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Yesterday, a tantrum from the world’s richest individual swayed occasions in Congress. First, Elon Musk launched a blizzard of X posts denouncing a bipartisan spending invoice designed to maintain the federal government open. Calling the invoice “felony,” Musk threatened: “Any member of the Home or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending invoice deserves to be voted out in two years!”
Panic ensued among the many notoriously skittish congressional GOP, who shortly bowed to their grasp’s voice. Musk, after all, isn’t truly the president-elect. He obtained roughly zero p.c of the votes in final month’s election. However for a couple of hours this week, Musk didn’t simply act as if he, and never Donald Trump, will quickly maintain the reins of presidency energy; the GOP additionally responded as if he’ll.
As Russell Berman famous in The Atlantic earlier as we speak, Republicans weren’t proud of the proposed model of the spending invoice, however Home Speaker Mike Johnson “believed that he might get sufficient Republicans to affix most Democrats in passing the invoice in time to avert a authorities shutdown.” It seems, although, that the individual he actually wanted to steer was Musk. “I used to be speaking with Elon final night time,” Johnson mentioned yesterday on Fox & Pals. “Elon, Vivek [Ramaswamy], and I are on a textual content chain collectively, and I used to be explaining to them the background of this.” The pleading and lobbying to the unelected billionaires went on for some time. Johnson added, “Vivek and I talked final night time [until] about nearly midnight … [He and Musk] perceive the state of affairs. They mentioned, ‘It’s not directed at you, Mr. Speaker, however we don’t just like the spending.’ And I mentioned, ‘Guess what, fellas? I don’t both.’”
Johnson’s try at appeasement failed. Inside hours, the pseudo president-elect had kneecapped Johnson. Trump and J. D. Vance weighed in yesterday afternoon, releasing an announcement denouncing the spending invoice. The federal government was on the sting of a shutdown. As of this writing, Trump has praised a brand new, slimmed-down model of the spending invoice (as has Musk), opening the potential for averting that end result. However Musk’s place on the middle of this course of provided us a preview of the political dynamics of the Musk-Trump-GOP period: razor-thin legislative margins, chaos, governing through social-media rant, and a Sport of Thrones–fashion jockeying for energy between Musk and Trump.
Musk’s day of prolific posting was additionally a reminder of how little he comprehends concerning the U.S. authorities. His feverish 100-plus posts had been riddled with disinformation and false claims that exposed his lack of information of the fundamentals of budgeting. He received particulars fallacious about a congressional pay increase and taxpayer funding of an NFL stadium in Washington, D.C. He pushed misinformation from a January 6 rioter who falsely claimed that the spending invoice would block Republican investigation of the January 6 Choose Committee. Musk exulted within the prospect of an entire authorities shutdown, posting {that a} shutdown “doesn’t truly shut down vital capabilities.” Though it’s true that “important capabilities” would proceed (and that Social Safety checks would nonetheless exit), contra Musk, shutdowns are neither painless nor low cost. Massive swaths of the federal government would certainly be pressured to close down, and authorities workers would see delayed paychecks.
Wherever the spending invoice lands, this week might mark one other dramatic shift in GOP politics. For years, as a sign of their dedication to fiscal prudence, conservative Republicans have opposed elevating the debt restrict. Immediately, although, after Musk had stolen a march on him, Trump known as for eliminating the debt ceiling altogether (probably as a result of he desires to clear the way in which for enormous tax cuts subsequent yr). That form of demand will drive members of the Freedom Caucus to—as soon as once more—select between fiscal conservatism and their sycophantic loyalty to the incoming president. The newest model of the spending invoice, in keeping with Trump’s social-media posts, would droop the debt ceiling till January 2027.
In the meantime, the president-elect has to cope with the specter of Elon Musk. As Politico’s Jonathan Martin famous on X yesterday, Musk’s second brings with it a couple of potential downsides for Trump: “The Elon threat right here is he’s not simply diverting consideration from Trump, he’s additionally threatening to ship him unhealthy press if the gov’t shuts down.” This week, Musk solidified his affect over the methods of U.S. authorities, however the clock could also be ticking on Trump’s tolerance of that truth.
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- Dominique Pelicot and 50 different males had been discovered responsible in a mass-rape and drugging trial in France. Practically all of them had been convicted for rape or tried rape of Gisèle Pelicot, Dominique’s ex-wife.
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