Steve Bannon goes scorched earth on top Republican in meltdown that 'the Senate is gone'

MAGA influencer Steve Bannon is predicting Republicans will lose the Senate in the 2026 midterms — and he's laying the blame squarely at the feet of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD).

"The Senate, I think, is gone," Bannon said Thursday on his War Room program, rattling off a list of vulnerable Republican candidates he expects to fall. "We're gonna lose it big."

Bannon named names. He predicted Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) would fend off his Republican challenger in Georgia, that Trump-endorsed GOP candidate Michael Whatley would lose to former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina, that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) would go down in Maine, and that Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) would be beaten in Ohio.

The former Trump White House chief strategist pinned the looming collapse on Thune's refusal to pass the Save America Act — the Republican-backed voter proof-of-citizenship bill — and his resistance to killing the filibuster to get it done. Bannon also slammed Thune for failing to deliver $1 billion in taxpayer-funded security money for Trump's controversial new White House ballroom — a proposal Senate Republicans are now expected to abandon entirely.

"John Thune is supposed to be a leader," Bannon said. "He's worse than Mitch McConnell because he puts a nicer face on it."

Bannon argued the Save America Act is the only thing that could energize the Republican base enough to stave off a Senate bloodbath.

"The only way we can do that is get Save America," he said. "And John Thune — hasn't he shown you enough that he has no interest in doing this?"

His guest, attorney Mike Davis of the Article III Project, agreed, urging Thune to simply let the debate run and hold a vote. "Motivate your base," Davis said. "This is gonna be a base-turnout election. The Democrats are fired up. Give Republicans a reason to come out and vote for you. The Save America Act is that reason."

Bannon also floated the possibility of a Senate leadership challenge against Thune, saying cryptically at the segment's close: "We may be changing that slightly about a leadership fight — but hey, we'll get to that."

Thune has repeatedly refused to nuke the filibuster to pass the Save America Act, calling Senate floor time "a finite resource."