Bannon met with several foreign leaders after leaving White House

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has met privately with several world leaders since exiting the Trump administration, a sign the Breitbart News chief continues to be viewed as an influential force abroad.

The New York Times reported Friday that Bannon met with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi as well as a top Chinese Communist Party official heading up President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign during a recent trip to Asia.

{mosads}

The trip occurred just weeks after Bannon resigned from the White House in the wake of Trump hiring retired Gen. John Kelly as his new chief of staff.

Bannon’s meeting with the top Chinese official occurred after he gave a private talk to top Chinese businessmen. During the meeting, Bannon warned China against “economic war” with America.

“To avoid a trade war,” Bannon said, “China must cease its economic war against America.”

Bannon has made such remarks publicly as well.

In August, just before leaving the White House, Bannon told The American Prospect that “economic war” with China was already here, and that the country was just “tapping us along” on their trade practices with North Korea.

“We’re at economic war with China,” Bannon said last month.

“It’s in all their literature. They’re not shy about saying what they’re doing. One of us is going to be a hegemon in 25 or 30 years, and it’s gonna be them if we go down this path. On Korea, they’re just tapping us along. It’s just a sideshow.”