Developing…
Everything’s on the move after Axios reported minutes ago that another “rumor” is probably not a “rumor” after all.
It looks like the end is nigh for Steve Bannon.
Here’s Axios:
A decision is imminent from White House chief of staff John Kelly on whether Steve Bannon will keep his job, according to administration officials with knowledge of the situation:
- Bannon, who has run afoul of Trump in the past, is now suspected by the president of leaking about his West Wing colleagues. And Trump resents the publicity Bannon has been getting as mastermind of the campaign.
- Many West Wing officials are now asking “when,” not “if,” Bannon goes.
- Chief of Staff General John Kelly has been reviewing Bannon’s position.
- A recent deluge of media coverage of Bannon – including Bannon’s explosive conversation with the American Prospect – have not escaped either the president’s or Kelly’s attention.
One White House source twists the knife: “His departure may seem turbulent in the media, but inside it will be very smooth. He has no projects or responsibilities to hand off.”
And here’s futs and 10Y yields:
“For those watching the soap opera in Washington, the latest plot twist is this Axios report that the White House is expected to fire Steve Bannon,” Michael Regan writes for Bloomberg, adding that “considering he has made a trade war with China a priority, this is most likely the reason that stocks and the dollar are paring some losses right now.”
And same thing in VIX and USDJPY:
“USD/JPY snapped back over 109.00 amid gappy trading as the yen relinquished some of its gain after a report that a review of White House adviser Steve Bannon is almost complete and that the Trump aide could be fired,” Bloomberg goes on to note, recapping the knee-jerk.
Here is our full post from 5 days ago on why this makes sense for Trump in light of recent events…
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There would certainly be something ironic about Steve Bannon finally meeting his White House Waterloo just days after Donald Trump steadfastly refused to single out white supremacists as the instigators of the violence that rocked Charlottesville on Saturday.
Bannon is the embodiment of the alt-Right and Breitbart is a de facto mouthpiece for the xenophobia and bigotry that was on full display this weekend in Virginia.
But Bannon’s ambition and profoundly unrealistic vision for the Western world has put the chief strategist at odds with other key players in the administration including, notably, Jared Kushner.
It also didn’t help that the alt-Right godfather showed up on the cover of TIME magazine under the headline “The Great Manipulator.”
Saturday Night Live did its part to perpetuate the notion that Steve was in fact the man pulling the strings, portraying Bannon as the Grim Reaper himself.
None of that sat well with a President who is an egomaniac hell-bent on letting the world know he’s in charge.
Of course Bannon is a Rasputin-esque figure and his penchant for surviving attempts to oust him from Trump’s inner-circle has already become the stuff of legend.
But according to reports, Bannon’s “rein at the top will prove short like leprechauns.” Here’s Axios:
- Now Bannon is a man on an island, with very few true allies in the building.
You’ll note that the “self-promotion” bit echoes what Anthony Scaramucci told The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza in the now infamous, profanity-laced phone call that cost “The Mooch” his job just 10 days in.
And although Scaramucci could have expressed himself a bit better, the “cocksucker” comment was actually a spot-on critique of Bannon’s ambition — if not a completely accurate description of how Steve spends his spare time (we hope).
Also note what “The Mooch” said earlier today about Bannon and white nationalism:
Scaramucci on if Bannon is a white nationalist: "I don't know…the toleration of it by Steve Bannon is inexcusable" https://t.co/rgi2C2TM3w pic.twitter.com/6gXDgjonNl
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 13, 2017
And that was hardly the end of it.
“You’ve got this sort of Bannon-bart influence in there, which I think is a snag on the president,” Scaramucci said Sunday on ABC’s This Week. “If the president really wants to execute (his) legislative agenda that, I think, is so promising for the American people, the lower-middle class people and the middle class people, then he has to move away from that sort of Bannon-bart nonsense.”
“The whole thing is nonsensical. It’s not serving the president’s interests. He’s got to move more into the mainstream,” “The Mooch” added, before criticizing Trump’s “many sides” remark as follows:
I wouldn’t have recommended that statement. I think he needed to be much harsher as it related to the white supremacists and the nature of that.
Well, circumstances might have just conspired to make Bannon’s exit inevitable. Because if you think about it, firing Bannon would give Trump an out in terms of Charlottesville.
He could claim that getting rid of Steve proves he’s serious about removing the extremist elements from Pennsylvania Avenue, while avoiding what he really doesn’t want to do: alienate the white nationalist voter base by condemning them explicitly.
Of course no one on Capitol Hill is going to buy that bullshit, but it would give him some cover and it seems very likely that getting rid of Bannon wouldn’t trigger the same kind of backlash from the white nationalists than an outright disavowal of their message would invariably engender.
So with that as the backdrop, consider this just out from Charlie Gasparino:
There you go. It looks as though Bannon’s days are indeed numbered.
And oh the irony. Steve will now be the sacrificial lamb that allows Trump to avoid criticizing the very people Bannon represents.
What’s the line on who’s next? Miller (Goebbels’ alter ego) or Gorka (Putin’s mini-me)?
Gorka gotta go. What a pig.
– Murphy
And for those having an interest in the anti-Semitism aspect that Trump’s people in Charlottesville brought to the party, here’s an excerpt from a New Republic post:
“At the torch-lit rally on Friday night, the marchers chanted, “Jews will not replace us.” On Saturday, while holding Sabbath, the worshippers of Congregation Beth Israel in Charlottesville were terrorized by camouflage-wearing neo-Nazis with semiautomatic rifles, chants of “sieg heil,” swastika flags, and threats to burn down the synagogue.
“Local police faced an unprecedented problem that day, but make no mistake, Jews are a specific target of these groups, and despite nods of understanding from officials about our concerns–and despite the fact that the mayor himself is Jewish–we were left to our own devices,” Alan Zimmerman, the president of the congregation, wrote. “The fact that a calamity did not befall the Jewish community of Charlottesville on Saturday was not thanks to our politicians, our police, or even our own efforts, but to the grace of God.”
For yet more evidence, see Elle Reeve’s documentary short for Vice News, in which white supremacist Christopher Cantwell says, “I’m here to spread ideas, talk, in the hopes that somebody more capable will come along … somebody like Donald Trump who does not give his daughter to a Jew,” referring to Ivanka Trump’s marriage to Jared Kushner. As Emma Green wrote at The Atlantic, “Of course there are neo-Nazis in our time. There are those who hate Jews in every time. It’s a hatred that easily flickers between the universal and the particular, melding with the similarly particular hatreds of blacks and immigrants and other minority groups.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/144393/lefts-blind-spot-anti-semitism
was there news on oil? or is a Bannon dismissal also worth 3% to the price of oil
Not to diminish the gravity of the situation, but if you plan on using the “rein at the top” reference again would you be so kind as to use the word “reign”. Over reliance on spell check, we’ve all been there.