The President of the United States of America (USA), Donald Trump, said he would consider deporting entrepreneur Elon Musk in response to a question about the former ally who became a critic of his flagship tax and spending legislation, Bloomberg reported.
“I don’t know,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday (1st), when asked if he would deport the South African-born American citizen, before adding, “we’ll have to look into it.”
The President’s comments are the latest salvo in a renewed dispute between Trump and the world’s richest person, who has intensified his criticism of a Republican tax bill that accelerates the phase-out of a consumer credit for the purchase of electric vehicles. Elon Musk is the CEO of electric car maker Tesla, whose shares fell more than 4% in pre-market trading.
Trump linked Musk’s opposition to the bill to the removal of subsidies from which his various business ventures benefit. On Tuesday, the president took to social media threatening to withdraw subsidies from the billionaire’s companies, a warning he reiterated to reporters.
“Musk is losing his obligation to produce electric vehicles,” Trump stressed, adding, “Elon could lose much more than that.” Regulations regarding electric vehicles generally refer to a set of fuel economy standards and exhaust pollution limits that effectively require car manufacturers to sell an increasing number of such vehicles.
The U.S. government has taken steps to roll back these policies, which are not affected by the ongoing Senate measure. However, the tax and spending legislation would end the tax credit for individual electric vehicle purchases, which helped boost sales of these cars.
The entrepreneur harshly criticized the Republican legislation, calling it a “crazy spending bill” and threatened to help create a third political party in the U.S. However, he denied that his opposition is based on preserving government subsidies for his companies. Musk supported Trump in the 2024 elections and later served as head of the Government Efficiency Department (DOGE), which worked to reduce the federal workforce and government responsibilities before resigning at the end of May this year. The two had a public dispute over Musk’s criticism of the tax law, exchanging insults on social media.
Although the feud appeared to have cooled, the billionaire has posted repeated attacks on the Republican legislation in recent days, reigniting the rivalry between them.
“Maybe we have to put the DOGE on Elon,” Trump said about the federal cost-cutting effort, adding, “DOGE is the monster that might have to come back and devour Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible?”
Source: DE
