Trump says Bannon ‘lost his mind’

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump unleashed on his former chief strategist and campaign manager Wednesday, issuing a long and unusual statement questioning Steve Bannon’s mental stability, honesty and political influence.

“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency,” the statement said. “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 seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.”

Trump continued: “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. Steve doesn’t represent my base - he’s only in it for himself.”

The statement from Trump came after Bannon criticized Trump and his family in recent interviews — mocking the president’s intellect, criticizing the operations of the White House and torching Donald Trump Jr. and the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner. His most recent comments, published online Wednesday in excerpts from a book by journalist Michael Wolff, came two weeks after a Bannon profile in Vanity Fair that infuriated the president and his senior aides.

The book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” which paints an unflattering portrait of Trump’s campaign and administration, came from Wolff spending months in the White House — often in Bannon’s office.

Trump was aware of the project and gave the blessing for others to talk to Wolff, the author said. One senior White House official said Trump advisers considered Wolff friendly and believed it would be beneficial to speak with him; this person also said Trump was interviewed by Wolff.