“I think Breitbart will continue to operate the way it has since Andrew died and Steve took editorial control over it,” said Kurt Bardella, the outlet’s former publicist. “Since that time it’s served as a platform to advance Steve’s agenda.”

In an interview with The Economist given after his firing, Bannon said of Trump, “We will never turn on him. But we are never going to let him take a decision that hurts him.”

But there could be a point at which Breitbart’s audience starts to view this kind of ideological enforcement as turning on Trump. Bannon’s not-so-veiled threat is premised on the idea that Breitbart is influential enough to police Trump’s decisions. This influence would stem from Breitbart’s ability to sway Trump’s base; Bannon’s and Trump’s strategy in the campaign was to consistently play to the base even when most candidates attempt to expand outside it, and it worked. As president, Trump has bad approval ratings among the public at large, and although recent polls have shown his base numbers softening, he still commands loyalty among his core supporters despite the last seven months of chaos and the fact that he has not delivered on core promises.

This is the well from which Trump draws his power, and why congressional Republicans mostly still won’t do more than express “concerns” about him. This is also why Breitbart acts as a savage critic of Republicans like Paul Ryan who do not fall in line with its agenda. Bannon sees the establishment GOP as being as much a part of the opposition as the media or the Democrats, and Breitbart acts accordingly. This fall could offer the site rich fodder, as Trump has said he is willing to shut down the government over border wall funding — a posture sure to increase tensions with Republican congressional leadership.

Bannon is a hands-on boss and was notorious for his demanding approach to his employees, demanding lots of copy from them and berating them for losing out to other sites. “If Bannon were managing you, the email or the phone call would be ‘Why the fuck am I seeing the story somewhere else when it’s your job to do the story,’” said former Breitbart reporter Lee Stranahan, who quit the site earlier this year and now works for Russian government-backed channel Sputnik. “That’s how he manages.”

Editor in chief Alex Marlow is a much less abrasive personality and keeps a lower profile, though he’s been the subject of recent articles with which he’s given extensive cooperation, and recently appeared on Bill Maher’s show.

“Now Bannon's clearly the boss, with national press and the Mercers eating out of his hand,” said one former Breitbart staffer. “Marlow has zero power.”

Under Marlow’s leadership, the site went through a couple major changes, including firing its provocative tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos after tape of Yiannopoulos defending sex between adult men and boys surfaced this past spring, as well as firing editor Katie McHugh after a racist tweet. Bannon hired Yiannopoulos and Marlow fired him, though he and Marlow have remained in touch—BuzzFeed News reported that Marlow had helped set up his new company, since the firing—and it is Marlow’s dog Daphne who is posing with Yiannopoulos on the back cover of his new book, Yiannopoulos said.