Chaotic Shutdown Infighting Shows Musk Overreach, Trump Power Limits, & GOP Rifts
Musk overplayed his hand, angering Republicans. Trump failed at forcing a debt ceiling increase, exposing rifts in the GOP. A reminder: chaos, impulsivity, and incompetence are key tenets of Trumpism.
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Updated - 6:41 pm EST: The House has passed a bill that averts a government shutdown, but it does not include Trump’s demand to raise the debt ceiling. The rest of this article remains as written, and the point stands.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) had a bipartisan funding deal negotiated with Democrats that would have avoided a government shutdown before the holidays. Congress was all set to vote on the 1,500-page Continuing Resolution (CR) and head home. Then Elon Musk picked up his phone and started tweeting.
On Wednesday, Elon Musk spent the entire day posting about how the bipartisan funding bill should not pass, making threats to Republicans who would dare vote in favor. The bill was on life support. Trump was remarkably silent until late into the day, then released a statement through Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, effectively killing the bill. Trump then began demanding that the new bill should include an increase to the debt ceiling, which threw an 11th-hour wrench in the negotiations.
Speaker Johnson was forced to go back to the drawing board and came up with a new bill that included a debt ceiling increase and other cuts. Trump and Musk endorsed the new CR. It failed on Thursday night, with 38 Republicans voting against it. Then, Elon Musk took to social media and blamed… Democrats.
Make no mistake, this chaos falls squarely on Elon Musk, Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy, and the House Republicans who went along with their demands.
As someone who documented every day of Trump’s presidency during his first term, this is familiar. This shutdown infighting is a reminder that chaos, impulsivity, and incompetence are key components of Trumpism. Before Trump even takes office, it’s clear there will be power struggles that complicate the kind of autocratic control Trump is seeking to implement.
Regardless of what happens next with the government funding fight, this debacle provided some key revelations as we head into the second Trump Administration.
Let’s dive into how this internal GOP government shutdown fight unfolded, how Elon Musk’s overreach backfired, how the Musk-Trump power dynamics are already straining, how it showed the limits of Trump’s power, and how it exposed fractures within the Republican Party.
Elon Musk’s Overreach Backfired
Elon Musk thought he could order around Republicans like his subordinates, but he’s learning the machinery of power in Washington the hard way.
Musk, an unelected billionaire who spent $250 million and used the social media platform he owns to help Trump and Republicans win, is now seeking to run the federal government via tweet.
Beginning on Wednesday, two days before the CR was set to be voted on, Musk posted about his opposition to the bipartisan government funding deal. Musk posted about the deal over 150 times this week, including posts that contained false information about what was in the bill, according to a count by The New York Times.
Musk’s DOGE partner Vivek Ramaswamy joined in on this tirade, chipping away at the bill’s support. Donald Trump, who is the actual president-elect, remained quiet until later on Wednesday when he announced his opposition to the bill and threatened to back primary opponents against any Republican who voted for the bill. The bill was then officially dead.
Some Republicans vented anger at this maneuver, privately and publicly expressing frustration at Elon Musk. Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) said on CNN, “…Quite frankly, last time I checked, Elon Musk doesn’t have a vote in Congress.”
Other House Republicans anonymously fumed to Fox News on Thursday. One GOP lawmaker said: “Musk and Vivek should not have jumped in at the 11th hour and should have handled it directly with the speaker. Folks on the same side shouldn’t act like these two. They’re more about the clicks and bright lights than getting the job done. I’ll have nothing to do with them after watching them publicly trash the speaker.”
Another told Fox News that Ramaswamy was lying about the bill: “He didn't read the entire [continuing resolution] and the vast majority of what he was talking about is misinformation,”
Democrats began mocking the fact Musk was clearly leading the charge in his opposition to the CR, calling the billionaire “President Musk.” Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi went even further, explicitly saying Musk is manipulating Trump in a post on Twitter/X, Musk’s own platform:
“Elon Musk ordered his puppet President-elect and House Republicans to break the bipartisan agreement reached to keep government open.
House Republicans are abdicating their responsibility to the American people and siding with billionaires and special interests.”
The framing of Musk as the true power figure didn’t just come from Democrats. Fox News spent the past two days fawning over Musk. Sean Hannity said, “There’s a new sheriff in town.” Jesse Waters said that Musk “blew up the bill in a day.” Peter Doocy said that Musk is “the center of the universe on Capitol Hill in a way that nobody has ever seen.”
