Steve Bannon (right) has vowed to challenge any Senate Republican who doesn’t publicly condemn attacks on President Donald Trump. | Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Trump expresses wariness of Bannon’s war on GOP establishment The president — after meeting with McConnell — says he may try to talk his former chief strategist out of recruiting certain GOP primary challengers.

President Donald Trump, who in 2016 ran as the nontraditional, nationalist insurgent riding roughshod over the establishment, on Monday expressed skepticism about Steve Bannon’s attempt to produce a wave of such candidates in coming Republican primaries.

“Some of the people he may be looking at, I'm going to see if we talk him out of that,” Trump said during a Rose Garden news conference when asked about Bannon’s pledge to recruit primary challengers to all but one sitting Republican senator in 2018.


While it’s unclear whether Trump will follow through, his comments could mark a line in the sand, with Trump appearing to describe a willingness to stand by Republican incumbents against Bannon-backed challengers.

Trump’s stance was muddied, however, because roughly two hours earlier he appeared to voice support for Bannon's avowed war on establishment figures, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Trump told reporters that Bannon "is a friend of mine” and is "very committed to getting things passed" when asked about the Breitbart News chief's attacks on McConnell and other GOP leaders who have failed to pass his legislative agenda.

But after a private meeting with McConnell, Trump expressed the skepticism about Bannon's efforts, especially his support for GOP Senate candidates who will challenge McConnell's leadership role.

"Just so you understand, the Republican Party is very, very unified,” Trump declared during the Rose Garden news conference, with McConnell by his side.

Trump’s pronouncement came after he and McConnell discussed primaries over lunch, according to a person briefed on the exchange. McConnell told Trump that Bannon was targeting senators who were supporters of Trump’s agenda, like Sens. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). That point resonated with Trump, according to the person briefed, and McConnell went on to explain how past insurgent primary winners had wound up losing in the general election.

Trump’s apparent commitment to stand by incumbent Republican senators against his former campaign CEO and White House strategist shows that even a tradition-bucking president may hew to the party line in the interest of moving his agenda forward and maintaining a governing majority.

McConnell, of whom Bannon has been publicly critical since he was ousted from his West Wing role in August, said that despite any differences between himself and Bannon, his goal was simple: "to win elections in November."

The Senate Republican leader said that regardless of who won during the party primaries, what mattered was that they carried their victory into the general election.

"You have to nominate people who can actually win because winners make policy and losers go home," he said. In a swipe at Bannon, he cited controversial Republican candidates from recent elections who, after beating more moderate opponents in primaries, lost to Democrats in what were widely seen as winnable races.

Bannon on Saturday ratcheted up his war against the GOP establishment — and McConnell specifically — as he vowed to challenge any Senate Republican who doesn’t publicly condemn attacks on Trump.

“Yeah, Mitch, the donors are not happy. They’ve all left you. We’ve cut your oxygen off,” Bannon said during a speech to religious conservatives at the Values Voter Summit in Washington.

“There’s a time and season for everything and right now it’s a season of war against a GOP establishment,” Bannon added. “It’s no longer acceptable to come and pat you on the head and tell you everything is going to be fine just to get those people in office.”

Since leaving the West Wing, Bannon has raised his public profile, holding campaign events and delivering speeches to further his campaign against establishment figures. He’s also relying on the powerful forces of the Breitbart News platform and the support of the ultrawealthy Mercer family to further his agenda.

Trump’s own frustration with GOP establishment leaders was clear on Monday. He told reporters earlier in the day that he "can understand where Steve Bannon is coming from" given Republican lawmakers' failure so far to pass Obamacare repeal, tax reform and other big ticket items.

While Trump stressed that he had “great relationships with many senators,” he gave a grim assessment of the work by GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill. “They are not getting the job done,” Trump told reporters while meeting with his Cabinet. “And I’m not going to blame myself. They are not getting the job done.”

The president added that “there are Republicans frankly that should be ashamed of themselves” for their inability to follow through on repealing the Affordable Care Act and passing major tax reform legislation.

But at the Rose Garden news conference, Trump and McConnell, standing side by side, sought to strike a united front.

“We’ve been friends for a long time. We are probably now — despite what we read — we’re probably now, I think, at least as far as I’m concerned, closer than ever before,” Trump said, glossing over their public feuding in recent months. “And the relationship is very good. We’re fighting for the same thing.”

Playbook PM Sign up for our must-read newsletter on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

“I wanna underscore what the president said: We have the same agenda,” McConnell said.

Trump has also already shown a comfort in breaking with Bannon, joining McConnell to support Alabama Sen. Luther Strange against a primary challenge from the far-right former judge, Roy Moore.

Moore won by about 9 points, and Bannon introduced him for his victory speech.

Alex Isenstadt contributed to this report.