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Donald Trump’s former senior adviser Steve Bannon has delivered another blow to Elon Musk, saying he will personally ensure the billionaire is “expelled” from the president-elect’s inner circle before his inauguration next week.
MAGA infighting intensified on Sunday after Bannon again criticized Musk’s support for the H-1B program – which allows US employers to issue temporary non-immigrant visas in an effort to close skills gaps in sectors that require highly specialized knowledge.
The chief strategist in Trump’s first White House term, who was fired after seven months in August 2017, called Musk a “truly” evil person and said diminishing his influence over the new commander in chief had become ” staff “.
“I will have Elon Musk expelled at the time of his inauguration. He will not have a blue pass with full access to the White House. He will be like everyone else,” Bannon told the Italian newspaper. Corriere della Serawith his remarks translated into English.
“She’s a really mean person. Quitting became a personal issue for me. Before, since he invested a lot of money, I was willing to tolerate him. No more.”
Musk, who earned the nickname “First Buddy” for his near-constant presence around Trump following the president-elect’s victory at the polls in November, is set to lead the newly created unofficial Department of Government Effectiveness with a -time vice president hopeful, Vivek Ramaswamy.
He reportedly spent more than $270 million of his own money to help re-elect Trump throughout the election cycle, a majority of it through his Super-PAC, America.
Trumpworld’s fiercely anti-immigrant sect was thrown into a state of upheaval after Silicon Valley tech figures, led by Musk and Ramaswamy, came out in favor of the visas, intended for highly skilled immigrants typically working in fields technology, health and engineering. and finances.
Bannon claims that visas, in turn, deprive American citizens of jobs.
“The problem is that the techno-feudalists are using them to their advantage and people are furious,” Bannon continued.
The longtime Trump loyalist argued that South African-born Musk, who himself previously held an H-1B visa, was only serving his own interests by supporting the program — with the Tesla CEO benefiting from the hiring qualified foreign workers on its own account. businesses.
“He will do anything to make sure every business he owns is protected, gets better terms or makes more money. The aggregation of wealth and, through wealth, power: this is its objective. American workers will not tolerate this,” he said.
The online war of words began to heat up last month after Elon Musk endorsed an article calling American workers too “re***ed” to fill high-skilled tech jobs for which workers foreigners were hired.
Trump, who during his first term moved to limit the use of visas and said they were “very bad” for American workers, sided with Musk and said THE New York Post on December 28, he has “always been in favor of visas.”
He added: “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I believe in the H-1B. I have used it several times. It’s an excellent program.
Hours earlier, Musk said “hateful, unrepentant racists” should be removed from the Republican Party “root and root,” calling his critics “despicable fools.”
“America achieved greatness over the last 150 years because it was a meritocracy more than anywhere else on Earth,” he wrote on blood to ensure that it remains this land of freedom and opportunity. .”
Bannon responded on Gettr: “Bring.It.Dude—All of It. »
