Steve Bannon, formerly one of Donald Trump's closest advisers, has said there are likely to be "five or six" key figures within the Republican president-elect's transition team.
While speaking with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Bannon listed the key transition figures as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump Jr.
Newsweek reached out to Donald Trump's presidential campaign team via email for comment.
Trump secured a dramatic victory in the 2024 presidential election on November 5, beating Democratic rival Kamala Harris with 312 Electoral College votes. Notably, Trump also won the popular vote, which he failed to do during his 2016 triumph over Hillary Clinton.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy will head up a newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
Before the election, The Washington Post reported that if victorious, Trump planned to give Kennedy, the former independent presidential candidate who endorsed him in August, "significant control over health and food safety."
In his interview with Corriere della Sera, Bannon was told that "in Europe, many are worried about tariffs."
He replied, "They should be. We will not pay for your defense while we let you hit us with unbalanced trade deals. Yes, tariffs are coming. You will have to pay to have access to the U.S. market. It is no longer free, the free market is over, because Europe has abused us, as have other allies."
In policy terms, Trump has vowed to impose a flat 10-20 percent tariff on countries that "have been ripping us off," though exactly which countries are included in this category remains unclear. Trump has also suggested tariffs of 60 percent could be imposed on trade with China, America's chief geopolitical rival and the world's second-largest economy.
When questioned about a possible purge within the federal government, the War Room host replied: "It depends on the president and his circle, but it is possible to eliminate entire departments. It will be an aggressive operation. And Stephen Miller, the new deputy chief of staff for White House policy, will be central."
Bannon ran Trump's successful 2016 presidential election campaign and briefly served as his White House chief strategist from January to August 2017.
When asked whether he could return to the White House, Bannon replied, "No, I have much more power here. We need alternative media: podcasts, streaming, Twitter have beaten traditional media in this election. Why should I give that up?"
Bannon was released from prison in October after serving a four-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut. He was convicted after failing to respond to a subpoena issued by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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