Tag Archives: steve-bannon

The White House Is Now Officially "West Wing Apprentice"

Mother Jones

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Michael Goodwin asked President Trump if he still had confidence in Steve Bannon. Here’s what he said:

I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late….I’m my own strategist.

Bravo! The usual schtick in DC is to swear undying support for someone right up until the moment you stick a shiv in his gut. This is an improvement. I look forward to further candid assessments of his own team from President Trump.

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The White House Is Now Officially "West Wing Apprentice"

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Donald Trump Remains Puzzled About West Wing Chaos

Mother Jones

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It’s time for the latest Donald Trump pivot. The Wall Street Journal reports that the crisis in Syria “has sharpened Mr. Trump’s desire to cut some of the drama out of his West Wing.” He’s finally going to get presidential!

President Donald Trump is considering a major shake-up of his senior White House team, a senior administration official said Friday….In recent days, he has talked to confidants about the performance of chief of staff Reince Priebus and has asked for the names of possible replacements….Another top aide who could be removed or reassigned in a shake-up is Steve Bannon, chief strategist, who has been sparring with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and one of his closest advisers.

In fairness, Trump can’t fire himself, but is he really so clueless that he doesn’t realize the infighting springs directly from his own chaotic personality, not from the folks around him? If he provided clear direction on both policy and communications—and stopped tweeting random crap all the time—things would calm down fast.

But he’ll never figure that out.

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Donald Trump Remains Puzzled About West Wing Chaos

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Bannon Gives Team Trump a New Rallying Cry: "Deconstruct the Administrative State"

Mother Jones

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Steve Bannon says that President Trump appointed all his cabinet members with a common goal: “deconstruction of the administrative state.” Meaning what?

Meaning the system of taxes, regulations and trade pacts that the president says have stymied economic growth and infringed upon U.S. sovereignty. Bannon says that the post-World War II political and economic consensus is failing and should be replaced with a system that empowers ordinary people over coastal elites and international institutions.

At the core, Bannon said in his remarks, is a belief that “we’re a nation with an economy — not an economy just in some global marketplace with open borders, but we are a nation with a culture and a reason for being.

Oh. Bannon is supposedly the brains behind the Trump operation, but this still sounds like gibberish to me. Combined with his calls for increased “sovereignty,” “economic nationalism,” and an epic twilight battle against Arabs for the soul of humanity, I assume this is just a politically correct phrase that describes his personal jihad against non-Christianity without quite saying so. In particular, Bannon’s “deconstruction” appears to encompass a war against Muslims, secular humanists, liberal Catholics, and maybe Jews. But it’s so crude to say that out loud, isn’t it?

In any case, I eagerly await huge crowds of Trump supporters waving signs that say “Deconstruct the Administrative State!!!” What will the competing signs say?

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Bannon Gives Team Trump a New Rallying Cry: "Deconstruct the Administrative State"

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Who the Hell Is Running Things at the White House?

Mother Jones

This is nuts:

On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security determined that President Trump’s immigration order didn’t apply to green card holders.
Later on Friday, Steve Bannon overruled them and said it did.
Saturday night, DHS confirmed that the order applied to green card holders.
Today, chief of staff Reince Priebus apparently overruled Bannon and said it didn’t apply to green card holders after all.

Who are Bannon and Priebus speaking for? Neither one of them has the authority on their own to issue these directives. DHS Secretary John Kelly has the authority. Whoever’s running the Department of Justice has the authority. Donald Trump has the authority. When are we going to hear from one of them?

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Who the Hell Is Running Things at the White House?

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Swamp Watch – 7 December 2016

Mother Jones

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We have another cabinet choice: Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt will lead the EPA. Pruitt is pretty much what you’d expect: he’s a climate change skeptic and has led the charge against pretty much every Obama initiative to protect the environment. And he’s from Oklahoma, so it’s hardly surprising that he’s pretty cozy with the fossil fuel industry.

In a controversial decision, the judges here at blog headquarters have named Pruitt the first Trump nominee who’s neither part of the swamp nor rich, crazy, or scary. Pruitt is a state official, so he’s not part of the DC swamp. And his climate skepticism and hatred of all environmental rules is pretty mainstream for Republicans. That’s scary, of course, but the title is reserved for those who are scary far beyond just being folks that liberals don’t like.

This prompts a question: if you could wave a magic wand and dump either Steve Bannon or Michael Flynn from Trump’s staff, which would you choose? I’d choose Flynn.

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Swamp Watch – 7 December 2016

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They Hate Us, They Really Hate Us

Mother Jones

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So I’m reading a Jay Nordlinger piece over at The Corner, and he’s pretty unhappy with both Donald Trump and his new campaign guru, Steve Bannon. I’m nodding along as Nordlinger refers to some of the crude hatred that Bannon spews, when I come to this:

It occurred to me that the two phrases already mentioned — “turn on the hate” and “burn this bitch down” — are perfect mottos for the new GOP: the Trump GOP.

I thought of what Roger Scruton said to Mona Charen and me, in a podcast last year:

“I think that, in the end, there is something that unites all conservatives, which is that they are pursuing something they love. My view is that the Left is united by hatred, but we are united by love: love of our country, love of institutions, love of the law, love of family, and so on. And what makes us conservatives is the desire to protect those things, and we’re up against people who want to destroy them, and it’s very simple.”

Seriously? You think lefties are motivated by hatred of our country, hatred of our institutions, hatred of the law, hatred of the family, “and so on”? I know that liberals and conservatives don’t see eye to eye on this stuff, but you’ve at least talked to a few liberals now and then, haven’t you? The ones I know don’t feel anything close to this way. It’s true that there are some aspects of country/institutions/law/family that we’d like to change, but then again, that’s true of conservatives too. Right?

Anyway, if this is truly what you believe, then it’s a little hard for me to see much daylight between you and Trump. What’s your real beef with him, Jay?

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They Hate Us, They Really Hate Us

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