The mix proved unstable, with endless infighting between White House factions. Priebus and Spicer finally left in July, clearing out the GOP establishment. Bannon’s departure, along with the reassignment of two influential Bannon-aligned members of the National Security Council, clears out the populists. And it leaves Trump’s White House with attenuated ties to the two leading factions of the Republican Party.

As with many denizens of the eclectic Trump West Wing, Bannon made an unlikely ascent. His appointment as chief strategist in the White House came after a revolving set of careers—often somewhat successful, but usually on the fringes—that he had tried before landing at Breitbart, the conservative media outlet that became Trump’s de facto palace media. He joined the Trump campaign in August 2016, at a time when hardly anyone (including insiders) gave Trump a chance. When the entertainer managed to pull off a win in November, Bannon was credited as a strategic genius who had seen the power of an appeal to nationalism—and especially white nationalism, rechristened as the “alt-right.”

Bannon’s tenure was rocky from the start. His job was to be chief strategist, but the Trump presidency has never managed to maintain an effective or consistent strategy, or to get much of anything done. (Most of that blame falls on the president, who has a short attention span and limited policy chops.) Bannon clashed fiercely with the establishment wing under Priebus, but also with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior adviser. Perhaps most unforgivably in Trump’s eyes, he got a great deal of credit for the administration’s moves, including an unforgettable Saturday Night Live sketch in which Bannon, as the Grim Reaper, infantilized the president.

In April, Trump said, “I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late. I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn't know Steve. I’m my own strategist.”

More recently, Trump was reported by multiple outlets to be livid about a book by the journalist Joshua Green that focused on Bannon’s role in powering the Trump campaign. He was also suspected by some White House figures, probably correctly, of leaking to the press. Then Bannon offered a series of surprising interviews over the last week—the most surprising of them to Robert Kuttner of the liberal journal The American Prospect, in which he openly disparaged Trump’s North Korea strategy, saying no military option was viable, and dismissed the alt-right’s influence and size.

That was apparently enough to end Bannon’s term in the White House. The president himself has proven extremely reluctant to fire anyone, often preferring to publicly disparage them and to try to push them to resign without actually pulling the trigger. Bannon’s demise may have a lot to do with recently installed White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a former Marine general who has sought to instill greater control over the West Wing. Kelly also insisted that Trump dismiss Anthony Scaramucci, the communications director who was installed over the objections of both Priebus and Bannon, helped push Priebus out, and was fired within 10 days.