Stephen Bannon, the White House chief strategist and a top aide to President Trump, lashed out at the news media in an interview published Thursday, referring to them as the "opposition party" and saying the media should "keep its mouth shut" after its inability to understand why Trump won the presidency.

Speaking to the New York Times, Bannon also tore into those who covered Trump's campaign day-to-day, calling them "outright activists" who supported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's failed presidential campaign.

"The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for awhile," Bannon said. "I want you to quote this. ... The media here is the opposition party. They don't understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States."

"The mainstream media has not fired or terminated anyone associated with following our campaign," Bannon said. "Look at the Twitter feeds of those people: They were outright activists of the Clinton campaign."

"That's why you have no power," Bannon added. "You were humiliated."

Bannon, who is the former head of Breitbart News, a decidely pro-Trump media organization, made the remarks only days after Trump took over the presidency and in the midst of a continued back-and-forth with members of the media.

Trump and high-level White House staffers attacked the media over the weekend and earlier this week over percieved slights after several reports pointed out how Trump drew a smaller crowd at last Friday's inauguration on the National Mall than former President Obama in both 2009 and 2013 and Saturday's Women's March on Washington.

"The elite media got it dead wrong, 100 percent dead wrong," Bannon said of the November election, calling it "a humiliating defeat that they will never wash away, that will always be there."

Bannon also tore into the media over their criticisms of White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who held an impromptu press briefing on Saturday calling out the aformentioned reports about crowd size and blasted a reporter for misreporting that Martin Luther King, Jr.'s bust had been removed from the Oval Office. The reporter apologized multiple times and Spicer accepted his apology, but kept up his criticisms of the error.

"Are you kidding me?" Bannon said when asked if he worried that Spicer had lost credibility with members of the media. "We think that's a badge of honor. 'Questioning his integrity' — are you kidding me? The media has zero integrity, zero intelligence, and no hard work."

"You're the opposition party," Bannon added. "Not the Democratic Party. You're the opposition party. The media's the opposition party."