Stephen Bannon joins the White House with a reputation as hard-charging and foul-mouthed but fiercely loyal. | Getty Bannon, tormentor of establishment GOP, gains foothold in West Wing

When Donald Trump hired Steve Bannon — the bomb-throwing CEO of alt-right powerhouse Breitbart News — to help steer his campaign in August, GOP insiders were aghast.

They’ll have to get used to him being around for awhile longer.


Trump’s decision Sunday to elevate Bannon to chief strategist and senior counselor ensures that the firebrand’s long-time efforts to tear down the GOP establishment will have a home just steps from the Oval Office.

It's a complicating factor for Republicans overjoyed at Trump's selection of Reince Priebus — a more moderate, collaborative presence — to be his chief of staff. Bannon will have Trump's ear, and he and Priebus will likely form the yin and yang in Trump's decision-making orbit, especially when it comes to cooperating with House Speaker Paul Ryan next year.

Trump's announcement — specifically, his emphasis on Bannon and Priebus as equals — is already roiling some establishment Republicans who opposed Trump's candidacy.

"Just to be clear news media, the next president named a racist, anti-semite as the co-equal of the chief of staff," tweeted John Weaver, a top strategist for Ohio Gov. John Kasich's failed presidential bid, on Sunday.

Bannon joins the White House with a reputation as hard-charging and foul-mouthed but fiercely loyal. In the 1990s, he faced an accusation of domestic abuse from an ex-wife as well as charges of workplace discrimination and harassment.

But it's Bannon's joyful crusade against GOP establishment that has Washington Republicans on edge.

Bannon, a former naval officer and Goldman Sachs executive, has relished needling Republican stalwarts like John McCain (who he accuses of supporting "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants) and Romney (who he once suggested he'd never support because neither he nor any of his sons served in the military).

He spent years producing and promoting a documentary-style ode to the tea party and Sarah Palin — another tormentor of GOP insiders. (Asked in 2011 if he'd work on a Palin presidential bid, he said, "I'm not a political guy.”)

Bannon also fomented accusations that Barack Obama's administration had been infiltrated by supporters of sharia law.

And throughout 2016, Bannon repeatedly gave a Breitbart News Radio platform to Ryan's primary opponent, Paul Nehlen, to ridicule the speaker. (Ryan would eventually eviscerate Nehlen by nearly 70 points).

Above all else, Bannon built his career mocking the Republican political elite as out-of-touch.

"The Republican establishment has more distaste for you than the progressive left," he said in a 2012 speech to Alaska activists gathered at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "I realize that's a hard thing to embrace."

Trump himself has even found himself perplexed by Bannon, the man he'll now turn to as a top source of counsel and likely power center in his administration.

“You’re impossible to totally figure, Steve," Trump told Bannon during a Breitbart interview in May. "I must also say that to your listeners. Anyone who thinks [they know] where you totally come from, they’re making a big mistake.”