Reaction & Commentary
EXCLUSIVE: Some House Republicans are increasingly frustrated with Elon Musk’s handling of his role in the federal government – frustrations that flared during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.
Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., raised concerns about Republican lawmakers not being on the “same page” as the White House and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), three people in the room told Fox News Digital.
And he’s not the only GOP lawmaker who feels that way.
“He wants to see better communication between DOGE, the president, and the House, because we’re getting fed to the wolves, while Elon’s just tweeting,” one GOP lawmaker told Fox News Digital.
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Some House Republicans are privately grumbling about Elon Musk’s handling of the federal government. (Getty Images/Fox News Digital illustration)
A second GOP lawmaker said, “I’m going to echo Austin’s comments about, you know, it would be nice to have some heads up. There’s a lot of questions.”
“Words matter, right? So let’s make sure we’re putting out accurate information that’s correct,” the second lawmaker said.
Two House Republicans said Scott warned DOGE needed to “measure twice, cut once” in its audits of the federal government.
Two others, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and another lawmaker, said Scott took issue with Musk re-posting a meme on X that referred to people on federal benefits as the “parasite class.”
“What Elon was talking about is those who are gaming the system are parasites. But Austin looks at it differently, which is fine, Austin means right. But he said his people took offense to that,” Norman said.
Scott told Fox News Digital he supported DOGE’s goals but reaffirmed his frustration.
Rep. Austin Scott raised concerns about Musk in the closed-door House GOP conference meeting. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
“DOGE’s recent requests for federal employees should have been coordinated with the agencies before they were issued. I fully support those agencies working with DOGE to improve efficiency and eliminate tax dollar waste,” Scott said in a written statement. “With that being said, referring to Americans who may need government assistance as ‘parasites’ is unacceptable in any circumstance.”
House lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill on Monday after a week in their home districts, during which more than half a dozen Republicans were confronted by constituents who were searching for more answers on DOGE. Several demonstrations were facilitated by progressive groups.
GOP lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital all said they support the goal of cutting government waste but had issues with Musk’s methods – several raised specific issues with his directive that federal employees email five bullet points on the work they did last week.
While the email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) did not mention job status, Musk posted on X that employees who failed to comply could be terminated.
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“It’s not how most normal good bosses would lay off somebody,” a third House Republican told Fox News Digital. “Some of them may be bad, but most of them are good. Treat them like Americans.”
A fourth House Republican, a member of the House DOGE Caucus, told Fox News Digital that Musk’s comments were not “helpful.”
Another person took issue with Musk’s suggestion of stimulus checks for Americans using DOGE savings.
“I think it’s childish,” that person said. “Now we want to take the money for waste, fraud, and abuse that was collected by the federal government and give everyone $5,000…or we could just pay off the national debt, or we could use that for the next round of appropriations we have to pay for here in Congress.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski publicly criticized Musk’s handling of federal workers. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Others were public with their frustration, like Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who posted on X, “Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform. The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it.”
Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., said it was up to the executive branch to deal with its personnel.
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“Reductions in force are up to the executive branch agencies and the executive branch, which is run by President Trump. So if President Trump wants to make cuts to the executive branch agencies, that’s his prerogative,” Rutherford said.
And the vast majority of Republicans are still backing Musk, at least publicly.
“I would say that I think the vast majority, the American people, understand and applaud and appreciate the DOGE effort, the goal to scale down the size and scope of government,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during a press briefing on Tuesday. “The reason we’re excited about what Elon Musk and the team at DOGE are doing, the end result of that is going to be achieving the goal that we’ve always had, and that is to make government more efficient.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House’s DOGE spokesperson for comment.
