From the moment Steve Bannon compared himself to Thomas Cromwell in the court of the Tudors and Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga, his demise was perhaps historically preordained. Cromwell fell out of favour with Henry VIII and was beheaded for treason, while Vader was fatally wounded while saving Luke Skywalker from the Emperor’s lightning bolts.
News that the White House’s chief strategist and chief ideologue is the latest to get the chop in what has become a West Wing bloodbath will be cheered by those in America and around the world who saw him as the personification of Donald Trump’s dark and dangerous populism. That came boiling to the surface during last Saturday’s deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia and when Trump failed to condemn the neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members who had come to that city to protest the removal of a Confederate monument.
Bannon’s departure also means that of three rival power centres that Trump established shortly after his shock election last November, only one remains. For now, his daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and the “New York faction” appear to have the upper hand. But they must still contend with Trump’s gut instincts.
After seven months of service, Bannon leaves an indelible stain on the White House. He stands accused of emboldening antisemites, racists and xenophobes. He waged war on the so-called liberal elites, including members of the media, which he branded as belonging to the opposition party. The Guardian understands that he once remarked: “Read the Guardian if you want to know what they are thinking.”
His appointment as chief strategist prompted outcry and set up instant competition with then-chief of staff Reince Priebus, the face of the Republican party establishment, which was stunned by Trump’s election. All-out conflict was predicted, but the two of them (neither with policy experience) reportedly formed an alliance of mutual convenience, which was conspicuously on show during a joint appearance at a conservative conference in February. Last month, however, Priebus, seen as weak and ineffective, was axed.
But there was another power base to deal with: Ivanka Trump and Kushner, who both have formal White House roles. They are among numerous people from the metro New York area who joined Trump in colonising Washington, including Michael Anton, Kellyanne Conway, Gary Cohn, Jason Greenblatt, Hope Hicks, Josh Raffel, Steven Mnuchin, Dan Scavino Jr, Keith Schiller, Dina Powell and Wilbur Ross.
The New Yorkers may have overreached with communications director Anthony Scaramucci, a brash Long Islander known as “the Mooch”: the former Goldman Sachs employee lasted just 10 days in the White House after lambasting Priebus and Bannon as leakers in an expletive-laced interview.
Broadly speaking, the New Yorkers form a “globalist-Goldman Sachs” wing that favours international trade deals, in stark opposition to the “populist-nationalist” wing featuring Bannon, Stephen Miller and Sebastian Gorka that champions “America first”. Bannon’s fierce opposition to the globalist wing comes despite the fact he himself used to work for Goldman Sachs.
By April, it was clear that Kushner and Bannon were at loggerheads. There was little personal chemistry or shared ideology between them. The Daily Beast quoted an administration official as saying that Bannon has complained about Kushner trying to “shiv him and push him out the door”. Bannon also reportedly called Kushner a “globalist”, a Democrat and a “cuck” (a rightwing insult meaning an emasculated sellout).
Bannon, who comes from working-class Catholic origins in Norfolk, Virginia, is assumed to regard Kushner as belonging to the same wealthy coastal elites as Hillary Clinton, lost his place on the national security council. But Bannon got revenge by persuading Trump to yank the US out of the Paris climate agreement, despite opposition from the president’s daughter and son-in-law.
According to media reports, Ivanka Trump and Kushner were recently joined by Trump’s ally and informal adviser Rupert Murdoch in calling for Bannon’s head. The shakeup under the new no-nonsense chief of staff John Kelly may also have been decisive. The chief strategist is understood to have handed in his resignation two weeks ago – before the mayhem in Charlottesville and Trump’s disastrous response.
When word of his downfall came on Friday, cheers erupted on the floor of the New York stock exchange. It was a clear win for the globalists - but for how long?
Bannon, 63, could return to the role he relishes as a guerrilla fighter for economic nationalism. He may rejoin Breitbart News, the website he once ran that’s notorious for the sort of rightwing dog-whistles and anti-globalist messages that have surfaced in Trump speeches and commercials. He once proudly described the site as “the platform for the alt-right” and could bring pressure to bear on Trump’s base.
His departure also raises intriguing questions over the future role of his long-time financial patron, Rebekah Mercer. The Mercer family is a significant investor in Breitbart and delivered Bannon much of his financial fortune when he was vice president of Cambridge Analytica, a data-analytics firm.
Thus the end of Bannon does not mean the end of Bannonism: he was ultimately an effect, rather than a cause, of the president’s racial grievances and warped nostalgia for an era sometime around the 1950s. These attitudes, manifested in the president’s “American carnage” inaugural address, long predate Bannon’s appointment.
Rashad Robinson, executive director of Color Of Change, said: “Bannon is only the beginning. If we want white supremacy out of the White House, the administration’s #1 racist – Donald Trump – needs to go, too.”
Michael Tyler, national press secretary of the Democratic National Committee, said on Friday: “There is one less white supremacist in the White House, but that doesn’t change the man sitting behind the Resolute desk.”
Triumphant for now, Ivanka Trump, Kushner and the other New Yorkers may struggle to curb the true Trump. This was vividly demonstrated on Tuesday when, in the gilded lobby of Trump Tower, the president went wildly off script and verbally brawled with reporters, shouting that “both sides” were to blame for the carnage in Charlottesville. Cohn and Mnuchin stood by helplessly. Ivanka Trump and Kushner remained silent. Trump must always have the last word.
