The strategist may have become a political liability in the wake of the Charlottesville protests.
President Trump has decided to push out his chief strategist Stephen Bannon, according to The New York Times and other news outlets.
His departure is another sign that new chief of staff John Kelly has broad authority to clean house in a West Wing that has been hobbled by infighting and leaks.
Trump this year has fired two other aides who helped him win the White House — Reince Priebus and Michael Flynn — but the departure of Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News, is perhaps the most monumental change yet.
The president signaled Bannon stood on shaky ground Tuesday when he was asked by a reporter if he still had confidence in his chief strategist.
“We’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon, ” Trump responded, adding that while he believes he is a “good person” he “came on very late” to the campaign.
Bannon did not attend a national security meeting with Trump at Camp David Friday on Afghanistan, even though he had been involved in the debate over troop levels.
Bannon had few allies left in the White House following the departure of Priebus as chief of staff. The two men had formed a strategic partnership out of political convenience but had become genuine allies.
But Bannon’s worldview is at odds with many of Trump’s senior aides, and he clashed with the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, national economic adviser Gary Cohn and national security adviser H. R. McMaster. Their feuds would often spill into the pages of the press, exacerbating tensions in the White House.
Bannon was already suspected of leaking to reporters about his political enemies, and a surprising on-the-record interview he gave this week to a left-wing magazine American Prospect this week reinforced that notion.
In that interview, Bannon swiped at Cohn and undercut the president’s military threats directed at North Korea.
In the days that followed, Bannon, who rarely spoke on the record with the press, gave several more high-profile interviews, giving the appearance that he was seeking to go out on his own terms.
In one interview, Bannon encouraged the president to engage in the culture wars over race. Shortly after, Trump inflamed the controversy around the white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Va. by defending Confederate monuments that liberals say should be taken down.
With Priebus gone, Bannon was at the mercy of Kelly, a retired general who has been running a tight ship and is eager to rid the White House of drama.
Bannon may have become a political liability in the wake of the Charlottesville protests.
Democrats cast Bannon, who once described Breitbart as “the platform for the alt-right, ” as one of the “racists in the White House.” Pressure had been growing on Trump to cut ties with his nationalist wing, which also includes advisers Sebastian Gorka and Stephen Miller.
Even some Republicans called for Bannon to go, calling him a divisive figure who had muddied the president’s authority on international issues.
But Bannon is also a conduit to Trump’s base. His departure could provoke a backlash among Trump’s core supporters, who are fearful that the president is now being advised by liberals and who they refer to as “globalists, ” like Cohn, Kushner and McMaster.
Breitbart News has been hammering McMaster in particular, who in recent weeks successfully rid the National Security Council of several of Bannon’s allies.
“Steve’s allies in the populist nationalist movement are ready to ride to the gates of hell with him against the West Wing Democrats and globalists like Dina Powell, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Gary Cohn and H. R. McMaster, ” said one Bannon ally.
“They should all be very worried that they’ re efforts to undermine the president will be exposed. If they think what’s happened with Steve is rough, wait until they see what he does outside the White House.”
