Tech trillionaire Elon Musk has sparked some controversy after declaring that he intends to sue Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and that he should be jailed in relation to cuts to USAID made by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk began his tirade on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday (June 22) in response to an appearance by Khanna on the I’ve Had It podcast by Jennifer Welch the previous Saturday (June 20). The progressive politician stated, using cited data from the Lancet medical journal, that the cuts that DOGE made to USAID could potentially be “a death sentence” for 4.5 million people.
Khanna also called Musk to appear before the House Oversight Committee and testify under oath about his decisions. Musk took offense, threatening to sue in the first of many X posts directed at Khanna in response to a post by the New York Post.
Musk then quoted an admirer, Doge Designer’s X post, which called for Khanna’s arrest, simply writing, “Yes” in the caption.
“The standard applied by DOGE was very simple and easy: Provide contact information for the recipients of aid, so that we can confirm it is not fraudulent,” Musk said in another post. “The reality is that money was being sent to corrupt politicians under the guise of aid! Liars and stock insider traders like Ro the Robber should be in prison!!”
Another post on X from Doge Designer alleging that Khanna has engaged in illegal insider trading as a sitting congressman was quoted by Musk with the caption, “‘Robber’ Khanna!!!”
Khanna fired back promptly, calling out the SpaceX founder to partake in a debate in a post from his X account. “I am for free speech, not lawfare,” he wrote.
Khanna expanded on that challenge in the most recent post on his Substack newsletter. “The Epstein Class is used to getting its way. It is not used to being held accountable by a son of immigrants from Bucks County who cannot be bought and will not be bullied. That is why they are scared, and they should be,” he wrote.
The response to the back-and-forth drew some critical and mocking reactions from others online to Musk’s threats. One X user named RandallPink17 had a withering response: “You’re the Grinch bro. But instead of stealing Christmas you killed kids.”
