Despite not being a politician coming from the base, Trump had his candidacy accepted in the party and won the election against Hillary Clinton. Steve Bannon, chairman of Breitbart News, who was involved in the campaign at a crucial stage, had a big share in this election victory. Bannon was the prominent figure of the “White-Nationalist” movement that wants the Republican Party to take a more populist right line, while Breitbart was the platform of action.
Bannon, founder of the election campaign strategy, was also the architect of Trump's "America First" discourse. The figure that included Bannon in Trump's election campaign was the “Mercer family,” one of the leading donors of the Republicans and the Tea Party. Robert Mercer, head of the family, was Breitbart’s financer. He was also the one who gave Breitbart's helm to Bannon.
The fact that Steve Bannon and some Breitbart authors such as Stephen Miller, Sebastian Gorka and Tera Dahl have been brought to active positions in the White House should be seen as part of the agreement between Trump and the donor families. There must have been reasons why donor families wanted to direct U.S. foreign policy choices through Trump.
The U.S. media questioned the reasons for Mercer and others' support for Trump, but could not find satisfactory answers. The real reasons began to gradually emerge in fragments. One of them was the project of Erik Prince, the former head of private security company Blackwater which has a rather bad track record in Iraq, to privatize the war in Afghanistan. The project, backed by Bannon and his cohorts, was repulsed by National Security Adviser H. McMaster, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford.
As it is inferred from Erik Prince's project, there are actually hidden agendas behind each headline that neo-nationalists defend as Trump's real agenda. For instance, the U.S. officially seems to be in favor of the territorial integrity of Iraq. However, it is known that some of the businessmen who are among Trump's donors and support the neo-nationalist faction in the White House are conducting secret political studies on the field to divide Iraq. These are giant companies that want to capitalize on the division of Iraq and that take interest in precious metals besides oil and gas. These companies hold large amounts of money that can affect political developments both in the U.S. and in target countries. For these powers, politics are a commercial investment.
The war between factions in the White House is not being staged with political and ideological motives alone. There are also finance companies, investors, industrialists and oil dealers behind the factions. That's why I said in my previous article that Bannon's removal would move the war to a larger area.
The fact that Bannon settled in Breitbart News management after he was fired shows that the war will take on a new form. Some announced this phase with the title, "Be ready for Bannon the Barbarian." It was the legendary Barbarian Conan character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger that inspired this title. According to Breitbart’s news that "Steve Bannon met with the billionaire Mercer family while preparing for the war," Bannon met with Robert Mercer for nearly five hours in New York. The two also planned to be a well-financed power externally. Undoubtedly, the Mercer-Bannon alliance will affect the balance within the Republican Party.
