U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson held two town halls in Elkader and Decorah Iowa May 28. The crowd erupted with anger over her support for the GOP tax bill.

Despite the heckling, Hinson said she plans to continue holding town halls and visits with Iowans to answer voters’ questions.

U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson didn’t falter in her support for President Donald Trump as she faced spurts of jeers and heckling over Congress’ mega tax policy bill at two Iowa town halls.

“What about due process!” an audience member yelled.

“What’s the point if you’re going to talk the whole time!” another attendee said.

Hinson’s two fiery town halls in Elkader and Decorah on Wednesday, May 28, were the first large in-person public forums she’s held since U.S. House Republicans went home for a week-long recess after passing Trump’s comprehensive budget and policy bill overnight May 22.

“I believe the president is fighting for you, and I’m fighting alongside him,” she said in her opening comments. “I do think the president was saved that day in Butler, Pennsylvania, for a reason.”

Although there were moments of applause for the Iowa Republican, the audience erupted in jeers and called Hinson a “liar” and booed her during the separate hour-long events she held with more than 300 attendees.

The bill, which now heads to the U.S. Senate, would make Trump’s expiring 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent and make cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, a program that provides food assistance to 42 million Americans. The bill would also eliminate taxes on workers’ tips and overtime, which was one of Trump’s campaign promises.

Trump’s policy and tax bill drew sharp criticism from Democrats for its proposed cuts to social security programs like Medicaid and SNAP.

Hinson responded to the heckling in Elkader and said she plans to continue holding town halls and visits with Iowans to answer voters’ questions.

“I’ll give an update and then I’ll take your questions. That’s why I’m here today, that’s why I’ve done 44 in-person town halls,” Hinson said amid jeers from the audience. “So just be patient, and I’ll be answering your questions shortly.”

Hinson addressed the audiences in the Elkader Opera House and on Luther College’s campus in Decorah, highlighting her work in Congress, including with the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) spearheaded by Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk.

Iowans frustrated with the Trump administration’s agenda and Congress have loudly expressed their disapproval at other federal lawmakers’ town halls this year. Hinson held another recent town hall where she faced an angry crowd of Iowans in Mason City at the end of April.

Two audience members at Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley’s most recent town hall in April shouted hostile remarks across the room to each other in front of the longtime senator.

Town hall audience members press Rep. Hinson with questions on DOGE, Trump agenda

Neil Henkenius of Manchester told Hinson during the Elkader town hall that as a veteran, he thinks giving Musk’s authority to lead DOGE is like giving a “billionaire a chainsaw.”

“I’m not only speaking for myself, but I’m speaking for all of the veterans, all of the federal workers that are out there,” Henkenius said. “People don’t need a billionaire, like Musk, running our country.”

Hinson replied that she’s on the House Committee on Appropriations, which oversees federal spending, adding she supports funding for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and research, but wants to “make sure dollars are going where they should be going.”

Hinson is also a part of the House DOGE Caucus.

“I think that Elon Musk came in and helped to join and lead a team of people who are actively working to find this waste, fraud and abuse every single day,” Hinson said, droned out by yells from the audience. “… Some of the things that they are discovering every day would make your skin crawl.”

Steve Peterson of Decorah said at the town hall that he’s sick of corruption in Washington, D.C., referencing Trump’s acceptance of a luxury Boeing 747 from the Qatari government to replace Air Force One.

“Could you help me understand why you are silent?” Peterson asked.

Hinson said she rejects the premise in the question posted that she likes to see corruption in the federal government, and that she’s at the town halls answering the public’s questions because she cares about transparency.

“Many of you probably didn’t vote for me, some of you probably did,” Hinson said after a few back-and-forths with Peterson. “What I think is important is leading by example, so what I did when I was named to the House Appropriations Committee, for example I want you to know that any decision that I make, any funding requests I make is not something that I am going to get a kickback on.”

Iowa farmer Devin Brincks of Ossian said after the Decorah event that as Republican-leaning voter who’s supported Hinson in the past, there hasn’t been enough respect for her and other elected officials during the town halls.

Brincks asked Hinson about the possibility of securing year-round sales of E15, which is gasoline blended with 15% ethanol. Trump recently granted a waiver for the sale of E15 for the summer months, but the year-round vending of the product has been a top concern for many farmers.

