steve

Illustration by Gauraang Biyani

Steve Bannon and The Civil War in the White House

Where did Steve Bannon end up?

May 7, 2017

Where did Steve Bannon go? The founder of Breitbart and President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, seemed on the edge of resigning after he was ousted from the National Security Council.
The far-right movement, which openly supported Trump throughout the course of his campaign, is bewildered and disappointed by the airstrike that the President ordered on Syria and accuses him of following commands from the so-called deep state.
Even though Bannon remains Trump’s personal counselor, he seemed to have been relegated to a marginal role of the administration, especially after the President’s answer when asked about his trust in Bannon: “I am my own strategist.”
To this already tense climate we must add the ideological battle between Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. To this point, the latter seems to be preferred by the President, who was influenced by Kushner in his latest foreign policy decisions. Furthermore, the chief strategist also has to deal with the rivalry of Gary Cohn, previously president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs and current economic counselor to the President.
According to an analysis by Jonathan Easley, Trump did not completely abandon his chief strategist: “Stephen was left for dead. The media and plenty of President Trump’s supporters thought the White House’s polarizing chief strategist was done for after he was booted from his unusual spot on the National Security Council’s principals committee. But with the White House hungry for victories ahead of Trump’s 100th day in office, the President has fallen back on the economic nationalism that’s central to Bannon’s worldview.” Easley cites one GOP operative with close ties to the White House, who said, “Steve was benched, and I think it got his attention and he realized he had to step up and show the President how valuable he is. He’s kept his head down and got back to work and was ready when he was called upon.”
Last month Trump announced, to general surprise, the implementation of heavy import taxes on softwood coming from Canada, initiating a trading war with the scope of increasing domestic production and favoring U.S. industries. That was a decision which fits in the nationalistic vision of America First, close to the ideology of chief strategist Bannon. “All of these people who say the President doesn’t have an ideology, they’re wrong,” Easley writes on The Hill, citing a Bannon ally. “He does have an ideology, and it’s Bannon’s ideology. They are just now figuring out how to implement it.”
Several analysts have described the battle inside the White House as an internal civil war between powers and visions that try to impose their influence on the decisions of Trump. According to Joachim Hagopian, a former official in the US army, in an article published on GlobalResearch: “The elite globalists have obviously won out against the populist nationalist. Additionally, the US Treasury secretary and his number two are also from Goldman Sachs. So let’s face it, the president elected by a populist movement is turning out to be another elitist puppet, fleecing America to assure that the 1% elite get richer at the rest of our ... expense.”
Which one of the two factions inside the White House will prevail? A lot will depend on the next moves of an unpredictable administration. The only certainty is that the result of this war inside the White House will have heavy repercussions on the rest of the world.
Andrea Arletti is a staff writer. Email him at feedback@thegazelle.org.
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