Steve Bannon Reportedly Considering Buying Newsweek, Starting New Populist Publication ‘Like Axios’
Steve Bannon, since getting knocked from his perch atop the populist movement propelling President
Donald Trump that he claims to have architected, has packed up and taken his bluster to Europe.
The former White House chief strategist was dumped from Trump’s administration last year, and then fired from his website
Breitbart in January — after his harsh criticisms of Trump’s family were published in a book.
Politically isolated in the United States, Bannon has embarked on a whirlwind tour of Europe, seeking to lead, in his words, the “global populist movement.”
A fresh New York Times profile gives some insight into Bannon’s plans for taking over Europe, which range from training “an army of populist foot soldiers in the language and tools of social media,” to spreading “populist websites in the image of Breitbart News.”
And his musings on a potential media outlet are ambitious:
But Mr. Bannon, who said he was paying for the trip, said he was weighing whether to buy a name-brand outlet, like Newsweek or United Press International, or to start a new one, or to connect entrepreneurs with capital or invest himself.
He imagined a scoop-driven and high-metabolism outlet “like Axios,” he said, referring to the buzzy Washington newsletter, but with a populist bent that would devour Europe’s sleepy legacy papers.
Axios is, of course, the website founded by former
Politicos Mike Allen and
Jim VandeHei just last year that has become a go-to source for bite-sized, insidery D.C. political news.
Bannon has already spoken in Zurich, Switzerland at an event organized by a conservative publication, and on Saturday headlined the annual conference for France’s National Front.
The far-right party held its conference in Lille, where Bannon was reportedly introduced by leader
Marine Le Pen.
