On Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi twice referred to Trump’s White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon as a “white supremacist.”

"What's making America less safe is to have a white supremacist named to the National Security Council as a permanent member, while the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs and the Director of National Intelligence are told, ‘Don't call us, we'll call you,’” Pelosi said at one Bannon-bashing instance during her weekly news conference.

Last weekend, news broke that President Trump had appointed Bannon (former head of the far-right, nationalist website Breitbart) to the National Security Council, while military and intelligence leaders were effectively downgraded. The move to elevate Bannon, a purely political adviser, was unusual to provoke outcry from even some prominent fellow Republicans.

Bannon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pelosi’s remarks, but given his past public denials about allegations of racism and bigotry, it is safe to assume that he would disagree with the Democratic leader.

—Asawin Suebsaeng