Calls for resignation as Richland Mayor posts support for DOGE and Elon Musk

Richland Mayor Theresa Richardson is receiving mixed responses for a social media post praising Elon Musk’s transparency and his role in Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative to cut federal spending.

“Are you listening to Elon Musk? He’s being so transparent. How can you doubt what he’s telling us?” Richardson wrote on her personal Facebook page, according to the Tri-City Herald.

The paper wrote a lengthy feature on the responses from community members who thought she was being insensitive. The post came just before layoffs at the Department of Energy’s Hanford nuclear site and national lab in Richland.

“Isn’t that interesting that a mild comment like that would create such a response and that people would be asking for my resignation?” Richardson noted in an exclusive interview on “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. “I guess you can tell if you’ve hit a nerve by people’s overreaction, and Jason, like you and everyone else right now, we’re watching the news. And this is historic. The whole country is watching and uncovering all the fraud.”

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Was there really that much pushback?

DOGE, created by Trump via executive order, aims to slash government waste but has been criticized for decisions made with Hanford employees. Some of the terminations were later walked back.

“If you were looking at that page, it was mainly positive comments until just a few days ago,” Richardson explained. “That’s when the people that oppose what they’re seeing with DOGE tried to blow up my Facebook page … that’s where they got a hold of it. And so they were making up stories, and I had to change my Facebook from being a public facing page, to restrict it to people that are friends already, to be able to comment, otherwise they would just take it over.”

Many Richland residents back the DOGE effort, praising Elon Musk as engaging in necessary reform, according to Richardson. She wondered if people commenting on her page even live in Richland.

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‘I’m not concerned politically’

The critics on Richardon’s page argued the DOGE cuts by Elon Musk are reckless and unconstitutional. These critics worry the cuts will hurt local communities reliant on federal spending.

“It’s just a matter of time until it impacts the people you represent,” one commenter wrote on Richardson’s post, according to the Tri-City Herald. “The foundation of Richland is built off of federal spending. DOGE management is wildly unconstitutional in determining federal spending without congressional approval.”

But Richardson doesn’t think she said anything wrong or controversial.

“I am not concerned politically about my position. In fact, I think that there’s just a lot of hope in this region. Can we work more efficiently? Yes, we always can, and we’ll get the job done,” Richardson said.

Richardson was overwhelmingly re-elected to office in 2023.

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