Elon Musk Breaks Silence After Steve Bannon Calls Him A “Phony”

Twitter CEO Elon Musk took a jab at rightwing podcaster Steve Bannon after the former Trump strategist called Musk “a total and complete phony” who is owned “by the Chinese Communist Party, and he acts like it.”

Bannon claimed Musk “never goes after the CCP” who is “in bed” with the CCP.

WATCH:

“@ElonMusk is a total and complete phony. He is owned – lock, stock, and barrel – by the Chinese Communist Party, and he acts like it.”

–Steve Bannon on @Timcast IRL

Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/UhwKPvBUSu

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 11, 2023

Musk responded to Bannon’s comments by calling him “evil.”

“I used to think Bannon was smart & evil, but now I realize I was wrong about the first part,” the tech billionaire said on Twitter.

I used to think Bannon was smart & evil, but now I realize I was wrong about the first part

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2023

In late February, a news outlet owned by the Chinese Communist Party warned Musk to stop sharing and supporting the Wuhan lab leak theory after he authored tweets promoting the theory, Trending Politics reported previously:

The state-owned Global Times wrote that Musk was “breaking the pot of China,” which is a phrase similar to “biting the hand that feeds you.” The CCP-owned outlet went on to note that Musk’s Tesla has an “expansive factory campus in Shanghai, and China is the electric vehicle manufacturer’s second largest market.”

The media publication suggested Musk’s tweets supportive of the lab leak theory were slanderous and hostile to China. The outlet explained they were warning Musk about his China-related tweets and attacked him for potentially hurting investment into the country.

“This warning comes as Chinese officials, both on a high level as well as on a lower level of the government are really to pulling out all the stops and try to attract U.S. investment into China. The directive has come all the way from the top, President Xi Jinping, who has been saying that there should be greater effort to attract more and welcome more foreign capital as well as more foreign investment.”

Musk made headlines after he accused Anthony Fauci, the former Chief Medical Advisor to President Biden, of funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab. Musk alleged Fauci funded gain-of-function “via a pass-through organization (EcoHealth).”

The Twitter and Tesla CEO sarcastically acted surprised when responding to a tweet that reported the U.S. Energy Department’s Wuhan lab theory. “What!? No way,” he wrote.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1629913571151822849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1629913571151822849%7Ctwgr%5E5e1a2e2fd28703f0e2d47c04bdff309156f901cc%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftrendingpoliticsnews.com%2Fchina-warns-elon-musk-to-stop-supporting-wuhan-leak-story-paub%2F