“If the Trump administration becomes a pale copy of the Bush administration,” the source with inside knowledge of the White House said, “then there was no reason for this election.”
Kushner and Bannon Battle for the Soul of the Trump White House
For Trump supporters, this is a battle between the populist nationalist movement on the right, for which Trump is a figurehead, and the more pragmatic, less ideological approach exhibited by Kushner and his allies. The result could determine whether the Trump White House stays, well, Trumpian, or whether it begins to morph into exactly what someone like Steve Bannon hates: a more mainstream Republican administration.
.. “Jared is a liberal Democrat,” the official said, accusing Kushner of trying to limit the role of some in Trump’s orbit—including Bannon, policy aide Stephen Miller, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Domestic Policy Council Director Andrew Bremberg, and Vice President Mike Pence—in making policy. Kushner, the official charged, is trying to “slow-walk” executive orders on trade, for example.
.. “Jared just doesn’t think that Trump will be successful with somebody like Bannon in there,” said one source close to the White House. “I know, for instance, that there have been meetings that Bannon would normally be in and he hasn’t been in recently.”
.. Kushner and Ivanka Trump have carefully managed their brand in the media, and Bannon’s hard-edged nationalism threatens their smooth public personae.
.. “I’m sure Jared and Ivanka are very embarrassed by Steve’s politics,” the source with inside knowledge of the White House said. “I know they’re not fashionable in Manhattan but those are the politics that got Trump elected. Clearly Jared wants the president to be a more mainstream political figure.”
.. Breitbart News, the right-wing nationalist outlet formerly run by Bannon, has published a string of stories critical of Kushner in the last few days, accusing him of having a “thin resume in diplomacy” and writing up Stone’s accusations.
.. a dynamic within this White House that has thus far proved unshakeable: You can’t bet against the family. And it speaks to a truth about Washington, which is that the establishment always seems to find a way to reassert itself—even in as unusual an environment as Trump’s White House.