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Yesterday, a tantrum from the world’s richest individual swayed occasions in Congress. First, Elon Musk launched a blizzard of X posts denouncing a bipartisan spending invoice designed to maintain the federal government open. Calling the invoice “legal,” Musk threatened: “Any member of the Home or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending invoice deserves to be voted out in two years!”
Panic ensued among the many notoriously skittish congressional GOP, who shortly bowed to their grasp’s voice. Musk, after all, will not be really the president-elect. He obtained roughly zero p.c of the votes in final month’s election. However for a number of hours this week, Musk didn’t simply act as if he, and never Donald Trump, will quickly maintain the reins of presidency energy; the GOP additionally responded as if he’ll.
As Russell Berman famous in The Atlantic earlier at this time, Republicans weren’t proud of the proposed model of the spending invoice, however Home Speaker Mike Johnson “believed that he may get sufficient Republicans to hitch most Democrats in passing the invoice in time to avert a authorities shutdown.” It seems, although, that the individual he actually wanted to steer was Musk. “I used to be speaking with Elon final evening,” Johnson mentioned yesterday on Fox & Mates. “Elon, Vivek [Ramaswamy], and I are on a textual content chain collectively, and I used to be explaining to them the background of this.” The pleading and lobbying to the unelected billionaires went on for some time. Johnson added, “Vivek and I talked final evening [until] about nearly midnight … [He and Musk] perceive the state of affairs. They mentioned, ‘It’s not directed at you, Mr. Speaker, however we don’t just like the spending.’ And I mentioned, ‘Guess what, fellas? I don’t both.’”
Johnson’s try at appeasement failed. Inside hours, the pseudo president-elect had kneecapped Johnson. Trump and J. D. Vance weighed in yesterday afternoon, releasing an announcement denouncing the spending invoice. The federal government was on the sting of a shutdown. As of this writing, Trump has praised a brand new, slimmed-down model of the spending invoice (as has Musk), opening the potential of averting that end result. However Musk’s place on the middle of this course of provided us a preview of the political dynamics of the Musk-Trump-GOP period: razor-thin legislative margins, chaos, governing by way of social-media rant, and a Sport of Thrones–model jockeying for energy between Musk and Trump.
Musk’s day of prolific posting was additionally a reminder of how little he comprehends in regards to the U.S. authorities. His feverish 100-plus posts have been riddled with disinformation and false claims that exposed his lack of knowledge of the fundamentals of budgeting. He bought particulars fallacious about a congressional pay increase and taxpayer funding of an NFL stadium in Washington, D.C. He pushed misinformation from a January 6 rioter who falsely claimed that the spending invoice would block Republican investigation of the January 6 Choose Committee. Musk exulted within the prospect of an entire authorities shutdown, posting {that a} shutdown “doesn’t really shut down crucial features.” Though it’s true that “important features” would proceed (and that Social Safety checks would nonetheless exit), contra Musk, shutdowns are neither painless nor low-cost. Giant swaths of the federal government would certainly be compelled to close down, and authorities staff would see delayed paychecks.
Wherever the spending invoice lands, this week could mark one other dramatic shift in GOP politics. For years, as a sign of their dedication to fiscal prudence, conservative Republicans have opposed elevating the debt restrict. Right now, although, after Musk had stolen a march on him, Trump known as for taking away the debt ceiling altogether (presumably as a result of he desires to clear the way in which for enormous tax cuts subsequent yr). That kind of demand will drive members of the Freedom Caucus to—as soon as once more—select between fiscal conservatism and their sycophantic loyalty to the incoming president. The newest model of the spending invoice, based on Trump’s social-media posts, would droop the debt ceiling till January 2027.
In the meantime, the president-elect has to take care of the specter of Elon Musk. As Politico’s Jonathan Martin famous on X yesterday, Musk’s second brings with it a number of potential downsides for Trump: “The Elon threat right here is he’s not simply diverting consideration from Trump, he’s additionally threatening to ship him unhealthy press if the gov’t shuts down.” This week, Musk solidified his affect over the programs of U.S. authorities, however the clock could also be ticking on Trump’s tolerance of that reality.
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