Trump/Steve Bannon Feud
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Former allies are now enemies – Trump sharply at odds with his former White House chief strategist Bannon.
Comments he made, quoted by Michael Wolff in his upcoming book, titled “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” didn’t go down well with Trump, his sharply worded statement reported by his press secretary Sarah Sanders, saying in part:
“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.”
“Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.”
It was a rogue gallery of aspirants, nearly all neocon extremists, resembling an FBI’s most wanted list.
Bannon joined Trump’s campaign as chief executive officer in August 2016, leaving his White House position a year later, saying he “declared war” on the establishment GOP at the time.
He’s a right-wing extremist like most others in Washington, many undemocratic Dems as hardline as Republicans on major issues – notably supporting imperial wars of aggression and corporate empowerment at the expense of peace and the general welfare – anathema notions in the nation’s capital.
An excerpt from Wolff’s book published by New York magazine called Trump’s campaign headquarters “a listless place…until the last weeks of the race” – expecting to lose, not win.
Wolff: The campaign’s “unexpected adventure would soon be over. Not only would Trump not be president, almost everyone in the campaign agreed, he should probably not be,” adding:
“As the campaign came to an end, Trump himself was sanguine. His ultimate goal, after all, had never been to win. ‘I can be the most famous man in the world,’ he had told” an aide by running and being in the spotlight for months.
Wolff described Trump’s first few months in office as a “slapdash (campaign) transition to the disarray in the West Wing…chaos and dysfunction” to follow throughout “his first year in office.”
The rest of the except continues lots of juicy inside baseball stuff if it’s accurate. Perhaps we’ll never know for sure unless individuals quoted corroborate what Wolff wrote.
The book became Amazon’s top non-fiction bestseller before publication. It’s due out next week.
Bannon was over-the-top reportedly calling Donald Trump Jr’s June 2016 meeting with private citizen Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, unconnected to the Kremlin, “treasonous,” adding:
“Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic…and I happen to think it’s all of that,” the FBI should have been informed “immediately.”
On leaving the White House last August, Trump praised him for his work, adding he “may be even better than ever before” in his private sector endeavors.
According to the Hill, Trump’s lawyers sent “a cease-and-desist letter to…Bannon Wednesday ordering him to refrain from making ‘disparaging statement(s)” about Trump and his family.”
Trump attorney Charles Harder reportedly accused him of breaching a non-disclosure agreement, saying:
“You have breached the Agreement by, among other things, communicating with author Michael Wolff about Mr. Trump, his family members, and (the Trump campaign), disclosing Confidential Information to Mr. Wolff, and making disparaging statements and in some cases outright defamatory statements to Mr. Wolff about Mr. Trump, his family members,” adding
“(R)emedies for your breach of the agreement include but are not limited to monetary damages.”
“On behalf of our clients, legal notice was issued today to Stephen K. Bannon, that his actions of communicating with author Michael Wolff regarding an upcoming book give rise to numerous legal claims including defamation by libel and slander, and breach of his written confidentiality and non-disparagement agreement with our clients. Legal action is imminent.”
After leaving the White House, Bannon returned to Breitbart News as chairman. He also hosts a daily Breitbart News radio program.
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