In his quest to slash government spending, President Donald Trump has given Elon Musk unfettered — and unprecedented — access to federal agencies. And while Musk’s unique position may concern some GOP lawmakers, his deep ties to China are not.
“You know, business is business,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville told NOTUS. “Again, if President Trump trusts him, I trust him.”
Others in the Senate GOP agreed with Tuberville: Musk’s job is to cut government spending. Whatever ties he might have to a foreign adversary, that’s a problem for the future.
“I think Elon Musk is doing a fine job taking a look at the relationships of the spending in this country,” Sen. John Barrasso told NOTUS. “I supported his efforts on DOGE. The specifics of other relationships, we can get into that later.”
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“I don’t have a reason to be concerned about it right now. What he’s been focused on is efficiency here in the U.S. government,” Sen. Bill Hagerty said.
In the past, multiple Republicans — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio — have raised concerns over Musk’s ties to China through his companies Tesla and SpaceX. Tesla built a factory in Shanghai using $1.4 billion in loans from multiple private Chinese banks, which are tightly regulated under Chinese law, and manufactures half its cars in China. Musk traveled to China last year to meet with high-ranking officials and secured a tightly regulated data security permit for Tesla’s self-driving car software.
In 2022, some Republicans expressed fear that the Chinese government could access classified information because of Tesla’s ties to SpaceX, which holds multiple U.S. government contracts.
But as Musk gains more power in government, Republicans are mostly brushing off fears that he is too closely tied to China.
China hawk Sen. Ted Cruz told NOTUS he knows Musk “very well.”
“He’s demonstrated an enormous commitment to this country. In particular, going in and serving in the White House, and leading the DOGE effort to turn around out-of-control spending,” Cruz said. “I view all those issues as separate from China.”
Musk has already influenced policy decisions in ways that would benefit his business in China. He was one of the main figures in striking down the bipartisan funding bill last December, which had several provisions restricting the flow of U.S. money into the Chinese tech sector. After Republicans blocked this bill under Musk’s advice, the stripped-down version of the continuing resolution that made it into law had none of these provisions in place.
The White House addressed some of these concerns, saying Musk himself would steer away from any potential conflicts of interest.
“If Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, Elon will excuse himself from those contracts,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday.
Republicans told NOTUS they trust Musk to do his job to improve government efficiency. “Guy’s an organizational genius,” Sen. Ron Johnson said.
“Elon Musk is a great, great leader,” Sen. Steve Daines said. “One of the smartest guys we have, and I’m thankful he’s putting all his efforts in trying to find ways to make government more efficient.”
Sen. Kevin Cramer told NOTUS that he isn’t worried “as long as everything’s transparent.”
“If we start seeing some sort of self-centered policies that reward an individual who has something to say about those policies,” Cramer said, “we have systems for both watching that, for calling it out and, if necessary, for doing more.”
Democrats said Republicans’ stance on Musk is hypocritical.
“All the speeches they’ve given about the threats from China and businesses in particular, and now they want to say it’s no big deal when Elon Musk is doing it?” asked Sen. Ron Wyden. “Hard to keep a straight face on that one.”
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Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Emily Kennard, a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow, contributed reporting.
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