Trump gives Bannon the silent treatment as he hits back at book claims
PRESIDENT Donald Trump has said he no longer speaks to former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who savaged his administration in a new book.
Mr Trump told reporters yesterday, “I don’t talk to him”, before he began a White House meeting with Republican senators on immigration reform.
Mr Bannon questioned Mr Trump’s fitness for office and made scandalous allegations against the president and his family in excerpts of the book, Fire And Fury: Inside The Trump White House, by Michael Wolff.
As the bombshell book surfaced on Wednesday, Mr Trump unleashed an attack on Mr Bannon in a statement, saying he had “lost his mind”.
Speaking yesterday at the White House, Mr Trump said Mr Bannon spoke positively of him on Wednesday night on his Breitbart radio show.
Mr Trump noted: “He called me a great man last night.”
The president added that his counter-attack had its desired outcome, saying: “He obviously changed his tune pretty quick.”
On Wednesday Mr Trump was scathing about his former ally over the new book which portrays the US President as an undisciplined man-child who did not actually want to enter the White House and quotes his former adviser as calling his son’s contact with a Russian lawyer “treasonous”.
Hitting back via a White House statement rather than a more typical Twitter volley, Mr Trump insisted that Mr Bannon had little to do with his victorious campaign and “has nothing to do with me or my presidency”.
“When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,” Mr Trump said.
The blistering attack against Mr Bannon was sparked by an unflattering new book by Wolff which paints Mr Trump as a leader who does not understand the weight of the presidency and spends his evenings eating cheeseburgers in bed, watching television and talking on the phone to old friends.
Later on Wednesday, Mr Trump’s lawyer, Charles Harder, threatened legal action against the former aide over “disparaging statements and in some cases outright defamatory statements”.
Mr Harder wrote to Mr Bannon, saying he had violated confidentiality agreements by speaking to Mr Wolff.
His letter demanded Mr Bannon “cease and desist” any further disclosure of confidential information.
However, the publisher said the book is going on sale early due to “unprecedented demand”.
White House aides were blindsided when early excerpts from Fire And Fury: Inside The Trump White House were published online by New York magazine and other media outlets ahead of the January 9 publication date.
The release left Mr Trump “furious” and “disgusted”, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who complained that the book contained “outrageous” and “completely false claims against the president, his administration and his family”.
In the book, an advance copy of which was provided to the Associated Press, Mr Bannon is quoted as describing a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr, Trump campaign aides and a Russian lawyer as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”.
The meeting has become a focus of federal and congressional investigators.
Mr Bannon also told Mr Wolff that investigations into potential collusion between Russia and Trump campaign officials were likely to focus on money laundering. “They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV,” Mr Bannon was quoted as saying. Former allies Donald Trump (top) and Steve Bannon no longer speak
❝ Mr Bannon called me a great man last night, he obviously changed his tune pretty quick