'With Bannon's ouster, radicals lose influence in US administration'

The current US administration has been the subject of much controversy in recent months due to a series of voluntary departures as well as forced dismissals including National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, and FBI Director James Comey. The latest victim of Donald Trump’s axing machine has been the architect of his election campaign, Steve Bannon. The chief strategist has become the latest high-profile figure to leave the White House only after seven months in office. With Bannon gone, Trump has lost his chief ideologue, a development that many believe can eventually trigger a battle for power within the White House. Following is a synopsis of Press TV’s interview with Rob Kall, the editor-in-chief of opednews.com, and Mike Harris, an editor of Veterans Today, about the latest White House shake-up. 

Rob Kall maintains that the presence of a radical figure like Bannon in Donald Trump’s administration was actually a guarantee for the extremist elements who sought influence in the White House, adding that Bannon's ouster destroyed that influence. 

“Bannon was one of the last original appointees that a lot of the haters, white supremacists, and neo-Nazis saw as having an influence on Trump. I think there are independents who also had a lot of hopes for Bannon that he would push Trump not to be obedient to what they call the deep state. They were hoping that he would guide Trump to stand up to the deep establishment and with him gone, that influence is gone,” Kall noted.

He further described Donald Trump as “the most incompetent president” in the history of the United States who is conducting the country by his inner drives which are originally based on “massive, malignant narcissism.”

A lot of people voted for Trump because they didn’t want his rival Hillary Clinton and were hoping that maybe he could actually do some good, the analyst continued, but to no avail.

“He could really do make a difference. Trump has the potential - because he is somewhat an independent - to do things that could really make a lot of people happy. He could literally get 60 or 70 percent approval rating if he stood up to the people around him who have been giving him such terrible advice,” Kall argued. 

However, Mike Harris, the other panelist on the show, described Steve Bannon as “the people’s voice” whose policies must be pursued even if he is no more in the administration.

“The goals that were articulated in the campaign both by Trump and by Bannon have not been achieved yet. So, this push has to be continued," Harris underlined.

"Sixty percent of Americans voted for Trump to be president. They want to see change. They want to see the swamp drained. So, there are a number of things that the American people want that Bannon was the voice and the architect of that they want to see these objectives accomplished."

Bannon’s expulsion is said to have resulted from an interview that infuriated the US president last week in which had claimed to have the power to fire officials at the State Department and contradicted Trump on North Korea.

The 63-year-old strategist was labeled as a white supremacist as he was formerly the executive chairman of the far-right news outlet Breibart, an online news website which many believe publishes racist and anti-Semitic articles.

Additionally, Trump was reportedly suspicious of Bannon as the man behind the many leaks that have driven the White House into chaos.

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