Okay. I see a lot of people whining about Trump and his policies. Yes, they're both bad and Trump is an idiot, but the main issue with him is that his apparent disinterest in government and his susceptibility to manipulation makes him a genuine and serious threat. This is a long read, but it's important, because everything Trump does seem to validate this theory more and more every day.

Firstly, I believe that Steve Bannon is using Donald Trump as a puppet to achieve his own ends. I believe he manipulated Trump into appointing him to his National Security Council, and dropping actual advisers from the council. This is evidenced by Trump's claim that "he didn't know he was promoting Bannon to the NSC", which to be honest I would not put past him, given how idiotic he seems to be. I further believe that since Bannon previously directed an unequivocally pro-Russian "news" outlet, he most likely has direct ties to Russia, and sitting on the NSC would allow him to provide his Russian handlers with intelligence on everything the U.S. does. Having Trump drop his actual advisers also means Bannon is unopposed on the council and Trump will do whatever he says. I'm digressing slightly, but the key point here is that Bannon seems to be one of the darkest and most sinister figures, and the biggest threat, in Trump's administration.

Secondly, I believe Bannon intends to destroy the system of checks and balances, as well as the judiciary. You can already see this beginning to fall into place. Have a look at Donald Trump's Twitter over the past couple of days. Notice anything? It's full of attacks against the courts, against the judges. He revealed his hand by stating directly: "if anything happens it's the court's fault" (paraphrasing). He is attempting, most likely on the advice of Bannon, to stir up public discontent towards the judiciary, so that he is less likely to experience public backlash when he tries to take it down. While unlikely, I would not be surprised if he also forced the CIA to carry out a false flag terrorist attack a la Operation Northwoods in order to take advantage of the situation, to persuade people that the courts are bad and getting in the way of Benevolent Donald's plan to protect them. His dismissal of Sally Yates has shown he is not above firing people who don't blindly obey him. The key point here is that Trump/Bannon want to destroy the system of checks and balances in order to maximise their own power and ultimately destroy democracy, and is attempting to use the recent court decision striking down his travel ban to win public support for the same.

Thirdly, Trump, Bannon and Kellyanne Conway are doing absolutely everything in their power to discredit and destroy public trust in the media. This started with use of the term "alt-right" as a euphemism for fascism. Then Conway gave us "alternative facts" as a euphemism for lies. And then she deliberately and maliciously tried to make up the "Bowling Green massacre," which never happened, to stir up yet more public hatred towards Muslims and support for Trump's policies. Every public figure in the Trump administration shamelessly tells bare-faced lies, then screams "FAKE NEWS" when challenged. The reason for this is simple: as I stated above, they want to destroy trust in the media and they want people to believe them, the Trump administration, before any independent media, which would give them enormous power to do whatever they want (like, for example, taking down the judiciary and democracy) while controlling public opinion.

Also, one of the reasons Trump screams "FAKE NEWS" all the time is because he wants to overuse the phrase so that it loses all meaning and people will stop taking it seriously. This would be massively beneficial to the Russians, whose misinformation campaign targeting Western elections relies heavily on the use of fake news. Having people be dismissed when they even mention the term would destroy most public resistance against the Russian campaign.

The key point here is that everyone in the Trump administration deliberately attempts to discredit the media in every way possible, then shamelessly tells bare-faced lies, because they know most people won't bother fact-checking and also won't believe the mainstream media they worked so hard to discredit and portray as being liars opposing Trump unfairly.

That is the big picture. I don't know whether Trump is complicit in all of this, or whether he's just a braindead potato being manipulated by the people around him. Either way, the scary part is that this is even plausible, and it means that he is the most dangerous political figure ever to exist in the United States. Here is a summary of Bannon's (and by extension, Trump's) key objectives:

• Attempting to discredit all media other than that released by the administration, in order to control public opinion. This would also allow him to destroy the political careers of any Congresspeople who attempt to oppose him and his policies. I believe they will wait until they are able to do this reliably before introducing any landmark (read: controversial) legislation.
• Attempting to turn the public against their own courts and legal system, to give him a casus belli for moving to shut down the judiciary, leaving nothing able to challenge his power. I believe there may well be a terrorist attack in the U.S. in the near future, which Trump will blame on the courts. I believe any such attack, if allegedly committed by someone who entered the U.S. after the travel ban was struck down, would potentially be a CIA false-flag operation.
• Ultimately, building a United States which is comfortably in the control of Trump's inner circle, with a non-existent or fully-Trump-controlled judiciary, independent media which is totally shunned, and an alliance with Russia, forcing the U.S. to abandon its values and be at Putin's service.

I might be totally wrong. For the sake of the United States and its people, I really hope I am. But as I said, all of Trump's actions are validating this theory, and it's seriously terrifying. Thanks.