Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon may not be in the West Wing anymore, but he plans to remain President Donald Trump's "wingman" — and he thinks members of the administration who break with the president's positions should resign, singling out economic adviser Gary Cohn.
"I'm a street fighter," Bannon told CBS News' Charlie Rose, during a "60 Minutes" interview to air Sunday.
"I think that's why Donald Trump and I get along so well. Donald Trump's a fighter. Great counterpuncher. Great counterpuncher. He's a fighter. … I'm going to be his wingman outside for the entire time."
Bannon has returned to Breitbart News after leaving the White House, and said in the interview, previewed on Thursday on "CBS This Morning," that "our purpose is to support Donald Trump."
When Rose asked if that means he'll push to "destroy" Trump's enemies, Bannon replies that it means "to make sure his enemies know that there's no free shot on goal."
Bannon said it would be okay to tell Trump that there may be a better way to do things, but "if you're gonna break [with him], resign. The stuff that was leaked out that week by certain members of the White House I thought was unacceptable. If you find it unacceptable, you should resign."
He continued that he was "obviously" talking about Cohn and some others.
"If you don't like what he's doing and you don't agree with it, you have an obligation to resign," said Bannon, emphasizing that by that, he "absolutely" means Cohn.
Cohn, in a scathing interview with The Financial Times last month, strongly criticized Trump's reaction to violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia last month.
Bannon told Rose that after the situation in Charlottesville, Virginia last month, he was the "only guy that came out" and tried to defend Trump for his controversial comments.
"I told [White House Chief of Staff] General [John] Kelly, I was the only guy that came out and tried to defend him," Bannon told Rose. "I was the only guy that said, 'he's talking about something, taking it up to a higher level.'"
Rose, though, told Bannon it seemed that he was "doubling down in terms of a moral equivalency" and that many Americans believed Trump should have, from the beginning, condemned neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
"What he was trying to say is that people that support the monument staying there peacefully and people that oppose that, that's the normal course — of the First Amendment," said Bannon.
"But he's talking about the Neo-Nazis and Neo-Confederates and the Klan, who, by the way, are absolutely awful — there's no room in American politics for that. There's no room in American society for that."
Further, Bannon said he was "proud" to try to defend Trump in the media when he commented on monuments, asking if removing them ends in taking down the Washington Monument or Mount Rushmore.
"My problem, and I told Gen. Kelly this, when you side with a man, you side with him," said Bannon. "I was proud to come out and try to defend President Trump in the media that day."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.