The Daily Populous Thursday January 2nd, 2025 morning edition
Authored by independent.co.uk and submitted by feed_meknowledge

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Donald Trump’s one-time White House strategist Steve Bannon warned Elon Musk Tuesday that he and other MAGA diehards are going to “rip your face off” unless Musk smartens up and stops pushing visas for skilled foreign workers to take good-paying tech industry jobs away from Americans.

He instructed Musk to “sit back and study” to understand MAGA’s - and what supporters believed was Trump’s - America First stance to keep U.S. jobs for Americans.

“They’re recent converts,” Bannon said Tuesday on his War Room podcast, referring to Musk and other tech-world Trump supporters.

“We love converts,” Bannon noted. “But the converts sit in the back and study for years and years and years to make sure you understand the faith and you understand the nuances of the faith and understand how you can internalize the faith.”

Don’t “come up and go to the pulpit in your first week here and start lecturing people about the way things are going to be,” Bannon added. “If you’re going to do that, we’re going to rip your face off.”

Bannon called for a “100% moratorium on all immigration until we get this thing sorted.”

Bannon the previous day demanded “reparations” from Musk and other tech leaders for cutting Americans out of jobs. The visa issue is “central to the way they gutted the middle class in this country,” he complained.

Donald Trump’s one-time strategist Steve Bannon throws down with tech billionaire Elon Musk over H-1B visas ( Getty/AFP )

Musk was a Johnny-come-lately to politics before he forked over at least $250 million to help Trump get elected. Both he and tech entrepreneur (and Trump’s former rival for GOP presidential nomination) Vivek Ramaswamy have now been tasked by the president-elect with carving up the federal government to save money in their new DOGE operation.

Musk and Ramaswamy have suddenly strongly spoken up in recent days on behalf of protecting special H-1B visas for skilled foreigners to fill high-level tech jobs, including in Musk’s businesses because American simply aren’t up to the task. The South African-born Musk last week endorsed a post on X that referred to American workers as “re***ed,” which is widely regarded as an ugly slur (Musk has since deleted his support for the attack post).

Ramaswamy has also complained that Americans are not up to snuff when it comes to competing with brainy foreigners. He blamed the dumbed-down culture of the U.S.

Trump has backed Musk on the many “great” foreign workers in the country on H-1B visas, surprising many of the MAGA supporters who voted for him.

Musk doesn’t appear to be budging, even though he has, out of character, suddenly called for a more “positive” and “beautiful” social media conversation. He made the appeal two days after he told H-1B opponents in a diatribe on X: “F*** yourself in the face.” Bannon came back with a different idea for Musk’s face.

RedditRage on January 1st, 2025 at 23:10 UTC »

> “We love converts,” Bannon noted. “But the converts sit in the back and study for years and years and years to make sure you understand the faith and you understand the nuances of the faith and understand how you can internalize the faith.”

> Don’t “come up and go to the pulpit in your first week here and start lecturing people about the way things are going to be,” Bannon added. “If you’re going to do that, we’re going to rip your face off.”

converts... study... the faith... pulpit... lecturing... rip your face off...

definitely not a cult.

RAMacDonald901 on January 1st, 2025 at 21:42 UTC »

Elon is the shiny new toy for trump, and Bannon has lost his sheen.

ThisNameDoesntCount on January 1st, 2025 at 21:41 UTC »

Does bannon know he has no power or…