![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/650-011418-Trump-Bannon-Wolff-Inner-Circle.jpg\")
The Hollywood Reporter <\/a>was last night. Some of it is in direct contravention to what people quoted in that book said to me about things. Now, I know it\u2019s unfair to tell you this. “What are you talking about?” Well, if I repeat it here, I\u2019m spreading gossip. This is a dilemma that I having. And I\u2019m also sitting here, you know, trying to determine was what I was originally told the case or the truth. Therefore, not having personal knowledge of many of these people, it\u2019s hard to weigh in here factually. But I guess I could go this way.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Roger-Ailes-325x325.jpg\")
In this excerpt, Roger Ailes and Steve Bannon are portrayed as allies who are attempting to move forward an objective and so forth, and they\u2019re friends and so forth. That was news to me, is all I\u2019ll say. That whole conversation that took place at dinner that\u2019s excerpted in the book, I was reading that and I said, “This doesn\u2019t jibe with what people that are quoted here have told me.” So I\u2019m in a situation personally where I\u2019m not knowing which is which now.<\/p>\n
So then I have to ask myself, “Well, would one of the people involved in this have told me the truth about it?” Because everybody exaggerates, and everybody wants to make themselves seem important and relevant and close to the seat of power. So you have to have a filter for some of this stuff and that\u2019s why I read these excerpts and I read these reports, and I know some of the people involved well, and I\u2019ve met others, but don\u2019t know them well. And a lot of it just doesn\u2019t make sense with things that I\u2019ve heard previously.<\/p>\n
So maybe as more of this unfolds and more excerpts… The book is eventually gonna get published, especially now with the cease-and-desist order from the president\u2019s lawyer. That\u2019s gonna guarantee the thing gets published. It\u2019s going to guarantee that the thing is widely read. Here is the president last night, and this is a straight-up comparison. Bannon\u2019s been all over the place. I mean, Bannon has been thought of as Trump\u2019s right-hand man on policy, agenda, populism, advancing the Trump agenda and all this.<\/p>\n
And, at other occasions, Bannon has appeared to be at great conflict with Trump, thinking that Trump doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s doing, that Bannon is the reason anything happened. He\u2019s giving interviews to reporters and conveying that point of view. He goes on 60 Minutes and then contradicts that. He\u2019s back to saying the Russian collusion story is a nothing burger. Nothing to it. Trump is great. It\u2019s all over the ballpark. You can\u2019t keep track of it. And then I start asking, “Why is everybody so fascinated and interested in this?”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/BannonBusiness.jpg\")
It\u2019s because Bannon was close to the seat of power.<\/p>\n
So, the book comes out, the excerpt comes out yesterday, and it just excoriates. This book just destroys the Trump White House. It destroys Trump, it destroys Melania, it destroys Trump\u2019s family, it destroys Ivanka, it destroys Jared Kushner, it destroys everybody. It makes it look like Trump didn\u2019t want to win, had no idea how to win, was devastated when he did win, that his wife was crying when they won, that he didn\u2019t want to be inaugurated — and then he did. After a while, Trump did a giant 180 and really was excited about winning and couldn\u2019t wait to be sworn in, couldn\u2019t wait to start doing his agenda.<\/p>\n
Okay, so here\u2019s a guy who didn\u2019t want to win. That\u2019s what this excerpt in this book claims. He didn\u2019t want to win. His wife was promised! Trump promised Melania they wouldn\u2019t win. And you go and you look at how hard Trump was campaigning and you look at all the rallies and you look at how he was on message at every rally, sometimes five a day. And every one of those rallies was overflowing, and every one of those rallies had the same energy. And there was no doubt that there was something happening in this campaign.<\/p>\n
And it did not look like a campaign of a bunch of people who wanted to lose. Now, I could understand if a lot of them thought they had no prayer of winning. I mean, everybody thought Hillary was gonna win in a landslide. Everybody thought that. All the smart people, all of the media, all of the Washington establishment — everybody — thought that Hillary was gonna win. This book purports to say that Trump thought the same thing, that he\u2019s doing this to become the most famous guy in the world.<\/p>\n
That he\u2019s doing this to set up more and more business opportunities after the campaign is over. Or that he\u2019s doing this to start his own news network with Roger Ailes (that was a crock), or that he\u2019s doing this to do whatever. I mean, there were any number of reasons why he was doing this, but not one of them was to win. And then you measure that against Trump\u2019s messages during the rallies and during the campaign; it doesn\u2019t look like a guy that didn\u2019t want to win.<\/p>\n
