02-09-2017, 05:54 PM
(02-09-2017, 05:18 PM)SomeGuy Wrote: Iago? Othello? I question the aptness of the comparison. In what way would Bannon and Trump be filling those roles, even under the scenario you propose? Is Bannon plotting to destroy Trump?
I'm not sure where I saw it, probably while I was grazing headlines. Some fringe source openly speculated that Bannon is deliberately giving Trump bad advice so as to engineer a coup d'état. Crazy stuff, to be sure, and to which I assign no credence whatsoever.
Trump is overmatched (intellectually) by Bannon, though that doesn't necessarily translate into a president easily manipulated by his chief political advisor. I would say, however, that if Bannon keeps "laying eggs," like the ill-conceived travel ban, you would have to wonder, at least, if he truly has the best interest of the president in mind. Too, Bannon seems to operate in the shadows, so to speak, making no public statements or interviews that I'm aware of since Trump took office. Is that unusual?
This headline appeared recently, too: "White House Denies Report That Bannon Had to Be Reminded He Wasn’t President Amidst Travel-Ban Chaos"
Chief White House strategist Steve Bannon tried to order Department of Homeland Security secretary John Kelly to not issue a waiver exempting green-card holders from President Trump’s travel-ban executive order, according to a report — which the White House is denying — in the Washington Post. Per two Trump administration officials who spoke with the Post’s Josh Rogin, Kelly apparently rebuffed the attempt, telling Bannon that he only takes orders from the president. The president never weighed in, and Kelly went ahead and issued the waiver...
One wonders if, from this single incident alone, Trump really is the Decider...This executive order was a big issue, a fulfillment of his campaign promise to restrict immigration. How could he have been "out of the loop" on key provisions of the travel ban?