Washington - US President Donald Trump
blasted former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on
Wednesday as having "lost his mind" in the fallout over damaging
comments Bannon made about Trump's son Donald Trump Jr in
excerpts from a new book.
Trump, who had continued to speak privately with Bannon
after firing him in August, essentially cut ties with his former
aide at least for now in a blistering statement issued after
Bannon's comments came to light.
"Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency.
When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,"
Trump said.
Trump had relied heavily on Bannon, chairman of the
right-wing Breitbart News website, for advice in the months
leading up to his upset victory in the November 2016 election.
Bannon helped Trump shape a populist, anti-establishment
message and has been the president's link to his conservative
base of support. It was not clear if the split would push Bannon
to be even more aggressive in his campaign against the
Republican establishment and whether he would now also target
Trump, or would emerge much weaker.
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According to excerpts from "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump
White House" by Michael Wolff, to be released on Tuesday, Bannon
described a June 2016 meeting with a group of Russians at Trump
Tower in New York as "treasonous" and "unpatriotic." The meeting
was arranged by the president's son and attended by top Trump
campaign officials.
Trump has in the past praised Bannon for his friendship, but
the president said in his statement on Wednesday Bannon had
little to do with his election victory over Democrat Hillary
Clinton, calling him "a staffer who worked for me" after he had
already won the Republican nomination.
The president said Bannon was to blame for the loss of a
Republican-held US Senate seat in Alabama in December when
Republican Roy Moore, whose campaign was derailed by accusations
of sexual misconduct with teenage girls, lost to Democrat Doug
Jones. Trump and Bannon backed Moore in the campaign.
"Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning
isn't as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do
with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten
men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do
with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than
thirty years by Republicans," Trump said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had been upset
over Trump's backing of Moore at the urging of Bannon, was
clearly pleased Trump was willing to rid himself of the former
aide. McConnell's campaign organization posted on Twitter an
image of the normally taciturn senator with a beaming smile.
Donald Trump Jr attacked Bannon in a tweet.
"Steve had the honor of working in the White House & serving
the country. Unfortunately, he squandered that privilege &
turned that opportunity into a nightmare of backstabbing,
harassing, leaking, lying & undermining the President. Steve is
not a strategist, he is an opportunist," he said.
The president, an expert at self-promotion, said Bannon was
trying to promote himself by "leaking false information to the
media to make himself seem far more important than he was."
"Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only
pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no
access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books," said
Trump, who famously values loyalty in associates and employees.
Lawyers for the president sent a cease and desist letter to
Bannon on Wednesday. They said in the letter, seen by Reuters,
Bannon had breached an agreement by communicating with Wolff
about Trump, his family members and the campaign and made
disparaging remarks about Trump and his family.
With elections looming in November that could cost
Republicans control of Congress, Trump praised Republican
lawmakers and candidates, words likely to be welcomed by
McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan.
"Like me, they love the United States of America and are
helping to finally take our country back and build it up, rather
than simply seeking to burn it all down," Trump said.
As with much in the Trump White House, the story that
triggered the harsh back-and-forth was an offshoot of the
investigation into whether Trump campaign aides colluded with
Russia to sway the election to Trump, allegations Trump and
Moscow deny.
Bannon expressed derision about the June 2016 meeting in
which a Russian lawyer was said to have offered damaging
information about Clinton, according to the book.
The meeting was attended by Trump's son, his son-in-law,
Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Bannon
was also quoted as saying he was sure Trump Jr. would have taken
the Russians who took part in the meeting to meet his father in
Trump Tower.
"The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good
idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the
conference room on the 25th floor - with no lawyers. They didn't
have any lawyers," Bannon said in the book in excerpts seen by
Reuters.
"Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or
unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it's all of
that, you should have called the FBI immediately," he said.
When an intermediary proposed the meeting, saying the
Russians were offering damaging information about Clinton, Trump
Jr responded in an email: "I love it."
Bannon was incredulous about the meeting shortly after it
was revealed, according to the book, concluding sarcastically:
"That's the brain trust they had."
The Wolff book, parts of which were published by New York
magazine, portrayed Trump as shocked that he won the election
and said his wife, Melania Trump, was in tears, and "not of
joy."
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders called the book
"trashy tabloid fiction."
The first lady's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said: "The
book is clearly going to be sold in the bargain fiction section.
Mrs Trump supported her husband's decision to run for President
and in fact, encouraged him to do so. She was confident he would
win and was very happy when he did."