Steve Bannon: President Trump ‘Knows the Russians Are Not Good Guys’

President Trump knows that the Russians “are not good guys,” but he would rather spend money fixing problems at home than on picking fights abroad, Steve Bannon, the president’s former chief strategist and executive chair of Breitbart News, said in an interview Sunday.

“He criticizes the Russians all the time. He knows the Russians are not good guys,” Bannon told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” interviewer Charlie Rose.

But, he added:

We should be focused on how we bring the Cold War to an end. I think it was President Obama’s program, $1 trillion to upgrade the nuclear arsenal. Is that what you want to do? Is that where you want to spend your money? Would you rather spend $1 trillion in Cleveland, in Baltimore, in the inner cities of this country where we need to spend it, in the heartland of this nation? And I think what he’s trying to say, in a world of anarchy, do you need another enemy?

Bannon said the suggestion that the president should criticize Russia “stuns” him.

“What his point is, why pick another fight? We’ve got enough problems around the world,” he said.

Trump shocked the foreign policy establishment on the campaign trail when he said he wanted to get along with Russia, despite the two previous administrations having tried to foster warmer relations, but failing.

Critics have charged Trump and his campaign with colluding with Moscow during the elections, despite the lack of any evidence. The FBI currently is conducting an investigation into whether Russia meddled in the elections, as well whether there was any collusion with the Trump campaign.

Bannon also called the FBI’s investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia “a complete and total farce.”

Asked if intelligence reports he’s seen suggest Russia tried to “influence” the election, Bannon said he would not discuss classified information but said, “I think it’s far from conclusive that the Russians had any impact on this election.”

Asked again whether Russia tried to influence the elections, Bannon deferred to the FBI’s investigation into the meddling.

“We’ll have to wait till the investigation is finished,” he said.