President Donald Trump on Tuesday dodged questions about whether he plans to keep Steve Bannon on as chief White House strategist. Trump said he likes Bannon — but don’t give him too much credit for Trump’s election victory.

“Look, look, I like Mr. Bannon. He’s a friend of mine,” Trump said in an impromptu press conference from Trump Tower in Manhattan. “But Mr. Bannon came on very late. You know that. I went through 17 senators, governors and I won all the primaries. Mr. Bannon came on very much later than that.”

He called Bannon “a good person” and “not a racist.”

“I like him. He’s a good man,” Trump said. “He actually gets a very unfair press in that regard. But we’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon. But he’s a good person and I think the press treats him frankly very unfairly.”

The New York Times on Monday reported that White House chief of staff John Kelly made his displeasure with Bannon clear, and that Trump did not offer much objection when Fox News mogul Rupert Murdoch urged him to fire Bannon.