It's only been two weeks since Steve Bannon was fired from his role as the chief strategist in Donald Trump's White House. I know it feels like it's been about a decade and a half, what with the constant stream of terrible news stories that seem to be coming faster and faster these days, but in reality we're talking just a single pay period. And though some may have hoped that Bannon's departure would mean a more sensible Donald Trump, those people were sadly mistaken.

I mean, Donald Trump was calling Mexicans rapists before Steve Bannon had officially joined the team, and his unhinged Phoenix rally came after Bannon had left. But even though the problem was, is, and will continue to be Donald Trump, people can take some solace in the fact that an outspoken white supremacist is no longer in the president's ear. Or at least, that's what everyone thought, but it turns out, according to a new Washington Post report, Steve Bannon is still getting direct access to the President.

But Trump sometimes defies — and even resents — the new structure. He has been especially sensitive to the way Kelly’s rigid structure is portrayed in the media and strives to disabuse people of the notion that he is being managed. The president continues to call business friends and outside advisers, including former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, from his personal phone when Kelly is not around, said people with knowledge of the calls.

This raises an interesting question. If Steve Bannon's job in the White House was to advise the president on strategy, what's changed other than the fact that he's no longer collecting a salary? What this report tells us is Steve Bannon is still advising Donald Trump whenever General Kelly isn't around. And so while the Trump camp wanted credit for severing ties with Bannon, he's still very much in the picture. That is what we call in the media business, "a real shitty piece of news."

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