Dont Celebrate Steve Bannons War on Trump

[octoberlib]

The president will still be a bigot, and his former adviser will have his ear.

BY JEET HEER
August 18, 2017


In point of fact, it’s exactly because Trump’s instincts are aligned with the nationalist right that Bannon’s departure is likely to change little. The problem with the Trump administration is not that there was a white nationalist whispering in Trump’s ear; the problem was that there is a white nationalist whispering inside Trump’s own brain. That white nationalist will dominate American politics as long as Trump is in the White House.

As Wall Street Journal editor Gary Rosen observed, “The character of a presidency is determined by the President, not by his staff.” Trump’s character is already all to familiar to the entire world: He is a 71-year-old self-absorbed racist who is too lazy to follow the details of policy and prone to making capricious decisions. Trump’s character is fixed, and no amount of staff change can possibly make any difference.

As Peter Beinart wrote in The Atlantic on Friday, Trump’s racism long predated his association with Bannon:

As Trump himself likes to note, Bannon joined his campaign late, in August 2016. By that time, Trump had already called Mexican immigrants “rapists,” falsely accused American Muslims in New Jersey of celebrating the 9/11 attacks, said “Islam hates us” and declaredthat Judge Gonzalo Curiel could not fairly judge the case against Trump University because was Mexican-American. Bannon’s hiring was not a cause of the Trump campaign’s dalliance with Islamophobia, nativism and white nationalism. It was a result.

Nor is Trump ever likely to be fully out of touch with Bannon. Even when he supposedly fires a staffer, as he did with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and advisor Roger Stone, he still keeps in contact with them, often turning to them for advice. As The New York Times John Herrman joked:

Link to tweet

Steve Bannon Relegated To Merely Talking On The Phone With The President Every Dayh


https://newrepublic.com/article/144422/dont-celebrate-steve-bannons-war-trump

[G_j]

1. Donald Trump and the Central Park Five: the racially charged rise of a demagogue

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/17/central-park-five-donald-trump-jogger-rape-case-new-york

[octoberlib]

5. Yep.

[GusBob]

2. OK what moth was brought to whose flame. The birther crap, the central park,

Trump is a racist without Bannon. If they have to out hate each other for the caveman vote we all lose.

Ugly on many sides now

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Bannon's departure was due to differences in foreign policy and economic matters with

slightly more rational people in the west wing. trumps racist shit will continue unabated.

[octoberlib]

6. Those people in Trump's admin who he disagrees with are who Bannon'll go after and wage war against

McMaster, Jared Kushner, Gary Cohn etc. Joel Pollak , editor of Breitbart was on Ali Velshi's show and said they would still support Trump as long as he did what he campaigned on.

[loyalsister]

4. I doubt Bannon will ever truly leave this WH

Given the ages of the Nazi white supremacists we just saw in the footage of that riot, we need to pay close attention to interns and lower level staff.

[superpatriotman]

7. Let's put the blame squarely where it belongs:

Their parents.