To Democrats, Elon Musk’s reported breaching of the U.S. Agency for International Development, sensitive data held by the Treasury Department, and, now, the Education Department, is a “blatantly illegal” intrusion and an affront to the constitutional separation of powers, which gives Congress, and not an unelected billionaire, the power to stand up agencies and dictate spending.
At least one Senate Republican agrees that he’s infringing on Congress — but treated Musk’s promised sledgehammering of great swaths of the federal government as a hypothetical exercise that will likely never come to fruition.
“He may be wading into areas that will be congressional authority, period,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), considered one of the most electorally vulnerable Republicans in 2026, told TPM Tuesday in the elevator on his way to vote. “I don’t mind the disruptive thought process that we’re going through now. And then we’ll have to figure out to what extent this is something that can be done by the administration. If so, great. Otherwise we have to set about the work to authorize whatever kind of changes we all agree are necessary.”
When pressed on the threats Musk has made, Tillis hand-waved at some unknowable force that would stop him from achieving his repeatedly stated goals of slashing the federal government and its workforce.
“I worked in management consulting and enterprise transformation for a good number of my private sector career,” Tillis said, pausing outside the Senate chamber. “We always threw out big ideas to try and stimulate people’s thinking, but we seldom ever executed them like our strategist would want, because there are practical limits for what you can do. The same applies here.”
In the early days of the second Trump administration, those “practical limits” are not to be found in Congress, where most Republican senators, to hear them tell it, are delighted with Musk’s unprecedented appropriation of the legislature’s power of the purse.
“I don’t think he’s cutting into congressional power,” Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, told TPM. “Many past presidents have gotten assistance or created czars or others to work on improving government efficiency, and that’s what he’s doing.”
“I’m happy anybody’s taking a look at all the waste, fraud and abuse throughout government,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told TPM. “I’m very supportive of their efforts.”
Many Senate Republicans Tuesday spun Musk’s team’s actions — which include reportedly removing top security officers to get into USAID’s headquarters and locking its employees out, forcing out a career civil servant who tried to block DOGE from accessing Treasury’s federal payment systems and trying to coerce federal workers into quitting with a sketchy and potentially illegal buyout — as garden variety consulting. He’s just taking a look, Republican senators insisted — getting his hands on information we in Congress have wanted for years, reforming broken systems.
So far, the only institution with the power and interest to stop Musk from running roughshod over the federal government is the judiciary. Many of Musk and President Donald Trump’s major actions — the federal funding freeze, the breaching of the Treasury payment system — have met immediate legal challenges. Relief there, though, may be intermittent and short-lived, as the cases work up the increasingly right-wing appellate system to the Supreme Court.
Democratic Resistance
Congressional Democrats, completely locked out of power, have revved to life this week, using what limited leverage they have to try to stop Musk’s rampage.
Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) unveiled the “Stop the Steal Act,” named with tongue in cheek, at a joint press conference Tuesday, legislation to keep Musk and his cohort away from the Treasury payment system.
Such a bill has no dream of getting through a Republican-controlled Congress, but plays into the strategy Schumer outlined of how Democrats can push back: maximize public outcry, bring litigation, conduct oversight (including through “shadow hearings” featuring whistleblowers) and exert leverage through legislation.
“On the appointments, they don’t need Democrats, but on legislation, particularly the funding resolution, they do need us and we will insist that there be certain changes that undo these bad things,” Schumer said.
The current government funding bill expires in mid-March, a juncture multiple Democrats pointed to as a point of leverage. In recent history, Republicans have repeatedly depended on Democratic support to pass big spending bills, given that a segment of the GOP conference always objects to nearly any government spending at all.
Congress will also have to raise or suspend the debt ceiling soon, another must-pass legislative priority that Republicans often fail to do unilaterally.
Some Democrats are also taking action individually.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) announced that he’ll inflict maximal delays on confirming all of Trump’s State Department nominees until the assault on USAID ends.
“I think they’re quietly concerned, but at some point they’re gonna have to assert themselves — a lot of people spent a lot of money and a lot of time becoming United States senators and I, for one, wouldn’t want to forfeit all the power that I just earned by virtue of my election certificate,” Schatz told TPM of his Republican colleagues Tuesday.
Senate Republicans’ blithe attitude also depends on Trump’s. For now, the President has expressed comfort with the enormous role Musk is playing in his administration, on Monday calling him a “smart guy” and warning vaguely that he “won’t let him get near” anything that conflicts with what Trump wants.
If there’s ever a breakup there — which many in Washington predict, given Trump’s dislike of being eclipsed — Republicans may find some new opposition to Musk’s power grab.
“No one voted for Elon Musk and now he has power, evidently, that neither Congress nor the President has,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told TPM incredulously. “And it’s all happening in plain view.”
