President-elect Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon is ramping up public attacks on billionaire Elon Musk amid an intensifying debate on the right about Musk’s influence in the incoming administration.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera this past week, Bannon said Musk “should go back to South Africa,” where he was born, and be denied privileged access to the West Wing.
“I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon said per excerpts translated by his former employer Breitbart. “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,” he went on. “Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it. I’m not prepared to tolerate it anymore.”
Bannon has also criticized Musk’s support for a skilled-worker visa program that led to a bitter rift last month between far-right activists and Trump’s tech executive supporters, who see the program as a crucial lifeline for Silicon Valley.
Trump ultimately sided with Musk in that dispute, but Bannon said he is preparing a broader effort to limit the Tesla executive’s ability to shape Trump’s agenda.
Bannon told the newspaper: “Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, White South Africans … making any comments at all on what goes on in the United States?”
Bannon added he would “do anything” to keep Musk out of the White House.
The comments reflect the growing questions among some Trump allies about the precise role Musk will play in Trump’s second term. A political newcomer who until recently supported candidates of both parties, Musk went all-in on Trump in the 2024 elections with more than $277 million in donations to Republicans – and has been rewarded by emerging as one of the president-elect’s most influential advisers.
But precisely how Musk will exert his newfound political power – and how long it will last – remains unclear. That uncertainty extends to Musk’s appointment by Trump to co-lead the “Department of Government Efficiency” with tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. That body does not have formal government authorities and must work with the White House to have its recommendations implemented. Emissaries with DOGE have begun contacting U.S. agencies across the government, but it’s not clear whether they will be given security clearances granting them access to federal records.
In his interview with the Italian newspaper, Bannon also said Musk should be denied the White House pass that would give him unfettered access to the West Wing. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Musk has a top-secret security clearance, but questions about his foreign entanglements and drug use have precluded him from accessing more privileged information.
Bannon and Musk did not return requests for comment.
Bannon served as chief executive of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and became a White House senior counselor before leaving in a cloud of controversy. Despite serving a four-month prison sentence over his refusal to cooperate with an investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, Bannon remains influential in right-wing circles, running a popular podcast and recently appearing at Mar-a-Lago. Numerous Trump advisers – including Russell Vought, Trump’s choice for budget chief, and Peter Navarro, an incoming White House adviser – have appeared on Bannon’s program in recent months.
But Bannon’s nationalist vision for Trump’s second term is increasingly at odds with Musk’s. An immigration opponent and trade hawk, Bannon has long pushed measures deeply opposed by the GOP’s business faction, which worries about the financial impact of mass tariffs and deportations.
That split was crystallized last month in the fight over the visa program permitting foreigners with technical skills to work in the United States for up to six years. Bannon and many far-right Trump supporters such as Laura Loomer attacked the “tech bros” as dependent on cheap foreign labor that undermines U.S. workers, while Musk and Ramaswamy defended the program as necessary to protect the competitiveness of U.S. tech firms.
“The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low,” Musk wrote on X. “If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be.”
Bannon told the Italian newspaper that Musk’s ideas are “really about the implementation of techno-feudalism on a global scale.”
(c) 2025, The Washington Post · Jeff Stein 
{Matzav.com}