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Steve Bannon: “President Trump is a moderate. He's somebody that balances…”

Featuring: Steve Bannon, Former White House Chief Strategist | National

Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE

Published July 23, 2025 | Video Starts at 06:29

It'd be going hard. I don't think we're going nearly hard enough. And I think President, the left and the people that hate Trump should understand one thing in our movement. President Trump is a moderate. He's somebody that balances every part of the equation and thinking through what action should be taken. And he makes, I think decisions that are like Solomon, right, very even handed if you see what he's doing compared to elements around President Trump. (06:29–06:39)

CLAIM

Asserts that President Trump is a moderate who balances decisions.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Steve Bannon

“You're managing an apparatus that spends about 6.5 to $7 trillion a year, has assets I don't know of, they say $80 to $100 trillion.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 13:59-14:10
“There are 18 million contractors [working for the government].”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 14:25-14:27
“The New York Times admitted the other day that the border's essentially been sealed.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 26:44-26:49
“In the last six months... $4.4 trillion of wealth... have accreted to the top 1%.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 40:35-40:50
“The southern border has been secured in 60 days.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 55:33-55:38
“The attorney general reports directly to [the President], the FBI director reports to [the President].”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 00:47-00:50
“The radical left essentially separated the attorney general, that entire system from, particularly from Republican presidents and President…”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 01:20-01:33
“Said 92 indictments. Jack Smith. The indictments around Jack Smith, I think were 300 years in prison.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 01:58-02:04
“If somehow the election's stolen in 2028 like they stole it in 2020, the first thing they're going to do is it's all going to go back again…”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 02:34-02:46
“This entire process we're going through now is to purge these institutions of this.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 03:13-03:19
“What they did is so radical in turning the apparatus of the government against its people. It was almost like East Germany.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 04:31-04:40
“You haven't seen any weaponization of this Justice Department.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 05:49-05:53
“I think the House should have named massive investigations.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 05:58-06:01
“You essentially have about 4,000 or 5,000 executives. You put in three to 4,000. You put in right away. Another thousand have to be Senate…”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 07:53-08:03
“The big steel stealing the 2020 election was providential.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 08:11-08:16
“We were able to... build the MAGA movement, particularly with low information and low propensity voters.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 08:15-08:28
“We hit 1000, 2000 and now close to 3000 in record time.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 09:31-09:38
“One of the central aspects of that was the thesis of deconstruction, administrative state.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 09:52-09:59
“You have about 10 million people that individuals or billets that run the government.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 14:48-14:54
“The controversial $2 billion...it's paid to contractors.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 15:10-15:18
“The office of the President is endowed with this power and I'm going to take executive action around it.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 15:44-15:49
“The framers of the Constitution wanted a strong executive and wanted an executive that drove the action.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 16:17-16:24
“Gorsuch is absolutely central to the entire thing because Gorsuch in the transition, he kind of comes out of nowhere.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 19:01-19:08
“Gorsuch was looked at as the young intellectual Jurist about the Chevron deference.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 19:21-19:27
“The focus was going after the administrative state.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 20:05-20:08
“President Trump and the core team around him, we were deplatformed by big tech.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 21:39-21:45
“We were debanked. All my banks I've been business with for 40 years, I was debanked by every bank.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 21:44-21:50
“All our law firms fired us.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 21:52-21:57
“None of the big law firms would represent Trump.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 23:55-23:58
“These law firms... essentially control the country.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 24:06-47:57
“These law firms combined with these private equity institutions are too powerful.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 24:07-24:13
“President Trump is totally shifting [the defense strategy] back to hemispheric defense.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 26:13-26:17
“President Trump sealed [the border].”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 27:03-27:05
“The answer to that is yes, and it should be done. It should have been done immediately and many more should be done.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 31:46-31:51
“We're running $2 trillion deficits because of what's happened in Covid and the kind of spending that went on Covid we haven't gotten rid of.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 34:23-34:30
“We spent six and a half or seven trillion dollars a year. We raised in taxes four and a half trillion.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 34:30-34:37
“The reason we have inflation is we have a massive Keynesian stimulus every year.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 34:44-34:50
“We've added, what, 60, $16 trillion of debt in the last, you know, the last couple of years.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 34:50-34:56
“There's a trillion dollars of waste, fraud and abuse.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 36:01-36:05
“President Trump has said repeatedly the cabinet controls that we're going to follow statutory, like for instance in VOA in these places.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 36:17-36:25
“They're also going to put USAID under the State Department, but they're going to zero these out.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 36:28-36:36
“The President of the United States as chief executive has the ability to make personnel decisions and to fire anybody.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 36:40-36:48
“The appropriations process... is the legal process that we go through to create a law to appropriate the money.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 37:03-37:10
“The money was going to all these NGOs that were supporting the invasion of the country.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 38:23-38:27
“You had more concentration of wealth in President Obama's term than you ever had in the history of the country.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 41:27-41:33
“During the pandemic, you had another great concentration of wealth.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 41:48-41:52
“They spend $900 billion a year [at the Pentagon].”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 42:47-42:55
“There was no taxing of the wealthy under Biden.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 44:46-44:48
“The wealthy control the Democratic Party.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 44:51-44:53
“You can't extend the tax cuts for the top upper bracket.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 46:34-46:39
“They took away the security clearances.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 48:12-48:15
“Any firm that retains you will not be eligible for government contracts.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 48:28-48:34
“The American people should understand. They all feed at the trough of public money.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 49:34-49:40
“They cratered because they weren't going to have access to government.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 50:25-50:28
“The whole system changes with this.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 51:02-51:05
“This may be the mortal blow that destroys it.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 51:55-51:58
“Once you cut off the public money or access to it, they fold.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 53:35-53:39
“President Trump's just direct actions in the courts [have started to get control of immigration].”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 56:06-56:13
“Biden did [immigration policy] in conjunction with the NGOs that were paid for by either your religious organizations like the Catholics…”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 56:44-56:56
“Catholic Charities being the worst, and I'm a Catholic or usaid paid for by your taxpayer dollars to basically bring in economic…”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 56:55-57:07
“It was a very organized way to basically invade, bring in cheaper labor into the United States to drive down wages among lower skilled…”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 57:19-57:28
“You have an organization he's designated as a terrorist criminal organization that's terrorized people from Colorado all over the country…”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 58:13-58:25
“The courts have been too radical. This is a judicial insurrection.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 58:34-1:04:29
“You have a constitutional crisis because one of the tests of this theory is that it's supposed to be checks and balances.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 1:02:22-1:02:31
“The courts threw us into a constitutional crisis because they want to be supreme to the chief executive.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 1:02:59-1:03:06
“This goes back to FDR and the packing of the court.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 1:05:12-1:05:17
“This had to happen between the courts and the executive branch.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 1:05:12-1:05:17
“The Justice Department was weaponized against people.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 1:06:54-1:06:58
“The J6 committee...ask[ed] for something that's never been given in the history of this country, a blanket preemptive pardon.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 1:08:03-1:08:13
“Donald Trump does not blink. Donald Trump's about action and driving through.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 1:08:39-1:08:44
“The election [was] stolen in 2020.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 1:08:46-1:08:50
“It's either a constitutional republic under the rule of law or it's not.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 1:09:55-1:09:59