Trump is well-known for having a fickle ego and never wants to appear as the weaker partner in any power dynamic. The framing of Musk as the real Shadow President by Democrats and some in the media likely triggers a very particular nerve in Trump. There are already indications that this is getting under Trump’s skin.
In a phone call with NBC News, Trump sought to assure the public that Musk had made these moves with his blessing. “I told him that if he agrees with me that he could put out a statement. He’s looking at things from a cost standpoint.”
Trump spokesperson and incoming White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded with a statement that appeared to clearly address the claims that Musk is really in charge:
“As soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR, Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his point of view. President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop.”
If Trump’s team feels they have to declare that Trump is the leader of the Republican Party, they are clearly worried about Musk taking up too much spotlight. This is a key dynamic to watch, as it could be the focal point for a future Trump-Musk split.
After Musk took the lead on Wednesday, Trump sought to retake control of the CR negotiations on Thursday.
Limits Of Trump’s Power & Rifts Within The Republican Party
After the first bill died, Donald Trump took credit for killing it and made new demands. On Thursday, Trump posted on social media and made several calls to news organizations, saying that there would be a government shutdown unless the new CR bill raises the debt ceiling. Trump told ABC News, "We're not going to fall into the debt ceiling quicksand. There won't be anything approved unless the debt ceiling is done with."
Speaker Johnson heard Trump loud and clear and came back with a new CR that made some cuts, including cutting $190 million to child cancer research. The new bill included a debt ceiling increase until the year 2027.
On Thursday, Trump sent a post on Truth Social that endorsed the deal, and Musk also pushed for the bill to pass. Trump posted: “All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country, and vote ‘YES’ for this Bill, TONIGHT!”
The bill failed, with 38 House Republicans voting against it. Nonetheless, Trump, Vance, Musk, and Ramaswamy made a baseless effort to blame Democrats for the failure of the bill.
This defiance indicates Trump may not have as strong an iron grip on the Republican Party as he believes. The fact that 38 House Republicans defied Trump and voted no on this bill is remarkable, especially given the immense power Trump is seeking to exert in his second term. There are clearly still some ideological fiscal conservatives within the House GOP caucus that oppose the increase in the debt ceiling.
Aside from the rifts within the GOP this has exposed, it also showed fractures in the relationship between Speaker Mike Johnson and Donald Trump. Johnson has worked with Democrats since he became Speaker to pass CRs over the past year. However, it’s clear that Trump’s approach is more zero-sum and akin to how he operated in his first term.
If Speaker Johnson can’t align with Trump’s approach, his speakership is at risk, especially as Democrats indicate they are done coming to Johnson’s rescue.
I find it hard to believe that Americans will look upon this dysfunction favorably, especially when it’s being caused by billionaires who won’t face the consequences of that dysfunction.
There’s a story here that Democrats and members of the media need to tell. Donald Trump and Elon Musk, billionaires totally detached from reality, are focused on power accumulation and self-enrichment while they unleash chaos that harms the American people. If there is a government shutdown, it would be everyday Americans who felt the impact right before the holidays.
In my article on Trump’s Cabinet picks, I wrote that Americans should take solace in the fact that when it comes to a coalition of self-interested grifters, their alliances only last as long as their interests are aligned. I encouraged everyone to remember the chaos and infighting in the first Trump Administration and that we should expect no different this time. Trump’s coalition may be nefarious, but they’re also largely incompetent, I noted.
Well, it looks like we’re already seeing that play out before Trump has even been sworn in as president. It appears there might be more internal threats to Trump’s authoritarianism than we might think, and it comes in the form of overreach and infighting.
I’m pretty dependent upon my Social Security arriving each month, but I did read this morning that a shutdown would not stop the checks from being deposited. Rather selfishly, I felt some relief about that. But of course I empathize with those who will suffer from this utterly avoidable chaos. Thanks for keeping us informed, Ahmed.
Well our household is getting ready for a temporary furlough.. my wife is on a teleconference this minute with their upper management at the Veterans Benefits Administration about the shutdown and how it will impact them. My wife would work still but not get paid until the shutdown is resolved. Luckily I will still get paid since my agency is the only user fee funded agency and we don’t get appropriations from Congress