The President

Trump Is Distancing Himself From One Key Staffer. Here's Why.

A recent interview shed some light on how the president feels about Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon.

Trump Is Distancing Himself From One Key Staffer. Here's Why.
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Steve Bannon helped spearhead the Trump team's "America First" agenda on the campaign trail. But now that President Trump is in the White House, Bannon might be losing his influence. 

The first public signs of Bannon's decline came when he was removed from the National Security Council, an appointment Trump wasn't fully aware of when he made it official. 

And now, the president seems to be distancing himself from his chief strategist.

In an interview with the New York Post, Trump said: "I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late. ... I'm my own strategist." 

Bannon officially joined the team as campaign CEO in August 2016. 

But Trump met Bannon in 2011 and appeared on Bannon's Breitbart show several times as a presidential candidate. 

Trump's comments about Bannon could show a policy shift in the White House. 

Bannon and other far-right nationalists in the administration have clashed with the more moderate members of Trump's White House, which include his close family.

Trump ordered Bannon to sit down with his other top adviser, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, to bury the ideological hatchet. 

Bannon's occasionally been portrayed as the mastermind behind Trump's administration. 

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But his nationalist agenda has suffered several setbacks in the White House; a travel ban on immigrants was stalled in court, and Trump's intervention in Syria goes against Bannon's isolationist philosophy.

A source inside the White House told The Daily Beast Bannon and his team are "laying low" for now.