The Borneo Post

Trump’s chief strategist dropped from NSC in White House shake-up

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WASHINGTON: Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, has lost his seat on the powerful National Security Council in a high-level White House shake-up.

Trump’s elevation of Bannon to a permanent spot on the NSC had been widely criticised as injecting politics into White House deliberati­ons on sensitive defence, foreign policy and intelligen­ce matters.

The move revealed Wednesday was seen as a setback for Bannon, the controvers­ial former head of the far-right media website Breitbart, who is one of Trump’s most trusted advisors and sometimes dubbed the real power in the White House.

And it appeared to boost recently appointed National Security Advisor H R McMaster, who is putting his own stamp on the crucial advisory body.

Trump made no statement on the shift, but Bannon described it as part of a process of getting the council under control after it grew rapidly under president Barack Obama’s national security advisor, Susan Rice.

“Susan Rice operationa­lised the NSC during the last administra­tion so I was put on NSC to ensure it was ‘de- operationa­lised.’ General McMaster has NSC back to its proper function,” Bannon said in a statement.

Normally out of the news, the NSC has been the focus of uncommon controvers­y in the first months of the administra­tion.

Trump’s fi rst national security advisor, Michael Flynn, was forced out in February after he made misleading statements about conversati­ons he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak after the election.

The White House then struggled to replace Flynn, with potential candidates wary of political infighting and staffi ng issues. On Feb 20 Trump tapped respected Army lieutenant general McMaster, promising him ‘ full authority’ to hire his own staff.

As chief White House strategist, Bannon has helped shape into policy the nationalis­t and antigovern­ment ideas that helped propel Trump to the White House. He is closely tied to the sharp turn away from several decades of an expansive, globalist US foreign policy since Trump became president on Jan 20.

Bannon’s inclusion in the NSC at the end of January raised concerns that the critical reports and recommenda­tions that US spy and defence agencies present to the president could be politicise­d. The move had come as Trump levelled strong attacks on the intelligen­ce community over leaks to the media.

Little seen or heard from in public, Bannon appeared to have an impact on most aspects of administra­tion policy. One of his mantras has been to ‘blow up Washington’, which he viewed as a city of calcified elites.

“What we are witnessing now is the birth of a new political order,” he told the Washington Post as the new government took office.

Critics assailed his influence. Time magazine called him ‘ The Great Manipulato­r’ and others dubbed him ‘President Bannon’.

Despite the loss of his NSC seat, he will likely remain a powerful figure behind Trump. He was reportedly working this week on a new health care plan after Congress failed to repeal Obama’s landmark Affordable Care Act, as Trump has promised.

In a presidenti­al order issued Tuesday, Bannon’s position, assistant to the president and chief strategist, was removed from the list of NSC members and its principals committee, which includes several top cabinet, military and intelligen­ce officials.

At the same time, the director of National Intelligen­ce, the director of the Central Intelligen­ce Agency, the Pentagon’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Secretary of Energy were restored to the principals committee after being left out in the January configurat­ion.

The move to drop Bannon garnered approval from both political parties. Republic Senator John McCain told Politico it was a ‘good move’.

“I said at the time that I didn’t think a political adviser should be a member of that body because it’s never been, so I think it’s the right thing to do,” he said.

Democratic Representa­tive Eliot Engel called the move ‘long overdue’.

“Steve Bannon should never have been on the National Security Council in the fi rst place,” he said. — AFP

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Steve Bannon

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