Trump dumps controversial chief strategist Bannon in latest upheaval

[rooster59]

Trump dumps controversial chief strategist Bannon in latest upheaval

By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump talks to chief strategist Steve Bannon during a swearing in ceremony for senior staff at the White House in Washington, U.S. January 22, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/FILE PHOTO

 

WASHINGTON/HAGERSTOWN, Md. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Friday fired chief strategist Stephen Bannon in the latest White House shake-up, removing the far-right architect of his 2016 election victory and a driving force behind his anti-globalisation and pro-nationalist agenda.

 

Before the latest shakeup, Bannon, known for far-right political views, had fought with more moderate factions inside a White House riven with rivalries and back-stabbing.

 

White House officials said Trump had directed his recently appointed Chief of Staff John Kelly to crack down on the bickering and factional infighting and that Bannon’s comments this week to the American Prospect liberal magazine in which he talked openly of targeting his adversaries within the administration was the final straw that sealed his fate.

 

Trump, seven months into his term in office, has become increasingly isolated over his comments following white supremacist violence in the Virginia college town of Charlottesville last Saturday.

 

As Trump came under fire from prominent fellow Republicans, business leaders and U.S. allies abroad, he faced mounting calls for Bannon's ouster.

"White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve's last day," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement on Friday. "We are grateful for his service and wish him the best."

 

Bannon formerly headed the right-wing Breitbart News website and spearheaded its shift into a forum for the "alt-right," a loose online confederation of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites.

 

He became the latest key figure to abruptly depart a White House that has been chaotic from its first days in power and already has lost a chief of staff, a national security advisor, two communications directors and a chief spokesman.

 

Trump's presidency also has been dogged by ongoing investigations in Congress and a special counsel named by the Justice Department into potential collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia, something both Trump and Moscow deny.

 

Critics have accused Bannon of harbouring anti-Semitic and white nationalist sentiments.

 

A champion of economic nationalism and a political provocateur, Bannon, 63, is a former U.S. Navy officer, Goldman Sachs investment banker and Hollywood movie producer.

 

Democrats welcomed Bannon's departure.

 

"There is one less white supremacist in the White House, but that doesn't change the man sitting behind the Resolute desk," Democratic National Committee spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement, referring to Trump's Oval Office desk. "Donald Trump has spent decades fuelling hate in communities, including his recent attempts to divide our country and give a voice to white supremacists."

 

Bannon felt a close ideological connection to Trump's populist tendencies and pushed him to extract the United States from the Paris climate accord, tear up international trade agreements and crack down on illegal immigration. Like Trump, he has also expressed deep scepticism concerning ongoing American military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Bannon had been in a precarious position before but Trump opted to keep him, in part because his chief strategist played a major role in his 2016 election victory and was backed by many of the president's most loyal rank-and-file supporters.

 

The decision to fire Bannon could undermine Trump's support among far-right voters but might ease tensions within the White House and with party leaders. Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress but have been unable to pass major legislative goals including a healthcare legislation overhaul because of fierce intra-party divisions.

 

Trump fired Bannon from the White House post one year and one day after he hired the firebrand to head his presidential campaign.

 

Trump ran into trouble in recent days after saying anti-racist demonstrators in Charlottesville were as responsible for the violence as the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who instigated the protests.

 

Those remarks sparked rebukes from fellow Republicans, top corporate executives and some close allies even as some supporters, including Vice President Mike Pence, stood by Trump.

 

LATEST WHITE HOUSE DISARRAY

 

The first senior White House official to depart was national security adviser Michael Flynn, who Trump fired in February.

 

On July 28, Trump replaced his beleaguered White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, installing retired General John Kelly in his place in a major shake-up of his top team. Trump then ousted White House communications chief Anthony Scaramucci on July 31 over an obscene tirade just 10 days after the president named him to the post. Scaramucci's hiring had prompted Sean Spicer, a Priebus ally, to abruptly resign as press secretary.

 

In May, Trump also fired Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey, who later said Trump was trying to undermine the agency's Russia probe with his dismissal. Some of Trump's critics have described Comey's firing as obstruction of justice, an act that could play into any future efforts in the Republican-led Congress to impeach and remove the president from office.

