Steve Bannon has been forced out as the White House’s chief strategist.

The Drudge Report first reported the news, and Fox News confirmed with White House officials that Bannon would be leaving the West Wing. It is unclear if Bannon resigned or was fired by John Kelly, the new White House chief of staff, who reportedly had differences with him.

Breitbart News, which Bannon used to run, reported Bannon may have submitted his resignation on Aug. 7, but delayed his departure.

Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, did not return messages from LifeZette. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, also did not immediately return a message.

Reaction from conservatives and Trump loyalists was mixed.

“Sad day for the movement,” said Sam Nunberg, a former Trump attorney, in a text to LifeZette. “Sad day for the country. Any conservatives in the West Wing?”

Nunberg had earlier warned conservatives they would left lonely and isolated if Trump kicks out loyalists from the campaign. The Trump administration is already slowly becoming populated with military generals who tend to have a sour outlook on Republican populism.

But Roger Stone, Nunberg’s mentor and a longtime Trump adviser, said Bannon did not push hard enough for Trump loyalists to be put into the administration.

“This is the price you pay for betraying the Trump revolution,” said Stone, also a longtime Republican operative, speaking to LifeZette. “Bannon helped install the Romney/Bush cabal now running the State Department.”

Stone has recently complained, and sharply criticized, Bannon for not beefing up his staff with loyalists.

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On Friday morning, Stone published a column in The Daily Caller blasting Bannon again for letting down conservatives.

“There is no reason for conservatives to be upset,” said Stone. “There is no reason whatsoever.”

Stone said Bannon ran around complaining the White House was populated by “Democrats” and RINOs (Republicans in Name Only).

“That’s true,” Stone told LifeZette. “And it’s Steve’s fault.”

Bannon allies previously noted to LifeZette that the agenda Trump and Bannon shared has been advancing strongly in the past few weeks. Trump has recently cracked down on intellectual property abuse by China; started renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement; and will tackle steel and aluminum trade problems later this month.

But Trump was reportedly bitter that the media gave credit to Bannon for helping Trump win the White House in a stunning election victory on November 8. Bannon was brought on board in the summer of 2016 to help right the course of Donald Trump’s troubled campaign. He was made campaign CEO, and Kellyanne Conway was made campaign manager.

With him, Bannon brought a tough-as-nails, confrontational approach. Under Bannon and Conway, when Trump was accused of lewd sexual remarks in 2005, Bannon advised Trump to show up at an October debate with women who’ve accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her surrogates seemed stunned.

“Sad day for the movement. Any conservatives in the West Wing?”

Coming into the White House, Bannon was vilified by pundits and media, and Time magazine ran a provocative cover in late January labeling Bannon as “President Bannon” and the “Great Manipulator.” Trump was reportedly irate.

Then in July, Joshua Green’s book “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency” hit bookshelves. The cover featured Trump and Bannon in embrace, and Trump was reportedly angry it showed the two men as equals.

Trump told the New York Post in April that he was winning without Bannon’s help last summer, and he repeated the claim on Tuesday. But there is little doubt that Trump wooed the populist forces at Breitbart, which fully embraced Trump and cast doubt on his presidential rivals.

Another irritant for Trump was Bannon’s criticisms of White House staffers. Bannon has reportedly clashed of late with H.R. McMaster, the national security adviser. But it was Trump’s frequent clashes with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, that angered Trump the most.

Bannon reportedly called Kushner a Democrat, and referred to both Kushner and his wife, the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump, as “Javanka.” Bannon worried that Kushner and Ivanka Trump did not fully understand the need for Trump’s populist conservative policies.

The tension was escalated by the publication Wednesday of an “accidental interview” Bannon gave with liberal journalist Robert Kuttner at The American Prospect. In it, Bannon criticized another member of the “Democrats” within the White House — Gary Cohn, the president’s top economic adviser. Bannon has maintained that Cohn and “Javanka” are globalists who support unrestrained free trade and open borders.

And a third problem — Bannon’s enemies, including disgraced former communications director Anthony Scaramucci, accused Bannon of being a leaker.

Trump did not defend Bannon at Tuesday’s much-criticized press conference at Trump Tower. Bannon had drawn criticism for reportedly advising the president to blame “both sides” for the racist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. When asked about Bannon, Trump gave Bannon his customary kiss of death by not giving the aide a full-throated defense or endorsement.

“We’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon,” said Trump.

On Friday at high noon, the world saw.

(photo credit, homepage images: Gage Skidmore/Michael Vadon, Flickr/Wikimedia; photo credit, article images: Gage Skidmore/Don Irvine, Flickr)