instinctively understood Trump’s emotional appeal.”
Bannon had been introduced to Trump via David Bossie. The two men
— loud, belligerent, deal-making alpha males with a grudge against snooty
elites — clicked immediately and met regularly. After Trump announced his
candidacy in June 2015, their relationship deepened. As well as banging the
drum for Trump at Breitbart, Bannon would call the candidate to offer
advice. In August 2016, Trump horrifi ed the Republican establishment by
appointing Bannon as his new campaign manager. It was the perfect fi t:
Bannon the propagandist who wanted to “weaponise” popular culture, and
Trump the celebrity mogul who obliterated the line between politics and
entertainment. Bannon gave Trump an intellectual framework; Trump gave
Bannon star power and the biggest audience imaginable.
Bannon rebooted the campaign by embracing hyperbole, staging
unignorable set-pieces, and encouraging the wild, obnoxious side of Trump,
knowing that the media couldn’t resist covering his latest outrage. “I think
Bannon was more successful at propaganda through the vehicle of the
Trump campaign than as a documentary fi lmmaker,” says Green. “When he
was producing his fi lms he was learning a lot, but he was really working in
the wrong medium. Bannon’s medium is the American media.”
After Bannon’s expulsion from the White House, the gossip website
Page Six reported that he had been taking meetings with movie studios
with an eye to making conservative Westerns. That feels not just unlikely
but unnecessary. This former Hollywood wannabe has already delivered his
blockbuster: he used a lethal combination of propaganda and showbiz
hustle to seize control of the most powerful offi ce on Earth.ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI
For 10 days ‘The Mooch’ served as
Trump’s communications director before
he was fi red for giving an expletive-fi lled
interview. His tenure wasn’t as brief as
his 15-second cameo in Wall Street:
Money Never Sleeps, for which, it’s
claimed by The Daily Beast, he paid
$100,000.SEAN SPICER
At fi rst glance, National Treasure 2:
Book Of Secrets appears devoid of the
alternative-fact-dispensing former press
sec. But look out for footage of his Easter
Bunny guise at the 2006 White House
Easter Egg Roll. The most random
politician cameo of all time. Period.BEN CARSON
Once a brain surgeon, now Secretary Of
Housing And Urban Development, Carson
cameoed in 2003 comedy Stuck On You
as the doctor trying to separate conjoined
twins Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear. He
utters: “By the way, the operation was a
smashing success.”DONALD TRUMP
According to Matt Damon, the 45th Prez
used to routinely force himself into fi lms
by making it a dealbreaker for crews
wanting to shoot in one of his buildings.
“You have to waste an hour of your day
with a bullshit shot,” griped Damon to The
Hollywood Reporter in September.STEVE BANNON ISN’T THE ONLY
TRUMPITE WITH A WEIRD
CONNECTION TO HOLLYWOODWith Duck Dynasty’s
Republican evangelist
Phil Robertson on
the set of 2016’s Torchbearer.
Below: A canon of
propaganda, from Sarah
Palin to the Clintons to
the fi nancial crisis.ALAMY, CITIZENS UNITED, EYEVINE, REX FEATURES