Republicans are trying to avoid the fallout from the fighting between President Donald Trump and former DOGE head Elon Musk. The two have been engaged in a social media spat since Musk blasted the president's massive spending bill.

By creating DOGE, the Tesla billionaire became a heat shield for the Republican Party’s worst instincts. In his role as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk spent several months gleefully subjecting parts of the government he doesn’t like to an array of metaphorical power tools.