Trump just threatened to turn DOGE on Elon Musk as their fight over the ‘big, beautiful bill’ escalates. Here’s the latest.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump are not done fighting over the president’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Musk started criticizing Trump’s spending bill on June 5 but walked back the attacks just days later. Musk said in an X post on June 11 that some of his remarks on Trump had gone “too far.”

But the argument is heating up again, with Trump suggesting the cost-cutting DOGE, which Musk previously led, would now be turned to focus on his companies.

Tesla stock fell almost 6% in early-hours trading Tuesday as the fight continued.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note that the feud was “a soap opera that remains an overhang on Tesla’s stock” as investors fear Trump taking a more hawkish line on Musk’s companies.

How the feud reignited

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO reignited his attacks on the bill over the weekend, and Trump hit back with his own post on Truth Social.

On Saturday, Musk wrote on X that the president’s signature tax bill “will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country.”

“Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future,” he continued.

GOP lawmakers hope to send the bill, which is pending a vote in the Senate, to Trump’s desk by Friday. Musk, however, said he would defeat politicians who voted for the bill if it passed and form his own political party.

“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 wrote in an X post on Monday.

“Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,” he said.

Musk said in a follow-up post, published just an hour later, that any politician who voted for the bill after campaigning on cutting government spending should “hang their head in shame.”

“And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” he added.

Musk said later that a new party, the “America Party,” would be formed the day after the “insane spending bill passes.”

“Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE,” Musk added.

Trump responded early Tuesday morning with a Truth Social post.

He said Musk knew Trump was “strongly against” the EV mandate, the Biden-era incentives to buy EVs that the president’s bill threatens to roll back.

“Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate,” he said.

Trump then suggested getting DOGE to take a “good, hard, look” at Musk’s companies.

“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 home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE,” he said.

Trump and Musk were close political allies until their bitter, public argument over the bill. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Less than an hour later, Musk wrote a series of X posts, doubling down on his opposition to the spending bill.

“Hitting the debt ceiling is the only thing that will actually force the government to cut waste and fraud,” Musk wrote. “That’s why the debt ceiling legislation exists!”

In another post minutes later, Musk added: “All I’m asking is that we don’t bankrupt America.”

He followed up with a question to lawmakers: “What’s the point of a debt ceiling if we keep raising it?”

At the White House on Tuesday morning, Trump told reporters Musk was “upset” at losing the EV mandate, adding, “he could lose a lot more than that, I can tell you right now.”

A reporter asked Trump if he would deport Musk. Trump replied, “I don’t know. We’ll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? The monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies.”

Musk then said on X, “So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now.”

Musk and the White House did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.