House Republicans got heat in their home districts over billionaire Elon Musk’s zeal to root out waste, fraud and abuse, but now contend that much of the pushback was from paid activists stirring up trouble.
Many had protesters set up outside of their district offices last week, while others had town hall meetings inundated with voters angry over the fast-paced dismantling of government agencies that President Trump’s efficiency apparatus, the Department of Government Efficiency helmed by billionaire Elon Musk, had undertaken.
Some House Republicans heeded constituents’ concerns and called for more compassion as waves of government employees have been fired, while others weren’t ready to turn their backs on the White House’s pursuit to shrink the federal government.
Rep. Aaron Bean, who co-chairs the House’s DOGE Caucus, compared the Trump administration’s pace to a no-huddle offense in football, marching down the field without taking a break.
The Florida Republican said he had protesters outside of his district office who accused him of wanting to cut Social Security, a charge he found ironic. Mr. Bean contended that DOGE’s work needed to be done now to ensure the entitlement program’s funds didn’t run dry in the next decade.
“My heart aches for anybody that’s losing their job, and I know it’s just a bummer,” Mr. Bean told The Washington Times. “Change is hard, but change has to happen or our government will implode on itself with overspending.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team have thrown cold water on the pushback Republicans received last week, and shrugged off the backlash as a divisive play from Democratic activists.
“The videos you saw of the town halls were paid protesters in many of those places. These were Democrats who went to the events early and filled up the seats,” Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said during an appearance on CNN on Wednesday.
A handful of progressive activist groups, including Indivisible, MoveOn.org and the Working Families Party, teed up protests around the country to criticize Republicans’ support of Mr. Musk and DOGE.
Indivisible, for example, issued a “Musk or Us” toolkit encouraging people to make “Republicans sweat.”
Rep. Eli Crane, Arizona Republican, also had protesters show up outside of his district office and chalked it up to Democrats running out of options to push back against the Trump administration after losing both houses of Congress and the White House.
“Really, their only two moves right now are activism, to try and scare members of Congress, or to use radical judges trying to usurp the president’s Article II powers,” he told The Times. “That’s the play, and so I’m not extremely worried about it.”
Still, among the activists were actual constituents who were upset over Mr. Musk and DOGE’s actions, as was the case for Rep. Rich McCormick, Georgia Republican, who got an earful from voters in his deep-red district in a now viral video posted to social media.
When pressed on constituent anger, Mr. Johnson sarcastically said “that’s fantastic,” but contended that the DOGE effort was still popular among most Americans and would remain so in the future.
“They want us to find efficiencies in the federal government. They want the government to be smaller, and leaner and more accountable to the taxpayers,” he said. “That’s what these efforts are all about, that’s what the Republican Party is all about.”
A poll from Harvard released earlier this week touted by the White House and congressional Republicans found that 72% of voters supported “the existence of a U.S. government agency focused on efficiency initiatives.”
The poll found that 60% of voters believed DOGE was helping to make major cuts in government spending, while 58% believed that employees of the efficiency apparatus should not have access to the Treasury Department’s payment system.
Despite Republican leaders brushing off the heat that members of the House GOP’s rank and file felt at home, they still encouraged lawmakers against holding town hall meetings, a House Republican granted anonymity to speak candidly on the issue told The Times.
Rep. John Rutherford, Florida Republican, told The Times that Indivisible protested outside of his office, and that he refused to “speak to a mob.”
While he still largely supported DOGE’s efforts, the breakneck pace that Mr. Musk was moving, and lack of a heads up on “major moves” gave him pause.
“But I get that,” he said. “Look, they’re trying to get this done quickly. Quite frankly, I think it’s something that’s got to be done quickly.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.