Monday night, Trevor Noah played a game of “Who’s the Real President?” No. 1 on the list was Steve Bannon: Donald Trump’s chief strategist, “who is also the radical former editor of Breitbart and the subject of the best-selling autobiography, If Eczema Were Human: The Steve Bannon Story.”
We learned this morning that nothing angers President Trump more than the notion that Bannon has more power than he does in the White House. Just moments after a Morning Joe panel discussed Bannon’s new Time magazine cover and suggested that Trump may not be “calling the shots” in his own administration, the president tweeted, “I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it. Some FAKE NEWS media, in order to marginalize, lies!”
As Noah explained on Monday’s Daily Show, it was Bannon who reportedly “told immigration to ban visa and green-card holders as well, which, aside from being legally dubious, is a dick move.” And, according to another report from The New York Times, Bannon put himself on the National Security Council without even briefing the president on the unprecedented move.
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“How is this real life? This is insane,” Noah said. “The president didn’t know what was in the executive order.” Even the “dishonest media” recognizes that Bannon is the “real power behind the throne,” he added, pointing to the Time cover as evidence. “What kind of shadowy manipulator goes on the cover of a magazine to announce that he’s a shadowy manipulator?” Noah asked. “It’s kind of like the Wizard of Oz posing on a cover with the headline, ‘It’s just some dude!’”
Turning back to the president’s morning tweet, Noah noted, “Trump’s defensiveness is telling. It shows that even he realizes he needs to prove he’s in control, and maybe some day he will be. But for now, let’s congratulate Steve Bannon.”
“As of this moment, you are the real president,” he told Bannon. “The American people didn’t elect you. But then again, they kind of didn’t elect Trump either.”
