Reports: Trump to Fire Steve Bannon

‘A Decision Is Imminent’

White House officials were expecting Trump Chief Strategist Steve Bannon to be fired, and were asking only “when” and not “if,” according to a report Friday morning at Axios. 

But moments ago The Drudge Report, a major right wing news site, announced Bannon is out:

In typical form, this is Drudge’s reporting:

SENIOR ADVISOR MOVING ON AFTER IMPRESSIVE RUN, THE DRUDGE REPORT HAS LEARNED…
POPULIST HERO MAY RETURN TO BREITBART…

And The New York Times reports, “President Trump has told senior aides that he has decided to remove Stephen K. Bannon, the embattled White House chief strategist who helped Mr. Trump win the 2016 election, according to two administration officials briefed on the discussion.”

MSNBC has just reported “Bannon out.”

“A decision is imminent from White House chief of staff John Kelly on whether Steve Bannon will keep his job, according to administration officials with knowledge of the situation,” Axios national political reporter Jonathan Swan had reported.

Bannon gave several stunning interviews this week. At least one White House aide said Bannon undermined U.S. national security in one. “Bannon’s explosive conversation with the American Prospect,” Axios notes, has “not escaped either the president’s or Kelly’s attention.”

In the interviews, Bannon portrayed himself as driving the White House and making personnel decision as far away as the State Dept. Trump despises when staffers get more attention than he does. 

But despite Bannon’s claims, one White House source told Swan, “His departure may seem turbulent in the media, but inside it will be very smooth. He has no projects or responsibilities to hand off.”

If true, Americans should breathe a sigh of relief, at least on the one hand. Bannon infamously bragged when publisher of the far right wing Breitbart website that it was home to the “alt-right.” His “economic nationalism” barge is just cover for white nationalists and white supremacists.

There’s reason Americans should be concerned.

“He’d return to the outside world, a leader in the populist nationalist movement worldwide, with a partner in hedge fund billionaire Bob Mercer, who has deep pockets and would make Bannon even more of a force to be reckoned with on the outside,” Swan reports. “Plus he has the killing machine of Breitbart to return to.”

Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under Pres. George W. Bush, calls Bannon the “most dangerous man in America,” but others say in or out of the White House it won’t matter. 

ThinkProgress’ editor and founder:

Media Matters President:

This is a battle for the soul of this nation. The players, like Trump and Bannon, are dangerous, but their ideas, beliefs, and ideologies are even more so.

UPDATE I: 12:59 –
Several reports are now stating Bannon is saying he resigned two weeks ago. Reince Priebus said the same thing.

UPDATE II: 1:03 –
MSNBC’s Joy Reid:

UPDTE IV: 1:06:

UPDATE V: 1:15 –

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Image by Michael Vadon via Flickr and a CC license