Within 24 hours of centibillionaire Elon Musk using his X platform to override a congressional funding bill and bring the federal government to the brink of shutdown, three Republican lawmakers are now calling for him to be named speaker of the House.
On Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the first to raise the idea, in a post on Musk’s X platform. “The speaker of the House does not need to be a member of Congress.” Paul wrote. “Nothing would disturb the swamp more than electing Elon Musk.”
Senator Mike Lee of Utah also endorsed Musk for president, although he added that he would also be happy for Vivek Ramaswamy to take over. he told right-wing talk show host Benny Johnson“Let them choose one of them, I don’t care which one, to be their spokesperson,” Lee said. “That would revolutionize everything, it would disintegrate the company.”
Paul’s suggestion was quickly adopted by another far-right elected official when Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote in X“I would be willing to support @elonmusk for Speaker of the House. DOGE can only truly be achieved by reigning (sic) in Congress to enact real government efficiency. The establishment needs to be smashed like it was yesterday. “This could be the way.”
Greene was referring to Musk’s role in killing a bipartisan government funding deal that current House Speaker Mike Johnson spent months negotiating with Republicans and Democrats. Although President-elect Trump and his team did not oppose the agreement, according to PoliticoMusk started a campaign on X on Wednesday to ruin the deal. destination about it more than 100 times.
Ultimately, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance issued a lengthy statement about X calling the deal a “betrayal of our country” and urging Republican lawmakers to reject it, which they did.
What comes next is unclear. If a deal is not reached by Friday, federal workers will stop receiving paychecks and much of the government will temporarily stop operating. but with Democrats say they have little interest to return to the negotiating table, and Johnson having He has already ruled out raising the debt ceilingthat Trump demands, there is no obvious path to a viable bill, much less one that Musk will approve.