Prez applauds Bannon’s backtrack to Breitbart News
WASHINGTON — One day after pushing Steve Bannon out of the White House, President Trump took to Twitter to hail his controversial former strategist’s immediate return to Breitbart News, which he led before joining his campaign.
“Steve Bannon will be a tough and smart new voice at @BreitbartNews ... maybe even better than ever before. Fake News needs the competition!” Trump said yesterday in one of two tweets. He also thanked Bannon for serving.
“He came to the campaign during my run against Crooked Hillary Clinton — it was great! Thanks S,” the president wrote.
Bannon’s departure is especially significant since he was viewed as Trump’s connection to his base of most-committed voters and the protector of the populist conservative agenda that propelled the celebrity businessman to the White House.
From Breitbart, there was a dramatic one-word warning. “#WAR,” tweeted Joel B. Pollak, a senior editor-at-large at the news site.
Without Bannon, Trump’s agenda is left in the hands of more moderate counselors, including his son-in-law, his oldest daughter and his economic adviser, whom Bannon has slammed as “globalist.”
But Bannon was also accused by his critics of leaking to reporters in a bid for self-promotion, and of egging on Trump’s most damaging impulses.
In the only statement from the White House, Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “We are grateful for his service and wish him the best.”
Bannon told Bloomberg Politics in an interview that he would continue to fight the same fights, just from outside the White House.
“If there’s any confusion out there, let me clear it up,” Bannon said, “I’m leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents — on Capitol Hill, in the media and in corporate America.”