Friends say the ousted White House chief strategist has a range of ways to make mischief—from returning to Breitbart, to helming an outside group, to leaking dirt about rivals.

by Rosie Gray

(The Atlantic) - In firing Steve Bannon, President Trump has lost his chief ideologue, the man who channeled his base and advocated for the populist-nationalist policies that helped propel Trump to victory.

But he has gained an unpredictable and potentially troublesome outside ally who has long experience running a media organization, and an even longer list of enemies. “Steve is now unchained,” said a source close to Bannon. “Fully unchained.”

“He’s going nuclear,” said another friend. “You have no idea. This is gonna be really fucking bad.”

Bannon had in recent days mused about leaving, according to people who have spoken with him; he has expressed to friends that he feels the administration is failing and is a sinking ship. And last week, he told people in a meeting that he would have 10 times more influence outside the White House than inside it.

Sources close to Bannon say he is likely to go back to Breitbart News, the right-wing website he ran before joining the Trump campaign last year. He met with Alex Marlow, Breitbart’s editor in chief, on Sunday and Monday, according to a source close to Bannon. Under Bannon, Breitbart morphed into an aggressive pro-Trump outlet, voicing many themes of his campaign even before he declared his candidacy. Since Trump took office, it has often seemed to function as a PR shop for Bannon’s faction of the White House. It has frequently run stories attacking Bannon’s rivals, including, most recently, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and National Economic Council chair Gary Cohn.

Already, Breitbart is on a war footing. “It may turn out to be the beginning of the end for the Trump administration, the moment Donald Trump became Arnold Schwarzenegger,” editor Joel Pollak wrote on Friday, referring to the actor-turned-California governor, who won office as a populist outsider, and exited with a 23 percent approval rating.

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