Musk a ‘bull in a China shop,’ but ‘it’s not going to be illegal’: GOP rep

Republican Rep. Mike Turner (Ohio), the former top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said tech billionaire Elon Musk is acting like a “bull in a China shop” but defended his actions as legal.

In an interview with CNN’s Pamela Brown on Wednesday, Brown was asked if he was comfortable with Musk’s influence over the federal government as his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) enters various agencies and departments.

“Well, I think we certainly are always concerned when there’s a bull in the China shop, and that’s certainly something that we’re seeing here,” Turner said.

Turner said there are processes involved and are “certainly” going to be limits to what Musk and DOGE are doing, but he also believes the reporting around the topic are “exaggerations of what’s occurring.”

“This is going to be messy and sloppy and not pretty, but … it’s not going to be illegal,” Turner said.

Turner just weeks ago was removed as the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). Several Republicans at the time said Turner lost the position because of opposition from the MAGA wing of the House GOP conference.

There has been widespread shock and concern among Democrats as the Trump administration essentially shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and DOGE officials gained access to the federal payment system at the Treasury Department.

Democrats failed on Wednesday to subpoena Musk into testifying before the House Oversight Committee and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Musk will determine his own conflicts of interest when working on things related to his businesses.

Turner defended the Trump administration’s actions, even as people think they are “running amok in government.”

“They’re not,” he said. “They’re reviewing systems that we need to understand so that we can understand what’s going on and put reforms in place.”