 

Nancy Pelosi, the top House of Representatives Democrat, called Bannon's firing "welcome news" but added "The Trump Administration must not only purge itself of the remaining white supremacists on staff, but abandon the bigoted ideology that clearly governs its decisions."

 

Republicans were largely quiet on the firing, but moderate Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said on Twitter she was glad Bannon was out but that the administration "must work to build bridges, not destroy them."

 

Under pressure from moderate Republicans to fire Bannon, Trump declined to publicly back him on Tuesday, although he left his options open. "We'll see what happens with Mr. Bannon," he told reporters in New York.

 

By the time Trump had hired Bannon as campaign manager, the real estate magnate had already vanquished his Republican opponents for the party's White House nomination but he was instrumental in his election victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in November.

 

Trump on Tuesday called Bannon "a friend of mine" but downplayed his contribution to his victory.

 

"Mr. Bannon came on very late. You know that. I went through 17 senators, governors and I won all the primaries. Mr. Bannon came on very much later than that. And I like him. He is a good man. He is not a racist. I can tell you that. He is a good person. He actually gets a very unfair press in that regard," Trump said.

 

Bannon's departure cast a cloud over the future of the group of allies he had brought into the White House, such as Sebastian Gorka, who presents himself on frequent cable TV appearances as a national security expert but is not part of the National Security Council team.

 

Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser, said Bannon's departure was a sign of Kelly's strength.

 

"What it means is there is a strong chief of staff and that's good," Bennett said. "It's not only good. It's needed."

 

A White House official said it was hoped Bannon's departure would help ease some of the drama that has seized the Trump White House.

 

A source familiar with the decision, which had been under consideration for a while, said Bannon had been given an opportunity to depart on his own terms. "The president made up his mind on it over the past couple of weeks," the source said.

 

Kelly had been evaluating Bannon's role within the White House. "They gave him an opportunity to step down knowing that he was going to be forced to," the source said.

 

Bannon damaged his standing by giving an interview to the liberal American Prospect this week in which he was seen to be undercutting Trump's position on North Korea. Bannon told associates he thought he was talking to an academic and thought he was off the record.

 

For Trump, the interview, in which Bannon talked openly about trying to oust opponents in the administration and said his adversaries were "wetting themselves," was another sign of the type of infighting that the president has sought to restrain and that he had directed Kelly to crack down upon, aides said.

 

Bannon had told friends he could go back to Breitbart News if he were to leave the White House.

 

Under Bannon's leadership, the Breitbart site presented a number of conspiracy theories about former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as well as Republicans deemed to be lacking in conservative bona fides.

 

In recent weeks, Breitbart published articles making a case for Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster's ouster as national security advisor on the basis that he is not a strong ally of Israel and that he has staffed the National Security Council with holdovers from the Obama administration.

 

Breitbart News senior editor Joel Pollak tweeted a one-word response to Bannon's firing: "#WAR"

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-08-19

[ilostmypassword]

"Bannon — the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, a fiery, hard-right news site that has gone to war with the Republican establishment — for months was locked in a long and tortuous battle with senior adviser Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and a coterie of like-minded senior aides, many with Wall Street ties."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-decides-to-get-rid-of-white-house-chief-strategist-stephen-bannon/2017/08/18/98cd5c40-8430-11e7-902a-2a9f2d808496_story.html

Instead of pushing for the removal of statues, progressives should be calling attention to Trump's fake populism.

[Samui Bodoh]

A better headline might read;

 

"MALIGNANT CANCER REMOVED" 

 

It is great news to see the end of that race-baiting scum, but the main problem still remains. 

 

Until the Republican party renounces and removes Trump, the nightmare will continue.

 

God help us all

[Becker]

It doesn't make much of a difference. Only the complete removal of the abominable man-child and his posse of moral pus can save America from ever deepening division. 

 

"Donald Trump is politically inept, morally barren and temperamentally unfit for office."

