Ignore the Hype: Bannon Was Already Working From the OutsideWeekly Standard, Aug 18, 2017, Michael Warren
The departure of Steve Bannon from the White House won’t have a big impact on the day-to-day operations of the West Wing. An economic nationalist who served as Donald Trump’s political id (as well as his chief strategist), Bannon was effectively sidelined back in April, after he was removed from the National Security Council and was accused of insulting Donald Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Bannon’s planned in-house think tank, the Strategic Initiatives Group, never quite got off the ground. His policy portfolio was slim, down to two areas: trade and foreign policy—specifically the war in Afghanistan. Much of the time, Bannon could be found on a couch in the office of his unlikely White House ally, Reince Priebus, scrolling through his phone.
What was Bannon doing on his phone? Reading the news. As a former (and future) media figure himself, Bannon is a voracious news consumer. He would often call up journalists, out of the blue, to offer praise for articles he liked or found useful. That was what Bannon did earlier this week, when he telephoned the liberal journalist Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect to laud Kuttner’s latest piece on how the rising nuclear tensions between the United States and North Korea were benefitting China. Kuttner published an article based on their conversation, in which Bannon criticized his colleagues and undercut President Trump’s public positioning on North Korea.
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But Bannon also worked to weaponize the media to his advantage. Jonathan Swan of Axios, for instance, reported last month that Bannon was pushing for raising the marginal tax rate on top earners to above 40 percent. But an administration official told me at the time that Bannon’s tax hike idea had been heard and discarded months ago ....
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