Steve Bannon has been ousted from his role as chief strategist for Donald Trump.
Or Steve Bannon has resigned from his role as chief strategist for Donald Trump.
It depends on who you ask, but either way, the result of the same:
One less racist in the White House!
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the news in a statement to CNN on Friday, a couple hours after word started buzzing around Twitter.
“White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day,” Sanders said, adding:
“We are grateful for his service and wish him the best.”
Bannon was a controversial figure from the moment he became associated with Trump about a year ago.
The editor-in-chief of Breitbart, a website dedicated to the “alt-right” movement, Bannon’s views on race, ethnicity and America’s place in the world have been clouded in controversy for years.
In addition to often clashing with several other senior officials, he was widely believed to be the driving force behind the president’s “nationalist” ideology.
This ideology was on full display this week following protests in Charlottesville that featured one woman being run over by a car and hundreds of neo-Nazis chanting racial epithets in the street.
The President has been criticized for a response that did NOT include direct condemnation of the White Supremacy groups at the center of these protests, while Bannon gave an interview afterward that in which he seemed to encourage such civil unrest.
“The Democrats, the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em,” Bannon told The American Prospect.
“I want them to talk about racism every day.
“If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.”
Trump stayed quiet about Bannon’s future during a chaotic press conference at Trump Tower in New York City this past Tuesday.
“We’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon,” he told reporters at the time, yet defended Bannon as “not a racist” and a “friend.”
There’s been chatter for several weeks, however, that Trump was unhappy with all the attention Bannon has been receiving.
He’s especially been displeased with the credit Bannon has received for getting Trump elected after he came on board the Presidential campaign last year.
For those unfamiliar with Steve Bannon, we posted the following bio breakdown many months ago.
It’s scary to read. But at least you can take comfort in knowing he’s no longer advising the President of the United States:
(Editor’s Note: We know this is a small comfort, considering Donald Trump is still the President of the United States. But still.)