Swalwell: Musk 'going to own' Republicans if they don't stand up to him now 

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) spoke out against Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s involvement in governmental affairs, saying the tech billionaire is "horning his way" into decisions.  

"I was with a few Republicans yesterday as Musk was rage-tweeting and giving his orders, and they were completely apoplectic," Swalwell said on MSNBC on Thursday night. "And I told one of them, I said, 'If you let him do this, if he does this and you don’t stand up to him now, he is going to own you for the next Congress.'"

"'Every bill that is on the floor, you’re going to wait around on cots to see what Elon Musk says you are allowed to do.' And that is no way to represent the people who sent you," he continued.

Musk, whom Trump tapped to be the co-leader of his "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE), made several social media posts Wednesday criticizing the spending measure deal unveiled by House Republicans this week. He called the more than 1,500-page measure a big “piece of pork” while calling on GOP lawmakers to oppose it.

Later the same day, Trump called for the bill to be dismissed. He proposed Congress pass a clean continuing resolution with a debt ceiling increase — a proposal that was rejected Thursday night. Congress is now working on a plan C with less than 24 hours to go to avert a shutdown.

Trump’s team has pushed back against Democrats' suggestions that Musk is the "real leader" of the GOP amid the spending measure's breakdown, asserting Thursday that the president-elect is the one leading the party.

“As soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR [continuing resolution], Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his point of view. President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop,” Karoline Leavitt, transition spokesperson for the Trump-Vance team, said in a statement previously shared with The Hill.