As angry voters swarm Republican lawmakers' town halls to demand they stand up to President Donald Trump and co-President Elon Musk's destructive cuts to the federal government, GOP leadership is now advising their caucus to not hold town halls at all, NBC News reported.
The scenes at town halls, in which voters boo and jeer as Republican lawmakers defend the cuts and refuse to criticize Trump and Musk, have led to a barrage of negative headlines for the GOP in recent days. The images have brought out comparisons to the town halls in both 2009 and 2017, which were some of the earliest signs that the party in power was about to take a massive hit in the upcoming midterm elections.
“Obviously we’re very aware of those headlines,” an unnamed Republican National Committee official told NBC News. “I don’t know that a specific edict is going to come down from on high that they need to stop or anything, but a message I believe has been clearly sent that this narrative should end very soon. … Probably the best way for that to happen is no more town halls. Elon Musk’s work still has the administration’s support, period.”
Much of the pushback at the town halls has been in response to Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has forced cuts to the federal workforce, including thousands of veterans and other highly skilled civil servants whose jobs helped protect national security, public health, national parks, and more.
For example, Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin was jeered at a town hall in his district as he defended Musk’s cuts.
“The fact that Elon Musk is there, he will be able to raise questions, and because of his fame and financial success, I think … he is going to be able to force Congress to look at things like bureaucrats,” Grothman said, leading many in the crowd to boo as well as laugh at the ridiculousness of his statement.
Republican Rep. Mark Alford of Missouri was also booed and ridiculed as he tried to excuse Musk’s clear conflicts of interest in trying to impart cuts at the federal government while simultaneously receiving billions in federal contracts.
Rather than stand up for his constituents who had been fired by Musk’s rampage through the federal government, Alford instead told one laid-off federal employee, "God has a plan and purpose for your life."
Instead of facing voters at town halls, Republicans are instead claiming the town hall blowback is an astroturf campaign.
“It’s unfortunate that the other party’s chosen to turn this into a political stunt,” Republican Rep. Jay Obernolte of California told Politico of the pushback he got at a town hall in his district.
Other GOP lawmakers are attacking the voters who attend the events.
“Last week, videos of protesters yelling at members of Congress went viral, right? But the content focused on the confrontation, not the why. Some of the people that hijacked those town halls are happy with the bloated status quo. They want the bloated status quo to continue,” Rep. Lisa McClain, Republican of Michigan, said Tuesday at a news conference on Capitol Hill. “They don't want to get our country back on track. And to make matters worse, even the DNC chair openly suggested that the outrage at the town halls across the country was orchestrated.”
But attacking the voters, rather than addressing their concerns, is a dangerous game for Republicans.
Polling shows Musk and DOGE are unpopular with voters. If Republicans want to dismiss the criticism, then they will only have themselves to blame if they lose in the 2026 midterms.
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