WASHINGTON — An unelected billionaire is running roughshod over the federal government with the support of President Donald Trump, and it’s causing heartburn among some key Republicans.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters Thursday her office has been inundated with callers concerned about Musk’s forays into sensitive payment systems and confused about the terms of the mass resignations he’s sought from federal workers.
Murkowski said about 50 protesters even showed up at her office in Anchorage on Wednesday. She noted that lots of federal workers call Alaska home.
“People were super respectful, and just wanted to be heard about some of their concerns,” Murkowski said. “So we’ve been fielding them the best we can.”
Without naming Elon Musk — the world’s richest man, a major government contractor, Trump’s top donor in the 2024 election and the head of the Department of Government Efficiency — the Alaska Republican delivered the most pointed GOP criticism of DOGE yet in a social media post on Wednesday.
“Efficiency in government should be a goal for every administration, agency, and federal employee. But how we achieve it also matters,” Murkowski wrote. “By circumventing proper channels and procedures, and creating the potential to compromise the sensitive data of Americans, we create a tremendous amount of unnecessary anxiety. That is wrong. Good governance is based on trust, not fear.”
DOGE has so far moved to nuke the U.S. Agency for International Development, killing programs around the world helping children and the sick. It’s also seized control of key payment systems at the Treasury Department and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Judges have blocked the group from taking several other actions.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Wednesday Musk had gone too far: “There’s no doubt that the president appears to have empowered Elon Musk to go far beyond what I think is appropriate.”
As a senior appropriator and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Collins holds significant power over the budget process. But it’s unclear exactly what she and her colleagues on the panel will do, if anything.
Democrats have called on the Senate to reject Russel Vought, Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, in response to the Trump administration’s efforts freezing federal spending and gutting agencies. Vought was involved in that effort and was also a key architect of Project 2025, a right-wing governing agenda that called for dismantling the federal civil service. However, every Republican senator voted to advance his nomination, and he is expected to be confirmed with a party-line vote on Thursday.
For the most part, Republicans have embraced Musk and said he’s doing nothing wrong, even as his efforts infringe on their constitutional authority over federal spending.
“Go Elon, go,” Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.), chair of the House DOGE Caucus, told HuffPost on Thursday.
Rep James Comer (R-Ky.), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, proclaimed Wednesday he’s not interested in overseeing anything Musk does — except to act as a cheerleader.
“This committee intends to work in partnership with DOGE,” Comer said at a hearing. “We want to reinforce its efforts, and not blunt the momentum it’s generating for needed change to the federal bureaucracy.”
When Trump and Musk first announced DOGE last year, it was a joke — a government agency named after a dog meme from the early 2010s that inspired a satirical cryptocurrency token. Trump said it would be an outside-of-government advisory panel that would make recommendations about federal spending. Republicans rushed to form committees and clubs devoted to spreading Musk’s half-baked gospel about government waste.
But after he took office Trump announced DOGE would be part of the government after all, and Musk has moved as rapidly to dismantle the federal bureaucracy as he did to fire Twitter employees when he bought the company in 2022.
Trump has insisted Musk is under his control and won’t allow him to enrich himself by altering government policy to benefit his various companies.
“Elon can’t do, and won’t do, anything without our approval,” Trump told reporters at the White House earlier this week. “And we’ll give him the approval where appropriate. Where not appropriate, we won’t.”
Already, the Trump administration’s efforts to half federal grants and get rid of federal workers have been blocked by courts wary of the administration’s stepping on congressional power. But many of DOGE’s attacks on the government are ongoing, including its push to eliminate the U.S. Agency for International Development without congressional approval, as well as the disruption of federal funding to critical services across the country, including community health centers and Head Start school programs.
More Republicans may be ready to ditch the DOGE bandwagon – they’re just not willing to say so out loud yet. Or so Democrats hope.
“I’ve had very constructive conversations with Republican appropriators who are super uncomfortable with what’s going on,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said Thursday in a speech on the Senate floor opposing Vought’s nomination. “They might not be quite ready to go public but they are certainly trying to figure out how to exert their authority.”
Democrats are eager to go after Musk, who is targeting programs meant to help poor people in both the United States and around the world. The chaos DOGE is causing has already hurt Musk’s popularity among Americans: A YouGov/Economist poll released Wednesday found a mere 13% of Americans want Musk to have a lot of influence on Trump’s administration, while 25% want a little influence and 46% want him to have no influence at all.
And even among Republicans, the desire for Musk to have power is slipping: 47% of Republicans told the pollster they wanted him to have a lot of influence in the days following Trump’s election in November. The most recent iteration of the survey has just 29% saying they want him to have influence.
The White House has shown some sensitivity to DOGE criticism. A 25-year-old DOGE staffer resigned this week after the Wall Street Journal asked the White House about his racist social media posts.
Still, so far Republicans in Congress have broadly supported Musk’s, efforts even as they remind him that there are limits to his power.
“At the end of the day, we make the financial decisions, DOGE makes the recommendations,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told HuffPost, adding that Musk gives Republicans some useful political cover for difficult spending cuts.
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“He doesn’t really have any authority to do anything, except what the president allows within the president’s authority,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said. “If it involves changing a law, he’ll have to bring that to us. “