‘Delete-Alt-Right’ – Steve Bannon Fired

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It appears that a series of interviews this week by chief White House strategist Steve Bannon displaying extreme hubris about his “power behind the throne” was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

There can only be one self-involved egomaniacal man-child in the White House, and that is Donald Trump.

New chief of staff Ret. Gen. John Kelly finally pulled the trigger and fired Steve Bannon (and more firings are rumored coming). Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon fired:

President Donald Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon has been fired, multiple White House officials told CNN on Friday.

Sources told CNN that Bannon’s ouster had been in the works for two weeks and a source said that while Bannon was given the option to resign, he was ultimately forced out.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed Bannon’s departure, but claimed the decision for him to leave was mutual.

“White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day. We are grateful for his service and wish him the best,” Sanders said in a statement.

The President has privately stewed over Bannon in recent days, including Thursday night from his golf course in New Jersey. He was furious with his chief strategist after he was quoted in an interview with the American Prospect contradicting Trump on North Korea and asserting that Bannon was able to make personnel changes at the State Department.

Bannon’s exit comes just seven months after Trump took office and three weeks after retired Gen. Kelly took over as chief of staff, looking to instill order in a chaotic White House beset by internal divisions, staff infighting and a storm of controversies.

Bannon’s exit meant one of the White House’s most controversial staffers, the man generally perceived as the driving force behind Trump’s “nationalist” ideology, would no longer be at the center of the Trump universe.

A person close to chief of staff John Kelly says John Kelly isn’t done streamlining effort he entered office intent on executing. Bannon may be his highest-profile firing so far, but “Kelly’s not done,” the person said.

Rumor has it that fascist sympathizer Sebastian Gorka will be next. And what about the other racist “even Steven,” Stephen Miller? Gotta go for the hat trick, general. As the Washington Post’s Stephen Stromberg says, There are still lots of scary people in Trump’s White House.

The real power behind the throne

The question now is whether Bannon will be an ally or a thorn in the side of the Trump administration outside the White House, where he is likely to return to his role as head of Breitbart, the right-wing news site he ran until he joined Trump’s campaign a year ago.

Whatever his plans, Bannon is expected to remain tightly connected to the billionaire conservative father-daughter pair Robert and Rebekah Mercer, who are major investors in Breitbart News and top Trump donors.

Both Bannon and Trump spoke with the Mercers in recent days, a White House official said.

It’s time for someone to leak that conversation to the media. Americans have the right to know what the Mercers are manipulating.

Breitbart News: #WAR

Breitbart News had been unfailingly supportive of President Trump, first during his campaign and then during his presidency. But following the White House’s ouster of Steve Bannon, the former head of the right-wing website, Breitbart News appears to be getting ready for a fight with the Trump team. ‘#WAR’: Breitbart set to take on Trump White House after Bannon ouster:

Bannon, his allies and the site’s staffers have not been subtle about what is likely to happen now.

Joel Pollak, a senior editor-at-large at Breitbart, tweeted “#WAR,” a reference to the site’s early days and the mission statement of its founder, Andrew Breitbart.

A person who recently spoke with Bannon told CNNMoney that the now-former White House chief strategist will not stay quiet on the sidelines.

“It will be Bannon the barbarian,” the person said. “He’s not going to go out peacefully.”

Following news of Bannon’s exit, Breitbart started to prepare stories critical of people in the Trump White House, a person at the website told CNN. It’s most likely the site will not — for now at least — directly attack the President, but will focus its fire on people in Trump’s circle who had clashed with Bannon, or who are viewed as Democrats or “globalists.”

A senior administration official told CNNMoney that Bannon will indeed fight for nationalism and populism on the from outside the White House. “He can be helpful to POTUS on the outside. Others may need to duck,” the person said.

Ben Shapiro, a former editor at Breitbart who has been critical of Bannon and the website since he left, wrote in a column, “Bannon is deeply vengeful, and supremely ambitious. He has already held the most powerful job he will ever have — unless, of course, his new job is to destroy Trump from the outside.”

Not much will change

The Washington Post’s Paul Waldman reminds us, Steve Bannon is out. That’s good, but the problem is still Donald Trump. Exactly right. The fish rots from the head.

Jordan Weissmann adds at Slate, Steve Bannon May Be Leaving the White House, but His Worst Ideas Will Live On.

19 thoughts on “‘Delete-Alt-Right’ – Steve Bannon Fired”

  1. Now that Steve Bannon has been relieved of restructuring the world, maybe he will have time to see a dermatologist.

    • Who said I was above making cheap shots? I prefer to call them “shallow comments”. But, in this case, I meant it. It’s like he revels in being a fat slob with bad skin and a bad haircut. Maybe this works for his fan base, young white male losers, because it is non-threatening. Who knows?

  2. Bannon Says He’s ‘Going to War for Trump’ After White House Exit

    By Joshua Green , Justin Sink , and Margaret Talev
    August 18, 2017, 2:21 PM MST August 18, 2017, 4:04 PM MST

    Ousted White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon returned to the conservative Breitbart News website on Friday and said he’ll be “going to war” for President Donald Trump, vowing to intensify the fight he has waged against opponents of his brand of populist conservatism.

