Elon Musk was among the many creatures stirring throughout the House during Washington’s government shutdown season.
Congressmen were anticipating a smooth transition to the holidays. They struck a bipartisan agreement that would keep the government afloat and send them all back to their districts in joy.
However, with Musk, the richest man in the world, controlling a significant portion of the political process and Donald Trump back in the White House, they were given a preview of what the next four years might hold.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., drafted a 1,500-page funding package that was full with the byproducts of the conventional horse-trading that typically characterizes congressional dealmaking. Trump, with Musk’s assistance, successfully killed the bill on Wednesday.
The plan was denounced by conservative Republicans and right-wing talkers as the kind of Washington politics that Trump ran on a platform to overthrow during the election. The president-elect, however, stayed out of the negotiations.
That came to an end late on Wednesday when Trump condemned the plan as absurd and extremely costly, effectively ending it.
House Republicans published a 116-page plan to keep the government open until March 14 less than a day later. Both Trump and Musk, the billionaire who frequently hangs around Trump and was the Republican Party’s largest 2024 political donor, endorsed the concept.
But despite Trump and his allies’ major threats and considerable arm-twisting, the revised plan was met with strong Republican resistance and was destroyed on the House floor Thursday night.
Less than a day before a possible government shutdown, it departed.
The setback was a setback for Trump, who, even after winning the election, is still unable to exert complete control over events in Washington.
According to one experienced Republican operator, it would be a complete understatement to say that this is concerning and a setback.
However, despite the measure’s failure, the budget deal negotiations have confirmed a few new political realities: President Joe Biden’s complete silence during the negotiations has created a vacuum that has allowed Trump to position himself as a second president, Johnson’s position as speaker is dependent on Trump’s satisfaction, and Musk’s role as the nascent administration’s financial and political power is now more than just hypothetical; it is something he can use to try to sway votes and possibly end political careers.
‘A new sheriff in town’
Musk has his megaphone in addition to his money. Given that he controls the website, it is not wholly surprising that he has more than 208 million followers on the social media network X.
Musk, who spent more than $250 million to help elect Trump, has blogged more than 100 times in the last two days about his opposition to the original spending pact. He threatened to sponsor primary challenges to anyone who supported the plan, which had been crafted over six weeks.
Any senator or member of the House who supports this ridiculous spending package need to be removed from office within the next two years! Musk made a post on X on Wednesday afternoon.
Trump publicly opposed it later that day, indicating that the bill was finished.
Musk’s excessive involvement in the story brought his status as an unelected official and his apparent ability to influence votes under closer examination. Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, a former presidential candidate, have been appointed by Trump to lead a new nongovernmental organization that aims to improve government efficiency.
Any indication that Musk was actually pulling the strings was swiftly suppressed by Trump’s crew.
According to Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, Republicans on Capitol Hill immediately echoed President Trump’s position on the [continuing resolution] after he made it public. The Republican Party is led by President Trump. Complete halt.
In a phone interview with NBC News on Thursday morning, Trump was also eager to say that Musk had his OK for Musk’s barrage of social media tweets criticizing the original agreement.
Trump stated that he could release a statement if he agreed with me. He is considering the situation from a financial perspective.
In a quick interview on Thursday, Donald Trump Jr., who had also been blogging against the first bill, called the initial continuing resolution that his father essentially sabotaged absurd.
Trump Jr. responded, “I think they both agree on the insanity of what was in there,” when asked about Musk and his father’s involvement in sabotaging the resolution. 1,500 pages that are impossible for anyone to read.
The shutdown battle highlighted Musk’s potential role, at least in the early days of his second administration, and served as Trump’s first postelection test of his ability to once again whip Republicans who do not yet control the Senate or the White House.
Following the cancellation of the initial agreement, some Republicans who were budget hawks urged Musk to take Johnson’s place as speaker of the House, while some Democrats started referring to him as the functional president-elect.
Elon Musk seems to be attempting to assume the position of an unelected president. Rep. Barbara Lee, a Democrat from California, stated on CNN on Thursday that Donald Trump is apparently carrying out his directives.
Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, wrote on social media that the Speaker of the House does not have to be a member of Congress. Think about it: electing Elon Musk would be the biggest disruption to the swamp. Nothing is impossible. (Not to mention the delight in witnessing the uniparty, or collective establishment, lose their ever-lovin’ minds).
