John Kelly can’t stop internal White House wars as Trump factions have ‘gone to the mattresses’

The conservative Weekly Standard published a blockbuster expose on the escalating battle between National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Apparently, new White House chief of staff John Kelly is unable to stop the war, or is siding with McMaster against Bannon. The Weekly Standard says the two camps are, "going to the mattresses," the famous phrase from Mario Puzo's The Godfather on mob caporegimes setting up secret apartments with mattresses for soldiers to sleep on, "whenever a war between the Families became bitterly intense."

McMaster has been on a firing spree of Bannon loyalists. Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence on the National Security Council who provided information to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) about 'unmasking' during the Barack Obama administration, was ousted today. Derek Harvey was ousted last week. Rich Higgins was ousted two weeks ago. Former Breitbart.com columnist Tera Dahl was ousted last month.

Bannon is responding with media allies outside the White House.

"On Wednesday, radio host Laura Ingraham tweeted a months-old article from the New York Times about McMaster’s 'break with the administration on Islam,'" the Weekly Standard explained. "Meanwhile, blogger Mike Cernovich has been tweeting links to a website called McMasterLeaks, which contains a single blog post with multiple examples of how McMaster is undermining Trump."

There's now open speculation as to whether Steve Bannon could be the next Trump staffer to be ousted.

"For some time, Steve Bannon has been considering leaving the White House. One of Bannon’s closest buddies in the West Wing was Reince Priebus, now gone," the Weekly Standard revealed. "A newly emboldened H.R. McMaster, purging Bannonites with the backing of John Kelly (and the president), could hasten his exit."