Trump, Bannon embrace at New York Young Republican Club gala

Former President Trump and his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, were seen embracing Saturday night at the New York Young Republican Club’s annual gala, in a moment captured in a Reuters photograph.

The event featured a keynote address from Trump, who appeared to double down on remarks that he would be a “dictator” on day one in office if reelected in order to secure the southern border and drill on protected U.S. lands. The event, held at Cipriani Wall Street, also included speeches by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.).

The event invite indicates that Bannon was among a list of honored guests that also included former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, both of whom led Trump campaign team investigations into voter fraud in 2020. Giuliani is a co-defendant along with Trump in the Georgia election case over efforts to overturn Trump’s loss there.

Bannon, largely the architect behind Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, has had a turbulent relationship with the former president and some of his early White House aides. Bannon left the White House in 2017 amid personnel shake-ups and later came under fire for comments he made in an explosive 2018 book about Trump’s time in office, which quoted Bannon extensively.

Before Trump left the White House, Trump pardoned Bannon, who was charged with defrauding thousands of donors in connection with a fundraising campaign for a private border wall. Bannon refused to comply with a subpoena to testify before the Jan. 6 committee, and he was subsequently convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress.

The photo of the embrace was the clearest indication in recent months that Bannon and Trump appear to be back on good terms.

In remarks on a recent podcast episode, Bannon suggested he was closely involved with Trump’s plans for a second term in the White House. Bannon and another Trump ally, Kash Patel, emphasized that the former president is “dead serious” about exacting revenge on his political enemies and on the media if he returns to the White House. They warned the media to take the threats seriously.

“And I want the ‘Morning Joe’ producers that watch us and all the producers that watch us — this is [not just] rhetoric. We’re absolutely dead serious,” Bannon said on the podcast referring to MSNBC’s show. “You cannot have a constitutional republic and allow what these deep-staters have done to the country.

“The deep state — the administrative state, the fourth branch of government, never mentioned in the Constitution — is going to be taken apart, brick by brick, and the people that did these evil deeds will be held accountable and prosecuted, criminal prosecutions,” Bannon added.