President Trump’s eldest son on Wednesday slammed former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon for his work on the Alabama Senate race, which was won by now-Sen. Doug Jones (D).
Donald Trump Jr. mocked the Breitbart News chief over the defeat of Bannon’s chosen candidate, Roy Moore (R), who had previously defeated an incumbent backed by President Trump, Sen. Luther Strange (R), in the state’s primary months before.
“Thanks Steve. Keep up the great work,” Trump Jr. tweeted, reacting to Jones’s swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday afternoon.
Jones defeated Moore in December after allegations surfaced that Moore decades ago pursued relationships with girls as young as 14. Trump eventually endorsed Moore after the allegations surfaced, citing Jones’s liberal record.
Trump Jr.’s attack on his father’s former top strategist comes hours after the White House declared war on Bannon over quotes made in a forthcoming book from Michael Wolff detailing the inner workings of the first days of the Trump administration.
Bannon claimed that there is “zero” chance that then-candidate Trump was not informed about his son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer who promised “dirt” on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
The meeting between Trump Jr., the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, campaign chairman Paul Manafort and the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, has become a central focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Trump has previously denied any knowledge of the meeting.
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Bannon also refers to Trump Jr.’s conduct as “treasonous,” according to excerpts of the book published by The Guardian.
“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,” Bannon said in the book.
Trump himself responded to Bannon’s comments in a statement Wednesday, accusing the former chief strategist of losing his mind.
“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency,” Trump said. “When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.”