Rep. Tom Tiffany seemed to be at a loss for words.
“I don’t have anything to say,” the Wisconsin Republican told me as we descended the steps outside the House chamber. “Let’s wait for the next tweet.”
I was hoping for a bit more, so I pressed on. “It is what it is,” he said with a slight laugh.
It was the last vote of the day, and House Republicans were eager to get out of there. Their counterparts in the Senate had managed to leave town for the week just as the nasty — and for some, long-anticipated — feud between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump was getting underway.
What began as a disagreement over the “Big Beautiful Bill” had taken a strange turn. By this point, Musk had replied “yes” to a post that included a reference to impeaching Trump, claimed responsibility for the president’s 2024 victory, declared that tariffs would cause a recession, and said that Trump is in the “Epstein files.” Trump had floated taking away Musk’s government contracts, said that the billionaire “went CRAZY,” and insinuated that the tech titan suffered from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
As Tiffany faltered, a Democratic colleague pounced. “So Tom,” Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin interjected as he walked by, “Elon or Trump? Who’s gonna win?”
The Republican congressman’s tepid laughter grew into a guffaw. We all waited for the response. It never arrived. “I’ve got the press here,” an exasperated Tiffany said. “What do you want me to say, Mark?”
Many Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill found themselves in some version of Tiffany’s position, unsure what to say about the vicious war of words unfolding online.
“Is Mercury in retrograde?” asked Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
For months, Trump and Musk have appeared largely in lockstep. Republicans had become accustomed to brushing off and explaining away questions about the former DOGE leader’s machinations in the executive branch, as they had with Trump for nearly a decade.
Now, with the two men very publicly at odds, it was a time for choosing. But Republicans weren’t all that eager to choose. And at least one who did quickly reconsidered.
“Enough Elon. Put the phone down and go outside and play,” Republican Rep. Greg Murphy of North Carolina wrote in a post on X that was deleted minutes later.
Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Montana Republican who served as Secretary of the Interior during Trump’s first term, initially offered praise for Musk when asked about the feud. “I respect, obviously, the President. I respect Elon Musk,” Zinke said. “Very, very bright.”
When informed about Musk’s response to the post referencing Trump’s impeachment, Zinke let out a sharp sigh. “Yeah, that’s a bridge too far,” he said. “You know, I’m sorry that his tour of duty ended that way.”
“This is a sign of the times that you see some of this stuff being done in public,” Republican Rep. Scotty Perry of Pennsylvania said. “People over the course of history who wanted to save the republic had different viewpoints about how to do it.”
Several Republicans on Thursday used social media to subtly make their allegiance to Trump known, even without explicitly criticizing the world’s richest man.
One of them was Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh of Arizona, who posted a photo of himself with Trump on X as the drama with Musk unfolded.
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Was it a veiled message? Hamadeh laughed and looked down when asked about it. “President Trump’s my president,” he told me. “People voted for him. I supported him. President Trump is the reason why we’re all here.”
He later added that he “appreciated” Musk’s contributions.
For Democrats, it was a told-you-so moment.
“None of it surprises me, to be honest,” Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, the top Democrat on the DOGE subcommittee, told me. “You sell your soul to the devil, or you pay your way into it, and this is what you get.”
The only Republican who seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself was Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who’s had his fair share of feuds with Trump and voted against the “Big Beautiful Bill” for largely the same reason that Musk decided to critique it.
“I tell my colleagues,” Massie said, “if I get hit on Independence Avenue, and they have to deliver my eulogy, just say he was having his best day ever.”
