Trump’s irascible chief strategist Steve Bannon and his son-in-law, the real estate heir Jared Kushner, have emerged as rivals in the young administration

The sun shone on Donald Trump’s debut in the rose garden. As reporters filed in for the time honoured White House tradition, the president’s aide Omarosa Manigault stood in the Palm Room, speaking urgently into her phone. Vice-president Mike Pence and secretary of state Rex Tillerson shared a joke on the front row. And the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, exuded confidence, nodding and smiling at a fellow guest as he took his place.

But as Trump held a joint press conference with King Abdullah of Jordan, denouncing a chemical weapons attack on children in Syria that would lead to a US missile strike a day later, there was a glaring absence. Chief strategist Steve Bannon, mocked by Trump’s critics as “President Bannon” on Twitter, had lost his place in the sun.

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A bitter turf war is said to under way in the White House between Kushner and Bannon, former head of the rightwing Breitbart News. In the past week there were indications that the latter, who once declared himself “Thomas Cromwell in the court of the Tudors”, could be heading for a fall like Cromwell’s, albeit without the gore that accompanied the English minister’s violent end.

While Kushner paid a surprise visit to Iraq, beating Tillerson to the photo opps aboard a military helicopter, Bannon was unceremoniously demoted from the national security council (NSC). When officials released a picture on Friday of a national security briefing on Syria, Kushner had a seat at the table while Bannon was behind Trump, his back to the wall.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kushner sits at the table, to the president’s left from the camera’s perspective. Bannon sits at his right. Photograph: Shealah Craighead/Photoshot/Avalon/Avalon

The lack of personal chemistry between two of the president’s closest “whisperers” – both are seldom heard in public – is of little surprise. One is the clean-cut, preppy and pale 36-year-old scion of a New York property empire. The other, at 63, has a rougher appearance and grew up in a working class, Irish Catholic family in Virginia. Each represents an ideological faction vying for Trump’s attention.



In the Kushner camp are two Goldman Sachs veterans: Gary Cohn, the national economics adviser and a registered Democrat, and Dina Powell, an Egyptian-born deputy national security adviser who served under George W Bush. Then there is Kushner’s wife and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, who now has her own office in the West Wing.

Bannon, by contrast, is seen as a guerrilla fighter for the economic nationalist, pro-worker agenda that helped carry Trump to election victory. His principal allies are Jeff Sessions, the attorney general with hardline views on immigration, and Stephen Miller, 31, the senior adviser for policy and the architect of a stymied travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries.

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Bannon’s animosity runs deep with Kushner, previously a Democratic donor who mingled with the wealthy east coast elites Bannon long derided in association with Hillary Clinton.

One associate of Trump, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Kushner and chief of staff Reince Priebus had filled the White House with “establishment Republican types” and “liberal Democrats” who could overwhelm Bannon’s few defenders.

“There is a power struggle,” the Trump associate said. “I think Bannon is suffering very badly from the fact that he has done nothing to bring other Trump allies into the White House.”

“Steve has no significant ally and he now finds himself all alone,” the associate added, with a question about whether Kushner understands either the coalition that elected the president or Republicans in general. “I’m sure Steve Bannon’s politics are vaguely embarrassing to Jared and Ivanka when they go to these tony parties on the upper west side.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump with advisers at his sides, including Reince Priebus, Kellyanne Conway, Hope Hicks, Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon. Photograph: UPI / Barcroft Images

Thursday night’s missile strike on a military airfield in Syria could be seen as another blow to Trump’s populist credentials, the associate added. “He was elected as a non-interventionist. It’s Jared teaming up with the generals: ‘You’ve got to look tough, Mr President.’ If it expands to a full ground war then, Jesus, we just elected George W Bush for another term.”

But despite the tone of Trump’s insurgent campaign, the more centrist-minded figures currently seem to hold the whip hand in the administration, apparently thanks to a combination of family ties and tactical errors.

Those fumbles included the travel ban, twice halted by the courts, and the collapse of healthcare reform in Congress. Trump’s associate said the former was “clumsy and not well thought through” and that, on healthcare, “walking the plank on that has hurt Bannon for not saying, ‘Wait a minute, we don’t need to do this.’”

Another possible cause of Trump’s sudden coldness is the attention Bannon has received in recent weeks, with magazine profiles pronouncing him more powerful than Trump and the comedy show Saturday Night Live depicting him as a Grim Reaper, commanding the Oval Office’s historic “Resolute desk” while the president plays with a toy.

The other story ​​is the White House civil war: conservatives against the ‘alt-right’ and Bannon was the loser Dan Cassino, political scientist

Leaks from the White House have given newspapers material worthy of a Hollywood gossip column. The Daily Beast quoted an administration official as saying Bannon has complained about Kushner trying to “shiv him and push him out the door”. Bannon also reportedly called Kushner a “globalist” and “cuck”, a rightwing insult short for “cuckold”.

In a front page story, the New York Times described a conversation between Bannon and Kushner as “thick with tension” with the former eventually saying: “Here’s the reason there’s no middle ground. You’re a Democrat.”

But there are other factors at work, too. Trump thrives on infighting between factions, just as he did in his businesses. Bannon’s removal from the NSC also appeared to mark a victory for national security adviser HR McMaster who reportedly objected to a political adviser taking part in security discussions.

Dan Cassino, a political scientist at Fairleigh Dickinson University, said: “Bannon’s crusade against the ‘deep state’ – the idea you can go in and disrupt everything – doesn’t work. The national security state is strong and deeply entrenched. The idea he could go in and change it in his own image doesn’t go anywhere.

“The other story is the White House civil war: the conservatives against the ‘alt-right’ and Bannon was the loser here. He bit off more than he could chew.”

Bannon has denied reports that he threatened to quit over the lost NSC chair, and that he was persuaded to stay by his long-time financial patron, Rebekah Mercer, a conservative donor. The reclusive Mercer family is a major investor of Breitbart, and gave Bannon much of his own personal fortune while also running Cambridge Analytica, a data-analytics firm.

Hogan Gidley, who served as spokesman for the Make America Number One Pac which became Mercer’s pro-Trump vehicle during the election, said Mercer’s daughter “was very important in the election victory” and “overlap[s] significantly” with Bannon’s beliefs.

“Rebekah has deep pockets but she also has a deep understanding of politics,” he said. “She has sound logic and sound reasoning and knows how to drive a coherent message effectively.”

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Another, more unlikely ally for Bannon is Priebus, a former rival with whom he has formed an unlikely coalition. But this, too, could be living on borrowed time. Katie Walsh, one of his deputies, departed the White House abruptly last month, and Trump is reportedly fond of asking visitors to judge Priebus’ performance.

Kushner, by contrast, has an ever-expanding portfolio that includes overseeing relations with Mexico, Canada and China, ending the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and running the White House Office of American Innovation, which aims for nothing less than a reinvention of the entire federal government.

Rick Tyler, a political analyst and former spokesperson for Ted Cruz, said Kushner’s lack of experience concerned him.

“It’s deeply troubling given all the existing talent in foreign affairs and diplomacy and government functions,” Tyler said. “I’m sure Jared is a very talented young man but he comes in with zero experience in these areas.”

He added: “The portfolio’s scope is as big as the presidency itself. We didn’t elect Jared Kushner and we didn’t confirm him. He’s the president’s son-in-law and doesn’t have the required experience.”

Indeed, political fortunes can be fickle, perhaps even for the president’s son-in-law. As Bannon discovered, eclipsing a president who voraciously consumes the press himself carries many risks.