House Speaker Paul Ryan has won over an unlikely ally to salvage his controversial tax plan: Steve Bannon.
Trump’s top strategist once described Ryan as “the enemy,” but now the former Breitbart News chief is the speaker’s best chance to win approval for his border-adjusted tax, which Republicans currently say has almost no hope of clearing the Senate.
In a handful of White House meetings, Ryan found that Bannon was perhaps the most enthusiastic backer of the border-adjustment plan, according to a senior administration official and a person familiar with the sessions.
A vigorous endorsement from Donald Trump could help save the border-adjustment plan, which is running into strong opposition from the energy industry and retailers. The retailers took the unusual step of launching an advertising campaign on the tax issue aimed at viewers of Fox News’ Fox and Friends and Saturday Night Live, TV programs Trump is known to watch.
The sudden alliance between Ryan and Bannon also shows how Republican leaders are adapting to the ultimate outsider president and seeking to curry favor with the handful of aides who can influence his thinking. It reflects the intense tussle inside the Trump administration to shape the policies of a president still new to Washington.
Inside the administration, the proposed tax has several backers, including Stephen Miller, a senior Trump policy aide; Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, a longtime Ryan ally; newly confirmed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross; and trade adviser Peter Navarro, according to a senior administration official. Jared Kushner, a senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law, is said to be open to the proposal but hasn’t made up his mind.
National Economic Council director Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are against the border adjustment part of Ryan’s plan, the official said. These and other White House officials have met with Ryan a handful of times to discuss policies including a tax overhaul, according to a person familiar with the meetings.
There is an irony in the former Breitbart editor warming up to one of Ryan’s pet proposals, given how critical that media outlet was of the House speaker over the past year. During last year’s campaign, articles on the conservative website painted Ryan as soft on crime and border security and as a secret supporter of Hillary Clinton.
But the argument that the border tax could boost goods stamped “Made in America” resonates with Bannon, according to the person familiar with the meetings, citing the strategist’s push for Trump’s protectionist stance during the campaign.
Ryan has also spoken positively of Bannon since the election, telling PBS Newshour on Feb 8, “We’re different kinds of conservatives, that we can safely say, I think. But we’re serving a purpose, which is to get this agenda passed, and on that agenda that we’ve rolled out, that we ran on, on that we agree. So I see a person that I have a common cause and purpose with.”