What Former Breitbart Editor Ben Shapiro Says You ‘Need to Know’ About Trump’s New Campaign CEO

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, a former editor at large for Breitbart, posted a scathing editorial Wednesday about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s selection of Breitbart Executive Chairman Stephen Bannon to be his campaign’s new CEO.

In the piece published on his website, The Daily Wire, Shapiro wrote that Bannon will “predictably and hilariously” join Trump’s campaign after transforming Breitbart News “from hard-charging news outlet to drooling Trump mouthpiece.”

“I have a bit of experience with Bannon, given that I was the editor-at-large of Breitbart News for four years, and worked closely with Breitbart and Bannon,” Shapiro said, adding that there are things “you need to know about Bannon.”

Shapiro, who quit his role at the website earlier this year, reiterated his assertion that Bannon turned Breitbart into “Trump Pravda” for “his own personal gain.”

“If Trump wins, he’s in a position of high power; if Trump loses, Bannon could head up a new media empire with Trump’s support,” Shapiro wrote.

He added that the website’s “loyalty to Donald Trump” exceeds their “loyalty to their own employees,” citing the organization's efforts to “smear” ex-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields after she asserted that she was assaulted by Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski.

“Breitbart publicly burned bridges with everyone to maintain its Trump loyalty,” Shapiro wrote. “That was Bannon, a scorched-earth personal opportunist.”

Shapiro also alleged that members of the Breitbart are seeking roles in the Trump organization:

The new team at Trump headquarters will undoubtedly include all the Breitbart staffers who openly lusted after power within the Trump campaign: Joel Pollak, the Breitbart lawyer who desperately wanted to be a Trump speechwriter, and wrote a disgusting hit piece about me personally when I left and accurately accused the website of becoming an adjunct to the campaign; Matthew Boyle, the pseudo-journalist who reportedly bragged about becoming Trump’s press secretary; Milo Yiannopoulos, the Trump-worshipping alt-right droog stooge. They’re all in with their Godking, now.

Although the site’s founder Andrew Breitbart “despised racism,” Shapiro wrote, under Bannon’s leadership, “Breitbart has become the alt-right go-to website, with Yiannopoulos pushing white ethno-nationalism as a legitimate response to political correctness, and the comment section turning into a cesspool for white supremacist mememakers.”

“Now, it’s clear that Breitbart News is indeed Bannon.com and Trumpbart News,” he added. “That’s pathetic and disgusting.”

Shapiro called Bannon “legitimately sinister.”

“Many former employees of Breitbart News are afraid of Steve Bannon,” Shapiro wrote. “He is a vindictive, nasty figure, infamous for verbally abusing supposed friends and threatening enemies. Bannon is a smarter version of Trump: he’s an aggressive self-promoter who name-drops to heighten his profile and woo bigger names, and then uses those bigger names as stepping stools to his next destination.”

Read Shapiro’s op-ed here.

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