The feud between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk is still boiling on the front-burner — with Trump saying he will “take a look” at whether the U.S. will deport the South African-born tech billionaire.
Trump and Musk were one-time close political allies before they had a major rift over the Trump-backed congressional spending bill, which Musk called “a disgusting abomination.” Musk has continued to slam Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” as “utterly insane” by adding trillions to the U.S. national debt, raising the debt ceiling by a staggering $5 trillion, and rolling back subsidies for clean energy while introducing a new incentive for coal production.
On Tuesday, the president was asked by a reporter on the White House grounds whether Trump would “deport” Musk. Trump said, “I don’t know. We’ll have to take a look.” Musk holds citizenship in the U.S., Canada and South Africa (where he was born).
Trump also launched into a criticism of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the cost-cutting division unpopular among Americans that Musk led before he exited the administration in late May.
“We may have to put DOGE on Elon,” Trump commented. “You know what DOGE is? DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies.”
Responding to Trump’s remarks about deportation and DOGE, Musk wrote on X, “So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now.”
In a post Tuesday at 12:44 a.m. ET, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE.”
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Trump added in the post, “Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”
On Tuesday, Musk wrote about Trump’s spending bill, “Removal of funding for enforcement of federal contempt of court orders is the actual crux of this spending bill. This is nominally aimed at removal of illegal immigrants, but obviously also enables many other abuses of power by the President.”
Musk, who is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, had donated about $275 million to his 2024 election campaign. Musk headed DOGE for the Trump administration before he exited as a “special government employee” in late May. About Musk’s criticism of the spending bill, Trump alleged that Musk was unhappy because the bill removed incentives for electric vehicles, which would benefit Tesla. The feud escalated and Musk claimed in a post on X (which he has since deleted) that Trump “is in the Epstein files,” which he asserted “is the real reason they haven’t been made public.”
Trump on Tuesday reiterated his claim that Musk was “very upset” that the spending bill cuts EV incentives. “Not everyone wants an electric car!” the president told reporters.
From Variety US