Steve Bannon Out, White Supremacy Still In
Steve Bannon, one of the most extreme white nationalists in President Donald Trump’s orbit, is leaving his post as Trump’s chief strategist, the White House confirmed on Friday. White supremacy, though, isn’t going anywhere.
From the New York Times, which was one of the first to report the news:
The president and senior White House officials were debating when and how to dismiss Mr. Bannon. The two administration officials cautioned that Mr. Trump is known to be averse to confrontation within his inner circle, and could decide to keep on Mr. Bannon for some time.
As of Friday morning, the two men were still discussing Mr. Bannon’s future, the officials said. A person close to Mr. Bannon insisted the parting of ways was his idea, and that he had submitted his resignation to the president on Aug. 7, to be announced at the start of this week, but it was delayed in the wake of the racial unrest in Charlottesville, Va.
In the days following the white nationalist terror in Charlottesville, VA, Trump had been under renewed pressure to fire Bannon—whose role had long been a lightning rod for controversy due to his role at Breitbart News, his affinity for extremist rhetoric, and his associations with ultra-nationalist movements.
On Tuesday, during a rambling, deranged press conference in which he defended the KKK members and white nationalists who participated in last weekend’s racist violence, Trump refused to comment on Bannon’s future in the White House, instead calling him “a friend of mine,” and “not a racist.”