Steve Bannon is portrayed as the Grim Reaper on Saturday Night Live. There is a “President Steve Bannon” meme out there from coverage of the controversial advisor. In reality, his influence seems to be headed nowhere but down. First, he totally blew President Donald Trump’s health care initiative. Then, his influence waned further when he openly seemed to fight with son-in-law Jared Kushner and urged the president to not take action in Syria. Now, Trump has even backpedaled on this demands that Congress fund the wall between the United States and Mexico, against the wishes of Steve Bannon.
The border wall with Mexico was a big part of the Trump campaign. All of his rallies included a session of chanting with the audience of “Build the Wall!” For his part, Trump never acknowledged that Mexico is never going to pay for this expensive wall. It is also part of Bannon’s dreams for the United States. His worldview, which was front and center during the president’s Inaugural Address, needs this wall.
Bannon is so enamored by the wall that he was pushing for a government shutdown to get Congress to include funding for it. Clearly, he learned nothing from the healthcare debacle where he told Trump to try to strong arm Congress into passing their bill because Trump wanted them to. Bannon’s lack of experience dealing with our legislative branch is clear. As a co-equal branch of government, its members are never going to do something just because the White House tells them to. If you are thinking Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) pushed through Neil Goresuch’s nomination because of this kind of work, you miss the win it gave McConnell.
This week, Bannon told his supporters, “This is a stand worth taking. We’re drawing a line in the sand.”
It looks more and more like Bannon is going to be alone drawing that line as if you didn’t think his days in the West Wing were numbered before, it is more than clear that they are now.
Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images.
