Elon blows up Congress — and the illusion of Mike Johnson’s grip on power

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. After days-long crusade by the Twitter and Tesla CEO, House Republicans began coming out in droves in opposition to the bill — in no small part due to a wave of phone calls from Republican voters furious over Musk’s tweets, which described the deal as “criminal”. I don’t have the answers right now.” open image in gallery Elon Musk made Mike Johnson’s job very difficult this week, just as Congress was ready to leave town for the holidays. Pramila Jayapal, outgoing head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote on Twitter: “It’s clear who’s in charge, and it’s not President-elect Donald Trump.” “Shadow President Elon Musk spent all day railing against Republicans’ CR, succeeded in killing the bill, and then Trump decided to follow his lead.” Dan Goldman, speaking on CNN, added: “It’s one thing when you have Donald Trump governing by tweet…but now you have Elon Musk, an unelected oligarch, governing by tweet.” One White House official who spoke to The Independent described the situation as evoking a sense of deja vu going back to late 2018, when then-President Trump reneged on a deal cut between then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to avert a holiday shutdown because it did not include funding for a wall along the US-Mexico border. He flatly denied that Democrats would vote to support Mike Johnson, the GOP House speaker, in the upcoming speakership elections — where it looks increasingly likely that Johnson will face a rebellion within his caucus.