Despite Trump’s talk of countering aggression with ‘fire and fury.’

United States President Donald Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon has said there is no military solution to the threat posed by North Korea and its nuclear ambitions, despite the President’s recent pledge to answer further aggression with “fire and fury.”

In an interview with The American Prospect posted online on Wednesday, Mr. Bannon told the liberal publication that the US is losing the economic race against China. He also talked about purging his rivals from the Defence and State departments.

Mr. Bannon is also asked about the white supremacist movement, whose march on Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend led to deadly violence. He dismisses them as “losers,” “a fringe element” and “a collection of clowns.”

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

‘Forget it’

“There’s no military solution [to North Korea’s nuclear threats], forget it,” Mr. Bannon says. “Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that 10 million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”

Mr. Trump tweeted earlier on Wednesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “made a very wise and well-reasoned decision” by backing down after heightening fears of nuclear conflict in a series of combative threats, including against the US territory of Guam.

Getting tough on China trade

Mr. Bannon also outlined his push for the US to adopt a tougher stance on China trade, without waiting to see whether Beijing will help restrain Mr. Kim, as Mr. Trump has pressed China’s leader to do. Mr. Trump also has lamented US trade deficits with China.

“The economic war with China is everything,” Mr. Bannon says.

“And we have to be maniacally focused on that. If we continue to lose it, we’re five years away, I think, 10 years at the most, of hitting an inflection point from which we’ll never be able to recover.”

No winner in trade war: China

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said on Wednesday both sides have benefited from trade.

Asked about Mr. Bannon’s comments, Ms. Hua said at a regular new briefing, “There is no winner in a trade war. We hope the relevant people can refrain from dealing with a problem in the 21st century with a zero-sum mentality from the 19th or the 20th century.”

Ms. Hua appealed for dialogue to “preserve the sound and steady growth of China-U.S. relations.”

Mr. Bannon was a key general election campaign adviser and has been a forceful but contentious presence in a divided White House. A former leader of conservative Breitbart News, Mr. Bannon has drawn fire from some of Mr. Trump’s closest advisers, including son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Pressure to fire him

The President is under renewed pressure to fire Mr. Bannon, who has survived earlier rounds of having fallen out of favor with Mr. Trump.

Earlier this week, the President passed up an opportunity to offer a public vote of confidence in Mr. Bannon. Mr. Trump said he’s a “good person” and not a racist, adding that “we’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon.”

The latest anti-Bannon campaign comes as Mr. Trump faces mounting criticism for insisting that white supremacist groups and those who opposed them were both at fault for the deadly violence last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia.