Bannon, the former head of the pro-Trump website Breitbart’s appointment as a permanent member of the Security Council had raised anti-nationalist eyebrows from the outset.
His appointment especially evoked criticism when it came to light that Bannon was promoted above the head of the army, General Joseph Dunford, and other intelligence chiefs who had held this position in the past.
The man that put Donald Trump in the White House, apparently became frustrated amid ongoing infighting in the West Wing, and not even a top donor could convince him to stay and fight for his position in recent weeks.
Five people, including a senior administration official and some sources close to the president, told Politico that Bannon, had collided with the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, 28, now calling the shots. Bannon complained that Kushner and his allies sought to undermine his approach, the sources said.
Republican mega-donor Rebecca Mercer, a longtime Bannon confidante and a prominent supporter of Trump during the election campaign, insisted that Bannon stay.
The “big fight is between nationalists and the West Wing Democrats,” an insider source told Politico.
“You have these New York interlocutors who are just not political and who want to think that they’re above the way Washington thinks, but if anybody is allied on delivering on things that Trump ran on, it’s Bannon and Reince and the vice president,” the Republican source explained.
Kushner believes the Mercers – who had poured $13 million into Republican candidates for the nomination – have taken too much credit for their role in his victory. “If Bannon leaves the White House, Bekah’s access and influence shrinks dramatically,” said the GOP operative who is friendly with Mercer.
Bannon, a hero to the nationalist, anti-immigration base that helped Trump to an Electoral College victory, has been at odds with Gary Cohn, the president’s national economics adviser.
Cohn is close with Kushner, who has said privately that he fears that Bannon plays to the president’s worst impulses, according to people with direct knowledge of such discussions, the New York Times reported.
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