Posted on 08/16/2017 2:39:11 PM PDT by be-baw
On Tuesday night, while Gary Cohn was fuming about President Trump's latest comments, Steve Bannon was excitedly telling friends and associates that the "globalists" were in mass freakout mode.
Today, Bannon reveled in the disbanding of the president's business council, seeing this as yet more evidence that the Trump administration is at odds with the "Davos crowd," as Bannon often calls these corporate elites, in a voice dripping with contempt.
Bannon saw Trump's now-infamous Tuesday afternoon press conference not as the lowest point in his presidency, but as a "defining moment," where Trump decided to fully abandon the "globalists" and side with "his people." Per a source with knowledge: "Steve was proud of how [Trump] stood up to the braying mob of reporters" in the Tuesday press conference. This account of Bannon's thinking has come from conversations with his friends and associates who've been in touch with him since the racist carnage in Charlottesville.
Bannon has not meaningfully advised the president about his response to Charlottesville. He's still on the outs with Trump, who has been calling him a leaker for weeks, though the president described Bannon as a good person on Tuesday.
They spoke by phone on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, according to a source with knowledge of the calls, but the response to Charlottesville has been all Trump, and Trump at his purest.
On the phone to Bannon, Trump asked his chief strategist "where does it end?" according to a source with knowledge of their conversations. Trump wasn't referring to the white supremacists, but to the counter-protesters whom the president believes are on a slippery slope towards "changing history" by tearing down monuments of Confederate heroes and potentially, he has said, the Founding Fathers like George Washington, who owned slaves.
Bannon, who is in New York today, has a view of Trump's Charlottesville response that horrifies many of his West Wing colleagues:
Unlike some of Trump's other top aides — who have varied on a spectrum between frustration and disgust since the president's Charlottesville remarks — Bannon has unapologetically supported Trump's instinct to apportion blame to "both sides."
Sources who've spoken with Bannon since Charlottesville say he views this moment as analogous to the campaign moment when Hillary Clinton condemned half of Trump's supporters to a "basket of deplorables." Bannon believes that if Trump condemned all the people who protested the pulling down of the Robert E. Lee statue then he'd fall into a trap set by leftists, the establishments of both parties, and the mainstream media. (Some of Bannon's colleagues say this is an absurd argument. They point out it was a crowd of white supremacists holding tiki torches and chanting racist slogans, and that this is no time for the president to be searching for the "fine people" in the group. They say Trump should be condemning the tiki torch crowd unequivocally and leaving the debate over statues and free speech to another, less racially-heated, day.)
Bottom line: Both Trump and Bannon are of one mind, and, within the White House at least, theirs is a minority view. They saw the backlash to Charlottesville as an example of political correctness run amok and instinctively searched for "their" people in that group of protesters. Bannon has told associates that Trump, on Tuesday afternoon, took it to the next level for the country by asking where does it end? He especially loved Trump's line: "I wonder, is it George Washington next week?
Hilarious!
Careful Nick, you’re NeverTrump is showing........Where have you been? It's been sticking out like a sore throbbing thumb ever since Trump announced.
This is Axios...know what this news source is.
Bannon is safe, don’t buy the fake news.
But Trump is anti-Bannon now, so...
It sounds like President Trump and Bannon are on the same page.
I’ll entertain your idea. But I see the outcome as the LSM taking them up on it, and spinning it so half the population would think it justified. I don’t want to sacrifice anyone on our side, especially Bannon.
Count me as one who was very proud of our president
The “Davos Crowd” — love it !
axios is the sister propaganda site of poltico, and when axios fabricates propaganda with anonymous sources, it has less credibility than the old Soviet Pravada.
[ I’ll entertain your idea. But I see the outcome as the LSM taking them up on it, and spinning it so half the population would think it justified. I don’t want to sacrifice anyone on our side, especially Bannon. ]
It is an interesting thought experiment.
In ANY OTHER TIME, you would be confident that the would just walk away from it if it was setup for them, but these days it feels like they would mob together and start kicking.
Amen, brother. Amen.
Absolutely.
Washington, Jefferson, Reagan and Trump.
You keep saying Trump called Bannon a leaker? Do you remember where you heard that?
If the Trump Administration continues to do as it has done so far, many more suburban and rural voters will run to the polls in 2020 than in 2016. It will be a landslide for sure in favor of Trump then.
Dishonest GOP politicians who disagree with Trump’s words on the issue will be replaced.
Trump again blames ‘many sides’ in Charlottesville violence [Right on.]
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3577469/posts
I despise neo-Nazis, but I also dislike lies and communists (the other neo-Nazis).
>>Washington, Jefferson, Reagan and Trump.<<
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I do not argue with Reagan.
But you have to include Lincoln—not for defeating the South or even slavery ... but for forging the nation.
Evil progressives such as Wilson, FDR and Obama have been trying to destroy it ever since.
“....but for forging the nation.”
I know I’m in the minority for not adoring Lincoln, but the reasons given for his greatness too often sound like platitudes: “forged the nation” - “healed the country” - “preserved the union”.
I think he’s been made into a folk hero - a martyr - like JFK.
I’m not complaining... I guess people need to have larger than life heroes to look up to - they represent ideals and virtues that we aspire to.
I wonder what his legacy would have been had we been spared the national tragedy of his assassination.
Ok, thanks for the clarification.
I went to the article and found this quote:
“President Trump has told close associates that he believes Steve Bannon is behind damaging leaks about White House colleagues, putting the chief strategist’s job in fresh jeopardy, sources close to the president tell me.”
I’m sure you’ll agree that’s the very epitome of fake news!
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.