When Donald Trump's administration put together its controversial
executive order on immigration, it was Steve Bannon – the populist
firebrand fast emerging as the president's right-hand man – pushing a
hard line.
Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
interpreted the order to mean that lawful permanent residents - green
card holders – who hailed from the seven Muslim-majority countries
targeted in the immigration order would not face additional screening
when they entered the country.
But they were quickly overruled by Bannon, who is Trump’s chief
strategist and oversaw the drafting of the executive order along with
White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, a close ally of
Bannon's, the officials said.
"They were in charge of this operation," one senior DHS official said,
adding that the experts were "almost immediately overruled by the White
House, which means by Bannon and Miller."
A senior national security official described the pair as a "tag team"
pushing Trump's key policies, including the immigration order which bars
the entry of refugees and places a temporary hold on people from seven
countries - Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia and Libya.
The inclusion of green card holders from those countries intensified
opposition to an executive order that sparked legal challenges, protests
at airports and sharp criticism from inside the Republican Party,
including from some Trump allies.
DHS officials say there was little or no White House consultation with
immigration, customs and border security agencies on the immigration
policy change, causing widespread confusion over how to implement
Trump's order.
A senior administration official said the order went through a review by
"key people" at DHS and the White House National Security Council, and
that several immigration staff on Capitol Hill were involved in drafting
the order.
But officials said Bannon was the driving force throughout.
The White House declined to comment on his role.
Critics have accused Bannon of harboring anti-Semitic and white
nationalist sentiments. Under Bannon's leadership, his Breitbart website
presented a number of conspiracy theories about Trump's Democratic
rival in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, as well as Republicans
deemed to be lacking in conservative bona fides.
Bannon has ascribed his interest in populism and American nationalism to
a desire to curb what he views as the corrosive effects of
globalization. He has rejected what he called the "ethno-nationalist"
tendencies of some in the movement.
After becoming chief executive of Trump's election campaign in August,
the former Goldman Sachs banker and Navy veteran helped lead him to
victory over Clinton. He was then appointed by Trump as senior counselor
and chief strategist - jobs not subject to U.S. Senate confirmation.
He has been an almost constant presence by Trump's side in the first 10
days of the administration - in the White House for a meeting with
American manufacturers, at CIA headquarters the day after Trump was
sworn in, and in the Oval Office during British Prime Minister Theresa
May's visit.
He appears to have greatly expanded his power in the first 10 days of Trump's presidency.
ELEVATION TO NSC
Trump gave him an unprecedented seat in the NSC's top-level meetings and
potentially narrowed the role played by the director of national
intelligence (DNI) and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Bannon has also asserted authority over almost all written statements
from the White House and the NSC and has sent back documents for
rewrites as he sees fit, one NSC official said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
Critics, including four senior U.S. intelligence officers, called the
decision to formalize Bannon's role at the NSC meetings a mistake,
saying it risks politicizing decisions on national security.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Monday defended Bannon's inclusion in the NSC.
Susan Rice, the former national security adviser in former President
Barack Obama's administration, tweeted on Sunday: "This is stone cold
crazy. After a week of crazy."
Bannon and Miller are drowning out the opinions of more moderate
advisers like White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, said a senior
DHS official and two people in Washington who work closely with the
White House on immigration and a range of other issues.
One of those people and the DHS official said Priebus felt he had placed
enough of his fellow moderate Republicans in key positions at the White
House as a counterbalance to Bannon and Miller, but he has been
frustrated at their outsized influence so far, especially on issues of
immigration and national security.
The White House dismissed the views of the officials as gossip.
