As Bannon Descends, Mitch McConnell Ascends as Best Trump Confidante

Donald Trump and his bumbling, inexperienced band of misfit enablers stumbled into Washington D.C. screaming about “the swamp” and all that draining they were going to do.

Their ignorance of politics has been proven.

In D.C., you don’t drain the swamp. The swamp drains you.

And speaking of swamp things, let’s talk about the turtle, House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Sure, he looks goofy, but let’s be honest. He’s been at this a lot longer than Trump. He knows the game, and he can sniff out a malleable rube in the White House.

Trump roared about McConnell, but he rolled pretty quickly. That’s because McConnell knows which buttons to push.

Specifically, feed Trump a tablespoon of praise and reap a pound of return.

After a rancorous beginning to his presidency, where nothing was getting done and Trump spent more time attacking the GOP than trying to build relationships that could be used to move things forward later, it seems things have turned.

Mitch McConnell, blasted by former White House chief strategist (and now blackballed former Trump insider) Steve Bannon, has seen Bannon rally the “deplorables” against those they consider the McConnell establishment candidates.

Bannon won the battle for Alabama, by getting Roy Moore into the running for Jeff Sessions’ vacant Senate seat, over McConnell’s pick, Luther Strange. He lost the war, however, when Moore was bested by Democrat Doug Jones.

Yes, Bannon managed to put Alabama in blue hands, for the first time in several decades.

That allowed McConnell to stand back and say, “I told you so.”

Of course, McConnell was always working this in his favor, especially when it comes to favoring his chosen candidates in future races.

Then there was the GOP tax bill. So desperate was Trump to see something get passed that he could sign, that McConnell was able to drag this over the finish line for him, and Trump quickly hailed him as a “partner,” rather than the establishment boogeyman he and his followers have reviled so openly.

There was a victorious presser, with Trump and McConnell standing shoulder-to-shoulder, beaming over their accomplishment.

In that moment, did Steve Bannon feel his soul being sucked out through his feet?

The man who represented all he loathed was now being openly embraced by the man he’d plotted to use as the instrument of the establishment’s destruction.

Then there was the great crashing down of everything Bannon thought he was building from the outside, after excerpts from the Michael Wolff book, “Fire and Fury” Inside the Trump White House” were released on Wednesday.

Bannon’s comments were prominently featured, and they were not complimentary to Trump or his family.

Trump issued a statement on Wednesday evening, distancing himself from Bannon, accusing Bannon of having “lost his mind” and being in it, only for himself.

Apparently, even allies of Bannon are abandoning ship.

Bannon and whatever political clout he thought he had is pretty much done.

And who is working that angle?

McConnell.

Speaking of how Trump handled the news of Bannon’s comments and the statement issued:

“He told the president it was perfect and he wouldn’t change a word,” one person familiar with the discussion said, according to The Washington Post.

That’s right. You can count on your pal, Mitch, Mr. President. He’s got your back.

Trump and Bannon played the game, but people like Mitch McConnell write the rules, so while I’m no fan of wishy-washy, do-nothing Republicans, myself (something McConnell is the poster boy of), I’m equally disgusted by what Trump and Bannon represent, with their populist incivility and ignorance.

This is theater, and McConnell has to know he won. By siding with Trump in this latest blowup, he loses no political points. With just the right words, he gains more influence over the president, and the game is over.

This was always McConnell’s playhouse. Trump and Bannon just didn’t see that.