Plan B Forum

Stephen K. Bannon, the embattled chief strategist who helped President Trump win the 2016 election but clashed for months with other senior West Wing advisers, is leaving his post, a White House spokeswoman announced Friday.

“White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said in a statement. “We are grateful for his service and wish him the best.”

Earlier on Friday, the president had told senior aides that he had decided to remove Mr. Bannon, according to two administration officials briefed on the discussion. But a person close to Mr. Bannon insisted that 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.

The loss of Mr. Bannon, the right-wing nationalist who helped propel some of Mr. Trump’s campaign promises into policy reality, raises the potential for the president to face criticism from the conservative news media base that supported him over the past year.

Mr. Bannon’s many critics bore down after the violence in Charlottesville. Outraged over Mr. Trump’s insistence that “both sides” were to blame for the violence that erupted at a white nationalist rally, leaving one woman dead, human rights activists demanded that the president fire so-called nationalists working in the West Wing. That group of hard-right populists in the White House is led by Mr. Bannon.
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On Tuesday at Trump Tower in New York, Mr. Trump refused to guarantee Mr. Bannon’s job security but defended him as “not a racist” and “a friend.”

“We’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Bannon’s dismissal followed an Aug. 16 interview he initiated with a writer with whom he had never spoken, with the progressive publication The American Prospect. In it, Mr. Bannon mockingly played down the American military threat to North Korea as nonsensical: “Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that 10 million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”

He also bad-mouthed his colleagues in the Trump administration, vowed to oust a diplomat at the State Department and mocked officials as “wetting themselves” over the consequences of radically changing trade policy.

(CNN)President Donald Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon has been fired, two White House officials told CNN Friday.
A source told CNN that Bannon was given the option to resign but was forced out. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed Bannon's departure but did not say whether he was fired or resigned.

Controversial Trump Aide Sebastian Gorka May Be The Next To Leave The White House After Steve Bannon’s Firing



Between stock market traders and just about everyone on social media, the news of Steve Bannon’s firing on Friday sent ripples throughout the American press. According to several reports detailing the immediate aftermath of the ex-White House chief strategist’s removal, however, these same ripples are reverberating throughout the administration, especially on matters pertaining to the future of Sebastian Gorka. Many thought the controversial counter-terrorism aide to President Donald Trump would exit the White House back in April, but his former Breitbart pal’s ouster just might be the final nail in the coffin.

Despite his alleged connections to anti-Semitic, far right groups in Europe, Gorka remained a part of the White House staff due to Bannon’s protection and Trump’s love of his blustering media appearances. With Bannon out, however, The Daily Beast reports Gorka’s fate is “extremely uncertain” — especially since his more recent television punditry has “displeased” Trump’s chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly:

Kelly had recently undertaken an internal review of West Wing staffers’ responsibilities and portfolios. And another White House adviser said that the chief of staff “doesn’t know what [Gorka] does except go on TV sometimes.” For these reason, Gorka’s long-term future with the White House is “extremely uncertain,” this source continued.

Adding additional fuel to the fire, a Bloomberg report on Bannon’s firing cites “two people with knowledge of the situation” who claim Gorka “also may face removal from his post” following his champion’s departure from the White House. Unsurprisingly, Gorka is currently on vacation and wouldn’t provide The Daily Beast with an official comment for their story. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, meanwhile, told reporters she didn’t have “any update on that front” when asked about Gorka’s fate. [That kind of response from the WH press secretary is usually a good indication of "dead man walking"...]

After Tuesday, Trump is basically a lame duck for the next 3 years.

Maybe General Kelly can bring some sanity to this shit show after all?