Elon Musk flexed his influence over US president-elect Donald Trump by helping to kill a Government spending bill which could lead to a federal Government shutdown.
Mr Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk torpedoed a bipartisan funding compromise in Congress, which Republicans and Democrats had reached earlier to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown.
Musk’s actions in sinking the proposed funding package led by House Speaker Mike Johnson by lobbying extensively against it on his social media platform X led to one Democratic lawmaker dubbing him “Shadow President Musk”.
“It’s clear who’s in charge, and it’s not President-elect Donald Trump,” said Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal.
Yesterday’s bill vs today’s bill 😂 pic.twitter.com/L3Omn964mw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2024
“Shadow President Elon Musk spent all day railing against Republicans’ CR, succeeded in killing the bill, and then Trump decided to follow his lead.”
It brings a potential shutdown of the federal Government over Christmas closer, as lawmakers also failed to agree on a package of funding proposed by Trump and his allies.
They have until midnight on Friday to agree to temporary funding for federal bodies to avoid a shutdown.
But the House of Representatives on Thursday rejected Trump's new hastily-cobbled plan to fund federal operations and suspend the debt ceiling a day before the shutdown.
The new proposal whittled the 1,500-page bill to 116 pages and dropped a number of add-ons - notably the first pay raise for politicians in more than a decade, which could have allowed as much as a 3.8% bump.
That drew particular scorn as Musk turned his social media army against the bill.
Hours earlier, Trump announced "SUCCESS in Washington!" in coming up with the new package which would keep the government running for three more months, add 100.4 billion dollars (£80.3 billion) in disaster assistance, including for hurricane-hit states, and allow more borrowing until January 30, 2027.
But his proposals met fierce resistance from Democrats, who decried it as “laughable”.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats were sticking with the original deal, adding Trump’s deal was “not a serious proposal”.
During his first term, Trump led Republicans into the longest government shutdown in history during the 2018 Christmas season and interrupted the holidays in 2020 by tanking a bipartisan Covid-relief bill and forcing a second attempt.
Under a government shutdown, non-essential federal agencies would shut their doors, shutting parks and museums, delaying federal lending to businesses and severely disrupting the US Internal Revenue Service.
