After days of telling the world that Elon Musk is a “truly evil person” who should “go back to South Africa,” and that he would “have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Steve Bannon has backtracked.
“Look, he’s, the bottom line, he’s not going to be totally out,” Bannon told Politico on Monday, adding later: “Look, when you write $250 million worth of checks, when you’ve got, when you’re that involved, when you have actually backed a ground game, you’re going to have a seat at the table.”
It’s a funny comedown, one that took place in the space of less than a week. Bannon the warrior quickly became Bannon the cynic: Look, let’s not be naive. Musk contributed a huge amount to the campaign. You really think he’ll just leave?
Bannon is revealing something bigger about his shtick here, though. He plays the role of a right-wing populist, reminding us repeatedly that he’s built a people’s movement with Trump at the head. He’ll occasionally make arguments for specific policies that would outrage the rich: higher taxes on the wealthy, ending the carried interest loophole.
None of those things are going to happen. What it appears Trump is setting the country up for is a massive giveaway for his billionaire backers, with agencies set to conduct dramatically less oversight of corporate crime and financial markets, and with numerous legislative pushes to cut taxes on the rich, and offset the cost of it by shredding the social safety net.
One way of looking at this: Bannon has long served the purpose, intentionally or not, of helping give Trump populist cover as he pursues an agenda that’s servile to various forms of big business. If the pitch to voters is scapegoating immigrants while letting billionaires do what they want, then Bannon can be there as a kind of branding tool — spewing anti-immigrant invective and making perfunctory economic populist comments while the guys who are really in the room get to work.
Now that Musk has spent hundreds of millions to buy his way in, he’s now a part of that team. It would explain the cynicism in Bannon’s surprise when he told Politico on Tuesday, “What’s shocking to me is [Musk] doesn’t have much power.”
The Best Of TPM Today
Smith Considered Charging Trump With Insurrection. The Law Wasn’t Ready.
Catch up on our live coverage of Hegseth’s confirmation hearing here: The Once Critically Endangered Pete Hegseth Goes Before Committee
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Trump Pulls A New Fixation Out Of Thin Air And House GOP Runs Off The Cliff With It
What We Are Reading
Speaker Orders Capitol Hill Flags Raised for Inauguration
The Pressure Campaign to Get Pete Hegseth Confirmed as Defense Secretary
I don’t own cats. Squeaker only controls one side of the Capitol. Let’s see if Thune falls in line on the Senate side. These guys are all performance and so sad and despicable.
Yes, yes, yes! Josh has it just right.
Bannon is doing a counterpoint con that keeps the cray in craycray. I mean, it works. All the trad Catholic Lenin stuff, some people buy it.
But yeah, that was a quick, cold and delicious comedown.
My takeaway on today’s sham confirmation hearing of Pete Hegseth. He will do Trump’s bidding. Without question. That means the military will be deployed to deport, patrol cities and intimidate political opponents, and violently end demonstrations. He’ll ensure the military are completely politicized to follow the MAGA authoritarian agenda. Hegseth is absolutely going to implement Trump’s fascist plans.
In a perverse sense, Hegseth is eminently qualified for this role.
Musk spent money, Bannon spent four months in jail. Not even a close call, loser.
FAFO Bannon.
Keep it up you dirty little man and it’s defenestration for you; figuratively speaking of course, we’re not RuzZia (yet).