Bannon changes tune on Musk, says he’s ‘impressed’
President-elect Trump’s former political strategist, Steve Bannon, appears to have changed his tune on tech billionaire Elon Musk, saying he’s “impressed” with the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-chair.
Bannon said Wednesday on his “War Room” podcast that he credited Musk with Trump’s election victory and recalled his recent interview with Puck News.
“I told them one thing has impressed me with Elon,” Bannon said, highlighted by Mediaite. “And look, we have huge ideological differences, including about the Chinese Communist Party, let’s put a pin in that for a second.”
“I said, what’s fascinating to me is that he put money up for the least glamorous part of the victory,” he continued.
Without Musk donating millions to Trump’s campaign and his get-out-the-vote efforts for “the low propensity voters,” Trump wouldn’t have had “the massive victory,” Bannon said.
“So, he deserves to see the table,” he said of Musk’s appointment to DOGE.
In April, Bannon criticized Musk’s interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, calling anyone who watched it and bought Musk’s rhetoric is “a fool.”
“Let me just be blunt,” he said at the time. “Any of the fanboys and my brother, Darren Beatty, who I love, anybody that’s out there, fanboying for Elon Musk — you’re a fool, you’re a fool, you’re a fool.”
Musk, the owner of the social platform X, will co-lead DOGE, along with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who once ran in the GOP primary against Trump. Both have become staunch Trump allies, and the president-elect said they will “provide advice and guidance from outside of government.”
Concerns have been raised about Musk’s influence in both the tech and government worlds, including the potential international impacts.