Steve Bannon says he told Trump to investigate Musk as an ‘illegal alien’
Stephen K. Bannon, one of Elon Musk’s most vocal critics, said he was advising the president to cancel all of the tech billionaire’s contracts and launch several investigations into the world’s richest man.
“They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status, because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately,” Mr. Bannon, the former top aide to President Trump who is now an influential ally and informal adviser, said in an interview.
Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump had a public falling out on Thursday, as each attacked the other on social media. Mr. Musk, who leads the electric car manufacturer Tesla, the rocket company SpaceX and the artificial intelligence start-up xAI, left his role last week as a special government adviser tasked with slashing federal spending.
Mr. Musk’s companies have received billions in federal contracts over the years, and in 2023, his companies were promised $3 billion across nearly 100 different contracts with 17 federal agencies.
Mr. Bannon said the Trump administration should also investigate Mr. Musk’s drug use, as reported by The New York Times, and his effort to get a classified briefing on China from the Pentagon.
Mr. Musk’s security clearance should be suspended during these investigations, he added.
Elon Musk unleashed a fresh round of tweets Thursday evening, calling for President Trump to be impeached and declaring that SpaceX would begin decommissioning a spacecraft essential to NASA’s operation.
Why it matters: Trump’s threat to cancel billions of dollars of government contracts with Musk’s companies has ignited a new round of escalation in the explosive civil war between the two former allies.
Driving the news: “In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk wrote on X.
- The Dragon spacecraft, both crewed and cargo versions, have been relied upon for years to keep the International Space Station supplied and operating. Shutting them down would leave the ISS reliant on Russia.
Shares of Tesla fell 14% on Thursday as President Donald Trump threatened to pull government contracts for CEO Elon Musk’s companies, escalating a war of words over the spending bill.
The move dropped the EV maker $152 billion in value, the biggest hit to its market cap ever, putting it below the $1 trillion benchmark and settling Thursday at $916 billion. [Continue reading…]