Trump must tell Bannon, 'You're fired'

President Trump's relationship with American Jews was strained by a recent White House statement on the Holocaust which neglected to mention Jews, and by a fractious exchange the president had with a reporter for an Orthodox Jewish publication.

Then, while visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture, he addressed the subject of Anti-Semitism, and he said that there is still need to "root out hate and prejudice and evil."

Because Donald Trump so regularly utters falsehoods, and so often contradicts himself, it is nearly impossible to assess the degree of sincerity of any statement he makes. There is one thing he could do, however, that would be very convincing regarding this recent denouncement of "bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms." He could remove Steve Bannon from the White House.

When Bannon was executive chairman of Breitbart News, he boasted that it was the "platform of the alt-right." Connections flow easily between alt-right, white nationalism, bigotry, and intolerance. Bannon made Breitbart News a place for bigots to spew hate. He may claim personal innocence, but providing a venue for the dissemination of hate speech shows, clearly, a character flaw that has no place in the White House.

It is clear, also, that Bannon's partisanship makes his membership in the National Security Council totally inappropriate. Security is not a partisan issue. Trump must tell Steve Bannon, "You're fired!"

Donald G. Westlake

Wheaton