Steve Bannon: 5 Things to Know About Trump's Top Advisor

Steve Bannon

Donald Trump named alt-right conservative media mogul Steve Bannon as the next chief White House strategist and senior counselor on Nov. 13.

The White House strategist and senior counselor is essentially the "whisper in the ear" to the president of the United States.

Bannon joined Donald Trump's campaign in August and used his media outlet to help steer it to a victory, making the real estate mogul the 45th president of the United States.

So who is Steve Bannon?

We've compiled a list of five key facts to know about the man Bloomberg once named "the most dangerous political operative in America."

Steve Bannon Fact No. 5

Bannon was an officer in the U.S. Navy.

He served in the U.S. Navy for 10 years, from 1973 to 1983. When stateside, he was a special assistant to the chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon.

Bannon left the military to pursue his MBA from Harvard Business School after he lost faith in his commander in chief, Jimmy Carter.

"I wasn't political until I got into the service and saw how badly Jimmy Carter f----- things up," Bannon told Bloomberg in February 2015.

Perhaps this is where Bannon's distrust of big government began...

Steve Bannon Fact No. 4

After earning his MBA from Harvard, Bannon went on to work for global investment banking firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) as an investment banker in 1983.

But in 1990, he left Goldman to create startup investment firm Bannon & Co. with former colleagues. The firm specialized in the media and quickly realized the profits that can be made from film studios and archives.

That led the way for Bannon's involvement with Hollywood productions...

Trending Now: What Is the "Alt-Right"?

Steve Bannon Fact No. 3

After the sale of Bannon & Co. in 1998, Bannon went on become an executive producer in Hollywood.

He started off his career by producing Anthony Hopkin's film "Titus" in 1999.

He also produced a documentary in 2004 about Ronald Reagan titled "In the Face of Evil," which seized the attention of right-wing Americans and lead to Bannon's regular appearances on FOX News. It was also during that filming where he was introduced to Andrew Breitbart.

In 2011, Bannon produced another right-wing favorite: "The Undefeated." The film advocated for the outspoken former Republican governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.

Steve Bannon Fact No. 2

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit about Steve Bannon is his involvement with the politically conservative news site Breitbart from March 2012 to August 2016, when he joined Trump's campaign as the chief executive officer. Bannon was formerly the publication's executive chairman.

Breitbart News prides itself as being an "anti-media" outlet, reporting on topics such as big government, big journalism, and national security. Bannon declared the site to be "the platform for the alt-right" in 2016.

The website is known for its unraveling of high-profile political scandals, such as the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal in 2011. Under Bannon's watch -- and literally, from his basement -- Breitbart News staff vigorously monitored Weiner's social accounts and caught the former politician's "accidental" explicit tweet before it was deleted.

Breitbart was also widely discussed during the 2016 presidential election after Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton stated that the site "embraces ideas on the extremist fringe of the conservative right" and read aloud controversial headlines from the website on Aug. 25.

Clinton listed the provocative headlines and crude content as reasons for her supporters to dismiss Breitbart News, but perhaps she didn't want something else coming to light before the election...

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Steve Bannon Fact No. 1

Bannon is the executive chairman and co-founder of the Government Accountability Institute, a conservative research organization founded in 2012 aimed to "investigate and expose crony capitalism, misuse of taxpayer monies, and other governmental corruption or malfeasance," according to its mission statement.

The organization is known for exposing the misuse of funds by public and government figures, most notably in publications such as "Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich" and "Bush Bucks: How Public Service and Corporations Helped Make Jeb Rich."

"Clinton Cash" has been rumored to be a main source in the highly publicized FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation during the 2016 presidential election, according to The Washington Post and Business Insider. Many Clinton supporters blame the investigation as the main reason Clinton lost the election.

Next Up: Under a Trump presidency, a new arms race will be worth trillions in coming years -- and early investors will be rewarded handsomely. Read more...

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