Claim:
Steve Bannon, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, said, “If we [conservatives] lose the midterms and we lose 2028, some in this room are going to prison, myself included.”
Rating:
In early November 2025, days after Democrats won major elections across the United States, a clip spread online of Steve Bannon allegedly saying conservatives would go to prison if they lost upcoming elections. A long-time ally of President Donald Trump, Bannon has faced accusations of having white supremacist views and pleaded guilty to fraud in early 2025 after he faced charges of swindling donors who gave money to try to build a wall on the southern U.S. border.
According to video clips circulating on X (archived) and Instagram, Bannon allegedly said, “If we lose the midterms and we lose 2028, some in this room are going to prison, myself included.”
Bannon did indeed make the above statement at a gathering of conservatives on Nov. 5, 2025, a day after Democrats had a series of electoral victories in states including New Jersey, New York and Virginia. Video clips posted on his verified social media account confirm Bannon made the statement. We’ve thus rated this quote correctly attributed.
Bannon was speaking at the Conservative Partnership Institute, a conservative advocacy group that has been described as an “incubator” for “Trump loyalists.” Per footage shared on the verified X account for “Steve Bannon’s War Room,” the title of his radio show, Bannon said:
As God is my witness, if we lose the midterms and we lose 2028, some in this room are going to prison, myself included. They’re not going to stop. They’re getting more and more and more radical, and we have to counter that. And what do we have to counter it with? We have to counter it with more action, more intense action, more urgency. We’re burning daylight. If you look across every aspect of this. We have to codify what President Trump has done by Executive Order.
The clip can be seen here:
Bannon was warning his conservative audience of the consequences of Democratic victories. It was not clear what situations he was referring to when he said “some in this room are going to prison, myself included.” He may have been alluding to the idea of Democrats targeting prominent Republicans in politicized witch hunts.
Bannon also noted that Trump’s executive orders should be “codified,” which means turned into law. An executive order can be revoked by the next president, but if Congressional legislation that reflects the order passes, it becomes law that the next president cannot reverse.
Bannon’s Instagram account shared footage of the end of the same speech, in which he said:
If we don’t win, this country’s headed to a civil war. […] You see how radical they are? You see how they hate the United States of America and they hate American citizens? […] It’s gonna get worse. Tonight is a gut-check. […] History shows that we won in [2016]. Hell, we were winning again when the Chinese dropped the pandemic on us. In the summer of love they pulled out every stop to make sure that Trump and his team would not come back, look at what happened in 2020. It’s apocalyptic. […] They didn’t care if they steal a federal election, to shred the constitution means nothing. They live in a post-constitutional world.
[…]
If we had not come back and had the glorious victory a year ago tonight, not only would none of you be here, you would’ve been othered by the establishment in this city.
Bannon may have been accusing the Democrats of “stealing” a federal election in 2020, as well as insinuating that Trump lost that election in part because the Chinese “dropped” a pandemic on the U.S. As we have reported previously, there is no evidence to show that the 2020 election was stolen.
In 2020, we also covered the false rumor that Bannon predicted that members of former President Barack Obama’s administration would end up in prison.
Sources
“Bannon Warns MAGA to Brace for Prison If Democrats Keep Winning.” The Daily Beast, 7 Nov. 2025, https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-warns-maga-to-brace-for-prison-if-democrats-keep-winning/. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
Bromwich, Jonah E., and Hurubie Meko. “Bannon Pleads Guilty to Fraud in Border Wall Case but Will Serve No Time.” The New York Times, 11 Feb. 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/nyregion/steve-bannon-guilty-plea.html. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
Draper, Robert. “A Nerve Center for the Right Wing Rises in Washington.” The New York Times, 20 Feb. 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/20/us/politics/trump-conservative-partnership-institute.html. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
Evon, Dan. “Did Steve Bannon Predict Obama Officials Would End Up in Jail?” Snopes, 21 Aug. 2020, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/steve-bannon-predicts-obama/. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
“Executive Orders: An Introduction.” Congress.gov, https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R46738#:~:text=Congress%20may%20also%20enact%20legislation%20that%20specifically,not%20revoke%20them.%20For%20example%2C%2022%20U.S.C. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
Izzo, Jack. “There’s Still No Evidence of Systematic Voter Fraud in the 2020 Election.” Snopes, 27 June 2024, https://www.snopes.com//collections/no-systematic-voter-fraud-2020/. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
Palma, Bethania. “Steve Bannon Accused of Having White Supremacist Views.” Snopes, 14 Nov. 2016, https://www.snopes.com//news/2016/11/14/steve-bannon-accused-of-having-white-supremacist-views/. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
