Bannon steps down from Breitbart News following White House furor

WASHINGTON - Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, is stepping down from his post as executive chairman of Breitbart News, the company announced Tuesday.

Bannon's departure comes in the wake of the White House furor over his comments quoted in a new controversial book calling the 2016 Trump Tower meeting of US President Donald Trump's eldest son with Russians "treasonous."

Bannon and Breitbart will work together on a smooth transition, according to a statement from the company's chief executive Larry Solov.

In the statement, Bannon said that he was "proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform."

Britain's The Guardian newspaper on Wednesday first revealed that Bannon, quoted from excerpts of the book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," described the 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between a Russian lawyer and Trump's son and son-in-law as "treasonous" and "unpatriotic."

Hours later, Trump said in a White House official statement that Bannon had "lost his mind" and had "no influence" within his government.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also slapped Wolff's book, accusing that it is "filled with false and misleading accounts," noting that Trump felt "furious" and" disgusted" about Bannon's comments in the book.

Since then, Bannon has been greatly isolated from his political allies and conservative donors, including billionaire Rebekah Mercer and her father Robert Mercer.

Bannon was chief executive of the Trump campaign in its final three months during the 2016 US elections. He became the White House chief strategist after Trump took office in January 2017 and left the White House in August before returning to his perch as chairman of right-wing Breitbart News.