Steve Bannon said Wednesday that while he doesn’t want U.S. involvement in Iran, he expects most of the MAGA movement to coalesce behind President Donald Trump, whatever he decides.
“I know, and particularly his skills as a communicator, that he will come and walk people through it,” Bannon told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “And the MAGA movement — there’ll be some [who disagree], but the vast majority of the MAGA movement will go, ‘Look. We trust your judgment. You’ve walked us through this. We don’t like it. In fact, maybe we hate it. But, you know, we’ll get on board.’”
Bannon and other Trump loyalists like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson have come out forcefully against U.S. involvement in the Middle East, citing concerns that America will be dragged unwittingly into another “forever war.”
Bannon said he remains convinced that the U.S. should stay out of Iran, although he trusts Trump’s leadership.
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“We’re in the early stages of the kinetic part of the third world war right now,” Bannon said. “I think this is one of the most, if not the most important time in history, in America, in modern American history. This is much more dangerous than the late 1930s. Much more dangerous.”
On Wednesday, Trump signaled to reporters at the White House that there may be an avenue open for the conflict to be resolved through diplomacy, saying that Iran is still in conversation with the United States about a potential deal. But he also left the door open for U.S. involvement, and the Department of Defense has strengthened its defensive position in the Middle East in apparent preparation for potential armed conflict.
Bannon also expressed deep skepticism for the urgency with which the United States is moving toward making a decision about involvement and for the justification Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others have given for strikes on Iran.
“My mantra right now? The Israelis have to finish what they started,” Bannon said. “They have total air superiority. In fact, I would say they have air supremacy. They have to. There’s no hurry to rush for the United States.”
He said that regime change in Iran should be led by Iranians, from the bottom up, not outside forces, and questioned why it’s being discussed at all.
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Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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