Trump and ‘President Musk’ torpedo plan to keep US government open

The American government is in danger of running into acute cash shortages before Christmas. Spurred on by incoming President Trump and his ally Elon Musk, Republicans in Congress unexpectedly rejected a compromise with Democrats for additional funds. An alternative plan that did receive Trump’s support also did not make it last night.

The impasse could leave the federal government running out of money as soon as this weekend. This could mean that hundreds of thousands of civil servants will be at home without a salary just before the holidays and that museums and national parks will not be able to open during the Christmas holidays. However, essential government services such as defense and police continue to operate, and benefits are also guaranteed.

The political crisis exposed the fault lines in Washington even before Trump took office. Trump put his own party leader Johnson to shame, but in turn did not receive the support of fellow party members for his own plans. The Democrats portray Musk as the real power broker in Washington, who lets Trump dance to his tune.

Democrats and Republicans must make joint agreements on the federal budget to finance government services. Speaker Johnson of the House of Representatives had reached a compromise on this with the Democratic opposition.

But then Musk, the billionaire Trump appointed to make government spending more efficient, got involved. “This bill should not be passed,” he tweeted late into the night. For the rest of the day he expressed his criticism in more than sixty messages and retweets.

For example, Musk blamed lawmakers for including too many perks, such as the first salary increase in fifteen years for members of Congress. However, he also spread misinformation that the agreements would include millions in aid for Ukraine, as well as billions for a new American football stadium in the capital.

Although politicians emphasized that those proposals did not appear in the proposal at all, Musk called the law terrible, unprecedented and an insane crime. He proposed expelling every member of Congress who voted in favor at the next election. According to him, no law should be passed before Trump takes office in a month. “Not one. Zero.”

This led to the compromise being scrapped and Republicans having to rush to provide an alternative, which included the disappearance of their own pay increase. In addition, the party leadership had accepted a demand from Trump to scrap the debt ceiling until 2027. This would mean that the federal government is no longer bound by a limit for additional borrowing.

Now it was the Democrats who protested. Although they have been interested in more financial scope for the government in the past, they are afraid that under Trump the money will mainly be used for tax cuts for the rich.

“You cannot call this a serious proposal,” group leader Jeffries responded to the Republicans’ plan. His answer was therefore “not just no, but hell no.” His influential colleague Steny Hoyer criticized the Republicans’ tactics for trying to push through such a huge policy change at the eleventh hour. “Without discussion, it was take it or leave it.”

Remarkably, Trump’s conservative party members were now also opposed. They worry that limitless borrowing will swell the federal budget. The vote therefore ended in a defeat for Johnson by 174 to 235. He himself said when leaving the session that he still hoped that an alternative would emerge. “We will regroup and come up with a new solution, so stay tuned.”

The stalemate once again underlines how Johnson is caught between Trump’s positions and those of his own group. There are doubts as to whether he will be able to remain as speaker of the House when the new Congress takes office. Some party members are already fantasizing about giving Musk his position, because the rules do not state that the chairman must also sit in the House.

Democrats, meanwhile, criticize the influence of that tech billionaire on the entire process. The opposition portrays Trump as Musk’s hand puppet and jokingly speaks of President Musk.

In any case, the opposition does not seem to be planning to help Johnson reach an agreement with his own party: “Let’s just go back to the agreement that both parties made,” Senator Schumer suggested.

The last time the US government was paralyzed by a budget crisis was in 2018, when Trump continued to insist on extra money for a border wall with Mexico. That was the longest at the time, at 34 days shutdown ever.