Trump threatens Musk (again)

In response to Elon Musk's criticism of his budget bill, US President Donald Trump said he was considering deporting the South African billionaire, once his close ally, as well as using DOGE against him.

In response to a reporter asking whether he would consider deporting Musk, who was born in South Africa and has held US citizenship since 2002, Trump said on Tuesday that he would "look into" this option.

"So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now," the tech mogul reacted on his social network X.

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, again criticized Trump's budget bill on Monday. Dubbed the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" by the American president, the financial megaproject narrowly passed the House of Representatives, and must now go through the Senate.

"It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!," Musk said via his X account.

If the text is adopted, Musk is threatening to create a new political party to challenge the Republicans who supported the bill. He also threatens to fund the campaigns of Republican candidates who oppose the party's current elected officials in the primaries.

"All I’m asking is that we don’t bankrupt America," he wrote Tuesday on X, accusing Republicans of supporting "debt slavery."

Trump replied that DOGE), which Musk headed before leaving the government at the end of May, could take a look at the public subsidies allocated to Musk's companies: "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," said the Republican billionaire US president.

According to Trump, the SpaceX and Tesla owner is attacking his budget bill because of the elimination of support measures for electric vehicles (EVs).