Steve Bannon is leaving the White House

WASHINGTON — Controversial White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s final day working in the West Wing is Friday. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement to the press pool describing the move as a mutual decision between Bannon and White House chief of staff John Kelly earlier in the day.

“White House chief of staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day. We are grateful for his service and wish him the best,” Sanders said.

The official word from the White House came after a slew of reports about Bannon’s departure. According to a New York Times report published shortly before Sanders’ statement, President Trump “told senior aides that he has decided to remove” Bannon. ABC News and other outlets reported that Bannon had already resigned.

Both the White House and Bannon failed to immediately respond to multiple requests for comment from Yahoo News.

Prior to the Times report, the conservative journalist Matt Drudge, who enjoys a close relationship with the White House, declared on Twitter that Bannon’s time in the West Wing was coming to an end.

Trump’s White House had been infamously volatile, with a series of high profile departures. Bannon had regularly been involved in infighting with other top aides, and rumors of his potential dismissal swirled at multiple points. Kelly became White House chief of staff late last month after the departure of his predecessor, Reince Priebus, the former Republican National Committee chair, who had a tense relationship with Bannon. Though this shift saw Bannon lose one of his rivals, Kelly, a former Marine general, was tasked with instilling order in the chaotic West Wing and cracking down on leaks. Kelly reportedly immediately zeroed in on Bannon as a source of turmoil and leaks about internal disputes, leading to fresh speculation about the chief strategist’s standing.

The reports of a Bannon exit intensified after an he gave an extensive interview to the liberal American Prospect that was published on Wednesday. In it, Bannon described some of his disagreements with other top officials, including his desire to push out State Department staffers and his frustration with Trump’s top economic adviser, Gary Cohn.

Bannon also appeared to undermine the president’s position on North Korea when he indicated a military option was not on the table due to the immense casualties that would occur. His comments about North Korea were quickly contradicted by Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said that while military action would be “horrific,” it was still a potential option. White House National Security Council officials were alarmed by Bannon’s comments, believing they undermined the American negotiating position after Trump repeatedly indicated the military option was on the table.

Bannon was a key figure in Trump’s shocking upset victory in last year’s presidential election. Prior to joining Trump’s campaign, he ran the conservative news site Breitbart News, which he once proclaimed was the “platform for the alt-right.” At Breitbart, Bannon found a base for his philosophy of economic nationalism and staunch opposition to immigration and political correctness. His ideology led many to see him as a key architect of Trump’s victory, but it also drew criticism from liberals who saw him as a dangerous zealot.

This post was last updated at 1:33 p.m. 

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