Steve Bannon urged pro-Israel conservatives to stop embracing establishment GOP figures such as former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley over former President Donald Trump, warning that the loss of support from the MAGA movement would be devastating to the cause. 

Bannon, the Breitbart News founder who served as a senior Trump administration adviser, made the comments while bemoaning Haley’s recent trip to Israel, where she was criticized by some for autographing an Israeli artillery shell with the phrase “Finish them.” The far-right political operative slammed Haley for not promoting Trump’s pro-Israel record while on her trip, and warned that efforts by Jewish donors to promote her were hurting the pro-Israel cause’s standing in the MAGA movement. 

“I gotta tell Nikki Haley now, this is a warning, and all the Jewish donors who have her back, in Israel and not, and all those tweets on Israel, Israel, Israel, and this is coming from a show [War Room] that has had Israel’s back and the Jews’ back more than anybody,” Bannon said over the weekend on his “War Room” show. “And yesterday, Biden’s lying. I put it up, he lied, the Israelis did not sign off on that plan. And Netanyahu came out this morning and said our mandate is still the same, we’re taking down Hamas military and political capability. So the White House bald-faced lied. Why? To put more pressure on them.”

Bannon was referring to President Joe Biden’s description of the cease-fire deal being disputed by some Israeli officials, though Netanyahu and members of his war cabinet have not gone on the record condemning the deal.

“She’s over there on a state visit, and it’s in your face now,” he added of Haley. “No defense of Trump, who’s been the greatest president for Israel. One thing after another.”

“If you think that’s helping the case of bringing MAGA to continue – if MAGA doesn’t have the back of Israel, if MAGA doesn’t have the back of American Jews, those demons you saw in Columbia and these demons you see in the campus and faculty and the administration of these universities, we stand in front of that and we stand strong, but that is not helping,” he continued.

“She is sending a signal and she’s up in your grill on this thing.”

“She's over there on a state visit, and it's in your face now. No defense of Trump.” Steve Bannon criticizes Nikki Haley for visiting Israel without defending Trump. pic.twitter.com/IZmlVxQP6W

— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) June 3, 2024

Bannon has been a frequent critic of Haley, publicly urging Trump against selecting her as vice president over her hawkish views and her political ambition, the latter of which he says would prompt her to “try to be [former Vice President] Dick Cheney” and run the administration. 

Where Bannon and Haley align is on U.S.-Israel policy, with both being long-standing supporters of the Jewish state. While Haley’s wing of the GOP has held firm in its support for Israel, Bannon’s side of the party has an isolationist streak.