The feud between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk has reignited, centered on a proposed federal tax and budget package that Trump strongly supports and Musk strongly opposes. In a post on Truth Social, Trump floated the idea that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) should consider slashing federal subsidies to Musk’s businesses.
Musk led the agency for the first few months of Trump’s second term.
“Without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” Trump wrote Monday, June 30. “No more rocket launches, satellites, or electric car production, and our country would save a fortune. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good hard look at this? Big money to be saved.”
On Tuesday, July 1, ABC News reported that Trump told reporters his administration would “have to take a look at” deporting Musk, a naturalized citizen and native of South Africa.
Musk responds: ‘Cut it all. Now.’
Trump has repeatedly implied that Musk opposes the budget package because it could reduce subsidies that benefit Tesla and his other companies. Musk, however, maintains he is concerned that the package would balloon the government’s debt ceiling by $5 trillion.
On X, Musk suggested he does not care about the potential loss of government subsidies.
“I am literally saying cut it all,” he wrote. “Now.”
According to public interest watchdog Good Jobs First, Tesla has received nearly $3 billion in government subsidies since 2007. The company ranks 16th among all businesses in terms of financial benefit from government programs. Musk’s SpaceX and Starlink are not ranked in the top 100.
Feud tied to Trump’s budget plan
Between the election and Trump’s inauguration, Musk mostly stayed at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and he described himself as the “first buddy.” Shortly after Musk stepped away from his work with DOGE, however, he entered into a public feud with Trump, once even suggesting that the president was implicated in a sex-trafficking investigation of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Musk later said he regretted some of his comments about Trump, but in recent days, he resumed his criticism of the budget proposal. Now, their disagreement has once again publicly spilled out across social media platforms.
