Trump ally Steve Bannon calls out Elon Musk as ‘truly evil’ in split with MAGA | Politics News
A former Trump adviser told an Italian newspaper that the Tesla CEO intends to implement ‘techno-feudalism on a global scale’.
Steve Bannon, a former adviser to the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has promised to do just that Elon Musk “run” from the White House, in the latest escalation of tensions within the populist MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement.
In an interview with an Italian newspaper, Bannon said his personal mission was to make sure Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, had no access to Trump’s incoming administration and was treated “like any other person.”
“He’s a really bad guy, a really bad guy. I removed this guy as my personal matter. Before, because he invested money, I was willing to tolerate it – I’m not willing to tolerate it anymore, Bannon told the Corriere della Sera newspaper, excerpts of which were republished by Bannon’s former outlet Breitbart News over the weekend.
Bannon also said Musk, a naturalized US citizen born in South Africa, should “return” to his birthplace after publicly defending the use of H-1B visa program for the employment of highly qualified foreign technological workers.
“Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people in the world, white South Africans, do we even have them commenting on what’s going on in the United States?”
Bannon’s criticism comes amid a public split among Trump followers over the role of foreign workers in Silicon Valley.
The divisions came to the fore last month after Trump’s decision to appoint Indian-American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as an artificial intelligence adviser sparked a wave of criticism from far-right and nationalist MAGA followers, who interpreted the appointment as an endorsement of H-1B visas.
Musk, who held an H-1B visa before becoming a US citizen, lashed out at criticism of foreign workers in Silicon Valley, vowing to “go to war on this issue” to a degree “you can’t even fathom.”
Despite taking steps to limit the issuance of H-1B visas during his first term, Trump echoed Musk’s comments, calling the visas a “great program.”
In his newspaper interview, Bannon, who was the White House’s chief strategist during Trump’s first term, accused Musk of having the “maturity of a little boy” and of trying to establish “techno-feudalism on a global scale.”
“We’ve seen the highs of Elon, his pushy nature, his lack of understanding of the real issues and, frankly, his self-supporting, only goal is to become a trillionaire. That’s his goal,” he said.
“He will do anything related to make sure that any of his companies are protected or that he has a better job or makes more money. His amassing of wealth and then – through wealth – power: that’s what he’s focused on. American working people in this country will not tolerate that.”
Musk has become one of Trump’s most powerful and influential allies since publicly endorsing the Republican shortly after he narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
Trump included the tech billionaire in meetings with lawmakers and foreign leaders and chose him to co-head the so-called Department of Government Efficiency with biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
