Stephen Bannon could not be reached for comment

As Trump's presidential campaign collapses against the onslaught of Vice President Harris, the former president's chief strategist sits in a prison cell in Danbury, Connecticut.

The weather was calm and clear in Danbury, Connecticut, on the morning of July 1, and the temperatures were in the low 70s when Stephen Bannon reported to the Federal Correctional Institute to turn himself in and start his 4-month sentence.

But Trumpworld was about to hit - forgive the pun - stormy weather at the very moment Bannon moved behind those prison gates. 

Among the many things Donald Trump cannot credibly deny, he cannot deny his close relationship with Bannon. The two are, as they say, thick as thieves

Three weeks after Bannon was imprisoned, on July 23, Trump published a new book: Time to Get Tough: Make America Great Again. 

Trump could have chosen from a long list of dignitaries to write his forward to this book. U.S. Sen Lindsay Graham, Gov. Doug Burgam of North Dakota, or ChaChi from Happy Days.

But for his latest book - to be released during his current presidential campaign - Trump chose Danbury FCI Inmate 05635-509: Stephen Bannon. 

In his few pages introducing Trump’s book, Bannon recalled the victorious evening of Election Day, 2016: 

“He ran against, arguably, what was then the most powerful brand name in American politics…Clinton,” Bannon wrote. “On election night in November 2016, in campaign headquarters in Trump Towers, the televisions showed an array of talking heads, anchors and reporters in despair, unable to conceal utter shock, as the votes were counted.

“Donald Trump had won the presidency,” Bannon wrote. It was a shining achievement not just for the 45th president but for Bannon, who worked as Trump’s chief campaign strategist that year.  (He had taken over for Paul Manafort, who had connections to people connected with the Kremlin and who once worked for a crooked leader in Ukraine.)

Bannon reprised his campaign role briefly, inside the White House, during the Trump Administration. 

By 2020, Trump had lost the presidency. Bannon, who by then was back to his prior career as a podcaster, stepped up to help. 

“That`s why I keep saying the mantra,” he said on his podcast, right before Jan. 6. “You called the play. Now run the play, right? It`s like the old Green Bay power sweep. It`s very simple, very -- just one thing leads to another, very logical, and the -- a victory is affirmed.”

Bannon’s assistant coach, Peter Navarro, who also worked as Trump’s trade representative, helped Bannon write a playbook. It led to one of the darkest days in American history, Jan. 6.

After, when Congress tried to investigate the wreckage, Bannon and Navarro each told it to kick rocks. 

Grand juries indicted each, juries convicted both, and judges sent Bannon and Navarro to prison. 

When Bannon started his stint at Danbury, things were flying high in Trumpworld. Trump was widely viewed as having badly beaten President Biden in a debate, Biden’s poll numbers dipped during the ensuing media onslaught, and Trumpworld was planning for a landslide. 

Trump’s guys seemed to spike the football. They were not aware they were standing on the 50-yard line. 

And for Bannon, a funny thing happened on the way to the yard for his 60 minutes of prison rec time: Biden dropped out, and Trump’s current team of Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles - and Trump himself - were all caught flatfooted. 

Now, Vice President Kamala Harris is running her own playbook. Call it a West Coast Offense, and she is throwing 80-yard touchdown after 80-yard touchdown. She has her own coach - a guy who was a real high school football coach, Tim Walz - and they are running a playbook of optimism. 

In 2016, Bannon engineered Trump’s selection of Mike Pence for the VP slot. In 2020, Bannon engineered a coup that almost cost Pence his life. In 2024, if Bannon wasn’t stuck in the can, it’s not clear exactly how he would react to human vote-repellant JD Vance but you could take some guesses. 

We’ll have to wait for Bannon’s thoughts when he gets out of prison, now scheduled for Oct. 29 (although it could be sooner and the Bureau of Prisons has wide discretion on inmate release dates.) 

But at this moment, when polls show Trump is sinking, and crowds are smiling and singing and cheering for Kamala Harris and Coach Walz, Stephen Bannon could not be reached for comment.