Steve Bannon is on his way out at the White House –
but the fiery, anti-establishment conservative who helped Donald Trump
win the presidency says he's getting ready to wage his populist campaign
from the outside.
“If there’s any confusion out
there, let me clear it up: 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,” Bannon told Bloomberg on Friday.
Still, the outgoing White House chief strategist told The Weekly Standard the
country would see a new kind of presidency without him there. “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.”
Bannon returned to work late Friday at Breitbart
News, the populist news site he once ran that rails against the
political establishment in both parties.
He spent just over a year formally working for the president. On Friday, his job with Trump came to an end.
STEVE BANNON OUT AT THE WHITE HOUSE
“White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve
Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve's last day,” White
House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. “We are grateful for his
service and wish him the best.”
Breitbart announced Friday that Bannon returned as executive chairman. He chaired its evening editorial meeting Friday, the site said.
“The populist-nationalist movement got a lot stronger
today,” said Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow. “Breitbart
gained an executive chairman with his finger on the pulse of the Trump
agenda.”
Ben Shapiro, a former writer at Breitbart News,
predicted Bannon will go back to the site and "declare himself the
conscience of the nationalist populist movement that he helped build.”
"He's going to use that power to smash the president
when he thinks the president is wrong," Shapiro told Fox News anchor
Sandra Smith.
A source close to Bannon told Fox News there is “no
way” the outgoing adviser will go to war against Trump himself. He will
“100 percent have POTUS’ back,” the person said.
Another source close to Bannon, reached Friday,
suggested Breitbart is gearing up for a fight now that its leader is no
longer restrained by his job in the White House.
“Winter is here,” the person told Fox News.
Kurt Bardella, a former Breitbart staffer who now
criticizes the outlet and President Trump, speculated Bannon would
“continue to use his weapon of choice, Breitbart, to attack his
adversaries inside the West Wing.”
Targets, Bardella said, could be Jared Kushner and
Ivanka Trump, chief economic adviser Gary Cohn as well as congressional
Republicans like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell.
Bannon has also sparred with national security adviser H.R. McMaster and his deputy, Dina Powell.
“In many ways, I think Steve will feel liberated,” Bardella said.
He added, “Now, he will be able to operate openly and
freely to inflict as much damage as he possibly can on the 'globalists'
that remain in the Trump administration.”
Bannon submitted his resignation in writing on Aug. 7, Fox News learned.
Bannon told The Weekly Standard he spoke with the
president and Chief of Staff John Kelly last week about resigning on
Aug. 14, his one year mark working for Trump. But the events in
Charlottesville last weekend delayed his departure.
“I’d always planned on spending one year.... I want to get back to Breitbart,” he said.
Bannon said he feels “jacked up” as he returns to the conservative news site.
“Now I’m free,” he said. “I’ve got my hands back on
my weapons. Someone said, ‘it’s Bannon the Barbarian.’ I am definitely
going to crush the opposition. There’s no doubt.”
He added, “I built a f---ing machine at Breitbart.
And now I’m about to go back, knowing what I know, and we’re about to
rev that machine up. And rev it up we will do.”
Earlier this week, Trump briefly addressed the
speculation about Bannon's future during a wide-ranging Q&A with
reporters at Trump Tower.
“I like Mr. Bannon, he’s a friend of mine,” Trump
said, though downplaying his impact in the 2016 campaign. “I like him.
He’s a good man.”
The president added, “We’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon.”