President Trump lashed out Wednesday against Steve Bannon, saying that his former top campaign and White House adviser had “lost his mind.”
“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.”
Mr. Bannon harshly criticized the early days of the Trump White House in an upcoming book. Excerpts were released Wednesday.
The president said Mr. Bannon does not represent the Trump base but “is only in it for himself” and called him a secret ally of the news media that opposes the administration.
Mr. Bannon gave author Michael Wolff a biting expose that glorified his role and often belittled the president. Excerpts from the upcoming book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” were published Wednesday by the Guardian and New York Magazine.
The White House communications team came out in full force against the book.
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“This book is filled with false and misleading accounts from individuals who have no access or influence with the White House. Participating in a book that can only be described as trashy tabloid fiction exposes their sad desperate attempts at relevancy,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Mrs. Sanders described the president as “furious” and “disgusted” when he learned of the book’s “false claims.”
Stephanie Grisham, communications director for First Lady Melania Trump 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,” she said, contradicting claims in the book.
Mr. Trump ousted Mr. Bannon from the White House in August.
Mr. Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News, has credited himself with getting Mr. Trump elected and masterminding the Trump agenda.
SEE ALSO: President Trump’s statement responding to Steve Bannon’s criticism
“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,” Mr. Trump said in the statement. “Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look.”
The president was referring to the recent loss of the Bannon-backed candidate, Republican Roy Moore, in the Alabama race for U.S. Senate.
Mr. Trump continued: “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 president also accused Mr. Bannon of being in league with the news media.
“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 phony books,” he said.
“We have many great Republican members of Congress and candidates who are very supportive of the Make America Great Again agenda. 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,” said Mr. Trump.
The president’s full 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 seventeen 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 thirty 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 phony books.
We have many great Republican members of Congress and candidates who are very supportive of the Make America Great Again agenda. 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.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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