    “If there’s any confusion out there, let me clear it up: I’m leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents — on Capitol Hill, in the media, and in corporate America,” Bannon told Bloomberg News Friday in his first public comments after his departure was announced.

    Bannon led the evening editorial meeting at Breitbart, where he resumed his role as executive chairman…

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-18/bannon-says-he-s-going-to-war-for-trump-after-white-house-exit

  3. Has anyone ever been to Breitbart? I stop by now and then when I make the right wing rounds.

    It’s news for dumb people. There’s an article today saying if we’re going to remove confederate monuments, then we need to tear down the Great Pyramid and the Great Wall of China, among others.

    The monuments we’re removing were constructed decades after the Civil War to tell blacks to remember their place. They were built mostly in the 1920’s at the height of the KKK’s resurgence.

    Some of them include the actual words “White Supremacy”. That’s not a historical landmark.

    They are only of historical value in a museum or history book.

    The Great Wall and the Pyramids are actual historic sites, they were not built as warnings former slaves and the children of slaves to celebrate the people who attacked the United States of America.

    Anyone with a handful of functioning braincells should be able to tell that some of these things are not like the other.

    News for dumb people. The way Donald Trump is what dumb people think a billionaire is like, that’s Breitbart.

    • My knowledge of world history is not what I would like it to be, but I’m not aware of any other country that allowed the losers of a civil war to erect monuments all over the country and keep them around for 90-100+ years. It is absurd, for starters.

      It is the Union officers and soldiers who should be honored in public spaces, parks, buildings, etc… and the Rebels and their stupid battle flag should never be seen outside of museums.

      I nominate Harriet Tubman as a possible replacement for Lee:
      “When the Civil War began, Tubman worked for the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, and then as an armed scout and spy. The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, she guided the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than 700 slaves.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman

      She was fearless.

      • “If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there’s shouting after you, keep going. Don’t ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.”

        -Harriet Tubman

      • Ironically, the people defending 1920’s-era Confederate monuments are many of the same people decrying participation trophies, whining about ‘special snowflakes’, and general ‘softening’ of some sort of perceived ‘ruggedness’ that may have once typified American culture.

      • “…I’m not aware of any other country that allowed the losers of a civil war to erect monuments all over the country and keep them around for 90-100+ years.”

        Off the top of my head, I can think of three countries that have done that: Germany, Italy, and Japan. And they have stayed around for 100 to 300 years.

        “It is the Union officers and soldiers who should be honored in public spaces, parks, buildings, etc…”

        And there are. At a ratio of 3-4 Union statues to 1 Confederate statue. And most of those were erected during the period of 1900 to 1930. That was the time period when most of the remaining Civil War veterans were reaching old age and were passing away. These statues were erected to remember the rapidly dying veterans.

        “She was fearless.”

        Yes, she was. She has not received the full measure of credit due her for her actions and courage she displayed throughout her life.

          • “What are the monuments in Germany, Italy, and Japan?”

            Well, I don’t know the names of the monuments, but I can tell you who the people are since you are interested.

            JAPAN The 47 Ronin – 47 Samurai served with their master in trying to overthrow the Shogun (the king and failed. The master commited supuku as he was ordered, and the 47 samurai became ronin (masterless samurai) and roamed around Japan waiting on a chance to avenge their master. Two years passed and they were able to kill the Shogun and were required to all commit sepuku. Despite being on the losing side of the war, they have been viewed with great honor since their deaths.
            JAPAN Miyamoto Musashi – was a master samurai serving the Toyotoni Clan when they waged war against the Shoguns Tokogawa Clan and lost, not once, but twice. Because of his skill with the sword he was forbidden sepuku, but he was indentured to the Shogun as a disgraced samurai. There are hundreds of shrines in Japan for Musashi and they named the biggest battleship ever built for him in 1935.
            ITALY Guiseppe Garibaldi – tried to unseat the king in rebellion during war after war, and constantly lost. Much like Robert E. Lee here in this Country, Garibaldi was successful enough that, eben though he lost the war time after time, the Italian peoplestill held him in high regard, and do so to this day.
            GERMANY Unfortunately, I forgete his and when I tried to look it up I couldn’t figure it out.
            He fougnt against the unification of Germany and opposed OttoVon Bismarck. After his side lost, he was still held in high regard by the people despite his desire to keep Schlesswige-Hollstein independent.

            There are others but they just don’t come to mind. It is not at all unusual for people to find qualities in an enemy that loses which makes the winner look gently upon them. That is why we have so many Confederate Monuments. They may have revolted, but they were still Americans.

          • “Nope, that’s not why we have Confederate monuments.”

            Liza, if you want to find negativity, then you look for people with a negative agenda. The Southern Poverty Law Center has a HUGE negative agenda. However, after reading through attachment, I agree that some people who lobbied for the statues had dark reasons for doing so. But I would also argue that many who wanted the statues were people who admired some facet of the character of the person or group being remembered.

          • Oh, for crying out loud, Steve, it is not just the SPLC that has reported on the Confederate monuments.

            Think what you want, it’s a free country, somewhat.

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