A provocative, unfiltered portrait of Steve Bannon—the most divisive man in America—based on exclusive, candid conversations

In Firestarter, bestselling author and political outsider Mark Eglinton reveals the real person behind the controversial figure whose subversive strategies helped propel Donald Trump into power. With no allegiance to Washington’s establishment, party machinery, or elite circles, Eglinton draws on unique access and an independent outsider’s clear distance to deliver an intimate, surprising, and deeply revealing portrait of a man with an uncanny grasp of power and a ruthless talent for exploiting the most polarizing issues of our time.

Bannon’s path ran from the navy to Goldman Sachs to Hollywood before he took over a flailing Trump 2016 campaign as CEO, sensed the shifting mood of the electorate, and changed American politics forever. For the first time, Firestarter unravels Bannon’s explosive tenure and departure, his role in the January 6 insurrection, his felony convictions and imprisonment, his support for efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the extent of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and his ambitious vision for the 2028 presidential cycle.

Firestarter is not a conventional biography, however. It is a unique dialogue-driven endeavor built on raw, unscripted conversations between two disparate people that show Steve Bannon as we have never seen him—at a moment when his influence may be stronger than ever, and American democracy hangs in the balance.