Even though Steven Bannon had survived the first seven months of the trump administration as the White House Chief Strategist, enter Gen. John Kelly as the new Chief of Staff, it appeared that Bannon already knew that his days at the administration are numbered. The Breitbart CEO was finally purged from the White House by Kelly on Friday after a week of the former aide drawing more attention to himself.

Bannon's selfish self-promotion

Earlier in the year when Saturday Night Live (SNL) was doing parody sketches of the administration, it was reported that President Trump did not like the fact that they were mocking his role in the White House by making Bannon the real President.

But the senior aide also did an interview with Time Magazine where he was portrayed with an intensity that was rather competitive with Trump's image. Soon after the release of that publication, President Trump reportedly expressed his anger with Bannon for being a self-promoter and had since receded into the background, until recently.

Signs that Bannon knew his days were numbered

Over the August break, Axios reported in an article titled: "Trump suspects Bannon of leaking, putting job in jeopardy" that Trump was indeed putting Bannon in his cross-hairs. He especially stood out when he did not go to Trump's National Golf Club last week. While the President was on vacation in Bedminster, it was widely reported that Bannon had stayed behind in Washington.

The article also claims that White House officials had already started turning on Bannon and suspecting him of leaking out information which had infuriated Trump even more. It's likely that Bannon already knew about his potential firing as it's also been reported that he had talked about life after the White House.

Recent self-promotion and end-of-the-line leaking efforts

In recent weeks, the promotion for a book about the chief strategist titled: "The Devil's Bargain" caught the President's attention and it infuriated him even more when he learned that the Breitbart CEO offered himself for the interview. This fact would be seen as similar to what angered Trump months before during the Time Magazine interview.

But the article also points to how leaks against national security adviser H.R. McMaster were making their way to Breitbart, a right-wing nationalist op-ed news outlet which Bannon used to run before joining the Trump campaign and returned to on the same day after his firing.

Following a weekend of violence in Virginia, Steve Bannon drew more attention to himself as being the source of influence among white nationalists, white supremacist and neo-Nazis that were involved in that violence. But he also made the rounds to leak out details from the administration when he reached out to Robert Kuttner of the Liberal political zine the American Prospect for a "interview". This would end up being part of the reason why the chief strategist would end up getting fired.

Leaker revealed through obvious contradictions

What drew more attention to Bannon's firing was the fact that even though he denied that he was responsible for leaking information about McMaster, that their intolerance for each other was obviously mutual among White House staff. This was different from the relationship he had with Reince Priebus who Breitbart attacked during the earliest months of Trump's presidency. But Bannon reportedly went out of his way to shut down those pieces and made sure that people could see that his relationship with Priebus was good.

The fact that he did not make the same effort to stop hit pieces about McMaster was another clear indication to the White House that the chief strategist was the obvious leaker.

Even though Bannon was able to hold on for seven months, the only "card" he could play was his access to a nationalist base that elected Trump. Being that the former Breitbart CEO is thoroughly familiar with the media -- as he has also publicly said that the media was "the opposition party", he was obviously very aware of the escalating reports of his ouster when he gave his interview to the American Prospect this week. Recent reports have said and White House officials confirmed that Trump's nationalist influence has been waning and now, the "deep state" that Steve Bannon was against when he was chief strategist is obviously winning.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED