Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) questions US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as he testifies before the House Armed Services Committee on April 29, 2026 at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images
Potential 2028 presidential hopeful Ro Khanna challenged newly minted trillionaire Elon Musk in a televised debate over the impact of cuts made during Musk’s tenure at the Department of Public Works, following a nasty social media spat between the Silicon Valley giant and the tech titan.
“I challenge him to a debate … do it on CNN, do it on CNBC, do it at the university, he can choose a place and we discuss what happened at DOGE, let’s argue why I stand for the wealth tax,” Khanna said on Monday in an interview with CNBC. “We can have a discussion of ideas if he believes in free speech and openness about these issues.”
The challenge came in response to a massive exchange earlier Monday on social media platform X – which Musk owns – in which the trillionaire said Khanna should be charged or jailed. The California congressman previously said Musk should be held accountable for possible deaths caused by DOGE’s shutdown of the US Agency for International Development, which angered Musk.
If realized, it would pit the world’s richest man against a rising contender for the White House in 2028 on stage as the Democratic Party pushes for new taxes on the rich and vilifies billions.
“It’s not nice that the richest person in the world who has a big platform in X goes and says you should go to jail and then he’s going to sue you, and I’m lying,” said Khanna in an interview. “I’m taking on the richest man in the world, but I mean, I hope you have a real debate about it.”
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment placed through a spokesperson.
The internet war between Khanna and Musk began early Monday, when Musk disputed Khanna’s recent claim of a study published in the Lancet that said cuts to USAID could cause the deaths of more than 4.5 million children. DOGE, led by Musk, effectively shut down USAID as it tore into Washington last year in an effort to bring down the federal government and end alleged inefficiencies.
In a podcast Saturday, Khanna said Musk “needs to answer” for “the 4.5 million children around the world who may have sentenced themselves to death by dismantling USAID.”
Musk, in response to the New York Post’s coverage of Khanna’s comments, said “it’s time to impeach this liar.”
“The standard used by DOGE was very simple and straightforward: Provide contact information for aid recipients, so we can make sure it’s not fraud,” Musk said in a recent post. “The truth is that the money was being sent to corrupt politicians under the guise of aid! Liars and insider traders like Ro the Robber should be arrested!!”
Musk followed up with a series of posts attacking Khanna.
This space is not the first time that Khanna has faced storms with his former partners in Silicon Valley. A number of his former supporters threatened to abandon him earlier this year after he accepted the California wealth tax.
In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Khanna noted that Musk has sometimes been supportive, praising a book he wrote and his Twitter rant criticizing a story about former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
Khanna said Musk “lost it” because of his citation of the Lancet study.
But Khanna, who led the successful bid for the release of the Epstein files, said he has no plans to stop pushing the rich even though he represents one of the wealthiest districts in the nation.
“The most important moral test of the Democratic Party right now is, you’re going to fight the Trump administration effectively, and you’re going to fight the oligarchy,” he said. “And with my work on the Epstein files, and now calling Musk, I’ve got those battles.”
–Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
