Democratic Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna on Wednesday accused Elon Musk of violating the U.S. Constitution as he carries out his mandate from Republican President Donald Trump to overhaul the federal government. Musk, the world’s richest man, responded with a crude insult.
On Wednesday morning, Democrats on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight — which has 25 Republicans and 20 Democrats — voted on issuing a subpoena to Musk, with the motion failing 19 to 20. Khanna, responding to a post on X saying he had abstained, posted that the vote was taken without notice, and he and eight others did not make it to the committee room in Washington, D.C. in time to vote.
“I would have voted yes,” Khanna said in the post, adding that he had been meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico over Trump’s tariffs. “Musk’s attacks on our institutions are unconstitutional. He should be subpoenaed & answer to our committee.”
Just 16 minutes after Khanna’s post, on the platform Musk owns, Musk responded with a post saying, “Don’t be a (expletive).”
Khanna on Wednesday elaborated to this news organization that he believes Musk’s work in the government has led to pauses on federal grants, plus reported firing of federal employees and “potential mass firings” in the future, that violate the Constitution by infringing on the powers it gives to Congress.
Musk — CEO of Tesla and federal government contractor SpaceX — and his unofficial “Department of Government Efficiency” have provoked anger among Democratic lawmakers by gaining access to systems and databases in federal government agencies. So far, reports indicate his team, which includes a handful of young technology workers connected to Silicon Valley, has penetrated the U.S. Treasury Department, General Services Administration, Agency for International Development, and the Office of Personnel Management.
Federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday posted on X that he had “talked to the DOGE team,” and “They are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.”
Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic U.S. Senator from Maryland, posted Tuesday on X that he was “hearing reports” that “Musk’s cronies” were targeting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — which forecasts weather and conducts weather and climate research — and “infiltrating key systems & locking out career employees.”
Labor unions on Wednesday sued the U.S. Department of Labor and DOGE, seeking to block the Musk group’s expected attempt to access that agency.
Since being named by Trump as chief of DOGE — an advisory entity Trump created by executive order — Musk has embarked on a crusade to slash federal spending, claiming this week, without providing evidence, that a quarter of U.S. government disbursements are wasteful or fraudulent.
Recent posts on X by the DOGE account tout its work to cancel dozens of consulting contracts in the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Education and General Services Administration, and dozens of leases of “underutilized” buildings. One DOGE post claims more than $1 billion in savings via cancellation of contracts purportedly related to diversity, equity and inclusion at many other agencies, including the State Department, Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture and Federal Aviation Administration.
Moves by the Trump administration to pause federal grants — blocked for now by federal court decisions in lawsuits — appear to be the clearest violation of the U.S. Constitution, critics say.
Musk countered in an X post Wednesday quoting a thread from conservative lawyer Tom Renz that he’s operating within the law in a renamed department set up by former President Barack Obama.
“We just renamed US Digital Services, created by Obama, to US DOGE Services, with a mandate to modernize all computer systems in the US government,” Musk posted. “This is something that is sorely needed!”
In an apparently DOGE-led attempt to get federal employees to resign in large numbers, civil servants received an emailed severance offer, titled “Fork in the Road” like a similar email Musk sent to employees of Twitter before he bought it and renamed it X.
Congressman Jimmy Panetta, a Democrat whose district includes south San Jose, this week called the resignation-seeking emails “a dubious means to cause a mass exodus in the federal government.”
Lawsuits over Musk’s group continue to mount. On Monday, labor groups including the AFL-CIO sued the Treasury Department, seeking to stop “unlawful ongoing, systematic, and continuous disclosure of personal and financial information contained in Defendants’ records to Elon Musk and other members of the so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency.’”
Khanna this week attacked DOGE’s incursion into the Treasury Department over access to “Social Security numbers of every American and sensitive payment information.”
San Jose Democrat Rep. Zoe Lofgren said this week she believes DOGE access into government agencies and databases breaks privacy and data-access laws. Because Republicans control the White House, the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, members of Congress seeking to rein in Musk and DOGE have few options, other than working with state attorneys general and civil-society groups that are taking legal action in the courts.
Musk’s conduct, Lofgren said, “needs to be brought to a halt.”