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Steve Bannon: “The appropriations process... is the legal process that we…”

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 37:03

Right. The U.S. citizens right now live in an era of anxiety, could be let go immediately. So the chief executive has the ability to fire and he also has The appropriations process... is the legal process that we go through to create a law to appropriate the money. That's a ceiling, not a floor. Now, that is going to be contested. Okay, But President Trump, and this gets back to the USAID system about the $2 billion of … (37:03–37:10)

CLAIM

Asserts that the appropriations process is the legal method for creating laws to allocate funds.

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
“President Trump is a moderate. He's somebody that balances every part of the equation and thinking through what action should be taken.”
Trump's Power & the Rule of Law: Steve Bannon (interview) | FRONTLINE | Uploaded July 23, 2025 | 06:29-06:39
“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 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