If I were truly cynical, I’d wonder why the Syrian strike wasn’t put off a few days so that Trump could at least bask in the glow of conservative praise for successfully placing Neal Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. I’d say that they stepped on their one true victory since Trump became president. After all, the Syrian air base wasn’t going anywhere. Why not bomb it on Sunday?
But, all anyone is focused on is Syria, and to a lesser degree what it means for the Game of Thrones in the White House:
President Trump is considering a broad shakeup of his White House that could include the replacement of White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and the departure of chief strategist Steve Bannon, aides and advisers tell us.
A top aide to Trump said he’s contemplating major changes, but that the situation is very fluid and the timing uncertain: “Things are happening, but it’s very unclear the president’s willing to pull that trigger.”
Apparently, Bannon was opposed to striking Syria:
And so the boyish [Jared] Kushner and slovenly Bannon feed friendly media negative items about each other, they clash over attempts to work with Democrats on issues such as infrastructure, and they diverge on whether to intervene in Syria, which Kushner favored and Bannon opposed. It became clear last night who won that argument.
I don’t want to get into the game of predicting how Trump will handle his staff. I honestly have no insight into who’s up and who’s down or how he makes decisions about personnel matters. I can see that Bannon lost his position on the National Security Council and didn’t get his way on the Syria issue, and I don’t doubt that these things might be related to each other. I can see that Priebus is taking heat for the failure to pass a Obamacare repeal and replace bill. But whether Trump will replace one or both of them, I can’t say.
We do have a short list of replacements, however, courtesy of Mike Allen:
Insiders tell me that the possibilities for chief of staff include:
- House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who developed a bond with Trump as one of the earlier congressional leaders to support him, and remains a confidant.
- Wayne Berman of Blackstone Group, a Washington heavy-hitter who was an Assistant Secretary of Commerce under President George H.W. Bush, and a key adviser on eight presidential campaigns.
- David Urban of the Washington advisory firm American Continental Group, and a former chief of staff to the late Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). Urban helped Trump win an upset victory in Pennsylvania, and was in constant cellphone contact with the candidate throughout the campaign.
- Gary Cohn, Trump’s economic adviser and the former #2 at Goldman Sachs, who has built a formidable team and internal clout.
I’d like to know who leaked that list.
Quick look at Alex Jones & Breitbart where heads are exploding over Syria bombing. The factions have gone to their corners.
it’s hard to keep track of who’s on what side sometimes.
so the white nationalists are isolationist, not imperialist? I hadn’t been sure.
No they’re pro-Assad for multiple reasons. First there’s the whole “Assad kills terrorists” part, which they support and aren’t against. Then there’s the “Assad protects Christians” narrative. Assad is allied with white daddy Putin.
They also don’t want (brown) refugees to come here and believe attacking Assad exacerbates that.
thanks.
this diary at dkos http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/4/7/1651130/-Ya-ll-realize-that-Donnie-gutted-his-Alt-Right-bas
e-last-night-right
seems to frame the alt-right as antiwar, which didn’t ring true to me.
Probably a lot of elements who are anti-war like Pat Buchanan is anti-war. But that’s from a US-centric POV. They’re definitely not opposed to others doing the killing.
I think this is mostly true. There are some that claim to be anti-war and support broader Trumpism like Justin Raimondo.
Then there are those like Glenn Greenwald who fooled themselves into thinking Trump was genuinely opposed to interventions. Glenn masquerades as a lefty but he’s a libertarian.
Idk if I would even call Glenn a libertarian, more classical liberal/European liberal — his nihilist outlook is the difference, I think. I’ll tell you what, though: his Trump curiousness has roots in previous writings on immigration which could hardly be distinguishable from Ann Coulter.
Lol at fucking Justin Raimondo, though. He’s always been a fascist piece of shit.
I think that’s fair re: Glenn. As a critic, he generally advocates for one issue and that puts him closest to that fringe in my view.
I think he perceived Hillary to be degrees worse on foreign policy and this affected his analysis of Trump. It’s also affected his analysis of Russia but he’s not alone there.
Oh how could I forget? Assad is (nominally) at war with Israel:
true, especially b/c some ppl pretend to be on a side that their actions show they are not
Honest question, no snark:
a. Since he has won his last 3 elections by 19%, 24% and 23%
b. House Majority Leader is not Speaker sized power, but it’s not collecting bottles either
c. No one is apparently mad at him
WHY THE HELL would he want to be chief of staff for the Clown White House?
