Trump ally Steve Bannon claims he's 'going to jail' if Republicans lose midterms

Conservative political strategist and key Trump ally Steve Bannon has warned that he is going to prison if Republicans lose control of Congress and the presidency amid a string of bad polls for the MAGA movement.

Bannon made the startling prediction while looking forward to the first major political test of President Trump's second stint in the White House, the 2026 midterms, at a Conservative Partnership Academy conference in November.

Polls have shown for some time that Republicans face an uphill battle to retain their control of the House at the election, with YouGov detailing a lengthening six-point lead for the Democrats amid strong negative headwinds from the executive - with Trump's net unfavorability widening from zero to around minus 12 percent since winning the general.

Fearing a legal 'witch hunt' from the opposition, if these polls translate into an electoral victory for Democrats, Bannon swore 'as God is my witness' that many at the conference 'are going to prison, myself included'.

Steve Bannon has previously pleaded guilty to fraud charges after creating a crowdfunder to build a border wall (Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)

Some online saw this as an admission of guilt, which one X user summarized with the sentiment: "If you have to win an election to avoid ending up in prison, you’re not one of the good guys."

However, those on the right saw Bannon's words as a statement of the obvious, with legal warfare becoming normalized within American politics. "It proves that the winners will prosecute for political reasons," another user replied.

'Lawfare' has indeed become a major part of politics in recent years, which Trump has decried since his first term in office and consequent investigation over the January 6 riots to prevent the certification of the 2020 election as a 'witch hunt'.

But in his first year back in the Oval Office, President Trump has in turn deployed the Attorney General and an army of lawyers to pursue those who tried to prosecute him after he left office.

Steve Bannon has been a political fixer for Trump since before the 2016 election (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

This includes New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully prosecuted Trump over a civil fraud matter in 2022. In turn, she has faced the threat of fraud charges herself since the president assumed office, which were thrown out by both a judge and a federal grand jury in recent months.

Bannon argued in his conference speech that this pattern would continue in politics, unless the right 'counter with more action' and 'more urgency'. He claimed that 'we've got to put aside these structural barriers and get on with it,' in reference to the Constitution.

In a sign of how the arch MAGA strategist views these elections as life-or-death for the movement, Bannon also called for a 'maximalist strategy' with Republican operatives taking the opportunity to 'seize the institutions', meaning the three arms of government - the democratically elected House of Representatives, Senate and the Executive.

"If we don't do that now we're going to lose this chance forever," the far right guru told the crowd, with Bannon telling the crowd they had one-shot to keep MAGA in power 'because you're never going to have another Trump'.