I told the assistant that I was on vacation, but I would be happy to speak by phone. “The risk of two arrogant fools blundering into a nuclear exchange is more serious than at any time since October 1962.” Maybe Bannon wanted to scream at me? “In Kim, Trump has met his match,” I wrote. I'd just published a column on how China was profiting from the U.S.-North Korea nuclear brinkmanship, and it included some choice words about Bannon’s boss. Needless to say, I was a little stunned to get an email from Bannon's assistant midday Tuesday, just as all hell was breaking loose once again about Charlottesville, saying that Bannon wished to meet with me. “They're wetting themselves,” he said, proceeding to detail how he would oust some of his opponents at State and Defense. Trump's defense of Bannon, at his Tuesday press conference, was tepid.īut Bannon was in high spirits when he phoned me Tuesday afternoon to discuss the politics of taking a harder line with China, and minced no words describing his efforts to neutralize his rivals at the Departments of Defense, State, and Treasury. McMaster hold Bannon responsible for a campaign by Breitbart News, which Bannon once led, to vilify the security chief.
In the aftermath of events in Charlottesville, he is widely blamed for his boss's continuing indulgence of white supremacists. You might think from recent press accounts that Steve Bannon is on the ropes and therefore behaving prudently. Nonetheless, Bannon called him on Tuesday afternoon, and on Wednesday, we posted Kuttner's piece-a careful report of what Bannon said and an insightful analysis of why he said it. Robert Kuttner, the co-founder and co-editor of this magazine, never expected a phone call from Bannon the Prospect, after all, is a proudly liberal and defiantly anti-Trump journal. What follows is the article that likely pushed Steve Bannon, President Trump's chief strategist and architect of his white nationalist messaging, out the White House door.