It was Donald Trump who won the presidential election in November. But after congressional Republicans bowed to Elon Musk’s demands to effectively force a government shutdown, social media was lit up on Thursday hailing “President Musk,” “President-Elect Elon Musk and – well, you get it.
Users on Meta’s Threads and to a lesser extent Bluesky served as counterweights to Twitter/X which, of course, is owned by Musk and usually dominates in political moments like this.
At issue: Congress needs to pass a government spending bill by midnight on Friday or everything but spending deemed essential will cease, causing a government shutdown. A bipartisan deal was reached on Wednesday that included cruel concessions Republicans demanded, but they weren’t cruel enough for Musk. He demanded Republicans scuttle it, spreading falsehoods about it while also vowing retribution against anyone who voted for it.
Trump soon echoed Musk’s demand, and on Thursday congressional Republicans obediently rewrote the bill with even starker cuts, among them taking $190 million away from funding for pediatric cancer research. The bill subsequently failed and as of this writing it’s looking likely there will be a shutdown just in time for Christmas.
Obviously there’s not a lot ordinary people can do about any of this except make jokes. Which brings us to “President Musk,” a concept that essentially dominated conversations about all of this on Threads and Bluesky — and yes, on X/Twitter too.
Even elected officials got in on the jokes. Rep. Dan Godman for example joked on MSNBC that Trump is “Chief of Staff” to “President Musk.”
And over on CNN Senator Elizabeth Warren made a similar joke — much more laconically however.
Rep. Robert Garcia went there too, quipping, “Welcome to the Elon Musk presidency, where Donald Trump is now clearly the Vice-President.”
Read on for more reactions.
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