Trump campaign adds Breitbart CEO, throws out teleprompter
Trump campaign adds Breitbart CEO, throws out teleprompter
The Donald Trump campaign has a new CEO, Steve Bannon. Bannon is taking a break from his job running the conservative Breitbart News Network to do it.
Much like Trump himself, Bannon’s career has taken him from Wall Street to Hollywood to politics. He was a surface warfare officer in the Navy, then an investment banker Goldman Sachs. He also started a boutique investment house, eventually negotiating the sale of Castlerock to Time Warner, a deal which got him a stake in the TV sitcom, Seinfeld
That deal helped bankroll his move from Wall Street to Hollywood, where he began producing hard-edged conservative documentary films.
That’s how Bannon eventually met Andrew Breitbart, eventually becoming the Chairman of the Breitbart News Network.
“They’ve really been the mouthpiece of the Trump campaign in a way that Fox News was the mouthpiece of previous Republican campaigns,” Fairleigh Dickenson political science professor Dan Cassino said.
Cassino said Breitbart has gone all-in on Trump, and that has not made him many friends in among “mainstream conservatives.”
Gianno Caldwell is a Republican political consultant. He says the move to bring in Bannon might actually make some sense. Think of it as an “un-shakeup”, while also removing any idea that Trump might temper his message for the general election.
“There was a need to do something new and think what he’s doing somewhat new and I think it’s a strategy that may pay dividends,” Caldwell said.
So now the Trump campaign has Bannon and reportedly former Fox news CEO Roger Ailes, this has got people thinking, is this return his campaign’s original M-O, or perhaps the possible beginning of a new, post-campaign media company, with an audience already sold on the idea of letting “Trump be Trump.”
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
