Several GOP senators worry that having an unelected billionaire crow about slashing federal jobs, which happen to employ a lot of people in their home states, is not a good look when inflation remains a major problem and many Americans are having trouble making ends meet.
Some Republicans, such as Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), have defended having the political outsider take the lead in reforming federal agencies.
But other GOP colleagues are grumbling that the execution has been “flawed,” as Musk has shuttered agencies and pressured workers to resign.
One GOP senator said Musk’s buyout effort offering more than seven months of severance was “poorly executed,” and his latest attempt to slim federal agencies by pushing a reduction in force has failed to consider how it might impact federal agencies.
“I think they’re just looking to reduce numbers — it’s not efficiency, it’s not output. It’s, ‘We just need bodies gone.’ And I don’t know that’s the metric that you use,” the senator said.
The GOP senator also reacted angrily to Musk’s call for a “wave of judicial impeachments” in response to federal judges putting holds on Trump’s executive orders and actions.
“Wrong, wrong, wrong. Get him out of the White House. Get him out, the sooner the better,” the senator added. “Every day that he’s there, he seems more destructive.”
Polls show Musk is highly unpopular with independent and moderate voters, who could be key to Republican senators winning reelection in battleground states.
An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,595 adult citizens conducted Feb. 9-11 found that surveyed independents disapproved of Musk’s handling of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by 18 points, with 31 percent approving and 49 percent disapproving.
The survey found that self-described moderates disapproved of Musk’s leadership of DOGE by 21 points, with 33 percent approving and 54 percent disapproving.
The Hill’s Alexander Bolton has more here.
