Newly released from prison, Steve Bannon predicts convincing Trump win at Miranda Devine’s New York book launch

As Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart looked on, Donald Trump influencer Steve Bannon has predicted a convincing Republican victory at Miranda Devine’s book launch, just hours after being released from US federal prison.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon with Australian journalist Miranda Devine at her book launch in New York. Picture: Adam Creighton/The Australian

Hours after being released from federal prison, Steve Bannon, one of Donald Trump’s most influential supporters, predicted a convincing victory for the former president at next week’s election.

Mr Bannon made the call at Australian journalist Miranda Devine’s private book launch in Manhattan on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEDT).

As Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart, who travelled to the US to support Mr Trump, looked on, Mr Bannon told a small gathering that the Republican presidential candidate was “on the cusp of a great victory and the greatest political comeback” at the event held at the elite River Club of New York.

“More importantly, over the next five or six days we’ll run the table on the blue wall and take the southern belt and get over 306 or 312 electoral votes and change American history,” he said, as he praised Devine as “the best investigative journalist” and described the New York Post, which employs her, as “the greatest tabloid in the world”.

Mr Bannon, one of the brains behind Mr Trump’s presidential victory in 2016, was released from prison on Tuesday after spending nearly four months behind bars for a contempt of congress conviction.

“President Trump, when he went to Mar-a-Lago after they stole the 2020 election, he understood in January, February, March, April what they were doing to do to him when he ran again; he had every opportunity to waive off,” he told supporters.

“It’s the greatest show of political courage in American history, which will shatter the deep state, shatter the globalists, and start to drive them from our beloved republic,” he added, speaking a week before the US presidential election, which polls suggest will be among the closest votes in American history.

“If we don’t win, I’m going back to federal prison,” Mr Bannon said, before joking that he’d lost 9kg during his stint.

Ms Devine, who’s become a regular and high-profile fixture on Fox News since she moved to the US in 2019, told The Australian her new book, The Big Guy, on the Biden family’s alleged corruption, was “at the heart of what Trump is battling and what put Bannon in jail”.

“The same forces that crippled Trump’s presidency with the Russia-gate hoax, and the same people that really conspired to support the ‘laptop from hell’, they are the same people who are now Trump’s greatest opponents,” she said.

“All the polls and all the vibes are pointing toward a Trump victory; Harris has been a real dud candidate,” she added, telling left-leaning Australians they “don’t really understand how the two US parties have flipped” and that the Democratic Party had “become an authoritarian organisation”.

At a press conference earlier in the day, Mr Bannon told reporters that he’d been “empowered by my four months at Danbury federal prison,” and confirmed he had already spoken to the former president and Republican nominee following his release.

When he entered prison on July 1, he defiantly said he was “proud” to serve time “if it’s what it takes to stand up to Joe Biden”.

One of the masterminds behind Mr Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign, Mr Bannon, 70, was sentenced to four months in prison in October 2022, but remained free while appealing his conviction.

A federal appeals court upheld the conviction in May, and federal district judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, revoked Mr Bannon’s bail at a court hearing, ordering him to report to prison.

Much has changed in US politics since then, including Mr Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race, and Ms Harris replacing him as the Democrat nominee.

Mr Bannon took a senior role late in Mr Trump’s 2016 campaign and later served in the White House as his chief strategist before leaving after seven months, reportedly due to conflicts with other top staffers.

Though he no longer works officially for the former president, he had maintained significant influence among Mr Trump’s supporters through his high-rating podcast, The War Room.

Mr Bannon’s comments came amid turmoil in both campaigns for the White House after a comedian at Mr Trump’s New York Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday (Monday AEDT) said Puerto Rico was a “floating pile of garbage”, a comment which potentially alienated hundreds of thousands of critical Latino voters, before President Joe Biden said Mr Trump’s supporters were “garbage”.

Mr Bannon entered prison the same day that the conservative-dominated Supreme Court delayed the possibility of Mr Trump being tried in federal court for trying to overturn the 2020 election.

“Nancy Pelosi thought a federal prison was going to break me; well, it empowered me,” he said.

“I am more empowered today, more focused today, sharper today, in better shape today than I’ve ever been in my entire life,” he told reporters, addressing the former House speaker.

“So, Nancy Pelosi, suck on that.”

Additional reporting: AFP