Four criminally charged or convicted men pardoned by then-President Trump now orbit his 2024 presidential campaign — exercising their gravitational pull for his victorious reelection. Of the four, Steve Bannon was dramatically granted clemency hours before Trump left office on Jan. 21, 2021, while Roger Stone and Paul Manafort received Christmas gift pardons on December 23, 2020. Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was pardoned a month earlier.
“Orbiting” means they are not officially on Trump’s reelection team. However, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone and Michael Flynn have a prodigious influence on Donald Trump, his campaign and ardent supporters.
And then a surprise news report heralded the re-emergence of the internationally scandalous Paul Manafort. Allegedly, Trump’s disgraced first 2016 campaign manager is poised for a “potential role” at the July Republican National Convention and as a fundraiser for Trump’s cash-strapped campaign.
With Trump’s cult-like MAGA voters wearing “Make America Great Again” and “Save America Again” caps — a bold, lawless image enhances the ability of these pardoned men to galvanize voter support and serve their legally challenged master.
The combative communication styles of Bannon, Stone and Flynn mirror Trump’s outrageous claims of victimhood. He was “robbed” of his 2020 victory, and he is fighting a “weaponized” Justice Department aiming to destroy him — and them, at least until they were graciously pardoned.
Let’s briefly examine each man’s influence on Team Trump and their impact on his third presidential campaign.
Stephen K. Bannon is the most powerful of the pardon four-pack, “Bannon is the intellectual ringleader of the MAGA circus,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) has proclaimed. Proving the point is Bannon’s fiery 2024 CPAC speech. Then, for MAGA street cred, “Bannon seems to have been deeply enmeshed in the planning of the disruption of the peaceful transfer of power and the seizing of the presidency for Donald Trump,” Raskin explained as a member of the January 6 House Committee.
First, a little history: In mid-August 2016, when Trump’s presidential campaign was floundering under Manafort’s disjointed leadership, Bannon was named “campaign chief executive.” After Trump’s shocking victory, Bannon served for seven months as “chief White House strategist” until his combative, headline-generating exit in August 2017.
In August 2020, Bannon and three associates were indicted for defrauding crowdfunding donors who had contributed $25 million to their “We Build the Wall” campaign — the federal charge that Trump commuted on his last day in office. New York state charges were later filed in 2022.
Although Bannon is embroiled in multiple pending legal matters and facing prison, his highly ranked “War Room” podcast makes him a media powerhouse. He has successfully filled the red-meat media gap left by Rush Limbaugh’s death, and his “angry warrior” MAGA brand has left traditional conservativism in the dust.
“War Room” is the go-to misinformation destination for Trump acolytes such as Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.). Encouraged by Bannon’s bombastic master communicator skills, elected members can vent about their enemies and invent conspiracy theories to enhance fundraising while currying favor with Trump.
If Trump wins in 2024, the War Room should be credited for pumping up and turning out Trump’s MAGA army that Bannon’s “deconstructing the administrative state” ideological underpinnings helped birth and grow into a significant political movement.
Roger Stone is a political mastermind infamously known for “dirty tricks,” either real or imagined. Stone’s volatile relationship with Trump began in the 1980s when he was businessman Trump’s first political adviser. Roger’s book, “The Making of the President 2016,” chronicles his role in Trump’s historic upset over Hillary Clinton. If graphed, the Trump-Stone relationship would have sharp peaks and deep valleys but with a continuous brotherly connection.
In July 2020, Stone was sentenced after being convicted of witness tampering, obstruction and lying to Congress about 2016 campaign-related activity. He was hours away from reporting to a federal corrections facility when Trump commuted his sentence and then pardoned him in December 2020. Ever since, at GOP events, Stone has received rock star treatment.
This week, I asked Stone about his status with Team Trump. He replied, “I have, and I seek no formal or informal role in the presidential campaign. I remain a strong supporter of the president, and I speak to him as well as members of his campaign team regarding political matters occasionally. Those conversations remain confidential.”
Stone said that his various radio shows (where he promotes Trump) keep him “more than busy.” Then he added, “If you look at every one of these stories, my alleged [campaign] involvement is simply based on the fact that I have ‘been seen at Mar-a-Lago recently’ — what a crock of s***.”
Truthfully, Trump and Stone will always have each other’s backs — the source of Stone’s influence — which he intentionally underplays, despite having Trump on speed dial.
Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn served as Trump’s first national security adviser. He was in office for only 22 days before the ambush. Flynn was convicted of lying to the FBI about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, for which Trump pardoned him. He was entangled in more international legal problems subsequently.
In Trump world, Flynn is an emissary, a folk hero, a victim, a man-of-God, and someone who engaged in Jan. 6 related events. He juices up the Christian-nationalist election-denying wing of the GOP. Nonetheless, the general’s influence is dwarfed by that of Trump sergeants Bannon and Stone.
But that could change on April 5, when Flynn begins his national movie tour for “Flynn: Deliver the Truth. Whatever the Cost.” Will Flynn’s “Truth” movie justify his advising Trump to deploy the military to rerun the 2020 election and seize voting machines? Perhaps, along with the popcorn, Flynn will sell Trump’s “God Bless the USA Bibles” so that God can help Trump win and in turn restore Flynn to the White House.
Finally, there’s Paul Manafort. Today, his MAGA influence is zero. But his stock will rise if Trump’s high command hires him as some anticipate, and he performs successfully. Manafort’s rap sheet is marked with old-fashioned greed gone amok, which included hiding $55 million in foreign bank accounts, filing false tax returns, defrauding banks and milking pro-Russian Ukrainian clients — crimes worthy of Trump pardons.
As Trump’s campaign heats up, watch these loyal men earn their pardons.
Myra Adams served on the creative team of two GOP presidential campaigns, in 2004 and 2008.