The Republican messages of joy for having aborted a provisional agreement to meet the expenses of the US Government that they considered favorable to the Democrats have resounded again with a roar on the social network X (formerly Twitter), owned by Elon Musk, the man richest in the world and, as the architect of the rejection of the agreement, also one of the most powerful on the current American political scene. The gestures of genuflection from the Republican bench to the magnate, a major donor to Donald Trump’s campaign and his permanent shadow, occur this Thursday like a waterfall while the Government is on the brink of closure, which will be effective at midnight this Friday, due to deprive you of the funds necessary to meet your financial obligations. A closure of the Administration means, among other things, not paying the military’s salary and Social Security checks.
The prominence of the richest man in the world, with 32 days to go before Trump’s inauguration, allows us to imagine what his performance will be in the Republican Administration. Not only as co-director, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, of the Department of Government Efficiency, an organization in theory outside the Cabinet to reduce public spending and optimize resources, but as a true confidant of the president. It is enough to take a look at social networks to see the homage that the Republican caucus is paying him since he attacked the bill on Wednesday, dragging Trump himself and, by extension, the majority of his party’s congressmen.
“Your elected representatives have listened to you and now the terrible law is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed! VOX POPULI, VOX DEI,” Musk wrote on his social network. Trump has tried to qualify the magnate’s excessive prominence, highlighting today that they had discussed their views on the provisional financing agreement, until March 14, before Musk launched the offensive on X on Wednesday. Despite the nuances, the power of the technology entrepreneur has been revealed all-encompassing. “So much power, in so many pillars of society [negocios, medios de comunicación y política]is unprecedented. Musk yesterday [por el miércoles]single-handedly, with his voice amplified by the bombardment of dozens of tweets on X throughout the day, sank a 1,547-page bipartisan spending bill,” the portal recalled this Thursday. Axios.
The speaker of the House of Representatives, also a Republican Mike Johnson, had presented on Tuesday night the provisional financing agreement, negotiated with both parties, which included items such as 100,000 million dollars in aid for natural disasters and another 10,000 in economic assistance for farmers. It also provided for the first pay raise for legislators since 2009. In the wake of Musk’s tweets, Trump’s rejection and his number twoVice President-elect JD Vance, who considered that the text obeyed Democratic interests, put the finishing touches on the law. The presidential tandem asked Republicans to increase the debt limit or ceiling as part of negotiations to keep the Government running, an anathema to conservatives. The debt ceiling is the maximum amount of money that the Government can borrow to meet its obligations and must be approved by Congress.
Musk’s role in the episode – in theory one more of the recurring partisan tug-of-war when it comes to financing the Government – reveals, however, an unprecedented scenario of absolute control by what appears to be the plenipotentiary member of the second term. of Trump. A control derived from the 260 million that Musk invested in the Republican’s campaign, and the global speaker of the perfect circle of his influence.
Eliminate the debt ceiling
After proposing to raise the debt ceiling on Wednesday (“not great, but we prefer to do it on the clock [que marca el final de mandato] of Biden,” Trump wrote on social media), the president-elect went further this Thursday, betting on eliminating him completely in a telephone interview with NBC News. “It would be the smartest thing I could do.” [el Congreso]. “I would totally support it,” he said, a complete twist in the Republican discourse.
The debt ceiling has traditionally been a negotiating tool when torpedoing rival party projects or obtaining counterparties in the adoption of the budget. But the arguments that were previously spread among groups of Congress, or through probe balloons in the traditional media, now find immediate reaction on the networks. The new script of American politics closely follows Musk, who provoked “an instant and overwhelming response,” according to the rating of Axioson the Republican bench. By the grace of X, the platform on which Musk’s tweet urging the rejection of the bill has received 37 million views. “My phone wouldn’t stop ringing,” Republican Representative Andy Barr said this Thursday. “The people who elected us are listening to Elon Musk.”
“Republicans must BE SMART and TOUGH,” Trump and Vance said in a statement late Wednesday. “If the Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, IT’S A FLAT.” The two raised the ante with their proposal to raise the debt ceiling, while Johnson, whose continuity as speaker of the House of Representatives seemed assured thanks to Republican control, packed his bags.
Behind the scenes, and in the midst of the bombardment of slogans, Musk showed off his intimacy with the president-elect by sitting at the dinner table that he offered on the same Wednesday night to his technological rival, Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, and his fiancée at Mar-a-Lago, in his round of contacts with Big Tech leaders. If the Government shuts down, Musk can take credit or blame, but for now, at least on paper, he remains a private citizen… in an Administration that still has not started walking.
