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Steve Bannon has branded Elon Musk as a “parasitic illegal immigrant” who has no respect for America, in his latest swipe at the billionaire tech boss.
The 71-year-old MAGA acolyte and former Trump adviser said Musk is “the one with the power,” and that his work with the Department of Government Efficiency was “performative.”
Beef between the pair has been escalating for several months, with Bannon previously vowing to have Musk “run out” of Trump’s inner circle by inauguration day. His plan has not come to fruition, and the Tesla boss is a regular visitor to the Oval Office, even holding a recent impromptu press conference there.
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“Musk is a parasitic illegal immigrant. He wants to impose his freak experiments and play-act as God without any respect for the country’s history, values, or traditions.” Bannon said, speaking to British news site UnHerd.
The remark appears to be in reference to previous reports that Musk overstayed his original work visa in the U.S. before achieving his enormous success. Musk has denied the accusation.
Bannon and Musk previously clashed over the billionaire’s support of the H-1B program – which allows U.S. employers to issue temporary nonimmigrant visas with the intent of filling skills gaps in sectors that require highly-specialized knowledge.
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He argued that South African-born Musk, who himself previously held a H-1B visa, is only serving his own interests by backing the program – with the Tesla CEO benefiting from the hiring of skilled foreign workers for his own companies.
“Musk is the one with power at the moment,” Bannon told UnHerd. “The Democrats are nowhere to be seen… It’s pretty evident the president’s using him as an armor-piercing shell that’s delivering blunt force trauma against the administrative state.”
Bannon went on to highlight the lack of effort so far done by DOGE on the Pentagon, which Musk’s companies have multiple contracts with.
“Bannon is a great talker, but not a great doer,” Musk wrote on X, in response to previous comments about cuts to the DOD. “What did he get done this week? Nothing.”
