Elon Musk may have left the Trump administration, but that doesn’t mean Democrats are done talking about him.
“You don’t get to just drop a bomb and then hide your hand and say, ‘I’m no longer a part,’” Rep. Troy Carter told NOTUS. “The Musk stain on the administration will not go away just because he’s had an epiphany and has moved on because it has started to damage his own business interests.”
“You own DOGE and you own Musk,” he added. “And that will be the message we carry.”
Musk wrapped up his time at the White House last Friday, leaving his DOGE project without its famous figurehead. But the massive cuts he spearheaded won’t be forgotten by voters if Democrats have anything to do with it, more than a dozen House Democrats told NOTUS.
If Republicans’ reconciliation bill makes it through the Senate and President Donald Trump’s rescissions bill — which would allow him to block congressionally-approved funds — also makes it through Congress, Democrats predicted voters will look to Musk to unload their disapproval.
“The cuts that Elon made are not going to always hit home right away. They’re going to hit home when people have trouble getting their Social Security, have problems with their tax returns, or can’t get the services that they’ve come to count on at the [U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs],” Rep. Seth Moulton told NOTUS. “This issue is not going away, whether or not Elon is a boogeyman.”
Some Democrats predicted Musk could still be around anyway. Musk is still engaged in politics and has said he’ll continue helping Trump.
“Voters need a villain. We like easy stories,” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove said. “But [Musk is] still in the mix. So for any of us to think that he is going to get on a boat and ride someplace into the sunset and never return to politics is naive.”
During Musk’s time as head of DOGE, Democrats seized on voters’ discontent with Musk’s cuts and hosted town halls, rallies and listening sessions where they condemned Musk and the Republican Party. At times, Democrats would use Musk as a proxy for Trump and joked that Musk was the one running the country, not Trump.
More recently, Musk and Trump have begun to split, particularly over the president’s reconciliation bill. Musk posted on X on Monday that Republicans’ “massive, outrageous, pork-filled” spending bill was “a disgusting abomination” and argued that it’d increase the United States’ debt.
Democrats are enjoying the fissure.
“Breaking news: Elon Musk and I agree with each other,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Tuesday. “The GOP tax scam is a disgusting abomination.”
NOTUS asked Jeffries if he was concerned that agreeing with Musk could undermine Democrats’ past criticisms of him. Jeffries said this moment of convergence was rare.
“The fact that I agree with Elon Musk, that it’s an abomination, should not be unclear to anyone based on weeks of Democrats aggressively pushing back against the one big, ugly bill,” Jeffries said. “I’m not revealing any secrets. In fact, I’m stating the obvious. The bill is an abomination. It’s a disaster.”
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Tinashe Chingarande is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.