From The Guardian
Donald Trump's White House is plunging the United States into a full-blown constitutional crisis a little more than a week into his administration. One of the prime culprits seems to be his controversial chief strategist: Steve Bannon, whom Nancy Pelosi called a white nationalist.
Massive protests sprouted up around the country on Saturday following Trump's unconstitutional executive order banning all refugees and all travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries -- including those with valid visas. But somewhat lost in that news was Bannon's central role in the controversy and move to consolidate even more power within the government.
On Saturday, Trump installed him on the influential National Security Council (NSC) as part of a radical re-shuffling of the influential White House board of advisers that usually is composed of intelligence and military officials who provide the White House with guidance.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence were removed from the NSC. As journalist Sarah Jeong put it on Twitter, national security "is such an emergency you have to ban Muslims. But also let's replace chairman of joint chiefs with some guy with a garbage website."
Meanwhile, chaos reigned on Saturday as dozens of immigrants were detained after the executive order was put into force immediately. As CNN reported Saturday night, the mayhem seems to be Bannon's doing.
CNN reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the agency which oversees Customs and Border Protection, did not even know about the executive order until it was being released to the public. Nor did its lawyers, who did not do a legal analysis of it until after it was in effect. DHS lawyers reportedly determined that it did not apply to green card holders and permanent residents, but the White House -- led by Steve Bannon -- overruled that objection and kept the restrictions on green card holders in place, allowing exemptions on a case by case basis.