Days after fawning over what tech magnate Elon Musk’s deep pockets might do for the MAGA motion, Steve Bannon went berserk on the world’s richest man and vowed to restrict his White Home affect.
Bannon, 71, who hosts the “War Room” podcast and has a penchant for plotting all-out brass-knuckled political warfare, urged Musk “should go back to South Africa” and decried his stance on H1-B visas.
“I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon, advised the Italian each day Corriere della Sera final week, per excerpts translated by his former employer Breitbart. “He will not have a blue pass to the White House, he will not have full access to the White House, he will be like any other person.”
“He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down,” he went on. “Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it. I’m not prepared to tolerate it anymore.”
Final month, simply earlier than Christmas, a battle erupted throughout the MAGA motion between the tech bros and immigration hardliners over H1-B visas, which allow international staff to return to the US for specialty occupations.
Musk, 53, a US citizen who emigrated from South Africa, emerged as a fierce defender of H1-B visas. President-elect Donald Trump, 78, ultimately backed Musk’s stance and the tech billionaire. However Bannon hasn’t let the H1-B visa flap go.
“This thing of the H-1B visas, it’s about the entire immigration system is gamed by the tech overlords, they use it to their advantage, the people are furious,” Bannon advised the outlet
Bannon additionally unleashed on different big-name billionaire Trump backers.
“Peter Thiel, David Sacks, Elon Musk, are all white South Africans,” he added. “He should go back to South Africa. Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, white South Africans, we have them making any comments at all on what goes on in the United States?”
Billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel, is German-American however lived in South Africa and Namibia as a baby.
He had labored with Musk on PayPal, had been a high backer of Vice President-elect JD Vance’s Ohio Senate bid in 2022.
Musk has espoused more and more conservative viewpoints within the public eye for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic. Within the GOP primaries, he backed alternate options to Trump, together with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). Nevertheless, after the July 13 assassination try, Musk started going all in on the president-elect.
Since Trump’s election victory, Musk has spent a big chunk of his time hunkered down at Mar-a-Lago. Trump has tapped him to helm the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), which isn’t really a authorities division.
Democrats have tried to poke at each Musk’s and Trump’s egos and pit the 2 towards one another. Final month, when Musk whipped up public opposition to a authorities funding invoice in Congress, Democrats branded him “President Musk,” although Trump has thus far declined to take the bait.
Bannon complained that Musk’s “sole objective is to become a trillionaire.” Bannon has beforehand known as for extra taxes on the rich and warned a couple of French Revolution-style rebellion within the US over the rising disparities between the mega-rich and the poor.
“[Musk] will do anything to make sure that any one of his companies is protected or has a better deal or he makes more money,” Bannon additional groused. “His aggregation of wealth, and then — through wealth — power: that’s what he’s focused on.”
Bannon additionally took a jab at Musk for showing to concur with a put up on X that urged Individuals are too “retarded” to do the roles that corporations use foreigners by way of the H1-B visa system. Musk later deleted that put up.
“He went out of his way to mock our movement as racist and retards, and he lost,” Bannon complained. “We blew him out of the water.”
Earlier than Musk obtained behind Trump, Bannon had lashed out on the Tesla and SpaceX for not being important of China. Musk has waded closely into US and European politics, however largely eschewed point out of China, the place he has factories and a large Tesla gross sales enterprise.
Simply final week, nonetheless, Bannon argued that regardless of their variations, Musk becoming a member of the MAGA motion could possibly be an vital boon and took word of the billionaire’s efforts to wade into European politics.
“I support his participation because the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Bannon advised Bloomberg. “Musk just spent a quarter of a billion dollars to elect Trump.”
“If he puts the same amount of money into all of Europe that he put behind Trump, he will flip every nation to a populist agenda. There’s not a centrist left-wing government in Europe that will be able to withstand that onslaught.”
