-- Trump removed Steve Bannon from his position on the National Security Council Wednesday as part of a major staff reshuffling, elevating key military and intelligence officials to greater roles on the council and greatly reducing Bannon’s influence in shaping day-to-day security policy. Robert Costa, Abby Phillip, and Karen DeYoung report: “The restructuring reflects the growing influence of national security adviser H.R. McMaster, an Army three-star general who took over the post after retired general Michael Flynn was ousted in February and who is increasingly asserting himself over the flow of national security information in the White House. McMaster has become a blunt force within the administration who has made clear to several top officials and the president that he does not want the NSC to have any political elements.
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| H.R. McMaster |
-- Bannon threatened to resign from his White House post amid continued West Wing infighting – namely with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – but he was convinced to stay on by Republican megadonor Rebekah Mercer, Politico’s Eliana Johnson, Kenneth P. Vogel and Josh Dawsey report: “Five people, including a senior administration official and several sources close to the president, tell POLITICO that Steve Bannon, one of Trump’s closest advisers, has clashed with the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who’s taken on an increasingly prominent portfolio in the West Wing. Bannon has complained that Kushner and his allies are trying to undermine his populist approach, the sources said. … [but] Mercer, a longtime Bannon confidante who became a prominent Trump supporter during the campaign, urged Bannon not to resign. [One] person familiar with the situation, a GOP operative who talks to Mercer, said: ‘Bekah tried to convince him that this is a long-term play.’ The tension between the two is indicative of a larger power struggle in the White House as Kushner’s prominence and responsibility have ballooned. Kushner has also told people that he thinks Mercer as well as her father … have taken too much credit for their role in his victory, and has expressed misgivings about their go-it-alone approach to outside spending boosting Trump’s agenda.” “If Bannon leaves the White House, Bekah’s access and influence shrinks dramatically,” said the GOP operative who talks to Mercer.
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| Conservative donor Rebekah Mercer |
Politico also reports that "Bannon's removal from the NSC is symbolic of a broader realignment in the West Wing that has Bannon increasingly marginalized and at odds both with the president and Kushner....The tension between the two is indicative of a larger power struggle in the White House as Kushner’s prominence and responsibility have ballooned. He has helped to expand the authority of two senior West Wing officials who, like him, are less ideological in nature: former Goldman Sachs executives Gary Cohn, who is now chairman of the National Economic Council, and Dina Powell, the deputy national security adviser for strategy.
-- “The removal of Bannon from the NSC comes in the wake of a series of other moves -- most notably the arrival of Trump's daughter, Ivanka, in the West Wing -- that suggest that the president is moving away (at least for the moment) from the more hard-line ideological bent of Bannon,” CNN’s Chris Cillizza writes. “It's hard not to see the Bannon move in the broader context of Trump's first 75 days in office, which have been, to put it mildly, chaotic … While Trump -- like all politicians -- is loathe to admit a change of direction is needed or that mistakes have been made, it's hard to look at his current position and conclude anything else. To be clear: Bannon will remain in the White House -- and in a senior role. But the diminution of his power -- and in such a public way -- is a clear sign that a shakeup in the Trump power structure is under way.”