House Republicans brush aside Musk's primary threats

House Republicans are largely brushing aside Elon Musk’s threats to unseat members who supported the initial government funding measure he helped torpedo earlier this week.  

After the tech billionaire called for the backers of that bipartisan bill to be voted out in two years, some GOP members dismissed Musk’s tirade as simply part of the “game” of Washington politics.  

But even those who seem unfazed by threats suggest some colleagues could have good reason to worry given Musk’s immense wealth, ties to President-elect Trump and growing influence in Congress. 

“I’ve been primaried four times, and I‘m more of a rebellious guy. If you threaten me, I dig my heels in and I don’t respond well to threats,” one GOP lawmaker said of Musk’s primary threats. 

“All those social influencers out there were against me in the last primary, with a million followers and I didn’t back down an edge,” the lawmaker added, granted anonymity to speak candidly.  

The lawmaker was one of the House Republicans to defend the original funding bill, which Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) rolled out Tuesday night to avert a shutdown.  

The bill was quickly lambasted by conservative spending hawks, including Musk, who posted online dozens of times on Wednesday calling for members to reject the more-than-1,500-page measure, describing it as a big “piece of pork.”  

Musk, the co-leader of Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) panel focused on slashing government spending, said any lawmaker who supported the bill should be voted out of office in 2026.  

Trump used the same tactic Thursday, when he encouraged Republicans in Texas to consider a primary challenge to Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) for going against the president-elect's push to raise the debt ceiling.  

When asked about Musk’s threats, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisc.) pointed to his experience as a retired Navy SEAL senior chief, quipping ,there is “not a whole lot of stuff I’m afraid of.”  

“I work for the people in the 3rd Congressional District in the state of Wisconsin,” he repeated to The Hill twice.  

Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), like the first GOP member, cited his past primary wins as a reason to not fear Musk, or any other primary threats.  

“I don’t worry about it because I’ve already had, I’ve already been primaried and it didn’t work out so well. I will do what’s right and that’s all I can do,” McCormick said.   

After the first proposal crumbled, House leadership rolled out a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) on Thursday, including Trump’s call for the premature elimination of the debt ceiling.  

Despite an endorsement from Trump, Vance and Musk, the “plan B” to avert a government shutdown  failed to clear the chamber in a vote Thursday night, sending House Republicans scrambling to reach a “plan C” ahead of the midnight deadline on Friday. 

McCormick, who was among the 38 Republicans to vote against the clean CR, later acknowledged Musk’s current sway with some House members, while signaling he will not cave to pressure.  

“Last time I checked, Elon Musk doesn’t have a vote in Congress. Now, he has influence, and he’ll put pressure on us to do whatever he thinks is right for him, but I have 760,000 people who voted for people to do the right thing for them,” he told CNN on Thursday.  

Another GOP lawmaker told The Hill he does not fear retaliation by the tech leader or Trump because he agrees with their stance.  

When pressed what he would do if there came a time if he did not agree with Musk or Trump, the lawmaker said, “I’ll vote for my district. I’ll vote my conscience.”  

While some appeared dismissive of Musk’s threats, they emphasized colleagues might not feel the same.  

“You have lots of people who out there need to make sure they don’t make somebody angry or make sure that they don’t ruin their chances of leadership or make sure that they don’t make the president angry, and then you have other people that just do the right thing,” a second GOP lawmaker said.  

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) went as far as saying Musk is “100 percent” a legitimate threat to people’s stakes in Congress but noted he is “not particularly scared of anybody.”  

Musk, the world’s richest man, loaded nearly $250 million into the presidential election in support of Trump. He has maintained his political action committee, America PAC, will continue to support Republicans through the midterms and will be involved in primary contests. 

While Republicans are signaling they can stand up to Musk’s threats, House Democrats quickly lambasted their colleagues for what they described as a surrender to Musk’s pressure on the first version of the spending bill.  

The Democrats started dubbing the SpaceX and Tesla owner “President Musk” and used the situation as a chance to question Trump’s grip on his own party.  

Trump’s team rejected these accusations. 

“As soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR, 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, wrote in a statement shared with The Hill. 

Also lapping back on the characterization, Musk wrote on X,  “I’m not the author of this proposal. Credit to @realDonaldTrump, @JDVance & @SpeakerJohnson.”  

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who met with House Republican leadership during discussions of the second spending proposal Thursday, confirmed Musk was not part of these conversations.  

“It was Trump and it’s been Trump,” she told The Hill. “I know the media keeps trying to pitch Elon and Trump against each other. Just because they’re ticked off Elon called them out on their BS, doesn’t mean that Elon’s calling the shots.”   

Amid the fierce criticism from Democrats, Musk said Thursday he would fund moderate primary challenges to incumbent Democrats in heavy-blue districts around the country.