IT'S WAR: Trump's feud with Steve Bannon is about to upend the political atmosphere

• War broke out between President Donald Trump and his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon after disparaging comments Bannon made about his former boss came to light.
• Trump world is abandoning Bannon en masse.
• It could have an effect on the 2018 primary season.

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Wednesday was just the third day of 2018.

But three days were all that was needed for the outbreak of the first major US political war of the new year.

On one side is former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who eviscerated President Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his daughter Ivanka Trump in Michael Wolff's soon-to-be-released book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House."

On the other side are Trump and his allies. Trump lambasted Bannon in one of his most scathing statements as president, suggesting that Bannon had "lost his mind" and that "he's only in it for himself."

"Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was," Trump said in the statement. "It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books."

It became clear very quickly in the hours that followed Trump's scorched-earth statement who was going to come out on top - the president.

Almost immediately, GOP Senate candidates who had been endorsed by Bannon in their race to unseat establishment hopefuls in primaries backed away from the mercurial media executive-turned-political strategist.

A representative for Arizona GOP Senate hopeful Kelli Ward said Bannon's endorsement was just "one of many high-profile endorsements" she received, with her focus aimed at "helping President Trump advance an America First agenda."

Meanwhile, in West Virginia, Senate candidate and current congressman Rep. Evan Jenkins called on his GOP opponent Patrick Morrisey to disavow Bannon's endorsement.

For the most part, Morrisey obliged.

"Attorney General Morrisey does not support these attacks on President Trump and his family, and was proud to stand with President Trump in 2016 when they were both overwhelmingly elected in West Virginia and when he cast his vote for Trump in the Electoral College," a spokesperson for his campaign said.

'Bannon has no contingent'

Meanwhile, Bannon's more establishment nemeses were thrilled with Trump's scorching condemnation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who went toe-to-toe with Bannon in the Alabama Republican Senate primary in September that ended with the Bannon-backed Roy Moore winning the nomination, reportedly told Trump his statement was "perfect" and that he "wouldn't change a word."

Trump's allies were even more forceful in their condemnation of a man who was once CEO of his presidential campaign and held one of the most prominent positions in the White House.

"Bannon has no contingent," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told White House correspondent April Ryan. "There's a Trump wing of the Republican Party. There's not a Bannon wing."

Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who was fired after blasting Bannon to The New Yorker over the summer, took what amounted to a daylong victory lap. He made multiple TV appearances and fired off several tweets to proclaim that he was right.

"I said what I said in the Summer take out the expletives and pay closer attention," Scaramucci tweeted. "Btw, @realDonaldTrump is doing a great job."'

Trump Jr., who was at the center of Bannon's most forceful criticism in the book, unloaded on him as well, saying Bannon has "no ideology" other "than what's good for Steve" and mocking him for backing Moore, who was defeated last month in the special election by Democrat Doug Jones after Moore was alleged to have engaged in sexual misconduct with teenagers when he was in his 30s. Trump, however, also provided Moore with enthusiastic support in the campaign's waning days.

"It would be amazing if there would have been a nice simple path to keeping this seat with a nice 30 point margin... #thankssteve" Trump Jr. tweeted.

As The New York Times reported Wednesday, Trump and Bannon had become "increasingly estranged" in the weeks that followed what was an embarrassing loss in the Alabama race. Trump was enraged by Bannon's interview with Vanity Fair, in which he blasted Kushner, and it appears that the release of excerpts from Wolff's book this week was the final straw.

Trump's lawyers have filed cease and desist orders to Bannon, Wolff, and his publisher, and some accuracies in the book have already been challenged, though Wolff insists he has hours of tapes from his time in the White House, which The Times wrote was frequently spent in Bannon's office.

'Clearly, the pathway is even more complicated after today'

The disintegration of the Trump-Bannon relationship could lead to further changes of the political and policy landscape - particularly as the 2018 primary season nears.

Bannon sought to barnstorm the country campaigning for hard-right challengers this year, which could hit a snag in light of the recent feud that has caused his candidates to distance themselves from him. And the White House moved to disband its controversial voter fraud commission Wednesday night, laying blame on the former chief strategist and calling it a "blundered Bannon rollout" that "should've never been in place."

The fact that the breakup happened was "not too surprising" to Alex Conant, who served as Sen. Marco Rubio's communications director during his 2016 presidential campaign.

"Bannon has long overstated his role in Trump's election," he told Business Insider. "Trump's response will probably give Bannon even more media attention, at least in the short term. At the end of the day, it's bad for both men."

Conant added that candidates "who tied themselves to Bannon were already facing a very different pathway to victory."

"Clearly, the pathway is even more complicated after today," he said.

Rick Tyler, communications director for Sen. Ted Cruz's 2016 presidential campaign, told Business Insider that the fallout between Trump and Bannon "was bound to happen" because there were "too many egos for one stage."

But he was less bullish on the episode having an effect on the upcoming primary season because "neither has shown to be a deciding factor in winning races."

Bannon, sensing where the winds were blowing, spoke glowingly of Trump on his Breitbart radio program. But it may be too late.

"The President of the United States is a great man," he said. "You know I support him day in and day out, whether going through the country giving the Trump Miracle speech or on the show or on the website, so you don't have to worry about that."