Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist and host of the WarRoom podcast Photo: Maansi Srivastava for NPR
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has sharply criticised Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, calling them “oligarchs” who do not support the Make America Great Again movement and could betray Republicans, CNN reports.
“I’m very anti-oligarchic. All of these guys – Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg – do not support MAGA,” Bannon said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
While Bannon approves of Musk’s attempts to reduce the government’s influence through government reform, he warns that “concentration of power is very dangerous” and that tech moguls could change the political course in the future.
“They have already given up on the progressive left. They will abandon us in the same way. They are only looking for power,” Bannon stressed.
“Oligarchs” in American politics?
The term “oligarch” has historically been used to refer to wealthy individuals close to power in Russia after the collapse of the USSR, CNN notes. Today, however, it is increasingly being applied to influential businessmen in the United States.
Interestingly, amidst this criticism, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, despite having blocked his accounts four years ago. Jeff Bezos has also joined the initiative, and Amazon has allocated $1 million in cash for the inauguration ceremony.
Trump and tech giants: playing on two fronts
Despite his long-standing conflict with tech billionaires, Trump has held a number of meetings with them. After winning the election, he hosted Bezos and Zuckerberg at his Mar-a-Lago estate, and during the inauguration, they sat in the front row – closer to the president than many Republican congressmen.
Bannon warns that such proximity to power may not be a sign of loyalty, but only a desire for influence.
“They act solely in their own interests,” he concluded.
