Last Friday, Steve Bannon left the White House after serving as the Trump administration’s chief strategist for seven turbulent months. At the risk of sounding too forward, thank goodness for that.

It’s no secret that President Trump is a wildly unpredictable man.  If you haven’t figured this out yet, scroll through his Twitter page for a minute or two and you’ll see what I mean.  Even the most perspicacious political analysts have a hard time figuring out his rationale.

However, if I were to gather a “greatest hits” list of his most bizarre actions since being inaugurated, his appointment of Steve Bannon would easily make the top ten.

The only logical way to explain this move is to assume it was a “thank you” of sorts due to Bannon being a key figure in Trump’s campaign.  Otherwise, it seemed downright crazy.

For those who aren’t familiar with Bannon, he had no political experience prior to his appointment to the Trump administration (although, he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy for several years). His biggest claim to fame is as the executive chair of Breitbart News.

Breitbart is, in Bannon’s words, “the platform for the alt-right,” the radical conservative wing that we now know as the minds behind the violence in Charlottesville. When questioned about this, Trump insisted that “if I thought he was a racist, or alt-right…I wouldn’t even think about hiring him.”

The most prominent speculation as to why John Kelly, Trump’s recently appointed Chief of Staff, dismissed Bannon is that he was largely responsible for Trump’s public statement on the violence in Charlottesville, namely in that “both sides” were to blame for the violence.

However, that’s really only scratching the surface of the issue. Bannon’s firing was a long time coming.  Ever since his appointment, Bannon constantly locked horns with several other Trump aides thanks to his radical proposals on policies related to immigration, taxation, trade, and other areas.

Although in the past viewing him as his closest ally, even Trump himself has had an ax to grind with Bannon, having accused him of leaking information to the press fairly recently.

Bannon hasn’t given up on his attempts to shape the national agenda even if he can no longer do so directly.  In fact, he returned to Breitbart just hours after his dismissal from the White House. There is also additional speculation that he may still act as an informal advisor to the President, despite no longer being his chief strategist.

If there’s anyone who comes second to the government in communicating and influencing public policy, it’s the media, so Bannon isn’t powerless by any means.

Regardless, it’s safe to say that America is better off without him playing a key role in the administration. The alt-right does not represent nearly the entirety of the base that elected Trump and in an era of growing political discord such views should have no place in shaping public policy.