Stephen Bannon, Jared Kushner meet to end White House rift

WASHINGTON: Two of the top officials closest to President Donald Trump — Stephen Bannon and Jared Kushner — met on Saturday to reconcile their differences and put an end to the infighting that’s plagued the White House in recent days.

Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, and Kushner, Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, met at the urging of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, who asked them to set aside their disagreements and focus on pursuing the president’s agenda, said a senior administration official familiar with the meeting.

Media outlets published a rash of news stories this week exposing the civil war within Trump’s inner circle, with anonymous sources describing factions led by Bannon and Kushner as being locked in perpetual battle.

Trump reorganised his National Security Council on Wednesday, removing Bannon from the principals committee on the same day the president was weighing options for a missile strike against Syria, his administration’s first major decision on a military action.