Steve Bannon Was Just Kicked Off the National Security Council

Trump’s chief strategist loses his seat at the table.

Olivier Douliery/Pool via CNP/MediaPunch/IPX via AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Steve Bannon has been removed from the National Security Council, according to a memorandum released by the White House on Wednesday.

Bannon, Trump’s White House chief strategist, was added to the NSC shortly after Trump took office. The move received criticism both from the media and Congress.

You can read the memo below.

The White House seems to be spinning this story two ways: (1) Bannon was put on the NSC as a check on former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Now Flynn is gone, so Bannon is leaving too. (2) Obama’s NSC was bad, bloated, and “operationalized,” and Bannon was there to oversee the transition of it back to a small, sleek, advisory committee. Now the reform project is over, so he is done.

The first explanation doesn’t make a ton of sense. Flynn was fired back in early February, and presidents typically don’t hire people who can’t be trusted to be national security adviser.

 

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate