It seems there are only two stories that ever come out of the White House. There are stories about Donald Trump surrounding himself with horrible people, and stories about Donald Trump chafing and pouting when slightly less horrible people stop him from doing the things the more horrible people want.
In this story about now-sidelined anti-trade warrior Peter Navarro, an unapologetic burn-it-downer, we have both.
Trump is increasingly eager to flex his muscles on trade, according to White House aides and outside advisers to the president, who added that the president is sometimes resentful of those who recommend a more measured approach to the issue. And, the advisers said, Kelly’s efforts to impose order on the West Wing have isolated the president — leaving Trump increasingly frustrated and unpredictable. [...]
Prior to Kelly’s entry, Navarro enjoyed a private 15-minute conversation with Trump at least once a week, where he would “rile him up” on trade, according to a senior administration official.
Now Navarro has to argue with the rest of the trade team before going to Trump, rather than privately undercutting them in one-one-one conversations with the president. Which is bad for him, because he can't "rile" the president, and which is very stressful for the president, whose only policy ideas come from crazy people "riling" him. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly sounds like quite the sadist.
But we've heard this story over and over again. The White House is in turmoil, with Bannonite burn-it-downers locked in constant battle with more mainstream-ish Republican wags who only want to burn things down halfway or so, but the burn-it-downers keep gaining Trump's favor because he doesn't understand a damn thing about any of the policies but the idea of bold, decisive acts of arson appeals to him on a gut level, but then one or more of the half-competents talk him out of doing the worst possible thing—much of the time, but not always—after which Trump gets sullen and pissed off because he didn't do the batshit crazy thing that would have gotten him screaming press coverage. Or something.
It's a bit odd to think that our nation's policy priorities, our foreign policy, even whether we go to war or not will be forever based on who can or can't sneak into Trump's office to fill his head with rage and magic beans before John Kelly (or, in six months, John Kelly's replacement) finds out, but there we are. Unfortunately, he has not been able to pry Trump away from his compulsive Fox & Friends addiction, which means that all the crazy ideas that Kelly has tried to steer Trump away from are being replaced, in Donald's mind, by whatever the hell Steve Doocy is going on about on any given morning.