The ball is now in Steve Bannon’s court.
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Friends of the president’s chief strategist are anxious now that Bannon is being shoved toward the exits, the Associated Press reported. “Indeed, many of us voted against people like Kushner having power”, tweeted Richard Spencer, a white supremacist who heads the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think tank.
Bannon was credited with masterminding Donald Trump’s election campaign previous year and was swiftly installed as the President’s right-hand man following his shock victory.
Kushner – who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka – has amassed a widening portfolio of responsibilities in the White House.
Clashes with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, have angered Mr. Trump, as was evident in an interview Tuesday with the New York Post.
If the shift is on, it’s a work in progress – and it remains to be seen if Bannon will hang around to shape or thwart it; and if Spicer can survive to spruik it in the pressroom.
Now, more than before, Bannon’s allies are anxious the president is considering senior staff changes. And it’s an open question how motivated Bannon is to fix the relationship.
President Donald Trump and the Jewish members of his family did not attend a Passover seder held at the White House. That follows similarly dismissive comments to the New York Post’s Michael Goodwin.
Bannon was brought in to lead Trump’s turbulent presidential campaign three months before Election Day in November.
In the interview, Trump downplayed Bannon’s role in his campaign, claiming that his chief strategist was not involved “until very late”.
“I do my own policy, I’m my own strategist”, Trump said, once again trying to push back against the notion that Bannon is the real brains of the operation. But he also says: “Bannon should not go anywhere either because of what he represents to the voter”. To suggest that he didn’t know Bannon dramatically misrepresents the connection between the two men. A populist revolt that disdained people who allegedly spend too much time at Georgetown cocktail parties may result in a White House run by people who have spent too much time at NY cocktail parties.
While Trump once thrived amid the chaotic backbiting beneath him, he has grown exhausted with infighting among his staff.
As for Bannon, before joining the campaign last summer as its chief executive officer, he was informally advising Trump. He added, “But I make my own decision”.
“When I get attacked by these people at a low level, I have to attack back”.
In more than half a dozen interviews during the campaign with Bannon on Breitbart’s radio show, Trump laid out his vision for leading the country, with Bannon sometimes playing the role of coach.
As Krauthammer put it, “keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer”.
But more and more, war is being waged on Bannon himself.
The pair’s fallout resulted in White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus forcing the pair to take part in crisis talks where they can air out all their political grievances.
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Beijing is willing to work with Washington on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program but wants a peaceful solution to the escalating conflict, Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Donald Trump in a phone call Wednesday.
