On Sunday, Texas Representative Tony Gonzales, a Republican, praised tech tycoon Elon Musk for opposing an early draft of a stopgap funding package last week and likened him to a prime minister.
Gonzales stated in an interview on CBS News Face the Nation that it’s kind of fascinating. We have a speaker, a president, and a vice president. We have the impression that Elon Musk is our prime minister.
During a hectic week for House Republicans, Gonzales said, he had a few conversations with Musk as GOP leadership rushed to put together a government funding package that would be approved by the majority of the House GOP caucus.
Gonzales voted against the final version of a continuing resolution that was approved by President Joe Biden on Saturday after it passed the House late Friday night. The plan contains a one-year agriculture bill, $100 billion in disaster aid, and existing government funding through March 14.
Even as moderator Margaret Brennan noted that Musk has not been elected to any official post in the U.S. government, Gonzales persisted in praising Musk’s influence over the funding process.
“He may not be elected, but he does have a voice, and I believe that a significant portion of that voice reflects the voice of the people,” Gonzales stated.
Prior to the November presidential election, Musk was one of President-elect Donald Trump’s staunchest backers, investing a quarter of a billion dollars on outside initiatives to help his campaign.
Days before a deadline of December 20 to prevent a government shutdown, Musk was vocally opposed to a federal financing agreement reached by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., last week.
Musk labeled the package “one of the worst bills ever written,” stated that it should not pass, and urged Republicans to vote against the continuing resolution and shut down the government instead.
He expressed his disapproval of the law over 100 times on X, his social media platform, in just two days.
Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance issued their own statements opposing the measure shortly after Musk began speaking out against it, further undermining House Republicans’ already waning support for it.
Additionally, Musk lauded the magnitude of the second measure in a post that Gonzales himself reshared a few days later when GOP congressional leaders unveiled the text of a new continuing resolution that was 10 times as large as the first one.
Trump batted down worries that Musk is stealing the presidency from the president-elect at a Turning Point USA gathering in Arizona.
“I can assure you that he will not be president,” Trump stated.
I’m also safe. Do you understand why he can’t be? Regarding Musk, who was born in South Africa, Trump continued, “He wasn’t born in this country.”
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