Jacob Heilbrunn

Does Steve Bannon’s arrest damage Trump’s re-election’s bid?

Steve Bannon, Picture credit: Getty

Oops. Not only did the wall that Donald Trump promised to build never get built, but it turns out that some of his closest former confederates are now accused of deploying the slogan in the interests of building up nothing other than their own fortunes. A grizzled Steve Bannon, Trump’s former campaign adviser, wearing a green Barbour jacket was arrested this morning on charges of fraud by New York federal prosecutors. The contention of the Manhattan prosecutors is that Bannon, who is said to be worth tens of millions, pilfered about £760,000 ($1million) through a private group called ‘We Build the Wall’.

The advisory board contains a bevy of conservative all-stars, including former Rep. Tom Tancredo and Erik Prince. Kris Kobach was general counsel. Bannon was the chairman. Who did what will emerge in coming days. For now, according to acting Manhattan US Attorney Audrey Strauss, ‘while repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle.’

The walls truly are closing in on Trump

Trump distanced himself this morning, saying he hasn’t been dealing with Bannon ‘at all’ and that ‘I don’t like that project. I thought it was being done for showboating reasons.’ Back in 2017, Trump criticised the group’s private effort to build the wall, claiming it was ‘only done to make me look bad’. That could well be the case now: while this development may not represent a dire threat to president Trump, it is more than an embarrassment. Coming on the day that Joe Biden is set to give his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, it will further add to the perception of a miasma of criminality swirling about his presidency.

Trump will hardly be the first president whose cronies got into hot water with law enforcement.

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