The knives are out for Steve Bannon. The national media is doing everything in its power to remove one of the major anchors of Donald Trump’s political revolution. In many ways, Bannon is the glue that holds together the ideological and practical sides of the Trump administration. Losing him would be an enormous blow to the original goals of so many supporters.

Reports that Trump is distancing himself from Bannon has prompted an almost audible cheer from the press corps. It’s a “Biblical fall,” says New York Magazine, showing him with a crown of thorns. Vanity Fair ushered in the phrase “civil war” as quickly as it could. CNBC pushed the pop culture angle and called in a “Game of Thrones.” Newsweek beat the Russia horse well past death (bonus points for their hyperbolic hyperlink). The Atlantic thinks that “Trumpism” will outlive Bannon’s tenure in the White House.
Why is the media so obsessed with Bannon? For one, he’s the intellectual heart of the Trump movement. To his rivals and allies alike, he’s Rasputin, Dear Leader, a Leninist (one might think that calling him both a Leninist and Rasputin is contradictory), an “entho-nationalist ideologue,” Islamophobic, and more.