Donald Trump’s favorite newspaper has slapped down Elon Musk in a pointed editorial—its latest shot at its top reader.
The New York Post editorial board dissed Musk Sunday in a scathing piece headlined “Sorry, Elon: Even deporting illegal gangbangers must heed the rule of law.”
It warned Musk that he is “way out of his lane” for demanding the impeachment of James Boasberg, the federal judge who tried to stop deportation flights of Venezuelans to El Salvador on Saturday—and came before Chief Justice John Roberts issued a brutal and exceptionally rare rebuke to Trump for making the same demand.
The Post, a right-leaning outlet that endorsed Trump in 2020 and 2024, is so close to his heart that a framed front page has been put up outside the Oval Office. But its owner, Rupert Murdoch, appears to have used both The Post and his other U.S. newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, to fire warning shots across Trump’s bows.
In the latest editorial, the board wrote that it fully supports Trump’s deportation flights, but said that Judge Boasberg had the right to review them. It called Musk’s total dismissal of the judge’s authority “plain silly” and even “reckless.”
Boasberg put a temporary hold on the deportation flights, which were used to remove suspected members of a Venezuelan gang called “Tren de Aragua” to El Salvador. Trump had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify the hasty expulsion, which gives the president authority during wars to detain or deport anyone belonging to an enemy nation.
It had only been invoked three times before: during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II, and is often known for its role in FDR’s internment of Japanese-Americans, for which subsequent presidents have apologized.
The Trump powers can be used in time of “declared war,” or when a foreign government threatens or carries out a “predatory incursion” or “invasion” against the U.S. In his order, he said that the Venezuelan gang is a “designated Foreign Terrorist Organization” with members who have “unlawfully infiltrated the United States” to conduct “warfare.”
Trump’s order triggered concerns that the invocation was unconstitutional—especially when there was no due process providing evidence that all deported Venezuelans had links to the Tren de Aragua gang.
Boasberg, an Obama-appointed D.C. judge, issued a 14-day-halt barring the administration from conducting deportations. Not long after, Republican Texas Rep. Brandon Gill announced that he was planning on filing an impeachment against Boasberg.
“Necessary,” Musk wrote on X in encouragement.
“It’s nothing of the kind,” refuted The Post Editorial Board. “And cheering it only makes Musk look reckless—a reputation he doesn’t need when many DOGE actions also face court challenge."
The Post acknowledged Boasberg’s concerns, writing that “the rule of law must hold.”
“The ‘war’ here is simply Trump’s presidential declaration that TdA is invading the country; challenging that in court is perfectly kosher, as is the judge ordering a pause on new flights until he can hear arguments in the case,” wrote The Post.
They added that the case seems destined for the Supreme Court, and seemed skeptical of the order themselves. “Can the feds simply declare anyone a TdA member before putting them on a plane off to an El Salvadoran prison?"
It isn’t the first time that Murdoch’s Post has published jabs at Musk. In February, they referenced a piece written by Jim Geraghty for National Review where he stated “it would probably be good to see Trump reject at least one of Musk’s proposed cuts, just to demonstrate he’s not a rubber stamp.”
Trump invited Murdoch, 94, to the Oval Office last month but was also revealed to have referred to him as a “piece of s---” when The Post mocked his decision to run for president for a third time.
Sunday’s op-ed came as historically left-leaning papers begin instead to shift right: most notably The Washington Post. Its opinion editor resigned in late February after the paper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, ordered the opinion section to embrace “personal liberties and free markets.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Musk for comment.
