WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Less than a week after President Donald Trump held an Oval Office event to mark the end of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tenure as a “special government employee,” the relationship between the two men appeared to deteriorate as their feud played out on social media.
The same week, the Trump administration returned for the first time a wrongly deported man based on a judge’s order, and a federal judge ruled the government must grant migrants sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador the ability to challenge their deportations.
And the U.S. Supreme Court issued several significant rulings, including one impacting a Catholic nonprofit.
— Trump: Musk ‘lost his mind’
Musk’s tenure as a “special government employee” came to an end May 30, and shortly after, he began to criticize the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which would enact key provisions of Trump’s legislative agenda on tax and immigration policy, arguing it would raise the deficit.
But some of Trump’s allies said Musk’s objection was rooted in the bill’s cuts to the electric vehicle tax credit for companies such as Musk’s Tesla and the White House’s withdrawal of the nomination of Jared Isaacman, a Musk ally, to be NASA administrator, among other grievances.
On June 5, in a series of posts on his website X, Musk blasted Trump, arguing that his name “is in the Epstein files,” and “That is the real reason they have not been made public,” in reference to documents in the sex-trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, a multimillionaire who hanged himself in prison in 2019. Although Trump’s association with Epstein was previously known, he had reportedly cut ties prior to Epstein’s arrest.
Musk also suggested Trump should be impeached and Vice President JD Vance should replace him, a significant change in tone from someone who was once a major ally of the president.
Musk also argued Trump’s tariffs “will cause a recession in the second half of this year.”
In his own post, Trump said Musk’s tenure was not renewed because he was “wearing thin.” Musk called that a “lie.”
In a series of phone calls with reporters on June 6, Trump was asked by ABC News if he was interested in speaking with Musk.
“You mean the man who has lost his mind?” Trump told ABC, adding he was “not particularly” interested.
Trump similarly told CNN, “I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem,” which may have been a reference to a New York Times report about Musk’s drug use.
Vance issued a short statement on X backing Trump several hours later.
Musk, known to be the world’s richest billionaire, previously spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency, an unofficial task force with the stated intent of curbing federal spending. During Musk’s time at DOGE, that group effectively disbanded the now-shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development, which included cuts to partnerships with Catholic Relief Services and other faith-based entities around the globe that have partnered with USAID in their work abroad.
— Wrongly deported Guatemalan man returned to US
A wrongly deported Guatemalan man — identified in court filings as O.C.G. — was returned to the U.S., marking the first time the Trump administration has done so based on a judge’s order.
The man, who was deported to Mexico, was returned to the U.S. on June 4, his lawyer told ABC News.
The Trump administration, as part of its effort to implement its hardline immigration policies, has sought to limit the ability of judges to prevent those efforts and sought to argue that it can deport individuals to third countries, where they are not nationals, both subjects of ongoing legal disputes.
In May, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ordered the Trump administration to “take all immediate steps” to return O.C.G. after he was deported to Mexico, which is not his country of origin.
Murphy found that O.C.G. was not granted appropriate due process.
“No one has ever suggested that O.C.G. poses any sort of security threat.” Murphy said in his order. “In general, this case presents no special facts or legal circumstances, only the banal horror of a man being wrongfully loaded onto a bus and sent back to a country where he was allegedly just raped and kidnapped.”
— Judge says migrants deported to notorious El Salvador prison must be able to challenge deportation
U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg said June 4 that the individuals sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador must be given the opportunity to challenge their deportations.
In March, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II, granting himself broad authority under a wartime law to deport people allegedly associated with the Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua, prompting both legal challenges and concern from Catholic immigration advocates.
Boasberg found there is “significant evidence” that many of the migrants in question are not connected to the gang — nor have some even been convicted of a crime — “and thus languish in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations.”
In April, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to continue to deport migrants accused of gang membership using the wartime powers law for now, however, the high court also stressed that individuals subject to such deportations are entitled to judicial review.
— Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia returned to US, where he now faces criminal charges
ABC News reported that one of the men deported to the prison in El Salvador, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, was being returned to the U.S. where he will face charges for allegedly transporting unauthorized migrants within the U.S.
The Trump administration admitted in court documents it mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia from Maryland, but previously refused to facilitate his return, arguing he was in the MS-13 gang, although he had never faced such charges prior to his deportation.
Abrego Garcia was the subject of a 2019 court order barring his deportation to El Salvador due to fear of persecution in his country of origin.
— Supreme Court releases six opinions, including one impacting Catholic charity
As the Supreme Court neared the end of its current term, it issued a handful of rulings on cases including issues such as guns and discrimination.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of a straight woman who twice lost positions to gay workers, saying an appeals court erred in requiring her to meet a higher evidentiary standard in seeking to prove workplace discrimination because she was a member of a majority group. The ruling rejected the concept of “reverse discrimination,” with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson writing for the court that laws governing workplace discrimination do “not vary based on whether or not the plaintiff is a member of a majority group.”
The Supreme Court also rejected a lawsuit from the Mexican government against U.S. firearms manufacturers, which had accused them of aiding and abetting gun and cartel violence in the country.
“Mexico’s complaint does not plausibly allege that the defendant manufacturers aided and abetted gun dealers’ unlawful sales of firearms to Mexican traffickers,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court. “We have little doubt that, as the complaint asserts, some such sales take place — and that the manufacturers know they do,” she added. “But still, Mexico has not adequately pleaded what it needs to.”
In one significant ruling, the high court unanimously ruled in favor of the Catholic Charities Bureau of the Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin, which had asked the high court to overturn a decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court the agency argued discounted its religious identity.
— Trump marks D-Day
In a statement marking the June 6, 1944, invasion of Nazi-occupied France by Allied forces, Trump said, “On the 81st anniversary of D-day, we pause to pay homage to the warfighters whose indescribable valor, fierce determination, and unwavering patriotism delivered this pivotal victory for the global cause of freedom.”
“The monumental victory forged on land, at sea, and in the skies of Normandy led to the liberation of Europe, the defeat of the evil Nazi regime, and the preservation of democracy,” he said. “We are grateful for those young men who answered their nations’ calls and faced the carnage of war in order to defeat tyranny — and we are eternally indebted to the souls who gave their lives in this noble struggle. It is our solemn obligation to remember their heroic stories, honor their sacrifices, and ensure that the freedom for which they died for may never again be in peril.”
The previous day, in a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump quipped D-Day was “not a great day” for Germany.
“Well, in the long run, Mr. President, this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship,” Merz replied.
“That’s true,” Trump said.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
