Stephen Bannon: 'No administration in history has been so divided'

Trump's former chief strategist is opening about feuding at the White House.

ByABC News
August 20, 2017, 12:14 AM

— -- The White House is indeed divided.

That's the claim being made by Stephen Bannon in a new interview, following his departure Friday from the White House as President Trump's chief strategist. Bannon, 63, is returning to Breitbart News as executive chairman.

"No administration in history has been so divided among itself about the direction about where it should go," Bannon told The Washington Post Saturday, adding that the president's base is frustrated by a congressional agenda that meshes with traditional Republican priorities more so than the agenda Trump campaigned on during the election.

Bannon says both Republicans and Democrats need to focus on issues concerning the working class.

Bannon said GOP leadership must embrace Trump's plans for taxes, trade and a U.S.-Mexico border wall, or it will alienate the president's base.

"If the Republican Party on Capitol Hill gets behind the president on his plans and not theirs, it will all be sweetness and light, be one big happy family," Bannon said.

But don't count on that "sweetness" happening anytime soon, Bannon cautions.

Bannon told The Washington Post that the feuding going on in the White House and in the Republican leadership ranks don't completely mirror the country's divisions.

"The tensions in the White House are slightly different than the tensions in the country. It’s still a divided country," Bannon said. "Fifty percent of the people did not support President Trump. Most of those people do not support his policies in any way, shape or form."

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