Trump allies smear his own Silver Star general after he denounced white supremacy

“Of course it is terrorism,” McMaster stressed on “Meet The Press.”

The retired general’s blunt language stood in stark contrasts to the fumbling timidity that marked the White House’s response to Saturday’s right-wing wilding in the streets, which left one dead and nearly three dozen injured.

Donald Trump refused to call out by name the Nazi and KKK enthusiasts who terrorized the Virginia town. And then, instead of trying to help heal the nation, he disappeared from public view. Trump’s attorney general belatedly labeled Saturday’s deadly car attack an act of terror.

Now comes word that the ongoing, “alt-right” media smear campaign aimed at ousting McMaster, a Silver Star recipient, will soon intensify. “It’s about to get much uglier,” reports Axios.

“Outside forces opposed to McMaster are going to allege he has a drinking problem,” according to Axios, which pointed to alt-right blogger Mike Cernovich as the campaign’s point person. He previously promoted the dangerous Pizzagate hoax. Cernovich served as a key Trump media ally during the 2016 campaign and helped rally alt-right, white nationalist support around the Republican.

Previously, Cernovich created a website called “McMaster Leaks,” alleging McMaster is funneling classified information and White House secrets to disgraced former CIA Director David Petraeus and billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

The smear campaign is seen as being orchestrated from inside the White House by chief Trump strategist Steve Bannon, who last year bragged that he had turned Breitbart into a “platform” for the white nationalists of the alt-right. The ugly crusade against McMaster is just the latest example of Trump’s radical-right allies attacking distinguished members of the U.S. military.

White nationalists inside Trump’s camp reportedly don’t trust McMaster, whom they view as a “globalist” who is soft on Islamic terrorism. By so forcefully denouncing homegrown, right-wing terror over the weekend, McMaster likely only sharpened the alt-right anger directed at him.

During Sunday’s “Meet The Press” interview, McMaster repeatedly refused to say whether he could continue working with Bannon. He also stressed that Bannon’s far-right ally, Nazi sympathizer Sebastian Gorka — another Breitbart alum who serves as deputy assistant for the president — “is not in the National Security Council.”

On Sunday, Trump’s former communication director, Anthony Scaramucci, mocked the “Bannonbart” political agenda as “nonsensical,” and suggested Bannon would soon be fired.