President-elect Donald Trump has not yet been sworn in, but he and his close adviser Elon Musk are already wielding power in Washington.

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Brandon Bell/Getty Images/Getty Images North America

President-elect Donald Trump has not yet been sworn in, but he is already back running Washington in his familiar style of turmoil and intraparty drama, starting with the decision to scrap a bipartisan spending bill without a strategy to avoid a government shutdown.

Trump and his new commander-in-chief, Elon Musk, on Wednesday upended the bipartisan agreement aimed at keeping the government running until next year, primarily by launching an opposition campaign on X, Musk’s social media platform , started.

Musk’s posts provoked a number of rank-and-file Republicans to announce their opposition to the deal even before Trump made it clear he also opposed it – a maneuver that showed how much power Musk – the world’s richest man – now cedes to the GOP Broadly speaking, and with Trump in particular. Musk’s X biography now says: “The people voted for comprehensive government reform.”

The clash also triggered a sense of déjà vu from Trump’s first term, when the president frequently changed the policy parameters around legislation in real time and often through surprise announcements on social media. Republicans are once again struggling to figure out exactly what Trump wants the party to pass – and whether it’s even possible.

The collapse also highlighted how politically vulnerable Speaker Mike Johnson remains as he approaches a key House vote on Jan. 3 to become leader of the chamber again. At least one Republican, Rep. Tom Massie of Kentucky, is already saying he plans to defy Johnson, leaving almost no room for further defections and raising the specter of renewed chaos in the U.S. House of Representatives if the Republican Party fails to find a speaker can elect because the Chamber cannot exercise its function without first electing its constitutionally mandated leader.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., went so far on Thursday as to suggest that House Republicans should elect Musk as speaker next year — a politically possible but largely absurd idea, even if the Constitution technically allows for one No speaker may be a member of Congress. Paul said it would be “a joy to see the collective establishment, aka ‘one-party’, lose its ever-loving mind.”

Democrats also seemed surprised by the legislation’s failure but were less willing to help Johnson find a way out a second time. “House Republicans will now be responsible for any harm done to the American people through a government shutdown or worse,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Wednesday. Part of what doomed the deal was the inclusion of independent measures such as a pay raise for members of Congress, who have not received a raise since the 2008 financial crisis.

The Trump-Musk move also ignored the reality in the Senate, where any deal designed to keep the government open requires some level of bipartisan support to pass since Democrats still control the chamber. It also offers a preview of the coming budget conflicts in the next Congress, where Republicans will take control but still need Democratic support to pass the 12 annual appropriations bills – which Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are already combing through to make spending cuts for domestic programs will be part of their mandate under Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency.

In a joint statement with Vice President-elect JD Vance, Trump said he wanted a deal to now include raising the debt ceiling, the country’s borrowing limit, so that it would happen “under Biden’s watch.”

Trump later told NBC that he even supports eliminating the debt ceiling entirely — a proposal generally supported by budget experts since political conflicts over the debt ceiling have brought the country perilously close to default on several occasions over the last decade — as well during Trump’s first term.

Adding to the dramatic twists and turns, the Liberal Democrats signaled their support for the impending shutdown. “I agree with President-elect Trump that Congress should repeal the debt limit and never again govern by hostage-taking,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote on X.

The government will begin shutdown measures at midnight on Friday, but it would take weeks for ordinary Americans to feel the full impact of a shutdown. One thing is certain: closures are bad business for taxpayers. They don’t save any money and the shutdowns of the last few years have caused billions of dollars in lost productivity.