President Donald Trump's former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon sided Wednesday with his old boss as Wall Street frowned on the White House's trade war with China.
Trump has proposed imposing 25 percent tariffs on about 1,300 Chinese industrial technology, medical and transportation products, and China fired back Wednesday by announcing a 25 percent levy on U.S. imports including cars, soybeans and whiskey. The Dow Jones industrial average early Wednesday dipped more than 500 points before rebounding in the afternoon.
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But Bannon—who has bashed Trump and vice versa since he was ousted from the White House last year—backed the president on the matter, saying that Wall Street "cheered on the export" of jobs of working people.
"To hell with Wall Street if they don't like it. It's time somebody stood up to them and Donald Trump is the perfect guy," Bannon told Reuters on Wednesday. "Wall Street is always short term. Trump is trying to protect the beating heart of American capitalism — our innovation."
Bannon also praised Trump for leading with "the smart things, forced technology transfers."
"It's obvious the Chinese have no real response to this. I think they played completely into his hands," Bannon said. "By putting tariffs on agricultural products and avoiding addressing the technology questions, they've shown once again they consider us nothing more than a tributary state."
Trump's intent on the tariffs shows China that "the game of continual delay is over," Bannon added.
The president on Wednesday morning tweeted that the U.S. is "not in a trade war with China."
"That war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion," Trump tweeted. "We cannot let this continue!"
When you’re already $500 Billion DOWN, you can’t lose!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 4, 2018
Bannon's support for Trump's controversial move comes after the president slammed him over a comment in Michael Wolff's book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," published in January. Bannon in the book called a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner and former campaign manager Paul Manafort, and Russians, "treasonous."
Trump responded in a statement: "When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
A Los Angeles native, Jessica Kwong grew up speaking Spanish, Cantonese and English, in that order. Her journalism career started ... Read more
