President Donald Trump on Wednesday (Thursday NZ time) removed controversial White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon from the National Security Council, part of a sweeping staff reshuffling that elevated key military and intelligence officials to greater roles on the council and left Bannon far less involved in shaping the administration's day-to-day national security policy.
Two senior White House officials said Bannon's departure was in no way a demotion and that he had rarely attended meetings since being placed on the council. They and others interviewed for this story asked for anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
Bannon's place on the committee had been a subject of intense controversy when the move was announced in January. National security experts, including a former Obama administration official, characterised it as an elevation of a White House official with no national security experience, even while other national security officials in the administration were included on the NSC only when "issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise" were involved. The White House later added the director of the CIA to the NSC.
The White House strongly disputed that characterisation, saying that Trump chose to change the structure of the committee from the one in place during the Obama administration to reduce the number of meetings that senior intelligence officials were required to participate in, if they did not pertain to their areas of expertise.
Instead, one of the officials said, Bannon was put on the council early in the administration to guide and keep watch over then-national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was tasked with reshaping the operation. That official and a second official said Bannon did this from afar, attending one or two meetings of the group.