The president-elect and the richest man in the world are now working together. In fact, not only do they work together, but they also rule over America. I am sure that if they had read this, their satisfaction would have reached Mars faster than Musk’s failed attempts to build a rocket ship.
Gladly, they never will. Only recently did they meet again to smash a short-term spending compromise put together by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to keep the government open until early in Trump’s new term.
The stop-gap measure is packed with almost $100 billion in aid for Americans hit by many national disasters, as well as economic aid for farmers, a federal commitment to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, as well as a criminalization of revenge porn.
However, the Trump-Musk blocking maneuver not only plunged the entire capital into yet another classic year-end crisis but also pitched Johnson’s hopes of keeping this job into extreme doubt and offered quite a preview of the chaos that could potentially churn into Trump’s second term.
A certain sense of uncertainty was exaggerated by the 10th straight day of losses on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, matching quite a mark set in the Ford administration. The selloffs then underlined quite a volatile national moment, as well as some of the economic challenges Trump might have to face after the Federal Reserve, warning the inflation that is bound to tick up next year.
The sabotaging of Johnson’s funding initiative triggered a lot of shock and confusion on Capitol Hill. However, for many of Trump’s supporters and boosters in the conservative media who also anticipate massive cuts to federal programs, the mayhem was the point from the beginning.
Even if the impasse leads to quite a damaging government shutdown, that still could represent progress for some people, especially since the government itself is seen with plenty of disdain on the populist right. By targeting the Washington status quo right before he takes the oath of office, Trump does exactly what he said he would on his campaign trail.
However, the sudden imbroglio highlighted one of the main issues facing Trump in his second term. If he really wants to pass his tax cuts and push through his immigration overhauls, as well as defend the country and leave a meaningful legacy, he will need to find the proper way to govern, even if that could draw him into conflict with base voters and MAGA ideologues who seem more than happy to burn the government to the ground.
Musk-style governance
One of those mega disruptors is Musk himself. In his biography of the SpaceX pioneer, Walter Isaacson carefully described the philosophy of the president-elect’s new super buddy as someone who “takes risks. learns by blowing things up. revise. repeat.”
The rocket mogul lived up to this type of mantra on Wednesday, unleashing a series of assaults on Johnson’s plans before sunset. Musk went on to X to share his thoughts, stating that “the bill should not pass” and opening a 70-post blast that slammed the bill as full of “pork” spending and warning that anyone who voted for it should be instantly ditched in the 2026 election.
Musk whipped up the opposition to the bill all day long, driving a lot of fury on MAGA media outlets, even before Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance issued his own statement. He demanded a specific streamlined spending bill without any Democratic deliverables.
What happened next implied an exacerbation of the pandemonium on Capitol Hill, by adding yet another huge condition: for Congress to raise the government’s borrowing ceiling as Joe Biden is still in the Oval Office, which is a massive challenge at short notice.
However, it wasn’t clear from the start exactly how close Trump and Musk coordinated. However, the timeline of Musk’s pressure as well as the president-elect’s belated entry into the public fray made room for Democrats. New York Republican Dan Goldman conjured a scenario on X, aiming to get under the president-elect’s skin.
Elon Musk now sees himself as the shadow of the President-elect, calling the shots for House Rs on government funding while Trump hides in Mar-a-Lago behind the handlers. It seems like we are in for yet another 4 years of an unelected oligarch running the country by pulling on his own puppet’s strings.
Risky dilemmas
Missouri GOP Senator Josh Hawley told CNN’s Manu Raju after speaking to the president-elect that Trump was completely blindsided by Johnson. He also stated that Trump isn’t “read into this. He is just learning and reading about it.”
The thing is that the collapse of the stop-gap spending bill forced Johnson, Trump, and Democrats to deal with risky dilemmas.
- First, unless Johnson passes some kind of spending measure by Friday at midnight, the government might potentially shut down, at least some of it.
- Johnson’s speakership is all of a sudden in immense danger, especially after he was torpedoed by both Trump and Musk, and as many House Republicans stated, they wouldn’t back his reelection.
- A government shutdown might have a series of unpredictable political consequences since it would hurt way too many Americans, even seniors and veterans who rely on governmental help, as well as shutter vital federal functions.
- Trump’s power-play is also a gamble, especially since he has now provoked a standoff that could easily linger into the next year. In fact, it could do more than that: overshadow the run-up to his inauguration on January 20.
- The showdown is also an important test for Democrats. The party wouldn’t risk covering Biden’s last days in the office in chaos. However, they have little incentive to bail out Trump.
- And since lawmakers left the Capitol with zero certainty of what would happen next or when they would be able to go home for the holidays again, the country rapidly lurched into the first crisis of the second Trump era.
Moreover, outgoing Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell summed up quite nicely the commotion with a prediction for 2025.
MAGA media piles pressure on Johnson
Johnson’s bill size sparked quite a lot of uproar in conservative media. In fact, MAGA pundits were particularly outraged that lawmakers awarded themselves a pay rise in the measure, only a few weeks after the election that kickstarted inflation.
Trump’s supporters then went on to ask: after Republicans won in 2024 on a promise to gut the federal government and slash all budgets, why would they make their first act since Trump’s triumph a classic year-end spending spree? Timp Burchett declared to CNN that he never agreed with it. The Tennessee lawmaker then added, “President Trump thrives on changing things. If we will pass something, pass it about three days into the next Congress, then hand it over to Trump and let him handle it.”
However, many Republicans are worried about the political implications of a bigger shutdown. We can only go on and assume they want a way out, and so any new bill needs to recognize current realities.
Democrats, for a few more weeks, control the Senate so they need to be given some incentive if cooperation is wanted. And the GOP speaker might require additional Democratic votes in the House, owing to his small majority and the reluctance of some on his side to back any spending.
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