Democratic party members of the US Congress are perturbed about Elon Musk and the recent moves of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Recent developments suggest there might be a wave of lawsuits directed towards the “unelected billionaire” soon.
A growing wave of protests and political backlash from Democratic Senators and Representatives has emerged in response to Elon Musk’s increasing influence within US government systems.
Democrats now argue that the Telsa CEO, together with DOGE, the department he oversees, are unlawfully accessing private information from the US Treasury.
In an X post on Monday, Minnesota Representative Tim Walz called Elon Musk “a terrible president,” sarcastically bashing the billionaire for handling matters that only the US President Donald Trump is constitutionally allowed to oversee.
Elon Musk is a terrible president.
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) February 3, 2025
Yesterday, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the US Department of the Treasury, demanding accountability for what they perceive as Musk’s “hostile takeover” of federal financial systems.
The demonstration was sparked by reports that Musk’s team was granted access by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to read sensitive government financial data systems, including Social Security payments, Medicare reimbursements, and tax refunds.
Democratic leaders: Nobody elected Elon
While calling for citizens to join the Tuesday protests on X, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, referred to Elon’s actions as a “blitzkrieg-style administrative coup,” alleging that Musk was accessing and editing critical government systems without proper oversight.
“Musk, you may have illegally seized power over the financial systems of the Treasury but you don’t control the money of American people. Congress does that. We don’t have a 4th branch of gov called Elon Musk,” Representative Jamie Raskin told the crowd during the protest.
According to reports from Bloomberg, Musk’s team has been granted “read-only” access to coded government data, meaning they are not authorized to alter or approve any payments.
In a letter to Senator Ron Wyden, the Department of Treasury admitted that at least one of DOGE’s employees has “top clearance” to access the data and that no payment requests had been rejected.
However, these reassurances did little to quell the growing unease among the protesters, including former federal contractors like Alexa Fraser, who raised questions about potential security risks.
“What protections did he turn off to get in there? Who has he sold it to?” Fraser said in a recent interview, voicing concerns about the security of government data and the level of clearance Musk has.
The political pushback
At the epicenter of the calls for Musk’s influence to be “nerfed” is his push to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), an organization that he recently called a “ball of worms.”
The agency announced that this coming Friday, employees will be placed on leave, as President Trump and Musk push to permanently close its doors in their efforts to cut unnecessary government expenditure.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that the USAID has been spending money on “insane priorities,” including several millions of dollars channeled to diversity, equality and inclusion offices in Europe and transgender operas and comic books in Columbia and Peru.
“I don’t want my dollars going towards this crap, and I know the American people don’t either. That’s exactly why Elon Musk has been tasked by President Trump to get the fraud waste and abuse out of the federal government,” she reckoned.
It is unlikely that “liberals” can stop the entrepreneur’s plans, as Republicans, who currently control the White House, both chambers of Congress, and hold a majority on the Supreme Court, have so far supported his initiatives.
Vice President JD Vance is one of many leaders supporting Musk’s actions, posting on social media that he believes Musk’s efforts have uncovered significant government fraud.
“When Elon and the team started, I was very supportive but thought the waste and fraud would top out at $250 billion,” Vance remarked. “The real number will end up much higher.”
Just this week, Musk’s agents were spotted at the Department of Education, an agency that Trump has vowed to abolish. On Tuesday, Musk called for the US government to “defund” the National Public Radio (NPR) so that it could generate its own operational revenues, a move that critics have overtly refuted, claiming “it oversteps his authority.”
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