Bannon steps down from ‘Breitbart News’
Former Trump adviser scolded by president for comments in book
Steve Bannon — the controversial former White House adviser scolded by the president for his comments in a tell-all book about the Trump administration — stepped down Tuesday from his top post at Breitbart News, the website that helped fuel Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
“I’m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a worldclass news platform,” Bannon, who was chair of the conservative media organization, said in a statement.
The announcement came days after the release of Fire and
Fury, a book by Michael Wolff, in which Bannon called actions by President Trump’s son “treasonous.”
Bannon’s comments about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer in 2016 were published last week before the book’s release, leading the president to issue a scathing statement about his former adviser.
“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency,” Trump said last week. “When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.”
Over the weekend, Bannon said he intended to blame ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, not Trump Jr., for the meeting. Bannon suggested to Wolff that President Trump probably met the Russian visitors when they were at Trump Tower. Trump denied he knew about the meeting.
In the book, Bannon discussed developments in the Trump administration, where he was often at odds with the first family — in particular Jared Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump.
“I’m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform.” Steve Bannon