Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Stephen Bannon is a millionaire. Not nearly as wealthy as his bête noire Elon Musk, but far more flush than anyone I know. 

It is estimated that he’s banking as much as $20 million.

Bannon has made money in a variety of ways.

He was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. 

Investment banker? Isn’t that the sort of thing that the MAGA faithful might find dubious — if not full-on despicable?

He cleverly managed to get a piece of the syndication rights for Seinfeld TV show reruns, which has him raking in the residuals.

The point is, even though he’s a man who appears to have never met a barber and who generally dresses as though he’s wearing every shirt he owns, the man is rich.

This raises the question of whether he is as much a man of the people as he positions himself as being or whether this is just an act. Let’s face it, when he was on Wall Street he probably wore an expensive suit and tie to fit in. To do the same with “regular folk” he has to look less wealthy than the return on his investments would facilitate.

In August 2020 Bannon was charged with duping thousands of donors to the “We Build the Wall Campaign.”

Seems the donors who were anxious to fulfill Donald Trump’s dream of a wall on the Mexican border kicked in more than $25 million to the “We Build the Wall Campaign.” It was evident that, despite claims by Trump, Mexico wasn’t going to pay for the construction of the wall, so they’d donate their hard-earned (probably not from investment income) cash to do it.

Apparently, that, too, was a fiction.

Not the donations. The wall.

Before leaving office in 2021 Trump pardoned his pal on those federal charges.

But that doesn’t extend to state or city courts.

In 2022 Bannon was indicted by New York state for taking the We Build the Wall money and laundering it for salaries and to his own organization. Money collected. Money distributed. No wall built.

The Washington Post points out that in terms of the federal charges there were some of his colleagues in the undertaking charged, too. One got 51 months. Another 36 months. And the third, 63 months in prison.

Bannon is one thing in Trump World. Those minions are quite another, and so were overlooked when the Sharpie was being wielded and pardons signed.

Last week Bannon pleaded guilty in New York state court to defrauding donors.

Let me repeat that:

Bannon pleaded guilty in New York state court to defrauding donors.

The money came in. The money was distributed. No wall was built.

If someone pleads guilty this means they are admitting they committed the offense in question.

They are saying, “Yeah, I did it.”

There were all of those wall enthusiasts giving their hard-earned money to an organization established by millionaire Bannon who, effectively and admittedly took advantage of those people. (Well, maybe not so effectively.)

For reasons passing understanding the New York Supreme Court gave him a proverbial slap on the wrist: he can’t commit another crime for three years (!?!); he can’t operate a charity or nonprofit in New York (there are, of course, 49 other states); he can’t mishandle data collected about those bilked donors.

To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The rich are different.”

And no matter how they may costume themselves, no matter how much they claim to be with “the people,” they really don’t give a damn about regular folk — at least not beyond how they can profit from them.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.