Can Donald Trump (or Anyone) Control Elon Musk?

In dystopian sci-fi stories, the rich and powerful CEO is usually an ideal villain. In American politics right now, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, might be in the process of having unchecked power as he continues to buddy up to the soon-to-be most powerful man in the world, President-elect Donald Trump. 

Trump’s inauguration is still a month away, but Wednesday already saw the 1st potential crisis for the 2nd Trump administration as Musk was at the forefront of leading an attack to kill a spending bill that would avoid a government shutdown at least until March.

This seems to happen every year around this time when a deal is struck at the last minute to avoid a shutdown, which could have disastrous results for many people. However, Wednesday showed that we may be in a new frontier where Musk’s money and influence is shockingly strong for someone who wasn’t elected by the voters in November.

Who is willing to stand up against Musk?

Mike Johnson’s Job Already in Jeopardy?

The proposed spending bill, which was over 1,500 pages long, was led by Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. It had bipartisan support, and it covered a wide range of aid for things like farmers, Americans who were hit by national disasters, criminalizing revenge porn, and rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.

Is it a bit strange to include so many of those things together in the same bill? Yes, it would make sense to tackle more of these issues separately, but the government hasn’t worked like that, and maybe that’s worth looking into changing.

The Threat of a Government Shutdown

However, you don’t want to let the government go into a shutdown and the deadline is just a few days away now. While people would still receive their Social Security checks and the mail would come on time, it would hurt many government workers and veterans. When the government shut down related to spending for a border wall for about 5 weeks in 2018-19, the longest shutdown ever, it cost the US economy an estimated $3 billion. These events have consequences.

Johnson is well aware that the Republicans hold a slim 219-211 majority in the House, so the bill needs to be a compromise to get enough support to pass to keep the government funded through mid-March.

Musk’s Push

But Elon Musk went out of his way on a 100-plus tweet rant on X on Wednesday with the intent to get the bill killed. “This bill should not pass” said Elon as he used some misleading claims about the bill to get people railing against it, including a 40% pay raise for Congress, their 1st pay raise since 2009. However, it’s more like 4% instead of 40%.

Musk also insisted that any Republicans who don’t kill the bill should lose their seats in the 2026 midterms.

Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024

But Musk was receiving and amplifying many Republicans in Congress who agreed with him, and before you knew it, Donald Trump and JD Vance, the real next vice president, weighed in on social media with their agreement that Republicans should kill the bill and renegotiate something better.

The Bill’s Demise

Just like that, the bill was dead thanks to Musk. Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democratic Senator who lost reelection, voiced his concerns about Musk’s influence. “Just the fact they’re even talking about this because of a comment by one person that triggers this kind of result, it doesn’t bode well for the new Congress or the new administration,” he told CNN.

This now has Johnson’s job security as Speaker of the House in hot water. He only got the job after a controversial and incompetent process to remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. But if you thought that era of politics was wild in Congress, you may not have seen anything until you see what happens with Musk apparently calling the shots.

The voice of the people was heard.

This was a good day for America. https://t.co/r8K4AcbDYf

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024

Musk’s Stake Is Real

It’s no stretch to say that Elon Musk was as influential as anyone in helping Trump win the 2024 election. He strongly campaigned for Trump in the final weeks leading up to the election, and his influence as the richest man in the world and a visionary behind Tesla and SpaceX is hard to ignore.

But Musk has a real stake in Trump’s administration already lined up. No, he’s not the vice president as that is Vance’s job – on the surface, at least. But along with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk is set to head up the Department of Government Efficiency, named DOGE for short as a reference to the cryptocurrency.

Speaker Johnson actually was in a text chain on Tuesday with Ramaswamy and Musk to try to explain why the bill is the way it is and how they have to get Democratic support because of their thin margin. But that fell on deaf ears as Musk and Vivek pushed back harshly against this bill with Musk making tweet after tweet about it Wednesday.

Support for a Government Shutdown

Musk also supported a tweet that the government should just shut down until Trump assumes office on January 20, 2025. It would make sense why the lead on government efficiency would have an interest in spending bills. But Musk hasn’t officially started that job as Joe Biden is still the President of the United States.

Musk’s Influence

Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger went on TV Wednesday and joked that Trump is now the vice president and Elon is the real president. But with Musk beating Trump to the punch on killing this bill and seeing Trump fall in line with him hours later to kill it, it’s hard not to believe that is the case as we get closer to inauguration day.

Trump and Musk are both alpha males. Many had already speculated that there will be an epic meltdown when their relationship spoils, which seems inevitable when so much power is involved. But someone needs to put their foot down now and remind Musk that he’s not the president or vice president. No one elected him.

It’s not good for anyone if the richest man in the world can just buy his way into the most powerful office in the world.