-Donald Trump has not even taken office yet, and the MAGA movement has broken out into a civil war, with Elon Musk threatening to go to war against his MAGA critics and Steve Bannon calling Musk evil. For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look. " [ Cheers and applause ] We know very little about what Trump's second term will be like, given that he has no fixed principles or core beliefs or coherent ideas or constructive solutions or plans or proposals or policies or values or thoughts of any kind.
He watches TV and then he scream-posts about what he just saw on TV. He's basically an intellectual Roomba. He goes in one direction until he bumps into something, and then he just goes off into another direction.
The only way we'll ever get a healthcare plan from Trump is if someone sneaks in and switches his TV from Fox News to "Grey's Anatomy. " [ Laughter ] But one thing -- one thing we do know for sure is that there will be a lot of fighting, because MAGA loves to fight. Democrats lecture each other.
Republicans fight each other. Remember all the drama when Kevin McCarthy became Speaker and that one Republican congressman had to be restrained by the face because he was lunging at a colleague? Which congressman, you ask?
I don't know, because I can't see his whole face. I don't even think that's legal in MMA. That's the same move you use on a horse to give him medicine.
"Whoa. Whoa, whoa, there, Cornflower. Whoa, Cornflower!
Just hold still and eat the paste. It cures COVID. " There was fighting almost immediately after Trump won the election when Republicans rebelled against his first pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz.
Then they started sniping about how annoying co-president Elon Musk was. They broke out in a knife fight over cabinet appointments and had public blowups over leaks to the press. They nearly shut down the government during a fight over spending, after which they almost toppled their own Speaker, Mike Johnson.
But then they all calmed down and got on the same page and put their differences aside for the good of the country. And I'm just kidding. They're at each other's throats.
-The political civil war already threatening to tear apart Trump's grip on the Republican Party. It's one that pits Elon Musk against Steve Bannon. -It started with a Christmas Day post by Musk on his X platform saying that the United States needs to quickly let in more foreign workers, specifically highly educated engineers, to work for American tech companies.
Musk hit back on his pro-Trump critics with a series of profanity-laced posts, saying. . .
That outburst prompted Steve Bannon to hit back at Musk, saying. . .
-Quote. . .
-You know, I'm really trying my best to find joy wherever I can amidst the darkness of a Trump presidency. So let me just say, I'm really [bleep] enjoying this. I mean, Elon Musk and Steve Bannon fighting finally answers the question, is there anything Republicans won't blame on wokeness?
Because the woke's hands are clean on this one. Elon Musk talks about the woke mind virus, and Steve Bannon is so un-woke, his clothes always look like he's still sleeping. This is just fun.
Elon Musk thought he could buy his way into MAGA with his billions of dollars, but now that Trump won, Bannon and his ilk can basically say, "Shut up, nerd. Also, go buy a bigger T-shirt. Your belly's showing when you do your little [bleep] hops.
" Elon Musk is learning a lesson sports fans already know. Just because you're loyal to a team doesn't mean a team will be loyal to you. "But I bought the hat.
" Nobody cares, bro. This all started at the end of last year, when Elon Musk and fellow tech bro Vivek Ramaswamy defended using what are known as H-1B visas to bring in foreign workers at tech companies, which sparked backlash among hard-line immigration opponents. -This feud has quickly evolved into a referendum on American workers.
Elon Musk claiming America needs more highly skilled immigrants to win, saying, "If you force the world's best talents to play for the other side, America will lose. End of story. " Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk's cohort in their Department of Government Efficiency, coming to Musk's defense and posting on X.
. . Adding.
. . -A culture that venerates Zach and Slater over Screech?
Time-out. [ Laughter ] Does Vivek Ramaswamy think Donald Trump is Team Screech? Does Vivek Ramaswamy think for one second, if given a choice between Steve Urkel and Stefan Urquelle, Donald Trump doesn't Urquelle it 100 times out of 100?
Also, Vivek clearly never saw "Boy Meets World" or he would know that the most beloved character on that show was Topanga, who beat Minkus for valedictorian and got into Yale but only decided to go to Pennbrook so she could be with Cory, over the advice of Mr Feeny, who told her to go to Yale and was obviously -- Feeny was right. I mean, she worked her whole life to get into the school of her dreams, only to prioritize the needs of a boy over her own ambitions. Although ultimately it worked out because she did become a successful lawyer on "Girl Meets World," even though I feel like she probably regrets not going to Yale.
