With a tweet, the head of Tesla, Starlink, and SpaceX managed to stir up Congress, which was preparing for Christmas. What will happen to the public spending bill that must pass by December 21?
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Jumping around with his belly out at Donald Trump’s last rallies, to whom he has given hundreds of millions of dollars to use for the campaign, Elon Musk has now started to make his voice heard with notable effects. He holds no public office, especially since Trump will only enter Pennsylvania Avenue on January 20, but the head of Tesla, Starlink, and SpaceX has already begun interfering with the government machinery. With a tweet, he managed to unsettle Congress as it prepared for Christmas. Lawmakers must pass a bipartisan spending bill by December 21. If this doesn’t happen, it could lead to a government shutdown, a period during which the machinery halts, and federal employees cannot be paid. On Capitol Hill, work on this law has been ongoing for weeks, with negotiations extending into the early hours of Tuesday, resulting in 1,500 pages that include, among other things, $1 trillion in expenses for areas hit by recent hurricanes, various aids for farmers, and funds for programs assisting children with cancer.
While House Speaker Mike Johnson was about to reassure Washington and bid his colleagues farewell for the holidays, Musk decided to weigh in: “This bill must not pass.”
He was immediately echoed by Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican primary candidate and potential right-hand man for Musk in what could be a new pseudo-department, the Doge, aimed at cutting trillions of dollars from the government. “All these expenses added to the anti-shutdown bill,” Ramaswamy tweeted, “might make you feel good, but with the debt we have, it’s like giving a cocaine addict more cocaine: it’s not compassion, it’s cruelty.” Musk retweeted a post saying: “Sure, let there be a shutdown.” He argues that shutdowns don’t really stop everything but conveniently omits mentioning the hundreds of thousands of public employees who won’t be paid until the next spending bill. Until Trump’s tweet, no one had anticipated the possibility of such chaos (the last shutdown cost the country over $3 billion).
Musk’s first major and unexpected interference prompted Trump to act, who, along with future Vice President J.D. Vance, quickly announced they were on his side and that “no spending bill that gives such gifts to the Democrats can pass.” By midnight Friday, the bill must also pass the Senate (controlled by the Democrats) and then be signed by President Joe Biden. Speaker Johnson said that on Wednesday night, he exchanged messages with Musk and Ramaswamy and told Fox News he had said to the two: “Friends, I don’t like these expenses either, but we must pass the bill because then we’ll have a clear path to implementing the Trump agenda.” Thus, the third-ranking official in the state is forced to comfort two entrepreneurs on WhatsApp at 2 a.m. who don’t believe in the welfare state, or everything falls apart.
In the hours following his initial tweet, Musk continued posting to his 260 million followers, spreading several inaccuracies about economic and procedural mechanisms, as well as the content of the bipartisan bill. Among the hyper-populist falsehoods, he claimed that Congress members were increasing their salaries by 40 percent (there is an increase, but only 3.8 percent) or that another $60 billion would go to Ukraine (funds already allocated in the spring). He ended up attacking lawmakers: “Every member of Congress who votes for this bill doesn’t deserve to be re-elected in two years!” he wrote at 1 a.m. He then continued his thread with: “No bill should pass Congress until January 20 when @realDonaldTrump becomes president,” concluding with, “The voice of the people has triumphed! Vox Populi Vox Dei.” Some MAGA representatives already opposed to the bill announced that this is just the beginning of Musk’s government efficiency plan, which will be unveiled in the next administration. Some, like libertarian Rand Paul, are proposing Musk or Ramaswamy as the next Speaker instead of Johnson, because “nothing would disrupt the swamp more,” meaning Washington. What is particularly shocking U.S. commentators is the power of a private citizen who, with five words on social media, can upend the nation’s political balance.