Rep Ro Khanna brushes off Elon Musk lawsuit threat over USAID cuts
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California Rep. Ro Khanna on Thursday ignored threats of legal action from Elon Musk, the trillionaire founder of SpaceX and Tesla.
“This is what he’s doing,” Khanna told Fox News Digital outside the U.S. Capitol.
“Billionaires behaving this way is a symptom of our times – and now [a] trillionaire – can threaten to sue members of Congress for doing their jobs. It can’t scare me. I will not be afraid of the man. I will not be silenced by this man,” Khanna said.
Khanna’s comments came on the heels of an online back-and-forth between him and Musk over whether cuts to government aid programs abroad — cuts spearheaded by Musk in the early days of the second Trump administration — had led to deaths.
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Ro Khanna, D-California, left, pictured with SpaceX and Tesla’s trillionaire founder Elon Musk, right. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
In particular, Khanna, a high-profile progressive and rumored 2028 presidential candidate, has been critical of Musk’s efforts to cut the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“There needs to be accountability for Elon Musk. You know, they’re celebrating him creating 4,400 millionaires, but they’re not talking about the 4.5 million children around the world that he probably condemned to death by dismantling USAID,” Khanna said in a recent podcast. Lancet Group, a medical journal.
The claim drew a harsh response from Musk, who personally oversees efforts to reduce waste, fraud and abuse in U.S. programs.
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Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., delivers a speech focusing on taxing billionaires and the future of artificial intelligence at a town hall event on February 20, 2026 in Stanford, California. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)
“It’s time to sue this liar,” Musk said in a post To X.
“Robber Khanna should be in jail,” Musk added. separate reaction.
Musk, like many conservatives who are skeptical of government spending, criticized USAID for greenlighting millions in spending that, in their view, had little justification.
But while few Democrats defended transgender comics programs in Peru and Iraq Sesame Street, critics of the cuts argued that Musk’s efforts failed to distinguish between wasteful and life-saving initiatives around the world.
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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has announced plans to criminally target social media executives and restrict platform algorithms, prompting a disrespectful response from Elon Musk. (AP/Jose Luis Magana)
USAID had cut about 83% of its programs as of March last year. accordingly Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
It’s not immediately clear what kind of damages Musk will seek to seek in a lawsuit against Khanna over his allegations.
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When asked if he would go to court if Musk followed his posts, Khanna said he liked his chances.
“Grok says he doesn’t have a case, so we’ll have to see,” Khanna said, referring to the artificial intelligence chatbot on X, a social media platform owned by Musk.
