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REUTERS
CHICAGO
FORMER White House chief strategist Steve Bannon's firing has been met with a collective shrug by some of President Donald Trump's most committed supporters who argue the controversial nationalist became an obstacle to the administration's agenda.
In interviews in multiple cities this weekend, Americans who voted for Trump said Bannon's departure on Friday was the removal of an unnecessary distraction for the Trump presidency, while others saw his role as largely inconsequential and possibly overblown.
Many expected Trump to stay the course without him.
"Bannon was becoming too big of a story and taking the spotlight from President Trump,"Bob Janda, a 67-year-old small business owner, said in a bar in Chicago."When that happens, your days are numbered. I think Trump will be fine."
At the same bar, Frank Cardone, 67, pointed out that Bannon had a brief tenure in Trump's inner circle, having joined the Republican businessman's presidential campaign as its chief executive less than three months before the Nov. 8 election.
"Bannon wasn't with Trump for too long so it's no big loss,"said Cardone, a retired electrician.
Before hitching himself to Trump, Bannon was the executive chairman of Breitbart News, a hard-right site. He immediately returned to that role after his exit from the White House, vowing to use it as a platform to defend Trump.
Bannon, 63, has touted Breitbart as a conservative counterpoint to what he views as the liberal bias of US news outlets and a platform for the so-called alt-right, a loose confederation of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites.
