Other presidents have needed to be covert because they needed the press as a vehicle. Thanks to Breitbart, Trump may not. Though unread by the majority of Americans, it has a powerful reach on Facebook – higher than many mainstream outlets – and a direct emotional connection to the new populist Republican base that carried Trump to his shocking victory. With Bannon so close to Trump’s office, we can expect Breitbart will coordinate with the Trump White House, functioning as his ministry of information as it did during the campaign, and going on the attack to keep renegade legislators in line. If this sounds theoretical, it’s not: Just three hours after Bannon was named to his new post, Breitbart went directly after Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, publishing a story suggesting he was losing support from some GOP members.
The Trump-Breitbart connection wasn’t defined solely by political affinity, according to an August 2015 report in BuzzFeed by McCay Coppins. Unnamed Breitbart staffers believe Trump had traded financial backing for positive coverage on the site—an assertion that Bannon denied. According to Coppins, one staffer claimed that Breitbart “managers had overruled editors at Trump’s behest.” Another connection: the hedge fund manager Robert Mercer is reportedly a major Breitbart backer; his daughter has now been named to Trump’s transition team…
It would be rational to predict that Breitbart would now start issuing propaganda in service of their maximum leader, aping the glorious sloganeering perfected by the North Koreans, or continue to indulge its racist and anti-Semitic sensibilities. But the Breitbart brass isn’t dumb. The agit-prop of the campaign suited Trump’s needs when he was an outsider, banging on the door to be let in. Now inside, Trump needs a press organ that can explain his successes to more than just the Trump faithful and that can also go to war with Trump’s enemies in the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the banks, Ford Motor Co., Carrier, the immigration lobby, Planned Parenthood, Jeff Bezos, Paul Ryan, the Supreme Court, CNN, and various special interests.
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