On Wednesday President Trump removed his most senior advisor and strategist, #Stephen Bannon, from the National Security Council, an elite policy-generating committee that can make world-changing decisions in regard to military, diplomatic and national security policy. Trump restored the very senior military and intelligence officials who he demoted when he arrived to the Oval Office in January, causing a stir in both the media and intelligence circles.
The reshuffle was coordinated by #Lieutenant McMaster, who became Trump's national security adviser after #Michael Flynn was forced to step down.
Flynn was essentially asked to leave when it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with the Russian ambassador.
#General McMaster has had to manage protests over Stephen Bannon's position in the security council since taking on the role, and in inheriting such an inflamed set up he has had challenges to deal with. Critics claim that Bannon’s presence in such a key national security policy-making organization has had a large potential to risk the politicization of foreign policy.
Originally Bannon was a member of the principals committee that usually includes high-level officials like vice presidents, defense secretaries and secretaries of states. In making #Bannon, a former chairman of Breitbart News, a member of the principals committee, Trump thereby excluded the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff as only intermittent partakers in high-risk and strategic issues.
The order that #President Trump made on Tuesday removes Bannon from this highly regarded principals committee, and restores intelligence director and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff along with the energy secretary, the CIA director and an ambassador from the United Nations.
The White House speaks unofficially
A White House official spoke to the New York Times on Wednesday and said that the move was not indeed a setback in any way for Stephen Bannon, but rather a logical move in the ongoing functioning of the committee.
Bannon, the same official claimed, had first been placed on the principals committee to keep an eye on #Michael Flynn and to also iron out operational issues left over from the Obama administration's hold on the National Security Council.
Another official who was within #Bannon's inner circle emphasized that the move was not about the President's wavering support of Bannon, and that he still had Trump's full backing.
In fact, Bannon will still maintain a role in making national security decisions, and he continues to hold elite security clearance in the West Wing.
#General McMaster has fought to gain control of national security, and the reshuffle was seen as a win for him. As well as the shifting structure of the principals committee, the newly announced order gives General McMaster authority over the Homeland Security Council instead of making the council a separate entity.
General McMaster was aware of the volatile situation in Trump's office and worked concisely but without too much speed to implement these changes. Bannon fought to keep his position under any new reorganization by #General McMaster, but the president was eventually convinced that taking Bannon off the committee was a better and wiser choice.
