Trump is talking to Steve Bannon again as his presidency ends in chaos, with the former campaign adviser back in touch after their 2017 falling out
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President Donald Trump and his former campaign adviser Steven Bannon have been talking again, according to a Bloomberg report on Thursday.
Trump has spoken on the phone with Bannon multiple times in recent weeks, seeking guidance on how to overturn the 2020 election results, sources close to the matter told Bloomberg. The reunion comes after the president previously distanced himself from the conservative firebrand in 2017.
Bannon served as a top aide during Trump’s 2016 campaign, subsequently joining the White House staff right away as a chief strategist before leaving in August 2017. Since then, the relationship between the two has been rocky.
Bannon did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Trump most recently distanced himself from Bannon last summer, when Bannon was arrested on fraud charges in relation to an online fundraising scheme for the US-Mexico border wall. Federal prosecutors accused Bannon, along with three associates, of defrauding donors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Bannon has denied the charges. At the time, Trump claimed he didn’t “know anything about the project” and that it was a “very sad thing by Mr. Bannon.”
In the aftermath of Trump’s 2016 victory, Bannon earned plaudits as an unsung strategical mastermind who was able to turn Trump’s worst instincts into a somewhat coherent message and policy platform.
However, White House infighting and the influence of senior advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner ultimately left Bannon on the outside looking in.