After all, Bannonism - the “philosophy” that Trump ran on and adopted - is a toxic brew of anti-government nihilism, protectionism, America First-ism, white nationalism, evangelical grievance-mongering, Russian bootlicking and seething hatred of the media. There’s little to no difference between that and the daily tweets of Trump or the programming on Fox News, which dutifully carries Trump’s water. It’s frankly baffling that Republicans could take comfort in Moore’s defeat and Bannon’s embarrassment and yet still enthusiastically defend Trump.
Now it is true that Trump has something Bannon does not, namely an absolute indifference to the economic populism on which the Trump campaign ran.