Trump roundup: Bannon’s exit; ‘Sheriff Joe’ pardon and Afghanistan.
A week in the White House that began with yet another staff shake-up ended with a series of last-minute controversial actions just as Hurricane Harvey was about to strike the Texas coast. President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was fired last Friday after reportedly refusing to resign. Bannon has returned to his role at far-right website Breitbart, where he was executive chairman until joining Trump’s campaign team last year. A week later, another staffer left the White House: counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka, who frequently appeared on television to support the president’s policies. On Monday, Trump outlined his plan for dealing with the Taliban in Afghanistan. He stressed the U.S. would no longer aim for “nation-building.” Instead, he said, the focus would be on forcing the Taliban to the negotiation table. Also Monday, the Secret Service reported that more than 1,000 of its agents have hit mandatory salary caps meant to last the entire year, meaning the service cannot pay many of the agents tasked with protecting the president and his family and other highlevel officials. On Tuesday, Trump spoke at a rally in Phoenix, drawing criticism for omitting his most controversial statements while defending his comments on race in the wake of violence in Charlottesville, Va. Also during his Tuesday rally, Trump hinted he would pardon former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt in Arizona after defying a judge’s orders to stop detaining people merely because he suspected they might be in the country illegally. Late Friday, Trump followed through with the pardon. Also late Friday, Trump signed a long-expected directive that formally begins the process of putting in place his proposed ban on transgender people serving in the military.