Bannon’s praising of Musk is a reversal of his past feelings on the billionaire. He called him a “parasitic illegal immigrant” in an interview just last week.

“Scott Bessent today said Elon’s group in the first 30 days found $55 billion of waste, fraud, and abuse,” said Bannon, President Donald Trump’s chief White House strategist during the first several months of his first term. “$55 billion, that’s going to add up to six, seven, $800 billion. In one month, they’ve done that.”

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Musk is the founder of DOGE, which has recently claimed $55 billion in cuts.

Bannon spoke directly after Musk at CPAC and lightheartedly referred to him in his opening statement.

“You bring out the world’s wealthiest guy, Superman, I’m supposed to follow it,” he said. “I’m just a crazy Irishman.”

Those words are a far cry from his prior rhetoric on Musk.

Bannon called Musk a “truly evil person” before Trump’s 2025 inauguration and previously vowed to keep him out of the White House. He’s called Musk “an armor-piercing shell that’s delivering blunt force trauma against the administrative state” for Trump.

His ire toward Musk appears to emanate from Musk’s relatively late entry into the MAGA movement. Bannon was a major influence on Trump’s winning 2016 campaign, while Musk has mostly come around to Trump within the past year, especially after the July 2024 assassination attempt against the president’s life.

Musk hasn’t refrained from jabbing back at Bannon. In a post on X on Feb. 6, Musk said Bannon “is a great talker, but not a great doer. What did he get done this week? Nothing.”

Bannon, who once denounced Musk’s presence with Trump, has acknowledged that he’s “everywhere.”

“Elon’s everywhere, right? It’s great. He’s everywhere,” he remarked on Thursday.

Bannon didn’t offer much direct praise of the tech magnate, though he spoke positively about his work and DOGE.

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He also said history wouldn’t remember himself or Musk but rather Trump and his MAGA movement.

“When they record the history of this age, you ain’t gonna remember me or Elon Musk or Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity; they’re gonna remember two things: Donald Trump and MAGA,” he said.