Trump won't say if he has confidence in Bannon: Report
Trump told his chief strategist Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner to work it out.
— -- President Trump was mum on whether he still has confidence in his embattled chief strategist Steve Bannon, according to a published report.
The remarks come after Trump recently intervened in a feud between Bannon and Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, administration sources told ABC News.
“I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late,” Trump told The New York Post in an interview Tuesday. “I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn’t know Steve."
Bannon left his position at Breitbart News to become Trump's campaign CEO in August 2016.
Trump continued, "I’m my own strategist and it wasn’t like I was going to change strategies because I was facing crooked Hillary [Clinton]," according to the report.
The relationship between Kushner and Bannon has soured in recent weeks, sources say, after Bannon was stripped of his role on the National Security Council Principals Committee last week and Kushner has been given more responsibilities. White House sources say the men have clear ideological differences that have boiled over during recent events. Last Thursday, Trump demanded Bannon and Kusher "work this out" with help from chief of staff Reince Priebus.
“Steve is a good guy, but I told them to straighten it out or I will," Trump told The New York Post.
This week, the White House has dismissed the episode as "overblown."
"There's always going to be a healthy debate internally on a variety of policy issues among the Cabinet, among the staff, to make sure the president sees every option that's available," Spicer said during Monday's press briefing.
Reports of infighting among senior staff inside the Trump White House has raised the prospect of a staff shake-up, though sources have said no decisions appear imminent.