Updated February 24, 2017 11:08:07

Donald Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon has made a rare public appearance, slamming the "corporatist globalist media" and urging Republicans to get behind their President.

He told supporters who had gathered at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) the media was "adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda".

"It is not only not going to get better, it is going to get worse every day," he said.

"If you think they're going to give you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken."

The former executive at right-wing website Breitbart News has a strong voice on policy decisions within the Trump administration.

Since the election, the President has faced protests over his plans to increase deportations of illegal immigrants and build a wall along the Mexican border.

The travel ban on refugees and people from seven Muslim-majority countries, along with the subsequent court battle over its legality, have also been widely characterised as tumultuous.

But Mr Bannon, who was on stage alongside White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, said he was proud that Mr Trump had not wavered and given in to demands to "moderate".

"Every day in the Oval Office, he tells Reince and I, 'I committed to this, to the American people, I promised this when I ran, and I'm going to deliver on this'," he said.

Mr Priebus, meanwhile, rejected reports that he and Mr Bannon do not have a good working relationship.

"I think the biggest misconception is everything that you're reading," he said to laughter from the crowd.

"We share an office suite together. We're basically together from 6.30 in the morning until about 11 o'clock at night."

The pair shared compliments, with Mr Bannon calling his colleague "indefatigable" and Mr Priebus characterising Mr Bannon as "dogged" and "loyal".

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway also appeared at the conference, crediting Mr Trump with revitalising the Republican Party.

"Every great movement ends up being a little bit sclerotic and dusty after a time, and I think they need an infusion of energy," she said.

No longer on the fringes

CPAC was once a fringe conservative event, but it is now one of the most significant Republican conferences on the calendar, with 10,000 activists at this year's event in Maryland.

Richard Spencer, a far right activist and president of the white nationalist National Policy Institute, was kicked out of the hotel where CPAC is taking place after organisers found out he was there.

"His views are repugnant and have absolutely nothing to do with conservatism or what we do here," CPAC spokesman Ian Walters told NPR.

You might remember Mr Spencer as the man who was punched on camera while being interviewed by ABC correspondent Zoe Daniel.

Another alt-right voice, Milo Yiannopoulos, had been scheduled to give a speech, but earlier this week organisers cancelled his appearance following the resurfacing of a video which showed him speaking positively about sexual relationships between boys and men.

Yiannopoulos also lost a lucrative book deal as a result and chose to resign as an editor at Breitbart News.

The President himself is scheduled to speak at CPAC this year.

ABC/Reuters

Topics: world-politics, united-states

First posted February 24, 2017 10:49:36