Reports were that Sebastian Gorka was all but fired from the White House last week, but the Daily Beast is reporting on what saved his bacon – it was Steve Bannon:
When the White House backed off its efforts to dump Sebastian Gorka on another federal agency, the controversial counterterrorism advisor had the president himself to thank, The Daily Beast has learned.
After news emerged last week that the Trump administration was setting the stage to move the British-born national security aide out of the White House, President Donald Trump and his chief strategist Stephen Bannon “personally intervened” to put a halt to Gorka’s White House eviction, two senior administration sources said.
That doesn’t mean he’s in the clear. According to the same sources, Trump’s son-in-law wants him out.
“[Bannon] put a stop to it—he’s loyal and a friend’s job was in danger and reputation was getting dragged through the mud,” another Trump administration official said, noting that Bannon had acted “decisively” to lobby for one of his ideological and personal allies in the West Wing. Trump then privately assured Gorka that his job was safe for now.
It was at this point that interagency chatter regarding moving Gorka out of the White House abruptly ceased.
According to multiple administration sources, a White House faction led by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, isn’t pleased with this development. Kushner, who warred with Team Bannon last month, also co-founded with Bannon the Strategic Initiatives Group, an informal think tank within the White House. Though Gorka was a member of the group, one White House source says Kushner now views him as a “clown” and wants nothing to do with him.
More in-fighting at the White House. People who know Trump says he thrives on this kind of controversy and succeeds better with it, but you have to wonder how much is too much.