The once inseparable bromance between Steve Bannon and Donald Trump is no more. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Politics
After remaining silent for months following his unceremonious firing as White House chief adviser, Steve Bannon has now gone public against “The Donald,” putting an exclamation point on their bitter breakup that appears to be only getting uglier.
Speaking for the first time about the June of 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr., then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner and Russian operatives that was staged to present damning information about Hillary Clinton, Bannon called the meeting “treasonous.”
“The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor — with no lawyers,” he told The Guardian. “Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.”
Bannon also said he believes special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia is centered on money laundering, and that the White House is “sitting on a beach trying to stop a Category Five” hurricane.
“You realize where this is going … This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose (senior prosecutor Andrew) Weissmann first and he is a money-laundering guy,” he said. “Their path to f*cking Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr., and Jared Kushner … It’s as plain as a hair on your face.”
Bannon also believes that first son-in-law and Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner could be convinced to cooperate if Mueller probes his financial records.
“They’re going to go right through that. They’re going to roll those two guys up and say play me or trade me,” he said of Trump Jr. and Kushner.
As for the younger Trump, Bannon did not mince his words: “They’re going to crack Don Jr. like an egg on national TV.”
Politics
Never one to accept criticism about himself or his family, Donald Trump did not take the comments lightly and has since come out fighting.
“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,” Trump said.
Trump added that Bannon had little to do with his surprise presidential victory in 2016, but was largely to blame for the loss of the Republican-held US Senate seat in Alabama when accused child molester Roy Moore lost to Democrat Doug Jones.
“Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than 30 years by Republicans,” Trump said.
“Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well,” Trump said.
If that whipped cream wasn’t enough, Trump also decided to add this little cherry on top: “Steve Bannon cried when he got fired!”
OUCH!!!
Here is the full Trump statement:
“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.
“Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than thirty years by Republicans. Steve doesn’t represent my base — he’s only in it for himself.
“Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.
“We have many great Republican members of Congress and candidates who are very supportive of the Make America Great Again agenda. Like me, they love the United States of America and are helping to finally take our country back and build it up, rather than simply seeking to burn it all down.” – Donald Trump
In case you’re keeping score, it’s about as clear as a glass window pane that there’s no love lost between Steve Bannon and Donald Trump. However, “The Donald” should swallow his pride and simply take the silent route on this one. Bannon knows where all the “bodies are buried” regarding Trump and could soon be pushed to sing like a canary to Robert Mueller in the ongoing investigation.
Stay tuned…
I will agree that the “bromance” APPEARS to be over…at least for now. But let’s remember who we’re talking about here – Donald J. Trump and Steve Bannon. Two highly venomous Snakes, IMO, who are cut from the same skin, (if you will). Each one out for himself and doesn’t give a d*mn about anyone else. In fact, Bannon has already expressed his regrets by starting with a mea-culpa statement that is (as one readers on another site put it) “so laughable that it negates the rest.” Bannon’s opening statement: “Donald Trump, Jr. is both a patriot and a good man.” – WashPost No doubt Trump is very angry with Bannon. But I’m gonna wait and see just how long their breakup actually lasts. They have NO shame. And they certainly don’t trust one another. But I wouldn’t be surprised at all of a “reuniting” of sorts between these two… Read more »