U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost and nearly two dozen other Congress members were denied entry to the U.S. Treasury building Tuesday evening amid a standoff with billionaire Elon Musk, who has seized control of the nation’s budgeting agencies in what Democrats called a “coup.

The US Treasury has sought to calm fears over Elon Musk’s access to its vast payments system, insisting no transactions have been cancelled, despite the billionaire’s claim to be “rapidly shutting down” remittances.