Trump Campaign CEO Stephen Bannon
Trump Campaign CEO Stephen BannonReuters

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Saturday responded to reports that US President Donald Trump had fired senior White House adviser Stephen Bannon.

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said, "Hate has no place in our nation: not in our town squares and not in our White House. We are glad Steve Bannon will no longer advise the president."

"In November of 2016, when Bannon was first appointed, we called on the President to disassociate himself from someone who boasted about creating a platform on Breitbart for the alt-right, a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites.

"Now is the time for moral leadership. As we have said before, staffers with ties to white nationalists do not belong on the payroll of the American people. Just as the President has promised to investigate leakers on his staff, he should apply the same energy to identify and dismiss others on his staff with ties to extremists."

On Friday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in a statement quoted by The Hill said, "White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve's last day. We are grateful for his service and wish him the best."

In February, Bannon said Jews are "unwitting enablers of jihad" and in April, he was removed from the National Security Council.