President Donald Trump’s White House has been sharply divided by the rivalry between his powerful son-in-law with unfettered access to the president and the ideologue behind Trump’s populist rise.
Senior adviser Jared Kushner and chief strategist Steve Bannon, arguably the two most influential voices in the West Wing, have clashed repeatedly in recent weeks over strategy to pass health care legislation, the fallout of the bogged-down immigration bans and, most recently, whether to intervene in the Syrian civil war.
Although the White House is rife with rumors of a staff shake-up, Trump’s young administration is pushing back against reports of a pending West Wing overhaul fueled by squabbling among top aides.
Spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in a statement Friday that the narrative of a dysfunctional administration on the verge of a makeover “is a completely false story driven by people who want to distract from the success taking place in this administration.”
As evidence of that success, Walters noted the Senate’s confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s recent meetings with foreign leaders and U.S. strikes in Syria.
“The only thing we are shaking up is the way Washington operates as we push the president’s aggressive agenda forward,” she said.
Still, the administration has been plagued by the public airing of infighting, with high-profile aides visibly jockeying for position. Trump himself is increasingly frustrated by the leaks that keep flowing out of the West Wing.
In recent weeks, tensions have mounted between Bannon and Kushner.
Bannon, the former head of the conservative news outlet Breitbart, powered Trump’s populist campaign message. But some see his role as declining. This past week, Trump removed him from the National Security Council, reversing his decision to give Bannon access to the group’s high-level meetings.
Kushner, who played a major role in the presidential campaign, is heading an effort to overhaul the federal government and has traveled to Iraq with the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman. Kushner is allied with a group of aides who view themselves as more moderate forces, including economic adviser Gary Cohn, the former president of the Goldman Sachs.