Donald Trump’s allies have become increasingly emboldened to put forward their boldest ideas as Trump prepares to return to office, suggesting he will run for an unconstitutional third term in 2028 and accusing the news media of being involved in a criminal conspiracy with prosecutors against him.
Those suggestions, from Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon, came at a self-congratulatory gala dinner for conservatives in New York on Sunday. At times the comments seemed to be the product of the euphoria that permeated those present.
The underlying message was clear: With Trump back in the White House and with Bannon renewing his influence with the newly elected president, at least the most extreme and polarizing proposals are up for consideration.
“The Viceroy Mike Davis tells me, since it doesn’t actually say consecutive, maybe we’ll do it again in ’28?” Bannon said Trump may be on the run again in his remarks at the New York Young Republican Club’s gala dinner, where a Trump adviser also fell over the lectern and off stage.
Riding the wave of self-congratulatory sentiment in the room, Bannon, flouting the black-tie dress code with a wax jacket and black-collared shirt, continued a campaign of retaliation against Trump’s perceived enemies in the news media and at the Justice Department .
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“We want retribution and we will get retribution. You have to. It’s not personal, it’s not personal,” Bannon told the raucous room. “They need to learn which populist, nationalist force is on the receiving end.
“I need investigations, trials and then incarceration. And then I’m just talking about the media. Should the media be involved in the vast criminal conspiracy against President Trump? Should Andrew Weissmann be on MSNBC and Rachel Maddow and all?
“We want all your emails, all your text messages, everything you’ve done. You conspired with Merrick Garland, Nancy Pelosi, Lisa Monaco and Jack Smith,” Bannon said, naming the attorney general, the former Democratic House speaker, the deputy attorney general and the special counsel of Trump controlled.
The threatening rhetoric, and especially the concept of using a criminal conspiracy statute against Trump’s political enemies, has been seeping into Bannon’s orbit for some time since the election. But Sunday night’s gala marked the first time it was pushed outside the Maga ecosystem.
The comments also turned bizarre at several points when Bannon began talking about the importance of the bond market, perhaps with a nod to his former life as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, and wondering whether New York Mayor Eric Adams was a QAnon conspiracy theorist.
In a night full of unexpected twists, the most dramatic moment came earlier when senior Trump campaign adviser Alex Bruesewitz fell over the lectern and off the stage in an apparent medical episode. Organizers later said he was treated at the scene and speculated he had suffered a seizure.
The gala took another bizarre turn when Trump’s deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino took the stage to fill the moment, but was interrupted when he received a call from the president-elect himself, apparently asking about Bruesewitz.
Scavino put the call on loudspeaker and had Trump address the gala in real time, but Trump mainly praised Bruesewitz instead. “I guess the show goes on,” a stunned Bannon employee told his neighbor as he watched the situation unfold.
The gala dinner at Cipriani on Wall Street attracted the same Trumpworld figures as it has for years, including Trump’s in-house counsel Boris Epshteyn, Nigel Farage, Trump legal adviser Mike Davis and a cast of Bannon allies, including the emcee, Raheem Kassam. . Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, was invited but did not appear.
Sitting at the table directly in front of the stage and next to Farage, the other guest of honour, Epshteyn was singled out by Bannon for orchestrating Trump’s legal victories, including the dismissal of the criminal cases against him. “Boris, I don’t know how you did it,” Bannon said.
