President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday to sic Elon Musk’s own Department of Government Efficiency against him, and would not rule out deporting the world’s wealthiest man. “DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,” the president told reporters outside the White House before departing to the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center in Florida.

The comments are the latest escalation of Trump’s feud with his one-time top political benefactor and demonstrate how serious a threat the administration considers Musk, who has spent the last few days railing against the president’s chief domestic priority.

Asked if he was considering deporting Musk to his native South Africa, Trump said “I don’t know, we’ll have to take a look.”

Musk, in a post to his social media site X shortly after Trump’s comments, said, “Physics sees through all lies perfectly.” He followed with another post claiming “the crux” of Trump’s so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill” is “Removal of funding for enforcement of federal contempt of court orders.”

“This is nominally aimed at removal of illegal immigrants, but obviously also enables many other abuses of power by the President,” added Musk, who as recently as March, when he was on good terms with Trump, had warned that “tyranny of the judiciary” was undermining democracy by blocking the president’s actions.

The head of X, Tesla and SpaceX on Monday threatened to use his immense wealth to start a new political party if the “One Big Beautiful Bill” secures congressional approval, and his persistence threatens to upend months of delicate negotiations in the House and Senate. He added that conservative lawmakers who support the bill “will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth” and said he “will” support Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), the bill’s staunchest Republican holdout.

As he was en route to Florida Tuesday morning, Trump called Massie “a very bad guy” and said anyone he endorsed would beat the congressman by 25 points.

In another Tuesday post, shortly before 1 a.m., Trump fired back at Musk, suggesting that DOGE, the sprawling cost-cutting program that had once given the billionaire unprecedented power over the federal government, should be used to look at the myriad government subsidies his companies receive.

“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,” Trump said.

“No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE,” the president added. “Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this?”

The post appeared to be in response to a post from Musk on Monday calling the GOP the “PORKY PIG PARTY” and floating “a new political party that actually cares about the people.”

Trump and Musk had a similar blowup last month, which quickly devolved into personal attacks. Musk, seeming contrite, then held his fire for a couple weeks — but as the legislation appeared on track in the Senate, he let loose again.

Musk has repeatedly slammed the bill because it would increase the federal deficit. Trump says the disagreement is over the bill’s slashing of an electric vehicle subsidy, which would undermine Tesla.

Trump reiterated Tuesday that Musk was angry about the cut EV subsidy — but added “Elon can lose a lot more than that, I can tell you right now.”

Musk in 2024 shattered fundraising records for the GOP, and before the blowup had reportedly vowed to give an additional $100 million to Trump’s political operation as the midterms approach.