Musk and Trump bring shutdown chaos to Congress
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This week, Congress was supposed to fund the government. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson had crafted a bill to keep the government open through the holidays. It was on track to pass. That is, until Wednesday. That's when billionaire Elon Musk got involved. ♪

So early Wednesday morning, it was really the first time we heard from Elon Musk on X declare that House Republicans should not vote for Johnson's proposal. Musk called this proposal criminal. And after the hours went on on Wednesday, we did get a very lengthy statement from President-elect Donald Trump, who said that this bill should be dead.

Mariana Sotomayor covers Congress for The Post, and she says this opposition from Trump and his ally Musk spread like wildfire across Washington.

That quickly reached House Republicans who were already very upset about this bill. If anything, I think House Republicans felt like Musk was just amplifying their concerns and was able to reach Trump so that Trump could come out and say, don't vote for this bill. From the newsroom of The Washington Post, this is Post Reports. I'm Elahe Izadi. It's Thursday, December 19th.

Today, Washington scrambles to avoid a government shutdown. Congress has until midnight Friday to approve a bill to keep the government open. As of Thursday afternoon, House Republicans say they have a new deal after their initial plan was scrapped. And we're still learning whether or not this new plan will work.

But no matter how this all shakes out, this was unexpectedly chaotic. So Mariana joins me from the Hill to explain how we got here, the backroom dealings, the Republican infighting, and how Trump and Musk helped fuel this drama. ♪

So, Mariana, once again, we're talking about a possible government shutdown. This feels like it happens a lot, a potential government shutdown. Why does Congress often find itself in this situation? Like, what's the typical process and why does it always have trouble doing this?

So the government fiscal year ends September of a given year. What that means is that both the House and the Senate need to be spending a majority of the year passing a budget. That budget, that price tag, is what will then allow appropriators who are responsible for allotting all of this funding to say, okay, we're going to put money here, here, here, here, here. That's how it used to be in the modern era.

It is a very complicated process. And as you aptly noted, and there's many different times in the year where you're like, wait, didn't we just fund the government? Wait, didn't they almost shut down? Why are we having this debate so soon? And the reason why is because

The House actually has not been able to pass a budget in a significant number of years. The Senate has not even passed their own versions of government funding bills in a long time. So because both chambers aren't going through this regular process—

Then you have leaders of each party in each chamber usually cobbling something up right before a given funding deadline. And it could either be in the form of extensions, which is what we're talking about now. So it's just like punting that deadline by a couple more months or extensions.

There are, at times, the bigger conversation of, all right, we're going to try and fund the government for a full year. And that's where things get really sticky. But so far, the government has not shut down in several years. The last one actually happened under then-President Donald Trump.

This just feels different. Yeah, it does feel different. So let's talk about who is involved this time and why this feels different. And let's start with House Speaker Mike Johnson. So Republicans nearly control the House and Johnson is their leader. It's his job to keep his caucus together. What was his plan to keep House Republicans together during these funding fights and talks?

So there was always a December deadline to fund the government. And Johnson had been saying for months that he would, again, pass this clean extension probably till mid-March and also attach disaster relief. Let's remember, there were a number of hurricanes that really ravaged southern part of the country. And Congress was

Mm-hmm.

But, of course, you start negotiating. Johnson knows he needs Democrats in the House to be able to pass any bill to the Senate because there's just a constituency of Republicans who never vote for these funding extensions. And then you add other Republicans who are just mad at funding generally. So, like you're saying, Johnson knew he needed Democrats just because of the math here. What compromises or tradeoffs was Johnson willing to make? Yeah.

Johnson opened the door to adding more aid for farmers. That is a whole other issue that's under debate. But he wanted to send them more money, more relief. But in doing that, Democrats were like, wait, if you're going to add something, then we should add something. And that's where we saw this bill, Johnson's proposal, become necessary.

Again, an extension until March. You have money going to help those who face natural disasters, money for farmers. It also would include something that Democrats really wanted, which was the government to cover funding to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland. We all remember when that bridge collapsed. That was a big thing for Democrats.

And then Republicans also tucked in giving themselves a pay raise, which really upset a number of Republicans who are, again, fiscally conservative. And also Democrats who usually vote with Republicans. They were like, wait, we shouldn't be addressing our pay at this time. Like, let's just keep it clean and simple. So it sounds like...

At the end of the day, Johnson cobbled something together that seemed like it would pass. It wasn't a perfect bill for Republicans, but it seemed like it would pass. But then we have what we talked about at the start of this episode, which is Musk and Trump getting involved. So Musk, a huge supporter of Trump, he's been called Trump's first buddy, and he's expected to play a big unofficial role in Trump's administration, especially around government affairs.

spending. Mariana, can you walk me through how Musk started talking about this? So it all started at 4.15 Wednesday morning, and it just went on all day. Throughout Wednesday, I think he posted over 60 times and just completely trashed Johnson's proposal, calling it terrible, criminal, outrageous, horrible, I think crazy at one point, and also an insane crime.

