On Saturday, Donald Trump signed an executive order naming Steve Bannon, his chief strategist, as head of the National Security Council. The move coincided with a weekend full of unrest over Trump’s prior executive order barring travel and immigration from several majority Muslim countries, as well as preventing United States green card holders from entering the U.S. causing a spree of detainments at airports around the country.
Steve Bannon, a far right ideologue with significant ties to the inflammatory white nationalist publication Breitbart, has been revealed as the architect for much of Trump’s early policy proposals, including the controversial travel ban.
Just Security talked to several intelligence officials inside the Trump White House as well as from previous presidencies and discovered a growing sense of discomfort with a very unprecedented administration.
Some key takeaways:
- Bannon was apparently making crucial decisions with little to no input from the National Security Council staff even before his formal appointment.
- After the controversial immigration orders were written, the Trump team was highly selective in how they routed them through the internal White House review process.
- During the first week of the Trump administration, there were no SOCs, or “summary of conclusions,” about meetings inside the security council. There were in fact no records of any of the topics discussed in meetings.
- Many are unsure of what Gen. Michael Flynn’s role is now that Bannon has been made head of NSC. “He has a voice at the table, but he’s overshadowed by Bannon.”
- Tom Bossert, a former Bush aide whom Trump picked to serve as the White House’s homeland security advisor, is not “one of Bannon’s,” and thus kept out of the loop on a number of decisions, according to the official.
- There is currently no organizational chart for the NSC, meaning there is no internal guide about who reports to whom, the official said.
Want more reasons to worry? Read this just-published New York Times Editorial Board op-ed on "President Bannon."
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that the Just Security piece sourced one current White House official and to correctly attribute news sources. This story has also been updated to clarify that Donald Trump’s executive order affected travel as well as immigration.
