Demotion of Bannon brings White House crisis into the open
By
Patrick Martin
7 April 2017
President Donald Trump removed his chief political adviser, Stephen K. Bannon, from the “principals committee” of the National Security Council, the top foreign policy decision-making body within the White House. The action was not formally announced, but made public through a presidential memorandum made available to news organizations late Wednesday.
The memorandum restructures the principals committee, which brings together key White House and cabinet officials either to make decisions or recommend options to the president. Besides removing Bannon, it restores several top military-intelligence officials who had been removed only two months ago, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA director.
The demotion of Bannon, the most openly fascistic of Trump’s inner circle, brings into the open a ferocious conflict within the new right-wing administration, involving both foreign and domestic policy.
In national security affairs, Bannon has been displaced by National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, an active duty Army lieutenant-general named by Trump in February to replace retired General Michael Flynn. Top military officers control all the top national security positions in the Trump administration: McMaster at NSC, retired Marine General James (“Mad Dog”) Mattis at the Pentagon and another retired Marine general, John F. Kelly, at the Department of Homeland Security.
McMaster has gradually consolidated control over the National Security Council, removing many Flynn appointees. Prior to the ouster of Bannon, deputy national security adviser K. T. McFarland, a former Fox News personality and Republican candidate for…