“Whether it’s at the state level or the national level, at the end of the day, they’re trying to do a job, they’re trying to present to us what they’re doing,” Brincks said. “I was in the second row, and it was hard to hear what she was saying half the time. … I don’t necessarily agree with everything she does, but I want to hear what she has to say.”

Nick Larson, of Walker, said he drove over an hour to speak to Hinson about his concerns.

“I think she’s hyper-political. I think she throws a bunch of political stuff out there, but I think she’s probably pretty pragmatic and does listen,” Larson, who is a Democrat, said after the town hall. “I mean, I thought she listened to the answers and tried to answer them, but then she’d throw political things in there, which was unfortunate because we’re just wasting time. The first 20 minutes was a waste of time. We didn’t need to hear a political speech.”

Sabine Martin covers politics for the Register. She can be reached by email at sabine.martin@gannett.com or by phone at (515) 284-8132. Follow her on X at @sabinefmartin.

Many members of the House skipped holding large, public events while out of Washington this week. But the Republicans who did hold town halls back home got an earful.

At events from Georgia and Wisconsin to Oklahoma and Oregon, House Republicans faced sometimes-hostile crowds furious about the sweeping budget cuts and mass firings of federal workers that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are carrying out.

With the House on recess and many lawmakers returning to their districts, this week was the first opportunity for them to hear directly from constituents about Trump and Musk’s scorched-earth strategy to cut spending and shrink the federal government’s footprint.

At City Hall in Roswell, a suburb of Atlanta, on Thursday night, attendees jeered and talked over Republican Rep. Rich McCormick as they peppered him with tough questions about the cuts — and the seemingly indiscriminate way some of them are being carried out.

One man asked McCormick how Musk’s DOGE could fire employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which safeguards America’s nuclear weapons, and other federal employees who had been working to combat the bird flu outbreak. More than 1,000 workers also have been laid off from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a major employer in Atlanta.

“Why is the supposedly conservative party taking such a radical and extremist and sloppy approach to this?” the man said as the room erupted in applause, according to videos posted on X by Greg Bluestein, a journalist with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a NBC News contributor.

“A lot of the work they do is duplicitous with AI,” responded McCormick, referring to artificial intelligence, a remark that sparked disagreement from the crowd. “I happen to be a doctor. I know a few things, OK?”

“If we continue to grow the size of government, and we can’t afford it, it’s going to have shortfalls in your Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security,” the congressman continued. “We have to make some decisions.”

At the start of the town hall, a woman told McCormick, who represents a safe Republican seat outside Atlanta, that it was Congress’ job to direct and appropriate federal spending, “not the president, and you are doing a disservice to set that down and not stand up for us.”

Many of these issues “will be litigated in court,” McCormick said, prompting more jeers.

“But we’re pissed!” another attendee yelled out.

Sign of more to come, or ‘a few critics’?

The contentious town halls could be an early sign of political backlash to come for elected Republicans as thousands of federal workers around the country begin getting pink slips and Americans start to feel the impact, as the GOP-controlled Congress largely yields to Trump and Musk.

One Republican lawmaker said it appeared that constituents who’ve been “quiet” since Joe Biden’s 2020 victory are back out in force.

“Too much too fast seems to be a common refrain,” the lawmaker continued. “Need to review each program, department or agency first and then make calculated decisions. But generally frustrated right now by lack of clarity.”

Some House Republicans hosted virtual or tele-town halls, which can be moderated more easily. But at the few in-person town halls around the country this week, GOP lawmakers were on the defensive as they were quizzed about the mass firings and potential future cuts to Medicaid.

In West Bend, Wisconsin, GOP Rep. Scott Fitzgerald faced several tough questions at a town hall Thursday, including from attendee Michael Wittig, who was holding a sign reading, “Presidents are not kings.”

“Are you going to subpoena him at some point? Are you willing to use your subpoena power to tell Musk to stand in front of Congress and answer some hard questions?” Wittig asked, according to a report from WTMJ, the NBC News affiliate in Milwaukee.

That same question came up in Glenpool, Oklahoma, where attendees told Rep. Kevin Hern, a member of GOP leadership, that he wasn’t doing his job standing up to the executive branch. “We’re seeing the administration undermining Congress,” a mother with a baby in her lap told Hern, according to News9 in Oklahoma City. “Will you call Elon Musk in to testify under oath to explain what he’s doing?” asked another attendee.

