From the Liveblog of
Friday, February 21, 2025
Accused of Nazi salute at CPAC, Steve Bannon says it was just a wave
Steve Bannon was accused of making a Nazi salute as he concluded a speech at a conservative gathering where US President Donald Trump is slated to speak this weekend, but Bannon says the gesture was merely a wave.
Bannon, who once served as Trump’s chief strategist and helped lead his 2016 Republican campaign, was onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington on Thursday evening when he extended his right arm in the air, his palm flat, after imploring the crowd to “Fight! Fight! Fight!” — a reference to what Trump shouted after an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, during last year’s campaign.
Steve Bannon, after calling for Trump to be President for life, did a Nazi salute on stage at CPAC.
Nazism has officially taken over the GOP.
The few remaining conservatives have a choice: either leave the party and obstruct it—or choose to be complicit.https://t.co/94o5Kj69Le
— Joshua Reed Eakle ???? (@JoshEakle) February 21, 2025
The gesture drew immediate backlash due to its similarities with the right-arm salute linked in history to the Nazis and their allies.
“Steve Bannon’s long and disturbing history of stoking antisemitism and hate, threatening violence, and empowering extremists is well known and well documented by ADL and others,” the Anti-Defamation League, an antisemitism and human rights watchdog, wrote on X in response. “We are not surprised, but are concerned about the normalization of this behavior.”
Meanwhile, French far-right National Rally president Jordan Bardella said he had canceled his scheduled speech at CPAC on Friday in reaction to what he described as “a gesture referring to Nazi ideology.”
“While I was not present in the room, one of the speakers allowed himself, out of provocation, a gesture referring to Nazi ideology. As a consequence, I made the immediate decision to cancel my speech,” Bardella said in a written statement.
Bannon, speaking to a French journalist from Le Point news magazine, says the gesture was not a Nazi salute but was “a wave like I did all the time.”
“I do it at the end of all of my speeches to thank the crowd,” Bannon says.
The Times of Israel Community.