Steve Bannon returns to Breitbart News after White House exit

Washington: Ousted White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon has returned at the helm of conservative Breitbart News website and chaired the outlet's evening editorial meeting on Friday.

"I feel jacked up, now I'm free. I've got my hands back on my weapons. Someone said, 'it's Bannon the Barbarian. I am definitely going to crush the opposition. There's no doubt. I built a f***ing machine at Breitbart. And, now I'm about to go back, knowing what I know, and we're about to rev that machine up. And rev it up we will do," the Weekly Standard quoted Bannon, as saying.

Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow welcomed Bannon back by saying that Breitbart had "gained an executive chairman with his finger on the pulse of the United Sates President Donald Trump agenda."

The White House had released a statement on Friday saying that Bannon and White House chief of staff John Kelly had "mutually agreed" that this would be Bannon's last day in his capacity.

The removal of the former Breitbart editor as Trump's chief strategist marks a remarkable rise and fall for a rightwing ideologue regarded by some as the power behind the throne.

His absence makes more room for figures such as Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and the national economic council chair, Gary Cohn.

Bannon's departure makes him the sixth top-shelf aide to depart from the Trump administration since the beginning including former national security adviser Gen. Mike Flynn, chief of staff Reince Priebus, press secretary Sean Spicer and two communications directors - Mike Dubke and Anthony Scaramucci.