Some Republican lawmakers are starting to balk at Elon Musk’s razing of the federal infrastructure, as they face pushback from angry constituents at town halls and protests at their district offices.
House Republicans who held town hall events in their districts last week were confronted by residents outraged over the mass layoffs and cuts to federal funding that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has instituted across agencies. Since then, some of those lawmakers have gently urged DOGE — which is effectively run by Musk, even if the White House has denied it — and President Donald Trump to ease up on the aggressive cuts.
“If we have layoffs at the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], some people are going to be affected,” Rep. Rich McCormick, a Georgia Republican who faced tough questions about DOGE at a town hall outside Atlanta, told NBC News. “The question is, do we give people time to adjust to their lives? And I think that’s my biggest concern, is that we’re being compassionate.”
In an interview with CNN, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., also cautioned against “unintended consequences” of the administration’s forceful moves.
“We need to take a step back and make sure that we’re doing things in a way that we are rooting out the waste, the fraud and the abuse and the mismanagement, making programs efficient but not resulting in unintended consequences,” she said.
DOGE has wreaked havoc on the federal government in the past month as it carries out what the administration claims are cost-cutting measures. Empowered by Trump, DOGE — which is not an official government agency — has laid off thousands of employees; canceled federal contracts; tried to gain access to sensitive federal payment systems and taxpayer data; and cut public funding for critical science research. The backlash that GOP lawmakers have faced is an early sign of discontent from voters — including in reliably red districts — over the Trump administration’s chaotic moves. Some Republicans have dismissed the anti-DOGE anger back home as an organized campaign by liberal activists, while NBC News reported that other GOP lawmakers may pull back from hosting town halls. Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, told Axios: “I don’t know why you’d want to hold a town hall right now. … You know the left is going to set some people up in there just to be rabble-rousers.”
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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