After a week of sniping back and forth at each other, both directly and in dueling “news leaks” labeling each other a traitor to the Trump Administration, Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner were forced into “time out” over the weekend in an effort to resolve their differences.
According to POLITICO, the sniping had gotten so bad that President Trump just couldn’t take it anymore and threatened consequences if the two didn’t stop fighting, as though he were about to take away their dessert after supper and shove both of them into a get-along shirt.
Bannon and Kushner have, apparently, been at each others throats for weeks now, while the Trump Administration struggled with a series of high-profile failures, largely tied to Bannon’s inability to marshal Congressional support and approval.
The drama only escalated from there, eventually hitting nearly-Kardashian levels.
After speaking with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Kushner suggested Bannon be booted from the National Security Council, in an effort to boost trust in Trump among Republicans concerned that he was losing control. After finding out Kushner was behind his “demotion,” Bannon pledged that he’d ruin Kushners life.
By Saturday morning, sources close to the White House told Heat Street that threats were on the table, with former Bannon co-workers warning that Bannon could weaponize Breitbart against the Trump White House if he were booted by Trump’s son-in-law. Bannon supporters started a #FireKushner hashtag on Twitter.
It appears Kushner’s retaliated by suggesting that Bannon, along with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, were facing the chopping block.
Before the two came to blows, Daddy Trump was forced, Friday, take action, tossing Kushner and Bannon into a room together at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend while he sorted out foreign policy, so that they could figure out a way to get along.
POLITICO wasn’t able to discern whether the meeting had been a success, and the White House declined to comment, but with big issues on the horizon, and a slate of wins from last week, the Trump White House is poised to have major impact. A divided team could mean the difference between success and failure.