According to sources speaking with Axios’s Jonathan Swan, recently ousted White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is joining forces with billionaire Bob Mercer to form a “well-funded force on the outside.”
This Friday, The New York Times reported that Bannon was “removed” by Trump after weeks of growing tensions over conflicting loyalties. Reports citing inside sources said Trump had been growing increasingly angry with Bannon in recent months, especially after a recent widely shared interview where Bannon contradicted Trump’s rhetoric on North Korea and attacked other administration officials. Bannon was a big part in the Trump administration’s plans to overhaul free trade, crack down on legal immigration, and revamp regulation.
Swan says Bannon feels “liberated” by the ouster and has told his friends that he can use Breitbart as a “killing machine” if he wants to. Bannon was the former the executive chair of the notoriously right-wing publication, and it’s possible that he could return now that he’s out of the White House.
Swan writes:
A source familiar with Breitbart’s operations told me they would go “thermonuclear” against “globalists” that Bannon and his friends believe are ruining the Trump administration, and by extension, America.
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Watch for Breitbart’s Washington Editor Matt Boyle to be a central figure in this war — which has already begun — against White House officials like HR McMaster, Dina Powell, Gary Cohn, and Jared and Ivanka.
While it’s interesting to see where Bannon’s new adversarial role will lead, some caution against the notion that his departure will change anything in the White House.
Featured image via Fox News screen grab
