Responding to an anonymous Op-Ed in the New York Times detailing an active resistance within the Trump White House, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told Reuters that President Trump is facing a "coup" the likes of which haven't been seen since the American Civil War.

“What you saw the other day was as serious as it can get. This is a direct attack on the institutions,” Bannon said while flying to Italy. “This is a coup, okay”.

The Wednesday column in the New York Times slams Trump's "amorality" and claims that "Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations."

Bannon told Reuters that the last time a sitting US president had been challenged like this was during the American Civil War when Democratic General George B. McClellan went after Republican President Abraham Lincoln.

"This is a crisis. The country has only ever had such a crisis in the summer of 1862 when General McClellan and the senior generals, all Democrats in the Union Army, deemed that Abraham Lincoln was not fit and not competent to be commander in chief," said Bannon - whose departure from the White House was in large part over a fallout with Trump's "establishment" advisers. Bannon said at the time that the "Republican establishment" sought to nullify the results of the 2016 election and effectively neuter Trump.

“There is a cabal of Republic establishment figures who believe Donald Trump is not fit to be president of the United States. This is a crisis,” Bannon said in Rome.

“I am not a conspiracy guy ... I have said there is no deep state. It is an in-your-face state.” -Steve Bannon

On Friday, President Trump called on the Department of Justice to investigate who wrote the piece, citing national security. On Thursday night, Trump told a crowd in Billings, Montana that the Times should publish the name of the author at once.

But for the sake of our national security, the New York Times should publish his name at once. I think their reporters should go and investigate who it is. That would actually be a good scoop. (APPLAUSE) That would be a good scoop. Unelected deep state operatives who defy the voters to push their own secret agendas are truly a threat to democracy itself. And I was so heartened when I looked

Bannon warned liberal progressives within the Democratic Party that they would suffer the same fate as Trump. For an example, look no further at how establishment Democrats shunned Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez arer after her upset primary victory over the 4th most powerful Democrat in the House, Joe Crowley.

"Don’t think it will be any different if you take power," Bannon warned outsider liberal candidates like Bernie Sanders. "Because this is the established order dictating that they know better than the people."