One co-host on “The View” came to a surprising conclusion Wednesday about Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, namely that she prefers Steve Bannon, former chief strategist to President Donald Trump, to the billionaire tech mogul.
Earlier this week, Bannon called the South African DOGE head a “parasitic illegal immigrant.” The claim was motivated by a Washington Post report from October that alleged Musk started working in the U.S. illegally, which he has since denied.
“The View” co-host Sara Haines argued Wednesday that Musk — who is currently dismantling federal agencies in a purported effort to slash public spending he deems wasteful — isn’t the savior many Republicans think he is.
“I hate to say it, but I agree with Steve Bannon on this one, purely because they’re cutting all these programs,” Haines told her fellow co-hosts Wednesday. “They’re saying they’re going to cut the fat, and before they ever went in, they said, ‘We want to get $1 trillion out.’”
Musk actually claimed DOGE would find $2 trillion in wasteful spending before reneging.
“That’s a businessman’s approach to a government,” Haines added. “This is the public sector, not the private sector. You don’t come in with numbers. You come in, you learn, you become an expert at what everyone is doing, what their role is, who is essential.”
Haines argued that only then can you “say it’s realistic” to fire a specific number of people.
Joy Behar ultimately couldn’t help herself and, after processing her colleague’s perspective on the matter, joked, “Wow, that sounds like a lefty to me.”
Haines doubled down on the issue and slammed Trump for giving Musk such a long leash.
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“Trump ran on helping the people that voted him in, and what he’s doing is he’s in there now, and he’s breaking in the corporate greed area — which is, ‘I’m going to give tax breaks to people that can afford it more than anyone else,’” she said Wednesday.
Trump made Musk a special government employee after taking office and has already fired thousands of federal workers. Bannon, in an interview with UnHerd, argued Musk wants to “play-act as God” — and will damage the U.S. culturally and economically.
“Steve Bannon says it is going to hurt for all of us,” Haines said Wednesday in his defense. “We all got into this together. You need to give the breaks to the lower and the middle class, stop slashing and helping the top. They don’t need more.”