The Economist.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/opinion/sunday/president-trump-resignation.html

"A president is supposed to safeguard the most sacred American institutions, repairing them if need be. Trump doesn’t respect them. He has sought to discredit and disempower the judiciary, the free press, the F.B.I., the Congressional Budget Office. He even managed to inject politics into, and pollute, the Boy Scouts. This is the course of a tyrant.

 

*Edited for Fair Use*

Edited August 19, 2017 by Scott
Edited for Fair Use

[GinBoy2]

Bannon clearly knew he was about to get fired, there is no other reason he would have given that explosive interview with Robert Kuttner of The America Prospect

That was designed to be the 'I'm going out with a bang' interview

[Briggsy]

It is not known at this point if

 

i) Bannon has been fired to reduce the criticism Trump has been facing. i.e. Bannon takes the fall but still remains close to the administration and has Trump's ear.

 

ii) it is an amicable divorce.

 

iii) if Bannon is mad and will turn on Trump.

 

iv) if Bannon is mad but will not turn against the administration because it is his best shot at influencing politics and Trump has a ton of dirt on him. In that case he will take potshots at Kushner every now and then through Breitbart.

 

 

[GinBoy2]

9 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

It is not known at this point if

 

i) Bannon has been fired to reduce the criticism Trump has been facing. i.e. Bannon takes the fall but still remains close to the administration and has Trump's ear.

 

ii) it is an amicable divorce.

 

iii) if Bannon is mad and will turn on Trump.

 

iv) if Bannon is mad but will not turn against the administration because it is his best shot at influencing politics and Trump has a ton of dirt on him. In that case he will take potshots at Kushner every now and then through Breitbart.

 

 

We can speculate ad naueseum on this.

However the spectacle of Breitbart turning on Trump, and an all out twitter war, it's almost so comical, it has my mouth watering!

[ilostmypassword]

 “The irony: Bannon had the popular ideas! Infrastructure! Taxing globalists! Trump is left w whatever Charles Koch scrawled on a napkin.”

David Weigel

[ilostmypassword]

Watch the NYSE trading floor erupt in applause at news of Steve Bannon’s White House exit 

 

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange erupted in cheers and applause Friday, as White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s departurefrom the Trump administration was announced.

Clapping and whistling could be heard for more than 10 seconds after Wall Street heard the news.

The stock market climbed Friday amid reports of Bannon’s ouster.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/nyse-cheers-steven-bannon-exit-wh-article-1.3423415

 

Wall Street knows that there are now no serious advocates in the White House for tax cuts favoring the middle class.

Edited August 18, 2017 by metisdead
Oversize font reset to normal.

[metisdead]

Just another reminder that posts using derogatory nicknames or intentional misspelling of people’s names  will be removed.  If you don’t want your post to be removed, spell people’s names correctly.

[stevenl]

This is good for the Trump presidency. The only thing standing in the way of a good presidency now is Trump himself.

[iReason]

'#WAR': Breitbart set to take on Trump White House after Bannon ouster

 

"Breitbart had been almost unfailingly supportive of President Trump, first during his campaign and then during his presidency."

 

"But following the White House's ouster of Steve Bannon, the former head of the right-wing website, Breitbart appears to be getting ready for a fight with the Trump team."

 

"Joel Pollak, a senior editor-at-large at Breitbart, tweeted "#WAR," a reference to the site's early days and the mission statement of its founder,

Andrew Breitbart."

http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/18/media/breitbart-steve-bannon-fired-reaction/index.html

 

[iReason]

Isolation:

 

[CaptHaddock]

There's a documentary film about a British plot to kill Hitler during the war.  They had a couple of Poles who were basically willing to sacrifice themselves to get off a sniper shot at the Fuehrer.  The plan could possibly have worked, but in the end the Brits decided to scrap it, because by then Hitler's military incompetence was a major asset for the Russian armies fighting the Germans. 

 

Similarly, Trump is so ineffective that the best outcome for progressives is not his removal from office to be replaced by the more conventional Christian zealot reactionary, Pence.  The best outcome would be to keep in place an isolated, disgraced, and ineffective Trump.