Now, if you talk about didn\u2019t expect to win, that\u2019s another thing. That requires getting in somebody\u2019s head or having very close relationship with \u2019em where they open up and tell you the truth. But there was none of that leaked during the campaign that Trump didn\u2019t expect to win, that Trump didn\u2019t want to win. This is one of these things that happens after the fact. Everybody\u2019s denying it.<\/p>\n
Melania\u2019s denying it. Trump is denying it. Now they\u2019re sending out the cease-and-desist order, and Trump had a reaction. This was this morning at the White House. There was a meeting with Republican senators. After that, they had their little gaggle with the media Q&A. A reporter said, “Did Steve Bannon betray you, Mr. President?”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/TrumpBannonMeeting-1024x706.jpg\")
TRUMP: I don\u2019t know. He called me a great man last night. So, you know, he obviously changed his tune pretty quick.<\/p>\n
REPORTERS: (shouting questions)<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: All right. Thank you all very much. Thank you.<\/p>\n
REPORTERS: (shouting questions)<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: I don\u2019t talk to him. I don\u2019t talk… I don\u2019t talk to him.<\/p>\n
REPORTERS: (questions)<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: That\u2019s just a misnomer. Thank you.<\/p>\n
RUSH: They issued a 36-paragraph statement or… Trump issued a statement last night essentially saying, “Bannon\u2019s nobody. He had nothing to do with my campaign, had nothing to do with my winning. I\u2019m my own strategist.” Well, then why was he there? And he was there. He was a CEO of the campaign; then became the White House chief strategist. Now, whatever they want to say, he was there; Trump did hire him and he put him at the chief executive position the campaign.<\/p>\n
So Bannon is running around alternately saying that he\u2019s the guy that got Trump elected, that he\u2019s the guy that gave Trump the agenda items, that he\u2019s the guy that kept Trump going day after day, that Trump this or that. He goes out and he does newspaper stories and interviews — TIME magazine covers — claiming to be the energy behind the Trump presidency, the reason Trump won.<\/p>\n
That infuriates Trump, but Trump doesn\u2019t fire him then. Then we get stories that the way to get to Trump is ego. Flatter Trump. “If you go out there and claim that you\u2019re the brains behind the operation, you\u2019re finished. You\u2019re through.” But Bannon survived all that. The straw that broke the camel\u2019s back was when it was conclusively proven that Bannon was the big leaker. I think they knew it all along.<\/p>\n
They just they waited for an example of it that was unforgivable, and it happened, and so he\u2019s gone. So Bannon\u2019s out, depending on the day, supporting Trump and saying, “I\u2019m all in with Trump\u2019s agenda. I\u2019ll never gonna do anything other than help Trump.” The next day, he says the exact opposite, setting himself up maybe to run for president 2020. He\u2019s the guy running the real populist revolution in America, not Trump and so forth. I\u2019m watching all this thinking, “This is delusions of grandeur.”<\/p>\n
So the book comes out. The book is being excerpted and Bannon\u2019s excoriating Trump and calling the Russia collusion treason and he knew it from the get-go and anybody could have seen it. It\u2019s only a matter of time and Robert Mueller is gonna “crack Don Jr. like an egg on national TV.” It\u2019s over. Everybody can see it like the hair on a face. And then Trump\u2019s lawyer sends the cease and desist letter out, and last night Breitbart News Tonight, here\u2019s Bannon talking about Trump…<\/p>\n
BANNON: The president United States is a great man. You know I support him day in and day out, whether going through the country giving the “Trump Miracle” speech or on the show or on the website. So I don\u2019t think you have to worry about that.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Okay. So, folks, you can do with this whatever you want. Something\u2019s going on. There\u2019s either some grand strategy being played out here. This is a coordinated effort with some objective that we can\u2019t see, don\u2019t know, or everybody involved here\u2019s got a screw loose and is just totally into whatever they can get for themselves on a day-to-day basis, and that probably is more likely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: I can just tell you that some of the things that I have read, the excerpts in that chapter in the Michael Wolff book that was excerpted… Some of it is in direct contravention to what people quoted in that book said to me about things. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":259323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n