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Donald Trump has suggested the US government should examine any subsidies handed out to Elon Musk’s business empire, claiming that “big money” could be saved.
In a post on his Truth Social platform early on Tuesday, Trump said: “Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and, without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back to South Africa.”
The exchange deepens a rift between the two men over the US president’s signature tax and spending bill.
As the Senate pressed ahead with a marathon voting session on the bill on Tuesday, Musk renewed his attacks on legislation that he said would lead to “the biggest debt increase in history”.
In a series of posts on his social media platform X, Musk also repeated his threat to form a new political party, as “an alternate to the Democrat-Republican uniparty”.
The bitter public feud, which began after Musk left the administration in May, marks a spectacular unravelling of the previously close ties between the two that were forged as the billionaire helped bankroll Trump’s return to the White House.
Trump then installed Musk, who runs Tesla and SpaceX, as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), and gave him the job of finding trillions of dollars of savings across government.
In Tuesday’s post, Trump said: “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!!!”.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House later on Tuesday, Trump took another shot at his former political ally, saying: “Doge is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.”
Tesla’s shares fell more than 6 per cent in early trading in New York following Trump’s post. Destiny Tech 100, a publicly traded investment group with more than half its portfolio in SpaceX, was down 5.8 per cent.
The Financial Times reported in February that Musk’s six businesses profit from about $20bn in government contracts — which the billionaire has previously insisted were all won on merit and have provided value for money.
Tesla has received more than $2.8bn in state and federal subsidies, while SpaceX has become the de facto operator of the US space programme, winning billions of dollars’ worth of government contracts.
Responding to Trump’s suggestion that Doge looks at government subsidies for his business empire, Musk posted on his own social media platform X: “I am literally saying CUT IT ALL. Now.”
As their relationship collapsed last month, Musk called for Trump to be impeached, suggested his trade tariffs would cause a US recession, threatened to decommission SpaceX capsules used to transport Nasa astronauts and insinuated the president was associated with the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
But in a post on X a few days later, Musk said he “regretted” some of his attacks, which he said “went too far”.
