A bit of singing, a bit of preaching. Then, a diatribe.
"No-one likes violence, but sometimes, violence in necessary," declared Reverend Steve Caudle to his congregation.
"When Elon Musk forces his way into the United States Treasury and threatens to steal your personal information and your social security cheque, there is a possibility of violence."
Less than two dozen people were at the church in Chattanooga, Tennessee last Sunday to hear the pastor's spray, but it was streamed online and has since gone viral.
The local mayor, Weston Wamp, criticised Reverend Caudle, describing his sermon as "totally unacceptable".
"Hateful rhetoric has no place in Hamilton County, especially from a pastor," Mr Wamp said in a social media post, adding that he supported Mr Musk's cost-cutting mission, which is taking place in Washington DC, with nation-wide impacts.
"In fact," the Republican mayor continued, Mr Musk's efforts had "inspired" him to create a new task force to "eliminate" government "waste" at a local level.
While Donald Trump has always polarised opinions, Mr Musk has emerged as an increasingly divisive figure in the early days of the new administration.
There's even evidence to suggest some of Mr Trump's supporters could be becoming uneasy about the level of access the world's richest man has gained to the country's public institutions.
Less than four weeks after Mr Trump was inaugurated, several polls are already pointing to the fact Mr Musk is becoming a drag on the president's popularity.
Mr Trump has made no secret about his plans for Elon Musk.
He campaigned on a platform of slashing government spending, and said the South African-born billionaire would be charged with finding $US2 trillion ($A3.18 trillion) in savings.
Mr Musk is running something called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
So far, his razor gang has been working at breakneck speed, gaining access to at least 15 federal agencies.
More than 2 million public servants have already been sent emails encouraging them to take deals to resign.
The Department of Education has had $US900 million of contracts cancelled and, according to Mr Trump, will eventually be shut down completely.
USAID, which is responsible for global humanitarian efforts and, up until a fortnight ago, had a staff of more than 10,000, is expected to be reduced to just a few hundred employees.
The agency responsible for administering public health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, dubbed the CMS, "is where the big money fraud is happening," according to Mr Musk.
Many Americans will be thrilled the Trump White House is trying to make good on its promise of austerity, pointing to the fact the national debt is more than $US36 trillion.
But as the country's new administration barrels through its policy agenda, some are clearly growing concerned about Mr Musk's power.
A CBS/YouGov poll of 1,275 adults from earlier this month showed just 23 per cent think the business executive and entrepreneur should have "a lot" of influence in the government, down from 47 per cent in the days after the presidential election in November.
Meanwhile 28 per cent believe he should have "some" power and almost half the respondents said he should have little or no control
Another sample of 1,000 people in battleground states commissioned by the Democrat-aligned nonprofit House Majority Forward found 51 per cent of people disapproved of Mr Musk.
A poll of 1,735 people by Hart Research for the progressive advocacy groups Groundwork Collaborative and Public Citizen found 54 per cent of voters have an unfavourable opinion of the DOGE boss.
Even in these early days, there's evidence to suggest while Mr Trump remains popular among much of the country, some people are having second thoughts about Mr Musk.
Mark* is one of them.
He voted for Mr Trump in November's presidential election.
"I didn't like the Democrats' alternative," he says, wishing to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals in his small-town community. "It was a gamble I don't feel is paying off.
"Elon having his claws into everything is very bad. We know Trump acts like an insolent child, but Musk thinks he's running the country now, and I don't think that's an exaggeration."
DOGE's cuts have been the subject of multiple court injunctions. Under the US legal system, senior judges have the power to delay or even derail presidential directives if there's a chance they could be at odds with the constitution.
"We all know our government is bloated so I liked the idea of doing an audit, but there's a difference between that and burning everything down. It's embarrassing," Mark said.
"I guess this is what we get when we hire billionaires."
During a press conference in the Oval Office this week, Mr Musk faced questions about DOGE's work, and addressed claims he was orchestrating a "hostile" and "non-transparent" takeover of government.
Mr Musk said he "couldn't ask for a stronger mandate from the public".
"The majority of the public voted for President Trump, we won the House, we won the Senate," he said.
"There should be no doubt about that. On the campaign, the president spoke about that at every rally.
"The people voted for major government reform and that's what they're going to get."
Mr Musk, who was a major donor to Mr Trump's campaign and leads some of the country's biggest companies, like Space X, Tesla and X, has been accused of not doing enough to ensure he declares conflicts of interest in his new role.
Space X, for example, holds about $US22 billion in government contracts.
The president has said he'll be personally responsible for keeping an eye on the tech billionaire, and that he "wouldn't let" Mr Musk take advantage of his position.
While the presidential election results showed Mr Trump's promises to rein in public spending resonated, question marks remain over whether their reality will be as popular, or, whether people believe Mr Musk is the right person to be masterminding them.
As the legal challenges mount and delay the Trump administration's agenda, on Wednesday, local time, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt scolded journalists who'd been writing about the "constitutional crisis" unfolding in the US capital.
"I've been hearing those words a lot lately," she said. "But, in fact, the real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch, where district court judges in liberal courts across the country are abusing their power to unilaterally block President Trump's basic executive authority."
Earlier this week, just days after Reverend Caudle had railed about it in his church, a judge blocked DOGE from accessing peoples' personal financial data held in Treasury records. Mr Musk described the ruling as "absolutely insane" on social media, later writing: "How on Earth are we supposed to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money without looking at how money is spent?"
Not to be deterred, the billionaire has reportedly been sleeping on the floor of his DOGE offices opposite the White House, running a microscope over anything not tied up in the courts.
The message is clear: there's a new boss in town, and he's not going anywhere.
In the months between his election and inauguration, Mr Trump's transition team prepared for him to once again move into the White House.
But the way they did that was "unique", according to Jenny Mattingley, who's the Vice President of Government Affairs at the Partnership for Public Service — a non-aligned not-for-profit which promotes building a stronger democracy.
"This was the first election and transition in which the winning candidate expressed so much scepticism of federal agencies and employees that his team delayed accepting — and in some cases refused to accept — the services that federal agencies offer to help presidents-elect prepare to govern," she said.
Ms Mattingley said DOGE appeared to be making decisions for government agencies "absent of typical Congressional input and approval".
"What is concerning about the staffing decisions being pushed by DOGE is the speed at which they are taking place," she said.
"Agencies are filled with experts and professionals. DOGE hasn't done any of the planning to understand the skills that these career employees possess, the work that each agency is mandated by law to do, and then do the strategic planning to align work, staff and resources.
"Unlike the private sector, agencies provide services to the American public that can't just be stopped overnight without significant negative impact."
While the wrecking ball swings around Washington, it's clear a spectrum of unease could be building elsewhere.
At one end of it is those like Mark, who are having second thoughts about the way they voted.
At the other is Reverend Caudle, who — if his latest sermon is anything to go by — is already at breaking point.
