Trump slams former chief strategist

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump slammed Steve Bannon on Wednesday, claiming the former White House chief strategist had lost his mind. “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency,” Trump said a statement responding to Bannon’s quotes in excerpts from a new book by writer Michael Wolff about the Trump administration. “Steve doesn't represent my base—he’s only in it for himself.” In Wolff’s book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Bannon said a summer 2016 meeting of Trump campaign officials with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.” Bannon also claimed that Trump met with the officials after the meeting, something the president denies. Bannon departed the White House in August and reclaimed his previous role as chairman of Breitbart News. At the time the president thanked him for his “great” service. But Trump appears to no longer have a positive opinion of Bannon. “When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,” The president said. “Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.” Trump also blamed Bannon for helping Republicans lose the U.S. Senate race in Alabama last month, the first GOP Senate loss in the state in 25 years.