Clive Palmer has denied claims that his 2019 federal election campaign was influenced by a senior advisor to former US President Donald Trump. The claims surfaced in text messages released by the US Department of Justice as part of the Epstein files.
Claims of Influence from Steve Bannon
In messages with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Steve Bannon, who was once Mr Trump’s chief strategist, claimed to have directed Mr Palmer on his costly political advertising spend.
“I had Clive Palmer do the $60 million anti china and climate change ads,” Bannon wrote in the text chain.
An earlier message sent by Epstein mentions Australia, but the subject of their discussion remains unclear.
Steve Bannon claimed to have influenced Clive Palmer’s costly political advertising campaign in text messages to Jeffrey Epstein. (Department of Justice)
A spokesperson for Mr Palmer told the ABC the billionaire “has never spoken to Bannon,” and there is no evidence the mining magnate ever met or communicated with either Bannon or Epstein.
The messages were sent two days after Scott Morrison won the federal election and became Australia’s prime minister. Opinion polls had predicted it was an unlosable election for the Labor Party, led by Bill Shorten, resulting in a surprise outcome when a strong result in Queensland secured the Coalition victory.
Clive Palmer spent a record amount on political advertising during the 2019 election campaign. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
Mr Palmer has previously credited his $60 million advertising spend with preventing Mr Shorten from becoming prime minister in 2019. “The end game was to stop Shorten introducing his taxes in Australia and destroying the country,” Mr Palmer told The Australian Financial Review the day after the election. “Scott Morrison’s policies are so much better than Chris Bowen’s. It was worth it to ensure those little grubs stayed out of office.”
The United Australian Party received 3.4 per cent of the primary vote nationally, with its preferences flowing to the Coalition. Aside from preferences, Mr Palmer’s advertisements worked to discredit Mr Shorten and help Mr Morrison to office. “Our Shifty Shorten ads across Australia … I think have been very successful in shifting the Labor vote,” Mr Palmer said at the time.
Australia on Bannon’s Radar
Bannon joined Mr Trump’s political campaign and briefly his administration, but held his own motivations. Formerly a Hollywood film producer and investment banker, he became a founding member of Breitbart News in 2007 — a platform described by academics as dealing in fake news and conspiracy theories.
Steve Bannon was a senior advisor to Donald Trump during part of his first administration. (Reuters: Carlos Barria)
He left the White House in October 2017 and sought to bring a Trump-style populism globally. “All I’m trying to be is the infrastructure, globally, for the global populist movement,” he told The New York Times.
The text messages with Epstein suggest Bannon sought to influence several elections to manipulate foreign relations with China. “If you are there, Mongolia more interesting in some regards,” Epstein wrote, responding to Bannon’s reference to Kazakhstan. “I can set a meeting with the pres in his yurt. No kidding. It sits on border, knows [Xi Jinping] very well and is receptive.”
Bannon agreed.
Bannon: “Mongolia and Kazikstan (sic) are the keys”
Epstein: “Landlocked between Putin and xi”
Bannon: “That’s why I’m going. Yep”
Steve Bannon discussed the proximity of Mongolia and Kazakhstan to Russia and China with Jeffrey Epstein. (US Department of Justice)
Bannon was deeply concerned by the rise of China and saw Australia as the “canary in the mineshaft.” “Australia can show you when good and decent people kind of play by the rules and the next thing they look around and many of the economic resources and economic assets of a country are owned by another country,” he told Four Corners in 2018.
“China thinks of the United States and Australia in the same way. They think we’re tributary states.”
Bannon joked over foreign interference fears. The text messages were sent at a time when Bannon’s involvement in foreign elections was sparking concern in other nations. He was in Paris the week Europeans went to the polls to vote on the next European Parliament, backing Marine Le Pen, who was at that time the head of France’s far-right National Rally party, though he denied any active role in her campaign.
Steve Bannon with Marine Le Pen at her party’s convention in Lille, France, in 2018. (Reuters: Pascal Rossignol)
Several French politicians and commentators accused him of interfering, with French President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign manager, Stéphane Séjourné, describing Bannon’s activities in Europe as “an attack on the sovereignty of the election.”
“U saw where Macron campaign manager coming after me personally,” Bannon wrote to Epstein on May 20. “Perfect,” Epstein replied, sharing a line of reporting that quoted Mr Séjourné. “Loved it.” “Doesn’t get any better,” Bannon agreed. Bannon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Discover more from Archyworldys
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
