Understanding Steve Bannon

President Trump presents a problem to those who look at politics in terms of systematic ideologies. He is either disinclined or unable to lay out his agenda in that way. So perhaps it was inevitable that Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, who does have a gift for thinking systematically, would be so often invoked by Mr. Trump’s opponents. They need him not just as a hate object but as a heuristic, too. There may never be a “Trumpism,” and unless one emerges, the closest we may come to...

The headlines this month have been alarming. “Steve Bannon’s obsession with a dark theory of history should be worrisome” (Business Insider). “Steve Bannon Believes The Apocalypse Is Coming And War Is Inevitable” (the Huffington Post). “Steve Bannon Wants To Start World War III” (the Nation). A common thread in these media reports is that President Trump’s chief strategist is an avid reader and that the book that most inspires his worldview is “The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy.”

I wrote that book with William Strauss back in 1997. It is...

White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon rarely appears in public and rarely speaks to the press, much less on live television. So his appearance alongside White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus Thursday was hotly anticipated and closely watched.

The men performed a buddy schtick of sorts, portraying the yin and yang that bring the White House together and keep it running not in chaos as some media reports have claimed, but like the "fine-tuned" machine President Donald Trump bragged about during a news conference last week. Priebus keeps the...