Former Trump adviser tells Italian newspaper that Tesla CEO intends to implement ‘techno-feudalism on a global scale’.
United States President-elect Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon has promised to have Elon Musk “run out” of the White House, in the latest escalation of tensions within the MAGA (Make America Great Again) populist movement.
In an interview with an Italian newspaper, Bannon said he had made it his personal mission to ensure Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, does not have access to Trump’s incoming administration and is treated “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. Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it – I’m not prepared to tolerate it any more,” Bannon told the Corriere della Sera newspaper, excerpts of which were republished over the weekend by Bannon’s former media outlet Breitbart News.
Bannon also said that Musk, a South African-born naturalised US citizen, should “go back” to his place of birth after the billionaire publicly defended the use of the H-1B visa programme to recruit highly-skilled foreign tech workers.
“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?”
Bannon’s broadside comes amid a public rift among Trump’s followers over the role of foreign employees in Silicon Valley.
The divisions burst into view last month after Trump’s decision to name Indian American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence unleashed a wave of invective 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 obtaining US citizenship, hit out at the criticism of foreign workers in Silicon Valley, promising to “go to war on this issue” to a degree “you cannot possibly comprehend”.
Despite taking steps to restrict H-1B visa issuances during his first term, Trump sided with Musk’s comments, calling the visas a “great programme.”
In his newspaper interview, Bannon, who served as White House chief strategist during Trump’s first term, accused Musk of having the “maturity of a little boy” and attempting to establish “techno-feudalism on a global scale”.
“We’ve seen peak Elon, his intrusive nature, his lack of understanding of the true issues, and, quite frankly, his support of just himself, the sole objective is to become a trillionaire. That’s his objective,” he said.
“He will do anything related to make sure that any one of his companies is protected or has a better deal or he makes more money. His aggregation of wealth, and then – through wealth – power: that’s what he’s focused on. The American working people in this country are not going to tolerate it.”
Musk, who is a prolific commentator on news events on his social media platform X, has not publicly responded to Bannon’s remarks.
Ranked as the world’s richest person with a net worth of more than $400bn, Musk has become one of Trump’s most powerful and influential allies since publicly endorsing the Republican shortly after he narrowly survived an attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
Trump has included the tech billionaire in meetings with lawmakers and foreign leaders, and tapped him to co-lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency alongside bio-tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.