Thread: Are the Nationalists Losing the War for Trump's White House?

Are the Nationalists Losing the War for Trump's White House?

Rosie Gray
Apr 14, 2017

No one symbolizes the populist nationalism on which Donald Trump ran more than White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart News.

So Bannon’s newly precarious position in the administration—an ascendant, more centrist faction associated with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is trying to take him down--is about more than just Bannon the man. It is about id versus superego. It’s about the place of the hard right in the administration, and whether the movement spearheaded by Bannon can govern. And if Bannon goes, the backlash could be considerable. In fact, even with him still in the White House, that backlash has already begun, with some of Trump’s most vocal supporters becoming restive over his flip-flops on Syria, China, the Ex-Im bank and other issues.

“I think that Steve has come to be the symbol of keeping the flame of the Trump revolution in the White House,” said Sam Nunberg, a former Trump adviser. “So I would assume that there would be hysteria all over talk radio and conservative media were Steve not in the White House and the White House would be run by Democrats.” Nunberg specified that he was referring to Gary Cohn, Trump’s top economic adviser, who is among Bannon’s greatest opponents and who has become a target of Bannon allies in the right-wing media.

“Bannon isn't a red line for me, but I'm already feeling apathetic,” said “new right” pro-Trump blogger and Twitter personality Mike Cernovich, who has recently been among those tweeting a #KeepBannon hashtag. (There’s also a related protest planned for outside the White House on Saturday.) “Messaging from Trump's administration sounds like what we'd have received from Mitt Romney. Trump's base won't turn on him as much as they'll check out.”

Bannon’s fall from grace began in earnest last week, when he was removed from the principals’ committee of the National Security Council. His position there had been controversial from the start, as political advisors do not normally serve on the committee. Bannon and his allies presented the move as not a demotion but instead just part of the plan, with Bannon telling me reports he had threatened to quit were “absurd.”

Since then, both Bannon and chief of staff Reince Priebus have been seen as in danger of losing their jobs. The two have formed an alliance under pressure after initially appearing to be at odds.

“Yeah, I think there’s gonna be a backlash,” said Lee Stranahan, a former Breitbart News reporter who quit the site after conflict with its Washington editor Matt Boyle. “What I’ve been trying to do is factually make people aware that there’s a solid reason for the backlash and it’s not just personality but ideology. Trump did not run on what Ivanka Trump and her circle of friends want.”

Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Cohn, and Dina Powell—the deputy national security advisor—have formed a rising center of power within the White House as Bannon’s position becomes more threatened. The Kushner-Cohn axis is seen as pushing Trump in a more centrist direction. According to a source close to the White House, Kushner and Cohn want to control the Chief of Staff position, “and they know there’s an expiration date on Reince’s forehead but they now realize Steve is a problem for them.” Bannon is “alone and he’s surrounded,” said longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone on MSNBC on Thursday.

Bannon and Kushner held a meeting last week that was intended to mend fences. And Bannon’s side, the source said, believed an agreement had been reached. But then Joe Scarborough, who Bannon allies believe is close with Kushner’s camp, repeatedly attacked Bannon on television and on Twitter this week. And in the most troubling sign, Trump himself appeared to distance himself from Bannon in an interview with the New York Post, saying Bannon “was not involved in my campaign until very late” and emphasizing that he is his own strategist.

Bannon still has his job as of Friday. But even if he keeps it, the war against him both inside the West Wing and via the media has led to an unavoidable impression of imminent downfall. Daylight is even appearing between him and the young senior adviser for policy Stephen Miller, a former Jeff Sessions aide de camp who has been close with Bannon—and was the subject of a Politico story on Thursday calling him Trump’s new “favorite Steve.” (A senior White House official acknowledged to me that Miller is “sort of becoming his own power center.”)

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...-house/523140/

No one symbolizes the populist nationalism on which Donald Trump ran more than White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart News.

When you start off with an erroneous premise, the outcome of your article is surely to be wrong.

Nationalists like me never heard of Steve Bannon until this election. Trump Supporters who have wanted Trump to run for President for years, didn't support him because of Steve Bannon. Maybe some conservatives were swayed into supporting Trump because of Steve Bannon. Sounds like, that is the case. And if they were voting for Bannon instead of Trump, then they may vote Democrat next time. Oh wait, that wouldn't make any sense! But hey, that's their right, right? A lot didn't vote for Trump this time, which means they voted for someone else if they voted which is why we have the big dispute over the popular vote, the electoral college, and whether Trump really is the President. That has weakened this Presidency from the outset.

Trump is his own strategist. Ask anyone who has ever worked for him. They'll tell you, straight up, right or wrong, he makes the call if a call is to be made.

We're trying to fix our country, not arrange for Steve Bannon's career for the next 8 years. It's up to Bannon like all people who work in the White House to get along with the President and everyone else in the Trump Administration, not the other way around. Everyone who has ever had a real job knows that. Yes, people are going to disagree, people are going to have different ideas of what to do and how to do it, but you don't try to kill the company or a Presidential Administration because the boss man didn't like your idea or was disappointed in your inability to deliver important results.

If Bannon is in trouble of keeping his position, it's because he failed to get the health care Phase 1 bill passed so Trump could move on quickly with tax reform and failed to handle the travel ban in a way that worked. These were 2 very important items for Donald Trump and our country, and that is not a good record for Steve Bannon. Trump just wants results, and if you say you've "got it", and you don't, and something as important as the health care bill and the terrorist travel ban flop, then you didn't "got it" after all.

