Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, has rekindled his vendetta against Elon Musk, saying he should be deported, after the president was seen shaking hands with the tech entrepreneur at Charlie Kirk’s memorial.
Bannon, 71, said he wants to “toss out” Musk and “send him back to South Africa” – the country of his birth – adding that Musk's living in the U.S. was “totally illegal.”
Bannon’s incendiary statements, made on his “War Room” podcast, came shortly after Trump signed a new executive order requiring all U.S. companies to pay a $100,000 annual fee for every foreign employee hired through an H-1B visa.
The visas are designed to bring highly skilled foreign workers to the U.S. for jobs that are deemed difficult to fill, particularly in the tech sector.
Musk and Bannon have repeatedly clashed over U.S. visa policy, with Musk defending the H-1B program and once declaring he was ready to “go to war on this issue.”
Musk himself has benefited from the system: he first entered the U.S. on a J-1 academic visa, which he says later transitioned to an H-1B. His companies remain reliant on the program – Tesla alone hired 724 workers on H-1B visas in 2023, though SpaceX has used markedly less.
Bannon has compared using the visas to slavery, calling them “indentured servitude,” and also said they prevent Americans from accessing jobs.
“Screw you, dude!” he said on the podcast. “You're a foreigner that is taking advantage of foreign labor at the detriment of American citizens.”
At the Kirk funeral, Trump was seen reuniting with Musk, just months after a public falling out following Musk’s departure from his White House role running the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.
The men were seen on camera shaking hands on Sunday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale during speeches remembering the Turning Point USA founder.
During the memorial, the official White House Rapid Response 47 account shared footage of the men chatting as Musk joined the president in the stadium. The account appeared to celebrate their reunion, captioning the post with a love-heart and handshake emoji.
After leaving the White House, the pair’s relationship had rapidly deteriorated, with Musk describing Trump’s budget bill, known as the “Big Beautiful Bill” as a “disgusting abomination”, which he said would increase the budget deficit by $2.5 trillion.
Musk and Trump continued to trade blows until the Tesla CEO claimed the president appeared in the Epstein files.
“Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files,” Musk wrote. “That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
Tensions seemed to cool shortly after. On 11 June, Musk expressed “regret” over his posts about the president, while Trump responded by saying he held “no hard feelings” toward the tech billionaire.
In June this year, Bannon urged the Trump administration to launch a special counsel investigation into Musk – including looking at Musk’s immigration history and alleged drug use – and said Musk should be deported.
Musk responded by calling Bannon a “fat, drunken slob” who should be in prison for committing crimes.
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