The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The announcement of the ‘resignation’ of White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon represents the culmination of a process which began with the equally forced ‘resignation’ of President Trump’s first National Security Adviser General Michael Flynn.
Individuals who were close to Donald Trump during his successful election campaign and who largely framed its terms – people like Bannon and Flynn – have been picked off one by one.
Taking their place is a strange coalition of former generals and former businessmen of essentially conventional Republican conservative views, which is cemented around three former generals who between them now have the levers of powers in their hands: General Kelly, the President’s new Chief of Staff, General H.R. McMaster, his National Security Adviser, and General Mattis, the Secretary of Defense.
In the case of Bannon, it is his clear that his ousting was insisted on by General Kelly, who is continuing to tighten his control of the White House.
Bannon’s removal – not coincidentally – has come at the same time that General H.R. McMaster is completing his purge of the remaining Flynn hold-overs on the staff of the National Security Council.
Bannon’s removal does not just remove from the White House a cunning political strategist. It also removes the one senior official in the Trump administration who had any pretensions to be an ideologist and an intellectual.
In saying I should say that I for one do not rate Bannon as an ideologist and intellectual too highly. Whilst there can be no doubt of Bannon’s media and campaigning skills, his ideological positions seem to me a mishmash of ideas – some more leftist than rightist – rather than a coherent platform. I also happen to think that his actual influence on the President has been hugely exaggerated.
Since the inauguration I have not seen much evidence either of Bannon’s supposed influence on the President or of his famed political skills.
Bannon is sometimes credited as being the author of the President’s two travel ban Executive Orders. I am sure this wrong. The Executive Orders clearly originate with the wishes of the President himself. If Bannon did have any role in them – which is possible – it would have been secondary to the President’s own. I would add that in that case Bannon must take some of the blame for the disastrously incompetent execution of the first of these two Executive Orders, which set the scene for the legal challenges that followed.
The only occasion where it did seem to me that Bannon exercised real influence was in shaping the text of the speech the President delivered during his recent trip to Poland.
I have already made known my views of this speech. I think it was badly judged – managing to annoy both the Germans and the Russians at the same time – mistaken in many of its points, and the President has derived no political benefit from it.
However it is the closest thing to an ideological statement the President has made since he took office, and Bannon is widely believed – probably rightly – to have written it.
As for Bannon’s alleged political skills, he has completely failed to shield the President from the Russiagate scandal and appears to me to have done little or nothing to hold the President’s electoral base together, with Bannon having been almost invisible since the inauguration.
In view of Bannon’s ineffectiveness since the inauguration I doubt that his removal will make any difference to the Trump administration’s policies or to the support the President still has from his electoral base, most of whose members are unlikely to know much about Bannon anyway.
It is in a completely different respect – one wholly independent of President Trump’s success or failure as President – that the events of the last few weeks give cause for serious concern.
The events of the last year highlight the extent to which the US is in deep political crisis.
The US’s core electorate is becoming increasingly alienated from its political class; elements of the security services are openly operating independently of political control, and are working in alliance with sections of the Congress and the media – both now also widely despised – to bring down a constitutionally elected President, who they in turn despise.
All this is happening at the same time that there is growing criticism of the economic institutions of the US government, which since the 2008 financial crisis have seemed to side with a wealthy and unprincipled minority against the interests of the majority.
The only institution of the US state that still seems to be functioning as normal, and which appears to have retained a measure of public respect and support, is the military, which politically speaking seems increasingly to be calling the shots.
It is striking that the only officials President Trump can nominate to senior positions who do not immediately run into bitter opposition have been – apart from General Flynn, who was a special case – senior soldiers.
Now the military in the persons of Kelly, McMaster and Mattis find themselves at the heart of the US government to an extent that has never been true before in US history, even during the Presidencies of former military men like Andrew Jackson, Ulysses Grant or Dwight Eisenhower.
