What's New
President-elect Donald Trump's team has dismissed criticism regarding the influence of billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk amid spending bill negotiations.
Karoline Leavitt, Trump's incoming White House press secretary, told Business Insider: "As soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR [continuing resolution], Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his point of view. President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop."
Newsweek has contacted Trump's transition team and Musk's press team for comment via email outside regular working hours.
Why It Matters
A number of Democratic figures have condemned what they say is the power Musk wields over the president-elect and Congress ahead of a looming government shutdown. Some Democrats have suggested Musk is the actual "president" and that Trump is following his lead in the negotiations.
Musk urged lawmakers to vote down an original bipartisan spending bill and said any lawmaker who supported it should be voted out of office. Trump later echoed Musk's opposition, calling for a rise in the debt limit to be added and warning that any Republican who backs the bill should face a primary challenge. Musk and Trump's opposition helped tank the legislation, which would have prevented a shutdown just before the Christmas period, leaving House Speaker Mike Johnson scrambling for an alternative.
Some hardline Republicans have praised Musk, touting him as a potential replacement for Johnson as House speaker.
What to Know
A second spending bill, which would have extended government funding by three months, was voted down by the House on Thursday evening. The proposal included a two-year suspension of the debt limit—called for by Trump—and add-ons pushed by Democrats, such as more than $100 billion in natural disaster aid.
The bill failed in a 174-235-1 vote in the House, with 38 Republicans joining nearly every Democrat in rejecting the deal.
Ahead of the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters at the Capitol: "The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious. It's laughable. Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown."
In response, Musk denied authorship of the second bill and credited Trump, Johnson, and Vice President-elect JD Vance for the alternative proposal.
"This is a MUCH better bill that is closer to being a real continuing resolution (not an omnibus masquerading as a CR), but with support for hurricane victims and farmers, as well as a reasonable extension to the debt ceiling," Musk posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, which he owns. "If Dems reject this & government shuts down, they deserve to lose bigtime in the midterms."
Texas GOP Representative Chip Roy was among the Republicans who voted against the second spending bill. Speaking on the House floor, Roy said the bill would increase the national debt by trillions without cutting spending.
"Yes, I think this bill was better than it was yesterday in certain respects. But to take this bill and congratulate yourself because it's shorter in pages but increases the debt by $5 trillion is asinine, and that's precisely what Republicans are doing," Roy said.
"I'm absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go before the American people and say you think this is fiscally responsible. It is absolutely ridiculous."
What People Are Saying
Elon Musk posted on X: "A super fair & simple bill was put to a vote and only 2 Democrats in Congress were in favor. Therefore, responsibility for the shutdown rests squarely on the shoulders of Jeffries."
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on X: "Elon Musk ordered his puppet President-elect and House Republicans to break the bipartisan agreement reached to keep the government open. House Republicans are abdicating their responsibility to the American people and siding with billionaires and special interests."
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) on X: "We had a deal to avert a shutdown. Musk et al blew it up because it didn't help billionaires enough. They wrote a new bill to cut cancer treatment for kids and grease a new tax cut for the rich. That failed too—and now they're panicking because everyone is seeing the grift."
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) speaking to reporters Thursday: "We had many weeks of negotiation with the Republicans. We arrived at a bipartisan legislative compromise—the Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, House Democrats, House Republicans—everybody agreed. And then it was blown up by Elon Musk, who apparently has become the fourth branch of government."
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) on MSNBC: "It's not Donald Trump asking for this, it's very clearly President Elon Musk asking for this. The fact that Donald Trump has been completely AWOL during these negotiations, to the point where only after Elon Musk publicly tweets about his displeasure about this budget deal, all of a sudden Donald Trump, chief of staff to Elon Musk, comes trotting in and blows up the deal."
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who voted against the second bill, told Fox News: "He [Johnson] is a good man. He's been a good friend for a long time. But he's lost control of this process. I don't know how he can remain in power. Elon or Vivek [Ramaswamy] as speaker."
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), on X: "It's clear who's in charge, and it's not President-elect Donald Trump. Shadow President Elon Musk spent all day railing against Republicans' CR, succeeded in killing the bill, and then Trump decided to follow his lead."
What's Next
If no agreement is reached by the end of Friday, the government will shut down starting Saturday.
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