Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., brushed aside threats of legal action from , the trillionaire founder of SpaceX and Tesla, on Thursday.
“This is what he does,” Khanna told Digital outside the U.S. Capitol.
“Its symptomatic of our times that billionaires â and now [a] trillionaire â can threaten to sue members of Congress for doing their job. He wont intimidate me. Im not going to be intimidated by the guy. Im not going to be silenced by the guy,” Khanna said.
Khannas comments come on the heels of an online back-and-forth between him and Musk over whether cuts to government aid programs overseas â cuts spearheaded by Musk in the early days of the second Trump administration â had led to fatalities.
In particular, Khanna, a high-profile progressive and a in 2028, had been criticizing Musks work to cut the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“There needs to be accountability for Elon Musk. You know, theyre celebrating that he created 4,400 millionaires, but they dont talk about the 4.5 million children around the world who he possibly sentenced to death by dismantling USAID,” Khanna said, in a recent podcast appearance, citing a study from the Lancet Group, a medical journal.
The assertion drew a fierce response from Musk, who waste, fraud and abuse from U.S. programs.
“,” Musk said in a post to X.
“Robber Khanna should be in prison,” Musk added in a separate reaction.
Musk, like many conservatives suspicious of , criticized USAID for greenlighting millions in spending that, in their view, had little justification.
But while for transgender comic books in Peru and Iraqi Sesame Street, critics of the cuts argued that Musks efforts had failed to differentiate between waste and life-saving initiatives around the globe.
By March of last year, USAID had cut roughly 83% of its programs, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Its not immediately clear what kind of damages Musk would try to pursue in a lawsuit against Khanna for his claims.
When asked if he would go to court if Musk followed through on his posts, Khanna said he liked his odds.
“Grok says he doesnt have a case, so we will have to see,” Khanna said, referring to the on X, a social media platform owned by Musk.
