Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon said in an interview released Sunday that President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE is facing a "coup," after The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed written by a "senior administration official" criticizing the president.

"What you saw the other day was as serious as it can get. This is a direct attack on the institutions," Bannon told Reuters. "This is a coup, OK?"

The op-ed described how its author and other nameless officials work to curb the president's worse impulses.

"This is a crisis," Bannon told Reuters. "There is a cabal of Republican establishment figures who believe Donald Trump is not fit to be president of the United States."

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Bannon contended that this is an almost unprecedented occurrence in American history.

"The country has only ever had such a crisis in the summer of 1862 when Gen. [George] McClellan and the senior generals, all Democrats in the Union Army, deemed that Abraham Lincoln was not fit and not competent to be commander in chief," he explained.

However, Bannon also said that he did not think this was a product of the "deep state."

"I am not a conspiracy guy," Bannon told Reuters. "I have said there is no deep state. It is an in-your-face state."

Bannon added that the situation would be the same if a liberal president was in power.

"Don't think it will be any different if you take power," Bannon said. "Because this is the established order dictating that they know better than the people."