Trump’s race-row strategist ousted

CONTROvERSIAL White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was ousted from Donald Trump’s administration last night, capping the US President’s worst week in power.

Mr Bannon was one of the key architects of Mr Trump’s astonishing election victory but his Rightwing nationalist views always made him a deeply contentious addition to the White House.

Friends say he resigned before he was fired, but White House sources said he had been forced out after being given the option to resign.

‘White House chief of staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day. We are grateful for his service and wish him the best,’ a White House spokesman said last night.

Mr Bannon’s links with the white supremacist alt-right movement had become particularly contentious in recent days after it was blamed for a violent protest against the removal of a Confederate statue in virginia. It ended in the death of a counter-protester after a car was driven into a crowd.

White House officials said Mr Trump had grown increasingly tired of Mr Bannon and wanted to sack him two weeks ago, but was persuaded by senior Republicans to keep him on board.

On Tuesday, the President was lukewarm about his strategist, saying he wasn’t a racist and was ‘a good person’, but adding: ‘We’ll see what happens with Mr Bannon.’

A colourful former Wall Street banker, Hollywood producer and boss of the virulently Right-wing website Breitbart, Mr Bannon has denied he is a white supremacist but he boasted that he wanted to make Breitbart into the ‘platform of the alt-right’ movement.