Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said on Sunday that tech billionaires have “surrendered” to the president-elect ahead of his inauguration, which several Big Tech executives are expected to attend.
Following his electoral victory in November, Trump embraced support from the likes of X owner Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Trump even dined with each of them at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Bannon, however, remains skeptical of their supposed change of heart.
When asked by ABC News This Week anchor Jonathan Karl if he was surprised to learn about the three tech executives’ planned attendance at Trump’s inauguration, Bannon said he wasn’t surprised at all. “They’re there as supplicants. They’re not there as the oligarchs,” he replied.
Bannon referred to Joe Biden’s farewell address, in which the outgoing president warned the American people of the alleged influence that an “oligarchy” led by billionaires will wield over the incoming administration.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights, the freedoms and the fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said from the Oval Office on Wednesday.
In the Sunday morning interview, Bannon spoke about how Big Tech kicked Trump off their social media platforms after the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Facebook was one of the platforms that banned Trump.
“As soon as Zuckerberg said, ‘I’ve been invited and I’m going,’ the floodgates opened up, and they were all there knocking, trying to be supplicants,” Bannon told Karl.
“So, I look at this and I think most people in our movement look at this as President Trump broke the oligarchs. He broke them, and they surrendered. They can say, We’ll take off any constraints that we can, no more checking, everything,” the former White House chief strategist said, adding that the tech billionaires flipped on the Biden administration because it benefits them politically.
Among many policy changes, Zuckerberg announced earlier this month that Meta would end its third-party fact-checking program, responsible for much of the censorship that took place under the Biden administration. Instead, Meta will now use user-generated community notes similar to those that Musk’s X pioneered after the Tesla CEO acquired Twitter in 2022.
The longtime Trump ally doesn’t buy the tech executives’ newfound loyalty to Trump, specifically citing Zuckerberg’s rightward shift in recent weeks.
“Zuckerberg’s, you know, road to Damascus came a little late. It was after the fifth of November,” Bannon said of the election. “It’s very, you know, now wants to be a bro. He kung fu fights. He’s going to UFC. He’s got his hair done differently. He’s, he’s cut. That doesn’t hack it with me. That guy will flip on President Trump and he’ll flip on us in the second. When it’s convenient for him. He will flip.”
Furthermore, Bannon alleged that Zuckerberg is a “criminal” for interfering in the 2020 election by paying more than $400 million to influence elections across the nation, in what was dubbed “Zuckerbucks.” But the former Trump aide stopped short of saying he wants Trump’s Justice Department to prosecute Zuckerberg.
Notably, in his recent criticisms of the X owner, Bannon has pledged to run Musk out of Trump’s inner circle by Inauguration Day.
“He will not have full access to the White House, he will be like any other person,” Bannon told an Italian newspaper this month. “He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down.”
In addition to attending Monday’s inauguration, Zuckerberg and Bezos each donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. Meanwhile, Musk had contributed at least $277 million to back Trump and other Republican candidates prior to the election.