Wednesday on Laura Ingraham’s nationally syndicated radio show, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan warned that if White House chief strategist Steve Bannon were to depart the Trump administration, it would mean the end of economic nationalism, one of the elements of Trump’s 2016 campaign.

After Buchanan had expressed his concern over National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster foreign policy “ideas,” Ingraham asked Buchanan to react to a Wall Street Journal editorial that criticized Bannon for his reported policy differences with McMaster.

Buchanan warned that if Bannon were to depart the Trump administration, which the Journal editorial seemed to suggest should happen, it would have consequences.

“The economic nationalism – I think that would go pretty much out the window,” Buchanan said. “Trump is pretty committed to border control. I think he realizes that is indispensable to his political survival and reelection. But I would be concerned about the foreign policy interventionism, quite frankly, if Bannon were thrown out. But the fact – I haven’t read The Wall Street Journal today, I got up a little late. But I think it also a sign that Bannon must be influential if The Wall Street Journal is clawing the walls.”

Buchanan urged Trump to be loyal to Bannon, calling him a needed “voice.”

“Look, you got to be loyal to your people,” he added. “You need Bannon’s voice in there, quite frankly. He’s the custodian of the populist conservative traditionalist ideas, which are more than half of Trump’s coalition, and also they’re the critical element that got him elected.

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