The Rasputin Behind Donald Trump Is Donald Trump

[DonViejo]

Remember when people used to say Donald Trump didn’t really believe this protectionist stuff, it was all Steve Bannon? We-elll…

MATT LEWIS
03.08.18 5:17 AM ET

If there’s one good thing to come from Donald Trump’s calls for steel and aluminum tariffs, it may be that it puts to rest the notion that Steve Bannon was somehow the brains behind Trump’s brand of protectionism.

Now, with Bannon not just dispatched from the White House, but (after leaking to author Michael Wolff) also persona non grata with Trump, the president is poised to finally implement tariffs, thus obliterating the trope.

In the wake of the travel ban last year, allegations that Bannon was running the show reached fever pitch. This assumption leads to the kinds of analysis we saw a year ago, which flatly stated that “our real president is not Donald Trump, the man who was elected, but rather is Steve Bannon, a devious malcontent who is very clearly manipulating Trump to his own ends.”

This persists for a couple reasons. First, it is in the best interest of the strategist to implicitly suggest that he was the brains in the operation. This might be especially true of Bannon, who is now forced to live off the land and find ways to generate the attention he so desperately craves.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-rasputin-behind-donald-trump-is-donald-trump?ref=home

[Nitram]

1. It's pretty clear by now that no one controls Donald Trump. They can whisper in his ear, but he

can never be counted on to follow-through on advice. In fact, in the course of one day he can announce he's going to do one thing, then he's going to do the opposite, then he's going to do something else altogether, or maybe even nothing at all. Dump believes that power comes from relying on his gut instincts (which change by the minute) and acting spontaneously in ways no one expects. He tries to keep everyone off-balance and surprised by each action he takes. He is not concerned with outcomes, it is the process that defines him.