Steve Bannon's fiery comments about President Donald Trump in a soon-to-be-published White House expose could impact Republican performance in the 2018 midterm elections, according to analysts.
Trump lashed out at Bannon on Wednesday, saying his former campaign strategist had "lost his mind," in response to Bannon's scathing criticism of his family published in Michael Wolff's forthcoming book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House." Part of Bannon's broadside was the accusation that Donald Trump Jr.'s 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower was "treasonous", among other claims.
"Divisions with Bannon could result in the Republicans losing support in the midterms with Bannon promising to run hard-right independent candidates in as many districts as possible in the House elections," Derek Halpenny, head global markets analyst at MUFG, said in an email note. "It could split some of Trump's support."
Polls already suggest that Democrats could feasibly win the 25 seats needed to regain control of the House of Representatives.
"Many of them (Republicans) are running scared at this point, a lot of them have decided not to actually stand for election," Peter Trubowitz, director of the United States Center at the London School of Economics, told CNBC on Friday.
"They sense that there's a Democratic wave coming. And for Republicans, the move toward the center guarantees getting primaried by a Republican challenger, a Breitbart type or so forth."