Bannon calls Trump Jr. meeting with Russians ‘treasonous’: Book

WASHINGTON (Reuters): Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon called a June 2016 meeting with a group of Russians attended by Donald Trump Jr. and his father’s top campaign officials “treasonous” and “unpatriotic,” according to excerpts of a new book seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

The explosive comments from a former close aide and far-right architect of Donald Trump’s November 2016 election victory roiled the White House and the Republican president, who famously values loyalty in associates and employees. Trump fired Bannon from his White House post in August and split with him on Wednesday in a highly personal public repudiation.

In the book, Bannon expressed derision and astonishment over the meeting at Trump Tower in New York in which a Russian lawyer was said to be offering damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, according to the book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” by Michael Wolff.

Bannon also was quoted as saying he was sure Trump Jr. would have taken the Russians who took part in the meeting to meet his father in Trump Tower. Trump Jr. arranged the meeting and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, also attended.

The June 9, 2016, meeting has become part of federal special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the election. Trump has denied any such collusion.

“The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor - with no lawyers. They didn’t have any lawyers,” Bannon was quoted as saying in excerpts of the book seen by Reuters.

“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 also was quoted as saying, “The chance that Don Jr. did not walk these jumos up to this father’s office on the twenty-sixth floor is zero.” Jumo is a word meaning drunk.

When an intermediary proposed the meeting, saying the Russians were offering damaging information about Clinton, Trump Jr. responded in an email, “I love it.”

Bannon was incredulous about the meeting shortly after it was first revealed publicly, according to the book, concluding sarcastically, “That’s the brain trust they had.”

The book was based on more than 200 interviews with Trump, senior White House staffers and confidantes conducted by Wolff, a contributing editor for The Hollywood Reporter, according to publisher Henry Holt.

Trump breaks with Bannon, says former White House aide ‘lost his mind’

WASHINGTON (Reuters): US President Donald Trump blasted former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Wednesday as having “lost his mind” in the fallout over damaging comments Bannon made about Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. in excerpts from a new book.

Trump, who had continued to speak privately with Bannon after firing him in August, essentially cut ties with his former aide at least for now in a blistering statement issued after Bannon’s comments came to light.

“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,” Trump said.

Trump had relied heavily on Bannon, chairman of the right-wing Breitbart News website, for advice in the months leading up to his upset victory in the November 2016 election.

Bannon helped Trump shape a populist, anti-establishment message and has been the president’s link to his conservative base of support. It was not clear if the split would push Bannon to be even more aggressive in his campaign against the Republican establishment and whether he would now also target Trump, or would emerge much weaker.

Trump has in the past praised Bannon for his friendship, but the president said in his statement on Wednesday Bannon had little to do with his election victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, calling him “a staffer who worked for me” after he had already won the Republican nomination.

The president said Bannon was to blame for the loss of a Republican-held US Senate seat in Alabama in December when Republican Roy Moore, whose campaign was derailed by accusations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls, lost to Democrat Doug Jones. Trump and Bannon backed Moore in the campaign.

“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,” Trump said.