Now that tech billionaire Elon Musk has fallen out with President Donald Trump, his ongoing allies still working within the White House could be prime targets, Semafor reported on Monday evening.
"MAGA loyalists are taking advantage of the Trump-Musk rift to threaten the standing of anyone in the administration who’s perceived as too close to the Tesla CEO," reported Shelby Talcott and Eleanor Mueller.
The man spearheading this effort is Steve Bannon, former Trump adviser and far-right webcaster, "whose long-running animosity toward Musk peaked last week with the former calling to deport Musk from the US and the latter deeming Bannon a 'Communist r-----.'"
The key figure Bannon most wants ousted, per the report, is David Sacks, who like Musk is a South African immigrant entrepreneur involved with him in the early days of PayPal, and is currently serving as a cryptocurrency adviser in the Trump administration. “You’re dangerous. It’s all about you, not the country.”
Trump administration figures have denied that Sacks' position is in any jeopardy. However, some more obscure allies of Musk who were brought in as part of his Department of Government Efficiency task force to purge the civil service could be more at risk.
"One person familiar with the situation told Semafor that there are ongoing conversations inside the administration 'regarding the future of some of these big names that came to the federal government in that wave of Elon coming here,'" noted the report. "This person described possible forthcoming departures as more of a 'mutual separation' than a forced ouster."
Musk and Trump, who were firm allies for months after Musk ran much of Trump's campaign operations in 2024 and advised him on spending cuts, saw their relationship fall apart when Trump canceled the nomination of a close Musk ally to head up NASA. Musk responded by publicly trashing Trump's "big, beautiful bill" on tax cuts and Medicaid curtailment as a "disgusting abomination" and lobbied his supporters to call Congress to oppose it.
According to one insider, Trump, who was much less aggressive publicly in the spat, was sincerely hurt by the relationship falling apart.