Last week, White House watchers and political journalists began using the term “President Bannon,” to describe Donald Trump’s top aide in the West Wing, under the theory that driving a wedge between the two men could end Bannon’s influence over the new President.
Monday morning, it seemed, the plan was finally working.
Last week, the mainstream media was peppered with stories about Bannon’s behind-the-scenes influence, allegations that Steve Bannon had authored most of Trump’s controversial Executive Orders without the President’s authority—even reports that Bannon had to be told to step back from exercising Presidential authority (the White House denies).
Monday morning, though, the President Bannon talk seemed to finally irk the President, following a report on MSNBC‘s Morning Joe, which Trump is known to tune in for. Host Joe Scarborough held up a TIME magazine cover with Bannon’s portrait, and played an SNL skit from the weekend showing a Bannon impersonator pulling Alec-Baldwin-as-Donald Trump’s strings.
Trump took to Twitter immediately.
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it. Some FAKE NEWS media, in order to marginalize, lies!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 6, 2017
Is President Bannon finally getting under President Trump’s skin? The signs are there even beyond Twitter.
A New York Times piece over the weekend claimed that Bannon was quick to set up shop in the West Wing, hiring close advisers and moving forward with an agenda, aware that he needed to grasp control before others had their priorities in order. He “rushed into the vacuum, telling allies that he and [speechwriter Stephen] Miller have a brief window in which to push through their vision of Mr. Trump’s economic nationalism.”
Rumors in the West Wing even had Bannon elbowing out appointed Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.
But revelations, leaking from the White House in the wake of the NYT profile, seem to indicate that senior staff is now wise to the plan, and even Priebus has regained control, mandating a complete internal assessment and rollout plan for any new initiatives. The turnaround seems to stem from reports that Bannon re-configured the National Security Council to put himself in a powerful position—without the permission, or even the knowledge, of President Trump.
Experts have long suspected that altering Trump and Bannon’s relationship might have a moderating effect on the Trump Presidency. They may have their chance to find out.
