Ousted White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon on Saturday said the Trump presidency that the right-wing conservatives helped make a reality is “over” and the president would now be “moderated” by the Republicans.
Bannon, who headed the controversial right-wing website ‘Breitbart News’ before joining the Trump administration, also denied that he was fired from the key position.
Hours after he left the White House, 63-year-old Bannon returned to Breitbart News as its executive chairman and also chaired the
company’s evening editorial meeting on Friday.
“The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over,” he told the conservative outlet Weekly Standard.
“We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency. But that presidency is over. It’ll be something else. And there’ll be all kinds of fights, and there’ll be good days and bad days, but that presidency is over,” said Bannon, who is generally perceived as the driving force behind Trump’s “nationalist” ideology.
Bannon says that his departure was voluntary, and that he had planned it to coincide with the one-year anniversary of his joining the Trump campaign as chief executive, on August 14, 2016.
“On August 7, I talked to (Chief of Staff John) Kelly
and to the President, and
I told them that my resignation would be effective
the following Monday, on 14th,” he said.