US President Donald Trump has removed White House Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon from the National Security Council (NSC). 

Media sources confirmed the removal of Bannon from the NSC on Wednesday.

Bannon , 63, a former film producer and media executive, was elevated to the National Security Council’s principals committee on January 28, 2017.

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was given responsibility for setting the agenda for meetings of the NSC in his place.

The decision to elevate Bannon on the NSC in January was criticized by some members of Congress and Washington’s foreign policy establishment.

US Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert was also downgraded from his post. in the NSC reorganization.

A senior White House official said Bannon was given a seat on the NSC principals committee only as a check on then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Now that Flynn is gone, Bannon is no longer needed in that role, the official said.

Flynn was forced to resign in February from his position as Trump's first national security adviser after it was revealed that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about a conversation he had with the Russian ambassador to the US in late December.

Bannon is a founding member and former executive chairman of Breitbart News, an online, far-right news website which many believe publishes racist and anti-Semitic articles.