Aug. 20 (UPI) — Steve Bannon, who left his job as U.S. President Donald Trump’s chief strategist Friday, says “no administration in history has been so divided among itself.”
In an interview with The Washington Post Saturday, Bannon said, “If the Republican Party on Capitol Hill gets behind the president on his plans and not theirs, it will all be sweetness and light, be one big happy family.”
But he also said he doesn’t expect some Republican leaders to suddenly back Trump’s plans for taxes, trade and a border wall.
“No administration in history has been so divided among itself about the direction about where it should go,” Bannon said.
Who answers the White House phone, anyway?
Here’s a look at the legendary White House telephone line:
- Who answers when I call the White House?
Depends on which number you call. The public comment line (202-456-1111) is manned by volunteers recruited by the current administration. The White House switchboard (202-456-1414) is manned by professional White House operators. Only privileged parties are privy to the “secret number” that reaches the president directly (see below).
The White House’s volatile employment environment
Donald Trump’s White House is unusual in a wide variety of ways, but one of its more bizarre traits is the competing factions that have taken root after just six months in office. Politico reported yesterday that in the West Wing, “top advisers have built up personal staffs to support their own agendas instead of using a traditional White House policy and messaging operation.”
.. this dynamic includes staffers, such as Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, having their own press operations, separate from the White House’s messaging apparatus. Even Republicans concede there is no precedent for anything like this.
White House Backs Down on Keeping Ethics Waivers Secret
Michael Catanzaro, who until early this year worked as a lobbyist for a coal-burning electric utility and an oil and gas company, among other clients. He is now the top White House policy official overseeing the rollback of the same environmental protection rules he had lobbied against.
.. But he also made clear that there should not have been a need for a confrontation before these waivers were made public.