Steve Bannon
Steve BannonReuters

U.S. President Donald Trump's former White House strategist Steve Bannon on Tuesday stepped down from Breitbart News amid the ongoing controversy over incendiary remarks about the president quoted in a new book, AFP reported.

"Steve is a valued part of our legacy, and we will always be grateful for his contributions, and what he has helped us to accomplish," Breitbart CEO Larry Solov said in a statement from the company.

Bannon himself said he was "proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform."

Breitbart said Bannon and the company will "work together on a smooth and orderly transition," but provided no other immediate details.

The 64-year-old news executive came under fire last week following the explosive comments he made about the president's fitness for office and members of his family.

Those comments were quoted in the new book by Michael Wolff "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House". The book paints Trump as disengaged, ill-informed and unstable.

In the book, Bannon is quoted as saying a pre-election meeting involving Trump's eldest son Donald Jr. and a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer was "treasonous."

Trump later replied by saying Bannon had "lost his mind" and branded him "Sloppy Steve" on Twitter.

He has trashed the book as "fake" and its author, Michael Wolff, as "totally discredited author" and has sought to defend himself as a "very stable genius."

Bannon later attempted to walk back from the remarks, saying that "Donald Trump Jr. is both a patriot and a good man," but the closest he came to an apology was regretting the timing of his response.

Bannon emerged from relative obscurity when Trump picked him as campaign chief in August 2016. He was later hired as chief strategist for the White House.

In August, however, the White House announced that Bannon would be stepping down from his role, saying the decision was mutually agreed upon by Bannon and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

Prior to his stepping down, reports said Bannon clashed with the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and national security adviser H.R. McMaster. Their feuds would often spill into the press, exacerbating tensions in the White House.