At a town hall in Baker City, Oregon, a man who identified himself as Terry Strommer, a military veteran from Oxbow, told GOP Rep. Cliff Bentz that his office had been unresponsive when he raised concerns about Musk.

“I’ll just ask you, if you think that he’s doing it right. Would you like all of your private records revealed and pulled up by a bunch of people that weren’t elected, they’re just randomly appointed, a bunch of 20-year-olds?” the man said. “I know that when I was in the service, there was a chain of command and we answered to somebody. I don’t see him answering to anybody.”

Bentz defended Musk, calling him “an absolute world-renowned expert” who could overhaul the government’s “antiquated systems.” Some in the crowd laughed at Bentz’s description.

And back in Wisconsin, attendees confronted GOP Rep. Glenn Grothman about potential cuts in Trump and congressional Republicans’ spending plans.

Asked whether cuts to Social Security or Medicaid would push him to oppose a GOP spending bill, Grothman said, “Well, certainly if Social Security is cut, and Medicaid, we’ll have to see about that.”

The raucous town halls conjured memories of those in 2009 — the start of the tea party movement — when constituents protested over Democrats’ massive health care bill, which became the Affordable Care Act.

The next year, a red wave gave House Republicans a staggering 63-seat gain and swept Democrats out of power. Democrats hope that the palpable frustration could be an accelerant for them in next year’s midterms, though the specifics of the modern House battlefield, shaped by two rounds of precise redistricting since 2010, make the kind of tsunami Republicans rode then hard to replicate.

At this juncture, some Republicans are also questioning just how deep the backlash in these congressional town halls runs.

“I love how the media takes a few critics when the overwhelming response from the American people is support for what this administration is doing,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in response to questions from NBC News.

She added: “There should be no secret about the fact that this administration is committed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse. The president campaigned on that promise. Americans elected him on that promise, and he’s actually delivering on it. And this is something that Democrats promised they would do for decades.”

Still, a Republican strategist on the front lines of the tea party wave said he sees early glimmers of a similar phenomenon now, with the GOP facing voter anger over the economic situation the same way the Democratic trifecta did in 2009.

“The Republican mandate coming out of the 2024 election was pretty clear: Tackle the rising cost of living in America,” said Ken Spain, who served as communications director for the House Republican campaign arm in 2009 and 2010. “As exciting as it may be for the Republican base, most voters don’t naturally make a connection between aggressively cutting the size of the federal workforce and their pocketbooks.”

Spain also said Republicans still have time to avoid getting swamped like Democrats did in 2010.

“We’re one month into the new administration, so it’s too early to start drawing immediate parallels to the tea party protests of 2009, but Republicans must pivot to connecting the dots between their actions and the tangible economic benefits for the working class,” Spain said. “Otherwise, the echoes of 2009 could become increasingly louder.”

Voters react

Recent surveys show some potential peril for Republicans because of Trump’s early actions, particularly his efforts to thin the ranks of the federal workforce.

Narrow majorities of American adults in polling from CNN and The Washington Post/Ipsos said they believe Trump has overstepped as president.

Both polls also found a majority disagreeing with his attempts to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development. And the Post’s poll found that 58% opposed his efforts to lay off large numbers of federal government workers.

Jesse Ferguson, a veteran Democratic strategist who worked on House races during the Obama era, said he sees parallels to the 2018 cycle, when Trump’s party faced a backlash in the midterms.

“Republicans are taking heat cause people feel like things are out-of-control and see the GOP as becoming responsible for the problem instead of being part of the solution,” he said. “When life feels out of control, the last thing you want is Trump and Musk chainsawing apart everything you depend on.”

“In 2010, Democrats felt the backlash from owning a bad status quo, and in 2018, Republicans felt the backlash for trying to take important things away,” Ferguson said. “In 2025, Republicans are managing to do both.”

One outstanding political question is whether voters take any frustration over those actions out on largely powerless Democrats, too.

Stuck in the minority in Congress, House and Senate Democrats have been protesting the firings and cuts, holding rallies and in some cases confronting security personnel outside federal agency buildings around Washington. But some Democrats are also feeling the heat from constituents who urged them to fight harder against Musk’s DOGE efforts.

At a packed town hall in Albany, New York, a man told Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko that he had watched the congressman on TV protesting the cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Education. But he called on Tonko to do more because Musk and Republicans “are not playing by the rules.”

