Sebastian Gorka becomes the latest right-wing firebrand forced out of Donald Trump’s administration

Sebastian Gorka, a controversial White House staffer who served as a fiery spokesman for President Donald Trump on national security matters, abruptly left the administration on Friday as his nationalist faction was being silenced, four people briefed on Gorka’s exit confirmed.

Gorka, a deputy assistant to the president, is a close ally of former chief strategist Stephen Bannon, who departed the White House last week. Together they saw their roles as enabling and promoting the president’s combative populism and revolutionary impulses.

Although Trump enjoyed watching his cable television appearances, in which he performed like a pit bull and taunted many news anchors for peddling what he and the president deemed “fake news,” Gorka had run afoul of many of his colleagues, including some on the National Security Council who considered him a fringe figure.

Officials said it was widely known that White House chief of staff, John Kelly, who has been restructuring the West Wing to stem infighting and chaos within the staff, was eager for Gorka to depart the administration.

While Gorka publicly released a resignation letter expressing his displeasure with the changes that he felt left his faction silenced, two White House officials insisted Gorka did not resign but rather was forced out. A third White House official said the “writing was on the wall” that Kelly wanted Gorka to leave.

Gorka’s departure spells the end of the Bannon era inside the White House, although he indicated that he intended to be a potent force outside the administration.

Gorka previously worked at Breitbart News alongside Bannon, who rejoined the conservative news organisation last week as executive chairman vowing to wage war against anyone – including West Wing officials – who stand in the way of Trump’s nationalist agenda.