Democrats Wonder If Elon Musk Is Trump’s ‘Shadow President’ | EUROtoday

Elon Musk, the South African-born billionaire who has grow to be Donald Trump’s omnipresent finest good friend since Trump’s victory within the 2024 presidential election, already has loads of titles. He’s the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink. He’s co-chair of DOGE, for no matter that’s value. He’s the self-appointed major character of the social media website he owns, X.

On Wednesday, after Musk tanked a Republican authorities funding invoice, Democrats gave him one other title: shadow president-elect.

“You have to ask Donald Trump if Elon Musk is the one making decisions,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) instructed HuffPost on Wednesday.

The Democratic messaging tack represents the social gathering deciding on a unfastened message for the early days of the second Trump administration, with main senators labeling Trump’s billionaire-stocked Cabinet an oligarchy and making ready to argue the rich businessmen round Trump are setting the Republican agenda moderately than the purportedly populist president-elect.

The concept that Musk is main Trump, and never vice-versa, was clearly seen on Wednesday. Musk spent a lot of the morning and afternoon on a social media spree condemning the spending bundle, often spreading false details about it. Trump, in the meantime, didn’t weigh in on the invoice in any respect, in the end popping out in opposition to it solely after reviews that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was crafting a backup plan.

“It’s clear who’s in charge, and it’s not President-elect Donald Trump,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote on social media. “Shadow President Elon Musk spent all day railing against Republicans’ [continuing resolution]succeeded in killing the bill, and then Trump decided to follow his lead.”

“Historians will be looking back, scratching their heads about our great democracy, wondering whether stuff went awry because of the impact of personal wealth, and it is all about his money and his control of certain institutions that are supposed to convey information,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) added of Musk.

Musk celebrated Trump’s resolution to return out in opposition to the invoice in predictable trend.

One Democratic aide, requesting anonymity to talk frankly about social gathering technique, acknowledged the Democratic Party was attempting to drive a wedge between Trump and Musk, who spent a quarter-billion {dollars} serving to to elect the Republican to workplace. Both males are identified for his or her huge self-regard, and Musk’s fixed presence at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence because the election has aggravated different Trump aides.

But Democratic response to the chaos within the House wasn’t all glee.

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), whose state has been badly ravaged by floods, lamented House Republicans’ resolution to desert a authorities funding deal that may have offered $100 billion in catastrophe assist to a number of storm-wracked states, together with Vermont.

“That’s terrible for communities that are really in desperate need of the disaster relief… so it’s pretty reckless for this to blow up because Elon Musk is scaring the Republicans,” he stated.

The invoice additionally included catastrophe assist for North Carolina, the place Trump campaigned with guarantees to assist communities after historic flooding earlier this 12 months.

In an announcement posted on-line Wednesday, Trump stated Republicans wish to “pay for disaster relief” however provided that Democrats conform to drop their priorities within the invoice and likewise increase the debt restrict, one other main wrinkle in negotiations over laws to maintain the federal government open previous Friday.

Not all Democrats are lining as much as bash Musk, with Rep. Ro Khanna ― a Democrat who represents California’s Silicon Valley ― main the way in which in arguing Democrats ought to attempt to work with the billionaire, if solely to in the end expose the hollowness of his rhetoric.

Musk’s position within the still-nascent Trump administration is a minimum of considerably controversial among the many public: A YouGov ballot discovered 48% of Americans had a positive opinion of Musk, whereas 42% had an unfavorable opinion. The Associated Press discovered the general public typically cut up of their opinions of Musk, whereas a Quinnipiac University ballot launched Wednesday discovered a 53% majority of the general public disapproves of Musk taking part in a outstanding position within the Trump administration.