Bannon: 'Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over'
Steve Bannon on Friday declared the Trump presidency as we know it “over.”
The former White House chief strategist, whose ouster was officially announced Friday afternoon, cast a grim picture of the path forward for President Donald Trump and his staff in one of the first public interviews since exiting the West Wing, while contending that the presidency that had been promised during the 2016 campaign was now long gone.
“The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over,” Bannon told the conservative Weekly Standard on Friday. “We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency. But that presidency is over.”
Bannon’s comments painted a picture of a White House mired in political infighting in the wake of his departure.
“It’ll be something else,” he said of the Trump presidency, still in its first year. “And there’ll be all kinds of fights, and there’ll be good days and bad days, but that presidency is over.”
The White House announced earlier Friday that Bannon, the embattled populist who repeatedly butted heads with other top Trump aides, would exit his powerful post inside the West Wing. Bannon wasted no time moving on, returning within hours to Breitbart News, the right-wing news site he previously headed before joining Trump’s campaign last summer, as its executive chairman, even chairing their evening editorial meeting on Friday.
Bannon also discussed the timing of his exit, telling The Weekly Standard that he had planned to remain with Trump’s campaign, transition and White House teams for one year, a mission he said he completed in recent days.
“On August 7th, 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 the 14th,” Bannon said. “I’d always planned on spending one year. General Kelly has brought in a great new system, but I said it would be best.”
