Steve Bannon Booted from National Security Council

At the start of the Trump administration, Chief Strategist Steve Bannon was placed on the National Security Council’s principals committee. Since that time, the former Breitbart chairman hasn’t attended a single meeting and now it looks he probably won’t ever.

Today, President Donald Trump reorganized the council by dropping Bannon and downgrading the role of Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert.

BREAKING: Trump removes chief strategist Steve Bannon from National Security Council, reversing controversial early decision.

— The Associated Press (@AP) April 5, 2017

Now, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster (who replaces former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn) will take on the responsibility of setting the agenda for both the NSC and the HSC and can delegate to Bossert at his discretion (per a Federal Register document).

According to sources of ABC News, Bannon had no objections to his dismissal and was largely on the council to “babysit” Flynn. That, of course, didn’t work out so well, as Flynn was fired for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and is now asking for immunity to testify. There’s no current evidence that the Flynn matter had anything to do with Bannon’s dismissal, although the story is still developing so that might change.