White House press secretary issues statement telling joint chiefs of staff John Kelly and Bannon have mutually agreed that today would be Bannons last day
Steve Bannon has been removed from his post as White House chief strategist, objective his highly contentious career at the center of the Trump administration.
A statement from the White House press secretary was sent to journalists on Friday afternoon after multiple outlets reported Bannon was on his way out.
White House joint chiefs of staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steves last day, it read. We are grateful for his services and wish him the best.
Reports on Friday had stated that Donald Trump had decided to remove his chief strategist, but that the White House was trying to work out the details.
A Trump ally told the Guardian that the leaks about Bannons fate were part of an effort to pressure the White House aide to step down. They are trying to get him to quit, the source said.
Minutes afterwards, the Guardian became aware that Bannon was out.
One source told the Guardian that Bannon had officially resigned weeks ago, before the furore over Trumps remarks equating neo-Nazis and leftwing protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Timeline
Key Trump administration firings and defections
Trump fired Sally Yates, the acting us attorney general, after she refused to enforce the Muslim-focused immigration ban.
Trump fired national security adviser Michael Flynn after he apparently misinformed vice president Mike Pence over conversations hed had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Trump fired Preet Bharara, US attorney for New Yorks Southern District, who had refused to comply with an order to resign.
Katie Walsh, deputy chief of staff and a Reince Priebus friend, quit. She afterwards said she decided to make the move after the initial failing of a Trump-backed health care bill in the House.
Most notoriously, Trump fired FBI director James Comey. Initially, Trump cited Comeys handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation as the reason behind his decision. Later, Trump admitted this Russia thing with Trump and Russia( ie the investigation into collusion to swing the election between the presidents camp and Moscow) had been on his mind.
Walter Shaub Jr ., office of government ethics director, resigned over fears that Trumps conflicts of interest put the US at risk of being seen as a kleptocracy.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer resigned after Anthony Scaramucci was brought in as communications director.
Trump forced out Reince Priebus as the White House chief of staff and replaced him with homeland security secretary, Gen John Kelly.
White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci was fired after only ten days, reportedly at the request of new White House joint chiefs of staff John Kelly and after a foul-mouthed tirade to a New Yorker journalist.
Steve Bannon, White House chief strategist, was removed from his position, leaving a major void in the administration.
Late Friday afternoon, the Breitbart website, where Bannon had been editor before to intervene in the White House, announced that he had already returned to the helm as executive chairman and presided over their nightly editorial session. An indication of what its editorial tone might be came in an interview that Bannon dedicated to Bloomberg News on Friday afternoon. If theres any embarrassment out there, let me clear it up, he said. Im leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents on Capitol Hill, in the media, and in corporate America.
The website had long been a thorn in the side of establishment Republican but had been relatively restrained in blaming the Trump administration, although it become more aggressive towards figures like McMaster and Cohn in recent weeks. Joel Pollak, a senior editor at Breitbart, simply tweeted # WAR soon after Bannons departure was announced.
The removal of Bannon as Trumps chief strategist marks a remarkable rise and fall for a rightwing ideologue regarded by some as the power behind the throne.
Bannon had retreated from the limelight in recent months, after bearing much of the held accountable for the failure of the presidents initial travel forbid and amid speculation that his increased profile had depicted Trumps ire.
But a bizarre interview that Bannon devoted to the liberal magazine the American Prospect in which he claimed there was no military answer for North Korea, called the far right a collect of buffoons, and said the lefts focus on racism would allow him to crush the Democrats may have altered the balance of power inside the West Wing. For an aide long suspected of leaking freely about rivals, Bannons excuse that he believed the call was off the record was not helpful.
Bannons departure leaves a major void in the White House, depriving it of a man once seen as Cardinal Richelieu in cargo pants, an unkempt schemer virtuoso at manipulating the president, who was famously illustrated as a childlike naif to his aides Grim Reaper in a Saturday Night Live sketch. The characterization summed up in a Time magazine covering that hailed the great manipulator reportedly riled the famously thin-skinned chairman and contributed to Bannons fall from grace.
Josh Green, the author of the book Devils Bargain about Bannon and Trump, told the Guardian: Bannon may be the only person in the White House with clear and distinct politics of his own.
His absence entails more power and influence for figures such as Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner and “the member states national” economic council chair, Gary Cohn, who have few, if any, ideological ties to the Republican party and the conservative movement.
Bannon has long occupied an unusual posture in the White House. In an administration that one outside ally compared to Baskin Robbins, composed of 31 flavors, Bannon represented the nationalist Trump coalition as opposed to a lot of people that were not only not Trump advocates but anti-Trump people.
One Bannon ally told the Guardian that the West Wing had seen a four-on-one battle recently, with Bannon taking on a alliance of Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Cohn and national security adviser HR McMaster. In the allys eyes Bannon represented the populist burn it all down path while others in the administration wanted Trump to move the center and work with the establishment.
An indication how Bannon viewed those remaining in the West Wing came in an interview with the Weekly Standard on Friday afternoon where Bannon told: The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over.
He added: We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency. But that presidency is over. Itll be something else. And therell be all kinds of fightings, and therell be good days and bad days, but that presidency is over.
Bannon had also stood out as the lone White House staffer to defend Trumps comments on Charlottesville in recent days.
The White House aide talked on the record to the New York Times to defend the presidents reply earlier the coming week, arguing: President Trump, by asking, Where does this all end? Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln connects with the American people about their history, culture and traditions.
He joyously added: The race-identity politics of the left wants to say its all racist. Just give me more. Tear down more statues. Say the revolution is arriving. I cant get enough of it.
In a White House where aides have rushed to distance themselves from Trumps both sides remarks, Bannons public supporting was as an outlier, although vice-president Mike Pence has also backed Trump over Charlottesville, albeit in less strident terms.
However, his role as the former editor of Breitbart, which Bannon called a platform for the alt right attained him a focal point of criticism of the administration in the recent days and one stalwart Trump ally on Capitol Hill, Peter King of New York, had called on Bannon to resign.
The president himself had offered a less-than-full-throated defense of Bannon earlier in the week, telling well see when asked if the White House aide would keep his chore. Trump added, referring to his election campaign: I like Mr Bannon. Hes a friend of mine. But Mr Bannon came on very late. I went through 17 senators, governors and I won all the primaries. Mr Bannon went on very much later than that.
Additional reporting by Adam Gabbatt
Read more: www.theguardian.com
