Bannon reportedly threatened to quit if he were kicked off the National Security Council

Stephen Bannon's exit from the National Security Council, in an NSC reorganization signed by President Trump on Tuesday and made public Wednesday, is being almost universally described as part of National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster's efforts to depoliticize the NSC, which he took the helm of after the firing of Michael Flynn. But there are conflicting assessments of what the move says about Bannon's status in the mercurial Trump White House.

Senior White House officials allied with Bannon, Trump's chief political strategist, tell The New York Times and The Washington Post that Bannon was not demoted, and had only been placed on the NSC to keep an eye on Flynn, rarely attending NSC meetings. But other Trump insiders describe Bannon's NSC ouster as a clear demotion, with one White House official telling The New York Times that Bannon had threatened to quit if he were removed from the council. He was convinced to stay on by GOP mega-donor Rebekah Mercer, a close Bannon ally and business partner and prominent Trump supporter, several sources tell Politico. (Bannon called the reports that he threatened to quit "total nonsense.")

Trump had immediately regretted placing Bannon on the NSC in the first place, "feeling that he had not been properly warned about its implications," report Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman, and Glenn Thrush at The Times. "He briefly considered reversing it the same weekend it was announced, according to a person with direct knowledge, but decided against it for fear of creating more of a public storm." More broadly, Bannon is reportedly losing power to Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and Kushner ally Gary Cohn, Trump's national economics adviser. Bannon's failures on Trump's two immigration orders and health care further undermined his clout.

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The Times also notes this bit of gossipy detail:

Still, it would be premature to count Bannon out, says James Jeffrey, a deputy national security adviser to President George W. Bush. McMaster "scored one on the presumably more powerful Bannon," he said, but Bannon "seems to be very close to the president and, by most accounts, still wins many of his battles."