This past weekend, Steve Bannon reportedly conducted a victory lap when he clearly declared that his plan to “flood the zone” has led to a media “meltdown.”
This comes at a time when President Donald Trump has now begun his second term in office at a fast and dizzying pace.
Bannon, a former Trump assistant and campaign manager, discussed Trump’s media approach with Ben Smith of Semafor.
Bannon famously referred to Trump’s media strategy as “flood the zone” with “muzzle velocity,” and he unequivocally asserted that it was successful.
“Of course. It’s worked. The media is a complete total meltdown,” Bannon said to Smith.
In his War Room podcast, Bannon frequently references pieces from MSNBC. He has, for a long time, lauded the network for the quality of its production, while at the same time deriding the content of the network and gaining points from its hosts.
“You guys keep saying. ‘He’s not going to do this to us, we did it last time, this is how he wins,’” he added.
“Then he goes allMort Sahl on you, and he triggered you guys and they never went back to the hearings. God, he’s such a brilliant strategist.
“Let me give you a perfect example,” Bannon remarked.
“This is how great it is. On Friday, President Trump, right after [FBI director nominee] Kash [Patel]’s confirmation hearing. … What does he do? He sends these guys over to the FBI to clear out the FBI and clear out the Justice Department, fire half the guys before [Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi] are even voted on.” he continued.
“On Sunday we’re sitting here — because we monitor MSNBC and all the time on Sunday — and it’s not in the top half. It’s in the C block of the MSNBC stuff and they’re all meltdown Friday night and Saturday. He’s doing so much other stuff that time he’s flooded the zone.” Bannon added.
“I haven’t seen any fight at all, and the confirmation hearing’s where I was stunned. Rubio rolls out the end of the post-war international rules-based order. There’s no response to Democrats. There’s some establishment Republicans pushing back. Pete [Hegseth], for all his personal foibles, he lays out a revolution of military affairs, including where the budget is going to go. … The Democrats are all talking about his personal weakness. [Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent lays out … a new economic model, including the External Revenue Service, where the cuts are going to come from, how Trump looks at the government. No intellectual pushback, no ideas pushback. It’s almost like surrender.” the former Breitbart news chief concluded.
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