Before the events of last week, Steve Bannon had come to an agreement with White House chief of staff John Kelly in July that he would leave the White House in mid-August in a low-key, civil manner, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
However, President Donald Trump’s response to the Charlottesville attack and Bannon’s phone call to the American Prospect prompted a much more abrupt departure on Friday afternoon, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed White House aides and associates to Trump and Bannon.
Bannon urged Trump not to give way to his critics regarding the President’s failure to fully condemn white nationalists, clashing with Kelly, per the Times. Following Trump’s initial response, Bannon and Kelly agreed to push his departure date to early September, according to the Times. But Bannon’s impromptu interview with the American Prospect about policy toward China and North Korea irked Kelly, and Bannon was then quickly let go, the New York Times reported.
Though Bannon’s time in the White House came to a rather abrupt end on Friday, his star had been fading for a while as he clashed with other members of Trump’s staff. Last week, Trump was no longer willing to side with Bannon, in part because he believed Bannon was leaking stories about White House infighting to the media, per the Times.
Bannon frequently butt heads with Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and national security adviser H.R. McMaster.
The former chief strategist places some blame for his departure on Kushner. Bannon told friends that he believes Kushner asked Rupert Murdoch to urge Trump to fire Bannon, according to Vanity Fair.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Bull(shitter) has left the shop!
Too bad the other one’s still there
Yeah, Trump’s attitude will really improve now.
I feel so much better. Now Trump can pivot and start acting Presidential.
This all reminds me of a girl with whom I grew up. When Cindy got in trouble, her mother always blamed the friend she was with at the time she engaged in whatever mischief, and her mother would then forbid her from hanging out with that person. One girl after another was banned from being friends with Cindy. I got the heave ho when we blew curfew one evening. By high school graduation, she had been through three different high schools in her mother’s attempt to rid her of these negative influences. The last time I saw Cindy was probably 20 years ago in our early 20s. She was stripping and prostituting down in NOLA and had developed a nasty heroin addiction. She was an absolute mess. All the girls who’d been banned from being friends with her had by and large gone on to mostly productive lives. Cindy’s mom never figured out, at least not until it was too late, that Cindy was the problem.
That’s exactly what we have here. You can take away Bannon, Gorka, Miller, Sessions, etc., and it won’t make a damn bit of difference. PP himself gave that press conference with his own words and his own beliefs. Nothing he said appeared to be parroted from someone else. This is who he is.
Good to see that Kelly has been so effective at plugging the leaks.