Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

How Steve Bannon Took Charge Of The Trump Administration
Buzzfeed ^ | January 29, 2017 | Adrian Carrasquillo and Tarini Parti

Posted on 01/30/2017 6:38:55 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

A weekend of chaos and conflict has produced one piece of clarity: Steve Bannon is the central force shaping Donald Trump’s presidency.

Panic set in Friday evening into Saturday, with people taken off international flights, refugees and visa holders detained at airports, and lawyers and protesters parachuting into the tumult after President Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. But it was the latest evidence that Trump was following through on the radical departure from US norms on immigration that he had promised throughout his campaign.

Then, amid the outcry, the administration released a presidential memorandum Saturday evening reorganizing the National Security Council and thrusting Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, onto the cabinet-level interagency group with more access than the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The move made it clear that the central figure on the White House staff, and one of the most powerful men in America, is now Bannon. And his fingerprints were all over Trump’s refugee ban and hardline immigration executive orders.

And as Bannon emerges as central to the administration, the former Breitbart boss — who seems to enjoy controversy but avoids interviews — has also become the central target for Trump’s opposition. The top hashtag on Twitter for a time Sunday was #StopPresidentBannon.

Bannon rose by using Breitbart for fierce attacks on more moderate Republicans and by embracing racist and white nationalist elements of the party — though he has disavowed white nationalist views. Bannon and his close White House ally Stephen Miller have cast themselves as plain-old nationalists instead. And in one week, they have built a clear power center in the White House. Bannon did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Bannon and Miller wrote Trump’s inaugural address that referred to “American carnage” and then spent the following days writing executive orders that seemed meant to stop it. While the border wall plan was no secret, an accompanying order on interior enforcement contained theatrical and confrontational features: hardline policy prescriptions like denying federal funding to so-called sanctuary cities, publishing the crimes committed by undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities, and taking away their privacy law protections.

Bannon, who supports a border adjustment tax floated by the administration, was even able to find common ground on the subject with Speaker Paul Ryan, who he had previously called a “globalist.” But that was before Ryan described the plan as “responsible nationalism,” according to an Axios report.

Bannon and Miller also reportedly overruled Department of Homeland Security guidance that green card holders would not be affected, according to CNN, which White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus denied on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. Those people with lawful permanent residence in the US will still face additional screening and questions, Priebus added.

A source close to the Trump administration denied that Bannon is pulling the strings, saying Trump doesn’t do things he doesn’t want to do. The source lauded Bannon as “someone who very much understands the populist sentiment that was championed by the president on the campaign trail” and would effectively implement that vision.

As for the National Security Council, the source stressed that Bannon was not supplanting the military and intelligence officials but merely being added to the group, because he is one of the “premiere experts on the populist, nationalist movements that we’re seeing around the globe.” Bannon laid out his views in detail in a 2014 speech reported by BuzzFeed News.

But key Republican sources who have been in contact with the administration told BuzzFeed News they view the developments of the first week as a way for Bannon to consolidate power for his side amid internal competition between different camps of aides.

And an Axios report on Sunday noted that Bannon “packed the administration’s economic team with officials who were friendly to, or at least open to, his nationalistic plans” and that during the transition, “he dreamed up a governing plan that was acutely attuned to Trump’s base, with a clever outreach to unions and minorities through an infrastructure-spending plan.”

The only real threat to Bannon’s power appears to be Trump, who has in the past encouraged competition between his advisers as a way of limiting the power of any one individual. He hasn’t yet expressed any apparent concern that the former Breitbart chairman is driving his administration’s agenda.

Bannon, at least, may see his role in historical terms. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he compared himself to Thomas Cromwell, the 16th-century chief minister to King Henry VIII.

Cromwell became the most trusted adviser of the king, helping to usher in the English reformation and “giving force to Henry’s grand declarations.” Bannon’s telling of the story, however, left out the ending: Cromwell was executed for treason by a fickle king.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: bannon; first100days; stevebannonarticle; trump; trump45
Blah, blah, blah.
1 posted on 01/30/2017 6:38:55 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Fake News.


2 posted on 01/30/2017 6:51:35 PM PST by Parley Baer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Buzz off!


3 posted on 01/30/2017 6:55:59 PM PST by map
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Steve Bannon is more qualified to be president than Obama ever was.


4 posted on 01/30/2017 6:57:56 PM PST by VeniVidiVici
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Fake news.


5 posted on 01/30/2017 7:05:18 PM PST by donna ('God's standards, like it or not, are the basis for the laws that led to western civilization.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: VeniVidiVici

So am I. So are you, I assume.


6 posted on 01/30/2017 7:07:35 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Please repeat- This is the Fake News site.


7 posted on 01/30/2017 7:09:45 PM PST by samadams2000 (Someone important make......The Call!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Bannon didn’t “take over” anything. Trump HIRED him, and they get along because they have exactly the same temperament, the same stamina, and the same no BS approach to problems.

Bannon has something Trump does not, though: He has a deep insight into the mind and tactics of leftists. They are not “my friends across the aisles.” They are the enemy, not to be “worked with” but to be crushed.

For his part, Trump will “work with you” just so long as you work toward a solution that he embraces. If you don’t, you’re done.


8 posted on 01/30/2017 7:09:50 PM PST by LS ("Castles Made of Sand, Fall in the 4Sea . . . Eventually" (Hendrix))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Yes, but we saved the world already so we can let President Donald Trump and his merry band have a crack at it. ;-)


9 posted on 01/30/2017 7:12:27 PM PST by SubMareener (Save us from Quarterly Freepathons! Become a MONTHLY DONOR)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 Retweeted Sebastian Gorka PhD ‏@SebGorka 46m46 minutes ago

Well the radio silence is over. Congrats to those who guessed!

Honored to be Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States. MAGA

10 posted on 01/30/2017 7:28:08 PM PST by HokieMom (Pacepa : Can the U.S. afford a president who can't recognize anti-Americanism?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Former President Jarret is unavailable for comment.


11 posted on 01/30/2017 7:30:15 PM PST by Carlucci
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LS

Bannon has the Left opening their veins.


12 posted on 01/30/2017 7:33:05 PM PST by txhurl (Break's over, kids, back to WAR.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

No mention of Valerie Jarrett.


13 posted on 01/30/2017 7:38:02 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist (STOP THE TAPE!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

“We interrupt this program to bring you the latest fake news about Trump...”


14 posted on 01/30/2017 8:05:53 PM PST by ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton (Go Egypt on 0bama)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

LOL! I agree!


15 posted on 01/30/2017 9:01:47 PM PST by VeniVidiVici
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Trump like energetic and intelligent go-getters and is not threatened by them.....


16 posted on 01/31/2017 3:27:47 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson