The oleaginous éminence grise of the Trump campaign, Steve Bannon, is officially out at the White House.

BREAKING: Steve Bannon is leaving the Trump White House, according to 2 senior administration officials

— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 18, 2017

WH Press Sec Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to the pool: pic.twitter.com/7s66aA840h

— DJ Judd (@DJJudd) August 18, 2017

The rumors started early this morning based on the fact that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly was due to wind up reviewing White House organization today. There were some who thought he might survive, but the interview he gave last week to the nutty Robert Kuttner at The American Prospect sort of had the smell of a guy who knows he’s going to be fired and just has zero f***s left to give.

And there is this:

Steve Bannon just told me he resigned from the White House two weeks ago @POTUS #Bannon

— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) August 18, 2017

The question is: what now? I always thought that it was better for Trump to have Bannon in the White House, than outside throwing stones. If Bannon blames Trump for his ouster we’ll signs of that in the very near future as Breitbart and GateWayPundit suddenly discover that Trump is not a latter day messiah figure. On the other hand, if his stays loyal to Trump, Trump may emerge from this with a more sane and functional White House without any loss of support.

Bannon friend says Breitbart ramping up for war against Trump. "It's now a Democrat White House," source says.

— Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) August 18, 2017