising money for Trump’s wall, a wall  that Mexico was supposed to pay for. Bannon and his three amigos -- Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, and Timothy Shea – “defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction.  While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle.  We thank the USPIS for their partnership in investigating this case, and we remain dedicated to rooting out and prosecuting fraud wherever we find it.” Audrey Strauss, the acting United States attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement last week.

Bannon, facing 20 years if convicted, pleaded not guilty and is currently free on a $5 million dollar bond. He called the indictment a “fiasco” to “stop people who want to build the wall.” Kolfage called it a “witch hunt” by a “weaponized judicial system” trying to destroy Trump supporters. Fox News’ Lou Dobbs blamed the “deep state” for Bannon’s arrest. On Dobbs’ Fox News Lou Dobbs Tonight program he said: "Somehow, the deep state launched agents of the U.S. Postal Service to arrest Mr. Bannon.”

The Guardian’s Tom Lutz wrote recently that “Bannon is the latest figure with close ties to the president to have found himself in trouble with the law. Others include former campaign chair Paul Manafort, former lawyer Michael Cohen and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.”

According to ProPublica’s Yeganeh Torbati, “Near the end of a lengthy indictment detailing fraud allegations against … Bannon, … and his associates, federal prosecutors reveal that they intend to seize the assets of a murky nonprofit organization Bannon launched in 2017 to promote ‘economic nationalism.’”

In a story co-published with The Texas Tribune, ProPublica’s Yeganeh identified the organization as the California nonprofit, Citizens of the American Republic (COAR), which promotes Bannon’s films and podcasts – and Trumpism. According to its homepage, COAR “seeks to advance the ideals of Economic Nationalism and American Sovereignty…. COAR’S goal is to change Washington, and America, by promoting policies that put American citizens first.”

According to Yeganeh, “Throughout the 24-page indictment, the group appears to be referenced as ‘Non-Profit-1’ in a scheme in which Bannon and his partners were allegedly looting a crowdsourced charity, We Build the Wall, for personal gain. The indictment never outright states that ‘Non-Profit-1’ is Citizens of the American Republic, but it describes it as an ‘organization founded by [Bannon] with the stated purpose of promoting economic nationalism and American sovereignty,’ which closely matches the nonprofit’s own stated aims.”

Bannon challenges global Catholicism and stokes European nationalism

Following his abrupt dismissal from the Trump administration in 2017, Bannon focused on European projects. His major initiative is to build a far-right nationalist training academy – a school for populist gladiators -- at the historic Trisulti Monastery in Italy.

Last year, Bannon, a Catholic, criticized the globalism of Pope Francis, saying “He’s the administrator of the church, and he’s also a politician. This is the problem. ... He’s constantly putting all the faults in the world on the populist nationalist movement.”

"The Catholic Church is heading to a financial crisis that will lead to a bankruptcy," Bannon said. "It could actually bring down, not the theology, not the teachings, not the community of the Catholic Church, but the physical and financial apparatus of this church."

Criticizing the Catholic Church is nothing new for Bannon. At a 2014 Vatican-held International Conference on Human Dignity – sponsored by the Rome-based Christian organization Dignitatis Humanae Institute -- Bannon told the audience via Skype that: "We're at the very beginning stages of a very brutal and bloody conflict, of which if the people in this room, the people in the church, do not bind together and really form what I feel is an aspect of the church militant, to really be able to not just stand with our beliefs, but to fight for our beliefs against this new barbarity that's starting, that will completely eradicate everything that we've been bequeathed over the last 2,000, 2,500 years."

Alternet's Ben Norton described The Dignitatis Humanae Institute (DHI) as “a religious group that advocates for 'the active participation of the Christian faith in the public square.' It promotes what it calls 'authentic human dignity' by, in its words, 'supporting Christians in public life, assisting them in presenting effective and coherent responses to increasing efforts to silence the Christian voice in the public square.'"

Bannon’s School for Gladiators is sponsored by the Dignitatis Humanae Institute (DHI). The school project has been under fire by the Italian government but in May 2020 an Italian court supported the legality of the lease agreement and the school began to enroll students in June.   

A publication called Church Militant noted in a late-May story titled “Bannon’s School for Gladiators Vindicated,” that “It was a year ago, almost to the day, that Steve Bannon declared the legal challenge bogus. ‘All of this stuff is just dust being kicked up by the Left,’ he said. But Bannon wasn't diminishing its importance. On the contrary, he went on to say, ‘The fight for Trisulti is a microcosm of the fight for the Judeo-Christian West.’"

According to Church Militant’s Kristine Christlieb, “Steven Bannon first became acquainted with DHI when he as invited to address the organization's 2014 annual conference. He currently chairs DHI's board, and together with [Benjamin] Harnwell, [director of DHI] planned for Trisulti abbey to be both the headquarters for DHI and the campus for the Academy for the Judeo-Christian West. According to Bannon, the academy is going to be a ‘school of gladiators,’ a place where a new generation of political leaders could be trained in the values and traditions of Christendom.

With the Italian legal challenges put to bed, Harnwell says DHI ‘is pleased to announce with great joy that registrations will open for the long-awaited Academy for the Judeo-Christian West on June 1, which — for now — will be online distance learning, managed and carried out directly from the United States.’"

Will Bannon’s recent arrest stall progress on his school for right-wing gladiators? DHI’s Benjamin Harnwell is concerned about how much time and effort will be diverted towards Bannon’s defense. "How much time, money and effort will he now have to dedicate — like me — in order to clear his name? Energy that cannot in the meantime be dedicated to fighting the systemic, corrupt injustices of the global elites,” Harnwell remarked.

Barnwell claimed that Bannon’s arrest was aimed at “destroy[ing] his credibility.” "The forces of darkness — against whom Steve Bannon has been the most effective, uncompromising and valiant champion on the world stage — will stop at nothing to destroy anyone who dares to stand up to them," Harnwell said recently.