Steve Bannon out as White House chief strategist

WASHINGTON - White House senior strategist Steve Bannon has been removed from the administration, effective Friday, sources tell Fox News. In a brief statement sent to Fox News Friday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the news and said Friday would be Bannon's last day.

The move was first reported by the New York Times just after noon on Friday. The report says that parting of ways was Bannon's idea and that he had submitted his resignation last week.

"White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve's last day," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement to Fox News. "We are grateful for his service and wish him the best."

Bannon's job security in the White House became tenuous following the racial violence at a white supremacist rally last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia. He once declared that his former news site, Breitbart, was "the platform for the alt-right."