Musk’s efforts to kill the bill Wednesday night notably pleased Fox News’s prime-time anchors, many of whom are well-known MAGA allies.
According to Sean Hannity, the town has a new sheriff. Musk blew up the bill all day, according to Jesse Watters.
Fox and Friends, the network’s premier morning show, was in awe of Musk’s newfound authority by Thursday morning.
According to Peter Doocy, Musk is suddenly the center of the universe on Capitol Hill in a way that has never been witnessed before.
Musk responded to widespread rumors that he was the real architect of the new bill by praising Trump and Johnson instead.
He wrote, “I am not the author of this proposal.” Thanks to @SpeakerJohnson, @JdVance, and @realDonaldTrump.
No plan forward for now
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas was among the Republicans who voted against the new budget agreement approved by Trump on Thursday.
In a fiery floor speech just before the so-called plan B budget deal was defeated, Roy stated, “Yes, I think this bill is better than it was yesterday in some respects, but to take this bill and congratulate yourself because it’s shorter in pages but increases the debt by $5 trillion is asinine, and that’s precisely what Republicans are doing.”
Roy was among the most vocal Republicans opposing the reconfigured budget deal because of Trump s request toabolish the country s debt ceilingwhich is often used as a political football without significant spending reductions in exchange. He killed the deal with the help of about 40 Republican members of the House. The debt ceiling would have been postponed until January 2027 under the plan that was approved by the House.
Roy received direct threats from Trump regarding a primary challenge as a result of his strong opposition. The threats included a reference to former Virginia Representative Bob Good, who lost this year to a challenger supported by Trump.
Johnson s speakership was threatened by some in conservative media, but he appeared to have kept Trump s support for now by getting the new deal to the floor. He attempted to push attempts at a budget deal forward after it failed.
We will regroup and we will come up with another solution, so stay tuned, Johnson told reporters after his second attempt at a budget deal was defeated on the House floor.
Still, at a gathering of conservative activists across the country in Phoenix on Thursday, there was jubilation that they had managed to torpedo the original legislation.
At its annual AmericaFest conference, Charlie Kirk, CEO of Turning Point, stated, “We accomplished something in the last 24 hours that we never could have done before.” He added, “I want to show the power that you have is that you, everybody in this room, and everyone watching online, defeated the Washington insiders in hours, everybody, and that CR is dead.”
But the proposal s defeat leaves no plan in place as the clock ticks down on a government shutdown one that could drag into the holidays and into the busy month of January, when a new Congress will take office, the election results need to be certified and Trump is set to be inaugurated.
There is no new agreement right now, just, you know, obviously looking at a number of options, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters after the second budget deal was defeated.
After the vote, Musk blamed Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York for the GOP-led House s killing the proposal.
Objectively,the vast majorityof Republican House members voted for the spending bill, but only 2 Democrats did, he posted on X. Therefore, if the government shuts down, it is obviously the fault of @RepJeffries and the Democratic Party.
The Trump-approved budget deal did include disaster relief for states ravaged by hurricanes Helene and Milton, money for construction projects and environmental cleanup, an extension of the farm bill, funding for millions for conservation efforts and rural development disaster assistance.
But it also removed a number of other provisions and, significantly, Republicans did not consult Democrats in putting the new legislation together, unlike they did with the first one.
Blindsided Democrats largely came out in opposition, saying Americans will be hurt because of the significant spending that was removed from the original deal, and they directed their anger at Musk s role in shaping the plan.
Elon Musk ordered his puppet President-elect and House Republicans to break the bipartisan agreement reached to keep government open, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the former House speaker,wrote on X. House Republicans are abdicating their responsibility to the American people and siding with billionaires and special interests.
Jeffries used his House floor speech to try to turn the spending problem in question on Republicans and Trump s first four years in office.
In our nation s history, 25% of our nation s debt was accumulated during the four years of the former president, 25%. How dare you lecture America about fiscal responsibility ever, he said.
Trump, who spent considerable political capital pushing the second proposed spending plan, has not yet commented on its failure. But Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., suggested that if Trump did speak out again it might make a difference.
Quite honestly, I think one of the ways that this could get fixed fairly quickly would be if President Trump would come up to Washington tomorrow or spend the weekend here and talk to people face to face, he said Thursday evening. Let s face it. He s got a lot of sway and persuasion. He acts more like the sitting president than the sitting president. And if he d come up, I think he could help move things along.
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