Steve Bannon Says Tech ‘Oligarchs’ Have ‘Surrendered’ To Trump

• Steve Bannon told ABC News that Trump “broke” the tech giants that have embraced him.
• “He broke them and they surrendered,” the former Trump White House aide said Sunday.
• Bannon has expressed skepticism about Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon said Sunday during an ABC News interview that the attendance of high-profile tech moguls at Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday signals their “official surrender” to the president-elect.

Speaking to reporter Jonathan Karl on “This Week,” Bannon said he was not surprised by the expected appearances by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at Trump’s inauguration.

“As soon as Zuckerberg said, ‘I’ve been invited. I’m going,’ the floodgates opened and they were all there knocking and trying to be supplicants,” Bannon told Karl. “I think most people in our movement look at this as President Trump crushed the oligarchs; he crushed them and they surrendered.”

Bannon then pointed to President Joe Biden’s farewell speech last week, when the outgoing president warned that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America,” expressing his view that extreme wealth and influence threatened the nation.

“When Biden talks about it … they only became oligarchs when they turned on him, when they surrendered, and they’re going to get to Trump’s stuff,” Bannon said.

The former Trump aide then compared the tech titans’ participation to Japan’s official surrender on the USS Missouri in September 1945, an event that marked the end of World War II.

“He’s like General Douglas MacArthur,” Bannon said of the president-elect. “It’s an official surrender, and I think that’s powerful.”

Bezos and Zuckerberg are set to be guests at Trump’s inauguration, and Musk — a political ally of Trump who has become a fixture in the president-elect’s political circle — will also be in attendance.

Amazon and Meta each donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. Other companies have also donated money as many business leaders seek to establish or strengthen ties to Trump ahead of his second term.

However, during the ABC interview, Bannon expressed skepticism about their recent warmth toward Trump.

“Zuckerberg’s, you know, road to Damascus came a little late. It was after the fifth of November,” Bannon told Karl. “It’s a lot you know I want to be a brother now. … I don’t mind it.”

“That guy will turn on President Trump and he’ll turn on us in a second when it’s convenient for him,” he added.

Earlier in January, Bannon called Musk a “really evil guy” after the tech mogul backed his support for H-1B visas. Many conservatives have argued against the visas, insisting that the skilled worker program harms American workers.

“I’m going to have Elon Musk run out of here before Inauguration Day,” Bannon said at the time.

Business Insider reached out to Amazon and Meta for comment.