Barely 24 hours after Newsmax reported that Steve Bannon’s firing was imminent, the White House confirmed that he had been ousted from his job as chief strategist.
Sources told Newsmax that Trump was upset with Bannon's statements to the leftist American Prospect magazine that there was "no military solution" to the North Korean crisis. Trump had long left open that he might exercise a military option.
Officially, the White House said Trump accepted Bannon's resignation.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday would be Bannon's last day on the job.
"We are grateful for his service and wish him the best," she said in a statement confirming Bannon's departure.
A combative and unorthodox Republican, Bannon was a key adviser in Trump's general election campaign, but he has been a contentious presence in a White House divided by warring staff loyalties.
The former leader of conservative Breitbart News has pushed Trump to follow through on his campaign promises and was the man behind many of his most controversial efforts, including Trump's travel ban and decision to pull out of the Paris Climate agreement.
But Bannon repeatedly clashed with other top White House advisers and often ran afoul of the president himself.
Bannon offered his resignation to Trump on Aug. 7, according to one person close to the adviser.
Reports from the Drudge Report and The New York Times came after Axios said earlier Friday that a decision from President Donald Trump's Chief of Staff John Kelly was imminent on whether Bannon would be fired.
The president had also repeatedly diminished Bannon's role in his campaign in recent remarks and refused to express confidence during an impromptu news conference Tuesday.
"He's a good person. He actually gets very unfair press in that regard," Trump said. "But we'll see what happens with Mr. Bannon."
Axios did not specify when a decision was expected on Bannon, who has been under fire for his ties to the
alt-right.
CNBC reported that the possibility of Bannon's possible firing was bolstering the stock market.
"It's helping because if Bannon is gone, it makes it less likely [White House economic adviser Gary] Cohn leaves because they've been battling behind scenes since the inauguration," said Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at Lindsey Group, according to CNBC.
Reports surfaced earlier, but were denied by the White House Thursday, that Cohn was preparing to resign.
Some analysts predicted that a Cohn resignation could cause a stock market crash.
This report includes material from Newsmax wire services.
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