In Trump-Bannon feud, Republicans see silver lining
WASHINGTON: In the white-hot battle for influence in US politics the Republican establishment has regained the upper hand, after Donald Trump unleashed a scalding repudiation of Steve Bannon, self-proclaimed champion of the anti-Washington populism that swept the president to power. Traditional conservatives and rabble-rousing populists have long competed for the ear of the president, who appeared to revel in casting the rival forces off one another. More often than not Trump has aligned with the Republican leaders in Congress, an arranged marriage of sorts.
But for months the president also let firebrand Bannon, as his top aide in the White House, conduct open war against what he calls the Washington “swamp” including party leaders, incumbent lawmakers and other heavyweights-all of whom, according to Bannon, undermine Trump’s populist revolution. Now the man who cast himself as supreme defender of Trumpism stands well outside the ring of power, banished by the president and rejected by his most prominent donors. Bannon emerged from relative obscurity when Trump picked him as campaign chief in August 2016, just three months from the presidential election. At the time, he was running Breitbart.com, a conservative website that provided boisterous coverage of Trump’s rise.
Bloomberg had called him “the most dangerous political operative in America.” Soon Bannon presided over the brand of economic populism promoted by Trump, and while the president always contested descriptions that he was under Bannon’s influence, he nevertheless hired him as chief strategist. After several hectic months, Bannon exited the White House, although the two men had apparently remained on good terms. Bannon returned to Breitbart and control of his media “weapons.” His goal: help defeat establishment Republicans in 2018’s congressional primaries and eventually bring down Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, an arch-nemesis.
But the first candidate under his wing, Roy Moore of Alabama, did something the conservative state had not seen in 25 years: lose to a Democrat. The defeat was a stinging blow to Bannon’s reputation. —AFP