Congressional Republicans start backing away from Musk

Elon Musk is beginning to wear out his welcome with congressional Republicans.

In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday shrugged off Musk’s attempt to interfere with his budget plan. In the Senate, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis pointedly suggested that President Donald Trump’s appointees should stand up to the billionaire’s whims, including his recent demand that all federal workers justify their employment. And a growing number of GOP lawmakers urged the tech mogul to show more compassion for the civil servants he’s already culled.

“As we get more Senate-confirmed leadership in the departments, I think they have to take the reins,” Tillis said in response to a POLITICO reporter’s question at the Capitol.

“They’re closer to it, they’re more granular, they’ll understand and be able to really implement thematically what they’re trying to do with DOGE,” Tillis said, “but to avoid some of the unintended outcomes that they have to go back and reverse.”

Meanwhile, some GOP members are calling on Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to route its cuts through Congress in a process known as rescission. And even Republicans staunchly supportive of Musk’s mission to shrink the government are beginning to acknowledge public pushback to the speed and sweep of DOGE’s cuts.

While Trump has given the world’s richest man vast power to reshape the federal government, congressional Republicans are signaling there should be a limit to his authority. That particularly comes into play when he starts meddling in GOP leaders’ already-complicated legislative agenda.

Musk has gotten involved in complicated legislative fights before. In December, days before a government-shutdown deadline, he stoked conservative rage online about a broad bipartisan spending bill. Together with Trump and JD Vance, Musk forced Johnson to pull the bill and scramble for a new solution — irritating senior Hill Republicans who felt the billionaire was encouraging Trump to demand the impossible.

And Musk has hinted he might wade into spending negotiations again ahead of the next government funding deadline on March 14, saying in response to a post on X that a shutdown “sounds great.” Most Republicans are unwilling to openly flirt with a shutdown, worried they would take the political blame.

Musk’s latest attempt to insert himself into congressional business came Monday, when he waded into Johnson’s high-stakes negotiations with holdouts on his budget plan for Trump’s border security, energy and tax policies, replying “that sounds bad” in response to an X post from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) that said Johnson’s budget framework would add to the deficit.

But the speaker told POLITICO Tuesday morning that he had “no concerns” that Musk’s meddling would affect his whip count. By Tuesday night, the House approved the budget bill, 217-215.

The growing pushback Musk is facing on Capitol Hill comes as courts, Cabinet secretaries and even the White House attempt to place limits on his authority as Trump’s chief government cutter.

The White House said in court papers earlier this month that Musk is not DOGE’s leader, but rather a senior adviser to the president who has “no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.” Several Cabinet secretaries — primarily those whose agencies are involved in national intelligence — directed their employees not to respond to Musk’s mandate for federal workers to outline five things they had accomplished in the preceding week or face firing. And federal judges have blocked Musk and DOGE from accessing Americans’ private information at several agencies, including the Treasury and Education departments.

Public opinion of Musk is also souring. Polling shows Americans now hold negative views of the X owner. Republican representatives were hounded in their districts over Musk’s cuts and potential GOP reductions to Medicaid and other safety-net programs.

A representative of DOGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Tuesday, Congress’ DOGE Caucus — lawmakers focused on cutting government spending through congressional actions — acknowledged the blowback while attempting to distance their group from Musk’s department.

Chair Aaron Bean (R-Fla.) noted the “uncomfortability of some members of Congress and the American people” are showing at the “speed of which President Trump and Elon Musk are going. They’ve got the pedal to the metal.”

But he also stood firm behind DOGE.

“I can tell you, it has to be done,” Bean said. “We have to downsize our federal government.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

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