Bannon vs Kushner

[Starlight]

Steve Bannon, current White House Chief Strategist, and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law seem to have the knives out for each other both personally and over policy. Who's gonna win?

Bannon represents the alt-right / nationalist / white supremacist / Breitbart wing of the Trump administration.

Kushner represents The Swamp / good old cronyism / corruption / nepotism that D.C. favors.

Currently Kushner seems to be winning. He's just gotten Bannon fired from his job on the National Security Council. And Kushner has been given the following jobs by Trump:

- Middle East Peace
- Fix the Opiod Epidemic
- Reorganize the US government departments to involve the private sector and update their technology
- Criminal Justice Reform
- Liason to China (or, as Trump pronounces it, Ghyna)
- Liason to Mexico
- Liason to the Muslim community

That list is so long and has so many mega-items that it has some people muttering that Kushner seems to be some sort of super-Secretary-of-State who hasn't had to go through standard Senate confirmation processes, and others muttering that Kushner seems to be the real president and Trump just does whatever his favorite son-in-law tells him.

Kushner's looking suave here in Iraq, and ready for a gentleman's game of polo in no-man's land:



Bannon, however, is hitting back, not merely throwing the alt-right's favorite insult at Kushner (that TWeb doesn't permit repeating), but also leaking a long series of stories smearing Kushner, the latest of which is that Kushner hid dozens of meetings with Russians from his application for top secret security clearance (to which Kushner's lawyer has responded that he simply 'forgot').

So things aren't currently looking good for Steve Bannon, pictured here with his usual death-warmed-up look:



The current gossip being reported is that Bannon and his partner-in-crime Reince Prebius (former GOP chairman) are about to permanently lose the internal power-struggle and be kicked out on their ear.

It will be interesting to see this administration continue to implode.



While we wait for the fireworks, does anyone have any bets or comments? Is Kushner going to crush Bannon utterly? Will Bannon have enough dirt on Trump and the rest of the administration to blackmail his way into being allowed to stay on? Will Bannon run to the FBI with a full list of who talked to which Russians if he's kicked out? Will the alt-right and Breitbart fans continue to support Trump if he rejects Bannon?

[Tassman]

Steve Bannon, current White House Chief Strategist, and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law seem to have the knives out for each other both personally and over policy. Who's gonna win?

Bannon represents the alt-right / nationalist / white supremacist / Breitbart wing of the Trump administration.

Kushner represents The Swamp / good old cronyism / corruption / nepotism that D.C. favors.

Currently Kushner seems to be winning. He's just gotten Bannon fired from his job on the National Security Council. And Kushner has been given the following jobs by Trump:

- Middle East Peace
- Fix the Opiod Epidemic
- Reorganize the US government departments to involve the private sector and update their technology
- Criminal Justice Reform
- Liason to China (or, as Trump pronounces it, Ghyna)
- Liason to Mexico
- Liason to the Muslim community

That list is so long and has so many mega-items that it has some people muttering that Kushner seems to be some sort of super-Secretary-of-State who hasn't had to go through standard Senate confirmation processes, and others muttering that Kushner seems to be the real president and Trump just does whatever his favorite son-in-law tells him.

Kushner's looking suave here in Iraq, and ready for a gentleman's game of polo in no-man's land:



Bannon, however, is hitting back, not merely throwing the alt-right's favorite insult at Kushner (that TWeb doesn't permit repeating), but also leaking a long series stories smearing Kushner, the latest of which is that Kushner hid dozens of meetings with Russians from his application for top secret security clearance (to which Kushner's lawyer has responded that he simply 'forgot').

So things aren't currently looking good for Steve Bannon, pictured here with his usual death-warmed-up look:



The current gossip being reported is that Bannon and his partner-in-crime Reince Prebius (former GOP chairman) are about to permanently lose the internal power-struggle and be kicked out on their ear.

It will be interesting to see this administration continue to implode.



While we wait for the fireworks, does anyone have any bets or comments? Is Kushner going to crush Bannon utterly? Will Bannon have enough dirt on Trump and the rest of the administration to blackmail his way into being allowed to stay on? Will Bannon run to the FBI with a full list of who talked to which Russians if he's kicked out? Will the alt-right and Breitbart fans continue to support Trump if he rejects Bannon?

Tune in for the next exciting episode.

Both are sleazebags but Kushner appears to be a better class of person; well he looks as if he bathes regularly.

