Steve Bannon Reveals First Agencies on Trump’s Chopping Block

Steve Bannon told us he was feeling “empowered” after his release from prison last week. It’s quite obvious he means it.

Hours after Donald Trump’s victory, the former Trump campaign official and self-described “political prisoner” went on an angry rant, during which he revealed what very well may be the first targets in Trump’s second term.

“You stole the 2020 election.… This entire phony thing is getting swept out,” Bannon said. “Biden’s getting swept out. Kamala Harris is getting swept out. MSNBC is getting swept out. The Justice Department is getting swept out. The FBI is getting swept out. You people suck, OK?! And now you’re going to pay the price for trying to destroy this country.”

Bannon went on to say that Democrats and their institutions “don’t deserve any respect, you don’t deserve any empathy, and you don’t deserve any pity.… You deserve what we call rough Roman justice, and we’re prepared to give it to you.”

These chilling threats come from a man who was just released from a Connecticut federal correctional institution Tuesday after serving four months for contempt of Congress. In 2021, Bannon refused to comply with the House January 6 committee’s probe into the insurrection, failing to produce requested documents and to comply with a subpoena. He was convicted in 2022.

Bannon still faces criminal charges in New York state court, where he allegedly scammed donors who pledged money toward constructing the U.S.-Mexico border wall. The trial is set for December. The 70-year-old has pleaded not guilty.

Donald Trump might not even have to fire special counsel Jack Smith on day one—the Justice Department might do that for him.

With Trump winning the election Tuesday, Department of Justice officials now say they may give up on trying to litigate Smith’s cases against the president-elect in weeks to come, two people familiar with the situation told NBC News.

CNN’s chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid also reported Wednesday that department officials and Smith himself are “looking for ways to wind this down,” meaning that both the classified documents case and the election interference case could be dead in the water.

This comes after Trump and his allies continue to threaten Smith.

“To Jack Smith and your team: It is time to look forward to a new chapter in your legal careers as these politically motivated charges against President Trump hit a wall,” wrote Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in a post on X early Wednesday.

Trump has previously not only vowed to fire Smith “within two seconds” but also threatened to deport him.

“Jack Smith should be considered mentally deranged, and he should be thrown out of the country,” Trump said in late October.

Once Trump assumes office, it won’t just be Smith’s role on the chopping block. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon threatened Tuesday to make the Justice Department “pay the price for trying to destroy this country.” Trump will also have the opportunity to remake the entire department in his image.

As explained in Project 2025, a Justice Department under Trump may take on such issues as “enforc[ing] existing federal law that prohibits mailing abortifacients,” stopping people from traveling to receive abortions, scrapping Title IX protections, “aggressively deploy[ing] the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)” charges against Trump’s perceived political enemies, and “enforc[ing] the death penalty.”

To do so, Trump would appoint an attorney general to replace Merrick Garland, who would fall in line behind the strongman. Judge Aileen Cannon’s name has been thrown into the mix as just that person.

“I think he’s looking for somebody who’s totally obsequious,” said Ty Cobb, a former Trump administration lawyer. “In the Justice Department, he really wants somebody there who will do his bidding.”

Michigan voters have spurned the MAGA movement, electing Democratic Representative Elissa Slotkin to the Senate and delivering a resounding no to Republican Mike Rogers.

The Associated Press called the race for Slotkin on Wednesday, with the Democratic candidate winning by the slimmest margin of just 0.3 percent. 

With Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin’s win earlier in the day, that’s another state where Kamala Harris has lost but the Democratic candidate has prevailed.

This is another major blow to Senate Republicans in a state where they have always struggled to gain any real ground for more than 20 years. They now have 52 seats and an eight-point lead in the Senate, with four elections remaining to be called.

In a race that was a virtual tie for days, many saw vulnerabilities for Slotkin in her staunch support for AIPAC and her unpopular House vote to allow states to set limits on gas-powered transportation. But these vulnerabilities were overblown, as Slotkin was able to reaffirm Senate Democratic control of the crucial swing state.