Interestingly enough, he also said that no bill should be passed through Congress until January 20th. That would be a very unprecedented situation. OK, but then how did Trump respond to what Musk was saying? What did Trump do? So in those hours, Trump actually put out a pretty lengthy statement, which kind of sealed the deal that day.

Johnson's proposal was dead. And in that lengthy statement, and he had a couple of other lengthy statements, he kind of told Republicans, this is what I want. I want you all to fund the government for a significant amount of time. I also want you all to address the debt ceiling, which that is a complicating economic factor. That's like a whole other thing, yeah. Yes, it's a whole other thing that they definitely need to address next year. But doing it in a couple of hours is pretty hard. And

And also wanted still that funding for farmers, but he didn't want funding for the bridge or this pay raise for lawmakers. So he kind of laid it out. But again, in a kind of confusing way, and it's just so many different parts to it that complicates House Republicans' decision.

agreeing to all of those pieces. Yeah. And so it does leave me wondering, how did people in Congress react to what Musk and Trump were saying, essentially trashing Johnson's bill and also saying, you know, either like ranging from you shouldn't pass any bills at all to forget this like temporary extension. You need to do a big budget and it needs to have the things I want, not the things I don't want. How did Congress react to all this?

Well, at first, a number of House Republicans were like, OK, thank you for saying that this bill shouldn't exist. Because for hours before, even before Musk got on X and started tweeting his or X-ing his thoughts, House Republicans were hating this bill. And it was in a way that I hadn't seen before. It's a total dumpster fire. I think it's garbage. Well, we're...

Evidently going to take a 1,800-page document that we really hadn't read and going to pass it, add more debt. Very frustrating. This is not the way to do business. The conference needs to decide whether we're actually serious about spending. It was not just the far right. You had moderates who were really upset that Johnson was negotiating with Democrats without necessarily even talking to the moderate Republicans about, like, where they could—

possibly compromise with Democrats on maybe a number of other issues. You had a number of conservatives who were okay with voting for an extension with just like that disaster relief, who were upset again at this, like what they perceived to be this betrayal by Johnson, who broke a promise. The issue for many Republicans is,

was that Johnson went against his word. Johnson for a long time was saying one thing, only for him to kind of package this bill, make it bigger than it was ever supposed to be. Yeah, Mariana, it's interesting because it kind of sounds like what you're saying is Musk-ish.

And then Trump gave permission to some House Republicans to say, actually, we didn't like this to begin with and now we're against it. But it also sounds like Musk is exerting tremendous power over the politics of Washington because he was the first one to come out against it. Then Trump. Musk isn't elected. He's not president elect. Have you seen anything like this before? Yeah.

Not really. And this is just a preview of what's to come in the next congressional term and the next four years under Trump. It's interesting having talked to House Democrats who, of course, they themselves are having conversations of like, how do we respond to Trump? How do we respond to his allies? We shouldn't be probably responding on every little thing. But they are starting to frame their argument as these billionaires are totalitarians.

toying with the government. This is not a game. So let's take a quick pause here. And when we come back, Mariana will explain why people get so worried about possible government shutdowns. We'll be right back. How many programs and platforms do you use to plan your work for the first quarter? What about for the entire year? When you're building a successful startup, you don't have time to waste staring at a virtual mountain of spreadsheets and disconnected project trackers.

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To try it for yourself, go to coda.io slash reports today and get six free months of the team plan. That's coda.io slash reports to get started for free and get six free months of the team plan. coda.io slash reports. So, Mariana, I would love now to talk a little bit about the actual implications and consequences of a shutdown for just everyday Americans.

So if the government were to shut down, it would happen over the weekend. But a lot of the effects of the shutdown wouldn't happen until Monday, just a couple days before Christmas. There's a number of federal government employees who likely would get furloughed if this government shutdown extends for a significant period of time. More and more of them will not get paid. National parks will obviously close. So if you had those plans for the holidays, it's going to be a lot of work.

You might need to reschedule them. Things like food stamps and also environmental food inspections. Over time, there won't be people to be able to do those jobs. There won't be people to be able to send food stamps, for example, to Americans who need it. And let's not forget, this eventually does impact jobs.

Air traffic control, TSA, they are probably going to stay on the job, but they could be unpaid. And as we remember from past shutdowns, the longer it goes, the more that those workers don't actually show up. And because they aren't getting paid, they have no incentive to go to work. And that could cause a lot of flight delays. Yeah. Well, given all those headaches for everyday people, are there real costs here? Yeah.

Absolutely. As much as there is a corner of the Republican Party who is pro shutdowns for the sake of messaging, they think that they will be able to extract. I don't even know how many concessions from Democrats or force Democrats to accept the things that they want. We have seen through multiple government shutdowns. That is never the case. If anything, it hurts Americans more. It hurts the country more.

