On Sunday night, members of New York’s Republican elite gathered at Cipriani Wall Street and raised a collective champagne flute to economic populism.
Speaking at the New York Young Republican Club’s 112th annual gala, guest of honor Steve Bannon delivered a gleeful, vengeful, triumphant indictment of Democrats, mainstream media, and corporate America. He also congratulated the audience on being a part of the movement that elected Trump: “Each and every one of you have changed the direction of this country by showing that populism is inclusive.”
His celebration of inclusion might be surprising to readers of The New York Times, which once equated Trump’s former campaign adviser with “racism, sexism, antisemitism, and nativism.” But Bannon—now free from his four-month prison stint for defying a January 6–related subpoena and seemingly undaunted by his looming trial in February for “Build the Wall” fundraising fraud—was happy to mingle with what he called the “multi-ethnic,” “multiracial” crowd behind Trump’s latest victory.
Meanwhile, his populist message has remained firmly intact. “You’re going to have to raise taxes on the wealthy,” he announced to the attendees, who paid a starting ticket price of $999 to attend the gala.
I was fortunate enough to snag an interview with Bannon in the green room before his speech, where he immediately impressed me with his defiant repudiation of the black-tie dress code: Playing the part of the Everyman, Bannon wore a brown chore coat over an untucked shirt to which he’d affixed three ballpoint pens.
Our conversation brought its own surprises—including Bannon’s professed support for racial representation in the tech industry, his invocation of Luigi Mangione as a symbol of American anger, and his shocking use of the phrase lived experience.
