Tech billionaire Elon Musk is already flexing his new political power even before his new ally, newly elected President Donald Trump, has taken the oath of office.
Musk helped lead an uprising Wednesday in an effort to stop a bipartisan funding bill, in a direct challenge to the authority of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and others in the Republican leadership who helped lead drawing up the measure. And in a remarkable twist, at least for a day, the uprising appeared to be successful, throwing budget negotiations into chaos and raising the likelihood of a government shutdown this weekend.
“Yes,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise confirmed to reporters Wednesday evening when asked if the current bill is now dead.
Musk posted to X about the funding bill more than 100 times during the day. He repeatedly called the bill “criminal” and asked his followers to call their representatives, but he also posted memes, including one of him drawing a sword at the bill and another referencing director’s “Kill Bill” films Quentin Tarantino. Later that day, the phrase “Kill Bill” was on X’s list of trending topics in the United States.
Musk also issued an afternoon warning: “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this excessive spending bill deserves to be voted out of office within two years!” And when The Hill newspaper posted a story on its website about the warning, Musk emphasized his point by approvingly posting a screenshot of the headline.
Some of Musk’s messages were inaccurate. He said a proposed salary increase from Congress would be 40%, while the maximum potential salary increase in 2025 is already set at 3.8%, according to the Congressional Research Service. He also said the bill “funds bioweapons labs,” citing a screenshot from the bill’s text regarding “biocontainment labs” to better prepare the U.S. to fight infectious diseases.
And he made another false post claiming that the bill includes $3 billion for a new NFL stadium in Washington, D.C., saying it “should not be funded with your tax dollars.” That’s not it. The bill transfers jurisdiction of RFK Stadium from the federal government to the capital, which local leaders have been pushing to redevelop for the Washington Commanders, who play in Maryland. The bill would provide no money associated with the location, and it would explicitly prohibit the use of federal funds for a stadium there and require the district to pay all costs associated with the transfer.
His successful lobbying efforts prompted Democrats to give Musk new nicknames, including “shadow president” and “co-president.”
Musk announced his opposition to the bill at 4:15 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
“This bill should not be passed,” he said on X.
The statement put Musk on trial as one of the first political figures to speak out against the bill, but 13 hours later Trump himself spoke in approval. What happened in between was a furious online campaign led by Musk to try to kill the bill, which he said was “criminal” because of its 1,547-page length and the amount of money it would spend.
The measure would have kept the government funded until mid-March. A shutdown is expected to begin at 12:01 a.m. Saturday without action from Congress.
Musk has never held political office and until recently had barely voted, but his influence is growing due to the combination of his vast wealth, his online celebrity, his ownership of X and his financial and personal support this fall for Trump’s political comeback.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire was one of many Democrats who wondered whether Trump would be rolled up by Musk.
“You have to ask Donald Trump – whether Elon Musk makes the decisions,” Shaheen said on Wednesday.
A Trump transition team official asked why Trump waited to announce his opposition until hours after Musk and others criticized the bill, saying, “He left everyone wondering what he wanted to do.” All eyes were on him. When he moved, it was over. He is president before he becomes president.”
President Joe Biden’s term ends on January 20.
Musk’s position in the Trump administration will be that of a non-governmental adviser, through his co-leader of a government efficiency committee, so his actual authority is harder to gauge than that of a Cabinet secretary or a full-time White House staffer.
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment, including on whether he plans to play a similar role in more legislative debates next year.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said of X: “Democrats and Republicans have spent months negotiating a bipartisan deal to fund our government. The richest man in the world, President Elon Musk, doesn’t like it. Will Republicans kiss the ring? Billionaires should not run our government.”
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has spent more than $250 million this year to boost Trump and other Republicans in the Nov. 5 election. Since then, his net worth has risen to more than $450 billion, making him the richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. SpaceX is a major government contractor.
On the social media app Bluesky, Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., said: “Republican unelected co-president Elon Musk pushed aside the government shutdown bill on Friday. All he had to do was make a few posts on social media.”
Musk appeared to acknowledge his influence, replying with a “greeting face” emoji to a compliment to X touting his power.
Several Republican lawmakers said they were glad Musk intervened, but they stopped short of giving him all the credit or blame for the breakdown in budget negotiations.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said: “Elon made a pretty serious post there. But you know, that’s the sentiment of the American people. This is why we won on November 5. Everyone is tired of spending too much.”
Asked about Musk’s comments on the bill, Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., said, “He’s very influential.”
At least one conservative lawmaker, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., declined to give Musk credit. He said he opposed the funding bill before Musk did.
“I appreciate Elon Musk following my lead,” Burchett said on CNN.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said Musk tapped into or reflected “a lot of anger out there.”
A Republican Senate aide, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said Musk’s role was inconclusive and risked a backlash. “I think the CR was already done without Elon, but I wouldn’t be happy with him playing this role if I were Trump,” the aide said, using the initials for an “ongoing solution.”
There was no guarantee that Musk’s opposition would succeed. When he announced his opposition, gambling website Polymarket gave a 12% chance of a government shutdown this weekend. During the day, amid Musk’s deluge of tweets, the probability rose to 40%.
According to the app’s publicly viewable data, many of his posts on X have been viewed tens of millions of times. His initial announcement opposing the bill was viewed 32 million times, and a post with a photo of the bill asked, “Ever seen a bigger piece of pork?” was seen 27 million times.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
