GOP rushes to win Musk back by codifying into law DOGE cuts as billionaire pulls back support

Elon Musk announced last week that he will be rolling back plans for political spending in the midterm elections. That statement has Republicans who had been banking on him to finance their campaigns now rushing to prove their worth to him. In that announcement, Musk alluded to his disillusionment with Congress.

Musk became something of a lightning rod for attacks as he pursued aggressive cuts to foreign aid and sought access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems after fighting obstructionists in court. On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Jeannette Vargas in New York ruled that the four DOGE staffers assigned to Treasury will be allowed to access data they need to study that agency's efficiency.

His efforts resulted in multiple lawsuits and public protests, as well as some high-profile vandalism incidents at Tesla dealerships. Musk also became a whipping boy for the media, who vilified and grotesquely caricatured him. The Tesla and SpaceX founder was adamant, however, that he would not be cowed and insisted he would work to eliminate fraud in the government.

Amid those efforts, Musk put his own money where his mouth was and helped to finance the campaign of Brad Schimel for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin's 2025 Supreme Court election held on April 1. Musk's largess was met with a GOP largely unconcerned with the contest and disinterested in providing support, despite the prospect of flipping the supreme court of a major battleground state.

He will officially depart from government service on May 30. On Wednesday evening, he thanked Trump for the opportunity and said "DOGE's mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government."

Musk didn't receive meaningful support from GOP

Hesitance from House and Senate leaders to defend Musk as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) fell into Democratic cross-hairs and GOP lawmakers' unwillingness to codify his efforts into law appears to have the world’s richest man disillusioned with the GOP.

Musk also said, "I think I’ve done enough." He did, however, keep doors open by saying that "If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it.” He further said that he “did my best” in response to a post lamenting the disinterest in Congress toward backing the DOGE cuts.

The Tesla and SpaceX founder first entered Republican politics as a backer of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during the 2022 primary. Musk later hopped aboard the Trump train after the first assassination attempt against the president in Butler, Pa. While no evidence exists to suggest any personal break with President Donald Trump, Musk recently made his frustrations with lawmakers known and indicated he would not spend anything on them in the midterms.

Musk’s frustrations appear to have Republican leaders scrambling to show him some support and offer at least token efforts to codify his work in an apparent bid to bring the party back into his good graces. DeSantis, for his part, has expressed solidarity with his one-time benefactor.

“[Elon Musk] took massive incoming — including attacks on his companies as well as personal smears — to lead the effort on [DOGE],” DeSantis posted on Tuesday. “He became public enemy #1 of legacy media around the world. To see Republicans in Congress cast aside any meaningful spending reductions (and, in fact, fully fund things like USAID) is demoralizing and represents a betrayal of the voters who elected them.”

On Wednesday, however, reports emerged that the White House would move to codify some of the DOGE cuts by sending a rescissions package to Congress. The package appears aimed at solidifying the $9.3 billion in previously approved cuts to public broadcasting and foreign aid, according to Politico.

Downsizing goals and expectations

Musk exploded on to the D.C. scene with bold talk of finding $2 trillion in fraud and waste to help balance the budget and his team appeared sincerely determined to upend the political establishment to that end. The $9.3 billion rescission package represents only a small fraction of the estimated $175 billion in savings that DOGE has claimed. 

That figure comes from what it called a “[c]ombination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions.” 

The $175 billion figure is still well shy of the original $2 trillion goal and the “big, beautiful bill” that aims to codify many of Trump’s policy proposals only aims at $1.5 trillion in cuts over 10 years instead of the $2 trillion in a single year needed to balance the budget.

House leadership evidently received its own talking points on the Musk cuts and Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday joined the chorus of Republicans praising the billionaire and vowing to ensure his work was not in vain.

“[Elon Musk] and the entire [DOGE] team have done INCREDIBLE work exposing waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government - from the insanity of USAID’s spending to finding over 12 million people on Social Security who were over 120 years old,” House Speaker Mike Johnson posted on Wednesday. “The House is eager and ready to act on DOGE’s findings so we can deliver even more cuts to big government that President Trump wants and the American people demand.”

Johnson further indicated that the House would work to pass the rescissions package and use the appropriations process to speedily approve a 2026 budget that would implement the White House’s agenda.

Musk has not as of publication time commented on the rescissions package nor has he indicated any plans to resume spending plans for the midterms. The House Republicans maintain a narrow majority at present, but the incumbent party traditionally loses ground in the midterm elections.