Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to testify before a House panel on Tuesday, his first time on Capitol Hill since being sworn in five months ago and as questions swirl about the deployment of troops to Los Angeles as part of an immigration crackdown.

Hegseth planned to appear before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee alongside Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, and acting Pentagon Comptroller Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell to discuss the administration’s upcoming 2026 budget request.

During the hearing, Hegseth is widely expected to dodge many of the specifics on the military’s spending blueprint, which has not been released, and instead highlight recent gains in recruiting numbers and new technology initiatives in the Army.

But overshadowing much of his testimony will be the Pentagon’s decision to send some 4,800 troops, including 700 Marines, to Los Angeles following several days of clashes between protesters and law enforcement there. The troops, known as Task Force 51, are being called under a law known as Title 10, which allows the president to send military forces to protect federal property and personnel.

Gen. Eric Smith, commandant of the Marine Corps, is scheduled to testify separately Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

On the eve of Hegseth’s testimony, Rep. Betty McCollum on Minnesota, the top Democrat on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, accused President Donald Trump of deliberately escalating the situation in Los Angeles by pushing for military reinforcements not requested by California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. She called decision to send Marines in particular “outrageous.”

“The active duty military has absolutely no legal role in domestic law enforcement. President Trump and Secretary Hegseth should read the Constitution and follow the law,” she said.

The Pentagon has not had a news conference since the deployment of troops to Los Angeles, referring reporters with questions about the mission to Hegseth’s posts on X.

On X, Hegseth said the troops were needed to protect federal immigration officers and detention buildings.

“There is plenty of room for peaceful protest, but ZERO tolerance for attacking federal agents who are doing their job. The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE,” Hegseth said in a statement.

U.S. officials said the troops would carry guns and ammunition separately for use only in self-defense and to protect federal property. They would not patrol the streets or help law enforcement arrest protesters, the officials said.

Unclear is whether Trump is preparing to invoke the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that says the president can call on a militia or the U.S. armed forces if there’s been “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy” in a state that “opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”

On his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump referred to the L.A. protesters as “violent, insurrectionist mobs” and “paid insurrectionists.”

When asked if Hegseth had spoken with Trump on Monday, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told ABC News, “the Secretary is in regular contact with the President regarding the National Guard presence in Los Angeles.”

Following his testimony, Hegseth is expected to travel with the president to Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday to participate in activities tied to the Army’s 250th birthday celebration.

Under Hegseth, the military has taken over control of hundreds of miles along the U.S. southern border with Mexico in an effort to tamp down unauthorized entry by migrants. He’s also eliminated programs aimed at increasing diversity among military personnel, slashed the number of general officers and initiated efforts to build a $175 billion U.S. missile defense shield.

At the same time, Hegseth also faces reports of dysfunction and infighting among his personal staff at the Pentagon. Since his Jan. 25 swearing in, Hegseth has fired or sidelined several of his own top political advisers and he’s gone without a chief of staff since April.

Tuesday’s hearing also would be Hegseth’s first appearance since revelations that he relied on a commercial messaging app known as Signal to relay details about a pending military attack to other high-ranking officials and others, including his wife. Hegseth’s use of Signal is now under internal investigation by the Defense Department’s inspector general.

ABC’s Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

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(TRENTON, NJ) — Voters head to the polls on Tuesday for New Jersey’s primary elections, which will set up the state’s 2025 gubernatorial election — the results of which could be a potential harbinger for the mood of the country ahead of 2026’s critical midterm elections.

The Democratic candidates are sparring over how to best respond to President Donald Trump’s agenda in the Garden State and each hopes to keep the state’s governorship in Democratic hands. The state’s current governor, Democrat Phil Murphy, can’t run again after serving two terms.

There are six candidates in the Democratic primary. Polling has shown that Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot who represents the state’s 11th Congressional District, leads the crowded Democratic field, but the race could still be anyone’s to win.

The other Democratic candidates are Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who represents the state’s 5th District; Newark Mayor Ras Baraka; Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop; New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller; and former state Senate president Steve Sweeney.

Republicans, meanwhile, hope to flip New Jersey’s governorship red in November and also have a crowded primary field. President Donald Trump has endorsed former state assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who ran for governor in 2021, narrowly losing to Murphy.

“This year’s election for governor is critical for New Jersey’s future. You’ll decide whether New Jersey is a high tax, high crime, sanctuary state,” Trump said during a rally held by telephone last week. “New Jersey is ready to pop out of that blue horror show.”