“If you ask us to show up, Congressman Tonko, we will show up. … We have to take it to them,” the man said, according to a video posted on Facebook. When he turned on the TV, “I was so proud that my representative was on the front line. But I thought about Jimmy Carter and I thought about John Lewis, and I know what John Lewis would have done. He would have gotten arrested that day.

“Make them outlaw you,” he continued as the applause grew louder. “We will stand behind you, we will be there with you. I will get arrested with you.”

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Before answering an attendee’s question about President Donald Trump’s “destructive and disastrous trade war,” U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards made a plea to the rowdy crowd at his Thursday town hall in Asheville, North Carolina.

“Let me answer and then if you don’t like it, you can boo or hiss or whatever you’d like to do,” Edwards said, visibly exhausted.

As he expanded on Trump’s use of tariffs as a negotiating tactic, it took less than a minute for the crowd to break out in outrage. He continued to plow ahead in his response and eventually punctuated it by telling attendees he would “stop there and you can yell.” The crowd gladly took him up on the offer.

For about an hour and half, Edwards endured a constant barrage of jeers, expletives and searing questions on Trump administration policies. About 300 people crammed inside a college auditorium for the town hall, while the boos from more than a thousand people outside the building rumbled throughout the event.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told GOP representatives last week to skip out on town halls, saying demonstrations outside of them were the work of “professional protesters.” Edwards addressed the Republican leader’s advice, saying he didn’t want to “shy away” from conversations with the people of western North Carolina — even if they disagreed.

But less than 30 minutes into the town hall, Edwards started to change his tune as a majority of attendees interrupted him with vitriolic disruptions. Asheville is a deep-blue dot amid a sea of red in North Carolina’s mountains. North Carolina went for Trump in the 2024 election.

“And you wonder why folks don’t want to do these town halls,” Edwards said over shouting.

Edwards kicked off his town hall discussing western North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene. Asheville is still rebuilding after the devastating storm, which killed more than 100 people in North Carolina and caused a record-shattering amount of damage — about $59.6 billion in damages and record needs, according to the state.

But as Edwards touted the work he said the Trump administration has been doing for the region’s recovery — which could include the president’s proposal to dissolve the Federal Emergency Management Agency — attendees shouted him down and demanded he address questions immediately. One person was escorted out of the venue after hurling expletives at the congressman.

“Listen to us now!” several people screamed from various parts of the room.

Edwards fielded scathing questions on a variety of topics, ranging from sweeping cuts to various government agencies at the hand of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to the future of health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Questions on slashing jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs and whether the U.S. will continue to support Ukraine in its war with Russia received standing ovations from most in the crowd.

The representative mostly stayed in line in supporting the Trump administration’s policies, reiterating that part of his job was seeing what decisions his constituents disagreed with so the federal government could “go back and look” at what it could improve on.

Edwards kept good humor throughout the raucous town hall, telling attendees at the end that he enjoyed hearing the crowd’s “passion” and “patriotism.” In a news conference afterward, Edwards said Trump and Musk were “over the target” in what they set out to accomplish.

“I take away from what I heard today that we’re doing exactly what the American people sent us to Washington D.C. to do,” Edwards said, as several protesters pounded on the doors nearby.

Fresh off a huge victory in passing their “big, beautiful bill” through the House, Republican lawmakers are finding that President Trump’s agenda is a much tougher sell at home.

In a series of contentious town halls, rank-and-file Republicans seeking to promote the virtues of the massive domestic policy package have run into a buzzsaw of criticism from constituents leery that the legislation will do more harm than good.

Some of the critics are voicing concerns that the proposal cuts too deeply into federal programs that benefit Americans across party lines. Others are griping that the package piles trillions of dollars onto federal deficits, breaking an early promise from GOP leaders that the bill would help bring budgets closer to balance.

The pushback not only highlights the headaches facing Republican leaders battling to get Trump’s domestic agenda to the president’s desk this summer, but also forecasts the political challenges facing the GOP as it fights to keep control of the House in next year’s midterms in the face of persistent attacks from Democrats, who like their odds of flipping the chamber and are vowing to make the “big, beautiful bill” a central piece of their pitch to anxious voters.

Those tensions were all on full display in recent days in parts of the Midwest, where a pair of lawmakers staged town halls — a strategy GOP leaders have cautioned against — and got an earful from voters furious over the legislation.

