Bannon Out, But Stronger Than Ever

On Friday, Drudge Report scooped The New York Times and reported that White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who also served as Trump’s chief campaign strategist in the latter months of the campaign, is out at the White House. According to the Times, Bannon submitted his resignation to Trump on August 7, but the announcement of his ouster was delayed until today thanks to the events in Charlottesville. Bannon claims that he’s leaving voluntarily; Trump’s aides insist he’s being fired. It doesn’t really matter much — Trump obviously sidelined Bannon in favor of a wide variety of characters ranging from Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump to HR McMaster and John Kelly. Bannon’s influence had waned.

Bannon is deeply vengeful, and supremely ambitious. He has already held the most powerful job he will ever have — unless, of course, his new job is to destroy Trump from the outside. And he set the groundwork for that job over the past week.

First, he pushed Trump not to alienate the alt-right — Bannon’s base — and succeeded. Bannon was widely credited in the media with encouraging Trump’s bizarre Tuesday press conference, at which Trump rehabilitated the alt-right and said there were “very fine people” protesting with white supremacists in Charlottesville. Trump could have easily carved off the alt-right and not lost much; Bannon, however, had to keep them in his pocket. Without them, he is merely another former government employee searching for a home. With them, he can threaten Trump with political Armageddon.

Bannon’s play for Trump’s populist and alt-right bases will be partially successful. Outside the White House, Bannon can be more powerful than he was inside: if Trump doesn’t do what Bannon likes, Bannon will declare that he was ousted because the globalist insiders have taken over, and Trump has sold out the base. Bannon will attempt to claim the leadership of the movement he believes he built.


Comment

Your email address will not be published.

By submitting this form, I hereby consent to TrumpTrainNews.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which permits TrumpTrainNews.com and its affiliates to contact me.