He’s from California … He’ll be governor when hell freezes over. Exposure in COS White House will probably be about the same as wearing a rain coat outside a school.
He’s from California … he has as much chance of becoming the R nominee for President as the Jr Senator from Idaho. Actually, probably less now that I think of it.
Whoever gets the gig, will be thrown under the bus within a year.
Why?
ummmmm…forgot to mention, I’m speaking of Kevin McCarthy ….
Yeah, we kinda figured that’s who you were talking about. And you’re right, Unless, he somehow prefers working in the Executive Branch Monkey House vs. the GOP HOR Monkey House, I don’t see any incentive for him to move. It’s not like the COS position is mainly Congressional Liaison or anything.
i’m not sure what kind of nut would want this job.
Seeing the White House drama just in these first few months has strongly reminded me of history i’ve read or seen dramatized about working for an absolute monarch. Getting close to the King could bring riches and fame; lose the royal favor and being replaced was the best that could happen. And this King is easily aroused, easily confused, and fond of shouting “You’re Fired!”
At least Trump, unlike Putin or Henry VIII, might not kill you when you finally give offense.
McCarthy is not a smart man. I mean that literally, not metaphorically. Going back to his time in the California Legislature, anyone who has had to work through policy discussions with Kevin describe him as not just uninformed, but dumb. He lacks comprehension and the ability to comprehend. However, he has benefited from his ability to be obsequiously supportive of those holding the highest rungs of power. There’s no higher rung than POTUS, and there’s never been a POTUS more easily persuaded by obsequious people.
All in all, he’s a perfect hire for Trump. I hope Cheeto Benito pulls the trigger. He deserves the worst people.
“He lacks comprehension and the ability to comprehend.”
He’ll fit right in!
I think if you go back and read your post you will find you answered your own question.
He can’t move up in California. And he is just another Congressman in the House.
But difference between that and working in the White House at that level.
>>so that Trump could at least bask in the glow of conservative praise for successfully placing Neal Gorsuch on the Supreme Court
maybe they were afraid McConnell would get too much of the credit for that.
maybe they were afraid of Democrats staying united and knew the best way to get half the Dems on his side was to do some war.
But, Assad just bombed Hom with planes from the base the donald bombed. Way to early for anyone with a brain to hitch their wagon….
well, yes,
are Tim’s twitter followers buying that?
comments i’ve seen elsewhere that appear sensible say:
you should check it out, definitely worth reading. a lot on Turkey and Kurds
Okay… so you obviously don’t know much about jet aviation.
If the actually airstrips were targeted, the amount of debris from the kinetic impact of an unexploded missile alone would take days to clear unless the crews wanted to suck bits of rocks, asphalt, concrete and/or whatever else got blown up into the engines.
The hole an unexploded missile would make in a runway isn’t going to be patchable in less than a day.
Explode the missile and both those problems go way up. Explode the missile with it’s full payload, and that strip should be out of commission for at least three days for one missile.
If this was a real strike and not show piece theater, with the amount of missiles they threw at this thing, there wouldn’t be a runway that their jets could take off of for days at a minimum. And that’s presuming they had everything on-hand and ready to patch these things up as soon as things stopped exploding.
I didn’t claim personal knowledge.
you sound confident of your opinion. So do others on the internet with different opinions. to quote one:
So, where are the satellite before and after photos. JFK in the 60’s had before and after pic. There are all kinds of satellite photos of the Osama raid.
Which bunch of rebels purportedly were at the places Assad bombed in Homs?
I don’t care who leaked the shortlist for CoS, but I’ll bet $0.05 that Trump did not see it before Mike Allen saw it. Its purpose is transparently to discredit Gary Cohn.
I’m with digby on the internal “Game of Thrones”. Don’t bet against the Princess and Prince Consort Javanka.
The Xi visit was the primary reason for a show of force. Someone in Syria just conveniently provided one.
The notification of Syria and Russia was apparently through the in-country US-Russia air coordination channel and did not involve state-to-state diplomatic or personal channels. So in addition to some shock-and-awe for Xi, the airstrike was to shed some Putin-stench.
