As Elon Musk unleashed a volley of X posts demanding that Republicans back away from a deal to avert a government shutdown, Donald Trump was publicly silent.
Instead, the president-elect holed up in his office Wednesday in a ballroom above Mar-a-Lago. While Musk riled up the MAGA masses, Trump was holding a series of conversations with top aides — including Susie Wiles and Stephen Miller — as Vice President-elect JD Vance privately expressed Trump’s concerns about the bill on Capitol Hill, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss the matter freely.
By the time Trump and Vance finally chimed in several hours later in a joint statement, the measure was already tanked and Speaker Mike Johnson’s future was in jeopardy.
The sequence highlighted the evolving dynamic with his high-profile benefactor-turned-adviser and raised an awkward question for Trump of whether he or Musk was running the show. As GOP lawmakers on Thursday floated the prospect of installing the billionaire businessman as House speaker, and Democrats taunted Trump by claiming Musk was the real leader of the Republican Party, Trump did a round of interviews with reporters seemingly meant to ensure they knew it was his idea to kill the bipartisan funding bill.
In phone interviews with reporters at ABC, CBS and NBC, Trump also called for the debt ceiling to be eliminated or extended and emphasized that if the government did in fact shut down, “it’ll be a Biden shutdown.”
Trump aides and allies insisted that Musk was acting at the president-elect’s direction.
Musk is a “pawn in Trump’s chessboard, like everybody else,” said a person close to Trump who, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to speak frankly. The media “really wants to paint Elon as this independent character. If it were a chessboard, [Musk would] be a bishop.”
But the fact that Trump’s spokesperson felt it necessary to issue a statement about who was leading the GOP showed the extent to which lines had been blurred, even among some Republicans and close Trump allies.
“As soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR, Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his point of view. President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s incoming White House press secretary, in response to Democrats’ taunts that Musk was actually in charge.
Musk’s involvement in the Capitol Hill fiasco raised questions about whether he was simply getting a head start on his cost-cutting duties as the leader of the newly announced Department of Governmental Efficiency with the blessing of Trump — or freelancing.
Johnson told Fox News on Wednesday morning he spent his evening texting with Musk and his DOGE partner Vivek Ramaswamy about the proposed bill.
“Here’s the question: Is Elon saying to the president, ‘Hey, I’m going to do this.’ And the president’s like, ‘Great, you be the fucking bad guy.’ Or is he just doing this shit? And the president’s like, ‘Ah, fuck,’” said a person close to Trump.
“Elon knows a lot about launching rockets into space. But what does he know about the minutiae of political dealmaking, right? And what it takes to get through? It is very difficult to get things passed when you have [an eight-seat] majority.”
Those razor-thin margins left Johnson scrambling to piece together a stopgap bill that Democrats and Republicans alike could agree to, even if it went far beyond what Trump’s team had made clear the president-elect would support.
If there were any hurt feelings between Trump and Musk, it was not apparent in the immediate aftermath. On Wednesday night, Musk joined Trump at a dinner with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on the patio of Mar-a-Lago.
“The most influential person in the Republican Party is Donald Trump. But the second-most is Elon Musk. He has the attention of a lot of members,” said a House Republican staffer granted anonymity to speak freely.
Much of Musk’s clout comes from his unique ability to fire up the GOP base on social media. A former Republican lawmaker said Musk’s power can’t be overstated. The ex-lawmaker suggested that GOP members are aware of his ability to create a backlash online and take seriously his threat to fund primary challenges against them.
“No one wants to cross him,” the former lawmaker said, adding that it would be foolish to expect any profiles in courage given that most of the more independent-minded lawmakers have already departed.
Some conservative allies and Republicans close to Trump, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), even suggested that Johnson should be replaced by Musk.
“I’d be open to supporting @elonmusk for Speaker of the House,” Greene posted. “The establishment needs to be shattered just like it was yesterday.”
The 24 hours of chaos — a foreshadowing of future negotiations on Capitol Hill — resulted in a GOP plan that both Trump and Musk endorsed. (Its fate is in doubt after Democrats came out opposed.)
“SUCCESS in Washington!” Trump declared on X. “Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good Deal for the American People.”
Musk reposted Trump’s statement, and later clarified that he did not have anything to do with the new deal.
“I’m not the author of this proposal. Credit to @realDonaldTrump, @JDVance & @SpeakerJohnson,” Musk wrote.
Eli Stokols and Betsy Woodruff Swan contributed to this report.