‘I’m going to have him run out of here by inauguration day’: Steve Bannon escalates his war with Elon Musk
Donald Trump’s former senior advisor Steve Bannon has taken another swipe at Elon Musk, claiming he will personally see that the billionaire is “kicked out” of the president-elect’s inner-circle prior to his inauguration next week.
MAGA infighting intensified on Sunday after Bannon again criticized Musk’s support of the H-1B program – which allows US employers to issue temporary nonimmigrant visas with the intent of filling skills gaps in sectors that require highly-specialized knowledge.
Trump’s first term White House chief strategist, who was fired after seven months in August 2017, branded Musk as a “truly evil person” and declared decreasing his influence on the incoming commander-in chief has become “personal”.
“I will get Elon Musk kicked out by the time he’s inaugurated. He won’t have a blue pass with full access to the White House. He’ll be like everyone else,” Bannon told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, with his remarks translated to English.
“He’s a truly evil person. Stopping him has become a personal issue for me. Before, since he’s put in so much money, I was prepared to tolerate it. Not anymore.”
Musk, who earned the moniker “First Buddy” for being a near-constant presence around Trump since the president-elect’s win at the ballot box in November, is set to lead the non-official, newly-created Department of Government Efficiency with one-time vice-president hopeful, Vivek Ramaswamy.
He reportedly spent more than $270 million of his own money to help reelect Trump during the election cycle, a majority of which via his super-political action committee, America PAC.
The fiercely anti-immigrant sect of Trumpworld has been sent into a headspin after Silicon Valley tech figures, led by Musk and Ramaswamy, have come out in support of the visas, which are for highly-skilled immigrants typically working in tech, healthcare, engineering and finance.
Bannon argues that, in turn, the visas take jobs away from American citizens.
“The problem is that techno-feudalists are using them to their advantage and people are furious,” Bannon continued.
The long-time Trump loyalist has argued that South African-born Musk, who himself previously held H-1B visa, is only serving his own interests by backing the program – with the Tesla CEO benefiting from the hiring of skilled foreign workers for his own companies.
Bannon went on to lump Musk in with his fellow South African tech billionaires, David Sachs and Peter Thiel, telling them to go back to South Africa.
“Why do we have white South Africans, the most racist people in the world, commenting on everything that happens in the United States?,” he said.
“He will do anything to make sure that every company he owns is protected or has a better deal or makes more money. The aggregation of wealth and, through wealth, power: that is his goal. American workers will not tolerate it.”
Bannon went on to claim that Musk’s only goal is to become a “trillionaire”. In another section, the former Breitbart editor said that he “kicked [Musk] out of the White House every day for 30 days straight in 2017, when he was trying to get subsidies paid by American workers.”
The online war of words began spiralling last month after Musk endorsed a post calling American workers too “re***ded” to perform high-skilled tech jobs for which foreign workers were being hired.
Trump, who in his first term moved to limit the visas’ use and said they were “very bad” for U.S. workers, sided with Musk and told the New York Post on December 28 that he has “always been in favor of the visas”.
He added: “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.” Bannon in the Corriere interview noted that he and Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders are on the same side in the debate.
“I love Bernie who is only now joining the H1B visa party. We have been fighting this battle for 10 years and Bernie hasn’t said a word because of all the money the Democratic Party takes from techno-feudalists.”
Hours earlier, Musk declared that “hateful, unrepentant racists” should be removed from the Republican Party “root and stem,” calling his critics “contemptible fools.”
“America rose to greatness over the past 150 years, because it was a meritocracy more than anywhere else on Earth,” he wrote on X.“I will fight to my last drop of blood to ensure that it remains that land of freedom and opportunity.”
Bannon replied on Gettr: “Bring.It.Dude—All of It.”