It not only reflects poorly on the President giving the CORRUPT MEDIA the fodder to claim he can't govern, he can't work with Congress, he "reversed", he "flip-flopped", or whatever other talking points come speedily out of the DNC to be picked up by conservatives and thrown at Trump by members of his own party, and something has to change.

Hopefully, Bannon will stop whining to friends, media outlets or to whomever about whatever, keep his lips shut, and try new methods of delivering the results Trump wants, because that's the job. The only reason you're in the White House or an Administration is to deliver results for the President and our country.

I like Steve Bannon, what little I know about him, I love Breitbart News, I think they're terrific, and I truly hope Bannon is smart enough to figure out how to get the results, do well, and continue to be a part of this Historic Presidency for as long as he wants to be part of it.

I hope the President does not let the wrong voices influence him. There is real competition between the "America First" group (small) with Bannon and Miller and the liberal, globalist, democrat, republican, establishment group. The views of the Kushners, along with Gary Cohn and others who are like minded, are not the views of millions of Americans who want immigration enforcement, no amnesty, Obamacare repeal with free market choices, tax cuts, jobs for Americans first.

Whether Bannon stays or goes the reality is that "America First" holds sway with a small group in Washington. The swamp is enormous. The President has too many Obama carry overs still there and he hasn't ended DACA.

Let me ask a question, if Trump ends DACA 2012, and the government is sued, the case goes all the way to the 9th Circuit or the US Supreme Court, and we lose, what then? The opposition already has their lawsuits ready to file as soon as he takes an action to end DACA 2012. If it can expire as Sean Spicer believes in June, then why not do that and prevent a permanent judicial attack against our cause?

Trump is not a lawyer, but for a non-lawyer, he has more knowledge and personal experience with lawsuits than probably anyone in the country, so he knows the legal risk of allowing any of these immigration cases to enter the court system.

DACA 2012 was not an Executive Order. It was a DHS response to Congressional appropriations process. All the conditions that caused Napolitano to issue the MEMO Directive in 2012, still exist. DHS still has to outline "prioritization of resources" with regards to enforcement in the appropriations process for DHS. There are still DREAMER bills in Congress. DHS still doesn't have enough money to deport everyone at once, so it still has to operate under the law but by priorities in accordance with its Appropriations requirements.

The renewal of DACA 2012 which was effected in 2014 for 3 years, supposedly expires in June of 2017 on its own terms. If this is true, which I presume it is, then it's over then, and the work permits expire according to their individual dates thereafter with the last ones issued to expire in 2019.

DACA 2012 is not the simple thing like the DACA and DAPA 2014 Executive Orders. It's a very different animal and not a risk-free task to terminate. If the termination is challenged for any number of reasons, (there are lawsuits all lined up already from colleges and universities to states to cities to civil rights and all the pro-immigration groups), that now moves the matter OUT OF the Executive Branch and Congress to the Judicial Branch. If what happened on the travel ban and virtually every immigration case that has ever made it to an Appeals Court or Above doesn't explain why doing anything on immigration that could end up in the courts is not in our best interest, then I just don't know what more to say on this, except please don't shoot yourselves in the foot.

Going by what so many experts on the DACA issue say Judy, it is a simple thing to end it, whether by Secretary Kelly or Executive Order from the President to direct Homeland Security to cease the program. No doubt, people would sue, but there is no excuse to break the promise of ending DACA, to allow the amnesty to go forward, to allow @ 90,000 DACA renewals and new applications to be granted as of today.

I don't see where 2012 DACA is different. It begin as an executive action and should end as such.


Like Plyer vs. Doe, we have to tackle the issue and aim to end it.

It is possible that Steve Bannon was a voice that Pres. Trump listened to and hence all the great ideas that appealed to Americans and got him elected.

If he is pushed out, what voices will be helping him make decisions.

I do agree, right now isn't the time to try to change any law and end up in court for years - or get a quick and PERMANENT decision we don't want.

We do, however, have a lot of laws that could be enforced - get them in place. Make a difference and let it become obvious to the American people and maybe some of those 'actions' and laws might be easier to change.

I hope it expires in June, and I think it does.

As to the "promise", in every speech or interview I heard, Trump promised to reverse the 2 Executive Orders issued by Obama on DACA that the courts had stopped. I never heard him ever say 3, or ever mention DACA 2012 that was done by a MEMO Directive responding to appropriations process requirements of the US Congress.

Originally Posted by Judy

I hope it expires in June, and I think it does.

As to the "promise", in every speech or interview I heard, Trump promised to reverse the 2 Executive Orders issued by Obama on DACA that the courts had stopped. I never heard him ever say 3, or ever mention DACA 2012 that was done by a MEMO Directive responding to appropriations process requirements of the US Congress.

Like I've told you before, you're living in a different reality than most of us are (probably all of us). President Trump was very clear in his promise to end DACA immediately. You are the only person to say otherwise. I understand your desire to cheer and prop Trump up on almost ever issue, even when he's wrong. However, you are being very disingenuous on this issue because you know, like the rest of us, what he was promising.

Take my word for it, the BRIDGE Act amnesty for DACA illegals will be on President Trump's desk before DACA expires. If it isn't, Trump will extend the program until he gets the amnesty bill.

Keep your promise, Mr. President, end DACA now!