Politics –
Bannon Banished To
The Back Of The Bus
Remember a time when White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was considered so influential, he was referred to as “President Bannon?” Well, the times… they are a changin’.
Politics
Poor Steve Bannon. The former Breitbart News honcho and current poster boy for white supremacy whose goal was the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” used to be the cat’s meow in the eyes of “The Donald.” Now, he appears to be about as important as a $2 dollar hooker the morning after a tepid sexcapade.
The new object of Donald’s affections is none other than son-in-law in-chief, Jared Kushner, who appears to not only be winning the battle of the West Wing but soon to force Bannon as well as White House Chief-of-Staff Reince Priebus out!
Yes, Donald Trump is considering rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic — and we all might owe Ivanka’s husband a debt of gratitude for the impending shake-up.
For a man who rode to The White House on the premise that he’s a “winner” who “knows how to get things done,” Donald Trump has quickly proven that his reputation has not preceded him. Or in other words, Trump has been everything but a sure-fire winner.
His mere 3 months in office have been dogged by credible claims of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. His hand-picked National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, was forced to resign in shame after only 3 weeks on the job. The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, was forced to recuse himself from the Trump investigation, after it was revealed that he was withholding information from the committee and delivering it directly to the Trump White House. A federal judge twice nixed Trump’s plans to ban Muslims from entering the US. Oh, and who can forget the “Repeal and Replace Obamacare” debacle, which was Trump’s #1 promise to Obama-haters that went down in an embarrassing sea of flames.
To put it mildly, the Trump presidency has so far been a flop. Never one to accept responsibility himself, Donald Trump has directed blame for his failed first few months toward 2 of his top White House staffers: chief strategist Steve Bannon and Chief-of-Staff Reince Priebus — with Bannon receiving the lion’s share of the blame.
The first signs of trouble in paradise came late last week when Steve Bannon was surprisingly booted off the National Security Council. The NSC is traditionally made up of high-ranking military brass and intel officials with decades of experience, who hold the powerful authority to play God and assassinate anyone considered a threat to national security. Bannon should have never been granted such elite membership, however, that wrong has since been righted. New national security adviser H.R. McMaster has been working for weeks to rid the White House foreign policy operation of Bannon. According to West Wing sources, it was ultimately the influence of Jared Kushner that made it finally happen.
The 2nd sign came from a telling photo-op, where Trump was huddled in a meeting with his top advisers to discuss the bombing of Syria. Bannon has traditionally been seated directly at the main table and only a person or 2 away from Trump. However, the new photo showed him relegated to a seat behind the grown-ups table with Trump’s back to him — while Jared Kushner was front and center.
Yet another sign came during a dinner last Thursday with President Xi Jinping of China at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Seated next to Xi Jinping’s wife and only 2 seats down from Trump himself was first son-in-law Jared Kushner. Further down the banquet table and sandwiched between 2 miscellaneous Chinese officials was Bannon, who appeared visibly dejected.
Needless to say, it’s clear that his power has eroded and his position in the White House is in jeopardy. Or, in the words of one Trump confidant: “Bannon will likely be gone soon.”
How the mighty have fallen.
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WH photo (ed for security): @potus receives briefing on #syria military strike fr Nat Security team, inc @vp , SECDEF, CJCS via secure VTC pic.twitter.com/aaCnR7xomR— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) April 7, 2017
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Politics
On Thursday night while Trump was weighing a military strike against Syria, Bannon stood vocally against any action — however, it was the Kushner wing of the staff who eventually convinced Trump to ignore Bannon’s bark and proceed anyway. The strikes were a break from the nationalist stance Trump adopted as a candidate on the advice of Steve Bannon, who frequently argued against US intervention abroad and was a key architect of Trump’s “America First” policy. However, he found himself at the “back of the bus” as Trump pondered punishing the regime of Bashar al-Assad for its use of chemical weapons on civilians.
Recognizing the writing on the wall, Bannon reportedly threatened to quit last week but was talked out of it by wealthy Republican donor Rebekah Mercer, who believes Kushner and Ivanka are closet Democrats who will pull Trump away from the white supremacist conservative agenda that brought him to Washington.  Still, his decision to remain doesn’t prevent Trump from pulling the rug out from under him anyway.
Donald Trump has reportedly been asking those outside the administration — including wealthy friends and longtime confidantes — whether they approve of the makeup of his staff. Interestingly, many Republicans believe that both Priebus and Bannon should go.
The former Breitbart executive knows his standing in Trump’s inner circle has been diminished. He also recognizes that his entrenched battle with Kushner — and, by proxy, Ivanka Trump, as well as other moderate members of the administration — is “unwinnable” given Trump’s intense loyalty to his own family. Still, Bannon remains determined that for as long as he is around he will continue fighting for those key (read: nationalist) issues that helped propel Trump to the White House.
