Fear: Trump in the White House(98)
“This will do damage for the next decade,” the senator said. “We’ll be undoing this for the next decade.”
Cohn urged him to relax. “We had to get competitive in the corporate world,” he said. “We just had to. And when you see that chart of our competitors—look, we’re in a competitive world.”
The individual income tax rates were pegged at 10, 12, 22, 24, 32, 35 and the top rate, 37 percent. The drop from 39.6 percent was standard Republican tax cutting.
In the end, the law would add an estimated $1.5 trillion to the annual deficit over 10 years.
Republican leaders and Trump celebrated with self-congratulatory speeches on the South Portico of the White House. Trump said, “Ultimately what does it mean? It means jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Tax reform was the only major legislation passed his first year.
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Early in 2018, the president unleashed a full takedown of Bannon, who had clearly spoken to journalist Michael Wolff as a main source for his unflattering book Fire and Fury.
In a long statement, rather than a tweet, Trump said, “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. . . . Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look.”
From his point of view, Bannon believed Trump had largely failed as a change agent. The old order in national security certainly won in Trump’s first year, Bannon believed. Perhaps the only exception was a toughening stance on China and an awareness that China was the true rival in international affairs.
Bannon was appalled by the National Security Strategy, a 55-page document published in December 2017. The Middle East section said the policy was designed to “preserve a favorable regional balance of power.”
What the fuck is that? Bannon asked. It was a retread of the old-world, Kissingeresque order, seeking political stability. The whole purpose of Trump’s 2017 Riyadh summit had been to form an alliance to shut down Iranian expansion and hegemony. “Balance of power” in Bannon’s view meant the U.S. was comfortable with the status quo and Iran’s “short-of-war” strategy that took confrontation to the brink but left Iran owning the gray zone.
Bannon believed that Trump wanted to roll Iran back—get Iran out of Iraq, out of Syria, out of Lebanon and out of the peninsula in Yemen. The alliance to do that was the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states and Israel.
China was the real enemy. Russia was not the problem. The Russian economy was the size of New York State’s economy—about $1.5 trillion—and the Chinese economy would soon be bigger than that of the United States, perhaps within a decade.
Bannon still believed the forces of the populist-nationalist movement were powerful. But the old order was able to blunt all that in the first year of the Trump presidency. The old order was not going to roll over.
The populist movement had shown that it didn’t have the force to break through the permanent political class. Trump had been the armor-piercing shell that could pierce the Clinton part, but not the rest.
The Republican establishment had brought Trump to heel, he believed. The tax cut was a 100 percent corporate interest tax cut. The budget, adding $1.5 trillion to the deficit, was the worst part of the permanent political-class, boomtown mentality where every lobbyist got their deal for their clients. There was no wall. The swamp had won.
The Deep State was not the problem. It was the up-in-your-face state.
Most compromising for Trump, in Bannon’s view, was the January 26, 2018, speech that Trump gave at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The New York Times headline had been, “Trump Arrived in Davos as a Party Wrecker. He Leaves Praised as a Pragmatist.”
It had been a Chamber of Commerce speech, Bannon believed. Trump had looked at the establishment and essentially embraced it.
Trump’s critique of Attorney General Jeff Sessions was particularly galling to Bannon. He was sure Trump would never get a better guy confirmed by the Senate.
Grievance was a big part of Trump’s core, very much like a 14-year-old boy who felt he was being picked on unfairly. You couldn’t talk to him in adult logic. Teenage logic was necessary.
During Trump’s first six months in the White House, few understood how much media he consumed. It was scary. Trump didn’t show up for work until 11:00 in the morning. Many times he watched six to eight hours of television in a day. Think what your brain would be like if you did that? Bannon asked.
Bannon claimed he used to say to Trump, “Cut the fucking thing off.”
At Mar-a-Lago, Trump would come back from playing golf. It’d be a Saturday afternoon in February or March. Absolutely stunningly beautiful. One of the most beautiful things in the world. Melania would be in the room right next door. He would watch CNN’s D-team of panelists, whom Bannon considered super-haters, and get worked up. Bannon would say, “What are you doing? Why do you do this? Cut this off. It’s not meaningful. Just enjoy yourself.”
Trump’s response would often go like this: “You see that? That’s a fucking lie. Who the fuck’s . . .”
Bannon would say, “Go play some slap and tickle with Melania.” Trump also did not spend much time with his son Barron, then age 11.
Bannon felt he was not friends with Trump. Trump didn’t have genuine friends. He was a throwback to a different time—1950s America. He was a man’s man and a guy’s guy.