Trump Undercuts Bannon, Whose Job May Be in Danger
Trump is notoriously fickle in his decision-making process, and he dislikes confrontation. But by openly criticizing Mr. Bannon, he has created an environment that makes it hard for the swaggering and self-assured chief strategist to remain in place without appearing undermined.
.. Mr. Bannon, he has told one person, is “not a team player.”
.. Mr. Kushner; Mr. Cohn; Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter; and Dina Powell, a former Goldman Sachs executive who is now a deputy national security adviser, have come to represent to many on the right a slow and dangerous creep of liberalism into the administration.
.. cutting Mr. Bannon loose would send the wrong signal to conservatives — and could be dangerous given the delight Mr. Bannon takes in disruption.
“I think firing Bannon would be a huge mistake for Trump,” Mr. Deace said. “Hell hath no fury like a Bannon scorned.”
.. To Mr. Trump, there is only one person on his team worthy of attention: himself. He has long recoiled at descriptions of this or that adviser as the brains behind his operation. And he was said to be especially bothered by Mr. Bannon’s appearance in February on the cover of Time magazine.
.. The possibility of a Breitbart unleashed against the White House in a broader conservative news media backlash is not lost on many Republicans.