Elon Musk leads charge to kill spending bill meant to avert government shutdown
Elon Musk's opposition to the funding bill, which came ahead of Donald Trump's own opposition the the bill, has drawn ire from politicians across the aisle.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk is already flexing his newfound political muscle even before his ally President-elect Donald Trump has taken the oath of office.
Musk helped lead a revolt Wednesday to try to stop a bipartisan funding bill in a direct challenge to the authority of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and others in Republican leadership who helped craft the measure. And in a remarkable turn, the revolt appeared to succeed at least for a day, throwing budget negotiations into chaos and increasing the odds of a government shutdown this weekend.
“Yes,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., confirmed to reporters Wednesday evening when he was asked whether the current bill is now dead.
Musk posted to X about the funding bill more than 100 times over the course of the day. He repeatedly called the bill “criminal” and asked his followers to call their representatives, but he also posted memes, including one of him taking a sword to the bill and another referring to the “Kill Bill” films from director Quentin Tarantino. Later in the day, the phrase “Kill Bill” was on X’s list of trending topics in the United States.
Musk also issued a midday warning: “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” And when The Hill newspaper ran a story on its website about the warning, Musk emphasized his point by approvingly posting a screenshot of the headline.
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