There's A Massive Power Struggle Inside Trump's White House
There is a massive struggle inside Trump’s West Wing between Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner. Everybody should know who Bannon is at this point — he’s the controversial, alt-right, behind-the-scenes Trump adviser who was influential in the campaign victory.
You also should know who Jared Kushner is — he’s Ivanka’s husband, a billionaire, and also a top adviser to Trump.
Last week, Bannon was booted from the National Security Council and, afterwards, reports surfaced of some SERIOUS tension between Bannon and Kushner.
An unnamed source reported some dialogue between the two to the New York Times. Allegedly Bannon said to Kushner:
“Here’s the reason there’s no middle ground. You’re a Democrat.”
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By all accounts, it sounds like Bannon is on his way out. The Daily Mail reports that Trump gave him an ultimatum:
“Either Steve becomes a team player and gets along with people, or he’ll be gone,” a top Trump source told Axios.
What do I think? Good. Bannon is an absolute loose cannon. He’s a HARDCORE right-winger who has no interest in negotiating or meeting people on middle ground. While Kushner is much less vocal, the feud seems to be between Bannon wanting to stick STAUNCHLY to all of Trump’s campaign promises — even go further right — and Kushner wants to move more towards a middle ground so the administration can actually get shit done.
I like that. Look, the White House isn’t about wielding absolute power. It’s all about diplomacy, about negotiation, about working with the different branches of government so you can actually figure out your biggest priority goals and work towards getting them done. That’s honestly what helps people and moves the red white and blue forward. Our government is carefully designed so that that’s the only way it can be done.
Bannon does not embody that. He’s all about the administration operating from some political island with the belief that they can effectively enact whatever they want. Clearly that’s failed, so he’s been booted from the NSC and is damn close to being booted from the White House.
Good.