Could Elon Musk Tear Maga Apart?

Elon Musk appears to be going out of his way to oppose prominent MAGA figures, but experts suggest this could be beneficial to the movement in the long term as the tech billionaire tries to influence President Donald Trump’s second term.

Newsweek Reached the White House and X, the social media platform owned by Musk, formerly known as Twitter, for comment via email.

There have been concerns about how much influence Musk has over Trump and within the administration. He apparently played a key role in Trump loyalist Vivek Ramaswamy stepping down from leading the Department of Government Efficiency, according to to Politico.

But any fallout between Musk and figures of the Maga movement risks straining his relationship with the president.

“Elon Musk is a contrarian by nature,” said political strategist Denny Salas Newsweek. “He will oppose a person’s position to force them to make a convincing argument for their position. Will it run off the Maga ethos? Sure, but it will ensure that President Trump receives the best information. “

‘Trump expects competing votes’

This was never more clear than when Trump is sitting with musk over the H1-B visa debate.

In late December, Musk had expressed support for H-1B visas that allow skilled foreign workers to work in the U.S. Musk, whose companies have benefited from the H-1B visa program, faces criticism from Maga- figures, including Bannon and the far right. Activist Laura Loomer, known for her hard line on immigration.

In a post on X, Loomer accused tech leaders like Musk of “throwing money at MAR A Lago trying to buy influence in the White House so they can set tech policy, limit regulation of China, and control our immigration policy.”

“The reason I’m in America with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B … I will go to war on this issue as you impossible can Understand, “Musk had responded to critics.

Trump would eventually tell New York Post In late December, he “always liked” H1-B visas.

“President Donald Trump expects competitive voices in his administration to receive the best possible results,” Salas said.

Loomer has since accused Musk of “sinister retaliatory censorship”, saying he censored her X account.

“I represent a lot of people at Maga and break a lot of important stories,” she wrote in a Jan. 22 post on X. “It is outrageous and un-American that a Trump administration official is deliberately trying to harm my livelihood by cutting off my subscriptions and shadow-banning my account.

‘Out of control’

But Loomer’s feud with Musk isn’t what has raised the most eyebrows within the Maga movement this week. His criticism of Trump’s backing of a multi-trillion dollar artificial intelligence investment did.

Musk drew the ire of historic Maga figure Steve Bannon after he criticized the $500 billion joint venture between Openai, Oracle and Softbank to improve the artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States, which was announced, not to mention supported by Trump on Wednesday.

Writing on X, Musk said the companies lacked the funds to complete such a project, saying “SoftBank has well under $10b secured.”

In an interview, Bannon, a former Trump White House chief strategist, criticized Musk for publicly opposing the Trump-endorsed AI initiative.

“I’ve never seen actions like this in my life. I’ve never seen anyone in any other aspect of government who has been deputized by the president himself come in and openly criticize him,” he told Politico.

Bannon also told reporters Wednesday that Musk was “out of control” for speaking out against the president.

“I think someone who’s actually a friend of Elon Musk needs an intervention because I think he’s going to be Icarus,” conservative radio host Erick Erickson said in a Wednesday broadcast . “Icarus flew so high and so close to the sun, the wax started melting, the feathers started falling off, and he fell to the ground and died. Donald Trump doesn’t like, Musk) that way.

‘Calculating but not diabolical’

For Republican communications specialist TJ McCormack, this represents the usual ebb and flow of power struggles at the top, especially with someone as disruptive as Musk leading the Department of Government Efficiency.

“Will there be skirmishes along the way? Absolutely, but such is life among generals. During World War II, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery and MacArthur fought famously within their ranks, with one or two temporarily sidelined by their boss, Eisenhower. Ultimately , despite all this, the Allies won big,” McCormack recounted Newsweek.

“While Elon Musk is certainly a weak being, he is not wild,” he added. “He’s calculating, but not diabolical. Musk doesn’t destroy his marketplace, which at his level is the whole damn planet—if not the universe. Musk lives off the ambition that characterizes Maga.”