Donald Trump will “take a look” at whether the U.S. government should deport Elon Musk, the president told the media on Tuesday in what appeared to be a serious escalation in their ongoing feud.
When asked by a reporter whether he would deport his former “First Buddy”, Trump replied: “I don’t know. We’ll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.”
So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now.
Later Musk responded, saying he would hold off from commenting further. “So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting,” he posted, “but I will refrain for now.”
“Being on Trump’s bad side will not turn out well..and Musk knows this and Tesla investors want this back and forth to end,” Ives told clients on Tuesday, reiterating his “Outperform” rating and $500 price target.
The uneasy truce between former political allies Donald Trump and Elon Musk had already expired on Monday when the world’s wealthiest entrepreneur vowed to unseat the president’s Republican allies in the Senate, and the president pushed back.
On Monday, Musk said he would use all the means at his disposal to remove Republicans that campaigned on reducing government spending only to turn around and vote for a bill that includes a $5 trillion hike to the debt ceiling.
“They will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” he posted.
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!
And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.
Trump responded by suggesting DOGE could cut off Musk’s companies from federal contracts, before seeking to shore up support among Republicans with a warning that if they failed to pass the OBBB they would be responsible for costing their constituents hard-earned money.
Since the OBBB is unpopular across both Democrat and Republican constituents, the administration included the debt ceiling hike as leverage. Should Trump’s bill fail, Congress would risk leaving the federal government on the precipice of default when the Treasury is expected to run out of cash sometime in August.
Musk however warned the party he bankrolled in November with a quarter billion of his own personal wealth that it could see them wiped out come next year’s mid-term elections.
Musk then went on to donate demonstratively to Thomas Massie, the Kentucky congressman and arch-deficit hawk who has become Trump’s biggest rebel in the House GOP caucus.
Yet money may not be a match to Trump’s stranglehold on the party base. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced he would no longer seek re-election after little more than a threat from the president to campaign against him.
Trump’s sway over Republicans may be why Musk is increasingly finding appeal in the idea of a third party despite their track record of failure.
“If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,” he said on Monday.
While Trump has certainly been more scathing in his critique of others that impede his agenda, he injected a new undertone that obliquely questioned the patriotism of Musk.
Trump has never before suggested Musk wasn’t anything other than a patriotic American. Emphasizing the Tesla CEO’s country of birth so prominently as a potential place of refuge could be interpreted as a veiled suggestion that the naturalized citizen might be better off leaving.
This updates an earlier version with a response from Elon Musk.
