WASHINGTON — If President Trump is considering whether to fire Stephen K. Bannon, his chief strategist, as has been rumored for weeks, Mr. Bannon just gave him several new reasons.
In an interview published Wednesday by a liberal journalist, Mr. Bannon contradicted the president’s position on North Korea, bad-mouthed his colleagues in the administration, vowed to oust a female diplomat at the State Department and mocked Trump officials who fear the consequences of radically changing trade policy, saying they are “wetting themselves.”
People close to Mr. Bannon said he believed the comments were part of an off-the-record conversation with Robert Kuttner with The American Prospect that, according to the magazine, he initiated.
Still, they come as Mr. Bannon’s adversaries are aggressively seeking his ouster from the White House because of his links to Breitbart News, his feuding with other White House aides and a suspicion that he is the source of leaks about internal chaos inside the West Wing.
