‘This is going to be a messy break-up’: Rumors hint that Elon Musk may no longer be welcomed in politics
Elon Musk’s political marriage of convenience might be over before it began.
According to the X user, there are rumors on Capitol Hill that legislators are getting sick of Elon Musk’s attempts to play politics despite not being an elected official himself.
One doesn’t need to consult the rumor mill to see that, as distaste for Musk is now out in the political open after the multi-billionaire tanked a government spending package with a barrage of tweets. “This bill should not pass” Musk wrote at 4:15 in the morning, referring to a bipartisan spending plan to stave off a government shutdown. He then spouted out a slew of posts lambasting the legislation—and getting key details wrong in the process.
Despite Musk’s explosively ill-informed take, he was successfully able to stall the bill’s passage, spending frazzled lawmakers back to the legislate drawing board. Now the government has until Friday, December 20th in order to pass a new bill or the government will shut down. The bill was meant to provide billions of dollars of disaster relief aid and subsidies for farmers. Just in time for Christmas. At least, it was.
As it turns out, a government shutdown is exactly what Musk was aiming for. While railing against the bill, Musk said that a government shutdown would a sensible solution, as “critical functions” of the government wouldn’t be impeded. What Musk gets wrong is that a government shut down will cost the economy billions, as well as jeopardize the livelihoods of millions of government employees over the holiday season. Musk is the world’s richest man, and was recently announced to be now worth half a trillion dollars. While money be no longer be an object for him, it certainly is for America. Nevertheless, Musk’s method worked, and the bill collapsed.
Members of Congress were furious.
Democratic Senator Tina Smith was at a complete loss for words following the strikedown of the bill. “”I can’t even—” she said while walking to an elevator, “I can’t even think about-” the elevator doors closed before she could finish her remark. Senator Bernie Sanders was equally critical, saying “Democrats and Republicans spent months negotiating a bipartisan agreement to fund our government. The richest man on Earth, President Elon Musk, doesn’t like it.”
Musk’s meddling drew similar criticism from Republicans. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said “to anybody who thinks that disaster relief is pork, come to where I live, see what happened in my state, in North Carolina and Georgia.” Graham’s “pork” statement is response to one of Musk’s posts which showed a picture of the bill captioned “ever seen a bigger piece of pork?” “It’s clear who’s in charge” wrote Rep. Pramilla Jayapal on X, calling Elon Musk the “Shadow President,” and saying that Trump was content to “follow his lead.”
According to insiders at Mar a Lago, Musk has made his co-presidential ambitions apparent. While staying at Donald Trump’s estate, Musk has reportedly been “behaving as if he’s a co-president and making sure everyone knows it.” Musk and Trump have been nearly inseparable, and Musk has even sat in on Trump’s calls with world leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “He wants to be seen as having say in everything (even if he doesn’t),” said a source, “and he’s sure taking lots of credit for the president’s victory.” Donald Trump isn’t going to like that. And if Musk doesn’t play nice with legislators, he may soon find himself a political persona non grata.
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