President Trump is growing more reliant on a shadow political operation as he prepares for his 2020 re-election campaign, according to a report.
Distrustful of White House staff, Trump has turned to an outside group of political advisers assembled by his former chief strategist Steve Bannon, which includes 2016 campaign veterans Corey Lewandowski, David Bossie, Jason Miller, Sebastian Gorka, and Sam Nunberg, as well as Breitbart Washington editor Matthew Boyle, per Vanity Fair.
“The war room should be done by the White House, but there’s no one there competent enough or hardworking enough to do it,” Bannon told the magazine. “You got the ‘hardcores’ on the outside who understand Trump’s message, understand Trump, understand the base and what got him here and what takes him to the next level.”
While Bannon told Vanity Fair he still does not speak directly to Trump, he conveys his thoughts to the president through the group, which convenes most mornings via a teleconference to discuss talking points for Trump surrogates, particularly since Lewandowski and Bossie enjoy better access to the administration in the wake of White House chief of staff John Kelly’s diminishing influence.
“It’s like my white board’s there and Trump is checking shit off,” Bannon said, referring to Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy and imposition of tariffs on traditional trade partners. “Trump is on the full MAGA agenda.”
Since Bannon’s ouster from the White House in August, he has been heavily involved in undermining the Republican establishment by supporting populist figures in the U.S. and abroad.
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