According to Politico:
Steve Bannon is attempting a political resurrection, launching a 25-person pro-Trump rapid-response and polling operation that is framing the midterms as an up-or-down vote on the president’s impeachment.
The former White House chief strategist has started Citizens for the American Republic, an outside political group that intends to advise surrogates, generate talking points, and flood the TV and radio airwaves ahead of a perilous midterm election.
As part of the campaign, Bannon — a former Hollywood producer who’s made several conservative films — will soon release a new documentary, “Trump@War,” which he plans to release in September on the two-year anniversary of Hillary Clinton’s now-infamous speech in which she referred to Trump supporters as “deplorables.” The slickly produced movie depicts the president in deeply flattering terms, casting him as a populist hero who’s followed through on his campaign promises and defied a long line of liberal critics.
It notably does not focus on the culture wars that Trump advisers have said will be the key to his re-election strategy, but tells a positive story about the president’s 2016 campaign and time in office, while portraying liberal Trump haters as the ones who have targeted his supporters with physical violence in the streets . . .
“It’s very simple to me. This is a referendum on Trump, up-or-down vote on impeachment,” he said. “This other side, they’re very motivated — and they’re motivated for one thing: They want to impeach Donald Trump.”
Bannon’s strategy since being ousted from Trump’s orbit after criticizing Trump’s children is to shower the president with love and hope he is accepted back. This is smart, because Trump has not abandoned the populist-natonalist movement Bannon helped create and remains popular with the base, so Bannon has nowhere else to go. And Bannon recognizes that Trump remains the best vehicle for his ideas, which Bannon holds sincerely.
This is going to be very beneficial to Trump and the GOP. Because the danger for Republicans is that their base is not as motivated as the Democrats’, and so Bannon is trying to use fear – of impeachment – to get Republicans to the polls.
What’s more, Bannon is tireless and a brilliant organizer. He will create an extemely effective organization.
Many around Trump, however, will resist this and tell Trump he should do so too, both because they personally hate Bannon and because they think Trump will be tied to someone who is portrayed by Democrats as some kind of white supremacist. This is not what Bannon is at all, as I detail in the biography I wrote about him.
I think Trump knows how effective Bannon is and will recognize a die-hard suppoerter. I believe he will take Bannon back into his good graces, if he hasn’t already.
