Did right-wing podcaster and Donald Trump’s former White House strategist Steve Bannon flash a quickie Nazi salute during his speech Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)?
Countless observers sure thought so.
It wasn’t the defiant in-your-face salute tech billionaire Elon Musk hammered home in a speech honoring Trump the day of the president’s inauguration.
Bannon’s gesture was a fast flash of a stiff arm off to the side. The motion had no other obvious message than what seemed apparent.
He whipped out the salute after he emphatically urged the CPAC audience in National Harbor, Maryland to “fight, fight, fight.” When it drew applause, Bannon made a quick nod and responded: “Amen.”
Bannon called for a third term for Trump, and said leaders like him come along twice in history.
Joshua Reed Eakle, president of the Project Liberal organization, declared in a response to a clip on X: “Nazism has officially taken over the GOP.”
“This is Trump’s America,” noted a post on X by grassroots political group Really American.
White nationalist Nick Fuentes characterized both Musk’s and Bannon’s gestures as a “Roman salute.” Nevertheless, he called it “sick” on his podcast Thursday, adding: "It's getting a little uncomfortable even for a guy like me!”
