Left-wing billionaire Tom Steyer said perhaps there could be a "nuclear war" that would provide a "real course correction" to Donald Trump's presidency during an interview published by Rolling Stone.

Steyer, who launched a national impeachment campaign against President Donald Trump last year, spoke with the liberal magazine about his efforts, which have been opposed by leading Democrats like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.).

Interviewer Tim Dickinson pointed out Pelosi's strategy of opposing impeachment of President George W. Bush, to take the issue off the table in 2006. Democrats took back both chambers of Congress in an electoral rout that year.

"She pointed to how she dealt with George W. Bush – whom many wanted to impeach," Dickinson said. "She believes the decision to take impeachment off the table helped Democrats take the House in 2006, and paved a path to Obama and a deeper correction."

"I remember 2006," Steyer said. "What happened is that George W. Bush, he put us in two disastrous wars and we were headed toward the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression. So if the answer is that we need those three things to happen for a course correction, I'd prefer to move a little quicker. How about that? But I take your point. Maybe we can have, like, a nuclear war and then we get a real course correction."

Dickinson responded that was a "sobering" thought, and Steyer replied he would take back the "nuclear war" comment.

"We're trying to do what's right," he said. "And 2006/2008 did not happen because George W. Bush didn't get impeached, is what I'm saying. I should be a little bit more tempered: I take back that remark about nuclear war. The correction happened because the United States got screwed, and American citizens lost their houses and American citizens lost their lives – and, by the way, there was a terrible climate-related crisis, New Orleans, that the president fumbled."