Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has shared rare insight into the moment President Trump was told he had won the 2016 presidential election.
“When it was called, [Trump] was actually upstairs in the kitchen,” Bannon told Esquire in an interview published Sunday, referring to the president’s Trump Tower penthouse in New York City. “When he heard it was being called by [the Associated Press], I shook his hand and said, ‘Congratulations, Mr. President.'”
“There were no big hugs or anything,” Bannon, Trump’s campaign CEO and recently returned Breitbart News executive chair, continued. “He’s not a guy who gets overly excited. We were obviously very happy and ecstatic. But it’s not a bunch of jumping around, high-fiving, anything like that.”
Bannon relived Nov. 8, 2016, as part of an Esquire piece reporting “untold stories” of Election Day from the perspective of lawmakers, campaign aides, journalists and political operatives.
Despite being confident his candidate would clinch the White House, Bannon also revealed he and Jared Kushner, another campaign associate and Trump’s son-in-law, were rattled by “horrific,” “brutal” early exit polls.
The polls led the pair to make a panicked phone call to Matt Drudge, editor of The Drudge Report, Bannon said.
“Drudge snapped us out of it, saying, ‘You guys are a couple of jamokes. Wait until the second exit polls come out, or later,”’ he added.
