Elon Musk Is an ‘Evil Person,’ Steve Bannon Says

 

Elon Musk Is an ‘Evil Person,’ Steve Bannon Says

 

The comments highlighted rifts within the U.S. right wing and between two men who have been influential advisers to President-elect Donald J. Trump.

 

Matthew Mpoke Bigg

By Matthew Mpoke Bigg

Jan. 13, 2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/13/us/politics/steve-bannon-elon-musk.html?searchResultPosition=1

 

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,” Mr. Bannon said of Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 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.”

 

Mr. Bannon was an architect of Mr. 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, Mr. Bannon has renewed his war of words with Mr. Musk, who poured more than a quarter of a billion dollars into Mr. Trump’s election win in November and has since become a constant presence at his side.

 

In the interview, published last week, Mr. Bannon said of Mr. 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 United States about the direction of the movement that Mr. Trump has championed and fears that Mr. Musk — the world’s richest person and the owner of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — could use his influence to sideline powerful figures within that movement to promote his own agenda. Mr. 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 Mr. Musk’s entry into Republican politics now say they feel deceived, raising questions about the durability of their alliance.

 

Mr. Trump tapped Mr. Musk to colead an effort aimed at slashing the federal bureaucracy, but it is not clear what if any role Mr. Bannon will have in the administration. Before he left office in 2021, Mr. Trump pardoned Mr. Bannon before he faced a trial on charges that he misused money he had helped raise for a group backing Mr. Trump’s border wall.

 

Mr. Musk has not publicly responded to the statements by Mr. Bannon.

 

One focus of their dispute has been the use of H-1B visas to bring skilled foreign workers to U.S. companies, a practice decried by some conservatives who oppose immigration. Mr. Musk supports the visas, like many tech leaders who say they help to bring critical workers to their companies. Mr. Bannon said in the interview that the visas prevented Americans from getting jobs.

 

Mr. Bannon said that Mr. Musk, whom he described as having “the maturity of a child,” had lost the policy debate over the visas. He also questioned whether the tech billionaire should limit his involvement in U.S. politics because he was born and grew up in South Africa during apartheid.

 

“He should go back to South Africa,” Mr. Bannon was quoted as saying.

 

Matthew Mpoke Bigg is a London-based reporter on the Live team at The Times, which covers breaking and developing news. More about Matthew Mpoke Bigg