Ciattarelli faces conservative radio personality Bill Spadea, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, and contractor Justin Barbera.

The contest is on track to become the priciest election in New Jersey history, with over $85 million spent on advertising as of last Wednesday, according to a report from media tracking agency AdImpact.

Among Democrats, Gottheimer has the most ad spending supporting him ($22.8 million), followed by Fulop ($17.8 million).

Ciattarelli leads among Republicans with $5.9 million in ad spending or reservations supporting him, dwarfing Spadea’s $2.2 million and Bramnick’s $1.2 million.

About 70% of broadcast ad airings have mentioned Trump, according to AdImpact.

-ABC News’ Emily Chang and Halle Troadec contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz that his defense minister told him Friday the U.S. had transferred anti-drone weapons which defended against Russian attacks.

Zelenskyy said the U.S. would divert “20,000 missiles” from Ukraine’s arsenal to the Middle East, where it appears the U.S. would use them for its own force protection.

“Without the help of the United States, we will have more losses,” Zelenskyy told Raddatz in Kyiv last week.

The move comes as Russia ramps up its drone attacks and after Ukraine struck deep inside Russia with its own drones last week, shocking Russia in a clandestine operation.

Overnight Sunday, Russia launched 479 drones and 20 missiles into Ukraine in an attack the Ukrainian Air Force called an “absolute record” for a Russian aerial offensive.

The Pentagon declined to confirm the assets were being relocated.

The Ukrainian president said the assets were “not expensive, but [a] special technology” which specifically defended against Shahed drones.

The Shaheds are an inexpensive drone originally made by Iran and imported by Moscow. Russia now mass produces them.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Pentagon authorized a transfer of an anti-drone technology utilized by Ukraine to take down Russian drones.

“We counted on these 20,000 missiles,” Zelesnkyy told Raddatz in their exclusive Friday sit-down. He said that earlier in the day, “my Minister of Defense told me that United States moved it to the Middle East.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom escalated their confrontation on Monday over the handling of protests in Los Angeles triggered by Trump’s immigration crackdown.

After Newsom had objected to Trump sending in the National Guard without his consent, Trump on Monday afternoon ordered hundreds of Marines into the city as well.

Earlier Monday, arriving back at the White House after spending the weekend at Camp David, Trump had told reporters he would arrest Newsom if he were “border czar” Tom Homan — hours after Homan said there had been “no discussion” about arresting Newsom.

“I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn.

Newsom quickly fired back.

“The President of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor,” Newsom posted on Instagram along with a video of Trump’s comments. “This is a day I hoped I would never see in America. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation — this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.”

At a White House event Monday afternoon, Trump was asked by ABC News White House Correspondent Karen Travers what crime Newsom had committed that would warrant his arrest.

“I think his primary crime is running for governor because he’s done such a bad job,” Trump responded.

Homan himself earlier Monday pushed back on the idea he was going to arrest Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats.

In an interview with NBC News over the weekend, Homan had not ruled out the possibility — prompting Newsom to respond: “He knows where to find me.”

Homan on Monday morning, during an interview on Fox, commented further on his remarks to NBC.

“The reporter asked about, ‘Could Governor, Governor Newsom, or Mayor Bass, be arrested? I said, ‘Well, no one’s above the law, if they cross the line and commit a crime. Absolutely they can.’ So, there was no discussion about arresting Newsom,” he said.

“I’ve said it many times, You can protest, you got your First Amendment rights, but when you cross that line, you put hands on an ICE officer, or you destroy property, or ICE says that you’re impeding law enforcement … That’s a crime, and that the Trump administration is not going to tolerate. You cross that line we’re gonna see prosecution in the Department of Justice,” Homan said.

Trump on Monday also doubled down on his decision over the weekend to deploy the National Guard to California, over objections from Newsom.

Trump said in 2020 that a request from a governor was needed to send in the National Guard. ABC News asked Trump what changed between his statement then and now.

“Well, the biggest change from that statement is we have an incompetent governor,” Trump said.

Trump has long expressed a desire to quash protests he considered dangerous by using the military, though the use of federal troops on U.S. soil is mostly prohibited by the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act. Trump deployed the National Guard in this situation under Title 10 of the U.S. Code.

Asked if he would deploy Marines to Los Angeles on Monday, Trump had said “we’ll see what happens.”

Shortly after the president’s comments, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News 700 Marines from Twentynine Palms, California, had been ordered to assist on the streets of Los Angeles although it was unclear exactly what role they would play.

Newsom said the state is suing the administration over Trump deploying the National Guard.

“He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard,” Newsom wrote on social media. “The order he signed doesn’t just apply to CA. It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing. We’re suing him.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is requesting the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General review the Department of Government Efficiency’s alleged “infiltration” of the agency’s internal federal student loan database.

“The full extent of DOGE’s role and influence at ED remains unknown,” Warren wrote in a letter first obtained by ABC News.

“This lack of clarity is not only frustrating for borrowers but also dangerous for the future of an agency that handles an extensive student loan portfolio and a range of federal aid programs for higher education,” she added.

The internal federal student aid (FSA) systems handle the $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio for more than 40 million borrowers. It’s unclear whether DOGE has made any changes to student loan data.

“The Department is refusing to tell Americans who’s digging through their personal data and if their data is safe,” Warren wrote in a statement to ABC News. “I’m pushing for an independent investigation into what the Department of Education is hiding from us.”

The OIG office is the statutory, independent entity within the department responsible for identifying fraud, waste, abuse, and criminal activity involving department funds, programs, and operations, according to its website.

Warren and a group of Democratic senators, including Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., Ed Markey, D-Mass., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Tina Smith, D-Minn., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., accuse the Department of Education of refusing to comply with her monthslong congressional investigation into what, if any, records have been accessed by DOGE employees that could be sensitive.

“[The Education Department] further refused to disclose any information about the scope of DOGE’s access to sensitive student borrower data, including whether or not DOGE was granted access to the National Student Loan Data System or any other database that holds sensitive federal student loan borrower data,” they wrote in the letter to Department of Education Acting Inspector General René L. Rocque.

Billionaire Elon Musk and the DOGE team gained access to several federal agencies earlier this year. The team was tasked to slash federal spending and help dismantle the education department.

At a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the department’s fiscal year 2026 budget last month, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the DOGE employees working at the department had the same access any of the agency’s employees would be granted.

McMahon has also said that DOGE was conducting a “solid audit” of the agency and she appreciates their work to help identify waste, fraud and abuse.

The news comes ahead of Warren’s first ever meeting with McMahon. Warren sent McMahon dozens of questions ahead of the meeting as she hopes to discuss student loan repayment and forbearances, access to student aid and debt relief, among other topics.

However, in February, Warren opened an investigation into DOGE’s influence at the agency. The department’s responses to her investigation did not indicate how a DOGE employee who previously had “read-only access” to files had those privileges “revoked,” whether this employee has “retained access” to any other internal databases, and what actions the agency has done to ensure that sensitive information would not be “released or misused,” according to Warren’s letter to the inspector general.

In its responses, the department said it couldn’t answer the senator’s questions due to “ongoing litigations,” the letter added.

“These responses failed to diminish our concerns about borrowers’ privacy and whether the Department may have violated the law or the federal government’s procedures in handling this data,” senators wrote in the letter.

ABC News reached out to the Education Department and the White House about DOGE’s access to borrower data but did not receive a reply before this story was published.

In April, Warren launched her “Save Our Schools” campaign in opposition to President Donald Trump’s and McMahon’s efforts to dismantle the department. The senator has previously investigated the firing of FSA employees and how a reduction in staff at the agency could have “dire consequences” for borrowers.

“ED should immediately restore all fired [Federal Student Aid] employees responsible for reviewing student aid complaints and refrain from taking any measures to deter the submission of complaints,” Warren and a group of Democratic senators wrote in a letter to McMahon in March.

Recently, congressional Democrats insisted McMahon cooperate with a separate inspector general review of the administration’s plan to shutter the smallest Cabinet-level agency. A group of lawmakers on the Education and Workforce, Oversight, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Appropriations committees in the House and Senate sent the secretary a letter requesting she comply with the federal watchdog.

“The OIG must be allowed to do its job,” they wrote. “We urge the Department to immediately meet its obligation under the law to fully comply with the OIG’s review.

“Congress and the public need to understand the full extent and impact of the Administration’s actions on the Department and the students, families, and educational communities it may no longer be able to serve,” they added.

McMahon’s “final mission” as the 13th education secretary is to abolish the department, but the administration’s first steps to diminish the agency was denied in a federal appeals court loss last week.

The Department of Education has since filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.

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(WASHINGTON) — Pentagon investigators are looking into whether Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth personally wrote the text messages detailing the military’s plans to strike Houthi targets in Yemen or whether other staffers typed out those details, according to two people familiar with the ongoing probe.

The Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General has spent several weeks interviewing Hegseth’s current and former staff members to figure out how United States strike details taken from a classified system wound up in a commercial messaging app known as Signal.

“Because this is one of the DOD IG’s ongoing projects, in accordance with our policy we do not provide the scope or details to protect the integrity of the process and avoid compromising the evaluation,” DOD IG spokesperson Mollie Halperin told ABC News.

The details were relayed in two chat groups that included Hegseth – one with Vice President JD Vance and other high-ranking officials, and a second one that included Hegseth’s wife, who is not employed by the government.

It remains unclear how soon the findings will be released. Hegseth is scheduled to testify for the first time as defense secretary on Tuesday, where Democratic lawmakers are expected to question his handling of classified and sensitive information.

The sharing of the details reportedly occurred around the same time in mid-March when key members of President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, including Hegseth, inadvertently shared details about the March 15 missile strike in Yemen with the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.

Much of the same content was shared in the second encrypted chat with family members and others — a chat group that Hegseth had created on his personal phone during his confirmation process that included his wife, Jennifer Hegseth, the two officials told ABC News.

In addition to looking at whether the information was classified and who wrote it, investigators are also asking whether any staff members were asked by Hegseth or others to delete messages, according to one person familiar with the IG probe.

The government is required under law to retain federal communications as official records.

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(WASHINGTON) — Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a key progressive member of the House whose district covers swaths of the Bronx and Queens, endorsed New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Thursday for the city’s upcoming Democratic mayoral primary — one day after the candidate clashed with front-runner former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other candidates on the debate stage.

“Assemblymember Mamdani has demonstrated a real ability on the ground to put together a coalition of working-class New Yorkers that is strongest to lead the pack. In the final stretch of the race, we need to get very real about that,” Ocasio-Cortez told the New York Times in an interview published on Thursday.

“In 2018, A.O.C. shocked the world and changed our politics for the better with her historic victory. On June 24, we will do the same,” Mamdani told the Times in a statement.

Mamdani, a state assemblymember and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has been steadily inching upward in the polls and fundraising. He is running on a progressive platform that includes a rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments, eliminating fares for New York City buses and opening city-owned grocery stores. Mamdani envisions the latter two being funded by higher taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals; some have cautioned that he would need support from state government for those taxes.

Her announcement came the day after a chaotic two-hour debate punctuated by candidates shouting over an increasingly exasperated slate of moderators.

Nine Democrats who wish to be New York City’s next mayor sparred over how they’d interact with President Donald Trump, public safety, affordability and other topics.

Out of those who were onstage, Cuomo leads the pack in polling while Mamdani is slowly closing the gap in second place. The rest of the candidates have struggled to break through.

Each candidate was asked how they would work with — or charge against — Trump if elected mayor. Cuomo vowed that he is an adversary that Trump could not best.

“He can be beaten. But he has to know that he’s up against an adversary who can actually beat him. I am the last person on this stage that Mr. Trump wants to see as mayor, and that is why I should be the first choice for the people of the city to have as mayor,” Cuomo said.

Mamdani, answering the question, said, “I am Donald Trump’s worst nightmare, as a progressive Muslim immigrant who actually fights for the things that I believe in, and the difference between myself and Andrew Cuomo is that my campaign is not funded by the very billionaires who put Donald Trump in D.C. … I have to pick up the phone for the more than 20,000 New Yorkers who contributed an average donation of about $80 to break fundraising records and put our campaign in second place.”

Cuomo did not directly respond to Mamdani’s attack on the debate stage.

Some billionaires who have previously supported Trump, such as prominent hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and Home Depot founder Ken Langone, have donated to an independent group, the super PAC Fix the City, that supports Cuomo. Cuomo’s campaign is not allowed to coordinate with the group. In response to reporting on Cuomo’s wealthy supporters, Fix the City spokesperson Liz Benjamin told the New York Times that “donors have supported Fix the City because they know that Andrew Cuomo has the right experience and the right plans for New York City.”

Multiple controversies surrounding Cuomo — including accusations against him of sexual harassment, which he denies — came up during the debate.

Former state assemblymember Michael Blake, while answering a question on public safety, brought up the sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo: “The people who don’t feel safe are young women, mothers and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo, that’s the greatest threat to public safety in New York City.”

Cuomo, later asked about the allegations — and if he would do anything differently given investigations that alleged his leadership fostered a toxic work environment — told the moderators, “Let’s just make sure we have the facts. A report was done four years ago making certain allegations. I said at the time that it was political and it was false.”

He added that five district attorneys found “nothing” and he was dropped from one case.

“I said at the time that if I offended anyone, it was unintentional, but I apologize, and I say that today.”

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(WASHINGTON) — In a phone interview Friday morning, hours after his blistering exchange with Elon Musk, President Donald Trump sounded remarkably unconcerned about their feud, as if it weren’t even the most interesting thing that happened Thursday.

Speaking on a phone call Friday morning shortly before 7 a.m., ABC News asked him about reports he had a call scheduled with Musk for later in the day.

“You mean the man who has lost his mind?” he asked, saying he was “not particularly” interested in talking to him right now.

He said Musk wants to talk to him, but he’s not ready to talk to Musk.

Trump then talked for a couple of minutes about other things — referring to inflation (down), foreign investment (up) and his plans for a visit to China (huge).

People close to Trump have described him as more sad than angry at Musk. One adviser who was with Trump on Thursday night said he seemed “bummed” about the breakup. And that’s the way he sounded on Friday morning.

Trump is considering either giving away or selling the red Tesla he purchased to support Musk, a senior administration official told ABC News’ Rachel Scott Friday morning. The Tesla was parked just on West Executive Avenue on Thursday. Trump made a show of checking out Tesla models at the White House in March as Musk’s company took a hit as he arrived in Washington.

Speaking to Al Arabiya English from the Delhi Airport lounge, Musk’s father, Errol Musk, said he urged his tech billionaire son to end the feud.

“I haven’t spoken to him, but I did send him a message, you know, telling him to make sure this fizzles out,” he said before saying who he thinks will come out of this battle victorious. “Trump, of course, will prevail, because he is has been voted in by the majority of the people in America.”

The elder Musk blamed “a great deal of stress” for his son’s actions on Thursday.

The war of words on Thursday, stemming from Musk’s criticism of Trump’s signature tax and immigration bill, had Musk suggesting Trump would have lost the 2024 election without him, backing calls for Trump’s impeachment and even claiming Trump was “in” the Epstein files regarding the investigation into the accused sex trafficker.

“That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” Musk posted.

Trump, in turn, had said Musk had gone “CRAZY” and suggested terminating Musk’s government contracts and subsidies.

Vice President JD Vance expressed his support for Trump amid the public dispute in a brief post to X — albeit hours after the back-and-forth between Trump and Musk began. The post didn’t directly weigh in on Musk’s attacks or criticize the Tesla billionaire, with whom Vance has his own history that predates his time as Trump’s running mate and vice president.

“President Trump has done more than anyone in my lifetime to earn the trust of the movement he leads. I am proud to stand beside him,” Vance wrote on social media.

Vance still hadn’t directly responded to Musk’s accusations against Trump when he posted again on Friday morning.

“There are many lies the corporate media tells about President Trump. One of the most glaring is that he’s impulsive or short-tempered. Anyone who has seen him operate under pressure knows that’s ridiculous,” Vance wrote, focusing his fury on the media.

The White House called the public feud between Trump and Elon Musk “an unfortunate episode from Elon, who doesn’t like the One Big Beautiful Bill because it doesn’t include his policies.”

“The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Just hours after accusing Trump, without evidence, of appearing in the Epstein files, Musk showed some signs of trying to soften his tone — even appearing to agree with a post on X calling for the two to “make peace.”

The first sign Musk was starting to walk things back came thanks to an account with just over 141 followers on X who suggested to “cool off” and “take a step back.”

The post from the seemingly random user led Musk to reverse his threat to decommission the spacecraft used to transport astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station, a threat Musk had made just hours earlier.

“Good advice,” Musk responded to the user. “Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”

ABC News’ Will Steakin and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Speaker Mike Johnson is working to keep the focus on the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” on Friday as all eyes remain on President Donald Trump and Elon Musk amid their bitter public feud.

Johnson is pushing the House-passed bill that advances Trump’s legislative agenda, which is being negotiated in the Senate. Musk has publicly criticized the bill, calling it a “disgusting abomination” and encouraging members of Congress to “kill the bill.”

Musk’s criticism reached a boiling point on Thursday — ending with an explosive spat between the president and the tech billionaire. On Friday morning, Trump told ABC News that Musk had “lost his mind.”

Johnson was once one of Musk’s most powerful boosters on Capitol Hill. Johnson met with Musk repeatedly and would even talk him through legislation by phone. Musk even addressed a meeting of House Republicans in March.

Asked by ABC News if it was a mistake to trust Musk, Johnson dismissed the question and turned the focus back to the bill.

“I’m not going to engage in this back-and-forth stuff. I don’t think the American people care much about Twitter wars. I think they care about us accomplishing our legislative agenda, and the ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ does that.”

Johnson reiterated Friday that he has a job to do — and it’s not to get involved in the Musk-Trump squabble. Still, Johnson engaged in the online battle Thursday, responding to a Musk post criticizing the speaker.

Several other House Republicans are weighing in on the dispute and whether Musk’s influence and strong opinions about the megabill could influence its passage.

“I think Elon probably did change the trajectory of this bill two or three days ago when he came out against it because people trust the guy who can land rockets backwards more than they do the politicians,” Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said. Massie was one of two House Republicans who opposed the bill when the House voted on it last month.

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene sided with both Trump and Musk on different aspects of the bill — favoring Musk on the price tag. She said ultimately she thinks the focus should be on passing Trump’s agenda.

“I don’t think lashing out on the Internet is the way to handle any kind of disagreement, especially when you have each other’s cell phones,” Greene told reporters Friday. “I hope this gets worked out, but I will tell you right now that people are going to be focused on making sure that we get the agenda that we voted for.”

Republican Rep Troy Nehls, a staunch Trump ally, called for an end to the spat between the president and Musk, saying “enough is enough.”

Despite Musk publicly clashing with the head of their party — even seeming to suggest the House should impeach the president — some Republicans didn’t go out of their way to bad mouth the billionaire.

“Elon Musk can use his funds as he sees fit,” Republican Rep. Ralph Norman said when asked if he’s worried Musk would primary Republicans. “Again, he’s a patriot and if he disagrees, I respect the honesty, really.”

Republican Rep. Warren Davidson called for unity.

“I just hope that people that I care a lot about get along, that they mend, that they patch up their relationship,” he said. “It’s disappointing to see them arguing in public that way.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries capitalized on the clash, calling it a “welcome development.”

“To the extent that the developments of this week will make it more likely that we can kill the GOP tax scam, that’s a welcome development,” he said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President JD Vance on Friday continued to stand by President Donald Trump during his public feud with Elon Musk, but is notably not criticizing the Tesla billionaire directly.

Vance first weighed in hours after the explosive exchange began on Thursday, offering only a brief post on X.

“President Trump has done more than anyone in my lifetime to earn the trust of the movement he leads. I am proud to stand beside him,” Vance wrote.

On Friday morning, Vance turned his attention to the news media while still staying silent on Musk’s accusations against the president.

“There are many lies the corporate media tells about President Trump. One of the most glaring is that he’s impulsive or short-tempered. Anyone who has seen him operate under pressure knows that’s ridiculous,” Vance wrote on X. Musk on Thursday had not made any claims about Trump being “impulsive” or “short-tempered.”

Musk lobbied for Vance to be Trump’s 2024 running mate. Back in late February, Musk had posted to X that Vance was the “Best VP ever and our future President.”

Tensions between Trump and Musk, largely stemming from Musk’s relentless criticism in recent days of Trump’s signature legislation, reached a fever pitch on Thursday.

Trump in the Oval Office offered his harshest words yet for his former close adviser, saying he was “disappointed” in Musk. Musk hit back in real time, going on a X rampage that included suggesting Trump would have lost the 2024 election without him and even claiming Trump was “in” the Epstein files regarding the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, charged in 2019 with sex trafficking of minors.

At one point, he agreed with one user calling for Trump to be impeached and replaced with Vance. Vance has not responded to that, either.

Trump hit back on his own conservative social media platform, claiming Musk had gone “CRAZY” and floated the possibility of ending Musk’s government contracts.

The president told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jon Karl on Friday morning that Musk “has lost his mind” and that he was “not particularly” interested in talking to him right now.

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