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NPR: Trump No Longer Defending Bannon

NPR says Donald Trump is no longer backing Steve Bannon in interviews, which it takes as a signal that Bannon is soon to be out of a job.

The reason, like with other departed Trump aides, is a clash with family members, particularly Prince Jared.

And so we learn Trump has another unappealing trait: The inability to be loyal to anyone who is not related to him. (Which seems to be more fealty than loyalty.) Among his roadside-kill: Chris Christie, Corey Lewandowski, even Rudy Giuliani (That's not to say he showed anything but bad judgment in picking them -- only that once he did, he dropped them the minute they ran into bad weather.) Here's what he said about Bannon:

"I like Steve, but you have to remember, he was not involved in my campaign until very late," Trump said. "I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn't know Steve. I'm my own strategist, and it wasn't like I was going to change strategies because I was facing crooked Hillary."

[More...]

Who will be left to support Trump if Bannon's and his alt-right friends retreat to right wing media and start trash-talking Trump? Who will show up at Trump rallies?

Trump is a floater. He blows in the wind, this way and that. He doesn't know enough about any topic to have a fixed position. Republicans can't trust him any more than the rest of us can. He will always side with his inexperienced children, if they take a different view than his other advisers.

"[A]s Michael told Fredo in The Godfather, "Don't ever take sides with anyone against the family again. Ever."

Welcome to the Fiefdom of Trump. Does family loyalty have limits? What if Jared makes a really big screw-up or Ivanka and Jared split? I've written before that Jared needs to familiarize himself with the fate of Mussolini's son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano. After he voted against Mussolini at a meeting, he had him arrested for treason and then ordered his execution despite his daughter's pleas:

Aged only 40, Ciano collapsed on the way to the place of execution and had to be carried. To add to the humiliation, they were tied to chairs facing backwards and shot in the back. Ciano’s last words were ‘Long live Italy!’

Two days before her husband’s execution, Edda escaped to Switzerland, taking the diaries with her. Edda never forgave her father: ‘The Italian people must avenge the death of my husband. If they do not, I’ll do it with my own hands.’ Indeed, Mussolini, along with his mistress, was executed by his own people but certainly not out of any revenge or nostalgia for Ciano.

The New York Times tells the story here in an obituary for Mussolini's daughter. Ciano had just turned 41.

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