Donald Trump boots Steve Bannon off National Security Council
DONALD Trump’s top adviser, Steve Bannon, reportedly threatened to quit the White House after copping an embarrassing demotion.
DONALD Trump’s top adviser, Steve Bannon, reportedly threatened to quit the White House after copping an embarrassing demotion.
The former chairman of Breitbart news, who has featured prominently in the US President’s first two months of office, was removed in what some see as a change in his fortunes.
Mr Bannon was reportedly so unhappy with the move that he threatened to resign, a White House Source told the New York Times.
However Mr Bannon’s team denied there had been any such resignation threat and insisted the shift was a “natural evolution”.
Mr Bannon’s allies also told The Times he was placed on the principals committee to keep an eye on Mr Trump’s first national security adviser Michael Flynn.
However since he’s stepped down, there’s no need for Mr Bannon to remain.
Mr Trump reorganised the council, removing Mr Bannon and downgrading the role of his Homeland Security Adviser, Tom Bossert, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was given responsibility for setting the agenda for meetings of the NSC or the Homeland Security Council, and was authorised to delegate that authority to Mr Bossert, at his discretion, according to White House documents.
Under the move, the national intelligence director, Dan Coats, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, are again “regular attendees” of the NSC’s principals committee.
Mr Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News and Mr Trump’s all-right guru, was elevated to the National Security Council’s principals committee at the beginning of Mr Trump’s presidency.
The move drew criticism from some members of Congress and Washington’s foreign policy establishment.
The decision comes as new polling shows that Mr Bannon is even less popular than Mr Trump, who is viewed unfavourably by more Americans than any other president at this point in his term.
The Quinnipiac poll showed that just 11 per cent of those surveyed having a favourable opinion and 45 per cent having an unfavourable one — a 4-to-1 negative.
Mr Bannon is a self-styled nationalist who was the one of the brains behind Mr Trump’s “America First” policy.
But his pugnacious style irritated many in Congress as well as his own colleagues in the administration.
#PresidentDonaldTrump's job approval pic.twitter.com/InMjedYwyA
— Quinnipiac Poll (@QuinnipiacPoll) April 4, 2017
This story originally appeared in The New York Post and has been republished here with permission.
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