Thanks, Steve. White House strategist Steve Bannon is the guy to blame for the "fire and fury" nuclear showdown with North Korean madman Kim Jong-un.
Or for President Trump's statement of today: "Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!"
Trump's rhetoric, of course, is catnip for Kim, who uses the tweeter-in-chief's bellicose words to justify his nuclear program that has bankrupted and isolated North Korea.
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But without the evil genius of Bannon, Trump would be playing lots of golf and hosting an updated version of "The Apprentice" instead of threatening a tinpot dictator hellbent for attention. Hello, Madam President.
Josh Green, senior national correspondent for Bloomberg Businessweek, wrote the definitive book, "Devil's Bargain," on the extraordinary life and rise of Bannon from graduate of a right-wing Roman Catholic military academy in Virginia, US Navy, Goldman Sachs, Hollywood filmmaker, CEO of Hong Kong Internet gaming company, beneficiary of the ultra-rich Republican donor Mercer family, executive chairman of Breibart News, chief of Trump's campaign and White House strategist.
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Published in June, Devil's Bargain is a must-read for students of political PR and those still scratching their heads over the presidential election.
According to Green, Bannon had been searching for a "vessel for his populist-nationalist ideas, trying out and eventually discarding Tea Party politicians such as Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann."
At the same time, Bannon was using his attack, attack, attack and attack political strategy in Breibart and the alt-right media to destroy Clinton.
Trump was the perfect vessel for Bannon, who was despised by Republicans and Democrats for his attacks on each.
Bannon encouraged Trump's worst tendencies, wrote Green. "He was a human hand grenade, an Internet-era update of the Slim Pickens character in Dr. Stranglove who rides the bomb like a rodeo bull, whoopin and hollerin' all the way to nuclear annihilation."
Steve may be in for the ride of his life.
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