A fiery dispute between Elon Musk and President Trump that had been fading out whirled back to life on Tuesday.
The two men reignited their conflict over the Republican policy bill, which about a month ago tore up their political alliance. On Tuesday morning, after days of posts from Mr. Musk on X in which he voiced his displeasure with the bill, Mr. Trump ratcheted up his own rhetoric, at one point suggesting that he could be interested in deporting Mr. Musk, a U.S. citizen who was born in South Africa.
The resumption of hostilities was something of a surprise after Mr. Musk phoned Mr. Trump in mid-June and posted a message apologizing for some of his online attacks.
On the South Lawn of the White House on Tuesday, the president told a reporter who asked if he would deport Mr. Musk: “I don’t know. We’ll have to take a look.”
“DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible?” he said, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency, which Mr. Musk formed. Mr. Trump then repeated his claim that Mr. Musk was only opposing his signature policy bill because it would cut back on subsidies for electric vehicles like those made by Tesla, which Mr. Musk runs.
Earlier on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said there was “BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED” if DOGE took a close look at the subsidies received by Mr. Musk’s companies.
Mr. Trump has threatened to go after those subsidies before, but not for several weeks, as he has generally wandered to other things. Mr. Musk’s posts in recent days — including several on Monday in which he called for a new political party and primaries against congressional Republicans — seem to have gotten his attention.
Theodore Schleifer is a Times reporter covering billionaires and their impact on the world.
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