Steve Bannon Outraged at Elon Musk's Reported Twitter CEO Pick

Steve Bannon was quick to criticize Twitter owner Elon Musk for his reported CEO pick, a woman who works as the executive chair of the World Economic Forum.

On Thursday, Musk used the social media platform to announce that a new CEO would take in roughly six weeks, at which time he would transition into an executive chair and CTO position. The news—which failed to mention the new CEO's name but mentioned her gender—quickly evoked a positive reaction from many Twitter users. Musk in December promised to abide by the results of a poll asking Twitter users if he should step down as CEO, of which more than 57 percent said he should.

Thursday's announcement also led to a quick rise in Tesla's stock, after investors voiced concerns that Musk was distracted by Twitter to properly manage his other business ventures.

However, when the new CEO was rumored to be Linda Yaccarino, the executive chair of an organization ripe with conspiracy theories, people were quick to protest the change, including Bannon, who worked as top strategist during part of Donald Trump's presidency.

"This is a joke—Davos Globalist working now for one of America's most left wing families," Bannon posted on conservative social media platform Gettr on Thursday night.

Newsweek reached out to Bannon through an online contact form for comment.

The World Economic Forum, which takes place annually in Davos, Switzerland, unites the world's top business and political leaders to discuss global issues and learn leadership and management practices.

Bannon previously slammed Musk for his ties to China and has often made negative remarks related to Musk's tumultuous ownership of Twitter. Prior to Musk's ownership, many conservative users like Trump, Alex Jones and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's personal accounts were banned for expressing their views. Conservatives also suggested that Twitter suppressed information related to Hunter Biden's laptop prior to the 2020 election.

Upon taking ownership of Twitter, Musk reinstated many of the banned accounts and also released a collection of internal documents revealing communications between Twitter leadership called the Twitter Files, which conservatives applauded.

However, Musk's pick of Yaccarino as the new CEO seemed to be the final straw for many right-wing Twitter users, who suggested that Trump's Truth Social would see an uptick in users once Yaccarino started her position.

"In light of the new Twitter CEO being a member of the World Economic Forum...I just created a Truth Social Account...I suggest you do the same," self-proclaimed conspiracy theorist Liz Churchill tweeted on Thursday.

"So Twitter's new CEO is Executive Chair at the World Economic Forum.... This is a step in the complete wrong direction. Truth Social is 100% the future," Twitter user Wall Street Apes tweeted.

"Did Musk just kill #Twitter?" another user asked in a tweet accompanied by a screenshot of Yaccarino's bio. "Truth Social is looking good!"

Others speculated that once Yaccarino begins her position with Twitter, banning conservative users would resume.

"We're all getting banned again," YouTuber Jackson Hinkle tweeted.

Luke Rudkowski tweeted, "and here come the shadow bans....again....." to which Musk responded, "That will not be the case."

Newsweek reached out to Twitter by email for comment.