Elon Musk is a “parasitic illegal immigrant”, Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, has said, following the Tesla CEO’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal government and gain more power in the US.

In an interview with British outlet Unherd, Mr Bannon, once a confidant of Mr Trump, said the Tesla CEO wanted “to impose his freak experiences and play-act as God without any respect for the country’s history, values, or traditions.” 

His statement referred to past reports claiming Mr Musk, born in South Africa, may have overstayed his visa while building his companies in the US. The billionaire has rubbished all such claims.

Describing Mr Musk as a “problem to the country,” Mr Bannon also criticised the billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), calling its efforts just for show. He said President Trump was using the tech tycoon as a powerful weapon to weaken the government system.

Mr Trump appointed Mr Musk as the head of DOGE in November, but the White House said he had no formal authority to make government decisions.

Last month, Mr Bannon, a controversial figure whose influence over Mr Trump has changed over the years, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that Mr Musk should “go back to South Africa,” questioning why White South Africans should have any say in US affairs. He described them as “the most racist people on earth.”

In January, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News said he would do everything he could to keep the SpaceX CEO out of the White House and was working on a plan to limit his influence over Trump. He claimed Mr Musk’s ideas were part of a global system called “techno-feudalism,” which he described as a movement that valued technology over people and saw everything in digital terms.

Mr Bannon lambasted Mr Musk when the SpaceX CEO criticised Trump’s new “Stargate” project. The project, announced last month, is backed by OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and MGX.

Mr Musk wrote on X that these companies didn’t actually have the $500 billion needed for the investment. He also called the project “fake”.

They don’t actually have the money

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2025

Mr Musk and Mr Altman have a long-standing disagreement which began when they parted ways on OpenAI, a nonprofit organization they co-founded in 2015. In 2018, Mr Musk ended the partnership and started a direct rival company called xAI, accusing Mr Altman of aborting the nonprofit mission.