Some of Donald Trump's allies are concerned that he's allowing Elon Musk's budget cuts overshadow his presidency.
Although polls show bipartisan support for cuts to federal spending, but some of the president's allies are grumbling that Musk's heartless and haphazard approach toward slashing government jobs through the Department of Government Efficiency could re-energize Democrats and turn off more moderate Trump voters heading into next year's midterms, reported Politico.
“If you’re Trump, one of the strategic questions is: ‘DOGE is getting all the attention – I’m doing all this important work on other issues, is that OK?’ Or do you want to see the other issues get more attention?” said GOP strategist and CNN commentator Scott Jennings.
Trump has spent more time defending DOGE, which didn't even exist as a concept until after the election, than he has focused on the reconciliation package, and Republicans privately admit that the media focus on Musk, the president's billionaire benefactor and unelected adviser, is not unwarranted.
ALSO READ: Wall Street Journal raises alarm over Trump's 'dangerous' path after Ukraine meeting
“Do I think that Elon soaks up a lot of oxygen? Yes," said Clay Travis, founder of the conservative OutKick website. "Do I think the combination of Elon and Trump is catnip for the media at large, and the way that stories get covered, 100 percent, and I think that’s because both guys provoke a lot of reaction, both positive and negative, and when you put them together, it’s kind of unprecedented.”
A senior White House official insisted that DOGE was merely “part of a larger story” that Trump would tell Tuesday night in his address to Congress, where he would “showcase the president’s vision for the country."
“President Trump has secured significant wins regarding securing the southern border, unleashing American energy, significant progress in ending unrest around the globe, and ridding our society of DEI and radical race ideology,” that official said.
However, some swing state Republican operatives are troubled that the administration's message is being drowned out by DOGE and instead seems to be aimed at Trump's extremely online right-wing base.
“When all you’re doing is throwing red meat to the Twitter crowd, that’s what’s getting reported on the nightly news, and that’s what people are reading, they’re like, ‘What the hell are you going to do about prices?’” said one GOP consultant in a swing state.
“The bigger risk is people being like, ‘[Elon’s] a fucking asshole,'" that consultant added. "'Can you at least have some compassion about what these people are going through? Can you at least treat them with respect? They have mouths to feed, roofs to keep over their heads.' Yeah, it has to happen. But why does an extremely pale lion have to play with his food here?”
Republican lawmakers have been facing angry constituents demanding answers on the DOGE cuts, and even GOP operatives who claim some of them are Democratic plants agree that outrage is brewing over the widespread cuts.
“A lot of the people they’re laying off look like Trump voters," said a Washington-based Republican strategist. "A lot of people that they’re laying off are middle-class, working-class Americans. You can find subsets of these people who are being fired who are military vets, or who are conservatives in their own communities and voted for Trump. The more that that happens — even if it’s a minority of the people who are getting laid off — I think that’s a vulnerability.”
