WASHINGTON ― President-elect Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon said Elon Musk is a “truly evil guy” and vowed to “take this guy down” in an interview that exposed a rift in Trump’s orbit over the influence of the world’s richest man.
“I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera in an interview last week, adding that the billionaire tech entrepreneur won’t have full access to the White House.
“Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it,” Bannon said, referring to the $250 million Musk contributed in the 2024 campaign to help Trump’s election. “I’m not prepared to tolerate it anymore.”
Bannon made the comments amid an ongoing dispute over H-1B visas, opposed by Bannon and other far-right Trump loyalists but backed by Trump’s tech supporters. Trump last month said he backs the skilled-worker visa program after Musk said he would go to “war” to defend the program for foreign workers at tech companies.
Since Trump’s election victory in November, Musk has quickly become an influential voice in the incoming Trump administration. Musk is co-leading an effort dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency to cut wasteful spending in the federal government.
“He should go back to South Africa,” Bannon said. “Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, white South Africans … making any comments at all on what goes on in the United States?
Musk and Bannon could not be reached for comment. The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
Musk, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa, and his electric-car company Tesla obtained 724 of the visas last year, Reuters reported in December. H-1B visas are typically for three-year periods, though holders can extend them or apply for green cards.
Bannon said “tech overlords” like Musk use H-1B visas “to their advantage,” arguing 76% of engineers working in Silicon Valley are non-Americans.
“This is the central part of getting our jobs and economy back,” said Bannon, who served as CEO of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and then for about eight months as chief strategist inside the first term Trump White House. “These are the best jobs out there. No blacks or Hispanics have any of these jobs or any access to these jobs.”
More:Steve Bannon released from prison on Tuesday after 4-month sentence
Bannon, who runs a podcast called “Steve Bannon’s War Room,” served four months in prison after being convicted for contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
Bannon said Musk has “the maturity of a little boy” and lost credibility among many Trump supporters with his defense of the H-1B visa program. He said Musk is only worried about making money.
“Quite frankly, the people around Trump are tired of it,” Bannon said. “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.”
More:Tesla reportedly replacing some laid-off US workers with those holding H-1B visas
Bannon added that Musk “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,” Bannon said.
Contributing: Reuters
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
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