Donald Trump Defends Steve Bannon: 'He's Not A Racist'

President Donald Trump defended his chief strategist Steve Bannon on Tuesday, yet left the door open to further speculation as to whether he’ll remain in the White House.

“I like him. He’s a good man. We’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon,” Trump told reporters during a press conference on infrastructure reform in New York City.

“He’s not a racist. He’s a good person,” the president added.

The New York Times reported on Monday that Bannon ― an ardent nationalist who previously ran the website Breitbart, which traffics in white nationalist sentiment ― was in “limbo” and faced “internal exile” in the White House following a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.

Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director, also said he believed that it was time for Bannon to go.

“What I don’t like though is the toleration of [white supremacist views in the White House]. It’s something that should be completely and totally intolerated,” Scaramucci told Stephen Colbert on Monday.

“If it was up to me, [Bannon] would be gone,” he added.