By all appearances, Steve Bannon likes to think that he represents the soul of the Maga movement. He sees himself as a tireless champion of the common man, fighting their battles against America’s corrupt elites. It’s not for nothing that his radio show is called War Room and carried by the Real America’s Voice network. But just like everybody else who has worked closely with Donald Trump, Bannon is either delusional or trying to delude. He’s not the everyman – he’s the corrupt elite.
This was driven home once again on Thursday, when Bannon surrendered himself to New York prosecutors to face charges of defrauding donors to We Build the Wall, a non-profit organization that raised over $25m to build a wall to keep immigrants from crossing America’s southern border. Although donors to the group were assured that 100% of their money would be used on construction, large sums were siphoned into the pockets of those running the group. And who as chairman of the board allegedly took the greatest sum of all? None other than Steve Bannon.
This affair – in which two people have already pleaded guilty – is a very direct example of a prominent figure in the Maga movement lining their pockets with the money of unsuspecting marks. But it also stands as a metaphor for the movement as a whole. Far from standing up for the interests of “ordinary Americans”, Maga exists to funnel money, power and prestige to a small elite while not lifting a finger to improve the lives of anyone else.
During his first presidential campaign in 2016, Trump – with Bannon at his side – tried to present himself as a champion of the downtrodden. He promised to bring jobs back from overseas and help Americans get over their economic anxiety. But as soon as he got into office, he governed as a plutocrat. His one significant legislative achievement before the coronavirus pandemic was a 2017 tax bill which forced lower-income groups to pay more and allowed higher income groups to pay less. And every year the administration proposed steep cuts to the social programs used by real ordinary Americans, including a 2021 budget which would have cut $1.2tn from Medicaid, food stamps and elsewhere.
In office, Trump continued to benefit from the economic recovery which had begun under Barack Obama, allowing him to tout high employment and wage levels. But just as the Biden administration is largely powerless to fight inflation right now, this economic performance had precious little to do with Trump. When he did intervene – for instance by launching a trade war with China – it was in ways which harmed manufacturers and cost American jobs. But for Trump and the Maga movement it’s posturing for their nationalist base, not the real effect on real people, which matters.
But Trump and Bannon have done something even more pernicious than this. For they have also tried to exclude a large part of the population from even being considered as “ordinary Americans” at all. Theirs is an agenda not for the racially diverse working and middle classes that actually exist in America, but for a narrow white subset of it. They have made a mythic folk hero out of the white male worker, promising to return the country to an era like the 1950s, in which such people reigned supreme. That they then have actually done little to help even white workers should not obscure the fact that they have also poured hatred and vitriol on the immigrants and people of color who do so much of America’s actual work.
All of which brings us neatly back to Bannon and the wall. It’s no coincidence that when Bannon left office, he dedicated himself to building the wall rather than building working-class communities. The border wall has endured as the ultimate symbol of Trumpism because the soul of his movement is racism and exclusion, not charity and assistance. It is through the stoking of hatred and division that Maga elites keep the punters engaged and happy to open their wallets. It’s also how they keep themselves rich and – through blocking any attempt to actually help working people – ensure the poor stay poor.
This, the true driving force of Trumpism, makes a mockery of conservatives who pretend that the Republican party can become a “multiethnic, multiracial, working-class party”. The proposition is absurd not only because the party is in hock to a movement built on racial hate but also because the same movement has never evinced any interest in actually helping “ordinary Americans”. Its leading figures will eventually depart from life leaving wealthy heirs but no record of ever having helped the people they supposedly stand for. In the end, Maga is nothing but a scam with hate in its heart and other people’s money in its pockets. Just ask Steve Bannon.
Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States and host of the podcast America Explained
