Steve Bannon: White House grownup?

Steve Bannon is often portrayed as the shadowy puppet-master in Trump’s White House, guided by far-right ideologies and obscure philosophical texts. The former editor at Breitbart is also credited with bringing the online anti-PC troll culture known as the alt-right into Trump’s orbit and many of his political allies are loosely affiliated with this group.

But despite his affiliation with fringe ideas, Bannon may be one of the people who can restore order to this chaotic White House. That’s according to Joshua Green who has been following Bannon for years now and wrote about his trajectory to the Trump administration in his new book, Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency. 

Green joined Marty Moss-Coane on Radio Times Tuesday, and said “a lot of people tend to focus on the darker or crazier ideas that Bannon is pushing but it’s worth remembering that he is in a White House full of amateurs, and that includes the President.” Green pointed to the firing of F.B.I. director James Comey. Bannon had been actively against this idea, but others in Trump’s orbit convinced the President it was a good idea.

The fallout from this firing ended up backfiring on the Trump administration, leading to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Listen to the full conversation on Radio Times.