Trump dumps Bannon
DONALD Trump fired his controversial chief strategist Steve Bannon yesterday as the White House continued to implode.
Capping off the worst week for the embattled president since moving into the Oval Office, he took the decision following a review by the new chief of staff, John Kelly.
The firing came as sources claimed Trump was furious over Bannon’s habit of taking credit for his 2016 election victory.
“That f ****** Bannon is taking credit for my election,” the president recently told a confidant, according to US reports. On Tuesday, during a chaotic press conference in which Trump equated neo-Nazis to anti-racist protesters, Trump refused to say if Bannon’s job was safe.
The president said: “I like him. He’s a good man. He is not a racist, I can tell you that… He actually gets a very unfair press in that regard.
“We’ll see what happens. But he’s a good person.” Sources close to ousted Bannon insisted it was his idea to leave and he submitted his resignation on August 7.
It was intended that his departure would be announced on Monday but it was delayed following the deadly racial unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, a close friend of Trump’s, reportedly told him he should fire Bannon.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner also thought he should go.
Bannon has strong ties to the “alt-right” and is the former head of conservative news site Breitbart.
Among the White House staff, he has been seen as pursuing his own agenda, going against Kelly’s new structure in the West Wing.
National security adviser H R McMaster was asked three times last Sunday whether he could work with Bannon in the White House. He dodged the question each time.
Bannon’s biggest critic was recently ousted White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who said Trump had to “move away” from Bannon and Breitbart.
Let’s all commit to leaving ghosts of the past in trash heap of history SCHWARZENEGGER