Elon Musk arrived on Wednesday at Senate Republicans’ weekly luncheon on Capitol Hill ready to field questions about the work he is doing for President Trump at the Department of Government Efficiency, the office he formed that has taken a hatchet to the federal bureaucracy with no input from Congress.
They had plenty.
Republican senators have raised few public complaints about Mr. Musk as he has undertaken mass firings across the government without consulting or informing them. But during the nearly two-hour closed-door meeting, the senators gently questioned him about how they might share feedback, minimize blowback from their constituents and, perhaps, eventually get to vote on the cuts he is making.
At one point during the largely friendly exchange, Mr. Musk, who made no presentation of his own, shared his personal phone number with senators and encouraged them to reach out directly with any concerns.
“We’re getting feedback, and we want to respond to our constituents — how do we work most effectively to do that?” Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota said after the meeting, in characterizing the tenor of his colleagues’ questions.
Other Republicans said they were simply trying to figure out how they could help Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump succeed.
“There was just a general discussion about how we can make his cuts permanent,” said Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. “There was general discussion about how we, as senators, can do a better job of explaining clearly what he’s doing.”