Bannon could be fired over Kushner feud
‘Work this out,’ president tells top staffers
NEW YORK •Donald Trump has told his key advisers to settle their differences amid a cascade of reports about White House infighting.
The president reportedly told Steve Bannon, his chief strategist, and Reince Priebus, his chief of staff, to “work this out” after a series of clashes with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-inlaw and senior adviser.
The relationship between Bannon and Kushner has reportedly deteriorated to the point of “breakdown.” The two men had clashed over the decision to launch Friday’s early morning airstrikes against the Syrian regime, with Bannon firmly stating intervention did not advance Trump’s “America First” doctrine.
“Steve doesn’t think we belong there,” a source said.
The fact the airstrikes went ahead was seen as evidence of the waning influence of Bannon, who, at the culmination of the election campaign, transition and early days of the presidency, had seemed untouchable.
The strategist, who was removed from the National Security Committee on Wednesday, reportedly “growled” at Kushner earlier this week: “Here’s the reason there’s no middle ground. You’re a Democrat.”
“The tension, the exhaustion, the raw nerves have gotten much harder to disguise,” an unnamed White House insider said of the schism within the president’s top team.
The president reportedly encourages competition among his staff and asks friends to rate the performance of his inner circle. On one side of the divide are “the nationalists” — the anti-establishment Bannon faction, intent on reinforcing America’s borders and strengthening the police.
On the other, stand “the Democrats,” led by the Kushnerites, who are more moderate and are credited, among other things, with persuading Trump not to target Barack Obama’s LGBT rights reforms.
It is an “open secret” that Bannon and Kushner despise each other, reports said, and the pair often clash “face-to-face.” It is a far cry from the campaign trail. “During the campaign and transition, they had an almost uncle-nephew thing going,” a Bannon associate told New York magazine.
Bannon apparently called Kushner a “cuck” this week — an offensive term adopted by the alt-right to suggest weakness with racist connotations of a man having his white wife cheating on him with a black man.
The former head of Brietbart, the far-right news organization, also apparently refers to Kushner, the 36-year-old New York real estate developer, and his wife as “the Democrats,” “the New Yorkers” or “Goldman.”
On Friday afternoon, Priebus privately convened a meeting between Kushner and Bannon, according to Politico, to discuss what they hope will be a lasting peace accord between the feuding White House camps.
The meeting — which the site reported lasted roughly 45 minutes, before Priebus left Mar-a-Lago for Washington — took place in a secluded outdoor area at the resort.
Kushner, who has been nicknamed the “Trump whisperer” for his apparent ability to soothe the president, believes that Bannon is contributing to the president’s historically low approval ratings.
He is in regular contact with MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, claimed Roger Stone, a former adviser to Trump. Scarborough, on his show Morning Joe, is a vociferous critic of Bannon.
Less than 100 days into his tumultuous presidency, there were reports on Friday that Trump was considering “reassigning” both Bannon and Priebus. The Wall Street Journal suggested the president was considering replacements for his chief of staff that included Gary Cohn, a former senior executive at Goldman Sachs, who is a registered Democrat and friend of Kushner and his wife. He currently serves as director of the National Economic Council.
The firings of Priebus and Bannon are a matter of “when” not “whether,” Axios reported.
If Trump were to fire both his chief of staff and chief strategist, it would be a huge upheaval for the nascent administration, still reeling after Michael Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser over his ties to Moscow and the lingering question of Russia’s alleged meddling in last November’s presidential election.
A White House spokesman described reports of the shakeup as “completely false,” while a separate source reportedly said it remained “very unclear the president’s willing to pull that trigger.”