Democrats in the Senate called a billionaire Elon Musk was referred to as “co-president” and “shadow spokesman” among others as they responded to the implosion of the original bridge deal on Wednesday after he and ultimately President-elect Donald Trump spoke out against it.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Musk “now appears to be the one running the country,” responding to his apparent ability to influence the bill’s immediate failure despite being endorsed by bipartisan leaders in Congress was.
If a measure providing funding for the government is not passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden by midnight Saturday morning, a partial government shutdown will go into effect.
From Thursday it is US national debt was $36,167,604,149,955.61 and continues to rise rapidly.
Senate Republicans are trying to speed up emergency military pay as they prepare for the shutdown
Musk was credited with defeating the first version of the spending bill. (Brandon Bell)
After a 1,547-page short-term spending bill was introduced this week. Musk quickly took to X, formerly Twitter, to blast it, pointing out various seemingly irrelevant provisions as well as its cost and length.
He was soon joined by other critics, and President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD 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 US Republicans in Congress.
Warren said Musk is in charge. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“He seems to be the one in charge,” Warren told reporters.
“Elon Musk is obviously the one who runs the Republican Party and blew up this deal. So I don’t know how Republicans are going to recover from this,” she said.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., suggested that Musk is “already the shadow speaker of the House” in a diatribe against House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
TIM SCOTT’S SENATE CAMPAIGN ARM STAFF ARE UNVEILED AHEAD OF THE DECISIVE 2026 SWING STATE RACE
Fetterman called Musk the “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, D-Ga.
He claimed that Republicans in Congress were “busy listening to Co-President Musk and Co-President Trump.”
“I am listening to the people of Georgia, especially farmers, struggling for disaster relief. And we have to make sure we get this over the finish line.”
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, reiterated that Musk is not an elected official. “He doesn’t have an official government job,” he said.
“MAKING AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN” CAUCUS LAUNCHED BY SEN MARSHALL AFTER RFK JR MEETING
Kelly pointed out that Musk was not elected. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“We had a deal with the Republicans in the House and now because of him the president-elect is on the verge of people losing their jobs and not getting paid over the holidays,” he said of a possible partial shutdown if a bill is not passed within the Deadline until midnight on Saturday morning has passed.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Despite claims from their Democratic colleagues, Republicans rejected the idea that Trump was influenced by Musk. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., noted that there are “a lot of people around President Trump,” adding that he doesn’t believe Musk has control over what the president-elect does.
Musk was tapped by Trump to lead the so-called US presidential election alongside former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)a proposed advisory board tasked with eliminating government waste.
