Steve Bannon Vows To Take Down 'Truly Evil' Elon Musk—And We're Grabbing The Popcorn

White nationalist Steve Bannon vowed to take down "truly evil" Elon Musk, telling Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera about how he plans to have the billionaire X owner "run out of here by Inauguration Day," exposing deep rifts among the MAGA faithful.

Bannon, who served as the White House chief strategist during President-elect Donald Trump's first administration, made clear that he views Musk as a threat and will make it his personal mission to ensure Musk does not enjoy more privileges and access.

He said:

"I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day. He will not have a blue pass to the White House, he will not have full access to the White House, he will be like any other person.”

“He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down. Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it – I’m not prepared to tolerate it any more."

Bannon also remarked that Musk, a South African-born naturalized U.S. citizen, should "go back" to his country of birth after Musk publicly supported the H-1B visa program, which facilitates the recruitment of highly-skilled foreign tech workers:

“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?”

Bannon's declaration marks the latest sign of opposition from virulently anti-immigrant Trump supporters who've fumed since Trump appointed Indian-American technologist Sriram Krishnan as the senior policy advisor for artificial intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Krishnan has advocated for measures such as creating a startup founder or entrepreneur visa category, allowing H-1B visa holders to establish companies or transition to entrepreneur visas, and fast-tracking green cards for individuals in technical fields.

The backlash intensified when Musk voiced his own support for the H-1B visa program. After prominent MAGA figures like Laura Loomer challenged Musk on X, he retaliated by removing their verification badges and demonetizing their accounts.

Although Trump has previously condemned the H-1B visa system as “unfair” to American workers and “very bad,” he quickly reversed his political stance, saying:

“I didn’t change my mind. I always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country … We need smart people coming into our country. We need a lot of people coming in.”

The controversy over H-1B visas revealed a growing divide among Trump’s allies on immigration policy. Trump, who has promised to take aggressive action on immigration once in office—including implementing a large-scale deportation program targeting undocumented individuals, especially those with criminal records—has doubled down on these plans by appointing several key allies to influential roles in immigration policy.

Musk, for his part, went as far as to suggest that he would be willing to “go to war” over the issue. Musk is reportedly a former H-1B recipient.

Bannon criticized these remarks, saying that Musk has the “maturity of a little boy” and is attempting to establish “techno-feudalism on a global scale.”

And he went further, characterizing Musk's defense of the program as a threat to the American worker and a sign that Musk should stay out of U.S. politics altogether:

“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." ...

“We’ve seen peak Elon, his intrusive nature, his lack of understanding of the true issues, and, quite frankly, his support of just himself, the sole objective is to become a trillionaire. That’s his objective."

“He will do anything related to make sure that any one of his companies is protected or has a better deal or he makes more money. His aggregation of wealth, and then – through wealth – power: that’s what he’s focused on. The American working people in this country are not going to tolerate it.”

It sure is ironic hearing this from Bannon—one of the most bigoted men ever to have influence in contemporary U.S. politics—and people are already getting out the popcorn.

Last week, The New York Times noted that while Musk and other tech moguls "claim that Silicon Valley needs more H-1B visas to bring in foreign workers because there aren’t enough Americans studying science and tech," they conveniently omit the fact that "for more than a decade, Americans working in the tech industry have been systematically laid off and replaced by cheaper H-1B visa holders."

Editorial Board member Faith Stockman, who in 2013 led an investigative project for The Boston Globe into fraud in and abuse of the H1B visa program, said:

"Most H-1B visa holders are lower-paid labor, not top talent. In May, Musk laid off more than 14,000 Tesla workers, including many H-1B visa holders. ... They were desperate to remain in the country, but because H-1B visas are owned by the employer, they had few options for doing so."

"That’s why these workers stay compliant and cheap: They can’t leave the companies that control the visas. If they were really top talent, they should be getting green cards, not enduring six years of underpaid servitude."

Stockman said "don't hold your breath" on Musk actually addressing these issues, signaling that in the end, and certainly for Musk, it always comes down to money.