WASHINGTON, D.C. May 7 (DPI) – The Washington Post published an op-ed column by none other than ex-Trump advisor Stephen K. Bannon, who made a strident defense of Trump’s increasingly hard line on trade with China.   It was a gutsy – and risky – move by The Post, whose readers were offended that it even associated with the controversial, self-avowed economic nationalist.

In his column – headlined “We’re In an Economic War With China. It’s Futile to Compromise” – Bannon did resort to some hyperbole. He called the confrontation over trade with China “the greatest existential threat ever faced by the United States.”

But his message contains a degree of logic that Washington has finally begun to agree with: After decades China still hasn’t opened its market, it steals intellectual property and technology on a mass scale, and the US has lost millions of manufacturing jobs in the process.

He points out that China’s authoritarian regime and its “state sponsored capitalism” only benefits members of the Chinese Communist Party, and the CCP is seeking to dominate the world economy. “The CCP has been waging economic war against industrial democracies ever since China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, and now China has emerged as the greatest economic and national security threat the United States has ever faced,” wrote Bannon.  He goes on to point out that China has a long record of non-compliance to trade rules, and he said any monitoring to confirm compliance to a trade deal is “impossible.” In effect, we’ll never have free trade with a rival whose people aren’t free.

The problem, of course, is that Bannon is deeply unpopular with many Americans, and the tone of the comment board – with more than 2,600 comments as of midday Tuesday – reflected that. The most recommended comments virtually ignored Bannon’s message and instead zeroed in on Bannon himself. “Didn’t read this crap,” wrote one not-so-open-minded reader. The most popular comments:

Why are you printing anything from this pig and giving this piece of garbage a platform? Your own editorial last week said don’t give platforms to russian trolls and who is a bigger russian troll than this crapmeister.

I’m tired of the Post printing known liars.  It doesn’t help that he’s a white supremacist as well.

Didn’t read this crap. Came here to ask why Bannon is being published in the Post? Did my subscription money go to this moron?

The town drunk has woken up from his vomit-covered stupor in the gutter and wants us all to listen to him. Pass.