Senate Democrats described him as a billionaire Elon Musk “co-chairman” and “shadow spokesman” among other titles as they reacted to the collapse of the original temporary spending deal on Wednesday after he and President-elect Donald Trump ultimately opposed it.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Musk “appears to be the man in charge of the country now,” in response to his apparent ability to influence the bill's immediate failure despite bipartisan leaders in Congress approving it.
If Congress does not approve a measure to provide funding for the government and President Joe Biden signs it by midnight Saturday morning, a partial government shutdown will go into effect.
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Musk was credited with removing the first version of the spending bill. (Brandon Bell)
After the 1,547-page short-term spending bill was introduced this week. Musk quickly turned to X, formerly known as Twitter, to take it down, citing several seemingly unrelated rulings as well as its cost and length.
Other critics quickly joined in, and President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance issued their own statement opposing the bill.
This led to significant criticism from Democrats unhappy with Musk's apparent ability to influence Trump and the president Republicans in Congress.
Warren said Musk is running the show. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“He's the one who seems to be calling the shots,” Warren told reporters.
“Clearly, Elon Musk is in charge of the Republican Party and he torpedoed that deal,” she said. “So I don’t know how Republicans plan to recover from that.”
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., suggested that Musk is “actually the shadow speaker of the House,” a slur against House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Los Angeles.
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Fetterman called Musk a “shadow speaker.” (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“I think he's unelected, and he's done a lot of damage,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, Democrat of Georgia.
He claimed that Republicans in Congress were “busy listening to Co-Chairman Musk and Co-Chairman Trump.”
“I'm listening to the people of Georgia, especially the farmers who are struggling to get disaster relief. We need to make sure we get to the finish line.”
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., emphasized that Musk is not an elected official. He added: “He does not have any official government job.”
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Kelly pointed out that Musk was not elected. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“We reached an agreement with House Republicans, and now, because of it, the president-elect is about to lose their jobs and not get paid during the holidays,” he said. The deadline was no later than midnight on Saturday morning.
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Despite the claims of their Democratic colleagues, Republicans have pushed back on the idea that Trump was influenced by Musk. Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, noted that there are “a lot of people around President Trump,” adding that he does not believe Musk has control over what the president-elect does.
Musk was appointed by Trump, along with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead the so-called Republican Party. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)A proposed advisory council charged with eliminating government waste.
