With former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon describing “first buddy” Elon Musk as a “parasitic illegal immigrant” who “wants to impose his freak experiments” on the United States, the hosts of The View said on Wednesday that they’ve found common cause with the MAGA firebrand.
Having grown increasingly critical of Musk since Trump tasked the tech mogul to dismantle the federal government, Bannon laid into the DOGE chief during an interview this week. “Musk is a parasitic illegal immigrant. He wants to impose his freak experiments and play-act as God without any respect for the country’s history, values or traditions,” the far-right nativist podcaster told British news site UnHerd.
Besides referring to reports that the South African-born Musk overstayed his visa when building a company in the United States, an accusation that Musk has denied, Bannon also took aim at the Tesla CEO’s “performative” efforts to slash government spending. Specifically, the former Trump aide noted that Musk’s government efficiency agency hasn’t focused on the Pentagon, adding that Musk has billions of dollars worth of defense contracts with his private companies.
Following the chummy sitdown Musk and Trump had with Trump confidant Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, The View kicked off Wednesday’s broadcast by sarcastically noting that the Fox News host interviewed “the world’s most powerful man – and the president was there too.”
After host Joy Behar pointed out that Trump and the world’s richest man “tried to squash any rumors that there’s trouble in paradise,” she brought up Bannon’s recent comments about Musk. “So will Bannon break up the happy couple, and who is going to get the rose? Tune in to The Bachelor: D.C. Edition,” she snarked.
Co-host Sara Haines, meanwhile, seemed genuinely surprised that she found herself in agreement with the ex-Trump strategist.
“I hate to say it, but I agree with Steve Bannon on this one,” Haines said. “Purely because they’re cutting all these programs and saying they’re gonna cut the fat, and they have numbers – before they even went in, they said we want to get $1 trillion out. That’s a businessman’s approach to a government. This is the public sector, not the private sector.”
She continued: “The thing that Trump’s not doing, though, he wants to keep some of the tax cuts he had originally said and what Bannon stands for – which breaks with Elon Musk – is don’t tax overtime, don’t tax Social Security, don’t tax – give the money to the people that need it the most.”
Behar joked that Bannon “sounds like a lefty,” prompting Haines to exclaim: “Why do you think I said I agree with Steve Bannon?! That rarely happens. But on this, I do agree with him.”
She went on to note that while Trump “ran on helping the people that voted him in,” the president has instead focused on slashing federal programs while giving “tax breaks to people who can afford it more than anyone else.” Conversely, Haines noted, Bannon has taken a more populist position.
“Steve Bannon says it is going to hurt for all of us,” she added. “We all got into this together. You need to give the breaks to the lower and the middle class – stop slashing and helping the top. They don’t need more.”
“He sounds like Bernie Sanders,” Behar quipped.
During his War Room broadcast last week, Bannon – who has credited himself with the Trump administration’s “flood the zone” governing strategy – warned Musk and Trump about potentially infuriating conservative voters by cutting entitlements and social programs.
“I think it’s generally confusion and mayhem on Capitol Hill [now]. But hey, maybe I’m wrong. ... maybe they’re making some progress on this,” he said, adding: “Get into Medicaid ... a lot of MAGAs on Medicaid. I’m telling you, if you don’t think so, you are dead wrong. Medicaid is going to be a complicated one. Just can’t take a meat axe to it, although I would love to.”
Following Trump’s November electoral victory but prior to the inauguration, Bannon kicked off a “MAGA civil war” with Musk and other Trump-backing “tech bros” over Silicon Valley’s support of H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers. Calling Musk a “toddler” and “evil,” Bannon said he was going to “rip [Musk’s] face off” while vowing to run him out of Trump’s inner circle.
In the end, though, Bannon backtracked from his threat to boot Musk from Trumpworld before Trump was inaugurated. Even though Trump had reportedly become irritated with Musk’s omnipresence at Mar-a-Lago following the election, the president ended up siding with the X (formerly Twitter) owner in the H-1B debate.
Musk, for his part, has largely avoided responding to Bannon’s broadsides over the past few months but did take his own swipe at the War Room host two weeks ago over Bannon’s complaints that DOGE wasn’t touching the defense budget. Bannon is a great talker, but not a great doer,” Musk tweeted. “What did he get done this week? Nothing.”
