Elon Musk’s storm of tweets almost led to a government shutdown, and proved his power in Trump’s America

By Brad Ryan in Washington DC, ABC News

Analysis: During his first term as president, Twitter was Donald Trump’s noisiest megaphone. Officials were fired, enemies were threatened, and foreign adversaries were warned of war by tweet.

These days, Trump prefers Truth Social, the alternative he created after Twitter banned him.

But Twitter, now X, is reverting to form as the place where the MAGA agenda comes into view, and the Trump administration’s power bears down.

X owner Elon Musk, who has fast become Trump’s right-hand man, is using his platform to tell elected Republicans what to do.

“Welcome to the Elon Musk presidency,” California Democrat Robert Garcia quipped during the chaotic final couple of days in Congress before Christmas.

In case you missed it, the US came close to a government shutdown this week. Congress struggled to reach agreement on a budget bill, which was required to keep money flowing for government staff and services.

In the hours before Congress was set to vote on the bill, Musk posted scores of tweets calling for it to be killed.

And it quickly became obvious the bill was dead.

Death to a bipartisan deal

The bill had been negotiated and agreed to by the congressional leaders of America’s two major parties.

Its 1,500 pages would have funded services ranging from the Pentagon to public transport, as well as hurricane aid, farmer subsidies and a pay bump for politicians.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson had said: “We worked really hard to achieve consensus on the bill that responsibly funds the government into March of next year.”

But Musk – who has ambitious cost-cutting aims as co-lead of Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” – saw things differently.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R) jumps on stage as he joins former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on 5 October.
Photo: JIM WATSON / AFP

Suggesting the bill was full of waste, he used a storm of tweets to describe it as “criminal”, “unconscionable”, and “one of the worst bills ever”.

He urged his 208 million followers to call their representatives and demand they vote it down and replace it with a bill that contained less “pork”.

Many people did. “My phone was ringing off the hook,” Republican congressman Andy Barr told AP. “The people who elected us are listening to Elon Musk.”

Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024

Members of Congress who promised to vote against the bill were retweeted by Musk with his praise and thanks.

Those who planned to support it had their political futures threatened.

And representatives who questioned Musk’s role were mocked.

When Democrat Rosa DeLauro railed against the influence of “President Musk”, for example, he tweeted an AI-generated image depicting her “as a terrifying skeksis (a movie monster), screeching at the assembled members of Congress”.

Trump’s demand prompts Republican pushback

DeLauro was hardly the only Democrat throwing around the “President Musk” moniker. The nickname, at least for now, appears to have stuck in some circles. “President Elon” has been trending even on his own X platform.

The US Congress this week came to an agreement to fund our government.

Elon Musk, who became $200 BILLION richer since Trump was elected, objected.

Are Republicans beholden to the American people? Or President Musk?

This is oligarchy at work.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 19, 2024

The actual president-elect, for his part, also opposed the bill, but he didn’t publicly say so until after Musk started criticising it.

Some Washington observers suggested Trump was following Musk’s lead, but Trump was reportedly trashing the spending deal in private conversations before he spoke out.

The death of the bill sent the Republican speaker scrambling to come up with an alternative. And Trump then telegraphed a new, unexpected demand.

He wanted any new bill to include a provision to lift the “debt ceiling”, to loosen limits on national borrowing before he takes the presidency. Any member who supported a bill without that provision, he said, should be “disposed of as quickly as possible”.

This seems, and is, at odds with his and Musk’s necessary efforts to rein in government spending. Musk has described the national debt – which has now reached $US36 trillion ($58 trillion) – as “terrifying”.

But Trump does not want to find himself in a position where he has to negotiate a debt ceiling increase to pay the bills when he’s president.

“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch,” he admitted.

If @elonmusk kills this bill he is more powerful than all the Washington lobbyists combined.

Because they are all for it.

— Former Congressman Matt Gaetz (@FmrRepMattGaetz) December 18, 2024

The speaker dutifully proposed a new budget bill, which culled out parts of the previous one, but included Trump’s debt-ceiling demand. Trump posted: “SUCCESS in Washington! Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good deal for the American People.”

As it turned out, though, this bill was doomed too. Thirty-eight Republicans voted with most House Democrats to sink it.

Texas Republican Chip Roy was particularly critical of any move to keep adding to the national debt. “I am absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go forward to the American people and say you think this is fiscally responsible,” he said.

Unsurprisingly, Roy is now in Trump’s sights. “I hope some talented challengers are getting ready in the Great State of Texas to go after Chip in the primary,” he posted.

Musk for speaker?

On Friday evening, local time, the House of Representatives finally found a way to avert a shutdown.

Another rewrite of the budget bill won the support of the Democrats and enough Republicans to get it over the line.

But 34 Republicans still voted against it. And it did not include the debt-ceiling provision that Trump had demanded.

Trump “knew exactly what we were doing and why”, Johnson said after the vote. “I think he certainly is happy about this outcome as well.”

But Johnson’s future as House speaker is now under a question mark. Many in his own party are unhappy with how he negotiated the original version of the budget bill, and the resulting Christmas-time mess they had to deal with.

Would you support @elonmusk for Speaker of the House?

The House controls policy and appropriations (spending) and can cut programs, departments, agencies, as well as make new laws like term limits and pass a balanced budget amendment.

DOGE could become the legislative branch.

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) December 19, 2024

In amongst it all, a couple of Republicans pointed out that a House speaker could be appointed from outside Congress.

Fittingly, they used X to float an idea that reaffirmed Elon Musk’s position as a de facto party leader.

“Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk” as speaker, congressman Rand Paul wrote.

“I’d be open to supporting @elonmusk for speaker,” his colleague, Marjorie Taylor Greene, replied.

But Johnson could have support where it counts. “The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances,” Musk tweeted after the final House vote.

He’s proven he doesn’t need a job in Congress to influence what it does.

He just has to tweet.

– ABC