Here’s four words for anybody whose personal Ghost Of Christmas Future is already insufficiently horrific this holiday season: “Steve Bannon for president.” That’s the idea (briefly) floated in a recent Vanity Fair profile on the would-be presidential puppetmaster, an in-depth series of interviews that often touched on the way the self-described Sith wannabe chafed while working under his former boss, Donald Trump.
In the interview, Bannon expresses his dismay at being anything less than the ultimate decision maker during his time in the White House, noting, “I realize in hindsight I was just a staffer, and I’m not a good staffer.” At one point during the long profile process, Bannon openly mused about the possibility of a 2020 run, on the—in his estimation—fairly high possibility that Trump doesn’t make it through his entire four-year term:
In October, Bannon called an adviser and said he would consider running for president if Trump doesn’t run for re-election in 2020. Which Bannon has told people is a realistic possibility. In private conversations since leaving the White House, Bannon said Trump only has a 30 percent chance of serving out his term, whether he’s impeached or removed by the Cabinet invoking the 25th amendment.
A spokesperson for the Breitbart editor—who’s repeatedly said he’s perfectly happy poking at establishment Republicans, and especially his personal enemies, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, from the outside—has, of course, already derided the profile’s brief assertion as #fakenews. On a related note, we’re happy to report that that’s the first time the use of that particular hashtag has ever filled our hearts with relief and joy.