“Archbishop Bannon” versus “Unelected President Musk”

 If you had any illusions about MAGA having taken on cult-like traits, you only need to read some of Bannon’s statements in this article.

He instructed Musk to “sit back and study” to understand MAGA’s - and what supporters believed was Trump’s - America First stance to keep U.S. jobs for Americans.

“They’re recent converts,” Bannon saidTuesday on his War Roompodcast, referring to Musk and other tech-world Trump supporters.

“We love converts,” Bannon noted. “But the converts sit in the back and study for years and years and years to make sure you understand the faith and you understand the nuances of the faith and understand how you can internalize the faith.”

This is Bannon putting himself in the place of being the high priest of MAGA, and setting up for quite the “palace power struggle” once Trump is sworn into office.  Interesting stuff.  

While it’s been clear for quite some time that MAGA is very cult-like, deliberately avoiding facts for whatever conspiracy theory of the day has been ladled out to them through the disinformation networks.  The idea that Trump has been “persecuted” by the Biden administration because of the criminal prosecutions that stem from his actions both before becoming President in 2016, and leading up to the Jan 6 storming of the capitol.  

Bannon talking about “new converts” is very interesting all by itself - speaking quite directly to the quasi-religious nature of MAGA as a system of beliefs.  I might disagree that there is anything systemic about MAGA beliefs, but then Bannon goes on to talk about “studying” the faith for “many years”.  That itself is also very intriguing language.  

MAGA is, at best a collection of conspiracy theories and counter-factual narratives - it hardly has a coherent narrative that one would expect from a formal religion.  However, Bannon seems to be positioning himself as the “Speaker for MAGA” in Trump’s circle - and that all by itself is interesting.  Clearly he sees himself in the role of the cleric at the shoulder of the king, advising the king on how to keep the peasants happy.  

To the extent that he can do that, it makes Bannon potentially quite politically powerful - and certainly a rival to players like Musk and Ramaswamy in the Trump White House.  However, it’s also a dangerous conceit for Bannon to think that a volatile rabble like MAGA is going to obey his word.  The issue will come to a head when Trump and Bannon disagree on something that Musk / Ramaswamy want to do.  

At its most fundamental level, MAGA is about self interest and deifying ignorance and feelings over knowledge and evidence.  Musk is ultimately about his own self-interest, but his self-interest is not going to align with that of most individual MAGA followers - the ones who currently believe Bannon - but will they believe Bannon when Trump aligns himself with Musk?  Or will they pivot to following Trump’s word?  

Bannon might be the high priest, but Trump is their putative saviour …