There has been a "divide" in the administration of President Donald Trump "from the beginning" of his presidency, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told CBS' "60 Minutes."
In a wide-ranging interview that aired Sunday, the first that Bannon has conducted since leaving his White House position last month, he maintained Trump was always open to "diverging views."
"I think there has been a divide in this administration from the beginning. It's quite obvious," Bannon explained, adding that it was between one group that felt, "All you have to do is do what you said you were gonna do in these major areas" and another who were of the opinion, "Let's compromise, and let's try to reach out to Democrats, and let's try to work on things that we can do together."
Bannon said the investigation into claims that Russia colluded with the Trump campaign in 2016 was "a waste of time."
"There's nothing to the Russia investigation," he said. "It's a total and complete farce. Russian collusion is a farce."
When asked why Trump has a hard time criticizing Russia, Bannon maintained "he criticizes the Russians all the time," but said the U.S. "should be focused on how we bring the Cold War to an end."
Regarding the president's issues over China, Bannon explained Trump "for 30 years, has singled out China as the biggest single problem we have on the world stage."
"The elites in this country have got us in a situation. We're not at economic war with China. China is at economic war with us," he said.
"I want China to stop appropriating our technology," he added, explaining that the Chinese were "cutting out the beating heart of American innovation."
Bannon maintained the problems with China went back to the administrations of former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
Bannon said he held "in contempt . . . the geniuses in the Bush administration that let China in the W.T.O. [World Trade Organization] and geniuses in the Bush administration [who] told us, 'Hey, they're gonna be a liberal democracy. They're going to be free-market capitalism.'"
After leaving the White House, Bannon returned to his previous position to head Breitbart News, but maintained he still "had the same influence on the president I had on day one."