White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon gave a surprise interview on Tuesday, condemning white supremacists and expressing his concerns about the United States’ “economic war” with China.
Bannon called the co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, a left-wing magazine that aims to “advance liberal and progressive goals,” seemingly out of the blue.
But Bannon wasn’t calling to lambast the editor, Robert Kuttner, over recent articles criticizing Trump, but to praise him for his take on China and to give a wide-ranging interview on his view of things in the White House and beyond.
Kuttner said Bannon was in “high spirits” when he called and praised Kuttner’s recent reporting on China. He also said that he was stunned that Bannon approached him.
“We’re at economic war with China,” Bannon said in the interview. “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.”
Bannon told Kuttner he would consider a deal with China that would see the United States remove troops from the Korean peninsula in exchange for North Korea freezing its nuclear buildup with verifiable inspections, but such a deal seemed unlikely.
There was no easy solution to North Korea, said Bannon, and even a military strike could result in huge South Korean casualties.
