Trump and Elon Cause Shutdown S***show—and He Isn’t Even President Yet

Donald Trump and Elon Musk sent America barreling towards a government shutdown Wednesday night with a series of dramatic interventions which plunged Congress into chaos.

The pair blew up a carefully constructed bipartisan package Speaker Mike Johnson had to pass by Friday to keep the government funded—with Musk using his X platform to throw bombs at the Republican Party he claims to support.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) confirmed to reporters on Capitol Hill that the bipartisan deal was dead, capping a remarkable day in which Trump flexed his considerable political muscle more than a month before he is set to take office.

“There’s no new agreement right now,” Scalise said, adding that they were “obviously, looking at a number of options.”

Vice President-elect JD Vance was seen arriving at Johnson’s offices in the Capitol on Wednesday night, the Associated Press reported. The speaker has reportedly been huddling in his office for hours after support for his bipartisan bill collapsed.

If both houses of Congress do not pass a funding resolution by Friday at midnight, hundreds of thousands of government workers would be furloughed days before Christmas and vital services like air traffic control could lurch into chaos.

The Dow Jones was already down over 1,100 points after the Fed announced an interest rate cut on Wednesday, and a sell-off accelerated after hours—likely indicating a panic in the market.

The dramatic rebuke of Speaker Johnson culminated Wednesday night when Trump released a series of statements excoriating “foolish and inept” Republicans for considering the bill, which he said contained “all of the Democrat “bells and whistles” that will be so destructive to our Country.”

He also suggested that he would support primary challenges against any Republican who voted for Johnson’s bill.

Speaker Johnson is reportedly considering a “plan B” in the wake of the turmoil stirred up by Trump and Musk, sources told Politico and The Hill. The new plan would likely be a so-called “clean” continuing resolution to fund the government without the added spending—though it remains unclear how that measure would attract the Democratic support it needs to pass the House.

Speaker Johnson’s office did not immediately return a request for comment from the Daily Beast.

In another flurry of posts on Truth Social, Trump blasted the bill for not raising the debt ceiling, the total amount that the federal government is authorized under current law to borrow.

The debt was not considered in the original negotiations.

The debt ceiling, which was not considered in the original negotiations, was suspended by Congress in 2023—but that suspension is set to expire in January. Trump referred to the impending fight over the debt ceiling as a “guillotine” and a “nasty TRAP,” insisting that Congress fix the issue before his inauguration.

Speaking to reporters after Trump’s flurry of posts, Scalise confirmed that members of Congress were now having “ongoing conversations” about the debt limit.

Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” partner Vivek Ramaswamy were the first to lob a metaphorical smoke bomb into the halls of Congress Wednesday with a near-nonstop stream of posts on X, the social media platform Musk purchased for $44 billion in 2022, raging against Johnson’s tightly-woven bill for its apparent efforts to woo Democratic votes.

The billionaire Tesla CEO first became an outspoken Trump ally during the presidential campaign, and was rewarded with a spot alongside Ramaswamy leading the panel, nicknamed DOGE after an internet meme based on photos of a Shiba Inu from Japan.

Musk, however, claimed an early victory on Wednesday afternoon over his new Congressional allies, writing on X: “Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed!”

Johnson first released the text of the over 1,500-page spending bill on Tuesday night. The bill included about $100 billion in disaster relief aid intended for victims of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, as well as billions in farm subsidies and funds for the rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, which was destroyed when a ship hit one of its columns earlier this year.

More controversially for Musk and some other Republicans, the bill also includes the first pay raise for members of Congress since 2009.

In their statement, Trump and Vance said they supported the disaster relief and farm subsidies, but said Republicans could deliver this spending in 2025 when they control both houses of Congress. “The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”

Democrats in the House were outraged at the move. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) seemed to indicate Democrats would oppose a clean stopgap bill, stating on X: “You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”

Even the outgoing Biden administration stepped in to condemn Trump and Vance’s dramatic intervention on Wednesday.

“Triggering a damaging government shutdown would hurt families who are gathering to meet with their loved ones and endanger the basic services Americans from veterans to Social Security recipients rely on,” the White House said in a statement. “A deal is a deal. Republicans should keep their word.”