Donald Trump's senior White House adviser Steve Bannon said liberal women are 'a bunch of dy**s'

Steve Bannon, who previously managed Mr Trump's campaign, thinks female leaders should be 'feminine' and 'have husbands'

Donald Trump’s new chief strategist previously referred to liberal women as a "bunch of dykes”.

Steve Bannon, who was announced on Sunday as the “chief strategist and senior counsellor” in the incoming Trump administration, used the derogatory term for lesbian women to refer to graduates of the “Seven Sisters” female-only liberal arts colleges in the north-eastern states of the US.

In a 2011 interview with Political Vindication Media, Mr Bannon also said that feminism had had “unintended consequences”.

He said: “That’s why there are some unintended consequences of the women’s liberation movement.

“That, in fact, the women that would lead this country would be feminine, they would be pro-family, they would have husbands, they would love their children. They wouldn’t be a bunch of dykes that came from the Seven Sisters schools up in New England. That drives the left insane and that’s why they hate these women.”

He contrasted liberal feminists with Republican right-wingers Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman, who he said were “terrific women of the highest moral character and the most integrity”.

Mr Bannon, 62, served as Trump’s campaign manager since August. He was previously executive chairman of the right-wing news website Breibart News.

The site is frequently accused of running racist, sexist and anti-Semitic stories. Headlines during Mr Bannon’s time in charge included “World Health Organisation report: Trannies 49xs higher HIV rate”, “There’s no hiring bias against women in tech, they just suck at interviews”, “Young Muslims in the west are a ticking time bomb”. and “Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy”.

The use of the homophobic term “dykes” is not the first controversial statement that Mr Bannon has made.

In 2014 he reportedly said he wanted to destroy the state.

Mr Bannon told journalist and academic Ron Radosh: “Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.

Mr Bannon, a Georgetown and Harvard graduate and former US Navy officer, was charged with domestic violence in 1996 after allegedly “violently” grabbing his wife by the neck. The charges were dropped after his wife failed to show up at the trial.

His ex-wife also accused him of saying he didn’t want his daughters “going to school with Jews”, an accusation Mr Bannon denied.

Donald Trump is currently in the process of filling the senior position in his administration. The appointments of Bannon and the President-elect’s new chief of staff, Reince Priebus, were the first confirmation of who will make up President Trump’s inner circle.