Deep political analysis of the ousting of Steve Bannon mainly suggests a win for the New York inner Trump faction (Ivanka, Jared etc) over populism; and a win for Chief of Staff John Kelly brought in to restore peace. The truth is Bannon dissed his chances in February when he appeared on the cover of Time as the great manipulating puppet-master who had created Trump and portrayed himself as Darth Vader. No one but no one gets to take away the centre spotlight from the great narcissist.
The Trump/Bannon relationship chart has a power-struggling composite Jupiter Pluto conjunction – initially this can operate as a mutually back-slapping, adventurous combo but it almost inevitably ends up in a game-playing, who’s-going-to- get-the-last-word scenario. There’s a composite Sun Mercury Saturn conjunction which is workmanlike and cool, but that’s been undermined this year by tr Neptune in opposition, which continues on till late 2018. Plus a passionately enthusiastic composite Mars Venus, which has tr Saturn in square for the final time at the moment into October.
In his I’m-not-going-quietly interview yesterday Bannon said: “I feel jacked up. Now I’m free. I’ve got my hands back on my weapons. Someone said, ‘it’s Bannon the Barbarian’. I am definitely going to crush the opposition. There’s no doubt. I built a f***ing machine at Breitbart. And now I’m about to go back, knowing what I know, and we’re about to rev that machine up. And rev it up we will do.”
Nothing in the crazy, conspiracy-ridden world in which Bannon and Trump operate is simple. Bannon and his billionaire patron Robert Mercer evidently still support Trump and his agenda, so presumably see him as a hostage to ‘swamp’/globalist forces now surrounding him in the White House.
Mercer (see post June 28 2017) is a full-blown paranoid, reportedly believing the Clintons have had opponents murdered, that nuclear radiation from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki made Japanese citizens healthier, and that African Americans were better off before the Civil Rights Movement (New Yorker).
Bannon’s overly aggressive Mars in Libra on the point of an explosive T Square to Uranus opposition a Capricorn North Node will be at full throttle for the next few months. Since his Uranus is also square Neptune, he has a tendency towards fanaticism, an irrational disinclination to face facts even when pushed in his face. The Leo Solar Eclipse is, of course, conjunct his Pluto and maybe Leo Moon and his Solar Arc Jupiter, giving him a shock and a spur to power. But 2018 will see his plans dissolving and his life going through one of its periodic upheavals. His career backwards has been one of ruptured business relationships, bombastic and war-like claims and failures.
Even his relationship to Robert Mercer looks less than amiable as this year wears on and will be on a downhill slide through 2018.
Mercer himself, 11 July 1948, looks less than ecstatic at the moment with his Solar Arc Uranus conjunct his Venus in Leo and both meeting the Leo Eclipse had on; with Solar Arc Saturn conjunct his Neptune bringing uncertainty; with more disappointments and failed plans as the year goes on. He’ll be bullish at points with tr Pluto square his Jupiter, but there’ll be more downs than ups.