Former White House chief strategist and Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon who called Elon Musk ‘racist’ and ‘pure evil’ and vowed to take him down by January 20 told Politico that it’s not possible that Elon Musk would be completely out of the picture after the enormous money he invested in MAGA. He said it’s shocking to him that Elon Musk does not have much power, though his influence in Mar-a-Lago has been huge. There’s a difference between power and influence, Steve Bannon said adding that Elon Musk does not have the former.
Bannon said Elon Musk has had some influence over the Cabinet picks and policy discussions but he doesn’t “have the ability to actually make decisions and inform those decisions and drive those decisions.” Steve Bannon said Elon Musk wanted Howard Ludnick to be the secretary of the treasury but it was Scott Bessent who was picked by Trump.
Steve Bannon publicly started slamming Elon Musk over the recent H-1B issue which exposed the MAGA split — with Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy pushing for H-1B reforms allowing more foreign workers to work for US companies but old MAGA people like Steve Bannon, Laura Loomer opposing it.
After Donald Trump said he’s in favor of H-1b, the public warring ended though neither of the two camps softened their stance. Steve Bannon earlier said it’s become his personal agenda to take Elon Musk down.
“I will have Elon Musk run out of here by inauguration day”, which falls on 20 January. “He will not have full access to the White House. He will be like any other person.”
“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.”
“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?
