Steve Bannon joined the MAGA immigration civil war with gusto on Friday, calling Elon Musk a “toddler,” and telling the owner of X to “bring it.”
As Musk doubled down on his support for H1-B work visas and criticism of American workers, Bannon posted on the social media platform Gettr: “Someone please notify ‘Child Protective Services’— need to do a ‘wellness check’ on this toddler.”
The former Trump adviser and War Room podcast host made the post in reaction to Musk telling a critic of his stance on immigration to “f*** yourself in the face.”
“The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” Musk wrote.
“Take a big step back and F*** YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot comprehend.”
South African-born billionaire Musk and fellow tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have both defended the use of H1-B visas to hire highly skilled workers for Silicon Valley and other key industries.
This clashes with the MAGA right’s “America First” anti-immigration doctrine in what has quickly developed into a schism within the American political right.
As the war of words spiraled online, Musk endorsed a post calling American workers too “re***ded” to perform high-skilled tech jobs for which foreign workers were being hired.
Ramaswamy, for his part, blamed U.S. sitcoms for extolling the virtues of the dimmer characters over those with brains, necessitating hiring smarter people from other countries to fulfill tech roles.
“If we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH: Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long,” Ramaswamy wrote.
He then called for changes in American childrearing: “More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers … more creating, less chillin’.”
Musk also declared that “hateful, unrepentant racists” should be removed from the Republican Party “root and stem,” calling his critics “contemptible fools.”
At one point, Musk wrote on X: “America rose to greatness over the past 150 years, because it was a meritocracy more than anywhere else on Earth.”
He added: “I will fight to my last drop of blood to ensure that it remains that land of freedom and opportunity.”
Bannon replied on Gettr: “Bring.It.Dude—All of It.”
Elon Musk and Steve Bannon (Getty/AFP)
In another post, he wrote: “American Jobs for American Workers : H1B Visas are a TOOL of the Tech Oligarchs to Keep Wages Down While Destroying the Spirit of American Citizens.”
Bannon further posted: “American Citizens Have Never Bent the Knee—to the British Empire, the Bolsheviks, the Nazis —Ain’t About to Start with South Africa.”
He went further on Friday’s edition of his podcast says tech leader such as Musk were “on the spectrum.”
“The nerds don’t take criticism,” he said. “They’re kind of, you know, they’re a little bit all on the spectrum, right? They don’t know– they’re not deep in social skills.”
On Thursday, Musk was accused of personally punishing his critics, when “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer and other far-right activists alleged that his X social media platform removed their verification badges and ability to monetize their accounts in an act of retribution.
