Bannon made the gesture toward the end of his speech to CPAC. Image by screenshot/YouTube
By Louis Keene
February 21, 2025
Steve Bannon raised his arm in a gesture that resembled a Nazi salute during a speech Thursday at the Conservative Policy Action Conference.
Bannon, the far-right firebrand who was a senior adviser to President Donald Trump during his first term and last year served four months in prison for contempt of Congress, made the gesture toward the end of a rambling 20-minute rambling speech that resembled a pep rally. He recited his usual list of grievances related to the 2020 election, called the Jan. 6 insurrection a “hoax,” attacked immigrants, lambasted the media and led a “We want Trump” chant.
“We’re not gonna retreat, we’re not gonna surrender, we’re not gonna quit. Fight! Fight! Fight!” Bannon said, pounding his left hand on the lectern. He then lifted his right hand diagonally, briefly pointed it outward, then lowered it and gave the crowd a nod. Then he said: “Amen! God bless you. You are amazing.”
A longer clip of ~1 minute before Steve Bannon made a gesture resembling a Nazi salute/sieg heil near the end of his CPAC speech today. pic.twitter.com/pEl3NlURYx
— Louis Keene (@thislouis) February 21, 2025
Bannon’s speech came a month after Elon Musk, the billionaire leading Trump’s current effort to slash federal spending and staff, sparked controversy with a gesture many that neo-Nazis celebrated as a “Sieg Heil.” The Anti-Defamation League dismissed concerns over Musk’s salute, issuing a statement declaring it just an “awkward gesture,” but when Musk responded to critics of said gesture by posting a series of Holocaust puns, the ADL condemned him for it.
The ADL did not respond late Thursday to an inquiry about Bannon’s gesture.
Online, many reacted Thursday to Bannon’s gesture by comparing it to that of Musk — whose appearance onstage at CPAC immediately preceded Bannon’s.
Here’s video of Steve Bannon doing a Sieg Heil today at CPAC. It is what it is and it’s what Bannon intended. Don’t let yourself be gaslit. pic.twitter.com/LDT2kU43ZV
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 21, 2025
Bannon, a provocateur, is a former executive editor of Breitbart News, which he once called “the premier website of the alt-right.” His ex-wife accused him of antisemitism, saying he had a problem with how many Jewish people attended their daughter’s high school.
“He said that he doesn’t like Jews,” she reportedly said in a 2007 court filing, “and that he doesn’t like the way they raise their kids to be ‘whiney brats’ and that he didn’t want the girls going to school with Jews,”
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