West Wing ... Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot

West Wing ... Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot ... 25th February 2017

Steve Bannon appeared at CPAC 2017 this week. In an unusual public appearance, the grand plan to "Deconstruct Washington" was explained to the American Conservative Union annual conference. On stage with Bannon was White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. The orchestrators of the fine tuned machine, explained how the best buddy duo worked together. They couldn't stop touching! How touching!

Priebus keeps the trains running on time, according to Bannon, Bannon does the big ideas, according to Priebus. No one decides where the trains run apparently. The CNN described the show as a "buddy schtick" of sorts. Ying and Yang in the White House, without the Feng Shui perhaps.

A new political order is being formed said Bannon. National Security, Economic Nationalism and Deconstruction of the Administrative State are the three buckets of policy. Big Buckets with fries. Illegal immigrants, currency manipulators and LBGTs will feel the heat.

The media was denounced as the opposition party. No longer the enemy of the people? Bannon expects relationships with the press to deteriorate in the years ahead. Can it really get any worse?

President Trump has a maniacally focused obsession with the campaign policy agenda, explained the white House chief strategist. So now we know, the White House is full of maniacs, ensuring the trains run on time, with an obsession for economic nationalism! We have been through this West Wing episode before, with Italian subtitles. It didn't end well. We can only hope that more grown ups arrive in the White House soon.

Another grown up did arrive this week. Truth to Power received a boost with news that General H.R McMaster had been appointed to replace Mike Flynn as National Security Adviser. War veteran and author of "Dereliction of Duty" McMaster had written the critique of the Vietnam war in which the failures of the generals to speak openly and honestly to government led to the extension of the disastrous war in South East Asia. Promising!

Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly were in Mexico City this week, meeting with government officials including President Enrique Pe?a Nieto. Border security and deportation were on the agenda. Who pays for the wall, was not discussed. It will be a tough trip, advised the President. It was. Sean Spicer described relationships with Mexico as phenomenal. The Southern response was much less effusive.

The trip to Europe had been much more fun. The Russians will be held to account. We all love NATO, The Germans had agreed to recruit 20,000 more soldiers. Result! Who said international diplomacy was difficult.

The Trump administration had started the week with the usual chaos. Mike Flynn was asked to resign by the President for doing what the President would have asked had he only known what Flynn was doing in the first place. Yes, a peace deal with that nice autocrat Putin. The real crime was lying to Vice President Pence, keeping him out of the loop apparently.

The whole world was out of the loop as Trump continued to devastate international tourism with the shock news that something happened in Sweden "last night". Well he had seen something on TV. Fox and Friends had reported on immigration, an increase in crime and the break up of Abba. Sad.

KellyAnne Conway, counselor to the President was taken off air following a ban from MNSBC, problems with the Bowling Green Massacre and confusion over the Flynn resignation to blame. Known as the "Rolling Mascara Massacre", an early morning Conway had assured the media, Flynn had the "full support of the President". Hours later Flynn was fired.

KellyAnne had authored the term "Alternative Facts" relating to Shaun Spicer's statements about the size of the inauguration crowd and developed the euphemism "facts no longer sustainable" about the stream of "misstatements" emanating from the administration. [The Washington Post has logged 134 false or misleading White House claims in the first 34 days of the new administration.]

The Counselor was subject to a complaint about professional misconduct (lying) by a group of law professors from around the U.S.A. A "truth to media" complaint about a White House spokesperson. What would CJ have made of it all.

By the end of the week, Conway was back on air, Trump was on message, denouncing anti semetic incidents as "horrible". He was also tweeting about Black people, "Very much enjoyed my tour of The Smithsonians National Museum of African American History and Culture a great job done by amazing People." Excellent.

Double entendre abounds . We can't be sure if this was a reference to Museum Staff, African Americans or the slave traders who brought them to the USA in the first place. Trump does live (part time) in the Southern White House after all.

Back in Washington by the end of the week, it was all too much. Trump denounced the lying Fake News Media, railed against the leaking FBI. CNN, New York Times and others were excluded from a White House briefing to end the week .... Bannon had advised relationships were going to get worse ... they did ... this cannot end well!

That's all for this week from the West Wing Whisky Tango Foxtrot ... #WestWingWTF