5/14 Remembrance Ceremony

Since being ousted from his position in President Donald Trump's first administration, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has carved out a new lane casting himself as a populist outsider advocating for the American working class. But one analyst is arguing that Bannon's new image is simply an elaborate ruse.

In a Tuesday essay for the Hill, writer and researcher John Mac Ghlionn pointed out the numerous ways in which Bannon has "conned" his target audience. He accused the "War Room" podcast host of "LARPing as a coal-dusted crusader for the common man" despite having a net worth in excess of $20 million and a cushy career on Wall Street before launching his political career.

"Steve Bannon was something far less revolutionary: a banker. And not just any banker — he was a high-powered executive at Goldman Sachs, the very temple of global finance he now pretends to rage against," Ghlionn wrote. "He didn’t walk picket lines. He walked into boardrooms, advised mergers and helped move capital around like puzzle pieces in the portfolios of the powerful. He got in on the deals most Americans would never even hear about, let alone benefit from."

Ghlionn expanded on calling Bannon someone who "talks like a patriot but lives like a prince," pointing out that he was a "Hollywood financier" who acquired a stake in Castle Rock Entertainment — which produced the hit 1990s sitcom "Seinfeld." The analyst observed that every time Americans laughed at "Seinfeld" character Cosmo Kramer's over-the-top entrance, Bannon literally "got richer" thanks to the royalties he got from the show.

"While working-class Americans were juggling bills and wondering if they could afford another tank of gas, Bannon was cashing passive income from a sitcom about nothing," he wrote.

The essayist reminded readers that Bannon was also the brainchild behind a crowdfunding campaign that successfully convinced Americans to donate millions of dollars to build a wall along the Southern border. The former Breitbart leader ultimately pleaded guilty to fraud in order to avoid jail time (Bannon still went to federal prison in 2024 after defying a Congressional subpoena). Ghlionn contrasted Bannon's everyman branding as a facade to hide his true identity as a "salesman in battle gear, with a podcast mic and a passport full of donor meetings."

"The flannel, the Catholic mysticism, the bunker aesthetic — it’s all part of the shameless act," he wrote. "Underneath is a Machiavellian tactician who understands power not as something to dismantle, but to inhabit. Part P.T. Barnum, part Pat Buchanan, this is a man who preaches humility while flying private."

Click here to read Ghlionn's full essay in the Hill.

A former Coast Guard lieutenant and sharpshooter has been accused in federal court of threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump, writing multiple times on social media that he'd be "willing to pitch in $100 for a contract."

Peter Stinson, of Oakton, Virginia, repeatedly threatened to kill Trump in social media posts, court documents filed in a Virginia federal court alleged Monday. The documents were shared on X by CBS News Justice Correspondent Scott MacFarlane.

An FBI affidavit said Stinson posted hundreds of violent, graphic, and escalating threats on the platforms X, Bluesky, Reddit, and Instagram for five years beginning in 2020. Stinson self-identified member of Antifa with a background in national security and emergency operations.

In April 2020, investigators said he posted an explicit call to crowdfund an assassination attempt, writing: “I’d be willing to pitch in $100 for a contract. Who wants to join me? We could solve the solvable part of this problem in a crack.”

He made a similar comment in February 2025, court documents alleged, writing on Bluesky: "Can we crowd source a contract hit?”

The latter post came a day after Stinson posted a violent fantasy on the same platform he "would twist the knife after sliding it into his fatty flesh.”

And in January of this year, Stinson said, “Somebody needs to do it. Somebody with the skills to do it right. Somebody with the experience. Somebody with the right tools.”

Separately, Stinson has said he believes that someone who "kills the President to save the country has broken no laws."

A judge ordered Stinson to remain held in jail pending the outcome of a hearing Wednesday, MacFarlane reported.

Court documents noted that Stinson was a Coast Guard officer from 1988 to 2021, achieving the rank of lieutenant. He received firearms training and was awarded sharpshooter ribbons for both pistol and rifle. He also received extensive training in operations planning and was an instructor for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Incident Command Systems, courses taught to prepare for and respond to disasters and emergencies.

Additionally, Stinson received a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College, court documents said.

The allegations come after authorities said Vance Boelter, 57, assassinated Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman. Police arrested Boelter following a manhunt. He is also accused of shooting and wounding state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, at their home.

It also comes after two assassination plots against Trump last year, including one over the summer in which a bullet grazed his ear.