'Sabotage': Far-right Trump ally goes to war with Elon Musk over 'Big Tech' influence
Tech billionaire Elon Musk contributed enormous amounts of money to getting Donald Trump elected, and is now heading up his "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) task force to recommend spending cuts. He has become so prominent that Democrats have begun calling him "President Musk."
But at least one longtime close ally of Trump is enraged about the influence Musk has.
"Is DOGE real? Or is it a vanity project? Can we have this conversation without people crying?" Laura Loomer posted to X. "Is DOGE a way to 'cut spending' or REDIRECT the spending toward the pet projects of tech bro billionaires? It’s looking like the latter TBH. 'Hey let’s convince the peasants that we are saving them money as we enrich ourselves! Then when they find out and speak out, we will have the Indian Mods Ban them!'"
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Loomer, a self-professed "Proud Islamophobe" who has pushed white nationalist and 9/11 conspiracy theories and made multiple failed runs for Congress in Florida, has often been at Trump's side at key functions, despite other members of his circle often begging him to distance himself from her, including by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has blasted her as "extremely racist" and engaged in a mutual public feud with her.
Ironically, it was under Musk's takeover of Twitter and conversion of it into X that Loomer was given her account back, after she had been banned for years over hate speech.
Loomer's distrust for Musk, which she has made clear for weeks, appears to come from the fact that the tech industry supports visas for high-skilled white collar workers, with particular racial resentment in the MAGA sphere flaring up recently over Indian tech workers.
She made this clear when she posted a screenshot of an article about Apple settling a lawsuit accusing them of disfavoring domestic workers: "This is why the tech billionaires are lining up outside the gates of Mar a Lago with their checkbooks. They want to buy influence so they can sabotage Trump’s immigration policies. We have to put our foot down and let them know MAGA is anti-Big Tech."
She also tagged Musk himself in a rant accusing him of being insufficiently committed to the anti-immigrant cause — including a dig at the fact that Musk previously supported the candidacy of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president before joining Team Trump.
"If you’re so anti-DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion], why are you so opposed to training white American men to work in tech?" wrote Loomer. "Isn’t that the solution? Also, if you’re so invested in AI, tell me…what are we going to do with the millions of Indian immigrant programmers who are unemployed and living in our country once the AI revolution replaces human jobs? I notice you and your buddy from the DeSantis kick off @DavidSacks don’t have a solution for that contradiction."