Elon Musk has escalated his war of words with Steve Bannon, branding the MAGA strategist “dumb as f---” over his remarks about Musk’s government contracts.
During a lengthy discussion with former NBC political analyst Chuck Todd, Bannon—who has called for Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, to be nationalized—claimed that 90 percent of SpaceX’s revenue comes from U.S. government contracts, including NASA and Pentagon deals.
Referring to Musk’s rapidly rescinded threat to shut down SpaceX’s flagship Dragon program following his dramatic falling-out with the president, Bannon said on Sunday Night with Chuck Todd on Noosphere, “If Lockheed Martin or any CEO had done that, the board would immediately have fired him.”
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“You can’t have something like that,” Bannon said. “I think 90 percent of SpaceX’s revenues come from government contracts, OK?”
Bannon went on to claim that Musk has “made 100 to 150 billion dollars in net worth on government contracts,” before asking: “Why do we not have warrants or options, huge packages for the American taxpayer, as part of that?”
The former Trump adviser, who also used the podcast to call for a special counsel investigation into Musk’s alleged drug use, concluded: “I think we ought to go in and say with the new management, we’re going to nationalize SpaceX because it’s a government entity anyway, with 90 percent of the revenues.”
Responding to a clip of Bannon’s comments early Tuesday, Musk fired back with his favorite slur. “Bannon is such a r------d liar. Dumber than a doorstop,” Musk wrote. “SpaceX revenue this year will be $15.5B and NASA is only worth $1.1B.
“If Bannon’s dumb as f--- reasoning made any sense, then anyone who bought products from any company would automatically own that company,” Musk added. “Bannon is truly peak r-----d.”
The exchange is the latest escalation in a bitter feud between the MAGA heavyweights, which has also seen Bannon call for Musk’s deportation.
Bannon, who was once a key Trump aide, has seized on Musk’s explosive split with Trump over his “big beautiful bill” in an apparent attempt to score points with the president, who places a high value on full-throated demonstrations of loyalty.
After Musk endorsed an X user’s post calling for Trump to be impeached and replaced with Vice President JD Vance, Bannon even resorted to physically threatening the Tesla billionaire.
“You’re going to tell me we should allow some f---ing punk to sit there and say he should be impeached, and [Vice President] JD [Vance] should step in?” Bannon told Politico’s Playbook. “F--- you, dude. We’re going to go to f---ing war, and I’m going to rip your f---ing face off.
- This article has been updated to correctly attribute where Bannon spoke with Todd.
