'A total and complete phony': Steve Bannon torches Elon Musk for being 'owned by the Chinese Communist Party'

Steve Bannon offered a blistering opinion of Elon Musk describing the billionaire businessman as a “complete phony” who is bound to the restraints of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Bannon's remarks came on Friday, March 10 during Tim Pool’s podcast where he was asked about the Twitter CEO's tweet suggesting he'd “open to the idea” of a Silicon Valley Bank acquisition. The tweet came as the bank made history by suffering from the second-largest financial institution failure in American history.

Bannon, the former White House advisor under the Trump administration, attempted to downplay the possibility of the acquisition.

READ MORE: Watch: Twice-convicted felon Steve Bannon accuses President Joe Biden of 'selling out this country'

"He’s owned by the Chinese Communist Party. What are you talking about? Tesla, the only thing of real value is Tesla. He uses it for margin loans. He sells the stock," Bannon said.

He added, "The Shanghai joint venture is a hundred percent controlled by the CCP. This is why he never goes after the CCP. This is why he always backs off. This is when they had the protest, they had the protest about the lockdowns of Covid. He will not do it."

According to Bannon, Musk is inauthentic.

"Elon Musk is a total and complete phony. He is in bed and his business partner–he’s done some good stuff… It’s fine," he said. "But, he is owned lock, stock, and barrel by the Chinese Communist Party, and he acts like it."

READ MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene tells Steve Bannon she plans to impeach Joe Biden over renewable energy

Pool went on to lay out the CCP's warning about Musk refraining from publicly speaking about theories on the origin of COVID-19; a topic Bannon also weighed in on.

“A hundred percent,” Bannon replied. “They wanted him to take down the tweets he did the first time. Now, he didn’t take them down, but you notice he didn’t have any more up there after that.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Steve Bannon slams 'oligarch' Murdoch and Fox News in CPAC speech for cutting Trump's 'newsworthy' speech