Bannon finds his regrets aren't good enough for Trump

Bannon supporters wonder whether his populist wing of the Republican Party has already run out of time to maintain influence in this year’s midterm elections.

By ANNIE KARNI 01/07/2018 08:01 PM EST

Steve Bannon, like his onetime brother-in-arms President Donald Trump, is known as someone whose instinct is to double down, not kiss up.

That made his belated attempt on Sunday to de-escalate mounting tension with the commander-in-chief — who has been publicly and privately raging about his former chief strategist all week — notable to many of his allies, one of whom called it a “huge step for Steve, one of the most stubborn people on Earth.” But inside the White House, Bannon's 297-word statement of contrition about comments he made in Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" was seen as too little, too late for an operative unaware of the self-inflicted damage his hubris could cause.

It did nothing to quell Trump’s rage at his former chief strategist or the anger of Bannon’s former West Wing colleagues, according to multiple administration officials, who said the vibe in the president’s circle was that people were unmoved by the statement. Asked whether there is anything Bannon can do at this point to get back in the president's good graces, one White House official said curtly, "Unlikely."

That posture has left Bannon supporters wondering whether the three-shirt-wearing bomb-thrower can switch the layers out for a hair shirt long enough to stop Trump from siding permanently with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — or whether Bannon’s populist wing of the Republican Party has already run out of time to maintain influence in this year’s midterm elections.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/07/bannon-finds-his-regrets-arent-good-enough-for-trump-327504