Bannon goes on offensive after White House ousting
Exit of chief strategist removes powerful advocate for an economic nationalist agenda
YESTERDAY by: Courtney Weaver and Shawn Donnan in Washington
Steve Bannon is out as White House chief strategist in a dramatic and abrupt exit for one of Donald Trump’s most controversial aides.
Mr Bannon, who had been the most vigorous proponent of the economic nationalist agenda on which Mr Trump won last year’s election, immediately signalled he would continue his campaign against more moderate Republican influences on the president from outside the administration.
“The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over,” Mr Bannon told the Weekly Standard, within hours of his departure.
“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.”
Mr Bannon is the fourth high-profile adviser to depart the White House this summer amid a major West Wing shake-up. Mr Trump’s press secretary, chief-of-staff, communications director and now chief strategist have all resigned or been pushed out just within the past four weeks.
Yet Mr Bannon’s is likely to have the most far-reaching consequences.
An avowed nationalist who had clashed with pro-business moderates within the administration, Mr Bannon’s departure is an apparent win for the likes of Gary Cohn the former Goldman Sachs executive who now leads the president’s National Economic Council and Dina Powell, another Goldman alumna and top White House aide.
Mr Bannon declared he would return to Breitbart, the conservative news site that he ran before joining the Trump campaign, from where he can continue his war on Mr Cohn and National Security Adviser HR McMaster using friendly conservative news outlets.
“I feel jacked up,” he told the Standard. “Now I’m free. I’ve got my hands back on my weapons. Someone said, ‘it’s Bannon the Barbarian’. I am definitely going to crush the opposition. There’s no doubt. I built a f***ing machine at Breitbart. And now I’m about to go back, knowing what I know, and we’re about to rev that machine up. And rev it up we will do.”
Critics of Mr Bannon who have credited him with giving voice to the alt-right movement and white nationalism cheered his departure.
“Steve Bannon has given a platform to morally repugnant white nationalists, and his entire political career has been based on stoking hatred, fear and anger,” said Al Franken, the Democratic senator. “He never belonged in the White House.”
Patrick Toomey, a Republican senator from the swing state of Pennsylvania, also tweeted: “First Scaramucci, now Bannon. Two great personnel decisions by John Kelly.”
In the administration, Mr Bannon was one of the few top aides who shared some of Mr Trump’s economic nationalist views and hardline stances on national security and immigration.
In an interview with The American Prospect, a left-leaning magazine, this week Mr Bannon asserted that he was engaged “in a fight every day” with Mr Cohn and “Goldman Sachs lobbying”.
“The economic war with China is everything and we have to be maniacally focused on that,” Mr Bannon said. “If we continue to lose it, we’re five years away, I think, 10 years at the most, of hitting an inflection point from which we’ll never be able to recover.”
Donald Trump was lukewarm in his support for Steve Bannon at a press conference earlier this week © AFP
Nigel Farage, the former UK Independence party leader, expressed disappointment that Mr Bannon was leaving.
“Very sorry to see my friend Steve Bannon go. His political brain will be hard to replace,” he tweeted.
The end came in an announcement from the White House, rather than a tweet from Mr Trump. “John Kelly [White House chief of staff] and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day,” an administration official said, confirming the departure. “We are grateful for his service.”
During his tenure, Mr Bannon gained a reputation for being one of Mr Trump’s most powerful aides. In the press, his perceived influence acquired him the nickname “President Bannon” — much to Mr Trump’s ire. On the comedy show Saturday Night Live, he was portrayed as the grim reaper, the devil over Mr Trump’s shoulder. Time Magazine featured his picture on its cover earlier this year under the tagline: “The Great Manipulator”.
At an impromptu press conference earlier this week, Mr Trump suggested that Mr Bannon’s fate was uncertain. “I like Mr Bannon, he is a friend of mine, but he came on very late,” Mr Trump said, a comment that seemed to suggest Mr Bannon, who joined Mr Trump’s campaign two and a half months before last year’s election, did not deserve credit for Mr Trump’s victory.
“He is a good person — actually he gets very unfair press in that regard. But we will see what happens with Mr Bannon,” the president said.
In previous interviews, Mr Bannon had predicted he would last approximately eight months in the White House — and he did, minus two days. Thursday marked officially one year to the day that he officially joined Mr Trump’s campaign as its chief executive.
Top exits of the Trump presidency
Sally Yates, acting attorney-general - January 31
Michael Flynn, national security adviser - February 14
Preet Bharara, New York federal prosecutor - March 11
Katie Walsh, deputy chief of staff - March 30
Angella Reid, chief usher - May 5
James Comey, FBI director - May 9
Michael Dubke, communications director - May 30
Sean Spicer, press secretary - July 21
Reince Priebus, chief of staff - July 28
Anthony Scaramucci, communications director - July 31
Steve Bannon, chief strategist - August 18
Mr Bannon suggested that he resigned from the position. However, others in the administration have privately alleged that Mr Trump was pressured to fire Mr Bannon by other top aides in the White House, including Mr Kelly.
Mr Bannon told Circa, a conservative radio outlet, that he had sent a resignation letter to the president on August 7 but that his departure had been pushed back in the wake of violence in Charlottesville and its political aftermath.
At least one White House aide rejected the account that it had been Mr Bannon’s decision to leave, pinning the chief strategist’s departure on Mr Trump’s new chief of staff, who has tried to a semblance of order and hierarchy in the West Wing. “This was General Kelly’s decision,” the aide said.
Additional reporting by David J Lynch