Elon Musk at a Donald Trump campaign rally, Butler, Pennsylvania, October 5, 2024
Trump Is Back. So Saddle Up, Folks. It’s Time to Save a Country.
UPDATE, 1635 GMT:
I joined France 24 English on Saturday morning to explain why, despite the threat of Donald Trump and Elon Musk to shut down the US Government being blocked, this is only the beginning.
What we have seen is the skirmish before the battle.
I fully expect Trump and Elon Musk to threaten a shutdown in March to try and increase or remove the debt limit, and to get some of their other favored projects.
UPDATE, DEC 21:
Hours before the House and Senate averted a Government shutdown, I joined Navjeet Grewal on her VideoCast to outline the tactics of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
The wider story is Donald Trump v. the US system, or rather Donald Trump and Elon Musk v. the US system.
If they don’t like something, they are going to go on social media and issue a command to Republicans.
How many Republicans in Congress are going to take the knee? How many are going to say, “This isn’t right. We need to carry out our responsbilities as legislators.”
ORIGINAL ENTRY, DEC 20:
I joined Monocle Radio’s Emma Nelson on Friday afternoon to analyze how and why Elon Musk and his assistant Donald Trump are trying to shut down the US Government.
Listen from 1:39:
I explain how a continuing resolution for Government funding, agreed by Democrats and Republicans, was attacked on Monday by Musk’s 70 tweets and then by Trump threatening any Republican who supported it.
I consider Musk’s motives to cause potential disruption and to be the center of attention, and Trump’s to remove the US debt ceiling so he can spend without restriction in 2025.
Donald Trump is trying to bend and, arguably, break the US system, and he doesn’t want an independent Congress. He does not want Republicans challenging him.
This was a way to undermine House Speaker Mike Johnson by ripping this deal apart, and showing Johnson as powerless.
But I note how the failure of Trump and Musk to push through an alternative resolution on Thursday, with 38 Republicans joining Democrats in opposition, could show a limit on their quest for unlimited power.
