With Steve Bannon officially removed from the White House inner circle, Republicans are hoping the bloodletting can nurse the administration's agenda back to life before Congress gets back in session, McClatchy reported Friday.
"I, for one, am relieved he will no longer be at the White House advising the President of the United States," former American Conservative Union chairman Al Cardenas told McClatchy. "His agenda was anti-immigration, nationalist, and an agenda that would take us back in time from the social justice issues that many of us fought for."
Another Republican lobbyist and donor, Ozzie Palomo, believes Friday's move signals the influence of new White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
"With Bannon leaving, I'm hopeful it's a turning point for the administration," Palomo told McClatchy. "If anything, it shows that Gen. Kelly is really having an impact on day-to-day operations within the West Wing. September will be a critical month with several major policy battles and the administration needs to limit the distractions."
The repeal and replacement of Obamacare might be all but dead, but key issues of the debt ceiling, passing a budget before the deadline of a government shutdown, and work on the hope for 2018 tax reform loom when Congress returns from its August recess. Perhaps the ostensible White House renovations might free the administration of the distractions that have stalled it.
"The more Gen. Kelly is in charge of the day-to-day, as well as cutting out fighting, getting people on the same page, that there's not all of these different fiefdoms, the more hope there is that a focused effort can be put on issues which Trump was elected to deal with, not all of these diversions," South Carolina GOP strategist Chip Felkel told McClatchy.
"The less distractions for Donald J. Trump, the better."
President Trump's most frequent Republican critics – Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, or Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio – have yet to tweet public comment on Bannon's departure at the time this story was published.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who was once in the running to be Secretary of State, foreshadowed "radical changes" in the White House this week to restore "stability" in the White House – which was echoed by frequent Trump campaign surrogate Newt Gingrich on Fox News on Friday morning.