NEW: Asked about Steve Bannon, @realDonaldTrump tells pool: "I don't know, he called me a great man last night so, ya know he obviously changed his tune pretty quick." pic.twitter.com/H3iyqEgN4D
— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) January 4, 2018
President Trump on Thursday took another shot at Stephen Bannon in the midst of a war of words between them, saying he does not speak to his onetime close political ally.
“I don’t talk to him,” Trump told reporters.
The president claimed it was “just a misnomer” that he continues to talk to the Breitbart News chief and former chief strategist, who reportedly revealed damaging information to the author Michael Wolff for a forthcoming book on the early days of Trump’s presidency.
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The president also sought to undercut Bannon’s criticisms of him and his family, noting Bannon did not repeat them in a Wednesday night radio interview.
“I don’t know, he called me a great man last night,” Trump said. “So he obviously changed his tune pretty quick.”
The comments came during Trump’s first public appearance since Bannon’s comments in the book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” shook Washington after they were made public Wednesday.
Bannon said it was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic” for Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort to meet with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign in the hopes of obtaining damaging information about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The ex-aide also questioned Trump’s grasp of policy and politics.
In a blistering statement on Wednesday, Trump said Bannon has “lost his mind” and accused him of being “only in it for himself.”
Trump’s team stepped up its offensive against the book late Wednesday and into Thursday. A personal lawyer for the president threatened to sue Bannon, Wolff and the book’s publisher and demanded that the book release be canceled.
Following the president’s disavowal and the legal threats, the former White House strategist said he remains a staunch supporter of Trump.
“The president of the United States is a great man,” Bannon said on the “Breitbart News Tonight” program on SiriusXM Radio. “You know I support him day in and day out.”
Trump has made Bannon public enemy No. 1 in his campaign to discredit the book. But the president had remained on decent terms with Bannon in the months after his ouster last August.
Despite Trump’s claim, the White House acknowledged on Wednesday the two men had spoken as recently as early December.
Updated 12:32 p.m.