Developer and longtime Trump friend Tom Barrack Wednesday played down news reports of discord within the White House, saying that "I think the team is the A-Team" — and that includes chief strategist Steve Bannon.
"There's more harmony," Barrack told CNN's Erin Burnett of President Donald Trump's staff. "They're better organized.
"Things are starting to move. The agencies are getting their teams.
"What everybody has to get used to is this president has a very different management style," he continued. "There's only one president and only one point of view — and I promise you, he does not get manipulated.
"He surrounds himself with bright people," Barrack said. "Steve is one of them.
"He has a philosophy that has a place."
News reports have spotlighted a rift between Bannon and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, following the former Breitbart News executive's removal from the National Security Council.
The president also has bristled at dispatches that his actions are decided by Bannon.
"I do my own policy; I'm my own strategist," Trump told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
Barrack said what is being seen as discord is often mistaken for Trump's actual management approach.
"He curates different points of view and encourages confusion amongst them.
"What happens is a misunderstanding sometimes on the outside that, of course, you're going to have fights inside of the sandbox that are on purpose.
"The president then curates a point of view to determine what he wants to do and he adapts.
"Whenever you forget who's in charge, he will teach all of us a lesson," Barrack later said. "All that's happening in the inner workings of the White House as everybody is gaining more command and control.
"In my opinion, it's running better today than it's ever run — and what this team has accomplished is monumental."
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