Billionaire Mark Cuban believes former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon doesn’t respect President Trump, adding that Bannon considers himself a kingmaker and revels in power.
“Steve likes to be a kingmaker. He revels in the power and he leverages this,” Cuban told “The Jamie Weinstein Show” at the National Review Online, while discussing his 20-year association with the executive chairman of Breitbart News. “He played Trump all the way through, branded himself and he got the best branding out of the whole thing.”
This apparent Bannon brand supersedes the Trump brand because Trump has no “core beliefs,” Cuban opined.
Cuban and Bannon, who also served as the Trump campaign’s CEO, met after the 2016 election because the Dallas Mavericks owner wanted insight into Trump and he was curious about Bannon.
“A lot of people think, ‘Well, if you talk to Steve Bannon, he’s going to influence you like he’s some magician or some Geppetto that takes control,'” he said, referring to reports Bannon tried to convince Cuban to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. “I’m not Donald Trump, right? I have my integrity. I have my standards. I have my beliefs that are core to me. And then there’s topics that I’m always trying to learn about.”
Cuban credited Bannon for having “a good feel” for Trump and the president’s support base, but said he did not think Bannon respected Trump.
“I got the sense he doesn’t,” Cuban said.
During the wide-ranging interview, Cuban also spoke about the one time Sen. Ted Cruz invited him to dinner on Valentine’s Day.
