[Infowarrior] - changes to the NSC

[Richard Forno]

Bannon ousted from National Security Council

The Trump administration initially faced a bipartisan wave of complaints over a political official serving in a national security role.

By Shane Goldmacher, Josh Dawsey, Tara Palmeri and Bryan Bender

04/05/17 11:54 AM EDT

Updated 04/05/17 12:26 PM EDT

White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has been removed from an important seat on the National Security Council — a posting that had stirred controversy for placing one of President Donald Trump’s top political hands in a key national security position.

The change represents the first real diminution of authority for Bannon, who has been cast as an all-powerful whisperer to Trump in the administration’s first 75 days, mocked by his critics as “President Bannon.”

In recent weeks, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, has asked searching questions — sometimes for hours — of inside and outside advisers about the White House's performance and complained about Bannon in particular, according to people who have spoken with Kushner. Kushner, a onetime New York Democrat, and Bannon, a hard-right nationalist, have clashed as Kushner has told people that Bannon’s desire to deconstruct the government is hurting the president.

One person familiar with Kushner's thinking says Kushner believes Bannon is more of a problem than Reince Priebus, the chief of staff.

“Big fight is between nationalists and the ‘West Wing Democrats,'” one senior administration official said.

The White House tried to downplay the significance of Bannon’s removal from the NSC — it went unannounced by the press office — depicting him as simply moving on after successfully completing limited tasks.

“It’s not like this is a major shake-up,” said another administration official.

But Bannon’s exit, revealed in a federal register filing and confirmed by multiple White House officials, is perceived to represent a significant long-term increase in authority for H.R. McMaster, Trump’s new national security adviser, who now has greater authority over the council’s agenda without one of Trump’s closest aides watching closely over him.

“McMaster won,” one NSC official said.

One White House official said Bannon was placed on the NSC to “babysit" Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who resigned in mid-February after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

This official said Bannon’s role was also to ensure that the NSC was “de-operationalized” following the Obama administration. “That job is done,” the official said.

“It’s not like he’s been in principal committee meetings constantly saying [to McMaster], ‘You can’t do this, you can't do that,’” another of the officials said. “That hasn’t happened.”

Bannon had not been a regular attendee of NSC principals meetings. One person said he attended one meeting; another said he hadn’t attended any.

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https://secure.politico.com/story/2017/04/bannon-ousted-from-national-security-council-236908