It’s no secret that Steve Bannon, once a top aide to Donald Trump, is no fan of Elon Musk, the president-elect’s newest friend.
But Bannon took his criticism even further last week, telling an Italian newspaper that he will take down the billionaire before Trump’s Inauguration Day this month.
The comments were essentially a declaration of war on the Tesla, SpaceX and X boss, who has strategically placed himself in the incoming president’s inner circle and carried out Bannon’s latest attack on him.
“I’ll have Elon Musk running out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon said told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera translated into an interview on the conservative site Breitbart.
He continued: ‘[Musk] won’t have a blue pass to the White House, he won’t have full access to the White House, he’ll be like any other person.”
It is not clear whether Bannon still has any appeal or influence in Trump’s mind or in those around him.
“He’s a really bad guy, a really bad guy,” Bannon insisted. “I’ve made it my personal thing to take this man down.”
Trump ally Steve Bannon vows to ‘run out’ Elon Musk from Donald Trump’s inner circle before his Inauguration Day this month
“I used to be willing to tolerate it because he put money into it; “I am not willing to tolerate it anymore,” he added.
Musk became an ardent and outspoken supporter of Trump after the first failed assassination attempt on Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in late June this summer.
Trump selected him to co-lead his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a new group he created with the aim of reducing government waste and trimming the budget. The end date is July 4, 2026, meaning Musk and co-chairman Vivek Ramamswamy have just one year to achieve their goal.
Meanwhile, Bannon served as Trump’s chief strategist and senior adviser for just seven months at the start of his first term from January to August 2017.
He is still a hero in the pro-MAGA movement.
After refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack, Bannon was held for contempt of Congress. He was indicted by a federal grand jury on two criminal charges and convicted on both counts in July 2022. He was sentenced to a $6,500 fine and four months in prison, which he served in a Connecticut prison from July 1 to October 29, 2024.
It is thought that Trump could pardon Bannon and wipe his slate clean of charges.
The MAGA warrior ripped Musk’s idea for high-tech visas for foreigners and ridiculed the billionaire’s proposed reform efforts.
These so-called H-1B visas are at the heart of the public debate between Musk and Bannon.
“The H-1B visa thing is about the whole immigration system being gamed by the tech overlords, they’re using it to their advantage, people are outraged,” Bannon said.
He noted that “76 percent of engineers working in Silicon Valley are non-Americans.”
Billionaire Tesla and SpaceX boss have been virtually at Trump’s side since his election victory in November. Bannon clearly has a bone to pick with Musk and does not want him close to the newly elected president
“No blacks or Hispanics have any of these jobs or any access to these jobs,” Bannon added. “Peter Thiel, David Sachs, Elon Musk, are all white South Africans.”
“He should go back to South Africa,” he said of Musk. Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, white South Africans, even commenting on what is happening in the United States?”
“We have been fighting this battle for ten years,” he declared. “We are going to expose the whole corruption of the American system, of how money controls everything, and hopefully inspire you in Italy to wake up,” he told Corriere della Sera.
Bannon was recently spotted at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, where Musk reportedly rents a $2,000-a-night cottage where he has holed up since the November election.