Steve Bannon has been taking a lot of heat lately from all sides, and recent reports have been rolling out suggesting he’s on his last legs. Combine that with Trump’s tepid defense of Bannon at his Tuesday press conference, and one might think it’s curtains for Steve.
Au Contraire?
Bannon went to great lengths to speak with The American Prospect’s (very liberal) Robert Kuttner – covering a spectrum of topics ranging from China, to North Korea to White House infighting, to white nationalism and the events in Charlottesville last weekend.
On North Korea, Bannon said there is no military solution, ‘they got us.’
“There’s no military solution [to North Korea’s nuclear threats], forget it. Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”
Bannon’s dire warning on China
“We’re at economic war with China,” he added. “It’s in all their literature. They’re not shy about saying what they’re doing. One of us is going to be a hegemon in 25 or 30 years and it’s gonna be them if we go down this path. On Korea, they’re just tapping us along. It’s just a sideshow.”
Given that China is not likely to do much more on North Korea, and that the logic of mutually assured destruction was its own source of restraint, Bannon saw no reason not to proceed with tough trade sanctions against China.
Knives out in D.C.
Discussing his internal adversaries at the departments of State and Defense who think they can enlist China to help with the situation in North Korea, Bannon said his enemies are in bad shape.
“Oh, they’re wetting themselves,” he said, explaining that the Section 301 complaint, which was put on hold when the war of threats with North Korea broke out, was shelved only temporarily, and will be revived in three weeks. As for other cabinet departments, Bannon has big plans to marginalize their influence.
“I’m changing out people at East Asian Defense; I’m getting hawks in. I’m getting Susan Thornton [acting head of East Asian and Pacific Affairs] out at State.”
“That’s a fight I fight every day here,” he said. “We’re still fighting. There’s Treasury and [National Economic Council chair] Gary Cohn and Goldman Sachs lobbying.”
Economic vs White Nationalism
