Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) floated a surprising new position for tech billionaire Elon Musk after he spearheaded the charge to tank a bipartisan spending deal on Wednesday.
Congressional leaders unveiled a bipartisan spending deal Tuesday night, but it was immediately met with backlash from conservatives and Musk for including too much spending. The chaos appears to have left some frustrated with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who spent much of Wednesday trying to defend the deal.
Paul suggested on Thursday that the House should elect Musk, a close advisor to Trump, to be the next Speaker.
“The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress . . . Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk . . . think about it . . . nothing’s impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty,’ lose their ever-lovin’ minds),” Paul wrote on social media platform X.
The reaction to the spending deal could put Johnson’s job in jeopardy next month, which comes just over a year after House Republicans ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from the top spot and chose Johnson to replace him.
However, President-elect Trump told Fox News Digital on Thursday that Johnson will “easily” keep his job.
“If the speaker acts decisively, and tough, and gets rid of all of the traps being set by the Democrats, which will economically and, in other ways, destroy our country, he will easily remain speaker,” he told Fox News Digital.
The House must vote on a spending deal before Friday’s deadline to keep the government open just days before the holidays kick off.
After hours of Musk pushing against the bill on Wednesday, Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance issued a joint statement against the bill while also urging Republicans to raise the debt ceiling.
Meanwhile, the bipartisan package that Trump rejected extended existing government programs and services at their current operating levels for a few more months, through March 14, 2025.
The stopgap measure is needed because Congress has failed to pass its annual appropriations bills to fund all the various agencies in the federal government, from the Pentagon to health, welfare, transportation and other routine domestic services.
But the inches-thick bill goes beyond routine funding and tacks on several other measures, including federal funding to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed when struck by a cargo ship. Another provision would transfer the land that is the site of the old RFK Stadium from the federal government to the District of Columbia, which could potentially lead to a new stadium for the NFL’s Washington Commanders.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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