What Bannon’s Firing Tells Us About Trump

First, he’s a coward. This is the man who earned his reputation as a tough business tycoon by telling people ‘You’re Fired!’ on his TV reality show, ‘The Apprentice’. But when it came to firing Bannon he sent along his Chief of Staff, Gen. Kelly to do the dirty deed. He didn’t have the balls to do it himself.

Second, he’s an ungrateful, disloyal piece of work. Bannon joined the Trump campaign when it was foundering and facing humiliating defeat by Hillary Clinton; but Bannon turned things around and got Trump elected to the White House. Trump owes him big time but it didn’t matter; he’s been dumped.

Without Bannon, Trump would have been history, and reduced to a sad, squalid footnote in America’s political history.

Now that Bannon has gone, we’ll soon discover whether Trump really has any politics of his own. My suspicion, widely shared I’d bet, is that he’s a political chameleon, adopting whatever political colours suit him best in the circumstances he finds himself in.

Bannon gave shape and focus to a campaign that had already been fashioned by Trump. The two men agreed on all the basics – Islamophobia, anti-immigration, economic populism and so on – but Bannon melded them together to make a winning brand.

So by dumping Bannon, is Trump sending a possibly important message that he’s ready to dump Bannon’s politics as well, make up with the mainstream Republicans and go legit, as it were?

I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Those to watch? The mainstream media for any softening of their almost universal hostility to the Trump White House. And the late night comedians. Watch the Trump joke count for any fall off.