Ousted presidential adviser Steve Bannon may be using President Donald Trump’s falling out with Elon Musk as an attempt to “get back in the fray,” by saying exactly what Trump wants to hear.
Appearing on an “emergency” episode of The Daily Beast podcast, journalist and biographer Michael Wolff spoke to Joanna Coles about Bannon’s decision to weigh in on the spat between the president and the Tesla CEO.
According to Wolff, Bannon is likely “looking for ways to get back in the fray,” particularly as he likely sees Musk as having usurped him. Bannon, who was the chief executive officer for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and chief strategist and senior counselor to the president once Trump took office, was fired in August 2017 after months of clashes with others in the White House.
ADVERTISEMENT
Wolff argues that Bannon has “continued to feel, against all of the evidence, that he would be called back to the White House, called back to Trump’s side,” and now sees in Musk’s departure the perfect opportunity to make that happen.
As to whether Trump wants Bannon back? Wolff isn’t so sure, telling Coles that for Trump, “out of sight is out of mind” and he likely hasn’t thought about Bannon anywhere near as much as Bannon has thought about him.
In attacking Musk—soon after Musk began attacking Trump on X, Bannon called for his immigration status to be investigated because he suspected Musk was an “illegal alien”—Bannon is relying on the fact that, in Wolff’s words, “if you say what Trump wants to hear, then you’re in like Flynn.”
”This is an opportunity that he is seizing,” Wolff added.
In addition to calling for Musk to be deported, Bannon has also demanded that Musk’s alleged drug use and links to China be investigated, and said that Musk’s SpaceX should be seized by the government. Musk’s response to Bannon’s tirade was to call him a “r----d” and a criminal.
Bannon responded to that insult by telling Politico’s Playbook, “You’re going to tell me we should allow some f-----g punk to sit there and say he should be impeached and J.D. [Vance] should step in? F--k you, dude. We’re going to go to f-----g war, and I’m going to rip your f-----g face off.”
Wolff also explained how the Trump-Musk breakup was practically a foregone conclusion, telling Coles that everyone who works for Trump eventually falls out with him, “because he screws them.”
Interestingly, however, “Elon is the first person who has the resources and the temerity and the audacity to not accept being screwed by Donald Trump,” Wolff continued, with his status as the world’s richest man affording him a measure of protection against Trump’s usual M.O. That isn’t likely to stop Trump—or Bannon, for that matter—from trying his hardest, though.
