Did Steve Bannon plot to oust Trump and take over White House? Memoir claims he wanted to use the dementia card
Steve Bannon reportedly believed he could personally succeed Donald Trump as president and secretly plotted to remove the 45th POTUS from office by claiming he had dementia, according to claims made in a new book.
TV producer Ira Rosen wrote in a memoir released this week that Bannon believed Trump "was suffering from early-stage dementia and that there was a real possibility he would be removed from office by the 25th Amendment."
Rosen claimed, without evidence, that Trump "turned on Bannon" after the latter appeared on a Time magazine cover in February 2017, just days after the former president was sworn into office.
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Rosen recently spoke to Yahoo News' Skullduggery podcast in an interview about his book 'Ticking Clock: Behind the Scenes at 60 Minutes', based on his work on iconic news show '60 Minutes', according to a report by The Sun.
"Bannon realized that Trump was repeating the same stories over and over again and Bannon kept saying this and he wanted to do something about it," Rosen said.
"Now, the secret was that Bannon crazily thought that he could be president. He would have been very happy to see Trump disappear from the scenes, either through the 25th Amendment, resigning for whatever reason, and he would step in and fill the gulf and carry the mantle of the Trump followers. But he was delusional about it," Rosen claimed.
Trump pardoned Bannon just days before President Joe Biden was sworn into office last month. The former White House counselor was charged with defrauding his donors who wanted to build a wall at the Mexican border, allegedly using donations from the "We Build The Wall" fund to pay a salary to one campaign official and personal expenses for himself.
Bannon, who also agreed with Trump that the 2020 election was "rigged", played an instrumental role in the former real estate mogul's 2016 presidential campaign. However, the duo is said to have fallen out after Bannon was quoted ridiculing Trump's children in another book 'Fire and Fury'. The former president dubbed him "Sloppy Steve" thereafter and said he had "lost his mind".
Bannon soon apologized and stepped down as chairman of Breitbart News. “Donald Trump Jr is both a patriot and a good man," he said in a statement to Axios at the time. “He has been relentless in his advocacy for his father and the agenda that has helped turn our country around. My support is also unwavering for the president and his agenda.”
He continued, "as I have shown daily in my national radio broadcasts, on the pages of Breitbart News, and in speeches and appearances from Tokyo and Hong Kong to Arizona and Alabama.”
The former White House chief strategist recently told Boston Republicans that instead of making a direct attempt to conquer the White House, Trump should run for a seat in the House of Representatives next year to try to become the speaker in place of incumbent Nancy Pelosi. He also said that as the speaker, Trump's first act could be to impeach Biden for his “illegal activities of stealing the presidency”.
“Trump is a disruptor, but he has a long-term vision because I absolutely believe in the marrow of my bones that he will be our nominee in 2024. He’ll come back to us. We’ll have a sweeping victory in 2022, and he’ll lead us in 2024,” Bannon, 67, said.