diff --git a/cpp/CMakeLists.txt b/cpp/CMakeLists.txt
index a76b3e21558..fb308036b4e 100644
--- a/cpp/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cpp/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ project(tensorrt_llm LANGUAGES CXX)
 option(BUILD_PYT "Build in PyTorch TorchScript class mode" ON)
 option(BUILD_TESTS "Build Google tests" ON)
 option(BUILD_BENCHMARKS "Build benchmarks" ON)
+option(BUILD_DEEP_EP "Build the Deep EP module" ON)
 option(BUILD_MICRO_BENCHMARKS "Build C++ micro benchmarks" OFF)
 option(NVTX_DISABLE "Disable all NVTX features" ON)
 option(WARNING_IS_ERROR "Treat all warnings as errors" OFF)
diff --git a/cpp/tensorrt_llm/deep_ep/CMakeLists.txt b/cpp/tensorrt_llm/deep_ep/CMakeLists.txt
index a404013aad3..6c9ac33be7d 100644
--- a/cpp/tensorrt_llm/deep_ep/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cpp/tensorrt_llm/deep_ep/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -36,6 +36,9 @@ if(NOT DEEP_EP_CUDA_ARCHITECTURES)
   return()
 endif()
 
+# Ensure that dependent libraries are installed
+find_library(MLX5_lib NAMES mlx5 REQUIRED)
+
 # Prepare files
 # =============
 
diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile.multi b/docker/Dockerfile.multi
index 19b58c24939..95aa670a090 100644
--- a/docker/Dockerfile.multi
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile.multi
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ RUN mkdir -p /root/.cache/pip /root/.cache/ccache
 ENV CCACHE_DIR=/root/.cache/ccache
 # Build the TRT-LLM wheel
 ARG GITHUB_MIRROR=""
-ARG BUILD_WHEEL_ARGS="--clean --python_bindings --benchmarks"
+ARG BUILD_WHEEL_ARGS="--clean --benchmarks"
 RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/pip --mount=type=cache,target=${CCACHE_DIR} \
     GITHUB_MIRROR=$GITHUB_MIRROR python3 scripts/build_wheel.py ${BUILD_WHEEL_ARGS}
 
diff --git a/scripts/build_wheel.py b/scripts/build_wheel.py
index 2724b8489b9..3fdaa93febb 100755
--- a/scripts/build_wheel.py
+++ b/scripts/build_wheel.py
@@ -298,7 +298,6 @@ def main(*,
          install: bool = False,
          skip_building_wheel: bool = False,
          linking_install_binary: bool = False,
-         python_bindings: bool = True,
          binding_type: str = "pybind",
          benchmarks: bool = False,
          micro_benchmarks: bool = False,
@@ -860,11 +859,6 @@ def add_arguments(parser: ArgumentParser):
         "--linking_install_binary",
         action="store_true",
         help="Install the built binary by symbolic linking instead of copying.")
-    parser.add_argument(
-        "--python_bindings",
-        "-p",
-        action="store_true",
-        help="(deprecated) Build the python bindings for the C++ runtime.")
     parser.add_argument("--binding_type",
                         choices=["pybind", "nanobind"],
                         default="pybind",