‘He’s lost his mind’: Trump hits back at former top aide
DONALD TRUMP last night publicly disowned Steve Bannon, saying his former adviser had “lost his mind”, as the pair fell out spectacularly over a new book revealing embarrassing details about the White House.
The US president said Mr Bannon, who ran Mr Trump’s election campaign and advised him in office, “has nothing to do with me or my presidency”.
Mr Trump claimed his former chief strategist had “rarely” met him one-onone before leaving the White House last August.
The president also accused Mr Bannon of leaking “false information” to “make himself seem far more important than he was”. The comments, issued through a rare statement in Trump’s name, complete a remarkable breakdown in trust between the presi- dent and the man most credited with getting him to the White House.
It came after details of an explosive new book on Mr Trump emerged yesterday, with Mr Bannon quoted as delivering a series of criticisms about White House figures.
Mr Bannon said a meeting that Mr Trump’s son, Donald Jr, had with Russian figures in Trump Tower was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”, according to a copy seen by The Guardian.
The meeting, which took place before the November 2016 election, is seen as key to the FBI inquiry into Russian meddling in the campaign.
Mr Bannon is also quoted as saying that Mr Trump repeatedly tried to meet Vladimir Putin but Russia’s president “couldn’t give a s--- about him”, according to an extract in New York Magazine.
The comments threatened to challenge Mr Trump’s claim that the Russian investigation is a “witch hunt” and baseless. The book, called Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, is written by journalist Michael Wolff and based on 200 interviews with Mr Trump, his inner circle and other key players. It is not released until next week but an article by the author, published online yesterday, revealed claims made in the book that are deeply embarrassing for the president.
Mr Trump’s wife, Melania, was “in tears” when he won the election and the president looked like he had “seen a ghost” because they expected defeat,
the piece in the New York Magazine said. The president’s daughter Ivanka is reported to mock her father, including for his use of Just for Men to dye his hair, it was claimed, which he brushes into a comb-over after a scalp-reduction surgery to decrease his bald patch.
Mr Trump was also said to have banned people from touching his toothbrush and would strip the bed sheets himself after entering the White House for a fear of germs.
The piece also suggests the president’s White House is chaotic and that some of those around Mr Trump “believed that for all practical purposes he was no more than semi-literate”.
Yesterday, the White House entered all-out rebuttal mode. Mr Trump said in a statement: “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. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating 17 candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party. 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 30 years by Republicans. Steve doesn’t represent my base – he’s only in it for himself.
“Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. 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 phoney books.”
The White House confirmed that Mr Trump spoke to Mr Wolff before the book’s release, with the conversation lasting “five to seven minutes”.
A spokesman also said Mr Bannon and Mr Trump last talked in the first half of December – just weeks ago.
Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, described the book as “filled with false and misleading accounts from individuals who have no access or influence”.
Meanwhile, Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chief charged with money laundering, is reportedly suing the Justice Department.
♦ Tony Blair warned Donald Trump’s aides that British intelligence agencies could have spied on them during the election campaign, a new book has claimed. Mr Blair told the “juicy rumour” to Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law, and another senior aide last February, according to journalist Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
A spokesman for Mr Blair dismissed the claim as a “complete and total fabrication” and denied a claim Mr Blair had been seeking a new Middle East role.