White House chief strategist Steve Bannon may not have agreed to do an interview with American Prospect, a left leaning publication, despite the fact the outlet published a piece Wednesday where he was quoted saying, among other things, “the economic war with China is everything.”
Bannon reportedly called the journalist, Robert Kuttner, after reading one of his columns about how China was profiting from the U.S.-North Korea nuclear brinkmanship. But, according to Axios, Bannon was unaware the conversation about the piece would be turned into an interview.
Bannon reportedly told his associates he was not planning to conduct an interview with the liberal outlet. Rather, Bannon told them he was interested in the author’s stance on China.
“We’re at economic war with China,” Bannon said in the American Prospect piece. “It’s in all their literature. They’re not shy about saying what they’re doing. One of us is going to be a hegemon in 25 or 30 years, and it’s gonna be them if we go down this path. On Korea, they’re just tapping us along. It’s just a sideshow.”
The possible interview mishap follows another high-profile interview from late July, in which former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci made some profane comments about his colleagues and later accused the reporter, the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, of recording the conversation without his permission.
Discussion about firing Bannon may already been in the works. Recent reports indicate that Trump has received increased pressure from multiple individuals to fire Bannon.
