MAGA political operative and former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon was given the last word at CPAC. “Onward to victory! Onward to victory! Onward to victory!” he shouted when he came onstage.
Bannon aggressively promoted Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, called for President Biden and other officials to be locked up, and declared that it is Trump’s destiny “to have the greatest political comeback on American history” and “drive the vermin out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
“They stole the 2020 election,” he insisted. “Media, I want you to suck on this! I want the White House to suck on this! You lost in 2020! Donald Trump is the legitimate president of the United States!” Bannon led the crowd in chants of “Trump won!” He called President Joe Biden “an illegitimate regime head” and “usurper.”
“Lock ‘em up,” he roared. “All of ‘em. Garland, Wray, Biden, all of ‘em. Myorkas. What they did to this country is unforgivable. And we will not forget it and we will never forgive it until justice is done.”
America’s destiny, Bannon claimed, rests on Trump as it did with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln:
Only two other men in the history of this republic—General Washington in the revolution and the foundation, and Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War—had the personal fate and destiny of an individual be inextricably linked to the fate and destiny of this republic. Donald John Trump is the third person, and his fate and destiny is to have the greatest political comeback in American history and on November 5, to drive the vermin out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Biden, you and your crime family are nothing but trash, okay? And on the 20th of January of 2025, we're going to take out the trash. There is no compromise here. …
This is a crusade of righteousness!
Are you with us? Are you with us? Are we onward to victory? Will anything stop you? Are you onward to victory? Are you onward to victory? Are you onward to victory?
Given the dictatorial ambitions of Trump and his supporters, it seems appropriate that Bannon ended his speech by quoting French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte: “When you set out to take Vienna, take Vienna!”
Bannon, who rallies MAGA activists through his War Room podcast, has urged listeners who "want to be in the vanguard of taking down the Leviathan" to sign up for the Project 2025 scheme by the right-wing movement to "take the reins of government" after a Trump victory.
In addition to mobilizing support for Trump and his “America First” movement in the U.S., Bannon has worked to support likeminded politicians overseas, and build an international movement devoted to undermining international institutions like the European Union, United Nations, and World Health Organization.
Bannon’s global ambitions were expressed in the theme of this year’s CPAC, “Where Globalism Goes to Die,” and in the appearance of right-wing populist politicians from around the world on the main stage and at a two-hour “international summit” the evening before the conference got rolling. U.S. speakers also supported the anti-globalism theme. Rep. Matt Gaetz called for the U.S. to leave the U.N. Multiple speakers denounced and called for the defunding of the World Health Organization, which they described as a threat to national sovereignty. On the second anniversary of the devastating Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vivek Ramaswamy mocked U.S. support for the country’s defensive war as helping “some Ukrainian kleptocrat” to “buy a bigger house.”
