Skip to footer

White House: Bannon to sit on top National Security Council group

The president's Chief Strategist is to join the "Principals Committee", which includes the secretary of state and defense. Part of the move also removes the Director of National Intelligence and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs from regularly attending that group.

|
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon on Saturday.
  • By The Associated Press

The White House on Sunday said the addition of President Donald Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, to regular meetings of the country's top national security officials was essential to the commander in chief's decision-making process.

Trump took steps Saturday to begin restructuring the White House National Security Council, adding the senior adviser to the principals committee, which includes the secretaries of state and defense. At the same time, Trump said his director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would attend "where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed."

Bannon served in the Navy before attending Harvard Business School, working at Goldman Sachs, starting his own media-focused boutique investment banking firm and later heading the ultraconservative outlet Breitbart News.

"He is a former naval officer. He's got a tremendous understanding of the world and the geopolitical landscape that we have now," White House press secretary Sean Spicer told ABC's "This Week."

Spicer said "having the chief strategist for the president in those meetings who has a significant military background to help make — guide what the president's final analysis is going to be is crucial."

But to Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, the NSC "sadly has some really questionable people on it," he told NBC's "Meet the Press," citing Bannon among them.

Breitbart has been condemned for featuring racist, sexist and anti-Semitic content.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to White House: Bannon to sit on top National Security Council group
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2017/0129/White-House-Bannon-to-sit-on-top-National-Security-Council-group
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe