The anti-Trump media jumped into a level of gleeful frenzy today amid a required security filing noticing that Senior Trump Adviser Steve Bannon was no longer a member of the “principals committee” on the National Security Council.

The hilarity cemented itself when competing media outlets were arguing about Steve Bannon being on the NSC, or being kicked-off the NSC, while Bannon walked past them en route to today’s NSC meeting. Wait, wha… huh? Yeah -{Insert Laugh Track HERE}-

Nothing ever happens in a vacuum, and today is no exception. No, Steve Bannon is not being removed from the Senior advisory role to President Trump and will attend NSC meetings with the President. Bannon’s security clearance therein remains unchanged.

However, Bannon is removing himself from the Principal’s Committee of the H.R. McMaster NSC (*note* he never attended the committee meetings, well, that is, he did, once), now that the political weaponization of NSC intelligence operations has been removed; and McMaster has recalibrated the incoming intelligence agencies to remove the political intelligence they were previously used to sending.

What does that prior paragraph mean?

Start by reminding yourself of the current headlines about National Security Adviser Susan Rice requesting raw intelligence to the NSC based on Obama’s political agendas’, not national security.

HR McMaster, the current National Security Adviser of President Trump, had to reset and re-instruct each of the heads of the intelligence agencies who provide intelligence to the NSC to remove the political intelligence.

McMaster needed to visit with each agency, CIA, NSA, State Department and Defense to reorient them on what national intelligence the Trump administration wishes to receive within the National Security Council.

President Trump doesn’t want the national intelligence agencies sending him updates on what Senator Schumer had for lunch, where and who he dined with. Instead President Trump prefers the intelligence agencies focus on global security issues that are actually vital to the national security interests of the country.

H.R McMasters instructions toward he intelligence agencies has just freed up thousands of hours of operational intelligence (spying and analysis) to focus on real threats unrelated to domestic politics. Subsequently with the new direction established, Steve Bannon doesn’t need to be a pre-filter for NSC raw intel any longer. Bannon can now be a consumer of that intelligence, just like President Trump.

White House Chief Legal Counsel Don McGahn’s job also just got a lot less stressful.

Secondly, with the anticipation of President Obama’s Nat Sec Adviser Susan Rice remaining in the headlines as more is discovered about her role in the weaponization of intelligence for political use, there’s no better time for political Bannon to exit the NSC Principals Committee than right now.

It would be a little sketchy for Rice’s political weaponization of the NSC to be exposed in the media headlines while Steve Bannon, painted as a pure political partisan, sat on the Principals Committee of the Trump NSC.

Clarification for my colleagues: Bannon wasn't removed from the NSC, only from the NSC principals committee. He still attends NSC meetings. — David Martosko (@dmartosko) April 5, 2017

NEW: Bannon's national security clearance was NOT stripped, I'm told. He still has the highest clearance. — Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 5, 2017

Bannon will continue to attend National Security Council meetings–including the one this afternoon, top official told me. https://t.co/q2YTa613DY — Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 5, 2017

Journalists are arguing over whether or not Bannon was just kicked out of the National Security Council. Bannon's attending an NSC meeting. — David Martosko (@dmartosko) April 5, 2017