White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is a marked man, according to news reports and sources inside the West Wing who see the nationalist Trump-whisperer’s political hourglass quickly losing sand.
CBS News reported Monday night that the axe could fall as soon as Friday on the man credited with arranging the president’s marriage to millions of angry white working-class voters last year.
The former Breitbart News executive chairman was once an equal partner in a ruling triumvirate of deputies that included Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner.
But Priebus’s star ran out of fuel last month. And his successor John Kelly is a no-nonsense retired Marine Corps general seen as a walking antidote to the chaos that marked Trump’s first half-year in office.
That prescription could oust a man known more for his Machiavellian streak than for playing well with others.
Also looking over his shoulder is Sebastian Gorka, a hard-charging former Brietbart writer who speaks for the White House on terrorism and national security matters despite having no role with the National Security Council.
The Hill reported Tuesday that the administration has been slow to defend Gorka, but that National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster has so far been unable to sideline him.
Bannon has been accused of leveraging his relationships in the conservative media to undermine McMaster and National Economic Council chair Gary Cohn.
And he has feuded endlessly with Kushner, whose family ties with the president gave him a natural and undeniable leg up in any squabble.
President Trump has shown no public indication about whether Bannon has worn out his welcome.
Bannon himself did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.