[Starlight]

The Bannites are laying the blame for the Syria strikes on Kushner, and trying to get #FireKushner #KeepBannon trending on Twitter. Given that the Syria strikes seem to be very unpopular with most Trump supporters, tying them to Kushner (who, was, presumably responsible for them given his "middle east peace" job description) seems like a good strategy. Although the corporate media has a tight relationship with the military-industrial complex and loves to beat the drums of war and so has been having fits of ecstasy over the Syria strikes, and Trump watches hours of TV per day, so he might see Kushner as having done "very very good things. Big league." with the Syria strikes because the war-mongering talking heads on TV are telling him his Syria strikes are great.

[Meh Gerbil]

I was afraid that actual change might happen.
Thank heavens, I have to worry about that less and less each day.

*buys stock in several defense contractors*

[demi-conservative]

While we wait for the fireworks, does anyone have any bets or comments?

Your threads like this onw are always big hoot! Keep up good work!!!

[Sparko]

Starlight and Tassman:

[Darth Executor]

Kushner represents The Swamp / good old cronyism / corruption / nepotism that D.C. favors.

Kushner is a typical liberal democrat, which is what he was before joining Trump's campaing.

[Starlight]

[Tassman]

The Bannites are laying the blame for the Syria strikes on Kushner, and trying to get #FireKushner #KeepBannon trending on Twitter. Given that the Syria strikes seem to be very unpopular with most Trump supporters, tying them to Kushner (who, was, presumably responsible for them given his "middle east peace" job description) seems like a good strategy. Although the corporate media has a tight relationship with the military-industrial complex and loves to beat the drums of war and so has been having fits of ecstasy over the Syria strikes, and Trump watches hours of TV per day, so he might see Kushner as having done "very very good things. Big league." with the Syria strikes because the war-mongering talking heads on TV are telling him his Syria strikes are great.

[Starlight]

Starlight and Tassman:

I've always enjoyed political comedy. Yes Minister (a UK political comedy) was one of my favorite programs in my teenage years. Current US politics is outdoing anything any TV writers ever dreamed of. It's "unpresidented"! An entirely new era of political comedy will have to be written based on the Trump administration. Until then, I can watch the real thing unfold.

[JimL]

I think Trump had to take the risk of alienating his base in order to make himself look as though he is not in Putin's pocket. Thats his biggest problem right now, the investigation, an this attack on Syria makes it look as though he is independent of Putin. He probably figures he can always win his base back later, after all he barely did any damage in Syria.

[Tassman]

I think Trump had to take the risk of alienating his base in order to make himself look as though he is not in Putin's pocket. Thats his biggest problem right now, the investigation, an this attack on Syria makes it look as though he is independent of Putin. He probably figures he can always win his base back later, after all he barely did any damage in Syria.

It all makes sense. It's even possible that Trump and Putin were in cahoots and responsible for the Sarin attacks in the first place as a part of your scenario. Syria was not supposed to have any reserves of chemical weapons, so where did it come from?

[JimL]

I've always enjoyed political comedy. Yes Minister (a UK political comedy) was one of my favorite programs in my teenage years. Current US politics is outdoing anything any TV writers ever dreamed of. It's "unpresidented"! An entirely new era of political comedy will have to be written based on the Trump administration. Until then, I can watch the real thing unfold.

The sad part though is that nearly half of the voting public is directly resposible for creating this political comedy. Its a bit embarrassing to be a citizen of the United States these days.

[JimL]

It all makes sense. It's even possible that Trump and Putin were in cahoots and responsible for the Sarin attacks in the first place as a part of your scenario. Syria was not supposed to have any reserves of chemical weapons, so where did it come from?

Right, I made that point in another thread. Thats exactly what I believe happened. The Sarin probably came from Russia itself for this sole purpose, to kill a hundred or so innocent Syrian civilians in order to give Trump the opportunity to look good, to look as though he is not tied to Putin. Putin probably instructed Trump to attack Syria. There is method to his madness!

[Starlight]

Syria was not supposed to have any reserves of chemical weapons, so where did it come from?

The obvious candidates seem to be (a) the Syrian rebels who it seems like have always had a bit of it, (b) Turkey, whose dictator is quite supportive of some of the rebel groups and could easily have supplied them with it, (c) Russia, who might have supplied some to engineer this scenario where Trump can do a symbolic strike against Russian interests that does zero actual damage to people or equipment.