Former Breitbart head Steve Bannon somehow managed to maneuver his way into a top national security seat despite his history as both a promoter of anti-Semitic viewpoints and past as a liberal ladies man in college. He wields enormous influence over Trump and was instrumental in pushing the first Muslim ban, so it comes as no surprise to hear that Bannon may have coached Trump to take names of those who oppose him as a new Daily Beast report indicates. (Not that Trump really needed the encouragement.)
Specifically, Bannon’s instruction appears to be the case for those Republicans who opposed the Trumpcare bill, which ended up disastrously failing in one of the messiest Friday news dumps of this administration. Trump and Paul Ryan pulled the vote when it became apparent that they didn’t have enough support. Then the Internet exploded with glee, and even Obama’s White House photographer achieved his best troll move yet. Even though Trump’s currently blaming Democrats, he will soon want revenge on fellow party members who spurned him, yes?
This Beast report surfaced prior to the cancelled vote, but perhaps that’s even more reason to peruse this story:
“[Bannon] has told the president to keep a sh*t list on this,” one official told The Daily Beast. “He wants a running tally of [the Republicans] who want to sink this.” One aide described it as a proposed “hit list” for Republicans not sufficiently loyal. Courses of action stemming from any related tally is yet to be determined, but the idea and message is that “we’ll remember you.”
Two senior Trump administration officials with direct knowledge of the process told The Daily Beast that Bannon and Trump have taken a “you’re either with us or against us” approach at this point, and that Bannon wants the tally of “against” versus “with us” mounted in his so-called West Wing “war room.”
Oooh, a war room? So fancy. The Beast also reveals word from one official that Bannon actually told Trump to “burn the boats,” which suggests a conquer-or-die mentality. That is, Bannon’s perspective is that that the White House has landed in hostile territory and may as well sink their own ships, so they have no choice but to keep on winning. Well, it looks like the Trumpcare ship has sunk itself.
The best part of the Beast story, however, is that neither the White House nor Bannon responded to a request from comment, but one Freedom Caucus aide did open the lines of communication. His reply to the “sh*t list”? A solitary unimpressed word: “Meh.”
(Via Daily Beast)