In Nebraska, Rep. Mike Flood (R) faced a tsunami of misgivings about his vote in favor of the “big, beautiful bill,” with voters asking about Medicaid changes; cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamps; and how the package would pile on to the federal deficit.

“How do you justify extending the 2017 temporary tax cuts and offsetting that federal loss by cutting Medicaid and SNAP benefits — tax cuts [that are] expected to add $5 trillion to [the] deficit?” one participant asked.

One of the most viral moments from the event, however, came in response to a question about a small provision in the package that seeks to restrict federal judges’ ability to hold government officials in contempt when they violate a court order. The language — a small paragraph in the 1,000-plus-page bill — flew largely under the radar ahead of the vote.

Asked about why he supported a bill with those terms, Flood said it was “unknown” to him when he cast his vote — a signal that he did not read the full bill before formally weighing in on the matter.

“I am not going to hide the truth: This provision was unknown to me when I voted for that bill,” Flood said, prompting the crowd to break out in shouts. “And when I found out that provision was in the bill, I immediately reached out to my Senate counterparts and told them of my concern.”

In Iowa, GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson encountered a similarly tough crowd, which erupted into a chorus of boos when the third-term Republican hailed the legislation as “a generational investment” in American prosperity.

“I can’t believe you would boo tax relief for working Americans,” she responded.

And in Colorado, members of the state’s Republican delegation held a press conference to tout the bill, only to be shouted over by protesters throughout their remarks, Colorado Public Radio reported.

It’s unclear how many attendees of the GOP town halls are Republicans, and how many are Democrats who opposed the legislation from the start. Outside liberal groups such as Indivisible have encouraged their members to attend such events, and the Nebraska Democratic Party urged supporters to “pack” Flood’s recent town hall in Seward.

Still, Flood made a point to shake everyone’s hand at the outset of the event, and he rejected the accusations from many in his party — including some GOP leaders — that Democrats are paying people to heckle Republicans in public settings.

“I don’t think one of you is here because you’re getting paid,” Flood said. “I don’t think one of you is here because you were trucked in.”

The heat Republicans are facing is unlikely to subside any time soon. The Senate is expected to make changes to the bill in the coming weeks, then send the package back to the House for a final stamp of approval, forcing GOP lawmakers to vote once again on the contentious provisions, potentially sparking a new round of criticism back home.

Conservative Senate Republicans are pushing for steeper spending cuts — Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.), for example has said he wants federal spending to roll back to 2019 levels — while moderates are warning against deep slashes. Medicaid is also poised to be the subject of debate in the upper chamber, with moderate Republicans — along with conservative Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) — saying they will not support a bill that makes cuts to the social safety net program.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), for his part, has urged Senate Republicans — both privately and publicly — to make minimal changes, citing the “very delicate equilibrium” he achieved within his conference to get the package over the finish line. Trump, however, has given the upper chamber the green light to make whatever tweaks they wish, which could set up another politically prickly vote for House Republicans.

“I want the Senate and the senators to make the changes they want. It will go back to the House and we’ll see if we can get them,” Trump said last weekend. “In some cases, the changes may be something I’d agree with, to be honest.”

“I think it’s going to get there,” he added of the package. “I think they are going to have changes. Some will be minor, some will be fairly significant.”

The contentious town halls are far from a new scene for House Republicans. Since Trump took office, numerous GOP lawmakers across the country have faced crowds hostile to Trump’s boundary-busting mass deportations, blanket pardons for loyalists, and other actions that have defined the early months of his second term. The events grew so extensive — and tense — that House GOP leaders in March urged their members to avoid in-person town halls and instead host call-in and livestream conversations to avoid the chaotic confrontations.

The recent protests have been unique, however, in that the lawmakers have become the target based on their votes in favor of Trump’s specific policy agenda.

“I was also proud to vote for President Trump’s one big, beautiful bill last week,” Hinson said at the beginning of her town hall, prompting boos from the audience. “I’m here to clear up a lot of the misinformation that’s out here today” — she added, prompting laughs — “because this bill is about securing our borders, this bill is about providing continued tax relief for working Americans and returning out country to prosperity.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are hoping to capitalize on both the internal GOP divisions surrounding the debate, and the unpopularity of the more controversial provisions of legislation, like the Medicaid and SNAP cuts, which they’re hoping will backfire on Republicans in the midterms.

