The fight over the soul of Donald Trump’s Republican Party is between a fresh-out-of-jail populist podcaster and the richest man in the world.
Steve Bannon, the architect of Trump’s first campaign who fell out of favor with the president during his first term, has been steadfast in his criticism of Elon Musk — the tech billionaire who has recently been glued to Trump’s side. Bannon sees himself as a true populist and a die-hard voice against immigration, often aligned with members like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and MAGA world figures.
Musk aggravated Bannon and others by advocating for high-skilled worker visas last month — but the feud goes deeper than that. Bannon has been pushing for Musk to be ousted from Trump’s inner circle, seeing his influence on the president as troubling. He told NOTUS this week he was grateful the billionaire contributed mightily to getting Trump elected, but he opined that Musk is “an agent of influence for the Chinese Communist Party.”
“He’s never critical of the Chinese Communist Party,” Bannon said. “He’s always laudatory.”
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Bannon has little official power anymore, but he loves to speak to the press and condemns Musk as an interloper whenever he can. His efforts to run Musk out of the administration haven’t been successful so far. For his part, Musk hasn’t engaged with Bannon publicly and a spokesperson for the White House did not answer when asked if Musk would like to respond to Bannon’s remarks.
Musk will likely continue to have a steady influence in Trump’s White House. He heads up Trump’s government body intended to cut government waste, while Bannon records a daily “War Room” show.
Bannon’s friends have tried to strike a balance, aware of Musk’s power in the new administration. Greene, the Georgia congresswoman, said she empathized with both perspectives on immigration visas and called for unity among the far right to “make the hard and necessary changes here in the U.S. to educate, build, and facilitate a solid foundation of knowledgeable, highly skilled, talented, well paid, AMERICAN workers.”
Bannon served briefly in Trump’s first term, but one Republican operative, who asked to speak anonymously to be frank, said Bannon’s show has maintained his influence among Trump and his allies. It sometimes features Republican lawmakers.
“From Russ Vought and Scott Bessent to Kash Patel and Stephen Miller, their MAGA credentials were burnished by the ‘War Room,’” this source told NOTUS. “Elon is erratic. Susie Wiles does not do erratic. Not for long.”
Another Republican source close to the White House said Bannon may win out in the end “because a lot of MAGA people don’t like Elon.”
Either way, “Bannon speaking out is expected.”
In interviews with NOTUS, however, Republican lawmakers instinctively sided with Musk.
“Everybody’s got opinions, but Elon is loved by the president,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma said on Wednesday. Mullin added that he hasn’t met Bannon — who went to prison for four months last year for contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with the Jan. 6 committee — but “his name doesn’t really come up in Oklahoma that much.”
Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina also said he knows both Bannon and Musk have followers, but he leans more toward Musk’s side on the issue of high-skilled work visas. “He understands what happens if we don’t get more resources here to get our jobs done,” Tillis told NOTUS.
North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, meanwhile, said Bannon hasn’t had influence with him personally and that he has never confused his job “with the entertainers.”
And Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said he hadn’t seen the feud, but he’s glad Musk is in the administration: “What he’s done is created a big focus on how we’ve got to make the federal government work better.”
Others said they want to stay out of it.
“I don’t know either gentleman,” Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said. “I try never to get between a dog and a fire hydrant.”
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Haley Byrd Wilt and Jasmine Wright are reporters at NOTUS.
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