On Sunday, Donald Trump the President-elect, named his two top advisers signaling the beginning to his aggressive agenda and setting up a possible battle in the White House between outsider, populist forces, which propelled him to victory and GOP establishment that is the dominant force in Washington.
Reince Priebus, who is the Republican National Committee chief, was named by Trump as his chief of staff. The appointment of Priebus, who is 44, brings a Washington insider into the White House who is looked at as being acceptable by a wide swath of the GOP, and he showed a willingness to work in the establishment he had assailed during the campaign trail.
However, Trump sent an opposite signal by choosing Stephen Bannon, his campaign chief and former chief of Breitbart News, as his senior counselor and chief strategist.
The appointment of Bannon was blasted by political operatives and Jewish groups from both parties, who said Bannon was too white nationalism and alt-right.
Bannon once said that Breibart was the alt-right platform. Alt-right is a conservative movement that is known for anti-Semitic and white nationalist sentiment.
CEO Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League tweeted Sunday that the ADL opposes the Bannon appointment to a senior role in the Trump White House because he and his alt-right are very hostile to core values in America.
The announcement of Bannon came as the President-elect highlighted a few of his priorities to start his term on the news program 60 Minutes Sunday night.
He vowed to deport immediately as many as 3 million undocumented immigrants after his inauguration and to repeal simultaneously as well as replace the Affordable Care Act.
He repeated a past remark that he is more aware of the Islamic State than generals in the U.S. are.
Nevertheless, the appointment of Bannon drew criticism from both sides by political operatives. Breitbart has published articles with headlines that state women that faced harassment on the Internet should log off and labeled Bill Kristol as a renegade Jew.
Harry Reid the Minority Leader of the Senate said that Trump’s choice of Bannon as a top aide has signaled that White Supremacists are to be represented in the White House at the top levels of the new administration.
