A former Trump strategist reveals in a leaked audio that the Republican candidate will falsely claim victory before the official results are announced.

The eventual defeat in the presidential elections would not resonate with Donald Trump to concede that he lost the vote; on the contrary, he would declare himself victor if the count indicated otherwise, according to Steve Bannon, a former American media executive and political strategist who served as the White House’s chief strategist for a short period in the Trump administration.

Speaking to a group of associates in October 2020, Bannon disclosed to that Trump intended to declare victory on election night, neglecting the official results. He explained that Trump was aware of the slow tallying of mail-in ballots, which tended to favor Democrats. This would result in early leads for Trump in key states—a situation he planned to exploit by prematurely claiming victory and alleging fraud as vote counts shifted toward Joe Biden.

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But back in 2020, as Bannon is heard laughing in an audio released by the Mother Jones, “What Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory. Right? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner.” He anticipated Trump walking into the Oval Office by late evening, tweeting “I’m the winner. Game over. Suck on that.”

Reports before the 2020 elections hinted at Trump’s strategy to falsely claim victory but it was not clear whose ideas was it - Trump's or Bannon's.

On his War Room podcast on Election Day, Steve Bannon discussed a plan employing fraud allegations to dispute an electoral loss and pushing Congress to declare Trump the winner.

The 6 January committee later detailed how Rudy Giuliani urged Trump to declare victory in the early hours of November 4, despite objections from campaign staff.

Bannon also warned of post-election chaos, anticipating that Trump’s false victory claim would provoke a “firestorm” of unrest. He suggested that any election outcome would likely result in violence, with Trump either refusing to concede or inciting disorder if he claimed a fraudulent victory.

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Bannon portrayed Trump’s post-election actions as a power grab, predicting firings of key officials like FBI Director Christopher Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel. He concluded that a Trump loss would prompt extreme measures, including orders to halt vote counting nationwide.

This fact explains why Trump demanded this week calling for a swift presidential winner on the night of 5 November 2024.

The audio adds weight to evidence that Trump’s late-night declaration of victory followed a premeditated plan to deceive the public and retain power. Bannon candidly discussed the use of lies to undermine democracy, predicting that Trump’s false victory claim would incite widespread political violence and trigger extreme efforts to stay in office.

The audio comes from a meeting between Bannon and supporters of Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese mogul for whom Bannon had worked. The meeting, aimed at planning election night coverage for GTV—a pro-Trump, far-right misinformation platform—was recorded by a participant and provided to Mother Jones. Attendees included Dr. Li Meng Yan, known for unsubstantiated claims about COVID-19, and Wang Dinggang, a GTV host spreading falsehoods about Hunter Biden.

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A spokesperson for Bannon argued that the comments on the recording were not new, stating that the expert had publicly discussed these strategies multiple times and even expressed willingness to openly testify about those events.

After the election, Bannon became a vocal proponent of Trump’s baseless fraud claims. The Washington Post linked Bannon’s support with Trump’s decision to grant him a last-minute pardon on unrelated fraud charges, a claim Bannon disputed.

Bannon’s refusal to comply with a 6 January committee subpoena led to contempt of Congress charges. Although Bannon later agreed to testify, federal prosecutors deemed this irrelevant to his charges. His trial is set to proceed.

“If Biden is winning, Trump is going to do some crazy shit,” Bannon is heard in the audio.

This could be applicable to the 2024 presidential elections too.

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