News

Here's Where Steve Bannon Might Live

by Maya Parthasarathy

President-elect Donald Trump recently revealed his choice of chief strategist, former Breitbart chief executive Steve Bannon. There's been plenty of backlash against Bannon, who has been associated with the alt-right movement and white nationalism. But where does Bannon actually live?

Bannon's living situation isn't completely clear; his residence is described differently by various news sources. In October 2015, Bannon was living in Washington, D.C., in a "14-room townhouse he occupies a stone's throw from the Supreme Court," Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Within the month of August 2016, the Los Angeles Times reported two locations for Bannon's place of residence: a house Bannon owns in Laguna Beach, in Orange County, California, and a home in Florida, where public records do not show Bannon owning property.

Trump won swing state Florida's 29 electoral votes by garnering just 1.3 percent more of the vote than his opponent Hillary Clinton. Why am I bringing this up? Because while Bannon may have been part of the 49.1 percent of Florida voters who rallied behind Trump, the Miami-Dade County address he was registered to vote from may have actually been an unoccupied house, the Guardian reported. Neighbors and the owner of the house, Luis Guevara, reportedly confirmed this to the Guardian. "I have emptied the property; nobody lives there," Guevara told the Guardian.

Bannon used to rent the house for his ex-wife, Tea Party activist Diane Clohesy, but she moved out this year, according to the Guardian. Before that, from 2013 to 2015, Bannon had reportedly rented another property in Miami for Clohesy — and he had registered to vote from that address, despite not being in a relationship with Clohesy, from whom he has been divorced for seven years.

And he apparently doesn't own that Washington, D.C., townhouse attributed to him in the Bloomberg Businessweek profile. Instead, it's owned by Egyptian businessman and landlord, Mostafa El-Gindy, the Guardian reported. And, to make things even more complicated, until he joined the Trump campaign, Bannon presented Breitbart's News Daily talk show, which a Sirius spokeswoman said he hosted live from either Washington, D.C., or New York, according to the Guardian.

It's pretty clear that Bannon's actual place of residence is pretty complicated, possibly even slipping into murky legal ground. But as Trump's chief strategist, Bannon will likely soon be spending much of his time in the United States capital.