Wait, did that actually happen? It sounds like a fever dream from a political thriller, but in the summer of 2025, the headlines were screaming it: Trump wants to deport Elon Musk.
Honestly, the relationship between these two has been a total roller coaster. One minute they’re BFFs launching the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and the next, they’re trading insults that would make a middle schooler blush. If you’ve been following the news, you know that by early 2026, things have cooled down quite a bit. They even had a "lovely dinner" at Mar-a-Lago recently. But that July 2025 blowup? That was something else.
It wasn't just a Twitter spat. It was a full-blown institutional crisis that had investors shaking and legal experts scratching their heads.
The Moment the "Bromance" Died
It all started with a bill. Not just any bill—the "Big Beautiful Bill," a massive tax and spending package that Trump was pushing through Congress.
Elon Musk, who had spent the first half of 2025 as a "special government employee" trying to slash federal spending, suddenly turned on the administration. He called the bill a "disgusting abomination" and "insane spending." He even nicknamed the GOP the "Porky Pig Party."
Trump, never one to take criticism lying down, hit back on Truth Social. He claimed Musk was only mad because the bill was killing the electric vehicle (EV) mandate. Then came the line that stopped everyone in their tracks. Trump suggested that without government subsidies, Musk would have to "close up shop and head back home to South Africa."
When reporters caught up with Trump on July 1, 2025, they asked him point-blank: "Would you look at deporting Elon Musk?"
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Trump’s response? "I don’t know. We’ll have to take a look."
He didn't say yes. He didn't say no. He said the most Trump thing possible: he’d "take a look." He even joked that DOGE—the very department Musk helped create—was a "monster" that might have to "go back and eat Elon."
Can You Even Deport a Naturalized Citizen?
This is where things get kind of murky and, frankly, a bit scary for anyone who wasn't born in the U.S.
Elon Musk is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He took his oath in 2002 in Los Angeles. Under normal circumstances, you can't just "deport" a citizen. It’s not like losing a library card. To kick a citizen out, the government has to go through denaturalization.
- Fraud: They have to prove you lied on your citizenship application.
- Refusal to Testify: If you refuse to testify before Congress about subversive activities within ten years of becoming a citizen (not applicable to Elon).
- Membership in Subversive Groups: Like being part of Al-Qaeda or a Nazi party within five years of naturalization.
None of this really applies to Musk. But that didn't stop people like Steve Bannon from jumping on the bandwagon. Bannon was on his "War Room" podcast calling Musk "illegal" and telling Trump to seize SpaceX using the Defense Production Act.
It was wild. It was chaotic. And it was mostly political theater designed to keep Musk in line.
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Why the Feud Actually Started
If you look past the "deportation" clickbait, the fight was really about two things: money and ego.
- The EV Mandate: Trump’s bill was set to eliminate the consumer credits for electric vehicles. For Tesla, that’s a big deal. Even though Musk has said Tesla doesn't need subsidies, the market disagreeed. Tesla stock took a massive 4% dive the morning after Trump's comments.
- The Federal Budget: Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy were promised they could cut $2 trillion from the budget. By May 2025, they’d only found a fraction of that, and Congress was already moving on to a bill that added $5 trillion to the debt. Musk felt ignored. Trump felt upstaged.
It was a classic "two kings in one castle" scenario. Musk had become too powerful, and Trump needed to remind him who was actually in charge of the executive branch.
The 2026 Update: Are They Friends Again?
Fast forward to right now, January 2026. The "Trump wants to deport Elon Musk" era seems like a distant, weird memory.
Just a few days ago, Musk posted a photo of himself, the President, and the First Lady at Mar-a-Lago. He said 2026 is going to be "amazing." It looks like the "bromance" is back on, or at least they’ve reached a professional truce.
Why the change of heart?
- Mutual Need: Trump needs Musk’s tech (like Starlink for the Iran situation) and his massive platform on X.
- The Midterms: 2026 is an election year. Trump needs Musk’s donors and his influence over the "tech-bro" demographic.
- The Settlement: While the EV mandates are gone, Tesla seems to be pivoting toward AI and robotics, areas where the administration is giving them plenty of "approval," as Trump puts it.
What This Means for You
If you’re an investor or just someone who follows the news, there are a few big takeaways from this whole saga.
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Don’t take "deportation" talk literally. When a politician says they will "take a look" at something as legally complex as deporting a billionaire citizen, it’s usually a loyalty test. It’s a way to signal to the base and rattle the person being targeted.
Watch the subsidies. The real power struggle isn't in the words; it's in the contracts. SpaceX and Tesla rely on billions in federal money. When Trump threatens to "cut government contracts," that’s the real threat to Musk’s empire, not a plane ticket back to Pretoria.
Egos are the biggest market risk. The fact that Tesla’s valuation can swing by $150 billion because of a personal feud between two men is a huge red flag for stability. If you're holding Tesla stock, you're not just betting on battery tech—you're betting on Elon Musk’s ability to stay on Trump's good side.
Keep an eye on the legal precedents. Even if Musk is safe, the talk of denaturalization for political critics (like what was suggested for Zohran Mamdani) is a shift in how the government views citizenship. It’s worth watching if any of these "threats" actually turn into policy in the coming year.
The "Trump wants to deport Elon Musk" story was a masterclass in modern political warfare. It used the most extreme possible outcome—deportation—to solve a much smaller problem: a disagreement over a tax bill. For now, the "monster" of DOGE has been put back in its cage, and the two most powerful men in the country are back to sharing dinner. But in this administration, "lovely dinners" can turn into "take a look at deportation" in the time it takes to send a single post on X.
To stay ahead of the next market-moving feud, keep a close watch on the official White House press releases regarding SpaceX federal contracts and any upcoming changes to the H-1B or naturalization audits mentioned by the Department of Justice.