Will Trump deport Musk? He says 'will have to take a look'

US President Donald Trump has threatened to deport billionaire Elon Musk to South Africa as the feud between the two has renewed.

In recent days, after a period of uneasy truce, Musk has fired salvos at Trump over the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’. He has criticised the bill over trillions of dollars that it would add to the fiscal deficit. He has said he would launch a new political party and oust all lawmakers supporting the bill.

After threatening to cut subsidies to Musk’s businesses, Trump on Tuesday threatened to deport him in an interaction with the media.

When asked whether he would deport Musk, Trump replied, “We’ll have to take a look.”

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Reporter: Are you going to deport Elon Musk?

Trump: 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. pic.twitter.com/6I0OAIv7Js

— Acyn (@Acyn) July 1, 2025

Trump went on to repeat the threat of cutting subsidies.

“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,” said Trump.

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Can Trump deport Musk?

As Musk is a US citizen, Trump cannot deport him unless he revokes his citizenship.

The US government has powers to revoke a person’s citizenship. In Elon’s case, who became a US citizen by naturalisation in 2002, he could theoretically be deported after being stripped of citizenship in a process that is called ‘denaturalisation’.

Other than naturalised citizens, the US government cannot revoke a person’s citizenship.

Previously, Washington Post has reported that Musk ran a business in 1995 while he was in the United States on a student visa. Moreover, he never enrolled in the Stanford University as a condition of his visa. In 1997, Musk acquired a green card on the back of the business and then citizenship by naturalisation in 2002.

Theoretically, if it is established that Musk was running the business in 1995 illegally, his green card and subsequent citizenship could be under question and might form the basis of his deportation.