Her Republican opponent was ultimately more hampered by his record. Rogers is one of many Republicans who was once deeply critical of Trump, but today has dutifully fallen in line. The day after January 6, 2021, Rogers stated plainly that Trump’s “chaotic leadership style” and his actions “clearly” sparked the insurrection. In 2024, Rogers had nothing but praise for the former president, noting that his scathing past remarks are just “differences” that he could work past.

This switch-up proved damning for Rogers, as voters soured on him after multiple shameless attempts to cozy up to Trump. The worst of them came when Rogers defended the former president after he said that “the whole country would end up like Detroit” if Harris won the presidency.

Instead of rebuking Trump, Rogers backed him up, saying that, “If you live on the streets of Detroit, you know crime is not better.” Slotkin seized on this moment of betrayal, stating, “Do you see how scared he is of Donald Trump to even split with him on defending the biggest city in your state? It’s sad.” 

Slotkin’s victory allows Democrats to breathe a sigh of relief in Michigan.

Donald Trump’s MAGA fan base has been celebrating since his reelection was confirmed Wednesday, with the trolls out in full force.

Several posters on right-wing social media platforms are jubilant, Wired reports, with many speaking openly of taking revenge against liberals and other enemies of Trump.  One such post read, “There has to be as many traitors executed as he has days in office. Build the gallows, restore the REPUBLIC.”

Other posts include references to using military tribunals and executions, as well as armed raids, with one post saying, “New DOJ must utilize armed raids on Democrat Deep State Homes! Drag their asses out into the street, just like they did to our people!!” Another viral meme had the caption, “RELEASE THE PROJECT 2025 HANDMAIDS TALE RAPE SQUADS.”

“Groyper” founder and influencer Nick Fuentes, a proud white nationalist who infamously had dinner with Trump in 2022, openly mocked women and supporters of reproductive rights on Tuesday night.

Other racists and white nationalists also openly expressed their glee. Christopher Pohlhaus, the leader of neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe, who infamously helped fuel false stories about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, posted, “Thanks Trump.” 

“Cheaper gas will make it easier to spread White Power across the whole country,” he added. 

It seems that far from losing his racist base from years past, as some reports had indicated, Trump actually still has them in his corner. Perhaps it was his Nazi-esque rally in Madison Square Garden days before the election that brought them back. Right-wing influencer and Turning Point USA “ambassador” Evan Kilgore made a trolling post on X early Wednesday morning that seems to sum it all up. 

Project 2025 has begun. And Donald Trump’s allies are now openly celebrating it.

“Now that the election is over I think we can finally say that yeah actually Project 2025 is the agenda,” wrote conservative commentator Matt Walsh on Wednesday morning, adding “Lol” for good measure.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who was recently released from prison, responded on his live War Room podcast with one word: “Fabulous.”

Later during the livestream, Bannon could be seen holding a hard copy of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 “Mandate For Leadership” up to the camera in celebration. On election night, Bannon had vowed to eliminate Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, MSNBC, and the Justice Department in an unhinged rant.

“Now, you’re going to pay the price,” he said Tuesday night.

During the campaign, Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025, even claiming that he “NEVER READ IT, NEVER SAW IT,” despite his many ties to the sprawling list of co-authors.

Meanwhile, the key author of Project 2025 celebrated Trump’s victory in a statement Tuesday night.

“President Trump has achieved a historic and hard-fought victory: overcoming four sham indictments, surviving two assassination attempts, and overcoming an unprecedented mid-race candidate swap to become the first president since Grover Cleveland to win two nonconsecutive terms,” wrote Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts.

Tammy Baldwin has emerged victorious from the most hard-fought campaign of her political career.

The Democratic incumbent defeated Republican challenger and former businessman Eric Hovde to retake her Senate seat. The Associated Press called the race for Baldwin early Wednesday morning, with the Democrat eking out a win by a margin of just 0.7 percent, and 99 percent of votes reported.

