Steve Bannon is likely headed back to Breitbart News, a source close to the’He’s going to be their champion’ newly fired White House strategist tells The Daily
Steve Bannon is likely headed back to Breitbart News, a source close to the newly fired White House strategist tells The Daily Caller.
“He is likely coming back to Breitbart, ” said the Bannon ally, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The White House announced on Friday that Bannon would be leaving his post, almost one year to the day after he joined the Trump campaign.
“White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day. We are grateful for his service and wish him the best, ” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
Bannon, 63, has told associates that he submitted his resignation on Aug. 7 but that his departure was delayed by the events in Charlottesville, Va. Conversely, The New York Times reported that Trump on Friday told aides that he planned to sack Bannon, who has come under increased scrutiny in the wake of the events in Charlottesville.
However, The Daily Caller learned Bannon was in good spirits days before the announcement of his departure.
Bannon’s fate appeared all but sealed after he gave an interview this week to an editor at the liberal outlet The American Prospect. In the interview, Bannon criticized Trump’s recent actions against North Korea and also blasted fellow White House officials, including Gary Cohn, Trump’s chief economic adviser.
“That’s a fight I fight every day here, ” Bannon said in the interview. “We’ re still fighting. There’s Treasury and [National Economic Council chair] Gary Cohn and Goldman Sachs lobbying.”
Breitbart, which Bannon took over as CEO after Andrew Breitbart died in 2012, appears ready for a battle with the White House.
Joel Pollack, an editor at the influential conservative site, issued a vague battle cry on Twitter just after news of Bannon’s ouster hit the wire.
“Expect Bannon to lead the fight for the working class, the movement that elected Trump president, ” the source close to Bannon told TheDC.
“He’s going to be their champion and there’s really nobody better to fight back against the globalists throughout Washington and government and the media, ” continued the source.
Bannon and Breitbart have recently waged a campaign against “globalists” in the administration. The attacks have been widely interpreted as being aimed at Cohn, National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“If anyone thinks that the president’s enemies will lay down their arms now that Steve is gone, they’ re sadly mistaken, ” the source continued.
“This fight is bigger than any one man and it remains to be seen whether the Democrats who have solidified control in the White House — Kelly, Jared, Ivanka, McMaster and Cohn are all Democrats — can deliver on the president’s agenda.”
Bannon did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comments regarding his future plans.
Chuck Ross and Betsy Rothstein contributed to this report.
