Elon Musk is starting to wear down his welcome with congressional Republicans.
Within the Home, Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday shrugged off Musk’s try and intervene together with his price range plan. Within the Senate, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis pointedly urged that President Donald Trump’s appointees ought to stand as much as the billionaire’s whims, together with his current demand that each one federal employees justify their employment. And a rising variety of GOP lawmakers urged the tech mogul to indicate extra compassion for the civil servants he’s already culled.
“As we get extra Senate-confirmed management within the departments, I feel they should take the reins,” Tillis stated in response to a POLITICO reporter’s query on the Capitol.
“They’re nearer to it, they’re extra granular, they’ll perceive and be capable of actually implement thematically what they’re making an attempt to do with DOGE,” Tillis stated, “however to keep away from among the unintended outcomes that they’ve to return and reverse.”
In the meantime, some GOP members are calling on Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity to route its cuts via Congress in a course of often known as rescission. And even Republicans staunchly supportive of Musk’s mission to shrink the federal government are starting to acknowledge public pushback to the velocity and sweep of DOGE’s cuts.
Whereas Trump has given the world’s richest man huge energy to reshape the federal authorities, congressional Republicans are signaling there needs to be a restrict to his authority. That significantly comes into play when he begins meddling in GOP leaders’ already-complicated legislative agenda.
Musk has gotten concerned in difficult legislative fights earlier than. In December, days earlier than a government-shutdown deadline, he stoked conservative rage on-line a few broad bipartisan spending invoice. Along with Trump and JD Vance, Musk pressured Johnson to drag the invoice and scramble for a brand new answer — irritating senior Hill Republicans who felt the billionaire was encouraging Trump to demand the unimaginable.
And Musk has hinted he would possibly wade into spending negotiations once more forward of the following authorities funding deadline on March 14, saying in response to a submit on X {that a} shutdown “sounds nice.” Most Republicans are unwilling to overtly flirt with a shutdown, anxious they’d take the political blame.
Musk’s newest try and insert himself into congressional enterprise got here Monday, when he waded into Johnson’s high-stakes negotiations with holdouts on his price range plan for Trump’s border safety, power and tax insurance policies, replying “that sounds unhealthy” in response to an X submit from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) that stated Johnson’s price range framework would add to the deficit.
However the speaker advised POLITICO Tuesday morning that he had “no issues” that Musk’s meddling would have an effect on his whip rely. By Tuesday night time, the Home authorized the price range invoice, 217-215.
The rising pushback Musk is going through on Capitol Hill comes as courts, Cupboard secretaries and even the White Home try to put limits on his authority as Trump’s chief authorities cutter.
The White Home stated in courtroom papers earlier this month that Musk shouldn’t be DOGE’s chief, however reasonably a senior adviser to the president who has “no precise or formal authority to make authorities selections himself.” A number of Cupboard secretaries — primarily these whose businesses are concerned in nationwide intelligence — directed their workers not to reply to Musk’s mandate for federal employees to stipulate 5 issues they’d completed within the previous week or face firing. And federal judges have blocked Musk and DOGE from accessing Individuals’ non-public info at a number of businesses, together with the Treasury and Training departments.
Public opinion of Musk can also be souring. Polling exhibits Individuals now maintain destructive views of the X proprietor. Republican representatives have been hounded of their districts over Musk’s cuts and potential GOP reductions to Medicaid and different safety-net applications.
A consultant of DOGE didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
On Tuesday, Congress’ DOGE Caucus — lawmakers centered on chopping authorities spending via congressional actions — acknowledged the blowback whereas trying to distance their group from Musk’s division.
Chair Aaron Bean (R-Fla.) famous the “uncomfortability of some members of Congress and the American individuals” are displaying on the “velocity of which President Trump and Elon Musk are going. They’ve received the pedal to the metallic.”
However he additionally stood agency behind DOGE.
“I can let you know, it must be carried out,” Bean stated. “We have now to downsize our federal authorities.”
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
