Ex-Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon Says Chinese Communist Party Owns Elon Musk. His Response

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is owned by the Communist Party of China on American political commentator Tim Pool’s podcast on Friday (local time).

“Elon Musk is a total and complete phoney. He is owned – lock, stock, and barrel – by the Communist Party of China, and he acts like it,” Bannon said.

A clip of the video was shared by rightwing Republican leader Matt Gaetz, who represents Florida’s First District in the US House of Representatives, and who was also present in the episode.

Bannon’s comments on Elon Musk were in response to a question by Tim Pool who told the former White House chief strategist that Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan who suggested that Twitter should buy Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and become a “digital bank” and Elon Musk replied by saying that he remains open to the idea of owning the failed bank.

“Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan tweeted Twitter should buy Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Elon Musk replied that he is open to the idea. What do you think about that?” Tim Pool questioned.

Bannon responded by first pointing out that Elon Musk continues to ban people who are anti-CPC.

“He is owned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The only thing of real value is Tesla. The Shanghai Joint Venture is controlled by the CCP. This is why he never goes after the CCP,” Bannon said.

Bannon also said that Elon Musk did not tweet any more about investigating the origins of Covid or pushed the lab leak theory and nodded in agreement when Tim Pool referenced rumours that Elon Musk was urged by the Chinese government to delete tweets he made pushing China’s lab leak theory.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk later responded to Matt Gaetz’s tweet on Saturday and said: “I used to think Bannon was smart and evil, but now I realise I was wrong about the first part,” Musk said.

Bannon and Musk clashed earlier in 2018 after the former called the Tesla CEO a “man child”. “Can Steve Bannon please insult me some more? Best PR I’ve had in a while.” Musk had said at that time in response to Bannon’s comments.

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