Following the lead of his former top political advisor Steve Bannon--who earlier this week told billionaire right-wingers Charles and David Koch to "shut up and get with the program"--President Donald Trump went after the billionaire industrialists (and major GOP donors) on Tuesday morning by calling them a "total joke in Republican circles" and declaring that he never sought "their money or bad ideas."
Of course, Trump--also a billionaire with a thick catalog of terrible ideas--has a history of projecting. But there's nothing like a couple of out-of-touch billionaires with tremendous power and influence eating one another.
Off the bat, many noted that Trump's tweet--whether intentionally or not--offered a rare and truthful admission by the president that the tax bill he signed into law last year was designed to make billionaires like the Koch Brothers (and himself) much richer.
But as The Independent notes:
Mr Trump's outburst came after the Koch brothers' political arm declared it would not help elect a Republican senate candidate in North Dakota, partly over his failure to challenge the White House's trade tariffs.
The decision sent a strong message to Republican officials across the country unwilling to oppose the spending explosion and protectionist trade policies embraced by Mr Trump.
But even before Trump spoke out, Bannon--who the president once accused of having "lost his mind"--was the first to fire back on his former boss's behalf on Sunday.
"What they have to do is shut up and get with the program, OK?" Bannon toldPolitico in an interview. "And here's the program," Bannon said. "Ground game to support Trump's presidency and program; victory on November 6."
Trump's description of the Koch Brothers as "globalist"--a frequent and derisive moniker used by Bannon to describe the kind of global elites he targets as the supreme enemy within his right-wing worldview and which many interpret as an anti-semitic dog-whistle--appeared as a clear signal that the president believes his attack will receive political approval on the pages of Breitbart and among his base.
Oh. And don't forget all those bad ideas.
