Trump Just Handed Steve Bannon a Big Weapon in His War With Elon Musk

The battle could put other MAGA leaders in a tough spot. The New York Times reports that top Trump adviser Stephen Miller recently told tech oligarch Mark Zuckerberg that he’d better get on board with the Trump agenda, and that Zuckerberg meekly agreed. However, although die-hard nativist Miller opposes H-1B visas, the Times reports that he’s refraining from talking Trump out of supporting them. If Bannon picks up this banner, it could make Miller’s position look awkward—or, dare we say it, positively “globalist” and even cuck-ish.

The bottom line is that the Bannon-Musk battle represents a genuine, deep tension inside the MAGA coalition. Though Musk pushes anti-immigrant social media memes to excite MAGA incels, he and many tech executives really seem to believe dynamic, entrepreneurial outside talent benefits the country—along with their bottom lines, of course.

Many opponents of H-1B visas also operate from a genuinely held worldview. In their reading, they allow globalist corporate oligarchs to hire foreign workers more cheaply, which, critically, relieves society (or the state) of any obligation to better equip Americans to fill such rewarding roles. Bannon recently argued that anger over that national failing helped fuel the rise of Trump.