What the Democrats’ Musk Whisperer Thinks Now
“We need to make sure that Elon Musk has an allegiance to the Constitution,” Representative Ro Khanna says.
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Representative Ro Khanna has known Elon Musk for more than a decade, so he thought he should raise some concerns about the billionaire’s assault on the federal government where he would be sure to see them. Posting on the platform Musk owns, the California Democrat said yesterday that Musk should be hauled before Congress to explain himself. “Musk’s attacks on our institutions are unconstitutional,” Khanna wrote.
It took Musk just 16 minutes to reply: “Don’t be a dick.”
The two continued their conversation over text message, Khanna told me. In private, Musk displayed the same anger over Khanna’s criticism of his unrestrained efforts to root out supposed government waste and fraud. When Khanna again urged Musk to appear before Congress to recommend spending cuts—rather than carry them out by fiat—Musk replied by revealing that he had a very different vision of his job as chair of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency. Khanna wouldn’t show me their exchange, but he described Musk’s reply this way: “I think his view is, ‘I didn’t come to Washington to give a report to Congress.’”
[Read: Elon Musk is president]
The banter between the pair used to be friendlier. When Trump appointed Musk to lead a team scouring the federal government for spending cuts, few Democrats reacted more positively than Khanna, who quickly offered to partner with Musk on slashing the defense budget.
Virtually alone among Democrats, Khanna has been willing to engage with and occasionally defend the billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX as Musk moved further to the right and became a Trump loyalist. Even now, Khanna can’t help but marvel at Musk’s success in business. “I always thought he was a remarkable entrepreneur,” Khanna told me. “He has an eccentric brilliance to him.”
Musk wrote a laudatory blurb for Khanna’s first book, and he would refer to the Silicon Valley Democrat, who twice backed Bernie Sanders for president, as “a sensible moderate.” Khanna, in turn, has connected Musk with members of Congress in both parties. In 2023, he persuaded a skeptical Musk to work with a Republican-led House committee investigating China. (Notably, Musk did not take another piece of advice Khanna offered him when he started getting involved in politics: “Stick to cars and Mars.”)
Like many people in Washington, Khanna assumed that Musk’s DOGE would hole up in an office for a few months and issue a report recommending cuts for Congress to consider. Musk, of course, has done much more than that. With Trump’s approval, he has ignored Congress and burrowed deep into federal departments, sidelining career civil servants, all but eviscerating USAID, and gaining access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems.
“Maybe I was naive,” Khanna told me. I had called to seek his insights on what Musk is doing and what he ultimately wants; Musk’s critics, both Democrats and Republicans, have speculated that his targets in the government are tied to his business interests. Khanna suggested that Musk’s motivation is more straightforward. Musk “is on a maniacal mission to save the country from fiscal collapse,” Khanna said, and thinks “that he is going to figure out all of the wasteful spending and all of the inefficiencies in a government that no one has been able to figure out.” Musk believes, Khanna said, “that people like me are in the way of what he thinks is in the American interest.”
To Musk’s critics—who now include Khanna—it’s not just people standing in his way but the Constitution. “We need to make sure that Elon Musk has an allegiance to the Constitution,” Khanna told me. Do you think he does? I asked him. “No, I don’t,” Khanna replied. “That’s why we need to push back on him.”
Musk’s assault on the government has complicated Khanna’s standing in the Democratic Party. Khanna has made no secret of his ambitions for higher office, and yesterday he delivered a speech in which he called on Americans to “stand up to the unholy alliance of wealth and power.” But nowhere in his address did he mention Musk, and some progressives see him as having vouched for a plutocrat who is now taking a sledgehammer to all they hold dear.
For weeks before Trump took office, Khanna extended his hand to work with Musk and DOGE on defense cuts. He told me that the offer remains—but only “if he committed to following the Constitution.” He added: “There’s a lot of trust that would have to be rebuilt at this point.”
He still seems to see himself as a potential bridge between Democrats and Musk. But if the past two weeks are an indication, any influence Khanna had with Musk might be gone. I asked Khanna whether, after all these years, he had misjudged Musk. He replied: “I underestimated how far he would go.”
