do sort of wonder how that relationship is playing out. it s obviously very early in bob s reporting soured of speaks to the nonideological orientation of this, but you know, do you sort of wonder where does this go from here? are they developing a relationship? is this a candid interaction that he can speak to the president about? just to add to something mark just said, joe. you think about the relationship between bannon and general kelly. remember bannon s a navy veteran. bannon has a daughter who served at west point, went to west point, so it s a complicated web within this white house. it s not always easy to figure out who is aligned with who. the general kelly i m told is friendly with jared kushner, also friendly with steve bannon. he s this apolitical figure. how this plays out whether he aligns with the general perhaps on afghanistan but keeps bannon around to keep the base in check it s all an open question. one of the more interesting dynamics on the white house staff
elected. we should call him president bannon. stick that knife in there, joe. no, everybody should read this book, because you just come away from it thinking that steve bannon was responsible for everything that happened good to donald trump. great work, josh. almost the reason why he s in the white house, is that what you re saying joe? that s my argument. i don t think steve bannon would say that if you had him on the show. i don t think trump gets elected president without steve bannon as chief strategist because of his politics and year s long effort to tear down hillary clinton. you got to read the book. president bannon, that s exciting. it s a great book. it shows you that steve bannon, just like steve bannon says to everybody, steve bannon got donald trump elected president of the united states. wow! what a book devil s bargain. joe, can i have an ironic blur be on the back of my book, is that allowed? joe still has that light touch when he makes a point. w
when and if people are blaming steve bannon for the stuff written about mcmaster over the last week or so. does general kelly take notice, does general mcmaster go to general kelly and say what is this? in so much as there are warring factions in the white house, bannon looks like he s been in the second wave of sidelining in some ways in that apparently the president was not pleased with this josh green book that came out that gives him more authority, gives him more of a sense, someone mark, if you read that book it s basically steve bannon got got him elected president. donald trump elected president, it was impressive, but when you have steve bannon again trying to dictate policy on afghanistan, why not just go to your chief of staff that s been all over the world, that s been in the marines and as i said, john kelly just sent his second son over to afghanistan. it is very personal obviously with military figures, and you
places as well and for the president, look, he s dealing with what presidents have to deal with, crises that are not on the list of priorities they come into office with but so often end up defining their presidencies. josh, is steve bannon blocked out of this process, since he s in the white house and the president s going to be talking to his generals? it sure seems to be, in a statement like fire and fury is the opposite of the sort of guidance that i would expect a guy like bannon would be giving him, so it s a sign, a, of his lack of physical proximity, i don t think s in bedminister but also of his lack of political proximity. it seemed as if he were back as one of trump s important advisers, and at least on this issue, he doesn t seem to be having much influence. and steve kornacki, what about the polls, 32%. how do republicans and democrats alike respond to those historically low numbers? yeah, i mean the question to me has always been republicans and we were talking
chief of staff who is managing the staff more than managing the chief. right. and as you talk about in your piece him managing the staff, right now he seems to be able to be a bridge between the different warning factions inside the white house. how long does that last if as the wall street journal wrote in their editorial this morning you have steve bannon trashing an american hero like general mcmaster? that s an intriguing question because if you think about bannon s bat well general mcmaster it s about the future of afghan policy, how many troops to have in the middle east and president moves in the mcmaster direction in the more traditional hawkish direction could you see some outrage from the bannon wing of the white house, and maybe that could further enflame this situation. i think that you look at general kelly, he s also being turned to by a lot of staffers to be a voice of calm on national security, to help the president think through the regional