Musk is trying to backtrack on his previous demands to shut down the government.
newrepublic.com
Edith Olmsted/
December 20, 2024/10:07 a.m. ET
Elon Musk Suddenly Realizes He Has No Clue How to Govern
Musk is trying to backtrack on his previous demands to shut down the government.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Elon Musk really hopes you don’t remember when he was cheering on a government shutdown … less than 48 hours ago.
Shortly after a new “clean” spending bill failed to pass the House Thursday night, Musk took to X to lament how this was all the Democrats’ fault.
“A super fair & simple bill was put to a vote and only 2 Democrats in Congress were in favor,” Musk
wrote. “Therefore the responsibility for the shutdown rests squarely on the shoulders of @RepJeffries.”
“Shame on @RepJeffries for rejecting a fair & simple spending bill that is desperately needed by states suffering from hurricane damage,” he
wrote in another post.
Musk conveniently did not mention that 38 Republicans also
voted against the bill.
And on Wednesday, Musk was more than happy to
stir up revolt among the GOP. Not only did he
blast the original continuing resolution and threaten any Republican who supported it, but he even ranted about how the government actually ought to shutter, at least until Donald Trump enters office.
“We’ll be fine for 33 days,” wrote one X user, to which Musk
replied an enthusiastic, “YES.”
Screenshot
“No bills should be passed Congress until Jan 20, when @realDonaldTrump takes office. None. Zero,” Musk
wrote in a separate post, which read like marching orders to the more sycophantic GOP members, some of whom began to
fantasize about a Congress led by Musk himself. Yeah, it’s gotten that bad.
Musk’s major blow-up and Trump’s
last-minute request to raise the debt ceiling sent House Speaker Mike Johnson scrambling to assemble a “clean” bill. By Wednesday evening, Musk’s toddler-like tantrum had gotten him exactly what he wanted: an impending government shutdown. Too bad that wasn’t what the actual president-elect, not the unelected billionaire, was hoping for.
Now Musk’s only hope is to cast blame on Democrats, who probably would’ve supported the original bipartisan bill.