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A former top staffer to vice president Mike Pence trashed Congress for ceding their authority to President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Marc Short, a former Trump White House staffer who then led Pence's team, told CNN he didn't mind the tech billionaire slashing government spending by targeting entire agencies for closure and offering buyouts to millions of government workers, but he preferred that lawmakers were the ones making those cuts and not an unelected outside adviser.

"I actually don't have as much concern about that," Short said. "I think the reality is that most Americans view Elon Musk as a successful businessman, and basically streamlining government is a good thing. Again, I think it's good for him to make recommendations of where we should be cutting, but ultimately Congress has the power of the purse, and Congress is the one that needs to zero out these programs."

"I think in many cases the Trump administration is showcasing why they're misallocating of dollars, and I think that builds a case for it."

Short warned GOP lawmakers that a Democratic president might propose similar unilateral changes to the government in the future if they did not reclaim their authority.

"But again, if you take the next step and say that you can unilaterally do this, then you've got to live with the consequences," Short said. "When a Democratic president unilaterally gets rid of Republican programs or conservative programs that we like, like border patrol ...

"I mean, I think that in many cases, conservatives and Republicans have gone along with abandoning the rule of law and order, and I think that that is a concern, and so certainly we should be respecting the decisions of judges. I think, frankly, as President Trump said yesterday, you know, we can always appeal, but I don't think that means you can unilaterally decide which cases or decisions you accept or reject."

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Rep. Don Beyer (R-VA) reacted with horror on Wednesday to a legal complaint filed against the Trump administration on behalf of an American family that had to scramble to escape Congo after X owner Elon Musk shut down the United States Agency for International Development.

The complaint in question was first flagged on X by Politico reporter Robbie Gramer and it featured testimony of a USAID worker who alleged that "the chaos of the Trump administration's haphazard and extra-Constitutional shutdown of USAID has caused my family and me immense emotional distress by contributing to the already intense sense of panic and uncertainty of the riots in Kinshasa."

As Reuters has reported, rioters in Kinshasa stormed embassies of multiple nations late last month to protest what they said was the Rwandan government's support for the M23 militia movement.

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Reacting to this, Beyer expressed total disgust at the actions of Musk and President Donald Trump.

"This is an absolute scandal," he charged. "Trump and Marco Rubio abandoned American workers and their families abroad without approving grant waivers to provide their safe return to the United States. They lost their possessions, their housing, and their pay, and the whole time Elon Musk was slandering them with bogus accusations."

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the Trump administration retaliated against The Associated Press because the news agency declined to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America despite President Donald Trump's executive order on the body of water.

During Wednesday's White House briefing, CNN's Kaitlan Collins noted that officials refused to allow the AP's reporter to cover an event on Tuesday.

"Which White House official made the decision to bar the AP reporter from the Oval Office and the diplomatic reception room last night?" Collins asked.

"It is a privilege to cover this White House," Leavitt insisted. "And nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the President of the United States questions. That's an invitation that is given."

"But isn't it retaliatory in nature is the argument?" Collins pressed. "Because the reason that the AP was barred, which they said was because they're not using the phrase Gulf of America, they're using Gulf of Mexico in line with their standards."

"And so the question here is, is this setting a precedent that this White House will retaliate against reporters who don't use the language that you guys believe reporters should use?" she added. "And how does that align with the First Amendment commitment that you were just talking about?"

Leavitt responded by accusing the AP of pushing "lies" by using the phrase Gulf of Mexico.

"It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America," she insisted. "And I'm not sure why news outlets don't want to call it that, but that is what it is."

ALSO READ: Dems in disarray: Unforced error nixes Elon Musk subpoena — and sparks infighting

"And Apple has recognized that. Google has recognized that," she added. "And it's very important to this administration that we get that right, not just for people here at home, but also for the rest of the world."

The AP has said that it declined to use the name Gulf of America because it was a global news agency.

"[T]he AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences," the outlet explained in its style guidance.

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Fox Business host David Asman tried to blame a bombshell inflation report on "Bidenomics" — but his on-air expert disagreed, pegging it to other factors.