This is a sorely needed win for Democrats. Republicans hold a 10-seat majority in the chamber, with six races remaining to be called. Donald Trump has already won the presidency, so every seat Democrats win in Congress matters.

Baldwin and Hovde clashed over a number of voting issues, including immigration, the Middle East, Ukraine, and particularly abortion. Hovde falsely accused Baldwin of being pro-choice “up to the point of delivery, where a healthy baby can be born alive and be terminated.” He also constantly drew attention to the fact that Baldwin is gay, referring to “Tammy Baldwin and her girlfriend” multiple times. One ad Hovde’s campaign ran stated that “while [Tammy Baldwin] sleeps in her girlfriend’s million-dollar condo in New York City, Wisconsin families are getting hammered by high inflation and handouts for illegal immigrants. Tammy and her girlfriend are living large while Wisconsin families foot the bill.”

This line of attack certainly hurt Hovde more than it helped. He was also hampered by very fair accusations of carpetbagging from Baldwin, as the Republican ran in Wisconsin but owns a bank in Utah and a lavish mansion in Orange County, California.

The victory allows Wisconsin Democrats to exhale, and turn their attention to the months ahead.

Individuals charged for rioting through the halls of the Capitol Building on January 6 are turning to Donald Trump’s reelection as fair rationale to throw their cases out the window.

January 6 defendant Christopher Carnell tried—and failed—Wednesday to push back status hearings scheduled for later this week that relate to his case, arguing that Trump’s win would “significantly impact” the details of his case. He cited the MAGA leader’s repeated promises to pardon his supporters who disrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

“Carnell, who was an 18 year old nonviolent entrant into the Capitol on January 6, is expecting to be relieved of the criminal prosecution that he is currently facing when the new administration takes office,” the motion reads, adding that Carnell is “awaiting further information from the Office of the President-elect regarding the timing and expected scope of clemency actions relevant to his case.”

The motion was struck down within minutes of its filing by D.C. District Judge Beryl Howell, but Carnell could prove to be just the tip of the iceberg for January 6 defendants trying to sneak their way out of facing consequences for raiding the nation’s legislature. Independent journalists have already observed that a “pardon-palooza” could offer Trump a loyal, homegrown paramilitary ready to do his bidding. It could also potentially win Republicans more seats (or at the very least, favor) in the House of Representatives, as incumbent Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar’s criminal trial looms on the horizon.

Even Trump himself is looking to undo his chains via the power of the Oval Office. The legally embattled Republican’s ascension back to the highest levels of government will grant him the power to effectively erase his federal criminal charges by firing special counsel Jack Smith, who is currently prosecuting Trump’s January 6 case and his Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. (Trump ally Mike Davis has already threatened Smith to “lawyer up.”)

Trump will also likely toss his election interference case in Georgia, or at the very least delay it until he exits office in 2029. And being convicted on 34 counts related to his hush-money trial might not touch Trump, either. He is scheduled to be sentenced on November 26, but it’s unclear how the incoming forty-seventh president will be forced into a state courtroom in the middle of a presidential transition, noted Politico.

Donald Trump has already won the presidency, and on Wednesday afternoon, he also won Michigan, adding 16 electoral college votes to his already impressive electoral college tally.

Trump now has a total of 292 electoral college votes, and nearly 72 million popular votes—defeating Harris by nearly five million votes.

Trump’s victory is only the second for Republicans since 1992 in the Great Lakes State, with the former president also winning Michigan’s 16 electoral votes in 2016 by just over 10,000 votes. This time, Trump won by over 80,000 votes, or 1.4 percent, according to the Associated Press. In 2020, President Biden won Michigan by more than 150,000 votes.

Over the past year, there were concerns that Democrats would lose the state, with its large Arab American and Muslim populations, due to the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s brutal war in Gaza over the past year. Those concerns appear to have been vindicated, and show that Democrats should not have dismissed Arab American and Muslim voters, especially at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Trump has now knocked down the so-called “Blue Wall” Great Lake states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania—as he did when he cruised to victory in 2016.