 

There's a good chance it could play out that way.  I expect Mueller to reveal explosive evidence of money-laundering by Trump and involvement with Putin that is tantamount to treason.  As that point nears, Trump will be in the position that facing the fallout from firing Mueller will be no worse than allowing Mueller to prosecute him.  So, he will fire Mueller.  All hell will break out with the Dems and a few of the Republicans, but the Republican House will never impeach Trump.

 

 

[boomerangutang]

2 hours ago, stevenl said:

This is good for the Trump presidency. The only thing standing in the way of a good presidency now is Trump himself.

True, Trump is the #1 pox on the White House now.   Yet there are still a coven of dangerously flawed people hanging out there.  Gorka and Steve Miller are below awful.  Neither of the Kushners could get security clearances to mop floors at a county jail.   ....and others, who I wouldn't hire to wipe the mud off my pick-up truck.

 

16 minutes ago, CaptHaddock said:

edited for brevity:

"I expect Mueller to reveal explosive evidence of money-laundering by Trump and involvement with Putin that is tantamount to treason." 

                         Mueller and his team could be a disappointment for those of us wanting a thorough investigation and published results.  I want to believe Mueller's team will do a good job, and he certainly has a top-gun team.  Yet, there will be immense pressure for him to limit the scope of his investigation.  Mueller is not a maverick. He's a middle of the road bureaucrat.   He will find serious dirt on Trump, but I worry that much of the sordid stuff will be hidden behind walls of 'classified' and 'too-sensitive-to-publish.'

[pegman]

4 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

Watch the NYSE trading floor erupt in applause at news of Steve Bannon’s White House exit 

 

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange erupted in cheers and applause Friday, as White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s departurefrom the Trump administration was announced.

Clapping and whistling could be heard for more than 10 seconds after Wall Street heard the news.

The stock market climbed Friday amid reports of Bannon’s ouster.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/nyse-cheers-steven-bannon-exit-wh-article-1.3423415

 

Wall Street knows that there are now no serious advocates in the White House for tax cuts favoring the middle class.

Yup, total takeover by Goldman Sachs'ers. Tax cuts for billionaires are on their way. Maybe Trump can get another judge appointed for bible thumpers then that will keep the base in line.

[CaptHaddock]

38 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

True, Trump is the #1 pox on the White House now.   Yet there are still a coven of dangerously flawed people hanging out there.  Gorka and Steve Miller are below awful.  Neither of the Kushners could get security clearances to mop floors at a county jail.   ....and others, who I wouldn't hire to wipe the mud off my pick-up truck.

 

                         Mueller and his team could be a disappointment for those of us wanting a thorough investigation and published results.  I want to believe Mueller's team will do a good job, and he certainly has a top-gun team.  Yet, there will be immense pressure for him to limit the scope of his investigation.  Mueller is not a maverick. He's a middle of the road bureaucrat.   He will find serious dirt on Trump, but I worry that much of the sordid stuff will be hidden behind walls of 'classified' and 'too-sensitive-to-publish.'

Matters have certainly come to a strange pass when we look for a defender of our democracy to the FBI, which has historically been the suppressor of political dissent and civil rights in America.  Nevertheless, it is quite clear that the entire intelligence establishment has been out to get Trump since before the election.  Mueller may not be a maverick, but this effort, of which Mueller is the current point man, is not a maverick operation.  I think the revelation of the number and scale of Trump's crimes will be a political-system-changing event.  I expect there to be convictions and jail terms and Trump could well be among them. 

 

 

Edited August 19, 2017 by CaptHaddock

[wombat]

like may west said. you marry for love then keep on marrying until you find it.............viva trump.

 

[ilostmypassword]

26 minutes ago, wombat said:

like may west said. you marry for love then keep on marrying until you find it.............viva trump.

 

Given Trump's personality, he'll never find it.

[Gary A]

If Trump has accomplished nothing else, he has proven that the swamp cannot be drained. He is surrounded by swamp creatures and he is vastly outnumbered. The only way the government can recover is by imposing term limits. This will NEVER happen because the elected politicians will never vote themselves out of their lucrative jobs. The establishment simply cannot be changed. Until the country goes totally bust, it will be business as usual. The question now is whether the frustration will force Trump to quit or whether he will continue to fight and get crazier than he already is. 

