‘Let it begin now’: Trump reveals who he’ll blame for a government shutdown

Donald Trump is once again making a mess for the Biden administration to clean up.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “If there is going to be a shutdown of the government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration.” There likely will be a shutdown of the government, and it is all Donald Trump’s fault—and Elon Musk’s.

Before the holiday break, Democrats and Republican legislators painstakingly negotiated a bipartisan bill to avert a government shutdown, keep hundreds of thousands of federal employees paid, and provide disaster relief, subsidies for farmers, and research money for childhood cancer treatments. The bill was poised to move forward, but in the wee hours of the morning of December 18, Elon Musk took to Twitter and essentially killed the deal in five words, writing “This bill should not pass.”

Musk then railed off hundreds of subsequent tweets, lambasting the bill and demanding that it be changed. Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance followed Musk’s lead and echoed his claims. The president-elect then threatened Republicans in the House and Senate, telling them to either support the new draft of the bill or be “Primaried,” meaning that the president-elect would support the legislators’ opponents in subsequent re-election campaigns. Cornered, Republicans scrambled to rewrite the bill, much to the chagrin of their Democrat colleagues, with whom they had previously struck a deal.

Despite stemming the meddling from Musk and Trump himself, the president-elect declared that the looming government shutdown is “a Biden problem to solve,” before adding, “If Republicans can help solve it, they will!” According to Democrats, they’ve had enough of Republican “help” already.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi excoriated Trump, Musk, and House Republicans in a post on X, writing, “Elon Musk ordered his puppet President-elect and House Republicans to break the bipartisan agreement reached to keep government open,” chiding her Republican colleagues for “siding with billionaires and special interests.”

Many Republican allies are equally nonplussed, as one Republican operative reportedly said “To say this is alarming and a setback is an absolute understatement” when asked about the decision to kill the bill.

While Trump is outwardly directing his anger against Democrats to save face, he is likely fuming over Musk’s actions behind the scenes. There has since been an outpouring of “President Musk” memes on the internet lampooning Trump, and even members of the House are calling Musk “Shadow President.” In a statement to Business Insider, Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt wrote, in an attempt to set the record straight, “As soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR (the spending bill), Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his point of view.” She added, “President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop.” It’s a telling remark, one that demonstrates that Trump saw his influence as the leader of the Republican Party threatened.

While Trump may claim that the spending bill is a “Biden problem,” even a cursory glance at the situation shows that the fault lies within the power structure of the Republican Party. There are cracks in the Trump administration’s facade, and should Trump fail to rein in his allies, those cracks are likely to spread.