Kamala Harris lost in the state of Missouri on Tuesday, keeping with the expected results from polls prior to Election Day. But three progressive ballot initiatives won in the state: legalizing abortion, increasing the minimum wage, and defeating a wage raise for law enforcement.

In addition to Donald Trump’s easy 18-point victory, Republican Senator Josh Hawley cruised to reelection, defeating Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce by nearly 15 percentage points.

Abortion was enshrined in the Missouri Constitution by a three-point margin, while a minimum wage increase of $1.25 per hour each year until 2026, reaching $15 per hour, passed by a whopping 15 percentage points, according to the latest results.

Missouri voters even rejected a raise for law enforcement officers by more than 20 percentage points. So why did voters in the Show-Me State reject Democrats but support their policies? The answer seems to be an indication of what went wrong for Democrats during this election. While Harris and Kunce support abortion rights, voters did not connect them to their defense on the state level.

The same goes for the minimum wage: Harris came out publicly in support of a $15 minimum wage two weeks ago. But was that too late to reach voters in Missouri or the country at large? And the point can be raised as to how much the Harris campaign publicized her support for the increase. Plus, she only came out in favor of $15 per hour after Trump’s stunt of pretending to work at a McDonald’s.

Harris campaigned heavily on abortion rights as well, but it wasn’t enough to persuade the same Missouri voters who voted to protect them—something that will undoubtedly have Harris and her campaign agonizing over. What could they have said or done differently to stress Trump and Republicans’ threats over abortion? It goes to show that legal abortion is more popular than the Democratic Party, as Melissa Gira Grant wrote for The New Republic last month.

Voters in Missouri, and perhaps the country, in effect drew a distinction between the policies they support and the candidates who backed them. Democrats didn’t reach the voters who supported their policies, and there’s also the possibility that voters simply didn’t know what candidates like Kunce and Harris stood for. If that’s the case, the party needs to look at the ineffectiveness of their messaging, and how spectacularly it failed.

After Donald Trump made it his goal to make America “the crypto capital of the planet,” the Republican winner, Silicon Valley, and his crypto army may be able to cash in on Tuesday’s victory.

The “upcoming deregulation wave will create an economic sonic boom,” wrote one CEO Tuesday night, encapsulating the feelings of many investors looking to make a buck off the Election Day results and its ripple effects.

As of Wednesday morning, traders, crypto enthusiasts, and of course, Trump himself find themselves victorious. The stock market jumped overall Wednesday morning, buoyed by the so-called “Trade trade,” as investors scramble to buy stock expected to perform well under a second Trump term.

Perhaps the person cashing in the most is Trump himself, whose shares of Trump Media & Technology Group skyrocketed following his win. Shares of TMTG, which runs his Truth Social platform, rose more than 30 percent in premarket trading. Trump owns a roughly 57 percent stake in Trump Media.

He added nearly $300 million to his fortune overnight.

Meanwhile, bitcoin is also at a record high after Trump’s win, again boosting his own earnings. And the Republican has the crypto industry to thank.

“Being anti-crypto is simply bad politics,” wrote Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong just after midnight, attaching a photo of the Ohio Senate race. The cryptocurrency super PAC Defend American Jobs spent more than $40 million to help Republican Bernie Moreno win his race to flip the Senate seat.

The industry raised more than $200 million to affect House and Senate elections and punish anti-crypto candidates. And it looks like, for the most part, their work paid off. Coinbase’s political offshoot Stand With Crypto’s own numbers indicate that “pro-crypto” candidates won 270 seats.

As The New Republic reported earlier this fall, crypto companies spent more than $130 million to determine the election, breaking records. Since the Citizens United ruling in 2010, the fossil fuel industry has collectively only spent $176 million over 14 years of election cycles.

“It’s time to build. 🇺🇸” wrote Marc Andreessen, the “techno-optimist” billionaire who gave millions to Trump, in celebration of the win.