And at some point, there is just negotiations to reopen the government. No one really wins in this scenario. It has more costs than it does help any political party in any way. Mariana, I also have to say, no matter what ends up happening here at the end of the day and how this finally shakes out, I wonder what this whole drama will end up meaning for House Speaker Mike Johnson. Yeah.

So, I mean, I think there is something to be said about the fact that once a significant amount of House Republicans were against this proposal.

His speakership was genuinely under threat. Like House Republicans were having conversations of, OK, if he can't pull this off, if he really relies on a majority of Democrats, well, then I'm not going to support him for speaker. Let's start talking about who could maybe replace him. So it is a stressful time, to say the least, for Johnson.

I am thinking now about once Trump is inaugurated and is president, not president-elect, he will have a Republican-controlled Congress. What does this episode tell you about how Washington will function over the next couple of years?

Well, right after the election, there were so many Republicans saying, oh, my God, we're so united. This is going to work. We're going to get everything we need because Trump is going to tell us what to do. And if there are people who are dissenting, well, then Trump's going to call them and say, vote for what I want. Vote for the Republican Party.

It's as if they forgot that the last couple of years has been so incredibly difficult for House Republicans alone to agree on a number of issues, nothing more than spending and how the government should be funded. It reminds me of the first Trump administration where there was Republican control of Congress in both chambers. And there would be negotiations for months between

And finally, Penn put to paper on different proposals, different like a more moderate proposal on this policy, more conservative version on this policy. They would all be scheduled for a vote. Whichever one passed would be the bill that would end up on Trump's desk. Only for Trump or one of his cabinet secretaries or others in the MAGA base to say, oh, no, these are all bad, all bad. Let's scrap the plans.

And then lawmakers, after working for so long to produce these bills, ended up voting against them. We kind of saw a little bit of this over the past year with that bipartisan border bill that Senate Republicans reached with Democrats. The moment that Trump said, nope, this ain't good enough, Republicans backed away. Mariana, thanks so much for taking a moment out of your very busy day to talk with me. I really appreciate it. Of course. Happy to help.

Mariana Sotomayor covers Congress for The Post. There are so many other stories coming out from The Post today. So before we go, here are two more. First, worker strikes at Amazon could lead to delivery delays. The Teamsters union launched strikes at seven Amazon warehouses on Thursday. It's the union's biggest action yet against the company.

Labor experts say this could be a trial run for the Teamsters, which has pledged to take on Amazon. Amazon has not recognized the union and refuses to bargain with them. Workers hope the strikes will force Amazon to come to the bargaining table and hammer out an employee contract, negotiating on things like pay and benefits. And here we should say Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post.

While these strikes won't halt Amazon's logistics empire, it could lead to delays in package delivery in major cities like New York, Atlanta, and Chicago. And a French court found 51 men guilty today in a mass rape trial that rocked the European nation. The main defendant in the case, Dominique Pellico, was sentenced to 20 years in prison — the maximum allowed under French law.

Prosecutors said he regularly found men online to rape his then-wife, Gisele Pellico, after he sedated her. Fifty of those men were also found guilty of at least one charge. Gisele Pellico made the unusual decision to open up this trial to the public. Usually, trials like this are closed, in part to protect the identity of victims.

But she wanted the world to know what happened to her and what her abusers had done. She explained her decision in court, saying that when it comes to survivors, quote, it's not for us to feel shame, it's for them. While the trial horrified France, it also sparked a reckoning and made Pellico, a 72-year-old grandmother, a feminist hero. That's it for Post Reports. Thanks for listening.

If you're looking for the latest updates on the big news of the day, you should check out our morning news briefing. It's called The Seven. We bring you the seven stories you need to know about every weekday morning by 7 a.m. I listen every day and you can too wherever you listen to podcasts.

Today's show was produced by Reni Srenovsky and Laura Benshoff, with help from Sabi Robinson. It was mixed by Sam Baer and edited by Rina Flores, with help from Lucy Perkins. Thanks to Emily Rahala. I'm Elahe Izadi. We'll be back tomorrow with more stories from The Washington Post.

Support for Post Reports comes from Coda. How many programs and platforms do you use to plan your work? When you're building a successful business, you don't have time to waste staring at a mountain of spreadsheets and disconnected project trackers. That's where Coda's all-in-one collaborative workspace comes in. Coda's seamless workspace keeps your team on the same page, facilitating deeper collaboration and quicker creativity.

At The Washington Post, we have teams and colleagues all over the world in different time zones, and CODA helps us all stay in sync and on schedule. Get your work from planning to execution in record time with CODA. To try it for yourself, go to coda.io slash reports today and get six free months of the team plan. That's c-o-d-a dot i-o slash reports to get started for free and get six free months of the team plan. coda.io slash reports.