ANALYSIS: Feuding puppet masters put Trump White House on course for yet another shake-up
Washington/New York — For months, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser and his chief strategist have battled for influence behind the scenes, and their feud may force another shake-up at the White House. The dispute between Lt-Gen HR McMaster and political strategist Stephen Bannon has reached a level of animosity that is destabilising Trump’s team of top advisers just as the administration tries to regain lost momentum, three senior officials said. Under pressure from moderate Republicans to fire Bannon, Trump declined to publicly back him on Tuesday, although he left his options open. "We’ll see what happens with Mr Bannon," he told reporters at Trump Tower in New York. Whatever Trump decides could chart the fate of a nuclear-weapons deal with Iran, US troop deployments to Afghanistan and White House staffing decisions — all issues over which Bannon and McMaster have sparred. In a television interview on Sunday, McMaster repeatedly declined to answer when asked wh...
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