Understand this if you can. Donald Trump has basically demoted the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the director of National Intelligence and in his place, Trump has elevated Breitbart’s editor, Steve Bannon to sit in on national intelligence meetings.
But the defining moment for Mr. Bannon came Saturday night in the form of an executive order giving the rumpled right-wing agitator a full seat on the “principals committee” of the National Security Council — while downgrading the roles of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence, who will now attend only when the council is considering issues in their direct areas of responsibilities. It is a startling elevation of a political adviser, to a status alongside the secretaries of state and defense, and over the president’s top military and intelligence advisers.
