The Prince of Darkness Has Left the Building

Heads continued to roll in last week’s Friday news dump, as the White House announced the departure of Steve Bannon. The chief strategist’s ouster had been rumored for weeks amid reports he was on the outs with most of President Trump’s inner circle — including new Chief of Staff John Kelly. Then in a move out of the Scaramucci playbook, Bannon gave an erratic and ostensibly spontaneous interview to the American Prospect’s Robert Kuttner, contradicting the president on North Korea and attacking his colleagues.

The Bannon brand of economic nationalism dictated a hardline on China and immigration. He actively campaigned to replace American troops on the ground in Afghanistan with mercenaries and recoup costs through exploitation of Afghani mineral deposits. Now that Trump’s arch-populist is gone, should we expect the president to take a more moderate foreign-policy stance?

On this week’s first episode of The E.R., the co-editors of FP’s Elephants in the Room Peter Feaver and Will Inboden join executive editor for the web Ben Pauker to discuss Bannon’s departure. Is this the sea change republicans have been clamoring for? Or will Bannon’s ideological legacy continue to haunt the halls of the West Wing?

Peter D. Feaver is a professor of political science and public policy and Bass Fellow at Duke University, and director of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies and the Duke program in American Grand Strategy.

Will Inboden is executive director of the William P. Clements, Jr. Center for National Security at the University of Texas-Austin. He also serves as associate professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and distinguished scholar at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law.

Ben Pauker is FP’s executive editor for the web. Follow him on Twitter: @benpauker.

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