Steve Bannon, the former senior adviser to President Donald Trump, denied that his straight-armed, palm-down gesture at a prominent conservative gathering was a Nazi salute.
Bannon’s gesture at CPAC, which closely resembled one made by current Trump adviser Elon Musk at an inauguration rally last month, has drawn criticism from multiple Jewish groups for “normalizing” right-wing extremism.
But it has also received a rebuke from the far right: Jordan Bardella, the president of National Rally, a French far-right party, canceled his appearance at CPAC in protest of Bannon’s gesture.
“Yesterday, while I was not present in the room, one of the speakers out of provocation allowed himself a gesture alluding to Nazi ideology,” Bardella said in a statement. “I therefore took the immediate decision to cancel my speech that had been scheduled this afternoon.”
National Rally, co-founded by a Nazi SS commander and led for decades by a man convicted of antisemitic hate speech, has worked to shed its antisemitic image and present a more approachable face to French voters as it has recently gained popularity.
Bannon lashed back at Bardella, telling a French reporter on the sidelines of the conference that Bardella was “unworthy to lead France. He’s a boy, not a man.” Bannon added that Bardella “wets himself like a little child.”
Bannon, who airs far-right nationalist views as the host of an influential podcast, also said that the gesture was not Nazi salute.
“No, it was a wave, it was a wave like I did all the time,” he said. “I do it at the end of all my speeches to thank the crowd.”
Musk ignited a torrent of criticism last month when he made a similar gesture, which many but not all perceived to be a Nazi salute, following Trump’s inauguration. Ten days later, a priest and far-right political activist was kicked out of his Anglican church for making the salute at a pro-life rally.
Jewish groups criticized Bannon following his gesture, which came at the end of a speech in which he also said “The future of MAGA is Donald Trump. We want Trump in ’28,” a reference to Trump running for a third term, which would be unconstitutional.
“Last night Steve Bannon sent a clear message to white supremacists and neo-Nazis as he performed a fascist/Nazi salute and yelled at the CPAC crowd to ‘fight, fight, fight!’” read a statement from the Nexus Project, which focuses on antisemitism. The group lamented that “the growing normalization of neo-Nazi signaling and rhetoric from figures close to the president is stunningly dangerous — particularly for American Jews.”
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the liberal Jewish Council for Public Affairs, also condemned the “Nazi-style salute” and said the gesture was “part of a broader normalization of extremism.” Earlier in the week she criticized remarks by Vice President J.D. Vance in which he rebuked German political parties for isolating the far-right party Alternative for Germany.
On X, the Anti-Defamation League did not reference the gesture but tweeted, “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. We are not surprised, but are concerned about the normalization of this behavior.”
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