Steve Bannon calls for ‘4,000 shock troops’ to dismantle US government ‘brick by brick’

Steve Bannon has called for “4,000 shock troops” to come forward to dismantle the United States federal government “brick by brick”.

Days after being convicted of contempt of Congress, the former White House adviser told listeners of his War Room podcast on Monday of a scheme to purge the government of thousands of non-partisan civil servants should Donald Trump be reelected as president.

Mr Bannon said it went far beyond “draining the swamp”.

“This is taking on and defeating and deconstructing the administrative state,” he said.

“Suck on it. We’re destroying this illegitimate regime.”

The inflammatory remarks came after Axios reported last week that Donald Trump was planning to fire thousands of federal workers at all levels of government should he retake the White House in 2025.

According to Axios, Mr Trump wants to install Maga loyalists in all ranks of the federal bureaucracy in a second administration to “accelerate controversial policy and enforcement changes, but also enable revenge tours against real or perceived enemies, and potentially insulate the president and allies from investigation or prosecution”.

Appearing on Mr Bannon’s War Room podcast, former Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes confirmed the existence of a plan to gut the civil service.

“There is a plan in place that this second Trump term is going to be far more consequential than the first one,” Mr Cortes added.

Mr Bannon then called on thousands of “shock troops” to step forward.

“I want everybody to understand deeply exactly what we’re doing here. Because you’re going to be a part of it.”

Mr Bannon has deployed his shock troop shtick repeatedly in the past year.

In October 2021, he claimed the Maga movement has “20,000 shock troops” who were “ready to go” during a podcast rant.

He repeated the claim that 4,000 shock troops were preparing to takeover the government while hosting Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz in December.

“Get them ready now. Right? We’re going to hit the beach with the landing teams and the beachhead teams and all that nomenclature they use when President Trump wins in 2024—or before,” he said.

After the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v Wade in June, Mr Bannon again called for an “army of the awakened” to “shatter” Democrats.

Mr Bannon also made incendiary remarks the day before the January 6 insurrection, encouraging listeners to march on the US Capitol while claiming: “All hell is going to break lose tomorrow.”

The centerpiece of the Trumpworld plan is Mr Trump’s 2020 “Schedule F” executive order, which would have permitted him to strip civil service protections from tens of thousands of federal workers such as staff attorneys and subject matter experts.

Mr Trump’s allies are largely intent on continuing that war, Axios reported, by stacking agencies with cronies and filling his cabinet with many of the loyalists who surrounded him in his final days in office.

Mr Bannon is facing a maximum of two years in prison after being convicted of two counts of ignoring a Congressional subpoena to testify before the January 6 selection committee.

After promising to go “medieval” on the prosecutors, he offered no defence and was found guilty after less than three hours of deliberation.

He has indicated he will appeal the verdicts.