Right-wing influencer Steve Bannon ramped up his criticism of billionaire Elon Musk’s push to expand H-1B visas, escalating tensions on his War Room broadcast Tuesday morning. Musk, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, serves as co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency and has advocated for the controversial visa program, which Bannon vehemently opposes.
“I’ve taken down bigger guys than that a decade ago,” Bannon said, targeting Musk and other prominent figures. “As a side note on all of this… what we don’t need is white guys from South Africa lecturing us like Peter Thiel David Sacks and Elon Musk. We don’t need white guys from South Africa lecturing us on how the way things should be.”
Bannon’s remarks come amid an escalating feud with Musk, whom he previously mocked by sarcastically calling Child Protective Services for a “wellness check” after Musk’s expletive-laden posts on his X platform.
“What they’re doing now is spamming like the Twitter feed and suppressing it to our feed,” Bannon claimed. “Dude, we’re banned everywhere, and the show’s bigger than ever. And we just took you on and ripped your face off. So I don’t care what you do on Twitter, it doesn’t matter.”
Bannon, a staunch opponent of the H-1B program, issued an unyielding challenge to Musk. “Bring everything you’ve got, okay? Because we’re not gonna lose this fight,” he declared. The War Room host outlined his demands in no uncertain terms.
“We want complete evisceration and eradication of this entire program,” Bannon said. “Two, we want everybody here on one of these visas deported immediately.” Doubling down on his combative rhetoric, Bannon warned Musk and other supporters of the visa program.
“I have not yet begun to fight, okay? And if you guys want to continue on, we will beat you into submission.” The clash highlights growing tensions within Trump’s coalition as populist voices like Bannon resist the tech-driven push for high-skilled immigration programs.
Musk’s stance has sparked a backlash from Trump’s traditional base, while figures like Bannon frame the debate as a fight for American sovereignty. Bannon’s rhetoric signals a brewing political showdown over immigration policy as Trump’s administration prepares to take office, with H-1B visas at the center of the ideological divide.