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Donald Trump reached out to Steve Bannon last month and urged his former chief strategist to stop attacking Elon Musk and arrange a private sitdown with the president’s “first buddy,” according to The New York Times.
The request came as Bannon, who uses the War Room podcast to promote his far-right populist agenda, has pushed for a “MAGA civil war” against Musk — especially now that the DOGE leader’s slash-and-burn approach to cutting government spending has become increasingly unpopular.
“Mr. Trump has made clear he wants to keep both men and their allies within his movement, but Mr. Bannon’s vocal disdain for Mr. Musk has been noticed by the president,” the Times reported. “In mid-February, the president told Mr. Bannon that he wanted him to lay off the attacks on Mr. Musk and for the two men to sit down privately, according to two people familiar with the comments.”
According to the Times, Bannon has yet to meet with Musk and it isn’t clear if the meeting will happen at all. Meanwhile, the White House didn’t appear to deny that Trump made the entreaty to Bannon in its statement.
“We do not comment on private conversations that may or may not have occurred. President Trump is thrilled with DOGE’s historic work under Elon Musk, and he will continue to cut the waste, fraud, and abuse in our federal government on behalf of the American people,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
“We do not comment on private conversations that may or may not have occurred. President Trump is thrilled with DOGE’s historic work under Elon Musk, and he will continue to cut the waste, fraud, and abuse in our federal government on behalf of the American people.”
Bannon has long expressed skepticism towards Musk, particularly when it comes to the Tesla CEO’s friendly relationship with the Chinese government and his previous criticism of Trump before fully backing the president’s campaign last year. The former Breitbart chief’s disdain for Musk, whom he views as an interloper within the MAGA movement, built up additional steam following Trump’s victory.
Bannon tore into Musk and other Trump-backing “tech bros” late last year over their support of H-1B visas, which allow highly skilled immigrants to work in the United States. Since then, he’s warned his listeners that Musk and other Silicon Valley moguls — many of whom supported Democrats for years before jumping aboard the Trump train — cannot be trusted as they’ll eventually dump MAGA.
Ramping up his anti-Musk rhetoric in recent months, Bannon has labeled the SpaceX founder a “parasitic illegal immigrant” and “truly evil,” all while vowing to rip his “face off” and boot Musk from Trump world. Bannon’s relentless broadsides against Musk have also gained him some unexpected admirers — such as the women on The View.
Bannon also reacted to last week’s reports that some of Trump’s cabinet members challenged Musk’s authority as he took a “chainsaw” to their departments. “I don’t want to say an anchor or lodestone,” he said of Musk on Friday’s broadcast of War Room. “It’s not that yet, but it’s trending — that is starting to affect everybody.”
Bannon, who acrimoniously split with the president in 2017 before returning to Trump’s good graces by backing his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, continues to be an extremely influential voice among Trump supporters. Musk has also built up a loyal MAGA following in recent years with his increasingly anti-woke stance and purchase of Twitter (now X), which he has been reshaped into his own personal right-wing megaphone.
“Musk is the volume button,” former Trump strategist Barry Bennett told the Times. “You can say things now on Twitter and you can reach millions and millions of people where 10 years ago you would reach tens of thousands. He has made that available to us. There are a lot of people who are in the right of center movement who are very reliant on the medium to distribute their content. They are very grateful to him for allowing that to happen.”
Bennett, who worked with Bannon on Trump’s first campaign, also noted that “Bannon has been a dyed-in-the-wool conservative for his entire life” and is “naturally suspicious of people who pop up and don’t have the pedigree that he has.” It would also seem that besides fighting for what he views as “the soul of the MAGA movement,” Bannon could be positioning himself for a political run of his own.
“Steve is looking down the pipe,” longtime Bannon ally Raheem Kassam said, following the ex-Breitbart head’s second-place finish in CPAC’s 2028 GOP primary straw poll last month. “He’s looking into the future, and he’s saying, ‘Oh no, there’s an atheistic, amoral, C.C.P.-aligned, unaccountable foreigner that’s going to be the head of the MAGA movement at some point’ …and I think he’s right to express the concerns in the way he’s doing it.”
Meanwhile, Bannon spoke directly after Musk at the conservative confab, which featured the sunglass-wearing billionaire brandishing a chainsaw and “Dark MAGA” cap while defending DOGE’s actions. Notably, despite his pointed criticisms of Musk, Bannon shied away from taking any shots at the world’s richest man.
He did, however, seemingly mimic Musk’s notorious salute — which prompted at least one scheduled speaker to back out of the event and neo-Nazis to claim the gesture was even getting a “little excessive” for them.
