White House: Steve Bannon? Who? Oh, He and Trump Were Never Close.

‘I’m Not Aware That They Were Ever Particularly Close’ Huckabee Sanders Says

Sarah Huckabee Sanders was forced to defend President Trump once again Thursday afternoon, after excerpts from a bombshell book,Â “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” by journalist Michael Wolff, have dominated the headlinesÂ over the past 24 hours. The first excerpts included stunning statements from Trump’s former campaign chairman Steve Bannon, who subsequentlyÂ became Trump’s White House Chief Strategist.Â

As the Trump White House always does when a former official turns against the administration, Huckabee Sanders distanced Trump from Bannon â€“Â despite Bannon being so close to Trump he was seen as “Trump’s brain.”

Huckabee Sanders Thursday afternoon told reporters that after a five year relationship, Bannon and Trump weren’t close at all.

“I’m not aware that they were ever particularly close,” she insisted. “It’s not like thereÂ were regularly scheduled calls or meetings between the two of them.”

That’s because when people areÂ close they don’t need to schedule a call or a meeting, they just pick up the phone or show up. And Trump’s friendship with Bannon extends farther into the past than his professional relationship with Huckabee Sanders does.Â

Many reports in the media say that even after Bannon left the White House last August, he and Trump would speak on the phone frequently.

“The president continues to call business friends and outside advisers, including former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, from his personal phone when [Chief of Staff John] Kelly is not around,” TheÂ Washington PostÂ reported last August.

“Bannon and Trump are anything but estranged,” The Washington Post reported two months later, last October. “Instead, they have remained in frequent contact, chatting as often as several times a week, according to multiple associates of both ofÂ them.”

“Trump usually initiates the talks because incoming calls now are routed through chief of staff John F. Kelly and his disciplinarians. The conversations are dictated by the whims of the president, who dials his former chief strategist when something he reads, watches or hears piques his interest.”

Earlier during Thursday’s press briefing Huckabee Sanders lamented that she once again has to tell reporters that questions about Trump’s mental fitness are “disgraceful and laughable.”

Trump is now claiming he will sue Bannon over remarks made in Wolff’s new book.