The collision course between two of the MAGA movement’s chief acolytes – tech billionaire Elon Musk and right-wing influencer Steve Bannon – is showing no signs of slowing down.
In fact, things are “only getting uglier,” according to Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson.
And while Donald Trump is still days away from sweeping back into the presidency, the brewing battle has exposed a growing split among the Musk and Bannon factions – what the columnist refers to as “New MAGA” and “MAGA Classic.”
“This war of words between two insufferable blowhards reveals a consequential schism in the MAGA world — and the yawning gap between MAGA rhetoric and objective reality,” Robinson wrote in an opinion piece published Monday.
The behind the scenes dust-up began after Bannon doubled-down on his opposition to Musk’s defense of immigrant visas through the H-1B program, which Bannon claims results in jobs being taken away from Americans.
“Is Bannon’s rage simply over the fact that Musk has replaced him at the Mar-a-Lago dinner table?” Robinson wrote. “I wouldn’t discount jealousy as a motive, but there is also a substantive issue involved.”
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The columnist told readers that Bannon has “long been a hard-liner against immigration,” while Musk has been an “equally fierce defender” of the visa program that he himself has used, and which allows tech companies to employ skilled foreign workers.
But the debate has quickly devolved into a series of “playground” taunts, Robinson added. He recounted Musk’s response on his X platform last month to a post critical of the visa program – and Bannon's tough words back.
“…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 possibly comprehend,” Musk wrote.
Meanwhile Bannon said in an interview about Musk that “longtime MAGA true believers will ‘rip your face off’” if the tech billionaire continues to back the program.
Robinson concluded his piece on Monday by warning readers that the two MAGA believers “definitely are not changing their minds.”
“This is ugly, and it promises to get uglier,” he wrote.