Oh [bleep] I've lost my mind. [Bleep] I went on a "Boy Meets World" rant in the middle of "A Closer Look" because I have lost my mind. My parents were right.
I should have gone outside more. Time-in. The point is, those tweets drove Bannon and the hard-line MAGA right out of their minds.
And now Bannon is going all out against Musk. -This is central to how they gutted the middle class in this country. And we haven't fought these battles over years and years and years to allow American citizens of every race, ethnicity, religion be gutted by the sociopathic overlords in Silicon Valley.
We're not doing that. We're not doing that. We're not having rule by nerds.
Oh, yeah, tough guy? You're going to go to war on the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend. You're a man-child, to be blunt.
Screw you, you clown. Don't come up and go to the pulpit in your first week here and start lecturing people about the way things are going to be. If you're going to do that, we're going to get and we're going to rip your face off.
-"That's right. We're going to rip your face off. Then I'm going to rip my own face off.
Then we're going to switch faces, then I'm going to take over your life. And it's going to be exactly like the movie 'Face/Off,' and I'll be John Travolta, and you'll be Nicolas Cage saying, 'You gotta believe me. I'm Elon Musk.
'" And, yeah, I'm stealing Andy Samberg's Nic Cage impression, but only because I don't have a Travolta. "Look at my new face. It's so weird.
" See? It's like, not -- It's nothing. [ Laughter ] Hey-oh-oh.
[ Shudders ] Also, I just want to point this out. Those were three separate clips from three consecutive shows. And in every clip, Bannon's wearing the exact same thing.
[ Laughter ] You think this guy's gonna change his mind on immigration? He doesn't even change his clothes. But to me, the funniest part of all of this is that Trump is just caught in the middle between the MAGA diehards who form his base and the rich oligarchs who helped get him elected.
And he doesn't even really know what the hell they're talking about. He's taken every single side of this issue while also making it clear he has no idea what he's talking about. -I'm in favor of people coming into this country legally, and you know what?
They can have it any way you want. You can call it visas. You can call it work permits.
You can call it anything you want. As far as the visas are concerned, if we need people, it's fine. I'm changing.
I'm changing. We need highly skilled people in this country. And if we can't do it, we'll get them in.
But -- But -- And we do need in Silicon Valley. We absolutely have to have. I know the H-1B very well, and it's something that I, frankly, use and I shouldn't be allowed to use.
We shouldn't have it. Very, very bad for workers. I know the H-1B.
I know the H-2B. Nobody knows it better than me. -[ As Trump ] I know H-1B.
I know H-2B. I know B2B. I know to be or not to be.
And that really is, frankly, the question in many ways. Whether 'tis nobler -- Nobody says "'tis" anymore. Nobody says "'tis.
" It's sad we don't say "'tis. " Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows. And I've suffered maybe more than any president when it comes to the slings and the arrows.
People say Lincoln. But he was bullet, and I. .
. I remember a playwright came up to me once, big playwright, British playwright, tears running down his face and onto his big white collar. And he said to me, he said, "Sir, they make you suffer, sir.
And 'tis -- 'tis a shame. " [ Laughter ] [ Normal voice ] Also, it is incredible to hear Trump, of all people, a man with absolutely no skills, insist that we need highly skilled work-- I don't even know if he could name one of the skills he's referring to. [ As Trump ] We need highly skilled immigrants who can do computer, who can do calculator, and, of course, who can do dribbling.
Let's not forget, the B in H-1B stands for basketball. [ Normal voice ] Trump was all over the place in that montage. He really is turning into a Roomba.
-I'm in favor of people coming into this country legally, and you know what? They can have it any way you want. We shouldn't have it.
Very, very bad for workers. I'm changing. I'm changing.
We need highly skilled people in this country. [ Cheers and applause ] -Yeah. And you don't even -- They pulled that together in the last hour.
This is what happens when an oligarch tries to buy their way into a reactionary movement for their own self-interest. We're watching a volatile mix of power-hungry billionaires and true believers. It's like watching someone jump into the leopard cage at the zoo.
You can try to befriend the leopards all you want, but eventually those leopards are gonna. . .
-Rip your face off. This has been "A Closer Look.
