GOP senators respond to Musk’s primary challenge threats over Trump’s signature bill

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk threatened to support primary challenges of GOP senators who vote in favor of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” prompting pushback from some senators who spoke to Fox News Digital. 

“I’ll take President Trump’s endorsement over Elon’s any day of the week back home,” Kansas GOP Sen. Roger Marshall told Fox News Digital.

“Look, we need to pass this bill because it helps fulfill President Trump’s agenda. His priorities were to secure the border, bring back prosperity and security. I think if we do those things, if we bring back the prosperity and the security, we’re going to get re-elected. Elon’s continuing his little spat, we are ignoring him. Let’s get this bill across the finish line.”

GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama told Fox News Digital that the “bottom line” is that “51 of us are going to vote for this tonight.”

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“I saw some of the things he’s upset over, the subsidies that we’re cutting out of energy, you know, the wind and solar. He thinks that we need to do more with energy, and I agree with that, but we can’t keep funding it through the federal government. We’ve got to go out there and do it the right way through private enterprise like he’s done it.”

Missouri GOP Sen. Schmitt praised Musk’s work at DOGE, saying he has a “ton of respect” for the former DOGE chief and said he should be congratulated for the “incredible thing” he did for the country, finding waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.

“Everybody’s entitled to their opinions,” Schmitt said. 

GOP Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty told Fox News Digital that by the time primary elections come up in 2026, the country will “already be seeing the benefits of the bill.”

“We’re going to see more growth and more tax benefits, more revenue benefits, I should say, so, I don’t think that the doom and gloom being predicted by many is actually going to manifest itself,” Hagerty explained. “In fact, I think we’re opening the door to a new golden era, as President Trump likes to say.”

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South Dakota GOP Sen. Jon Hoeven pushed back on the criticism that the bill would increase the deficit by arguing the deficit would be reduced via revenue growth and savings. 

“I think people understand that he, you know, didn’t like the one big, beautiful bill,” Hoeven said. “So I don’t know that people have paid, you know, nearly as much attention to it this time around.”

Marshall, when asked if he thought Musk’s primary threats would hurt Republicans in the midterms, said, “I haven’t given it a second thought today.”

“It would be a big speed bump in certain states, in Kansas, probably not so much. I think President Trump was wildly popular in most of these states. I think we need to find a way to get Elon back on board. He’s a smart person, brings a lot to our economy. Let’s figure out how to bring Elon back into the fold here.”

Musk intensified his ongoing feud with Trump and his allies this week in a political warning to lawmakers that he would work to unseat them if they voted in support of Trump’s bill.

“Anyone who campaigned on the PROMISE of REDUCING SPENDING, but continues to vote on the BIGGEST DEBT ceiling increase in HISTORY will see their face on this poster in the primary next year,” Musk posted to X Monday evening.

The message was accompanied by an image of Pinocchio sitting on fire and the caption, “LIAR Voted to increase America’s DEBT by 5,000,000,000.00”

“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” Musk declared in a post on X on Monday.

On Tuesday morning, as the bill was being debated in the Senate, Trump warned that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is a “monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.”

“DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible?” Trump told the media Tuesday morning as he departed for a trip to the Florida Everglades to visit a new migrant detention center. “He gets a lot of subsidies. But, Elon was very upset that the EV mandate is going to be terminated.” 

His response followed a question regarding whether he would deport Musk, who is originally from South Africa. Trump responded, “I don’t know, we’ll have to take a look.”

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.