Public rift with Trump costs ex-aide Bannon key Republican backer

The acrimony surrounding former White House adviser Steve Bannon's very public spat with Donald Trump is escalating, suggesting a permanent split between the US president and the strategist who helped put him in the Oval Office.

The new fissure in an already fractious Republican Party cast doubt on Mr Bannon's hopes of fomenting a movement centred on "Trumpism without Trump".