Considering the rampant reports of Steve Bannon’s impending career demise, one would think that he would have been upset about President Trump’s off-the-wall press conference on Tuesday. After all, Trump took obvious pains — when questioned on whether the senior advisor’s job was toast — to distance himself while stating, “We’ll see what happens with Steve Bannon.” Yet Trump did not distance himself from his “both sides” comments, and Bannon was apparently pleased as Nazi punch about this doubling down. Not only that, but Bannon contacted a publication sorta like Mooch did (but not as explosively) shortly before his own firing. We’ll get to that soon.
First, Bannon’s butt may be on the line, but he’s reportedly thrilled with Trump’s recent attitude. Axios says that he’s absolutely giddy about Trump disbanding councils after several CEOs slammed him over his Charlottesville response. Further, he sees this as a moment that will define the Trump presidency, which he feels is now on the correct course:
Bannon saw Trump’s now-infamous Tuesday afternoon press conference not as the lowest point in his presidency, but as a “defining moment,” where Trump decided to fully abandon the “globalists” and side with “his people.”
Per a source with knowledge: “Steve was proud of how [Trump] stood up to the braying mob of reporters” in the Tuesday press conference.
Reminder: this is Bannon’s reaction to an event in which someone was murdered. But sadly, it’s not surprising that the former Breitbart head honcho, who so lovingly cultivated a haven for anti-Semites, would be thrilled with how Trump sided with Nazis/white supremacists over Charlottesville violence. He also believes this is situation is “analogous” to Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comments, and the situation must now be handled delicately:
Bannon believes that if Trump condemned all the people who protested the pulling down of the Robert E. Lee statue then he’d fall into a trap set by leftists, the establishments of both parties, and the mainstream media.
It further follows that Bannon’s colleagues have called this argument “absurd” and hope Trump doesn’t keep insisting there are “fine people” who were marching with tiki torches last weekend. However, it remains to be seen whether Bannon’s detractors on the subject will still be his colleagues by week’s end. It’s not looking good for him after Trump’s distancing maneuvers.
In other Bannon news, he picked up the phone and called The American Prospect to trash some of his enemies, including those at the State and Defense Departments, who he says he’ll soon oust. And when questioned on how he might win his internal battles, he said this:
“Oh, they’re wetting themselves … I’m changing out people at East Asian Defense; I’m getting hawks in. I’m getting Susan Thornton [acting head of East Asian and Pacific Affairs] out at State … That’s a fight I fight every day here. We’re still fighting. There’s Treasury and [National Economic Council chair] Gary Cohn and Goldman Sachs lobbying.”
In addition, Bannon talked extensively about China and North Korea. He believes that there’s “no military solution” to Kim Jong-un’s nuke threats, and the only way to potentially solve the problem is through the “economic war” with China. His thoughts on the subject are obsessive and really something, and you can read more here.
(Via Axios & The American Prospect)