Steve Bannon: Musk’s money will help us make Europe a populist haven

Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s wealth and influence are valuable weapons to further spread MAGA populism in Europe, Steve Bannon, former top aide to United States President-elect Donald Trump, said.

“Money and information are the twin tactical nukes of modern politics — and he can deploy both at unprecedented scale,” Bannon said in an interview with Bloomberg.

“There’s not a centrist left-wing government in Europe that will be able to withstand that onslaught,” the right-wing podcaster says.

Musk and Bannon are among Trump’s most influential allies — though relations between the two men can hardly be described as friendly.

Bannon, who is now prominent right-wing podcaster, last week told Musk that he and other MAGA supporters are going to “rip his face off” unless he stops pushing for visas to bring skilled foreign workers to the U.S. The two have been in recent weeks locked in a dispute over the H-1B visa program, in which Trump sided with Musk.

But despite their disagreements, Bannon said that Musk’s influence will work to the advantage of the MAGA movement, of which he is an adamant supporter.

“I support his participation because the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Bannon said.

“Musk just spent a quarter of a billion dollars to elect Trump,” said Bannon. “If he puts the same amount of money into all of Europe that he put behind Trump, he will flip every nation to a populist agenda. There’s not a centrist left-wing government in Europe that will be able to withstand that onslaught.”

Musk has recently stirred up politics in Europe after doubling down on his support for German far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, and started an ongoing feud with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Steve Bannon (left) and Ilon Musk

French, German and Polish foreign ministers have planned a trip to Washington D.C. shortly after the United States’ President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, three European Union diplomats told POLITICO. 

The idea of ministers from three major EU countries traveling together would be to make a “show of European unity,” one of the diplomats said, who, like the other two, was granted anonymity to speak about the visit.

The trip is still in planning stages and no date has yet been set. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski could be accompanied by the bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, according to two of the diplomats.

EU leaders have expressed willingness to work with the Trump administration, but are also on guard against moves like trade tariffs or his threat to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, which is a NATO member like the U.S.

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