Steve Bannon out as White House Strategist

Yahoo News wrote:Steve Bannon is leaving the White House
Hunter Walker 11 am PST

WASHINGTON — Friday will be controversial White House chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s final day working in the West Wing. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement to the press pool describing the move as a mutual decision between Bannon and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly on Friday.

“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,” Sanders said.

The official word from the White House came after a slew of reports about Bannon’s departure. According to a New York Times report published shortly before Sanders’ statement, President Trump “told senior aides that he has decided to remove” Steve Bannon, the controversial White House chief strategist. ABC News and other outlets reported that Bannon had already resigned.

Both the White House and Bannon did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment from Yahoo News.

Prior to the Times report, the conservative journalist Matt Drudge, who enjoys a close relationship with the White House, declared that Bannon’s time in the West Wing was coming to an end. Axios also reported that a review conducted by new White House chief of staff John Kelly was expected to conclude with an “imminent” announcement of Bannon’s departure.

Trump’s White House had been infamously volatile with a series of high profile departures. Bannon had regularly been involved in infighting with other top aides and rumors of his potential dismissal swirled at multiple points. The reports of a Bannon exit intensified after an he gave an extensive interview to the liberal American Prospect that was published on Wednesday. In it, Bannon described some of his disagreements with other top officials and appeared to undermine the president’s position on North Korea.

Bannon was a key figure in Trump’s shocking upset victory in last year’s presidential election. Prior to joining Trump’s campaign, he ran the conservative news site Breitbart News, which he once proclaimed was the “platform for the alt-right.” At Breitbart, Bannon found a base for his philosophy of economic nationalism and staunch opposition to immigration and political correctness. His ideology led many to see him as a key architect of Trump’s victory, but it also drew criticism from liberals who saw him as a dangerous zealot.

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

And so, another domino falls...

Yet another step closer to Pence becoming POTUS by next year,  when the Repub's themselves give the Dumpster that one last push  ???

BBC News wrote:Steve Bannon vows to 'go to war'

19 August 2017

Steve Bannon, who has returned as head of ultra-conservative website Breitbart News, said he would fight for the agenda that won Mr Trump the election.

"I've got my hands back on my weapons," he said. "It's Bannon the Barbarian."

Mr Bannon helped shape the America First campaign message but fell foul of more moderate White House forces.

The 63-year-old has been accused of voicing anti-Semitic and white supremacist views.

He is the latest high-profile figure to leave the White House team. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn; press secretary Sean Spicer; chief of staff Reince Priebus and communications director Anthony Scaramucci have all gone.

Mr Trump paid tribute to Mr Bannon in an early-morning tweet on Saturday.

Neo-Nazi Donald Trump wrote:I want to thank Steve Bannon for his service. He came to the campaign during my run against Crooked Hillary Clinton - it was great! Thanks S

There had been suggestions Mr Trump was under renewed pressure to sack Mr Bannon following the violence at a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend, when a car was driven into counter-protesters, killing a woman.

But he told the Weekly Standard that he had informed Chief of Staff John Kelly and Mr Trump on 7 August that he would announce his resignation on the 14th. The tumult over the violence in Charlottesville postponed the announcement, he said.

Bye Bye Bannon, Washington's second most powerful man
Who was Donald Trump's chief strategist?

President Trump had hinted at the situation during his controversial press briefing on the Virginia violence on Tuesday.

Although the president had defended Mr Bannon as "not a racist", saying he had received an unfair press, Mr Trump said "we'll see what happens" about him.

The only statement about Mr Bannon's sacking on Friday came from Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said: "We are grateful for his service and wish him the best."

In his Weekly Standard interview, Mr Bannon said: "The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over.

"We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency. But that presidency is over. It'll be something else. And there'll be all kinds of fights, and there'll be good days and bad days, but that presidency is over."

He added: "In many ways I think I can be more effective fighting from the outside for the agenda President Trump ran on. And anyone who stands in our way, we will go to war with."

Mr Bannon added: "I built a [expletive] machine at Breitbart. And now I'm about to go back, knowing what I know, and we're about to rev that machine up."

Breitbart itself carried the headline: 'Populist Hero' Stephen K Bannon Returns Home to Breitbart.

News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow said: "Breitbart gained an executive chairman with his finger on the pulse of the Trump agenda."

Breitbart executive Joel Pollak responded to the return of Mr Bannon with a singled-worded, hashtag tweet: #WAR.

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

And so, another domino falls...

Yet another step closer to Pence becoming POTUS by next year,  when the Repub's themselves give the Dumpster that one last push  ???