Xi seems to have understood the stunt as a stunt.
The reaction of Breitbart and Infowars mean that politics in America are beginning to get a little more complicated as the realignment of both parties under the assault of Trump and years of economic stagnation continue.
No one asks where in the budget those $100 million of cruise missiles came from and what sort of butter the public gave up as a result. We just know that the national debt is now $100 million more than it was because of an hour max of ordnance use. That’s some expensive fireworks to show a Chinese guest.
It is Mr. Chao who gets credit for putting Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. Whoever advises Trump on Supreme Court picks came up with a solid corporate feudalism nominee.
So that’s the info that Mike Allen got on his cocktail weinie circuit last night.
The strike on the air base obviously was not about the gas attack, and it pointedly followed exactly the plan that Hillary Clinton advocated in an interview at the Women in the World Summit. Clinton still advocates a no-fly zone. Was the timing a way of trolling Clinton? With Trump one never knows what or why. But you do know that humanitarian militarism and responsibility-to-protect have no part in it.
Best US fireworks tax money can buy.
Since his election Trump has in policy acted in most ways like Mitt Romney would. With the exception of TPP, he has acted like a right wing conservative Republican.
His re-election will, if it occurs, look quite different than his first run.
Well, there was that clownishly constructed and executed “travel” ban. And the other ridiculous executive orders, and the equally ridiculous theater around them. And the KKK-tinged Kabinet and staff team. These are among the other things I can’t see Mitt or another Generic Republican POTUS doing.
Mitt did want the browns to self-deport, though, so I can imagine him cranking up the ICE machine as Trump has. He just wouldn’t have shown Trump’s personal enjoyment in doing so.
Mitt’s also been a governor and learned how to work with a legislature to get stuff done. In fact he’s had far more varied executive experience, private as well as public, than Mr. Billionaire has ever had. He wouldn’t have had anywhere near the fumbles and missteps we’ve seen so far.
I’m no fan of the man, let alone the kind of Republicanism he’d inflict on the country, but at least he’d be competent.
The Prince and Princess are likely to gain greater influence in the King’s Court. Princess is in training for 2024 and Prince Jared has the government to overhaul.
Yeah it certainly smells like the missile display was an act. But McCain and Graham are shining demagogues. Send more troops says Graham; Obama never exercised power and wimped out on request of force in 2013 says McCain.
Ah yes, “Princess and Prince Consort Javanka.”
I don’t think people who talk about running government like a “successful business” are probably much on stuff like history, psychology, etc. But it might be instructive for them to look at the career of Galeazzo Ciano.
Why not give that gig to Jared, too?
Bannon may be on the way out, but he was in both pictures – the national security group being briefed during the attack, and at the meeting with President Xi and his entourage at Mar-a-Lago. Of course at MaL he was clear at the end of the table (except for the one female included).
Per that list of potential replacements…
I’d add to it any Trump family members that Trump hasn’t installed yet. His family has been his go-to bench lately and, if nothing else, Trump is a predictable fellow.
Except not predictable when stooping to new lows of indecency and outrage and frequency of lying.
Who leaked the list of possibilities to replace Bannon?
Don’t know of course, but you don’t suppose it could it be … Jared Kushner?
Wayne Berman of Blackstone Group was Marco Rubio’s chief campaign fundraiser. Rubio’s Top five campaign contributors were: Club for Growth, Elliott Management, Goldman Sachs, Fanjul Corp., and the Blackstone Group, in that order.
https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00030612
Steve Schwarzman, head of Blackstone Group, is Trump’s chief economic advisor. He and Jared Kushner are good buddies. If anybody here doesn’t know who Blackstone is, it is “the largest alternative investment firm in the world” specializing in “private equity, credit and hedge fund investment strategies.” (Wikipedia)
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/jared-kushner-trump-administration-power.html
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/jared-kushner-trump-administration-power.html
Gary Cohn is in the same category as Schwarzman and Jamie Dimon. Again, this would be a Kushner pick.
Urban and McCarthy are different in that they come out of the world of politics. Urban was chief of staff to Arlen Spector. He is already a trusted political operative of Trump. McCarthy is a congressman that is loyal to Trump, considered one of his chief links to Capitol Hill.
I would guess the latter two might be Trump’s own picks.