Stephen Bannon reportedly tried to talk Trump out of ordering the strike on Syria

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published 7 April 2017

Chief strategist Stephen Bannon apparently wasn't behind President Trump's decision to launch a missile strike against Syria — but Trump went ahead and ordered it anyway. Daily Intelligencer's Gabriel Sherman reported Friday that Bannon, long considered a key Trump influencer, argued that the Syrian strike contradicted Trump's "America First" doctrine. "Steve doesn't think we belong there," a Bannon ally told Sherman.

The fact that Trump went ahead with the strike despite Bannon's opposition is further indication of the decline of Bannon's power and the rise of Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner's, Sherman said:

The debate over Syria is the latest fault line that has opened up in the once close Bannon-Kushner relationship. "During the campaign and transition, they had an almost uncle-nephew thing going," one Bannon associate said. But in recent weeks, Kushner and Bannon have clashed over the direction of Trump's agenda. While the press has covered it as a personality feud, Bannon allies say the rift is about policy differences. "The press is calling it fighting, we call it debating," Bannon told an associate, according to a source. On a board in his West Wing office, Bannon keeps a list of promises Trump made to populist voters. Kushner, whose portfolio has ballooned in recent weeks, seems much less interested in keeping those promises. [Daily Intelligencer]