By james art 
Oxon Hill, MD. (AP) – Steve Bannon was accused of making a Nazi greeting while completing a conservative gathering speech, where President Donald Trump was planned to talk this weekend, but Bannon said the gesture was just a “wave. “
Bannon, who was once Trump’s chief strategist and helped lead his Republican campaign in 2016, was on the stage of the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington on Thursday night when he extended his right hand in the air, his palm apartment after He pressed the crowd to “Fight! Fight! Fight! ” – Referring to what Trump called after attempting to kill in Butler, Pennsylvania, during last year’s campaign.
The gesture has attracted an immediate twist because of its similarities with the right greeting associated with the Nazis history and their allies.
“Steve Bannon’s long and disturbing story about the disintegration of anti -Semitism and hatred, the threat of violence and the empowerment of extremists is well known and well documented by ADL and others,” wrote the league for the fight against defamation, anti -Semitism and human rights rights In response. “We are not surprised, but we are concerned about normalizing this behavior.”
Meanwhile, the French end -right president of the national rally, Jordan Bardlla, said he had canceled his planned CPAC speech on Friday to reaction to what he described as “a gesture relating to Nazi ideology.”
“Until I attended the room, one of the speakers allowed myself, from provocation, a gesture relating to Nazi ideology. As a result, I made an immediate decision to cancel my speech, “Bardela said in a written statement.
Bannon, talking to a French journalist from Le Point News magazine on Friday, said the gesture was not a Nazi greeting, but it was “a wave like I all the time.”
“I do it at the end of all my speeches to thank the crowd,” Banon said.
Bannon, whose podcated “military room” is extremely popular on the right, also blew up Bardela for his decision to cancel, calling him “unworthy of leading France.”
“He is a boy, not a man,” Bannon said, according to the video, published by correspondent Claire Menial.
He sounded these comments later on Friday, telling the Associated Press: “If he canceled because I removed the crowd as I did on the National Front Seven years ago … He is not a man and will never be the leader of France. “
Online, some far -right users have suggested that Bannon has made the gesture on purpose to “trigger” the liberals and the media while others distance themselves. Nick Fuentes, a far -right influential and Trump ally, who uses his platform to share his anti -Semitic views, said in alive that Bannon’s greetings “becomes a little uncomfortable to me.”
Bannon’s gesture came at the end of a speech, in which he repeated lies about the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, and continued to press Trump to serve a third term, something that the Constitution explicitly forbid.
“The future of America is Mag. And the future of Maga is Donald J. Trump, “he said. “We want Trump in ’28!”
Bannon is not the only person in Trump’s orbit whose gestures have come under control.
Trump Advisor Elon Musk attracted criticism last month after struck his hand on his chest and then reached out to a Capital One Arena speech, celebrating Trump’s inauguration. But extremist monitors and experts said it was unclear what Musk was trying to convey to the crowd.
Musk “made an uncomfortable gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not Nazi greetings,” ADL concluded.
Musk also pulled back. “Honestly, they need better dirty tricks,” he published a few hours after he left the scene. “The attack” all are Hitler “is so tired.”
Marshal Lerner, a Jewish conservative who attends CPAC but did not see Bannon’s appearance or gesture, said he was worried about how some critics look to connect Trump’s movement, again the movement of America with Nazism and mentioned the criticism of the criticism Musk.
“It’s like saying if the Nazis got up in the morning and they had breakfast and Trump got up in the morning and they had breakfast, he did things that the Nazis do,” Lerner said. “It’s stupid. This is ridiculous. That makes no sense. “
CPAC chairman Mat Swamp defended Bannon by writing to X that he was involved in the adoption of resolutions in strong support for Israel and in opposing anti -Semitism when they launched the conference.
“I stand Wsrael and Bannon,” Schlap writes.
This year’s gathering, held in Ockson Hill, Maryland, has attracted the WHO WHO to conservative leaders and employees of the Trump administration, including numerous members of the cabinet. Vice President JD Vance turned to the Convention early Thursday.
___
Kolvin reported from New York. The Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Ali Senson in New York have contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.