“Now that vulnerable Republicans are on the record voting for it, this betrayal of the American people will cost them their jobs in the midterms and Republicans the House Majority come 2026,” Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), head of the Democrats’ campaign arm, said after the House vote.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson is encouraging Republican lawmakers to skip town halls that have been filled with protesters decrying the Trump administration’s slashing of federal government, echoing the president’s claims that the demonstration’s are fueled by professional protesters.

The speaker’s advice Tuesday comes as GOP lawmakers often find themselves at a loss to explain the cuts, led by billionaire Elon Musk’sDepartment of Government Efficiency, that are leaving federal workers suddenly out of jobs in communities from coast to coast. Democrats are jumping in to shine a bright light on what is happening.

“We’ve seen this movie before,” Johnson said at a news conference.

“They’re professional protesters,” Johnson added. “So why would we give them a forum to do that right now?”

Johnson was repeating President Donald Trump’s claim posted on social media on Monday that “Paid ‘troublemakers’” are filling the GOP town halls to which the House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries responded: “We don’t need paid protestors. The American people are with us.”

The Republicans are finding themselves in an unusual spot — defending the deep budget cuts they have campaigned on for years, but have rarely been able to accomplish because the reductions cut into federal programs and services Americans in their districts rely on.

Trump and Musk’s DOGE have fired tens of thousands of federal workers as they tear through the federal government in search of what they call waste, fraud and abuse. It’s spiraling at a pace the Republicans in Congress could only imagine when the party swept control of the White House, House and Senate.

Republicans are feeling the heat back home.

Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas was confronted over the week by spirited residents questioning him about the firings of veterans from the federal workforce.

Marshall, too, echoed claims of paid protesters. “Can confirm,” Marshall posted alongside Trump’s comment.

The scenes at the town halls are reminiscent of past moments — from the Obama-era health care battles, when tea party Republicans fought against the Affordable Care Act, and also the George W. Bush era, when Democrats and others protested his proposed changes to Social Security.

But more immediately the town hall outbursts resemble the Trump-era protests of 2017 and 2018 when Republicans tried and failed to repeal Obamacare, and then approved sweeping GOP tax cuts — and Democrats campaign against them, sweeping the midterm elections and reclaiming control of the U.S. House.

The speaker protecting his thin-as-ever majority advised his lawmakers to choose other forums — smaller community gatherings or telephone town halls — to discuss the issues with voters.

“They’re running away from the people because they know how badly people have been hurt by what they’re doing,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.

Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, and the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said, “I think many House Republicans have to make a choice about whether they want to fulfill their job title as representative, where they can have a town hall and actually speak honestly to their constituents, or whether they want to change their job title to Elon Musk employee.”

As Trump and Musk bulldoze through the federal government, Republican leaders are looking to cut even further, enshrining the reductions and other changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other programs into law as part of the budget process. They are hoping to reach some $2 trillion in cuts to help finance some $4.5 trillion tax breaks.

Outside groups, including Indivisible, which led powerful demonstrations during the first Trump turn, are organizing in communities nationwide as voters opposed to the president’s agenda seeks ways to show their discontent.

It has all left rank-and-file Republicans struggling to keep pace with the onslaught.

Asked in recent days what they have to say to fired federal workers, the GOP lawmakers have not always had a ready response.

“No pain, no gain,” Marshall told the Associated Press last week.

Marshall the senator from Kansas said voters understand that the U.S. government is running a nearly $2 trillion deficit, piling onto the debt load and that changes need to be made.

“I think a lot of people understand that there’s going to be some short term pain for the opportunity for long term gain,” he said. “I think people overall very happy to see the cut, in the federal spending.”

Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming said she’s supportive of Musk and his team, “but I still feel sorry for people who are losing their jobs.”

Her message to those fired federal workers was to think about the other Americans who are also struggling to get by. “You’ve got to think about the people who are paying for all this government,” she said. “We have too much government.”

Republican Sen. Rick Scott said, “That’s what President Trump got elected to do.”

Asked about his message to those who’ve been fired and are out of work, Scott said that “I’ll do everything I can to be helpful to them.”

Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas said he supports DOGE, “as a concept.” But he said, “I think you got to be careful as to how you do it.”

His advice to fired federal workers? “Just be patient.”

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said while government funding remains important in particular areas, for cancer research and the National Institutes of Health, “I think Elon Musk’s leadership and Doge has been terrific.”

“It has been refreshing. It has been desperately needed, and I am cheering him on each and every day.”