Steve Bannon took the spotlight at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the gathering of conservatives held this week in Washington DC. At the end of his speech, the former Trump strategist had the “brilliant idea” of haranguing the crowd with a quick but obvious Nazi salute, aping the gesture made by Elon Musk at the pre-Inauguration Day rally, also held in the U.S. capital last Jan. 20.
On the stage of CPAC, an event organized by the U.S. right wing since 1974, which this year will also be attended by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Bannon riled up the crowd with the now classic “Fight! Fight! Fight!” which is the battle cry launched by Donald Trump in Butler last July immediately after he was wounded in the ear by a bullet in an apparent assassination attempt.
The image of the bleeding MAGA leader on the stage in the Pennsylvania city quickly became one of the iconic moments of the U.S. election campaign. On Thursday night, Bannon imitated not only Trump, but also his most trusted ally, Elon Musk, by launching into an improbable Nazi salute that from the outset sparked a great deal of controversy.
“Steve Bannon’s long and disturbing history of stoking antisemitism and hate, threatening violence, and empowering extremists is well known and well documented”, the Anti-Defamation League wrote on X, “We are not surprised, but are concerned about the normalization of this behavior.”
Bannon, the former Trump strategist, for his part, defended himself by saying that his was only a greeting to those present and not a reference to Nazi ideology. However, his gesture was also roundly condemned by foreign leaders, such as the president of France’s far-right Rassemblement National party, Jordan Bardella.
The latter was supposed to give a speech at the event, but decided to step back after the episode. For his part, Bannon missed no opportunity to attack the European politician, calling him “unworthy to lead France”. “He’s a boy, not a man,” he added, explaining that his gesture was nothing more than a token of thanks to the audience.
During his speech, moreover, Bannon went on to say that the country could only benefit from a third Trump term, which is prohibited by the Constitution. “The future of America is MAGA” he said. “We want Trump in ’28!”.