[stevenl]

11 minutes ago, Gary A said:

If Trump has accomplished nothing else, he has proven that the swamp cannot be drained. He is surrounded by swamp creatures and he is vastly outnumbered. The only way the government can recover is by imposing term limits. This will NEVER happen because the elected politicians will never vote themselves out of their lucrative jobs. The establishment simply cannot be changed. Until the country goes totally bust, it will be business as usual. The question now is whether the frustration will force Trump to quit or whether he will continue to fight and get crazier than he already is. 

Trump is not fighting the swamp, he has made it a lot bigger and is a major part of it.

[Srikcir]

A Congressional Medal should go to General John Kelly for ridding the White House of one its most influential anti-globalist and democratic deconstructionist Bannon. But Kelly needs to also move on Stephen Miller and Sebastion Gorka. Unfortunately it will take a greater power to be rid of Trump.

[ilostmypassword]

1 hour ago, Gary A said:

If Trump has accomplished nothing else, he has proven that the swamp cannot be drained. He is surrounded by swamp creatures and he is vastly outnumbered. The only way the government can recover is by imposing term limits. This will NEVER happen because the elected politicians will never vote themselves out of their lucrative jobs. The establishment simply cannot be changed. Until the country goes totally bust, it will be business as usual. The question now is whether the frustration will force Trump to quit or whether he will continue to fight and get crazier than he already is. 

You mean he had no choice but to appoint the #2 guy from Goldman Sachs and another alumnus of said organization as his Treasury Secretary. Sad.

Or maybe it shows that an ignoramus can't be counted on to choose people who are actually dedicated to making government work for the working class and middle class.

[Gary A]

Where do you find an elected politician who looks out for the little guy? They talk a good story, actually lie and promote populist policies that are expensive and most will never become law. They look after themselves and no one else. The object is to get reelected and to keep their cushy lucrative jobs. 

[ballpoint]

1 hour ago, ilostmypassword said:

You mean he had no choice but to appoint the #2 guy from Goldman Sachs and another alumnus of said organization as his Treasury Secretary. Sad.

Or maybe it shows that an ignoramus can't be counted on to choose people who are actually dedicated to making government work for the working class and middle class.

[CaptHaddock]

16 minutes ago, Gary A said:

Where do you find an elected politician who looks out for the little guy? They talk a good story, actually lie and promote populist policies that are expensive and most will never become law. They look after themselves and no one else. The object is to get reelected and to keep their cushy lucrative jobs. 

In your childish black-and-white thinking there is apparently no possibility other than self-seeking crooks and saints.  FDR accomplished great things for the poor and the middle-class,  including Social Security and the basis for the GI Bill, not because he was some kind of saint.  LBJ, for all that we detested him for the Viet Nam War, instituted Head Start and Medicare, both effective programs.  If it weren't for Social Security and Medicare, elderly poverty in America would be as prevalent today as it was in the 30's.

 

There's quite a difference between a politician who wants to continue in office and the kind of take-from-the-poor-and-give-to-the-rich program that the Republicans tried to ram through Congress to destroy Obamacare.

 

The Republicans trash talk government to get gullible voters to accept lower taxes for the rich and poverty for themselves.

[ilostmypassword]

45 minutes ago, Gary A said:

Where do you find an elected politician who looks out for the little guy? They talk a good story, actually lie and promote populist policies that are expensive and most will never become law. They look after themselves and no one else. The object is to get reelected and to keep their cushy lucrative jobs. 

Elizabeth Warren

[Gary A]

26 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

Elizabeth Warren

That nearly made me vomit on my keyboard. You MUST be joking.

[FritsSikkink]

3 hours ago, wombat said:

like may west said. you marry for love then keep on marrying until you find it.............viva trump.

 

Viva Trump? Here some comments from a fellow Republican:

 

 

[Srikcir]

7 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

Here some comments from a fellow Republican:

“Whether he intended to or not, what he communicated caused racists to rejoice, minorities to weep, and the vast heart of America to mourn,” - Mitt Romney

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/us/politics/trump-charlottesville-romney.html?mcubz=0