Shortly after winning last year’s presidential election over Kamala Harris, Trump assigned Musk a task to “dismantle” the U.S. bureaucracy by providing outside advice to the administration from a “Department of Government Efficiency.” The acronym DOGE was a nod to the Dogecoin cryptocurrency that has been associated with Musk.

The head of President Donald Trump’s government efficiency effort, Elon Musk, is emerging as a messaging punching bag for Democrats as they pick up the pieces of their stinging defeat in last year’s elections and search for a winning message for 2026.

Discontent with Elon Musk has spurred a nationwide protest movement that aims to cut off the profits for the billionaire’s lucrative car business, EV maker Tesla. Now, Trump-aligned lawmakers are lobbying for the Justice Department to go after protesters in what seems like a blatantly oligarchic weaponization of the nation’s justice system.