Donald Trump has made several comments about the possibility of sending Elon Musk back to his native country amid their reignited feud over the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but would he be welcome?

Musk, the world’s richest man, was born in South Africa but has previously said he “considers himself to be an American” and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2002.

Last year, he became one of the most prominent supporters of Trump’s presidential campaign, spending at least $250 million to support his bid, and ended up being made the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

But the pair have since had a dramatic and public fallout – namely over Musk’s criticism of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a major tax and spending package that passed the Senate with Vice President JD Vance‘s tiebreaking vote. It now heads back to the House.

This week, Trump has said Musk would have to “close up shop and head back home to South Africa” if he halted government subsidies to his companies, and then later added that his administration would “have to take a look” at deporting Musk.

The billionaire has a fractured relationship with his birth country’s government, over longstanding issues with their race relations laws and the recent political firestorm over America accepting groups of Afrikaans people as refugees.

Newsweek has broken down how likely Musk returning to South Africa might be and spoken to South Africans about whether he would be welcome back. But first, a recap on what exactly Trump has said and how Musk has responded.

What Has Trump Said About Sending Musk Back To South Africa?

On Monday, Trump criticized Musk over the subsidies his companies have received on Truth Social, saying: “Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate. 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,” Trump continued. “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!!!”

Musk responded to this on X, when he replied to Dalton Brewer, a Tesla owner in Minnesota, in the post, saying: “Just plain wrong. So disappointing.”

On Tuesday, while Trump was speaking to reporters outside the White House, a reporter asked if he was “going to deport Elon Musk.” Trump answered: “I don’t know, we’ll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon…DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon, wouldn’t that be terrible?”

Would Elon Musk Be Welcome Back in South Africa?

“South Africa is a divided society so not everyone feels the same way about Elon Musk,” said politics professor Sally Matthews, who specializes in African Politics at Rhodes University in South Africa.

“But in general, he is not popular here,” she told Newsweek.

Indeed, when 50,000 South Africans were polled by PoliticsVideoChannel, between September 2024 and January 14 this year, they said Musk was the worst thing to come out of South Africa, ahead of apartheid, corruption and inequality.

South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation declined to comment when Newsweek asked whether Musk would be welcome back.

Mayibuye Melisizwe Mandela, a member of the growing opposition party the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), told Newsweek: “This is South Africa and we no longer accept racists or people who see themselves as superior to others because of the pigmentation of their skin. That era is over. We don’t care how rich you are. As long as you are racist, you are not welcome here.”

Mandela, the great-grandson of Nelson Mandela, previously spoke out against Trump, Musk and the Afrikaans refugee system to Newsweek.

Ernst van Zyl, spokesperson for the Afrikaans civil rights group Afriforum, said: “Musk’s proven skills and innovation capacity are very needed in South Africa.”

“However, he would certainly clash with the South African government over their strict racially discriminatory policies,” he told Newsweek, “threats to private property rights like the Expropriation Act, and failure to take action against violent chants like ‘Kill the Boer.'”

Katia Beeden, a campaigner for “persecuted minority South Africans,” and the former spokesperson for Amerikaners, a group that supports “disenfranchised South Africans seeking a new future in the United States,” said: “I 100 percent believe that Elon Musk’s rhetoric resonates with the majority of white South Africans living here.”

“Elon Musk was born here, his father still lives here,” she told Newsweek. “So he has deep ties to the country.

“Many of us in South Africa feel overlooked and ignored and we’ve been suffering in silence for years and we’ve been too scared to keep speak up because if we do speak up we’re just called racists,” she added.

Matthews said that she believes it is “extremely unlikely” that Musk would be deported and doubted that Musk would even choose to return to South Africa in that instance.

She pointed to a landmark ruling in May this year, when South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled that it is unlawful to strip South Africans of their citizenship just because they have acquired citizenship in a new country.

“So, it is likely that Musk could return here if he wanted to, but I doubt he will,” Matthews said.

Newsweek has contacted the White House, Tesla and SpaceX via email for comment.