Steve Bannon threatened to leave the Trump administration if he was removed from the National Security Council’s Cabinet level “principals committee,” according to a report late Wednesday.
The power move, which became official Wednesday morning, was organized by national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the New York Times reported citing an unnamed White House official. McMaster was reportedly keen on removing a political adviser from a group that delves into national security. Bannon’s camp pushed back against any such interpretations of the staffing change, claiming it was a natural course of action.
President Trump had reportedly gotten fed up with the perception that Bannon, who is still his chief strategist, was setting the agenda. It probably didn’t help that some liberals trolling Trump said Bannon was truly the president.
There have been several reports about a growing rift within the White House. On one side there is the nationalist brand championed by Bannon that helped to energize Trump’s populist campaign that won him the White House; the other faction is led by first daughter Ivanka Trump and Kushner, both White House advisers, who seem to be more pragmatic in their political outlook.
Trump himself has denied that there is any infighting within his administration, tweeting in March that this is “FAKE NEWS.”
Still, former Trump adviser Roger Stone claimed Tuesday that Kushner is leaking information to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough in order to hurt Bannon.
“The president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, perhaps the one presidential aide who cannot be fired, is now in regular text-message communications with Joe Scarborough,” Stone told Infowars’ Alex Jones, who frequently traffics in conspiracy theories. “Many of the anti-Steve Bannon stories that you see, the themes that you see on ‘Morning Joe’ are being dictated by Kushner.”
Many of the Trump administration’s critics pounced on Bannon’s exit from the NSC, applauding the move but demanding more. These critics included the Congressional Progressive Caucus whose leaders called for the allegedly “white supremacist” Bannon to resign. Sen. Tim Kaine, who ran as Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 presidential election, aslo cheered the move. “The country is safer with Steven Bannon not on the National Security Council,” he said on MSNBC.
A former U.S. ambassador to Russia reached out directly to Ivanka Trump Kushner, suggesting that they push Bannon out of the White House picture.
“Jared and Ivanka, use the moment — push Bannon out. Trump would get a huge boost,” tweeted Michael McFaul.
