The clash between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has apparently reignited in spectacular fashion, with the president threatening to cut off federal support to Musk’s businesses — and even suggesting he might seek to deport his onetime ally.
The latest round of former-bro hostilities was once again triggered by Musk’s opposition to the GOP’s sweeping “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” currently the focus of extended and tortuous debate in the U.S. Senate. Musk, who once led the White House’s short-lived Department of Government Efficiency, blasted the bill on X, calling it “the BIGGEST DEBT ceiling increase in history.”
“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame,” Musk wrote in a separate post. “And they will lose their primary next year if it’s the last thing I do on this Earth.”
The Congressional Budget Office projects that the legislation will add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.
Musk also renewed the idea of creating a new political party, supposedly to be called the “America Party,” threatening to launch it the day after the bill is passed.
Trump responded with a sweeping attack on Musk’s bottom line. “Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far,” Trump wrote on social media. “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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He continued: “Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!!”
Trump reiterated the warning later Tuesday, telling reporters, “We might have to put DOGE on Elon…. DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible?” In response to a reporter’s question, Trump also said he would “look into” deporting Musk. That would require revoking Musk’s U.S. citizenship through denaturalization, a process rarely used in recent decades that the Trump administration has said it may deploy against some citizens.
Over roughly the past two decades, Musk and his companies have received at least $38 billion in public funding from federal, state, and local governments, according to a Washington Post analysis from earlier this year. This includes contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits that have supported Tesla, SpaceX and other ventures. Nearly two-thirds of that funding has been awarded since 2019. Last year, Musk’s businesses secured at least $6.3 billion in government commitments, which the most the South African-born billionaire has received from governments in a single year.
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“An additional 52 ongoing contracts with seven government agencies — including NASA, the Defense Department and the General Services Administration — are on track to potentially pay Musk’s companies an additional $11.8 billion over the next few years,” according to the Post report.
The last back-and-forth between the president and the world’s wealthiest person earlier this year resulted in a historic drop in Musk’s net worth and a notable slide in Tesla’s stock. Musk later admitted to going “too far” in that exchange, which included allegations that Trump appeared in the so-called Epstein files. It is already well known that Trump was at one time friendly with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, as were many other prominent figures and celebrities.
