Bannon Considered Resigning Over Feud With Kushner

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By Daniel J. Solomon April 6, 2017

As infighting continues to rage within the Trump White House, chief strategist Steve Bannon apparently got so frustrated that he almost bolted from the administration, before a key donor and confidant persuaded him to stay.

“Rebekah Mercer prevailed upon him to stay,” one source close to the story told Politico, referring to the mega-donor who bankrolled Breitbart News to the tune of millions and pressed President Trump to bring aboard Bannon as the leader of the Republican’s campaign last summer.

Another unidentified individual told the news site that Bannon was particularly annoyed with Jared Kushner, whom he regards as an obstacle to realizing a far-right populist vision.

“You have these New York interlocutors who are just not political and who want to think that they’re above the way Washington thinks,” another unidentified source told Politico.

Kushner, a senior adviser in the White House, has been seen as a moderate within the administration, and has even been branded as a “West Wing Democrat” by those who more align with Bannon.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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