Embattled White House Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon is out according to a report from Maggie Haberman of the New York Times.
The latest White House shakeup comes amid growing speculation that Bannon would be removed from his post, especially after Donald Trump failed to give the former Breitbart head a vote of confidence earlier in the week.
Details surrounding Bannon’s depature however remain a sketchy.
According to Haberman, Trump and other senior White House officials were debating Bannon’s future and that it was the President who ultimately decided to fire his Chief Strategist. Haberman also makes mention though that it was Bannon who submitted his resignation back on August 7th which would have been made public earlier this week. That scenario (if true) nonetheless changed after what happened in Charlottesville this past weekend.
The president and senior White House officials were debating when and how to dismiss Mr. Bannon. The two administration officials cautioned that Mr. Trump is known to be averse to confrontation within his inner circle, and could decide to keep on Mr. Bannon for some time.
As of Friday morning, the two men were still discussing Mr. Bannon’s future, the officials said. A person close to Mr. Bannon insisted the parting of ways was his idea, and that he had submitted his resignation to the president on Aug. 7, to be announced at the start of this week, but the move was delayed after the racial unrest in Charlottesville, Va.
Notwithstanding, Bannon has had clashes with other White House officials in the past and that John Kelly firmly believed that it was Bannon who was more concerned with his own agenda rather than Trump’s, something that probably didn’t sit well with the new Chief of Staff. Correspondingly, it’s believed the White House gave Bannon the option to resign which essentially means he was fired.
One of the architects of Trump’s America First policy it’ll be interesting to see the direction of the current administration going forward. In addition to that, it’ll also be interesting to see how aspects of the Trump base will response to Bannon’s ouster. A self-proclaimed Nationalist, it was Bannon who also identified Breitbart as the “platform for the alt-right” and certainly had an influence when it came to attracting conservatives to the Trump campaign who perhaps sat further right than traditional GOP members.
Either way this is another senior White House official whose no longer part of an administration that’s still not seven months old yet.
