Steve Bannon: Republicans will erupt in 'civil war' after midterm elections

Former White House chief strategist predicts 'monster' legislative battles before new Congress is sworn in

The Republican Party will be engulfed in a "civil war" over its future the day after Tuesday's midterm elections, according to Steve Bannon, a leading architect of the Maga movement.

He also predicted "monster battles" in the lame-duck session between voting day and the swearing-in of the new Congress in January over the US's debt ceiling, a massive, "grotesque" government-spending bill, defence policy and AI regulation.

He added that if Donald Trump resumes major combat operations in Iran, "people are going to go crazy" and he would "be at the lead of that".

"This lame-duck session is going to be so brutal," he said.

Bannon, who served as Trump's chief strategist in his first term, said the Republican Party is being rocked by number of issues, including Israel, Iran, immigration and the so-called "deep state".

"You're going to see a huge fight on these issues and where people line up, and from that you start to see the leadership emerge in '27," he said. "That's why I keep telling people, hey, it's not going to happen in six months. It's happening next Wednesday."

"I don't think there is any frontrunner" for the 2028 election, he added. "We're going to have a civil war internally."

Bannon believes the future of the party lies in leaning harder into the "America First" agenda he helped build in Trump's first campaign.

But, he said, "the Republican Party, the donor class and the apparatchiks, including at the state level, they want their party back".

"They look at Trump as just a passing summer storm. They think their voters are still going to vote for the neoliberal, neocon policies . . . We've passed that, nobody's going back. In fact, this movement's getting more nationalistic."

Bannon said he once believed that a "blue tsunami" could wipe out Republicans in this year's midterm elections. "Trump was not engaged," he said. "I didn't think they had a strategy, and the base was depressed and demoralised."

But now he is encouraged by Trump's efforts to re-energise his base, including with a recent campaign tour to small towns including Wasilla, Alaska; Bullhead City, Arizona; and Kalispell, Montana.

"The president likes playing the big rooms," Bannon said. "Well, those aren't the big rooms, but they had to be done."

He also praised Elon Musk's America Pac, the political action committee, for its contributions to the party's campaign in Texas and said Trump's Super Pac, Maga Inc, will end up spending close to $400mn to support candidates in the midterms, "which will be an extreme wake-up call for the president . . . I know he didn't intend to spend any of it".

But there are signs of alarm in the party. Last year its Senate majority appeared impregnable. Now polling shows the Democratic Party could take the upper chamber.

Bannon believes Republicans can retain the Senate but is "very concerned" about races in Georgia, North Carolina, Iowa, Kansas and Ohio. He warned the latter could "implode" because gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's controversial campaign "is pulling everybody down".

Polls in the Republican stronghold of Texas are also worrisome. Trump's pick, Ken Paxton, is neck and neck with Democrat James Talarico, even though the Lone Star State last elected a Democrat to the US Senate 38 years ago.

"We got a fight on our hands," said Bannon of Paxton. "There's no doubt he's in trouble."

Paxton has a long history of legal troubles and was impeached in 2023 by the Republican-controlled state legislature on charges of bribery and obstruction of justice, although he denied all charges and was later acquitted.

He won Trump's endorsement in the party's May primary, beating veteran senator John Cornyn. Bannon blames the senator and his allies -- "traditional Republicans" such as George W Bush's strategist Karl Rove, who has refused to endorse Paxton -- for undermining the candidate.

The pro-Cornyn primary ads were "much more vicious than the Talafreako stuff" that is currently being rolled out to Texans, he said. "You know, Paxton's mother won't vote for him when it's over," Bannon joked.

He admitted it would be a "miracle" if the Republicans were able to maintain a majority in the House of Representatives but added it was "still doable".

"It's all about turnout right now," he added. "But the vibe is much better than it was eight weeks ago."