THE statement was short and bland: “White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day. We are grateful for his service and wish him the best.” As with most such statements, this one concealed more than it revealed. According to President Donald Trump, there was nothing mutual about the separation: he had decided to remove his nationalist chief strategist. Mr Bannon’s camp insisted that in fact their man had resigned 11 days ago and that the events of Charlottesville had delayed the announcement. Signs that the relationship between the two men was not as harmonious as it used to be had emerged on Tuesday, when the strongest defence of Mr Bannon that Mr Trump could muster was to call him a “friend”, and “not a racist”, but warned that “we’ll see what happens with Mr Bannon.”
Of all the senior aides who have left Mr Trump’s White House over the past few weeks, this was the most surprising. Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus were creatures of the Republican...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2uQ7BcS
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