As for Chief-of-Staff Reince Priebus, he is growing ultra-sensitive about questions regarding his competence and relevance in the White House — particularly since he spends very little time actually managing staff, but rather by Trump’s side nearly every waking moment attending to his every whim. Priebus is said to be deeply concerned about his stature in the West Wing and his inability to paint a rosy perception for the public as to the goings on inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Donald Trump spends hours watching news programs and reading every syllable written about him, so it’s no wonder he’s growing increasingly impatient with how his presidency is being viewed — something he blames Priebus for not being able to control.
Not surprisingly, The White House issued a statement Friday pushing back on speculation that Bannon and Priebus are on the outs.
“Once again this is a completely false story driven by people who want to distract from the success taking place in this administration,” said Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman. “The President’s pick for the Supreme Court (a decision that has generational impact) was confirmed today, we hosted multiple foreign leaders this week and the President took bold and decisive military action against Syria last night. The only thing we are shaking up is the way Washington operates as we push the President’s aggressive agenda forward.”
Yeah, right.
Is “President Bannon” on shaky ground inside The White House, or are rumors of his demise greatly exaggerated?
TAKE OUR POLL:
DJ, you came out swinging this morning…lol Well done.
As usual you have provided great details and kept it real as a gentleman. .
But as you know, I'm not a gentleman so I hope you won't mind if I tweak you first sentence just a little so that it reads:
"For a man who rode to The White House on the premise that he’s a “winner” who “knows how to get things done,” Donald Trump has quickly proven that.." THAT was just LIES. and fairy tales.
Trump's worst nightmare is coming true as ALL of his INcompetencies, character defects, psycho-social pathologies and um…Intellectual *challenges* are laid bare for ALL the world to see. His presidency of course is direct refection of HIM, a confused and chaotic mess of a man who knows he's in WAAAAY over his head but there's NO PLACE to run and hide.
I doubt it's a surprise to anyone who has truly paid attention to this clown the past 2 yrs that in Trump's world anyone…and I do Anyone is responsible for Trump's failures….but Trump. Therefore, in Trump's world everyone…and I do mean EVERYONE (except Ivanka) is expendable when you cease to be of any further value to the guy -.that includes Bannon (and also Jared if push comes to shove).
My guess is Yes, Bannon is on shaky ground. But I also think that rumors of his (political) demise are somewhat exaggerated…..for now.
Gonna be interesting to see how this all plays out, given the "alt-rights" support for Bannon and their growing anger against Trump as a result of Trump ordering air-strikes against Syria.
For some phony reason the alt-right is feeling "betrayed" !?!…and raising all kind of H*ll about it because Trump campaigned as an "isolationist" not an "interventionist" and you know….well apparently they believe him….smh!
I have to agree with Truth on this one Trump is in over his head and he knows it. He thought being president was going to be easy which is why he used to criticize Obama so much. It ain't so easy now that he's on the inside though. But if they get rid of Bannon it will be a happy day. Ivanka and her husband are Democrats plus they have Trumps attention because they are family. Maybe it was a good thing for both of them to be in the White House with him because now all that craziness Bannon was planning is starting to fall apart. He is a dangerous racist but they are somehow holding everything together. It looks like that general they put in charge of national security is handling his business too and cleaning a lot of mess up. Anyway I still don't see how Trump makes it the whole four years. It's too hard and he is already bored for not always getting his way. Plus he misses Trump tower and his plane and that whole life. But get rid of Bannon and we might be ok.
Anyway I still don't see how Trump makes it the whole four years. It's too hard and he is already bored for not always getting his way. Plus he misses Trump tower and his plane and that whole life. […]
I agree BD. I do not see the man completing 4 years. Heck, at the rate he's mucking up, he may not make it through to the 2nd year(?).
And that look on his face isn't boredom. It's FEAR my friend.
It's Fear.
Sidenote……
Now that the dust has truly settled after the missile air-strikes against Syria, I consider those air-strikes to be mostly a dog and pony show which actually accomplished very little.
But that didn't stop a number of cable news hosts and pundits from making absolute fools of themselves as the shiny missiles absolutely thrilled them. One such fool (Brian Williams of MSNBC), waxed poetic about the "beauty" of our missiles flying over the Syrian sky. the fact that those missiles carried with them certain death and destruction meant nothing.
No. It's all about America showing Our "Military Might" and "Exceptionalism" don'tcha know.
Why even CNN host, Fareed Zakaria (one of the few..very few..hosts I had had respect for) lost his mind and connected with his inner Van Jones:
The Hill:
“I think Donald Trump became president of the United States last night,” Fareed said Friday on CNN’s “New Day." "I think this was actually a big moment.”
Thankfully not everyone in the news media was quite so irresponsibly gullible.
The backlash on Twitter was swift and strong. And writers, like Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post, immediately called those hosts and pundits out for their shameful and shameless fawning:
"The media loved Trumps show of military might. Are we really doing this again?"
Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/th…
WashPost Reader:
Trump became president for launching 59 cruise missiles that utterly failed to destroy the target? The motive for this faux attack is obvious to most, namely obfuscation and deflection. The Russian burp out the normal diplomatic indignation, totally pre-planned in this case. This show of bravado is already out of steam, so who knows what lunacy the Great Pumpkin will dream up next. For certain media types to be swooning over this pointless 100M exercise is a sign they're not doing much critical thinking on this one. […]
WashPost Reader:
I'm surprised and alarmed that the media are so fond of the military-industrial-security complex. They're confirming that most major networks and cable channels have abandoned their traditional and essential role of questioning the rationale of squandering American lives and money, which started with the media's acquiescence with Bush 43's (i.e. Cheney's) fabrication of false news about Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction" and development of a quagmire in Iraq.
A responsible Fourth Estate is a necessary element of the American republic; now that it has sold out to the military-industrial complex, we're at risk of war with Russia. […]
Or possibly even North Korea which, IMO, is the bigger risk right now.
…..back to Bannon……
Between Bannon being relegated to the "back of the bus" and the airstrikes against Syria, Trump appears to have really p*ssed off a good chunk of his base support. .
AllahPundit, editor at Hotair:
Yeah, of all the surprises Trump has pulled on his base thus far as president, last {Thursday} night’s strike was the most surprising. Not rescinding DACA was a mild surprise after he promised to do so during the campaign, but Trump has been saying encouraging things about legalizing DREAMers for months. That one wasn’t out of left field. The House GOP health-care bill was more of a surprise given how it would have increased costs for parts of Trump’s working-class base, but in the end it didn’t pass. No harm, no foul.
Bombing Assad, though? Trump spent the summer of 2013 screeching that the U.S. should avoid the Syrian quagmire at all costs. He distinguished himself during the Republican primary as a skeptic of NATO specifically and interventionism more broadly (well, sometimes), starting with the U.S. misadventures in Iraq and Libya. Like most nationalists, he seemed to disdain foreign entanglements as a rule, on the theory that they can take care of their business over there and we’ll take care of ours over here. There’s too much “American carnage” to deal with to worry about what Assad’s up to. If nothing else, an “America First” ethos should mean a higher bar for showing that American national interests are truly at stake in a foreign conflict before intervening, with no license for strictly humanitarian bombings.
Now here we are. And on top of everything else, of all the dictators to make an example of, Trump chose a client of nationalists’ favorite foreign strongman, Vladimir Putin, sabotaging the great U.S./Russia detente. His right-wing populist base — nationalists, paleocons, isolationists, alt-righters, Russia groupies, and Assad apologists who see him as a bulwark against jihadism — is horrified.
Steve Bannon naturally also opposed the airstrike, per Gabriel Sherman, “on the grounds that it doesn’t advance Trump’s America First doctrine.” Jared Kushner supported it, and Jared tends to get his way. There are many more important implications to an escalating war in Syria than how it might affect White House personnel, but if Assad does do something to defy Trump and Trump acts again, it might cause the nationalists in the West Wing to bail out. As one source told the Atlantic about the Bannon/Kushner feud, “If the Trump administration becomes a pale copy of the Bush administration, then there was no reason for this election.” Why would Steve Bannon want to wreck his populist cachet online by ending up a de facto spokesman for a long, meandering humanitarian intervention in Syria?
Via the Daily Rushbo, here’s Rush Limbaugh today trying to soothe disconsolate Trumpers by theorizing that Obama’s wussiness subtly conditioned Americans to become weak-ass pacifists and now Trump’s bombing is setting us right. (Never mind that Obama continued the war in Afghanistan for eight years, bombed Libya, escalated in Yemen, and droned hundreds of people, guilty and innocent.) Is that why practically everyone less hawkish than John McCain and Lindsey Graham opposed bombing Assad in 2013? Because we had been feminized by Obama or whatever?
Or was it because, then as now, there’s no remotely good outcome available to us in Syria, especially with dangerous adversaries like Russia and Iran now on the ground and in the mix? […]
Hotair Reader:
I still don't understand what made Trump shift from staunch opposition to meddling in Syria when he wasn't in charge to suddenly bombing Syria when he is in charge? […]
Hotair Reader:
He is the swamp! Drain Jared and his libs, put Bannon back. They are all the same, once in office, {screw} those who voted for you! […]
InfoWars Reader:
Trump was a TROJAN HORSE who deceived every supporter, his behavior proves it. Just take a good hard look who he has surrounded himself with. We got screwed royally ya'll.
Oh, one last thing for you 18 to 25 year olds – you are going to wake up one day and learn that the blonde 70 yr. old has instituted a draft and you will find your sorry ass in the middle eastern desert. […].
InfoWars Reader:
And how's "The Wall" coming along? LMAO.
Okay so THIS really happened at about 2 PM this afternoon EST……
During the White House press briefing, John Harwood tweeted the following:
{Sean} "Spicer says US goal is to "destabilize Syria – destabilize the conflict there."
In response to Harwood, Christina Wilkie tweeted:
It is difficult to imagine anything that could further “destabilize" the morass of a civil war in Syria.
Except perhaps US intervention. […]
Poor Sean. Poor. Poor. Sean…lol