One of President Donald Trump's fiercest advocates lashed out at the president on Monday.
Steve Bannon, who served in Trump's first administration, said on a new episode of his podcast, "The War Room," that Trump is focusing too much of his time on the Ukraine war. Instead, Bannon argued that he should continue expanding his power over local police forces.
Last week, Trump federalized the police force in Washington, D.C., to address local crime. He also threatened to expand the actions to Democratic-run cities like Baltimore and Los Angeles. Legal experts have argued that Trump doesn't have the legal authority to federalize police forces outside of D.C.
"The war we got to win is right here in this country, and it's in Washington D.C.," Bannon said. "It's going to be in New York City. It's in Chicago, and most importantly, right now, with Gavin Newsom and all his big talk, it's in Los Angeles, California. That's the war that we got to be focused on."
"I want to give a security guarantee to the citizens of the United States on these invaders right now. That's the security guarantee I want," he added.
Bannon also criticized Trump for accepting an audience with European leaders at the White House on Monday, even though they were not officially invited. He claimed they attended to take Trump's time away from more important issues like immigration.
"This entire war is so that Ukraine could be a Western country," Bannon said. "Well, I don't give a tinker's d---."