The long-distance dust-up between President Trump and former adviser Steve Bannon, over comments made by the now-exiled confidant in a soon-to-be-released book, consumed political coverage Wednesday. The relationship between Trump and Bannon has always been a source of friction and therefore intrigue; the pugilistic Breitbart chairman and populist true believer has from the beginning viewed Donald Trump as a willing, or perhaps unwitting, vessel for his nationalist political vision.
This chafes Trump.

Whether Trump needs Bannon is a matter of political debate, but what was previously clear was that Bannon most certainly needed Trump. Yes, he ran a website popular with a certain demographic important to the Trump presidency, but no one went so far as to think Bannon could exist without the political oxygen the Trump administration fed him. That is, until Trump fired Bannon, who retook his seat at the head of Breitbartand declared “war” on the Republican establishment.

Emboldened, Bannon upped his antagonism of the Republican leadership and even started bucking Trump while vocally backing primary candidates like Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. After a brief stint in the West Wing, Bannon now appeared to believe he, too, could be president and reportedly floated the idea privately to friends.

A Bannon administration, of course, is a very, very long shot, but it appears Bannon may have thrown away his (long) shot with his recent antics, which, the Washington Post reports, turned off Republican superdonor Rebekah Mercer, a key Bannon financier.

Bannon has in recent weeks also alienated his main financial backer, Rebekah Mercer, after he told several other major conservative donors that he would be able to count on the Mercers’ financial support should he run for president, a person familiar with the conversations said. The person said Mercer now does not plan to financially support Bannon’s future projects — and that she was frustrated by his moves in Alabama and some of his comments in the news media that seemed to stoke unnecessary fights.

“A person close to Bannon said he was not running for president. Bannon and Mercer declined to comment through representatives,” according to the Post.