Who is Steve Bannon? Meet Donald Trump’s controversial chief strategist
DONALD Trump’s new chief strategist Steve Bannon was once labelled as America’s “most dangerous political operative”. But who is he?
Donald Trump has appointed Steve Bannon as his chief strategist
Mr Trump has appointed Mr Bannon as his chief strategist and senior counsel, giving him as much power as his new Republican chief of staff Reince Priebus.
Mr Bannon said that he and his new colleague “had a very successful partnership on the campaign, one that led to victory”.
He added: “We will have that same partnership in working to help President-elect Trump achieve his agenda.”
The President-elect described Mr Bannon as a “highly qualified leader” but his appointment has been met with a mixed response.
Grassroots activists has hailed the decision as proof of Mr Trump’s intention to shake up the Washington elite.
But others raised concerns over the fact that Mr Bannon ran the radical “alt-right” website Breitbart News for much of the past decade.
He served as the website’s executive chairman from March 2012 to August 2016, when he left to work with the Trump campaign.
Republican Party consultant John Weaver tweeted: “The racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America.”
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Who is Steve Bannon?
As chairman of Breitbart, he has been credited with fuelling the rise of the “alt-right” movement which helped to propel Mr Trump into power.
The Anti-Defamation League has slammed the movement as “a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists”.
The 62-year-old was born into a family of modest means in Norfolk, Virginia.
“I come from a blue-collar, Irish Catholic, pro-Kennedy, pro-union family of Democrats,” he told Bloomberg in 2015.
Mr Bannon was pictured at Trump Towers days before the announcement
After a stint in the US Navy, he studied at Harvard Business School and landed a job as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.
In 1990, he left the bank to help start an investment firm, Bannon & Co, which acquired a stake in the US comedy show Seinfeld.
Mr Bannon then moved into film production and made a celebratory documentary about actor-turned-President Ronald Reagan called In The Face of Evil.
The film caught the attention of the right-wing media and led to him taking over Breitbart in March 2012 after its founder Andrew Breitbart died of a heart attack.
Mr Bannon was previously chairman of Breitbart
Mr Bannon has been divorced three times.
His second wife Mary Louise Piccard, with whom he has twin daughters, accused him attacking and threatening her.
She said he grabbed her “by the throat and arm” and said that he would “take the girls and leave”.
Mr Bannon’s spokeswomen has said: "Mr Bannon and his ex-wife and his children have a great relationship," and noted that all charges against him were dropped.
He and another ex-wife, Diane Clohesy, were allegedly registered to vote in an empty house due for demolition in Florida, in apparent violation of the state’s election law.
Florida’s 29 electoral college votes played a significant part in Mr Trump’s election victory.