A holiday-season government shutdown looms large as former President Donald Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk threw a wrench into congressional efforts to avoid a crisis. With federal funding set to expire on Friday, lawmakers had been working toward passing a stopgap bill, a “continuing resolution” (CR), to keep the government running into the new year. However, conservative “debt hawks” in the House of Representatives balked at what they saw as an overstuffed bill, filled with extraneous spending, which threatened to sink the deal.
Enter Musk, the world’s richest man, and Trump’s “efficiency czar.” Musk’s late-night barrage of misleading tweets railing against the CR rattled Congress, drawing attention to what he and Trump claimed were unacceptable add-ons. The duo’s intervention was enough to derail the bill, with Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance demanding, almost out of nowhere, an increase in the country’s debt limit.
This sudden disruption left lawmakers scrambling. With government functions on the brink of winding down, Republicans and Democrats rushed to negotiate a backup plan. Republicans are expected to propose a stripped-down version of the bill, but with little support from the Senate-controlled Democrats, the path forward remains uncertain.
The crisis highlights the growing power of unelected figures like Musk, raising eyebrows over how one man’s influence can send Congress into chaos. A shutdown now threatens to furlough hundreds of thousands of government workers over Christmas, casting a dark cloud over the holiday season.
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