Steve Bannon bashes Elon Musk and makes bold new demand as MAGA row over migrant visas escalates

Donald Trump ally and MAGA fighter Steve Bannon on Monday tore up high-tech visas for foreigners and ridiculed reform efforts proposed by billionaire Elon Musk in the latest skirmish in an internal war in Trump’s inner circle.

Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist in the White House and recently showed up at Mar-a-Lago — where Musk is reportedly renting a $2,000-a-night cottage – weighed in on bashing the “group hug” mentality of Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who touted the program on X.

The defense of Ramaswamy and Musk prompted an angry rebuke from far-right personality Laura Loomer, who accused Ramaswamy of undermining Trump’s agenda and railed against the “tech bros” she accused of driving Trump’s agenda.

After the rift escalated this weekend, Bannon joined his “War Room Pandemic” podcast. ‘No, no. This is central to how they have wiped out the middle class in this country. And we haven’t been fighting this battle for years and years and years to have American citizens of every race and religion exterminated by the sociopathic overlords in Silicon Valley.”

He called on Musk and Ramaswamy, as well as technology entrepreneur David Sacks, whom Trump has nominated to advise him on crypto and artificial intelligence.

“Oh, we’re just trying to reform it,” Bannon said, dripping sarcasm.

‘No, there is no reformation. No reform. We want it gone. We demand it gone. We want to fight for this,” Bannon said. ‘And not just gone. I have another alternative. We want reparations for the tech workers whose lives you stole. You stole their lives!’

Amid the anger, Trump himself weighed in on Saturday, telling the New York Post‘I’ve always liked the visas, I’ve always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them.’

Bannon was not convinced. He said Monday: “The workers who are here on H-1B visas should be deported at the same time we deport the 15 million illegal aliens that Biden brought across the border to suppress wages for low-income workers.

“American workers need to be hired immediately to fill those gaps, and then we need to start the discussions about reparations, about what they knowingly did to American tech workers.”

The MAGA civil war, just days before Trump will take office, took place just before the president-elect ordered his nominees not to post on social media without permission.

In a stunning move, Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, told those who will become his top lieutenants to clean up anything they put on X or other networks first.

“Although this instruction has been previously issued, I reiterate that no member of the new administration or Transition speaks on behalf of the United States or the President-elect himself,” Wiles wrote in a memo reported by the US government. New York Post.

“Accordingly, all intended nominees should refrain from making public social media posts without prior approval from the incoming White House counsel.”

It was unclear what prompted the crackdown, but Senate confirmation hearings for Cabinet nominees will begin in the new year.

Earlier this week, Tesla billionaire Musk, who will head Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), threatened to “go to war” with MAGA Republicans as he defended visas for skilled foreigners.

Trump sided with Musk after a fierce debate, including on social media, sent some of his supporters into a meltdown.

It also came as Democratic senators are fiercely opposing some of Trump’s Cabinet picks for his second administration.

They have little power to prevent Trump’s picks from taking their new posts.

After the 2024 elections, the Senate turned red, giving Republicans more seats. Cabinet confirmations require only a simple majority in the hundred-member chamber.

That means that as long as Republicans stick together, Trump should be able to put his team in place in the new year.

The most controversial choices include Pete Hegseth as head of the Pentagon, and Kash Patel as head of the FBI.

Also in the spotlight are Robert Kennedy Jr., whom Trump wants to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Tulsi Gabbard, whom he wants as his Director of National Intelligence.

The new White House counsel who will approve the nominees’ social media posts is expected to be David Warrington.

Last month, Trump announced that Warrington, his top campaign attorney, would fill the role.

Trump said: “Dave has represented me well as my personal attorney and as General Counsel for my presidential campaign. He is an esteemed attorney and conservative leader.”

The recent row involving Musk was over his support for the H-1B visa program, which allows highly skilled immigrants to work in the US for up to six years.

Technology companies have used H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers, saying they are a crucial tool for hard-to-fill vacancies.

But some members of Trump’s movement have accused Musk, and others in Trump’s new flank of tech supporters, of pursuing policies that run counter to the “America First” vision.

They argue that the system undermines American citizens who could take on these jobs and have called for its abolition.

Musk’s comments on the visas came after Ramaswamy, who will co-head the DOGE, suggested that American culture was responsible for the need to hire foreign workers.

On Saturday, the president-elect praised the use of visas to bring skilled foreign workers to the US

In the past, Trump has criticized the H-1B visas, calling them “very bad” and “unfair” for American workers.

During his first term as president, Trump unveiled a “Hire American” policy that drove changes to the program to try to ensure the visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most skilled applicants.

Despite his criticism of it and attempts to restrict its use, he has also used the visas in his companies in the past.