The fraud case against Bannon

There are some people who are willing to exploit anyone and anything.

That’s the case with Stephen K. Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, who was arrested Thursday and accused of a role in defrauding hundreds of thousands of people regarding a crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $25 million.

The online campaign was called “We Build the Wall” — the border structure that was Trump’s signature campaign issue but had been stalled in its execution after Mexico, in defiance of Trump’s pledge, said it would not pay for it. The promise was that all the money would go to construction.

Alas. The U.S. Justice Department now says the perpetrators of this scheme appear to have dipped their beaks, and that Bannon used some of his share of the loot to cover hundreds of thousands in personal expenses. 

In 2016, Bannon was the ersatz populist whispering in Trump’s ear, an adviser who channeled the rage and disaffection of voters around the country. But he isn’t of that world himself. On Thursday, federal law enforcement found him on a 150-foot luxury yacht owned by billionaire Guo Wengui, a Chinese fugitive who is involved with Bannon on fundraising to start a media company.

The grift has long been part of the game for many Trump associates. Check out the “We Build the Wall” website and see all the ways the group had its hands in supporters’ pockets. The site offers — for a price — pieces of the wall, “new wall steel bottle openers” (laser etched), and even private tours of one of the purported project sites.

The indictment reveals the cynicism of Trump lieutenants who will take the political causes of their followers and try to turn them into personal profit.

It’s not just Trump associates who will do anything to get themselves ahead. On Wednesday, the president offered encouragement to the followers of QAnon, a ridiculous conspiracy theory supposedly touching on pedophiles, cannibals, the Democratic Party, prominent actors, and a sex trafficking ring in a Washington, D.C., pizzeria, among other junk.

If you don’t spend much time on the internet, this will all sound insane, but this chat room of paranoia has been deemed a potential domestic terror threat by the FBI, and its slogans and hashtags are all over social media. A Georgia supporter of this web of conspiracies recently won a GOP congressional primary. That prompted a few Republicans still grounded in reality to denounce it. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney says QAnon is “dangerous lunacy that should have no place in American politics.”

But at a news conference Wednesday, Trump couldn’t bring himself to join her because he “understands that they like me very much ... I’ve heard these are people that love our country.”

Trump has previously retweeted many QAnon garbage accounts. He’s apparently blind to the danger of encouraging deluded followers, including many spreading the idea that the coronavirus is a hoax.

But as Bannon may be learning, sometimes the grift catches up.

— The editorial board