Steve Bannon tore into Tom Homan after President Donald Trump’s border czar made the rounds on the cable news networks to address the crisis in Los Angeles.
“Tom, enough TV,” said Bannon, a far-right podcaster and Trump ally. “We’ve got it. We’ve got the message.”
“Let’s start arresting people,” said the War Room host, who compared Homan to Attorney General Pam Bondi for their shared penchant for TV interviews.
“I love Tom Homan, but a strong recommendation,” Bannon said. “We didn’t want Pam Bondi to be co-host over there at Fox. Get back in the Justice Department and let’s start indicting people.” He likewise urged the border czar to start rounding up undocumented immigrants for deportation.
During her tenure, Bondi has faced complaints from MAGAnation for her failure to deliver concrete results—namely, indictments of Trump’s enemies and substantive file dumps on Jeffrey Epstein. Bannon’s critique of Homan struck a similar note.
On Monday, as protests and riots in L.A. raged, Homan appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, ABC News, CBS News, and NewsNation.
Across the networks, Homan largely delivered the same message: that ICE’s raids in the city and Trump’s decision to send in the National Guard on the protests are justified.
“I don’t think we’re going too far,” he told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo.
Bannon, meanwhile, argued that Homan hadn’t gone far enough.
“The ICE should triple-down today in L.A.,” Bannon said, calling for the removal of all undocumented immigrants in the country, “not just the criminals in the insane asylums.”
Bannon also chided Homan for telling MSNBC that the raids that kicked off the protests in L.A. weren’t for immigration purposes—they were investigating “money laundering, tax evasion, and customs fraud,” he said.
“Don’t apologize,” urged Bannon, with a portrait of Jesus Christ visible behind him and a country song playing quietly in the background. “All 10 million have to go.”
Asked for comment on Bannon’s criticism, ICE directed the Daily Beast to the White House, which did not immediately return an email.
Homan also walked back his openness to arresting California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday, saying that his words had been taken out of context and acknowledging that Newsom is not suspected of any crime.
Trump endorsed the idea of throwing his political opponent behind bars, saying: “I would do it if I were Tom.”
Newsom fired back on Monday, calling the bluff.
“He’s a tough guy. Why doesn’t he do that? He knows where to find me,” the Democrat said, referring to Homan. “That kind of bloviating is exhausting. So, Tom, arrest me. Let’s go.”
Bannon, a former Trump staffer who got axed in Aug. 2017 after clashing with other aides, has seemed to be making a play to return to Trump’s inner circle since his messy breakup with Elon Musk.
Bannon, a longtime adversary of the world’s richest man, revealed last week that he had told the president to investigate Musk’s immigration status and drug use.
Trump biographer Michael Wolff told The Daily Beast Podcast that Bannon is likely “looking for ways to get back in the fray,” seizing Musk’s fall from grace as an opportunity.
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