The last time that happened in a major Western nation – that the civilian institutions of the state had become so dysfunctional that the military as the only functioning institution left ended up dominating the nation’s government and deciding the nation’s policies – was in Germany in the lead up to the First World War.
Time will show what the results will be this time, but the German example is hardly a reassuring one.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Watch out Donald, next thing there will be a “military” coup @the W.H. (LOL)!!!??
Wrong! There was a time when military men ran the nation….before it even was a nation.
All hail the military junta! This is how America began – with George Washington’s act of treason and barracks officer’s coup. It is fitting that it should end this way. in the beginning was the end.
Surely the name wqsgington lmust now be removed from any public space in the US now?
After all he had 350 slaves and slept with his slave girls like all the colonists did…
What should we call Washington in the future?
And what about those Memorials to Washington and Jefferson etc?
Surely they must be torn down?
PS And the disgraceful adulterer and liar William Jefferson Clinton must drop Jefferson from his name surely?!
WashedUpington?
OK…corrected…
Now please do answer my questions Franz…
Yes, lets distract the dumbed down under educated USA Masses with taking down historical statues/memorials, transgender, gay, etc, so they never think to rise up against all that is really destroying them.
Ohh..and let’s provoke an ideological and leading to a real war between the races, while we’re at it.
I prefer Americans tearing down their own monuments rather than their killing hundreds of thousands in the Middle East and spreading death and destuction like thay have throughout the region for the last 20 years and more…
And rather than their continuing to aid and abet the genocide of the Yemini People through US assistance and arms to Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf ragheads……
Tearing down monuments has and will have no effect on what you correctly state the USA perpetrates on the Middle East and elsewhere.
The same entities engineer all of this, in concert.
To be fair, most of these monuments were not raised by the best of that nation. Nor was the intention a general appreciation of US history. And those who defend these monuments are even more under-educated than their counterparts. No few of them were pleased with US supremacism and interventionism in the past. In any case, let the Americans do what they please in their country as long as they do not actively undermine and destroy other states. The horrors of Syria and Ukraine, the latest in a long list of victims (with Venezuela looming ahead), are a good indication… Read more »
No argument there, or in my comment.
You are way off the mark with your comments.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they go for Obamaville or Clintonburg.I’m only have kidding on that. I think they are that stupid.
“PS And the disgraceful adulterer and liar William Jefferson Clinton must drop Jefferson from his name surely?!”
Those women whom he assaulted are taking care of that…here is what they are doing about WJC:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/08/18/bill-clintons-accusers-demand-removal-statue/
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/08/18/seven-monuments-of-accused-sexual-predator-bill-clinton/
Don’t agree entirely with article, hmm! but I might asked has President Trump been bought over.
The United States has now been taken over by a MILITARY JUNTA… Trump does not know his ass from his elbow in international affairs….He believes that international affairs are conducted like a Mobster organises a real estate deal in New York…aznd that he can threaten and extort what he wants in Washington… He is so dumb that he does not realise that as regards internationazl affairs, the Generals have bigger guns and means than a cheap New York mobster like Trump could ever imagine… And he is only now finding out that the US Congress is bought lock, stock and… Read more »
I am sorry. As an entitled North American Baby Boomer, Trump does not have the mettle, toughness and stubbornness to initiate the change that he knows is needed.
He thought the presidency was like getting a million dollar loan and a company from daddy in the 70’s and preceding to expand a real estate empire…….It’s not!
….Nowhere near the superior class of Alphas and game changers like Putin, Chavez, Nasrallah
Agreed, especially with the choice of the three individuals you put for comparison.
Keep talking….Is there more where this came from??? :-))
If the Generals were to run Washington does that make the US more dangerous? Hardly. They already lose every war they ‘fight’. So what if they want more money, or to start another war – they can already do that anyway.
Better that they might have to also worry about Medicare and Social Security and street crime etc. The more problems the Pentagon have to deal with in their so-called ‘Homeland’, the less they can threaten the rest of us.
