One has to wonder what incoming President Donald Trump will think when grabbing his phone this morning only to see one of his most influential supporters going after perhaps “the” most influential supporter in an angry rant otherwise safely hidden in an Italian newspaper. The next week is supposed to be about him, after all – and an open feud threatening to tear at the fabric of all that’s MAGA isn’t an ideal footing on which to leap into a new administration. So when Steve Bannon calls out Elon Musk in some of the strongest terms, he is putting his own standing among Trump-influencers at risk, and so does Musk – to the extent that he responds, and the pattern is that he will. They are both taking massive risks to themselves and their movement, risks that hint at deep problems because this wasn’t just any rant, it was both personal and cutting, and otherwise entirely inexplicable.
According to Mediaite, Bannon gave an interview to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in which he goes after Musk’s support for the H-1B Visa program – one that allows companies to hire specialized and highly educated workers. And that’s fine. Believe it or not, Bannon at least made what can be seen as a pro-American argument (And argued against as such), but it is the vitriol and promise to act on it that stand out. One shouldn’t accuse someone that close to a president as being racist – never mind the richest guy on earth, without referencing that game’s program, or something. As Brietbart, of all things, reports:
“This thing of the H-1B visas, it’s about the entire immigration system is gamed by the tech overlords, they use it to their advantage, the people are furious, 76 percent of engineers working in Silicon Valley are non-Americans. No blacks or Hispanics have any of these jobs or any access to these jobs.”
The 76% figure may be right – tough to tell. What is also right and very easy to tell is that the companies in and around Santa Clara California have more aggregate money than even Musk and anytime a company scours the earth for world-class talent, there are, in fact – going to be a lot of foreigners at work in and around the chip machine. Now, whether Americans remain locked out of such jobs or that an American could demand a higher salary is a bit harder to determine, though dubious- India and Australia have tech companies, too. One presumes people could go elsewhere. Is it possible that maybe Bannon just hates foreigners on basic principles?
Moving on because it gets hot:
“Peter Thiel, David Sachs, Elon Musk, are all white South Africans. He should go back to South Africa. Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, white South Africans, we have them making any comments at all on what goes on in the United States?”
It is richer than South Africa to call out any one country as having anything on the U.S. when it comes to racism. That’s one of those, “You best clean your place before you come spit in mine,” things. Additionally, there are very few white South Africans remaining from those who installed the racist apartheid structure. Last, Musk – though he may be from South Africa, is now an American. As such, he has every right to comment or work for the American government. I know because someone told me. And then it just got plain weird, weird enough for one to re-check the election results:
“We have been fighting this fight for ten years. We are going to expose the entire corruption of the American system, of how money controls everything and hopefully we’ll inspire you in Italy to wake up,”
Elon “just had a huge defeat here in America,” Bannon argued, on the question of H-1B visas and their importance to the economy of the United States.
No – I have no idea what Bannon is talking about with respect to defeats and H-1B visas, either, because that’s not the point. There are precious few people – indeed, perhaps no one, more visible at Trump’s side than Elon Musk, which is saying something because Musk makes a point of being visible at his own side. And so why would Bannon choose now, less than 10 days prior to their historic victory (As opposed to defeat) to utterly throw down with Musk? Not that I’m defending Musk – not for free, anyway, but the timing is odd, and this is the type of battle you win by simply losing less.
“He went out of his way to mock our movement as racist and retards, and he lost,” Bannon said. “We blew him out of the water. He won’t fight. He’s got the maturity of a little boy.”
Musk has had “tremendous loss of credibility here in the United States, and quite frankly, the people around Trump are tired of it,”
Not to be picky but with respect to boyish maturity, Musk wasn’t the one to pick up the phone to an Italian newspaper and then lay waste to one of Trump’s closest advisers. No one, and I mean no one – is more ready to wordsmith his way through Musk’s viscera than me, (See “Musk Intent on Literally Ruling the World“), but Musk didn’t call the MAGA movement “retarded” (He just called all Americans retarded, an equal opportunist) and – near as I can tell, he only talked about others “really hating” people from India. Besides, Musk lost all credibility way back when he bought Twitter and then kept himself on the ride to slay through everyone else’s feed.
But it really does get interesting when one looks at the line about people around Trump getting tired of Musk. Outside of marriage and a real job, it is very tough for grown adults to “live” in close proximity with others for a long period. But Musk seems intent on testing the limits of that otherwise obvious truth. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about people around Trump fatigued by having the world’s richest man around him… And that’s the rub. At what point do you get sick of having the guy with trillions running around?
Musk undoubtedly gets far more leeway than the other eight billion people on Earth and just as undoubtedly could likely stay as long as he wants with any of said people. But one of the few folks on Earth who can and will probably need dismiss him at some point is a U.S. president. Unfortunately for Musk, he’s attached himself to just that guy and if there was ever a person or a president who wanted to unload someone with nearly $300 billion it would be happening right about now, again – honing on in to the inauguration. So when Bannon pledges to ensure that Musk doesn’t get into the White House – as he later did, one wonders whether Bannon can deliver on that promise. If Bannon can’t – well, that’s a mistake of such magnitude that even a jilted lover like Bannon really ought to avoid. It almost sounds as if Bannon is upset that he’s on the outside looking in.
Still, the way back into the huddle doesn’t involve cutting loose in an Italian newspaper. You call Susie Wiles and ask for a job, plant a seed in Stephen Miller’s pronounced skull, openly support Trump (Or Musk) in The New York Times, or just stay seated until after Inauguration Day. Bannon is not stupid, carrying around a couple of Master’s Degrees and only one of which is from Harvard, and it’s the less prestigious – so what is he doing? Dunno. It is weird. We can ask him next time.
Speaking of which, it is just about time for Musk to blow himself up in a weird way – he’s remained too close to Trump’s side for too long. There are too many reports from staff making comments about the “guest that wouldn’t leave” to place much faith in the chance that it is Trump himself, near incessantly demanding that Musk “stay” – no less so than the the cheerleader to her nerdy lab partner. If you are Elon, it would be hard not to wake up this morning, and not read about this while yawning, “The hell?” only to then wonder if someone green-lit this interview. Maybe we’re all reading to much into this but it is published in Breitbart, the parish bulletin of the Right, and so it’s fair to ask what it’s doing there if all this is nothing. Musk will almost surely ask why he’s getting questions about it.
If you are pretending to get inside the head of either one of these rancid rascals, do also take time to consider what Donald Trump might think when he himself wakes this morning. “He said what? Why?… Tell him to shut up!!!” Something like that. Again, you only get two inaugurations and you sure don’t want one ruined by someone like Bannon – who doesn’t even work for you. You especially don’t want to ruine it while also noting that he’s doing it by skiving the guy that actually does “work” for you. Obviously, trying to get everyone to shut up is impossible, like trying to push snow back into clouds, but getting guys on your side to at least stop attacking each other should be relatively easy.
That would seem to be Bannon’s problem. Musk doesn’t appear to be going anywhere and the only thing worse than having the richest guy on earth attached to your side is having him leave. Of the two, it’s fairly easy to predict who will go overboard – the one not even on board.
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and on X – at @JasonMiciak and now on Bluesky
