When Bannon appeared ready for a “gunfight” with Kushner, eyes rolled across Washington. Who was Bannon kidding? “He’s picked a fight with the only person he can’t beat,” said a top GOP politico close to the White House. And it didn’t take a top GOP politico to figure that in the end, family will win.

At least, family will win in a fight versus Bannon or any of Trump’s other hires, no matter how initially infatuated Trump might be with them. In the long run, though, it might not be correct to say Kushner, even with his special place as the husband of Trump’s favorite daughter, cannot be fired. It might be more accurate to say he will be the last fired.

When Bill Clinton’s White House went off the rails in the spring of 1993, Clinton tried to recover, barely more than 100 days in office, by hiring the veteran Republican political operator David Gergen. The addition helped smooth things a bit, in part because it showed Clinton was willing to reach outside his circle to help run the government.

Trump will probably have to do that too. (Reach outside his circle, that is, not specifically hire Gergen, which would cause some Republicans to leap from tall buildings.) The president will have to entrust with power a new set of Republicans who weren’t on the Long March and who aren’t related to him by blood or marriage. It’s coming, sooner or later.