Story highlights Bannon was removed from the NSC in what the White House said was a planned move

'We gotta work this out,' Trump reportedly told Bannon and Jared Kushner about their increasingly nasty infighting

(CNN) When Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump's chief strategist, appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, he appeared to be at the height of his powers.

Trump had pushed through an executive order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. He had placed Bannon, controversially, on the National Security Council.

Bannon and his world view was ascendant -- and he knew it. The administration's goal was the "deconstruction of the administrative state," he said at CPAC.

Since then, Bannon has watched his power within the White House steadily shrink, an erosion that culminated this week when he was removed from the NSC and his battles with Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, went public.

Bannon was removed from the NSC in what the White House claims was a planned move. He was only there to keep an eye on Michael Flynn, the argument went, and with Flynn being forced to resign as national security adviser, Bannon's job was theoretically, done! (Nota bene: Flynn and Bannon were allies and similarly minded in world view.)

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