WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump raised eyebrows Tuesday by suggesting that he could have the Department of Government Efficiency look into Elon Musk, and entertaining a question about deporting the high-profile businessman.

“DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,” the president said outside the White House on Tuesday as he prepared to depart for “Alligator Alcatraz,” a new immigration detention center in Florida.

Asked by a reporter if he would consider deporting Musk to South Africa, his home country, the president responded: “I don’t know, we’ll have to take a look.”

Late Monday night, the president criticized Musk on Truth Social, slamming his erstwhile ally and former head of DOGE for his opposition to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

Musk, who went so far as to publicly suggest last month that the president had unsavory ties to Jeffrey Epstein and was repressing the release of the Epstein Files to protect himself, said later that he regretted his avalanche of attacks on the president and that some of them “went too far.”

(Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate,” Trump wrote on TruthSocial. “It is ridiculous, and was always a major part of my campaign. Electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one.”

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

Trump’s comments came as Musk called for the formation of a new political party on Monday, called the “America Party.” Musk, who has been very vocal in opposing the president’s reconciliation bill, suggested that he would back challengers to almost “every” Republican in Congress.

“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame,” Musk said in an X post, adding, “And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”

“If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,” Musk said in another “X” post on Monday. “Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.”

The DOJ cracks down on “sanctuary city” Los Angeles, Trump continues his feud with Jerome Powell, and Harvard and Democrats try to slow Trump’s budget bill as the clock ticks down on the president’s self-imposed July 4 deadline.

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L.A. On ICE

Topline: The Trump administration has sued the city of Los Angeles over its “sanctuary” status.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Monday against L.A., arguing that its “sanctuary city” policies violate the U.S. Constitution. Local law enforcement in L.A. is prohibited from directly enforcing federal immigration law or collaborating with ICE on immigration enforcement actions. The DOJ argues that L.A. is discriminating against the federal government, specifically treating immigration officers differently than other law enforcement officials. The suit says L.A.’s sanctuary policies are “invalid” and should be blocked.

In a statement, Attorney General Pam Bondi blamed these sanctuary policies for the recent anti-ICE riots, which she said were the “driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles.” She added that jurisdictions like L.A. “that flout federal law by prioritizing illegal aliens over American citizens are undermining law enforcement at every level.” The DOJ has also targeted other sanctuary city policies, including in New York.

The Trump administration has consistently made detaining and deporting illegal aliens one of its main policy priorities. Recently, dozens of workplace raids have been carried out across the nation, in states like California, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, and many others. It appears that illegals with and without criminal backgrounds – aside from illegally entering the U.S. – have been picked up. Daily immigration arrests have also skyrocketed. In June, ICE has averaged around 1,200 daily arrests, with some days surpassing 2,000 – nearly double the daily average during Trump’s first 100 days, though still short of the administration’s target of 3,000 per day.

There are currently 59,000 immigrant detainees in federal custody – officials say that number is the highest in U.S. history, and these facilities are reportedly well over capacity. Additional funds for immigration enforcement and facilities are included in the Big, Beautiful Bill, currently making its way through Congress.

Meanwhile, as reported by The Daily Wire, Customs and Border Protection raided a Los Angeles residence that it says was being used to harbor Iranian illegal aliens with ties to terrorists. On Friday, two unidentified individuals were arrested, and that followed a previous raid at the same home that resulted in the arrest of seven Iranian nationals, some of whom are on the FBI terror watch list and associated with an Iranian human smuggling network.

And DHS Secretary Kristi Noem will end Temporary Protected Status, known as TPS, for up to 500,000 Haitians on September 2. DHS said in a press release that this decision “restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary.” A spokesperson added that the “environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.”

Trump Hammers Harvard, Pummels Powell

Topline: Trump continues his assault on Jerome Powell and Harvard, targeting both the Fed chairman and the Ivy League institution.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt opened Monday’s White House press briefing by showing the White House Press Corps a scathing letter that President Trump sent to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, which included a handwritten note from the president in which Trump urges Powell to lower interest rates by “a lot.”

“Jerome. you are as usual TOO LATE! You have cost the USA a fortune and continue to do so. You should lower the rate by a lot. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being lost, and there is low inflation.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration informed Harvard that it found the university in “violent violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,” which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin, through its treatment of Jewish and Israeli students. If Harvard fails to take action immediately to “institute adequate changes,” the university could lose all federal funding.

“[A] majority of jewish students experienced negative bias, felt physically unsafe, assaulted and spit on, concealed kippahs for fear of being harassed, and concealed identities from classmates for fear of ostracization,” Leavitt told reporters. “These are all facts that Harvard cannot dispute and that’s why the admin has found them in violation of Title VI and threatened to withhold their funding, because if you break federal law, you are not entitled to federal tax dollars.”

Dems Drag Big, Beautiful Bill

Topline: Democrats are pulling out all the stops to thwart President Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda, which is slowly pushing its way through the two chambers despite some Republicans joining the opposition.

The Senate held a so-called vote-a-rama stretching past 21 hours as of early Tuesday morning, with Democrats forcing votes on amendments to the bill as a way of stalling – but also forcing Republicans to go on the record regarding topics like Medicaid funding and tax cuts for the wealthy, two issues on which Democrats believe Republicans are out of touch.

A few months ago, the idea of passing such a contentious piece of legislation through Congress seemed unlikely, given Republicans’ slim majority in both chambers and the competing interests within the party. Typically, in these situations, the president would push for their agenda to be broken up into smaller pieces and voted on piecemeal, but Trump has been adamant from the start that everything be included in one bill. 

Polling shows that the Big, Beautiful Bill is not all that popular with Americans — Pew has it with a net favorable rating of minus 20, Fox has it at minus 21, and Quinnipiac has it at minus 26. The White House says it is confident that once it passes and folks see the extra money in their paychecks, they’ll quickly change their tune.