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Conservative media personality Steve Bannon says Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the former president, should be the next U.S. attorney general.
November looks set for a rematch between Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, and President Joe Biden. Bannon, a Trump ally who served in his administration as a chief strategist, is banking on a second Trump term, and some have speculated on whom the Republican would choose to lead the Justice Department.
On a recent episode of his War Room podcast, Bannon told his guest, Sergio Gor, Trump Jr.'s business partner in conservative publishing house Winning Team Publishing, that the former president's son would make a good pick for attorney general.
"One last thing, Sergio. Make sure you tell your partner, on Morning Joe this morning, they mentioned Don Jr. as attorney general. Hey, I gotta say I think it may go to the top of my list... You don't need a law degree, you need common sense," Bannon said, speaking in a lighthearted tone.
"Don Jr.'s got common sense. I wanna put him at the top of the list now for AG, which I would love to be there for the confirmation hearing, sir," he said.
Gor replied: "I love that idea, and I'll share that with him. I'm actually flying out with him in about an hour, so that'll be our topic of conversation."
"Yeah, tell him we're gonna push it hard," Bannon responded.
Newsweek reached out to Bannon via text message, as well as Trump's campaign spokesperson via email, for comment.
Dave Aronberg, the Democratic state attorney for Florida's Palm Beach County, told Newsweek: "You don't have to be an attorney to be U.S. attorney general or a surgeon to be U.S. surgeon general. It would be unusual to have someone without a law degree serve as attorney general, but nothing is usual with Donald Trump. Loyalty is his most important qualification, and no one would be more loyal than his own son."
Bannon's comments were referring to remarksmade by Morning Joe co-host Willie Geist on the MSNBC show. In a recent conversation about Trump's legal troubles, Geist suggested that Trump believes if he wins the presidency his guilty verdict in the recent hush money trial and his three other criminal indictments—all of which he has pleaded not guilty to—will go away.
"That's the bet: If he wins, it all goes away, and he's actually outside of the case that was just decided with the 34-felony guilty verdict against him last week," said Geist. "He successfully has used delay tactics, his team has, to probably get these [other criminal cases] pushed past the election. He thinks if he wins, [Attorney General] Merrick Garland's out, he puts, I don't know, Don Jr. in as attorney general or something, and everything goes away."
Last Thursday, Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels alleges she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, which he denies. Trump has maintained his innocence, and his legal team intends to appeal the verdict.
Additionally, Trump and his allies have said that the four criminal cases brought against the former president are politically motivated. They argue that Democratic operatives are unfairly prosecuting Trump to undermine his presidential campaign and keep Biden in the White House.
There is no evidence that the cases against Trump are politically motivated or that Biden has had any involvement in them, including the two brought by the Justice Department's special counsel.
Update 6/6/24, 1:59 p.m. ET: This story was updated with a comment from Dave Aronberg, state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida.
About the writer
Rachel Dobkin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on politics. Rachel joined Newsweek in ... Read more