Stephen K. Bannon has launched a stinging attack on Elon Musk, calling him a “truly evil person”, in comments that deepen hostilities between two men who have been influential advisers to President-elect Donald J. Trump.
“I will get Elon Musk kicked out by the time he’s inaugurated,” Bannon said of Trump’s inauguration on January 20, in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera. “He won’t have a blue pass with full access to the White House. He’ll be like everyone else.”
Bannon was an architect of Trump’s presidential election victory in 2016 and served for a time as chief strategist during his first term in the White House. Since his release in October from a four-month stint in federal prison for a contempt conviction, Bannon has renewed his war of words with Musk, who poured more than a quarter of a billion dollars into Trump’s election win in November and has since become a constant presence at his side.
In the interview, published last week, Bannon said of Musk: “He’s a truly evil person. Stopping him has become a personal issue for me.”
The insults reflect broader tension on the Right in the US about the direction of the movement that Trump has championed and fears that Musk could use his influence to sideline powerful figures within that movement to promote his own agenda. Musk does significant business with the federal government as the chief executive of SpaceX, and also runs the automaker Tesla.
Some Right-wing personalities who initially welcomed Musk’s entry into Republican politics now say they feel deceived, raising questions about the durability of their alliance.
Trump tapped Musk to co-lead an effort aimed at slashing the federal bureaucracy, but it is not clear what if any role Bannon will have in the administration. Before he left office in 2021, Trump pardoned Bannon before he faced a trial on charges that he misused money he had helped raise for a group backing Trump’s border wall.
Musk has not publicly responded to the statements by Bannon.
One focus of their dispute has been the use of H-1B visas to bring skilled foreign
workers to US companies, a practice decried by some conservatives who oppose immigration.
Musk supports the visas, like many tech leaders who say they help to bring critical workers to their companies.
New York Times News Service
