The Fall of 'President' Bannon

By Margaret Hartmann, New York Magazine

06 April 17

 

ast month the Huffington Post reported that White House strategist Steve Bannon has been working to advance his nationalist agenda as quickly as possible because he doesn’t expect to be around for long. “I’m expecting to be fired by the summer,” he reportedly told several friends.

It appears his departure nearly came a few months early. Politico reported on Wednesday night that after weeks of clashing with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, and his allies, Bannon had grown so frustrated that he wanted to quit. Rebekah Mercer, a GOP megadonor close to Bannon, talked him out of resigning. “Bekah tried to convince him that this is a long-term play,” said a GOP operative.

According to the New York Times, Bannon didn’t just consider leaving; he actually threatened to quit if he was removed from the National Security Council’s “principals committee.”

In addition to Kushner taking on an absurd amount of responsibility in recent weeks, he’s reportedly helped promote Gary Cohn, Trump’s top economic policy adviser, and Dina Powell, the deputy national security adviser for strategy within the White House. The two former Goldman Sachs executives are more moderate, particularly when compared to the administration’s Breitbart faction. “Big fight is between nationalists and the ‘West Wing Democrats,’” a senior administration official told Politico. The order that removes Bannon from the NSC happens to authorize Powell to attend meetings of the principals committee.

Kushner & Co. might be maneuvering against Bannon (and even planting anti-Bannon stories with MSNBC, if you believe Roger Stone and Alex Jones), but Bannon may have irritated an even bigger player. There were reports that President Trump was angry that he wasn’t “fully briefed” on the order that put Bannon on the principals committee in the first place, and according to the Times he’s irritated that he hasn’t made progress on the travel ban or health care. Then there’s this:

Moreover, Mr. Bannon’s Svengali-style reputation has chafed on a president who sees himself as the West Wing’s only leading man. Several associates said the president had quietly expressed annoyance over the credit Mr. Bannon had received for setting the agenda — and Mr. Trump was not pleased by the “President Bannon” puppet-master theme promoted by magazines, late-night talk shows and Twitter.

So perhaps Bannon is also being undermined by the president’s inability to ignore an obvious ploy to get under his skin.