Steve Bannon has denounced Elon Musk and vowed to “take him down” in an interview with an Italian newspaper.
The former Breitbart man, who was the chief executive officer of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, said Musk is a “racist” and “truly evil guy” in comments made to the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
He criticised Musk’s embrace of some forms of immigration and vowed to ensure that Musk does not have top-level access to the White House.
“He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down,” Bannon said. “Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it – I’m not prepared to tolerate it any more.”
He added: “I will have Elon Musk run out of here by inauguration day”, which falls on 20 January. “He will not have full access to the White House. He will be like any other person.”
Bannon also took aim at Musk’s embrace of H-1B visas, which allow companies – such as Musk’s own SpaceX and Tesla – to hire skilled professionals and engineers from outside the US.
“This thing of the H-1B visas, it’s about the entire immigration system is gamed by the tech overlords”, he said. “They use it to their advantage. The people are furious.”
Bannon also widened his attack to Musk’s fellow tech giants Peter Thiel and David Sacks for having South African heritage.
“He [Musk] should go back to South Africa,” Bannon said. “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?”
Arguing that Musk’s “sole objective is to become a trillionaire” and calling him a proponent of “techno-feudalism on a global scale”, Bannon said, “I don’t support that and we’ll fight it,” adding: “He won’t fight. He’s got the maturity of a little boy.
“He will do anything 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.”
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