Ever since Donald Trump rewarded Elon Musk for his massive election assistance by putting him in charge of dismantling large swaths of the federal government, no one has been quite sure what to think of it. Would leading the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (with Vivek Ramaswamy) be a pretend job to keep Musk happy and busy (you know, in the spare time left from running his various companies) while the real adults implemented Trump’s agenda? Or might it unleash a powerfully destructive personality with a vast social-media machine at his fingertips, one who knows nothing about the public sector other than how much he hates it?
It was generally assumed we’d find out the answer to this key question once Congress got moving on budget legislation to implement Trump’s agenda and DOGE either sniped from the sidelines or tried to big-foot its way into decisions about spending and revenues. But Musk has jumped the gun.
Federal government funding expires on Friday night, and House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to pass a stopgap spending bill he negotiated with Democrats. On Wednesday afternoon, Musk and Ramaswamy began firing off tweets blasting Johnson’s handiwork to hearty attaboys from MAGA-land and calling for a government shutdown that nobody in Washington wants or had anticipated. A sample:
Musk and company have quickly ignited a firestorm that is sweeping grassroots conservatives and stampeding GOP members of Congress into opposing a bill that most of them expected to easily pass, albeit with a lot of Democratic votes so that conservatives could posture against it. The coup de grace came from Mar-a-Lago:
So now a blindsided Mike Johnson is scrambling to come up with a plan B that Elon won’t kill, Politico reports:
The Louisiana Republican is discussing dropping $100 billion in disaster aid plus other attachments and instead passing a “clean CR” — then dealing with the other issues in the new year, according to two Republicans with knowledge of the conversations. In addition to disaster aid, that would mean dropping $30 billion for farmers, and a one-year extension of the farm bill, among other items, at least for now.
This will make the many people in the southeast still waiting for disaster-recovery assistance after Hurricane Helene very unhappy, along with a lot of farmers in deep-red Trump country. And there is zero assurance that taking this big step back will attract any Democratic votes to offset the House Republicans who will vote against any and all spending bills until the end of time. For that matter, any “clean” continuing resolution will have to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate and be signed by Joe Biden. And all this needs to happen by midnight December 20 to avoid a shutdown.
This missive (on Musk’s X platform, for what it’s worth) from House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries suggests an unhappy Christmas for federal employees:
No matter how it turns out, this is a disaster for Johnson, who will soon face a close reelection vote for Speaker. A sudden humiliation at the hands of the unelected co-director of an unfunded and unofficial entity won’t make it easier. And it’s also bad news for the incoming administration, the Congress, and the country. If Elon Musk can work this sort of destructive wonder in a matter of hours, who’s going to tell him there are limits to his power? Probably not Republicans in Congress.
Musk himself is enjoying his victory over mere elected officials:
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