Bannon Strengthens His White House Foothold With More Friendly Hires

In the early days of the Trump presidency, the president and his administration seem to be traveling down two separate, parallel paths. On the one hand, President Trump has been pursuing concrete policy ends, primarily through executive orders: withdrawing from TPP, reinstating the Mexico City policy, and directing the expeditious permit approval for constructing two major pipeline projects.

It continues this week. Trump is expected to issue executive orders on Thursday to “restrict immigration" and access to the United States for certain people from terrorism hotspots. And the New York Times reports Trump on Wednesday will sign an executive order to "direct federal funds to be shifted toward the building of a wall on the southern border." All this suggests the Trump White House is focused on following through on many, if not all, of the "day one" promises sometime in the first week.

On the other hand there's…Trump himself, and the way his own concerns and obsessions—over crowd sizes and the unfounded claim that there were millions of illegally cast votes—have a way of drowning out the substantive stuff. The latest example, Trump's Tuesday night tweet that he will "send in the Feds" unless the city of Chicago deals with its recent wave of violence, is a classic of the genre. On a day when the Trump administration could be hailing the beginning of the border wall, the White House will instead be explaining what, exactly, Trump meant by "sending in the feds."

The question for the staff, the administration, Congress, and the country: Is this two-pronged approach to governance sustainable? I discussed this with Michael Graham on the latest WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, which you can listen to here.

Who Has the Upper Hand?

At Business Insider, Oliver Darcy reports that Seb Gorka, a writer at Breitbart and Fox News contributor, will be joining the Trump White House, perhaps the National Security Council. But a source close to the administration tells me it's likelier Gorka will have a spot working under senior counselor Steve Bannon (the former chairman of Breitbart) and assistant to the president Chris Liddell. Gorka did not reply to an email, and the White House declined to comment. Fox, Darcy writes, has already terminated Gorka's contract after he informed the network of his new job.