One of Donald Trump’s first executive orders as president was to declare the day of his inauguration to be a “National Day of Patriotic Devotion.” Given that phrase has been a very common one in North Korea for seven decades and was eerily similar to proclamations in Nazi Germany and the Stalin-era Soviet Union, it was only natural to wonder–was the Donald inadvertently channeling dictators?
Well, a positively chilling interview with Trump’s right-hand man has a lot of people–including this writer–wondering if it was really inadvertent after all. On Wednesday night, chief White House strategist Steve Bannon told The New York Times that the media would be better off if it sat down and shut up for awhile.
Bannon sat down with The Times’ Mike Grynbaum for his first mainstream media interview since being formally sworn in. Officially, Bannon arranged the chat so he could prop up White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who has taken a well-deserved beating for his thin-skinned and blatantly dishonest approach to handling the press.
As far as Bannon is concerned, though, it should be “a badge of honor” to be despised by the media. After all, Bannon said, the media has “zero integrity, zero intelligence, and zero hard work.” This is coming from a guy who, until becoming head of the Trump campaign, was the boss of one of the most notorious fake news sites on the Web, Breitbart News. And this is coming from a guy who serves alongside a social media chief who is a notorious fake news peddler.
But then Bannon swung from merely absurd to frightening. He declared that the Trump administration sees the media as “the opposition party,” and loudly wondered why most outlets haven’t “fired or terminated” the reporters who covered the campaign.
Then came the most chilling moment of all. Bannon mused that the media still has egg on its face for not seeing Trump’s upset victory sooner, and needed to understand “why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.” How did Bannon propose to make the media understand?
“The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while.”
I had to read this twice to believe it. Trump’s consigliere has effectively told the media to keep quiet and let Trump’s lying and dissembling go unanswered. Oh, silly me. The White House is actually trying to give the American people “alternative facts,” so the media has no business questioning them–and would do well to pass them on out of patriotic devotion.
Let’s not beat around the bush. The number-two man in the White House has announced in capital letters that he wants dictatorship. Then again, it’s not all that surprising that Bannon would rather have the media zip their lips. After all, he once described himself as a “Leninist.” As any history student knows, Communists had no respect whatsoever for freedom of the press. This is not a sentiment any true patriot would want coming out of the White House.
CNN’s Jake Tapper probably spoke for most of the mainstream media when he learned about Bannon’s ultimatum.
Here’s a news flash, Steve. We will not keep our mouths shut. We will continue to hold both your feet and your boss’ feet to the fire, and we will do all in our power to ensure that you are on the unemployment line by 2020, if not earlier.
It’s only fair to ask–was Bannon speaking for himself, or was he delivering Trump’s “suggestions” for how the media should show its patriotic devotion? Grynbaum’s article went live just after 3 p.m. Eastern, and Trump has been notably silent on both his personal and official social media feeds. Sorry, but this is not the time for a president to be silent. There is only one acceptable response–Trump needs to get Bannon out of here, and get him out of here now. Otherwise, Trump needs to get out of here himself, because there will no longer be any doubt that his oath to defend the Constitution means nothing at all to him.
(featured image: screenshot via YouTube)
