(Adnkronos) – The United States is one step away from a shutdown after the diktat of Donald Trump and Elon Musk against the bipartisan agreement negotiated by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to avert, by the deadline of midnight tomorrow, the closure of the federal government. To the diktat – “Republicans must play smart and tough and call the Democrats’ bluff” – the president-elect and the richest man in the world, in fact his right-hand man with the future task of cutting public spending by a third, have combined threats.
“Any Republican who is dumb enough to vote for the agreement will be challenged in the primaries,” Trump wrote on Truth, echoing a similar threat launched by Musk, even more worrying considering the enormous financial resources that the founder of Tesla, not to mention control of X, can invest in election campaigns, as he has now done for the tycoon’s victory.
Trump’s request to Johnson and other Republican leaders to approve a spending bill that “doesn’t tell Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.” The negotiated deal, which guarantees the operation of the federal government until next March 14, also contains 100 billion in aid for Americans affected by the devastating hurricanes, economic aid for farmers, the federal commitment to rebuild the Baltimore bridge collapsed last March.
Under attack, as unexpected as they were incendiary, by Trump and Musk, Johnson is trying to rush a plan B, a “clean” stopgap spending bill, without the added measures. But this is not enough for Trump who loudly demands that a debt ceiling increase also be included.
Not to mention that this formidable and coordinated attack against Johnson casts serious doubt on the re-election as Speaker that the Louisiana congressman, surprisingly elected for the first time in October 2023 after a long internal battle among Republicans. Several far-right Republicans, among the first obviously to follow the diktat of Trump a Musk, are beginning to no longer take for granted, as it seemed until a few days ago, Johnson’s re-election on January 3, indicating his fate now linked to the anti-shutdown deal opposed by Trump.
And it is no coincidence that Rand Paul, a Republican senator known for his maverick positions, today on X launched a seemingly provocative proposal: “the Speaker of the House does not have to be a member of Congress, nothing would thwart the swamp more than Elon Musk’s election, think about it, nothing is impossible (not to mention the joy of seeing the collective establishment, that is, the single party, lose their minds).”
