Trump's 'House of Cards' about to be reshuffled?
It looks as if we have a House of Cards power struggle going on inside Trumpland between Crown Prince Jared Kushner and Trump's "America First" white nationalist bomb thrower, Stephen Bannon.
Guess who is going to win this fight.
The schism within Mr. Trump's perpetually fractious White House has grown in recent weeks, fueled by personality, ideology and ambition. At its core are Mr. Bannon, the edgy, nationalist bomb-thrower suddenly in the seat of power, and Mr. Kushner, the polished, boyish-looking scion of New Jersey and New York real estate. Even as Mr. Kushner's portfolio of responsibilities has been expanding, Mr. Bannon's in recent days has shrunk with the loss of a national security post.
Stephen K. Bannon — the combative architect of the nationalistic strategy that delivered President Trump to the White House — now finds himself losing ground in an internecine battle within the West Wing that pits the "Bannonites" against a growing and powerful faction of centrist financiers led by the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). Urban helped Trump win an upset victory in Pennsylvania, and was in constant cellphone contact with the candidate throughout the campaign.
Gary Cohn, Trump's economic adviser and the former #2 at Goldman Sachs, who has built a formidable team and internal clout.
The fact that there is a ready-made list from an "insider" in the White House leaked to the press is your first clue that it is true.
The West Wing "Game of Thrones" [now they're mixing my metaphor] has been raging ever since Trump took office. But the war between the nationalists and the moderates, led by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, burst into the open this week after Bannon was taken off the National Security Council, setting off a torrent of leaks against him.
Axios earlier this week reported that Bannon told associates: "I love a gunfight." Bannon reportedly told associates, "I see some bad press in [Jared's] future." (See the previous post).
Of course, White House Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters adamantly denied the reports in a statement to Time's Zeke Miller, calling it a "completely false story." Uh-huh.
Stay tuned for previews of next week's episode.
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