Fork in Trump's Road

Remember the old days of Cold War Kremlin Watching?   An American version of it is back.

Breitbart.com is the new version of Pravda.

Donald Trump had a clear idea who he was while campaigning: he was the populist hero, appealing to his crowds.   Then, in transition and setting up his administration, he was the leader of the Republican party, reflecting the Mike Pence establishment direction, appointing Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff, conservative cabinet members, and Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.   He was a Republican, not a populist, but it was a mixed story.   Steve Bannon sat next to Trump; Trump kept tweeting; Trump was still breaking the rules.

Now, awash in leaks from the West Wing, Americans are getting signals and messages about the government Americans elected.   The populist Breitbart drain the swamp anti-establishment people are losing out to the regular Republican people, and the populists are showing their displeasure.

A warning shot to Trump--from the right

This blog has described Breitbart as the semi-official web mouthpiece of the Trump administration, but that was accurate only insofar as Trump was a populist.  Breitbart.com is populist and Breitbart sides with Steve Bannon, not the establishment.

Look at some headlines and story treatment.

Yesterday Breitbart made their lead headline the bold charge that the whole Syria-poison gas event was actually a setup arranged on behalf of Trump.   What a wild conspiracy theory!   Who would actually believe this nonsense?

Answer:  lots of people, including the Tea Party populist right, the majority of Republicans who believe CNN and the NY Times are fake news, the majority of Republican voters who still suspect that Obama is a foreign born Muslim.     

False flag conspiracies emerged from the moment the public saw video of the poison gas attack and saw Trump's policy reversal on Syrian bombing.  Talk radio hosts said it was very, very convenient for Trump.   Too convenient to have been mere chance.    

Beyond a warning.  This is war on Ryan.

Breitbart populists want "the people's leader", Trump, to lead the policy for the country.  Trump, not Congress, represents the voice of the people.   Note this morning's headline story in Breitbart--calling out Speaker Paul Ryan for being missing in action when a Congressional candidate needed help.  It wasn't just that Ryan was absent; Ryan was vacationing. for shame!

Meanwhile, there is a story in widespread circulation that Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner are in a battle royale, fighting for the soul of Donald Trump--and that blood is thicker than water.

Click Here for Fox story on the West Wing chaos.

Breitbart is not Fox.   Donald Trump had a chance to assure his populist flank that he was continuing to keep both Bannon and the establishment Republicans in his inner circle.     Trump let it out that possibly Preibus is the problem and needed to go, a point for Bannon, but then Donald Trump was asked a question about Bannon.  Trump downplayed Bannon's role in his election.  Oh-oh.  This re-confirmed the downgrade of Bannon, signaled first from his removal from the National Security team.  

This is a story in  Fox News, a media outlet that is loyal to Trump but more loyal to Republicanism than to Trump personally.   Fox has Trump's back against Democrats; against foreigners; against liberals; against the mainstream media , against blacks, Hispanics, immigrants; against any of the usual suspects of progressive culture including gays, secular people, feminists, universities, environmentalists, vegetarians; indeed against everything--except other Republicans, at which point Fox attempts to be "fair and balanced."

Breitbart: Sticking up for Bannon

Breitbart is showing its muscle now, making clear that Bannon is--perhaps--being unjustly and unwisely muscled out.  Breitbart.com is fighting this.  Breitbart attributes a petty motive to Eliott Abrams, a Bannon detractor: "Sore Loser".

Meanwhile, Breitbart is attempting to accentuate the positive in Trump's actual foreign policy.   

The populist position on Syria is de-engagement, not greater engagement.   The campaigner-Trump said in rallies and on the stump that we have no business in Syria, that every faction is wrong, that we have no real friends there, let the Russians deal with Syria, and if  the various Muslim factions want to kill each other, let them and let Allah sort it out.  The neocon position is that America can and must shape events in troubled areas. The metaphor in the minds of neocons is Chamberlain, Munich, and appeasement.  A stitch in time saves nine.  Don't chicken out.

(The metaphor for populists is the French then America in Vietnam, the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, Yankee Go Home posters, improvised explosive devices in Iraq, American troops being stationed in Japan and Germany seventy years after the war, and American soldiers coming home in body bags, and the Vietnam Memorial wall of the list of names of killed Americans.) 

Populist, America First.  Not Neocon after all.

Did Trump make a permanent reversal of position when he bombed the Syrian airfield?  Breitbart says "no."   The Syrian airstrike was a one-off, Breitbart asserts in its headline.

Breitbart.com is sending a message to Donald Trump and America.  Breitbart represents the  populist--drain the swamp--impulse of the Trump victory.  They are loyal to what they thought got Trump elected, to populism, to American isolation, and to draining the swamp, which means they are loyal to Steve Bannon, not Jared Kushner.

In the campaign Trump was a destroyer, not a builder.   He articulated goals and hopes, not policies.   Win, win, win, win, win is not a policy.   A "really great trade deal" is not a policy.  "Really terrific health care" is not a policy.  "Big tax cut and balance the budget" is not a policy.  The fight going on in the West Wing is the sorting out of what kind of policy, if any, will be the result of the Trump presidency.   The big, clear message will be when we see who is fired:  Bannon, Priebus, Kushner, others.   Until then, we watch for signals, and Breitbart is both a window into the White House and also a partisan.

Breitbart has an agenda. It thinks we elected a populist to drain the swamp.