Steve Bannon might have been removed from his permanent seat on the National Security Council, but President Donald Trump's chief strategist will still have plenty of influence, former Rep. Pete Hoekstra told Newsmax TV.
"I wouldn't read too much into it," Hoekstra, R-Mich., who chaired the House Intelligence Committee, told host Steve Malzberg on Wednesday's "America Talks Live." "Steve Bannon is well entrenched in the Trump White House.
"I was in the White House recently. I talked with Steve Bannon. He's doing just fine. He's got plenty of things to do.
"There will be some who will try to read a lot into this as a shift and who's on the way up, who's on the way down. I wouldn't read much into it."
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Bannon's ouster came as Trump reorganized the council Wednesday.
An unnamed senior White House official told The Washington Post the change is not a demotion, and Bannon had accomplished what he had set out to do.
Trump's move reverses a controversial early decision to give Bannon access to the high-level meetings.
Bannon, a former Breitbart News executive chairman and Hollywood movie producer, has been considered one of the most powerful members of Trump's inner circle.
Hoekstra is the author of "Architects of Disaster: The Destruction of Libya," written with Teri Blumenfeld and published by The Calamo Press.
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