US President Donald Trump says DOGE should take a look at how government subsidies are benefiting billionaire Elon Musk, as the spat between the pair grows.
The president posted the proposal on Truth Social, in an apparent rebuttal of Mr Musk’s support for an electric car mandate.
Saying he was “strongly against” the mandate, Mr Trump added that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO “without subsidies” would be forced “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,” Mr Trump wrote.
A black eye and online barbs: How the Musk-Trump relationship turned ugly
“Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”
The allusion to DOGE, Mr Musk’s former government agency, suggests a widening fight between the president and his former supporter.
In response to Mr Trump’s post, Mr Musk, on his own social media platform, X, said: “I am literally saying CUT IT ALL. Now.”
His comments follow on from Mr Musk’s weekend rebuke of Mr Trump’s sprawling tax and spending cuts bill.
The bill, which was procedurally advanced by Senate Republicans on Sunday, is believed to be the catalyst for Mr Musk’s ruptured relationship with Mr Trump.
Days after he left the federal government last month with a laudatory celebration in the Oval Office, Mr Musk blasted the bill as “pork-filled” and a “disgusting abomination”.
On Sunday, hours before the bill passed the Senate, Mr Musk reiterated that the latest draft would “destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country”.
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On Monday, he ramped up his criticism, saying politicians who had campaigned on cutting spending but backed the bill “should hang their heads in shame!”
“And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” Mr Musk said, also calling for a new political party.
He had poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Mr Trump’s campaign in 2024.
In the days after his White House departure, Mr Musk suggested without evidence that Mr Trump, who spent the first part of the year as one of his closest allies, was mentioned in files related to sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr Musk ultimately tried to make nice with the administration, saying he regretted some of his posts that “went too far”.
Mr Trump responded in kind in an interview with The New York Post, saying: “Things like that happen. I don’t blame him for anything.”