Whoever wrote the “absolutely outrageous,” anonymous New York Times op-ed published last week should be fired immediately, former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon said in an interview Monday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”

“What was said in that anonymous letter was absolutely outrageous. And I think the president ought to take immediate and direct action to find out who the conspirators are,” Bannon told Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

“I don’t think there’s any one author,” he claimed. “There are many voices in there … I think that’s a much broader conspiracy than people think. I think it’s probably six to a dozen people.”

Nevertheless, Trump should “find out who’s responsible and fire them” immediately, Bannon insisted.

The “senior official in the Trump administration” wrote the op-ed, titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” The op-ed spurred an intensive internal White House hunt to discover the author’s identity and propelled multiple top Trump administration officials and cabinet officers to deny authorship.

“I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,” the anonymous author wrote. “But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.”

“That is why many [President Donald] Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office,” the author added.

Although Bannon admitted that “White Houses are naturally … cauldrons of different opinions,” he claimed that “a lot of the anonymous are people from the Bush administration, Establishment Republicans.”

Bannon also reacted to Trump’s criticism of veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, “Fear: Trump in the White House.” Woodward portrays Trump’s White House as chaotic, unpredictable, and full of staffers who disrespect the president and talk behind his back. Although a few former Trump administration officials went on the record, many remained anonymous.

“And they say in there that [Trump] has the temperament of a five-year-old. I told Politico today, if that’s a five-year-old, I want more five-year-olds on the National Security Council,” Bannon said.

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“President Trump is a disrupter. He’s an innovator … He’s winning,” Bannon added. “They hate that.”

Bannon, a former executive chairman of Breitbart who aligned himself with the conservative-populist core of the president’s administration, has had a tempestuous relationship with Trump since his ouster from the White House in August 2017.

Trump also lashed out at Bannon repeatedly after the latter’s critical comments were included in Michael Wolff’s January 2018 book, titled “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.” Bannon subsequently apologized, declared his “unwavering” support “for the president and his agenda” and left Breitbart.

Bannon is now singing Trump’s praises as he promotes his new film, “Trump @ War,” which he said he started eight months ago with the purpose of getting Trump’s base “excited” before the November 2018 midterm elections.

Related: 20 Best Blasts of Anonymous Trump Official’s New York Times Op-Ed

“The film shows what President Trump’s been up against since day one,” Bannon said. “And it’s quite evident that President Trump, there’s a coup. Trump has been at war with permanent political class.”

Bannon said that when he began working on the film, about nine months ago, he felt “that by the time we had the run-up it was going to be like the Tea Party movement. We needed these rally films to kind of get people in power. So this film is for the base, plus to get them excited, to get them out walking precincts, etc.”

(photo credit, article image: Steve BannonCC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore)