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Senate Democrats called him a billionaire Elon Musk “co-chairman” and “shadow speaker” among other titles as they reacted to the implosion of the original interim spending deal on Wednesday after he and eventually President-elect Donald Trump spoke out against it.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, said Musk “seems to be the guy in charge of the country right now,” reacting to his apparent ability to influence the bill’s swift failure despite bipartisan leaders l ‘have agreed in Congress.
If a measure to provide funding to the government is not passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden by midnight Saturday morning, a partial government shutdown will go into effect.
From Thursday, the US national debt was at $36,167,604,149,955.61 and continues to rise rapidly.
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Musk was credited with withdrawing the first version of the spending bill. (Brandon Bell)
After a 1,547-page short-term spending bill was introduced this week. Musk quickly took to X, formerly Twitter, to trash it, pointing out several seemingly irrelevant provisions, as well as its cost and length.
He was soon joined by other critics, with President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance issuing their own statement opposing the bill.
This drew significant criticism from Democrats unhappy with Musk’s apparent ability to influence Trump and the Republicans in Congress.
Warren said Musk runs the show. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“He’s the one who seems to be calling the shots,” Warren told reporters.
“Elon Musk is obviously in charge of the Republican Party and he blew this deal. So I don’t know how the Republicans think they’re going to recover from this,” he said.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., suggested that Musk is “already the shadow speaker of the House,” in a slight against House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
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Fetterman called Musk the “shadow speaker.” (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“I think he’s unelectable and he’s created a lot of damage,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.
He claimed that Republicans in Congress were “busy listening to Co-President Musk and Co-President Trump.”
“I’m listening to the people of Georgia, especially the farmers who are struggling to get disaster relief. And we need to make sure we get to the finish line.”
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., reiterated that Musk is not an elected official. “He has no official government job,” he said.
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Kelly noted that Musk was not elected. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“We had a deal with the Republicans in the House and now, because of it, the president-elect is about to lose his job and not get paid for the holidays,” he said of a potential partial shutdown if a bill is introduced . it’s not past midnight on saturday morning.
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Despite the claims of his Democratic colleagues, Republicans rejected the idea that Trump was being influenced by Musk. Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, noted that there are “a lot of people around President Trump,” adding that he doesn’t think Musk has any control over what the president-elect does.
Musk was selected by Trump, along with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead what is called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)a proposed advisory board charged with disposing of government waste.