LOL
Indeed, it ir rather encouraging that the Generals have taken over…
They have lost every war since Vietnam…
But they have succeeded in destroying the Middle East as a region though, which will take generations to put together again……
PS And if the ongoing disaster at the Veterans’ Administration is anything to go by, it would be preferable for the Generals not to interfee with Medicare and Social Security for fear of bankrupting them…
Correction: They’ve lost every war since Korea; and, they didn’t win WWII…the Russians did.
grammar… since Korea means the USA won Korea…. factually, it did not. in fact, the US did not win ww2, not ww1. but perhaps we can say the USA won the fight against Japan [ie a single country], and being the only military to ever have used an atomic weapon?
How about Grenada? Didn’t they save the natives from the coconuts?
Correction : Soviets
At the cost of 27 million Russians. They have my gratitude. .
A lot of dented American psyches. but you’re absolutely right.
First they came for Flynn, Donald Trump did not protest; then they came for …(please help me fill the gaps), Donald Trump did not protest, then they came for Bannon and Donald Trump did not protest, not long after they came for Donald Trump, and there is no Flynn and no Bannon to protest. Make America great again!
I so much love the picture on top. Who is the gorilla in the middle? This is kind of goons the US usually use to destabilize other countries, especially in Latin America. Chicken is coming home to roost.
USA has since quite some time been a failed state – only now it is becoming blatantly visible.
Oh, yeah, une brochette des génerals, who were never able to win a war …
Attempted regime change taking place. Bannon had been referred to as a racist from the very beginning.This was beefed up during the Charlottsevlle melee along with a new level of hysteria in the press about the alt-right, white supremacy and neo-nazism. The next thing the public knew, Bannon was fired. We were good once.
Bad bad news for the USA. Generals from this craazy country might be good at losing but they are great at killing women children and anyone else they chose. The Trump and his tin pot generals are likely to bring the four horsemen of the apocalypse with them to many more corners of the earth. Take one look at their allies and you can see that we are all in for a grim time. The killers are in the house and that is never a good thing. At least Bannon was a lone somewhat sane voice about North Korea and… Read more »
“… that the civilian institutions of the state had become so dysfunctional that the military as the only functioning institution left ended up dominating the nation’s government and deciding the nation’s policies – was in Germany in the lead up to the First World War.” The Russians seem to have anticipated this, or — no, not anticipated, instead they have known it for some time. Word is that Generals Gerasimov and Mattis will meet next week to discuss setting up five more “deconfliction zones” in Syria. These two are not counterparts: Gerasimov is RF General Staff, so the military professional… Read more »
Who is the PUPPET now?
Every country despises instability. Trump on his own is unstable. Trump surrounded by idealogues was unstable. General Kelly represents order; made it clear from the start that he was in charge. Therefore, no surprise loose cannon Bannon is gone. We may now enter a time of stability in Trump’s presidency. Do not forget that military decisions on Syria differed from CIA actions. Do not forget that CIA is a deep state instrument with it’s own mind, purposes and powers. Do not forget CIA is the Nazi intelligence network imported and rebranded. What does this equal? Here is what it equals.… Read more »
And keep praying!
“Do not forget CIA is the Nazi intelligence network imported and rebranded.” Not Nazi but Soviet…We have become the Soviet Union. The National Socialismus Partei was extremely lucrative for Germany……it was the envy of Austria and the rest of Europe, and caused British as well as American Economist to be in awe of what was accomplished in such a very short period of time. Austria who was still struggling with the aftermath of WW1 and the depression BEGGED Germany for the Anschluss – which was a JOINING and was NOT an annexation as the American narrative implies. There was no… Read more »
Makes not a bit of difference. The real power is within the oligarchy who control the banks, large corporations, and the government. Most in government are no more than fronts for the interest of the oligarchy and themselves.
So…. the US is now run by a military cabal – with Orange Fluff as a mascot?
The most frustrated in American society is the military. NO VICTORIES since 1946. Yet they consume over 50 % of the national budget.