It appears that Elon Musk’s mandate from Donald Trump to eliminate government bloat is already in full swing.
Speaker Mike Johnson rushed to craft a last-minute spending bill to avoid a government shutdown after Trump and Musk abandoned his original plan.
Musk, the co-chair of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), openly ridiculed Johnson’s original nearly 1,600-page bill on X.
And Trump demanded that the bill be renegotiated, which he called a “nasty trap” by Democrats.
He also warned House Republicans against supporting the bloated measure, which includes a pay raise for Congress, additional disaster spending and other unrelated spending measures.
“Any Republican who would be foolish enough to do this should and will get a primary,” he wrote on his TruthSocial platform.
As a result of mounting pressure, Johnson and his leadership team reached an agreement on a much smaller bill (only 116 pages) a day later.
Musk posted a photo on X of the stack of pages in the legislation, showing the difference between “yesterday’s bill” and “today’s bill.”
The leadership of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives indicated that the new 116-page CR will be put to a vote on Thursday evening.
Musk posted a photo to
President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk pose for a photo during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City. The two hated Johnson’s original spending plan, so they made him change it
Speaker Mike Johnson has drafted and then redrafted legislation in recent days to prevent a government shutdown
But its fate is uncertain as Democrats do not agree to the new Trump-backed deal and Johnson cannot afford to lose many Republican defectors.
And if it doesn’t work out, the government will go into a partial shutdown at midnight on Friday.
Honoring Johnson’s work in crafting the new deal, Trump triumphantly posted on Truth Social: “Good luck in Washington!”
“Speaker Mike Johnson and the House of Representatives have reached a very good deal for the American people,” his post continued. “The newly negotiated American Relief Act of 2024 will keep the government open, fund our Great Farmers and others, and provide relief to those hit hard by the devastating hurricanes.”
Trump also applauded the wording to suspend the debt limit until 2027.
“A very important piece, critical to the America First Agenda, was also added: the date of the highly unnecessary debt ceiling will be postponed by two years, to January 30, 2027,” Trump wrote.
“Now we can make America great again very quickly, and that is what the people have given us a mandate to accomplish. All Republicans, and even Democrats, must do what is best for our country and vote ‘yes’ on this bill tonight!”
After hearing about the slimmer CR on Thursday afternoon, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., vetoed the bill.
“It’s not serious, it’s laughable,” Jeffries said of the deal. ‘Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a shutdown.’
Earlier in the day, Trump had harsher words for Johnson, giving him a clear ultimatum if the speaker wanted to stay in power.
“Anyone who supports a bill that fails to address the democratic quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be prioritized and removed as quickly as possible,” the president-elect said. Fox News digital A clear warning was issued on Thursday morning.
“If the speaker acts decisively and toughly, and gets rid of all the Democrats’ traps that will destroy our country economically and in other ways, he will easily remain speaker,” he continued.
A top senator has now floated the idea of replacing Johnson as the top Republican in the House of Representatives with maverick Elon Musk.
Johnson’s new CR came after an onslaught of public pressure from Trump ally and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
After the original 1,500-plus-page bill was posted Tuesday, the DOGE co-chairman began ridiculing the X legislation non-stop to his more than 200 million followers.
Billionaire Musk, who heads Trump’s DOGE agency with Vivek Ramaswamy, led the charge to shoot down the bill he called a “piece of pork.”
He even went so far as to threaten any Republican who votes for the measure by saying he will be fired from Congress in the next election.
“Every member of the House of Representatives or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years!” he wrote on X.
Later, Musk wrote the successfully killed bill, something that was later confirmed by Trump’s leadership and the Republican Party in the House of Representatives: “Your elected representatives heard you and now the terrible bill is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed!’
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., says the Constitution does not require the speaker to be a member of Congress, opening the door to fresh blood
The back-and-forth between Musk and Johnson has since prompted some members of Congress to muse on whether the billionaire would be a more effective speaker of the House of Representatives.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said the Constitution does not require the speaker to be a member of Congress, opening the door to fresh blood.
“Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk. . . think about it. . . nothing is impossible,” he says, adding that it would be “joy” to see the “collective establishment lose its ever-loving spirit.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said she is “open to supporting” Paul’s proposal.
‘The establishment must be destroyed, just like yesterday. This could be the way,” she wrote on X.
She later sent a poll to her constituents asking whether they would support Musk taking the top job in Congress.