In his current gig as Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon isn’t an especially open book. His exact role in White House decision-making isn’t always clear, and he almost never talks to the press.

But before he got to the White House, Bannon was a filmmaker. And his movies say a lot about what’s on his mind, and how he plans to use the power of the US presidency.

Bannon’s movies deal in familiar Republican and conservative narratives: The evils of big government, for example, or the unfair maligning of Sarah Palin. But the key to reading his films is actually to ignore those elements. Bannon’s innovation, his particular genius, lies in how he uses familiar conservative ideas as a vehicle to express his own, distinct view of the world.

That unique worldview emerges most visibly in Bannon’s films about history. Together, those movies reveal Steve Bannon’s vision for America’s future. As you’ll see in the video above, it’s unlike that of almost anyone else in politics.