Getty Steve Bannon.
Controversial White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon has been ousted from the Trump Administration, and many Twitter users celebrated by turning #BannonOut into a worldwide trend.
The White House announced on Friday that President Donald Trump and Bannon, the former Brietbart executive chair who admitted that his site was a “platform for the alt-right,” mutually agreed to part. “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,” White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said in a statement.
The New York Times reported that Bannon submitted his resignation back on August 7 and an announcement was delayed because of the August 12 violence in Charlottesville.
Bannon was a controversial figure because of his extremist views and clashed with members of Trump’s White House. In an interview with the American Prospect this week, he admitted, “…The apparatus is going crazy. Don’t get me wrong. It’s like, every day.” He also told the Prospect that white supremacists are a “collection of clowns.”
“Ethno-nationalism—it’s losers. It’s a fringe element. I think the media plays it up too much, and we gotta help crush it, you know, uh, help crush it more,” Bannon said.
Bannon’s departure was celebrated by Trump’s critics. Rosie O’Donnell, who once offered to play Bannon on Saturday Night Live, wrote:
hey bannon – shove a tiki torch up ur ass #FIRED
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi:
Steve Bannon’s exit does not erase @realDonaldTrump’s long record of lifting up racist viewpoints & advancing repulsive policies. #BannonOut
Pelosi also issued the following statement:
Steve Bannon’s firing “doesn’t disguise where President Trump himself stands on white supremacists, Rep. Pelosi says t.co/uWClFEySiF
Others noted that there are still others with extremist views in the White House. Some had very little hope that this would change Trump’s decisions.
We still have Actual Nazis™ in the White House. They travel in packs. Now that #BannonOut time to #FireMiller #FireGorka #FireMrsGorka
Bannon is out, but make no mistake, the presidency of prejudice continues. #BannonOut
https://twitter.com/BrittPettibone/status/898597851944452097
A white nationalist should never have been in the White House in the first place. That goes for both Bannon and Trump. #BannonOut
https://twitter.com/davidmputnam/status/898598285702594560
Others shared memes and gifs.
Steve Bannon – You are fired!! #BannonOut Next!
Meanwhile, Brietbart writer Joel B. Pollack tweeted “#WAR.” That appears to back-up a tweet from MSNBC’s Joy Ann Reid that reads, “Hearing from a source that Bannon is going ugly. Stay tuned…” A Breitbart friend also told Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman, “Breitbart ramping up for war against Trump. ‘It’s now a Democrat White House,’ source says.”
