Jacob Heilbrunn

Donald Trump’s evisceration of Steve Bannon is complete

How the mighty have fallen! Only a year ago, Steve Bannon was being feted as the power behind the Trump throne, the stubble-faced grey eminence who would start a trade, if not an actual, war with China and create a new Republican Party that was based on populist rather than corporate interests. Now all that is gone.

After a very public defenestration by Trump, which has resulted in him being ousted from Breitbart, Bannon stands almost bereft on the right. Even his former protege and ally, Steve Miller, stuck the shiv into Bannon, declaring on CNN that he is an ‘angry, vindictive’ person whose ‘grotesque comments are so out of touch with reality’. Bannon has no publication, no financial benefactors, and no influence. Or does he?

For now the Republican establishment is breathing a big sigh of relief. Trump signed a corporate tax bill that rewards corporations first and foremost.

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