Sloppy Steve Bannon loses his Breitbart weapon

Steve Bannon’s banishment is complete after his sacking from the conservative website Breitbart.

Steve Bannon, left, with Jared Kushner in the White House last June. Picture: AFP

Steve Bannon’s banishment is complete after his sacking from the conservative website Breitbart.

The move may spell the end of the populist movement driven by Bannon, which had sought to remake the Republican Party in his own anti-establishment image.

Bannon’s downfall is his own fault, the result of hubris from a man who felt he was more important than President Donald Trump or the political system.

The fall is all the more remarkable because when Trump was ­inaugurated almost a year ago, Bannon was arguably his most ­influential adviser.

Trump’s nationalist message on the 2016 campaign trail was pushed by Bannon, who was ­rewarded with the position of chief White House strategist.

But once inside the White House Bannon overplayed his hand, leaking to journalists against members of the President’s inner circle and Trump himself.

While he had major victories — such as persuading the President to pull out of the Paris climate change accord against the wishes of Trump’s daughter Ivanka — Bannon clashed with key figures.

He alienated Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as Ivanka, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis.

Trump eased him out of his inner circle and when John Kelly became White House chief of staff, the former general identified Bannon as a source of White House toxicity and sacked him.

Bannon then boasted he would be more influential outside the White House. “Now, I’m free. I’ve got my hands back on my weapons,” he said, meaning he could ­return to running Breitbart, which became a major media player during the election campaign.

But last month Bannon’s lack of political nous was exposed when he backed populist Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore despite allegations of sexual assault against him. Trump was furious when Moore lost in a state considered staunchly Republican.

The final straw was Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury, in which Bannon demeaned Trump and his children Donald Jr and Ivanka. “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency,” Trump thundered, referring to him “Sloppy Steve”.

Bannon’s comments to Wolff also cost him his benefactor, the billionaire Mercer family. Mega-Republican donor Rebekah Mercer cut off financial and political support for Bannon.

Now she has driven Bannon out of his pulpit at Breitbart.

Bannon will try to resurrect himself, but this will be all but ­impossible in the face of a hostile President, party, donor base and the media he denigrated.

Bannon was a political phen­omenon who rose fast, but he has fallen even faster.